MMA Fighting - BTL | Reaction To Paul vs. Tyson, Jones Stops Miocic At UFC 309, Yan vs. Figueiredo

Episode Date: November 21, 2024

Jake Paul and Mike Tyson headlined a boxing event that was streamed by over 100 million people on Netflix this past Friday. While the card was a gigantic success, and the rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano delivered a Fight of the Year contender, the Paul vs. Tyson main event was underwhelming, and the Netflix experience appeared to be even worse. On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel reacts to the Paul vs. Tyson fight card, the good, the great, and the awful, if more of these events will happen, and what is next for Paul after the lackluster decision victory. Additionally, topics include Jon Jones' easy win over Stipe Miocic in the main event of UFC 309, the reaction from the MMA community, where Jones ranks pound-for-pound and if he'll fight Tom Aspinall — or anybody else — Charles Oliveira's lopsided win over Michael Chandler, Saturday's UFC Macau event headlined by Petr Yan vs. Deiveson Figueiredo, and more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and Morning Kombat's Brian Campbell. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. From M.MA Fighting Studios, this is Between the Links. And now, your host, my... The iconic voice of Esther Lynn, welcome Jews. to a brand new edition of BTL back on our regular day, which means happy Thursday to us all. And man, we have a lot to talk about.

We're going to recap weird, wacky roller coaster of a double header this past weekend, some things that made you excited, some things that made you laugh, some things that made you stand and applaud, some things that just made you want to wretch. But we'll discuss it all today, telling it like it is,

as we always do here on this program. And with that, let us introduce the panel. First, we sat in this room together for over eight hours this past weekend doing watch parties. He is Mr. Doe Gray area, the hot take kid, the Baron of Boop. He is Jed Bishu from MMAFighting.com. Oh, come on. Hey, guys. Come on.

I think Otto is going to jump in for me. Ah, you are the Michael Chandler of BTL. Just cheat your ass off. Otto said he wants to join in today. He has takes. about UFC 309 and Jake Paul. And so I wanted to give him some FaceTime. Hey.

What a play. What a move. And yeah, it's hard to transition from the adorable nature of what we just saw there. Because back on the show, hailing from the great state of Connecticut, you may know him from morning combat. He likes long walks in the beach, trips to the lovely Berkshires, and he's fresh off of absolutely hammering a plateful of gas station tequitos. He is Brian Campbell, B.C. How are you, my friend? That's not Brian Campbell.

That ain't Brian Campbell. That's Jeff Mechew. Hi, guys. There is. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, this drug rug can't be wrong, right? I'm here to party. Let's do it.

Got the scally. We are ready to rock. So, you know what? Let's just get into this thing because we had Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson six nights ago on Netflix. Over 100 million people watched it. 99.7 million of them have. sore thumbs having to hit the refresh button backing out reloading Netflix after a disastrous

viewing experience. And then we had John Jones doing what most fans of the sport expected him to do and just run over a 42-year-old Steppe Mietich, a UFC 309. And there's other things that happened as well. And I kept saying heading into this weekend that was, yes, these events are going to get a lot of attention. There are good things that will happen along the way, but I could not wait for it to be Sunday and to have these events be completely behind. us and damn it felt good on Sunday when the sun came up and we're on to UFC Macau. But BC, I want to start with you and we'll get into the particulars of both of these events shortly.

And I can see your face and my face is starting to shift in that direction as well. When you look back on this past weekend, Paul Tyson, UFC 309, what will you remember most when we reflect on it five years from now? What was the headline in the Brian Campbell Gazette come Monday morning from this past weekend? a very easy question very easy answer why the hell was mike tyson's ass cheeks broadcasted to so many million people and maybe secondly are we all okay that they came out and just scammed us with pro wrestling but because we didn't pay for a pay-per-view it's cool i mean what are we doing here heck all right that's what i got to say how about that for an opening state we are off and running jed when you when you look back

and you discussed this 10 years from now and your friend's like, hey, remember that weekend when Jake Paul, Mike Tyson fought on Netflix and then the UFC went to Madison Square Garden and John Jones beat up Steepa Mietch?

What are you going to remember most? What's the takeaway? What's the headline from the weekend? There are no takeaways from this. Like, genuinely, the takeaway is probably, oh, that's what these idiots do with their time. because that is how my friends responded to this weekend functionally. My friends don't engage in fighting in any real way.

They know that I do it. And if something breaks through the broader populace, then they will hit me up about it. And be like, oh, what's going on? And maybe occasionally they will watch a big fight or something. Very, very rarely do my friends engage with MMA or boxing or combat sports. This was different. Tyson Paul was different.

We talked a ton about it. A lot of people tuned in, 60 million households with Netflix tuned in. And overwhelmingly, the sentiment I got from people was like, that was dumb. Like, why did we, why did we do that? Some of them, you know, like, hey, the women fight was pretty cool. But like, what the hell is this about despite me telling them that beforehand? You know, if you were shocked by what happened in both events this weekend, you have not been paying attention to him and fighting.com and shame on you because I've been saying for months what was going to happen in these two

very, very silly things. And they went exactly as we talked about. And it didn't matter because a lot of people got caught up in the idea that maybe Mike Tyson could do it. Because maybe some people were saying maybe Mike Tyson could do it and they cottoned onto this idea or they just cottoned onto the hope that, all right, Jake Paul's a loud mouth and I'd like to see him get his comeuppets. and then we got, well, we got, and overwhelmingly, this is not an event. This didn't make new fans, which I think is the grand hope for things like this, when something breaks through cross-culturally, okay, new fans will come to boxing.

I do not believe a single new boxing fan was made Friday, and I am certain not a single new MMA fan was made Saturday with, because I also had people, U.S. 309 drafted off Tyson Paul pretty well. I had people being like, okay, well, that was garbage, isn't John Jones fighting tomorrow. I hear he's the greatest fighter ever, should I tune in? And they did. And then they were like, well, that card sucked because it wasn't a good fight card either.

And so no new fans, this was the biggest weekend of the year as far as interest and viewership and things of that nature. And no new fans were made. And honestly, a lot of people probably left the weekend being like, I'm never doing that again. That was a huge waste of my time. I probably sold six UFC pay reviews on Saturday because of everybody who watched that fight on Friday. And I had five of those people say, heck, I think you owe me $80. I think you have to pay me back the $80 that you talked to me into. But Jed, let's go back to Friday.

Let's just get this out of the way because you and I had hoped we knocked on wood many times throughout the build to this Jake Paul Mike Tyson fight, that the fight would be something like we saw where Mike was able to get in there and move around a little bit and land a few punches. Jake Paul would do the wise and humane thing and let Mike go to the final bell without getting killed. Now, this was actually way worse to watch than even we drew it up, obviously, because Mike is tripping over himself on the way to the ring. He looked 58 going on 180, and Jake had a heart, but this was, we're hoping for Tyson Jones Jr. This was more Anderson Silva versus Chale's son and three-esque in their boxing match. It was terrible and people were pissed, but everybody freaking watched it. All in all, business is great.

70 plus thousand asses in seats. A hundred million people watched a Jed, but nothing but negativity in the feedback department with the streaming issues and the main event. Obviously, there's some other things that happen because we did get some prime rib in the middle of the poo poo breaded sandwich. Is successful the word you would use to describe this event or would you go elsewhere? Because business was great. we got a fight of the year contender we get another bangor of a fight main card opener was really

really bad and then the main event was even worse because successful is not not the word I would choose I think this is about as big a failure as possible for being what it was and I mean what I mean by that is to me and I was very clear about this coming in we knew what this event was this event was a grift this event was a grift and the issue with when you were a grifter is you run out of people to grift and so you must move to a new town because nobody is buying your snake oil bullshit anymore. This fight was very clearly snake oil bullshit from the immediate point of it being announced all the way up until the final bell and 60 million homes viewed it and I cannot imagine that people are going to leave this fight and say, I will get got by the next grift.

They will, Jay Paul did not make himself a villain in the way that if he had, knocked out Mike Tyson. Maybe people legitimately would have been like, I really want to see this dude, get what's coming to him. Next time it's free on Netflix, I will watch. Instead, it was boring. The worst thing you can be is boring. And while the co-main event was thrilling and awesome and a great fight, it had an unsatisfactory ending for a lot of people, many, many people that I spoke to thought that Amanda Serrano should have won the fight. I think we scored the fight for Amanda Serrano, not a robbery, but an unsatisfactory ending in a fight. In a fight, that was awesome, but not the thing people were there for.

And then to cap it all off, the production sucked. The Netflix had huge issues. And to me, that was the big point of all of this. Yes, people are going to tune in. Yes, eyeballs will be drawn. But Netflix wants to get into live sports streaming. And this is kind of their first real, not their first, but one of their first forays into it. They want to make sure that they have all the T's dotted and the eyes crossed.

and they failed. I know that they came out and said a statement that they thought they handled it brilliantly. That's garbage. They failed like pillar to post. It was an awful run here that we straight up missed parts of Serrano Taylor and everybody had serious issues both with the pacing of the card because they had to hold events. Like it was bad in most ways. The only metric in which it was not bad is the viewership.

But again, that viewership to me is entirely. entirely transient. That is not a replicable thing. The next time you roll Mike Tyson out to fight, 60 million people ain't going to watch it. You've only got one bullet in that gun and they fired it. And so I don't know what they were attempting to gain, but I don't think they gained any of the things they wanted to other than a one-time viewership bump. And does that matter to Netflix? I don't think it does. B.C., as I was going through everything with Jed, you were shaking your head. There was a nod, and then there was like, I don't know.

How do you describe this event after what Paul versus Tyson looked like? Is this a success? What do you think? I think it's a gross sham. I think it's disgusting. So let me set the record straight here. There's some questions that are hard to answer, right? How do we talk to an angel?

How do you hold her close, right? What good is a law degree if you're talking about combat sports for a living? Tough questions, right? Well, for the people that say, what did you? you expect from a 58-year-old or how mad could you be when you didn't pay for it? Look, I paid for it with my time. So let me tell you what I'm not going to be upset about, that the fight sucked. We all knew that coming in, that Mike Tyson wasn't going to be able to time machine himself enough gigawatts to turn back to 1988. We also knew that coming in. But what is one thing that was

being sold to us? And I feel like I'm the only person that's actually defending the charlatan in the room. No, not Jake Paul, the sport of boxing, meaning that you had such a giant crossover casual audience, the kind that you typically only get once a decade for Mayweather Pachy Howard, Tyson versus Lennox Lewis, or whatever the real big one is. And people already have this horrible, cynical idea about boxing. Waste of time, waste of money, it's fixed anyway. You know, they cheat on the decisions. They pay off the judges, whatever you want to say. Boxing is such a regular shit show that is hard to defend. But when you are selling, not an exhibition,

you know what was an exhibition? Chal Sunnan against Anderson Silva boxing when they hugged and did a dance in Brazil and then cash checks together and went out and had a barbecue afterwards. That's an exhibition. If this was an exhibition, then I don't care if the fan man drops in or the Undertaker and Kane come through the ring. It's an exhibition, who cares? Mike Tyson was the one that pushed for this to be a real,

fight. So even though my expectations were never that it would be a sustained competitive fight, that would be a fight you'd ever want to watch again, that it would be insert whatever, my understanding of what I was being sold was that at the very least, for better or worse and probably for worse, anytime you put a 58 year old in the ring, this was going to be a real fight. My expectations were that Mike was going to be scary for about 30 seconds. He'd linger for a round and a half and Jake would put him out of his misery and become that heel, like Jed said, that probably does attract Canello Alvarez sooner than later because people are just kind of sick of what Jake's doing.

But Jake created a platform here to be the heel, only he didn't follow through with it. So am I arguing that I wish Mike was knocked out cold and stretched out? No. But you do have to be careful when you're presenting a real fight. When you're yelling into the microphone, I'm going to F him up. I'm going to kill him when there's a slap at the way in and there's a look in Mike Tyson's eyes that some journalists have never seen before in anyone's eyes. You're selling a real fight.

I don't care if the fight was as gross as possible. As long it was a real fight, we'd all judge it afterwards and go, all right, we got hooked, line, and sinkered. We got fooled into carrying, but at the end of the day, we couldn't turn away because it's two of the most famous people on the planet, and we had to see it. only we didn't see it. What we saw, I'm not going to go to tinfoil hat level and talk about some contracts that no one can produce,

that you couldn't throw uppercuts or this idea that it was a full-on pro wrestling match. But at some point, not just Jake, but Mike decided to not try to win this fight and to do an exhibition dance for everybody. When you have this many people tuning into boxing fresh off of the rematch of the greatest fight in women's boxing history, and oh, by the way, the rematch was just, short on equaling that. And then you offer up this embarrassing slop to have a response of,

if you have a problem with this, you're not a real boxing fan, or you didn't pay for it, so shut up. Or again, what did you expect? I expected a fight. I expected some sanctity of the sport to be held together. I didn't expect two guys to circle and dance and make a ton of money and draw a ton of attention. When people paid a lot of money to go there, bought tickets, spent the weekend. And how about the fact that this was the most bet on fight in sports combat betting history? So what about all those people that bet the under or the knockout? And what do we see in the end?

Two guys that didn't try. And even worse than that, even worse than what our assumptions could be afterwards, you had Jake admit, yeah, I carried him because he didn't deserve to take that beating. You mean the guy that the day before you said would die? and how about Mike revealing over Twitter that he physically shouldn't have been anywhere near a ring yet the Texas State Commission was like bring that shit to me we'll take your money let's go let's do this thing

I think collectively across the board this was a massive slap in the face to whatever's left to the sanctity of the sport of boxing and to act like it isn't to act like this isn't a sham and a stain means that you might be getting money on the inside too you might be a part of it because how could you watch this BS Watch them literally dance around in circles like it's pro wrestling and then afterwards go,

yeah, but what did you expect? What is that set for the future of precedence? Not just for the crossover bubble and whatever's left of it, but general real boxing in general. This is not the same argument as every time Sean Strickland has a fight, he tells the fans that it's going to be blood and guts and death, but yet then he goes out there and fights technical. He still fought. He still tried to win. Neither of these two tried to do that in my opinion.

and at the very least, it gave the impression that there was collusion, that everybody was working together. That's the impression you want to give to 100 million people, people that never watch boxing ever. If you're down with that, then maybe you aren't the boxing fan. So that's my take from an old grizzled veteran. Waste a time, no panache, what a horrible night at the fights. I, B.C. fired up.

No, he's not wrong, though. Like, why didn't they just call this a fucking exhibition fight? Like, who gives a shit? They still would have got 100 million people watching it. It's crazy. It's absolutely insane. And the feedback would have been still kind of shitty, but not this shitty. You're not wrong.

I would like to remind you, I feel like I said this to you, I definitely reached out to AK. I'd like to remind you that on this very program, AK and I got into a heated argument about whether this would be of like a probe out or, for an exhibition, AK was like, AK made all those points that are all very rational. I was like, is definitely going to be a pro-bout because Jake Paul's ego is through the frigging roof. And even if it is silly and stupid, he wants to say he beat Mike Tyson. And so that happened. I just want to add on, because I don't fundamentally disagree with most of what VC said,

he did remind me of, and it is awful that I remembered this now, that I'd already forgotten it so quickly. because that's how the sport moves. And frankly, it's how quickly I want to be done with this whole farce. Fricking Mike Tyson comes out on Sunday and is like, I almost died in June. And like, we all knew that it was bad. Like, we knew that the medical episode was bad.

But then they immediately came out and like, it was fine. I'm feeling great. We're going to be okay. We're just bumping this back. And then he's like, yeah, I lost three liters of blood and 50 pounds and was on death's door in June. So it was just a win to get here. Try everyone in the Texas Athletic Commission in the Hague and bury them under the prison.

Like this thing should have never happened and we are all deeply lucky that Mike Tyson did not die in the ring on Saturday night, which is what I said going in. And then when Mike admitted it afterwards was like, this could have been the grossest thing that's maybe not ever happened. But like one, the grossest thing I have been alive for in combat sports, was on the table Saturday night, or Friday night, I guess. B.C., let me ask you this. This is nothing to do with really the game that we're playing here.

I'm just genuinely curious because I've seen people kind of throw out theories, rigged whatever, I don't care about any of that. Because of what you mentioned about the betting and people spending money to go and travel to this event, expecting a professional boxing match between a former heavyweight champion and Jake Paul, could there be, I don't know, like litigation? Could there be, could MVP and Netflix deal with a whole ration of shit from a legal perspective because of all of this? Is that possible?

I'm shocked they haven't already. And I know there's already stories out there that they've been sued for people that are upset that the screen lagged. And that, you know, I mean, look, it was a shit show from that standpoint. I was trying to do a live blog for CBS Sports and had to literally call up an illegal stream because my cell phone, my laptop, my TV were all frozen. But that's a separate argument. I was shocked that both Jake and Mike were willing to forego K-Fabe, to be fair, and show their real cards of what their intentions turned out to be. Look, it's not, it's like we've seen people have mercy before in fights that they're dominating

and maybe not go for the finish late. Manipakia was accused of that after he was knocked out by Marquez in the fourth fight and maybe, you know, his Christian faith was leading him too much to be nice to people. He still went out and out-boxed people widely and actively, tried to win the fight. I really just can't get over the idea that neither guy like tried hard or put their best foot forward. And I'm not going out of my way to slow down the footage like you're seeing on some of these social media clips. You know, there was an opening there. Why'd they pull the punch? But when that happens over the course of eight full rounds and it's obvious one guy

is completely carrying and propping up the other, you then ask yourself, why did we do this? Why are we here? I'm not the one that made it a real fight. So yeah, Mike, I got that same question. You question too. What if you did put out a crazy stupid ass bet going Jake by knockout or the under is beyond the most logical bet possible? And then this is the way it played out. It's not a bad luck situation. To me, the players involved were the ones that are showing you their cards and saying, yeah, you know, I didn't want to hurt him. Nothing Mike threw hurt me. I just, you know, he hasn't deserved that. You just talked us into the room for weeks. and months saying that this man must die. Again, I don't want to see any of that, but I did want to

see a fight. And I just can't understand, again, how easily we can just skip past that because the expectations weren't that high to begin with of a 58-year-old. So again, why did we do this? Why was it not an exhibition? I mean, it's crazy to me some of the reactions coming out of here. I don't wish lawsuits on anybody, but I really wish they had handled it much better. Just don't say anything about it ultimately and we would have been left going yeah that suck but whatever they were the ones that put that info out and I think it just makes it much

worse. Dude they did Frank Gore versus Darren Williams on the Jake Paul Tyron Woodley 2 card. They called it a pro fight all the way till Friday and they were like nah it's just going to be an exhibition fight. No one was like oh give me a refund on the tickets I'm not watching this shit because now it's an exhibition fight between a former NFL player

and a former NBA player. There's like all right these two dudes are just going to get in there and punch each other a few times. And that all like anybody cared about. So the whole thing is really dumb. And at the end of the day, BC, Netflix was so successful with all of this. They're probably going to want to stay in the Jake Paul business after all of this. And I assume they're at least going to expect, not exact results, but something as close to it as possible. And getting the casual audience to tune in in droves like this, getting everybody talking about it, where everywhere I turn

on being asked about this fight by people who've never watched fighting before, Is there anybody they can even find to generate this type of interest? I know people would say Canelo would do it, but I think that's absolutely insane because I think it would do well and they'd get millions of views, but 75, 80, 90 percent of the people who watch this on Friday and have asked me about it have no clue who Canello even is. They all know who Mike Tyson is. So is there anyone else to fill the Tyson role? And if Canello is the closest thing that they can find, B.C., and they can actually get

Canello to agree to it is the promotion for this fight, watch this pound for pound great beat the living shit out of the guy who sold you wolf tickets on a Mike Tyson fight? Yeah, I mean, that's going to be the problem. And if you add some kind of stupid title on there, which these sanctioning bodies in quote unquote legitimate boxing seem to be jumping out of their shoes to do, remember heading into the Tommy Fury fight, it was the WBC that said that Jake Paul would be ranked in the top 10 if he won that fight. Really? And it was also, I think, the WBA on Twitter over the weekend that was like, we'd love to put Jake Paul and Chavez Jr. in there for a world title as if even with the bastardized amount of secondary and meaningless titles, that is straight up

corruption. Could Canello draw big interest? Maybe, but what you said is true. You're basically tuning into an execution. Look, they did have something on paper with Paul versus Tyson, which is why it ultimately went through, because the potential of money was so huge, not because you had two of the most famous people in combat sports up there. Because in the mind of the casuals, like Mayweather McGregor, when Floyd came out of retirement at age 40 against a prime fighter, on paper, you really weren't sure what it was going to look like or what you were going to get. You assumed Jake had to win, but you had to see what was going to happen when they actually

tried and went together. I do kind of understand what Nikisa Bidarian has said, I think it was on Arrow Hawani show yesterday, and said, look, the only fight we think that can equal this type of attention and meaning would be Connor McGregor against Jake. And maybe he's right in that regard. But Connor ain't walking through that door anytime soon. And I really don't see UFC ever trying to, you know, co-partner with MVP promotions at all under that.

All I know is that this, this jumps the shark for the Jake Paul experience, in my opinion. It doesn't mean he's going to be without options. In fact, I've been shocked at how many, quote unquote, legitimate boxers, very legitimate, are throwing themselves at him from retired stars, like Carl Frotch and Andre Ward to Archer BetterBev in Daniel Dubois, who are basically like, here, have a title shot. Come fight me. I'll take care of you.

But in terms of the idea of recreating that, I don't think you can because as great of a job, and I mean this, as great of a job as Jake Paul and MVP promotions did at getting you to care about this fight and promoting the hell out of it along with Netflix. And they did. They did a great job. I don't think you can say what Nekisa is saying and let that be the fact, the idea that, look, this fight was this big because of Jake as the opponent because he's, quote, unquote, the face of boxing. That's far too aggressive in reaching. This fight did this kind of traffic because it's Mike Tyson and Mike Tyson was 58.

And by the way, four years ago when he had the exhibition with Roy Jones, in the midst of piracy killing pay-per-view sales, they did $1.6 million buys. which is like the equivalent 20 years ago of like, you know, three to four million. It's insane. So Tyson was the hook, right? Jake was the perfect dance partner. But after what they gave them, if Jake doesn't come back immediately and directly into a fight

that the fans believe he can lose, I don't know where the interest is going to be for them to do, not forget these type of numbers, but steady, consistent type of numbers. Yes, there are MMA crossovers that we can throw out and people that we think, have a nice trash talk build. But Jake going to this effort to cash this idea out, I think cashed out whatever,

you know, part of the integrity in terms of real fighting that he still had, which wasn't large, but we do know that in the crossover space, he's a legit player. I don't know necessarily where he would go next. And it would need somebody on a Tyson, LeBron James, Donald Trump, big AJ, and big justice in the Rizzler level. to actually get people to care like it did on Tyson. My only hope is that because Taylor and Serrano got that platform and hit a home run that they get a trilogy and that Netflix gets behind that.

Maybe it would have to be paired with Jake versus whomever, but that whomever better be somebody who's going to bring an actual fight because this turned off a lot of people. Can he recover from this? Is there, I mean, he can obviously recover from it, but can he, Jed, get something that generates any interest for net, Netflix subscribers here after what we just saw. Yeah.

The game is the exact same for Jake Paul that has always been. To some extent, I do agree with BC when he says that this was jumping the shark. I think this is just the most clarifying moment of the Jake Paul experience as there's been an idea that has been propagated and kind of kept up by him of, I'm going to be a real boxer. I'm going to be a real boy one day. and I'm just fighting the same kind of dudes that people fight when they're starting their boxing career. But I'm just doing it, I'm making more money and I'm more popular. It's not entirely accurate, but like that has been sort of the idea to keep him, as, as BC said,

with a veneer of legitimacy as a guy who has some aspirations to take this more seriously than the full carnival side show aspect that, frankly, like, misfit. is and I like Carnival side shows. I'm not shitting on those. It's just this is. This clearly was like, oh, no, like I am, I am a cash business. That is what I am and I'm going to pursue these. And so when they come out, when Nikis Bidarian says, it's the face of boxing, that is blatantly untrue. You know how I know this? Because Jake Paul boxed several dudes this year and no one gave a shit about him. Like, who, who is the dude he fought before he fought Mike Perry? And did that sell a million pay-per-views and sell out a Coliseum? Sure fucking didn't,

because he's not the face of boxing and him having a bad win over Mike Tyson at 57 years old or 58. It doesn't make him the face of boxing. But he is still Jake Paul. He is still an enormously famous individual. And while it is, what's the word? Unfortunate, I guess,

that these are the terms of combat sports, that people will always tune in to watch famous people do anything and they'll really tune in to watch them fight. There are plenty of avenues for Jake Paul to move forward and compete. He can go back to fight in some, you know, five and four boxer and do a couple of those to keep spinning his wheels and building up his resume numbers. And then he can settle on the fight that makes sense. He can face the winner of Darren Till versus Tommy Fury, if that makes sense.

And that is not going to draw the same interest that this fight did, but nothing is because Mike Tyson was the ace. side. People were not tuning in for Jake Paul. They were tuning in for a combination of them and Mike Tyson. The idea that Tyson might kill him. For Paul to do something like this again, he's going to need to box like Cristiano Ronaldo or like it still wouldn't be the same level because Mike is Mike. Francis Inganu, like somebody who is going, there's not a debate. He will die. Like he will get murdered in the ring and people will tune in to watch him

get completely desicated. Like they will tune in for that. But otherwise, it's going to go back to what it was. It's not going to be 60 million homes. It's going to be a million people watch. People are interested. People tune in to the highlights and follow.

We do good traffic on the website. But that Jake Paul, his entire experience is he is not Connor McGregor. He does not elevate people to him. He rides the tide of how good his opponent can be to generate interest. And Mike Tyson is the er version of that. And now the search is on to find somebody else that is like that. But for the foreseeable future, I think it's just going to be like average Jake Paul fighting, whoever the hell else. And some people care, maybe Netflix does it just to have a longstanding

business relationship with him. But they are not doing it because he is going to generate millions of subscribers for them, that is clearly not going to happen. We're going to move on from this because otherwise it's going to be a four-hour show. We still got to talk about John Jones. We know that's going to take a minute. Wow, I just got real pixelated. But I do want to shout out. Obviously, Taylor and Serrano did the damn thing.

It was absolutely incredible. And the fact that people were pissed about Jake Paul, Mike Tyson, but still were putting those two ladies over for the efforts they put in. Absolutely unbelievable. But I do want to shut out Mario Barrios and Abel Ramos because that fight absolutely ruled and unfortunately it was the Shane Burgos versus Billy Corantillo to the Justin Gagee versus Michael Chandler. That was Taylor versus Serrano too. Kind of gets lost in the sauce a little bit, but if you haven't watched that fight, highly recommend you go back and do it because it's an

absolute banger. It's really, really good. But let's move on to UFC 309. Let's move on to the heavyweight champion John Jones. Point for round one goes to the real man in the hat, Brian Campbell, one or nothing. Dude is just on fire. is disappointed. There we go. Welcome aboard Air Canada. Rocky's vacation, here we come. Whoa, is this economy?

Free beer, wine, and snacks. Sweet. Fast free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservations before we land. And with live TV, I'm not missing the game. It's kind of like I'm already on vacation. Nice. Air Canada.

Nice travels. Wi-Fi available to Aero plan members on equipped flights Sponsored by Bell. Conditions apply. See AARCanada.com. You may have heard of the sex cult nexium and the famous actress who went to prison for her involvement, Alison Mack. But she's never told her side of the story until now. People assume that I'm like this pervert. My name is Natalie Robamed and in my new podcast I talked to Allison to try to understand how she went from TV actor to cult member. How do you feel about having been involved in bringing sexual trauma at other people? I don't even know how to answer that question.

Allison after Nexium from CBC's Uncover is available now on Spotify. Sorry, Otto. The cuteness, this cuteness meter was up, but B.C. We need you back here, Otto. B.C. just doing the damn thing. All right, let's talk John Jones versus Steve B. Meachich. Maine of Ed of UFC 309, Madison Square Garden. And, yeah, John Jones just wailed on Steve A. Meichich.

The rebooking was awful from the beginning. We all knew anybody who watches. combat sports who watches the UFC on a regular basis. We knew how this fight was going to go down. It was going to go down this way a year ago. And now Steppe's 42 and coming off of a four-year layoff. And I saw people calling this a 50-50 fight. I truly do not know what they were talking about.

But John goes out there, Jedbichu, and beats the hell out of Stepe Meitch. The trip in the first round was almost effortless. And John almost finished him in the first round. eventually in round three gets the nasty spin kick to the body that crumbles Stepe Meitchitch. And the takes have been out there, Jed. So let me start this question. Is John Jones not getting enough credit?

Because we have been on the same page of this, Jed. Steepa looked like a guy who was 42 and had not fought in four years and John crushed him. But there are respected people out there saying, no, that take is wrong. John made him look that way. Stepe was not that way stepping into the octagon. John is getting too much credit because there shouldn't be reasonable people giving that take from this fight. This is not to say that John Jones looked bad. I do not think that he looked bad.

I thought he looked like a slightly older version of John Jones. Like I do discernibly think that he is different. Like he is no longer in his prime. I think to me it's pretty clear. But he didn't win. I also want to be really clear. If you put Prime Steepa against Prime Jones, I think John Jones beats him.

I think this version of John Jones beats Prime Stepe. All of those things, like I have always thought that Steepa is one of the easier matchups for John at heavyweight, frankly, and that played out. But you get no credit for doing the assignment late. Like that is what happened. This was a homework assignment that was due one calendar year ago.

And John did not do it. then, and now he is turning it in and hoping that the teacher will take pity on him and give him some marks. And I will not. Professor Mushu says, no, that is at least a year too late for it to be acceptable work to be turned in. It was, he looked like John Jones. And if you still believe that John Jones is the best fighter in the world, okay, that is a position to take. And I'm not even going to argue the point anymore. It's just not worth it to me. But the idea that he made Steepa look bad strains credulity. Simply go watch the fight.

Before the takedown even happened, Stepe looks like he is moving through a frozen bog. Everything is slow. Somebody on Twitter, and forgive me, I genuinely do not remember who it was. Stepe looks like he is fighting in a dream. You ever have those nightmares where you are in a fight with somebody

and you hit him as hard as you can and nothing happens? And then everything is in slow motion and they are moving like freaking Pikachu around your ass. That is what Steepa looked like from the outset. And sure, after he got his ass whooped for three and a half minutes or whatever it was after the takedown, he didn't look any better, but he didn't look good at all. And frankly, the fact that after John beat his ass for however many minutes it was in the first round, and Steepa clearly had nothing to offer, the whole second round, John just kind of played patty cake and pitdled around. Like he didn't go in there

and finish him with authority. And this does not need to be a John versus Tom Aspinall argument for this part of it. I'm sure that will come up. But like, John would get praise for me if he did what you are supposed to do against overmatched opposition, which is finished with like authority, violent authority. And he did ultimately finish it, but it was in the way that all of John's fights have gone in the last five years prior to the other than zero gone. where it was just like, okay, I'm not in danger right now.

I'm going to play it as safe as I possibly can, and I'll just slowly hit him and hit him and eventually he will die. And that's what happened. The only time John has not done that is the Cyril Gaon fight, which was an unbelievable performance. He could have done that to Stipe, and he didn't. For whatever reason, I think it is because John is older, frankly.

And so he gets no credit for beating a person who genuinely, and BC, I would love you to answer this question, because we have been talking about it on Slack and sort of the question is circulated is that version of Stepe-Mia-Chicat, top-15 heavyweight. I am honestly not convinced that I would pick him against anybody

in the top 15 right now. Maybe there are certainly some matchups he would have better chances than other, but why would he get credit for beating a dude who may not even be a top 15 guy anymore? I don't disagree with a lot of you said there. That's very heavy-handed in a Luke Thomas veil, and I think he said the same thing this week on the idea

that he can't beat a top five guy and top 15 guy and I wouldn't go that far. I'd say it's a borderline argument. But what version of Stepe did we see? The 42 year old who hadn't fought in three years and hadn't won him four years was slow plotting through all of his punches, completely flat-footed and arm punches.

And I thought it was only as a result of that flurry of John Leight in round one to take him down, sit on him for three and a half minutes and brutally ground and pound him with elbows. But you know, you rewatch that fight a couple of times you realize it was worst possible scenario steep to begin with. So that doesn't take away, in my opinion, from what John did accomplish, which is coming back from a legitimate 18-month layoff in only a second fight in about five years,

and finally, and not to mention a serious injury and surgery, and finally show us who he really is at heavyweight. And for the most part, we saw a well-rounded, complete machine, not without flaws, not without things that would scare you against Aspinall going in. but a guy who really used that time off to improve his game, particularly on the ground, adding in the spinning kicks and all of that. You just obviously can't go the level of Dana

and argue that that's a pound for pound number one affirming position. So ultimately, if you remember the Truman show where everybody was sort of in on the joke against the main Jim Carrey's main character of the understanding that the life he was living was fake, I'm starting to believe that Dana and UFC Brass in general, and to some degree us fans in media outside of the people that are just hardcore John fans or hardcore UFC fans, and there's a lot of them out there, that they're kind of Truman showing John right now in the same way.

Why? To pump up his ego so that they can get him to the next step, which is agreeing to the Aspenol fight. A fight that obviously needs to happen and is already late in getting here. It's not just Dana going live and saying this will be the biggest heavyweight fight we've ever done, and maybe the biggest fight we've ever done in general, which couldn't possibly be true, but dude, do I love that ambition? Yes, I want to see if this fight happens,

a UFC build of old, a press tour. I want to see this at, you know, Wembley Stadium in the UK or a Legion Stadium in Vegas. Or, or, because it seems like UFC brass told Tom Aspinall that, don't worry, we got a plan for this. If we have to see this fight in Riyadh, because that's the only way it gets paid for, Uncle Turkey, then I'll even do that.

But my point about the Truman Show is, John's not pound for pound number one. He's not Prime John. He's still a good, smart as hell, well-rounded, somewhat dangerous version of him. I mean, at heavyweight with that kicking game, he can be a knockout threat. But I think everybody is continuously puffing him up

and keeping him happy, knowing that we were going to get what we received from him this week, leading up to the fight and the week after. And that's mixed messages. my biggest lament in this whole situation, and I still give John his flowers, right? Even with Steepa in that condition, I still give John his flowers.

He played what UFC dealt for him. They allowed him to do this, to wait a year, because I think they're trying to get him to hand that off like any promoter would want to do, particularly Tom Aspinall, but even Poetan, or maybe even there's a part of UFC that would be willing one day to do Jones and Ghanu and a crossover thing, but you need Jones to keep winning to get there.

I think they've convinced Jones that he is the John of old, that there's no issues here. I just really lament John's reaction to the whole idea of the Aspinall fight. It's not about his public negotiation. Some of it I think is that. And look, do you, John? If you're the goat. So if anybody should get paid for taking a chance in a big fight, it is you. Even with the ridiculousness of this fight and even with the allowances UFC has given you repeatedly, despite your missteps,

which may actually include changing the glomps. loves out of nowhere, by the way. But I do not like that the greatest fighter of all time is basically talking about showing us his cards, showing us that he doesn't believe he can beat Tom. That's the thing I'm starting to believe from his own words when he's saying things like, yeah, I'll fight Tom if the payday is so big that it wouldn't even matter if I lost. John, you're not convincing me. Just like your striking defense against a guy with a longer reach wasn't convincing me either

against Stipe as steepe kind of, you know, hit John with ease in round two with arm punches from a flat-footed position. But John still has a chance to beat Aspernel because it's the greatest we've ever seen. He's smart and he can figure things out under chaos like no one else. But they got to get him to that point. And I hate that I sit here. A fan of everything Jones has accomplished and I'm literally watching him tell us that he doesn't think he can win. John, if you really don't think you can, then please retire now and we'll get past this charade and we'll try to figure out how many more fights in Ghana who has left so that we can make Aspinol and Ghanu or Poetan Aspinol or what have you next. But if he's going to linger and it looks like he is,

he's got to take this fight. They've got to pay him and I really hope they push the crap out of it to make this an event, a crossover event. I think it's got the setting for that. Let's just keep telling John that he's the greatest thing we've ever seen and hopefully he'll show up too. Yeah. Oh, Jed is back or no, maybe not. Okay, he's frozen. He had some power issues. he'll be joining us in a second. And B.C. I want to get to this because the great debate is, as you mentioned, it's team Dana White against the rest of the MMA world.

And despite all the arguments and conversations with B. Dana White still does not know the difference between goat and pound for pound. But that's okay because Dana has plenty of people who will support anything he says. And there's a lot of very passionate John Jones fans out there. No doubt about that. And John Jones goes to number two in the UFC's pound for pound ranking. Dana loses his mind. John Jones, by the way,

closes a minus 700 favorite against Steve Mietchich. He jumps over Alex Pereira. I'm not even going to talk about pound for pound right now because pound for pound is stupid. It's a dumb thing. It's in the nomenclature

of just the sport that we have to talk about it. I want to talk about the heavyweight division globally right now because it is a four-horse race in my opinion. It is John Jones. It is Francis Ngano.

It is Tom Aspinall. And then the legend Parker Porter. It is one of those four guys who sits at number one. And I joke, but where does John Jones rank in your... Thank you. Where does John Jones rank in your eyes in the Jones-Nanu-Aspinall conversation? That's a great question, Mike, and I appreciate you hosting this show and, you know, asking me that.

I think he's the third, ability-wise, of the three right now. From the evidence we have, which, to be fair, one of the parts that makes Aspinall so exciting and the fact that we want to see him in these super fights is because he has so many unanswered questions about his defense, his cardio, what happens after the second round, all of that. It adds to the excitement, though. And what we have of John, I think, is two unfortunate matchups. We all wanted him to go up to heavyweight since like 2012

and all assumed it would happen against Brock Lesnar any time now. He lingered at 205 for a long time. That's fine. Really put together the best resume we've ever seen. Then sat out three years and came back as soon as Francis left. So for him to get gone and that version of Stepe, it's, it still is hard to really understand where he is, but his IQ still there, his craft, you know, takedowns, the ground gave him. I mean, the variance of the striking, it's still there. But we're talking about

in Ganu, who even an older version, understandably, what we saw in Faheda, you know, dominance, but this is a, a Francis who has not been active in MMA. With that power, with that experience, It's hard not to favor that. And I think it's Aspinall's just plus value. So there's no shame in that. But I think we should start getting excited about the possibility of having not just one big heavyweight superfight, which doesn't come around often in UFC history, but the idea of multiple ones here. And as much as Dana hates the hell out of Francis and seems like he doesn't even have that Vince McMahon gene in him where it comes down to it,

Who cares if I'm mad at somebody if it's so good for business? I got to do it. I got to welcome them back. But I believe this Endeavor era does potentially support fans' interest in these type of ridiculous crossover huge superfights that define a generation and bring in stupid amounts of money to something like TKO Global and Endeavor, which is trying to just dominate across the board. I'd have to believe that they would want to see if we can get Jones Aspenol together to see the winner of that against Francis, whether that means Francis getting, you know,

fighting out his PFL deal or doing something unthinkable. But it's a fun time to be alive right now. I'm happy Jones is in the mix. I just have the same questions as of everybody else that what happens when you get in there with somebody with Aspinall's handspeed, right? What happens if you get in there with some of the challenges that these other guys can bring? Unfortunately for John, he got to heavyweight a little bit too late.

But the good news is he can still win these fights. These are still winnable fights for John. but it's not going to be like if John had moved up in 2014 when I think he would have walked through everyone and gone undefeated at a heavyweight. Those days are over, but that's not necessarily a bad thing right now if he's willing to stay active and try his best.

Let's find out, John. You know what I mean? Don't do the Mayweather thing and hug the unbeaten record. You're healthy again, you're active, and you're still pretty damn good. I got you at number four pound for pound, and I don't think that's a reach. I think that's where he still is

until he shows up looking bad in a fight, no matter who he fights. But it's time. It's time to make these big fights happen right now in the UFC while we can. It seems like we can right now. I mean, Mike, is it going to take Turkey? I'm going to take over your show and ask you a question. Is it going to take Turkey for this dream to be alive and well?

I don't know. It's going to take Dana, honestly. Turkey could throw him a floppy trillion dollars, but Dana's ego is the one thing that could still have him just say no. Nope, not doing it. don't need them. I'll still make a bunch of money. I don't need him to do it. I don't have to. And John will do it every once. That's, and look, if you want to throw prayer in there, I don't care. Just give up the belt and let's move on with our lives. But anyways, Jed, you're back.

John Jones, Francis, Tom Aspinall. Where's John in this conversation and why? I love the graphic that John D. Stories Steve Baye Michich. It's terrific work. He is unstoried Steve made me a shit. The long story career, no longer. So I missed like a lot because my power went out. It was really fun, guys. But I caught on to one thing that at the end of BC was saying. And, you know, if John had gone up sooner, more or whatever, you know what his fault that is?

John Jones, you can go back to 2012, 12 full years ago. to find stories on our great website, www.com, where John says he is eyeing a heavyweight move. 2012, he said that. And that happened almost a full decade later. You can go back to whatever it was. Hold on, let me look this at.

2020 is when he beats Dominic Reyes. And after that, Dana's like, hey, man, you got to rematch him because I thought Dom won that fight. And John's like, nah, I'm going to go up, to heavyweight. Here's the belt. And he does go up to heavyweight. Three years later, the sole person responsible for John Jones's heavyweight run being what it is is John Jones. And I say that to say this, John is not fighting Tom Aspinall and everyone just needs to come to grips with it. I do not

blame John for not fighting Tom Aspinall. He has a legacy that I think is set in stone. He is the greatest light heavyweight of all time. Many, many people believe him to be the greatest fighter of all time, and he certainly has a very good case for that. Winning or losing to Tom Aspinall would, or winning, I actually think, would change it. Losing to Tom Aspinall would not change it, but it would change the undefeated part of his resume. He is not undefeated, but the UFC has gotten behind this. John is adamant that he is undefeated and many, many fans believe he is undefeated and that's fine. You can think that despite clear facts against. If he loses legitimately no questions asked, Tom Aspenall sleeps him or whatever, he loses both a part of that legacy

and he loses, I think, and this is, you know, armchair psychologist, something in himself. He needs that part of his life to be there. It is clearly important to him to have never been beaten in a fight before. And that is a risk. I am not saying it is certain. I think John has a pretty solid chance to be Tom Aspernel. I think I'd pick Tom, but I would not bet my house or say anything like Tom's going to kill him. I would say it's a very competitive fight, the most competitive matchup that John will have had in years. And it is not worth it to him to do that unless he is being paid an exorbitant amount of money. And he will never get paid that. Frankly, I am not certain that it would be worth it to him for any price tag, but it doesn't matter because

the UFC is not going to pay him $40 or $50 million. Turkey might want to pay him $40 or $50 million. I'm not even sure Turkey really would want to do that. He might, but Dana will never do it because that sets a precedent that somebody can get paid, and that is just not how their promotion works, especially when there is the backdoor that they have available, that John has put out there, and that I think is likely to end up happening if John competes again. If John fights again, it will be against Alex Pereira. And he'll bail on the heavyweight title, and I don't think the UFC will mind too much. And he can go back to late

heavyweight or they can just do a super fight. And most people will be comfortable with that. John Jones stands will continue to climb that hill and shout from the top of it, that he is the greatest fighter ever and Tom doesn't deserve it. And some of us will say, this is transparently what it is, but it's okay. So if John fights again, it will be Alex, because the UFC won't have to pay him any more money than they would normally pay him. And it's, it will do enormous business. It will be a hugely profitable fight for them.

And so it's that. But he is just not fighting Tom Aspinall. And I will believe he is fighting Tom Aspinall the moment the cage door closes on them and not a second before. BC put a percentage on it, confidence-wise. John Jones fights Tom Aspinall next. I can't believe I'm saying this now after what we've been through and how pessimistic we had a right to be. And I don't hate what Jed said there. And he said it very eloquently, if not masculinely.

So shout out to Jed on that one. I'm up to now 55% that it happens. And I'm so happy that I'm at that space. Because I think it comes down to two things, building up John's ego and letting, you know, making him believe he is. is the best and they can win this. They've done that. And the second half of it is money. And while I fully understand what Jed said and think that is a great point about the precedent that it would set, hey, Dana, didn't you already set a precedent when your sphere project

was viciously over budget and TCO officials were like, these are not the margins that we normally benefit from. And they wanted to shut that shit down. And Uncle Turkey came in and put the Riyadh stamp in front of it. I understand that that's not a fighter, thus you're not setting the precedent of giving a fighter leverage, but it's showing me that, like, they're willing to make that call, Turkey's willing to do it.

Is this fight on that level, a sphere level? Hell yeah. Put it right in Riyadh. Make it the main event of Riyadh season. I don't even know if it's a season anymore or if it's a lifestyle or whatever, because it seems to be all year, and I guess that's cool,

because I like big fights all year. If somebody's going to break that precedent and get the benefit of the doubt treatment one time, it's either going to be a Connor McGregor, and it doesn't look like it's going to be him anytime soon since White Lightning, right? Since that, it's got to be the greatest fighter of all time, who's still a pretty decent pay-per-view draw, it seems, and it still can draw attention. It would be that guy. So I've never not said that Jones doesn't deserve Deonté Wilder money. I've always said he does. I think there is that upper room 1% that can get what they want.

And it comes down, in my opinion, to whether when TKO crunches the numbers, because Dana has, you know, a lot of control and say, but not all of it as we're learning. I think it comes down to if the company believes that this is the type of event, especially if Turkey's paying the bill on John, that will be so worth it from every standpoint financially, then it's going to happen. And I think that company is about big events and big business and usually at the expense, by the way, of their own entertainment week to week. But I think 55% I'm starting to feel like we will see it. Hurtle cleared.

John didn't retire. And he won and looked dominant. Those are big hurdles that we had to clear. So now it's just about who are you going to call, right? You're going to call Turkey Al-a-Sheek. That's what's going to be. And he's going to hold your hand in public. In fact, he may put his, all right, I'll stop, sorry, but he may.

He may put his, okay? All right, you know, he may. I hope you're all right. Like, true, because there are so many people this past few weeks have been like, you're just a hater. You just want to see him lose. No, it would be funny. It would be deeply funny to see John lose at this point.

I will not deny that. I would like to see if John Jones is the greatest fighter of all time, I would like to see him fight meaningful fights. Stephen Mietich was not a meaningful fight. It was my issue with it from the start even a year ago. I thought that that fight was kind of silly, but whatever. At least it was more palatable. Now it is not.

Alex Pereira, I guess, is meaningful. I am not certain how meaningful it is. It's not. It's certainly more than the steep fight, but Aspenol is the meaningful fight. It is the fight that makes sense. I would absolutely love for us to get it. And if John wins,

I think that that is one of the best wins on his resume. I think it is a huge, feather in his cap and the idea that oh john's been doing this not doesn't mean anything to beat it no it does because that is why his resume is good is it's not because he beat rampage and never fought again it's because he kept beating these people over and over and to do it at 37 or 38 by the time the fight would happen against the interim champion the next future of the division a guy who probably will be the future of the division for years to come like that is an enormous important win for the career and for his case is the greatest fighter who has ever lived.

And I do not think his case takes a huge drop if he doesn't fight it. But I would like to see that fight because it is a good fight. And the idea that, oh, you just want to see him lose, to me that, and a lot of people are saying that John is saying that, to me, that speaks more to your insecurities as a John Jones fan, that you recognize that he could lose this. because you aren't saying that about Alex Pereira. You're not saying, we want to see him fight Alex Pereira because he could lose because you know he can't.

You know he will thump Pereira. Great. Like that's an important win. You all just want him to live in this perfect bubble of success and perfection. And okay, I would like him to earn that bubble and not Floyd Mayweather, the back end of his career as he is trying to do. And if he chooses to walk away, cool, man. like you are one of the very, very best fighters who have ever competed and nobody can take that

away or will even try to take that away from you. Mostly, I would like it to be done. I would like you to fight him or retire and not do not carry this on for whatever reason we are doing it. Let us get resolution because the way the world deserves it at this point. Let us move forward and I hope you are right, BC, and that happens. Yeah, it's a great fight. There were South Carolinans much more famous than you who once sang a song called Speaking of Turkey Hold My Hand where they said, you know, I want to love you the best that, the best that I can. And to echo Jed there, this ain't about hate and John and it reminds me fully of the Mayweather experience.

It's about wanting to see the goats constantly prove to us so that we can give them more flowers, puff up their bags even more. And when I'm talking to my grandkids in 20 years ago, guys, guess what? I cover John Jones, the greatest of all time, possibly the greatest combat sports athlete of all time. Like, I want to be that guy making that statement. That's why we challenge our heroes. Show me how great you can be. And if you feel like you've eclipsed that, like Jed said, goodbye.

We'll fillet you on the way out, too. There's a mutual fallacious society. We're willing to, okay? but make us make us do it no means no just say yes jad you look like you want to say something i i don't even know how to respond to that like yeah man dude fight him or don't that's it and like if you win i i will be far more convinced you're the greatest fighter of all time i am not convinced at all i think you are one of six that have a credible claim to it uh i i think that it would be a meaningful. And if you lose, it won't impact how you rank in the greatest of all time.

There's no real risk there other than to the ego and the idea of undefeated. And so I do not understand why it would not make sense for him to do it other than he cherishes being undefeated and thinks that that is meaningful. And I don't really think it is. Like particularly with how the end of his career is gone. It is, you know, Floyd obviously. I think Floyd is the comparison, right? And a lot of people get mileage out of that. BC, you're much more boxing head than I am. But in my limited boxing understanding, most real heads recognize that Mani Pachiaw is a greater fighter than Floyd Mayweather was, despite losing to him.

Because what he accomplished, the things that he attempted to do, the multiple weight class he jumped up, et cetera. like his highs are more meaningful despite Mayweather being undefeated, particularly at the back end of his career and how it's gone. John is at risk of doing that to me where he is tarnishing his own legacy by how he is carrying himself, not his performances, when it probably wouldn't matter. Because if you would just fight Tom, he might beat him. So like, didn't this will all be moot? Yeah.

Hey, last thing I'll say on this and then we have to move on. If John just takes this fight, his legacy takes a jump, even if he's number one. If his if his cue rating is 100, it's 100.05. Just by taking this fight, just by getting on a poster and walking to the cage, his legacy points jump up just for stepping in there. But that's just my opinion. Let's move on.

Let's quickly go through some of the other storylines. I have to say this. I have to say this. Please, please. Many people have echoed it. Jermaine is in here. Beating Tom Aspinall doesn't do anything for John. That is an outright lie.

It is false because beating Tom Aspinall is beating the best heavyweight in the world. Per our rankings and per most reasonable rankings, Tom Aspinall is one or two behind Francis. The Cyril Gahn win is a great win. I am not taking anything away. Cyril Gahn was not the best heavy weight in the world when they fought. Beating Tom Aspinall is a no doubt about it. John Jones was the best heavy weight in the world at a point in time. And he cannot say that right now.

He can pretend it. And people will. Tom Aspinall is the guy to beat to say, with real credibility, you were the best heavyweight in the world. Anything else is a total supposition because he ain't never beat Francis because of how that shook out. And zero gone ain't fucking Francis. Beating Tom is meaningful.

And the idea that it is not is fucking insane. And it's driving me crazy. Okay. Well, the point for round two, speaking of driving us. Crazy goes to. That guy cared real. He cared a lot about that. Wow.

Jedvis shoe. Dicely does. So many people are like, he doesn't do anything for him. It's like it's one of his four best wins ever. And also it is the credibility win at heavyweight. It is the one. People don't say,

man, Anderson Silva was a great light heavyweight because he beat Stefan Bonner. Like you got to beat the dude. And he hasn't beat the fucking dude. Oh, well played. All right, we're going to, I was going to go a whole different direction with this. I don't know why I'm so pixelated. Internet is terrific in the household right now.

But I'm going to mix things up on the fly. We're going to just play a fun game of buyer sell with some of the other storylines from UFC 309. BC, I want to start with you. Co-main event, we had Charles Olivera beat the hell out of Michael Chandler. And outside of a wild stretch in round five, this is one-way traffic. Chandler did cheat his ass off for most of the fight. but that kind of made it better in a lot of respects. But buy or sell that Michael Chandler actually gained steam a la Nate Diaz after Leon Edwards

from a one-way traffic loss. Yeah, I fully buy that. It was the heart moxie that he showed. He showed like the full throttle version of what you kind of expect or hope from him in every fight. And oh, by the way, he comes pretty close to showing you that win or lose every time. I think the reason why it's definitely a buy is because Dana White took it one step forward and like fully anointed him as sort of their version of Arturo Gotti, a comparison that I think easily could have gone to Justin Gaci, you know,

three years ago, right, in his, you know, action highlight prime just the same. But Chandler, I think even with his, you know, now losing record in UFC, certainly does deserve that because he swings as big as possible. He gets in the greatest shape. He goes through two years being teased by Connor and never turns a negative, you know, eye publicly to an annoying level at times is over the top and optimistic, but is honest up until the point that he gets in the cage and then he'll cheat like hell to win, which is pretty American these days. So, you know what I mean? He is sort of an American hero. I mean, we did acquire

most of the West using that same strategy. My history books should have told me. But yeah, I mean, because here's the deal. When we start talking about, okay, who would you really like to see Chandler we're in against next, the name that leaps off the page every single time to me in my brain synapse is Max Holloway for the BMF title. So it really doesn't, when you're at a point where the losses like, they don't matter at all because people are paying to see you perform, then you've won. That's, that's, you know, as good as a championship. So yeah, he has achieved short of winning the title, which he did come really close. Let's remember that. Let's give him that respect. He has achieved everything you could want, in my opinion,

making the switch late in your career, you know, making the statement of not here for a long time, here for a good time. The time has been really fucking good. Like, way to go, Michael Chandler,

I'll give him that love. He also cheats like hell. Like unabashedly where Keith Peterson, who, you know, Dom Cruz once told us does smell like, you know, deli meat and hose.

He was like in on it too. He's like, yeah, dude. hit him? No, rabbit him this angle. No, go 12.5 and then into 126. But he's still going to get a huge fight next. And I think he deserves it as what I'm trying to say. Jed, by herself, Michael Chandler is the most successful two and five fighter in UFC history. Oh, that has to be true. It just has to be true. Mike, we all know my feelings on Michael Chandler. This weekend was an event filled with people I don't particularly careful. And Michael Chandler, chief among them. I left this event

hating Michael Chandler more than I've ever hated Michael Chandler. Maybe more than I've ever hated any fighter. Because I'm supposed to love Michael Chandler. And I realized it watching this. Michael Chandler is the exact fighter that I adore. He got that bozo in him and he got that bozo in him in spades. He is a deeply silly fighter who also cheats. Cheat unabashedly is a perfect word for it, BC.

We were on that watchpoint. party and Michael Chandler had been beat tip to tail for 20 minutes of that fight. And in the fifth round, he comes out and just starts cheating. It's the only thing he does is cheat just voraciously. And he almost wins the fight. And I am cackling laughing and telling him to cheat more, do more cheating. And then he bozos it and goes into the guard and does the same thing he did the first time when he had Charles Oliver on the ropes and then got stupid.

He got real silly with it because he is a deeply. silly fighter. And that should have been like the crowning moment of my fandom of this human being because I should love him. He is so, so silly. He is a lightweight version of Triggis duplice. He's the same dude. Like how do I not love him, but I can't and I hate him. I hate him so much. And then he gets on and he has the mic time after and it's just like as if he didn't lose. It was as if he did not lose that fight. He finishes the fight with the most ineffectual, literal grandstanding of standing up and jumping back. He didn't even go for the front flip to try and do it.

He just stood up and back body dropped him twice. And people who lose their minds, it was so silly. And I should love this guy so much. And I can't. I can't get there. But he didn't even lose. He didn't even lose this weekend. Sure, he lost in the win-loss column.

But does that matter for a guy who's two and five? No. What matters is the people still love him and that he got to still do a post-fight interview and frankly went over better than Charles Olveras and got to set up the fights he wants of, okay, I know I just lost them two and five, but let me fight Max Holloway for the BMF Bell. Or let me fight Connor if Connor does choose to fight again. Like this dude, he is a, I cannot figure out why I hate him because I should love him. Everything he does is a thing that if it were any other fighter, I would be like, that guy is my guy forever.

And instead, I'm like, God, I hate him. And so I hate him even more because now I'm mad at myself for hating him, if that makes sense. What a terrific answer. Jed, by yourself, Bo Nickel deserves no better than a C plus for his performance against Paul Craig. It was the night before the gathering and all through the house. The host rapid cozy cashmere throw from Hom Sense. for their spouse, kids toys for $6.99 under the tree, and crystal glasses for just $14.99 for their brother Lee, a baking dish made in Portugal for Tom and Sue, and a nice $599 candle, perfectly priced just for you.

Happy holidays to all, and to all a good price. Home sense, endless presents, perfectly priced. Oh, yeah, I think that's, I'm buying that for days. C plus is generous. look there are a lot of reasons to you know give bonneckel a pass for what happened on saturday this was and and danier cormier talked about this because dc bo neckel came out afterwards like i'm disappointed in dc and then dc went on his youtube yesterday and gave sort of an explanation what he means and i thought dcdc makes the right points of look boenic was seven fights into his professional career and his his rise up the ladder has less been going up the ladder and more been vaulting up a mountain side of Val Woodburn to Paul Craig in two fights is a pretty

stark like change in an opponent here. And so to be in your seventh professional fight and to get a win over Paul Craig, like if we are taking the zoomed out version, that's terrific. It's very, very good in totality. But when you zoom in a little bit, you get a little more down into the details of it. That fight was a huge stinker. It was awful. I thought he lost the first round. I thought Paul Craig won the first round. And credit, again, credit to him. He ends up getting the win, but it was an awful performance, particularly when you were a massive favorite. And when you carry yourself as you're going to kill this dude, because that's where it is. And people can come and say, well, she's just promoting the fight. Dude, if you're going to talk about it, be about it. That's the

only thing I ever asked people in life. And if you're going to say, I'm going to go kill this guy. kill him or at least try to because the frustrating part is that he clearly not trying to kill him he was trying to fight as safe as possible and get a win which i understand the impetus to do that but then just own up to that and then really own up to it afterwards because that's where a majority of the points i will dock uh bo-nickle for i could look past the stinker of a performance against the tough guy you know we can make that excuse coming out and being like I don't know why y'all are booing. I gave a great performance.

Y'all suck fans. And then doubling down and tripling down in the post fight to be like, I thought I did great. And DC and his commentary was biased and it's garbage that he's mad at me. I dominated that fight. Like it was trying to remember the exact words he used. I don't think it was dominant. It was some other word that was like, I absolutely killed him.

It was like, no, dude, you won a tepid decision in a boring fight. And I think we can all just admit that that wasn't your best performance. And you could sell that better. You come and say, hey, it's a really tough dude. I'm still early in my fight. I got the win. I'm going to learn from this. I'm going to get better.

And instead, he's doing the lying thing, again, where I am the greatest and y'all are idiots. What your eyes are telling you is wrong. I'm actually amazing. Like, no, man, I could see that wasn't your best effort. Do better next time. BC, O. Nickel deserves no better than a C plus by or sell. Well, I think it comes down to really what you're asking. Entertainment value, it was lower than a C plus, and PR value, as Jed so eloquently put in totality, you know, it was a fail, meaning I think from a PR level he's handled this not well at all.

And it makes you question like, like I know Jed's belief he said was that he did this to just survive in advance. No, I think it's a different kind of like disillusion. I think that he wanted to showcase and test out his skills. but in his mind because he wasn't defeated or beaten up, it was a huge win and he dominated where obviously all of us are able to look at a more critical eye. But I think the reason why I break it up and don't give you one letter grade overall

is because it depends on what you want out of it. For Bo, he sacrificed in a short-term run a lot of his reputation and a short leap, meaning if he had gone in there and made Craig Tap in the first round, we'd be like, okay, how a great-year? do you want to match him moving forward? You want to go top to five? Like, where are we at? He sacrificed that short term to potentially work on and get the experience that he needed in a key way that can really help him in the long term. So maybe it's a win-win long term because he did get the

win and he wasn't dominated. And he got to showcase himself in 15 minutes not using his A-game, not leading with his best cards. And it certainly wasn't on the level he acted like it was. And it wasn't on the level for us to fast track him to a title, but it's still so early in his career that he could probably use the right slower step-ups anyway. He just showed us in this performance. So I can't like speak for how he handled it, but if he's going to end up getting there to the title level,

this will help him immensely to begin to figure out exactly where he's at in the weaker side of his games because there was more to be desired for sure in this performance. I just really think it's going to be part of his story in building to get to that point where it is time to go into the deep end of the pool and not time right now. But no panic, no worry. He probably could have finished him early if you wanted to. I mean that.

No, I think this is the most important chapter in Bo Nichols' fighting career is right now. Let's see how he bounces back. And BC, you want to gain experience. Fight! Just go fight a lot. Stop fighting like twice a year. Fight three, fours, five times a year. This dude needs to be fighting every two to three months.

End of question. Like, end of discussion. He needs to be out there as much as possible. The slow rolling has to stop. That's how you get over. That's how you gain experience. And I don't care who he fights. I suggested on our matchmaking show he should step back and fight Trayshon Gore.

Like, rebook that. I don't care. Trayshon's going to get in his face and try to run through him. And then Bo can react the way he likes, but he needs to fight more. And I think that'll help him experience wise. Last one, BCL, I'll start with you. UFC 309 on paper not good, not stacked

top to bottom. One of the worst from top to bottom that we've seen at MSG since they got approved in New York. But you never know who might be fighting BC and you never know where they may go. So, buy or sell, a future champion or future title challenger

competed at UFC 309 in a fight that was not the main event, co-main event, or featured bout. I mean, obviously we don't know this. It's an interesting question. I like the way that you're thinking. The only way it would be no is if we didn't have any stand

out like, ooh, I need to watch this fighter moving forward moments. And I think we certainly got that Obon Elliott at Welterweight being a big point because he went in there one of those tough early tests against Hafez and knocked him the hell out after they competitively traded early

on. And then, you know, maybe the other one is Viviana Rujau in a division at Flyweight where it's tough, but you put together some wins, you're going to have a shot there. I didn't think on paper the fight was going to go that way and to see the grit she showed, could she end up cracking the upper end? It's going to be interesting to see.

You know, maybe the other answer is Mauricio Hoofey, but that would only be if you think he resembles prime Connor, back when Connor and Francis were prime. But yeah, maybe, probably not, but I think it would be rude to shut the door on that because we did get enough of those moments. But if you want me to sit here and act like this was a great card or that it didn't kind of shame what they had built with MSG, like it did kind of shame that to some degree. It wasn't great.

I want them to do better in general. I don't hate how they rework 310, by the way, and I really hope next year things look different matchmaking-wise, but it's hard to believe that it will, based on the trends of late and where we're headed. I mean, is the shelf empty? I don't know what's going on. I mean, who the hell is going to headline in Australia?

What's going on here? How did we get here? How much time do you have and do you follow John Nash on Twitter? That's the question I have for. All great questions. But Jed, I propose same question to you. Did we see a future champion or title challenge

and compete at UFC 309, not in the top three fights? Nope. Like this one is pretty easy to say that in. There are some fighters I like on the prelim. This car was bad. This car was bad on paper coming in. It played out better than it was on paper.

until you got to the main card, which was poop. But yeah, there's not, like, who would it be? Like, I like Viviana Erujo. She's 38. She's not fighting for a belt. That's just extremely unlikely. Corrine de Silva, if she had won, maybe you could squint your eyes and say, yeah, but she lost and she's 30.

Like, she's probably not getting in there. Ruffy, you know, blew the weight issue. No, that was Lontop who had the weight issues. Never mind. But, like, Ruffie's fun. He's probably not going there, even with what, what fight nerds is doing right now. Like he's probably in my mind the weakest of that fight nerds crop of dudes and conveniently

competing at a like more difficult weight class than most of them. So no. Oban Elliott, great win for him over Basel Haifus, cool knockout. Like he would have to be your best hope for it. And I don't think that's a good hope for anyone. It's like I like Marcus McGee. Marcus McGee's too old to make a real run at Bannonweight. Jim Miller is a thousand and awesome,

but he's never fighting for a belt. So no. Yeah, nobody's, like truly actually the best bet is probably Marcyneuxa because he's a perennial top 10 heavyweight and that weight class is garbage. But I don't want to live in a world where Marcyne Toboro

fights for the title. So I'm going to say no with authority. All right. Let's move on. I thought you were going to say Eduardo Mara perhaps. I know you're very high and her. She's 30. I like her.

She's too late in the game. Well, the point. Point for round three goes to, it goes to Jen. He understood the question. There's no maybes in By herself. There's just no maybes. It's yes or no. But it's all right, BC.

It's all right. Because we're on, well, listen, we are on to UFC Macau, gentlemen. And I got to tell you, I'm pretty excited for this. Not the card as a whole, but the main event is pretty damn good. We finally get the fight. We wanted since Figgie Smalls announced this intention to go. to 135. Figgies 3 and O at Bannamweight and now he's going to fight the former Bannamweight champion, Piotr Yon. We got Jan Jahn v. Tabitha Ritchie in the co-main event. Jed, how are we feeling

here? I'm not going to be on the preview show tomorrow. So what's the scale? I have to do that. Thank you for reminding me of that. You're very welcome. This is a weird one, right? Like, this is a weird, weird card because it's happening in Macau. While for like other places, the U.S.C. is like we will, we will compete at odd hours to get us to the, you know, the East Coast time zone. There's like, nah, eff it. Like this one's fine. I don't care if you guys watch this in America. And which I genuinely think is reasonable.

They should probably do that more often cater to the places they're going. But because of it, it feels this event feels a little less important because we just won't like most people watching this program right now. We'll not be tuning in live to the fights. I will be working them, so I will be tuning in live to the fights. That being said, the top part of this card is very good. The main event is awesome. We talked about on the watch party. I've been kind of throwing this out there.

If Figgie Smalls beats Piotr Yan, which is a tall order, I legitimately believe he has a better case to be the next title challenger for Maraub Alashvili over my boy, Umar. I think it would be beyond contestation that Figgie has done more and does. deserves this title shot. So that is very meaningful. And conversely, Peoria Yon lost three of his past five competitive losses or lost to Marab and against

very top shelf. But he needs to win and keep winning. He needs to get the train back on the tracks because his entire career functionally was derailed by the Aljonee. And so he needs this win. He needs to build some momentum. Let's see if he can do it. That fight is awesome.

Co-main event is good. It won't call it great, but Janjohn-on-Tabitha Ritchie is a good matchup, a bit of meaning there. And the rest of them, like, you know, there's not a ton of meaning. There is a call this Oldberg Volcanozdemir. That is a fight with very clear stakes. Pretty significant for Old Oldberg. But then you get a mix of some other people. You got the road to EOC stuff, which most people should not care about.

But you also get Lonnie Kavanaugh, baby. Like, that kid is hot fire coming off Contendure Series. And so you're getting a nice mix of quality prospects and fun fights. This is probably like what should be an apex card. And instead it's a road show. But it's fine. And so I'm not that upset that I'm waking up at 3 a.m. to watch this card if that's a ringing endorsement of it, I guess.

BC, are you waking up at 3? Is this one year setting the old alarm for or will you be catching the old replay with the fast forward button? No, I mean, Matchbox 20 said it best. If it's 3 a.m. And you're watching the UFC prelims from Macau. You must be lonely, all right? You know what I'm saying? I wish the real world would stop.

Wow. So what I'm trying to really say here is that there's no reason to wake up at three. It's local centric. There's, you know, when the first eight fights on a fight night don't have a Wikipedia page among 16 fighters, you know what you're getting there. But everything Jed said is. right. There is a lot to like about the main card, especially that fireworks main event. And imagine if Figgie can do this. Imagine if he can do four straight wins in this new

division at 36 and going through the escalation of the badassery of the opponents that he has to do it against. Like now it's real against Peyodor Yan. Is this also Yon at 31 finding a new gear back into the title picture? I think that three fight losing streak and everything that did happen from that Al Jonee. It's almost as if we've forgotten him of late. And it's going to be interesting to see if he can splash. Damn, I love that fight. But one thing Jed didn't bring up, how about I want to pronounce this correctly,

and I never do anyone, it seems. Wang Song, the woman who has that kickboxing victory over Shevchenko and just made her UFC debut last time and really got our attention in every single way, including the promo. She cut afterwards basically calling out the UFC for. putting her in the curtain jerker fight and sort of, you know, making her earn it the hard way. So there's, this is like a, this is a fight night plus card. You know what I mean?

There's some plus value in terms of the storylines and intrigue and entertainment. And, and I can watch it with my morning coffee. Like, this is a, this is a win-win this weekend. And you know how hard I am against the UFC for their matchmaking and some of the business decisions, but I love me some of this card, man. Give me, give me that main event. You know what I'm saying? Like, give that to Mike,

give it, Mike, give it to me. It's good. It's pretty good. I don't think it's going to be a bad watch. I truly don't. Main event rules. Co-main events fun. You all mention names that I think are going to be really enjoyable.

There's some things we can skip, but it's okay. Let's move on. The point for round four goes to. I mean, just, I don't know how you keep dropping music references on us, BC, but you did it again. Two to two.

Nicely done. I apologize to any of the viewers who were born after the year 1998. You have no idea the music references. B.C. is dropping. We're getting you back to the drawing board. Foodie. I don't remember who sings the, how do you talk to an angel's songs? Jamie.

Yeah, what was that guy's name? Jamie Walters. Jamie Walters. Wow. Yeah. He was a stud. You know, he was. Ray Pruitt.

wasn't yeah we are with one t because it's all my mama could afford you know that guy short of the short of the domestic violence that guy was badass right you know i mean you do have to draw a line you do have really really big qualifier and i'm not for what he did maybe donna had part of it coming but not obviously not really right i'm just being a dick but wow right ray prud nice pull mike yeah i i have the elephant's brain when it comes to like dumb tv shows in some reason that that pops. Yeah, how do you talk to an angel? Something we can ponder.

We do have a knock on. It will not be that. One question decides at all. 60 seconds each. Jed, what are we doing? Do you want to go first? Sure. I don't even know what we're talking.

It's pretty clear where we're going. I try and see what we're going to talk about, but I haven't paid attention. I just did not pay attention. I'll go first. I mean, yeah, I mean, there's like one big story we have not talked about on the show. because we finally got questions answered.

We were pondering for a couple of weeks. What are they going to do to close out the calendar year of the UFC? And we found out the answer. During the Jake Paul Mike Tyson, Slobberknocker, Dana White drops the video. We kind of knew it happened at that exact time. And he drops it. There will be no second title fight at UFC 310.

There will be no new main event because the main event is Alexander Pantosia defending his flyway title against Kaya Sukkurra, which absolutely rules. Shafcott will fight on the card, not for an interim welterweight title. He will fight Ian Machado Gary, undefeated versus undefeated in a five-round co-main event. And then, Jed, the final fight of 2024 of 2024 is Joachim Buckley versus Colby Covington, UFC Tampa, Welterweight main event. Grade, the final two events. from main event,

co-main event to main event of UFC Tampa we got Asakura challenging Pantosia we get Shafkod Gary and now we got

Buckley versus Colby go both of these cards are better than UFC 309 as simply as I can put it 310 is a very good card yes the main event

doesn't have the cache that John Jones Stepe did whatever it was a garbage fight and this fight is not a garbage fight Kai Sakura Alhanda Potosia It's a great fight.

I am, a part of me is sad that the UFC, like, decided randomly to be a merit-based organization and not just throw an interim title down for Shavka. Like, ah, no, fine. This one time in the history of us, we will do the thing that Honor would decide and just say, oh, number one contender fight, and that's fine. But that's a small quibble because the fight still rules. It's still a good fight. It's number one contender fight.

That's terrific. 310 is extremely good top to bottom, not just the main card. one weird one in there that we got last night with the flat earther bowl but whatever and then tampa uh i personally am less excited about tampo because i would prefer less colby covington in my life but objectively a good replacement matchup it makes more sense than putting colby in against chavcott so a plus work from them a plus work from jed mishu bc do you agree same question new main event flyway title we got a new co-main event shopcott not fighting for interim goal but he's fighting another undefeated fighter who people are very, very high on. And Joaquin Buckley, one of the most disliked fighters early in 2024, has done the thing. He turned it around at Salt Lake City. Good callout, good performance.

Now he's back at everybody's good graces. Now he gets to fight Colby Covington in his first UFC main event. Grade the closing two cards, BC. Go. Look, if I'm going to be critical on things like Jed's hairko and UFC matchmaking, then I've got to be consistent in the. other direction when they do the thing. This is great crisis management by them, by them, and they didn't even have to call Poetan to come bail them out this time. What they have done

is create perfect replacement fights with big stakes. And in the case of not only Buckley getting a big close-up, although he lost the opportunity against Gary, he still gets a very tough fight against a very big name in a key spot. And I certainly like some of the trinkets on that fight night card. To me, the fight and the thing that centralizes my love, for how they're closing out the year, is a fight like Shavkat versus Meshado Gary. What balls they have, as Cheech and Chalch once famously said.

This is what I'm talking about. Shavkat could have waited on a title shot, but he's like, no, I think I murder everybody, so whoever you got next. And then Mishad O'Garry wants to be great, so he's going to go into the woodshed right now. And you're going to give me ridiculous video game party favor matchmaking of Bryce Mitchell and Crone Gracie, followed by Nate the train and the UFC against Korean Superboy.

I hope the winners face off the same night. This is great. This is like at the gas station when all the rollers are turning, and you're like, well, I can get a little bit of this. Ooh, they left the breakfast ones out. You know what I mean? Those sausages rolled up with the eggs in the middle of the maple syrup dripping through. That's what it is right now.

So I got to shout out my boys over there in the matchmaking department. That's what I'm talking about. Jed should probably consider a haircut. All right. That was pretty good, BC. I think you broke your record. That was the shortest knockout round time ever. I think a minute 39, I think is the official time.

That's pretty good. We've had to run the clock multiple times before. And how about Al Jermaine Sterling Mavzar of Loy up getting the prelim treatment? Bryce Mitchell, Crone Gracie is the weirdest fight maybe I've ever seen in the UFC. That one threw me for a loop. Go back to the watch party and find my reaction to that. I was like, what the fuck is this? The way you promote that fight is you say that.

The winner gets a cabinet position in the new administration because then people are tuning in. People are excited. That's true. Vote now. Look at the prompt and then do exactly what it says. Vote now. There's an exclamation points. You know we're serious.

And Jed will host the pre-G. Can Bryce Mitchell versus Crowe and Gracie be for the attorney general? Let's go full of bureaucracy. Let's go. Yeah, loser gets looked at afterwards by Dr. Oz, right? That's how it should go. I mean, what are we doing here in this country, right? Yeah.

Mr. Shah, worst pain of your life for sure. Wow. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Jed and AK are going to do the preview show tomorrow. There will be no people's pre-fight show because we're not going to make a wake-up at 2.30 morning. And nobody else is. But there will be a post-fight show on Saturday as well.

A.K. and I will matchmake on Sunday. And it's the usual thing. And then we're, where are we on to? Well, PFL championship. Oh, PFL. It's off next to the World Championship. Thanksgiving and the PFL Championship, baby. I'm thankful for 19 hours of fights in one day.

Thanksgiving. Yeah, we're going to get almost 20 hours of fist fighting in one day. So hopefully you get your Black Friday shopping done early because there's like 15 title fights, five rounders for the PFL. Depending on where you shop, Mike, you can get. you're fighting done on Black Friday too while you're shopping you know what I mean you sure can you ever see those videos you know what I'm saying yes I'm going to be fighting my internet provider because I don't understand how the internet speed so fast be at I look like in a potato right now but Casey is here thank God where are we at Casey who wins oh get your votes in people it is

incredibly close it is incredible because I vote vote or die vote or die vote or die Vote or die. But we've been on air for over 90 minutes, so we got to pick a winner. So, yeah, your winner today with 51% of the votes. Wow. Razor votes. Mr. No Gray area, Jen Michoud. Wow.

Get on my teeth, baby. Let's go. Wow. Gets it done. Oh, Otto. Auto is responsible. I came out to a strong start. Always bring a dog.

That is, I don't have that dog in me, but I do have the dog right here. Oh, yeah. This is what y'all came for right here. Oh, you know, I don't. Oh, say hi to everybody. Thank you. Thank you, BC. You're a wonderful competitor.

What a great victory. I'm very happy. BC, admirable effort. You're a winner in a lot of people's hearts. How do you respond to the voting? This looked and felt a lot like Tyson Paul. Only I was Jake carrying that clown and he was Tyson's ass. I don't, I think this is an equal stain on this board of boxing.

To be fair. But thank you, Mike, from New Hampshire. Big fan of here. Thank you. Yes. Live for your die, baby. Live for your die. Hit the music, Casey.

Let's get out of here. Appreciate you guys sticking with us. There's so much to talk about and react to. And I don't think the show is going to be that long next week. We might even just do a podcast next week because it is Thanksgiving week. And there's a lot to be thankful for, including maybe a day off. We get a show on Thursday since it's Thanksgiving. We might just record something on Tuesday and drop it Thursday on the pod now.

We'll be peace of the time away. But thank you all very much. We'll be back next week to React to UFC Macau. I got nothing more to say. Otto will take us home. Good night. This has been Between the Links and I'm a fighting production

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