MMA Fighting - BTL | Sean Strickland Crowned, Adesanya's Next Move, Grasso vs. Shevchenko 2

Episode Date: September 14, 2023

Sean Strickland did it, ladies and gentlemen. He dominated Israel Adesnaya and because of that, Strickland is the UFC middleweight champion of the world. Five days after accomplishing the incredible feat, the Between the Links panel gives their thoughts on what it means. On an all-new edition of BTL, the panel discusses Strickland's victory at UFC 293, the state of the 185-pound division, and predict the length of Strickland's reign as champion. Additionally, they'll discuss what the loss means for Adesanya and where he goes from here, Saturday's Noche UFC event headlined by the flyweight title rematch between Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko, the annoucement of Bellator 301 and the major bouts that were revealed, and more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and Eric "New York Ric" Jackman. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Eric Jackman: @NewYorkRic Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. The MAFighting Studios, this is Between the Links.

And now, your host, my... The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand-new of Between the Lings and what a time it is to be a mixed martial arts fan, ladies and gentlemen. And I am really looking forward to the show because, yes, five days after UFC 293, it's still real. Sean Strickland is the middleweight champion of the world. And now that we've had some time to digest this incredible story, let's react to the fallout of Saturday's pay-per-view event. We'll try to put things into context into perspective.

will try to make sense of the nonsensical. It's incredible in joining me in this venture, Mr. Hot Take, Mr. No Gray Area, the co-host of No Betts Bart, a man who after Saturday night called it a joyous night in the history of the sports. Jed Mishu. How are you, buddy?

It was a joyous night, and I'm doing great. Still living in a world with Sean Strickland's your middleweight champion, and it has gotten no less funny, still hilarious that this is our reality. and I'm excited to talk about it today. Yes, and also on the panel this week, the man who joined us on the watch party for this memorable moment,

the best theme song in MMA history this man holds. He's the social media director for MAAFutting.com. He's our friend and yours. You hear him and see him on the M.A. hour. He's main event, Rick, New York, Rick. How are you, sir? I'm doing great, Mike. How are you?

Jed, Casey, great to see you. It's a blessed day. Beautiful, another day here on this spinning rock. And yeah, I'm just here to be chief support today. I'm here to lend a hand to you guys who are the main event of this thing. And hopefully contributed in any way I can. So yeah, happy to be here, thankful to be here, and just loving it. We're not doing chief support, not on this program.

I can't control what goes on in the other programs, but it's not a thing. Stop trying to make fetch happen. Real quick, we're going to make something happen on this show for the first time, We're going to do something for the live viewers. I'm adding a task for all of you. And Casey, you are not aware of this, but I'm going to add a task to your pile as well. I want to try something a little different. If we get to the knock our round, which never, ever, ever happens on this show, I want the knockout round question to come from one of you who are watching this program right now.

So put your best debatable question in the chat. Casey will choose the best one. We'll shout you out. We'll give you credit. And if we get that far, I want to be. surprised by this question as well. So there you go. Now, let's get into it. And Jed, I'm going to start with you since I preference this at the top. Sean Strickland dominated Israel out of Sadi on Saturday. A one-sided performance, Strickland with the massive upset. He's the freaking middleweight champion

of the world, Jed. And you started off on this, but I'm going to let you contextualize this a little bit more. Five days later, how does this all digest? What is your reaction to all this five days later outside of it still the funniest thing in the history of the sport? it's not the funniest thing but it's in the top five um i said that on fight night and i stand by it i think that this is the third funniest fight i've ever watched gone back and rewatched it um and it is no less amusing each time out number one of course being kimbo dada that will probably never be supplanted as the funniest thing it's ever happened in the cage fight uh and number two is uh randorowsy and Holly Home and all of the ancillary of that.

But this is still right on up there. And that's not to say that this is bad or to make light of Sean Strickland's achievement. It was an incredible performance. You go back and watch it as like a lot of people have done this week, like a lot of people in the space because all of us had the exact same opinion of, I don't really think Sean Strickland can do anything. And so you go back and you assess your priors and figure out where you went wrong. And go back and you can watch it.

you can see like all of the things that Sean Strickland did really well and it's really impressive and it doesn't change simply how funny it is to watch. Israel Addisina arguably the greatest striker in the history of the sport, certainly one of them, if not, you know, massively accomplished kickboxer in his like pre-MMA life, just gets beat by a dude with a teep kick and a jab and his weird marching. like walk forward at him. It's just, it's the funniest thing. I'm going to revisit this fight an infinite number of times

because watching Israel Disinia like simply be perplexed about what is happening and you can see his face being like, dude, I don't get it. Like, why am I not just melting this man? And instead he's just getting kicked to the body a bunch and eating some jabs and running around a lot. It's great. terrific performance from Sean Strickland.

I've written about that this week for the site, though I actually don't know if that came out or not. I think there's a pretty good chance that this is just who Sean Strickland is. Like, this isn't a, he had the best night of his life. Like, he really just kind of fought like Sean Strickland fights, and I think we all just missed how that could be troubling for Izzy. And I think more to the point, this could be a bad, sign for Izzy moving forward.

But all of that's, you know, that comes years down the line for now. Just enjoy. Jack Slack did a thing on his Patreon if you're a member or if you're not. Jack Slack's great. Go do it. Where he does like a breakdown of what Sean Strickland does. And it's incredible to show him like take still images of strong Strickland literally two for wanting hands.

Like Izzy's lead hand and he just grabs it with both hands. It's like the weirdest shit I've ever seen in a cage for. right and it worked it was awesome i love this right so very very much yeah and when we say this is i'm with you jed like this is not like we're not ragging on strickland or izzie or anything like that it's just it's not the same kind of funny as kimbo dada no god no no that's not no it's not true what's funny about it is that these plans are made for you know izzie to kind of showcase here and then sean strickland just ruined everything and broke the rankings and broke the division in a lot of respects.

It's incredible what happens when you have to pivot like this. He did it giving Izzy the fight he wants too. It's not like he came in and just like stuck him against the fence and clenched him and wrestled him and like Izzy didn't get to showcase. If you told Israel to Sineya, hey, Sean Strickland is going to shoot zero takedowns on you. He is going to spend the as long as you can, as long as it lasts on the feet in your face. I think Izzy would have thrown himself a parade. I'm like, hell yeah, I'm going to kill this guy.

And instead he got a boxing lesson. It's incredible. New York, Rick, this is a new world at 185 pounds. We live in this new universe. Five days later, how do you react to what Sean Strickland did on Saturday? Because it was absolutely unbelievable. Yeah, I think I've had a lot of time to, we're five days removed. I've had a lot of time to think about the fight.

and unfortunately I'm falling into a trap that I think is easy to fall into but I can't escape it, which is to really focus more on what Israelosanya didn't do than what Sean Strickland did do. Because of the amount of time we've spent with Israela Sanya, because of his reign as champion, because of the legacy he's been able to establish, I can't escape the feeling that he left something on the table and feeling like a rematch goes differently. and naturally, I feel like that's been a situation that people have been in many times and sometimes that rematch doesn't go differently

or sometimes it actually goes worse. Sometimes Leon Edwards completely pieces up Kamara Usman and it's not four rounds of domination first. Sometimes the elevation was a factor. So yeah, unfortunately, I can't divorce myself of the idea that like the absolute worst version of Israelada Sanya showed up that night. Now, I'm not ignorant enough to think that,

Sean Strickland did not fight a great fight. But I kind of lean where Jed is, where I don't think that this was like a particularly spectacular performance for him. It was just what Sean Strickland does. And that was good enough to beat Israel-Aisanya, which is an impressive feat in its own. But I do tend to find myself.

And it also is compounded by the fact that we haven't really heard from him. He did that one-minute media address where he just basically handed the baton to Eugene Barron and said, I'm going to go hang out with my family. So all the mystery around it, what were the circumstances heading into the fight, we kind of are still wondering those things. And that's where my mind naturally goes. But it would be a disservice not to credit Sean Strickland for the performance that he had.

He was perfect. He was checking kicks in a way that I don't think many people expected him to do early. And he capitalized on an opportunity that was in front of him in a major way. He was the A side of this fight all fight week. Like there is no doubt about it. The people were there to see Sean Strickland. I think that's true of many, many of the people in the viewing public, but especially the people in Australia.

And he delivered. He delivered in spade. So incredible performance, but I am still thinking, like, what happened to Israel to Sanya? That is where my head is at at the moment. And we'll get to that in round two. It's just a much more patient, Sean Strickland. Like, you look at all of his past five-round fights,

least amount of strikes landed, least amount of strikes thrown. He was just still the same Sean, but he wasn't. I'm not going to say reckless, but he was a lot more patient, a lot more focused at the task at hand. But here's one thing I've been thinking about a lot, New York, Rick, because it was not that long ago that fans would comment on this show, on preview shows, post-fight shows, heck of a morning. When a Sean Strickland Apex main event was happening,

it was met with size, honestly. Like, oh, man, another Sean Stricklandy middleweight main event. But now New York, Rick, Sean Strickland is viewed in this whole day, different light and he was viewed in that different light all fight week long like what stands out to you the most about this title when and how sean is viewed now compared to where he was even at the beginning of the year when he stepped in for nassardine imov like the preview show is heading into that fight the the the jack hermanson fight the uriah hall fight compared to now heading into a fight night and day it's crazy yeah i'll be honest i think more of the development in that in that has

happened outside the cage. More of the development on that front has just been him continuing to be who he is and being exposed more and connecting with fans more. Because right frankly, it really did look like a Sean Strickland performance. Like it was not, I don't think this is the one where all of a sudden people are going to be like, Sean Strickina is the most exciting fighter on the roster. Sean Strickland is doing things in that way. We've seen Israel to Sanya, who's capable of the absolute like most high level highlight real finish as possible, also come out there and just stand in front of Yo-O Romero and have a staring contest with him. So I think there's just, there's, there's, there's always going to be criticism from people

who are not getting these pure, clean knockouts. And I don't think Sean Strickland is that guy, even though he definitely had Israel to Sania on the ropes in round one. But it's kind of the same. And I don't think it has to do with people all of a sudden connecting with his fighting style, which as Jed outlined earlier, like you're kind of plotting forward, you're using your jab. And that's basically what he does. It's very meat and potatoes.

It's very middleweighty, as you guys have kind of coined it. So I'm not sure that the style has really drastically changed. I'm not sure that there's more people who are identifying with the style. If this was a fight against Joe Schmoe and not a championship fight against Israel-A-Sahnyna, they might have been saying the same things about, oh, geez, another Sean Stricklaman event. But what he has done is when he gets a microphone in his face or when he's doing an interview with somebody or when he's on his social media, he's continuing to show a personality. that it seems like MMA fans want to connect with and wider fans, not just MMA fans.

It seems like there's people that want to be part of what Sean Strickland is building. And that I think is the big difference. That is where I think the support comes from. And not necessarily all of a sudden, Sean Strickland is a more exciting athlete. Jay, what do you think about this? Because you're one of the guys going back to those old preview shows, like, oh, it's just going to be a Sean Strickland fight. And then it's going to say a bunch of things that we're going to react to. but one thing

and look we will say things about the UFC and things they do wrong but we'll also say things they did right they did the best they could to humanize Sean Strickland all week and if you watch some of the promos heading into the fight like they talked about his childhood and they talked about some of the things he went through

growing up and the motorcycle accident and they almost like they humanized him in a different way where people got to see him in a different light so just thinking about how fans viewed Sean Strickland as a fighter even back in January to where he's at now. What have you made of this? Because, I mean, winning a belt is great.

But even the excitement level is heading into the fight. By the time we got to Friday into Saturday, like there were at least vibes in the air where Sean Strickland at least made this much more interesting and much more exciting for people to be like, oh, man, Sean Strickland's going to get in there and fight. And it's people weren't like sighing and being completely down on it like they were earlier this year and before that. Well, look, context matters a lot.

And I think it has less to do with promotion or anything. like that and it's uh in january sean trickle was coming off a pretty whatever fight against jared canoneer and the fourth funniest fight i've ever seen when he just walked into alex perrera just punching his head right off his shoulders so i think like that you're as good as your last fight right and that that's true for everybody and then prior to that it's not like sean strickland has this big long history of exciting fights his fights have pretty much been the same thing. Like he is a decision machine for the most part.

And, you know, January comes along and he's taking a one-month layoff from the cannoneer forgettable. Pretty forgettable fight with Nasor Deney Mova. You know, better performance from Strickland, certainly, but it's not something that you hang your hat on. And it's like, why would anyone care? Like, why, honestly, why would any of us cared at that point? because he's coming off of a string of like eight,

like forgettable fights, but for the time he got obliterated in, you know, 74 seconds or whatever that was. And then he's not going to, he's not going to win the title. He just got, he's just on a two fight losing streak. He just got knocked out four months ago.

Why would anybody be like super into Sean Strickland at that point in time? And then he steps in for the Abbas thing. And that's a bit of a joke because it's, Abus is headlining of Fight Nightcar. I'm like, yeah, this is just sort of it. But then the circumstances change. He gets put into a title shot that he didn't deserve. And that's fine to say because he absolutely didn't deserve the title shot.

But he's got charisma. Like there's an it factor to people. And I'm not saying Sean Strickland has, you know, Connum or Grego level of stardom in his future. But he has a natural charisma. And so he's a guy with natural charisma who's going to be given a microphone and is fighting for stakes that matter now. Doesn't matter what previously happened.

This is a fight that matters. And so you're going to get more pull, more leverage, more interest in him as a result of that. And then he happened to convert it with the best performance of his career. So good on him. Now, before we move on to the Israel-Assani side of this in round two, Jed, I'm giving you the power of the pencil, at least hypothetically, because this is not, I don't want you to perceive this is this is what will happen, but what you think.

should happen. If you had the pencil, who is Strickland's next opponent? Because I know how you feel about immediate rematches, and especially with the one side of this, you're certainly not into that. So this is what you would do. Is it DDP? Is it the Shemai of Costa winner at 294, which is coming up in

right around five weeks time? How would you do it if you had the pencil right now? This is the world's easiest question. I wish this was our final question, because I've fucking nailed this one. It's trick is duplecy. Like, I don't, there's just no rational argument meritocratically against it. If you want to make an argument over stardom or whatever, and I do not believe this will happen,

though I'm holding out some hope that it actually will. I would say smart money says that it doesn't. Rematches are dumb. Immediate rematches are exceedingly dumb. Immediate rematches where the fighter is not particularly competitive or woefully dumb. immediate rematches where the champion just got an immediate rematch literally earlier this year borders on maniacal like that really feels like and i think drickus duplice he said this uh speaking with ero hovani yesterday i think he said are we just just make izzie the champion again if that's it

like if if every time he loses he just gets to fight again if you have to beat him twice for that win to be real. What are we doing here? Like, dudes, dudes one and two in his last three fights, make him fight somebody else. That's just, that's just reasonable.

And more to the point, Dracus 2 plus C did nothing wrong. Trichus two plus C has done nothing but when since coming to the UFC. He did not have to take the Robert Whitaker fight. He said this yesterday. I could have sat out and probably still gotten to fight Izzy at

293 because that was how it was going to be. But I didn't want to. I wanted to fight Robert Whitaker because I don't want to be a guy who just gets thrown into a title fight. I want to earn it.

And I can earn it. And he can earn it, man. Like, he beat Robert Whitaker worse than anybody has since Israel Adisina. Like, that's it. The case is closed. This man gets to fight for the title. And it's a legitimately captivating fight.

The book on DDP's entire career thus far in the UFC has been in his gas tank is questionable. And you're talking about Sean Strickland, who has probably the best cardio in the division. Like where do these two dudes match up? It's a like an actually truly fascinating fight. I cannot believe this happened,

but it has vaulted to the top of my wish list fights that the UFC could put together. I would undeniably be the one I would choose. Rick, are you there as well? Because as we have discussed, this is what have you done from the lately sport. And if Hamzaa Chameyaf just melts, or vice versa in five weeks.

And there's a very real world where the UFC is just going to wait to see what happens with that fight before they make any decisions. Would you do the same? Would you wait? Or would you just say, nope, we're going DDP and then we'll let the tiles fall where they may. Yeah, just one bit of housekeeping. I believe that was Robert Whitaker's comments that, uh, that Jed was alluding to where he just called it silly and said if every time he loses, we're giving Israel, Ades,

an immediate rematch, like this doesn't work. It would just defeat the purpose. I think DDP said it too. Well, there you go. I mean, they're not wrong. So if every time he loses, it's just a runback, then something's out of whack. If I have the pencil, it's going to be the winner of Hamzaa Chamaev or Apollo Costa fighting Sean Strickland. They are just bigger names. They are going to bring more attention to the fight. They are going to be good foils for Sean Strickland. And I'm going to sell more pay-per-views and do better business. And I would hold, I'm not sure if we'll get to what's, next for Israel, but I would hold DDP for Israel or the next title opportunity after that. But I would undoubtedly give the next shot to the winner of Hamzad and Paul O'Costa. Hey, there's options. There's some very interesting options. And Sean Strickland is the frigate champion. The sport is the best. It's the absolute best. We'll move on to the other side of the

equation in a matter of moments. But the point for round one goes to Jedmishu. One to nothing. close round. I mean, we really all win that. How sad is Robert Whitaker that he chose to fight DDP? So if he had just been like

can't fight him or whatever, he might be walking himself into a title fire right now. And now he's, for the first time in like 10 years, he's nowhere near the title conversation. Oh, I don't know if I agree with that.

He's back in the picture now because of this win, in my opinion. He's not going to get it now. He still has to fight somebody else. else. He could have been a front runner to Judd's point, though. He could have been the first name you bring up if he didn't lose the GDP.

He would be the dude right now. Yeah. He would just be it. Yeah. But now, like we thought he was done and out of the conversation, especially with Izzy fighting Strickland. Most people thought Izzy was just going to win. Sean's chances to get back there for none. There were none.

There are no chance of getting back to that fight. There are now two dudes in front of him who have beat the shit out of him. So I think he's pretty well out of it, but maybe I'm wrong. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. When I got a great deal on a great gift at winters, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter.

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Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners find fabulous for less. Well, it is the OFSTI and anything can happen. So let's head to the Israel-A-Sania side, New York, Rick, because Adesanya's on the wrong end of a lopsided decision. he didn't get fluke-caoed. There was no banana peel, none of that. This was the first time Izzy was truly dominated in a fight.

Yes, yes, he lost a decision to Janbovich at 205. Yes, he was stopped by Alex Pereira in November in a fight that he was three minutes away from winning. But this is the first time he was pillared to posted for the most part. Biggest takeaway on the Izzy side five days later. I know it's, you kind of want to hear what was wrong and you kind of feel like this wasn't his best night. but this happened. This all played out. This is the biggest one-sided loss he's had in his career.

Yeah, my biggest thing was just the comparison. Like, you can look at the fight as a whole and certainly not a great performance for him. It seemed like he did not have answers for Sean Strickland. The events of the first round, I'm sure, affected how he continued the rest of the fight. But for me, it's round five. When you're heading into round five and you're a champion, the caliber of Israel, Asana, and you're in the position. where you have an opportunity to either make something happen in this fight and win the fight

or you are assuredly going to lose the fight, he didn't opt for winning. And that's the situation that he's been in many times and we've seen him opt for winning. We've seen him take risks. We've seen him take opportunities and against some of the guys who are the most dangerous fighters on the planet say, okay, I'm going to choose that I'm here. I don't need to remind everybody about the Kelvin Gastelam fifth round where he just laid it all in the line and talk, you know, you see him mouthing in the pre-fight that he's prepared to die in there. And he's mentioned many times going to that place where he's prepared to die.

That fifth round was not the Israel-Ad-Sanya that we have seen before. The rest of the fight is what the rest of the fight is. But when the chips were on the table, Sean Strickland wanted that fight more than him. And that's something that I need to understand and have answers for. And I'm sure Israel-A-San is seeking those answers himself as well. But that's where my mind goes when I need to think about. where Israel-A-Sanya is in his career and moving forward. It's like what happened in that fifth round when the fight was up for grabs,

not that he was going to win a decision, but there was an opportunity for him to change the fate. And he circled the way like he had been doing the first four rounds. And Sean Strickland coasted to a victory. So that's the part that stood out the most to me is what happened in round five and where was the urgency that we've seen from Israel-A-Sanja many times before. Jed, your biggest takeaway. And look, if you were talking to Israel Adisani right now, it's morph me into the former middleweight champion.

What's the first question you asked me? What's the question you need the answer to? Oh, that's interesting. First, I'm going to answer that because I want to filibuster while I think of the answer to that. I want to respond to New York, Rick, because he's a brilliant man, a scientist, a lover, just a wonderful person. I'll tell you exactly what happened, Rick. I have the answer to your question. He got kicked a whole shitload in the stomach, and that sucks real hard.

And that's it. Like, Kelvin Gastilum punched him in the face and that hurt, but he was like, you're, that's just a different mind space to be like, I need to win this fight. I'm willing to die because I am in physical pain, but I am not in like a spiritual, emotional contemplating my existence pain. And that's what body shots are. And really, Sean Strickland kicked him in the gut just a whole hell of a lot and was relentlessly in his face and making him like move around and just get tired.

Like he just was physically and emotionally exhausted from fighting Sean Strickland. And probably there's even a part of it that's like, this is Sean Strickland. I'm fighting, right? I'm supposed to cook this dude and I'm getting worked over right now. And that probably rattles you to the core as well if you're someone like Izzy. As far as questions I would have for Izzy, if I got to talk to Izzy right now, I don't have a ton of questions about what happens. I feel like at least have a pretty good read on what was going on there. This isn't really a question for Izzy specifically and this is more just the question about Izzy.

And it is, where are you at in your career? Because I said this in the post show, and I think that this is really, really, really true. He's old. He doesn't seem old. He's only 34 or 35. But he has been fighting professionally for like 15 years, something, you know, in that neighborhood. And he's been fighting a lot. He's 113, I think, was the number I counted professional fights in his life.

I struggle to think of something I have done 113 times and much less like fist fight people. And that's not including camp in preparation. And have you ever watched any of the videos that they put out? The spider drill looks like the worst thing devised by mankind. Like that is just an infinite number of wear and tear. And to me, like I said, I think there's a very real possibility that coming off of this, we're going to look back at this moment in five years and be like that's when we realized that is he had fallen off that he was no longer the fire de once was and now begins the declining

period of his career and so i think for him that would be my question is how were you feeling in there not why didn't you do this but just how how did you feel like yourself did you feel slower because you looked slower you looked like you couldn't pull the trigger and honestly the difference between winning and losing in that fight for him probably simply was pulling the trigger. Again, there were multiple times when Sean Strickland committed two hands to gripping Izzy's lead hand. And like the first time, you might be caught off guard, like, I don't even know what the hell's going on here. This is super weird. And the second time, it should be like, well, both of his hands are here and I have this open hand and I'm going to ram it into his face as hard as I possibly

can and see where that gets me. And it never came. And so that's my question. It's sort of of how did you feel in there? Did you feel normal? Did you feel slow? Was, were you hurt after the first round, I think is maybe actually the question I would go? Because I'm willing to believe that he never recovered from getting dropped in the first round and that's why he looked that way. But other, if that's not the case, then he just old and this is about to be a tough hang

for him moving forward. So I understand that question. And I understand that being a storyline coming out of this. and Jed, I want to go back to you because you were on the post-fight show, and the great Shaheen Al-Shadi nailed it when he said, look, just because the fighter defense is title three, four, five times, we need to pump the brakes on this divisional goat conversation because they happen way too often and quite frankly, way too quickly.

So I want to add another piece to this because what you said was very fair. We could question whether or not is he's kind of on the back nine because, yes, he's got a lot of wear and tear. Yes, he's had a lot of fights and father time is undefeated. But can we pump the brakes, Jed, on this. reaction that because a fighter lost a fight, then all of a sudden their legacy and their resume before that, that it gets all called into question. Like the reactions about is he not being that good to begin with and Eugene Barerman being an all time overrated coach because of what happened in this main event, it drives me insane. Like, are you okay, Jed? If we add this to the bill and what

have you made of these reactions? Like just because Izzy loses a fight, it's fair to ask like what the future holds is this when this is this the crossroads fight for you and that's understandable but just to disregard everything he's done up into this point it's fucking ridiculous dude i would agree um i didn't see the bearman conversation coming and i don't know where it came from um i i don't know that eugene bearman's the best coach in mma but there aren't that many that are ahead of him like that's and that seems ridiculous to even question like he's he's been consistently producing quality fighters for a while now, including, you know, Izzy, who, again, I don't think he's the best middleweight of all time, probably number two, but whatever.

Really good fighter, and Bearman is responsible for a lot of that. Didn't see the Bearman conversation coming at all. I'm not really sure how that happened, and that seems real dumb. I'm a little more willing to open up the debate on Izzy. I don't think that it's fair, and as you know, my policy that I recently adopted this year is I will not be engaging in goat conversations about a fighter until that fire is fully retired from the sport because at various points in my fandom, BJ Penn, Fado Emilienenko, Anderson Silva would probably have been considered the unquestioned greatest fighters of all time had they walked away and then they stuck around and now they are often afterthoughts in that conversation. But I am at least willing to just sort of re-contextualize

his previous fights because that's what happens every time new information comes along. It doesn't necessarily, I'm not saying you should throw the baby out with the bathwater, but you can go back and look at other fights contextually. I've been like, okay, well, I didn't know this part of Izzy's game or maybe this shortcoming and were there just other fighters that never saw it and never exploited it? How did any of this make sense? And look, it might not be all the way fair, but the fact of the matter is, if you lose a fight in which you are a massive astronomical betting favorite

and literally no one is giving you an opportunity to lose it. Everyone is saying my words, and the words frankly of other smarter people than me, worse specifically, I truly don't know how Sean Strickland can win this fight. If you lose a fight like that, you're going to catch it in the teeth and your legacy is going to get picked at.

And that's part and parcel of the deal, man. That's why fighting sucks. That's why it's a hard job. And it's impossible to stay at the top. There are the higher you go, the harder it is to keep that footing. And so, no, we shouldn't immediately throw Izzy's entire career out. But I have a little bit more patience for being like, hey, let's go back and look at some of those fights and see, like, how good is he? You know, where does he, if he were to retire right now, stack up and sort of,

reevaluate. I'm fine with that. Yeah. And I think there's like certain ways you can present this, but to sort of, yeah, the disregarding of what he did in the past is kind of crazy and Eugene as well. Rick, your response to this overrated all-time talk following this loss and what Jed had to say about it. I think goat conversations are the dumbest thing that we engage in in this sport period. Like, I don't think that it's valuable in any capacity. I think it's just a fan cheering section to root for the guys that. you want to root for or denigrate the guys and gals that you don't want to. The people who held that opinion about Izzy would have said the same thing before the fight, would have said the same thing definitely after he lost to Alex Pereira.

And their opinion has not been swayed by any part of the resume that he's submitted. So I think it's kind of disingenuous from those people to begin with and really doesn't, isn't affected by this fight in a strange way. They, they're just looking for an opportunity to kind of further whatever they, have already been saying and just presenting this as evidence as if we're going to engage in this very stupid conversation that I think should never be talked about. I agree with Jed that it's kind of fluid. It's okay to say like, hey, his stock is down after this loss because it is and it should be. And if he comes back and wins in a marvelous like highlight real way, it's okay to say his stock is

back up and that and that's fine as well. I know this conversation isn't going to go away. so I'm okay with the fluid nature of it and people having it. But if I had my druthers, we'd never talk about this again because I think it's dumb. Fair. So let's rank the middleweight goats in New York, Rick. I'm just kidding. Look, the fight happens. And there's a fucking gap.

And then it's whoever. And it's not that way for a hot minute. But so Rick, the fight happens. Adasania loses, was not close. Dana White speaks to the media afterwards. And despite what he had to say Tuesday, where he, dumped on the MMA media for taking his words out of context. Scumbags.

Allow me to read you. Yes, us scumbags. Allow me to read you his exact wording when asked about what could be next and if a rematch should be in play. This wasn't, hey, look, if Izzy wants the rematch, we'll talk about it on Tuesday. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. He said, I think you do the rematch, absolutely. I think you do the rematch, absolutely.

That's the key word here. The rematch is interesting. That could be the thing too. When you think about Adasani going into the Pereira fight, such a big fight, and you've been in there with this guy so many times, and then you overlook Strickland, you come in, and I don't know. I don't know the answer to these questions. Hopefully Israel does.

I think you do the rematch absolutely is what he said. So let's just put that out into the universe, just judging on what Dana had to say on Tuesday. But we talked about what should be next for Sean Strickland. We have this, I think you do the rematch absolutely coming from Dana White. will Israel Adasania's next fight be again Sean Strickland from the UFC's perspective? That's an interesting question because I think timing is at play.

I don't think Sean Strickland's next fight will be Israel-A-Sahia, but I could see a world where Israel-A-Sania's next fight is Sean Strickland, where Israel takes some extended time off and there starts to be some momentum toward them fighting again. What I would do is just force Drickis to play. and Israel-A-Sanya to fight at some point in the relatively near future. That fight has legs for all the heat that has already been built up. I understand that it's not what either person would necessarily want first

because they are both motivated to get the championship, although we need to hear from Israel-A-Sanya. Maybe that's not his ambition anymore. But I know that would be a detour for Drickus duplice, but that fight has too much earning potential for it to be foiled. But we were building toward that with this fight, this Sean Strickland fight, was supposed to be a stop along the way to that fight.

That was supposed to be, well, gee, Israel, you know, got it done in Sydney and we sold some tickets and now we're on to the real fight that we all wanted and we lost it. I would not take that chance again. I would make sure that Israel Adasana and Drickas duplasi fight each other in their next fights. And we don't miss the opportunity to have that fight,

especially as Israel Adasanya has alluded to the idea that his time in this sport is limited. He may not be seeking a return to the top of the division and championships. Maybe he's just seeking those big money fights. And the biggest money fight for him right now, in my opinion, is Drickus 2 plus C. There is a built-in storyline there. So that's what I would do if I were the UFC. I would book those two.

And unfortunately, Drickis looks, sorry, you've got to get one more in and we can get you a title shot next. He was pretty candid in his interview with Ariel and the MMA hour and saying, like, he knows that there's other contenders out there. He thinks he has the best resume. He definitely does, in my estimation, have the best resume. But ultimately, the UFC is not in that game anymore where meritocracy rules and resumes are all that matters. So for me, Israel-Dosanja versus Drickett's Duplessi, do not miss the boat on this, figure out a way to do it in Africa and take advantage of the heat that's already been built before it dissipates. We already had three African champions and missed the boat on that.

And that was a colossal mistake in my opinion. Don't miss the boat on this one more time. Chad, we talked on the post-fight show about Izzy, you know, maybe taking some time off. Let's kind of take a break from all the activity. Disappear from the MMA world for a minute. Collect yourself. Come back maybe next summer, sometimes second half of 2024 and let people sort of miss you or at least someone would be intrigued again that you're fighting because I think that's kind of a problem as well,

is that he's just been out there over and over and over again. It wears on him. And I think it wears on the fans too because his personality isn't for everybody. but whether you want to see it, whether it's not obviously your first second or third choice, this rematch is an option. It's absolutely an option, according to Dana White. Will he ultimately, this is from your perspective, looking inside the UFC, you're in the outside looking in, do you believe if you had to bet money that they're just going to run this one back next?

Will Sean, will Israel out of his next fight be again, Sean Strickland? No, and let me tell you why. because Mike I have made a great purchase in my life and it's a crystal ball and now I can see the future it is it's a fantastic device to have I foolishly I just I didn't use it for 293 I was like I don't need to see the future this is so obvious is he's going to win I did use it um to you know correctly foretell that uh Sean O'Malley was going to beat up on Al Jermaine Sterling and I was like put it in the closet, brought it back out afterwards, and let me tell you exactly how things are going to unfold them. Sorry, Ricky, you're just wrong. Your heart's in the right place. You're good guy,

but you're wrong. So what's going to happen is the UFC is going to book Trickus 2 Plus C versus Sean Strickland because they're going to need the fights. You know, we've, we still have a December paper view that is lacking a headliner. Sean Strickland's never going to say no to turning around. Drickus Duplasee is ready to go functionally. Seems like that's an easy one to make. Is he's going to take a little bit of time off? You know, just go back to the drawing board, recuperate for a little bit. They're going to go, all right, let's just do it.

And then also there's, you know, a little piece of it where Dana gets to come out and be like, see the crooked media out here telling lies that I said we were doing a rematch. Look, I'm doing this fight. We're going to get that. DDP is going to run through Sean Strickland. because apparently he's the greatest middleweight of all time, and we just aren't aware of it yet. He's going to beat up on Sean Strickland,

and then next year, we will get DDP versus Israel Adisina for the UFC middleweight title. The roles will be reversed, and it probably won't be in Africa, even though they should do that. But, you know, but that's what the crystal ball is telling me is that 2024, you know, spring, maybe early summer,

Duplese versus Israel Distingue for the UFC middleweight title. That's Izzy's next fight. Well, I don't know how much you paid for the crystal ball, but hopefully it was a good purchase. We'll see if it happens, and you might get yourself another moral victory on the program here, Jed, but let us move on.

I traded three meanings for it. Does it just have a Hamzaat blind spot or what's happening to Hamzot in that crystal ball? No, so you see Hamzat's cool, right? because like three years ago when COVID was happening, it was dope, he fought all the time. And then he just fucking disappeared and never fights anymore. So regardless of what happens with Paulo Costa,

I didn't actually ask the crystal ball. He's probably not going to fight for another year because he wants to squander all of the momentum that he had. I'm going to just push back on the idea that this was his choice to not fight for a while. But the rest of it, I can understand. It is frustrating. But yeah, I don't think that was by Hamzat's own design on the...

All I know is two years ago, I was saying Hamzaa Chamaev's going to be the U.C. Welterweight champion. And now it's 2023 and he's not even in that way class. And knock on wood, will at least fight this year. Yeah, we'll see. But my crystal ball says a little something different than that about Hamzat. Oh, the battle of crystal balls. We'll see whose crystal ball is more valuable.

But we will move on to Noce UFC, ladies and gentlemen. The point for round two goes to this week's Prince of Positivity, New York, Rick. It's one-to-one. Good round. I mean, this is, you guys are just bringing the thunder this week. It's great. Just like the UFC. Back to Vegas.

No, we're not at the Apex. We're back at the T-Mobile arena. Noce UFC. This is not a pay-per-view, but on paper, this might actually be a... top to bottom better card than UFC 299 was. But in the main events, Jed Mishu, and I hate to bring back bad memories, but we get the rematch, Alexa Grasso versus Valenzhena Chofchenko. You are well aware of what happened the first time these ladies fought.

Your bank account is well aware of what happened the first time these ladies fought. But now we are a little over 48 hours away from the rematch, Jed Mishu. Excitement levels for the Flyway Championship rematch between alexia. Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shipchenko. I don't know. Kind of. I think I'd be more interested in this if I didn't have PTSD from the first go-around. So that would probably help me a little bit.

But it's weird. I am interested in this fight because it's a great fight and it matters. Does anyone think this is going to win fight of the night or be like particularly fun? The first fight wasn't all that fun. It just had this incredible moment. in it. I think it's fairly unlikely that we get like an incredible moment like that again, though if that happens, it will certainly up the value of this particular endeavor.

But instead, we're just going to get a high-level fight that's probably fairly low on action. And so I respect it, and I'll certainly, you know, be tuning in. But it's not one that I'm like, I can't, I cannot wait to watch Justin Poyer and Justin Gachie fight each other again. Can you guys imagine the carnage that's about to be unleashed inside the octagon? that's not what this is. So main event is really good. The rest of this card is fine.

Totally get what they're driving at here. And we'll see how that hits and plays for them for the UFC that is. But, you know, I have debated whether this gets a Mushulen star for this card. I think we're at one. I think we're at one. But yeah, I'm not like super amped, but it should be a good little Saturday night. Rick, are your excitement? levels a little higher than Jeds?

Are you kind of traveling right around the same lane as Mr. Michoud? I think I'm a little higher than Jed. I really want to see what is next for Valentina Shavchenko. Like, this could be the changing of a guard or it could be a back to normal like we kind of have seen in the past. Is this Leon Edwards or is this Israel regaining the title after the Alex fight? Like I'm interested in seeing where one of our best feelings. male fighters of all time kind of lands and what's next for her. And it does feel like this is one

of those where the UFC is like, hey, we're giving you a chance to correct history, Valentina, if you've still got it. And if you don't, the young guard is going to take over and Alexa Grasso is going to have some fun matchups ahead of her at flyweight. So yeah, I'm interested. I'm interested. I feel like this is a true turning point for the UFC's flyweight division. Or it becomes a return to the old guard where Valentina's the queen again. And now she's got some young, exciting. fun up-and-coming challenges. So this feels to me significant, and I'm interested in that. There are stakes here that I don't think a lot of the fights at UFC 293 since that was

one of your points of comparison had. And this one has some stakes. So yes, I'm interested in this to a relatively high degree. Would you say New York, Rick, that it is super obvious that Valentina Shepchenko needs to win this fight more? Like, I understand the revenge factor. And again, we're having the same. We could be having the same conversation that people are having about Israel

Adasani if she goes out and loses to Alexa Grouse again. Is it Chufchenko, is this obvious that Chivchenko needs more to exercise the demons and get back on track and sort of remind people of this rate of terror that she's had? She's very focused. She's scaring some media members because of this focus and the look in her eyes as she responds to questions. Or is it Alexa Grasso to prove, you know what? This wasn't a fluke. This wasn't her having a bad night.

I'm the best flyweight in the world. I just beat her twice. It's beyond question now. Time for the new guard to roll. Is it obvious that Chifchenko needs this more? Or can you make a case that Grasso needs us more? I would argue Grasso needs it significantly more. Because her first win, if she does not win on Saturday,

will be washed away as a fluke. Now, there's exceptions to the circumstance where that happens, as an example, right? Alex Pereira has beaten Israel many times before in kickboxing. And then he wins. wins an MMA and then loses, but it didn't feel like a correction of history, right? It didn't feel like, oh, this was a blip and we've kind of gone on the same track. In addition to that, he was so big that he had options to go up to light heavyweight,

and now he's chasing a title in that division, and it seems like he will be in the next title fight for that division. Whereas if you're Alexa Grasso, if she loses to Valentina Shevchenko, I don't think they do a third one. Maybe they do, maybe they do, but there's some, there's some tenders at Flyweight. I think that would have an issue with that. but it would feel more like, well, Valentina had a bad night and Alexa caught her and now we move on and Alexa Grasso may get back to the title, may not. But I think that win will be wiped away as a fluke, unfortunately, if she does not win on Saturday night. So I think that is a very, very important fight for her. Whereas if Valentina, if Valentina loses again, it's one of those situations like we've seen with Yowana and Jacek where Rosamma Yunus just has your number.

Like that's what it is. great. The second fight was more competitive, but this person just has something over you that they're going to be able to hold. And your legacy is set. And Valentina is one of the greatest of all time. There's nothing to me that I think needs to be proven by her anymore. So it's legacy on the line for Alexa Grasso, and I don't think it's legacy on the line for Valentina Shavchenko. So I think just the larger picture stakes, there's a lot more. Um, it's a lot more. Um, it's a lot more. Um, in Alexa Grasso's corner that she needs this fight to make sure that everybody knows she's here to stay. Chad, do you agree with that?

That Grasso needs this one more than Schifchenko does? Yeah, I think so for basically the reasons that Ricky outlined. You know, one, you can never take away what happened. One of the biggest upsets of all time. Incredible submission victory. She gets to be champ forever and that never goes away. but one of the many reasons I hate immediate rematches is they cheapen the first victory in a lot of ways by basically making it so it doesn't count either the one that counts as the rematch.

Well, Leon Edwards, you know, got lucky to beat Kamar Usman, but then he just beat him. And so that second one was like, oh, Leon's just good, he beat him. Whereas really, we should view that first one in that light and not just as a fluke, which I think a lot of people do. The same thing's going to prove true here. Like if Grasso loses, then she got lucky. And if she wins, well, then she didn't get lucky. But that's not the one that matters. It's the second one because that really proved that she's better or whatever.

So I think for that reason, yeah, it just is because if Grasso loses, we're going to write her off the way Juliana Pena is written off right now. I wrote about this this week. And the difference between Giuliana Pena and her upset and Holly Home and her upset of Ronda Rousey and how we view that. those. A lot of that to me is tied into the immediate rematch. And so in this instance, yeah, I think Grasso is the one who has a lot, whereas because if Shevchenko loses, her legacy is set. She's greatest woman's flyweight of all time.

One of the greatest female fighters of all time. This will just be, okay, yeah, like Izzy, she's been fighting for 20 years. She has hundreds of professional fights under her belt and time caught up to her because that's how time works, unfortunately. So yeah, I think Crossroads got more to lose here. So, Jed, putting it on the spot, are you going with the one Michoulin rating for this card? Because I'm looking at it from a betting perspective, there's only three fights on this card where the favorite is less than minus 200. And that's the main event.

It's the co-main event between Jack Delamadelena and Kevin Holland. And it's the unfortunately buried flyweight fight between Tracy Cortez and Jazz and Jazz DeVizius, which is maybe outside of the cold. main event and you can even make a case that this is the second most the second biggest fight in terms of stakes in divisional rankings on this entire card but seems like we're going to get a lot of squash matches according to the to the betting odds at this point so we're sticking with the one and if so why i think we're sticking with the one um i mean it's certainly not a two i would not take a special trip to see this card. But if I were in Vegas, you know, I would take a break from the tables for a little bit and be like,

hey, let's go watch some people fistfight. The college football slate on Saturday is pretty bad. So, you know, it's not like I need to stay at a bar and watch a good football game. This is, this is a one. It just gets over that hurdle. And certainly if something, you know, monumental happens in the main event, then looking back will be really happy we went. But even if not, you have a main event with like really. tangible stakes that are like very, very significant fight.

You have a co-main event that is going to be incredibly fun and could be fairly significant. I have some real concerns about Jackie three names. And then the rest of it is just the vibe. You know, it's Mexican Independence Day. You're going to have a bunch of Mexican and Mexican heritage fighters getting after it. Like that's a good scene. A fight weekend on Mexican Independence Day in Vegas. That's a thing worth going to.

So one star. Rick, how are you grading Noce UFC? Yeah, I'm at like an 8 out of 10. I'm excited about this card. I like what's happening here. To Jed's point, the vibes are immaculate, right? Like you think about the Vancouver, was it Vancouver, the UFC 289, the one that was in Canada. And it didn't have, you know, a ton of stakes in all of the fights.

But what it did have is momentum and fighters that the crowd can. could get behind and I feel like this energy in the building is going to be great. There are some fights that have stakes. There's the excitement of the co-man event, which I am very, very excited about as the world's number one Kevin Holland fan. So yeah, I'm all in. Not all in because that would be 10 out of 10. So I misspoke there.

But I'm relatively committed to this card. I'm given an 8 out of 10 and I tend to be a harder, greater. But this one being for free for me feels like a UFC fight night of the past, like not the ones we've even been getting lately this this feels like it has some something real here so uh 8 out of 10 excited for it and uh the main event's awesome and 11 fights nice tight 11 fights it's a good number it's a very very good number and shout to the ufc uh alexa grasso's custom made title belt is friggin sick like well done absolutely well do more that shit man do more of that shit 100% remember by the way

somebody made this joke and I get that this could be fraught but part of me desperately wants to see Sean Strickland with a red white and blue UFC belt like that just feels right in the sweet spot you know he should just make his own belt I think that would be incredible like I don't just creates I'm not confident this man is artistic enough to make his own belt

He could commission his own. We just saw UFC and WWE merge to become TKO. And is that not a staple? Correct me if I'm wrong, but is that not a staple of WWE? It's like there was a guy with a spinner belt, the stone cold belt had a skull on it. Like, let's just open this up. Let's just have the champions having custom belts all the time. Let them do what they want with it and add some personality and flavor back into this.

Dude, we get Leon Edwards with a, I mean, I guess you could do the, Jack, but I think you just go with the red and white, you know, like, that's sick. Pantosia obviously also gets a belt like this. Volcanovsky, give Volcanovsky like a blue and yellow. Like, these, it's fucking sick. Do that. Why aren't we doing that? We should absolutely do that.

I love that idea. We could talk. Click this and send it to the UFC because here's my pitch. All right. So instead of having this uniform belt, um, that is cool or whatever, think about how many more replica belts you can sell if every champion gets their own international flavored one. So instead of just selling a $1,000 replica UFC title, you can sell a $1,500 replica Alexander Volcanowski UFC title. That's just better business for you. Please and thank you.

Well said. Let's move on. We're not going to talk about the merger. We're not going to talk Eleanor is in the news, ladies and gentlemen. No, they have not been sold, at least not yet. But we'll talk about it. Some big news on the MMA hour yesterday. We'll get into very quickly. Point for round three goes to, I mean, New York, Rick, just selling this Noce UFC card like an absolute savage.

It's two to one for main event, Ricky. It's the matcha or the three ensemble Cadocephora of the fates that I've been to denishé who me energize so much. Hmm, it's the ensemble. The form of standard and mini-regrouped. Hello, Ben. And the embellage, too beau,

who is practically pre-a-donned and I know I'd have these offer them but I'm sorry and I'm sorry and I'm

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Bellator back in the news. If you watched the MMA hour yesterday, we were wondering, heading into the MAA yesterday, it was Bellator 300 that's coming up? Is that going to be the end of it all? is another merger going to happen? Are they going to merge with the PFL and Lee Bellator kind of wondering, all of us wondering, like, what the hell is going to happen here? But then we found out Bellator 301 is going to happen. It's going to happen in November.

It's going to happen in Chicago. A lot of fights are announced, but we're going to focus on the top four. Amosov versus Jackson for the welterweight title. That's the main event. We have the Sergio Pettis, Patsy Mix, Bannamweight title unification bout. We have a lightweight ground pre fight between Patricie Pitbull and Alexander Shobli. And we have the rematch, 11 months in the making, between Rafian Stats and the Italian gangster Danny Sabatello. New Yorker could begin with you.

These top four fights, this announcement, you gave an 8 out of 10 to Noce UFC. What are you grading these top four fights for Bellator 301 as it stands? If that was an 8. This is a 10 out of 10. And let me be clear. I'm grading on a what is Bellator capable? of scale, not necessarily across the global landscape. This is as good as Bellator can do.

I mean, outside of A.J. McKee being on this card, like, this is the best, and they've got a lot of champions tied up for Bellator 300, like Sergio Petis versus Patchy Mix, that's the fight. That's the fight that I care about in Bellator the most. Seeing Amosal fight again, all for it. Like, the dude is awesome, one of the best welterweights in the world. So it does it for me. it's interesting that you said top three because I will say the fourth one Statson Sabatello like just not interested even a little bit

like they're going to do the same like talking gimmick and that's great and I'm sure there's some people that are going to be excited about it that fight sucked nobody writes more checks that their ass can't catch than Danny Sabatelo like he talks about violence and killing people and all this stuff that never comes to fruition not interested in going down that road again but they'll sell it they'll do they'll do they'll do their job and why they're on the card.

But for me, the top three are great. And specifically, Pettis and Patsy Mix. I absolutely love that. And the MMA fighting global rankings, those are the number six and the number five Vantom weights. Interestingly enough, I think we have Patsy above Sergio,

even though Pettis is the champion and Patsy is the interim champion, but an absolutely great fight across any promotion. That's one of the best fights that you can make. So I'm giving Bellator some. props here. Like, I think 301 is, is legitimately compelling. And I'm interested to watch it. And that, that co-main for the moment is, is amazing. Jed, we're going to make some history right here on BTL. We're going to do something we've never done before because this is a new thing. This came to light right before Jake Paul versus Nate Diaz, that BTL we did while I was in Dallas. When you invented

the Michoulin scale and the Michulen rating system, for the first time, we're going to put a Bellator card to the test for the Michoulin rating scale. How many stars does this one get with these top four fights? I mean, this is a solid too. I don't think, you know, I'd fly across country for this, but not entirely out of the question. It's probably closer to three stars than it is to one. This is certainly two.

Chicago, I mean, if I'm in Chicago, no doubt about it, I'm going, if I'm like in the general middle of the country. I'm probably going to take the road trip and go. Fight card's awesome, man. It's really, really good fight card. Look, Pettus mix is, Rick said, you know, I think those are top five dudes in the MMA fighting global rankings at the second best weight class in the world. That's just gangbusters, right?

Main event, I mean, look, Giaroslav Amasov is one of the best welter weights alive. He's probably going to hustle Jason Jackson, but Jason Jackson. has been putting in that work on like a really good win streak right now. And he so deserves it. I'm okay with that. Patrici Shibli is the worst fight of all of these ones that we're talking about, but it's still a fine fight and it's part of the Grand Prix, so that's that. And then, yes, Rick is correct.

Danny Sabatello is not what you would call offensively potent. But he is good at. talking about some things. We're running back this rematch and the critical part about this rematch is it's not five rounds of Danny Sabatello hugging him. It's just going to be 15 minutes of Danny Sabatel hugging

Ralphian Stats. And so that's a much more palatable amount of that. And then afterwards, Danny Sabatello will probably say something cool or if he loses again, then Ralphian Stats will say something probably not cool but like not awful. Like he'll just say something disrespectful and mean

and people tend to like that. And then the rest of it. Daniel James headlined a Belator event earlier this year and he's the fifth dude up like he's he's the main card opener as it sits right now. That's how you know Bellator putting all their eggs in these two, the 300 and 301

baskets because DJ was headlining a fight like a I don't know Bellator 294 or something earlier this year. So and the undercard I mean yes I'm certain by the time this event rolls around will have like 18 fights and they will be papering that

arena with like local fighters or whatever but as it sits right now all of the fights are meaningful all the fights matter this is belator at its best two stars yeah i i like the prelim fights too denise keelhoots samiko nava's good fight yeah kizriy monsalzs a good fight fortune islamadov yeah islamomboe yes el mommadov kills mota's great fight um last thing i want to touch on this because and look this is very positive news And Jed, I want to start with you. Why is the best fight on the car, not the main event? Again, what does Sergio Pettus need to do to be in a main event?

Because Petricio Pitbull was about to vie for a third, was trying to become a three-division champion, something that hasn't been done in major MMA ever. And it was the co-main event. And again, this is the best fight Bellator can make right now outside of maybe Usman Nomagamato versus A.J. McKee. And we don't know what's going on with AJ at this point. how is this the co-main event?

Like, how is this the co-main event? It's in Chicago, not that far from Milwaukee where Sergio Pettus is from. Like, how is this not the main event? It's crazy to me. Because they wanted to put two title fights on this. And I don't actually have any issue with it. Like, I get the idea and the pushback

and this is a better fight than the main event. But I think Yaroslav Amasov has done more to deserve our respect than just about any other fighter in Bellator. you know history um and so yeah like if this were them putting ryan bader over like i'd have a little more umbrage with something like that but i think i have your i think i'ma have like the number two or number three welterweights in the world right now like this dude's as good as it gets so having him take the top billing i'm i'm fine with um even if i understand the the reflexive reaction to this you make a good point about amos i

stuff. He has gone through a lot. And I think he, his stock rose quite a bit with that. He's 27 and O. He's 27 and O. He's 27 and O. I don't care if you're fighting newspaper boys and geriatric old men. 27 and O is just not fucking possible to do. I said this the entire Habib run that nobody gave him enough credit for that.

Because it does, it truly doesn't matter that like not all. of them were elite competition. Yeah, that's sort of what happens in fighting. It's just an impossible thing. It's like it's it's a bit like being a champion the whole time. Because once you are at 12 and 0, then everybody wants to take it. You hear that I'll be the guy who's going to take his O. You are taking the best shot out of freaking everybody you fight every time out.

because there is something tangible about it. 27 and 0 is ridiculous, and I'm totally fine putting him in the top spot of any card he is on. You make a great argument. New York, Rick, do they get this right? Should Amazon Jackson be the main event or should Pettis Mix be the main event? Yeah, earlier I pointed to one of my pet peeve conversations, goat conversation as being dumb and one we need to stop having.

Card construction is another one that I just think. is one of the dumbest conversations that's ever been put forth. Who cares? What is the relevance of whether he's fighting second on the night or last on the night? Most people would rather fight first, get their fight over and get out of there from a fighter perspective. A lot of them talk about having to wait around and would rather fight earlier. It's dumb.

Nobody cares. The fighters don't care. Being the main event is cool. So if you want to bestow that honor upon somebody, great. They're both going to be on the poster. If promotions wanted to start doing a thing where the real main event was the main event as an example, right? Like Connor McGregor goes above title fights or in this case we put Pettus and Patchy Mix above Amasov. Who are people here to see actually fight?

I'd have no problem with it, but I also have no problem with it as currently constructed. The idea that people, fans in particular, care about like my favorite fighters in the main event or my favorite fighters in the co-main event is the most loser behavior ever. it's useless, it's silly, don't waste your time thinking about it. The fighters aren't, you shouldn't either. Wow. I feel lower than dirt right now because I want Petit's a mix of the main event.

Think Sergio deserves it. Except for you, Mike. You're the exception. Yeah. Go beat feet New York, Rick. Let's give Jed the point. Just play the music. Just play the damn music.

Play it! Play the music! Unbelievable. Jed is saying things and nobody in the world can hear it. Not one person in the world can hear what he's saying. Saying Ricky just heaved it to me like I'm a Jets defensive back and he's Josh Allen. I mean, yes.

Love you, Ariel, but that was a tough watch. Yeah. Josh Allen's best on that. And well, because of New York Rick's butt fumble a la Mark Sanchez, we're going to the knock-around. A shocking revelation here on the program. It has only happened 99.7% of the time on the show. So very low statistical numbers.

But not every time. Yes. The only time it didn't happen is when Jed hosted and he was the Sean Strickland of BTL and just threw all the rules and all the rankings out the window. Everything just went to went away. But we're also throwing the regular rule set out the window because the knock around question is not coming from me. It's coming from you.

One of you anyways. So let's bring in the Honorable E.K.C. Lydden. There he is with a sleeveless shirt making us all feel guilty about our physical fitness. Casey, do we have a actually before we do that, Jed, do you want to go first or second before you find out what the question is? I'll go first. It's fine. Okay. Unless my memory fails me.

I haven't lost in a while. I feel like, Ricky, me not. I'll defer the coin toss. Rick can choose. I don't get the choice here. But you know what? In the interest of collaboration. and me enjoying being here so much

and your veteran status on the show, I'd be happy for you to choose. So whatever you just said, we're going to go with that. Rick, do you want to go first or not? I don't care. I have no preference. I want to do what you want to do, Jed, because we're friends and I love you, bud.

Okay. I mean, stick to the gimmick, New York, you're the main event or you're not, and you don't seem to care. So Casey, do we have a question? Do we have a good, compelling knock-around question? Or do I need to stall for time while you find one? Can we stall a little, but I'm still looking.

I'm still looking for the perfect. question. I'm going to say that I need to go first because there was a lightning strike about 50 so I have no idea how long my internet's going to hold up. Can you imagine if lightning handed New York Rick the title, Mother Nature just screws over Jed? That would be compelling television right there. Dude, it was one of those ones you could see it. Like the I was like, okay, well, good to know.

The forces of good are in action right now. We're going to see if the good guys get this done. Still looking, Casey? I slacked you. I can. I slacked you. Oh, okay. All right. Okay.

This is a good question. Yeah. That's a good question. You can make it fancy if the words you use, but yes. The words. All right. It has been slacked. Do we know who sent this question?

Spencer Hopkins. Okay. Spencer. Spencer. Jed, so we begin with you. You get one minute to respond to this, and then New York, Rick, will get to do the same. As we know, and as we talked about for about 30 minutes,

Sean Strickland is the middleweight champion in the world, Jed Mishu. Sean Strickland beat Israel out of Sanya. He is the middleweight champion of the world, and that has led to all different discussions and how long this rain will last and so forth and so on. So we're going to play a little game. We're going to do some futures right now, but it's not going to be December 31st.

of the year of our Lord, 2024. September 14th, 20204, who will be the UFC middleweight champion of the world, and how does this happen? One minute on the clock, go. I mean, this feels unfair because I have a crystal ball, and I don't believe Rick has one of those.

So Rick's just going to have to make something up and hope he can be compelling with it, whereas I'm just going to tell you the future. and I already did tell you the future. Drickus 2 Plus C will be winning the middleweight title at the end of the year. Come December, he and Sean Strickland, DDP is going to get it done. Then next year, maybe at UFC 300 even, we get DDP versus Israel Dissna. And let me tell you, folks, I've been saying it since I said DDP was going to be Robert Whitaker.

I stick by it, particularly for what we saw this past weekend. Nothing changed my mind. DDP beats Israel Diznya. He's the one who lost out this weekend because he didn't get to be the guy to do that to Izzy, but he's going to beat him. And maybe by September he is booked to fight Hamzat Shamiyev. But the fight hasn't happened yet.

But then Hamzat does win the belt in October of 2024. Abu Dhabi. All right. All right, New York, Rick. I kind of feel like we know where you may be going here based on how you have laid out the middleweight division. And I believe it's a name that Jen may have said towards the end. But September 14th, 2024, New York, Rick, one minute or less, who is going to be the UFC

middleweight champion of the world? Is it still going to be Sean Strickland? Could we see, is this the beginning of a magical run or is it not? One minute on the clock, go. I'm going to start here with an admission. And that admission is that I don't know anything about MMA. Everything that I thought I knew about MMA has been questioned this year. maybe the last couple of years.

Everything that I thought and held to be true no longer was true, but there is one absolute. And that is that Hamzaa Shamaev is the baddest dude walking this earth. And come this year, Hamzaa Chamaev is going to beat Palo Kasta. And then at the start of next year, Hamza Tchamayev is going to beat whoever is the middleweight champion. I'm assuming it will be Sean Strickland at that time.

And whoever that is, I feel bad because they were just a stepping stone to the Hamlet. Samayev era, which will then continue past September. This could go on for a few years for as long as he decides he wants it until he blows up and decides he's going to be a light heavyweight at that time. So the Hamzat Shamaier era begins sometime next year and by September of 2024, it will have continued and Hamzaa Shamaev will be the middleweight champion of the UFC. All right.

One side on DDP, one side on Hamzaa Chamaif. That's what makes this conversation so interesting. right now based on the results of UFC 293. So cast your votes. Vote in the chat right now. Is a Jen Michoud for his pick of DDP? Is a New York Rick for his pick of Hamzaa Tchaimayev? And for him picking apart the questions on this program.

It is up to you to decide. While we wait for your votes to be cast, quick programming note tomorrow 10 a.m. Eastern, we'll do another heck of a morning, free for all Friday, all sorts of fun. And then, folks, this doesn't happen all that often, but you're going to get another way in show. That's right.

I believe it's at noon Eastern. A.K. Lee is so excited about this. Jose is in Las Vegas for NoJ UFC. I believe he gets there later on today. And we'll have a way in show. We'll have a preview show at 3 p.m. Eastern as well to get you ready for this card. Well, the People's Prefight Show will have all the winner reactions because Jose will be in the building for Noce UFC. And I believe we're going to be doing, we're going to give you options after the event.

You can either watch the post-fight press conference or you can watch the post-fight show. You can watch them both at the same time. That's the magic of M-Afighting.com, as Jedd-likes say, grab a great website. And then on to the next one on Sunday to matchmake following Noce UFC. And then the circle goes round and round. We get you ready for one more apex card. And then we actually have a rare weekend off from UFC action the last weekend of September. So, Casey.

Ooh. How many weeks in a row is this going to be? Like once the 23rd. which is a good one. That's pretty decent card too. Not enough weeks. More weeks. I actually think it's like 16. I'll count it up right now. That's incredible. It's a lot. What a fun time.

Sean Smith is. 17 is correct. Fizzy of Gamrod is the 17th event because it was the full summer run. So yeah. 17. The last, the last break we had was the last week of May. It was June 3rd through. September 23rd, straight gas. I remember when Brandon Fitzgerald was commentating the fight night card, like right after

that. And he was like, by the way, guys, 17 straight weeks, it's coming. And we're like, no way. It was like there's like a few dates that aren't open. And then like a week later, we closed them all off. So 17 straight weeks, you get a one week breather and then we're back at it again. When is Consender series wrapping? Is that that wrapping soon?

Or does that carry into that? There reps. Oh, that's a great point. That's a great point. There's still some. October 10th is the last contender series. It's four more episodes. 1926, October 3rd, October 10th. For those real degenerates out there, there's something to scratch your UFC. Dude, that contender series card on Tuesday was awesome. It was a really, really good. Excellent.

You can just go to Fight Pass and watch all the events if you're really in need. Yeah. Now we can go back and watch Robbie Lawler fights again and get caught back up. All right, Casey, who wins? Oh, go ahead, Jed. I'll say, I have a hint. You might want to go one more minute. You might want to go back and watch the fight.

We do this every single time I'm on. Vote for Jed and let's get out of here. I got places to be. Like, why do we have to come to this point every single time I'm on? Vote for Jed. The storm is getting harder. I may get knocked out. So you may get a late TKO, Ricky.

Send him off the lightning striking. Send them off for the win. And let's get out of here. I got places to be, folks. Come on. Do the right thing. I love the gimmick. Have we closed the voting, Casey?

Yeah. Did Thunder just rumble outside of your house? Is that thunder? Yeah. Okay. I heard. I thought that I thought I thought it was a sound effect I hit. All right.

Your winner to do. with 57% of the votes is. It's even close. Jed Bishu. Whoa, look at that. Mother Nature prevails. Or maybe there's New Yorkerick's just giving nature. Wow.

Dad, before your power goes out, what do you want to say in reaction to this victory? It's great to be here, guys. You know, I just love to compete. And if, you know, you're bored, I would say maybe go back and start watching some fights of the one and only great undefeated fighter UFC champion because we might have a damn coming out about him or her at the beginning of October. Interesting. The Nika Montagnos story. I'm very excited for this.

That's it. That's someone. How do we feel about this? I know you're happy. You told people to vote for Jed, so you got what you wanted. I'm glad they finally listened to me. It was my absolute honor and pleasure to be here. Jed is such a worthy adversary.

I'm so happy to have been able to compete with him, but truly not a competition because he is levels above me and everybody else that he's able to compete with. What a blessing. Jed, hope you're safe there in the inclement weather. We're all pulling for you. And yeah, just truly a special thing. time in MMA and a truly a special day for me to be able to hang out with you guys.

Blessed. That's the only way I could describe it. Just blessed. Casey hit the music. I mean, we're never going to have a more positive exit to this program ever. And it's incredible. Congratulations to Jed. Congratulations to New York.

Congratulations to us all that we could all be a part of such a momentous occasion. We'll be back next week to do it again to react to NoJ UFC and all the craziness of the sport has to offer for New York Rick for Jed Mishu. Casey on the ones and two. the iconic voice of Esther Lynn takes you home. We're back next week. I am Mike Hack. Good night, everybody.

Love y'all. This has been Between the Links, an MMA-fighting production on the Vox Media Network.