MMA Fighting - BTL | Topuria vs. Gaethe HEATING UP, UFC White House, Dana White Predicting Super Bowl Numbers

Episode Date: June 9, 2026

The final countdown to UFC White House is on, and things are getting pretty heated between headliners Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje, with it getting pretty darn close to personal between the two fighters. Does the extra spiciness add to the anticipation levels for the historic event? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel discusses the big storylines to kick off a wild fight week, Topuria and Gaethje going back and forth, and if this helps either fighter. Additionally, topics may include Alex Pereira vs. Ciryl Gane, Dana White predicting the card does Super Bowl like viewership on Sunday, the low-key fight on the card that's not getting enough love, RAF 10 headlined by the debut of Khamzat Chimaev against Dillon Danis on Saturday, and much more. Join MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee as they answer your questions all show long. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Alexander K. Lee: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@AlexanderKLee⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Tuesday to us all, we are just days away, ladies and gentlemen. Finally, UFC White House is going to be on our TV screens or laptops or tablets or wherever the kids are watching these days. It is going down in Washington, D.C. Jose Young's already there, boots on the ground recording some anything but fightings with some of the participants. There's a lot of interviews going out. One more coming out at 2 p.m. Eastern, I believe, with the great Derek Lewis. and a lot to talk about here with all of you. This is the People's Edition of BTL. The Q&A is here. And normally we would have Jed Michoud here, but let's be honest, he's a little bit of a traitor.

He's on another show right now. So stepping in as a man who will never let me down. He will never go on another show while an MMA fighting show is going on. I kid, we love Jed. But my best friend is here. What a treat this is the great Alexander K. Lee to answer your questions. A.K., how are you? Vibe levels, vibe check, hype levels for Sunday after, or Sunday evening, excuse me, on the South Lawn UFC White House.

This is great, my best friend. First of all, you normally have to wait like a whole week for, you know, to do on to the next one with you. So this is great. We're just two days later after a riveting and extremely memorable UFC Vegas card. And I would have had to wait even longer because I think you and I are planning to do like a Monday show. So like Sunday to Monday before doing a show with my best friend, Horace. horrible. So very excited to be here on between the links to talk about the card that's happened, the card that's coming up, whatever else is going on, R-A-F. My vibes, man, like really high,

really high. I think at this point, I think we're all exhausted with the discourse around the card and, you know, what it means culturally and politically. And all that stuff matters, very important. We can talk about that today for sure. You know, it's it has to be mentioned, you know, but just from looking at the card, like 10 out of 10, 10. 10. I'm so excited. Maybe I just want to get it over with. Maybe there's a party of me that's like, at least it's finally a reality, and we can just do it and talk about the fights and enjoy the fights. So firmly 10 out of 10.

I actually really, really like this card. And I'm optimistic that things will go well, whether they end up having to tweak their plans on fight night or not. I'm with you on a lot of what you just said. The thing I keep hearing from like Dana White and others is like, this is the sphere on steroids. I totally disagree. of that. This is UFC 300

on steroids. And it's just the build and the anticipation and we're going to blow your socks off, but the socks are pretty much on, even though it's a really good card. Like, it's just one of these types of situations where, like, even with UFC 300, we're so excited for it, but we were just

ready to be done talking about it. And not as far as like the fights go and watching the event and doing a watch party, like I'm pumped. I'm pumped. Like, I think it's going to be a really fun watch. Now, there's going to be some things we don't like, obviously, and that's okay.

That's why the beauty of the watch party just makes it so much simpler, because the one thing I think is going to be really terrible about this event is the pacing. I think the pacing's going to be awful. I think we're going to be sniffing five plus hours for seven fights for this thing. And I think we're going to get a lot of finishes here, and we're still, we're just going to slog our way through this in a lot of ways. And we know why they're going to do the celebration of America and everything like that. And it could end up being really cool.

But I think you're going to hear a lot of people on Twitter being like, man, can we just like get to the next fight, please? But that's, again, the beauty of the watch party. So if you don't want to watch all that stuff and you just want to hear people talking or talking about the fights or whatever, we're here. We're here. We're going to have a lot of time to kill. And we're going to have a great time doing it. Mike, yes, please. I'm Canadian.

So I'm looking forward to learning about the history. of America in between fights. Like you, you mentioned it like it's a bad thing. Like this is, I get to see, so I get to see like Diego Lopez, Steve Garcia, and then I get a little history lesson. Again, I don't know anything about your country. You guys, we're right next to each other, but honestly, I don't know anything about America. So I am very excited to learn what America is and what it stands for through the lens

of the UFC and Dana White and President Donald Trump. So I expect to be a much smarter, more educated person after Sunday night. Yeah, I am fascinated by a lot of this event. I'm fast. Obviously, Steve Garcia, Diego Lopez is. just got to rip right out the gate. I know it's a weird card and it's not structured

like a typical UFC card, but this is by far the greatest opening fight in UFC history on paper. Will it live up to the UFC 199 opening fight in execution? It has a really good chance of doing it. The Jung-Hung Kim Marco Polo Reyes absolute brawl that kicked off that card.

And I think we're going to have a good time in terms of like the in-on-on-a-combeckon. octagon action and the weather seems to be okay people are going crazy about the weather that seems to be what everybody's talking about but let's see what you guys are talking about so uh shout out to masters i hope you have a great day as well uh herman vibes are high this week one of a kind spectacle i think spectacle is uh is the way to go we do have a super chat of course the super chaters gets at the top of the line uh christie will there be a vacant belt regardless of who wins the lightweight title. Ilya moving to welterweight or just in retiring. So interesting question,

A.K., true or false, 60 days from right now, the winner of that fight will still be the UFC champ. Like, I know technically that even like technically like Alex Pereira or not, they already vacated that belt, but when a fighter vacates his belt, he's still typically the champion until like either the next title fight starts or that fighter participates in his next fight. So will it be known to the masses within 60 days of UFC White House ending that we have to crown a new lightweight champion because one of these guys is no longer the champion or leaving the division or leaving the sport? Okay, let's address the latter first. Let's say Keith G does the impossible fan favorite man finally climbing out. I know he's got the interim title twice.

I think this is his third shot at becoming undisputed champion. And boy, how amazing would that be, you know, at the White House against an undefeated opponent, a huge favorite. I mean, as soon as Gagee beat Pimbley, we were all just like, okay, wow, great. Now he gets to be sacrificed to Borea. Like, that is his reward. Really, not a lot of people giving him a shot. I think, I don't know, I haven't seen, I don't know, odds-wise, but I think people

are liking Justin a little more, just like the more they break it down, anything can happen. Justin's a bigger guy, so that's fun to see. So yeah, maybe he pulls this off. I would be very surprised if he retires right away. Because he would have had a lot of opportunities to retire in the past. You know, not quite on a high like this. But we always talk about how when you get these belts, that's when the money really starts coming in.

I think he would want to get at least one more championship payday before hanging it up. It would be so cool if he was able to just hang it up. But I don't know if Gachis ever cared about that, like saying like, oh, I want to have the fairy tale ending to my career. I don't think he's ever mentioned that. I don't think he's ever cared about that. He fights because he enjoys it. Certainly he fights for money, as all prize fighters do.

So that would be doubtful for me. Ilya, gosh, it really feels like he wants to move up and get Islam, right? I don't think he's the next opponent, though. So he would have to wait. And I don't know if Ilya wants to let Islam dictate the next step of his career, because we assume Islam's going to defend sometime in the second half of 2026, possibly against Ian Machia. Gary, possibly against someone else, but he will defend.

I don't think it'll be against Ilya, no matter what happens to the White House. I wish it was. I'm still interested in that fight. So Ilya will have to wait until next year before getting to defend his title, before getting another payday. I know he's doing well. I know he's taking time off before. He only fights like once every eight months anyway. So I'm going no in both cases, I think, Mike.

I think I don't think he gets vacated just yet. I think Elya will defend and I think Gachi would defend as well. Yeah, Gagy's whole thing is like, I think it was, because I spoke with him, when did I speak with him? It was before, I know it was before he won the interim belt. I think it was probably after, it was after the Max Holloway fight. It was definitely after UFC 300. And he was like, yeah, I've like two more wars left in me and then I'm done.

And he's had some exciting fights since then, but like none of them were. I don't think you could, like, the Fiziv, the second Fiziv fight was like fun, but I wouldn't say that was like an all-out war or anything. And Patty was a little more of a war, but Justin was winning most of that fight, at least on all the watches that I've had. So he hasn't had like that Charles O'Levair. I got knocked down multiple times. Max Holloway got knocked down multiple times, broke my face on his knee,

all sorts of craziness or elbow or wherever it was. And so maybe this will be one of those things. things. I mean, if he goes out there and just gets brutally knocked out, you might have to have a look in the mirror. But if he wins, I mean, if he wins, he should just retire, because, like, it's never going to get better. Like, that is just, that's the, if you're Justin Gagee, just seeing how he's been doing media over the last couple years and, like, what this opportunity means to him, like, doing it on the White House lawn, pulling off this massive upset, by the way, current betting lines, Ilya minus 560, Justin Gagee plus 370.

So I think a little bit of money has come in on Justin Gachie because I think that was up close to minus 700 a few weeks back. So I think there's some people hoping for that fairy tale ending. But there's a lot of money in an Armand Syrucian fight right now with how popular he is. And people say it all the time. You make your money when you are the undisputed champion. When you're the A side and you have that undisputed belts and you're the champion defending against someone else at the top of the card, that's where you get money. Now, Gagey's probably making a good payday for this one because he is the interim champ, and typically they treat interim champs like actual champions anyway.

So he's probably getting a good chunk of money here. But then going in there and fighting Armin, I mean, that's a big fight. Like, that is a very big fight. And for I think Ili, I think Ili's just, Ilias already like sort of tease this in other interviews they came in the build of this fight. He does, he's not going to be around a long time. And I've been saying this for a while. like, I think he's got three fights left, and then he's just going to be like, all right, thanks for the cheese.

I'm out of here. Like, he can make tons of money out of the sport. He's got his own promotion. He's got a billion things going on right now. And he's going to be just fine, whether he fights or not. He probably makes more money outside of fighting, if we're being honest. And he makes damn good money fighting. So I think if, I think if I will he wins, he's gone.

I think he's gone. He's going, he's going to go fight Islam. And by the way, there is no guarantee that Islam's fighting him. Shadow Gary yet. I haven't seen an announcement. I haven't seen anything. It's true. Nothing. And that card's two months away. We still don't have a main event. We don't even know what the main event for Oak. I mean, I think we know what the main event for Oklahoma City is, is, but they haven't announced it yet. That card's a month away. We don't even know what the official main event is. The UFC has not even announced it yet. They have tickets on sale and

everything. So I think Gage will stick around and fight Armin. But I think Yal is gone, gone. or against fighting for the belts this fall would be my guess i just had a hilarious visual of uh gaecchi pulling out this upset and like you said mike maybe doing the retirement and then like taking the belt off and then putting it on president down trump and being like you're you're the champ now you're the chat i'm you know i'm not my moment you're the champ now what a way to end the show like bringing the president president president trump standing in the in the octagon right next to gaitu hands raised dana white in between both of them raising both their hands and uh don't trump with the undisputed ufc lightweight title over his shoulder. That could happen. So I don't know. Maybe now you're talking

into some kind of Gathe's seen, but I hope Gathe's not done. Well, I shouldn't say that because for his health, I'd want him to be able to finish. And you're right, what a cool ending that would be to like an unbelievable career. But I don't know. I'm selfish. I kind of, I kind of want to see him in another title fight. I mean, literally it's the one thing he has not accomplished in the sport is winning the undisputed UFC belt. He's done everything else. anything else you could possibly want a fighter to do as a fight fan he has done except that so if he does that at the white house i mean what a poetic way to to call it a career but we'll see what happens by the way are you like is this back and forth this you should have left

your dad out of it stop talking about my ex-wife back and forth is this building any extra hype for you because i don't i don't think any of that like this fight does not need it for me no it's gross just gross man i i i I'm not going to lie. I know we've been covering it pretty thoroughly on M.Afighting.com. I kind of has been glossing over those. It has to be covered. I mean, it's some pretty nasty stuff.

It is pre-fight trash talk. I know people, Aaliyos personal life, frankly, has been under the microscope, really, for the last year, right? And of his own doing, right? Because he had to explain why he needs to take time away. And no one should blame him for that. I hope his personal life got sorted out. But yeah, so obviously it's going to come up.

It's going to come up from the buildup. It's silly stuff. I mean, the tweets reek of management, obviously, from Gatesy's side. It just doesn't, I'm sure Gatesy does some of his tweets, but if you just read out some of the things he's saying and the kind of the language he's using, I'm not crazy, right? Mike, this just feels like Ali. No?

This is Ali stuff. No. No? No. I don't know. It sounds like Justin tweeting to you? Yeah. Everything's spelled somewhat correctly.

Oh, what do you? What are you should? What are you trying to say? There's punctuation in there. Like that's just seems like there things Justin would type on his phone. I'm not. I don't know.

I think I think Ali is getting better. Maybe covering his tracks. Really? I think so. I think so. Maybe. Justin doesn't strike me as the type of guy that's going to be like, yeah, write my tweets for me.

Now there are others who need that help. Justin doesn't need that help on social media. He's just because he's Justin Gagey. Everyone loves the dude anyways. Would Justin use the word insufferable? Would I use the word insufferable? Again, if he were using like AI to help him, yeah. Maybe.

It just feels a little off brand. Commenters, comment, you guys, you guys know in the comments. Let me, let me, I'll put out a poll. I'll put a poll. Is this Justin or not? Yeah, it's Justin. I think it's, I got to open up. Are you too?

Armad, what's one fight outside of the maiden co-main that you guys are most excited about? For me personally, it's Lewis, versus Hoket. What say you, A.K. I mean, I think we take Diego Lopez, Steve Garcia, off the table. It's hard to beat Hoccan Lewis, man. I mean, you know what?

I'm super intrigued now by O'Malley and Zahavi. Maybe it was watching your interview with him, my best friend. I don't know. Maybe that got me more jazzed up for it. But there's a little plug there, guys. You haven't checked that out. It's not live yet, but it will be. There's just, I think, a lot of people,

I feel like they're ruling Zahabi out. Like, I don't know. O'Malley's not a huge favorite. He is definitely a favorite. He's not like a huge favorite. Oh, he's a big one. Minus 460. Minus 460.

Okay. And in fairness, we've had a lot of discourse on our own, on MA fighting, on our own channels about like, you know, how good is Amon's a hobby? Certainly if you've listened to like Jedmishu, he doesn't think Amin's particularly good. But winning fights is tough, man. And I know he's not like, he hasn't dominated a lot of these fights. I mean, the Josie Aldo fight, like, I didn't think, I had no issue with the scoring, but certainly he got dinged up in that fight.

It wasn't like he dominated Aldo until the end, until the last round, which is totally completely in control. That's why he won the decision. Marlon Vera wasn't like a domination. So I get it. He hasn't looked like spectacular against top tier competition. But I would also argue that he has made top tier competition sort of struggle at moments against him.

Again, even the Aldo fight. Like he totally just ran away with it. Can O'Malley, I see if what you saw in the Sonia Dong fight, which was like, you know, a convincing win for O'Malley, not the most exciting win, certainly a convincing one. But if that version of O'Malley shows up against the hobby, are we so confident that he's just going to run through Aman? I don't know.

So maybe excited is the wrong word, but outside of the top two fights, most like intriguing, most like I'm very curious what the result will be and where either guy goes with a win. Yeah, yeah. Hockett Lewis is tempting maybe Mike, I'll let you wax poetic on that one.

But I like O'Malley Zahopi. And I think it's books in the perfect spot, too, just before the big two. fights. I mean, that is a must win for Sean O'Malley. Like, he's got to win that one. I know he gets the, look, he gets a little preferential treatment. He's, he's, we know how these contender series guys are.

If they, they point somebody out on contender series, they will try to push them to the moon. And Sean was like one of the first guys to really get that push. And he became a champion and they like him. But I just think, I think like overall, perceptually, If Sean loses to Aman, it's just like, like, what do you do? What do you do? Like, does he pull Gilbert Burns? And he's like, well, because I lost to this guy, I can't fight anymore.

After losing to Mike Mallade, does it just losing the Canadian just make you feel like, ah, if I can't beat the Canadian, I have no business in this sport? I don't know. It's super interesting. I think Sean's, like, I think Sean's going to win. But Amon is one of the funniest fighters on the Robbie. He doesn't get enough credit for it. This interview that we did that hasn't dropped yet.

I was dying laughing. Pretty much the entire interview. Amon is very funny. Hocke is also a big favorite minus 430. The biggest favorite, oh, geez, every single one of these betting lines are huge. Yeah. Bo Nickel minus 360. We'll get back to that in a second.

Marisha Rofi minus 720 against Michael Chandler. Yep. The Pereira gone is a coin flip. that's in the other somewhat close line fight is Diego Lopez Steve Garcia Lopez is a minus 174 against Steve Garcia

I think I kind of feel like this should be a wider line I know Steve has a chip on his shoulder he feels like everyone's counting him out but it feels like just a really bad matchup for him in a lot of ways but maybe he goes on surprise to some people that fight just got a rule I'm so fascinated by Bo-Nickle Kyle Doccus

God I'm so fascinated by the fight You have said this for some time, my best friend. I mean, literally, like, Sean O'Malley can bounce back because he's Sean O'Malley. If Bo Nickel loses, if he loses on Sunday, he's, like, he's done. He's done. I don't know. Like, where could he possibly go from here? Like, you lose to RDR, you get beat up, you get tapped.

Like, maybe that's a big sort of jump, right? Like, you go from, you know, a couple of the guys that you fought, who is it? and then you jump right to RDR. And, you know, that's a tough draw. RDR's former two division champion in one. Like, he's accomplished a lot of things. He's a tough out. He's huge for the division.

And then they kind of like match made him appropriately to make him look good. And Kyle is like, he's a dog. He's a vet. And he's looked great since he's come back. And ever since he's left the UFC the first time, he's looked fantastic. And Kyle could do, man. And what Kyle Dachas is. career could could look like if he goes out winth if he finishes bow like he is going to be a

hero to a lot of people like bow has got that go away heat right now and kyle could just come out if he like spit some fire on the mic this could be a terrific night for him so i'm oddly fascinated by this fight i think that's what i like about a lot of these fights mike is like yes they're heavily favored but like it'll be pretty much if any of these favorites lose it would be just super devastating for them. Hawket is a big, like he says, big favorite, man, if he loses Derek Lewis, like, I think there's no shame in that, but it would

slow the Hawket train, like, considerably. I mean, he'll probably just hop back in there in the next, like, three or four months and fight again. But, yeah, it would be a big deal for Hawket with his, how much steam he's gained this year to suddenly be stopped by Derek Lewis, like, who, let's be honest, has not looked great in the last, like, few years. He's just older, right?

We had also, so Malie, of course, completely devastating. If he loses a hobby, If Rufi loses to Chandler, that'd just be crazy. That would be crazy. Nickel, of course, as you said. And even Diego, even Diego would take a little bit of a hit, right? I mean, he's top five. He's top five in the rankings.

And I know Steve Garcia's on the rise. He's on a good streak. But, yeah, that would really raise some questions for Diego, again, as to what he's going to do going forward if he lost to Steve Garcia. So, yeah, I think you could absolutely go chalk on this and have a good night. Like, if you just bet on all the winners, you'd probably do all right. But man, if one of these upsets happen, it's going to be. It's a being interesting. We'll be talking about it for a long time.

Yeah. No doubt about it. Dave, is Poetan really a three weight class champion if he wins on Sunday? Yeah. Of course he has a belt. Is he is he the number one guy? Can he say he was the number one guy in three different weight classes?

That's a different story. That's not the same thing. He is not the number one. If he knocks out gone in 30 seconds, he is not the number one heavy in the world. That's just not how it works. But was he the number one middleweight? Yeah, sure.

You know, good, good, good run at Middleweight and beat the champion. He was, you know, he didn't defend it. That's fine. He was number one briefly. Light heavy weight indisputably, right? I mean, won it defended it. So, yeah, he'll officially be a champion. Title holder.

I think for me, if you guys, and you guys will know if, like, you see anything I've written about this and going forward, I like to say just like title holder, like just the most literal, I can say, because, yes, an interim title is a title champion. It's a little bit sketchier, but, you know, interim champion, I guess they don't distinguish that much. know we do as fans. So you guys will know. Real ones will know. But yeah, it's, uh, I don't know. Like, how do you feel about it? Yeah. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a title win, you know? I mean, because we don't, we don't know what's happening with Tom Asseval right now. We have no

clue. Like when he's coming back, if he's coming back, like, if you're a fighter, like, you don't want to mess of the eyeballs, man. Like, you just don't. And then the whole like, Eddie heard of it all where it's just like, well, I'm not even going to let him fight under the current contract he's on and all that stuff like how much will that drama kind of go into this and you know how the UFC just loves to just move forward with things and they would love to move forward with Alex Pereira's champion right now he's the ultimate company guy and willing to do whatever the UFC wants and you know even I asked Alex in our interview I was just like yeah then you get a fight Tom Aspinall it's a big fight and it wasn't just like yeah it's a big fight it was just like

I work for the UFC whoever they tell me to fight I'm going to fight I'm like that was interesting okay we're just not immediately thinking about Tom all right maybe he knows something we don't I don't know so yeah I think you have to consider him a three-way class champion so yeah yeah the that I will consider the he is the goat over John Jones take I will not consider uh that's crazy that's just a crazy take I actually liked Matt Brown's explanation on this where it was like he might be the most accomplished fighter because he's done something that no one's ever done before and then he brought up

he's like Randy Cout he wasn't, no one called him the goat BJ Penn won two titles and no one called him the goat he just did it first they accomplished something so I know that was a really good take from Matt before you get to another in-depth question

I want to answer one quickly from Lazy Bed because it's not a long answer he said lazy bed asking How heavily screened do you think the Fighters walkout songs will be for Sunday? I imagine there may be some artists who wouldn't want their music used. I'll say zero. Almost no screening. When it comes to these live events, it's pretty much it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

That's my understanding. So there might be people that complain after, maybe kind of say, oh, hey, please don't use their music going forward. Live, there's not a lot you can do. I mean, look at the campaigns. I mean, again, Donald Trump, he's actually used a lot of music that people did not approve of. And it was too late. I mean, he just used it. He's used their campaigns and people complained after what can you do.

Same with the USC. Maybe they won't be able to replay it on, you know, Fight Pass or Paramount Plus, but that's been the standard anyway. So, yeah, I'd really be surprised if anyone was able to, ahead of time,

like tell them, oh, please don't play this. Doubtful. Don'tful. Yeah. Yeah. There's going to be,

the only thing that would be screened is like if someone, if a Canadian walks out to like America sucks. Like, we don't have it. We don't have any. songs like that. If someone came out to, if Aeman watched out to like blame Canada,

I think that would be hilarious. That would be a hell of a troll. But yeah, I'm trying to think, do we have any anti-America songs? I don't know. I got to think. Yeah.

So I think it'll all be, it'll all be good. George is getting upset. Armand's supposedly betting a mill on Gagee. Is that a big no-no or is he lying? That's a good question. I saw someone bring that up in the M.A. fighting comments about the,

or the feat. Was it we do a post? It did a post. And it did make me wonder, like, yeah, isn't he not supposed to be doing this? I got to think about it. Mike, what was your take? What was your taking the legality of this and whether this will get him in hot water with the execs? I don't.

I don't know what to think, honestly. I don't know. You're not supposed to gamble on fights. Maybe they instituted a new rule and we don't know about it yet, as long as you're, like, public about it, I guess, as opposed to, like, be in. a sneakster and being like, hey, I know this fighter in my gym tore his knee up, but he's still fighting. But Armand's just like, yeah, I'm on camera betting a million dollars on Justin Gagee to beat I beat Ilya and then having his reaction to it. So like, I don't know. I don't know like if they change language or not. So hopefully, I would love that to be asked at the press

conference. I know Dan is going to be like, we're not focusing on that. We're focusing on the fighters. But I mean, that is part of the story, right? Like Armin betting a, a million dollars on Justin Gachie when he is like no nonstop in every conversation he's has like he'll he's going to kill him. I don't know what to think. You know, Mike, could you ask Armin this week? Oh, I could. What was whether he got in trouble for that or if it's just a it is hard to tell because it is like obviously it's all on camera. I know he showed the phone and everything but yeah. And it sounds like, you know, it's not a kickstream. My people are just doing this stuff. They do these antics to get attention and what have you. So,

I don't know. Maybe same answer I sort of have for the last question. You know, better, better to ask for forgiveness and permission, right? Maybe the UFC says, hey, whatever. We know it was a joke. We know you're like doing this for content. But, you know, we'll slap on the wrist. Don't do this. But that's a pretty serious bet, too, like a million dollars.

So, yeah, it feels like he should get in trouble. But I'd be surprised. I'd be surprised if anything really. A drop in the bucket for Harmon and Surukin these days. Dave, how come no one's talking about that dork airman suing the white house trying to stop the event? So unlike that it's not a story. I mean, we wrote about it obviously on Sunday. but I don't think

I don't think anything is going to happen. Yeah, I agree. It's, it's an interesting, you know, basis for the lawsuit that they feel like, you know, they're misusing, obviously, you know,

government and private property for a entertainment event as opposed to something like culturally significant or historically significant. But I think the UFC has got to comfortably dance-danced around that. And I think we've talked about it. It's one reason why I think they're doing the videos, the celebration.

of a history. What is celebration of America? History of America? History of America. I think the fact they're doing those videos lets them say, oh, what do you mean? We are doing a cultural thing. So again, the whole thing is very shady. They're also selling commemorative coins. They're selling VIP seats for millions of dollars. So

we're in a very, very odd gray area here. But one where I don't think this lawsuit is going to have a lot of impact. But it's not like, it's not completely like baseless, but it's certainly not strong enough that I don't think, yeah, within a week less than a week to go that they're going to be able to stop this train from rolling i

i doubt maybe do it like three months ago and not like three days before the yeah how about how about the time yeah uh lazy bed so d p is claiming the reason him versus kamaro has yet to be announced because oosman still hasn't signed you're inclined to believe him or do you think it's something else i'm not surprised about the not signing thing i mean we've how many fighters have said like i mean i've talked to many fighters who were like i didn't even sign the contract until like literally fight week. I showed up and signed the contract like two days before the fight. I knew I was fighting. It seems like this is the fight. It seems like they were both in from the conversations we've been having. Like, look, I'm not saying anything baseless here or off base. Like,

it's, we know this is the fight they want. This is not a secret. It's been reported a billion times already. It's on the website because it's one of those things where it's just like, hey, let's wait for the UFC to announce kind of thing and totally understand. understand that, but again, we're not breaking any news here. So I have no idea why they haven't announced this fight. I truly don't. I assume we're going to get it this week. Because what are we doing here? Like, if this fight doesn't happen, what in the blue hell is going to headline UFC Oklahoma City? I have no idea. I have no idea what will headline this event. Truly, are they going to do Kevin Hall and Jacoby Smith is the main event? Like, what is going to

headline this card if it's not this one. People be disappointed, man. I need to very quickly look up. Who's from Oklahoma in the UFC actively? Technically, Diego Lopez lives in Oklahoma now. He's got a ranch out there. And so, I mean, him, but I mean, he's, unless he, if he knocks out Steve Garcia in like 20 seconds, like, why not bounce back? But you assume he wants to just kind of wait until September and fight on the notes.

C-Card, right? I probably headline it. Mike, I've, you know, I don't know if you'll know that. I keep a secret database of literally everyone who has ever fought in the UFC. Though they haven't debuted, I guess I don't have them. Okay, let me run some names by you, Mike. Let me run some names by you, Oklahoma names. Julia Avala, bring her back.

She retired, right? Yeah, yeah. She's coming back. She ain't coming back. Headline. She's from OKC. Okay. She's had five billion injuries.

She's like bodybuilding now. She's probably like 165 now. I'm skipping over some names here who I'm pretty sure not in the UFC anymore. Christian Edwards? Christian Edwards just debuted from Muskogee. How about that? Why not reward him with a main event spot? No.

Jimmy Flick, come back out of retire. He's retired again, right? I think. I don't know. Jimmy is re-retired, I believe. Or he's definitely not in the UFC anymore. The only way I allow Christian Edwards to headline is if we do the rematch with Big Tuna.

There you go. Give Big Tuna the main event, the big spot he deserved after nuking Christian Edwards. Still the biggest ball drop in Bellator history was not doing anything with this guy. I still don't get it. So bad. You guys know me.

I didn't get the whole Big Tuna thing in general, but that's fine. You guys told me, lazy bit poignant Jacoby is, of course, from Oki. So there you go. Oki from Muskogee. So yeah, I mean, maybe that is what they decided. I'd do instead, but Jimmy Flick from Sand Springs.

Boy, I've got some names for Gerald Harris, remember him. David Heath's from Oklahoma. Johnny Hendricks, of course. Boy, I'm just running through some random names. Oh, Tim Means, but he might not be fighting for a bit. I don't think he's fighting for a little while. Yeah, he's got some things to deal with. Shane Roller.

God, the immortal Shane Roller. Yeah, so, hey, maybe they just roll with Jacoby Smith because, yeah, hometown boy, right? Hometown boy. Kevin Holland's a name. They're probably from Texas, so it's like not that far. Yeah, yeah. They're probably comfortable leaning on that if for some reason this Comaro DDP fight just doesn't happen.

Hold on. All right. I want to see what else they have on this event right now. Have we reported any other fights? I think we have. I mean, they announced a bunch of them. Okay, okay. Amanda Hebas, Fatima Klein.

Right. Brad Tavaris, Mark Andre, Beryl, Holland Smith, Jared Cannonier, Christian Leroy, Duncan. Could this be, hold on. Alvin Hines is back? Sick. All right. That's cool. That's worth the price of a vision. Well, he was gone for suspension for doing all the steroids. Oh, yes. Alan, he's fighting Alan Frye Jr.

Deoni Barbosa, Veronica Hardy, Chase Hooper Mitch Ramirez, Philippe Franco, Levi Rodriguez, Alden Coria versus Stuart Nicol, Jose Delgado versus Austin Boschie. Could this be? Could Tommy McMillan get a main event? Against Alberto Montez? could they push Tommy Mac Co-main

Co-main? It's the main car to fight as of right now. It'll be Kevin Holland and Jacoby. If for some reason, Comaro and DDB, like I said, just doesn't get signed. But yeah, I think they're waiting until after the White House

before we get like a flurry of what's going on with those events, UFC Philadelphia, all kinds of stuff. Yeah, we shall see. Joseph. Kayla Harris versus Taylor Gordono went 14 hours from start to finish. did it really?

The event? Is this an event or the fight itself? The event. What a weird way to name it. Like I was like I never, okay. This must have been one of the world championship cards. Yeah, of course. Like 10, 10 title fights.

Yeah. Do they think that the pacing on Sunday will come close to 14 hours? How long is too long for the White House with or without delays? It's seven fights. This thing should be, we should be done by midnight. Like that's at the latest, this card should be wrapped impact by midnight. I think we're going to one. probably longer.

I'm just looking at the card that he mentioned now. How crazy was it that they literally just said? Like I love the idea of it. Like, oh, a fight that's, you know, season ending card. It's all title fights. But boy, that's insane. And they're all five rounders. I'm just trying to look here.

Three of them went the distance, which probably didn't help things. What a strange card. Oh, Clarissa Shields fought in this card. That also went to a decision. That one felt like it was like five rounds. I remember that fight with Abigail Montes. Sorry, what's the actual question? How long do we think this is going to go?

How long is too long? Well, I mean, too long would be if it's the length of a regular UFC show, which is what we think it will be when it shouldn't be because it's only seven fights. It's half as long as some of these UFC cards. We've had UFC cards are 13, 14 fights long. And there's half as long as that. And they're probably still going to extend it to, I don't know, however many seven or eight hours. But it won't go longer than that.

It won't go seven. It won't go that long. Because we're starting the main card at eight, right? p.m. Eastern. So I think more casual audience. I just don't think you can drag them out until longer than 1230. I mean, I think it's going longer than that. One in the morning?

On a Sunday? And you're going to 1 or 1.30. You guys have a holiday on Monday or something in the U.S. that I'm not aware of? Nope. Nope. That, yeah. And you and I are going to do it on to the next one? Oh yeah. So the grumpiness will be at an all-time high. It'll be on no sleep.

No, no, no. No. No. No. I'm going to fight show. All that stuff. No, Mike, we've got to fight it. We'll battle through. We're so high off of the biggest events in M.A. history. Yeah, that's just too long. That'll be just too long. Let's see what else we got. Oh, Brog.

Even though I don't like change, A.K.'s volume is always at an equal and appropriate level. So this will make my listening experience better while I perform my mailboy duties. Yeah, it was a great work. It wasn't always that way. I think I had some internal thing on my laptop I need to fix. But, yeah, guys, we're working on it. We're always a work on progress with this production and stuff. So it's getting better.

Do you see what happened last show, Mike, where Jed finally figured out the opening audio, sort of he was playing the music a little too loud, you know, the preview show music too loud. And he finally figured out, it's perfect. And then literally 30 seconds before the show ends, his, his internet went out. And when he came back, he was talking to his laptop mic. So it started with a bang. And then right at the end, we had a technical difficulty and then had scratchy audio at the end. It ain't easy.

It's not easy. This is live, you know, live show. It's hard to produce and hosts at the same time. It's not easy. Another word from Joseph. John Attick said on his podcast, he was not a... God, I didn't think this would happen, but, you know what, let's make history. John Aik said on his podcast, he wasn't a fan of Bonfeme calling out JDM.

Yes, we're talking U.C. Vegas 118. I don't think we'll get more from this. He wished that he would have called out Pratchez or Morales. Was that a good call out for Bonfeme to call out JDM? Yeah, it was a great call out. Again, Morales, we seems to be indicating that he has an opponent coming up. Prochis, I just don't think makes a lot of sense. for Bonfim right now.

Again, Prochus is probably angling for himself, is angling for someone in the top, like, three, if he can get it. Again, until Islam and, you know, Eam Chata Gary supposedly becomes official, we don't really know what they're doing with everyone. My only guess is that it's not Morales getting the title shot. He just seems to have, again, he's been hinting that it's something else.

But yeah, I thought this call up was great, Mike. I think this was the right range to go in. Because I still don't know if he's like a legitimate top five guy, Gabriel Bonfim. But if he beats JDM, again, another recent champion, he's getting closer, man. He might be better than I think. We'll see.

We'll see. I mean, look, I guess the advice to all these Walter weights is don't get in a range kickboxing match with Gabriel Bonfeme when you're a grappler. Oh, by the way, Mike, since since we are, we do have the pleasure of kind of doing a, you know, show right after, onto the next one, just shortly after. So I have to check. I'm going to do it, check the tapes.

You guys, you guys not familiar with On to the next one. we do a check the tape segment and we kind of I don't think we screwed up but there was a miscommunication with us regarding the ball also so do you remember our pal Lucas Cortas I think it was Lucas off in my email he mentioned an injury and you and I were kind of like he said an injury last year and you and I were kind of like what injury like we didn't know

what he was talking about so Lucas messaged me after and then he reminded me like he was talking about the the one that ruined the Shavkat fight the foot injury the foot thing so that was to 24. So we were not wrong to be confused. Maybe we should have thought a little bit further and like realized he was talking about an earlier injury. But yes, it was a question of whether that injury had sort of affected his fighting style. So Lucas, you know, I guess somewhat of a mea culpa.

I'm not, I'm not taking a hit on this one. But yeah, was Balal affected by his foot injury? Maybe. Maybe, Mike? Does that, is that, does that explain away some of the tactical? changes that we have seen. No, because he kicked all fight. Yeah, but maybe he can't like, you know, shoot for, you know, shoot for takedowns, you know, you can't get the, oh, my foot is hurts to wrestle. Ressle.

I'm trying to, I'm reaching here. I'm reaching here. I'm trying to wrestle in the third round. He did. It was way too late. It was way too late. Yeah, I don't know. It doesn't fully explain it, but I, I get, you know, I'm just given, I'm just correcting

our record a little bit here. Just wanted to bring that up. Taheed. Yeah. I think Justin could win if he uses kicks and goes for takedowns. He just has to keep distance from Milia.

He's got a good chin and a nasty epricot. True. Easier said than done. I'm not going to like... Are you putting away... Mike, let's just ask this now. Are you putting a bet on...

Would you be able to put a bet on G at these current odds? No. What would the odds have to be for you to bet on Gagee? Hmm. You said he's what, plus 370 or something?

He's plus 370. If he gets back up to like plus 4-4 50, I might take a look at it, but I just, historically he has had a good chin. No doubt about it. But he has been cracked a lot. He has been through many wars. I don't care how good your chin is.

Like Max Holloway has like one of the most elite chins in the history of the sport. And Ilya got him too. Like, and Gage has been brutally knocked out by Max Holloway. Patty heard him a couple of times on the feet. And if Patty hurts him on the feet, Ilya's got to hurt him on the feet, man. Like, he's just going to. Dude,

he's a sniper. I think, I don't know, we'll see. I, I just, I'm not ruling it out because I refuse to rule anything out

and maybe Gachie just wakes up and it's like the greatest day of his life. He's never felt better. And he just, he knows Ilya backwards and frontwards. But even then, like,

he's just so good. Like, he's such a sniper and he hits so hard, man. Like, he just hits. so hard and he's so precise and he's got such good fight IQ like everything he does has a purpose go back and watch the Volk fight like that is a thing of beauty you're just like oh look at Volk he's doing great like he's he's ahead probably a lot of people thought he won the first round but like

if you go back and rewatch that fight like as that first round progresses you can see Ilya getting more confident he's getting closer to Volk he's starting to read Volk he's starting to starting to see things coming from a mile away and he's just inching closer and closer he's starting to get his hands on him but he's not going for the kill shot and then round two comes and he just nukes him he just runs his ass over man and this is what he does so well he doesn't even need to smell blood he just needs to know that you have like the slightest bit of vulnerability and then he just ices you out like there is but Ilya can get cracked too, man.

Like, Jai Herbert almost finished him. Like, Gachi hits hard enough that maybe he's got to, for Gagy to win, at least to me, he needs to have a big moment early. Like, he needs to knock Gagy down. Like, maybe he kicks him or something and puts Tepori on the mat and, like, starts raining down shots and maybe Teporea survives. But even then, like, Tepori is still very live. But Gagchi needs to come out and just have a big moment early because if he doesn't,

If he, like, just stands at range, it's, he's got to get colded, man. Like, it's just going to happen. I don't want to get people excited, but, you know, Mike, I was looking at some of these sites. Steak, Drake's favorite, many celebrities, I guess, favorite betting sites. Steak has Gates you right now plus 480. Almost five to one odds. I am not telling people to bet on MMA. I would never do that.

This is not an advertisement for this particular betting site. But I'm saying, guys, if you look around, if you go fishing, for some prices, apparently you can still get gaugy at certain places for over at over plus 400. So play accordingly. That's all I'm going to say. That's all I'm going to say. I think we've reached that point of fight week, Mike, and generally just this whole White House bill that like I've talked to myself into a lot of these underdogs. Because, yeah, we said with the beginning of the show, the first announcement, oh, Ali is going to kill him.

It was going to kill him. It was a murderer. It's a murder in the life television. Murder at the White House. but gosh, I guess I've just seen too many analysts or read too many articles and maybe written some articles too about like, oh, this guy thinks, well, if Casey does this and listen, we know this well, it's just a gate G and he doesn't do this in fights, it's a negative thing.

Maybe he just kicks the calves out of, out of, uh, out of, uh, to poria's leg. I don't know. So I'm reaching that. Well prepared for leg kicks. I know. I know. And then you add in the speed factor. Like he's not going to be a sitting duck just eating leg kicks.

I just just seems impossible. So, but I don't know. This is how they get you, right? So I'm talking myself into stuff. I'll have predictions on Sunday morning. Sunday morning, guys. Remember, there's a Sunday. Predictions on Sunday morning.

And I'm, I don't know. There is a chance. There is a chance on pick gauge. I don't know. I'm usually a coward with these things. I'm probably going chalk the entire freaking card. So maybe Caledoccus. Maybe Amon's a hobby.

We'll see. We'll see on Sunday. We'll see on Sunday. We'll see on. Yeah, yeah. We'll see this weekend. We'll see this weekend. Some extra props.

I have not placed a bet on this fight for the watch party. Ilya by K.O. is only minus 200. Hmm. That's interesting. Gachy by K.O. is plus 550. So you're not even getting like a ton of extra value. Yeah.

Gachy by points is plus 1,600. So if you think his chin is good enough to win this fight in last 25 minutes, like that's something to look at. To pouri by points plus 1,200. I think the over and under is what I'm looking at. It's one and a half. That's the line for this fight. Over 1.5 is minus 122.

under one and a half is minus 104. What's G. by submission? Plus 3,500. Okay. Fair. Ilya by sub. Ilya by sub.

What do you think Ilya by sub is? I almost looked at it. I didn't see it. Don't worry. Okay. Your incredulily suggests it's not as crazy as I would think. Plus 500? Plus 550.

Plus 550. I think you could club and sub, right? I think we can all, that's a scariest thing about MMA, right? It's like, you say, oh, this person would never win. by submission. But there's always the chance they land a shot, rock the guy, do some ground and pound, and then end up with a rear naked choke or something, right? Like, we've just seen that happened so many times. And then your K.O. Bet just went out the friggin window. So, yeah, I'm not telling people to bet that. But that's kind of why that line isn't as extravagant as it would be.

Lazy, will this event feature a true highlight real moment, something worthy of being shown during Baba O'Reilly before every show? They don't make the opening montage? I think so. I think so for sure. Like I said, I'm just very optimistic about how the action on this card will turn out. I think the matchmaking is so solid. Could there be like some boring fights? I don't know. Maybe again, maybe O'Malley's a hobby, just super tactical

bantamate battle. Pereira gone, if gone, just completely neutralized Perreira, which seems unlikely. Again, it is possible. Like, could it resemble the Ancolaeuf fight? Maybe. Such a different kind, such a different kind of fighter, though. Yes.

But anyway, yes. I'm not going to name exactly what maybe it's more so who if you like spin kicking michael chanler maybe it's josh hawkett or vice versa derrick lewis highlight real k of josh hawkett could be ill it to perrara just ending just in casey career i don't know uh but yes there will be a moment i think if alix perr wins he will if it's if alex wins he's winning by knockout and that is definitely going to make it because it's just such a it's the thing that's never happened before so and if perrera gets him it's not going to be like some oh the referee stopped it too early It's got to be gone unconscious on the ground with Pereira standing over him doing the Jamal Hill meme.

So, extra end. Steve Garcia thinks he's overlooked. With the win, does the UFC push him for a title shot? He is overlooked. This will be his seventh straight win if he, seven straight win at feathered. I think there's like a weird lightweight bout he took in there or something that he lost. There's a short notice, I think. Yeah, so both guys went out.

I know both guys just took it at 155. So I guess we're not counting that. he would be 7 and 0 at featherweight technically i think he'd be tired oh sorry he'd be just behind moffsar so my most are like the longest year see featherweight streak can he get in that title picture i get i just not right away it sucks it's not he's not to fight one more he'll be on the short list i'll say this he'll be on the short list he will be someone they call more than it'll probably more than one more oh really yeah damn it's tough he's that's hard man yeah look i i i say this all the time

and it's just the way that it is. You can't control who you fight. Whoever the UFC gives you, you take, and you fight them and you win. The win streak is Chase Hooper, Shailen Er and Becca, Sung Wu Choi, Kyle Nelson,

Calvin Cater, who has lost seven in a row, and David Onama, who there are people out there who feel like this was another example of not throwing a fight, but like some shadiness going on. Like, because that happened the same card as the Isaac Dalgarian one.

So people were like, eh, this looks a little fishy. Not me. I'm not saying that. That was like the perception coming out of that event was like, ooh, I think something weird might be happening here.

Like these are all like, they're fine wins. Like they're fine. But like, this is a huge step up. Like this is a massive step up for Steve Garcia Like look at Look at the

Look at the run that Diego's been on He fought Mozar of Loyov On like a week's notice One fight of the night And people thought he won that fight Then he gets Gavin Tucker and clobbers him Pat Sabatini Like how great has that win aged

Knocked about in 90 seconds Sudeek Yusuf Kind of what he is now But tough Oh usually it's and he finished him too Yeah fought Dan Ige on like 45 minutes notice. That was weird.

That was just a weird fight. I don't even really count that one, but like shout out to him for doing it. He wrecked Brian Ortega. Wrecked him. Gave Volk a tough fight in the first title fight. Abliterated John Silva and then fought Volk again. Like he just fought way better dudes. Up and down.

Like he's just thrown to the wolves immediately. So could Steve win? Sure. He's got to be undersized in this fight for sure. Diego's going to have such a reach on him. And we'll see. Like Diego's tough man. Like I feel like Steve's best chance to win is to finish him. And like, I just, Diego doesn't strike me as a guy that's going to be like easy to finish.

So if he knocks a, if he colds Diego, like colds him. Max Hall, like they have a point-down moment and he just holds Diego Lopez. Maybe he is a win-away. But then he's going to be interesting on the microphone. Because remember what he did after the Onama win? We're like, all right, this is good. Let's see what he does. He called up Max Holloway for the BMF title.

We're just like, dude, why? Why would you do this? Like, there's literally 15 names you could have said and you chose the wrong one. I think he's going to fight Lorone Murphy next. if he wins and that's a rat. Damn, that's his reward, eh, for opening up White House with a big upset. Maybe he gets Aljo. Yeah.

I mean, his best case scenario is Aljo. Or John Silva, if he doesn't get the title fight. I do think if he beats Diego, though. Listen, you mentioned Diego's resume. There's kind of a transference, right? Like when you beat someone who's beating all these guys, obviously you don't get to claim all their wins, but there's that like, oh, he beat the guy. M.M.A. Math, you know, he beat Sodec who beat Sodec and who beat Frieneur, who beat John Silva, da, da, da. It's not exactly. It's not like a one for one thing. But he would get a little bit of a rub there. And you're right, would not be guaranteed anything. Certainly, it's not like, oh, now he's the number one, he's the number one, he's the number one, he's the number. But he is going to be someone that they call if the schedules just line up for when Volk wants to fight next. Isn't that like Diego got the second title fight technically, right? Or one, the U.S. he loves him. And two, wasn't it like Mossar was hurt or something. Mossar was heard. No. No. They gave him the shot because.

they offered him like a million names and he said yes to all of them and then he was like fight john silva at no jay and he was like yes because apparently at least from the conversations i was having because obviously them announcing that fight got me in some heat with some people uh close to deago lopez because i was not happy about it and didn't think there was a world that this could happen and you know those fences have obviously been mended because i don't like having beef with anybody i just don't. Like I would like to just talk it out and be cool. And I don't want that. Um, but I was told like, look, we offer John Silva to everybody in the division. Everybody said no. And without hesitation, you said yes. He had a fight of the year contender and finished the fight.

And the crowd went bananas. Like it was electric in that building when he did that. Like, it was such a big moment for him. And in their eyes, it was, okay, you're getting it. That's it. I'll say this. There's a non-zero chance that Alexander Volkanowski defends the title against Steve Garcia in the next 12 months. I will say it. There's a non-s, I always say, but it'll only, like, it'll only be if other options are unavailable or already matched up. That's my, that's my copy.

But I actually think this puts him on the short list if he's able to pull off this upset, especially in the way you mentioned, especially if it's like, like, if it's just like a decision and like, not a great, like, we expect it to be an exciting fight. But let's say by some chance, it's like a good fight and not like an amazing fight. and he just wins a decision, yeah, probably doesn't, doesn't register with the matchmakers that much. If he finishes Diego somehow, I'm telling you, he's on the short list. And then we, six months from now, we see that he's fighting bulk in December, and we're also going to roll our eyes like, what the hell had this happen? Like, congrats to Steve, but what the hell?

If he wins, he's, he's fourth in line. Sure. That's not a bad place to be. That's close enough. The three names ahead of him could easily either be booked to fight each other or, like, you know, injuries, all kinds of stuff can happen. They don't want to fight during this time for whatever reason. That's the problem.

I actually agree with you completely. That's where it takes them, yeah. Because Steve, Steve's ranked number nine, Diego's rank number two. So Volk Mozart has to be the fight. Like, that has to be the fight. You would think so, wouldn't you, Mike? Yeah.

You would think so. If Diego, win or lose for Diego, like he should fight Yaya Rodriguez. Like, they should absolutely make that fight. And then I think they're going to, like, it just makes all the sense. in the world to do Al Jermaine Sterling versus John Silva next. Like that just seems like the fight to make.

And if that's, if it all plays out that way, Steve Garcia fights the number three guy, which is the Roan Murphy. So it's like not a bad consolation prize. You're still fighting a dude in the top five, another guy in the top three. Like that's not a terrible place to be. Uh,

moral 503 just asks, is that the new ranking system? No, they have guys. They're nowhere near, uh, implementing the new ranking system yet. They just announced it as like a vague concept. Really under the radar because it was during Vegas 118. I don't think they wanted to make a big deal out of it.

They had Brendan Fitzgerald. I love me. I love me some Brendan Fitzgerald, but it's not like they go to Brendan to break like the stories that they want to go viral and stuff like that. So it's sort of like just putting it out there. We didn't even write it up. There's no real details yet. It's just like in theory.

This has to be like the AI. Sounds like it. Right. Because they're saying what are they, what was the exact wording? Like they're taking the objectivity, a subjectivity, excuse me, out of it. and having, to be based on results or something. Results, strength of schedule.

Essentially, M.M.A. Math. It sounds like I try to figure out of M.A. Math, which is, like, impossible because that's just not how it works. You get in those situations where, like, three guys have all sort of fought each other in some combination, and then this guy beat this guy, but then this guy be this guy. So how do they sort that out? I don't know. I guess that's where strengths or schedule comes in.

So it's doable. It's doable. Like, if you guys want to see an example, you can guys go to topology. Not a rankings that I agree with all the time, by the way, guys. I think the topology rankings, amazing website. I love all the guys over there. I don't always agree with sort of how their system works. But they have a system.

Like their system is consistent within itself. And again, you might not like it when you see a guy. Like, there's been situations where a guy beat someone and they still don't pass over them in the topology rankings. And I understand the logic. It's like the guy they beat has a much stronger. Like, we just talked about Steve Garcia, Diego Lopez. I don't know if Steve Garcia, if Steve Garcia beats Diego Lopez and you go check the topology rankings on Monday or whenever they update, that Steve Garcia will be higher. But I don't know because of what Mike said,

Diego Lopez's strength schedule is so much better. So I don't know if it automatically jumps it. So I'm curious if the UFC's official system will also implement that sort of thing, which again will lead to some consternation with fans because we already see that with humans. We're like, how can this person be ranked here? They just lost it, da, da, da, and will that happen with AI

slash whatever this new system's going to be? I'm curious, but they does need to change. Yeah, I got things to say about that in a second. This is what Aaron Bronsetter tweeted on G6. Yeah, yeah, read this out. Yeah, that's a thing. The UFC are developing a new ranking system that is based on, quote, measurable performance, which will evaluate who fighters beat, their strength of competition, activity, and consistency.

Now, activity is a super important word in all of this. Because what is, how do you get over now in the UFC? We've been, Jed and I have been preaching this for five years. It's not about what you say on the microphone. It's not about the dancing. It's not about the shit talk, although that doesn't hurt you. it's about fighting all the time. WaldoCore doesn't cost.

WCA. The story of... Kevin Holland. Kevin Holland. Kevin Holland got popular because he fought a whole lot. Yep, at first. And then he just stopped fighting. But Kevin Holland had that like big 2020

where he was fighting like every... It seemed like we banned him from on to the next one for like a year because we're just like, all right. Kevin Holland's fighting. We can't match make for him because he's just going to step and fight somebody. Joshua. In the same way class.

Joshua Van. The man is a nice man. He is absolute, a snoozer on the mic. I think the kid is great. I just on the microphone has not said one memorable quote his entire life. But guess what? He's a UFC champion. He's a great tweeter, though.

I will say. Sure. He's actually an excellent tweeter. Josh Hokic is one of the guy. He's already fought three times in the UFC. Ewo Baranuski is a guy that's fighting all the time. Like this is how you get over is fighting consistently. So that's huge.

I can tell you this for a fact. As of like, remember what was a two or three years? years ago that Dana White was like, we're going to make AI do all our rankings because he was pissed about how the rankings were coming. I can assure you that there are some pretty powerful people within the UFC that did not want this to happen. They wanted to keep the rankings in a similar way, but they wanted to, they wanted to update the panel to like, because I mean, You can publicly look at the panel and you can. Can you still?

I don't know if you can anymore. That's the thing. There is, there, I don't know if you can or not, but there was a time. Let me pull it up and see if you could. Yeah, there was definitely a time you could. I remember. Hold on. It's right at the bottom.

It's right. It is still there. How are rankings determined? It is there. Yeah, but there's no, but it's not it's, it's, it's, they don't, they don't put out the media members anymore. Now it's just, now it's just like, this is how it works. Mike, you don't go to CFMU 93.3.

for your MMA news. Oh, you found that it's there? It's there, yeah, because I, it definitely was gone. It definitely was gone temporarily, but now it's back. It was gone. You're right. I remember there was time you couldn't find it. MMA fight coverage.

Top Turtle podcast. Top Turtle podcast. Come on, Mike. I do like those guys, by the way. Oh, is that a real thing? Yeah. Oh, sorry, top total podcast. Cherokee Scout.

NYTTT, which I don't think is a website anymore. Blood and sweat inside. Like, come on, man. Cherokee Scout. Shout out Cherokee Sky. I actually interviewed the guy from the Cherokee Scout a while ago. asking the rankings. So yeah,

but some of these are not active. Yeah. Most people are going to look at this and be like, who the hell of these people? Like there are people who don't even cover the sport anymore that are part of the rankings panel. Yeah. It's crazy.

This can't be, I mean, don't you think they just didn't update this? Like, don't you think they have. No, I don't think so. But here's the thing.

They wanted to just be like, hey, let's get like a real panel in here. Like, not saying like everybody in this is like bad, but there are like legitimately people in here who like probably haven't voted in years. Yeah.

And there were screenshots from like other reporters back, a couple of years back that were like screenshoting emails from the UFC being like, hey, do this or hey, do that. And it was like all this different stuff. Remember that. But I know for a fact that they wanted to keep a rankings panel, but they wanted to upgrade it. Like they wanted to put like people from all the major sites in there, like all the people that are like covering the sport day and day out, watching every. event like these are the people they wanted to just get like the cream of the crop to be part of this panel um this was maybe two 18 months ago that i had heard about this and then i had like there i had heard like maybe things are getting a little closer and then it just stopped and i was like

oh guess this ain't happened because uh we're going to the a i thing but they there are people within the ufc they were like we don't want this we don't want the i we want a i we want a panel We want people doing this, but we just need to find the right people to do it. Yeah. I have no problem with them using an AI and sort of algorithm as long as it's go, as long as it goes through some sort of panel of human panel before. And I don't care if that human panel is the UFC. I don't care if it's like, I know it's not being Dana White personally,

but whatever, some team that he entrusts a team of like six people say, hey, this is what the number said, but let's go through it to see this makes sense. Because AI, again, AI is going to screw things up. It makes random mistake. It's not a human. It's going to rank guys probably too high. over guys that like recently beat them and without like good reasoning for it. So as long as there's someone to like point out those inconsistencies, look, we do our own rankings.

We do our own rankings. And sometimes we make mistakes. So a machine is going to do the same thing. So please, I just have to have checks and balances and don't just rely solely on the algorithm because it's, I don't. I'd be very surprised we're able to get it right. Armand, I think Avilia vacates Armin in all of air flights for the interim belt will be for the vacant belt. Or Armine versus Max, the Max beats Connor. You can't give Max all the way title shot and beats Connor.

I'm sorry. Can you give Connor a title shot if he beats Max though? Yes. That you can do. But this is also a welterweight fight, so maybe Connor fights for the welterweight title. Like, they could do this. And I don't like this, but they could do this. Can you imagine, can you imagine if they go like Iliate Toporia next?

And then they go with Connor McGregor to get the winner of that fight for the welterweight belt. And poor I, Machado Gary is like, what? And Michael Morales is like, what's happening right now? Like that, this division could be just an absolute slaughterhouse over the next month or so. Connor's not going to win. It doesn't matter. It's fine. I don't even want to think about this.

He can't win. You guys got fought in five years. No, I refuse. Yeah. I refuse. Lazy bit had a put up. The more interesting thing about the rankings change announcement was them incidentally admitting it was truly a popularity. contest before.

Yeah, kind of. Again, it's so, if anyone who has tracked their rankings closely, like has seen it looks like one or two head-scratching moments like every month, just where, again, people beat someone but still wouldn't jump ahead them in the rankings, which sometimes can be justified, sometimes totally unjustifiable. And activity is a big thing. People who hadn't fought in 12, 13, 14, 15 months and were still like holding on into a top 7, 8 spot.

I think Kobe Compton was a bad example of that recently. I think they finally took them out. But yeah, it's, it's, there's a lot of, there's a lot of things that need to be fixed. There's a lot of things to be fixed. And I'm optimistic, as I am with everything, uh, that just needed some sort of change. And I want to believe that they'll do a mixture of math and humanity here. So we'll see. Perplexed, watch Bloodsport in a theater last night.

Shout out. Uh, made me think, when are we getting the return of this is cinema? It's tough, man. It's all right, guys. Just, we just got to find the hours. You know, we got to find the hours. We've got to find the body. So it's something we'd love to do.

But, um, I think you guys know, uh, we just have, have a lot of stuff to produce every week. Again, we do this show every week. We do preview shows. We do on to the next one. We do Damon's talking to Matt Brown every week. We just have a lot of regular stuff that I think has to maintain and I think it's doing really well and has a following.

So we'd love to find time for this side programming. Like, you know, Jed just wrote a great article about the World Cup of MMA. Fantastic. I hope you guys all read it. I would have loved to do a podcast along with that as well. We used to do a rankings podcast. I'd love to have that because I think sometimes we need to explain ourselves. But yeah, it's just a matter of having time.

This is cinema. I hope we'll come back someday. We see a lot more MMA content these days. I feel like there's a lot more MMA related content movies, just even scenes. Mike, I almost can't watch any show these days that's set in like modern times. But that's someone mentioning MMA, someone being an MMA fighter, someone training MMA. It's just, it's everywhere. It is crazy that it's everywhere.

Family movie night was the other night. My wife and son had traveled to Massachusetts this week. But I travel St. Louis anyway, so like it just is what it is. like so he has to go with her um but we watched uh he chose the movie and he was like oh what's this and i told him what it was he goes oh it's rated pg so i could probably watch her right i said yeah here comes the boom okay watch here comes the boom a lot of fun one of my favorite movie's super fun and it reminds i was like hey if it rains at the white house like we could be watching this i saw people i think matisic i think on twitter as much of people tweeted that clip

Like when it starts pouring during, uh, during, uh, to for you and Gage or something like that. Yeah, that'd be wild. Uh, one of my local theaters plays old school scuff every Monday night. That's awesome. I'd love to see Bloodsport in theaters right now. Oh, it'd be so sick, dude. That'd be so sick. Colby was the top 14 fighter before he finally retired.

Crazy. You just hold on to that spot, sitting on that spot. Yep. Uh, lazy. They just released a new Freedom 250 shirt and it's so bad. look this up. I got to see this. We got to see this. If you see it, send it to me and I will put it up on screen. Let's see what we're talking about here. First I want to see your actual this is this is sure. Hold on. I got to find this first. I hope this is a real thing. I don't know if

we're just being trolled and there's not a new shirt yet. I can't find it. Lazy, you have me on on Twitter so you can just you can certainly hit me. Yeah, DM me or just or just yeah. Yeah, we'll get to that. Sorry, guys. have I had done. I don't care. Joseph, what do they do with Bonfim now that he's number five at Welterweight? Well, we talked about the JDM thing.

Maybe Morales and Prochate. No, he's fighting Sean Brady in Philadelphia, August 30th, or whatever that event is. This is not an insightful thing. This is just what is going to happen. He's going to fight Sean Brady in Philadelphia. He wants to turn around quick.

If he wants to move up the rankings, he wants to be active. Gabriel Bonfim should fight five times this year. That's a guy that, like, needs to benefit from the activity. Because, like, this is, he needs, he just doesn't have the sizzle right now. Like, he's, he's steak. And everybody likes steak. Steak is fine.

No one's going to be like, oh, steak again. This is never going to happen. But, like, you need the sizzle on the steak, which, like, Michael Morales has right now. And to some degree, Ian Machado Gary has right now. And guys, other guys in this division who are in the championship conversation, Gabriel doesn't have that. This was a good win. This was playing it.

This was Ballal handing him a win and he took it without taking any risk and that's good. He got the second half of his paycheck. But like he gained, besides the top five ranking, he gained very little from this win. There were very few people like, oh, I can't wait to watch him fight again. And that's unfortunate that this is how the sport has kind of become. But it was a fine win. But there are very few people that's like, oh, there are very few people that's like, he's got to fight for the belt right now none of that discourse whatsoever lazy uh lazy they have

the bkfc crews coming up we need an m-fiting lazy river intertube ride uh jett and i've already pitched that we should be on this boat doing shows in live programming from the boat uh this earlier this year sorry but i sorry rugg i found the sure can you repeat what you said there i just found the show i'm going to say to you right now so you can take a look at it um there's a bkfc cruise coming up yes yes we need an m may fighting lazy river inner tube ride boy Are they calling it BKFC? Did they steal that from Jed? No, that was the original name for it.

No, but didn't Jen invent that? Flipping hell is this. Didn't Jed invent that a long time ago, though? Didn't he have the concept of BKFC doing a cruise and calling it? I swear Jed invented this. I swear he invented it. No, he definitely didn't. We shouted out the name.

We were very happy about it. But I thought he came up with that way before it even happened. It was even official. Did not, did Jed not come up with that? No. No, before we like knew anything about it. Yeah. I swear, Chad, if you're out there and you invented this, please claim it.

Thanks, Lisa. Yeah, Elizabeth. It's incredible. Okay. It's, are you throwing it to some of the screen somehow or how do you, are you using a... I'm going to. Okay, okay. Let me talk about this while I'm looking at it.

Okay. Okay. I'm just in super optimistic mode this way, I guess. I don't hate this. All right. Keep talking. I don't hate this. Because, I'll say why.

It's excessive. And that's kind of what this event is. This event is excessive. This is not a time for subtlety. This is not a time for some sort of classy shirt. Now, would I wear this? No. Not in a serious way.

What I wears it is a joke? Yeah, absolutely. A great Halloween costume, something like that. It would be very, very funny. Cheap Halloween costume. But like I kind of like how dumb it looks. It looks really bad on the back because so the sort of the flash from the,

The front of the shirt is like spilling onto the back. And there's such a big yellow blotch on the side, it looks like. And it just looks like someone pissed on like the side of your torso. That's weird. That's a weird design choice. Maybe when you're wearing it, it doesn't come off that way. Maybe it looks cool on the side. Okay, let's see.

Yeah, we'll try. If you guys haven't seen. I'm going to have it up on screen in like 90 seconds. Sure, sure. I'm just trying to. Yeah, I'm waxing point. It's got all the fighters on it, which is good. Of course, you got the top guys at the top prominently featured.

It doesn't look like super AI-e, which would have been one of my worries. Like, oh, did they just throw this in AI? Like, I'm sure against some of it was used. But I sense a human hand was behind this. I like how colorful it is. Again, they went for excess. They went for excess. They went for pizzazz.

And that's not really, pizzazz is not really what I think of when I think MMA. So I'm pleasantly surprised, I guess, at how it looks. but I would not wear this myself. Here comes the reveal. You guys ready for this? I'll start a new poll. I'll start a new poll. Here we go.

Here's the reveal. There it is. So that's the shirt. Soak it in. I'll give you like seven or eight extra seconds. I'm going to put it in a poll. Would you wear this shirt? By the way, Mike, our results are our last poll.

62% think that Gichi is writing his own tweet. So you are on the side of you are on the right side. So this is my initial thought. Because you DM me and like it's popped in my head immediately. And you can appreciate this, okay, because you have gone to pro wrestling shows. Remember when you went to pro wrestling shows in like the attitude era? And you're walking around and like, you're like, you know what? I want to go inside and buy an Austin 316 t-shirt.

It's 25 bucks inside. But then you go outside. You're walking in. You're like half mile from the arena. And there's people out there selling shirts that they made themselves. this is what this reminds me of. Like this is the, this is like the,

well, instead of getting the, the WrestleMania awesome 316 t-shirt, this is the fan-made, sell-out on the sidewalk, WrestleMania t-shirt. Like, that's what this is.

It's super weird. We have some great... It looks like a softball jersey. Like, it looks like a softball to be all-star jersey. Speaking my language. You are not taking away from this. That's, again,

feature, not a bug. A lot of great replies here. X Duran 1 says looks like clothes at the gas station. That's kind of what you're saying, Mike. It's kind of bootleggy. At perplexed by that, that shirt screams, I've had a domestic violence charge. Come on.

Come on. It's a Mike ECW. Yes, very. That is excellent, actually. He may need to sue. He may need to sue. It's very Mikey whipbreadcoded. Holy shit.

Plushy pictures. That looks like something I'd wear to a local hot dog eating competition. Spot on. Spot. Yes. Hammy 248 says that's the most AI shirt I've ever seen. I don't know. I think like it is hard to tell these days.

I just think because the design is fairly like at least the placement, everything is so generic. I think we associate that with AI now. I think a human did this. Did a human spend more than a couple of hours on this? Okay, maybe that's another question. But I don't think it's just full on AI. It could be wrong. Oh, great question.

Great question. How much is the shirt? I don't know. Let's look it up. Everybody take a guess. Everyone take a guess. I'm going to say, I'm guessing before I look it up, I'm going to say $50. Oh, no.

This is at least $100. You think it's 100? Yeah. It's a T-shirt. Hammy says $250 for every year. All right. Time like, oh, let's see. Let's see.

Where is the shirt? George is getting upset says that costs is your dignity. Where is it? What is happening? Where is the damn shirt? Uh, well, I have to check. Was there a link from the, uh, oh, there it is. There it is. I have it. Okay. It is less than 100.

75. It is less than 50. No way. You ladies and gentlemen can buy this shirt right now at the UFC store for the low, low, low price of $43.99. Hmm. I mean. That's way better than I thought How do you see this? I can't even see this

Maybe I can't get it in Canada You have to scroll down all the all they Jesus There's some bad shirts here I was just about to say now that you've made me Look at this website Look at this other Freedom 250 shirt That looks like a golf ball

Like that red is even like American red It's like maroon What is this? What the hell is that? The tie-dye one with the with the president's seal is $55 dollars. Let me do some quick.

I mean, for you guys, it's under, for me, $43 is, oh, $60 Canadian. Still a bargain. There's some that are $39.99. They have a lot of gear for this. Holy cow. Oh, but you could buy a youth size for your children for $39.99. Okay. $43.99 is not a horrible price on it.

No, and it might be more appropriate for a child if we're being. Wow. Yeah. Two easy installments of $22.2.2 right there. I don't hate this. I should. I should, but I don't. I will super chat you the amount for the shirt right now if you wear it for the watch party. Jeez. Who said that? Oh, perplexed by that.

Perplexed by that? I might. God. My one concern is that if I ordered it now, would I get it in time? Oh, it would be true. that's by one concern because I ordered the I ordered the Austin 316 t-shirt for that watch party and

I ordered it two weeks before and it came the day of they kept getting delayed and delayed and delayed and I got it like the morning of the event so like barely by the by an inch I ended up getting it

he'll buy both God are we going to do this Wow. I love it if you did. I'd love it if you did. I honestly have to think about this. I have to think about it. I have to,

maybe make that a poll. Should Mike wear the shirt on the watch part? It's going to be a hundred. I'm not even going to bother. That's like 100%. Who's going to say no? Get two for Jed. Get one for Jed too.

By the way, 71% firmly people saying they would not wear the shirt. You guys are liars. 71% of people are liars. like this would not wear the shirt they say they would not wear the shirt I'm surprised 71% I thought it'd be like 97% liars

would you wear it I'd wear it I'd wear it ironically remember you got to buy it and then wear it ironically no someone had to buy it for me for sure but uh you know I'm in Canada which would make it like

10 times funnier yeah maybe you're walking around the streets of Toronto with that shirt people would be like super funny you'd be like a spurs fan in New York yeah like what are you doing who are you trying to impress

So yeah, I absolutely do it. My wife would not. She does not have that kind of sense of humor. She would just be like, there's no way. She's, you're not, I'd have to wait for her to go on a trip or something, and that's the only way I'd really get away with it. George getting upset kind of nails at the fact that you have to be paid to wear it for the lulls, says it all. Fair, fair.

True that. True that. Is there anything else we haven't touched on yet? I don't know. There's so much happening right now. Just so much happening. Yeah. R.F.

Coming up on Saturday. 12 matches. When can people expect to see you there, Mike? You're going to arrive. So I am flying out Friday morning. My first flight is at 5.20 a.m. Okay. And then I have a connection.

I should be in St. Louis by like 8.45 local time, which is about an hour behind. Play it's time to rest up then before all the R.A. Flight. Before the presser, which starts at 3 p.m. Eastern. We can't stream it, obviously. But you can watch it on Fox Station. We'll obviously have all the the breakouts of all the MMA matches.

So the last three matches are very MMA-centric. So it's the featured match is Aaron Pico versus Lance Palmer. The co-main event is Armand Sarukian versus Tony Ferguson. I can't believe I'm saying that. And then the main event is Hamzaa Shemaya versus Dylan Danis. Amazing.

Insane. Imagine last year, like the same time last year, if we had said, oh, you're going to get Hamzat and Sean Strickland and Hamza and Dylan Danis within a span of a month. You'd be like, what? The hell are you talking about? And it's happening.

I mean, yeah, so that's going to be very fun. And then Saturday morning, guys, Eddie Hall is boxing Tommy Fury. It'll be actually Saturday afternoon. Yeah, right. Misfits boxing is back. Eddie Hall is going to go out and knock out Tommy Fury, and then he's heading to MVP MMA to go fight Francis and Ghana over.

It is everything. You think Tommy's going to beat him? I don't miss making him box even a little bit. I mean, he's fucking 400 pounds, dude. Did I watch his last? Because he had the box. Did he box the guy from the Game of Thrones? No, that was Puds, right?

No, he did. He did. Was any hall? Yeah, didn't he win that fight? Yeah, that fight was, I remember it being bad. But then he fought two people, and that was the best. Okay. And then he fought Pooge and wrecked, just destroyed him.

Yeah, yeah. He fought Thor Burence. Yeah, yeah, the drones. No, he lost. He lost the decision. the guy from drought so there you go i mean that was his first fight a k hey come on now he's gonna go fight francis and mbma it's gonna be incredible god biggest fight at the weekend yeah exactly george he beat two small dudes he can be one tommy very i i don't know why i i don't

know why i don't darren till has apparently been banned from the event uh last thing i wanted to ask you about i k because this is a hot topic on twitter i'm surprised you didn't get any questions about this but i'm gonna pull it up and i'm gonna read you a quote and i want you to react to this now are in Canada. I'm not making fun of you for this. But maybe you don't, the context might be a little different because you have a different football league. Where is the actual quote? Let me find it. It's a Canadian football question.

Ah, whether you have C, this is from MAAfighting.com. It's great website. Oh my goodness. Okay. This is from Dana White to TNT sports. For UFC fans all over the world, this is a very, very unique experience for everybody. We're expecting Super Bowl-type numbers for this fight. Super Bowl-type numbers. It seems a little...

Seems like a bold take, is it not? No, we have had some confusion over this because as far as we know, and I've seen some websites listed, I think actually, I think CB... I should check this real quick. Oops, whoa, I almost closed out of this chat. is CBS Sports.com saying that they are going to air part of this event on CBS.

Because we have not seen that anywhere. It's not airing on CBS at all. It's not airing on CBS. I saw someone post a screenshot somewhere where like it showed the schedule. I mean, there might be like some programs, some answer your program. No, I definitely don't see. I'm literally on the CBS website right now. And all I see is subscribe to Paramount Plus.

So, yeah. And also, so if you go to Paramount Plus, there's good. Paramount Plus has sort of this very hard-to-find schedule page for the UFC. And they update it regularly, which is good. But, yes, that only says Paramount Plus there. So very bizarre. So logistically, it can't possibly hit those numbers. So I don't know.

CBSSports.com. Where to watch UFC Freedom 250. Watch live. And they have a subscribe to Paramount Plus. That's all I saw. saw, that's all I saw. So just like logistically, I don't know how Dana White is going to plan to, like, even if it does a great number, how are they going to push it as being near to a Super Bowl?

Because Super Bowl does over 100 million viewers every year, over 100 and like 20 million viewers every year. I don't know how they can like hit that number. Maybe percentage if they want to say, oh, 98% of people subscribe to Paramount Plus tuned in, plus Paramount Plus added X tens of thousands of subscribers. I don't know. Is that the only way? Because, yes, just taking him literally, it can't possibly hit Super Bowl.

So just to put it into context for everybody, the most recent Super Bowl where your New England Patriots got brand the F over by the Seattle CEO. It happens. It was the second most watched television program in the history of the United States of America. America, average of 125.6 million viewers. There is no effing way on earth that this event is doing 125 million viewers. I'm not ruling it out. There's just so much against it. One that's on CBS, and even if it was on CBS, they're not coming near those numbers.

Because MMA is just not that sport. It's just not. Secondly, it's a Sunday night. This is a Sunday night. this is not the Super Bowl this is not where the world is watching the NFL is the biggest thing on earth it is so big

when it comes to sporting events Super Bowl is like women watch it kids watch it they all look forward to it for different ways whether it's the halftime show or they want to watch the commercials or they want to watch football or their favorite team is playing

like everybody's watching the Super Bowl there's just not it's just not going to happen there's just no chance there's just no chance especially on a Sunday night if this is a Saturday, I think the numbers would actually close to double, honestly.

So what you're saying is like, so I had to check. So as far as we know, Paramount Plus has like 80 million subscriber count. I think that's if you look it up. That's the US subscriber account. I assume that's US because we have in Canada too. I just don't think I imagine we're not adding that much numbers. I bet. How can you watch it, by the way?

I don't know. Because we have Paramount Plus here. but as I've said many times, we don't have the same deal you guys have. Yeah, let me go to UFC.com real quick. I'm sorry. I'm being stupid here. The UFC.com has a separate listing for Canadians. It will be on.

Oh, what the, no. It's not five pass? No. If you go to UFC.com right now, it says on pay-per-view. What? No way. Listen, to my corporate overlords, I apologize that you're going to have to, you're going to have to, you're going to have to call.

me on this one so yeah hey listen a k you just got six more months of buying pay-per-views and then you're back with everybody else this is true but but the thing is like what what so what would we consider to be to live up to what day away because you're saying like you doubt like even let's okay 80 million scrip you doubt even half so we're saying like no not even 40 million subscriber of the people who already subscribe will tune in like 50 percent 40 million would be a huge number if if they could verify that 40 million people tuned in to at least like half an hour of UFC White House, that'd be huge, right? That'd be crazy. Are people, like, if, again, here's another

thing that's hurting it. If this was an afternoon, if this started like 5 p.m., that would help tremendously. That'd be huge, huge. Tremendously. It also be hot as hell. It'll be hot as hell anyway, but like, imagine starting in the middle of the day. Yeah. I've talked to casual viewers of the sport this week, and they're,

they're, the idea of a UFC event at the White House scratches them right where the edge. Then they said, oh, you're watching it on Paramount, right? Yeah. Okay, what time's the start? And I said,

8 p.m. Eastern or 8 p.m. and they were like, wait, it starts at 8 p.m.? Like, yeah. Like, what times are it going to end? Like, midnight, 1 a.m. And they're like, I don't know if I'm going to watch it.

Like, they were just, they were puzzled by this fact that it starts so late on the East Coast. How many subscribers would it need to add for you consider this to be like a big hit for, Like, they can't for Paramount Plus. A million?

Is that even possible? I mean, what would be, like, do you think? Because let me tell you, if that happens, we will know about it immediately. Will this do better numbers than the MVP card? Remind me of how MVP did it again. MVP viewership numbers. What was their peak? They peaked at 17?

I think so. Yeah. Yes, it will. Yes, it will. You think so? I'm just assuming people that are subscribed. If that number is accurate, it's 80 million user fees. It peaked at 17 million.

It average 12.4 million. I bet you, boy, I bet you this will peak. It is tough because it's so late on a Sunday. But people are degenerates. Will this be the most watched MMA event in the history of the United States? 9.3 million viewers. So that was the biggest. And then peak of 11.6.

So it needs to peak better than 11.6 million. So MVP, MVP, that was MVP's peak number? In the U.S. In the U.S. So what was the MVP number counting globally? 12.4 on average, 17 million peak. U.S. most watched MMA event in the history of the U.S. 9.3 million average peak of 11.6 million.

Okay, okay, okay. Will it beat love? Yeah, I think it'll totally definitely beat the U.S. record. Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. Again, I did not know how many subscribers perinoplas had. I think 80 million is a pretty decent subscriber base. Yeah, it'll beat that, for sure, for sure.

How many people are going to watch from beginning to end is another question. But like we said, so the average number might be different. But I think it's going to peak pretty high. And you like you said, we will find out about it very quickly. Probably the night of. It's going to. We'll see. And then it'll be surpassed by the ultimate fighter.

Wait, is Ultimate Fighter going to be on at like 2.30 in the morning? Yes. Yes. Oh, wow. It's going to be a rough day at work for people because they're going to obviously watch. Or maybe they'll like fall asleep like in the middle of the White House card and wake up for the ultimate fighter. Premier. I mean, they can DVR.

No. It's on Paramount Plus. They can wake up the next morning and watch it. You can't devia. Well, then you've got to wake up early anyway because you can't go to work because everyone's going to be talking about it and they're going to spoil it. I think you're going to be okay. You can probably set that as the lead on Monday. the results page

yeah we'll see if they beat the MVP card this is a gigantic win I think they will does MVP how bad is it look for MVP if this beats it

I don't that looks bad at all I think it looks real bad honestly they're on Netflix on a Saturday with way more casual appeal than this card has I think this is bad like it's super bad but I think just like with

the MVP car. Remember how kind of like burnt out we were like not as burnt out as this. We're a little more burnt out at White House coverage for sure. But we were, remember we said like, ah, they didn't do a great job in like the immediate weeks leading up to MVP, but like it felt like it had lost a lot of buzz, right? Didn't we felt like didn't we feel like it had cold off? They had the first press conference, which is great. And the buzz was high. Then they did the New York press conference, which just sucked the life out of the event.

And then it was the whole like media thing. The problem with the MVP stuff is, everything was just like three, times longer than it needed to be. Like the fight week press conference was like 90. It was like it was over an hour. Like no press conference in the history of sports should be over should be that long. It should be. And that's one thing the UFC does very well is they,

they know when to end things. Like that press conference on Friday is going to be super weird. Hokit's going to be hoakit. And take over the thing and all hell is going to break loose. But that shit's going to be over in 30. like 30 minutes that shit's going to be wrapped and packed and that's like that's enough and that is not what happened with it with the MVP card they everyone had had 40 questions asked to them it just never ended and that's how like the whole thing was like the way ins everything was never ending so I don't know look I hope I hope that this does massive numbers I hope it does a billion views that's what I hope the MVP card did I wish that did a billion views it didn't if this beats the MVP card it's it's not a good look

I'm going to say a peak 20 million keep in mind keep in mind I was also overly optimistic for the MVP card if you guys go I remember I can't remember it goes with a preview show I can't remember my number it was way over what it ended up being

so I was not close to 30 you said 20 to 30 I was not close on that so I'm doing the same thing here 20 million I'm saying 25% of Paramount Plus subscribers will be tuning in And at one time, at one time, you'll have, I wonder, I hope the streaming service can handle this. Because I wonder what their usual traffic is.

I think you're crazy. Okay. I think you're crazy. America. I hope you're, God, I hope you're right. I nailed the MVP one. I said it was going to do 12. Yeah, yeah, which is, yeah, 11.6, yeah.

This will be, at least in the United States. This would be the second most watched UFC event of all time. Oh, it's going to, oh, oh, UFC event specifically. UFC event. Okay. JDS, the Fox event, did 8.8 million for JDSKN, that Fox card. Peak, that's peak. This is going to do less than that.

Wow. I'm going to say, I'm going to say 8.2 million. Wow, 8.2. Peak, like a peak of 8.2. or average. Average are pretty good. Hmm. That's a good question.

All right, the peak will be bigger than 8.8. Okay. It's so hard to say because, again, we're assuming the peak will be the main event, but the main event will be at one. Okay, you know what? I'm wrong. I'm wrong.

Average 6.85 million with the peak at 8.2 million. Okay, wow, so specific. All right, well, guys, listen, like you said, you nailed MVP. Yeah, I'm, curious. Again, I don't really have a good gauge for American ratings, obviously, but I'm just, I want to, and I kind of agree lazy here, like, because of the demographic of the subscriber base, the event peaked in the beginning, as opposed to the main event.

You know, it might peak at Hawkeett Lewis. Like, there was actually a very realistic chance it peaks at Hawkett Lewis because of just the timing, because of how laid the card is. The problem, like, this is, this is why I'm so curious about the pacing. because if we get if fans tune in for Diego Lopez Steve Garcia like they are going to be in for a treat

like that is the best way to start this card people are going to stick around and be like I can't wait for the next fight what is it? I have to stay but then if they have to wait an hour for the next fight they're going to be like nope I'm out I'm out of here

so it's going to be it's going to be interesting I hope this does well I hope it does massive numbers sure Um, yeah. And there you go. Well, we'll find out. It certainly won't be Super Bowl numbers.

That is for sure. No, no. That is crazy talk. I mean, even globally, that ain't going to come close to that. Now, does Dana mean like, you know how Dana is. It sometimes you say something, but it's like, no, I'm not saying viewership. I mean like social media numbers and this and that. Like it'll do good on social.

It'll be great social. It's going to be, oh, incredible on social. if he's talking about that like this could this could do that this could do it but if we're talking like who's going to watch this card there's just no way there's just no way

and I saw people like Ryan Frederick was like getting in arguments with people they're like oh yeah it's definitely going to do Super Bowl numbers Ryan's like what how it says 125 million you think 125 million people are going to watch this event

no way no way and it's not even the it's not even the event it's just MMA as a sports can't produce that type of number. I'm curious, does this do better than the Connor Max card? Yeah, that's going to be the real debate when we see how this one does. Yeah, I want to, that'll be the next conversation we have to have, I think. That's going to be a big week.

This is a big week, Mike. Five days, five days away. We're actually almost there. Can you believe it by my best friend? Five days away from UFC happening on the White House, the White House lawn. It's got to be a week, my friends. no sleep to be found and that's okay

that's okay we'll be running on full adrenaline and it's gonna be a great time that is the music means we're getting ready to wrap up here so lots of stuff coming your way like I said Jose is in the nation's capital right now

he's knocking out a bunch of anything but fightings so stay tuned for that my interview with Derek Lewis I believe is dropping in like six minutes on the YouTube channel so go check that out and media day tomorrow will be live for media day so you get to hear from all the participants

and more by the way you'll hear from the likes of john annick daniel cormier Craig broussari who is the man that's like behind the setup and the production of this entire event uh so you'll hear from them Thursday there's nothing i think there's just like a tour of the lawn so stick to m a fighting com for that and then friday it's raf presser it's misfits weigh-ins it's ufccc White House Presser, Saturday, weigh-ins for the UFC White House card, Hall versus Fury, R-AF-10, and then the big thing on Sunday.

What a week it is got to be sick of this, Semi-Fighting.com. For A.K. Oh, sorry, Mike. 47-5. 72% would not wear that shirt. Oh, 72%. Close a hold.

Very strongly against. We'll see you next week, everybody. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Support for this show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough. So why make you? it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other. Introducing Odu. It's the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform that makes your work

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