MMA Fighting - BTL | Ryan Garcia Silences Doubters, Reaction To Dana White's Victory Lap, UFC APEX vs. Knucklemania

Episode Date: April 25, 2024

The UFC returns following a weekend off to digest the memorable UFC 300 event, but BKFC's Knucklemania 4 will likely get top billing in the interest department this weekend, most notably due to Mike Perry's return to the ring against Thiago Alves. On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel discusses both UFC Vegas 91 and Knucklemania cards this weekend, the UFC headliner between Matheus Nicolau and Alex Perez, Perry's star power and future in BKFC, along with Ben Rothwell vs. Todd Duffee. Additionally, topics include Dana White's victory lap against the media and what can be taken away from it, Ryan Garcia silencing the critics with an incredible showing against Devin Haney this past weekend, the Nate Diaz vs. Jorge Masvidal press tour coming to an end and how much interest in generated, and much more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and Morning Kombat's Brian Campbell. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Brian Campbell: @BCampbell Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of BTL and after a pair of Tuesday shows, we're back at our normally scheduled day and time, still feeling a little bit of the hangover following UFC 300 from the mixed martial arts side of things with the UFC off this past weekend. But luckily, the pro boxing world gave us something

to chug and rally with to soothe that feeling a little bit We'll talk about that and much more that has happened this week with our incredible panel. First, he is Mr. Hot Take, Mr. No Gray Area, the man behind one championship in our 2024 MMA fighting draft, and a man that does not have Alex Pereira nor Anatoly Malkin on his roster, thanks to myself and AK, the one, the only, the cheery, Jed Michoud. How are you, sir? Are you still upset with me? Almost didn't show. thought about just not show

and just send a message you know there's pending litigation I've filed the suit I've filed the claim with HR you go to hell Mike Heck you go straight to Mike Heck

that's where you go this sucks and today has also just been trashy so I'm in great spirits happy to be here my shower broke this morning so I'll have a shower for probably three days

it depends on how fast one of these plumbers will come I'm having a great day, Mike. It's been a great week. We're both dealing with with home repair issues. I won't get into all of mine. But because back on the program, let me just say, full story time, day before UFC 300, long day of travel to Las Vegas,

had to quickly go from getting off the plane, get ready to head to the opening leg of the Nate Diaz versus Jorge Mazadol press tour. And as chaos is reigning supreme ahead of that press conference, and I'm scrambling to get stuff set up. up in the main room. Who do I see on stage dressed to the absolute nines? The man joining the show this week. He's been hosting pressers. He's back on the YouTube and on the podcast feeds with Morning Combat 2.0 along with Luke Thomas, none other than Brian Campbell, BC. Welcome back,

my man. Thank you very much. And I'd just like to say to Jed, although he did have shower issues this morning. We didn't notice he always looks the same, right? It's kind of interesting. But I do a appreciate him wearing a combination of a pink hat and a PFL t-shirt. That's about depressing as it comes, but I'm here for it. Pink hat's great. And this is how you hide the fact that literally the handle of your shower snapped off this morning. And suddenly you can't do anything about it.

So here we are. Well, let's get into it. Jed's having shower hangovers. And speaking of hangovers, a lot of the boxing and combat sports community, He thought Ryan Garcia was sporting many a hangover on the road to his fight with Devin Haney this past Saturday in Brooklyn. And it was a freaking great fight. But in the end, Garcia shows up, knocks Haney down several times. And despite a referee that probably would have been better suited sitting cage side during a UFC APEC show judging fights,

Garcia gets a big win despite a lot of pundits, a lot of experts, a lot of boxing fans saying, not only can this man not win, he shouldn't even be allowed to step into the squared circle and fight anybody, let alone Devin Haney. He's going to get hurt, and according to Garcia, he trolled us all. So, B.C., you've had a few cups of coffee on this boxing beat. How will you remember this fight?

How will you remember Ryan Garcia in the buildup and in the ring Saturday against Devin Haney? I mean, I'd love to say this is the weirdest situation I've ever been a part of, but I've been covering boxing for 15 years on a national level. So I've seen a lot of weird shit going on, right? But here's the deal. It was an incredible troll job from start to finish from Ryan Garcia.

I only use the word incredible, though, because of what it produced. One of the bigger upset wins that we have seen in some time. It didn't. I know they've had amateur history. I know this was their technical game seven after six amateur fights together. But there was a reason we bet against Ryan Garcia at nearly every turn against somebody as technically brilliant and poised as Devin Haney. And the fact that Ryan turned it upside down.

and it was fun. It was incredible. It brought in audiences from all over. It catapulted him already a big star in boxing and beyond with that social media following into almost a notorious level because that's exactly what he was going for. So he fooled Devin Haney big time, just as he fooled us.

But man, my DMs, my mentions on X are getting lit up for, oh, so-called boxing expert. I thought you wrote that column that Ryan shouldn't be. be in there that he's not mentally well. Here's the deal, folks. He fooled Haney, and he deserves the credit for that. I don't think we owe him an apology, though, for crying wolf and acting like the craziest man in the room only afterwards to go, gotcha.

But with that said, while it wasn't as big of a troll job as say what Ali did to Sonny Liston ahead of their first fight, it did follow the model for boxing fans that know what Teo Fima Lopez did last year ahead of the Josh Taylor fight. The same sort of concept, only Ryan took this too. levels we never imagined before from saving the children to Alex Jones to Andrew Tate to apple juice and a beer bottle. At the end of the day, it was cringe, it was weird, but it worked. And in boxing where you are only as good for better or worse as your last performance,

Ryan Garcia's last performance was great and he will catapult himself into even bigger fights from here on out. Jed, I mean, look, we're MMA Fighting.com, but we obviously will cover the big boxing fights, and you were obviously working on Saturday. What did you make of all this? Because I mean, you were one of those people. Oh, you were not, but you watched, but you were one of those people. Didn't watch.

Checked it. Didn't even watch it? No, I was asleep, man. Because why was I going to watch? This was a non-fight. There was no reason to watch. And then I woke up slightly hung over at 4 in the morning and was like, hey, let me go check. what round did Devin Haney

went in and it was like, actually, that's not at all what happened. You are mistaken. I went to mbmafighting.com, it's a terrific website. They got me up to date on everything that happened. And then I spent the next 48 hours getting kicked in the teeth on the internet

for things I said prior to that fight. So it was a great start to the week, Mike, and my week has just continued to be excellent. It's really the story here for me. All right. So for those who don't know, what did you say? and after reading the iconic words on M.A.fighting.com about how the fight played out,

how do you react? How did you react to it all? I just said that this fight shouldn't happen in anyone who's watching it for reasons other than their profession should be ashamed of themselves for tuning in. And I don't want to defend it, right? Because I'm just not going to. Because my, I have, you will have aspirations in life, Mike, you know? And one of my great aspirations is to be the same dude when the bullets are flying as when they're not. Like I don't, you know, there's the old saying that there are no atheists in foxholes.

If I've ever in a foxhole, I don't want to be making a deal with God to get through it because that's not who I have ever been. And not very long ago I got on here and I was like, you know what, Jamal Hill is going to catch it for me because he changed the energy. He came in with all this, all this greasy talk to U of C 300. and then after he gets got, well, now it's about I overcame adversity and I took this fight on short notice and all that. I ain't going to do it. I said what I said, and I'll wear it.

Like I bought that ticket, I'll ride that train. That's okay with me. My question about this, though, is not that I was dead ass wrong. To what my question, I guess, kind of stems off what BC was saying, because it appears that this is actually true that this was just a massively orchestrated troll job. to what end that's what i don't understand like it doesn't appear that he needed to fake devon haini out into like not taking him seriously and it doesn't feel like you know rewatched the

fight doesn't feel like devon hainey who's trying to kill him because he was so mad just it just looked like ryan garcia's a better boxing than devon hainey so what was the point of the troll job like what what end was achieved here and that's the thing i've been trying to figure out this whole other than just like clicks, which maybe that's it. Maybe the end was simply more, I get to say ha, ha, ha, to people at the end of this.

And that works. But like, I don't, it just seems super weird to do a troll job like this when it really appeared that he super didn't need to because he was just going to be the better dude on that night anyway.

Yeah, what do you think about that and see? Can I come back in here? I mean, look, Ryan Garcia is not, is not a better boxer than Devin Haney despite earning. the victory, a great victory, the biggest of his career.

But really, there's twofold on the troll job. One was to literally troll Devin Haney into believing, like a lot of us in the media did, that Ryan was crazy, that he wasn't taking training seriously, and that this was not just a continuation of the negative things in recent years that seemed to tease the idea that Ryan Garcia might never fulfill his true promise in boxing. I didn't want to go to the level of what the critics say that, oh, he's just a Instagram fighter, just a model who loves attention and all that. We all knew he was better than that, but he hadn't put the whole game together before.

So I do think he used the smokescreen of this very ambitious but absurd troll job to lower the defenses of Haney, to drive up the idea that this eight to one favorite Haney, who really had no business losing that fight, if we're going to be honest and break it down from a boxing sense, to try to numb him a little bit to what was coming. Ryan took advantage of that and he just barely pulled it off with that majority decision win. I say just barely only from a scoring standpoint. Obviously he knocked down Haney three times, heard him two others, so visually he fought the better fight. But Ryan Garcia also barely threw punches, kept his poise together, and that almost hurt him on the scorecards.

That almost allowed Haney to sort of backdoor a potential draw or sneaky decision win. Now it didn't happen and Ryan gets credit for trolling Haney, but I don't know if I necessarily want to give him credit or support this idea that everything he did in the buildup to this fight was a troll job. Because I think you have to actually be pretty damn crazy to act that crazy as aggressively as he did over that period of time. I think Ryan is actually showing us for the first time his real self underneath. We all, the reason why I would write a column for CBS board saying, hey, promoters, hey, commissioners, hey, whoever, save this kid from himself, is because we haven't seen somebody act this wild and crazy since really second half Mike Tyson, who was legitimately wild and crazy in this sense.

So good for Ryan that he did this, but there's a lot of troubling signs underneath in terms of this is sustainable. I think ultimately what the troll job did was to weaken Haney's mind, but also to emboldened Ryan because we knew he had a chance against Tank Davis because of his athleticism, his power, his speed and the fact that when you put them together, that is such a dangerous package that even Devin Haney, the great defensive wizard, had troubles picking up that left hook. But Ryan has never showed us that full package before. He had a history of not listening to trainers.

He bounces around. New celebrity trainers, every couple of fights. His work ethic was questioned by Canelo Alvarez, which led to Ryan Garcia leaving that camp. This was the fight, though, to his credit, that he put the work ethic together. He listened to coach Derek James. And we saw a hint of what it could have. actually be like if Ryan takes his incredible physical gifts and that amateur background that he has and actually applies it forward. So in that regard, Jed, I think the troll job was more to fire

Ryan up and get him into this game seven murder mindset to bring out the best in him. And we've seen that before. Mani Pachia was a lot better, a lot more dangerous when he was slinging and dice and drinking in the evenings and womanizing before he turned his life over with a religious turn around and did that. I think Ryan, though, has to be careful. because we've seen it with John Jones in the past, who was barely able to hold a wild life outside of it together. I think Ryan is very much living a wildlife. I think this is him, the real person.

I think he just amped up the troll job in certain key areas. And is it sustainable to drink and smoke during camp and be with different women all around and be constantly filling the social webs with all these skits and bits? You're going to have to ask yourself that. The one thing I will say, though, credit to Ryan, monster victory. It really saved his career on the elite level. But can you do that again?

Can you get yourself that fired up again? Can you come in that focused and can you execute? Because the element of surprise got to Devin Haney with the only punch that he really couldn't pick up, somebody who was faster than him with hand speed and had that perfect accuracy on that left took. But what would happen in a rematch? What would happen against other elite fighters? Ryan still has more to teach us about who he really is as a boxer. Again, not taking away from that victory.

But this is walking a tightrope if you're going to live your life that crazy and expect to put out the best performance in the ring each time, he hasn't proven yet that that's sustainable. I can buy that. You've sold me enough on that. Like, I could buy that this was more for him, although getting into the murder mindset, like, I'm not sure that I buy that.

But maybe I can believe that this is a, this gives him a back door, right, because of how the last, you know, big fight of this nature went for him. And, you know, saying I'm going to do it and can't. When you fall short, this gives you the out in the same way that the MMA fighters, you know, I dared to be great or I dared to be crazy,

which is certainly a different tactic. I just, that's not bad. I have not considered until this exact moment. Like, where does he go from here? Because the genie's out of the bottle once. Like, if he just does this again, no one's going to blink an eye, the conversation won't be the same. Is this really about him turning up,

his personality, like his natural personality, and that will get him into the same mode for other big fights? Or is this kind of a one-off deal? Because I do agree. I think this saved his career, like his high-level career, certainly. But I also wondered, did it, like, did it have to? If he hadn't done all of this other aspects to it and just had fought Devin Haney straight up, it seems like, you know, there's still enough interest in Brian Garcia, the personality to have still gotten big fights afterwards, whereas if he goes out there with all the stuff he did before and gets washed, then his career's clearly tanked. And that's not what happened, but I just don't, I still just don't. I would love to get like an honest off the record conversation with him to be like,

hey, what was going through your head here? Like, is this, to what percentage of this is just actually you? What percentage of this is real? Is this all just some sort of really grandiose game that you're playing for reasons I still can't quite piece out. And so, like, that, that has been my overarching takeaway from this is I was left with far more questions, not really even that much about, like, Brian Garcia's future, just sort of about like what all this was than I had certainly beforehand, which maybe that, maybe that is just enough. Maybe that in itself and making him more interesting and compelling in that way is, is the point of what occurred here. But all I ultimately know is he beat devon hayes ass and it wasn't like the best fight you back of we watch it as

clenching and stuff you know it's not a barn burner but he thumped him up proper and good on him man because this is one of the very few times i will allow a fighter to say nobody believed in me because damn sure nobody believed in you and you did the damn thing so props to you i'm so curious how he attempts to top this? Because he's going to try. Like, you kind of have to, right, B.C.? Like, how do you pop what you just did? He just had cameras on him on his Instagram yesterday. He's taking the videos down, but he bought a $1.2.5 million ring for a girl a day after TMZ reported him with multiple girls in the same city. So what I'm saying on sustainability is I think he's living his life large offside of this. So yeah, I want to see him be able to put this together a second time

without that element of surprise. Will he go to an even crazier level of troll to try to bring in interest? I think he's been inspired, by the way, by the combination of what I mentioned that Teo Fimo Lopez did last year, but also the crossover Jake Paul's social media boxer movement, which has a lot of this craziness in there. But what's going to happen the second time? Because the reason why we picked against him so aggressively,

not because we think he sucks or he doesn't have it, it's because Devin Haney is basically a perfect fighter before this loss. and Ryan Garcia imploded big time in the biggest fight of his life against Jervante Tank Davis the moment he felt Durante's power for the first time. Good on Ryan not imploded the second time around. But did he only not implode because Haney's not a big time puncher and because Ryan got himself into literally a mental frenzy of no return? These, again, are the questions that can only be answered moving forward.

So that sort of brings up some interesting things here because as you would expect BC. Devin Haney has come out and said, look, I lost, Ryan beat me, but I want a rematch because he missed weight and he feels like the weight issue was a big factor in the fight, and he wants to give fans a fair fight, let me pull this up, quote, with an agreed weight. And then good old Oscar Delahoya chimes in on this saying essentially what Apollo Creed said to Rocky Belboa at the end of Rocky 1, there ain't going to be no rematch. We did get Apollo Creed Rocky Balboa to BC. Are we going to get Garcia Haney to? And why would Delahoya, at least right now, be opposed to this when it seems like could be such a massive

fight, or is this a little bit of trolling on his part, a little gamesmanship, if you will? It's 50-50 on both. On one side of it, look, it's a weird situation. Boxing is so segmented, but it's so segmented from the idea that each promoter is tied with a single network with an exclusive contract for the most part. DeZone, the streaming network in this case, has two major promoters. Eddie Hearn of Matrum Sport and Oscar DeLahoya of Golden Boy. I do believe there's a deep jealousy within De La Jolla, who still, he may say ego is not my amigo at every turn when interviewed, but this guy's got a monster ego.

We know that I think there's a bit of jealousy in there at the fact that Eddie Hearn might be the DeZone featured promoter. He's in the pocket of Turkey Al-a-shek. You know, DeZone just streamed that big Terrence Crawford press conference yesterday. We all assume that super card, which is going to have PVC fighters, Golden Boy Fighters, fighters from everywhere, are coming together in L.A. in August, and it's probably going to be an Eddie Hearn match from sport card. So I think that's part of it. The other side of it is the thing that Oscar is still really smart about is the actual level of promoting when it comes to when you have a big name and what moves to go next. Oscar says a lot of BS elsewhere and you can put him down for many different reasons.

But he understands the idea of the big fight that was his legacy for his career. That's why he was a first ballot hall of famer, despite being a five division champion, he always wanted to make the biggest fights against the best for the most money. But I think when he looks at Ryan, was this a surprise to him? him that Ryan beat Haney? You're damn right it was. There was obviously narrative that a lot of the media put in there and I believed in it. The idea that maybe Golden Boy is cashing Ryan out in this big fight against Haney because they're not sure if he's ever going to put it together. Well, he put it back together. So now suddenly Oscar Dale O'Hoya, who has the co-promoter of Jaime Mungia,

by the way, going up on May 4th next week against his old fighter, Canello Alvarez. So Golden Boy, on a bit of a run here, I think when Oscar looks at the landscape, we may eventually one day see a Haney rematch, but I don't even think it's in his business interest to run Ryan back at that fight. Why? Because Haney's like 10 times a better boxer than Ryan. Ryan just had the one kryptonite that speed and power advantage and knew how to get it off or on the guard of Haney to humble him. In a rematch, though, Oscar knows it would be different. I know it would be different. I'd love to see it. I'd love to see Ryan have a chance to prove me wrong a second time, but I think this victory for Ryan was so transformative financially. If he had been not,

knocked out by Devin Haney, which a lot of us predicted, even though Haney's not a big puncher, I was starting to question if Ryan's going to go over into like crossover boxing against celebrities or something because I questioned whether he really had it. Now, the world is his oyster. So I've already made the idea, how about 44-year-old Manny Packow? How about putting Ryan out there in a fight that he probably can't lose, although Manny could catch him obviously, but Manny's old, big name. That's how you make somebody a legit household old-name superstardom. I think it's more likely that Oscar's going to look around the landscape, find the type of fight that will drive up business, allow Ryan's star to shine. But I don't think

he's going to go fight Haney again, Shakur Stevenson. Tank Davis, if it's possible, because there's big money there. Ryan, I love his attitude. He wants to fight the best. But Oscar didn't want him to fight this fight. Didn't want him to fight against Tank with a rehydration clause. Why? Because he is smart when it comes to boxing. And I think they have an opportunity now to, like I said, make him a household name in America, at least, which boxers rarely do. It could be Manny Pacquiao. It could be another big name. But you run him back against Haney.

I know who Devin Haney is inside. He got surprised. It was the worst night of his career. But if he makes a couple little tweaks, including an ability to go on the inside, fight in close range, go to the body, pivot away. His technique is so far ahead of Ryan that I'm not sure what we saw last Saturday. As incredible as it was is actually reproducible, given the talents of the two fighters. I know obviously we deal in different sports jet and I don't know how you're reacting to what BC said, but Oscar Del Hoya just like shutting this all down.

Are you surprised by this? Really? Like, I mean, I know it's again, different business bottle, multiple promoters. It's not like the UFC where, you know, Sean Strickland beats Israel out of Sonia. And, you know, we think it's funny at the time. But we understand that if those two guys ever run it back because of the story, there's, you know, maybe you don't want to see it. but it's still a big fight with those two personalities and the story attached to it. This is obviously different with Eddie Hearn and Oscar Delahoya and all of that.

Oscar gets a little bit of a one-up on Eddie Hearn, which he loves very much. And Eddie Hearn kind of called him out for that. But are you surprised by this? No, because he hasn't. I'd be the things can change, right? Like if he came out, I was like, yeah, we're going to run it back. That's just bad business. Like, you have leverage now.

You have a very clear leverage. So like, yeah, we're not going to run it back. If you would like to resubmit an offer with an extra zero attached to it, you know, dollars make sense, baby. Like, there's no, there's nothing to be gained unless the finances are overwhelming because they've already got the win. It was a win they weren't anticipated to get. I have no idea how a rematch would go. Like, I'm not, I thought I knew how this one would go, but pretty clearly I was dead ass wrong. So, like, I don't know how a rematch would go, but why bring that in when you?

you can move on to another thing unless there is a financial reason to do so. And that can still happen. They didn't already immediately sign a new fight and now we're on to new business. He just said, no, we're not going to run this back. And now the ball's in Haney's court to be like, okay, well, we got to find a way to make this happen or be okay. Because this rematch can now happen whenever because of what's surrounded it. It's a back pocket fight. If they run this rematch in three years, it's fine.

the story is still there. The lineage that it created this night is still set. So they don't have to pull the trigger and it probably is not beneficial to Ryan Garcia to do so at this point and kind of move on and do whatever it is. What I desperately hope doesn't happen is everything else fucking VC just said because I got to tell you, I have less than zero interest in watching Ryan Garcia go back to the crazy man well again. It's just that's not for me. If other people like it, great. I'm glad that that's you enjoy what you enjoy, man, I guess. But I don't really, it made me uncomfortable and cringy to watch this buildup.

Now knowing that like at least some of that was a put on, doing it again will feel real performative and just awful. But then doing that all again to fight 45-year-old Manny Pacquiao, hoff, I could not be less interested in a fight. I'm not saying that's a bad business move. Probably isn't a bad one, honestly. But I desperately hope that that is not the world we live in after this Haney bout because you're taking the best win of this man's professional career and then just just going full circus mode with it. But the bad kind of circus.

We're not talking about Cirque to Soleil or Ringling Brothers. We're talking about the bootleg flea circus that comes to town after the state fair is gone. Just a garbage circus that you pay eight bucks for a funnel cake and a side of tetanus. Like, you just don't want to be involved in that circus. At least I don't. So I just hope BC's wrong about everything he said because it would be terrible if he's right. That's my idea. That's not, Oscar's not saying that I'm saying that's probably the best business.

I know, but I know they want Theo Fima Lopez, which would be a huge two network pay-per-view fight. Look, the world is Ryan's oyster right now. My whole point was they know financially what the right thing to do is. I agree. Honestly, that's what I'm saying. Like, I think what you laid out could happen. I really hope it doesn't. Well, we'll see what happens.

Ryan Garcia has somehow become bizarreo Max Holloway in the boxing world where he has a million options and most of them are intriguing, but I'm very, very intrigued to see where he goes after this massive upset win. But let us move on to something that probably is far less surprising.

The point for round one goes to, I mean, Jed, you were just disarmed from the beginning. BC gets the point. It's one to nothing. Oh, the man who stole things from me just giving away around to my opponent. Who could have seen that coming? Who could have seen the theft and villain Mike Heck signing with not Jedd with you? Couldn't be me.

It would be a 4-0 sweep. It might. We might make some history here. We've never seen it before. It's never been done. There's only pieces of Jed's soul left to take. And we might just take it on this Thursday afternoon here on BTL. Raise the runners.

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They're supporting talent from across the U.S. soccer extended national teams and are focused on helping to give these less widely known forms of soccer a platform moving forward. From the pitch to the sand and everything in between, welcome to our turf. Look, ladies and gentlemen, I was hoping that UFC 300 would be at this point. Like not put to bed, but would just become this incredible memory that MMA and UFC fans could just treasure for quite some time. Nothing but positivity, all of the good vibes, but Dana White had other plans. Much like he did during the post-COVID era and fighting. Island, he takes a victory lap and does so at the expense of the MMA media and MMA

YouTubers and MMA podcasters. And in a shocking development, even used our own Ariel Hawani. And we know how tight those two guys are. New York Rick was in the video and another multi-time competitor on this program. And we'll get into that in a moment. But Jed, as someone who was with me saying that this is the best card on paper in UFC history, even though we didn't get a main event, announcement that, quote, knocked our socks off and blew us away. Like, you were so on top here. Like, everything went swimmingly and then this video comes out. And I respect the hell out of a victory lap.

But what was your reaction? Because this to be is just hilarious behavior. I'm going to zig here. Not like a big zig, but I'm just not going to dunk on Dana for this because I don't care. Like, that's, it really just boils down simply to that. This is petty and childish. and stupid, certainly. I honestly just feel bad for him.

And like, he doesn't need my pity. He got millions of dollars. You're doing fine. But like, I am a petty man myself. I'm not here to say I am above pettiness. I am absolutely a petty man. Come from a long family of petty people. But, like, you know, it's within reason, right?

I don't, I don't wake up every day with a burning hatred for, like, life because that kind of feels like, again, that moment to for your response to be that, to be the shot in for like fictionalized shot in front is so it's so around the bend. Like that that is honestly like a tough way to wake up and that be the lens through which you approach life every day of everyone is against me and my billion dollar entity. they are all my foes and enemies and I shall defeat them. Like that seems exhausting, man. And so, like, I think it was silly and dumb.

And it was obviously a lot of it was taken out of context for several of the people. But, you know, whatever. If this is how you want to celebrate the greatest event of all time. Cool. I would just say that, dude, I'm not saying even don't do it. Do it. If that makes you happy, do it. But also, like, that's a time to show respect for the people.

people did help make it happen. Not like the fanboys, but like to to your employees, to the fighters, like that should be the message of a message of celebration at what we have accomplished through all of this and thanks because frankly when you're the leader of any sort of a team and certainly of a big company, things like that matter. It matters to get an out of boy and a hey look like here we're all we're all pulling in the same direction and look at us. But there was no communal part of the they all said we suck. It was they all said I couldn't do it and look what I did. And it's just grandiose grandstanding for, you know, an ego trip.

And it's fine. I just don't care enough about it. But it would have been cooler if at least on top of that, there was some shout out to the people who did it, the, the, like the arts department and the people who did the, like, we're going to bring back Gladiator, man. We're going to do all these creative developments that made the evening so special. Give them a shout out on top. if you if you must you know dunk on people dunk on them but also let the people who helped you do

the dunk get there you know shout out your boys for the assist completely agree with that instead of like using those resources to like shout those people out you decided to add more work to the social media production team to just find any clip at all of any negative connotation doesn't matter what the context was to dunk on the media yeah i work in this space i didn't know half the people on that and that I am not trying to throw shade at the people they included. But one, I will absolutely try to throw shade at Brendan Chob. I will throw that shade all day.

If you lead with him, that's ridiculous. But then like half the other dudes is like, I've never heard of you. Ouch. Well, one person we have heard of is to the right of our screen right here, multiple time podcast award winner, multiple time appear on these Dana White videos. Like, what was your reaction to this one? because we've had multiple UFC 300 conversations on this program. Like, let's just put a bow on it here, BC.

Like when you saw this and you're like, oh, here I am again. Like, what are you thinking? It's not even about me, right? Or at Big Mac 45278 on Twitter, who also caught shade in here along with Brendan Schaub. And Jed, wow, if you wanted to hurt Brendan Schaub, you know, congratulations. That's a low blow. But here's the deal. It's not about me.

I dunk on people on my podcast. I don't know people on this show when I appear. I can be dunked on too. But tell the truth, Dana. That's really my reaction to this. Like, what did I say for the final month and a half leading into 300? This card is so deep. I freaking love it.

I can't wait. What did I say coming out of it? Oh my God, it reinvigorated my fan love for this game in such a pure way. We all said that. Guys, there's two reactions in this job. When we have multiple days per week to fill podcasts or whatever we do, you know, in terms of hot takes or reactions. Everybody reacts to a card on paper, and then we react to it afterwards.

So just because a great card lives up to that and becomes a great card, you don't necessarily get a victory lap. There isn't act like you belong there. But like Jed said, that card was so good if you wanted to do a victory lap, that's fine. But at least go after the right people for saying the right things. What was the problem about the post-COVID video? Dana took all the hot takes that rightfully had attacked him months or months or Earlier, when he was trying to go on Tachi Palace in California on Native American ground without state commission behind him with the governor of California yelling at him to stop and with him saying, I don't need anybody.

I'll do it myself recklessly, which led to what? A governor of California calling Disney to tell him to stand down. So we were all justified in that. Once Dana got it together, what did I do? Every podcast and every column, I was suddenly like, you know what, Dana is the hero we need right now. He's doing it the right way. He's brave. The safety features are there.

But in almost like cosplay of a politician these days on constantly telling your own truth and anyone else that disrupts that is lying, that's exactly what that video was. And that's exactly what the second video was. They literally took all the reactions everybody had back in January. When UFC 300 was only two months away, I mean, I was on the show like twice, giving you the same whining speeches of we're used to, Brock Leszsche. Ronda Rousey, GSP, these type of UFC 100 or 200 main eventers, right? I mean, 200 was supposed to be Connor versus Nate 2.

Then it was supposed to be John versus DC 2, and then we still got Anderson Silva on there and Brock Lesnar and whatever. You built those expectations. So when it was two months out and we don't have a co-main event or a main event, and then shortly after there, you announced Jan Shaunan against Waley-Zong and Jamal Hill against Alex Padeta. Again, like decent to great fights. for any other pay-per-view.

Not 300. So we were actually justified in what we said back then. I think I was justified in saying all along, once we knew the final card, that with the star power and the guaranteed action of Gaichi versus Holloway, and the fact that both guys really earned, right, really earned, it's the greatest action fighter

of all-time Gaichi against one of the most beloved champions and people this sport has ever produced in Max Holloway, whether or not we got that walk-off incredible thing that we got or not. Max was right. They deserve to be there. So first of all, Dana, tell the truth. Don't got me when I'm wrong, and I'm wrong a lot, dude.

Really, have your people follow my shows on the regular. I'm wrong a lot on there. But it was not only petty. What I really didn't like was the lead-in, because we know what Dana's trying to do in general. He's trying to remove the need for MMA media, right? Pulling us out of the cage side seats, putting all the influencers.

He doesn't do media with most traditional media members unless they're tied to a company that has broadcast rights with the UFC. But again, that's fine. I don't really care about that in reality. But to lead off the throat of the video with, hey, fighters, this is what the MMA media thought of you. Let's go to the videotape is like such unnecessary bullshit. What?

So you can continue to arm this pro right wing audience that already is trained to hate the idea of fake news and media and that anything anyone says that goes against what you believe has to be a lie and a conspiracy. So now we're literally telling the fighters that this is what the media thinks about you. Do you know what the media really thinks about you, fighters? We think you can't get your shit together, and we care about you so much that we go on these podcasts and talk about fighter pay.

Mike Bone goes to the press conference and says, hey, Dana, maybe these guys should get double the bonus because it's 300. And you guys are getting money, hand over fist everywhere. And you just paid off $335 million to all your ex-fighters who were short-sighted enough to not realize that if they just would have pushed off the payday, maybe, just maybe the future could be changed for every fighter. and finally getting what they deserve. So who actually does like the fighters, Dana? Is it you or is it us? Because I think what you didn't want was that trial to actually go to court. So we could see all these text message and emails that were leaked out that John S. Nash is putting out in the world.

Of you just dunking on your fighters on the regular like you always do. So again, let's not lie. You want to do a video of all the numbers that UFC 300? I saw that email. I was like, hell yeah. I'm in this business. I love when the UFC does great. but tell the damn truth you're too successful to run around these shady type of ways of like well look at us like and what's the idea of turning the fan base completely against the media so you can live in an echo chamber with knellke boys who laugh at all your jokes and sit next to you at the craps table and nobody has to ever hear an alternate question i mean it's telling that everybody hates the apex but not a single reporter has raised their hand in a press conference one time say hey dana why are we still there why is this happening right because you're training people to be

afraid for their for their press pass to ask a question and anybody that does ask you just push them out the upper deck and eventually out the building you want to operate that way that's fine luckily a lot of us don't actually need the access to be able to do our jobs but you're fighting the wrong battle against the wrong people you can run back 57 other quotes where I said man 300 is the deepest card ever may not have the main or co-main event that I would have preferred here I mean how does jamal hill go from the UFC 300 main event to the co-main event at an international fight week yeah we have a larger issue here Dana, okay? How about answering those questions rather than this dog and pony show game? But again, it's not about me or dunking on me. Dunk on me all day.

I'm an idiot most of the time, okay? But at least get it right, bro. Okay? And leave Mac Daddy 4256 alone. BC just became Will Smith in the concussion movie. Tell the truth. Just over and over again. It was quite the rant, B.C. It was very, very good. And I can't wait. for the Don Davis one, like four years from now. And I really hope that Don Davis gets dunk on all of us with the success that the PFL and PFLOTor is having. Right there, baby. It is what it is.

Real quick, Dana White did make another video that dropped on social media yesterday. I want to get your quick reactions to this. Jed, I'll let you go first. Joaquin Buckley made an appearance at UFC 300. He has had quite the month, I guess you would say. He finishes Vicente Lucke. He does a post-fight interview. doesn't call it a single person

despite being a ranked fighter goes on Ariel show tries to sort of big up aerial but has no receipts to back it up shows up at the UFC 300 press conference says we love Derek Lewis but he shouldn't be main eventing this card he doesn't want to fight five rounds

I should be the main event of UFC St. Louis and Dana Whitebishop is like get the hell out of here good night everybody but Joaquin Buckley will fight at UFC St. Louis he's in the co-main event against Nersulton Ruzabayev, a 6'5 absolute killer who's dropping down to 170

on a freaking 10-fight winning streak. So your reaction to A, Joaquin Buckley getting on UFC St. Louis and B, getting the co-made event spot against this absolute killer after beating Vicente Luque a month ago. Buckley should teach a masterclass and just how to fumble the bag.

Like, it is, I don't. He had the biggest win of his crew. career. His post-fight speech was weird just because it wasn't got like, you can't call for a thing that someone already has. They're not going to change the production for you. They have already got the posters like set up. And granted, UFC posters take four minutes in paint to build. But it's still like they're just not going to shift gears midstream here. So that was dumb. Then he goes in the MMA hour, the biggest show in the sports, RBC. You know, the biggest platform to get something across in a way. And I don't remember if I said this publicly,

I've certainly said it privately. Like, I honestly think it might be the worst interview I've ever seen when you factor in like just what should be used there because other bad interviews happen all over the place. But usually there's a reason for that. Somebody is trying to get across some idea that doesn't really jive well or whatever. But at least like they're making an effort to do something. Joaquin Buckley seemed like he was on the hour just because he felt he had to, but didn't want to be there and was just really burning goodwill in his pursuit of something. I honestly don't know.

And then goes to 300. Does that. I don't know what you thought that this was, that particular moment was the time to make things about you, but that is an egregious miscalculation. and your payoff is getting a fight you could have gotten. They would have given you this fight at any point in time. They would have given you a co-main event. But now,

now that you are freshly in the UFC's well-to-weight rankings at number 11, I believe, now instead of getting a fight at this event against somebody that might move you forward, you're fighting a dude who most people haven't heard of who's, I'm going to say, probably going to kick your ass and going to just ruin your ranking. Like, I don't know how you could.

have this bad of a calculation with your own career, but he has taken every wrong step possible for the last month. And it's pretty tough to see if you're walking Buckley Finn, you know? B.C., what did you make of all this? Like you said, it's been, it's been an interesting road since getting the Vesente Leuke fight after Sean Brady. That fight was never actually a thing to begin with. But then Buckley gets it, gets the finish, calls for this card, doesn't get the main

event. This is the co-mate event. and he's facing Roads above, and it's just a tough-ass fight, man. Like most people on Twitter when I sort of gave my quick take of, wow, this is a tough draw to finishing Vicente-Luke was, this is punishment. This is Dana punishing Joaquin Buckley for trying to steal some shine. I don't think it's necessarily that,

but what was your reaction to this fight booking? Or do you think it is? Okay. I do think there is a little element of punishment because it's not that Jed's rant is incoherent, completely. or not without any sort of facts. I mean, it's a step back matchmaking-wise in a really tough fight. It's like the kind of fight they give you in your last fight of the contract

when they want you out of there, right? But at the same time, so I do think there is some of that element of Dana going, okay, you think you're a big shot now. You want to be on the poster. You want to be fighting in your hometown. Okay, we'll do it. We'll give you this killer. But I don't look at it as the monster failure Jed does it aimed at Numanza

because he really wanted the popularity. He wants the money. He's spoken up before. give him credit in his post-fight speeches saying like, hey, UFC, like, not only do I deserve the bonus, but like, let's talk about my contract. I deserve more. I couldn't think, I couldn't be more impressed when fighters in this era, right, of that, again, that lawsuit that could have changed MMA forever being shut down where they have zero leverage

at all and barely anybody speaks up for themselves or even has a name ready to call out, like Bo Nicola 300 when Joe Rogan's shoving the mic down his throat, give us a damn name, Bo. he called his shot from the idea that he wanted to fight in his hometown in a real featured spot and get kind of a push. So even though there is that little Dana edge to it or the matchmakers of saying, okay, you want this this badly, well, it's going to be the co-man and you're going to have to earn it. He still gets the chance to do what he wants to do, which is show us exactly who he is and get paid. In some way, you could say be careful what you ask for, but I also think he challenged the company, the company's challenging him back.

And if he wins this, if he helps boost the tickets, sales locally by being in the Co-main in his hometown and can do that. That's why I think that big opportunity is going to come for him. So maybe there's a little feeling out and a little testing ground on the UFC side too. But I don't necessarily think that this is a horrible career move because if he gets the job because here's the thing, if he really is as good as he's portraying lately in terms of I want the opportunities, let's go, rank me all this stuff, then you should beat this guy. Really?

So I think he's getting his opportunity to get exactly what he wants in the end, which is a push and some favor, but sometimes you got to earn it the hard way. So he's going to do that. Yeah, wins. The risk reward here is just so, because the other part of this is, do we think Roosevelt's making weight? He's 6'5, man. He's fucking enormous.

So like, it will not at all surprise me if he just doesn't make weight at all. And then suddenly you're in that room. And you're like, all right, Buckley, are you going to bail the co-main event out by accepting a fight with a dude who, came in nine pounds overweight because like I just this seems like the worst possible outcome for him other than the fact that he does get to be the co-mate event and and you know in the hometown car like I just think he could have gotten a fight that's not this tough and had all of the other same stuff if he hadn't been really bad at every other aspect of this how life works jed you

got to earn it all right okay well I'm just saying when Ruzibai of comes in nine pounds over because he's gigantic and can't make welterweight physically, then it's going to be like, okay, well, I'm Joaquin Buckley and I'm not going to take a fight with a dude who has a full weight cuss above me, which is fair. I'm not saying he should take that fight, but then the UFC's going to hate him. Like, you just haven't optimized for your career as of what I'm saying. Why wouldn't they just do this at 185? What's the difference?

Seriously, like what is the difference? I assume it's because Rizabai, I have. wants to, you know, get a welterweight ranking because if he beats Buckley, he gets one now. Buckley's, you know, almost top 10 dude. Yeah, I mean, one of his teammates and buddies there's in the same division

is going to be ranked higher than him. So it's not like him and Sean Brady are going to fight each other. Are they going to be like the new Al Jal Jemarab perhaps? Come on. Sean Brady's never fighting for a title. It's fine. I love Sean Brady. Don't get me wrong.

But like, he's just going to be that dude. Wow. Rousse of five. You know what? Numanza actually got the rant wrong when it came at Ariel. He should come on this show and come at Jed, right? That's what should happen. Honestly, that would make a lot more sense.

This is the first time I've ever trashed Buckley. But like, there are a lot of fighters who have total cause to hate me. And I get that. Yeah. I mean, look, if Buckley goes out there and just thumps up Roots Abev and a co-main event spot, which, by the way, there are still, for you St. Louis fans, plenty of tickets available for that May 11th show. I'm looking at it right now.

I've seen maybe more blue and red in this map than I've seen from a UFC card in a very, very, very long time. So perhaps this is something to maybe generate some tickets. But I'll tell you what, man, Buckley goes out there and puts on a performance and actually does the thing, then this actually works out for him. If he calls for MVP in Manchester or something else and like does it right, then it's great.

But if he loses, he is in. deep shit. Like he's a deep shit if he loses this fight. So Gusto sure, but he probably could have avoided this all together. I don't, of all the names, I thought they could have put

what's happening here, honestly. If you gave me 500 guesses, Nersaltin Ruzabayev would not have been one of them. It wouldn't have been. If you gave me five or two, if you gave me a million, it's been like, Roussabaya is more likely to go to light heavy. He was a huge person. I don't think we're making enough about this.

You know, the crazy thing is, though, this fight that we're talking about would probably be the best fight on Saturday's UFC card or UFC 3-01. That's really saying something, you know? Hey, don't talk about my boy, Vinnie Siggs. Vincenzo Orsegg is a hitter. I mean, Dana, I might have to put out a video again at you after this matchmaking coming up. I mean, guys, really, Connor Coleman and the card below it is like, you know, when somebody doesn't

flush in the urinal, you know what I mean? Well, listen, that's, you're talking about UFC 303. We're talking about May 11th. Let's talk about Saturday. The night for kings, everybody. Let's not. A point for round two goes to. Chad Mishu, one to one.

Very nice. I just can't steal his, I got to keep some of his soul intact, even though it's a tremendous round. Excellent stuff from both of you guys. What a rant from BC about the day and a video. but. But the truth. Guys.

Guys, BKFC knuckle manias coming up on Saturday. UFC Vegas 91 coming up on Saturday. BKFC headliner, Mike Perry, Mr. Bear Knuckle himself, facing past UFC title challenger Tiago Alves. And then over in Las Vegas at the world's most famous apex, it's Mateus Nicolao versus Alex Perez on a battle, I believe, top 10 UFC ranked flyweight. BC, let me begin with you.

Obviously, Mike Perry is the guy everybody wants to see. No one is saying, nah, can't come to the knucklemania party at the crib because I just cannot miss this Mateus Nicolao versus Alex Perez main event. But in terms of like top to bottom, first fight to last,

is UFC the clear second best here? Clear second best. And I don't even think that matters if you like BKFC at all. And it took me a while to get in on it. You know, I'm not fully in meaning I love the pageantry, I love the ridiculousness.

I don't fully love the actual combat. It's probably my least favorite. Actually, sorry, I like it more than jujitsu tournaments. Definitely. But short of that, not necessarily my cup of tea, but Mike Perry is a legitimate pay-per-view star right now. I want to see him in fights against like 50 people in five different disciplines, including in the street.

But really, it's not just one fight. I mean, Knucklemania, when they roll out that name, it typically is one of their, to quote Scott Coker, tent pole events, one of their big ones. And this one has a fair mix of ridiculousness up and down that I wouldn't kick out of the bed. I mean, do you want to see Todd Duffy against Big Ben Roth? Well, like, yeah, I kind of do. Do you want to see, let me bang Julian Lane? Yeah, I do.

How about Lorenzo Hunt at like 45 trying to become a three-division simultaneous BKFC champion? Like, again, this is kind of pretty weird shit, but I'm into it. in this fight night card, not that I necessarily believe that they need to follow UFC 300 with the greatest fight night card we ever saw. No, I mean, you know, in WWE, this would be called pay backlash, right? The first pay-per-view after WrestleMania always blows. Oh, wait, that's 301. That's coming up in a while. But this fight night card, I mean, it really blows. Like, the main event obviously is a very good fight fan fight. It matters in the division. I like the matchup. I'd also like the matchup if it was the fourth fight of the night. Like, to be fair, right? Or if it was the

featured preliminary bout. But like, we've been ranking lately. What's the worst fight night main event of all time? Is it Calveo versus I or Derek Lewis against Shumab Abdur Akeemoff? Or is it Derek Lewis against that other guy no one's ever heard of coming up? Well, that's a debate

for another day. But this fight's in that category. Not in terms of skill or if it matters. It's just the least sexy option ever. I mean, shout out to the smart cage. But like, they're rolling out some of these events in the PFL that I'm like, PFL, I actually want you to compete. You're not doing anything to compete right now.

You're spreading yourself so thin. This is the reality of UFC's content creation era where the ESPN deal fuels their business strategy. And I get that. But BKFC has enough weirdness where, you know what, if you were the type of person that pays for pay for pay-per-views every once in a while, this might be the one to pay and get a 30 rack of Budcan and call over that guy down the street who helped you change your tire, even though you're sure he's killed at least one member of his own family.

Have a party. It's knucklemania time. Jed, where are we at here? UFC clearly playing second fiddle here? I mean, we know on our website, UFC is just going to get absolutely dumped trucked by this knucklemania card in terms of results and what people want to actually know about.

But is this, I mean, they're so far behind here, or do you think the UFC has a case of being like the better top-to-bottom card? Dude, no. Come on. This is the worst question in BTL history. This is the worst serious card I've ever seen. Really? I don't think it's miserable.

I really don't think it's so bad. It's miserable. It's way worse than this, dude. Way worse. I truly believe this is the worst car. I'm looking at it right now. I'm staring this down, desperately seeking a fart. And there is one fart.

The main event is a fart. Greeny Silva, Ariane Lipski is not a fart. That's a good fight. Ranked up and coming 25ers. Jonathan Pierce, David Onama. That's got to have some bark. Tim means Jurasmedich got to be a banger. I don't believe in JSP anymore.

Tim means is like kind of fun, but I don't think that's not a fart. Honey, Yaya and Tim means those two fights together might get half a fart. We're talking to a two and a half a card here. The Yaya, Victor Henry, Tim means Euris Medich collectively. is half a fart, I think. It's a terrible card. We got three? So we got three.

No, we're two and a half farts right now. This is a terrible card, Mike. And I'm not here to tell you, you know, knockomania is great. But knockomania is where it is. And it's always fun. And it moves fast and it does the thing. I got zero interest in Todd Duffy disagreed with Brian on that one. I don't know why we're doing that.

But that's fine, you know. It'll be one fight, Ben Rothwell, knock him out and do the Darth Vader cackle. It'll be weird and cool. cool. BKFC is just a more fun garbage experience. Like both of these are garbage. One of them is a more fun garbage experience. But the biggest issue I have with what B.C.

Just said, you're not watching BKFC with Bud. Like, this is a bush-like kind of thing. You get a 30 rack of just the cheapest beer you can find. Red Dawn. Maybe you play Edward 40 hands, you know? You just kick up when you just go malt liquor on it. And like, honestly, if I was working, you could convince me to pony up for BKFC and play Edward Ford and so we're firing this up.

That would be a pretty good excuse to do this, whereas I'm not going to do this to the UFC. I'm just like, no, I'm not watching this. I'll go to MMAFighty.com. It's a great website, and it will give me all the highlights and tell me what I can watch the next day as I'm doing other things with my Saturday evening. So BGFC in a walk, a landslide victory. I love how we could just find cheap $12. $1.30 rack beer selections to compare to this knucklemania card.

And I'm fine with drinking red dollar on a Saturday night. Oh, I almost went red dog. I was also like, yeah, let's go Bushlight. Yeah. Yeah. That's 1099 for a 30 rack. Good old days of Red Dog. So obviously, knucklemania is where we're going here.

We're not spending a lot of time on this UFC card. We'll have some kind of a preview show. I'll probably spend a few minutes on tomorrow. But Jed, we had a roundtable on the site. You can go check it out at M. Mefiting.com, myself, Shaheen Alshaddy, Damon Martin. We answered some knucklemania questions, so I'll pose this one to you, Jed. Is Mike Perry a top 10 combat sports draw right now?

Well, Mike, draw is an interesting way to frame it because it's impossible to know the answer. Are you really going to read my... I know what I friggin said. I would have been... I would have been such a good gimmick. No. He's probably not a top 10 biggest draw. I do agree, though, with your taking that it's really hard to, like, have a concrete sense of this. Top 10 just feels high just because 10 is a very small number and kind of gets bandied about as like,

oh, it's one of the top 10, but actually if you start to put it down, like, oh, he's a top 10 fighter all time. Actually, there are like seven, no doubt about it. And then there are like 20 people competing for those last three. With this, it's something similar. It wouldn't shock me if as a pay-per-view draw, Mike Perry actually was a top 10 draw. I think that's probably a little high. I think he's certainly top 20. There's not that much competing, specifically in MMA and BKFC.

If you're talking boxing, then no. He's very clearly outside of the 10. If you're adding that factor to combat sports in. But this is a dude who generates interest. I mean, look at the swing rounds that you did with him. Like this is a guy who gets people invested in one way or another. And that is why BKFC has hitched their wagon to him functionally. And it's why I think Nucklemania is probably going to be very successful this weekend.

Because when he fights, people do tune in. People are interested to see kind of what happens. And he always delivers a good product. So, you know, he's not connem or, Gregory, he's not Israel Disney, he's not Alex Prairie, he's not that kind of draw. But tier level down, that kind of B tier level draw, I think he's absolutely there. So not top 10, top 20, I think is certain. Do you agree with that, BC or do you rate him a little bit higher?

I know, Damon. No, I rate him higher. I mean, you got to back it up with numbers and he's never going to do, like Jed said, Canello numbers or even in the more elite UFC machine with a big star in the main event type of numbers, but he's a consistent, compelling dude in so many categories. And now you mix in this turn in BKFC where he's not only figured out the best sport of the three for him, where he's actually in his physical and mental prime and doing the best work of his career.

But like the fights are exciting as shit. I mean, he went in there against Luke Rockold. It was so much bigger. And BKFC has that UFC one feels still to it, not just the rawness, to make that comparison. But in UFC early days, obviously, like, we had no idea how these fights were going to go. Like, you know, eventually we all figured out that Hoyce has this weird secret that is, that no one can figure out. And that was what it was. But, like, you don't really know if he's going to win these.

And when he does, I mean, the MVP fight was like six rounds of craziness. And I was thinking about this when I was interviewing Mike Perry this week on morning combat, another, as Jed would say, you know, fantastic award-winning show that almost just died, but we resuscitated it. But, you know, I was asking Mike Perry about Ryan Garcia's recent troll job and if he respected it or what he thought about it and Mike had a very colorful response. But I was thinking, you know, I shouldn't be this sort of negative against what Ryan is doing because, you know, historically, I love crazy people in the fight game. You know, I love Ricardo Majorga, Mike Tyson, whether it was young crazy Mike or ridiculous second half of his career crazy Mike. And, you know, I love Mike Perry. Mike Perry might actually be the best in combat sports right now at bringing the absolute bat-shit-crazy realness of his real personality and the life experience he's had to take it to this point

with an actual comedic mind and good timing and can execute a well-well-done skit where you're never really sure. I think Roli Romero in boxing is the genius artistic maestro of the moment when it comes to that same thing. And every time I mention his name, people laugh me all. off of the program, but I think he knows what's going on up here. So does Mike. It just so happens that the fights now in this discipline are all ridiculously violent on

top of that. And I think we are all like really happy for him, almost in a Mike Tyson type way that Mike is getting paid well, that he seems to be really happy. I don't know if you see he's got the full black beard, perfect. I mean, etching. I mean, he looks like a million bucks right now. He's happy. He's got kids.

You see them, you know, doing the gender reveal. and we got the birthday party going on the Instagram. Like, you know, we thought he might be dead right now. But Mike has kind of become this almost, you know, crazy man that's kind of made good. And that's fun to see. And even though Tiago Alva is an interesting opponent, I think it'll be a war, but it isn't to the level of the interest of his most recent opponents. I do wonder, where does he go from here?

Not just in BKFC, but the idea that he's a player in the crossover, Jake Paul type of boxing bubble. He's a player in real boxing if he wanted to do some type of. some type of ambitious thing. He's had pro bouts before. I don't expect him to be great. And obviously the idea that what if UFC brought him back and put him in like a BMF fight,

he's building his brain. He's doing what Cody Rhodes did, leaving WW and going to, you know, on the Indies and then AEW. It's really almost that same thing. So you have to chair for it, and that leads into you have to watch it because who does he call out next?

I know it's ridiculous to say that face off he did with Connor McGregor. Will that lead to something unless UFC buys Bay KFC, no. But the fact that that even happened, And that got us all that excited and that Connor would even show up there and be willing to do that. Yeah, Mike Perry's made it. He's turned this shit around.

He's a working class hero now. I love the man. He's threatened to kill me a couple times. I'm not joking. All right. He has. We've made up, though, right? But he's a hot firecracker, a wild card.

And he's got a chance right now to legitimately get himself into a ridiculously big fight. I want to see him get there. Let's do it. Hey, UFC. Like, I know again, I can't complain here. 300 was great, but what the hell are you doing? Do you have meetings where you go? You know what?

We have so much goodwill right now. Let's just shit in a bag and sell it. They won't know. They won't realize it, right? Come on. Why am I the only one that says that out loud anymore? Boy, I'm the only one that shows up in his video. That's probably why.

Yeah. I don't know why you'd want to ruin Mike Perry by bringing him back to the U.S. Like, why do you want bad things to happen to Mike Perry by bringing him back to the UFC? Like, he's doing great. He's in the perfect spot. We're having fun with him. Let's let him do that. We don't need to bring him back for a BMF.

That's completely unnecessary. He's got to be his own BMF belt. It's called bare knuckle. It's no belt. He's just doing it. It's fine. He has the king of violence, shipping,

I just want to let you know that. No, no, Justin Gage is still has that or any valve. I mean, you know, they bogarded that. But I guess you're right in that respect. Also, Mike, I forgot, yeah, pretty clearly not top 20 because actually on MMAFind.com, terrific website. We solved this very question this week.

When you were a villainous hag who stole shit from me, Mike Perry was drafted 19th overall, so he is the 19th biggest draw on the sport, per our scientific methodology for the 2024 MMA draft. That was that damn Shaheen Al-Shaddy, just trying to steal from that act. You didn't even protect him. You didn't even protect him.

Because I didn't think anyone would take him. He doesn't make sense anywhere else. You discredited it. You didn't believe in Mike Perry. You wanted B-KFC to go in a new direction. Listen, we get Alex Pereira, so I think we're okay. But B-C., you bring a bit an interesting thing about Mike Perry in this story and how big of a draw he is, because he's had tremendous B-sides along the way. Like, he's been the A-side with MVP and Luke Rockhold, even Eddie Alvarez, but those are tremendous B-sides.

And Tiago Alves, to your point, known commodity amongst the MMA community, hasn't fought in B-KFC. or the bare-knuckle space in quite some times holding out for some money and he's going to get a big payday. But if Mike Perry does do Mike Perry things on Saturday, if you have the Mighty Pencil, if you're in the BKFC matchmaking war room meeting on Tuesday, what are you suggesting here? What do you want to see?

Mike Perry versus Phil in the blank, like realistically. That's the thing. It's a perfect question. And I want to play that game. And he, on the record, has said he has three names that he is going to consider calling out when he wins on Saturday. He said two are people he's already talked about. One, he says it's such a wild card that he thinks people will just go insane when they hear it.

So it's like, I think Jake Paul's too big, right? It seems too big for him for that to really make a ton of sense. I don't really know what it is. I mean, could you imagine if, would you be down for him boxing GSP? Not that I think George is into that, but like, what about something wild and crazy like that? I don't really know. That's why I know you crept on the UFC idea. I think he would get paid.

obviously his best UFC payment to date. And I think he would want that feeling of coming back home and making good and UFC going, oh, yeah, you did do it. You did go make something to yourself. So I think the biggest prize for him in a lot of ways actually is that, especially if they brought him in as like the BK. Imagine if they were just like, yeah, F, let's go him against Gagee next. Like, you know what I mean?

Like something crazy like that. I don't know who the perfect BKFC opponent is, though, because he has run through names. Connor's not going to jump over there. And I did talk to Nate Diaz. on the baddest tour who was asked questions like this from the media on that tour and also behind the scenes. I heard, you know, we were all sort of throwing it around. He doesn't seem to like the bare knuckle thing. But him against Nate Diaz would be something really interesting in that

specific discipline. Maybe Nate feels like he has too many options and quote unquote, you know, realistic ones. Obviously he's got that lottery ticket of the Connor trilogy, whether or not this Jorge boxing match matters or not to anybody. So, you know, so I have a non-answer. I don't have an answer, but I want to hear who he's going to call out because, like I said, I don't think you can create a name as a potential opponent and pick the discipline and not go, all right, maybe I wouldn't pay $60 for that, but I'm going to see that. I got to see that. That's where Mike is. You've got to see him. You got to freaking see him. Remember it? It was like two years ago he was knocking old dudes out in bars. And now he's like Ward Cleaver. This is fantastic. I love this sport.

It's just so crazy. Like three years ago, or four years ago, I'm on a virtual media. day with him and before his Mickey golf fight and he told me to go fuck myself in front of everybody and then four years later we're playing nine holes of golf together in sunny Florida I mean just what a change but Jed where are we doing he finds out you let him go from BKFC he's going to be mad at you again now no but I already worked out a co-promotional deal with Shaheen so he'll still be fighting for us and he's going to make a whole he's going to be with the co-leader Jed just think of the notoriety he's going to gain fighting for the co-leader but Jed, we're not here to talk about that.

Mike Perry in BKFC, he goes out there and if he busts up Tiago Alves, yeah, he's going to call some names out, but who would you throw him in there with, realistically? There are two answers. One of them is BKFC and one of them is probably not, though, perhaps BKFC. I think the most obvious answer, the answer that is the most likely to happen, right, is Darren Till. That fight has been bandied about a bunch.

It seems like there's been sort of a slow, building momentum for it for the past like two years almost. And I think that that's that's the most likely scenario. He gets a win. BKFC can do Darren Till and make that happen without any other party involved. The moonshot, again, B.C. is, I don't, I don't know what he's on today, but he's trying to do a lot of awful things. Like, I don't want to see him boxed.

That sounds like the exact inverse of interesting to me. Nate Diaz is just, I got to say, that's not, it's not drawing the law. It's not doing it for me. But you are so close because Nate Diaz ain't it, but a man Nate Diaz is about to box has his own bare knuckle experience, has his own bare knuckle promotion, and would make all the sense in the world to do. So after Jorge and Maslboro and Nate Diaz settle up however they're going to do it,

I don't know if it's boxing. I don't know if that's just because I know that Horace has been granted permission to box by the UFC. I don't know if they would. would be cool with him doing bare knuckle boxing. But, you know, he can co-promote it. You know, BKFC and Gamebred Bear Knuckle can co-promote because this is a man who grew up fighting Bear Knuckle.

There's no aversions to that in the same way Nate has. And, you know, I think you'd be like, yeah, I'm a former BMF champion. Mike Perry's the Violence King or whatever his title is the thing. Like, that makes all the sense in the world, especially because after Nate, I don't think Mazurl has a lot of options. There is the hope of a Jake. Paul boxing match, but not sure that's going to come to fruition for him. And so I think doing bare knuckle against Mike Perry, if he can get, if that is something

that he is allowed to do by the UFC, I think that that is a really good plan B if you can't for whatever reason make the Darren Till thing happen. And honestly, might just be a better plan A than Darren Till. Those are great answers, Mike. You know, he nailed it. He nailed it. I thought, yeah. I love what Dice. He's like, yeah, I lost that one.

He's got to call it Dylan Dennis, too, I would assume. It'll be Dylan Dennis and Darren Till. Those will be the two names. The wild card I'm very, very interested in. So we'll see. Mosquito. Could be Mossboro. If it's Mosphil, I'm a three for three.

That's a banger. Hey, listen, they let Chad Mendez go box bare-knuckle a couple of times while still under UFC contract. I think UFC would let him do it as long as he doesn't go to the co-leader or anything. like that. Yeah. It is boxing. And you know, he does have a pretty good relationship with BKFC. So I think it's possible. And honestly, it's probably the thing I'd be the most interested in. Yeah. Well, Mazadol take that. I mean, be huge. We'd love to see it. But if it happens, I need Mosvidal to rock the jorts like he did in the boatyard though. Like,

I need him to bring back that and the ponytail. Just bring back the whole look. Get back to your loose, Jorge. shave the beard or no beard he's had the beer for so long probably i know yeah well but yeah but yeah i mean if you go no beard and just go full look that would be the vibe that'd be wild uh he's gonna be busy though june first he's got something coming up but we're going to talk about that in a in a matter of seconds the point for round three goes to i mean bc already forfeited the point so there you go two to one two to one jed tapped in for bogey and bc shot a nubes shot a nine on the hole and just kind of gave it up.

I don't know about a nine over there. Not. Not feels like a lot. Sounds like I made par, at least. Right. All right. Well. Support for this show comes from Chase.

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Freestyling, free shipping, and order pickup, make it all easy. Add Nordstrom. As we were just talking about, Jorge Mazadol, very busy man, Nate Diaz, very busy man, because they're going to be fighting each other. June 1st in Los Angeles, part of the FanMeo event. We saw a couple other fights announced, Christopher Vila versus Anthony Pettis, also taking place on that card,

and I'm sure there'll be more added to the fray as well. But that is also the same day as UFC 302. When we first talked about this idea, we were wondering, how will this compete? Why do they choose this date? And do they need to just pray the greatest prayer that Leon Edwards versus Bilal Muhammad

has announced the main event over Islam, Makhachev versus Dustin Porre. Their prayers were unanswered because they're getting Islamakachachov versus Dustin Porier. But now they wrapped up this press tour. They went to some different cities. They went to Vegas as we talked about.

They went to Miami. They went to New York. They went to Los Angeles as well. And B.C., you were there for all of them. You were there center stage. Just setting these guys up, put it on the T-For him, let and knock it out of the park. So you obviously will have a different perspective than Jed

or anybody else will, but just being there and being on that stage. Like I know there's definitely a different kind of energy that comes with hosting events like that. It just gives you that different kind of a feeling. But in terms of the actual fight itself, what did that experience do for your excitement levels, I guess? Because these are two massive names.

And I do think it's going to be intriguing. But June 1st is going to be, I mean, it's a combat sports friggin marathon, is it not? It's, you just nailed like the position you're in as a fan to this fight. tour and it was a lot of fun. It was all so crazy and weird. And, you know, they're not the greatest trash talkers when not provoked. And I was kind of trying to get them to provoke a little bit more. But I really like the fight. I mean, like from the idea that it's an attraction. It's a little bizarre. And I love old guy fights. I love the idea of like, okay, we have seen them

fight in MMA. There is a bit of an unfinished business storyline there to some degree. I want to see them both get paid and to hear Jorge on Ariel's show do the wall, wall, we wah-we-wah thing because it's like, no, this is legitimate pay. I'm happy for them. But they got the wrong date. And, you know,

Jorge went on the record and said that's Nate's fault, that they could have moved it. And Nate was the one who said, no, I want to go head to head with the UFC. Let's do it. You not only have the UFC pay-per-view in the main event. Like, you really, you know, you really got to see. You've got the Beave-Vol versus Better Beave boxing fight,

which, you know, is the light heavyweight, undisputed championship two unbeaten future Hall of Famers. I know that's more of a hardcore thing in boxing, but that's also like steak dinner on that weird Saudi card where Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren are going to go five of their best against each other. So it's a very competitive day. But like that's the problem is like I kind of want to see the event. I like it. I mean, you know, you could argue an MMA rematch would have been better. That's what Nate preferred. Jorge wasn't allowed to, you know, as long as Nate wanted to stay a free agent.

So they kind of had to do the boxing. But I think in the ring, you don't really know what it's going to look like. Because even though Nate didn't look great against Jake, I was, I don't know, happy or impressed wouldn't be the word. But I guess I remember being happy because I thought that fight was going to stink. And I thought even though Nate clearly lost, like, you know, he had moments. He did some of the Nate Schick. He was kind of back in it. It wasn't a perfect execution.

I do think he took it a bit lightly. Jorge says he didn't even train at all. But I think that's sort of an interesting dynamic to see, like, what is it? he going to look like knowing in this fight he better of trained because I do think Jorge feels revived by the opportunity that the UFC gave him by saying we want to keep you under contract and I know Jorge does want to come back and cash in on some type of big fight on the MMA side but they gave him three boxing matches to go do his thing so he's going to bring it. I feel like he is going to be in the best shape we've seen him in a while and taking it seriously.

Will Nate? I do think Nate realizes who's across from him. Nate with the mic dropped to end the tour was interesting, right? It was sort of a viral moment there, three minutes into the press conference. But I just wish it wasn't this night because as we saw with Ryan Garcia versus Devin Haney, like taking over combat sports last week with the UFC being idle and they're not being another thing really against it, I would like to see a fight like this just like Mike Perry this Saturday, right? He's going up against a UFC fight night, but like he does have a chance legitimately for people with discerning combat income to really pick their flavor here, I wish that this baddish tour Last Man Standing was going to be a thing where more eyeballs can get on it for these two

fighters. And yeah, I wish they talked a little trash and, you know, stir it up a little bit more. But that's more how I get down. You know, I ate in a gas station literally up to the point of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. So again, I'm not the best advocate for MMA or myself for the most part. But back to you guys. All right. Yeah. Jed, we covered all those press tours, all the stops, different things happen, different things are said, or even not said. Has your interest levels risen at all for this fight? And I know the date's going to be tough, and they kind of unfortunately shot themselves in the foot

just for booking this date in general, so it's probably going to hurt them in the long run. But as somebody who could just watch this fight, are you intrigued by it? No, I have no interest in this fight. It'll happen. We'll cover it. I'll probably end up watching it because I guess I will have to. I might not just because there are so many other things going on. I don't know.

I wasn't particularly interested in the first fight other than the fact that the UFC was doing something cool, even if what they were doing was stealing a fighter's idea. It was still like something interesting in that. But the fight itself, I say I didn't have a ton of interest in. And I don't know why I would have more interest in them doing. this several years later, both men clearly out of their best years in a sport that's not their primary one. Like, I also, in case anyone was taking a poll, would not be super interested in watching

Nate Diaz versus Horamoss for on and game a bad midden. I might watch it if there was nothing else happening, but it's just not my cup of tea. If it's yours, that's great. I think this is going to do really poorly. And the only part of this that has really interested me, other than watching BC do a phenomenal job trying to drag interesting things out of Nate Diaz, who, by all accounts, looked like he just didn't want to be there. The only interesting part of this is Mosvedo coming on the MA hour after and being like,

yeah, Nate just didn't want to move the date. We didn't have to fight on June 1. And there's, we're going head to head with the USC pay-per-view. We argued that that is a very stupid idea, not to mention the Biv will better be of thing. Like, we said that this was dumb, but they was like, nope, it's this day. or we're not doing it. And that just seems real weird. Like very, very odd to me that he is only interested in fighting here to the point

that it almost does seem like he wants to do it intentionally. But I don't know. That's bad for business. Going to be fewer people with eyeballs on it just because of the other competing stuff and because it's by far the least compelling of all these fights. If there is a big population of people who have been in a coma for the last four years, then this fight is going to sell gangbusters if they are all coming out of that coma in the end of May. But if not, then this is probably going to be the third most viewed item of that day in combat sports.

And that's a tough place to be if you're trying to sell pay-per-views. It's probably still got to do better in 301, if we're being honest. Shut up anything. Yeah. No, 301 is going to do just the rock bottom of numbers. And not to rub it in, but that Better Beavall fight card, the five on five is a dezone pay-per-view, but the actual Berturbia better be versus Beavall fight errs. Bavill fight errs.

ESPN Plus, like they've somehow made that possible between so many networks and promoters. I don't know that. That's cool. So that's a quote-unquote free fight if you're a subscriber. So that. So free fight? Yeah. Tough day.

And both of those are free fights that happen on an app that every male between the ages of 18 and 36 already owns as opposed to not. Like, it's just, it's not going to do that well, I don't think. Yeah. It might do really well for us traffic-wise. Just because no one's going to pay for it so then they can go to us. But I would genuinely love for Nate Diaz to explain why it had to be June 1. because that seems like the silliest thing.

Pick it like a week before or after and you're not competing with anything meaningful. I just don't understand that aspect of this. Yeah, a week before, I mean, it would have been Memorial Day weekend. So obviously still could have done really well. Yeah, you could have done on a freaking Sunday. You know what people, Memorial Day weekend? Like a lot of older people go with their families.

A lot of young dudes go like to the beach or whatever with a bunch of, of friends and they could buy that pay-per-view and get hammered drunk and watch it. Like, I don't know. It just seems like the worst weekend you could ever chose. Do you guys play touchbutt in the park on that description of that afternoon? Because that sounds like pretty fun, you know? I mean, touch butt at the beach, not the park. But yeah, you know.

Oh, sir. Yes, yes. Yeah, the park threw me off there. Park threw me off. But listen, it's going to happen June 1st and we're going to cover it at M.A.fiting.com. And who knows, during the watch. It might have a double watch party. You might be watching UFC and that fight at the same time.

So either way, we're going to let you know what happens. But I'm going to let you know what happens with the fourth round of regulation here. Point for round four goes to AC two to two. What a bad. I did not see that coming. Just like you didn't see me picking Alex Pereira. But we live, we learn. We live and we cry.

I'm never going to get over that. I'm so excited. All you had to do is keep the whiteboard up. and write, don't draft anybody out. No, because you were going to take him anyway, and I knew you were. I was just hoping you would take Francis. It was 50-50, but it is what it is. All right, guys, we're going to do one more question here.

One more question. Each will have 60 seconds, and I do mean 60 seconds to answer this final question. Jed, you were the most recent winner on the program. Do you want to go first? You want to pass it over to BC? I've been going first a lot, but because, BC won't keep to 60 seconds. I would like to have an even amount of time.

We're make him go first and then however long he goes, I get that time as well. I've learned for my mistakes. We got some more news from the UFC front. The July pay-per-view is set. It will be July 27th. It'll be UFC 304 and the UFC heading to Manchester. And I know my first reaction was nice.

Here on the east coast of the United States, we're going to get an afternoon card. It's going to be done by like 7 p.m. Eastern. And they're like, no, we're going to do U.S. time all around for this one. But that's neither here nor there, B.C. What I would like you to do is I would like you to book, fantasy book the top three fights of UFC 304. What would you like to see?

What do you think is going to happen? However you want to use these 60 seconds, please, UFC 304, main event, co-main event, featured bout. What is it going to look like? How would you do it? Go. I reserve the right to be wrong in the past and change my mind when circumstances change that. So when we were thrown around ideas for UFC 300 main events in the final two months, the idea

of Aspinall versus Poetan for the interim heavyweight title. And in theory, UFC's first chance of somebody going after three titles, I thought, nah, why waste it? Why force it in that situation unnecessarily? Yes, it would have a historic tone. but do we need it right now? Well, Poetan just went out there again at 300 and did the damn thing again

in the most savage and entertaining and brilliant way possible and then throughout that heavyweight idea. And I know he's recovering from an injury and he's going to need some little bit of time, but they didn't allow him or wait maybe wasn't healthy enough to turn it around quick and come back at 301 in Brazil.

But I say you give him that chance now because he might be this most special, unique resume and performer we've seen in a while. And then you go, Leon versus Balal in the Colmane and then I already had another one ready in the chamber for the third fight. Yeah, I just roll Patty out there again against anybody. All right, there you go.

All right, there you go. Against some grit, you know. All right, Jed. I mean, this is actually pretty brilliant. By the way, hold on, go back to BC real quick. Is that a Chad Gable towel on your chair or shirt? That's exactly. American Alpha. An incredible tag team, by the way.

Legend. Also, why do you have a 1917 poster? Well, it's not just that. The Great Web Screen, one of our listeners, put my face atop of it. Oh. My three favorite movies of all time. You know what I mean?

It's a cinematic masterpiece. It's a great film. I enjoyed the film of great deal. Wow. And really navigating navigating, navigating co-workership with Luke Thomas is a lot like the plot line of

1917. Sometimes I feel like I'm a man alone on an impossible mission, but I will land this plane, Sully. With zero cuts. Yes. One long take. Jed, I mean, you got you got to take some notes

from BC here. How would you do this? What do you think would be the best layout for UFC 304? And you can be as selfish as you want about this. Go. This is pretty easy. he was correct. BC was actually, you could start the timer at some point

in case if you want. Bezzi was correct and that you do just roll Patty out there. Patty is your feature bout because the arena will be rocking because it's Patty and you want to get that energy up particularly because you

know where we're going with this. But you do Patty and you could go Anato Mercano, but I'm going to give Bobby Green the Patty fight after 300 that call out. I think there's momentum there. That fight is fun.

It's interesting. They'll be wild on the mic. That's your feature. Your co-main event is Tom Aspinall. He doesn't get top billing because it's only an interim, even though he's the real champion. And he just run Curtis Blades too. Cyril gone.

Reports are out there. He is turning down fighting in Manchester because he does not want that particular smoke. So you do the Curtis Blades rematch. And then your main event, Leon Edwards is getting the call. He gets the opportunity to do it. He's going to put his welterweight belt on line. And people may not like it. And I understand why not.

When it's Shavkarakhan Raqman up, screw below, Muhammad. I don't remember his name at all. He's been whining a bunch and he's gotten nowhere. And I want Shavkat, who's the best welter way in the world to get that felt. So Shavkat versus Leon in England, Russia takes over. It's going to be electric. Wow.

Can you imagine the reaction if that's what day. It goes up in main event for Manchester's Leon and Richard Shafcott, Rachmanoff? Oh, my God. I'll tell you what. I'll even throw, I'll throw Ballol. bone. Belal can be the backup fighter, the primary backup fighter, but also on the main card, he fights Michael Venham Page for another title, another title Eliminator Bout. So boom, Bob's your uncle. I've done it. 304 is booked. Wow. He could be living in a world where

Vinnie Siggs is a UFC champion and still not have a title, right? Even books. You can't, here's the issue with doing ball and versus leon like it's a it's just not going to be fun so the last fight of the night like do you you saw the ball post where he's like here's what's going to happen and in his fantasy matchmaking of how this fight will go down he is still winning a decision he can't even pretend that he will finish leon edwards so like you just know that this fight won't be compelling and it's the last fight of the evening You can't end a pay-per-view like that. But if you put Shavkat, who's never not finished somebody,

it's going to be electric. It's got to go with the thing that sells. Jose, Yonge's driving in. Man, God, that would be, I don't want to say hilarious if they announced that over Bilal, because, like, I just want to see him get his day in court. He's so funny. Even if it is at 7 a.m., Manchester time,

by the time that fight will come to an end. Even my dog would rather see Shopgar-Rakman up at this point. But yes, vote, vote, vote, vote, please. BC, go ahead. Do you think the thing you could do to make the fans the happiest would be to put Aspirin against Steepa for the interim title in the main event, which would thus guarantee that we don't need to do the John Steepa thing? And then John can literally come back whenever he's first healthy and available,

and then we have that summit fight. And then that's the fight that you put either at a lead, Jerry World or a soccer stadium in the UK. Let's go. This is how we book it, right? Don't just book 300 and do the victory lap and then fart on the scorecard. And oh, guys, here's your nickel off fighting. I know no more of that.

Get back in there and cook some shit up, Chef Curry. Let's go. If Steve A would sign to that, that would be a great idea. It would be. We'll see how it plays out. I mean, we've seen reports that Cyril Gahn turned it down because he's got acting roles. I don't know how true any of this is, but that's what I've seen on social media

and we know that social media never lies. But it's going to be interesting to see. I'm surprised we didn't get an actual announcement for any of these fights yet. It appears we're going to get Arnold Allen versus Gigacaze on that card. I know that was reported earlier. It seems like that's the direction they're still want to go.

Quality fight, no one we'll ever think about again. Yeah. And then I was told the originally it was going to be July 20th, but I think the UFC thought better of it, especially if they're going to do like U.S. local time. Don't go up against Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, which you can watch on Netflix, and it's going to be watched by a lot of people. So Casey, come on in, my friend, unless this is just a battle of battles.

It is quite the battle. I believe we do have a winner. Okay. All right. What is that? What's that noise? It's either Mike's dog or it's the lawnmower outside of my house. Okay.

It's definitely not my dog. It's definitely not my dog. Your winner today with 53% of the votes. Ooh. It was a close one. Oh, 52%. Oh, we didn't even close it yet. Jedmishu.

Oh, I did not see that coming. Wow. I genuinely did not see that coming. I don't even have a, I don't have anything to say. I was just like, usually I'd be like, yeah, BC, congratulations. It was one of our, oh my God, it was one of our closest votes ever, one of our closest, closest votes ever. This was a spirited battle, and I kind of don't want to do it. Jed, are you going to cannonball somewhere in your place of residence here?

Do you have a kiddie pool? I don't. I currently have a shower slash tub that doesn't work is the only water source available to me at the moment. So I can't cannonball into that. I'm taking it back. Here's what I'll say. Here's my moment of time. I'm sorry.

I'm apologizing to everybody because I didn't realize how much you can offend people by telling them they should be ashamed of themselves. Because in my head, I see that sort of construction of a tweet all the time. And when someone does it, I just think, okay, whatever, and I move on. But I have never gotten more people mad at me than when I said you should be ashamed for watching Ryan Garcia versus Devin Haney. It is easily the most people have not just dumped on me for being a bad take, been like, you're an awful person and I hate you. So I'm sorry that telling you to feel shame is like a really big issue for a lot of people. Now I know.

Now I know we'll keep my generic tweak instructions to something a little more base. than personal assaults on your humanity, I guess. So my bad, my cold takes were exposed, and BC is the pleasure as always. Yes, you overcame adversity. You took this matchup on short notice and you got it done, Judge. I did not. I did not overcome adversity. I did not dare to be great.

BC, final thoughts. Agreed. Completely agreed. Thank you, BC, for always showing up and doing the damn thing. Casey, hit the music. music. I'm saying in the comments that there were at least two accidental votes for me. We might have to run it back.

This might be a recount might be necessary. I don't know. Just saying, throwing it out there, BC, we might have to run it back. That's going to be exciting. Maybe we'll save it for right before 301. Maybe we'll do it next week. Because you know the world will be watching in anticipation with UFC 301. But thank you all very much.

We'll be back next Thursday. We'll do it again. Same time. But until that, for Brian Campbell, wherever he may be. Jed Bishu, Casey Lyon on the Ones and Two's. I am Mike Heck, the iconic voice of Esterlund takes you home. Back next week. Good night, everybody.

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