MMA Fighting - BTL | Song Yadong's MASSIVE KNOCKOUT, UFC Paris, Mike Perry's Tough Week

Episode Date: September 3, 2026

Song Yadong delivered the performance of a lifetime against Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC Shanghai this past weekend, and may have a front row seat for the title fight between Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili. While we know where Song is liekly heading, where does Nurmagomedov from a heartbreaking loss? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel reacts to Song's massive win, the trajectory of both fighters, and other standout moments from the UFC's recent Fight Night card. Additionally, topics include UFC Paris this Saturday headlined by the highly-anticipated debut of Saladhine Parnasse vs. Dan Hooker, the stakes attached to the fight for both guys, the horrible week for Mike Perry this past week capped off by a shoulder injury and stoppage loss to Brandon Jenkins, Dana White saying the UFC 332 main event, and more. Join MMA Figthing's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew as they answer your questions all show long. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Jed Meshew: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@JedKMeshew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Live from MMA Fighting Studios, this is Between the Links. And now, your host, my... The iconic voice of Esther Lynn, welcomes you to a brand new edition of BTL. Happy Thursday. To us all, it's good to be back here in the land of normal. And we get UFC Paris coming up. which should be pretty fun.

The Octagon debut of Saladin Parnas as he takes on Dan Hooker. We're coming off of a pretty wild weekend this past week in combat sports. Sonia Dong, knocking out Umar and Amaga Madoff, and so much more. We'll talk about that.

UFC 332 still doesn't have a main event. Lots happening, as always. And joining me to answer your questions and discuss all of those wonderful things is Mr. No Gray area himself, the hot take kid. the one and only Jed Bishu. Jed, how we doing, how we feeling?

I'm doing fine, feeling okay. Got a root canal yesterday, Mike, so that was fun. It really wasn't bad, but it's just like annoying to do. And so, you know, living, live in otherwise, Mike, happy to be here as we talk Saladin Parnasse

and whatever else comes up. Yes, Saladin Parnas. I don't know. How are you feeling about that fight? Like when this first got announced, I'm like, this is a perfect showcase fight for Saladin Parnas.

And I got to tell you, the closer we get to Saturday, I'm starting to feel like Dan has a better chance than I thought he did. The more I'm going back and like watching old fights. And just kind of looking at the level of competition Parnas has fought over the years. I think Dan's being a little undervalued here. Am I crazy? Saladin Parnas is going to.

murder him. All right. I'm still picking part ass. But I think this fight's a little closer than a lot of people think it might be. I mean, Dan Hooker's, that depends on how you want to view it, right? Like, I don't think at any phase it will look like Dan Hooker is a threat to win this fight. But Dan Hooker is tough and very scrappy. And so he will be in this fight until such time as he is no longer in the fight is my view on it.

Right? Like, it's, you know, he's going to lose. But I also was like dead certain that Umar was going to win. So what do I know? Nothing. I know nothing, Mike. What are the odds? My almost exact read on last week's fight was like,

there's no doubt in my mind that Umar wins. I don't think he like dominates or looks like otherworldly. I think he just, I don't see how song can realistically win because he does three. things and Umar's camp will be prepared for them and then umar's camp I guess the camp wasn't the issue umar was the issue and song was like a little more prepared than normal like they like had a game plan those to a specific thing as opposed to like just go punch real hard and see what happens so like I don't know anything anymore Mike I know nothing so I should place a bet on Dan hooker at plus 440 right now?

I mean, I wouldn't, but shows where I know, you know. Oh, man. So you mentioned, let me just ask you, we had it on to the next one. Obviously, we're not matchmaking for Umar and Amaga made up, although I did, I did make a matchup for Umar. David Martinez, uh, he is fighting. I believe he's going to win his next fight.

They could just re-rack that one. there's hyoni barcelos who is fighting royal rocious junior if he wins that that'd be a good opportunity for him since he just keeps beating dudes and they're not like really advancing him up the rankings very quickly payton talvin maybe if he wins his next fight could be in play for umar like where does umar go from here and how bad is this loss in terms of getting back to a title fight and things of that nature like how much further is his road back now after not just losing but getting obliterated the way that he did it's pretty bad it's not catastrophic we talked about on the preview show with AK and i guess on the post show too um he's young enough

and still good enough that he can get back right like he he will now need to win three four in a row to get back but that's doable like that is an achievable goal for him uh depending on how we reacts to this, right? Because, like, I don't know if you saw on social after he got knocked out, like a bunch of clips resurfaced of Umar being like, yeah, I have this really bad habit of dipping to my left. The coaches keep telling me not to do. And I got to fix that. He didn't fix it. You know, and so, like, maybe this will spur him to be better. I don't know, you know. But, like, it's still possible for him to get back to the title. I think it's probably less possible for him to get to the belt, win the belt,

and then, like, defend it a bunch of times and go down as the bantam weight goat. Time is just no longer on his side at this point, but it's not prohibitive to him winning the belt at some point. But he's going to have to go back to the drawing board, and I think where that means is probably like Amon's hobby, right? Like, that seems to be the case

because they're going to make him fight back. He should fight back. Like I mentioned, but in the pre-fight, it's not like he has been blowing the doors off top, opposition. He's been winning, like, but pretty close over the best guys in the division. So they're going to make him fight back.

Like, a Payton Talbot feels like that wouldn't be a match they'd make because, I mean, if Talbot wins, it's obviously huge upside for the UFC, but I just, I don't feel like you want to run him the risk of that. So it feels like he'll just get

to a hobby. Like, what are we doing was the hobby after he got knocked out by O'Malley? That should, on paper, be a very winnable fight for Umar to just build his confidence back up and again after he you know he beats the hobby he'll still have to go fight back this is not oh i get one get right fight and then i'm back in the mix no you got to rebuild uh from the ground up in this occasion so my guess is he gets a man's a hobby next but like there's like i'm going to look at there is really no wrong way to eat the reases for him at bannamway honestly like assuming he won't get anybody in the top five

David Martinez I wouldn't book that because you run the risk of kind of killing off Martinez as a rising contender but you know he just fought figgy so you can't do that but you give him Cheeto

Cheeto's a free win for anybody right now like Cheeto won't punch so he doesn't have to worry about getting knocked out by Cheetos Cheeto won't punch him but like you can at least sell the idea that what if Cheeto does punch him he might we've seen him get knocked out before so like yeah you go

Cheeto, you go as a hobby, Haunni Barcellos, if you just be like, how many Barcellus feels like the meanest matchmaking? Where it's like, he's, Hanney's done nothing wrong. And like, technically

this is a big opportunity, realistically, you won't win. So you're just like ruining the hope that maybe he can be the black horse candidate in this weight class. It's like, it's going to be one of those guys. You know, that feels like where we're headed. Yeah, I can't. I like, I do like the Martinez match of because I think he's going to I don't think he's going to I don't know if he

finishes Danny Gay but he's probably going to go on look really good in that fight he's going to beat Danny Gay for sure so do that man I mean you try to make it before like David's very good like he's a very talented guy and you have a market where you can push him a little bit but to the like majority of the UFC fan base like David's just a good fighter but they don't look at him as like a potential star so could it be worth like if you view it in that way that he has no chance of winning that fight. Is it worth, I guess the risk, so to speak, to throw him in there? Because what if he does be, Dumar? Then he's, he's kind of a made guy. He's going to have to fight one of these guys at some point. So I think, I think that's where you go. But boy,

is he in a really tough spot right now? Like, like you said, it's not, they haven't locked the door behind him yet, but he is, that door's closed right now. No doubt about it. deadbolt remains open but he's got a long road back. He's got to knock back on the door. They've got to open it again. He's got to have a conversation to get invited back in. Like, he has been shown from the premises of contenders right now.

And now he's got to work his way to get back into it. Yep. You can't lose again. That's for sure. Yeah, he loses again. It's over. No lose territory.

He's got to win every fight. If he loses his next fight, like there's still the most remote possibility. No, he's cooked. If he loses. He's still young and he's still 30. So like, it's still,

you can still put together four or five wins. It's not late heavyweight, though. He's in a division where there's just, there's just so much talent. And it's just, how many chances are they going to give him? I mean, they've only given him one.

So, but he's already lost a second title fight. Okay, but he's only lost one. Like, he could lose his next one. I would say that this is much more likely if he loses his next one than he,

never fights for built again, but I would not, I would not write that out completely as impossible. If he wins two and then loses one, yes, it's completely impossible. I will say, do it quick. Yeah, what I will say is no matter who he fights his next fight, a win is not enough. He's got to go out and obliterate. He's got to finish. He's got to finish somebody to get some excitement back for sure. That was just a tough loss.

like risk reward wise in terms of stakes in the bad way this is about as bad as you can get for really any main eventer this year so far if you really think about it i'm trying to think like what's what has a bigger downfall for a fighter right now that has lost a main event can't think of many more that are worse than this one this is it's probably it's a conversation with Hamzot. But they could not only did give Hamza a belt. But no. But not only did he lose the belt, he also

lost like all of the Hamzot aura in one fight. That's a pretty big fall. It's a big fall, but like if they booked Strickland Hamzot 2, no one would be surprised. No, they could. If they did that. It's a conversation. Because again, Omar didn't lose a belt.

Like Hamzaat lost a belt and his aura, not just his aura. That's, I would say there's conversation there. I mean, it's the exact same thing with Ilya, though Ilya is even younger and I think we'll be back. But like, all of these big upsets have just been like

out of nowhere. People who know, we just were like, yeah, that dude's the future of the sport. And it's like, actually, nope. Maybe not. That's not true. MMA's very difficult, friends. It's a very difficult. It's a very hard sport. It's very hard sport. All right. You guys got topics. You guys get questions.

Fire them in. Supercharged gets at the front of the Let's scroll, see what we got. Cause a Mike, I just listened on to the next one. You did a wonderful job breaking down everything that happened at the Perry Dennis event. My question is, is there been any further criticism that you've gotten? No, honestly. And yeah, that's that. I said everything I needed to say.

I'm not happy that I went. We'll never cover another one. And a lot of the stuff that was really bad didn't see till after the event was over, and I left immediately. So it is what it is. Not proud of it. And there you go. It is what it is.

And we didn't give that fight any credence whatsoever. The one fight that pissed everybody off. And we didn't do anything with it all week. And I just happened to be in the arena when it was happening. And it sucked ass. So there you go. I didn't even realize that like I just wasn't paying much attention to it. Like that a lot of the other ancillary

parts were also like bad. It's just like the magician juggler. That was fun. That was fun. That was very fun. I enjoyed those two weirdos. That was okay. It was deeply funny that Dylan Dennis pulled out.

That was incredibly funny. I was like, God, man. And it wasn't funny for you, but it was really funny for me. It kind of got funny as it went on because,

I mean, I had a feeling we were in trouble before I even got to the press conference because they were showing videos of like everybody showing up and there's one glaring omission of fighters who have not shown up yet and it was the one guy and then I sent a text, is he there? Got nothing back and by the time I got there

kind of pretty much realized he wasn't going to be at the press conference was told he might still fight. Was even told on Friday he wasn't completely ruled out of the fight despite them getting a new opponent despite this new opponent already weighing in and everything, that if he got blood work done by 5 p.m. on Friday and he flew to Orlando, they would have let him fight. I saw literally a letter that from the Florida commission saying,

like, if he gets his blood work done, like he's cleared to compete on Saturday and that was that. So I don't know. Maybe he saw some writing on the wall. But, yeah, I haven't really gotten much since then. And yeah, I think people know me well enough to know that yeah that's that's that's that's not my bag we were there for mike and especially after dylan forced himself out of the fight the fact that mike stayed on the car like dude it me just a

just a really bad week for mike really bad he in hindsight he should have just been like not my fighting but that's just not who mike is mike's like i don't give a shit who it is like it's Orlando, it's my people, it's the Kia Center, it's an NBA arena, like I'm gonna fight whoever and make a bag. Like it's not, it wasn't as big of a bag as they thought it might be for him fighting Dylan. It was a lesser bag, but still a pretty good bag from what I understand. And from what I also understand, he was offered an alternative and he chose to not go with the alternative. He chose to move forward the fight. And it's tough, man. The injury, the loss. And, you know, Brandon Jenkins, I know is getting a lot of shit because they're saying that,

well, the only reason he was because Mike got injured. And that's kind of not really the case because, like, Brandon hit elbowed him right in the face. And that kind of like led to the injury happening when Mike tried to pull away from it. So like, it's just the weird thing. about fighting. I think Jenkins deserves a shitload of credit for stepping in and literally getting a call at 5 p.m. Eastern on Thursday to come way in at 9 a.m. Eastern the next morning, fly in from Vegas. Go out there in this opportunity.

No one was giving you a chance to win and you went out there and won. So what a year that guy's having and what a terrible weekend for Mike Perry. Like, sucks. Where does he go from here? We'll see. He's probably going to have to fight Darren Till in BKFC now because is MVPFL throw him in a big fight again after losing to Brandon Jenkins? I don't know.

Probably. It's still Mike Perry. Yeah. It's still Mike Perry. That's true. All right. Speaking of Coswell, Anthony Smith being booked for a bare-knuckle fight in the DR is probably not a good idea, right? CTE alleged domestic violence charges, no big deal.

Yes. Anthony Smith is fighting. October 2nd in the DR, bare-knuckle MMA. It's not great. Yeah, I don't. I don't know what else to say about it. It's not. I wish fighters could retire.

You know, I honestly thought that Anthony Smith would retire when he retired because he went out in Kansas City like he wanted to. Not like you wanted to, but like he has in general, I don't always agree with him. I wouldn't say that I'm particularly interested in what he has to say, but like, you know, it seems like a prior to the most recent arrest seemed like a normal-ish dude and at least one who was capable of introspection and being like, yep, can't do this anymore, got to call it quits. And now, you know, this is like third fight or whatever since retiring.

And like, that should just, I just would like to talk to a fighter before they retire and be like, hey, let me ask you a question. Because I don't think enough of them get the answer, like get this question asked. Do you want to retire or do you want to lower the difficulty? Because that is, I think, like the difference here. Anthony Smith was fighting young hitters in the UFC and getting got. I can see wanting to retire from that. Losing sucks, doing it over and over again,

and knowing that there are long-term health consequences to that sucks. So, okay. But then you go and fight Chase Sherman. It's like, well, Chase Sherman's just not good. So if that's the case, why don't, like, instead of being like, I'm going to retire and then go do this, just be like, hey, I'm not good enough to fight good people anymore. I'd like to fight bums now.

And do that without like the rigmarole of pretending to retire. It's, I get, I don't, I wish it wasn't happening. I wish the sport was better. I wish they got paid more and fighters probably would want to fight less. So I don't think that's the only incentive for them to keep going. Yeah, it sucks. It's not great. Unless they make me for coverage, I won't be watching.

He is fighting Jordan Heiderman. if you watched season 30 of the Ultimate Fighter who would be familiar with him because he was on season 30 of the Ultimate Fighter

LFA vet far for PFL uh yeah also fought on that first card uh fought on GameBred Bear Knuckle

in May got a win so yeah it is what it is we'll see what happens weird weird times weird times

yeah let's see John so we are rumored to get our first women's interim title fight thoughts um it's not I'm not am if I'm no it would it be the first interim title fight

women's I guess that's true huh I don't think there's been a youth that's I'd never considered that but he's like when would it have been I mean, we all treated Jermaine Durandemys Featherweight Championship as an interim belt, but technically that was an undisputed title.

Yeah. Yeah. You guess you're right. I don't know much about this. Obviously, we've seen the rumors. Wild times, it's true. We've sort of been reporting what others have been reporting.

from what we understand, Valentin and Shifchenko has never been officially offered any fight on any date against any opponent. So that, I mean, that's what everybody else is kind of reporting at this point. So I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen. That event is happening in a month's time,

and we have no main event. So I don't know what they're going to do. You can't go, I'm sorry. You cannot go forward with a Natalia, Silva, Wang Tong main events. You can't if it's not a numbered event, just make it a fight night or whatever, but yeah.

Yeah. I don't know what they're going to do. This is all true. This is just crazy to me. So Women's Mixed Marshal Arts has been in the U.C. since 2012 with Ronda Rousey, right? In 2017, we added the flyweight title.

Though realistically, we added the flyweight title in 2018, because Nico Montanio's just does not count. I don't think that should even be controversial. Just like that does not rebel. We added straw weight in 2014. So we've had two divisions for over 10 years in this sport then.

Two, like two divisions running as normal for over 10 years. And then, you know, we've also had two additional divisions in there with featherweight and flyweight coming in after the fact. 2018 flyweight running for six what's that eight years sorry eight years for flyway and then featherweight we had for a very short period of time uh 2017 to like whenever Amanda technically retired uh 2022 or whatever was in all that time zero interim title belts we've had like three interim men's belts in the last like year that is nuts that's crazy stat. Yeah.

We'll see what happens. We'll see what ends up headlining. Dana said they're going to announce it this week, but... Well, they have to because it's almost here. It's a month away. At some point, they have to announce something. Is there any chance they go a different fight, not for a belt of any kind,

is the main event of that card? I'd say it's really low, but not... Could they give Alex for a fight? a phone call right now and said save us again? I mean, honestly, that wouldn't be the worst idea they've ever had. You got to do Hokka. There's no other fight that would make sense. Yeah.

And they might put that over top of... Of course they would. I'm still not certain that that's even true, though. They really do have a like, but for Connor McGregor, they have a very

huge deference for belts as position. to a point that like honestly reasonable men would be like you don't have to we don't have to do this we know what fights bigger but like the UFC really is sort of dogmatic in that title fights go up top so I will say no but I think that they will just not let it be the title fight and I don't know what that means they're going to scramble they're going to scramble a BMF belt if they're going to scramble a BMF heavyweight belt between Pereira and Hokit. But I don't think they will let this rumored interim title fight headline it.

And so they're going to find some way to piece something together there. Ace Buggy, Adam Darby versus Ty Miller with Feed Families. What's a deep cut matchup you would all like to see? It would be fun. It would be a fun little scrapper. I don't know if Darby's good, but it would be fun. A deep cut matchup? I have no idea.

This is a question I need to have, like, prep time to think about. Yeah. I'm trying to noodle on an ace for you. I mean, because, like, the premise of the question, Ace, is, like, you're getting to the heart of it. It's like, give me a lesser-known action fighter, just a dude who is, like, two dudes who people probably aren't wise to, who are just going to take chunks out of each other. And so I'm trying to go through my roll decks of like, who are the best all gas, no brakes, fighters going right now? Let's do Joe Alvarez versus Jalen Turner.

I mean, you know that I would personally love that a lot. But I might also just be sad. I think it might be, I think Joel might be done. I don't think the move to Wight's worked out for him. No, he looks pretty bad in his last two fights. He's really looked bad since moving up. And that's unfortunate. I'm thinking like Mark Vologden needs to be involved

because that dude doesn't know how it's boring. So we go to Bannemweight and we put Mark Vlogden with his little T-Vex arms, getting in having no defense, but the most heart you've ever seen and who's a good little bannamweight scrap to throw in there with who's another like crazy bannamweight hitter

I don't know I gotta come up with another one Mark Vlogden's half of it ace yeah I'll keep thinking until I can find we're just gonna pull up the list of UFC bannamates until one of them oh dude do you like Davey grant that'd be pretty fun

not 100% sure that that's what I'm in for but that wouldn't be bad Ethan Ewing That's getting a little bit better Rania Nakamura Yeah Renio would just tackle his

Bernada or Sopage That actually might be Like I'm literally I'm pulling up the UFC's Banimweight roster to just quick scroll through

until the name jumps out It's like I'm pulling up my I have my rankings up uh Sue Young You Beck's at Almacan Ooh, that's actually a pretty good one.

Hafiel Estabam, John Janus. Victor Henry, I wouldn't hate that. Colby Thickness. It would be fun. Malcolm Wellmaker. Oh. I mean, let me make sure this is the dude I'm thinking of when I think of this name

and I'm not confusing him with the other Tegic fighter. No, Mungafrov is not as fun as the other Teggik fighter, whose name I can't remember now but I was like is that the case then if we're moving down we get Tuporia Saeed Nirmagamatov Juan Diaz Ricky Simone Davy Grant Kai Asakura

Kai Asakura is also just like a great choice to put in I'll tell you what give me Alex Deporia Kai Asakura Oh that's That's two dudes that are quite athletic

and going to wail on each other. Give me that one. That's my choice. Peter, can we get rid of Carrie Hatley and Chris Tione? They were horrible the other night on Contender Series extra horrible than they usually are. Jed, you are a contender series guy. Peter says, get rid of them.

Says they were extra horrible on Tuesday. Were they extra horrible on Tuesday? I look and see which ones were roughed by which ones. because Carrie Hadley did the main event I'm like almost certain of and it's a did you watch any of Condender series this week Mike? Just saw some clips. The so Tanyoni was the co-main. Oh, okay, so that makes sense.

Everybody hated that and that's fair. Carrie Hatley, did he do one of the other ones? Let me see before I talk. I'm just going through to see what Carrie Hadley reft on Tuesday. Carrie Hatley also did the Sanchez fight, which I don't think he did anything wrong in that fight. Did Lauren Lorenzo? Tanyoni was the Lauren co-fight? Yeah, Tanyoni had a bad day.

That's fair. I'm so inured to refing. But, like, I actually, so the Hatley one, the controversy, I don't actually think there's a lot of controversy and I'm okay with their not being but Hattley like I think Hattley actively broke the rules of his job but everyone was cool with it because it made sense

where like he stopped the Darby Rivera fight because he wanted to in the way that uh who was it Goddard who just like stopped Maghub and Ankelaev to save us from more of that awful like rat shit fight with Bogd and Guska I was like, yeah, it's done. Just we're out of here.

Hatley, like, Rivera was defending himself. He wasn't doing it well. And he was getting chewed up, but his corner wouldn't stop the fight, which was so like it was, but like he called in the doctor to be like, hey, check this eye, which was fine.

Like, it was swollen, but very clearly he could see out of it. And then the doctor was just like saying stuff. He was like, I think I'm going to call it. Yeah, that's it. And it was just like, it felt.

like a mercy stoppage because Carrie Halley was like they're not going to do it I I'm we're done here and so I think that that's not like that's not his job his job is to protect a fighter who cannot defend themselves not to like prevent a fighter from taking more abuse uh but like nobody is upset with that because that was like the more it's you know the letter of the law spirit of the law thing he did what he protected the fighter uh the modesto Rodriguez when significantly worse. I will say, I think it's explicable from Chris Tione, because Rodriguez is just like Barnstorms, Holmes.

And Holmes kind of, from where Tionni is, Holmes, it looks like Holmes sort of faceplants. I think Holmes was actually just dropping levels to get on one, but he also was like rocked. So it's one of those were like, it was an early stoppage, it was a bad stoppage. And then Dana called it the worst stoppage he'd ever seen. on Contender Series.

And so people got a lot matter about it. But I also am not sure it mattered. Maybe it would have. But yeah, that was bad. And then the Lorenzo fight, Halley also just allowed some elbows to the back of the head. But like, that's pretty part for the course for roughs these days. Yeah.

Joseph, should Song get on be ready just the case something happens at 333? He's ranked number three now in the media and meta ranking at Bannamway. I say no. He should stay far away from that. He's only going to get one shot at this title. He needs to be ready for it. He's going to, it's all going to come down to who wins.

Really. If Jan wins, he ain't getting a title shot. I don't care what he just did. He's not fighting Yan again anytime soon, unless he's just undeniable and there's literally nobody else available because if Jan wins,

Sean O'Malley's going to get the title shot, whether we like it or not. If Marab wins, song's going to get a title shot. So why rush yourself in there? Just watch the fight and see maybe go and sit cage side. But like, he and Sean can go and sit cage side together and be like,

I'm rooting for Marav. I'm rooting for Peter. Yeah. And that's it because that is like that's the dynamic of play here. That's it. So you got a 50-50 shot. I wouldn't waste it on a short notice opportunity. Nope.

That you, you know, not at your best self. So. Yeah. I wouldn't be ready. I would just, I'd be ready to just go there and sit cage side and put your face on camera. That's really, also as Green Ranger notes, he did get a cut like, looking at not a great one right on the eye.

So like, that's a short turnaround for, like, that would be mostly healed by then. But like, don't do it. No need. Yeah. What else we got? How fast you wanted the UFC to push Balah Hassan, Anthony Wint, and Adam Darby? Not at all. Hassan probably more so because he's

he's legit UFC I'm not saying none I'm not saying these other guys like aren't UFC ready of these to push yeah Hassan is like one of the five best guys they've signed off that show maybe ever in the history of the show he's he's a guy that didn't he's one of the guys where I shook my head and I was like why is he fighting on contender series he should have been a straight signing

and not like a short notice straight signing they should have made a big deal out of signing him because you have have to sign, you have to put some of those guys on Contender Series. So when they inevitably go on to have success and fight for belts, you can say, look what the Contender Series did. Yeah, God, this whole season's been that.

Like on the Post-Might press conferences, this whole season has been about, oh, so you want to be a, you want an opportunity, your best opportunity in this sport is being on Contender series is look at all the money this guy's made. Look at all the money these people have made. It's crazy.

It's crazy. This is the direction they're taking it this year. Also, so we're clear, Adam Darby is not, in my estimation, a standout contender series performer this season. He is a fine. He's fine. Yeah.

He is not in the top five prospects that have already competed for me. Yeah. I'm not sure Wint is either, though, but heavyweight's always like, heavyweight just throw a dart. You never know who's going to pop at heavyweight or whatever. it's just like you two can say so i wouldn't push it i wouldn't push him too fast

because you throw him in there with with a guy with a little bit of skill and a little bit of experience he's not going to do very well like he's an athlete and he's good and he'll probably be a ranked fighter in a very short period of time but he's a guy you're going to let's not very careful with yeah uh ronald humphrey i like him he's got the whole freaking package he should have been on this list From my neck of the woods. Ronald Humphrey, I like him a lot. Sylvesteri from this most recent episode.

Yeah. That dude is like... He's ready, ready. He's ready made. He and Ballal are, I think, the two most like... They're just already ready. Like, they are like... When NFL scouts talk about, like, being pro-ready, like, that's them.

Like, these guys are not like... They will develop because they're still... young and they can add tools, but they are, they are ready to be competing in the thing. Let me pull my series notes and I'll give you my list of people right now. Here's my notebook. Because, yeah, Sylvesteri, I really liked a lot as a thing, as a dude coming in off there. Was there anybody else on this one that I was like, Modestino-Hadriguez is just like a, he's not, he's the exact opposite. He's not UFC ready in that he's 22 and, you know,

he hails from a K1 background and he blew the doors off some dude. But like, he could be really good or he might not be able to grapple at all. I simply have no idea. But if he can follow sort of an Israel destiny path, obviously very good. So, like, that's a good one. I know she lost. Belomere will probably be back on Contender Series this season. I do think they shouldn't push her,

but she is I still maintain an extremely good prospect Sean Clancy is the actual Cage Warriors dude who I thought was good not Adam Darby Clancy is quite

quite skilled and talented and so I like him a lot I like Nick Galante I didn't love him but I liked him and yeah Ronald Humphrey for sure yeah dude can scrap good on the mic

although his post-fight press conference was not good. Like he had such an adrenaline dump, but to his credit, to his defense. I think he's not good at actual like interpersonal speaking, but he's like when he has time to know what he's going to say, because everything he peeled off in the interview, like immediately afterwards was gold.

This is spectacular. Armagh, when news at Val is, injured. We don't know if she's injured, by the way. What do you feel? Dana will announce this week for UFC 332. There's a reason, folks, that we say golden rule. We don't report things unless we have multiple sides

that are saying yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And never at one point. And at any point do we have enough to be like, yeah, this is happening. Or are we confident enough to say this is happening? And still at this point, there are still sides of these conversations that are saying they've never been offered anything. So,

I don't know what's real. What isn't at this point? So we're going to have to wait to see what Dana announces, but I don't know. We kind of touched on it earlier. This is one of those weird. We're just really, truly going to have to wait and see what they're going to end up doing. So, well, let's go to this one.

Some other big news. Lazybed, help me to justify three and two, 36-year-old Eileen Pereira being one of the tiny handful of women's MMA competitors to receive a contender series opportunity this year is it simply to give sundell an opponent with name value so alex berrera's sister who eeked by in a mixed martial arts fight with a bare-knuckle fighter on the MVP card slaughter jade mason long wasn't competitive and uh in a fight that uh we will think back on fondly as quote unquote a fight that happened

happened on that card split decision win over jod masong wang after getting a win over nayser rep on lf a f a just squash matching people on karate combat is now fighting is now fighting 21 year old smila sundell who obviously a big kickboxing specialist one. Was she the kickboxing or the moitai champ? Moy Thai. Moitai, okay.

A little bit of both. One has long. Yeah, moitai champ for she since transitioned over to MMA. She's now 2 in O and MMA. She's got two finishes. Or tough enough. Against two and six Miranda Barber.

And then beat Maya Stewart, who is not, honestly, if Eileen Pereer beat Maya, beat Maya Stewart, that's probably the best winner on her resume for M. But Sundell went out there and kind of mowed her down. But yeah, this is a contender series fight, October 13th. Thoughts on this, Jed?

What are we doing here? Usually the person coming from tough enough or like explode or Shogun, like that's the dude who's supposed to get like massacred, right? Like the guy Adam Darby fought was like out of, a show gun fights. You're just like, okay, sure. Like, that's, it's, you know, credit to me. It's actually, like, fought a bunch and incredibly tough dude.

But, like, yeah, you're just, like, that's just being, that's like winning a local tough, like, tough man contest. Like, so normally it's that. Riley Pereira is bad. So it's like, I think Sundell is actually the prospect in this matchup. So I don't know. I don't know what's going on. Like I don't, I guess it's just like we can have a kickboxing fight because it's not like either woman's really going to shoot a takedown much.

But like this isn't contender series level fighting, even like this is. They both need work. And like Sundow has a good pedigree. But she's two of May fights. Like she should just be fighting several people in the next. couple of months at tough enough, I guess, to figure out how to MMA fight. But here we go. I mean, I saw this and was just like, oh, okay, we're doing this.

But yeah, I think long story short, I usually talks like when the commentators talk about Alex Pereira's sister, they might be talking about the right person. Dude, also, just like, I know that there are one stands in chat. And I wish one was a more successful MMA organization because it's better. And I actually do enjoy many parts of their product. The going from one championship, which is a professional organization of nothing else, right? Like really mostly pretty buttoned up, at least when it comes to the production value of a show.

Not always when it comes to like giving fighters fights or whatever. But like going from that and been like, I'm the one. boy tie champion f it i'll just go fighting tough enough and maybe i can make my way to the uc it's such like a damn damn drop i went from i went from being the champion

and one to fighting two and six Miranda barber at tough enough okay i mean i guess sometimes you got take a step back to just go forward i guess yeah was her craziness man that's contender series for you.

Armand is back with another super chat. Pernas is able to get by Hooker this weekend. What seems to be the logical next step for him? I would like to see Pernas

versus BSD next to Frenches. I think he will go, I think he will go beyond the BSD matchup because if he beats Dan, he's gonna, it's gonna be a highlight win. I mean,

that's that I think. But like the thing is looking at it, I'm actually not entirely sure what it would be. Because like where Dan currently sits in the Meteor rankings, which are the ones the UFC really uses. Like the people above Dan are Gamrot, Saul killed,

Ruffy, BSD, Paddy, Max, Charles, Armin, Ilya. Gammot's coming off a loss. I don't know that they do that because also that doesn't like really advance him much. Saul killed, do they want to run their two like, I mean, sign me up. Sign me up. But do they want to like smash their two high-end, you know, future title challengers against each other at this stage? Not sure. Ruffie's booked against Armin.

BSD is open. So at least that's available in a Battle of France. Patty feels, Patty feels like the one I'd book, but I don't know why Patty would take that fight. But like if I had the power of the pen, that's, I'd pick Patty. I just don't think Patty would accept. Max will fight anyone So maybe it's just Max And that wouldn't be the worst outcome

So maybe it's just Max Hmm I guess it could be Charles I mean He should absolutely do the thing That the other lightweight should be doing He should get on the microphone Call at Usman

Or 1000% Go do that That's fight everybody wants to see anyways Ever since the MVP fight That's the fantasy matchmaking matchup him versus Oosbid, who would win if he stays with MVP? There you go. Just do that.

It'd just be such a sick callout. Come on, Saladin. You can do it. I believe in you. What else we got? Cosmo, this is for you, Jed. Who amongst Whaley, Fatima, Goams, and Tatiana would Jed bet McKenzie Dern over? I'd probably put her over Goams, but I wouldn't confident.

pick her over any of these people. I would pick her over Goams, who's still just like, hasn't shown enough, probably pick her over Tatiana. Same. Because that's just like the world's worst kickboxing match. I think

McKenzie's better. Yeah, she'd win. So I pick her over Tatiana and Goams. I would not pick her over Fatima. And at this point, I'm priced into the bit. I have to pick her over, Shang. So I'll pick her over, Shang.

It's pretty much right where I thought you were going there. You got to do it. Gomes is tough. That's the one I'd really have to think about. I would pick Dernover, Tatiana. I'd probably, I would probably pick Dernover Gomes. The team is a really tough fight. And Waley, yeah, I think we all,

I think we all know how that. That likely goes, but you never know. Jed and Shaheen believe. Maybe they can get you on board to, to believe as well. What else we got? Lazy. They could easily market and promote fighters

without contenders. Contenders exist, service at Avenue, sign guys, gals to four fight 10 and 10 contracts. Yeah. I mean. That is its primary purpose.

And that's why they're doing PR control now because it's not just us going on show saying it. Now everybody knows that that's what Contender Series has become. That it's, all you have to do is just be in a competitive fight and you'll still get a contract.

So that's what this is. Yeah, it's mostly a form of cost control and cheap labor. It's also a product that they market and can sell, right, as part of a media race package. I'm honestly not opposed to Contender Series as a concept, but they have they speed ran it from being like here's kind of a cool thing to here's the most corporatized for like capitalistic version of this thing that has taken most of the fun away from it and just made it a part of a business venture so you know but like five fights on tuesday nights

are fun the production moves quickly i like that i can watch just five fights in a very small window and not have to like spend a whole amount of time you know like because that's some of you may feel this way some of you may not i don't know but like i've been an mma fan for over 20 years at this point like i've been doing this a long time as like a huge fan of this sport before i worked in it and i try to keep that in perspective of like i used to pray or not you know i used to like pray for the days that i would get access to all the fights and I could see stuff and it was great and now I'm just like Saturdays have gotten a lot tougher from me. Maybe it's just I'm getting older but it's like you know if you're watching a full UFC card on Saturday and it would be different if I was I guess just a fan

because I could be doing other stuff right like I'd be oh I'll have this on and I'll watch football or play video games or whatever, but like watching 13 to 14 fights because it's never 10. It's never 11. It's always 12, 13, 14 fights a card. It ends up taking eight hours. Like, that's a long time. And so just getting like all five fights back to back to back is really nice. So I like a lot of what contingencies can offer.

But I do think, like you said, they've sort of corporatized it in the worst way. Mike has stepped away. To-da-da-da-ton. Concerned that Dana no longer knows what he's seeing with fights. He wasn't sure on Sylvester until he got the K.O. It was a great performance in my eyes against better competition. That's not in time. I mean, one, there is absolutely a correct critique on Dana here.

But, like, I think you're sort of missing the mark, or maybe you just didn't convey it well. Or in the way that, like, I was able to perceive it as well. Because it's not entirely what Dana said. he wasn't he didn't say that he wasn't sure he's like he's like this kid looks really good but maybe he needs a little bit more time to like a little bit more seasoning because also yes he Dana has no idea about the level of competition these guys are fighting like he mentioned in the post was like they give me a sheet of paper with some stuff on it but he's never watched any of these dudes compete at all so he doesn't know if the guys the guys fighting are both good or if they're both squashes and that i thought it was a really good performance from sylvesteri and he started to take over that fight

but it did sort of look that like he lacked the ability to to kick into an extra gear and sort of find a finish until he found it and so like there's a piece of it where i i understand what dana's saying i'm okay with it but also like at the most basic level with dana being like if you don't knock somebody out your trash is like kind of also true which is annoying does dana not care about contender series is to the point you win you get a contract i saw people saying this after this week i don't totally think this is true yes i don't think he cares um about contender series in general like i think he cares about it as a product that is successful for them and does a lot of things that they want uh internally as far as at like asset recruitment

and things of that nature. Price depression, those sorts of things. But I don't think that he's like, behold, like, I mean, you know, I think he cares probably more about the ultimate fighter as sort of some nostalgia thing that it does about Contender Series. But yes, almost basically,

like almost certainly at this stage, if you win, you get a contract. But a lot of that is because, one, they're booking fights that you will win big. And, like, people criticize this, but the dude who got, signed this week that didn't get a finish. I know that was fine.

That fight was quite fun. Like, if you chose not to sign him, then to me, that would have been like, you didn't sign him because he didn't get a finish, which feels anathema to how it should work either way. Like, I don't think either of those dudes, like, I don't think that dude is UFC ready. I don't think like half the people coming in off Contender Series UFC ready. But he was in a really fun fight, so you shouldn't, like, the lack of a finish should not be prescriptive for you not getting signed.

And I feel like people went a little bit the other way. Because over the past several years, it really has turned into you win and you're in. And honestly, like, I don't even hate that as a like win and you're in thing. Just put the stakes down because that at least kind of makes it fun. You're talking about contender series? Yes. Adam Livingston, that's right.

Like, that dude is probably going to lose a bunch of fights in the UFC. but he also like it was refreshingly honest about who he is as a fighter his post fight was just like he didn't quite say I'm not very good but it was sort of dripping from all of his words of like I'm fun like my priority is on being fun and he was fun it was a really entertaining fight I'm fine with him signing him he's going to lose a bunch but like you need Nate landwears in the organization like you need him and he can be one lazy this month marks 25 years since pride fc 16 bignog versus coleman a mere three weeks after the tragedies of 9-11 what has changed most in m-ma during the last quarter century uh the ufc the ufc was at best the you know one a of the mma world and now it is the only thing in the ms world in many respects so like that's a

thing that changed the most, certainly. But like a lot of it. I mean, one, anything, we did a little bit of this because the times were so, like when Gina came back, it was like the last time Gina Krono fought, like women had just started fighting in like five minute rounds. Women, like, it used to be three minute rounds, you know, like 25 years, just an enormous amount of time, especially in the early stages of something, right? Like 25 years in baseball is not like that's still a huge chunk of time.

But baseball is at this stage like eternal. It's been it's been around forever. So like there aren't like enormous structural changes. There have been some. They've added a pitchcock and like the sport, you know, whatever. But like that sport has been around for like over 150 years or however the hell long it's been. Like 25 years in that context is not that much. 25 years in the context of MMA is like 80% of its life cycle.

So the whole thing is dramatically changed. 100%. Yeah. It's becoming like, it's become a business more than any, like it's more prevalent as like a business venture more than anything else. And it's not just like there's a time where you just like put on fights and people watch them. That's not really the case anymore because you have one.

dominant entity now. Like, I say, like I've been saying this for years. MMA is like where pro wrestling was 50 years ago. Like, because it's so new. Where UFC is now is where WWF was in 1985. Where it's like, you can make a lot of money here. We're just going to give you the opportunity to do so. Ask me again another 25 years and it's going to be like where WWF is now.

That's just where the cycle is. They're just, they're just behind. because they're so new. But they're, as a business, holy crap, man, like,

you couldn't possibly do better than they're doing right now. Like, they just, they have the lion share of everything. They've clobbered everybody. Just smoked everyone. No one has a shot of catching them,

ever. Yeah, it's like, depending on when you want to say MMA started, right? And like, you could theoretically,

go back to, like, pancreation at the Olympics. But that's not MMA, right? That's one, it's pancreation. It is a fundamentally different thing. But it's also just like, that is how most people would consider like things. That's a forerunner, a forefather.

You can go back to the Ali Anoki who was at like 79, 80 something. But again, that's not an MMA. Like, these are all four runners of it. I don't think you should start MMA necessarily at UFC 1 to 1993. but that's probably the easiest break point for like the origin of m-MA because otherwise you're talking about like early pancre stuff and like that again feels more like proto-m-m-ma it's much closer to like real like modern-day m-ma than you know like the Olympic pancreation or whatever but like you know shoot wrestling is it's somewhere between shoot wrestling and like modern

an MMA. So if you just want to draw a clear and easy demarcating line for the birth of MMA as a sport, and it's not perfect, but let's say it, it's 1993. So eight years after that, is the 20, is the data point you reference lazy. So that is essentially asking the question, like, go to a 33-year-old and be like, what has changed the most since you were eight years old? Then they'll be like the fucking world. Everything has changed because it's been 25 years. And I was infant when you were talking about. I got married.

I graduated multiple schools. I got divorced. I got kids. I lost a leg. I went to war. Whatever it is. So much has happened in that period of time. The bulk of the growth of the sport in general.

Crazy to think about. Armand is Michael Venom Page. signing with MVP MMA seem almost a given after he finishes his last fight of his contract this weekend in Paris. I feel like it makes a lot of sense for both sides. It should. I don't know if it's a given because I don't know where Michael Levinum Page's head is at. He is a strange person. I think his head is at words, words Ben since he lost to Ian Machado, Gary. He had buyer's remorse after that fight not because

he dislikes the UFC but I do think there's like a part of him it's like shit I could have waited and I just think he wants to he doesn't want to be locked down to anybody he just wants to do a bunch of things that he wants to do like he wants to do grappling matches I know he's doing R aF

I think we're going to see him in like a bunch of different things I think he's just we're just going to see him pop up everywhere he's what he wants to do just do the Dary and Till roadmap which is just like, yeah, I can just do, I can have a little bit more freedom. I'm a big enough name. People will pay me to do stuff. Yep.

And that's good. And so I think that there is absolutely a world where he ends up there to do his MMA stuff for them, because I also feel like they will be cool with him being like, hey, do this. But I would also like a non-exclusive contract to not compete in MMA anywhere else, but to do anything else I want. And I think that they'd be like, yeah, that's fine. Yeah, I don't even think, like, I think he'll, we'll see him, like, maybe do, like,

I don't know if he'll go to karate combat, but, like, we'll see him do a fight there. Like, he'll box. He'll probably box, like, misfits or somebody. Then he'll grapple, he'll do R.A.f, and he's just going to keep himself busy doing stuff. I don't think he's necessarily just going to land anywhere with hopes of being a world champion in MMA somewhere. I think those, those days are over. I think he just wants to, like, stay busy and have fun at this point. what's he, 37, 38 now?

I assume he's close to 40. Yeah, so like, that's what he's going to do. So I don't think it's a given. And what, I don't see a lot of, if MVP wanted to be there, he would have been there. Oh, you're out of here. Go, go solo. All right, Jed's going to roll out for a sec.

What else we got? Ramon, yeah, it seems like Ken's understere started to become win and you're in nowadays. versus when it first started, it was if you can win impressively and the stakes were much higher. And by the way, back then,

it wasn't even just if you win impressively. There are a lot of guys who got like first round finishes in the first season who didn't get in because they would look at their resume, they would look at their level of competition, they would look at how many fights they had.

Like they really dug in and took it seriously. It wasn't just, let's just have squash matches and two, three and oh, dudes just beat the shit out of each other. Like it was like truly the best regional fighters in the world. Like we're getting like these regional super fights. We'd be like the Titan FC champion.

This is when Titan FC was like one of the top feeder leagues. It would be like the Titan FC champion versus the CES champion. It would be those types of fights. Like truly the best regional fighters on planet Earth fighting against each other. And it's just not like that anymore. It's just not. I'm back. That's back.

Sorry. My landlord came up and was like, he beckoned me. I could see him through the window and I was like, I'm busy. He was like, hey, what's up? He was like, hey, you haven't paid rent? I was like, oh, it's September? He's like, yeah. I was like, oh, sorry.

I forgot about that. I forgot that it became September because everything has bleeds together now. I was like, yeah, I wouldn't have made it it like, you used to have never missed. It was like, my bad. Here you go. Casso, if God beats Tom, does he jump Gagy in the male fighter of the year award? No.

It's just in Gajis. The only person perhaps in conversation is Sean Strickland, and I don't think he'll pass him. If Sean gets a third win this year, if it's not Hamzad, does he get it? No. I mean, if he does something enormously cool, maybe, but like... Finishes Fluffy, who was the guy at the time.

Fluffy is that that win has since aged significantly less gracefully. It's true. Beats... Whereas, let me tell you, Justin's win over Patty aged really well. And let's just say, I mean, there's rumor innuendo that they're going to do Emovoff in December. in December If you win in another fight like he won against the involved the last time, not a chance.

It's you know, if people want to put it, you can put it, like I won't fight you on it. But like my vote is almost locked in to Justin Gagee. Unless he fights again and loses, then okay. But like two massive upsets. One of them,

I honestly think is like the second or third biggest upset of all time. And like maybe the coolest upset of all time. Like that the narrative behind it. Because MVP, Mike, you know this from other sports. MVP is a narrative award. Nobody will do anything. When we look back in five years,

which is always the thing like my guiding light for when I'm like weighing out at the top of this. Like we look back in five years, what will we be like, oh, that was the story of the year? Yeah, Justin Gachie pulled off one of the greatest subsets ever at the White House. and quite possibly changed the course of M.A. history by derailing Ilya Tepuria. Like, that's, he just wins. He wins it. It's just what happens. He is, he, I know there are a lot of Sean Strickland fans out there, and I, and I get it.

No doubt about it. I get it. Many people were picking Sean Strickland to have a good fight with Strickland or with Hamza. I was not one of them, but many people were like, he can make this tough. Nobody said that he was going to fight Ilya and would beat him. Nobody. Yeah. Two of the, you can make a very strong case, Justin Gachey versus Patty Pimplet and Justin Gagee versus Iliot's

Poir are one and two in fights of the year. That's, for 2026. They are also two of the best, you know, the Patty fight is probably going to fall off the list. But like he's got two of the seven best fights of the year. It's just better. It is there's always possible.

It depends how Strickland wins. But if he does fight, you know, either Hamza or Imov, and it's, it's a, you know, it's a Sean Strickland fight, nope. Yeah. I wouldn't say, again, the door's not slammed shut on this conversation because if Sean does fight in December, he goes out there and, like, fights Imov off and, like, runs his ass over. Might have a conversation. Or as of right now, this is not a discussion. He will have a strong benefit also to, you know, recency bias is a real thing. The White House will be far away.

And if he really puts a stamp down at the end of this year, maybe. But like, my vote is not chiseled into stone yet. But like, we got the hammer and chisel ready. It's almost locked in for me. And the only other person, like, uh, like, Pantosia coming back but if he

like if van dummies him and if van like sneaks in a third one too is like let me get a quick turnaround and fight in December that's still not better than Gachi but like then we're just then then this is the mix as like the mix of real contenders as opposed to some years we have a top five

and when you're voting the like fifth dude on the list is just like he's he's here because like yeah he's the best of the but he's not he was never in contention you know it's like uh whatever was like two years ago when it was or last year last year was like islam and who was the other person or marab were like really the the mix and then marab lost at the end valentin is chifchenko too you should have won it by the way buddy you know my you know my thought she should have won

fighter of the year come on you understand my belief here but like you know you've you've usually got, it's usually like a two, three man race at the top and then there are just some other people. Like if Van gets, beats Pantosia and then gets a third, he's, it, it becomes a three man race. But like, this is currently a two man race with one dude well out ahead. Yeah. And Gond can get in the mix too if he fights. If Gond he's, he's in that. He's in.

He's in the mix, but still not there. Yeah. I don't know what God would have to do to overtake Gachy. I don't think that's, I don't think it's possible, honestly. He'd have to beat Asphidal and John Jones for the years over. I mean, if he did both of those, then yes, he would in fact. Yes. That would top Justin Gage's here.

George gets upset. Mike, I believe we said you've seen all the same by the Bell shows. That include the new class and the reboot. No, the reboot doesn't count. The new class also doesn't count, although I did watch a couple of those. I don't think I knew them. I've definitely seen some new classes. Those are terrible.

They're really bad. I don't think I knew that they rebooted it. They rebooted it. They had like Slater and, I believe Slater and Jesse were like still around on it in some way, shape, or form, but I couldn't do it. It's like when they all the other stuff.

Meets World. Yeah. Even the, oh yeah, Boy Meets World is another classic, by the way. Booth World is classic. Girl Meets World. I watched that a couple.

I did not see like the whole thing, I saw a few episodes with a couple of my younger cousins. And they did a, they did the, it was like a little too much of that like, who is this show for? Because like they had like the kids that were the boy, but then it was also just like a bunch of the boy meets world cast. So it was like theoretically this should be a kid's show. But it kind of feels like you're targeting it more at like 30 year olds. Yep. And so that you're, that's not your target audience, I don't think.

But like, they did an okay job. Well, it's the worst job I've ever seen. That was where we got Sabrina Carpenter. Karen, Strickland beat Hamzot, arguably a bigger upset than Justin Geachio really, it's just not true. It's just not true. Mathematically, it might be. Like, odds-wise, I'd have to look.

They were very close, but like. Most people are giving Sean a chance to win that. fight and there are a lot of people picking Sean to win that fight. Nobody. I do not believe your statement to be true at all here. I think outside of Laura Sanko, no one picked Justin Gaci to beat Dili Tuporia. Nobody on this planet picked Justin Gaci to win that fight. And more importantly, it's not like just about the, like I said, it's not just about

how big the upset is or Alex Apodaca is fighter of the year. Like it is, it's about narrative. it's it's about these other things it's honestly like as good as hamzaa shemayev is beating ily it's better that that's a better win at the white host like and then you add in the ancillary parts of like how it happened in the story it becomes a much bigger win but like just on a brass tax who is it better to have a win over i firmly believe it is better to have beaten ilia teporea than hamzahs they're both great wins one dude broke a man who's never been broken,

and the other dude want a split decision that I still don't think he deserved to win. Not a robbery, but I don't think he won the fight. Joseph, if Armand wins at 331, does Justin retire? I don't know, man. He should. Honestly, he should. From like a legacy standpoint, he should walk away.

From a money-making standpoint, no, you get your payday and you fight as long as you can. it's not impossible that he could beat armin by the way i would not pick him to but like it's not outside of the realm i think he has a better chance to beat armin than he did to beat ilia and we saw how that worked out so like it wouldn't be but if you are just trying in reference to our dear friend george is getting upset

if you're trying to pull a cstandza and you want to leave them you want to go out on a high there is no bigger high I don't think he should have, like, retired in the cage of the White House. That would have been premature and silly. But, like, if he just sits at home and is like, dude, what, I did it. I achieved the last Infinity Stone. There was nothing left for me to do, but eventually lose this belt to somebody.

Some people will want to, you know, be John Cena and lose in the cage. Like, that's how it's supposed to go. And some people will be like, nah, man, like, there's no reason. There's nothing left for me. Let me move on. from a pure legacy standpoint, he should absolutely walk away. I don't think he will.

I think regardless of what happens, he will be defending his belt next year, probably against Armant-sur-Rukin. Yeah. And to sort of add one more thing to the discussion, one of my friends just text me, he goes, let me pull up the exact wording.

It doesn't help Strickland when Hamzad actually beat him that night and the judges got it wrong. I mean, form is also like a big part of these. It's like, how are you winning? Because like straight up like,

Josh Van got kind of nerfed because the, had Josh Van like beat the pants off of Pantosia, he might have just been part of the year that year. And he got, he would have been. He would have won it. Like I think, yeah,

but because the way, like the form and function also matter. and Sean Strickham won I also don't agree but like I also don't think that that's a robbery that you should be upset by as a very close fight and Strickland got enough of the judges

but like yeah there's a tier level of difference in eking out a win over Hamzot and literally making no moths happen in MMA like he he created MMA's no MMO's

no mons moment. It's just the biggest thing that's going to happen this year by a landslide. Yeah. The year will be remembered for Justin Gachey capping off the White House card. Like that's, that's how a lot of people are going to remember 2026 in MMA. And we'll remember. I still sometimes wake up and I'm like, Justin Gage is a lightweight, champions of the world. Yeah. What craziness is this? And look, the year Sean Strickland beat Israel out of Sanya, we will we will look back on that year as the year.

of Sean Strickland. That's why he was the clear-cut fighter of the year in my eyes and in the eyes of many others. There could be no other besides Sean Strickland that year. Mike, I'd like to amend something I said earlier in the show. Please. Lazybed

when you asked what's the biggest thing that's happened in the last 25 years? Justin Gachey is the lightweight champion of the world. I don't know if you know that. But he's the undisputed and totally valid lightweight champion of the world. It's crazy. crazy times he did it he did it like i can't it made me so like i honestly am not sure i'll

ever experience that level of joy again like as an mma fan you know and like i think that's probably the peak because i mostly am not like nearly as i'm still emotionally invested in some people when carly judice inevitably wins the belt that'll be great for me but like it wasn't just that i've been a justing gitchie fan for like a decade it was also that like, God, I just needed, I needed the Ilya stuff to just pump the brakes. I needed everybody to just be like, hold your horses. And it was so perfect. It's best.

It's great. What a time. Let's see if we got anything else. And then we will get on out of here. Obviously, we got UFC Paris coming up this weekend. Next week is, what's next week? I don't know. Hold on.

Are you still on the road next week? There's Noche. Oh yeah, we had to Glendale next week. For goodness. Yes. Yes, I'll be missing that one.

Glendale. I'll be missing that whole weekend. So, and then, yeah, we'll figure out, we'll figure out like schedule-wise, but yes,

I will be gone next weekend. And that following Monday, I'm missing Noce. I think I'm going to watch it as a fan, but I'm not going to be working that's that whole weekend. And then I'll be, because I'm going to Boston.

I'm actually DJing a wedding. It's no-cha card I've ever seen. It's not a bad card. It's going to be fun. It's honestly a lot of super fun things, but like Grasso Fioro is buried in the middle of the main card. Brandon Moreno is kind of washed, I think. Sean Silva Jose Delgado.

Okay. Tommy McMillan because he wanted to fight a no-J. Gets to fight out. WCA versus Curtis Blades. That could be awful. David Martinez is going to just thump Dan Igay. Bahamondas is back, okay. Honestly, it's a good card.

It is a good card. I feel like it's the worst of the no chase. It's going to be fun. It is going to be a fun watch. I'm actually DJing a wedding, coming out of retirement for one night only for like an MMA fighting fan for like a viewer who reached out like a year and a half ago. So I'll be heading to mass to DJ a wedding.

And then I'm going and I'm going. and I'm going to play golf my brother on the Sunday. And then on from a Monday morning, the 14th, I'm going to fly from Boston to New York City because Coker FC is doing their like official launch in Manhattan. So I will be there for the official launch because I have just a cabillion questions about it. And then back home for a day

and then it's off to Miami for RAF. And then back here, we didn't think we'd have a watch party in this studio, but we will have a watch party for UFC 330. because RIF continuing to make correct choices. They decided, wait a second, we can't do an event the same day as UFC 331. We're going to push it back a day.

And then they're like, although I think in hindsight, they should have probably kept the Vegas card for 332 because that card doesn't look in too very good right now. But they still said, we'll give us. We don't know what it is. It might just be a fight.

It might be a boat. They might move it back. But it said, they pushed 14 to the same day as 333 and 33 will be over by the time

our Vegas starts. We've got a question and it might be the most important question ever asked in the history of the show. This one? Stop clicking it. Let me click it. Yes.

What is your DJ name? George is getting upset. That's what you see is what you get. DJ. What you see is what you get. No, my cack. That's it, man. Oh, that's lame. Come on. Yeah. I mean, look, I'm retired.

I'm retired. DJ, what the heck? Come on. Give them something. It's never about me. See, the weddings are never about me. The DJs that like put on shows and they like, you know, DJ, blah, blah, blah at a wedding. It's just like, it's not about you. It's about the bride and groom. It's their day. I don't even get like. Yeah, I just, as long as the dance floor is full, that's all I care about. So it'll be interesting to come out of retire. More MC than anything else, but yeah, we'll see what we got.

That's right. All you got to do is just get those intros out, make sure they phonetically spell the names of the wedding party so you don't screw it up. That is critical. That's a big one. You do not want to, you do not want to butcher that one. I've been to weddings where they butchered the bride and green. New Married name. And then they played the wrong first dance.

And it's just like, oh, God. That's a tough combo. Can't do that. Tough combo. That's not good. Oh, he's a friend of ours. He gave us a deal. Now, spend the money, friends.

DJ Heckraiser. DJ Heckraiser. But yes, I'm very excited to come back for one night and one night only. And that's that. So we need to talk about watch parties. and just you becoming a DJ for the watch parties. And it might be limited because of like copyrights with music, but we got to find a way around it.

So like, what, you don't like my mixes during the five-minute countdown? I mean, I mean, we need more, though. We need more.

We need honestly a watch party where like, I'm just sort of sitting there watching and you're in a booth, like just going. It would be the best. light show flashing fights happening what a time well maybe maybe we could put hey listen if we get a sponsor maybe we can make that happen you know

maybe under the new regime AZ give us details next time out let us know how they messed up your first dance no dude you can't do that more drop like that and then not yeah there has to be a way to DJ lots of live DJs on YouTube just being gospel am I working for free no, but I'm giving a deal. And I thought I'd be up in mass a little bit more than I was this year. So I don't know.

It's all going to work out. I'm happy to do it. Someone asked a while ago and the family was going to be going back and forth to mass a lot this year. And things obviously changed halfway through the year. So more so down here and good old SC. But yeah, we'll be up there and it'll be a time. And that's the music. That's how DJ drops to tunes.

DJ, Heck, Razor, Raise, Razor. Razor. Here's the music. Here is some music for you. And then it's Beachcomber. This is Cocktail Hour music, my friends. Faint in the background. You know music's playing, but not loud enough so you can have normal conversation. Okay, DJ 101.

You're learning a lot here today. If you're going to DJ weddings, you don't want to blast people out during cocktail hour. Come on. Chill out. It's all good. Back next week, we'll talk Noce UFC. We'll talk what happened with this UFC Paris event.

I'm sure there'll be some other craziness going on. If we actually get a 332 main event, we might pop back in and talk about it. But until then, ladies and gentlemen, for Jed Mishu, I am Mike Keck. We're out of here. See you next week on Between the Links. Have a wonderful Thursday. Love you all.