MMA Fighting - BTL Roundtable | UFC 269 Fallout, Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley 2, UFC Vegas 45, More

Episode Date: December 16, 2021

Does Jake Paul or Tyron Woodley have more pressure heading into their boxing rematch this Saturday in Tampa? This week, we called an audible and addressed that question, along with why Paul could actually be playing with proverbial house money. In addition, the panel recaps the top storylines from UFC 269, including where Julianna Pena's title win over Amanda Nunes ranks on the all-time upset list, where the result leaves Kayla Harrison, Dustin Poirier's future following his loss to lightweight champ Charles Oliveira, UFC Vegas 45 being a sneaky good card, the low-key banger for the promotion's final event of the year, Kevin Lee signing with Eagle FC, and more. This week, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew hit record, shoot the breeze and try to make sense of those topics. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR 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. Live from MMA 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 Between the Links here on MAPFighting.com. No video. And right off the top, for those of you who were expecting the grand finale of the The BTL Championship Tournament. It was scheduled for this week.

But due to some personal circumstances for one of our competitors, that will not be happening this week. So we're going to delay the BTL Championship, and it's for very good reason I'm not going to get into it. But the show moves on, at least for this week. And the other half of that championship matchup is joining us. And a lot of you enjoyed the last time we did a Jed-Tox version of Between the Links, because we essentially saved the PFL.

We had a lot of tremendous ideas, this man especially, and we decided, since I'm in Tampa, and I just wrapped up the Jake Paul Tarnwoodley, open workouts and all that craziness. We're just going to hit record and go. There's no game plan. There's nothing. We're just going to talk combat sports,

and who better to do that with, and the man who is still taking his victory lap for his pick of Giuliana Pena, defeating Amanda Nunes, to become the new women's band of way champion at UFC. 269, the one, the only Mr. No Gray area himself, Jed Mishu. Jed, how are you, sir?

I am thriving. Mike, I can't explain to you how happy I am. The Giuliana Pena pick, nobody else made it. And that's maybe the best part. There is nobody else in the industry that was on that hill. I was alone, and I am triumphant. And this victory lap is going to last until there is, At best, at best, it will stop if there is a bigger upset that happens at some point in the future.

But I don't know because, and we can get into this, I've come around to the idea that it is the biggest upset in MMA history. I think I'm on that corner now. Okay, so we're going to get back to that in a second. What I think is hilarious about all of this is that we posted this video of you two weeks ago at this point, making that prediction. And then you went on two different programs and continued to say these. things, that it was going to happen, that it was going to come to fruition. And it did, Jed. It did. And now I see all these other media members saying, I told you on our show, we gave her a chance, don't count our own, said she had a chance. Everyone's trying to steal your shine, Jed,

but you didn't say she had a chance. You said she was going to win the title. So, I mean, you should take 500 victory laps compared to these people, but people are trying to steal your sunshine. They're trying to jump on your pedestal, Jed. That's not right. I agree. It is, I mean, you know it's coming. It's obviously a thing. it's going to happen or anything like this. But I'm just glad that I don't, I have not one, I have three receipts. I can go back and pull the footage from multiple of our shows. It says unequivocally, I am picking Giuliana Penaena to become the new UFC women's

band and weight champion. And whatever anybody else in the industry wants to say, nobody else was on that corner with me. The only people on Giuliana Pena Island were me and Michael Kiyasa and Giuliana Pena herself. that was it and we're living our best lives right now is all I'm saying yes so why do you feel that this is the biggest upset in the MMA history because I'm still I think it's right up there I think it's number two I don't understand why people put Bisbing Rockhold in that discussion because it just seemed like short notice yeah it was kind of unlikely you get both guys full camps

Rockhold is the heavy favor but Bisbee taking this fight on short notice knowing this is probably his only opportunity rock hold clearly didn't seem to be taking him seriously that one didn't really shock me that much GSP Matt Serra shocked me a lot because of how Matt Sarah got this title shot. The guy wasn't even in the UFC, he went on the ultimate fighter, won a reality show,

and then won the damn title. So to me, that will always be number one because of the circumstances to how he got there. But you're with Giuliana Pena beating Amanda Nunes, which I think is a very close second,

but why do you feel like this trumps the others? For a number of reasons. And so I agree, I think the conversation at this point, is strictly between GSP, Sarah, and Pena Nunes. I think there are a lot of other really big upsets and you can get into those. And I do actually believe the Bissping Rockhold one is pretty severe

because I gave Bispin no chance. I mean, even at the time, I get it as a short notice and this is his one shot, but Bispin was coming in with like three, I think he was on three weeks of preparation for that fight, if even that, might have been shorter than that. He had just gotten, not. out and submitted by Rockhold 18 months prior. It was a fight where Rockhold blew his doors off and then submitted him with a one-arm guillotine.

Like, Ed was such an improbable thing, especially for Bispying to basically one-hit quit Rockhold. Obviously, moving forward, we found out that that's not that difficult to do if you can throw a good left hand. He's very susceptible to that, apparently. But at the time, that was an enormous upset for me. And fun fact for everybody out there, one of the first pieces of professional writing ever did on Mixed Mark Flores was about how Michael Bisping would never hold a UFC title

and we should still celebrate him as a great fighter even though he was never going to get to fight for a title and hold the belt. And then like a month later, he does that and I look like the world's biggest ass. So I haven't always been an Oracle of great insight and knowledge. It's a recent development, everybody. just, you know, tempering expectations.

But for me, back to the point at hand, I agree that SAERGSP is enormous. I think that upset looks at the time. It was still obviously a super big upset given the context. Well, I think that upset has just grown in esteem over time because the important part to remember about that is, you know, GSP was the guy everybody thought was going to be a great champion. And then he had that setback against Matt Hughes. And then he finally gets the title again, dominating. Matt Hughes in the rematch and now we think

all right this guy's going to go on a run and that's when Sarah took him off and so at the time he still wasn't this guy like he still wasn't George St. Pierre who we all think of now he was a guy we thought could be the George St. Pierre we think of

now and I'll just think of it in the context of if what had happened after Haddon we would not look on that as this enormous rematch if St. Pierre had come back beaten Sarah you know maybe defended his belt once or twice and then lost to Jake Shields or Nick Diaz or any of those other people he loses to BJ Penn in their rematch like I think we would look on that with a ton less

context and so to some degree this is this also a whole true for juliana Pena if Pena comes out here and just is dominant for the next half decade then this upset will still be an upset but it will look a lot different it'll look more like a changing of the guard as opposed to wow that was entirely unexpected. And the kicker in the coffin for me is, and I was honest about this in picking Pena. I don't particularly think Julianne Payne is a great fighter. I said it, even despite picking her.

I don't think she's a great fighter. I think that the criticisms levied against her are real and valid, but I was picking mostly, like half of it was as a joke. I'll be honest about that. And the other half was really just that it's incredibly difficult to hold the title for six years. basically nobody does it at some point you're going to have an off night and pain you and those off nights tend to come against overlooked opposition which is exactly what juliana paini was

but i still don't think that this hasn't changed my opinion that she's some like great fighter she took advantage of an opportunity and i think a lot of mat sarah is a fighter like matzara wasn't in the ufc but he was not a scrub by any means like he he was a blown up lightweight which adds some context to the welterweight concept here but i mean this is a dude who is in there with the best fighters of the day you know at the time and more than held his own with them like i think i'm not willing to say unequivocally pain is you know this is the biggest upset because for a lot of reasons but for me i i think especially how i think things are going to move forward with pain you reclaiming the belt uh or sorry not pain nunez reclaiming the belt i think it's just at this moment if

If Julianne Paine never fought again, I would categorize this as the biggest upset in history. What's also interesting about Sarah's win is that a lot of people felt like he didn't win his tough finale fight against Chris Lytle. The split decision should not have gone his way. And he takes that opportunity and becomes the champion. It's just so crazy. And I had actually, like, I mean, I wasn't covering M.A. at all at that point, but it was, I remember watching it at a buddy's house. and there was a friend of mine who was like a huge GSP mark. And I just had this feeling like listening to GSP's interviews and like the bill to the fight.

There was like just the weird MMA fan of me that felt that Matt Sarah was going to win that fight. I was just like he's not taking this guy seriously at all. And Matt Sarah, this is Matt Sarah's Super Bowl. So I ended up winning like 20 bucks on Matt Sarah that night, which is pretty cool. But everyone thought I was an idiot for actually like going out on a limb and saying like, I'll bet $20 on Matt Sarah. And this is a straight-up bet. Like, this wasn't, I didn't get any odds or anything. No odds, gee.

And the thing is, that's the recipe, right? Like, that is the recipe for a major upset is, Fighter A is not taking Fighter B seriously, and this is the most important fight of Fighter B's life. And, like, I had no belief that Matt Serra was pulling this off. I was with everybody else, especially because really Sarah, Sarah, still is it like a boxer?

I think he never was. It was not like a thing that he was not, incompetent on the feet, but it wasn't like, ah, he can maybe knock out George St. Pierre. He's going to have to grapple him and Matt Hughes couldn't do it. How the hell is Matt Sarah going to? And then damn if he didn't just punch him in the face. It's a really effective way to pull off upsets. You just punch the other person in the face a bunch. Do you feel like this Giuliana Pena win fits in that same realm? Like maybe Nunes didn't take her as seriously? I think so. I can't say for certain because, you know,

It's all armchair psychology, but I just find it really difficult to think that she was as best prepared as she could possibly be for this one. She has held that belt for almost six years. She was closing in on some, like, very impressive records as far as duration of title rain. I know this because today I was looking at my calendar and I had set markers for, like, when she would pass GSB's title reign and Anderson Silva's, and I just deleted that because that's not true. anymore. And I think it's just really difficult to, even if you're trying to stay keyed up on it, okay, this is, everybody is telling you that you're going to blow this woman away. And all of the tape suggests that you should just beat the crap out of her.

And I don't know how maybe she did come in prepared. But the other side of it is even if you haven't looked like overlooked him, you can still just have a bad day in the office, man. and certainly Amanda Nunes had that, and she admitted in her post-fight saying, yeah, I didn't have it today. I don't really know what it was. I didn't have it. And I think some of it probably speaks to some latent issues with the Mena Nunes, her fight style that hasn't manifested themselves in any of her fights lately. But I think most of it is she just didn't show up. And the most obvious explanation for not having it on the day of the fight is you didn't take preparation seriously.

What's so into, like I hear a lot of people say that, but that first round, Amanda dropped her. Like, she could have, like, whistled and Juliana Paney would have fallen down in that first round. But you could see the momentum kind of change in the last 10 seconds. Like, you could almost see a little frustration in Nunes's eyes and you saw Panias's confidence start to grow. And then she gets in the corner and she mentioned something to Rick Little. And Rick's like, this is exactly what we thought was going to happen. Like, you did a great job. Like, she's already getting tired.

Like, you're doing exactly what you needed to do. And I think that's exactly what Giuliana needed to hear at the time. She goes out there just does exert. She jumps right into the fire and beats Amanda Nunes, which is just unbelievable. They already have odds in the rematch. Nune's a three to one favorite. Doesn't surprise me whatsoever. Nunes seems hungry to get back.

And we'll see if that fight happens. But maybe even bigger than the Pena title win has been, where does this leave Kayla Harrison? Where does this leave Kayla? Was her reaction after Giuliana Pena, became the champion, Amanda Nunes lost. ESPN put out this clip. And you saw Michael Kiesa jumped the rail. And we all know what happened there after listening to Dana White and some of the

conversations we had behind the scenes here at MMA fighting. But then you see Kayla Harrison at the end. She's get her back turned. She's dropping F bombs. Ali's trying to calm her down. And immediately people looked at it as she's looking at what she's seeing this massive fight, this massive paycheck fly away. But at the same token, I'm thinking,

she just watched a teammate lose. You could go on Twitter and see that she bet with like Balal Muhammad that she would go on an Instagram live and like sing karaoke with him. Like all these bets that she had on Nunes. So like she was picking Nunes to win, whether that was for her favor or not, she's still picking Nunes to win. These two train together all the time.

And my argument is a lot of people thought Kayla Harrison lost a lot of money on Saturday. I felt like she made more money on Saturday. I felt just her being in that building her having a lower third with her name on it, her just being shown on pay-per-view on one of the biggest cards of the year, PFL, Bellator, all these companies are going to pay her more money just because she was there. The whole Brock Lesnar, WWE UFC negotiation. Brock shows up to a UFC event.

What does Vince McMahon do? Offers Brock Lesnar a whole bunch more money. A lot less dates, much juicier deal, and Brock signs with the WWE. But Brock was very smart. Listen to what the UFC had to say. showed up at a pay-per-view, lower third, boom, he made a lot more money. What side do you want? Do you feel like Kayla Harrison made more money on Saturday because she was there?

Or that she lost a lot and maybe the UFC isn't as interested anymore because the fight doesn't have the same appeal? Like, what did you think? Do you think it was kind of overblown that Kayla Harrison just watch this mighty payday, just walk away on Saturday night? So at the time, I thought that I was definitely in the camp of she was just upset about her teammate, like, losing, because people would be. I have slowly come to more to the side of those expletives. She shouted loudly and frequently were more tied to her immediate future

and kind of what lay in store for her outside of. I'm sure there's some of that teammate energy mixed in there, but I think that she knew that what Dana White said after the fact probably was true and that they were angling towards a really big fight there. I think ultimately it's fine because I'm with you in the case. camp that I don't think she lost money at all on Saturday night. I think at the absolute minimum, she breaks even for exactly the reasons you kind of pointed out.

I think she, you know, being on the UFC pay-per-view is that that's big for her. That getting, getting the bottom header, everything about that is, is only going to drive her price up in the bidding wars to come that I guess are currently ongoing. I think she'd lost a big fight, certainly, but I don't think she lost that big fight for that long. And so my kind of thought here is Juliania and Amanda Nunes are going to rematch and I think Amanda Nunes is going to win that fight. I'm the Oracle, so you should believe me when I say that Amanda Nunes is going to win that fight. I'm 100% right in my predictions of Amanda Nunes versus

Juliana Pena Pena Fights. So I think Amanda Nunes is going to win that rematch. She'll come in a lot more dialed serious and she won't let herself get drawn into a fight that she will lose by just tiring herself out. And so when that happens, the Kayla Harrison fight is still on the table. And as much as a lot of people we know want to argue that that fight, the value of that fight is in Amanda Nunes as an unbeatable entity. I don't think that that's true. I think the UFC only has one way to market.

They only know how to market the greatest fighters of all time. Or these guys hate each other. That's it. They got two bullets in the gun. They fire them. That's all they can do. but you don't have, I don't think you have to market Kayla Harrison, basically. I think she is the A side here for sure.

And I think her money, she's going to make her money regardless. People are going to tune in to watch Kayla Harrison fight anybody. And they will definitely tune in to watch her fight Amanda Nunes, who is the UFC champion again at that point. And frankly, I think there's a lot of good promotional material in that clip of Kayla Harrison's doing that. Because I think you can create a really good promo around this fight. of, you know, Kayla Harrison, hey, they're heading on a collision course. Manna Nunes gets biggest upset of all time. Because whether you agree or not, the UFC is for sure going to call this the biggest upset of all time in marketing,

in their marketing campaigns, biggest upset of all time. And then you can show the video of Kayla Harrison screaming the F word, you know, into the thing, and how she was upset about what she lost. And then Manna Nunes pulls herself back up by her bootstraps, gets the title back, avenges are lost dominantly the same way GSP did against Matt Sarah. And now you can have this big super fight. I think that's a very, that is a promo that sells itself. And I think Kayla Harrison is really the draw here anyway.

So I don't think she lost any money. She may well have made some. Yes. I honestly have no idea where she's going to end up. I, like starting this whole thing, I thought she'd be back at PFL, make that money. But I understand there's the competitor in her. I just don't, like, it's a huge. huge, like her and Nunes is a big fight, but then what? Like, who are you going to fight then? Like,

if you beat Nunes, you're going to fight Leah Letson? Like, what are you going to do? Like, at least at Belator, like, at least with Bel- if she signs a Belator, she gets a Cyborg fight, she could probably fight her a second time because Cyborg is, you know, cyber is freaking Cyborg. And right now, you can make the argument if you're Bellator that Chris Cyborg is the greatest women's MMA fighter of all time. And you know they're going to do that because they already say they have the best band in the world and the best light heavy weight in the world. So, They will absolutely spin that narrative. And then at least they have a division for her to compete in,

and they could pay her a lot of money to be the face of that organization. I just don't see the appeal. Yeah, like UFC has some power to it, but I just don't see the overall appeal. When one Dana blasted you for weeks before that, comparing your resume saying, if a man in Nunas fought the women that she fought, there might be the first death, like murder in the UFC and things like that.

Like all these different things that he was saying, just sort of burying Kayla. And now all of a sudden, he's changed course, which you kind of expected him to do. I just feel if you weigh out the pros and cons of each promotion, I feel like the UFC is the bronze medalist here. Are they not? No, you and I have talked about this a lot.

I've always thought she's going back to PFL for one more year because it's basically a free million dollars, and now she has the Julia Bud fight there, which is that's like a good legacy fight and a legitimately interesting bout. And I agree with you on Bellator. I will say, I think the UFC has, outside of just being the UFC, and I guess that ties into my argument, they have one thing that I don't think anybody else can reasonably offer. And that is, if they want to build something around her, they can.

I mean, Bellator can to an extent, and PFL certainly is trying to build it. But I think we all sort of operate under the assumption that those are, that's a little smoke and mirzy. whatever they are building is not something permanent and kind of lasting. New York C. could, if they felt compelled, legitimately build a women's featherweight division around Kayla Harrison. You know, there was talk of them doing that with Cyborg, and then they just didn't. Then they just brought her mercenaries to beat up.

And then Amanda Nunes took the belt, and now that division exists almost solely so Nunes can be a two-division champion, and now she can't because she is only the champion in one division. and so I think, and I've never gotten the sense from them that they're going to go all in on building this division behind Demand and Nunes. It has always felt to me that they were just waiting for Nunes to leave, and then they would close the division down. They don't have to. 145 is not the deepest division in the world by any stretch,

but there are enough bodies to make a viable featherweight division, and if you build it, they will come. Like, you can get more talent to that. And so if they want to come to Kayla and say, hey, look, we want to do this. We're going to actually devote resources to build a division around you and not just have you fight a bunch of loan-up venom weights, et cetera. And you can be the Ronda Rousey of women's 145. Because people are going to give Ronda Rousey a lot of shit forever, and that's okay. You know, some of it's certainly earned.

But where you cannot deny at all is that she is the, I think it is unequivocal. She is the most important female fighter that has ever lived. I mean, Chris Cyborg has a better resume and, you know, means more in some ways to the sport. But Ronda Rousey did more for MMA than anybody other than Connor McGregor and hoist Gracie. Like, and I don't think that is, I do not think you can argue that point even. And Kayla Harrison, you know, is not going to bring women's mixed martial arts as a hole into the UFC into the broader cultural spectrum like Rhonda did. But she can be the spearhead to bring, you know, higher weight class women's MMA.

she has that kind of captivating personality. And so I think the UFC would be more willing to get behind her in that fashion. And that sort of legacy is really, really interesting if you're somebody who's kind of into that. And I really like how Juliana Pena has been answering Kayla Harrison questions. Very smart on her part. And you know what's great about that? She's never going to fight Kayla Harrison. So that makes it even better.

Like she's so smart and she's not going to have to fight her because she said she's not going to go to $1.45. So, brilliance. I think Julianna Pena has done a tremendous job as champion over these four or five days. She did so much better than I thought she was going to. Again, I wrote about it on the site that morning about, like, what are the best possible outcomes for, like, post-fight callouts? I was like, they're all going to be awful. The only chance any of the title fights have to have a cool post-fight callout

is maybe Dustin Porier or Charles Oliver get, like, real antsy about Justin Gaci. but then that didn't even really happen but Pena was like good on the mic I thought she was going to be terrible I thought you was like I told you all you all suck and I'm a genius and instead she was she was the most charming she has ever been as a fighter

because she has never been charming as a fighter but like she made that is the way you do a star turn I don't know if she's going to be one but I think she has done everything note perfect at this which is shocking yep

She has done that. And in addition, she has planted seeds for other fights like Valentina Shepchenko, which I really like a lot. And maybe we'll see that fight happen. But let's talk about what happened in the main event, the aftermath of that. We have been singing the praises of Charles Olivera for a while. This year has been crazy. And once Giuliana Pena won the title, I thought back to what you said, that 2021 has been sort of the feel-good year. Look at some of the champions that we have right now.

Branagh-Morreino, Glover Tashara, Charles Olivera, now Giuliana Pena. and the list goes on and on. But Dustin Porre seems to be the big story after this because he doesn't know what he's going to do. He's kind of left it acrossroads right now. He did an interview, which admittedly I have not watched in its entirety on the M.A. hour because I've been doing so much, but I saw some clips.

One of which is that he doesn't think he's ever going to fight a 155 again, which I actually don't blame him. I think that's a fine idea at this point because it's such a long road to get back to a title when he could just go up to 170 and get some big-ass fights. I disagree. I mean, I agree that going to 170 big fights, but I mean, if Justin Gachi beats Charles Olivera, which I'm going to pick him to do, and again, I'm the Oracle, if he beats that fight,

like that is, Foyer is right there. Like, he has got that win over Gachi. He needs another win. Like, they're not going to let him go in off the title fight, but, like, it is entirely plausible that Oliver fights Gachie. loses. Foreier gets a fourth fight with Connor because that's the thing Connor wants to do. Or are you going to beat

Connor third time? And then it's just like, all right, well, sorry, Islam, we're going to do this fight. That's totally in the world of possibility. That is, there is probably some truth to that in modern UFC times, but

he doesn't seem to want to do that. He seems to maybe want to go to 170. In fact, he said some, some interesting things. One of which is that nothing excites him right now in terms of the fight game. Nothing excites him except for Nate Diaz. Nate Diaz seems to be the only name that gets him fired up to even want to consider

fighting again at this point. Your thoughts on this. Is he playing this right? Because I feel like going for that Nate fight. And I know Nate's on the last fight of its deal. And, you know, maybe it's a little much for him. It's almost like you're rewarding him. You're throwing up against Desipori.

But I feel like Dustin has a really good chance of winning that. that fight. He'd be a heavy favorite in that fight. And if Dustin comes in clearheaded and doesn't try to like just gas out in the first round trying to knock out Nate Diaz, I think he's a very good chance to win that fight. And with that comes the spoils of getting the Nate Diaz rub. I think he's playing this perfectly because if this fight's going to happen, it's going to be Dustin that gets it. It's not going to be Nate calling for Dustin. It's going to be Dustin calling for Nate. Your thoughts on just some of the clips that you saw, I don't know if you watched that whole interview and just his thoughts that right now

Nate's the guy. Nate's the only guy that really gets him excited to even want to fight again. I have to assume he's just playing the game and playing it well because this is what he should be asking for, right? Like, if he is not playing for a title, if you're not playing for the title,

you play for money. That is how the fight game should work. And the money fights are fourth with Connor and Nate Diaz. He's not going to fight Jorge Mosvital. That's like the other money fight. He's not going to fight Jorge. So you play for him.

for Connor, you play for Nate. Connor, that's probably a back pocket fight. He can probably punch that ticket sort of whenever he wants at this point. And we still don't really know Connor's timeline. I know he's coming back next year. But Nate Diaz, that is an imminently winnable fight for him. Makes a ton of sense. I hope what he's saying isn't true, though,

because that's, I don't know, man. I don't feel great with somebody saying, yeah, I'm just not into fighting unless it's this dude. Like that, especially after the fact of losing in a not very good performance, you know, you lost your lightweight title bid in a performance that wasn't bad per se, but it wasn't great. And there's a lot to critique in it. That sort of makes me kind of question retroactively like, well, were you just not that pumped to face Charles Oliveri either? Is that why you kind of came out and engaged in a brawl immediately and then just sort of looked listless as soon as it was. went to the ground and look like you didn't have an idea of what you should do.

So I don't love the things, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the idea there is absolutely right. Go for an idea. It's like, that's, that's, that's a fight people who care about. And if you're not trying to make a run at a belt, there is no other fight that makes more sense. But on a more real, realistic sense, I don't give Dana White credit for much because you don't deserve credit for much. But I do think one of the most salient quotes he's ever said, and he says it all the time,

is if he says it about fighters, you know, fighters talking about retirement or talking about, you know, not fighting, they should just not fight because they need to be all the way in it. And I think that is absolutely true because the margins are tiny. They're infinitesimally small. And you need to be, and the dangers are very real, like very, very, very. pretty real. And so if he is not excited to fight anybody, I'm less excited to even see him fight Nate Diaz, honestly. Like, I'll still watch it, but you're starting to sell me on, and I'm not really that, because to me, that reads as, I don't really care about the fighting Nate Diaz. I'm

excited to fight for millions of dollars. And that's a valid reason to fight, but it's, there's something there that irks me, if that makes sense. I get where you're coming from. But it just seems like for a while now and maybe it's just the maturity of Dustin Porier maybe it's all the money he made from the Connor fights and just the rub he got from those wins and the star

that it made him but I feel like he's I feel like he's lost the love for the game man like I felt that way for a while and it's not it's not that he doesn't like fighting like if Dustin Porreier could just sign a contract show up on Saturday and fight

I think he'd be the happiest guy in the world But I think MMA as a sport that builds to these fights, especially the position he's in now, I think he hates it. I think he hates everything about it. I'm sure, especially because, like, Poir is very, he's been open about being, he loves his family. Like, that is the thing. And when he trains, he leaves his family to go to Coconut Creek and train. And that's, like, I get why people would not want to fight. That makes all the sense in the world.

And I'm in no way blaming him if he feels that way. but I'd rather him not fight a Nate Diaz fight that serves very little purpose other than making a bunch of money like just don't fight buddy that's okay you've made your money like if I thought if he had won there's a really good chance he retired

like I thought of you and that because there was some of that sense to it coming in now he's lost and I feel like he maybe feels some compulsion to keep going because he didn't get that final you know thing on his resume that bullet that says as I was a champion, an undisputed champion. And I don't want to see that.

Dustin Porre is one of the most exciting fighters of all time, and he's a Hall of Famer in my book for sure. And if he's not into it, don't just fight for the money. You got some money. You've got a burgeoning hot sauce business. You are doing wonderful things with your charity. Like, focus on those in your family, and that's okay. Like, that is more, that's more than enough for any person in my book.

And I would rather him not risk life and limb to chase something because he feels that he should or has to. Yeah, I think the Nate fight is kind of personal at this point. They were booked to fight before. There's been a lot of trash talk since then. I think, I don't know if he's turned the page on fighting for titles. Me personally. Like, I get that people get bothered by Nate Diaz and I just don't, I don't. I don't get it because the things he says are obviously wrong.

So it's like you can't be upset by somebody who's just like, no. Uh-uh. It's like being mad at your like your six-year-old nephew who just like won't admit that he's the guy who track the dog crap in the house. No, I didn't do it. It is literally the dog poop on your shoe. Uh-huh, you did it. I like, Nate's just nonsensical. So like, why would anyone take him seriously and be mad by him?

Nate Diaz is in Tampa right now. I got to put eyes upon him today as he'll be, he's around with Chris Avula, who's getting ready to fight, Anthony Taylor on Saturday in this big boxing event, which will be headlined by Jake Paul versus Tyron Woodley to Jed Mishu. It is going down. What a segue.

It's going down. It's happening. And it was announced earlier today. It was talked about a lot of the workouts that this will be the biggest combat sports event at the Amelay Arena in Tampa, which is a pretty big deal. I have to go back into the history books, but that's a big ass arena, and they're making bank. Biggest gate, biggest crowd. They sold a lot of tickets for this thing and love Jake Paul or not.

The guy knows how to market. The guy knows how to sell out a building. And the guy knows how to generate interest because we don't like to talk about clicks and numbers. But when that dude fights, it is Christmas for MMA fighting because people care. People will say on Twitter they don't care. But you know what? You care. If you don't watch it, you're on MMA fighting all day long trying to figure out watching A.K. Lee's incredible play-by-play from start to finish from the first punch thrown to the final bell ringing. You pay attention. This fight in particular, Jed, we had Jake Paul versus Tommy Fury. You were very vocal at the end of Paul Woodley won that if Jake Paul fought Tommy Fury, it would not be a good night for him. Tommy Fury would win. That he would get bolted, I believe, would. was the word you said. So Fury is out, injury and training, Woodley back in.

Your thoughts. Are you excited for this? Like, does this appeal to you at all? Not really. I was interested in the first one because I thought it was, Jake Paul has loved him or hate him. He has managed his boxing career optimally. He could not have improved on the way he has catered his career.

Every step has been calculated and perfect. I thought Woodley was an obvious next step. in that regard. And to some extent, Tommy Fury was still a really good choice. I just thought Tommy Fury was a bridge too far. I think he is going to beat Tyron Woodley because why wouldn't he? We're going to have something up on the site, you know, a roundtable on it. And my stance is very simply heading into that first fight I was interested because Tyron Woodley still can punch really hard. And that's like a thing that he can do, even though for the basically his entire career, even at his peak, Tyrone Woodley's biggest problem was that he didn't, he wouldn't fight.

He would not put the output required to win rounds. He won fights with big bursts of offense. And we saw that time and again. That's why Stephen Thompson got a draw with him in a fight where he got knocked down like 17 times. Because outside of the times when Stephen Thompson was getting his ass beat, he was doing something. And Tyrone Woodley was literally doing nothing. and we even saw that still in the rematch. There were just several rounds where Woodley did nothing.

And so I always knew that if this went to a decision, Tyron cannot possibly win. He is not going to outbox Jake Paul because he's not going to throw enough to win a boxing match, but maybe he can land a big punch and kill him. Well, we saw him land a big punch and he didn't kill him. And so we know that now. The only question I had was answered. And so now we've got a Woodley who's even older because, that's how time works.

You get older as time goes on. So he's closer to 40. He might even be 40 versus a guy who is getting better. Because Jake Paul has been training in the middle for a much more dangerous opponent. And so he's probably been getting better. The only way I see this going any different is if Jake Paul does the thing we talked about at the top of the show, Jake Paul overlooks Woodley because he won that fight. And that kind of leads his downfall.

But I don't think he's going to. mainly because he did get buzzed by Woodley in the first one. He knows that Woodley does have the power to hurt him, and so he cannot take this entirely lightly, but I think this is going to be a better performance from him as a result. He's not going to come out and try and brawl with Woodley at all or even give him the chance to. The only way I think Tyron can do anything

is if he entirely changes who he's been for his full career and comes out guns blazing. Like get or get got, swing for the fences, and see who drops first. And that is not who Tom Wiley has ever been. I think it would give him a very good chance to win this fight, actually, if he just tried to make this an ugly brawl. But he's not going to do it.

He's going to try and counter him with one big shot. And even if he lands the one big shot, the thing I didn't take into account, honestly, that I should have beforehand is this is boxing and not MMA. So if he lands the one big shot on Paul, it's not like he can follow up and pound him out on the ground. He lands the one big shot, Paul takes the knee,

He gets, you know, the nine-second count to recover, and then he can just run away and or clinch, Woodley, and make it to the end of the round. Get his head back underneath him, and then he's fine. So, yeah, I'm extremely confident Jake Paul is winning this fight. I don't know what the odds are, but I bet they are on my side as well. I think Paul's a minus, like, 225 favorite or something like that, which is... Hammer that line. That is thought. He feels minus 400.

They literally just fought. We saw what happens. I got to look this up. Let me just, I know this is super unprofessional, but let me move this around, see, I don't normally do this on my laptop, so Paul Woodley, two betting odds, where we are right now?

Let's go to Odds Shark. It's not minus 300, that's shocking. Where are we? Where are we? Good grief. It makes it so hard to find these lines. Minus 275 for Jake Paul, as of December 15th. Yeah, plus 200 for Tyron Woodley.

Let me ask you this, Because I got to, by the way, for those who cover MMA and you're like, oh, you know what would be awesome to go cover a big boxing event? Let me just give you some advice. Stay at MMA. It's just so much nicer. Believe me when I tell you this, it's just a whole different ballgame when dealing with other media members.

It's just I was getting a little frustrated out there at certain media members, but that's beside the point. I was able to ask a couple of questions. of these fighters. So I asked Jake Paul two questions. One, he has said from the get-go that he has more pressure on him than Tyron Woodley has. So I asked him why he felt that way. And Jake's answer was kind of surprising to me because his answer almost made it seem like Woodley actually had more pressure because he says losing is a habit. And if Woodley lose, like Woodley's a loser, He's been losing all these fights.

So he doesn't have a lot of pressure because he's just lost all the time. But I want to be the next Muhammad Ali. And I'm doing all these things. Like if Tyrant wins, it does nothing for the sport. It does nothing for anybody else. If I win, I'm on this road to potentially being the next Muhammad Ali, which I didn't really understand. And then, of course, there's Tyron Woodley. You don't get a lot of second chances in this life.

And Tyron Willey's getting a second chance here. Do you agree with Jake that he has all the pressure here? or is there like a whole shitload of pressure on Tyron Woodley here? Now that he's asked for this rematch, he got the damn tattoo. You got to go out there and knock this dude out. And if you don't, like, now what? Like, where do you go from here now? What do you think?

Who has more pressure on him? Jake Paul or Tyron Woodley? Jake Paul just, God, he just wants me to not like him. I think that's it because nothing that he said is right or smart or good. Everything that you just said was awful. One, just don't. We don't need to dive into the Muhammad Ali thing, but like, no. Nobody alive say you're the next Muhammad Ali.

You're not for a lot of reasons, and definitely the white dude from Ohio is not the next Muhammad Ali. So why don't you just shelve that idea, write the F now. Leave that one at home. That's fine. Like we don't need that nonsense in our lives. It's very dumb, very, very dumb. Second, I totally disagree with him on the pressure thing, mainly because, I mean, it depends on stakes, I guess.

If he actually was trying to be the next Muhammad Ali, and that wasn't just a soundbite he says because people will respond to it, if that was like he's trying to be the greatest of all time, sure, he's got pressure, don't want to lose, he's undefeated. He's not. He's trying to make a bunch of money and sell pay-per-views and, you know, live out his fantasy that he is a professional combat sports athlete, which fine. I don't begrudge the man for getting paid, and I certainly don't begrudge him for doing it in the way that he can monetize really, really effectively. But if he loses on Saturday, what happens? Nothing happens.

He'll have a third fight with Tyron Woodley, have a really good chance to win that fight, because again, I would probably pick him, depending on what happened Saturday. He'll make a boatload more money. his marketability won't drop an ounce because boxing people aren't tuning into this. We've said it from the jump. This isn't like he is not drawing in the boxing crowd and he is drawing in the layperson, people who don't really care about boxing sport,

but they care about him and the personality and the story or whatever. The YouTube kids and all of that are tuning in, and they're going to tune in regardless. If he loses a bunch, then you run the risk of diluting the brand. But he loses one time to a former UFC champion. he's got a baked-in safety net, even though he beat him already and say, yeah, well, I shouldn't have beat him the first time.

The fact that I did, how impressive that is, yeah, he got one over on me. But again, this guy's a former UFC champion. Let's run it back. He's set to go. He's fine. With Tyron Woodley, this is the end of his combat sports career. Like, as simple as that,

I don't believe that he can realistically move forward after this fight this weekend. I didn't think he was going to get the rematch. I thought he did his best, but he wasn't going to, but he played it smart enough that he could take advantage of an opportunity like this. But if he loses, he has said time and again about what he's interested in doing next year, and he wants to fight four times and four different sports and do all of this. I don't know who's coming for him.

Like maybe an MMA organization will offer him something just to get whatever shine you can. But then he's going to have to lower his standards because the other part of what he's saying, saying is I only want to find really big fights that if you have this kind of promotional feel that I've been getting in the boxing world, nobody in boxing is going to offer him that because why would they? He's not a draw. Nobody cares about Tyraudley. And MMA doesn't promote something like that.

Like there are so few options for him moving forward off a loss here because he'll have lost six in a row, six fights in a row, and it hasn't looked good in any of them. So it's, I don't know what you can market. Like maybe he can keep going because the. promoter appetite for sadness is seemingly endless, but I think that this makes a break, this is either the end of his combat sports career, or this is the end of his combat sports career this weekend if he gets lost.

So then it's an enormous amount of pressure. If he has designs on continuing to fight, he needs to win this one. I agree with you for the most part, but we have seen. As long as there's the BKFCs of the world, as long as there's the trillers of the world, I think there's always a place. for Tyrone Woodley somewhere where he can make a pretty good living.

So yes, I think he needs this one. I think all the pressure's on him. I really do believe that. I think Jake losing isn't the end of the world. But let's just say nothing changes. Jake goes out there just beats up Tyron Woodley. Woodley can't get going. Back against the ropes.

Won't throw a punch. And we're frustrated all over again. So normal Woodley, got it. Yes. Let's say we get normal Woodley. if Jake Paul wins a decision, is that enough? Or does he need to go out there and stop Taryn Willey and just put this to rest once and for all? I think, I mean, it's enough because, again, it's just not going to change anything.

Like, no outcome changes any dynamic. Jake Paul is the actual definition of playing with house money, his entire life probably, but certainly his combat sports career. because no matter what goes wrong, quote unquote, he is still a millionaire YouTuber that can just go do that again. However, his fight career plays out, the only stakes that exist for him as a combat sports athlete are if you genuinely believe that he genuinely believe

he is a combat sports athlete. And he definitely doesn't. And everyone just needs to figure that out. He doesn't because if he did, he wouldn't be fighting. the fights he's fighting. He would be fighting actual boxers, like actual real boxers, club level dudes who nobody knows because that's how you get better. That's how you climb the boxing ranks. He's not. He's a fight promoter who's just trying to make money. And that's

great. Like he's really good at it. And that's fine. But that doesn't go away if he wins a decision for Tyron Woodley. Nothing matters. That man is going to succeed regardless because he was born with a silver microphone in his hand, and that's okay. You can't hate a man for taking advantage of the very advantageous circumstances of his life. So, no, he has nothing changes. It would be way better for him, yes. He will be able to talk more shit and promote more and do all the things if he knocks out Tyron Woodley.

But if he just wins a decision, that's more than enough. It's going to be interesting. I'm going to be there. I'm very fascinated by it still. even though I'm still leading with Jake Paul to win again, but I'm fascinated by it. I'd love to see Woodley have that Rocky Bell-Bowar versus Clubber Lang 2 mentality where he just prepares for four rounds

and just gets after for four rounds. And if he can't put Jake away, then he's just going to have to take what's coming to him. Two, two. Okay, two or three. No, two rounds all the way. You need to come in with the Randy Costa, like get or get got in the first five minutes. minutes. And if it's not, if we're outside of the first five minutes, I'm done, otherwise known

as the Connor McGregor. He needs to do that. He needs to come out and just swing because I genuinely think that is by far his best chance to win. And you have a really good chance because that is not at all. I guarantee you that's not at all what Jake Paul thinks is about to happen. He thinks it's going to be the exact same fight and he just has to worry about the counter, the big counter shot. And so if instead Woodley just charges and starts bombing on him. Like, let's see how he does with it. Jake Paul doesn't have great defense. Like, he can't.

He's new to boxing. Defense develops over time. He's powerful and athletic and can take a shot. And so just hit him a bunch and see who falls down first. It's like fighting in elementary school. Do you ever get into fights in elementary school? I got into fights all the time in elementary school. People who have seen me know that I'm not some hulking dude who beats ass for living.

But I won all the time in elementary school Because all fighting is then is swinging first The first dude to land a shot on a fellow fifth grader or whatever That kid's just going to start crying and you won That stops working as puberty hits And then you hit somebody and they can hit back But that's what this fight is Like Jake Paul has been hit a precisely one time in his career

He didn't handle it all that well Though it wasn't horrendous And so Woodley just needs to do that again Run forward try and punch him really hard for five minutes and you might well get this dude out of there that way that might have been the best comparison i've ever heard in my life with this fight so you're on fire jett between juliana painy and that comparison i i you might just retire right now do you not remember like fights in elementary school if you swung first you just won the dude yeah kid cries goes to the principal

goes to the teacher you might get in trouble but you won yeah because no no freaking seven-year-old wants to get hit in the face and you know who also doesn't want to get in the face, a rich kid from Ohio who hasn't struggled in life. There's no, he hasn't had to pull himself up by his bootstraps or gone hungry sleeping on the boxing gym floor to chase this dream. He has silk sheets and a soft bed at home. Make him think of those and he will quit. Oh, man, I wish you had nothing else to talk about

because I've been the perfect way to end this. We got Frank Gore and Darren Williams. I'm actually really interested in that fight. Both guys looked really good in their workouts. I'd say Frank Gore looked terrifying at times in his workout. Yeah, dude, that's going to be fun. It's a lot of fun. Of course, Amanda Serrano on that card,

everyone's going to be looking to see how she does, and then they could set up the fight with Katie Taylor, which should definitely happen. It should be a big money fight. That would be a huge fight for women's boxing. And then, of course, we got Anthony Taylor and Chris Avila and a couple other bouts on this card. But we will have you covered over at M.A.fiting.com.

You mentioned Jake Paul. This is a house money fight for him. UFC Vegas 45 is coming up this Saturday. The final events of the year. And a lot of times, Jed, when we have these awesome UFC pay-per-view events the weekend before, there's that hangover, right? There's the hangover. You're like, oh, man, I don't know how this thing can compare.

But this is the last one, man. We get Derek Lewis in the main event against Chris Dawkes. It doesn't matter who Derek Lewis is fighting. People are going to care because people love Derek Lewis. Is this a house money card for the UFC? Can they do no wrong here after UFC? It's the last one. Then you get about a month break before you bring back Calvin Cater and Giga Chikaze in January.

I feel like the UFC doesn't have a lot to lose here. They could just go on, have some fights. I bet Dana White's not going to be there. This is a house money card, is it not? For sure, he's not going to this one. Come on. This is a house money card. That man is already in Cabo.

Yeah, they don't keep it. The UFC wants us to be a fun card, but they know that, you know, if the combat, sports community had a choice of what to watch on Saturday. They can only pick one. They're not picking the UFC. So they're just going to go out there and have a card and there's some interesting fights on the card. But to them, this is like, whatever happens, happens, man.

We're coming off a massive year, the last paper of the year, kicked ass. Derek Lewis on this card. We're fine. No matter what happens here, we're good. Yeah, man. So honestly, this, I think this is the best card the UFC has put together this year. And that is a bold statement, so let me back it up. because they could have mailed this one in,

they did not have to put anything of value on this card whatsoever. This is to hit the number that they need to. Everybody's about to go home for a month. Nobody's doing crap until mid-January. Christmas is right around the corner. We've got the hangover from 269. They could have mailed this all the way in. Nobody would have given any amount of a crap about it.

But instead, this card is low-key awesome. Like, every fight on the main card has value, is interesting, or both. And most of the undercard is really good, too. Like, Raquel Pennington versus Mason-Chason is just hanging out there as, like, one of the early fights. That's a really good and very relevant women's band-in-weight fight. That's just going to happen at, like, I don't know, 6 p.m. or whatever on Saturday. And at 145. Pay attention to it.

Is this an early card? No, no, they're fighting at 145 pounds. Oh, oh, 145. Gotcha. I thought, it's like, 145 p.m. Great, that's even better. I think it's a 1 p.m. prelim, though. I think it's a 4 p.m. main card.

They're absolutely crushing it. Good for them. This is perfect. This is like the platonic ideal of a UFC card for me. So, like, this card's awesome. I think this card shows is the, the card that shows the most this year that, like, There are people who work at this and take their job seriously and care about putting on good fights and promoting good events, which is not always the case with UFC cards. Frequently, it's not.

Frequently, it just looks like they're just trying to get to 42 because that's what the ESPN contract requires. But not this one. Like, this one could be trashed and instead is really, really good. And I'm actually looking forward to Saturday. It is a nice, I don't call it a dessert. It's a nice coffee after the dessert and great meal that was. 269. It's a nice coffee. You have a coffee, cigar, you toast

the year out. That's what we're going to have. Maybe some brandy. This is a lovely little Saturday card. I'm really interested in it. Yes, and I was wrong. Prelims are at 4. Main Cards are 7. So still a relatively early card. Oh, still earlyish. Yeah. But yes, I think the main card is really good. Derek Lewis, Christakis, is interesting. Stephen Thompson,

Blahmahman, big fight for both guys. Amanda Lameh, who I think could be the Strawway champion very, very soon. She is an animal and taking on Angela Hill It's a really good test for her. Hafiel Asunsao is fighting again. We haven't seen him fight since Cody Garberant and Noctimo. He's fighting in Ricky Simone, Diego Faheda versus Matush Gammarah is a great fight.

Darren Elkins versus Cub Swanson is a great fight. What's the low-key banger, Jed? And why is it Gerald Mirashar versus Dustin Stoltzvus? First, just to give context here, this is a 14-fight main card I'm looking at. Only six fighters don't have wikis. And a few of those are people who should have wikis, like people that I know just. off the top of my head. Josh Brees and Jordan Levitt.

Like, those are good fighters who could easily have wikis. Like, this is, you don't get this that often. Lo-key-banger, um, on the main, I don't feel like anybody cares on the main card, but Coloste-Fa-Hara-Matheur-Mat is awesome.

Um, that fight is dope as hell. And that's probably the fight that people, I've heard the least talked about this weekend. Um, and that fight is tremendous. Uh, on the undercard, I mean,

Gerald Meershardt is always hilarious to watch. There's, I just, dude, just look at Gerald Meershart's career. He will forever have a very warm and happy place in my life, strictly for the Hamzachian fight. And I'm going to take this dude to deep waters.

He doesn't know what's coming. He's never faced a guy like me. In fact, I'm actually getting knocked out in 17 seconds. This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. But look, Gerald Mearshaar, I've talked about it before on one of the other programs, there's a great skill in this sport to winning or losing in exciting fashion. And that's what Gerald Mearshaar does.

That man, he wins fun with some weird grapples and he loses fun by being cartoon punched out. And so it is always worth watching this guy fight. And Dustin Sulphitz is also a pretty fun dude. man has a twister submission victory to his resume this could be a fun grappling match or Stolfo just a better athlete and could just

punch Gerald Muir Shrott and facing might fall over so that probably is I mean honestly I would say that Rocknell Pennington Macy Jason is it's not a banger because neither of those women are like the most exciting but that's

it's being contested at 145 is that right It's at 145. You're 145? Well, is Chason, does Chason fight at 145? No, she fights at 35.

No, she's Bannamway, right? She fought at 145 on Tuft. She took the fight on, Pennington was supposed to fight Julia Avila, and then Avila at Tori, E.C.L. So Chiasan came in on like a week and a half to notice. And Chasen won tough at 144, but then dropped to Bannamway.

That's right. So this is the rarest thing in the world, which is, it's a, it is, a ban on way fight, but it is a women's ban and weight fight between two women who are on winning streaks because nobody in that division is on winning streaks, basically, and both both Rocky and Jason have two fight winning streaks, which is, that puts them right near

title contention, frankly, because nobody else has more than two. So this will be, I don't actually, with, honestly, with the man and he is losing, this may, in fact, be. for who has the longest active win streak in the UFC Bannonweight division, even though technically it will be a featherweight fight. Wow, that's a great point right there. Beaks volumes to the division. It's an interesting fight because Macy Chesson will not have Safe Sayud in the corner. Safe will not be there.

Safe will is here in Tampa with Darren Williams. Really? Yeah, I saw him earlier on, unless he's like just here for a couple days and he's going to Vegas, but I don't think so. I bet, I mean, Darren Williams is a co-owner of his gym, so I assume he's going to be there with him. You got to take that. You got to follow the money.

Got to follow the money. It'll be interesting to see what the odds are. I suspect Mason-Chason isn't bringing in a ton of cash to the gym. Perhaps. I mean, it's just supposed to fight Aspen Ladd twice this year, and they both fell out, both those fights fell out for different reasons. That really would have been a good fight, though. Yeah, and I still think that's an option at some point.

It'll happen at some point. Andre, you'll go into 145 is interesting against Charles Dordain, really needs a win. You know, Don't tell Maze, Josh Parisian, is going to be just insane. Matt Sales, Jordan Levitt's probably going to be insane, but I'm going with Hione. You know, and you got Hayonelho's heavyweights, buddy. Yeah, and you got Justin Taffa and Harry Hunsucker. You know, that's going to be just a blast.

But I'm going with Hione Barcelos taking on the debuting Victor Henry. Victor Henry is in the UFC in the year of our Lord, 2021. And only took them 26 fights, 34 years of it. of age, this guy's fought everywhere. Multiple fights with Risen, multiple fights with Deep, King of the Cage, pancreas many, many times. This guy's been fighting for a long-ass time. So when I found out that he was getting the call,

I knew he was signed to the UFC. I had no idea who he was fighting because he wouldn't tell me, but he just told me like it was probably happening. This guy's fighting in the UFC. This is crazy. And what a fight he's got. Hione-Bars is one of those Bannerweights. It's just such a sick, deep division.

Barcellas in any other division is probably a top 12 guy, but here he is at Bannamway. It's probably like a top 25 guy, and Victor Henry is just chaos. He's an absolute chaotic fighter. That's going to be fun, man. That's my low-key bangers. No one knows who Victor Henry is, for the most part,

outside of like the hardcores. I mean, it's a really good choice, especially Barcellus has two fight of the nights in a row, and, I mean, there's a pretty solid chance. They go three for three here. If I was putting money, I still would honestly put it on Fahe, gamrock because I think that fight is going to be awesome yeah that's a real good I think

there's going to be a lot going on in that fight a lot of mixing of those martial arts but uh but rani bosellas victor henry like that has a really good chance also to win that probably that probably has way better odds for fight at the night than than any of the other fights in the cord and cdf needs this win badly needs it lost the derrush got submitted by gregor gillespie in just a wild and crazy fight where he missed weight by a lot by four and a half pounds. So hopefully that weight cuts better this time around. It's a tough fight, man, Matush Gamrots looked really, really good.

He lost his first UFC fight in a fight that a lot of people thought he actually won, including his opponent, Guram Kutatilatze. I thought it was very, very close. And then comes back. Yeah, dude, this is a big fight. This is one of those, this is perfect matchmaking. This is absolutely the fight that should have been made. I know they booked CDF with Grant Dawson, and that fight didn't pan out because CDF got injured,

but this is a much better fight. This is a perfect fight for the division. You have one guy's on a two-fights kid trying to defend his spot against a guy who probably deserves to be in that spot right now, just based on what he's done over his three UFC fights. Man, I really like that fight. It's a great choice, too. Really good fight. How impressive is it that the co-main event is just, I don't care about it at all.

It's like objectively a good fight, and I can't even bring myself to do that. care. Why? I don't know. It's honestly one of the fights I'm the least interested on this whole card. And because I think Stephen Thompson is going to beat up Balah Muhammad in a clinical and uninspiring fashion. And so it's just like, yeah, Balamah Muhammad, he's just not going to be able to dictate the range on Stephen Thompson. That's how you beat Stephen Thompson. You have to either have a tremendous outburst of sudden offense to make range fighting not matter, or you're going to have to be able to take that range away with, like, super consistent pressure and good footwork.

I don't think he's going to do. I think Thompson is going to dance around him and pot shot him and maybe find a big shot to hurt ball, but ball is really tough, so I don't think he's going to actually be able to put him away. I think this is just going to be Thompson karate fighting for 15 minutes, and that's like, that has value. It's not bad.

I just, I feel, extremely confident how this fight's going to play out. And so it has very little appeal to me for whatever reason. The Oracle has spoken. I feel like it's going to be a very interesting test. I think Blah has great pressure. I think he can, I think he can take Stephen Thompson down. Like, I don't think it's going to, I'm with you that winner, Lou, whoever wins this

fight, it's not going to be a fight we're going to be talking about as fight of the year, maybe even fight of the hour. But yeah, I think it's just, it's there. stylistically doesn't seem like it's going to be a ton of fun but I like the matchup Stephen Thompson despite losing to Gilbert Burns I think I mean he's still in this title conversation no doubt about it two wins he's probably fighting Usman for the title he just needs to win two in a row and he'll get there he should have gotten there already if we're being honest

but we'll see what happens that's why we step in the cage and have these fights so also also matter respect for Angela Hill yes that woman fights freaking anybody. And it hasn't worked out for her career-wise in a lot of respects. And probably not going to work out this weekend because I'm with you.

Amanda Lemos is awesome. But mad respect for that woman because, I mean, look at her resume. She has, conveniently, most of her wins are not over the greatest people. But like, she has fought all of the people. Every one of them.

She is game to go for it. And that, that's awesome. She's fought all of the people. And she watched the entire Triller Triad Combat Card on our YouTube channel with Casey and I. Yeah. And commentated the whole time. She is great. And I have nothing but respect for Angela Hill.

Yep. Right back at you. And I have nothing but respect for you and your takes and your no gray areaness and your predictions for these fights and your Oracle nature, Jedmishu. And I appreciate you coming on. You know, we had a call in Audible here and for good reason. And a lot of people like when we just hit record and just go with the floor. low and that's what we did here, Jed.

Any final words for the people before a very busy weekend in combat sports once again? Just because we didn't talk about it, I will say, I mean, we touched on it, we didn't speak too heavily to it. I will say, congrats to Charles Olivera. I have been one of the people who has been beating the drum that Dustin Poria is the best lightweight in the world

since he'd retired. Even though I think that Justin Gachie is actually the best, insofar as I would have picked him to beat anybody, I think Poirier's resume deserved it, and I thought Poirier was going to do the damn thing and finally get his title. And Charles O'Levair not only beat him, he beat him in a way that if you had told me going into the fight, this was how Charles O'Levare intended to fight, I would have bet my freaking mortgage on Dustin Poirier. Charles O'Levare came in with the game plan of, I'm going to brawl with this dude, and I'm going to outlast him. And he damn sure did. the narrative about him being a quitter, that's gone, like gone, gone.

Nobody should ever talk about that one again. And this dude, he's the dude. He is the rightful heir to Habib's lightweight throne until such time as somebody takes it from him. So shouts to him. And rest in peace, Cody Garbrandt, we hardly knew ye. Yes. He hardly knew ye as a flyweight. UFC, I don't care what A.K. Lee says.

I know we fought about it on BTL. I don't care what Casey Leiden says. Book him against Sean O'Malley, and let's just call it today. Enough is enough. Like, go up to 135, fight Sean O'Malley. Let's go. Enough. There's no tune-up fights.

It doesn't work that way when the pay structure is the way that is. It just doesn't work. You can't do that. And I know we're all concerned. We don't want to see Cody get knocked out again. But if you want to keep it, he either fights Minnell Cap or he fights Cody. Those are the two options, and he's probably going to get knocked out in either of those fights. I want to see him get knocked out again because I think if he gets knocked out again, he will retire.

Because I think somebody in his team will be like, dude, you've been dropped eight times in your last five fights or whatever, whatever absurd number it is. Like, I think we're well past thinking Cody Garbrandt can get it together. Like, that's nobody has ever done that in the history of the sport outside of Andrei Olavski. like seriously i don't know of a single person who has been knocked out like violently four or five times now whatever number it is and then had a career researchance the only person that comes to mind at all is andrea eloski who actually did it twice but he did it at heavyweight and that's a very different ballgame so cody garbant's career is done it's just how long he keeps taking brain damage for money so if he gets one more big knockout maybe we can just it we can

limited the exposure to that as opposed to him getting a tune-up fight and fighting, you know, another two or three years. That's actually a really interesting point. And my final thoughts are because you mentioned Charles Olover and you mentioned Habib, let's talk about a gentleman who's been attached to both of those guys. Thought Charles Olaver in a main event last year was one of the first guys to actually actively call out Habib Narragam Adolf. And now he's fighting for Habib Naramagavadav.

Kevin Lee, signs with Eagle FC, Jed. When you thought, like, when we started hearing about Kevin Lee's release and where he might go, we thought, to me, I thought Triller was going to lock him up in five seconds, and they were going to throw a kajillion dollars at him. But when it all said and done, he goes to Habib. Habib Narmagamatov, an Eagle FC, one of his bitter rivals, and not only that, Eagle FC, giving him the division that he's been asking for for a while. 165, they're going to do 175, they're just going to do the 10-pound increments.

what do you think of one, Kevin Lee signing with Eagle FC and two, what Habib and this promotion has been able to do to kind of captivate the MMA community over the last, even just like three or four weeks or so, without even having, I didn't think they had a card maybe last week and the weekend before, but just the build, they're coming to the U.S., some of the signings they've made,

some of the fights are putting together for this Miami card. What have you made of their surge? And now Kevin Lee's on the roster. First and foremost, good for Kevin Lee. I think this is a really good home for him. and I'm excited to see what he can do here. But honestly, the prevailing thought I had as soon as this came out was, man, we just can still, still to this day, underestimate just how good Habib is at whatever he chooses to do.

Because, like, look, I'll be the first to say that a big part of the reason he is, the champion he is, and honestly, maybe my favorite fighter of all time, probably my most watched fighter of all time at this point, I love to go back and watch his fights. A huge portion of his success was that he was just a supreme athlete, and he never got the credit for being such a monster athlete in that division. But twin pillars, man, he was also just, he is a fight genius. And frankly, that probably just extends beyond being a fight genius. Like, this is a dude who I'm not here to defend every one of his positions or opinions about life.

but this is a man who is very clearly not dumb and knows how you look at systems and how things are working and optimize and replicate where success is and move forward. It is what has made him a really successful coach this year, kind of carrying on in his father's footsteps, kind of continuing that legacy. And it's making him a really good fight promoter already because it never crossed my mind. but what a freaking turn of genius it is to say, we're going to do the 165-175 thing, and you know what? We're going to get the poster child for that division to spearhead it. There's been nobody who's been more active about campaigning for a 165 division

than Kevin Lee over the last five years. And so doing this and announcing at the same time, we're going to give him his division. Like that's just, that's chef's kiss smart stuff. and it's not like the world's biggest thing, but that speaks, to me, that speaks to a craft and a care and an understanding of promotion and how the game works

and how he can fit into this game and not compete with the UFC, but do something a little different and still draw eyeballs. I think he's going to be a really good fight promoter, man. That's the long and short of it, because I think whatever that dude wants to put his mind to and his energies do, he's going to freaking excel at it. So if you haven't been an Eagle FC guy, because who has, it's not like it's incredibly easy to watch.

It's about to be a lot more with that fight past deal coming down to the bend. And get ready because that dude's going to have a lot of talent and he's going to put on really good shows. I'd be willing to bet a good sum of money on that being a premier, a premier tier two, tier three organization moving forward. Well said. I hope everything remains at least to this point ethical. with the promotion. This isn't, yeah, this is not

a World Series of Fighting type scenario with some of the people possibly involved. You know who I'm talking about. So hopefully there is no rumor mill. There's none of that. Although I think people are already kind of feeling that's the case. So let Habib do his thing.

I think he's doing a great job. And congratulations to Kevin Lee. And just another example that, hey, it's not just the UFC anymore. We got some competition. We got all these different entities. the WFL is going to start locking guys up in January, so that's going to be a super interesting story heading into next year. Now we've got Eagle FC signing these guys.

Frickin Rashad Evans is coming back and fighting, which I still don't even know how to react to that whole situation. I'm so great about that one. Yeah, I'm just glad Bigfoot Silva is not fighting on the Eagle FC card. So they got that one right. And there's places to go and money to be made outside of the UFC. So if you're Kayla Harrison, you have lots of options right now, and it doesn't have to be the UFC.

And if you get caught from the UFC, it doesn't mean your career is over because there's other places to go. I think we're starting to see MMA become more of, it's already there's deep roots into the pro wrestling world, but I feel like MMA in the next two to three years, it's going to kind of feel like the pro wrestling world is in 2020, where there's some competition, things might get a little bit closer, you know, things, there might be some interesting storylines.

The UFC will always be the number one. No one's going to get there, but at least there could be an AEW-type MMA promotion that can at least make things interesting and draw some eyeballs. They may not be able to make the money the UFC makes and generate the content and have the ESPN deals, but can still do some very interesting things. And I feel like how you can do that.

I just want a pride, man. I want an organization that is an obvious number two and fun as hell. Like that's because that's what pride was. You know, they made the argument that they were better. And in some respects, they were. Heavyweight division certainly was better at the time. But they, that it's cool. or pride is just fun at hell.

Corrupt. Corrupt to all, to every end of the word. But fun as hell. And that's what the sport's supposed to be about. It's supposed to be fun. Let the UFC be the UFC. Let's get us to the fun things.

I agree. And we will get to the BTL finals at some point over the next few weeks. But Jed, before I let you go, I'm going to try to get a little commitment from you. maybe if we can't get this BTL final done next week, and for good reason, I think we should come back on here next week, do the same thing. However, just based on what you just said about we want a pride, we want a serious number two,

I think we need to do an airing of grievances about some of these other promotions. Love airing of grievances. I think that's what we should do. How can we... We fixed PFL already. Maybe we could fix it a little bit more. Maybe we could fix Belator. Maybe we can build up Eagle FC.

maybe we can fix Triller in their triad combat. I don't know, but I think we should put our heads together one more time before the calendar turns to 2022, and we air some grievances before the big award season. I love it. I feel like some other people on staff might have ideas, too. We could apply. We could figure some things out. There's a lot of room to work with in this space.

I know. Nobody in MMA is innovative or fun. It creates a lot of our own. opportunity for people with an ounce of creativity to say stuff. Well said. Well, we got a very busy week ahead of us. Follow us along on MAAfighting.com for, you know, we'll have the UFC event, of course, but all eyes are going to be on Jake Paul versus Tyrone Willey, too, this weekend. That's just the way that it is. You've got the press conference coming up on Thursday. So maybe by the time you hear this, it may be over, maybe not.

And then we got the weigh-ins on Friday. We've got the early morning way-ins at 9-A.m. Eastern. and then we get the ceremonial weigh-ins Friday afternoon, and then Saturdays when it all goes down, Jake Paul versus Tyrone Woodley, too. Leave no doubt, Jed Mishu. Leave no doubt. So until next week, when we either air some grievances

or crown a new BTL champ, thank you for listening. For Jedmishu, I am Mike Heck. Good night, everybody. Love you, God.