MMA Fighting - BTL | Sean Strickland vs. Dricus du Plessis, UFC 297, PFL vs. Bellator Event, UFC 300 | MMA Fighting

Episode Date: January 18, 2024

The first UFC pay-per-view of the year takes place this Saturday in Toronto with UFC 297, and in the main event, the heated rivalry between Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis will be settled for the middleweight championship. While the card isn't as stacked on paper as the rest of the pay-per-view slate thus far, the stakes are quite high for one of the more exciting divisions in the promotion. On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel discusses Saturday's fight card and its quality, what is on the line in the Strickland vs. du Plessis main event, Mayra Bueno Silva vs. Raquel Pennington for the vacant women's bantamweight title, and more. Additionally, they'll discuss the PFL vs. Bellator champions event that was announced earlier this week, Donn Davis' comments about the UFC Saudi Arabia getting postponed, Dana White announcing Justin Gaethje vs. Max Holloway for UFC 300, and much more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and Alexander K. Lee. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee 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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DarkTrace is the cybersecurity defenders deserve and the one they need to defend beyond. Visit darktrace.com forward slash defenders for more information. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm a fighting studios. This is between the links. and now your host, the iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of BTL. It's Thursday.

Guess there's a lot to talk about, a lot going on in the sport. UFC 297 is just two days away. UFC 300 coming together a little bit more. And Don Davis is saying wild things again. And it's just Thursday this week, everybody. Thank you for joining us. No time to waste.

Let us introduce the first. panel first. He is Mr. No Gray area, the hot take kid, Mr. Cannonball is your friend in mine from MMAfighting.com Mr. Teddnish. Hello, Jed. Man. Yeah, I mean, Mike, you know how this goes. At this point,

like, I just know that every Thursday I'm on BTL, right? Like, that's just, that's the rhythm. And last night, I was like, oh, I should go check, like, if Mike sent me an invite or whatever. And I looked at who I'd be competing against today. I was like, I don't know if this was intentional, but buddy, that's, that sure is a plan. It's going to be fun. I mean, it was intentional before everything happened, but we'll get to that in a minute. Yes, joining the program this week, also from MMAFighting.com, he is the Prince of Positivity.

He is in Toronto, the site of UFC 297. And he is my best friend, gosh darn it, Alexander Kaylee, aka, how are you? What's up? What's up, my best friend? It's great to see you. My other two great friends, Jed Miche, EKC, and the truck. It's great to see you guys. I'm very happy. Prince of Pository is very happy. UFC is in town. Controversy free. I mean, it's just been a brisk, easy, breezy walk to the car. You know, it's all good. So I'm very happy to be here. The center of the earth, AK, looks lovely after being dunked to the center of the earth, as people in my mentions told me. Looks like it's not that bad down there, actually. I've been roasted, guys. I've been roasted and I've been bodied apparently. So I don't know.

I guess my career is over? Mike, should I be here? My career is over. Look. I got to go. Guys, I got to go. My career is over. I'll see you guys later.

I'm not going to know me anymore. I wasn't sure how we were going to lay this thing out. Because normally we do like, oh, this is what happened last week. And we go in chronological order. regardless of media day and everything like we were going to start today's show with ufc 297 talk anyways and we were going to talk a lot about the main event between sean strickland and drink his two plus for the middleway title which is going to be ridiculously fun to watch when the cage door locks on saturday now a k is here this has been quite a 24 hour stretch for you my man as we've been sort of

alluding to. You and one half of the main event had a bit of a viral moment at Media Day yesterday. It has been spread everywhere. Everybody's commenting on it. Even the Dan Lebertard show did a segment about it. It's caused a bit of division within the space. I think that's putting it lightly. So before we get into the fight talk, the event, Saturday night in Toronto, I wanted to see if you'd be okay with giving your response to everything that's transpired over the last day or so, the takeaways, the good and the bad from a reactionary perspective, basically anything you want to say about it, and then we'll move on, the floor is yours. Yeah, I see a lot of the comments flying by. Guys, listen, you're allowed to have your opinions. I've been getting it on social media,

and I understand this is the fan base. This is no secret. We talk about this, a large majority of the fan base, you know, not particularly liberal, not necessarily a fan of LGBTQQT, plus initiative, excuse me, we get it. We get it. And a lot of you're like, I just don't want to hear this stuff. When I tune in to watch fighting or watch a fighting show or there's no fighting podcasts, I just want to hear about fighting. And while I'm pretty sure that's not true with a lot of you, that's the statement you guys seem to be making, or you just flat out support Sean Strickland and you're a big and that's a whole other thing. There's no helping that. But I do want to address a lot of the, yeah, sort of questions and comments. Some of the broader ones,

which I think are fair, fair questions and comments. There's a lot of comments not worth addressing and, you know, whatever, those just get out to the block list. So I saw people saying, oh, this sounds like a guy he wanted to go after Strickland for a long time. First off, it's no secret. I'm not a fan of the man. I think every show we've talked to us, Trickland, I always had the caveat of like this, you know, he's a great fighter, he's UFC champion. And then I'll say something like, I personally don't like him. And he, you know, I don't like a lot of the opinions he has.

This is not a secret. I have said this publicly. So when it was announced at 2.97, he'd be coming to Toronto coming to my town. I'll say, well, I'm going to have to press on some of these questions that I've had about it, specifically his opinions on gay people, his opinions about trans people, stuff that I think is pretty important, especially for those who are not aware, say, at Toronto, we have a very strong LGBTQT plus community. We embrace those people here. Of course, people are going to disagree, but for the most part, that is, I think, representative of the city.

We support those communities. So it was a good opportunity. I see people asking, why didn't you ask him when he tweeted this two years ago? When was I going to do this? I want to ask him face-to-face. I want to ask him in a live setting. The UFC has not been in Toronto since 2018. So for you geniuses out there, do the math.

Where is my opportunity to ask about this? This is literally the first chance I had to ask for a media day, and I took it. Whether you like that or not, that's the fact. That's the fact. That's the way it is. And yes, I had been thinking for a long time how I was going to phrase these questions. People in May fighting, my editors were so helpful with like how to approach this. Big shout out, Sid Ziegler at Out Sports. He wrote the article that sort of followed what happened yesterday at Media Day.

I talked to him a lot before because, again, I'm an ally, but I'm not part of the community. don't feel comfortable speaking for them, but I talked to people who sort of said, if you're going to be there, I'm going to ask about it. He's the best way to do it. And so I felt that way. So, Mike, you addressed a bit as well this morning that like, oh, we did it for clicks. We did it for attention. What clicks? You know, you said it. We didn't post to our socials. We didn't do a story. We are hosting the outspot story, but that's not for, that's not, that's not enemy fighting clicks. Not that we care. It's not about that. It's not a story about getting clicks. It's an important story. I'm kind of all over the place here, but I did also want to talk about the confrontation itself because we were joking like, oh, I got body either.

I got I'm The Infection now, which I actually kind of love. It's a great nickname. So if you guys want to call me A.K. The Infection Lee, I mean, that's great. That's great nickname. It's not a good nickname. I don't see any fighters going out there as the infection and maybe they'll start now. Guys, that name is apparently up for grabs, so go for it. But it's funny. The incident itself was so nothing was like for me, for me in the moment anyway. Sean, Sean. John, I know a lot of people only saw the clip. If you watch the whole scrum, he comes in right away making weird political comments. I have nothing to do with fighting. People are asking normal fighting questions, and he's doing this whole bit. You know, he's in top Sean mode, which people like. He's like, oh, are you a liberal? Who would you vote for?

All these. This was before he got to me. This was 15 minutes for he got to me. He's going to other reporters who are asking what you would call, you know, whatever, normal standard media day questions. So people, watch the whole scrum. People think I asked these questions out of nowhere, or I made a political. political out of nowhere. He comes in right away with his personal politics. I'm not, it's also

wearing that shirt, too. He's wearing that shirt. Yeah, he's wearing that shirt. It's not about who started. I'm not doing it. Oh, he started it. So I went after him. No, it's, if we're saying that personal politics and fighting are intertwined, at least when it comes to Sean Strickland, and that's what people like about him, and it's such a big part of his brand, how can it not be discussed? How can it not be questioned? That's ridiculous. And I made sure, again, I think the question is, my questions are cut off in some of the clips. I made sure they are pertinent to fighting. Again, this was his first time in Toronto, a very supportive community since 2018, UFC's first time. So I'm going to ask him. These are important questions to people in the community. So I'm going to ask him. So I have to

deck up an old tweet. Not ideal, but it's a good chance because he's kind of such a great platform now to ask him if he's if he's majority. If he just has a different stance on it, he doesn't have to suddenly say, oh, I love gay people, which he kind of did after. He was like, oh, I have no, I don't hate gay people. He was all over the place, man. He was. all of the ways after. But it's important. You got to ask these things. And then people are saying the trans question,

why are you pushing your trans politics? His tweet said he was going to use his fight time to make a statement against Bud Light and its association with Dylan Mulvaney and the transgender community. That's a fight question, guys. That is him saying I am using my role as a USC fighter to question a sponsor with the promotion.

And I'm going to make a personal political statement on their time. I don't know if he meant post-fight speech. I don't know if he meant during media day, which is apparently what happened. But he said he could use company time. So go back, listen to the questions. You don't have to agree. I get it.

If you don't agree with the questions, that's fine. But don't say the questions that's nothing to do with fighting and don't have me to do with Sean Strickle. They very much do. So I accept the criticism, guys. I accept what Sean Strickland had to say. Two people from the UFC PR team were very nice to me after. I thought they were going to give me a little bit of crap. No, they said, oh, I'm really sorry.

that happened. And I said, nothing, what happened? Nothing happened. He didn't say anything to me that I thought was particularly out of life. The infection, I don't know what that means. I think it's hilarious. So it's the stuff he said about the communities that definitely I'm more concerned with, but stuff to me, you don't have to apologize to me. What did he say to me? I asked a question and he answered. I thought that was a fair, I actually thought it was a fair exchange. His comments, again, I don't agree with. But the stuff aimed at me, it's not a big deal. People are saying I'm playing the victim. Where at any point have I said, like, oh, feel sorry for me. I was attacked. I don't feel that way.

I don't think I was like, I don't know, particularly. I saw harass. We'll say harassed, I guess. I don't know. Maybe I'm not being sensitive enough, but I don't think it was that big of a deal. I don't think he like came after me. He was saying nonsense that could have been aimed at anyone. So I'm sorry, Mike, I don't want to hijack the show, but that's pretty much my stance on it for now.

Again, there's a lot of comments coming in. I got a lot of great DMs. And from some people, I truly, truly, truly, truly respect. So that drowns out so much of the noise. There's a lot of faceless bots out there. So for everyone sending nice messages, thank you. For everyone's sending criticism. Listen, just think about this issue a little more.

Go watch the full clip. If you don't like it, you don't like it, I'm not going to change your mind. That's fine. Like who said, it's a free country. It's a free country here. It's free country in the U.S. And guess what? That means I'm allowed to disagree with what Sean Strickland says.

And he's a lot of disagree with me. And you're allowed to disagree with me and you're allowed to disagree with him. That's the beauty of it. You can't be saying you support free speech and then saying Alex Lee should be banned from the press conference. Or Alex Lee should be banned from Fight Night because that's suppressing free speech, guys. Sorry to tell you. I just want to close. I'll say, guys, donate to donate to charities, man.

donate to meaningful charities. I just want to shout, athlete ally.org, a big charity that supports gay, lesbian, and queer and trans participation in sports, finding ways to integrate. Sketch.ca, that's in based in Toronto, and then also Native Addictions Council of Manitoba.

So you don't have donated to these places, guys, but find causes, donate, be active. I mean, there's a lot people out there that need support and need a voice. And it's not, again, this incident, I'm glad it has actually so little to do with me. I feel like, and more to do with amplifying voices in the community, especially in the anime community, that don't get a chance to talk and

don't get to platform themselves. So I have no regrets over how this went down. And again, I appreciate the UFC's sort of response to me. Are they going to release a statement? Is ESPN a release statement? I don't know. But hate being, you know, any focus of the story. But if it helped anyone feel safer in the NBA space, then I'm glad for it. Thank you, AK. I did ask you yesterday if you were okay talking about it. And by the way, just for the record, for all those, oh, you're only, AK is only on the show for the clicks. We talked about this before media, you were coming on regardless.

I wanted you on because you were in friggin Toronto anyways. So this had nothing to do with that. But the fact that you came on here and it even talked about that you're still here and that you gave a statement and that you responded to everything, Cajonais, my man, Cajones. That's why you're my best friend.

I have so much respect for you. And I stand by my tweet. My best friend is better than your best friend. So there you go. There you go. Jed, do you have any thoughts before we move on? I mean, AK, look, this is AK's thing, right? Like, this is not for me to insert myself.

The only thing I will sort of speak on this is just grow up. Everybody just grow up. This isn't that hard. I, the one thing that maybe I disagreed with AK about is not even specific. It's just we have this sort of, there is a reflexive feeling to justifying asking these questions well you know these are fight related questions fuck that you ask any questions you want it truly does not matter there is there are no lines to the questions do you have because that's how society works my guys like i can ask you anything i want and you are free to tell me to

fuck off or to be like hey i'd rather not speak to that or you know yeah my opinions have changed like this is that's just interpersonal like relations in the world at large not even in a in a since. Obviously, I do agree that these questions are very pertinent for a number of reasons. But even outside of that, like, you asked an answer. Like, it's fine. He gave an answer and to AK's point. It's not like he went to like a really dark place overboard with it towards AK. At least that certainly seems like that's not how he's feeling. But you guys don't have to stand on either side of this and be like, well, fuck that. That's just like, dude, just grow up. This is living in the world today.

And you know what? If you don't want that as you're the way you imbibe this board or whatever, I can understand, hey, we all have to pick and choose our relationships to all things and to live the lives that we think are best for us. Log off. Just don't click it. It's like we are not making you watch the pre-fight press conferences. You know what I do?

Legitimately, there are people I do not want to hear speak in this space. and like maybe I'm watching the MMA hour and some dude or some woman is on and I'm just like I don't you don't do I just meet the motherfucker it's not that hard like the button's right there the button is right there and I have it and then like

if something super pertinent that I need to be involved in it'll find its way to me and otherwise I don't have to listen to somebody ramble about stuff I don't care about you don't see me logging on to be like this is this is communism and anarchists

an anarchy in the world is dying because of it. You just don't have to engage with everything. If you don't want to, you don't have to. But I am proud that AK put it out there because there are people who want to engage with that, who want to know these answers, who maybe are debating about some things. And so it's there. And if that's not for you, I would disagree that it shouldn't be for you, but I'm not going to force that shit on you.

Log off, my brother. It's not that hard. Well said. All right. Thank you, AK. Thank you, Jed. And you guys are here for fight talk, right? At least that's what the comments have been saying.

So we're going to give it to you. I am rarely here for fight talk. Well, I mean, you're here every week. So you're here for a little bit of everything, Jed. So you know what, Jed, we'll start. I'm here for Don Davis. I don't know if that catches fight talk. I'm here for Don Davis.

Take it easy. Take it easy. Oh, there you go. Let's go. Don't you worry. We're going to talk about good old Donnie Davis. He's the UFC hater. Why don't go get, Jed.

Look, I'm the enemy. They called me the enemy. That's the enemy right there, PFL. Other way. I got it. Well, look, Jed, you have been probably the president of excitement when it comes to Sean Strickland versus Drickus 2 Plus E. You have been hoping this was the fight from moment one after Sean Strickland won the

middle-way title that we were counting down the days to these two guys fighting each other. and you have been championing this fight. Obviously, there's been some weirdness happening at the media day. We saw the in-cage brawl or the in-crowd brawl 296. We've seen things that were said at the press conferences. We've seen Sean Strickland react on Theo Vaughn. And then we have sort of embedded videos of these guys getting along and they're talking to each other's girlfriends

and it's all hunky-dory unembedded. Where's your level of excitement now for this fight? Strickland versus DDP. If you were at like a nine and a half, before are you at a 10 are you at 8 and a half because I still think the number is going to be pretty high for you I was at 10 before and I'm still out of 10

I guess this is not really changed almost anything at all this fight week has certainly been weird not what I expected I will also say it's it's Thursday like there's still a lot of fight week left things can go right back they can they can pivot these two dudes are going to share a stage

in the not too distant future and I know that they came the embedded and hugged it out and, you know, whatever. But let me say this in the simplest term. Sean Strickland is not a bastion of consistency. It's not like we can, oh, he was cool with DDP on Tuesday at the hotel. Definitely going to be normal and fine like the next time they interact. Like you just have no idea.

Roll the dice, see what happens. Anything can come from this man. So things could change. but none of that will change my perspective on the fight because I'm just looking at this from the fight standpoint. Now, once you involve the other stuff, this week got a little bit worse, like just legitimately, but not enough that I've already sold my soul. I was having this conversation with, I don't remember who it was yesterday, Ben Folks who, you know, talking about like those interactions and how that might dissuade some people from, you know,

support. And it's like, no, I just, you're here, right? Like I made this deal a long time ago. This sport is filled with a lot of people that I do not politically agree with or agree with almost anything that they feel or think or say. And that's fine. Like I have just, you know, the sport houses the likes of Ramzan Kadirov. Like I can't parse this out too much.

I just like watching dudes hit each other. And these two dudes, they're going to hit the shit out of each other and they do it a lot. And it's going to be awesome. The more I have dug into this fight, I've become even more excited because I truly don't know what's going to happen. I've got a primer coming out on the fight today. And it is, I mean, it basically says, you know, if you look at it, these two dudes strengths line up really, really well

against their opponent's weaknesses. And so I don't know how that's going to play out because it is so easy to see the path for both men to have success to end up winning the title. And the way it will go about will be fun because Drickus Duplice is simply not in boring, fights. It's it's anathema to who he is. So, you know, if it changed your opinion, totally get it. Again, everyone is entitled to to perceive and interact with the world in the way they wish to.

I'd still love this fight. The rest of the card we could talk about, but the main event is still one of my most anticipated fights of 2024. And I cannot wait to Saturday. I can get answers to the questions that I have. Okay, you're obviously in Toronto. You were, obviously, everybody knows you were in the room with Sean Strickland Amide. You were in the room with Trickus Duplice. You've seen the clips unembedded. And you have been on record saying that you felt the in-crowd brawl between these two guys, a little per wrestlingly, a little bit of a work. And we saw the embedded footage, all of that. Do you feel vindicated in some way? But I mean, I guess the real question is, do you feel like some of the heat may be off this,

or do you feel like after the press conference later on today as the show is live, things are going to ramp back up? They're definitely going to ramp back up at the press conference. As Jed kind of said, Sean Strickland is unpredictable in many, many, many ways. So I don't know if the, you know, the positive, like friendly run in with DDP is like a blip. It's just a, oh, well, you know, we have fight week ahead. Let's not do anything now that's going to cause anything down. I think Sean even kind of phrased it best himself when he was talking on the Chris Kurt with Chris Curtis on that podcast.

He was like, he really specified the press conference. He's like if DDP cross the line and get the press conference, I'm going to stab him. And probably just hyperbole. But I do think Sean is kind of looking ahead. I don't think he wants to start anything. He definitely does not want to jeopardize a payday. I know there's a lot of people out there like, you know, Sean's for real. He doesn't care if he like causes a problem that ends up with him getting removed in the card.

DDP has been saying like he's a big concern that Sean's going to cross a line and get a self-proved but I don't think that's going to happen. Not to say that John Strickland's whole deal is like an actor or anything. I think there is some like I think he is like genuinely a trying to find a nice word here besides wild. You know, let's say wild card again. I think he is generally a wild card in some regards. But I do think there's enough control and he has enough good people around him to prevent him from doing anything absolutely nuts. So yes.

Listen, I'm very excited for Saturday's main event. Again, I don't get to cover a lot of events live. The crowd is going to be bonkers for this one. I've been calling this like a one-fight card as far as broader interests. Again, I love the co-made event, but a lot of people, maybe not super hot about it. And I think it's going to build up really well. They got a lot of Canadian. This is how you build a one-fight card, really.

A lot of Canadian content on the card. Most of them should be successful. Jed, we did a no-best bar. We are picking a few Canadians to maybe fall short in front of the hometown fans. But generally, there'll be a lot of good times, good times for the rowdy and very likely drunk Canadians in the crowd. You got a somewhat low-wadage title fight in the Co-Maine. And then you've got a Maine with a ton of heat, highly anticipated. Sean Strickland gave me back in the cage, you know, pretty soon after the Izzy win, I think is the best possible thing he could do.

He still has a lot of a lot of heat from that win. So that's great. And then, yes, the stuff between them, Miley's just me very loved with the brawl. I don't know if I want to call it. Again, I've joked that it's like a pro wrestling style bra. And it was in many ways, but, hey, DDB said he was taking real punches. Sean said he was throwing downward elbows. And I'll take their word for it.

I'm certainly not accusing anyone of fraud. But yeah, all that definitely made me anticipate the fight more. And, yeah, just a style matchup. And I think how unpredictable it is. There's 20 different ways this fight could go. And I don't know if we're giving me our fight pick today. So I'll try to save it for, I don't know, never. I don't think I'm going to be in the preview show either.

So maybe I don't have to make a pick mic unless you want me to throw one out there. We'll get there. We'll get there at the end. Someone asked a heck of a morning, could this be a Lawler-Condit, Loller, Roy McDonald type of affair? And I actually think it could be. Like, I think there is a real world that this could be one of those fights. I mean, look, to put it up, those are two of the five greatest fights of all time.

you could put one one of them is probably on everybody's number one spot in terms of like all time action of the two yeah yeah it's it's really good and this because of the style and because what I think could actually happen here which is so crazy to think about what Sean Strickland because when he stubbed in to fight Nasrudene Imov the reaction from the MMA community and probably on this show to some extent was like oh god another Sean Strickland apexy main event and then what, eight months later, he's must see TV. And I do think stylistically, the most exciting Sean Strickland we've ever seen could come out here.

And Drinkus Duplice just has no, he has no breaks. He has no other gear except just full force. So I do think this could be like one of those fights that if you have a couple of beverages, you can bring home a little drunk pizza and you go to UFC FightPass. You're like, hmm, what fight should I watch today? This could be one of them. This could be one that you look back on five years. from now and want to rewatch.

But to talk about the impact of this fight, Jed, and then you can respond to that as well, what's the best case scenario for the UFC in terms of who wins? And because you, I'm with you. I feel like the UFC 300 main event has not been announced because I think they want to wait and see what happens here. Now there's a chance that these two guys beat the shit out of each other to a point where they can't turn around,

but they're hopeful that one of these guys can turn around to fight out of Sanya or Hamzada or whoever. What's the best? case scenario here for the UFC in terms of the fallout of this fight. So first, I just don't think this has a chance to be like a fight of the year, all-time great fight, uh, shickley, because I don't think Sean Strickland's durable enough. Like, when you look at those fight of the year all-time fights, it is two dudes who are incredibly durable.

And drink is two plus he appears to be that. We have certainly sort of seen that from him. Sean Strickland, I'm not, you know, he is not some glass chinned dude or whatever, but he can get got and the way with the hammer the dricka swings like if if he's landing in a way that would make it this exciting all-time fight that probably means strickland has died like he has just falling over and cannot continue so i just don't think it's going to be that uh i'd be great if it was always want more of those fortunately looks like we might have a number of those kind of fights lined up on the docket for later this year as far as best case scenario um it's a really good question

I was trying to think about it. I think the best case scenario is likely to happen because I think that it's in either or for the UFC. The answer is they want the winner of this fight to be able to turn around to fight Israel Destiny at UFC 300. If Sean strictly wins the fight, it kind of doesn't matter what condition he's in. He's just going to take that fight.

That's his gimmick. That's who he is. He will sort of accept any fight under the right conditions and he'll get paid handsomely. having Sean Strickland headline UFC 300 given the just shitstorm that this week has been maybe not ideal but still you know that's a that's a baked in rivalry

you're super happy with that conversely if DDP wins this fight it's probably going to be fairly quick it's probably not going to be this long protracted battle where he suffers a bunch of damage and can't turn around quickly and then you get DDP versus Israel Addisonia UFC 300 made event which you know could also be a bit of a nightmare

given the history of those two and where their trash talk goes, but at the same time, no one really cares because that fight would be sick. There's a ton of heat on that rivalry. So I think the best case scenario is likely to happen, but the answer is just that the winner gets out of this relatively unscathed and can make a pretty quick turnaround here.

Your thoughts, I.K., you agree. Yeah, either of these guys, if you can get Izzy, to come out and end his hiatus, which seems like he can end at any time. Like, I think we're all kind of encouraging him and we're kind of happy to hear that a guy who was such a busy champion and took on so many tough fights was willingly, you know, stepping away from competition so he could rejuvenate himself. And he's got a doc. He had the documentary.

He's always promoting things. It seemed like he was pretty drained. But that opportunity to headline and some would say save USC 300. And again, if the price is right, maybe it's enough to get easy back. Sean Strickland certainly said that. He said at the press conference, he was asked if 300 was in the cards. He said, yeah, pay me. Pay me what I deserve and I will headline YOSP 300 against someone.

And I'm like, yeah, that's probably the best answer. If the money's right, they can make a Strickland-Ir-Ram match happen or they can give people the Izzy duplice fight that is just like, it's reaching Edwards Makachub levels of like, not Edwards Mazvedal, excuse me, levels of like, ah, this fight never happens. What a waste of all this heat. this promo time, all this ugliness, frankly, that's imagine all this if we didn't get DDP and Izzy.

So I still want to believe that fight's going to happen. So best case scenario, Jed is right that we don't have a serious injury, even if it's not for 300. Like, 300 is the best case scenario. But if we could see either DDP or Strickland turn around again within the next six months, that'd be great. I don't want to see either of these guys have to be shelved until like late summer, early fall, especially Strickland, who like his whole, again, hey, I don't like.

like the guy, but his whole deal is he's active, he fights in a way that keeps him healthy, and he could have a really big year in 2024. We've kind of talked about before. There should be no chance that he like repeats as our fighter of the year, that he was our MA fighting's 2023 part of the year. But imagine if he's healthy enough and successful enough to get in there and defend the title like three times, he'd be up there, man. He'd be really strongly in consideration. And what a strange period of him may this would be where that guy is our best prior of the year, two years in a row. So I don't think it matters to the UFC, which guy wins, as far as their business goes. I don't think either guy is necessarily, Strickland might be a little bit

more of a draw right now, but I think they do have something with DDP. I think they like him a lot. I think they like his fighting style, definitely more consistently exciting. So as long as these guys make it to fight night, I think there's really no way that UFC can lose. For the first pay of the year, expectations are pretty, I think pretty moderate. And I think they're going to, they're going to meet or surpass those expectations. So it's going to be, it's going to be a good night to at least by the time the main event is settled. Yeah, dude, if he could be, if he could be DDP Izzy again and then Hamzot in 2024, like Sean Strickland's going to have a real good case for this. So, AK, you teased it. I don't know if it doesn't look like you're going to be on the

previous show tomorrow. Maybe you'll, uh, maybe you'll throw your prediction on the way in show, but we can break some news here. Which, what's your pick for this main event? Oh gosh, I reserved the right to change. Again, Jed, we did no bets barred earlier this week. And I think I, like, said what were some interesting wagers, but I never actually gave a pick. I've been pretty strongly on Strickland. Like, I feel like I'm really seeing he survives DDP in the first two rounds,

pours on a round three, takes round three, and then either wins a decision or can maybe find a finish in round five. That was one of the big props that we were talking about, Strickland knockout in round five. People are telling me this little crazy. they're saying like that there's no way that not there's no way but it's very unlikely he survives sort of the best version of ddp in the first two rounds and i'm just not sure uh it's it's really hard to tell what version of strickland we see on fight night the thing that's really

sticking out to me is uh chris curran has said this other fighters said this sparring with sean and actually fighting with sean the first time is extremely difficult his style is is just a little unorthodox and it's really hard to figure his rhythm we saw this in real time with the isy a disinio fight people can say a disinio was off whatever he couldn't figure out Sean Strickland. And everyone says that's what happens the first time you throw hands with him. So I'm going to stick with my Strickland prediction, I think. I do have to write official prediction atmating.com.

I don't like to change them. And I'm going to go with Strickland dramatic fifth round TKO on a depleted DDP. Let's go with that. I think I'm going for Max excitement. I may be being selfish because I'm there. Maybe I just want the most exciting outcome. So take that bias. there guys i i just want to see something fun happen how about that well we'll we'll see what

happens i'll have my pick on the preview show tomorrow i'm actually leaning sean strickland as well but there's more that's happening at ufc 297 and i know you're you all watching and i don't get i don't get to give a pick you oh yeah you're not on the you're not to say you're just going to transition this out i don't get to give it's nonsense i thought you were going to be there all right who you pick and why is the DDP? Well, it is DDP. I totally understand Sean Strickland winning and like it makes sense to me. The way he attacks is really, really well set up against DDP.

I've been trying to figure out why I've just had such a vibe for DDP this whole time. I was listening to Jack Slacks podcast this morning. And it's sort of all crystallized. He was like, because they're sort of inverse fighters, right? Like Sean Strickland, the way they go about business is sort of. the same but just kind of exactly opposite and with ddp he is like 80% anarchy and then 20% like tactics and that was like the the rob wittaker fight is just like you hear him talk about it afterwards is yeah we saw a couple like he he outlined specifically like what they saw what they prep for

how they went about attacking Robert wittaker and so most of him he's just fighting like ddp but then in the in the middle of that there's like oh here's this opening attack and it drops Robert Whitaker and suddenly here we're going. I feel like that's just how this is going to happen because also if you look at like you look at Strickland's resume, great, not here to knock it. He has historically struggled against dudes who hit just real hard. Like if you're just a bonker, he's struggled with you. Jared Kennedy, Alex Pereira most obviously.

Elis Gizzo Santos. Like those are the guys and he just hasn't fought a lot of dudes. who hit really hard. And so his game works really well. But I think DDP is going to be able to disrupt him, hit him real hard. And if he gets him down, I think this fight is over. DDP is extremely underrated as a just demon on top. The way he emasculated Robert Whitaker the moment he got on top of him was really jarring.

He can just bring all his physicality to bear. And I don't think Sean Strickland can keep up with that. So I won't be shocked if Sean Strickland. just keeps him a whole bunch and DDP gets real tired. But I'm going DDP. I love it. I love it on opposite sides here. Let's move on the rest of this card.

It's going to be fun. It's probably a quick second round. But the point for round one goes to the Prince of Positivity, Alexander Kately. Oh, good. I was going to say, though, I was surprised. I didn't know we were doing a traditional scoring episode, Mike. I got 10 sixth yesterday.

I don't know if I can take another. You need a TKO to win. I think I need a TK. I don't, yeah, I'm way down on the card against Strickland. So I don't like my chances of knocking him out either, if I'm being honest. If it came down to that, I do not like my chances. Yeah, it seems un-nacle. I'm good.

I didn't know we were scoring today. I have a feeling that our wonderful producer E. Casey Lydon will be weighing in on who wins this actual contest. More on that in a moment, but... Saving and investing well is an art and a science. It requires high-level math, an intimate knowledge of economic history and theory and a healthy dose of psychology. People have spent their whole careers and won Nobel prizes trying to figure out the best ways to do it. Betterment believes that you should be able to be a successful and sophisticated investor without having to get a PhD. They've spent over a decade creating

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Investing involves risk, performance not guaranteed. Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Roscoe Cadulian 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.

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we talked about the main event, which should be really exciting. We have the co-main event for the vacant women's bantamweight title, Raquel Pennington versus Byron, so by the way, Rekle Pankton was kind of on one of the media day, so I was pretty stoked to see that. Neil Magny, Mike Malott, Chris Curtis, Mark Andre Barrio, and AK, I will disagree with one thing you said in round one. You said this is a one-fight card. This is a two-fight card, baby.

Arnold Allen versus Mobbzar of Loyo. There you go. Yeah, true. True. I love this fight so much. This, including the main event, is the fight I am most intrigued by, just from pure martial artist's perspective and what could come out of it. But I will start with you, AK, gymnastics score. And I'm not talking the main event.

I'm talking the rest of the UFC 27. Let me take a quick glance at card again. My initial thought is a nine at best. But Jed has called my scoring system into question before. rightfully so, and I have had to recalibrate. I do think maybe maybe pay-per-views shouldn't be an automatic nine or above. And so if we recalibrate here, so if I give a lower score, don't think I'm saying this is like not a pay-view-worthy card, it's like, or it's like a terrible card. I'm just being more realistic, I think, with people's expectations. So that's kind of what I said

before. Let's, in the event that we get, that's nine Canadian fighters in action, like at least six. I think the most the card can take, like, for the sake of the crowd, is three Canadians losing. I think, and I think that's safe. I think, I think it's fair to say Canadians will go at least six and three, seven, and two. So that's good. That's going to look good on air. You'll see a lot of cheering. It's going to get people at home pumped up. Like, that always helps. Seeing a happy crowd makes us feel better, I think, when we're watching a show. So that elevates it a little bit. I like the co-main, whatever. Well, again, if we need to talk about that more, we'll talk about that more. And like I said, the main event's a 10 out of 10, so that lives are pretty high.

But I'll stop short of night. I'll stop short of nine. So this could be a 8.8. Everything goes all, 8.8. Because as much as I love, like I said, sort of some of the Canadian names in the card and the top two fights, some of these fights on paper don't look like they're going to be like bangers. But fighters, prove me wrong, you know, go out there and fight for those bonuses and give us some highlights and and have us talking about this at the end of the year. You know, really steal the show and set the stage. That's what I hope happens. Jed, you have a different grading scale.

The Michoulin rating. And is that a zero? Zero Michulen stars? Why? Even with this main event? We struggled really hard between one and zero because it is one fight. Like, I mean, look, I like Arnold Alamor of Siaf, Lave. I like that in theory, maybe more than that fight's going to play out, because I've watched both dudes fight before, and it's not like they are serving up bangers every time out.

So, like, that's, in theory, that's a good fight, and it's certainly meaningful and relevant. But, you know, the co-main event's meaningful and relevant, and that's probably going to be the worst fight you can imagine. It's just, there's a high likelihood that that's not interested. I hope I'm wrong. I hope that Cro-Maine's great, and my brain of Silva wins. Not because I have an issue with Rocky Pendleton, but if Rocky Pendleton is a champion, then that's going to be the most boring title that ever there was.

And then we have her and Leon, and that's a tough scene for our champions to be. So at least NBS gives us a shot. The rest of the car is just poop, man. Like, it's just, it's poop. Like, I don't know what else to tell you. It's a poop soup with some caviar on top of it. and you know

I like caviar that's great but can caviar save poop I'm not sure that it can and so that's where particularly when you have to pay $500 for it because that's the ticket price for like the upper bowl at UFC 297

it's like $500 and if I was in Toronto I would look at my like do I want to spend $500 to watch one fight I don't think I do like I think I'd rather just buy this pay per view than go to this event and watch it.

So it's tough. If you want to give it a one per migrating, I get it. I mean, there's no world in which it's more than a one. If you wanted to give it a one okay, but we don't do half stars because we don't believe in half measures here, Mike. It's one or zero and we've defaulted to zero because the caviar can't save the poop soup. And zero is if you're in, if you live in the city where the event is being hosted, wouldn't go.

You still wouldn't go. Correct. I would not attend this. Again, I don't play. I have plenty of friends who, when they saw those ticket prices, who were like, well, when they heard before the card was really announced, but they heard the UFC's coming back, they're like, oh, I got to go. First time since 2018, I got to be there.

It's got the crowd's going to be live. And I think the crowd will be good. I'll be surprised if it sells out, but I do think the crowd will be good. But yeah, when they saw ticket prices, when they saw the final lineup, a lot of my friends backed out, man. A lot of my friends were like, well, first asked me if I get them free tickets, which I don't, sorry, I don't have that kind of hookup. And then we're like, how much of the prices?

And I'm like, well, here you go. Here's the list. And they're like, I'm good. I'm out. So your rating is pretty fair. And I think a lot of my, these people, a lot of people would agree with it. If it was like 20 bucks, probably, like I had this conversation last week with my sister. She lives in Kansas City.

And, you know, they were hosting the playoff game. It was minus 30 degrees at the wind chill. I was talking to her. I was like, how much are tickets that can be especially? Like, we can actually get 40 bucks. Like, if you want to fly into Kansas City, we can get tickets for $40. And I genuinely thought about it. Because when else am I going to get to watch?

Patrick Mahomes' Chiefs game in the playoffs for 40 bucks. And then I was like, no, I don't want to be in negative 30 degrees of weather. That sucks. I would rather, I would rather do that than spend 500 to go to this. Like it's, it's a tough card, man. And like, you know, I'm trying to be more positive this year, but there's not a lot to hang your hat on outside the main here. Yeah, I went to, I went to the Patriots Titans playoff game.

I think it's like the seventh coldest game in NFL history. It ain't fun. It ain't fun. I went to an AFC championship game in 96. The Patriots played the Packers in the Super Bowl. That game was frigging cold too. And that was Foxborough with the high school-esque bleachers instead of the seats. Oh, yeah.

Sheesh, dude. It was, it was tough. It was tough. But speaking of championships and things that matter and ticket prices, Jed, is this cold main event for the Bannamway title? Is this the fresh start that women's 135 needs? Meyer Buena Silva versus Raquel Pennington. Meyer Boeoena Silva has been pretty heated, mostly at Giuliana Pena.

Raquel Pennington, like I said, I thought she showed up pretty fired up at the media day. She seemed very confident in herself. Is this the fresh start this division needs? I feel really weird about this fight because this is the fight that I thought made the most sense, like meritocratically. And that's what 2024 is.

It's the meritocracy. We all know it. Get on board. and yet this week it's just been like kind of feels like Giuliana Pena should be involved in this I know she's injured and that's why she's not

but like the conversation sort of the steers around her and at least even though I supremely dislike her as a fighter she does it like she brings some level of interest that it's just not coming to bear with these two look I

sort of said it in my last answer if Pennington wins no this isn't the Start is terrible. And depending to when she will deservedly be a champion, respect to her, she's a very solid fighter, she's paint-drying, man. Like she's, if Leon Edwards is leafy greens, Rocky Pennington is maybe one step above Holly Holm in the dietary fiber, like, ranking of fist fighters. It's, she's just not compelling television.

And that doesn't mean she's not good. She obviously is very good on a great run. over quality-ish quality is relative in this weight class, but quality competition. If Marlena Silva wins, there's more of a chance. But as you kind of look into this fight, I was talking to AK about this. I don't remember if we said it on air or not.

We've sold ourselves a bill of goods with MBS, particularly in a fighting, because she's had like three fun wins. And more specifically, she finished Holly Home and kind of finally ended that reign of terror. we've all decided that oh she might be fun but actually she probably isn't because if you look at all of her other fights before then it's not like she was the most captivating fistfighter that ever was so like maybe that's an outlier i i don't know if she comes in here and she runs over pennington then yes maybe this weight class has a champion who won't be a mandonis you know in that respect but at least is more exciting and more compelling and the matchup with juliana pinia will be better if not uh then yeah one thing 35 will continue to exist as the worst weight class in the sport. That's a real weight class.

AK, do you agree that MBS has to win for this to be a fresh start? Or could Mom Raquel, who, like I said, fired up at Media Day, has some heat with Giuliana Pena herself. She's been calling for this fight since the ultimate fighter. She does not like Giuliana Pena. I'm sure the feeling is mutual. Where are we at here? Do you agree with Jed?

No, not at all. Not at all. I think Raquel be a fine champion. This is a new day for the Women's 135 division. All right. Amanda Nunes comfortably retired, I think we'll be pretty confident. I don't think she's ever coming back. I think she's done everything she can, made a lot of money.

I think, you know, we'll still see her cornering. We'll see her involved in the fighting world, but I don't think she fights again. So this is what we've got guys. We've got Mad of Buenos Aires. We've got Raquel Payton. We've got Juliana Paine waiting in the wings. Either one, I think it would make for a great matchup. I don't know if this is the first time that we've had a situation in the women's band to wait division in a while where we're like, oh, we have this title fight and we also have a ready-made challenger.

Like there's there's a narrative in this division for the next six or seven months that has not existed for the longest time. It's kind of, I'm sure I'm the only one thinking of it's kind of dragged along a little bit the last few years. You know, I don't know people. I know people will disagree with me. The division has kind of dragged along a little bit. It's not the Roundy-Rowsy Misha Tate Holly Home, you know, Star Division it once was. But it is nice to see that, again, there does seem to be a promotional plan. Juliana-Lov her or hate her is doing her part to, again, do more, have us care about more than just two fighters in the division at a time, which has been one of the problems of the Women's Bantamate Division.

It used to be, we care about Amanda Nunes and who is Amanda Nunes fighting next? That's really it. I have some hope as well for the next generation of Women's Bantamates coming up. We've had, like, Nora Cornol added, and Melissa Dixon, Irene Alexieva, some talented fighters who are current competing 135. Josian Nunes, she's been kind of messing around 145 and is clearly a bantan weight and I think is like people are sleeping on her a lot. So I hope we see her back in action soon. This division is not going to become a top five division. It's probably, I'd be surprised if a women's bandamweight fight headlines any card this year, even if it has a lot of heat with like, I don't know, again,

Bueno Silva and Pena, I just don't think it would be a headliner. And that's fine. That's not where the division is yet. And again, may never be. It would never be the Ronda levels again, or Amanda Nunes levels even. But that doesn't mean it can't be a respectable division again.

And considering how low this vision has sunk at times, I think we can take that. It's just a nice type of division that has fights regularly booked in it. I think, Jed, you always bring up, they book like a dozen 12 to 14 women's bandit wage fights a year in the UFC. It's so wild. 19 last year. There were 19 of them.

Was that kind of the ones that had a weight class when 19 fights occur? Was that kind of the ones that got canceled? Because then some of the fights got canceled. No, no, no. The 19 that occurred. That happened. That's pretty good. So I think we can beat that this year.

It's just like we have us. I don't remember if there were any weight misses last year, but that does include weight misses if there were. It was scheduled to be, I don't remember if anyone missed. But like, yeah, 19 of them. Really tough to have a weight class when 19 fights occur in a year. It doesn't feel like a weight miss. class, does it? So I don't know if we're going to blow that number away. I think, like, at best,

you're getting 20, 21 women's bandit. You might even get less this year, but at least the picture at the top will be a little more intriguing. So yes, I'm highly optimistic that no matter who wins, Raquel Payington or MBS, we'll at least have nicer things to say about women's band to win this year. And I know that's setting the bar really low, but let's keep our expectations, you know, realistic. Well, let's keep our expectations realistic for the professional Fighters League because that's where we're going next. We will have more 2.97 talk on the preview show tomorrow. The point for round two goes to Mr. Poop Stew himself, Jed Mishu.

One to one. It's a soup. It's not a stew. Soup. The soup. I mean, no matter how you make it, soupy, stewy, it's hilarious nonetheless. Big dollop of caviar on top and hope it works out. Depending on who you ask, speaking of hilarious, Don Davis back in the news.

Ed Bishu. I think you're the perfect guy to start with. It's been an interesting week for MMA and Saudi Arabia and promotions that host their events on ESPN and ESPN Plus. UFC was supposed to host an event March 2nd in Saudi Arabia.

No longer happening. They're going to move that to the world's most famous apex. Maybe they go back in June. And then we find out that on February 24th, the highly expected PFL versus Bellator Champions card is going to happen.

And the same night as UFC Mexico City, we did a quick reaction to that, Jed. And we'll get into what Don Davis had to say on the M.A. hour yesterday. Because I laughed a lot. And I'm sure you did as well. He's the best, you know. You started that reaction podcast. I mean, putting this event over. You were very into it.

And then the more we talked about it, the less you put it over. Now, where are we at now? A couple days later, we've heard from Don Davis. We've heard about the plans for the promotion. We'll get into some specific quotes in a moment. But where are we at here? Are you still at that 10? Are you a little bit?

Where are we at? Are we somewhere in the middle from where we started to where we ended on that reacts? Look, I'm still pumped about the fight card. I think it's a, as I said on the React show, it's as good a fight card as PFL can put together. You know, like maybe that's not explicitly true. But Don Davis kind of went on and explained why there isn't Kayla Harrison Cyborg,

why Patchy Mix isn't on their card. the kind of obvious names that would be left off. Don Davis's quote more or less was, if you're thinking of a fighter that we have access to that's not on the card, the only reason they are not on the card is injury or conflict. And that's as good in answer as you can sort of ask for. And the fight card's still good. Fight card still is a very, very quality fight card.

I kind of like the construction of everything they're doing. My issue was, as I sort of thought about it, the timing was going to be abhorrent. because it was going to run concurrently with UFC Mexico, and that's just going to draw much more attention. Now, it actually appears that maybe that's not the case because it's going to be earlier fight cards. There will be some overlap, but it might not be as bad as I thought.

But still, like the kind of point remains. It's better to do that this fight car will happen in a weekend where they do not own the weekend now because UFC Mexico will still own the weekend. They will be driving the narrative and not what PFO wants. They want to kind of be making these big steps. So still got those issues. But ultimately it doesn't matter because Don Davis, I just love him so much.

He's the funniest man in mixed martial arts. He's not trying to be. He's so earnest that I almost don't believe that he's being earnest. But God, he is funny to listen to. When he was talking to area yesterday and without a trace of irony, or a smirk, like nothing. It was like, well, you know, we're not idiots. And I think that's actually, maybe we know what we're doing.

And you know, you look and we look at our fight cards. And, you know, if you look by Fight Matrix, which is, you know, if you know MMA, if you know, you know Fight Matrix. It's kind of the only universally accepted ranking system out there. And if you look at Fight Matrix, our scores line up dead even with non-you, on pay-per-view UFC events. And he said that without the, like, the slightest trace of irony. And I just howled.

I howled laughing and how every facet of that is ridiculous and funny. And then a couple of minutes later was out there talking about, you know, what's going on with Francis? Actually, I think it's great that Francis isn't going to fight for the PFL. I love that Francis isn't fighting for the PFL. it's so good for us that he might fight for us in 2025 because the fight will be bigger because he's the biggest star in the sport.

And you know, we don't have anybody for him to fight. That's true. But maybe, maybe, you know, the winner of Hanan Fahara, Ryan Bader, maybe that's the guy who jumps up and says, I should be the one to fight Francis Zingano. And it's just, he's the funniest man in the sport and I cannot get enough of him. Cannot get enough.

There's a specific quote I'm going to read in a moment. but I also love the comparison of like, listen, you can go to Cabo in a private jet in March or you can go there tomorrow on like Spiroira. In a Winnego. In a Winnego. Do you go to Cabo? No, of course.

You wait until March to go to Cabo in the private jet. It's the most, look, I, you guys know, I am prone to making sort of somewhat ridiculous analogies, leafy greens, et cetera, going, this is great. This is like how, Francis, not fighting for us. It's like having a brother who's a millionaire and oh, I can't fly you to Cabo on my

private jet, but we can go next year. No, I'd rather go in my Winnebago. It's just the most strained and ridiculous, incredible analogy I've ever heard. He's the funniest man in the sport. It's not even close. A.K., we have not heard your reaction to this card. Henan Ferre

versus Ryan Bader is the main event. Impa Kasang and I versus Johnny Ebblin, the co-main event. Jesus Pinedo, Petitio, Pitbull. Magamemad Karamov, Jason Jackson. Those are the champ versus champ fights. We also have Bruno Capulosa, Vadim Nemcoff and heavyweight. Tiago Santos versus Yol Romero, which could be awesome or horrible.

Clay Collar versus Aegee should be a lot of fun. And there's some other fights on here, Gabriel Braga versus Aaron Pico, but I don't know if that fight's going to happen just based on what's going on in Gabriel Braga's life right now. Of course, Shield's back on the card as well. Is this what you were hoping for? If you're a PFL, if you're a PFL fan, if you have bought it, into what the PFL is going to be doing in 2024.

If you feel like this is the year that the PFL plants their flag, we are the co-leaders, people are going to believe in us as the co-leaders. Is this the card that takes that next step for you? I am more uncomfortable answering this question that I was facing down Sean Strickland on the other day, if I'm being honest. This is like, because I'm the Prince of Positivity, Mike. I'm supposed to say, I'm the Prince of Positivity. Obviously, I'm a huge UFC hater.

as people know. I hate Dana White. I hate the UFC. So I'm supposed to go like, Don Davis is like, is running this. He's going to be, he's going to forget co-leader. Don Davis and PFL can be the leader by the end of 2025. No, I mean, I like Don Davis. We all do. We love Don Davis. Great promoter. This is what promoters do. You know, they can, there's a lot of hyperbole in there.

But that's his job. That's his job. We don't want, I don't want realistic projection Don Davis. You know, I want the Don, I want full. Ringmaster, Carney, Don Davis. Tell me sweet things. Tell me sweet lies. I will buy into them. That's what I want.

But if we're just strictly looking at the card on paper, it feels like it's just missing. I mean, some pretty obvious things. I know there's a lot going on with Chris Cyborg and Kayla Harrison. There's a lot more. It's not as simple as just signing those two and having them fight. They've both got their own things going on. I get it.

That's really the headliner you needed for this card, though, because respect to Hanan Feder. respect to Ryan Bader, that is a strange-looking headline to me. Like, that is a strange. I know the bout order isn't set, but the current promotional material we are seeing, it's Faheda and Bader front and center. It's a heavyweight fight. You always, you know, that's classic combat sports.

Heavyweight fight goes on last. So it's, I understand why it is the way it is. But, man, selling that as a pay-per-view to a more casual or a lapsed MMA fan, yeah, that is not going to land. And I'm looking at these other fights. And it's not like they had a better option, right? I mean, a lot of great fighters on here, but no one who's this household named Toronto

or even close to a like a dedicated hardcore fan draw necessarily. We needed subwork Yale Harrison. We needed patchy mix to be on here. They have other cars to do. So I understand if those are fights are big enough on their own to headline. And that's their plan. So they're keeping patchy mix off and getting him a better opponent and having that for another show.

Sure, it makes sense. Again, whenever they put Cyborg Harrison together, again, that's a main event of its own card. Maybe they didn't feel like they had to load this up. But it's missing something. Because what is the must-see fight on this card? I, like, there's good matchups. But nothing on here.

I mean, these are, I mean, listen, and that's if you're a hardcore fan, it's like great fighting the night potential. But I cannot sell anyone who's like a casual or a lapse fan. I may like, oh, you got to check out these guys, call him McKee. not there's nothing I could do. There's nothing about that matchup just other than saying it's a great, it's exciting

matchup. These, they're cross promotional. Wouldn't you just say to them? Wouldn't you just say to them, hey, it's four champ versus champs? Because that's like that's the trigger.

And we talked about this and like maybe that doesn't, maybe that doesn't work. I'm not here to say that that's going to hit for everyone. But PFL has exactly one fight that is sellable. Cyborg Harrison. I'm honestly not even sure that's that sellable from like an actual number sense. because Chris Cyborg is way less popular than y'all think she is in that regard

not y'all you y'all the broader y'all they have one fight that is like a marquee fight unless Francis Ngano comes back and he's not and so instead doing this hey it's four champs versus champs like that's a cool gimmick even if one of those champs is on Fahana and one of them is going to be magmaid magmaid Karamov laying all over people like it's just you're only going you're not going to get lapsed

fans with this, you're not going to get casuals. Here's the newsflash. PFL's never going to. I am strongly opposed to them making this a pay-per-view. I couldn't have been more clear that that is a bad choice, but that's the road they're going to walk on it. Taking that aside, this is as good a card as PFL can put together outside of the two fighters that are not on here for very specific reasons.

That's a hell of a caveat, though. That's a hell of a disclaimer, you know? Like that's, and that's how we're evaluating this is we feel like, it feels like we're so... It's like, I'm not saying it's a terrible card, but it feels so far from the, like, how excited we were, I think, when we realized the possibility of them just doing champ versus champ car. I mean, you're right, this is the best we hope for, but for championship fights,

sorry, it's not the best we'd hold for minus those fights. Four championship fights, have we not learned PFL? Have we not learned how, what a drag these cards can be? And it's a 12 fight card. No, but there's three rounds. Three rounders, okay, three rounders. Okay, it's selling me a little more. I, I, that's probably the smart thing to do.

With elbows. With elbows. No, no bullshit. The actual best thing Don Davis said yesterday, the one thing that I didn't laugh at, ironically was when Arrow asked him, was like, why, like, what's the three round thing? And he was just like, yeah, you know, we've been, we've been listening. We understand that our pacing is it, maybe the, greatest in the world and that having this many title fights that would sort of strain what we're

trying to do here so we thought we'll just do them three rounders and particularly with the short notice ish nature that's better for the fighters as well like that's them taking a lesson hey one of the major knocks on us is that our pacing is awful we're going to try and speed this up seven fights on the main card still not sure that's a great choice but you know not 25 minutes is a huge huge benefit to this card, in my opinion. I'm amazed that it didn't squeeze Vagio Ali Walsh's pro debut onto that main card there.

You got a hook. You got a hook people. I feel like they've been building that for so long. They've dedicated a lot of time to Vajio Ali Walsh. You guys are selling me with the three-round thing, but I just cannot get my blood up. Maybe I'm a fake fan, you know,

because of course I'm going to keep up the coverage. I'm going to, you know, maybe if I'm covering it, I may fighting will pay for it. But if I'm a non-hard, I shouldn't say not hardcore. If I have someone who's not working in MMA, it has to mull over $50 for this pay-per-view.

It's a month's and lifetime thing, but... No, no one's going to pay for it. No one's going to. Oh, that we've settled on. Yeah, no, this was... Oh, Lord. You obviously did not listen to our reaction show where this was me going down the well of.

You're going, on that Saturday night, you're going to open up BSPN Plus if you're in U.S. and you're going to look at a free UFC fight card in Mexico that is headlined by people you know and has a crowd that's going insane versus a $50 card with people you don't know. I have no idea what the Saudi crowd will be like, my guess is it won't be as good as Mexico freaking city. And which of those choices you're going to make? Everyone's going to take the free UFC card. No one's going to buy this thing.

It's why it should be free, but you know, you can't tell people that apparently. It doesn't fit with their economic models, per Don Davis. I don't know what economic models, they're benefiting by getting $400 from the media members who buy this, but I guess they're getting some. I wish the leader of the co-leader, nothing but the best. But this is a, if we're doing gymnastics rating for this car, I mean, this is maybe at 8.2 for what should be a massive. I'm a real downer today. Again, I'm a real dadder today. This whole segment has been so much more uncomfortable for me than yesterday.

You have no idea. Well, we're going to play, we're going to play grade the quote in a moment. The more I look at this card, the more I realize, this is actually pretty brilliant by PFL because had, and I'm talking about how from a perceptional level, like maybe not from a buys level and a business level, but a perception level, because let's be pretty clear, ladies and gentlemen, if we had it a full entire card

of Bellator champions versus PFL champions, maybe one PFL champion wins? Like maybe one. Like, it's going to be a massacre for Team Bellator. This way, with these four particular fights and the way they have structured this card,

you can make case for two and two. Maybe it's a suite for Bellator, who knows? But at least this way, perceptually, you have to be a way, the chance for Bellator for PFL to win a couple of these. And that wouldn't be the case if we did a full-on champ versus champ card. But real quick, before we move on to UFC 300 News, Jed, I want you to grade the quote from Don Davis. A in the dark.

I don't think it's any coincidence that the UFC's March 2nd event was canceled the day before our fight event was announced. those who know MMA said that's not a mega event that is not worthy of being hosted in Saudi Arabia that's a poor fight quality card the UFC put forth on March 2nd now could UFC load up a card and have a mega card

they could do it that often they don't we're going to do it every time we do it is it still an A does it banger I would you know you could quibble with like what does Saudi Arabia deserve like what is fitting

to book there or whatever. That's kind of, you know, get out of here. But look, he lined up a shot and he tug it. This is one of the few times he has had a legitimate window to knock the UFC and it was fine, as opposed to him like spewing off some stuff that's ridiculous and incorrect. Because like, facts are facts at this point in time. The card that PFL was offering was legitimately much, much better than the UFC's planned March card.

Now, they go in June, that might change. The UFC may, maybe they make a point to stick it to Don Davis. They're certainly going to have to offer more because the Saudis will not accept the less. But you can't argue when the man is dropping actual truth, you know, and that's largely what that was. So, you know, good, good on him. AK, now let's also throw this out there. Don Davis did the whole thing where it's like this fight card compared to any UFC card. We have four champion versus champion fights.

The UFC could never do this kind of thing. Throws that over, which we kind of shake our heads at when talking about pay-per-view quality and what constitutes a $50 buy and what doesn't. But just that quote, just taking that opportunity to poke and prod at the UFC just a little bit. No coincidence they canceled their card because they knew our announcement was coming. What's your grade? I mean, I have to be with Jeff. This is a all around, man.

Now is the time to punch up. Don Davis is doing the right thing. Now is the time to punch up. You don't get these opportunities with the UFC too often. You poke Goliath too many times. You're going to get stomps. So you've got to be careful. And like I said, we've had moments in the last few months

where it feels like Dana's kind of turned his head in their direction. And I know Don is excited about it. Don has been saying, like, oh, the fact that he's answered questions about PFL and he's talking about PFL, that means that's a sign that we are making ground. And that's true, but you do really have to be careful. Again, you cannot poke a giant for so long before it stomps on you and does something to stop you. But yeah, the one thing I want to say is I love how people were sort of questioning the Saudi or like whatever the government saying like, oh, how can they like do that to the UFC and like demand a strong car? And I'm like, we should all be demanding, you know, we should all be demanding better cars than you see.

Shouldn't we? I don't mean to side necessarily with the Saudi government on this one in general, but just the idea. that they could, a group independent of the UFC could have so much influence on their business practices, you should not be shocked and you should not be like torn up about it. You should be like, yeah, okay, maybe this is a consequence of sort of the watering down of cars that we've discussed forever. And as far as, and I really love Don saying, the UFC would never give you four tiles in one card. Because it's true, it's true. This is great advertising, guys. That is factual. The UFC would never do. They wouldn't. They wouldn't. They wouldn't do it.

You know, I'm sorry, couldn't. They couldn't because they wouldn't. Why would the UFC do that? They have 40-something cards a year, 12, 13 pay-per-views. They need to separate their title fights. They also have title fights that can sell on their own. So that's the truth behind it. But at the same time, if you're Don, you're not lying.

UFC could not do that. They could not do that because they wouldn't, but they can't. So A all around, this is about as good as you can punch up. And Don's doing the right thing. What effect it'll have, again, on how people view the PFL or him or this upcoming card? I don't know. But it's made some headlines. And again, that's while you can do right now when you're the very, very distant number two

and you're trying to just gain, just very carefully gain ground. Well, it made headlines. But just for a few short hours, because something else overtook those headlines. And that's where we're going for round number four. Jed, do you have anything more to add? You look like you want to say something. No, I'll comment. Our comment's actually incredible.

I'm so proud of these people. I'm so proud of them. There's the one guy standing the same comment for the last 35 minutes. Like he's got a winner. It's just, I got him. I got him. I'm going to click this every three, every three minutes.

What a fucking legend. Buddy, I hope you're having a great day. And I hope this really fulfills you because I see you. Nothing but the best. Yeah. I appreciate the game. Wish you the best.

Wish you the best. The point for round three goes to Chedmishu He's got the shirt He's got the shirt I can't be He's got the shirt Well

As I said I love our fans I absolutely love our fans They're the fucking best man Boating for flight 246 to Toronto Is delayed 50 minutes What? Sounds like Ojo time

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That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. PFL versus Bellatory had headlines, but then UFC CEO Dana White steals them all because he goes on social media. He sees some of the backlash about UFC 300, which I have said multiple times. Everybody relax, be patient. Let's see how the rest of this card shapes up before we start throwing rocks at glass houses when it comes to UFC 300.

Dana comes out and says Jim effing Miller, fresh off his win at UFC Vegas 84. We'll be fighting Bobby Green. But the one that has gotten all the. reaction, the BMF title will be on the line yet again the second time in less than a year, the new champ Justin Gehche will defend against the former featherweight champion Max Blessed Holloway. A.K., we have not heard your reaction to this. We did a second React spot on Tuesday talking about this announcement in this fight.

Seems like people are into it. There are some people kind of divisive who are just like, oh, why are we doing this? Max is too small. he's going to get thumped up real bad. And then some people are just like, I don't care. This is a banger. Where are you at here? What do you think of this matchup?

Does this feel 300-ish to you, Gaichi versus Holloway, BMF title? Mike, love, love, love, love. Such a popular onto the next one matchmaking pick for the last two, three years probably. Everyone's saying when he kept running to Max Holloway, when he kept running into the Volcanovsky wall, like maybe, you know, maybe dip his toes in lightweight again.

Maybe dip his toes and lightweight again. You know, it's a great lightweight to fight. Justin Gagee. This is a dream matchup. And that's, you know, ideally, uh, when they're putting together, the UFC 300 card that kind of you want to have those big title fights, big title fights, like actual real UFC title, quote quote, real UFC title fights and dream matches, right? Dream matches or big name power. This falls under, you know, a dream match. It's not, I know the BMF title is on the line. Mottage may vary there with people on how valid that is the title, but it's cool. It's a cool gimmick. It doesn't matter. If it means we get five rounds of Gatji and Holloway, who can complain.

I'm all in, man. I don't, I'm not as concerned about like, oh, well, you know, Max just doing that because there are no more options of featherweight and he's too small for lightweight. True enough, you know, not a guy who I don't know if he, if he's going to be able to deal with some of the bigger lightweights. Is he going to get smothered when it comes to wrestling some of the guys in that division? Yeah, maybe. I mean, Max has a lead take down defense, but true, if we're talking about 10 pound plus

when they get into the cage, maybe 10 pound, 15 pound difference. Could be tough to overcome. But that doesn't matter. I don't care about what happens next. I don't care like, oh, is Max Hollow going to win this? And then he's going to defend the BMF title. He's going to stick around a lot. Who cares?

Who cares? This is an incredible fight. Max did not look bad against us where I know it was a clear win for Porreier, but people should go back and watch their rematch. He had his moments. Maybe the size did turn out to be the difference at the end. I don't know. But he had his moments.

He clearly can compete at 155. Facing an elite guy like G, that's another question, but this is why we book the vice people because we want to find out. We can do all that, we can worry all we want, we can think about all the ifs,

oh, but if this happens and if this is too much of a factor, okay, sure, you can worry about that. And maybe people will be perfectly right. Step into the cage, KHG's hulking over Max Holloway, and it's a complete mismatch, maybe, but there's enough doubt in my mind for sure

that I need to see it play about. I have wanted to see a play out for a long time. I don't think I'm alone in this. Dana and the UFC matchmakers, they nailed this. This is a great, great fight. It is absolutely, it's maybe the most 300-y fight yet on 300 plus, of course, anything involving Jim Miller. So Jim Miller and Bobby Green is up there as well.

But yeah, nothing but hype for this one. It's awesome. Jed, a couple days removed from our reaction to this. We've heard different sides, the upsides, the downsides. Where are we at with this now? Dude, fight's sick. Like that's at a baseline level, this fight kicks ass. there are quibbles the same ones we talked about in the reaction show i don't know who fights islam

next like the the turnaround will be quick if they are doing that june card for islam particularly because also at ufc 300 there's the charles oliveral montserucan like that's that's a lot of dudes who could have been fighting islam i don't know i've no clue why justin gaitchie would agree to this fight make zero sense to me he had a title shot locked up even if you think he's going to win and he may well do so. Like I think I'm going to pick him, but I'm not confident in that. I need to take some more time. I don't know why you risked the title shot that you absolutely have to headline UFC

300 unless you're getting, yeah, I'm not headline because he's not even headlining. Like unless he's getting pay per view points and the and a pay bump on top of it, like I just don't know why he'd take it. But this five frigging rocks, man. I guess the win are either of these men in. It simply never happens. Max Holloway is one of the more exciting fighters of the last decade. And Justin Gachie is at worst, the second most exciting fighter in the history of the sport.

Like, this fight is so damn good that I can't be upset about the other parts of it because who cares? Like, it's supposed to be fun. It's damn fun. I've seen some people push back like, oh, defending the BMB. Like, who cares? Like, why? that I would rather have a BMF belt that is defended as like a thing.

And the internet MMA community, you know, Twitter, Copposa has put out rules basically for a violence weight belt. Do it like that. I think that that would actually be cooler than having it just as a random one-off thing to fill card space. So like, and Max Holloway, fitting, fitting challenger for a BMF title. It's fight rocks. I don't know why it's happening, but I'm very excited that it is. Last thing on this, and then we'll probably end up going to the knock around, which would be a stunner for a program such as this.

And I'll start with you, Jed. If you had to put a betting line on it right now, if you had to kind of put numbers next to all the people involved in, I would say kind of looking at the situation, it's probably six to eight guys you could throw in there, Gigi, Holloway, we got Sontanee, we got Porier, we obviously got Sarukian and Oliver. You could even throw Matush Gameron and RDA in there as well

because they're about the fight. Who is the favorite, just based on what's going on, how you feel things you're going to play out over the next couple of months? If you had to make a bet right now, who is going to fight is on Makachaf next? That is so good. Let me look at one thing really quick. When is that Gamrodrata fight happening?

It's a 299. I was going to say Gamrot, just because from a timing standpoint, I think he probably beats RDA, If he beats RDA, $2.99 is a little bit easier to turn around for June than, because again, like, I think the winner of Max Jussengachi, and people might not like it if Max wins it. But I think the winner of that is a terrific title challenger for Islam from a selling standpoint. People would be into that fight. But whoever comes out of that fight is not coming out unscathed.

Like, I doubt they're making a quick turnaround. They're going to need some time off. Olivera Surukin, something similar, though I guess there is a world where one of them could win violence. and quickly. I will guess that against all odds, the winner of Dustin Poirier, Benoit Sandini, is the one who gets the title fight. Because it's Dustin Poirier.

I don't think you'll have a hard time selling him, even with several losses in recent years, if he beats BSD. And if BSD goes in there and dusts up Porier, it's on a great run, super violent dude. I think that that would be fine. So I don't feel any level of confident in that, but that will be my guess

strictly because from a timing standpoint I think the timing lines up better because I do think the UFC once is on the headline in June. Okay. Damn. I love the BSD suggestion or Porea, even the PORI suggestion, but I like in my mind,

I have BSD, you know, scoring an upset win and going on and getting a teleshot. That would be amazing. No, I'm focused on Srukian. I feel like Surykian's going to find a way to get it. I do think he's, I probably will end up picking him to beat Oliver. guess. And then we're going to push back for it. That does mean we'll probably push Islam's

next fight down the road. Ideally, he does fight in June, but I don't know. I don't know how the UFC is going to have to structure their second half of 2024, right? And I feel like if they can put Islam in a better spot, I mean, June's great, but if they put a better spot against a actual challenger and Sri Kana, a guy who a lot of us are predicting to be a champion someday. And there's heat there, right? There's heat there with a rematch. That's always fun. So I'll go. Sirukion, I don't like the idea. I had this horrible thought as Jed was speaking about Holloway beating

G. and then fighting Islam. And then Islam's like past three tile defenses all being against feather weights, it would be such a weird way for his legacy to sort of be forming. What are you talking about? That's what John Jones. People call him the goat. Oh.

I opened the door. Check the fact. Maybe that is a true statement. That is a true ass statement. I walked right into that one, Mike. I walked right into that one, hashtag Gaslight John Jones. I think it's a little different. I think it's a little different. I do think Islam needs to get some actual lightweights on there.

So that's the one scenario I don't like. As much as I love Max Holloway, as much as him beating G. Certainly would be worthy of a title shot sooner rather than later. I just don't. One, I'll probably pick and Gage you to win. And two, even if Holloway won, I can't throw Islam in there with another featherweight.

It doesn't be all right. So give me a Sturkey on beating Charles. And then having the title fight, a rematch with Islam probably won't be ready for the summer, but sometimes second half, 2024. Jed, you and I were smirking at the same time. I wonder if we're thinking the same thing as all this is coming up because maybe we're not, but I'll tell you what I started smirking and what came over my thought process. Could Leon Edwards be next for Islam-Machachev considering the timing here?

If they want them in June and none of these guys are available, is Bala Muhammad about to get jumped over by Islamaka Chapp? Is there a chance that happens? Yes. I still don't think it's a good one. We talked about it sort of in the reaction thing. I am now very, very confident that Leon Edwards will headline UFC 301 because they business doesn't stop at 300.

They got a pay-per-few the very next month and they need a new champion on it. And I just, I think we have largely all sort of assumed 300 would make sense because it would have. But once you establish the Gaichi Holloway is going to be there, and it already has another title fight on there, unless you're going to do four, which the UFC won't, Dana can't put out a message that says, hey, you guys know how sick you like that BMF fight? Leon Edwards is headlining 300.

Can't do it. Just that'll go over like a fart in the wind. Cannot do that. So I think 301 is Leon, which then is an even worse timeline for June. But there is a world where they just, say, F it. Saudi wants something big, here's big Islam-challenging for Walterway. I desperately hope that doesn't happen. That would be, that's the worst timeline and would really be a big blow to my 2024 is the year of meritocracy and righteousness, you know,

agenda that I'm pushing. So I won't see zero, but I'm really hoping that doesn't happen. Saudi, Saudi could come. I mean, it could. man do you think i'm crazy for even putting that on the map it would be so insane it would be but it's i could see it happening i can see it happening right way it is so good and has so many dudes who need to do that they might not have a choice that's what i'm saying they might not have a choice i'm with you i'm with you i want islam to stay at one f25 and fight one foot two fivers this seems like such a small ask doesn't it it seems like the smallest ask possible of a of a ufc But ever since Connor McGregor broke the universe, it's really, it feels like the other has become the norm now.

The needing to call out, the needing to move the one or two title defenses. And guess what? I'm a dominant champion. I'm ready to go out, ready to go become a champ champ. So that's how it is. It is actually realistic. Like I said, I picked Armin next for Islam because that's just, I think just what I want. But, man, Leon and Islam have been talking up like a potential champ for his champ fight for so long.

And you know Leon wants. I mean, Leon is just, he has never said he's wanted to fight Ballal. There's never been an indication. Like, he's done a terrible fight, a terrible job of, if that fight doesn't end up getting books. He's done a terrible job of building a fight with Ballal. It's fine. You know what? You're answering questions.

You're being honest. I understand. You know, you can't lie to the people, Leon. But, man, you could do a better job of serving up a guy who is well deserving a title fight and is quite possibly going to get it. But, but. But if Makachev and Edwards' machinations pay off, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Leon's been right not to talk about Balal.

Maybe Islam's been right to say, hey, I'm ready to challenge for that World Trade title. And maybe they do get their headlining opportunity in Saudi Arabia because, yeah, we've seen the Saudis. They are not easily pleased. They're not just going to take anything. But Islam fighting there and then defending against another champion, that has nodding Saudi heads all over it. I can't believe I just talk this into existence perhaps because oh god I just don't think I hope it doesn't happen but I'm truly good lightweight contenders you did it though maybe Saudi gets pushed to July or August maybe that'll be better I'll hate it with every fiber of my being but a piece of me will respect the grift to fight of featherweight twice and then move up to what to wait as your lightweight title rain that's a good good good grift. It's a really good grift. I'll hate the shit out of it, but man, that's a really good grift. Well, let us move on, everybody. The point for round four, man, we're approaching BC levels of length for these shows.

Point for round four goes to, hey, Kaylee, it's two to two. We're going. We're going on the knockout round. We're going to do this very, very quickly. I had no idea what I was going to ask. And, well, we're just going to ask something else. And I think I may know where both you guys are going, but knockout. round time, each of these wonderful competitors will have 60 seconds to answer the same question. Once they get through that, I'll talk things up. Casey will come on and announce the winner because that's how we're going to do it today. So Jed, you were the last man to pick up a victory on this program. Do you want to go first? You want AK to go first. I'll go first. Screw it. Who cares? What? Wow. Taking the initiative. Mental warfare. Mental warfare, AK. I love you.

Coming in here with journalistic questions. Stay in your lane. You know? All right, Jed. Look, it's no secret. We already talked about this. You have zero Michoulin stars for UFC 297 coming up on Saturday. We have obviously the main card, which we've run down.

But we do have some preliminary fights. We have seven of them, as a matter of fact. 12 fight card as of right now. So here's what I want you to do, Jed. I want you to sell the people on which preliminion. fight, they should watch. If they could choose one prelim fight to watch before turning on the TV at 10 o'clock to watch this, or I'm sorry, turning the TV on M.AFighting.com's great website for the watch

party. Which fight are they picking? And why? Tell them. Go. This is an impossible task. This is more difficult than the John Wick impossible task to sell one of these prelim fights. And I feel bad because I'm going to betray A.K.

in doing so because I'm going to use a piece of information that I did not know until until just a couple of days ago and AK sent it to me. I'm going to read this quote. It's a quote from Bantamweight, Surrey City, who's rematching Ramon Tavares, a fight that happened on the contender series had an absolutely garbage stoppage and despite no one wanting or needing this, they're rematching it in the UFC. Surrey City, going into high school, he says he was a very, very scrawny kid with a love of extreme sports and a lack of self-confidence and he was inspired to start combat sports training after watching Never Back Down. Anyone who watches our programming knows my great love for that particular movie.

Some say the greatest film of 2008. Some say of the entire decade. Shout out to Never Back Down all the people involved in. And because of that, I'm here to watch Surhey City fight this Saturday. Wow. I learn something every week on this program. And I think that's why I love doing it so much. AK.

Big Tyler forever. Jed, it's, it's Surrey City. It's Surrey City. Oh. Surrey City. Come on now.

I'm going with my pronunciation. Reiner, Reiner de Ritter. All right. Reiner de Ritter, Jeff. Henry and the hitter. Oh, Lord. Oh, God.

AK, same question. You're going to be in the building for this in Toronto. A lot of Canadian fighters representing on this card. But what's the prelim fight? I think I know where you're going. at this, but go ahead and sell the people. Go. No, I'm going to go in a different direction that I thought Jed was going to go in. I think we're starting off the right way, man, because we talked about, you know, getting, getting tweets on.

Oh, we didn't talk on this show. Mike you talking about a heck of a morning. Getting tweets on the broadcast. And the best one was GC and Jed, flyweight unders her back. And we are going to get one right away to start off the card. Malcolm Gordon versus Jimmy Flick, both guys, sub 500 records. the UFC, both pretty known for their finishing acumen. I mean, uh, Jimmy Flick, amazing grappler. Malcolm Gordon pretty well-rounded and not a bad grappler himself. So I love the style matchup. I know the match figures want to start the card off of the finish. If this goes over one and a half rounds, I will be shocked. So we are guaranteed excitement right away. I hope they keep both

guys around. I know neither guys have like amazing success. But Malcolm Gordon, representing Toronto, by the way, and Jimmy Flick maybe getting back on track for the win. Blinders are back. We get kicked the night off the right way. I love it. I'm stunned. I thought Jed was going with that fight. I thought you were going with Brad Catona,

Garrett Arnfield, AK. The ultimate fighter. The ultimate fighter. Shouts to, I don't know who said it in the comments, but legitimately shouts to them as their comment was, listening to them try to sell the prelims. I totally get why Jed gave the zero stars. Tough on these streets, guys.

This is a tough fight card, came in the got. Tough ones. Oh, man. Well, there you go. That's the knockout round. A.K.K. Can't even sell Brad Catona, his boy, because we all know what not fights can be.

Doesn't need to be sold. Doesn't need to be sold. He said a low, we're looking for low-key bangers. That's high-key, baby. That's closing out the pre-lips. That's the first time anyone's used the word bangor with Brad Cotona, I think.

Different now. You saw the Cody Gibson, it was great. that was a good fight um so tomorrow busy day uh 9 a m eastern time ufc 297 way ins live on this here channel we'll see if we have any drama to react to like we did last week after minel cop situation uh we'll do a heck of a morning on the twitter stream right after uh then we'll have a preview show 1 p m eastern to get you ready for ufc 2 97 and then saturday people's pre-fight show we'll have the watch party multiple boots on the ground,

AK and Jose, both in Toronto, post-fight interviews, we'll have a post-fight show, and AK and I will do on to the next one live on Sunday to do some matchmaking. So there's your schedule. Casey, come on in, the baddest stash in all of MMA.

He's got the sleeves cut off, so that could only be one thing. He's been lifting weights, he's been training, and he's got a winner to announce. We got a winner. This is historic, too. Historic.

For the first time, in BTL history with 100% of the votes. I'm starting to think you did the thing that I think you should have done. Your winner is A.K. Lee.

There you go. A.K. Was I not an option on the voting? 100% of the votes. He was the vote. He was the 100% of the vote. I've been, you know, I've been, you know, I've been, they seem pretty unsupportive,

but I guess. I was misreading the room. It looks like there's a lot of people on my side. So what an incredible feeling. Oh, sorry, Ron's side. What an incredible feeling. Did we add, hold on, Casey, did we get to do it? This is going to get demonetide.

There we go. All right, I needed a little prompting. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thank you for the amazing sport. I can't believe it. You know, I always say between the links, M.A. fighting fans are the best.

smartest, most cultured, mature people in the world. And that was proven today because Jed brought it. Jed was fantastic as always. I mean, he got to talk about Never Backed Down, which frankly might have cost him in the final, but I think he has no regrets. And I certainly have no regrets. Anything's gone in his fight week so far. So thank you guys.

I think everyone who voted. I mean, Jed, how are you feeling? I feel great. I have no, I'll never regret backing Never Backdown, just a masterpiece of cinema. If you haven't watched it, you should go watch it. I will say, I love, I love everyone watching. All of you are terrific. The common section had me in stitches the entire time.

I would ask all of you and, you know, live your life, however you want to live it. If this is what makes you happy, far be it for me to tell you how. But just life's better when you pursue joy instead of being angry. If we're making you upset, you could just turn it off, my man. and go do something that makes you happy. If this makes you happy, then okay. But I would just say it's probably better to live a happier life than to intentionally subject yourself to stuff that makes you mad.

Yeah, go for a jog, go to the gym, lift some weights. But put them back neatly. Don't slam them on the floor because people hate that shit. Hit the music. Let's get out of here. Thank you all very much. Press conference coming up later on. Strickland, DDP, Pennington, MBS, Magny, Malach, Curtis, Mark Andre, Barrio,

Arnold Allen, Mobsar of Loyoff. That will be the dais. Dana White may or may not be there, but we'll find out. But thank you all very much. Back next week to react to everything that happened at 297 and beyond. And then we have a rare off week for the UFC right out the gate. Or AK for Jed, KCZM-1C2s, the iconic voice of Estieland takes you home. I'm like, back next week.

Good at everybody. I love you all so much. This has been Between the Link and another fighting production on the Vox Media Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first... There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.