MMA Fighting - BTL | REACTION To Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano, Sean Strickland's Rant, UFC Houston, More

Episode Date: February 19, 2026

Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano have stolen the combat sports news cycle this week as they are set to compete in an MMA bout in May, live on Netflix. The fight as people split down the middle in terms of interest, but will it be one of the biggest fights of 2026? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel reacts to the matchmaking, MVP getting into the MMA game, and if the UFC should be concerned. Additionally, topics may include Sean Strickland's ugly rant ahead of his UFC Houston main event matchup with Anthony Hernandez, what is at stake for both fighters, the quality of the UFC Fight Night card, Dana White vs. Eddie Hearn in the boxing space, what White's reaction might be to Rousey vs. Carano, and more. Join MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew as they answer your questions all show long. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Jed Meshew: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@JedKMeshew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 welcomes you to a brand new edition of BTL. Happy Thursday to us all. A lot going on. A lot to discuss. We have fights that have been announced that some people saw coming, but not a lot of people saw coming.

We didn't think it would happen. now it's actually happening. And the MMA community is torn, apparently right down the middle when it comes to Ronda Raazi versus Gina Karana. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about Sean Strickland doing Sean Strickland things yesterday at Media Day, the UFC heading to the Lone Star State for UFC Houston and a whole bunch of other things that you guys want to talk about. But it's good to be back. Obviously, it was not on last week.

But shout out to this man who I'm about to introduce, who held down the fort with the great Alexander Kay Lee. He is the one and only hot take kid, Mr. No Gray area himself, along with Otto. Otto. Jed Bishu. Hi, Jed. Hey, guys. I've been on an impromptu vacation

for the last couple of days. So the fights we're talking about, that's the 16-man game-bred tournament, right? With Anthony Smith ending another short-lived, I'm sorry, the legend. The legend. What are you doing? Ending his short-lived retirement to fight.

Chase Sherman? Is that, that's the matchup? That's, uh, that's, that's, that's the thing that's happening. It's a big fight. It's truly happening. Yeah. Uh, it's been a crazy couple of days where I was like only loosely aware of stuff because I didn't ask for a vacation. I just got a few days off and I was like, I'm going to absolutely check out.

Um, but you know, scrolling on the old Twitter sphere and obviously the Rousey Corona thing that was mega. Uh, and then a whole bunch of other. Like random stuff has happened. Quite the eventful week. Oh, by the way, there's also an event this Saturday. So a lot going on right now. There is a lot going on, Jed.

There really is. And we will get to all of that stuff at a moment. I just want to let the peeps know what's happening here. Let's just get right to it because it is good to be back. It's good to talk about MMA. We do have a super chat right out the gate, which, by the way, if you want to get to the front of the line here, I love it.

Super chat yourself in here. here. So, uh, more lady asks, who wins? UFC 205 McGregor or 317 UFC 317 to Poria at lightweight. Credit to my friend Dylan for this question. So you, we love these questions. If we can go back in time and like transport fighters in primes to certain other primes, uh, who would win a lightweight matchup. The Connor McGregor who beat the hell out of Eddie Alvarez, a UFC 205, or the Ilya to Porea who beat the hell of, of Charles Oliver at UFC 317. Who would you take?

Ilya. It would certainly be much more competitive if we're, you know, transposing timelines here. But, I mean, I think Connor McGregor is doomed to be the most misunderstood fighter

in the history of the sport because his fame exceeded like his actual ability. That's not to say that he was not a very good fighter. He's obviously an exceptional fighter. You don't get to where he was at without being very, very good.

But, I mean, the truth of McGregor is that he is the same fighter that he has always been, and he didn't really show a lot of growth in his career. And so, like, that's a problem as timelines work in general, right? Like, things get better as they get newer. And so Connor was always a little glass canony, not entirely like glass, But certainly, you were getting Connor's best effort right out of the gate. And if you could survive the first seven minutes, it's not that he gassed out in like a major way, though obviously that has happened a couple of times.

He just, he was his most efficacious at the very early, early goings of a fight for as much as the talk about Connor was his left hand. I genuinely think like his actual superpower was his ability to have timing and distance immediately. Like he didn't take time to. work his way into fights. He was just there. And so while other people are trying to get going, he is a head start in this race, right? But he doesn't

have this great closing speed. So if you can overcome that initial head start, you've got a good chance of beating him. Ilya, very defensively sound. Like a better just pure box than Connor anyway. And also can grapple a lot. So I would pretty confidently pick Prime

Ilya versus Prime Connor McGregor. But that fight's like way more compelling for Prime versus Prime than it is like if somehow that fight ends up happening in the next two years, which is unlikely, but not impossible. Yeah, I'm with you on that. Like the 2016 Connor McGregor fighting 2025 Iliate Tuporia would actually be pretty interesting. Yeah, and I'm with you with how that fight would go. If Ilya can can get through the first couple minutes or first couple rounds, because that that due to fought EFC 205 was going to going to be really tough to be against anybody.

Although Ilytiporia just might be a one-on-one kind of guy. So he might just be the best we've ever seen. I mean, the jury's still a little bit out on that. But if someone said, hey, in three years, you will be on the show saying elite to Pori is the greatest fighter that's ever competed in mixed martial arts. Can't really argue with it at the moment because, like, he's trending in that direction. I'd be pretty surprised. I mean, the thing that holds him back is, I don't know.

I just don't think he's going to be fighting in three years. I think he's just going to be done fighting and we'll never know the answer to that question. We're just going to have to go with what he's given us. Yeah, if you want to call him, if in three years someone said he's the best fighters ever competed, I think that's live. If he, in three years, he simply could not have accomplished enough to be greater than John Jones, George, St. Pierre, Demetius Johnson, Anderson Silva, Josialdo, like the all-time greats. because he's just like if you're fighting career as 20-some-od fights long, you're not the greatest of anything. You can be one of the best of your generation.

But like it just maybe he like we talked about this a few weeks ago. There are like five or six currently competing fighters that could end up as the greatest that I would not pick to, but that they are not prohibited by the accomplishments they have already had. Right. Like taking out super early prospects, you know, label stevens or whatever guys who have accomplished things in this sport who if they retired now would be hall of famers right who still have enough road ahead of them to insert themselves into

that conversation and iliottobury is absolutely one of those but there's a world of difference between potential and execution and you have to execute at such a high level for such a long time that the odds are against you anyway. It's why greatness is greatness, you know? Like, Mike, you know this. You know this intimately and personally because there's a quarterback by the name of Thomas Brady. Very good.

And he was very good for 20-some-odd years. I don't entirely know how long that is. Patrick Mahomes has three Super Bowls in a very condensed period of time. And for him to catch Tom Brady, he's got to keep doing that for a decade plus, which is a tall, tall task. Could happen.

I think everyone can admit that it is still possible for Patrick Mahomes to catch Tom Brady. I don't think most people are going to pick him to do that because it's such a difficult order. Yes, mathematically, yes, it's still on the table, but it's never going to happen. We've seen Peak Mahomes already. I mean, until I see.

Because their careers are eerily similar, right down to major leg injury in like ninth season. And having already won three Super Bowls before, he's actually just kind of doing Brady again, which is wild. But do you think he's going to win like another freaking five? No, it's ludicrous. It's such a ridiculous thing to say. But it could happen. Same way with Tuporia. Could he go win the welterweight belt and defend every belt four times?

Yeah, probably not. Let's move on. Has Sean Strickland crossed the line yet? Yes, Sean Strickland is in the news. He ranted away. He did Sean Strickland stuff. And it was interesting to see a clip from his conversation with Brett and Schaub back in the day where he's like, if you want to be a star and make money, you have to be like outlandish and say a bunch of outlandish shit.

And boy, did he yesterday. He just kind of went after with everybody. and I assume the UFC will not have anything to say about this. They will not discipline him. There will be no statement. There will be no nothing. Is there a line that Sean Strickland can actually cross? Jed, in today's UFC and the modern ultimate fighting championship era of where we sit right now?

Is there a line that can actually be crossed outside of him, like, just indefensibly shooting somebody? Like, what is the line for him? yeah i mean the question really is what is the line because yes by any any general broad sense of like moral acceptability john strickland has been over the line right like and it some of it is like okay he's intentionally being like a loser edge lord or whatever but like that kind of doesn't matter when you show up to a a pay-per-view event wearing a shirt that was like women belong in the kitchen or whatever that was. It's like, yeah, that's like,

there was a crass and not even funny joke in the 90s that you're just doing. Like, these are, everything he does is like over what most people would consider the line. But there is no line in the UFC. The only line in the UFC that matters, I would guess murder still matters, though I'm not even 100% positive on that.

But like, if you killed somebody and we're on trial for murder, it probably wouldn't book you to fight. maybe but probably wouldn't um and like talking about organized labor right like that that'll get you in trouble if he's like we fighters should unionize because we're getting 18% of profits and that's not real um but other than that no like you can say whatever you want and there are no repercussions and that's a sad state of affairs um but you know like I it's hard for me to even be that up in arms about this anymore because it just is. Like I have already come to accept it in the terms I'm going to accept it, right?

Like, yep, this is part of, this is part of this sport. It is deeply embarrassing to most normal people. And it is why when I have, when I talk about my job socially, like it is always with reprehension, there is always, or apprehension, there's always like a, yeah, but I'm not a loser, right? Like that is that I think most people who work in this sport feel because I absolutely feel it when I'm talking socially or on a date or something like,

oh, what do you do? I cover MMA, but I'm not an in-cell loser. So please don't like that. That is absolutely like a thing that is said. It's like I'm not who you think that is because people like him are the face of the sport. And that kind of sucks. It was tough to watch.

And then again, like, he's not like the most exciting dude to watch either, which makes it even like stranger to me that they're, the main reason Sean is headlining this pay-per-view is not because he's like an exciting guy to watch. It's because he says stuff. It's just, I don't know what to expect from this fight. My heart and my gut has been telling me since day one, if you're on team Sean Strickland, do not book him against Anthony Hernandez

because Anthony is just going to run his ass over. And I still, to some degree, believe that to be true. Because I just don't, Sean Strickland is becoming more Cheeto Vera than anybody else. And we saw that in the DDP fight, where he's just like, I'm going to go in there,

I'm going to put on a show, and I'm going to hammer this dude. And then he just goes in there and does nothing. And if he does nothing against Anthony Hernandez, it is going to be the worst night of his life. So will he do stuff, Jed? Like, that's the big question. Is he going to go in there and do stuff

and actually compete and try to hurt Anthony Hernandez? Because if he doesn't, he's going to get trucked on Saturday. And it's not going to be closer competitive. Like, I know I think the lines are a little wide. I think this fight on paper should be a little closer. But until I just need, until I see Sean actually perform mixed martial arts and do stuff, I don't know what to. think about this fight. So I'm going to go based on like what I saw in the last fight,

which is a guy who like just does the same stuff over and over again. If you're telling me that Anthony Hernandez and his team are not prepared for that, I just don't know how Sean really wins this fight unless he actively tries to hurt somebody. And I don't know if that's just in his fighting being right now. How do you view this fight? It's never been in his fighting being. He's had moments for Sean Strickland for all is the exact opposite. of everything he portrays himself to be. Like that's just, that is the reality of this man, right? Like, he, and that that carries over outside of his fighting career to who he is in real

life. And I'll let you draw your conclusions from that. But like, this man says to the death and he will jab and teep you forever. And if he can't jab and teep you, he'll simply do nothing. That's like why the DDP fight looked like that, because DDP came in round two and was like, okay, all you want to do are jab and teep. well, I'm going to have about six different answers to each of those, and I'll hit you a bunch, and your corner can beg for you to do something, but you can't.

You have only this. You know, like, for the most harm you can do is with your words, and that's, like, that's it. You are ineffectual outside of a very specific set of circumstances, and as the sport is catching up, I remain curious to see if he can add at all. I doubt strongly because you're right. If he comes in and just tries to jab and tee fluffy, nothing is going to happen. It's a very good defensive wrestler in general,

but like this is just going to be fluffy doing stuff for 25 minutes to a guy who simply wants to battle the same way. But like, does he have the amount of self-reflection it requires to change? Probably not because like he's, out here just repeating the same garbage stuff from the 90s, man. Like, it's, it's just hard to believe he's going to really show out. And so he's going to lose maybe not the most exciting fight because he is good defensively, right?

Like, that is the strength of Sean Strickland's game is his defense. And so Fluffy will do a lot, but he might not get to do much, if that makes sense. That distinction is clear. But, like, at some point, when. does this get tired, right? Like when does when does Ersatz Colby Covington but

even more boring? Like it stopped working for Colby in general. Like it still kind of does because there are some people for who this is just red meat and they will jump at it regardless. But like most people if you're going to play a stick like this

you got to back it up with winning and credit to Sean Strickland. Him winning the belt is one of the most shocking things ever happened in the sport and one of the funniest. But, like, he's got to back it up with in cage performance, and I don't think Fluffy's the dude to do that against. Yeah, it could be a very, very tough night. There are a lot of people, like, hoping that this fight is more competitive.

I just mean, it could be. I don't know. If I'm to believe Eric Nixick, and I take his word as a lot, he's a very intelligent guy, he tells me that Sean Strickland is an excellent grappler. We just haven't seen it yet. And Sean just refuses to do it in fights. And that is what sort of frustrates Eric and the team more than anything. It's like, you can do this.

We've had people come in the gym and watch you grapple and been like, holy shit. He can grapple. Why does he do this in fights? And Eric Nixon's like, yeah, that's why I bang my head against this post a million times a day because he doesn't do this when he fights. So I'm curious if he actually implements this on Saturday. Otherwise, this is going to be a clean sweep for Fluffy Hernandez. and again, who knows it will be exciting.

How fun it's going to be? I don't know. I truly am baffled by the fight here, which is why I didn't really want this fight to be made. I wanted Fluffy v. DDP. I thought that was the one that made the most sense. But this one's happening. The stakes are high.

And if Sean Strickland wins, even if it's a tepid split decision, he's probably fighting Humzaa Chimai sometime this year for the title, which is insane. Yeah, the winner of Chimov. Assuming Chimov, assuming, Rameh sticks around.

Non-zero chance Jemai beats him of Avon's like, I'm done, I'm going 20-05. Might just go up anyways, just to not fight him of off. He's going to fight him ofov. But I actually think it's more likely than not that he only fights him of Av and then moves up.

Which is stupid, but yeah. Yeah, so it goes. Shout out to the Twitchers, Clode. Props to Jake Paul, fights legends, makes the biggest spectacle event. So a man has crush at life. Judd-Lier-Dam respect. But I think a lot of this has to come with the announcement, Jed, we have not had gotten your on-camera reaction to Ronda Rousey versus Gina Carrano, May 16th on Netflix, MVP getting into the MMA game.

That is the only fight that has been announced. I assume when they have this press conference, I believe it's March 5th, a couple days before UFC 326. I assume more fights will be announced. I think Holly Holm should absolutely be on this card to fight either of these two women, especially if Rhonda wins. And I think, as of the betting line suggests, most are expecting Rhonda Rousey to be, to Karano, but I think you have to set the table for that. But what is your reaction to this? I don't think the fight is like that surprising.

I think MVP putting it on as an MMA fight was a little surprising. I think it's just coming out of nowhere like it did was a little bit surprising. And I think a lot of people seem to be surprised that this is happening under the MVP umbrella and not under the UFC umbrella, considering the White House card is like a month after that. So what are we thinking? What was your thoughts? And what are your thoughts a few days after this big announcement? Um, first thoughts are we're not giving Jake Paul credit for this. Jake Paul didn't book this fight. His promoting company did, but much more likely in the Kese Baderian. And I'm also not inclined to give Jake Paul credit because he did the same shit Sean Strickland

did. And then at least had the, I don't know what the word I'm looking for, shame on him to try and walk it back. But like, I don't know who needs to hear this. Puerto Rico is part of America and just deal with that. Go the fuck up. Sorry about the swearing. I've trying really hard not to swear these days. Can't do it all the time.

As far as this fight out of nowhere, right? Like, totally, I know that there had been some rumors, right? And I think Big John McCarthy had maybe said something on his podcast about this recently. But, like, I just didn't really pay any of the, like, very fringe rumors. in a heed because it seemed ludicrous, right? Like it seemed like, oh, yeah, that was a thing that would have been like huge 15 years ago.

But like, that's still 15 years ago that it would have been huge. I don't even know what the merit is now. And then it happened and I was like, oh, no, I guess this is still pretty big, right? Like, it's still probably going to be the most watched in May fight of the year. I would guess I think there's some debate as to how viewed the White House card will be on CBS, it's such a different sort of spectacle that I do think you're going to get interest outside of the MMA bubble.

But Netflix and stars versus whatever the White House is going to be. Because at this point, it's pretty clear the White House is not going to be a spectacle. It's going to be a spectacle because it's the White House, but it's not going to be John Jones, Alex Pereira, Connor McGregor thing. Like, D.O.C. just doesn't give a shit, I guess, because it seems ludicrous that they're going to be, like,

putting Ilya versus Justin Gates you on that or some shit. So, like one very big star in Ronda Rousey and another star that people do know, like right after this happened, I did an impromptu poll with my sort of normie friends. And they were like, huh,

that's the woman who got kicked off the Mandalorian, right? Because she had thoughts. I was like, yep, that's her. And they're like, let's on Netflix, I'm not watch it. You know, like nobody's stoked on it in the way that it had,

buzz for Tyson, Paul, or whatever. But there's broad interest in this. And I think they'll do a better job of promoting it because they care more than the UFC does about promoting things. And so it's a big fight. And honestly, my initial reaction was, this makes a ton of sense, right? Rhonda had been hinting about coming back. This is a fight.

She's going to win so she can come back, get a very winable fight, and sort of maybe end her career or maybe start a new chapter with a couple of handpicked celebrity fights to, you know, get back to feeling good as opposed to the very acrimonious relationship we had with the sport at the time that she left from it. Largely her own fault, by the way, not entirely, but a lot of, she's a lot to blame for that. So this gives her a way to get back into this sport in a more positive way and get a W, right? And for Gina, she gets to be famous again. Gina Crono hasn't been famous since the Disney thing happened. And now she gets to be famous.

Like, unless you count wild on the prairie or whatever that awful last one was. And nobody counts that because it's not famous. Gina Crono truly is like a remarkable figure in that there is a pretty clear pipeline to, and this is, I want to be super clear. This is not a moral judgment. This is, I am simply stating a, a political. political fact. There is a clear pipeline of somebody who got culture ward shifting into a prominent position

in right-wing media, Riley Gaines, etc. Gina Carano was like the only person who got canceled and then was canceled and didn't like get a spot on Fox News. I don't really know how she didn't because the best she got out of this was the prairie movie which sucked ass so like she gets to be famous again and so this makes sense for all parties right and it will be a big spectacle MVP can get into this they i'm sure they're not going to like be a real mma promotion closer to something like affliction one-off events here and there mix it up give us things that again this is 15 years past its sell by date but sometimes that's fine right like

this should have been at the White House, frankly. I don't know a lot of people will push back on this, but Mike, I will continue to say what I've said from the beginning. I think treating the White House like any other fight card is one of the biggest promotional misplays you could make because it's not. It's an event that's only going to happen once and putting like generic title fights on it

is it seems impossibly stupid. It is a circus event. It should be filled exclusively. with six to seven circus fights and treat this like it is. And this would have been a perfect circus fight for it. 100%. So there is a super chat, but I want to get to this fall up real quick from Joseph. What will Dana do to counteract the fact that Rousey Corano is made for May 16th?

I've thought about this quite a bit yet. And I saw some people our good friend, New York, Rick's like, they got to get on the phone with Connor McGregor. They got to get on the phone with John Jones. Like, this is what they need to do. And then I realized, I'm like, no, they're not going to do any of that. They're just going to do a regular fight card. In fact, I think they're going to put together fights that, like, people are just going to be like, eh.

Like, we might get Islam versus Kamar Usit on this card. And then I'm just going to be like, eh, I don't care. I don't care about that fight. I've entirely come to the determination, which was, it's again, it's the parabolic meme. idiot, like semi-smart person genius. My initial reaction to the White House card, you can go find it on the site, was like, oh, this is going to be a huge disappointment.

We're going to talk about it for a year. People are going to get stoked about it. And then it's going to be exactly like Fight Island, where it wasn't some Kumate cool thing. They didn't even make it look cool. It was just fights on Yazurina where they had already held fights. This is going to be the same thing. And I was like,

but there's so much cool that they could do. do and you could make it something. And now I'm like, nope, this is going to be a fight card that casual fans won't care. They'll care about it being on the White House, but they won't generically know or have interest in the fighters. And hardcore fans will be like, this is deeply disappointing. Like, deeply disappointing because this is what the UFC is, man. They are not breaking stride for anything. Like, the Noche is the one time they try to live.

And realistically, they didn't even try that much, at least as it came to fight booking, right? They put a bunch of Mexican fighters on the noche card and held it in the sphere. Like, this is just how it's going to be. And I'm prepared to be bummed out when they announce, like, Ilya Teporia, Justin Gagy is main inventing this. Like, okay, sure. Yeah. So that's what they're going to do. I don't think we're going to get John Pereira.

I don't think Connors fight. I mean, maybe I don't know. I just, there's really little they could do to counteract this news, I guess. Because I don't need to. Yeah, exactly. They're making, I mean, they're literally making $1.1 billion this year just from television rights from one TV deal. They are just fine. They're just fine here.

The event, and Derek Lewis said it too when I spoke with them. It's like, I don't, he's like, I don't think they're going to stack this car. I just think it's going to be something where it's like, oh, they're doing fights on the White House alone. And then they're going to do like make it look cool. And like that's it. That's the spectacle. It's going to be at best as noce at worst as fight island, probably somewhere in the middle. It will be cool because the spectacle is unique.

Like there will be fights on the White House lawn. But these are going to be, you know, it was Rob, Sean O'Malley or whatever the hell Noce was like it is. And that fight was not good. It was just a fight. Like it's, it is going. I am firmly convinced it's going to be Elliott Tepri of Justin Gaci. because like frankly

Sean O'Malley as champion is basically same sort of star tier level as Ilya's champion. So it's an elevated champion, right? Like it's not Jena, it's not Peotryon. Maybe it gets a second title fight, maybe. And then the rest of it's slop.

And like it's not slop, it's just whatever. It's fine. These are fights that you would watch, but they will have no specificity really to the White House or the maybe you get a couple of like specific Americans on it, Bo Nickel, Gable Steveson, something like that. But like, that's such a bummer, right?

Like, I don't, it is impossible to me that there's not one person in that entire organization who's like, hey, this is going to be the biggest event we ever do because the only one that's ever going to happen on the White House lawn, which is an insane thing in a cultural moment. We should perhaps try to meet that moment with our own insane cultural thing. you know let's do john jones alice perrera let's do connor versus x let's do ronda versus gina carano these are big spectacular fights at like at the barest of minimums alex perr should fight for the heavyway belt because that's just a thing that's never happened and you should

what you should like the main event of this card and all the fights on this card should meet the moment of the card which is a once and a once in a a lifetime thing that's never happened. So give us once in a lifetime fights that have never happened. Give us a guy fighting for three division championships, you know? Give us Ronda Rousey versus Gina Corona.

It's not a good fight. This is a spectacle of an event. Just let it, like, just lean into that nature of it, and it is just not going to be that, and it's going to be incredibly disappointing. Like, I'm all the way on this. Just do Ilya versus Islam.

Like, what are we doing? Like, just do that. Just have that fight. The whole event is also going to be lame because there aren't going to be fans. It is going to be a bunch of political operatives sitting on the side of the thing, which can only house like 10,000 people or whatever. Probably not even that. I think maybe I'd say, yeah.

It's like 5,000 people. The lawn at whatever it's called, like across the street. Yeah, the park is going to be big. And honestly, that'll probably have good energy. If I was in D.C., I would absolutely go, like, watch the fights. along with the big screens, but like this is going to be 5,000 people, most of them like conservative politicians or political operatives, maybe some family of fighters and some friends, but like the only seat, like if they do public seating, which I doubt honestly, but it will

just be rich people who can spend the money to donate to a, you know, a presidential dinner with Donald J. Trump or whatever. Like it is, these are not going to be like rabid fight fans. And there's not going to be a just bleed guy sitting next to Marco Rubio. You know, like this isn't going to have energy in that way. And it's not going to have juice for the fans at home because the fights are going to be. It's going to be like, wow, it's kind of cool. That's a White House.

That's weird. Look, the Lincoln Memorial's in the background. Okay, Illiardt Burry knocks out Justin Gage. On to next week. It's so weird, man. So much room for them to do cool shit here, and they don't have any interest in it. Well, we'll see. Dana will counteract this by saying it's bad.

That's all he'll say. He'll say the fight's bad. It shouldn't be happening. There's a reason we turned it down. It's not safe. Yada, yada, yada. Yeah, I think safe. I don't know if he'll say bad because he and Ronda do have a good relationship.

But my guess is he'll be like, yeah, it's, you know, Rhonda had her time. We'd love to her to come back. Regina Krono hasn't fought in 20 years and just that's not a relevant fight. We don't have that division anymore. Yeah, it's just not worth it for us. Yeah. So that's probably what's going to happen from it. And I have a feeling that at some point, Dana will say, well, if you don't like it, don't watch when it comes to the White House Guard at some point when these fights get announced.

Achilles, thank you. How did it feel to be in the city of the greatest football franchise of all time? Hashtag Deflate with Gate. cold suck two Jed. I'm sorry, is that Dallas? I wasn't in Foxborough, Massachusetts recently, because that is truly the city

of the greatest NFL franchise of all time. The greatest sports... Certainly an argument. Yeah. It ain't Dallas. It's certainly... No, it's not Dallas.

It's definitely not Dallas. Yeah, I was in Dallas for a couple days, had a little family thing that I took care of. You could convince me of a couple of other ones, but Foxborough is absolutely in the conversation. Well, 100%. Yeah.

So, I don't... think Dallas is in the conversation, but... Not anymore. It might... I mean, if we're just talking all time, maybe it's at least in the conversation because it had such an outsized influence on the sport for a long time.

But like, honestly, when I think football, like if I'm thinking of a football place, the first thing I think of is Green Bay. I want to pull this question up because I thought this is pretty interesting too. Did the Boisey's interview on SportsCenter? It feels like Rhonda was using her fight with Gina to get on the White House. Also, she said she's doing this

because Gina got fat. I saw the fat thing. That's hilarious to me. Yeah, Gina, I saw an interview with Gina. She looked bad. So I was like, you know what I'm going to do for her? I'm going to go fight her. I thought that was very funny.

It was great because, like, you know what she's trying to say? And it's just sort of a misspeaking thing where she's, you know, because the point she's attempting to get across is, Gina looked like she needed something, right? Like she didn't look like she's in a good space. I have a lot of respect for her. And I thought this would be a way to get her motivated into a good space. And she does say that, but sort of just the way it is phrased is like, hey, yeah, like, I saw her and she looked bad.

And so then I thought we should fight. It's like a deeply funny thing. Even if you understand like what she means by that and that's not sort of the thing. It was just, I made a joke on Twitter or, you know, it was like dope. The next time I'm looking a little fat asked me to run a. FAA boys. Like, oh, too much pie over the holidays. You want to get in there and scrap?

That's deeply funny. I didn't see the White House part of it, though my understanding is she did approach Dana about this before MVP sort of became the promoter here. Is that right, Mike? Yes. We approached Dana with the fight. Dana was like, nah. So now we're with MVP.

Yeah. Again, I don't, I mean, I know why the UFC didn't do this fight. It's silly. They should have done this fight. I don't, at some point in time when you just won't pay, like eventually you would think there will be some repercussions to simply not putting on big fights. But we haven't reached that number.

I don't know where that is. But like, yeah, I mean, I assume Gina and Rhonda are going to make substantially more money by not fighting in the UFC. And so good on them. you know like i you i just truly don't know why the ufc wouldn't be like sure we'll pay a little bit for this one because it's because we talked about this when months ago when ronda was like never say never about coming back and we talked about it and like some fans like hell yeah

come back and fight whatever like no come back and fight a squash match do the pro wrestling thing where you've been gone a long time come back let people love you and just beat the tar out of somebody who's not very good. They figured it out. Here we found a squash match for. This would be perfect for, you know, the UFC to put on not as like a meaningful fight, but as a fight that has meaning, if that makes sense. Yeah, this is, I don't think people, people don't seem to be grasping.

Like, when people say this is going to be the biggest fight of the year, people don't mean that from a height perspective. Like, I don't think anyone is looking at this fight and they, No, no. Oh, boy, this is, we're about to get Robbie Lala versus Carlos Condit with this MVP card. No one is thinking that. No one is thinking that. It's going to be big because, one, the platform that it's on. Two, everybody on the planet knows who both of these women are.

They pass the mom test. They pass the public test. Public's test. I got asked about this fight. Even before AK and I jumped on that 17-minute reaction, the news had been out for less than an hour. I had gotten texts from people I haven't talked to in 20 years. Like, oh my God, is this really happening? Oh, this is actually happening.

Ronda Rousey versus Gina Corano. Like, they know both of these women. There is going to be massive. The hype may not be there. It may not be like one of those things where it's like, oh, I can't wait for this event. But by the time we get to May 16th and those numbers come out, there's not going to be a UFC event this year that's going to come close to the numbers this fight's going to do. Come close.

This is going to be the most viewed fight in the history of the sport. Yeah. Like, it's just going to be the most viewed fight. in the history of the sport. Yeah, it's just the way that it is. And that's big. Yeah. And most people are like, well, I'm just going to choose not to watch it.

That's fine. I don't believe you for a second. When the rest of the combat sports world is going to be watching this fight, just out of pure interest and intrigue, you're going to watch. Like, you're all going to be watching it. I don't, and I see people on Twitter everywhere saying, like, I'm going to choose not to watch this fight. Okay.

Then you're literally going to be the only person. So just for context here, right? Actually, let me pull up something else before I do this. Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson, viewers. So Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson. Is this true? 4.4 million viewers? No, no, no.

It's more than that. 108 million viewers per one report. Jake Paul versus Anthony Joshua, 33 million viewers. I do not think this will eclipse Jake Paul versus. Jake Paul versus Anthony Joshua. But, I mean, what the most watched MMMA fight is Kimbo on CBS was like $4.5 million? Is that right? Yeah, something like that.

Kimbo, CBS viewership numbers. Oh, 6.51. This will get to at least 10 million viewers is my strong, strong. Oh, I think it's going to be. Actually, what was Serrano-Taylor 3? 7, 6. 6 million viewers. Yeah, this is going to smash that.

Because I don't know if you know this, but Ronda Rousey is substantially more famous than either of those women. And frankly, Gina Corona probably is too. Oh, yeah, by a lot. Yeah, like this is, there's going to be the most viewed MMA fight of all time. It's big, right? That doesn't mean it's meaningful.

But I got to tell you, if you're standing on the corner, trying to tell me that we care about meaningful things, I'm going to point to you to the UFC's pay-per-view main events in 2026 so far. And be like, we're not in the world where we're talking about the best versus the best and that's all that matters. We're just not.

This shit matters. It's going to be big. Fight might suck. I kind of think Ronda's just going to run her. But it's a spectacle. And it should be on the White House because that's also a spectacle. And instead, this is going, I think this is going to blow the White House numbers out of the water.

But I will at least allow that maybe I'm wrong on that because the White House is such unique thing. Maybe people tune in for that. But they ain't tuning in because of the fighters. They're tuning in because of the White House. Yeah. Oh, the Razzie fight's going to get, just got to do huge numbers. I think so. Yeah.

I think it's a well more than 10. I don't know if it beats, it wouldn't shock me if it beat Paul Joshua. honestly, it would not shock me if it did. I think I think both. Jake is obviously super well known. Joshua isn't. Jake's really famous. Yeah, Joshua isn't.

That was like definitely the most watched. That was definitely the most amount of eyeballs ever on Anthony Joshua. Yes. But Jake is really famous, really currently famous too, not famous in the past. And there was both a, there was an obvious narrative of Jake is going to get hurt, tune in to watch Jake. get hurt, which a lot of people wanted to do. They got what they wanted. You're not going to have any of this.

I'm going to say $15 million is my early projection on this, which I retain the right to change that opinion as promotion happens. And vibes get different, but like 15 million seems like the number to me right now. What would help that number is this. What would be a good undercard for Rousey Carrano? I think you nailed it. I do believe Holly Holmes should fight somebody, right? Just to at least set up the opportunity for that rematch.

I don't know that that rematch will happen just because I don't know that Ronda wants to take that fight. But you at least create the opportunity for that. I assume that Amanda Serrano is still on good terms with Jake Paul, despite him denigrating her country and her people. But she's fought in some MMA. So have her do an MMA fight because, here's a thing they can do, right? And I know that people watching the show probably will hate this,

and hardcore MMA fans will have no interest. And I get it because the merit is light, but the interest will be there more broadly is they could do Amanda Serrano versus Ronda Rousey in a two-fer, right? They do one in MMA, they do one in boxing. And maybe it's a bit of a handshake deal, wink, wink, I won't hurt you too bad in MMA. Don't embarrass me too bad in boxing.

You know, but like, that's the thing that is on the table. And so the undercard doesn't need to be exclusively female fighters, right? We don't need to do that. But you do put Amanda Serrano versus somebody, put Holly home versus somebody just to create some possibility. I mean, a boxing match, maybe. That'd be kind of fun, but I don't know. But like you just create future potentiality here. and then, you know, rounded out with Anderson Silva fighting somebody, whoever.

And if you're really feeling saucy, which this won't happen and they shouldn't do it. But I do think, I think this opens up more of an opportunity for Jake Paul to take an M.M.A. fight this year. Maybe not this year. Maybe it's next year. But like, you know, some smash MMA fight, not against Nate Diaz or whatever. And start moving into that realm as well because the Joshua loss is tough, right? and maybe it makes them recalibrate you. I have a whole new avenue. I can do the same gimmick in. So, you know, put famous people in squash matches that are going to be exciting.

That's how you should book this undercard. And maybe one good fight, like good, good fight, but I don't even think you need that. Nope. Anderson Silva should be on this card. Either against, if you want to do the Wydenman fight, sure. Don't do that. Good God, don't do that. What else they got to do?

I don't know. Did you like Anderson Derek Bronson again? Like what do we tell? Like Anderson has to fight. Do you do Anderson Woodley? That's the best of them. Of the options currently provided, that's the best of them. I think both of those guys, and I have no insight to this,

I think both those guys will fight on the card. I think you should do the one fight I was like, this is the fight they should absolutely make. They should do Paige Van Zand. Give us a joke. Do Paige Van Zamb. versus like B-Witt, do that fight. Put that on there.

Yeah, fine. Yeah, I mean, just pick some famous people and put them on there. And that's, I would try and skew not exclusively old because then you're going to have sort of the underlying narrative of these are all really old people. Why are we doing this? But I wouldn't make this like a 10-event fight either, like 6-7, maybe 8, 6, 7, maybe 8 fights total, capped off by Rhonda versus J.

Gina, Bob Zionk, we're done. Maybe this is where Nate Diaz comes back. Unlikely. I think if Nate returns to MMA, he comes to UFC, but maybe now. Maybe that could change. Throw Mike Perry on this card. I think Mike Perry would be one of the better ideas

that you could do. If he's not fighting, if this whole Dave Feldman, he's fighting a dude more famous times five than he's ever fought, we're going to do it in his hometown. I mean, there just has to be Nate. It's the only person that's more famous

than everybody he's fault. It's not even true because Jay Paul is the most famous person he ever fought. So, but yeah, same, same. Let's see. Mike, as far as you know, is Rivavich fighting Moikano at UFC 326? I know Moikano has been offered multiple opponents. I have no friggin idea. I know that Drew Dober.

I know that Drew Dober and Michael Johnson just got added to that card, but that card is like two weeks away. So I think at this point he's probably not fighting on the card would be my guess. I don't know. So which means I don't know what the first. freaking co-main event is. Are they going to do Dober Johnson as the co-main event? Is that the new TBD versus TBD?

Like what is going? Or are we just going to go with RDR and Kyo? Which is fine too. Just do RDR Kyle. I didn't think that there was. I thought that was the co-main until the graphic came up. Just do R. Kyle.

That's fine. This is a one-fight card anyway. It's built around the main event. Main event's going to be fun. That's fine. Shout out to Ace Buggy, 1999. Shout out, Ace. Unless you esteemed gentleman know something I don't.

Yes. It looks like Kamarro is no longer a frontrunner for Islam. And God, I hope this is true. I don't buy this at all. If I'm him, I revisit the beef with Balal because I could easily see the UFC feeding him to Morales. He should have been going for Bilal anyways. This whole like, well, this is a step backwards now

because I just beat Joachim Buckley is insane. This is why Usba was always like a horrific marketer of himself. because he doesn't understand what is actually true. To say that Bilal is a step back from Joaquin Buckley is insanity. That is just, that is a take of a half.

That's just not true. I think it's totally reasonable for him to not try and fight Balal because he was trying to get a title fight. And I frankly still think he is going to get that title fight now. Some others, like some reports, but all these reports and rumors are basically like fighters asking for things

or saying things. because they're all jockeying for this open slot. I still think Camaro probably has the inside track. But if I was Camaro, I wouldn't be trying to fight Ballal. I'd be trying to fight this. I wouldn't dismiss Bilal because if you don't get the title fight, by far the best and most likely option for you is to then fight Belal. So I do think he's mismanaged it that way.

But like, I would not trust the postings of other welterweights. But to be indicative of whether or not Kamar Ustman is fighting, Zemakachev, because the most important factor is that Islamakachev wants to fight Kamar Ustman. And I don't think there's not a huge business difference. Maybe it is even the best business for him, though, as you said many times, and I agree, I don't really think that there's a substantial difference for the UFC from a Kamar Usman, Michael Morales, Imachado Gary's standpoint, right?

But the champ wants to fight somebody, and the UFC's on very good terms with this champ, they are broadly inclined to do that in the absence of a specific reason not to. And they don't have one. So I would still say Camaro Oussman is most likely now. I think Gary is actually the best business right now, only because I think...

I think Gary is the fight I would make if I were in charge. I think you have to make it now. If we're not, if it's not like automatically Morales, who has clearly won the battle of the guy who like has done the most in this little mini tournament, uh, to stand out. If that's what we're doing here, he's the guy. No one has stood up more than him. But if it's not him, if we're like, no, we're going to give him one more. He's young. He's up and coming. Let's give him JDM. It's got to be Gary. To me, I think that's a better business fight. I know Kamaru has like a great career in accolades and stuff. but like Islam could be like one of the biggest baby faces in the promotion if he fights Ian Gary. Because people, people just do not like him.

Islam goes out there and just smushes Ian Gary. Like Islam's going to look like a friggin hero to a lot of people. And like, I also just think Ian Gary is the most deserving of the title fight. Yeah, he's definitely. If I were in charge, the new Smith. Now that Shavcott's gone. If I were in charge, Ian Gary would get it. I would have call his protest fight Michael Morales because as great as Michael Marales has looked,

I would like to see him get one more like really good win before fighting for the belt preferably and Kamala fights blow and this is all very, very simple and then Shafcott sucks to be Shafcott. I'm heartbroken about that. But I think the Shafcott injury made this

even clearer to me how it should go. I still just like, I, champs wanting things when it's like a champ that the promotion likes gets you a lot of leeway, man. I think the only, I've come to the conclusion, because I, I, I, a couple of weeks ago,

I was like, man, Kamara's getting it. And I just have to, like, accept the fact that he's getting it. Now I'm on the, now I've decided that the only way Kamara gets this fight is if it happens at the White House. If it doesn't happen to the White House, he's not getting it. They'll go, they'll go a different direction. Now, he may not have to fight again. He may have to sit and wait. But he just go fight Bilal, man. Like, he probably beats Balal.

And then there's like no doubt. I will never, ever go on another show. If he goes out there and beats Balal or beats Morales, it beats Carlos Proches. If he goes out there and beats either one of these guys, I will be screaming from the rooftops that this man should be fighting for the belt. Like, give it to him. I will not have a complaint at all.

Jumping Michael Morales might be, like, at least not like from meritocratic perspective would be incorrect. But like, at least he beat a dude. Like a legit top five guy. and then it's like, okay, you've done your thing. You coming back at beating Joaquin Buckley, who was on a nice run, but like look at the names he has eaten.

That's a great win. Still a great win. I'm not going to despair. It's a very good win for a guy who hadn't won a fight in four years. It's on three fight losing streak beats a guy on a stone heater. Yeah, it's a very good win. But it's not like, oh, we're jumping the entire line of everybody. There's no meritocratic argument for Kamar Usman to get it.

Never has been. 100%. So we shall see. I want you to, before we get to this, yes, I want you to put Duke Mad Duck's most recent comment up because this is a terrific idea for the Netflix card. Okay, let me find it.

Shout out to you, Duke Mad Duck. This one? Yes. Tote Ferguson versus Dylan Dennis on Netflix. Yeah, damn. Do that. Because also like, yes, you're getting an old dude and Tony Ferguson, but that is like,

if you're looking at this card and what we were, starting to assemble as like a meal, that is a bit of acidity. That's actually a perfect fight for this. It's like a perfect sprinkle of acidity onto this like savory weirdness of a plate because Tony's super weird and he will talk, just talk and bring

that sort of energy to the build and the promotion. Dylan Dennis is awful and people hate him. And for reason. And so like he will bring that like a much more negative. negative energy. Like, that's a whole, because currently, you know, Rhonda and Gina are respectful and the thing.

And that, like, I think that adds sort of the exact level of spice this car to promotion needs. One of the best comments of the year, Duke, Matt Duck. Great call. If I'm PFL, I'm on the phone with MEP right now saying, like, how could we, how can we get like EP credits here? And then you do Francis and Ganoversetti Hall on there, too. I mean, that's the great, it's just the great, that, that is like,

You can't, you don't do this on that. That's its own separate thing. Because honestly, if I'm MVP, I'm like, dude, Francis, when are you done? Like, just tell me, when are you out of contract? Because we'll, we'll just take you and we'll book you in spectacle fights. And that'll be fun for us. That's what I'd be doing if I were Nickie, Nickyza Bedarian. Nikisa, give me a call.

Not in love with your boss, but for a right price, I can make you have a fun in a MMA organization. Lazy bed. former standout collegiate wrestler Mitch McKee has signed a PFL and will fight in Chicago. Undefeated at 10 and 0, 28 years old, Blue Chip American prospect. Is this PFL's biggest low-key signing? Not only, Jed, I don't know if you've seen this. Not only is he.

I had not seen this at all. Not only is Mitch McKee fighting at PFL Chicago. He is headlining his first PFL event in his first PFL fight against Sergio Pettis. That is the main event of PFL Chicago, which, by the way, as of right now, is the same night as UFC 327. in Miami, which is a choice. I don't know why we keep doing this, but they just continue to go head to head with the UFC when they're doing like bigger events.

So that's what's happening here. But yeah, Mitch McKee, solid, very, very solid, standout guy, great wrestler, his skills are great. His head coach is Robbie Lawler. Good dude to have a round. It's a guy who works with the most. And now Mitch McKee has got the PFL signing and he's going to fight Sergio Pettis in a big,

one. So I, biggest low key signing, I don't know if maybe, I love the signing though. I think Mitch McKee, I think it's a great fight. Like I think it is a heater. I think McKee is super underrated just because a lot of people don't know him. But yeah, man, I like this fight a lot and it would not surprise

me if Mitch McKee went out there and beat Sergio Pettis. Like that's how highly I regard him. So yeah, great signing. Your thoughts. I think this is a sort of fight you would book with this, but I'm going to talk out of both sides of my mouth right now.

And I understand that, and y'all can be upset about that, because it's fair. I'm absolutely talking about both sides of my mouth. I think it's a good signing because he's a good fighter, right? And it's always a good thing to sign good young fighters. Young, 28, young. Right? Youngish.

So, good signing thing. The PFL's actually made several good signings lately. of like good fighters, right? They have really up their developmental product. It is very difficult for me to view this outside of the lens of Bellator, and it just seems like PFL has decided to be Bellator. And of all the things to be, why would you be Bellator?

Belator failed. And if the argument is, well, Belator succeeded for longer than anyone else has, okay, I'll buy that. Like, that's actually not a bad reason to do something, but it is still under the premise that they are going to fail too. And maybe you can just last longer, which I'll support. If that is your goal is to last as long as you can, good, because I think the sport needs other high-end viable promotions. But if your idea, and nobody has that, nobody enters into business saying, I just want to break even. give some people jobs for a long time and have a good time,

which probably actually would make a society better overall. But that's not what people do. They enter into business to try and build an empire. And why would you go off the playbook of a failed one, right? Like you have gotten rid of your seasons, which were bad, but at least unique. You are doing traditional MMA fights. You are signing a ton of people with the last name of and Merov. and a lot of Vs and Zs in your signings,

and all of them are very good fighters, right? But how is this getting you over with the broader public? And this feels like, you know, Bellator did that thing where they signed basically every All-American wrestler they could get their hands on. And it's not bad. You're getting talent, and that is good. How does this connect in a broader sense?

I'm unsure, so tough. I am of two minds of it. no i agree the problem is just no one's going to care and not a soul is going to watch it yeah i mean unless it's like you're getting good again mckee is a good like 28's a little old for prospect but prospect right how do you getting good fighters is half the battle connecting with an audience having an identity that fans can gravitate to is the other and man i don't see that part happening Yeah. I mean, the only way you're going to do it is just to keep doing what you always do.

You attach the name with somebody else that's more famous than him. And Gable Steven, who was like a former teammate of him, of his, in the wrestling days. Like, you just got to be like, hey, this is Gable Steven's like good buddy, who's like a really good wrestler and happens to be an undefeated MMA fighter too. Like that's the only reason you get this over. But then, like, you're still up against a UFC card of Miami, which, even though we don't have like really anything. You just got to stop doing that.

Yeah, man. I mean, PFL should frankly just never be on Saturday nights. It should always be Friday nights. Or Thursdays, yeah. Maybe Thursday,

but Friday is at least like Thursday night. People aren't work the next day, you know? Like, can't go late on Thursday night. Friday nights, you could pull that off. But like,

if you're going to do this, here's the part I'm unequivocally pro. I think the Sergio Pett is booking is it. Because like, all right, let's shoot him right in. and see what happens. Maybe Sergio Pettis is too experienced, whatever he's good.

And it happens. Okay, okay. But if he doesn't, right? Like, if he beat Sergio Pettis, now hardcore fans can be like, all right, that's a dude. That's a dude, dude, we can get behind him. So I do like the booking. I just, again, somebody from PFL, call me,

because I have so many ideas to make you fun, and that is desperately. You're doing great on talent acquisition. Now we've got to make this product fun for it to stick. Yes. Take a few more. Mass or Universe Classic. How do you feel about the Dana and Eddie thing?

Do you think Zufa could be a legit threat to the boxing world? And I know it's early days, but how dominant do you think they'll be in the next five to ten years? So Dana continues. He says, what was the line? It's like fighting with babies, I guess, is how he compared Eddie Hearn and the rest of the boxing promoters to what he's done in just three events at the world's most famous Apex, which I think is hilarious, honestly. but I want to I'll read Eddie's Eddie's response which is awesome by the way that's a sick mind for one

I don't know what the F he was talking about that's quite disturbing if I'm honest with you it's very strange because I've got to be honest with you I wouldn't say up my ass but Dana's always been so complimentary about us as a company and me as a promoter but to say that I don't have any vision is really quite strange I mean right now

when you talk about Zoufa or whatever it's called when you talk about their vision, what's their vision? Getting Max Kellerman to tell everyone that Callum Walsh is the next Roy Jones, or putting Charles Martin on a headline show on a Sunday night in front of 126 people in your garage in a ring that looks like you just got it out of a local club show? What sort of effing visions that? Or better still, here's a belt, here's Zufa, look at the vision. That's not vision, that's control.

Because the reality is when he says we can't compete, they can't compete in this cutthroat world of boxing. because it's a horrible world and they don't want to compete they want to create their own world listen at the moment when you compare matrim shows to Zufa shows quite frankly Zufa shows are absolute

complete dog shit but they're going to get better and they're going to sign some big fighters and they're going to spunk some money they're going to waste some money I've said it before they're clever people what was the other one the reality is yes I do work from my dad but guess what

Data White has worked for his daddy for a long time the Fertita brothers that's who he worked for right now Dana White's got a new daddy and his name is Turkey Alashik. Turkey Alashik is Dana White's poppy. He's got to do whatever he's told because he works for TKO, which is owned by Sela and the Saudis and Turkey Alashake.

That's Eddie Hernd's response to Dana White. Pretty heated one. Eddie is one of the best talkers in the game. He's one of the best promoters in the game. Because of that, he just knows how to speak. What's your reaction to what we've seen over the last four or five days from these two? They're both right.

that's a bit of a cop-out answer but like a lot of what Dana said is not true or silly like the phrase is taking candy from a baby not fighting babies because you don't fight babies that would be a crazy person but like you know

the truth is like mostly what Eddie said but there's absolutely a big piece of truth to what Dana said is Dana be like oh they're not putting up any resistance and it's like yeah why and truthfully yeah why like why would they specifically be working against very bad boxing shows like just i've watched one and a half zoo for boxings they are not good they are simply not good um the talent level is pretty mid there's some people on there who are like okay or maybe could develop into something okay uh but it is largely a soulless thing

it is watching fights at the apex, right? Like, I don't, there's not a human being alive in my estimation. Maybe I'm wrong, but who is flipping the channels on Sunday night or whatever night they end up being on Friday night. And I was like, ooh, now I'm going to be a Zufo boxing fan. All of that is accurate. And so Eddie and Eddie ripping him for being like, he works for his dad is like, yeah, dude, the success of the UFC, is you get you're part of it. No one would ever suggest

that Dana White was not an integral piece of why the UFC blew up into what it did. But the vision and the support of it were primarily not you, right? Like the Fertita brothers ran the show and financed

the thing. Had you not had rich friends who could do this, you would still be coaching MMA or teaching boxing or whatever, promoting MMA fighters. So yeah, it is a bit ridiculous to like call somebody out for that when you're no different. You know, you're not a self-made man like you you had billionaire friends. That's helpful,

you know. But Dana is also true in that the boxing people are not prepared for this fight that is coming because when Eddie says they're not trying to compete in boxing, that's correct. but I don't think he's taking the right message because they're not. Zufa wants to be its own thing and the problem is that its own thing will invalidate them

right? Because that is they are trying to structurally change the I don't actually know if they've cleared it or not I haven't paying attention. So the Ali Act but like they want control and with control and infinite financial backing

and a large media application. apparatus that is already connected to their multi-billion dollar sports property, they can functionally drive the market out in a long-term goal here. And so boxing should have been better prepared for this. Like, they should be. They are, in my estimations, banking on the fact that they're, you know, 180 years of boxing history that Zuf was having to work against. But I don't know, man.

Like, I think they're both right. Dana's being a little petulant and not putting on a good product now. But I'm not entirely certain that he cares about right now because this is more of a long-term squeeze that I don't think boxing is prepared for. Oh, yeah. They're eventually just going to steamroll them because they're just going to do their own thing. You know, like I'm completely with you. Like they are different than they're at least going to position themselves as like these other people don't exist. Like we are, we are boxing.

They are their boxing. We're the modern boxing. We're the new boxing. We're boxing supposed to be the best fighting the best and yada, yada, yada. We got Max Collerman. We got all these people that you know and you've heard of from other sports shows and other things from the past working on our broadcasts. Like we have the next Roy Jones Jr. headlining our events. Callum Walsh is the face of our fighting organization right now.

Like it's just so weird. It's uninteresting. They haven't some good highlights. Like the second car is actually pretty decent to watch. And they had that incredible uppercut knockout that went viral. And that was big for them having those moments. But yeah. Do you know what the biggest thing that they have?

They have a brand. They have a multi-billion dollar sports brand behind it. And so they can sort of infinitely spend money on this, on the things they want, not on fighters, right? Like they are, because the long-term Zufo boxing play is, what if we do boxing, but instead of fighters getting most of the money, we get most of the money? At a very brass tax baseline level, that is the goal.

If you, Dana White wants to make boxing the UFC, and when he said, you know, like the UFC, and when he says that, you think, oh, it means the best, fight the best. What he means is we get 80% of the revenue, fighters get 20% of the revenue. We had totally invert that, and it's a sick-ass business for us where we just print cash. Boxing does not work under that. And Eddie Hearn does not have the financial backing that the UFC does. That's why in the last 10 years, boxing got so cozy with Saudi because they just gave a lot of money. Now, Dana has Turkey behind him, but also if Turkey pulls out, they have TKO, they have the UFC. They can do all of this.

And eventually fighting against massive power structures and corporate entities. And currently, the political system of the United States of America, who, by the way, Dana is best friends with the president. like these are massive structural powers to be battling and the only thing you have going for you is some small pieces of legislation that may or may not get completely invalidated and like the broad history of boxing and those are valuable i'm not here to say those aren't because like there is going to be certainly in these early years and stages of this fairly major pushback from significant boxing fighters who are like, why would I take less than 70% the lion's share of this? You know, that's not what Floyd did before me or my training partner who's a world champion did. The UFC has to overcome sort of the culture of boxing in that way. But eventually with enough time and money, they will.

And I don't think Eddie Hearns prepared for that. What a time. Dude, the UFC is getting paid money for Power Slap, which people do not watch. like Dana can fabricate money for Zufa boxing forever because every deal with CBS was like, oh, if you want the UFC for $1.1 billion, you also have to give me $100 million a year for Zufa boxing.

So in actuality, it's a $1.2 billion a year, but also you get power slap and boxing. Like this is, Eddie Hearn doesn't have that money. Eddie Hearn's never been close to that amount of money. or any of the others. And eventually, like, not right now.

In a couple of years, that's going to be a big problem for them. Lazybed. Is tonight the last time Gable fights outside of the UFC? Mike, what do you think? I say no. And it's not because, look, I fully believe, like, deep in my, deep in my soul, deep in my, deep down, the Gable is already under UFC contract. This is, like, a developmental deal.

This is the Bo Nickel deal. But instead of him just fighting on Contender Series, he's just going to fight on a bunch of random shows. I would, he's going to fight at the White House. Like, there's just no doubt on my mind. He's going to fight at the White House. Don't do it, Gable. He's got, of course he's fighting at the White House.

You kidding me? He's going to get a squash match at the White House, and he's going to win big. But I do, I think he's going to fight again. I think he's going to fight again I think you put him I don't know if LFA is a thing now I don't know if LFA is still on the table

maybe they a good relationship with the UFC but at least they're not on fight pass anymore I think he's got to get one more fight in like a bigger organization but he could look like he's going to smoke Hugo tonight he's kind of win in like 45 seconds

he could literally fight in 10 days so throw him on an LFA card in March let him go out there and just dust somebody else up and then go fight it the White House in June. Like, I think he fights one more time outside of the UFC, but he's going to fight at the White House.

If I was Gable Steven's team, if I was in his corner, or Gable, if you're watching, probably are. We're big show. Here's my advice to you, Gable, Steven, and I think it's really good advice, so I would adhere to it.

I would kill this dude tonight. Maybe you fight again, you know, in March or whatever. Like, maybe something early. April you could do that. But I think what you should do is after you kill this dude tonight and you celebrate and you go home and you party. Party hard, right?

Not too hard. Have fun. Saturday morning, you know, after you've taken some time to breathe, Saturday morning, you dial up me or whoever your manager is. I can manage you. I'll be happy to manage you. Be like, hey, give me on the phone with MVP because there's going to be a really, really big event in May

that 15 to 20 million people are going to watch I'm an Olympic gold medalist they should put me on that and you don't have to stay with them I'm not saying this becomes a long term like if MVP wants to pay you stay with them stay with them but you're like hey Nikisa

Jake Paul what if you throw me on give me anybody whoever however you want to match this up some some very winnable fight for me Eddie Hall It's not awful, but like, throw me something. However, it wants to shake out.

We don't do France Singano, but this is not a me in a big battle. This is me as a side show act as part of this event. I get to boost my profile through the moon. And then after that, if they want to pay you a bunch of money, you can stay at the MVP for a little bit. Or then you just go fight on the White House, man. It's like, all right, hey, Dana, I'm going to do this. I'll talk to you,

I'll talk to you May, whatever day they're doing the round of the day after that, and you can have me squash match some heavy way at the White House. Because if I am a talented M.M.A. fighter like Gable Steven, there is nothing that would keep me off that Netflix card if I could jimmy it. Like, that is going to do more for your profile than just about anything could. So I don't like, a billion percent Gable Stevenson should try to fight.

in the MVP card. That would be something. That would be something. It doesn't preclude you from signing with the UFC and fighting at the White House if you want to do that. Right. Like, you can still do that. But also, it gives you more leverage

to go to the UFC after and be like, hey, here's the number, because I can also do this with MVP for a little bit and get paid. And like, you still can just go compete at the White House if the UFC's even interested in that. Because honestly, don't know if you see cares about what's on the white house uh like we're gonna get some random

ass contender series guys fighting in the white house probably so yeah one against gable steveson easily i the whoever somebody clip this and send it to gable's people nothing would stop if i was gable steveson i would be on the phone constantly with nicky's bedarian may like hey man give me some dude any dude i don't have to be the calling event or the feature bow just put me on the main card of that thing, you can promote me as an Olympic gold medalist, and I will frown some dude. It gives you a sick knockout because you know I'm going to provide that. It gives you big profile, big boost. It gives me big profile and big boost. Everybody wins. That should absolutely a billion percent be on that card.

Let me, let's see. Would you do Gable Steven versus Fabrice over Doom? Might be. I wouldn't be totally opposed to that. might be a little tough Alexia Lennox that is much more the speed of what I would do uh JDS too much probably too much

Andre Alovsky I mean the goat would cook his ass if you do Andrei Alovsky yes actually that's probably the perfect answer uh let's see what else they have Tanner Bozer I'm looking I'm literally looking at the GFL draft right now Todd Duffy.

Parker Porter, obviously, would be a great choice. Your goal is to get Gable over, not having him lose in devastating fashion. Andrei Alavski, Gable, Steven is actually a pretty, yeah, I think that might be what I would do there. Yeah. Chase, just joining in, so I might have missed it, but will Paramount do what ESPN didn't and get the UFC to hold fighters accountable for their words? Not a fucking chance, dude. Zero chance. I mean, less than zero.

I need nobody has explained it to me and I I will honestly simply never understand it because it is illogical to me but very clearly the UFC calls the shots with Paramount which doesn't someone need I need someone to tell me why because Paramount is the one paying the UFC money and yet the UFC is the one dictating the rules like I it did that happens nowhere else in the entire world. Like imagine being like, so I'm going to babysit for you for $100 an

hour, but I will only do these things that I want to do ever and you can never tell me if I've done something wrong. Like it doesn't, I don't get it, but that is absolutely the relationship. They functionally had with the SPN and they have with CBS.

You see, gets paid a lot of money to be in charge of them because waiting for someone to give me a logical answer. Yeah, I mean, ESPN, they did the same thing with the worldwide leader. I mean, outside of like, that makes sense, but it's how they've pulled it off. It's an incredible feat. Yeah.

Outside of, I mean, the only time like ESPN stepped in at all was like, nah, dude, you're not doing an event at Tachi Palace. Like, we're not doing it. Dude. It is, like, and you have to leverage so much weight on that for it. It is like, honestly, the only thing that I can even think of where the customer is not in charge of the, like, the people getting paid money are subservient is like Comcast. I'm like, hey, guys, I'm giving you money. Can I please have internet this month? Like, please.

If I can, that'd be great. If not, if it's too big a bother and you're going to make me have your dog shit customer service, okay. But like, other than that, I don't know any of it. other industry we're like, hey, I have this order for X, Y, and Z that I'm paying you a billion dollars for. Get to it on your own time, man. You get to make the decision. It's insane to me, but it's absolutely the truth.

Yeah. Maybe tell your fighter to not do that, or at least read a statement saying, like, you don't condone it. But they'll never do that. Don't never do that. And I can guarantee you that this sort of thing was discussed before the deal was signed. I mean, that's why they get to do it. It is absolutely contractually obligated. like if I am trying to buy something and the contract says actually it's as is and if you don't like

I'm think of this as like a car sale I am trying to purchase this car from you Mike and there's an as is cause you can't complain if this is a lemon I'm like I'm not going to buy this because if this is a piece of shit I should be able to come back to you and that's just not they have paid one point one actually more than that when you factor in the other stuff a lot of money a year to get told to butt out of it and put the fights on. Yeah. I mean, the Zufa boxing,

I think it was separate, right? But Power slap was part. I think Power Slap is part of the... Sure. It was separate. Do you think Zufa boxing would be there if there wasn't a preexisting, like... Oh, no.

No. Yeah. But like... It's all tied in. Yeah. They're all together. Chase, telling a John protege to party hard is not smart. Yeah.

I don't think that's... Gable Steven's issue because he has an Olympic gold medal. Yeah. It could be wrong, but I'm going to guess he's not that problem. Gable versus Francis would be fun. Can't do that. Gable versus Jelton Almeda, would you do that? No, because Jailton could find a way to make that boring.

Again, the idea is to get him over and to provide a mushing, right? Like he needs to kill some dude, so it needs to be a fight where he will kill a dude on this. because you don't want him to be part and parcel and then have to lay and pray some dude for 15 minutes. I think Gable beats Taito Ivasa. Well, yeah. Yeah, he would. You just have to tackle him.

He just needs to tackle him once and the fight's over. Yeah. Andre Lossi is probably the right answer. You just kill Andre. That's fine. Andre should just keep fighting dudes to BKFC. Andre should disagree. I agree. Andre needs to go to RAF now.

I've somebody, I think maybe Jose pitched that in like a meeting. And I was like, yes, continue to just do the other things. That's awesome, Andre. Let's go. That's actually not a bad idea. It would be incredible, bangers. I love that. All right. I think we're good here.

I think we've done enough. We don't need to keep kicking Thai while he's down. Nice. By Med Jishu. Yeah, I don't. that man showed up last week. Respect it. Yeah.

So the most important takeaway from today is Gable Steveson should fight on the Netflix card and somebody needs to tell him that because that is a thing that should happen. Also, I'm going to take a more active hand in some of our YouTube stuff. Specifically, we have memberships that are really sort of an ancillary thing.

Shout out to the members, lazy bed, et cetera. I want to find a way to make that more of a reason to join outside of your broad support for us, which we are very grateful for, give you some emotes and do some other things. So if you have ideas on what you as a member would like, please let me know. And I'll see how I can make that happen. Yeah. I would love that. Hopefully, like, you know, hopefully we replace Casey soon and then we can like focus on that stuff.

It'd be great. It'd be terrifically one. Got some ideas. but we're going to make some moves here. So we'd love to make this. If you've got thoughts, let us know. Yeah. Old school watchbacks of like past events and fights.

Like we could do some really fun stuff with the members only type feature. So we should we should definitely reward you all. I mean, I literally just realized it like a month ago that we have channel members. I'm like, why? We love you and I don't want you to not be a channel member. But like you're getting nothing. I think we have two emotes even. So we're going to get some, we're going to get some emotes.

I've been working on that this week. Some, you know, channel specific ones. But then, yeah, some like member specific stuff. Just the way that other streaming thing, like people do, we're going to try and do that. That's what I've decided. So let me know if you have thoughts. I love that.

I think it's a terrific idea. See, look. Look what happens, Mike. Give the people what they want. Boom. We got a member. Let's go. Watch party of Bloodsport or any Van Dam movie.

Love that idea. I mean, we, honestly, in our Slack today, somebody mentioned it. I'm talking with AK, obviously without Casey. It's a little bit of it. I still want to do another season and continue doing business funeral, no more. Because there's just a lot of point you to talk about in films. And I like films. So we'll get some stuff going.

Love y'all. we'll make we'll make this a cinema a thing still i mean i would love to do a watch party for bloodsport that would bang let's in the works in the works not signed but in the works we'll see you next week everybody love you all you're listening to the vox media podcast network