MMA Fighting - BTL | Rousey vs. Carano Viewership Reaction, McGregor vs. Holloway, Colby Covington Retires

Episode Date: May 21, 2026

According to the viewership numbers, the MVP MMA card — headlined by Ronda Rousey's quick stoppage of Gina Carano — was a big success. Now what's next for MVP as they plan to continue on in the space moving forward, and how can they pull it off? On an all-new edition of BTL, the panel discusses the event itself, the fallout, the reaction from the MMA community, the numbers, the pros and cons, and more. Additionally, topics may include Dana White announcing Conor McGregor's return to action at UFC 329 in a rematch with Max Holloway, McGregor's chances in the fight, Colby Covington notifying the UFC of his retirement and what his legacy is in the sport, Oleksandr Usyk vs. Rico Verhoeven coming up this weekend, other news and notes, and much more. Join MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and more as they answer your questions all show long. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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. What is this? What is this music? We're back. Not back, back, but we're taking a stroll down memory lane today. A little heck of a morning on this Thursday. Week off from the UFC. Week off from really major mixed martial arts action.

Obviously, there's some things going on. But you know what? We ride in solo today. We're giving some guys. Jed Mishu in particular. A little rest, a day off today. So we're changing things up. So the BTL, it's heck of the morning.

It's basically the same friggin show. So don't even worry about it. I thought it would get a little nostalgic for you. I am Mike Heck. Hope you're all having a fantastic Thursday. Lots going on. Some news, some notes. The viewership numbers are in for MVP MMA1,

headlined by Rhonda Roza v. Gina Karano. We'll obviously talk about that. Connor McGregor versus Max Holloway 2. That is set for International Fight Week, the world's worst kept secret. That is a done deal, according to Dana White. Colby Covington has notified the UFC of his retirement from the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which is pretty wild.

Honestly, I'm not like stunned by this, but I'm a little surprised. I thought maybe he'd get one more in before cutting that cord. I kind of figured he would sometime this year. I didn't think what happened as quickly. And a whole bunch of other stuff. Scott Coker is back in the M&A business, so we can talk about all that and much more. And I want to start with the MVP stuff.

I want to see if there's some questions. This obviously leave them in here. Super Chatters get to the top of the line, and we'll mess around here. I was going to try to get some guests on it to come on here and join, but didn't really work out according to plan, which is why we hopped into the heck of a morning time machine. But let's talk about the MVP.

numbers, shall we? Because this to me was the litmus test. This was everything. You could talk about the card. You could talk about how the main event went. You can talk about everything. Doesn't matter. Because that could have been the greatest event you've ever watched. It could have been the biggest piece of shit you've ever watched. If the numbers were below nine million, this was an absolute failure, a disaster of epic proportions. And this would never be done again. There would be no MVP MMA two, three, four, five, six, or seven, it would been dead on arrival. That's not what happened here.

Numbers come in, and they're pretty massive. I said on to the next one, if you listened, I was like, I think they'll do around 12 million, 12.4 million average. They peaked at 17 million. 9.3 million average for the triple main event, 11.6 million peak just in the U.S. It is the most watched

MMA event in the history of the United States. Definitely not. Like, I saw some people throw up. that this is the biggest MMA event of all time globally it's not it's not even close uh if you listen to my interview in the kisa badarian even he would have told you that that when anderson sylva fought chale's son in the first time you could watch that for free on globo and like 50 60% of brazil watch that fight like 40 million people or something crazy watch that fight just in Brazil. So there's no way, it's going to be almost impossible for an MMA event to eclipse that

just because of those numbers. But this is pretty damn good. This is what you wanted. If he did over nine, if he became the biggest, most watched fight in the U.S., that's all you're hoping for. That means you can go on to do another thing. So good for them. To me, this is a massive success. Okay? I was waiting for these numbers to come out before really putting it over. This is huge. This is great. whether you liked it or not. Here's my biggest takeaway from all of this. And LazyBed, I know you're in here. You can appreciate this.

The mindset of a small percent, actually it's a little bit bigger percentage that I thought it was that wanted this to fail. And then when it didn't, they're just like, oh, well, just think about it this way. And they changed the equation. Well, it was 350 million subscribers and all this. And this is only like 2% of the market share. Like, who gives a shit? They did the big number.

This is great. You thought it would fail. It didn't. So you come up with other excuses. The amount of fans who claim to be, quote, hardcore MMA fans, but root for this stuff to fail is mind-boggling to me. It's mind-boggling.

The other thing that I'm seeing, and this is from casual viewers, This is from people who are engagement farming. Hardcore main fans truly aren't going to say this. The amount of people who are upset about the main event, also mind-boggling to me. What did you think was going to happen in that fight? The second they announced Ronda Rousey's fighting Gina Corrata,

you thought that this fight was going to be competitive? You thought that this fight was going to be more than a minute or two? Is that what people thought? The thing I'm seeing is like, oh, this is rigged. Why, because they hugged each other at the end? This fight was never going any other way. Tackle, Mount Arm Bar. This was the formula from the second this fight was announced.

And it's just, oh, it's rigged, it's BS, this wasn't real, all that stuff. Like, what did you guys expect? It's okay to have fun watching MMA. It's okay to go in there with some open minds and just have a good time. I had fun watching the MVP card. Was it the greatest thing I've ever watched? Hell no. Was this the highest level of mixed martial arts competition?

Absolutely not. Was this anywhere near what the level of quality of, like, UFC White House is going to be from an in cage perspective? Absolutely not. I never expected it to be. Never. And I had a great time watching it. I know a lot of other people didn't.

Your expectations are too high. It's okay to just like have a good time watching the sport. I know it's been a while since we've been able to do that. It's not a consistent thing that we're just like, oh, look at this event. This is interesting. Let's watch it. Let's just have fun watching it. This was fun.

This was fun. And you know what? Guess what? The UFC card over at the world's most famous apex? That was fun too. That was also fun. No one had high expectations for that card. Nobody.

It was bad. It was bad on paper. Great main event. But the rest of the car is just like, eh, okay. And if you watch it, you had fun. MMA is supposed to be fun, guys. is. And yes, sometimes we are critical of the efforts that the best fight promotion on earth give us sometimes. That's it. It has nothing to do with the fighters. And there are many times where we look at

a card on paper and say, wow, this is pretty bad. We're not going to be talking about this on Monday. But then we watch and we're like, hey, my expectations are at the right level. This is a great time. MVP, I had a good time. It was fun. They have a lot of work to do. And hopefully you guys have questions about that. I mean, a lot of work if they're going to keep this thing going. I will say there are some things that, I mean, there are a lot of things I agreed with Nikisa through the media tour he's done after the event. The one thing I will disagree with, and I think this is true, is the, well, if you have to see White House who's on Netflix, they wouldn't do those numbers. Yeah, they would. They absolutely would. For sure, they would. For sure,

do 12. They would average 12.4 million viewers. Without question they would. They would do better than 9.3 million in the US on average with this card. They would probably peak at more than 11.6 million. They just would. So yes, I think we could all be an agreement that Netflix helped a lot, but if this thing came in at like 6 million, they're done. They're absolutely cooked. So let's see what's going on with that. Let's see how they bounce back. Let's see how they build a roster. Let's see when they come back. Like, I honestly believe they should take the rest of the year off. Just have meetings. Figure this whole thing out. If you're really going to go for this, figure out what you're going to do. Figure it out. The broadcast teams, all that stuff. Like, fix it. Fix it all. Fix it all.

Fix the pacing issues. All of it. Find a sponsor who will just pay to take up all of the time so that we don't have to have 35 minutes between fights. 22 minutes of fighting in three and a half hours is an absolute, it's horrible. Nobody wants to do that ever. So we got to be better about this.

Okay. Let's see where you guys have to say. I'm off my soapbox. Bull course. What does Colby go after retiring from the UFC? He's just going to be. full-on R-A-F. And if you watch the golf video, the swing rounds,

he's so he's pumped. He's invested his own money into the company. I don't know, like, what kind of stake he has with it, but he's obviously competing for it, competing in it. I know he's the one of the main spokespeople for the real American beer. He's going to be fine. He's going to be fine. He seems to be enjoying himself.

And I thought maybe he'd fight one more time. but I guess not I guess not I know he wasn't like because I asked him I was like do you do you think you'll ever fight in the UFC again and he's like yeah I think I'll I think I'll fight again but didn't seem too sure about it that's why I thought maybe he'd get one more in but guess not so but I think honestly I think this is a good next step for Colby just just go right into the RIF thing where Colby's kind of like a he's a baby face in RIF he's everyone cheers for him.

So it's definitely a different feeling that I'm sure he hasn't been used to in quite some time. So happy trails to Colby Covington. Joseph, how crazy is it that Connor's coming back for Max Holloway, but dragged Michael Chandler through the mud for three years and then didn't fight? I don't think this is necessarily Connor's call. I think Connor, if he had to choose, would have picked. Michael Chandler to fight. No offense to Michael Chandler, but of all the realistic options available for Connor McGregor, Michael Chandler was the best one. A guy people knew, an exciting guy who probably

isn't going to try to wrestle with him, even though he should. And a guy who can get, can get cracked. I think Connor had like a pretty good chance of winning that fight and probably finishing Chandler early it's very possible so i don't know if he dragged Connor through the mud i think the UFC more or less did that and it just seemed like the natural fight to come back to right and the UFC even even Dana White every time he asked him he's like yeah that was two years ago we moved on from that and Chandler's still out there trying to fight for it so crazy but and now Chandler gets to fight at the White House it's not going to go well for him and he's not going to get paid as much as he would have got paid to fight cona mcgregor but

i don't know all right what else we got uh i want colby versus bow in r a f well now it can happen now we can get colby versus armin in raf because they're not under both under contract anymore maybe this is just a business thing for him it's just like hey what do we how do we make this thing happen it's not like armin's just going to be done colby could just be like cool i'll be done and we'll make a bunch of money. If Colby goes and beats Chris Wyden, you can set this one up. Maybe do something in July with those guys.

Mr. Canned the informality. Not only Scott Cover, Tony Hark, Tony Hark. Tony Hawk is a partner. Yes. Welcome back, Scott Coker. I love the tweet, by the way. Just, I'm back.

Beautifully done. beautifully done i was very proud of of scott cocker but he is back new promotion that is going to launch expected in 2027 let me just kind of pull up the article real quick so i can get everything here do do do do he will be the CEO he'll be the co-founder for this unnamed promotion so if you guys have an idea for what we should name cocker fight League. Head to the MMA fighting feed and put in your suggestions. So this is what he said. I always knew I wanted to come back when the time was right with the right vision and a carefully curated team. That time is now. There's an incredible demand for fresh new global brand in MMA. He's

not lying. This new league is about returning to what matters. The integrity of competition, respect for the athletes, and sharing the remarkable journeys with the world. We are building something authentic, something that belongs to the athletes and to the fans who. live and breathe this sport so hopefully we get some more information on this i honestly i'm kind of happy again and and this is something that is super important because when we say like competition is good when we use the word competition we're not saying like the ufc has anything to worry about with any of these organizations like mvp could say whatever they want they ain't have catch the UFC, ever.

Doesn't matter how many events they do, they will never catch the UFC. Ever, ever. No matter where Coker FC does, they will never catch the UFC. PFL never. No one is ever going to catch them. When we say competition,

we say like, can you put a dent in them in any way? Can you slow them down? When you look at like the pro wrestling world, when we look at WWE and AEW, there are people who love AEW. They love it. They will go and spend money and buy tickets and watch every Wednesday night. They will buy all the pay-per-views.

AEW is never going to catch WWE. Ever. They're never going to do the type of volume they do. They're never going to make the same money that WWE makes. WW owns the industry. What AEW does is they create an alternative. Wrestlers can go there. They can spend money and negotiate.

When a guy comes up in free agency, They can throw some money in their direction, create some headlines in their favor. Like, this is what I'm talking about when it comes to competition. Not for like the fans. Yeah, I mean, for us, it's more is awesome for us. We can watch high-quality fights on a Saturday night. If there's multiple options, we can watch, okay, well, the UFC's in the apex. Not a bad, great main event, let's watch.

But hey, over here we got Nate Diaz and Mike Perry getting ready to beat the shit out of each other. That's fun. Saladin Parnasse is fighting. Cool. In the U.S. on Netflix. This is awesome. It's cool to have two TVs on and watch

multiple MMA events at the same time. It's really good when that happens. That's what this is. No one's beaten the UFC. No one thinks they can. Maybe MVP does, but I don't know if they truly believe that. So this is good. This is good for the industry.

Coker has done cool. things strike force ruled bellator not really that they're they did some good things along the way and the good thing about Scott cocker is he has great relationships with pretty much every fighter that has ever worked for him so when it comes to free agency all of that anybody who has fought for Scott cocker over the years is going to seriously look at them and say hmm they treated me really well. I made decent money over there. Maybe I'll go back. And that's good. That's good. That's what I mean by competition. I don't even care about who's the number two, all that stuff. Like, that's going to be a conversation that we're going to continue to have, but I hope they're all number twos. I hope they're

all tied. This is fantastic. Dave, I'm excited for Usik versus Rico. Okay. Hey, listen, you need something to watch. That is going to be an absolute obliteration by Alexander Usik. but hey i hope riko is getting a bag and a half lazy rumor real says MVP is already in talks with pfl for an upcoming cross promotional event what crossover matchup would most intrigue you parnass versus hughes would be fire i love the i'll steal jed's thunder but i completely agree with them uh pardas versus cedric duneb would friggin rip that's fantastic um i don't know pfl's just such a wild card i don't really know to do? Like, who would you throw Mike Perry in there with? Like, who would you throw France? Honestly, I don't care. MVP's next event. Whatever they do next, and I wrote this, and I've

talked about it a million times. The main event is Francis and Ghanu, not versus Rebellus to Spain, not against anybody from PFL. It is against Eddie Hall. Like, that is, that is the fight. Do that. That is, that's going to, honestly, you might think I'm crazy for saying this, but I don't think I am. Francis versus Eddie Hall does better numbers than what Rhonda Rousey versus Gina Carado did. I feel quite confident in that. You got to build a solid base around it, but I mean, very few events that I have seen since covering this sport for the great website, M.A. fighting did better than when Eddie Hall fought Marries Pugnowski.

Then when Eddie Hall Puginovsky. That the number, like everything. Traffic, interest, people caring, people just being flat out excited. People having fun. Nothing was more fun than that. This would be fun. This would be incredibly fun. And it's weird and it's different.

And it's something the UFC is not doing or has not done before. That would rule. Just do that. And then you can do all this other stuff. I'm fine with that. Parnas versus Usen and Raghamadeov would be fun too. Parnas versus Usman and Raghamadeov would be fun. Parnass against anybody.

would be fun. Gotta get Dakota Ditcheva in there with somebody. Like somebody good. By the way, should I break some news? Speaking of PFL? Should I break a little news? I'll break a little news. Why not?

Tuesday. 2 p.m. Eastern. Right here. On this channel. Town Hall is back. We're doing another one. John Martin's coming from PFL. he knows what's going on, man.

He knows what's about to happen. He's going to come on here and he's going to take all your questions, all of them, and he's going to answer him. So be ready. 2 p.m. bring your questions. Bring everything you got. Because John Marn's going to be here. He's going to answer him.

So 2 p.m. this Tuesday. Be here or B Square. It's going to be fun. Oh, PFL on Saturday, too. What am I talking about? Speaking of PFL. Brussels. Yes, Benson Henderson. God, poor guy.

Oh, we got some super chats. I didn't even see that. Thank you. Create like Mike. What is the optimal number for events of events? You'd give MVP, Nikisa said 12. I feel like more like six to eight would be better. Don't spread the product. Didn't love the work. Thank you. Less, I think less is going to be more for them. Honestly. This needs to be like MVP just, they can't sustain it. They just can't do it. I know they're thrilled with the number and they beat their goal. It wasn't even their goal.

They, they, they, I know Jake for sure wanted 20. I would, I would guess the key so when this first came out probably wanted 20 as well. And then I started hearing Ron to say nine and I'm like, all right, maybe they're not as confident as they were. Tickets are fine. People kept saying the place is empty. It just wasn't. And all that. I saw, I saw Michael Bisping said he thought the apex is louder.

which, come on, man. Will you stop this shit? Golly. Give it, give it a rest. Please stop. Anyways, they need to do like three or four. This needs to be, and I know Mike's talking about wrestling, this needs to be the WWE thing.

This needs to be Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam Survivor Series. Four big events, that's it. Do not oversaturate yourself. That is the one thing they cannot afford to do right now. They cannot go out there and just oversaturate themselves. Because the things, that people had issues with on Saturday more than anything, it will be so exposed if you do

12 events a year. So don't do that. Just do four. Four biggies. Three or four. Anything more than that, I would not do any more than six. And even six, I think, is overkill. You just don't have the horses for it. And like, I know you want to be disruptors and all that. And I get that. But, I mean, just look at social media. And I'm not just saying, like, looking at Twitter. in the bots and all that stuff because they're everywhere but people don't like nekisa and jake they just don't like them so like the overexposure of that and then like some of the other stuff the production and all that like don't don't do that you might be able to get away with in boxing you're not going to get away with it here not without a roster and not without Netflix putting a ton of money

behind you so do not overexposure product please for the love of god don't do that six to eight I think's too much four to six tops but I would say three to four we're living in idiocry fans glazing big cor yeah it's a weird it's a weird time my friends it's a weird time all right what else we got here Francis versus Lesner after Brock retires again okay I mean look that would be friggin' awesome that'd be awesome you got like this is what you have to do we got to get super with it. Is there any GFL news when they have their first event?

I'm an investor. Okay. I love it. Mead always just makes it happen. Mike's thoughts on UFC 329 as a whole. Let me pull up the lineup. I actually, I like, I, I liked it. From most like Cotta Merger events, this is pretty damn good.

But again, if this thing falls through, they're effed. really with like what the lineup looks like right now like if that fight falls through what are you going to do what are you going to do connor max b sd patty san hagen-battista gable rinsing alexia ellison perfect matchmaking by the way uh royval cavana love that fight uh damien pinos sezer almeda good fight we got ryan ganja zach rys eh who cares uh but good opener like very down the bottom opener like one of those dudes is getting obliterated dirt and osboard's fun cody garbraid a jeanianianas is fun i love honestly i love the kamaika luke riley fight i think that's gonna be incredibly fun wittaker krylov is weird but i kind of like it and

cortez and wang tong is gotta be fun like there's the occasional oh here's a couple of contender series dudes fighting each other but for the most part like every fight on here has a name you probably know and have probably seen fight before so that's better than most that's better than most but this is this is a good solid lineup from top to bottom but it is very in terms of interest and who the ufc is catering towards like this is a very top heavy card where they're going to really push the main and co-main but if they lose if they lose conerman who They lose that main event. They are in serious trouble.

Like, how many times can you keep going to the Alex Pereira well to have him come through for you guys? Like, what happens if that fight falls apart? I don't know what they're going to do. So, we shall see. Hosada, thank you. One of the San Diego Moss shooters was a wrestler slash MMA fan. This happened after Strickland's anti-Muslim rhetoric. Is the UFC partially responsible?

No. I mean, this is really hard for me to answer, honestly, because I want to be, I want to be, like, sensitive about it. But, like, I don't know how you can blame the UFC for this. Like, I mean, it even came out at the end, like, the dude who was saying it, Sean Strickland was like, nah, man, I was trying to sell the fight. And then Humzat, like, forgave him publicly. So I don't think the UFC is, I don't think you could really place blame on that.

I think you're kind of reaching a little bit there. But I mean, the whole thing was just, it's just sad and awful. And I know there are some people out there who will blame the UFC for this, but I don't think that's fair, honestly. But it's a tough question to answer. But no, I don't think you can blame the UFC. AZ Ray, I think MVP has a recipe, Bellator slash Strike Force Legends booking and building the younger talents.

Jason Jackson, Lorenz Larkin, and Partass are great building blocks. MVP can push them. thoughts. I mean, if I'm the, like honestly, if I'm the UFC, I'm giving Parnass whatever he wants. Like, just pay that man his money and, and steal him. Like, you want to do some gamesmanship type stuff? Take Pardass. Pay that guy. Put him out there. Like, are you going to lose money if you pay Pardass like solid dollars? Hell no. He's going to get over big for you. He's going to be, you're going to get R.O.I. at the wazoo. Putting Parnass on the roster. I mean, honestly, I don't know what they're going to do.

Like, I like, like, all these names are good. Jason Jackson, Lorenz Larkin, like, good names. Parnas is an excellent name. He, Parnas to me is priority one. If you are, if you are all in on this, if we're going full bore on this, you have to, you have to lock him up. You cannot let him go to the UFC. You are in big ass trouble if you let him go. Certainly.

You have to keep friends, keep. Francis happy. You have to keep Mike Perry happy. And then you just have to build a roster. Like you have, like, they're going to have to do. And yes, I said some people like, oh, Mike will never let France de Gano, Eddie Hall go. No, I will never let that fight go. Because some organization out there is going to be smart and put that fight on and it's going to be one of the biggest fights we've ever seen. It's super weird and goofy. Like, Eddie Hall's going to box Tommy Fury. Like, it's so silly. But like, people, are going to care. People are going to care about that. And you put Eddie Hall and Francis in there,

just those two dudes standing in front of each other is going to garner tons of interest. Like you have to do fights like that. You have to do weird fights. You have to be different from the UFC. That fight would be different. Be super different. And be wacky and fun and it would last 45 seconds in like the best way. It wouldn't be tackle mount arm bar. It would be punch, punch, fall down. That would rule. And then you can, I mean,

I guess do the Diaz-Perry rematch, but like, who can't, like, I have no interest in that fight. Zero. I completely agree with Mike Perry on this one. He's just like, why are people asking for this rematch?

Mike Perry beat the brakes off of Nate Diaz. He beat the hell out of him. And I like Nate. I like Nate. I like Nate Diaz. I was happy. I thought physically he looked good. Like he's in shape.

Seemed like he took it very seriously. But Mike battered him. Mike just put the rumble to him. It wasn't like a technical masterpiece for Mike Perry. Mike just marched forward and punched him a whole bunch. Go back and listen to my breakdowns of that fight. Go listen to the preview show. Go listen to the People's Pre-Fight show.

It's exactly what I thought was going to be. Mike's just going to march him down. He's going to hit him a million times and he's going to bust him up and they're going to stop the fight. I thought the doctors were just going to stop it. expect a corner stoppage. Shout out to Stitch Duran, by the way. Great stoppage.

I wish more corners would do that. But, I mean, if that's what you want to do, sure. Nate's still a big name. He looked bad. I have no reason to believe that fight goes any differently, but those are two big names. And if there's one thing MVP does well, is they promote very well.

They know how to get people excited and invested in something. So, again, I have no, I've not seen a single person. outside of Nikisa, Jake, and Nate Diaz say, hey, we have to run this one back. I just, I have no need for that again. But Mike's got to be on the roster. Mike can talk. He can fight. I think you keep him on there and you do something.

You know what I'm saying? And then, but who does he fight? Just give him a bunch of weird matchups, man, with a bunch of dogs and just let them slug it out. just do fun stuff and then we could do the jacksons and the lorenzes and stuff like that like pumi nakuda they should lock him up run back that ariahs fight like i want to see those two fight for real and it's not i'm not saying they didn't fight for real but marias was preparing to fight mojaf who by the way MVP should also lock up and Nakuta took that fight on a week's notice give those two guys like full camps for each other that fight is going to deliver the goods

doubt about it. Now Fazeel's probably going to the UFC. Like there's no way the UFC didn't look at him and say like, oh, we have to put this guy at our roster. This is exactly what we're looking for. And you know what? If you're MVP, let him go. Let him go. You had Parnas. Pardass got over. Put all the promotional rockets on that man. Let Fazil go to the UFC and make 12 and 12. Let him go. Bye-bye. And then just kind of pay attention. mentioned, like, they need to build a team of matchmakers who watch the sport. That's what they have to do. They need to, it's not just matchmakers, like actual scouts. Because the UFC, like, they can do that. Like, Mick Maynard can scout talent. Sean Shelby can scout him. They just don't.

They wait for contender series. Or they wait for, hey, I know this guy fell out from one of their favorite managers. Let's bring this dude in. He's ready to go. And it's just like, all right, let's give him a shot. Go find people. When you sign new talent does not have to come from Contender Series or the Ultimate Fighter or from a Vegas gym five days before a fight. Like, you could just lock people up. It's okay. It's okay to do that. Masters, like WWF back in the day and all these promotions came along, WCW, et cetera, but WWF were always the big dogs that they were way established. Yeah. No. Exactly. And you know

when, do you know when pro wrestling was at its peak when it was the best and the most fun? Was that time? Mid to late 90s, early 2000s. Like that was the best stretch. Do you want to know why? Because there were options.

WCW's doing cool shit. Made WWF change. They almost put WWF out of business. And then WWF comes back, Steve Austin, Attitude era, all that stuff. ECW was there. It was just a really fun time.

No one's gonna, like, once WF got back up and running, like no one's gonna beat them. Like once they got back on top of the ratings, like WCW had no shot and everybody would do it. But still, they did fun stuff over on one network. ECW did stuff on another night on another network. Sometimes you had to go on like a Univision channel and your local cable system to find them,

but you did it. you absolutely did it this is what I mean by competition alternatives more so than competition maybe this is the time maybe we're getting there maybe 2027 will be like that it'll just be fun to be an MMA fan again like all the time maybe GFL actually does something

I hope they do I doubt it but it'd be what if they did what if they actually did it and put on like a couple of good events sure there'll be people on Twitter saying oh that sucked even if it was the greatest event of all time. Like, that's not a bad thing. This is all good. This is all good.

Like, no one thought ECW is going to beat WWF, but it was different. It was different. This is why I keep saying, like, game bread, bare knuckles should be ECW. They could do that. It'd be a much better place if they did do that. Another super chat. Create. I'm such a fan of whomie after that card.

Great Fighter understands the need to be good and confident on the mic. Prime example why we need more big org. Lazy bed and I have been, whether in the chat or on these shows, been telling you, the Pumina Kuta should have been in the UFC like three years ago. And it's not just because he's a good fist fighter. He's a very good fist fighter. The dude should be a star.

Like, he has charisma forever. Dress is good, speaks well, athletic as hell, can fight. Like, I'm stuck, like, if you ever, people are, like, blown away watching Pumi. on Ariel's show the other day. I'm just like, yeah, he's been like this forever. But no one gave him a chance.

I'm stunned. I'm stunned that the UFC is not signed this guy. Why? Because he didn't finish. Will you look at this guy's resume? Go look at who Pumunukuta's been fighting. He ain't fighting scrubs. Like, not every dude he's fought as like 12 and 0.

But for the most part, like he's fought good dudes. And he's beating them. because he didn't finish them in five seconds. Like, that's what the UFC would rather have. Is a guy who, who's 7 and 0, has seven first-round knockouts, and the average record of their opponent is 6 and 35. Pumi's out there fighting, like, real good dudes. Like, the nation's best 25ers out there.

And yeah, he's not finishing him, but he's fighting legit competition. And plus, yeah, put a mic in Pummi's hand, man. Dude's real good. I'll tell you what I'll tell you what MVP needs to do they need to just load up a 25 division because there's a lot of really talented

25ers out there that are in the UFC there's some good ones that are but 25 is like that division if like you had a 401k and you're like maybe I need to move things around move it into the flyweight position because division just keeps

getting better and better every day let's see what else we got uh Nate versus John Thompson too I mean could you do it there's a story there I've honestly like to honestly I've not seen anybody clamoring for that but if Nate's gonna fight again like maybe that's not a bad one Perry versus Ferguson sure like that's good most surprised me was Nate was cool to stoppage he was because it's a good stoppage it's an excellent stop he's getting the break speed off him

that's why like people to this day will will have this revisionist history about UFC 244 and the BMF title fight. And, you know, Diaz kept saying being called like the original BMF champion. No, he wasn't the original BMF champion. The man jumped on a microphone and created this idea after beating the hell out of Anthony Pettis in a terrific performance from Nate Diaz. And but this revisionist history about UFC 244, oh, well, Nate would have come back if the doctors didn't stop it. no he wouldn't have mazadol annihilated him that night i sat i was there i was literally 15 feet

from the cage that night one of the the first events i ever covered as a media member was ufc 244 at madison square garden like the big events like i've covered like bellator and there's some like close by ufc events that i had covered but like taking a trip out there and like being a part of that That was a little bit before my enemy fighting time, but Mazdaal clobbered him that night. That was never going to get better for Nate. This was very similar, although Mazadol was a little more technical that night.

But Nate wasn't cool that night with the stoppage, but he was certainly cool here. Mike just battered him. Perry versus Mazdaal be fun for MVP, but it won't happen. Yeah, probably not. I don't see why the UFC. wouldn't let him go do that though but they are just

so stingy with these contracts and I know there's a lot of people saying like oh we can get John versus Francis no they will never let John unless you are going to go to the UFC and even here even in this standpoint I don't think they would do it

if you went to the UFC and just was like hey we'll give you 50 million dollars if you let John Jones out of his contract that's the only way that's happening. You have to, if you can buy him out, sure. But even then, the UFC has so much money that they just be like, nah, I'd rather just stick it to you and just not let John fight. So yeah, that fight's ever going to happen. Unfortunately. Bring back Philippe Blins and book him against

a 205 or would only be fair. Sure. Why not? We got heck of warning return for GCA 6. Uh, that's funny. Kayaev has a 10-year visa now. They should definitely lock him up too. Long-term contracts. Let's go. Scott Koker is back. M.MA is saved.

I like how Scott just taking his time with this, though. This is what organizations need to do. You don't just promise the world. You sit off. You sit off over there for a while in the darkness. And then you come out and you figure it out. I'm very curious to see what they do I want to shout out somebody that I saw on

on Twitter where is it there it is uh shout out to perplexed by that uh on the Scott Coker tweet there's a response I just hope he learns a lesson no one else seems to learn

don't try to be UFC light don't focus on beating the UFC do things the UFC is not doing and be fun it's a perfect checklist right there if you're anybody but the UFC like those four things are pivotal just in terms of like how should we present our product

you should do all four of those things don't don't be UFC light Bellator's UFC light that's why they fell apart PFL has become UFC light which is a bummer MVP was like strike force light

but they are doing things the UFC is doing or has done before and they have this attitude that we're coming for you we're coming for that ass which is bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad andre feats missing tooth uh why do mcgee get yannis such an odd fight to make i don't know make that money i guess fought yon hasn't fought since up they they called them said yeah you want to fight guys got to make money So, yeah, take the opportunities when they come.

Should win that fight. Go get two checks. And then come back and fight somebody else. Like, do the Kevin Holland thing. Who would you pick to win? Usen or Maga Madaf or Parnas? Golly. Man.

I would lean Parnas. Just kind of, I mean, he's such a freak athlete. And he's so skilled. He's so explosive. But, like, Usman is just. He's a crafty SOB, man. The guy knows how to win. Knows how to find ways to get it done.

That, man, that is a tough fight. That is really tough. Kind of makes you want to see it more. That's a great fight. I'd rather see... Parnas Hughes, I think, would be, like, more fun. But, man, him and Ouse was so interesting. God, I love that.

It's a great fight. Early thoughts on Dern v. Robertson. Yes, there are reports, August, whatever the date, UFC 330 is in Philly, that that's going to be the co-main event. I wouldn't say to report that that fight is like locked, loaded, everything is set, would be premature. To say that it's like verbally agreed on both sides, it's like done on that end. not quite, I would say. I'll say like it's trending in the right direction, but I'm in no way confident to say like,

yeah, this is a done deal. Like it's 100% going to happen. Because that's kind of not the case right now from the conversations we've had, but is it being discussed? Absolutely. Early thoughts. McKenzie Dern wins pretty easily.

she's just going to haust Jillian Robertson around, man. Like that's just how I see it. The bigger question I have is like, where's Zhang? Like, what's going on with Zhang Wei Li? Why is she not fighting? Or are they trying to get McKenzie a win first to try to build that fight more? But maybe Julian Robertson upsets her. I don't know.

I think McKenzie wins. McKenzie is a better striker. She's a much better grappler. she's obviously a much better jiu-jitsu practitioner like jillian might be the better Jillian is probably like the better wrestler but I mean Dern's just gonna hoss her around

I just don't see that fight going well for Jillian I just don't if that's the direction they go so yep the announced disclosed purse is for the recently past UFC Seattle which fighters pay most surprise you Baja Monday's earning 120k in a loss was shocking.

Wow, was it? I didn't even see that. Yeah, it's kind of surprising. Mike, thoughts on Clarissa being banned from MVP events. Okay. I mean, that's how, I mean, that was really my whole thing. Just like, all right.

Like, why are we slapping people? Why are we getting in fistfights at combat sports events if we're professional athletes? I don't know. You got to, like, you got plenty of footage for a for a future fight though if you're ever going to go down that road but i don't care i do think we should be consistent with our criticisms for each promotion i know they're not apples to apples but if we

criticize the ufc we have to be equally skeptical of other promotions of course of course trust me i had fun watching MVP but they did a lot wrong without question they did a lot wrong we were very fair with with the critiques of of everything in my eyes i know there aren't people who agree with that but I mean, just go look at the write-ups. Like, I had a good time, I had a good time watching the MVP card because I'll, but also, trust me, I had a lot of people reach out to me and tell me they hated it. Like, had an awful time watching it. And I get it.

Like, I get why people were upset by it. I get why people are pissed. Totally understand it. They want to see, some people want to see competitive fights. You do not get that here. And I'm cool sometimes just not even. having that like it's your first show like have a couple of heaters you got that and like get get a bunch of cool highlight real finishes and you got that too like i i get it i get it the production

was bad it was horrible there's a tough watch at times and i'll i'll say this again 22 minutes of fighting three and a half hour five fight main card not one fight made it to the third round and we were done by almost one a.m. Like that is unacceptable. Unacceptable. But it's also a good thing that people watched it. Would everybody have wanted the numbers to be higher? Of course.

It's all about realizing your expectations heading into these events. A lot of people didn't know what they were. They just knew what was happening. Oh shit. Ronda Rousey's fighting Gina Carrano. I know those two people. I know Rhonda used to be a great UFC fighter. Oh, and Gina Carrano? She was on the Mandalorian.

She used to fight too. All right, cool. I know these people. And then Rhonda did what was always going to happen. And people are pissed about it. Like, but I agree. Like, and this is when we say our criticisms about the UFC, when they do good stuff, we come on here and say they do good stuff too.

We do. And when it's bad, it's bad. When it's mediocre, it's mediocre. If we say a card sucks on paper and we end up having fun watching the event, we say it's a fun event. We're not here to blow smoke up your ass. We're here to tell you how we feel. Mike, who's winning the NBA championship.

Whoever comes out of the OKC San Antonio series, but probably OKC. NICS have looked really good. I'll give them that. Like, they've looked really good, but nothing, Nothing would make me happier than to watch them just get diced up in the finals. Who is the total package. You get less respect that Rodney Dangerfield. You damn right.

Damn right. Another one from ladies. Should Gina Crown decide to return for another fight with MVP? What do we think of Corona versus Eileen Pereira? She's no spring chicken and won't wrestle. Sure. Did I say Jake Shields? I'm sorry.

Before? Um, sure. I don't really want to watch Gina fight again. I mean, if she really has that itch and wants to get in there and scratch. sure. That's not a bad one. A prayer is like still might go tackle her. I mean, honestly, she might just, just tackle her. Like, all you have to do is fall is just kind of fall on her and she's, and the fight's over.

But yeah, she's going to fight, sure. I'm trying to think of like anybody else you could bring in there and do and have her fight. Like, do you bring back like me, get Anderson or something? Like, that, that would be interesting. That would be interesting. Oh, sign J. Ellis. That'd be, that's a great idea. I love that idea, actually.

Isn't Robertson really good at BJJ? Yeah, she's really good at BJJ, but she's not as good as McKenzie Dern. Like, McKenzie Dern is like elite. BJ. Robertson has really good BJJ. Mackenzie Dern is like the best in the division, BJJ. But Gillian can wrestle. Like, she's, she's,

can wrestle. Offensively, she can wrestle. McKenzie Dern is not a good offensive wrestler. Jed says this all the time. McKenzie Dern can learn a simple takedown. No one's beaten her. Except for maybe Zhang Wiley. But yeah, she's a good, solid hand. But I mean, Julian was struggling with Amanda

Lemoshe. Gillian versus Dern might actually be fun. Maybe. Usum minus a thousand against Parnas? I don't think that's true. I mean, I hope that's the case, because I would I would certainly be betting Parnasse at those odds.

How long are you going to talk about the Netflix car? It's already getting old. Let's move on. It's not a, hey, somebody other than the UFC had success. It's a bummer. You know, this is a Q&A show, right? Like, if people want to talk about BMP show, like, we're going to talk about it. Like, this is what we're here for. Gina versus Holly Holm, they're both 44.

I think Holly Holme would absolutely destroy Gina Carano. Because Holly will just tackle her. Left late. Vittori tragically withdrew from the Baku card against Nardiev. Who could step up to the plate and fill the void left in the card? Anybody. Anybody at all. Nardiv's fun, man.

Like, he's fun. Just get, let him, let him just obliterate somebody. It does not matter. Like, this is, this is an MMA fighting stance, and it has been for, like, three years now. Nardiev beating random guy and then fighting. six weeks later against another random guy and then fighting two months later against another random guy

will do more for him than beating Marvin Vittori and Kelvin Gasselm in terms of like getting over with the fan base and becoming popular. You get popular in the sport not because you beat. I mean there are certain dudes you beat where you can get the rub,

but there are very few on the roster that can give you that rub. So you just got to fight all the time. Just get out there, and be fun and you will get over with the fan base you will you will rise the ranks very quickly so yeah i don't think the opponent matters just get him anybody somebody local in the area that will take 12 and 12 and just let him get sacrificed i mean really that's that's what it is create that highlight real uh joseph what about the reaction ronda's gone for picking gina

matt brown said on fighter and writer that she didn't make herself look good picking gina It doesn't matter, man. I mean, it's, look, let's, let's be very clear. If you, if you listen to Fighter versus Writer, if you've listened to Matt Brown, uh, Ronda Rousey could have picked Chris Cyborg and Matt Brown would have had something to say about it.

She could have picked Kayla and she would, he would have something to say about it. Matt Brown's not like Ronda Rousey. It's very, very clear. Um, we know what this, but again, again, not to just go over the same thing.

We knew what this was the second it was announced. We knew what it was. Rhonda is going to clobber her. This is not going to be competitive. She's going to smit her in a minute or less. I didn't think, like, I just didn't see this going any other way. And then Gina threw a kick. Like literally two seconds in, she threw her kick and the fight was over. Uh, Bolt. Mike, your thoughts on the Sean versus Humzat rematch rumors. You know how much shit I got for six?

got for saying on the post-fight show, what if we run this one back? If you're Nasdaen-Neumbov, should you be worried that they run this one back? I got so much crap for that. That was like my initial take coming off of the event. Even after Dana White said, Hamzaq came back and said, I don't want to fight in this division anymore. I'm going up. I was like, if I'm Nasardine Nembov, I am concerned that they're going to try to run this

one back because it is a bigger fight than Nazardine. and even though things got personal, it got super weird. These are two big names. And if they fight again, people are going to care and they're going to watch because Sean Strickland is that guy. And the amount of DMs publicly, and even on Twitter too, just people call me out for that take. It's the worst take you've ever had.

Don't be surprised if it happens. Do not be surprised if it happens. I would bet money it does. We do get the rematch. Not because of any spectacular. insight that I have, this is, like, this is what the UFC does. This was,

this was a successful event for them. By the way, I saw some people say, like, UFC 328 did 8.4 million viewers. No, it didn't. It did not. If UFC 328 did 8.4 million viewers, TKO would have done a mediator about that. They would have been on every network.

work on planet earth touting those numbers and guess what if they did do 8.4 million numbers that'd be freaking awesome that'd be amazing and we would put that over like crazy but it ain't i was wondering where people got the number from i kept seeing it and then i googled it i'm like ufc328 viewership is like yeah this instagram site reported that it was like 8. something million or whatever i'm like what there's no way and tk out just didn't say a word about it when 312 24 came out and they did like 4 to 5 million, they touted that thing out to everybody. They couldn't wait to announce that.

I mean, it would be great if it did, but there's just no chance. There's just no chance. But yeah, but it was very successful on like a social media end, on a YouTube end for them. Like, no doubt about it. Like, Sean Strickland does numbers for them. The press conference was huge. Ceremony away ins were huge.

like Sean's a modern day UFC superstar. He is. So love them or hate him. People tune into the guy. He's gotten over in a big way. Gina versus John Misan Wong. Yeah, but again, like

if you watch the Monson Wang prayer fight, like, John Monson won tackled her a whole bunch. Prayer is probably better. I actually like the Megan Anderson idea. I think that's it. I think you see what Megan's doing and bring her out of retirement for one fight. Pay her some money.

Like, Gina could win that fight. And that's also, like, a somewhat competitive fight, too. Because, like, a Megan, like, kicked her in the face and knocked her out, like, would, I wouldn't be that shocked. So, I think that's a good one. I think I got it right. Mike, what's the deal with Brad Riddell being cut? Do you know anything about that? I've seen a few people saying he's wanting fights.

My guess it was mutual. almost the last time he fredgain fought dude he's been he's been out for four years yeah I was actually like the thing that surprised me the most

was like oh yeah forgot about him maybe it was mutual maybe they asked he asked for his release that would be fine I don't think the UFC's like losing sleep over losing Brad Riddell

and not trying to be like disrespectful at all he hasn't fought in four years and he just wanted to three-fight losing streak and got obliterated at all those fights. So Brad wants to go do something else. Like, why not? Go let him go.

Maybe he's mutual. I have no idea. George is getting upset. Any updates on the Walterway title picture? I believe Usman and Morales tease. They're getting it this week. Um, well,

one of those people is definitely not going to be in this title picture. Um, I don't know, man. I don't know what's going on. The fact that, like, they haven't announced that fight yet. The Islam fight tells me it tells me they're waiting on

Dili Taboria. That's my hunch. But I could be wrong. Maybe like, Philly goes out there and just bolts Gaichi in a minute and takes no damage. They can pivot pretty easily. Like, they will do that fight. If you're Gary or Morales and the UFC has reached out about booking,

an Islam fight like you better ask for some paperwork and put that pen to it real fast because if that's what happens on June 14th on the White House lawn you ain't getting a title shot you're going to watch ily it's poor you get it they're going to go to that real quick how did tie to evasa manage to avoid the latest rounds of cuts the new sam alvey uh because he's popular and they're going to go to australia a whole bunch i mean it's not it's silly like they should just just let him go off and do other stuff. At least that's how I would approach it, but

oh, what is this? Kelan Vieira has been from our own Kierre Cruz. I didn't even see this. What am I doing? Kelan Vieira cut, removed from the UFC roster, per sources. She leaves after defeating Jacqueline Cavalcante. Yvonne Erzlan also

parts ways, despite winning his last fight, Tugotokos, and Dan Daniel Barras have also been removed from the UFC roster. There you go. Damn. Well, I'm, we have to also, we have to also put into perspective. We're going into summertime, folks. We're going into ultimate fighter season.

We're going into contender series season. This is a, is a business decision all the way. They are. Kelan Vieira probably makes decent money. So gone. Brad Riddell, probably made decent money gone. And,

um, yeah, so now they can sign 57 contender series fighters who you know, some will be worthy and others will not. And then they'll probably sign half of the tough rosters too.

But yeah, it's that type of year. We're going to see a bunch of these reports from, from the Gee cruises and the rest of the rest of us for sure. Like this is the beginning. Sure there'll be a lot more cuts coming. Lazy, why isn't a company developed a better material for the matte canvas and

MMA yet? Sliber resistant. Anti-microbial quick clean. Far too off, you guys see something exciting. Tearing up the feet. Yeah, I don't know. Same with why we haven't figured out the gloves.

Dirt as far as BGHA champs go has the best UFC record. Yep. Where the hell is Yahir Rodriguez? sick of his rank squatting and avoiding contenders. Great question. I'd love to know where I ears as well. Because he should be fighting Kevin Vigeo's next. Leftly, most anticipated fight on the books

right now. Something on the White House. I have W. Sleeper Pick, Cop versus Kioji, or on the same card, Ewing versus Bosharat. I love Royville Kavanaugh, though. I mean, there's a lot that I like. This is, like, I'm going off the board here because I'm just

thinking about I'm thinking about where this all could go. And to me, like the fight I'm most intrigued by, I will say it for like us having a good time, like Keogh versus cop friggin rules. I'm very excited about that. I'm also very excited for, oh, well, on the books. So that's okay. I was going to say Van Pants 2 because I really want to watch that fight. I am so fascinated by Bo Nickel versus Kyle Docus. Like that fight, that fight, I don't think it's going to be a bad fight.

But if, man, if Kyle Dawkus beats him, if he goes out there and finishes bow nickel, oh my gosh, can you, like, he is going to be, he's going to get so over, he will get catapulted if he wins that fight. If he does so in somewhat exciting fashion. So, hell yeah. But yeah, the whole life. I've been off so, Diego Lopez versus Steve Garcia.

Just fun, man. I'm very much looking forward to that. Are you going to pull it all night or to watch UFC Macau? I don't think so because I will be on the road. Because I'll be at RIF next week. So I'll be traveling. So maybe, like, will I wake up and watch some of it? Possibly.

I mean, if they put me on the schedule, then I guess I will be. I'll probably be sleeping because that'll be a long. Travel weeks are tough. It's just nonstop, very little sleep. You kind of sneak in the shut eye when you can. Puchera, sorry, what should you take on Bobby Knuckles going to 205? All his former foes are going up as well.

Yeah, good for him. Why not? Easier division. So, yeah, ma'am. Why not? He's never getting a title shot at 185. This is good. RDR should have made that move before.

He's making it now, but he shouldn't even have another fight at 185. But this is smart. Like 205 is... 205 is instantly a better division because those guys moved up. 2.5 is just not good. I mean, look at the Dominic Reyes Johnny Walker fight. Like, those are two ranked guys. The path to a title shot at 205 is not long.

It's not a long one. Whitaker goes up there and gets two wins. Dude, Paul Kostom. of my fight for a belt. Like, there's a real world where Paul Koss's next fight is for a title. 328 would do 20 plus million on Netflix, I think. Am I bugging? Yeah, I think you're bugging.

It would have done well, but wouldn't have done that well. What was the official number for the MVP car? I truly do believe less people cared about that than 328, not a single prime versus prime. But see, here's a thing left lane. That doesn't matter. That doesn't matter. Did I have, like, some people?

Remember, The Netflix events, Tyson, Paul, this one, this is not for us. This is for the people who have watched MMA before, or they were WWE fans, or they know who Ronda is and know of her, pun, I guess, intended, reputation, right? Everyone knows who Nate Diaz is, very, very popular guy. This is what they did to put this event on. it's a mom test card where and and i love the mom test cards and i love i love when it's random and you don't think a card's going to be a mom test card and then you get it and then it becomes one

did i have like a did i have people reach out about the sean strickland homzad fight yeah but like i had people who like are like i have people i go like when i go to the gym people at people know what i do they will ask me about certain fights um they will watch casually i had people who are casual viewers they they try to watch the number of events they they see what's trending on social media that had no idea who hamzat shmai was didn't know never seen him fight they knew of him that week because of sean and hamzad getting super personal and really what got homzot on people's radars and people on shan strickland's side without hearing anything sean had to say was like if you went into that fight week and you just heard from

someone who watches m m a there is some personal heat between these two guys and if you're just doom scrolling on social media right and you see hamzat just kick sean stricklin at the way in without any other context your mind was F hums, F that dude, I hope the American gets him. Because that's what I was hearing. I was getting a lot of that. And I was like, but did you hear what he was like saying at the press conference? No, I didn't watch it.

Well, then why do you get to know why he kicked him then? There's more to it than just like he's an asshole. Like, there's more context to it. But like, again, that's why I was positioned in that way. But even then so, like some of those people who were asking about that, if I came in on Saturday, like I gave my people, oh who do you think's gonna win i'm like i think homzat's gonna win but like if it goes late like it could get real interesting like it would not shock me if sean won i was like but the pick is

shemaiah for me and i that was my pick and then i came in on monday he's like oh you were wrong sean strickland won i'm like yeah but that was really close fight i kind of thought humzat won and then the response was like why i didn't even watch it okay that's why i don't think the numbers would have done is great for this particular card this is this one just captivated in certain ways, but it wasn't like a boom, I have to stay home on Saturday night to watch this fight kind of thing. This one felt more like that. It just did. Like the hardcore fan base looked at it much differently. It was just, it's kind of fascinating to like talk to people through, who viewed it through like such a different way.

There's like the hardcore fans. There's people who are like, yeah, that was kind of fun. Then there's people who are super positive. There's people who are super negative. There's people who haven't watched sport in a while. There's boxing media members who have no idea what's going on in MMA commenting about it. There's people in wrestling media coming out and giving takes on it. When they don't watch the sport. And then people hear that and some of those people have pretty big followings.

They're trusted. and then it just becomes rigged. Oh, well, he said it was rigged, so it must be. So it was just such a weird, there's such a weird thing, man. It really was. But yeah, I don't think 328 would have beat this number.

Not because I'm being a hater. I just don't think it would have. Just based on like the trends and like what I was experiencing. White House would beat this one. Like White House, White House beats it. White House beats 12. Especially in the U.S., White House beats 9.3 mil average.

It just, it does. Absolutely does. Conn McGrathor 329 probably does too. But again, that's fine. Everybody wins. It's okay if that happens. I don't think 328 would have beat it, though. All right, what else we go?

I'll take a few more. Wow, we're flying here. Thank you. Had a good time. Oh, well, some super chats. Why am I not getting the alerts there? I'm sorry. Irman, sorry, got on late.

Don't know if he answers already. Thoughts on MVP's official viewership members speaking at 17 million good or bad for MVP. Great. It's not good. It's great. There is no good here. It's either disaster or great. There's no gray area with this.

This was either a massive failure or a huge success. If they did 8.8 million, failure. If they did 9.1 million, success. So, yeah, this is great. This is great. 12 million was where I hit it. Pretty damn close. But again, let's just, let's keep this in perspective.

Most watched MMA event in the U.S.? Yes. Most watch MMA event globally of all time. No, and it's not even close. It's like three times less than the most watched MMA event. And Nekita will tell you the same thing. Anderson Silva Chil's son in one, I believe. It was one of the Silva-sunnen fights.

I think it was the first one, maybe it was a second, I'm not sure. But one of those fights aired on Global for free, and it did like $40 million just in Brazil. So like, it's got to be impossible to break that global number. But yeah, man. Dude, weeks ago, I saw a report that MVP-M-A was looking for young MMA prospects to make a reality show similar to tough, but with Jake Paul type creativity. That could be interesting. Yeah, it would be.

It would be. But again, here's what they have to do. They have to find a team of matchmakers who know the sport, who know these people. Like, what's lazy bed doing? Get lazy bed in there. Put a matchmaker title on that dude. He watches everything. Like, that's what you need.

You need to fight. Like, LFA's got a ton of good fighters. Ritchie Miranda should have been in the UFC like a year ago. He's fighting on Friday for LFSA. I know he's been out for a while, but dude is a he's an absolute maniac in there and he's super skilled.

He's got got a personality to him. He's fighting good dudes. Like, you don't think MVP could bring him on? I don't think Richie would go. But if they offered a bunch of money, maybe he would. I know Richie really wants to fight in the UFC. But like, they're out there.

Like, the Pumina Kudas of the world, like, they've been out there for a while. like Pumee wasn't even on Contender Series they did a Bannamweight division for ultimate for the ultimate fighter Pumee would have done that as a Banoi he wasn't good enough to be on the ultimate fighter like it's just crazy to me but MVP like if they could get matchmaking talent they could find someone who could scurry who could scout

who understands like who checks the boxes on like who could be good who could be a potential star who could we build around who could we build a division around. Like that's what they need. And yeah, you could do that too. Content is king. Find a good platform to do it.

Sure. Ultimate Fighter's awful. It's an awful show. Has not evolved ever since, like the second season. It has been the same show ever since. There is an infatuation with the ultimate fighter and the UFC that I just can't,

I don't understand. I get it with Contender Series. Totally. it. But tough, man. We're still doing the basketball jerseys. We're still doing all the same stuff. And nobody watches it. They had Connor McGregor on it and nobody watched it. Lazy bit, AK Lee is devastating. He lost chance for Ebo versus Yvonne. Yep, got a DM from him on our Slack channel about that in particular. But you know what? There's a couple other promotions out there that might be able to make that one in the future.

See? Competition. Peter, when is this DDP Camaro? It's becoming. Okay, see? I don't know what it's coming. I mean, look, it's... I think most of you could put two and two together at this point.

You know? This has become, like, not quite as, like, Connor Max 3. Like, everybody in the world knew that that was coming. Like, I saw people, I mean, literally, I saw people like the, like this past Friday reporting it as breaking news that Connor McGregor and Max Holloway, a rematch was close to being finalized. And I'm like, what are you talking about? How is this breaking news? This is, this has been in the works for months, months.

Months. Max Holloway said it's been, Max Holloway said that this fight was. He agreed to this fight, like, for, it's been six months. I think this fight was the, like, according to Max, at least, like, from his timeline playing video games on Twitch, like, shout out to Twitchers, by the way. Max said he had to keep this a secret for six months. Like, this is not breaking news. This is not, like, something nobody knew. Like, this has been a fight since the BM, since before the BMF title fight, this was a thing that was probably going to happen.

So, like, that was the worst kept secret of all. This is, this is getting there. But I'll leave it in that. That's all I can really say. But I would hope soon. We're running out of time. I would like to cover that card too. That'd be very fun.

Bob Sap, Akabona did 54 million viewers in Japan alone. Will we ever get another fight close to that? No. Probably not. There's just not enough star power out there. And yeah, then it was a But see, Bob Sap A Cabono is like It's Francis Eddie Hall of like that era

Like that's That would do That would do 20 billion I would be shocked if it doesn't That if you do France Eddie Hall It would do better than Ronda Carrano We would do better It would do better

Booker T was at Fury FC last Sunday Booker's an MMA fan Booker T gave a take on the Rousey fight Headlines are out of context a little, as you didn't actually say it was fixed, but it was favorable when you actually read his quote. What did Booker T say? Let's see what the bookman said. It was a worked shoot. That thing wasn't real.

It was real as far as the takedown goes, but everything after that, it was like, I'm ready, let's go home. The WWE Hall of Fame argued that anybody who closely studies the footage would likely come away with the same opinion. That fight was the biggest heist I've ever seen. I'm talking about since one of those Brinks jobs. If you have not had a fight in 17 years, it's not going to be the same. For anyone to think Gina Carrano had a chance after being out that long and needing to lose 100 pounds, come on. That's why this fight had no meaning at all. It was a fight she couldn't lose.

Okay. Yeah, I mean, you've got to be careful with the word you use here. I can totally understand. Like, if you just look at, like, if someone just took that first quote and just made a, a graphic and post on social media. It's just that quote. It was a work shoot. That thing, that thing wasn't real.

It was real as far as the takedown goes, but everything after that, it was like, I'm ready, let's go home. Yeah, you're going to get taken out of context with that. But he clarified, obviously. Biggest ice I've ever seen, I'm not, I'm talking about since one of those bring shops. Again, again, this was,

if you, this is one of those, if you know you know fights. Just like, people are comparing this to Tyson Paul. I don't, I mean, I guess I kind of get it. But like, the whole thing about Tyson Paul,

like if you go back and listen to any of the shows that Jed and I did heading into that, it was like, I just hope Jake knows the assignment and doesn't kill him. But if you ask anybody who were, like literally, that was the biggest mom test fight of all time.

was Jake Paul Mike Tyson Everybody who doesn't watch the sport or follows combat sports all we're saying to me I can't wait to watch Mike Tyson knock out Jake Paul and I'm like

why do you think that's going to happen and they're like because he's Mike Tyson did you see what that guy did? I'm like yeah I saw what he did in the 80s and 90s I saw what he did to Peter McNeely saw it that was 30 years ago he's 58 he's fighting a guy who's bigger than him stronger than him at least right now faster than him and did not have a scary medical emergency four months prior where he had to get taken off of an airplane and rushed to a hospital like this one was like

okay ronda's going to just clobber her but at least she's going to try to hurt her And she tried to hurt her. We didn't get that with, with Paul Thais. Because Jake, I know people hated the fight, but like, at least in my heart of hearts, I was like, good, Jake gets what this is. But that's what this was. Like, again, looking at it from Bookerty's perspective, this is a heist. You're looking at it through my perspective.

This was always what it was going to be. This is what Rhonda does to people. And again, she's done this to many people. She's tackled in an armbard. People are in their prime in less time. Like, this is not new. Take down real arm bar not. See?

But that's like if you just read that first quote, that's, that's what people will jump up on. And I get the heist thing. I get it. I get it. I heard that all the time. Oh. But again, it was on Netflix.

It's not like paid $80 for it. Paying 80 bucks for it. You're thinking about this whole different way. All right. Let's see what else we got. Anton's a conundrum. He's a big up in the MVP car like crazy,

but he's pooping cocker's new promotion already. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Gina didn't fight back. Well, what was she supposed to do? Have you seen Gina Krono fight? What was she supposed to do? What was she supposed to do? The only chance she had was to knockout Ronda

with like a miracle punch. Anybody who's watched a sport knew that. that. This is not competitive. No one thought this is going to be competitive. Nobody. Nobody thought it was going to be competitive. The fight went exactly the way I thought it was going to go. Ron is going to tackle her and finish her immediately. That's what this fight always was. But it was, hey, we know these names. John, why did everyone think that Dern's first title defense would be way leave? I've seen this many times. UFC gives the unlikely chip one fake defense, i.e. O'Malley, Cheeto, too. Yeah, but to see, O'Malley Bounce.

back in a spot that was like needed to headline a card this is different it's not like McKenzie's a massive star like she's popular but like I don't know like it's I'm fine with the Jillian fight like I you're right like I think Dern this is a good defense stylistically for Dern I think she should win pretty easily she's better than Gillian almost everywhere except for maybe offensive who's the better takedown artist with classic wrestling takedowns. Jillian is better than Dern in that department. But everywhere else, Dern is better than her. She's a better athlete, all the above.

But we've seen some big upsets. This would be a big upset. I wonder what the betting odds are for this. Did anyone see betting odds for this? Let's see if we dropped any here. Where are we? Where are we? Where are we? I don't see any. If anybody's seen them, let me know.

I think it's too rumored to put odds out. I don't think so. Why didn't Dina just get up? Have you ever seen anyone take an arm that easy? Yes! Yes, and like 80 of Ronda's fights. Almost all of them. Pretty much every fight she's ever had.

Outside of Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes. I did see the Uspin DDP odds, which is, yeah, Ushman minus 240 I saw, minus 250. Gable Steveson, minus 1800, he opened. So, okay. All right, well, we are done. By the way, I think I'm going to be on a show that some of you guys like to watch very soon. It's a matchup where people try to test knowledge. So yeah, I'm excited for that.

Oh, I'll get Cole in here. Cole, are we getting a McGregor Holloway Presser before the White House weigh-ins like we sometimes see? Maybe. I think that would be a damn good idea. That'd be a very good idea. So I'll say yes. I'll say yes.

No insight, but I'll say yes. I'll say yes. I'm being on wheel of fortune. Congrats. I love that. Some of you may know that some of you may not. Heck of a morning listeners know what this song means. It means we're getting out of here.

I wanted to be a game show host. That is, was by, my mission as a child was to be a game show host. I would crush Wheel of Fortune. Crush it. But Ryan Seagrest is obviously way more popular than I. And that's totally fine by me. But, all right, we're done. Thank you very much.

It was nice to go back in the time. machine a little bit. But we are out of here. Next week, Jed will be back. We will get you ready for... Oh yeah, I'll be here. I'll be here. I'll be here because my flight to Dallas is, like,

right after BTL. So I will be here for BTL before I had to travel for RAF. So you guys are the best. Thank you so much. Enjoy your weekend. Spent some time with family and friends, and we're out of here.

See you later.