MMA Fighting - BTL | UFC 289 Fallout, Nunes Retires, Oliveira Shines, Weekend Tripleheader, More

Episode Date: June 15, 2023

UFC 289 is in the books, and will go down to most in the MMA community as a card that exceeded expectations, and also saw one of the best to ever compete inside the UFC's octagon calling it a career after a dominant final title defense. On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel discusses the aftermath of this past Saturday's pay-per-view event, Amanda Nunes retiring following her win over Irene Aldana, and where the women's 135-pound division goes from here. Additionally, topics include Charles Oliveira's first-round finish of Beneil Dariush and if the rematch for the lightweight title with Islam Makhachev is the fight to make, Bellator 297 this Friday, featuring Patricio Pitbull's quest to become a three-division champion, if it's the best card of the weekend, plus UFC Vegas 75, PFL 5, and more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and Alexander K. Lee.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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

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

And now, your host, my... The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition. of BTL. Thank you for having us on another Thursday. A lot to talk about this week on the show. A lot of fights coming up this weekend. Some storylines coming out of this past weekend's UFC 289 event in Vancouver. We'll discuss all of that and more. But first, let us introduce the panel in this number one contender battle. New York Rick is watching this very closely as we introduce the man from No Betts Bard. Mr. Hot Take always brings the fire. And guess what? He's not afraid of height. So he's here live and in the flesh.

MMA Fighting Zone, Jed Bishu. Hello, Jed, welcome back. Wait a second. Ricky's the champion. Holy shit, this show has fallen off. If Ricky's the champion, I gotta get things back in order, guys. Sorry about that.

Looking to get back to a BTL title shot, the Prince of Positivities from on to the next one and tough hang, also from MMAfighting.com. Mr. Alexander Kay Lee. Hello, my best friend. How are you? best friend. Jedd, making Newer Crick sound like he's going to be like the Juliana Pena of BTL. Come on now. I think he's more esteemed than that. Jed, let's face off, face off Belator style.

Listen, we won't let jargon feet. We've got technology. Bellator style only works if one of us is there in real life. Oh, you're right. You can't both be doing it digitally. One of us has to be with Mike, like with Mike. Yeah, let me square off here. All right. That's true. That's a good point. Yes, very good point. So let's get into UFC 289 right off the bat because Amanda Nunes dominates Irene Aldana. What a performance she had.

It was a pillar to post type of performance. Gets it done, barely broke a sweat. And then she announced her retirement from the sport, which I don't think was a surprise to anybody. So Jed, I want to begin with you. You were on the post fight show, so we kind of got your immediate reaction to everything. But look, there's been a lot of talk about the goats and legacies.

the performance, et cetera. We touched on a lot of that already. But one thing we haven't really touched on in terms of our actual retirement, Jed, because we don't get a lot of good ones in the sport. Usually it's too late or too much time has passed. It's sad leading into it. And not a lot of fighters do it on top and do it on their terms. So to me, this is about as good as an MMA retirement can get.

But where does this one rank for you in terms of best retirements after a fight, the timing, all of it? Oh, this has got to be number one all time, right? Like, I think pretty easily. I mean, first, there just aren't many good ones. We've had a few more in recent years, which is a, that's great, fantastic. It's a wonderful thing for the sport to start having good instead of sad retirements. So, but we still overall don't have that many of them.

And even the ones we do tend to have some patina of off or of unfortunate. about it. Like prior to noon his retirement on Saturday, I think the runners for for best retirement are between Habib and GSP and both of those have their own problems. Like GSP's retirement is probably the second cleanest retirement, but he didn't retire in the cage. There was, you know, this potential for him to come back, but then he couldn't because the UFC wouldn't let him do the things he wanted or pay him. So it kind of ended without. ending as the clean split in the way Nunes got on Saturday, even if it was this triumphant last fight of winning a second belt doing the thing.

And then Habib, who probably has the other best retirement, I mean, his has the specter of Abdulman not paying over it. He did not retire because he had completed the game. He retired because his father passed away tragically, and he no longer wanted to play. And so even though kind of looking back, that's still a good retirement by most metrics. It is a very sad retirement.

This wasn't sad at all. I don't know if you guys stay and watch the whole thing or if you cut out as soon as the, you know, the fight was over and the interviews were done. But Nunes was hanging around in that cage for some time dancing, you know, just partying with the team. This was a happy, happy moment. I think it's the greatest of a retirement we've ever seen.

So it was awesome. It's going to live on forever. AK, do you agree with this? Is this the best retirement of all time? It was super fun. It was super fun. We have to give an extra shout out to the cut man for coming in clutch because she was, she was right away, it was like, oh, oh, the gloves, the gloves.

We got to cut off the gloves. And I mean, that guy had to go in there with those scissors. I was, I can't remember, oh, I was on the watch party with you guys. And I was saying, if that was me and I was that cut man, I would be terrified. My hands would be trembling. I'd probably end up sniffing like part of, snipping one of Amanda Nunes his fingers off. I'd be so scared.

Again, it's not his first rodeo of his job. He's done this a million times. But holy crap, like he probably wasn't expecting to have to do that, even though there was a lot of, you know, retirement talk ahead of time. So huge, listen, we got to give him the hat to it made it better. I'll probably still put it second behind,

Habeb. And maybe, look, the content itself was fantastic. I did let listen. You had a little Reagan in there dancing. Nina was in there. That was all amazing. Good speech. We got to give her her flowers.

you know, and still in her relative prime, still feeling like that she could fight more. So there's like a twinge of, I mean, if you're a fan of Menunez, which I am, there's a twinge of like, oh, you know, I want to see her fight again. I know she can defend this title like probably one, two more times, but I'm also happy to see her go.

And she seems pretty, you know, for the most part, pretty healthy. And we know that she has another baby on the way. So taking everything into context, that was great. But I'll still go with Habib, because there's a part of me that needs to see, like that needs to make sure she's is good and gone. Because listen, Jed mentioned GSP and that was great.

We know for like, but it did take him a while before we were like, okay, he's gone, gone. There was all that talk. Like if there was enough money, of course, him and Habib wanted to fight each other. And then it just kind of happened one day where he was, I think he did a press conference. He's like, yes, I am retired. I'm not coming back. And that's great. And we know that one's done.

That's a completed retirement. Habib, I'm pretty sure he's never coming back unless, again, as I said before, Charles beats Islam Kazakhstan Khabi Give it up Okay listen All right

All right All right All right Fine fine fine I just Listen I'm trying to slide That one under the fence

Slide that one in there But I don't think he's coming back Amanda If God help us If somehow Juliana Pena Actually talks her back Into coming

Again slim chance I think Like we're talking Zero point 05% chance Maybe less But if that happens That would really spoil

that retirement for me. So I'm giving it a tentative like a plus, but it's still incomplete for me. So again, we don't have the benefit of hindsight yet. So we do have that with Habib. So I'll still give the nod to Habib. But yes, Amanda, if she sticks to her word and enjoys her retirement, as she should, it's right up there. What I love so much about the retirement and even like the fights leading into it is that she didn't retire out of spite. And I feel like she retired for herself, there was like probably 10% of her being that retired out of spite so that she didn't get to fight Giuliana Pena again because Giuliano was there.

She talked about like storming the cage, trying to have a moment. Didn't happen. And there's no way Giuliana Pena is the one that's going to get Amanda Nune is back. I don't think she's coming back. And if she does, it certainly is because of Giuliana Pena. So great retirement. I agree with both you guys. It's one or two, probably no lower than that.

Now, I do want to talk about Arini Aldana, AK, because. look, it's tough to sort of kick somebody while they're down, but this is a bad performance from Arrani Aldana. It's a great performance from Nunes. I don't want to take anything away from the performance, but Arrini Aldana just didn't have it. In my opinion, this is one of the worst performances from a challenger in a title fight in quite some time.

She at least admitted to not being at her best, but she's rearing to go back to the drawing board, come back and find her way into a title shot, and she wants to become a world champion. So how long is that road back for her? And what's the next step towards achieving this goal in your eyes? It's not that long. I mean, the road isn't that long.

We're talking about the road at Women's 135, which just logistically can't be that long. She's honestly one good win away. She really is. I was probably too kind with my appraisal. I think, you know, again, we were on the watch party and I was watching and I'm like, man at least Aldana's tough

and just hanging in there and I feel like she's sticking to her game plan and then when I thought about the I didn't rewatch the fight but I did think about the fight after her. I'm like oh yeah she pretty much just got creamed

like and her and her team certainly can't be happy with that performance it just she was just never in it there was just no big moment where we were like ooh like al Donna looks like she has a chance

and really really didn't and again credit to Nunes you know let's not just focus on the negative credit to Nunes she was awesome I think one of the best performance of her career I know we love the first round finishes but as far as like going five rounds, this was fantastic for her.

But yeah, Nunes didn't look great. Sorry, Aldana didn't look great. Excuse me. I understand a lot of people thinking, well, she doesn't, she shouldn't get a shot again based on that. And it was tough. But I think she really is one to win a way. The division isn't deep.

At some point, the UFC is going to go back to Mexico. And I get it. They have, again, it's not looking like it's going to be this year. They are going to go back there. And it doesn't, maybe Brandon Merno still champ by then. Maybe Alexis Grasso is still champ by then. That's great. They have a bunch of options.

but maybe a year Rodriguez is champ, you know, maybe he beats Volk or Volkley's the division. Either way, they have options. But I think Alana is going to be one of those options too. And what better way than if she's not the champ by then, which, again, I doubt it, to have her challenge for the title, whether it's against, I don't know, Gagliana Pena, Raquel Pennington, Mata Buenos Aires, Holly Holm. I mean, Holly Holmolm versus Aldana, too, in Mexico. It doesn't sound great, but the Mexico part makes it a little more exciting.

So I don't think she's that far away. I think it's one win-away. And there's absolutely a world where Aldana becomes UFC champion. This is women's band-in-weight. This is women's band-to-way. It's not a great division. It's not a great division. And Al-Dana is still a top-five fighter.

And as long as she's in that mix and gets the right match-up, gets the right circumstances, absolutely she could have UFC gold around her waist someday. Jed, most people who watch the show, and especially on the rankings panel know how high in regard, how high in regard you put the women's band and white division. Way, it on far, baby. burn it to the ground.

But A.K. Thanks, Erina, Aldana. One win and gets back to a title fight. Do you feel like the road is that quick, or do you feel it's a little bit longer for her after this performance? No, I mean, it's one win and she's back because this division is abhorrently bad. So it's just what it is.

Like, I'm not here to sugarcoat it for you. This is the worst division that makes martial arts. That's a real division. Featherweight isn't a real division. so it doesn't count. This is bad. Like, I mean, just think about what's about to happen. Pena is about to fight Rocky Pennington for the belt.

Pennington does deserve a title shot. Pena, I guess. She was a former champion. Sure. Fine. Doesn't really deserve it, but no one else does. So it's fine. After that, the winner of Holly Holme, My Brain of Silva,

is almost certainly going to face the winner of the vacant title match. And then who is it? The longest win streak in the division's three friggin fights, Mike, outside of Rocky. Like, that's it. And that's, that's MBS who's probably going to lose to Holly home. So it's just like there's no one to face her. Like, whoever becomes champion has to have bodies to compete against. And that's it.

Like, maybe Valentina Shepchenko bumps up depending on what goes on with Alexa Grasso whenever they do rematch. but other than that there's no one in line so if reina al dana can get in and face is jana santos still fighting is she retired i'm not sure he's still fighting i believe then yeah yana santos who i think is on a two-fight losing streak if memory serves is like number seven or something hold on let me look at the uc rankings right now but blah blah i'm sorry Rianos Santos number six. So maybe Aldana fights Caitlin Vieira for an ex-tit. She beats that, then sure.

Like, there just simply aren't the bodies to do anything here. And nobody's, you know, not a young crop of fighters banging down the door to, to, you know, take over the rain. So she probably gets another title shot if she can win one. I don't know if she can or not. She's not a great fighter. But if she can, she'll get one. Two things that really stood out about this conversation. One, as soon as you started talking about the women's man and weight division, flashes of thunder and lightning outside of the house, started downpouring.

Pretty funny. Oh, that's a bad sign. And two, just trying to iron out how we're going to crown a new champion. And the mere mention of Giuliana Pena's name has led to different inflections in the voice. But I want to have some fun with this. And Jed will start with you. Because as you said, Nunes is gone. Julianna Pena wants it.

Raquel Pennington wants it. probably the most deserving. You mentioned the Holly Holie home, Meyer, Buenos Silva, main event coming up in July. I'm giving you the book, Jed. Call me Dana White. I'm handing you the book

for you to decide how to crown this new champion. How do we do it? Who is involved? What does it look like? Whatever you decide, that's what we're going to do. So this is magic wand,

not what will happen? Oh, it's magic wand. It's what you would do if you had the power to do it. If I had the full power, I would end this division. I'm not even joking. I would just get rid of it until such time as it can be a real division. That is not an option.

That's not an option, though. Okay. I mean, Rocky Pennington gets to fight for the belt. She absolutely deserves it. She's the only person in this white class who deserves anything right now. and I refuse to put Giuliana Pena in a title fight because I don't like her. I'm not even going to pretend that there's any other reason. I just don't, the less that she's on my television screen, the happy I will be as a human being.

So I'm going to go Rocky Pennington versus Valentina Schifchenko, who's just going to abandon flyweight. You know what? I don't need flyweight. Grasso beat me fair and square. She can go fight Aaron Blanchfield. Good luck with that. You have fun. I'm going to bump up to Bannonway and I will be taking on Rockell Pennington to win my second UFC title.

AK, how would you do it? And Jed mentioned Aaron Blanchfield. She seems to be interested in wanting to go up and maybe fight for that title if the opportunity is available. So you got the book, AK, how do we do this? Mike, we talked about this a little bit on Otno, but I feel like I may have buried the lead. I feel like it wasn't the headline of our show. this division cannot wait this long for a new champion. How long are we going to wait to crown a new champion in one of...

Hopefully four or five years. In one of MMA's most illustrious divisions. Because the way we're talking about it, I'm like, I mean, we have to wait until the end of the year. I might until November, December, before we actually have a title fight. Because I don't know, I don't know when they would plan to book, again, let's presume it was Pena and Pennington. I guess it wouldn't have to be that long.

But again, we've heard nothing yet. Nothing's put pen to paper. If anything, no one's even talking about it because Pena can't stop talking about Nunez. And, you know, Pennington's pretty low-key. She's not out there calling shots. She never does that. But we do have a fight on July 15th at the UFC Apex.

And this is a chance, guys, to give some juice to one of these UFC Vegas cards. Listen, Holly Homer, Bruno Silva. I think we said it's Silva that has the longest win streak. Three. It's behind Pennington, but yes. Who has, oh, like five, I think, right? Five. six, five.

We have Pennington's on five or six. Scorching, scorching. Maida Buono Silva, a little bit cooler, but certainly worthy of a title in this division. So, UFC, do the right thing. Make Holly Holm. For the vacant phantom weight title, we can't wait too long to have 135 pound champion. It's been too long since we've seen Holly Holm in a title fight. This used to be like an annual event.

What's last time Holly Home? What's last time Holly Home fought for it? I'm like, oh, years, four years. Manonanus, Mananinez, the featherweight. Oh, this is a bantamweight fight? I actually don't recall that. That was a featherweight. Bantamweight chattel fight with Bannanunas four years ago.

Too long. Let's end the national nightmare. Let's get this division back on track with a champion, and let's have it be either Hollyholm on Marenda Buenos Silva. Ratings, guys, ratings. We got to, people say, we always complain, all these apex cars don't matter. Let's put the bantamate title fight on there. There you go.

It's a problem solved. I did it. Mike, I have an update. update for you. So my people got in contact. Shevchenko said no. She was just like, hey, no, I want to get that one back. We'll move up to Bannon Way later, but I'm focused on, you know, I want to move up as champion. So I'm going to respectfully decline. Got to respect her, you know, one of the greats. So instead got on the phone with Mick Maynard. We're going to, it's going to take a little bit of

doing. The paper is not signed yet, but here's what we're doing instead. There's a wonderful woman who I think can be the standard bear for this weight class. Maybe not for years to come, but can certainly give it some much-needed juice over the short term. Big star. And just today, just today, Mike, successfully outrushed Marshawn Lynch on a reality television show. I'm talking about former champion Ronda Rousey. Now that Amanda Nunes is no longer there to bash her brain. in ronda's got to be looking at this and like i could probably come off the couch and arm bar rocky

pennington that's very much in play for me right here maybe vince will let me slide for six months like he did with brockd out one time and i can just go make a triumphant return to mixed martial arts you know grease rocky real fast and then pretend like i'm going to fight holly you know maybe even fight holly maybe even rematch holly who is not the same holly she was at the peak of her powers So that's what we're doing now. When Valentina rejected us, we're doing full court press on Ronda Rousey to come back. Wow.

Can you imagine that? I hate that. I would pick Rhonda to beat so many women in the UFC of 135. Most of the women at 135 now that Amanda Nunes is no longer the champion. Get her back. Get her back like, you know, M.A training for like a month. And God, I think she just smashes.

Dude, I think I'm taking her to beat Pena. Straight up, I think I'm taking her to be Pena. No comment. No. How can you say Panyo was responsible for one of your greatest predictions ever, Jed? How can you turn on her like this? Because I used her for this great moment. Oh, my God.

Never, never need to be involved with Giuliana Pena again. Horrible. Wow. Horrible. I'm telling you. It's hard to transition from that. If Dana still cared, if the UFC still had to try and make money the honest way, instead of just put their hands out for ESPN to dump cash in their laps,

Dana would immediately be calling on to write in a second. And just like, hey, Amanda's gone. It's okay to come out of hiding now. You can return to unscripted fighting and you should fight Ernie Aldana. you will wax Ridi Aldana for the belt or whatever. Like, just do it. It would be sick. This is the thing we shall be hoping for.

More Rhonda back in our lives to be a lunatic. It'll be the best. I got to tell you. I know you don't watch a ton of WWE programming, Jed, but the timing could not be any better for this idea to happen because Rhonda is not over at all. AK told me she was back with WWE this morning. She is.

She is, but she is not over at all. People are kind of done with Rhonda from a WW viewership listening. Wow. You got to go juice the numbers. Get back to beat and re-last and people must have forgot. You got to remind them. Really interesting. All right.

Well, if this happens, I would like a parade, an MMA fighting parade to be thrown in my honor. I feel like you should be amazing. You should think like Julianna Payne again for making yourself like such an unsavory option for the UFC that they would go down. the Ronda route. So you would owe her again for another successful prediction. I mean, if they get her back, it probably is to fight Pena, though. They'd probably pass over rocking for Ronda. Like, why wouldn't that? If they can't get Joan Steepay or Connor Chandler done this year, that there should be a

full court press. Guys, we got to stop. Why not? We're going too far. I'm pulling on my rope. I'm pulling on my rope. I want out. All right.

Well, we got to move. on, but this is really interesting stuff. The point for round one goes to, I mean, a flash knocked on if there ever was one, Jed Mishu. If I didn't win that round, I was going to be upset. I did not see that coming. I didn't see it coming. I circled right into it.

I circled right into it and just got put in my butt. I mean, that did not see that one coming. That was a fake glove touch into a right hand from Jed Mishu. It really got me. Wow. So let's hit you. When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners, I started wondering,

could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. At just $39.99, how could I resist? This luxurious will throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss? Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard?

At these prices, could I find something for everyone at winters? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners, find fabulous for less. It's the matchat or the three ensemble Ciceroa of the FACETs that I just niche who energize o'clock. Mm, it's all right.

The form of standard and mini, regrouped, and the abend. And the embellage, too beau, who is practically pre to do it. And I know that I'd they'd offer them,

but I'm sorry the Summer Fridays and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. Mm, I'm from. The most ensembles the Candole of CEDs CETO des CETO Cepora des Rare Beauty,

Way, Cifora Collection, and other part of VIT. Procurrrify VIII. C-forma-standard and mini, regrouped for a better quality-prey. On-line, on C4A.C.A. or in magazine. Let's head to Charles Olivera, guys, because what are performance from Dubranks?

A lot of people were counting him out of this fight with Benil Daryush. And the man just delivers in spades. Big finish in the first round. He wants the rematch of this on Makachev. Could very well happen. He wants it in Brazil. That won't happen.

But the rematch could happen. Great night for Oliver, AK. Biggest takeaway from that fight and his performance. friends. Listen, I said before, I wasn't ready to get off the Charles Oliver train. It's in my predictions. You guys to see it. I don't, I think I predicted it's second round.

But I did say knock. Did I say knock out? I think I said knock out. I did say knock out. I think because Darius is just tough to submit. So happened a little bit earlier than I expected. But listen, that's what happens when you have two guys who are finishers, Darius, who has a tendency to brawl.

I just didn't like that strategy for him against Charles. And you can see why. You can see why. Some guys just have that, like, unbelievable finishing ability. It's to have that instinct. We see, you know, some guys have it at heavyweight, that death touch. I think Charles has that at lightweight. And that's pretty proven.

I mean, again, the most finishes in UFC history. I loved what I saw. I loved what I saw. I, the one thing I've never liked about Charles Oliver, getting another title shot is the, I wasn't, you know, I wasn't all there in the first fight with Islam. I don't like that kind of talk. He says he's never rewatched the fight. And I get it. I get it.

when you're at that level, when you're a championship fighter, you've got to do whatever you can to give yourself that mental advantage to shake off like a loss like that. So it's cool. If that's what's working for him is not watching the fight again and really believing that he wasn't, you know, that was whatever. That was 50% of Charles, whatever. That wasn't full of Charles.

I understand. I'm not him. He's not making an objective evaluation of that first fighter, his career. He's doing what he has to do to prepare himself for another fight with Islam, which he deserves, which he deserves. he is the second best lightweight in the world. I know we're joking last week about how it's ridiculous for someone to take pride. We're talking with promotions, taking pride and being number two and staking their claim,

like, I'm definitely number two. But for fighters, it does matter. And for me, he deserves a shot again to prove that he's number one. I don't think the fight would go the same way. I really don't. If anything, you go through championship history, you'll see rematches. There's certainly cases where they have gone this in way, but I would say more often than not.

They don't go the same way. They might have the same winner. They might have the same winner, but they don't go the same way. We just saw Adesnia and Alex Pereira. We saw, I always think of Aldo and Chad Mendez, where Aldo smoked him in the first fight, second round, five round, classic, amazing title fight. With Islam and Charles, we probably do get a finish again in the second fight. But I think he's done enough to earn.

And it's just, he's just the better option than the people who are out there because Volcanovsky really I just want to see him stay at featherweight he can run it back with Makachov someday but why does it have to be so soon Connor McCona McGregor Michael Chandler please know if one of them gets it just no and then Gaitje and poor he just beat them so other than that then you're going for dark horses to face Islam in in 294 so we assume where this next tile defense is going to happen and I just don't see I don't see why it should be anyone but Charles so he's got to go into enemy territory again and and there you go that'll be his last shot if he doesn't pull it off. Chad, biggest takeaway from Olivera's performance. I think we can all acknowledge that I've been maybe the biggest Charles Olivera supporter

on this website. For years now, I have said, this man, this man's the best lightweight on Earth. And I was laughed at by some people on this very program, they looked me in the eyes and they said you're very dumb. I can't believe you would say such things. And I think he just proved, you know, that he is arguably one of the greatest lightweight mixed martial artists of all time. And that I can't even keep it up. He doesn't deserve a lightweight title shot, man. I'm just going to be, look, he is. He's one of the all time great. It's one of the best action fighters ever. A sensational win can't take a single thing away from his performance. And like I said,

on the post show, he's going to get the title fight next. And I'm not even that upset about it. it's fine because the way this has broken out, there's not really another clear and obvious contender that meets the timeline. I would say the winner of Gaichi versus Poirier deserves it more. I do believe they deserve the title fight more, despite the fact that Olivera beat them because Oliver just lost. And one win is not, I have been consistent about this as long as I've been doing these shows. If you lose, you got to work your way back up. And getting one win, great win not again not taking anything away from that win i just need one more i need one more piece of separation between the ass beaten you got 12 months ago so i can be like oh i forgot now how thoroughly

you got worked now it will be a compelling rematch instead they're going to run it right back in the entirely same circumstances same shit's going to happen again i'm fine with it though because ultimately is what's going to happen i don't think he deserves it but there's not anyone else that deserves it too much more than him that matches up with the timeline. And maybe he can, you know, prove me wrong again. He's done it before. So this will be his opportunity. And if he doesn't, then maybe we can get Charles Oliver the welterweight afterwards.

And that can be pretty fun. Some fun things can happen up at 170 with Chuckie Olives, I believe. So not a bad outcome by any respect. It's a little bit of a bummer for me in general that where there's a very high likelihood at this point that islamachad's lightweight title. run there's just going to be a series of rematches which sucks shit when we're talking about the best division in m mma i'd rather him just beat up whoever the next dude is a bunch but say la vie or oliver and go to one 45 he's still not shut the door on the return to 45 but i have i've shut that door i've locked it he won't let it go welded it shut listen did you see it can't happen

did you see pit bull i mean yeah i mean he made it let's see what happens tomorrow I could be charles. We'll talk about that later. We are going to talk about that later. Jed, this has been brought up a lot since Saturday, too. All of there is popularity in the sport right now because his star power is, it's up there. And outside of Abu Dhabi when he's fighting Mokachev, I mean, he is over like crazy. He was the cat's meow in Vancouver.

He looks like a star. He fights like a star. He carries himself like a star. He's a pretty popular guy. Is he really popular? absolutely is he a big draw that's another question so i'm curious like what tier do you have charles olivera at right now is he like an a one star tier two three like where do you have him in terms of ufc superstardom right now it would appear that he's either so if tier one is connor and connor alone no one else is in his

tier because no one deserves to be in connor's tier uh olivera is somewhere somewhere between two and three. I'm going to say closer to two, but it's closer to three, sorry, but it's, I mean, he got a way bigger pop in Canada than I expected. And you kind of quietly can go and look at his pay-per-view performances. And these numbers aren't as good as they used to be, obviously, what with the ESPN deal, but 300,000 buys, 500, 400, 600, that's like really respectable numbers. Now, granted, he had a lot of great dance partners, boy, Gaichi Makachev. But talking about a guy who's doing pretty consistent good business at a rate that other people just aren't. So a couple that with the pop, the reaction he got from Canada of all places.

Like, that's a reaction I kind of would have expected him to get, you know, in Sao Paulo or whatever, not Vancouver. So he's definitely, you know, maybe not the A list, but he's a B plus lister at this point, certainly. A.K., where do you put him? I might be wrong about this, but I've kind of put him wherever Max Holloway is, that's kind of where I have Charles Olivera, because Max gets the same reaction as well. If he goes to Hawaii or California or Canada or Kansas City, Missouri, Max Holloway is the dude.

He is the guy getting the big reactions, the big pops, etc. Maybe Oliver is a little higher than that. I'm not really sure. Max is a big star. Where do you put him? as far as the superstardom ladder. Yeah, listen, tier three is about right, because tier three, I think, is where we put popular UFC champions and contenders, right?

Tier two is, tier two for me is fighters who are known to most sports fans, right? If you're a sports fan, if you're really like, you know, checking out, I don't know, whatever, ESPN or MAAfighting.com, you know, because whatever, we have some crossover appeal. Then you know who these people are. So that, so that would be, for me, tier two, be like, Israel, a dust. Edisonia, I think is in there. John Jones, I think is Tier 2. Habib was probably Tier 2.

Again, this is saying that Tier 1 is... Habib was undeniably Tier 2. Yeah. Because Tier 1 is for the crossover stars, the mainstream stars. Conrader right now, Ronda Rousey would have been in there. Brock Lesnar would have been in there. It's not a long list. Nate Diaz is kind of...

I think Nate Diaz and Jorge, I would also put in Tier 2, but I get it why people would want to put them in Tier 1 because when they were kind of exploding with the whole BMF thing, it felt like it was tilting into the mainstream. But for me, yeah, Tier 1 is really you have to be, you have to have some of that crossover celebrity. So yeah, Charles cannot be Tier 1, cannot be Tier 2, has to be Tier 3.

And that's not a bad place to be. Like I said, that's where most EOC chance would be. That's where that's, I was about to name champions and other promotions, but I'm not really sure anyone in Bellator would be able to make it up to Tier 3. Again, with respect to the gentleman going for three division status on Friday. So yeah, Tier 3 is around comfortable putting him. And again, that's not bad.

That's not bad. I think he is popular, certainly popular among UFC fans. Again, having finishes, it helps, having been around just for a long time helps. He's been in the UFC since. I'm having to look at this up, by the way. 2010, 13 years. There's a fondness here. We've seen him grow up.

He was 20-something years since early 20s, like 21 or 20 years old when he debuted. Tons of hype around him back then. again, for the most part, lived up to it, some bumps and bruises here and there. But I think he's earned the kind of stripes that you can only earn from fans being there for you, not just when you're up and on your win streak, but when you're down, when you're losing. So there's that there's that fondness there. Again, he never reaches, I think, that tier two, tier one range. It's just, it's just not going to happen, barring, I don't know,

barring a Connor McGregor fight, which please know. But I think he's I think he's comfortably in tier three Not a bad place to be and Certainly a worthy again a guy who will help you sell You know a handful of pay-per-views if he ends up fighting his long again Last thing for you move on and I've seen a lot of negativity towards banal there you since Saturday AK A lot of takes of see he was never really good anyways and now we know a lot of people discrediting that run of wins he had, discrediting what he's been able to do.

Yes, I think it's fair to say that getting a title shot at 155 probably doesn't happen for him outside of something crazy and a short notice opportunity happening. But, A.K., what have you made of the sort of negative reaction about Darius and his run after this loss to Charles Oliveira? It's not surprising. This is M.MA. If you lose, you were never good. you were never good that's that's what people say you just oh well no you were exposed remember you're

you could go on a six fight seven fight eight fight nine fight ten fight win streak once you lose that one fight and the streak is broken ah exposed exposed favorable matchmaking he got he beat he beat people who uh who you know stylistically stylistically stylistically good or they're not that good or he but he beat he beat guys who they're not that good tony fergus he sucks he's not good deigo pehrara he's not that good these are the guys that benil beat so obviously he's not that good This is just, unfortunately, the nature of a lot of fan discourse. I'm not going to say media because, listen, I know people can say, oh, the media does it too. The media is critical.

Excuse me. The media is critical, but excuse me. But I like to thank at least at M.A. fighting and a lot of our, you know, a lot of our compatriots and other great websites, we do our best to dispel these events. We always try to give guys credit because this was a really good win streak. You can't tell me Gamrod's not a good win. You can't tell me Diego Pahed is not a good win. Draccar close.

Again, Tony Ferguson at this point, I understand. Mileage may vary. But 2021, it wasn't quite over for Tony Ferguson just yet. This is just a fact. People have to have context, have to look back on it. His win streak was great. He deserved a tell of shot off the... Really, you could have given him one after Ferguson.

I don't remember who ended up getting around that time. I'm sure there was someone ahead of him in the pecking order. But if he had gotten a title shot, it's not like it would have been the biggest travesty. Certainly after beating Gamrod, if you would have been met with almost you unanimous acceptance, except for the fact that a much more intriguing matchup came along in Volkanowski. So you really can't blame the UFC for putting that one together. And if you're like me as a fan, I was fine with either.

I was like, sure, Darryu deserves it, but I really want to see Volkanowski in Islam fight. So he's just a victim of some bad circumstances. But by no means, was he benefiting from, again, you know, beneficiary matchmaking or good style matchups? He beat all kinds of different styles, put on exciting. I see people saying his fights weren't that exciting. That's crazy to me. I don't understand where that comes from. I see people saying, like, again, his resume wasn't that strong,

but you look at the current champ who, you know, it wasn't his fault, but he had a fairly nondescript list of opponents on the way to his title. So, yeah, listen, we've got to do our part, you know, to dispel these horrible, horrible and dumb myths and revisionist histories that just pop up when a guy loses because Darius was, well-deserving a retaliation shot. And I said this on the preview show, and I'm sticking with it, I still think there's a circumstance where he gets a title fight.

But yes, he is not the first choice. If he gets a title fight, it will be as a backup. It will be as a short notice replacement. And he probably has to get another big win before that. And there's all these lightweight killers coming up, and probably he's going to fight one of them. But if he beats them, he's back on that. He's on the short list for sure.

So there's a world where he gets a title fight. And I think we're still living in it. Jed, your thoughts on the reaction for Darius and his run after what happened on Saturday? It's complicated because I don't fully agree with everything AK says there, but it's probably more nuanced than I can get in a 90-second response here. Everything you said about Benile earning a title shot is true. B'Neil deserve to fight for the title. That's hit an eight-fight win streak over good quality opposition.

and no one can take that away from him. It is also true that the re and part of the reason he didn't get the title fight is none of his wins were that elevating standout win that says that demands a title fight. I believe these two things can be true at the same time. Benile Darius can have deserved a title fight and Benile Darius may well not have been one of the five best lightweights in the world at the time that he fought Charles Oliver. Like, I don't think that that's a ridiculous statement. It's one that we couldn't prove because the way he fought people was he succeeded, but he didn't fight any of the top five guys in doing that. His best wins, Matush Gamrot, who I have a great deal of respect for him, think highly of,

but the UFC doesn't have him ranked that highly. And I think most other people probably don't think as highly as I do at Matush Gamrot. And the practical reality is, in that whole run, the negatives that have, come out about Benile Darius after that are unfair in the aggregate, but pieces of them are true. And the truth is in that run, he didn't fight anybody who could just put him out. And I picked Benny to win this fight because I thought that he would do like the first four minutes of that fight. He would get on top.

He'd hold position on the feed. He could at least be somewhat competitive with Charles. Charles gets hit a lot as well. And Benny's proven to be very tough. And he's going to win the grappling. I picked him to win that. And it wasn't true. once they stood up, he couldn't hold up to that fire.

And we didn't really know that because the only duty he fought who could really put the mitts on him like that before, Drew Dober, who he immediately worked, and Jackar Close, who tagged him in really bad ways and who is one fifth, the power puncher that Charles Oliver is. So, like, I don't know what happens if Benny Darius fights Dustin Porreier, but it's entirely possible at the same shit happens because he hadn't fought an elite level power striker before. So I think that it's okay to be critical of Benile Daryush in the Afterfact. And, you know, saying that it is retroactively downplaying his run, maybe part of that's true. But it's also just like, we have more information.

We have more context to assign to the situation. And I think it's fine. I know a lot of people get mad when we do this like retroactively about fighters. I think that it's actually just a totally reasonable way to approach sort of fight analysis and kind of our view of the sport in general. So for me, Benny Dary used to serve the title fight. He put it all in the line and it didn't work out for him. That sucks.

But we also don't have to kind of cover our ears and be like, no, he was the bestest. And then he's still the bestest. It's like, no, we can say, okay, he did deserve it because he did the things that you should do to get a title fight. But he also wasn't the best guy in the world. And we know that now. And that's okay too. I say it all the time. Being the fifth best dude in the world is an incredible.

an achievement. Well, there's the lightweight division right now. There's a lot happening, and we'll see where it all goes. We move on to this weekend. The point for round two goes to AK. It's one-to-one. Good stuff. Power of positivity.

Power of positivity. Ever fails. Well, we have a lot of fights this weekend, gentlemen. Two events Friday, one on Saturday. But I think it's pretty clear to most MMA fans that the best car of the weekend, And on paper right now belongs to the fine folks at Bellator MMA. We got two title fights, Vadim Nemcov versus 46-year-old Yo-O Romero for the 205-pound title. We have Sergio Pettis versus Patricia Pitbull for the Bannamweight title and the co-main event.

Pitbull going for history and a third divisional title in a major mixed martial arts promotion. Jed, let's start with you. When you look at this Bellator 297 fight card and you can go in any direct. you want with this, what's the first thing that comes to your mind? Well, I've pulled up the tapology right now, and the very first thing I'm thinking is why in God's name of their 15 fights, we just don't need this. It's very not necessary. Please be more responsible.

Post limbs, baby. Post limbs. Post limbs. It's just it's too many fights. It's simply too many fights. That's an eight hour fight card. Eight hours. It's a long time. They're not going to air all them before.

Actually, last time I think they did. It don't matter. It's still eight hours worth fighting. It's a lot of fighting. My second thought is, and it's really more just a quibble because I know why they do this, because every MMA promotion does this. The main event and co-main event should be swapped.

Sergio Pettis versus Patricio Pitbull by just about any definition other than two dudes are heavier than the other two dudes is the main event of this weekend. We are talking about Patricio Pitbull. the Bellator flag bear the standard of this promotion the most important most successful fighter in the history of this promotion that is in arguable those things that i just said about him is competing against the current reigning bantamweight champion to win his third belt in three weight classes something that no fighter has done in a major MMA organization in history this is historic. This is the biggest thing happening this week. Frankly, it's the biggest thing happening this month and that includes Amanda Nunes retiring. This is the biggest thing that could happen is Pitbull pulling this off because it can, it has the potential to usher MMA the sport

into a whole new era of things. In the last seven, eight years, there have been more double champions than were in like the first 20 years of the sport because the door. got opened that this was a possibility and now every time someone wins a belt they start talking about winning two if someone can win three then we're talking about like that's rarefied boxing air when you get champions who are spanning 20 pounds worth of weight classes you know many pack yows and and stuff like that that's what's on the line here yes is Sergio pettis the best band of way in the world no god no of course not but it does not take away how important how simple of a moment this could be for the most seminal fighter of this organization and they're giving him second billing because he weighs 70 pounds less than these other two dudes it's nonsensical it's real dumb and you should let this man cook in the main event because it's not like you're selling pay-per-views anyway so give give them the respect of this moment as opposed to defaulting to the heavier guys get top billing okay

What's the first thing you think about when you see this fight card? Listen, all I can think about is amaciated Patricia Pitbull and him going for those three titles. Like, as fun as Yuel Romero is, listen, the man brings an element of chaos to everything. As much respect as we have for Redeemed Nemcov, I think we have him number three in the MMA fighting global rankings. So, I mean, listen, he's legit. He's legit. This is not, I know there's a lot of people out there probably still not, like, super familiar with Vadim, even though he's been the champion for the past few years. This will be his fourth successful title defense.

If he pulls it off, excuse me, there was the, he fought Cory Anderson twice. There's that no contest. I guess, you know, obviously we don't count on no contest as a defense. It's just nothing. So that was the one they rematch, he beat Cori Anderson, three title defenses. Great. Oh, Nemcov is number two. Excuse me.

I had to check. So we have the number, what we think, the number two light heavy in the world versus a bonafide star in you're well Romero. We're talking about tiers of stardom before and Romero would be I guess tier three which is probably still higher than again really anyone else in this card. So if you're I'm playing devil's advocate here if you're the if you're Belator this is your

justification along with the traditional heavier fighters have to be at the top of the card which is again and I'm sure we'll talk with the PFO later that's also the case there which is somewhat nonsensical but speaking of Belator yeah it should be procedural people answer Gersio Pettis. There's just such a storyline there.

I like the Nemcov-Romero matchup. There's no story here. There's no history. Yeah, Romero should have been in the tournament. I guess that's the point. He didn't get his chance to, you know, injury took him out, I think, and he didn't get his chance to fight his way to a fight with Nemcob. Okay, sure.

But Patricia Pibble is your guy. I mean, outside of Michael Chandler, who again, now at the UFC, he is the face of Bellator. That is how they have branded him and sold him for so long. So what message do you send when the face of Bellator, who's about to make history, does not headline your card? It is befuddling. And Sergio Pettus is a great story, too. I mean, he's coming back from, you can argue whether they should have just stripped the title from him. It was a bit silly that they had a great Bantamweight tournament and that it was for an interim title.

So cool, they want to show respect to Sergio. But boy, if you're ever going to strip someone of a title, it's when you already have a tournament. tournament set up to crown a new champion and then you just give surgery. Bellator is Belletoring right now. And I know we say that a lot and it's kind of vague and it's kind of childishly derogatory. But it's these little things that we always pick on. We always say Belator is like so close to getting it right. And they just make these weird little decisions.

And again, for anyone who's going to tune into the whole card, I understand. You don't care. You're like, I'm watching the main event and come in anyway. What doesn't matter what order they're in. But this is an optics thing. And again, you take out he'd be marketed. as the number one guy in Bell Tour and you put him in the number two spot. It's confusing. It's confusing.

Does not hurt my excitement for this card at all, but just for the purposes of this debate. And again, the little things that Bill Tort just always seems to kind of trip over. This is another incredibly strong example. Yeah, this one million percent should be the main event, but it is what it is. A.K. Pitbull pulls this off. And he, you know, he looked very skinny on the scale, but he was smiling. He has kid up there with them. he looked in pretty good spirits, weight in under the 135 pound limit.

If he goes in and pulls this off, what does this do not only for his legacy, but what does this do in terms of how you view him, his career, his run? And I guess to kind of add to what we just talked about, how does Bellator capitalize on this? He has a very strong case. If he pulls this off, he probably already has strong. I mean, he already is one of them. he has a strong case to be the and I'm going to say this just to make Jed mad to be the best fighter

to never fight in the UFC now I say that just because I want to well because if you're me I mean I still think it's Fader Mellonenko I think Fado is still the answer I was just I was just trying to troll you because again we've done a damn they were good we know Fador the level of competition

he was facing was just incredible but you know there again you can always argue that there's people who's always going to say heavy weights, there's still a skill ceiling heavy weight, the lighter weight class are better, whatever, whatever, whatever. And Patricio, unfortunately, doesn't have that list of UFC-related names that Fedor has. But there will be a case. If people come to me, if Patricia Pitbull pulls us off, and in a convincing way,

like a strong decision or finish of Sergio Pettis, and on, you know, Monday morning, after we've had time to process it over the weekend, people are coming to me and saying, I think Patricia is the best fire to never fight in the UFC. I would, I think it's a completely legitimate argument. This is such a, like to go down, and listen, a lot of people don't get the opportunity. I understand becoming a multi-division title is as much about opportunity as it is talent level and skill. Again, if you're, if you, he's reached the point, he doesn't have to fight his way to a title, right? Part of winning titles in multiple divisions is you'd like to see someone fight their way there,

but that just really doesn't happen in MMA. So I think there's, I think he deserves a ton of credit. it. This is legitimate, again, as any achievement, I think, in combat sports, I think it's right up there. People can scoff at it being all happening in Bellator. I understand. But I think surgery has a really good fighter. I think, depending, I think Pritcher has beaten good competition at 145. I think beating Michael Chandler is super legit. So, yes, what's on the line here is, will he be the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world? I don't know. I wonder if some people will rank him there just based on it no longer being theoretical, but on him actually being able to sort of, you know,

put the proof into the pudding, as it were, and show that, oh, yes, I've actually competed at multiple weight classes. So pound for pound, don't I deserve extra credit for that? Some people will make that argument. And I think it's a pretty strong and fair argument. So a ton on the line here and a ton for Patricia here to gain still. Your reaction to that, Jed. And also just the tail end of the question, how does Bellator capitalize on this?

Jose and I talk about this on the soon-to-be dropped preview show that we're dropping at 3 p.m. Eastern, but Scott Coak can go to the press conference all he wants and say, this is the best fighter in the world, this is the greatest fighter of all time, three-division champion, yada, yada, yeah, and that's great. That's what you should do as a promoter. But that can't be everything. So what does a wind do here and how does Bellator capitalize on this correctly? I have no idea how they capitalize on this.

Gregor, I don't know that they can. AHA is wrong. Fador is obviously the best guy who's never fought in the UFC. That's almost certainly never going to change. And I'm not here to shit on Patricio Pitbull. I don't want to shit on him. He's a very, very good fighter worthy of respect. So we're clear the MMA fighting global rankings,

the only rankings that matter, as we can all agree, currently have Sergio Pettis is the number 11 Bannonweight in the world. So this will be a good solid quality win. It will not make him the best bantam weight in the world. He won't be the best featherweight in the world. He won't be the best lightweight in the world. He will just be a very, very good fighter who has wins, good wins across three-way classes, which is not entirely unique.

Other fighters have done that. Rarefied air, surely, but a very, very good career accomplishment that in no way stacks up to being the best fighter in the world for almost a decade. Fador has that, and that's just going to stay forever. How Bellator capitalizes? I don't know, because I don't know how they succeed as a business. I'm being entirely frank. I don't know who outside of the deeply ingrained MMA fan base is watching Belator,

even for their good cards, and to be frank, this hasn't felt super promoted to me. If I didn't work in the industry, I am not sure that I know would. know that Bellator's has an event this week, that it's a really good event, and that it is an event that is historically important. They have not boosted this among any of the non-work channels that I venture on to. So I don't know. Maybe the Showtime app has been blaring it 24-7 for the last month, but you don't capitalize on something on the day of. You capitalize by building this thing up for weeks and weeks and drawing interest in and creating a buzz, a buzz that doesn't exist

on a weekend where it should, where they're going up against the bad PFL weight classes. I can't stress that enough. Heavyweight and women's featherweight are the bad PFL weight classes and this UFC card, which is not good. They could be dominating this weekend and maybe they still will. They definitely have the best card, but I don't know if they're. are or not because I don't know how this doesn't feel like it's even sort of transcended the hardcore MMA fan bubble.

So I don't know how you capitalize on it. And we should throw this out because there's a big risk this weekend here as well for pit bull. This is the other thing is what if he loses this fight? He loses trying to achieve something great. But all of a sudden, Sergio Pettis, who should next be fighting patchy mix, could reasonably be like, why would I fight Patchy Mix? I would like to go fight for the featherweight belt because I just beat the featherweight champion

and I can add five pounds of muscle and I can still probably tune this dude up. So it's a really interesting fight. One I'm very excited to watch, but it's definitely weird. And they're definitely, it's going to be hard to see what they do. If they can get any momentum and what to do with it,

I don't have any clue how that's going to happen for them. one thing they should absolutely do is if patricia wins his fight they need to get their asses to Brazil and do a card in brazil you have to do it and he has to be on it and he has to headline it 1,000 percent or is he him versus patchy mix i guess is what happens if he wins could do that or who knows he says if he wins this he might just go after a fourth title so maybe do him versus the winner of the inaudial he can't make he can't make 125 facing the pictures we saw it today, right? The video and pictures, there's no way.

Yeah, that's going to be, that's going to talk. Oh, God, please God, no. I know we talked to you about it, Mike. I know, but please God, no. Yeah. Last thing, real quick, Jed, what's best for business in the main event? Nemcoff winning or 46-year-old,

you all Romero doing Y'all Romero things? I mean, it's probably Nimcov winning, but if Romero wins, it's funny. it's definitely the funniest thing and then they can rematch it and it's not like there's a whole host of exciting things going on at light heavy way for them at the moment

so they could just run it right back and Nimcov has a good chance of winning but yeah I mean Nimcov's one of your young guys one of the champions Bellator has on roster who legitimately can claim or can make a reasonable argument to being the best fighter

in the world even though I don't think it holds up It's not an unreasonable argument to make. And so you want him to keep winning. You preferably spectacularly. But frankly, nobody looks good against your O. Romero is just not a thing that happens. So he's probably going to win an ugly fight because that's the only way you beat your Romero is with some real ugly nonsense. But still best for business.

Yet another reason that this fight should be the co-main event, because you are going to send people unless Romero does some real gnarly stuff. you're sending people home with just on not on a high on a huge downslope so bad booking just bad booking on this card guys do better what time is it right now guys it's uh as we record 1 30 p.mish eastern eastern time eastern time let me say this now on the prince of positivity you guys know this uh there's a really good chance that something happens to that romero nemkov fight um Romero did not look great at the weigh-ins. He needed the box of redemption. It did turn out to be the box of redemption.

He made 206, a 205, excuse me, 205. He made 205, but he did not look great. He was not having a good time. He was, he did the whole, I guess we, I don't know, Mike, sorry if you were going to cue this one up, but the press conference he wasn't there. He was, which is fine, which is fine. He's afraid of heights. Listen, I've done.

Don't make fun of people. I won't make fun of those phobias. It's a very common fear, very common fear. Why was he didn't, he was in bed the whole time too, right? He wasn't like, oh, he was like, chill on. He's a chilling in bed. I worry that he's just not doing great with this weight cut. And we will find out Friday morning that this fight is just not happening.

Because he's getting up there in age. You don't recover from these things like you. I don't think he was great at recovering from these extreme weight cuts when he was like, you know, like five years ago. And I can't imagine it's helping now. He's just recently turned 46 years old. I don't mean to be a pessimist. I'm sorry, I don't mean to a pessimist.

I'm just saying there's a chance that we get our pit full Sergio Pettis' main event by default, as it were, by replacement. I'm sorry to be that guy. I'm sorry to be that guy. Boo me. Boo this man. Go ahead in the comments. Booth this man. What do you think is going to happen?

He already made the weight. Yeah. He's going to show up. He's going to not do anything. He's going to go all the hell out of this. How many UFC fights have we seen recently where the fuel made the wait? And then we get the Saturday morning at UFC News alert on Twitter that, oh, by the way, changes to the card, changes to the card.

Yeah, those people like Joe Romero. I know, man. He's fine. I'm being bad. I'm being cutting weight since he was 12. It's not always easy and it's usually really tough, but he's going to be fine. He's getting older, man. Look, here's the.

Here's the real thing. We can't, I can't say this actually because it's literally a baseless claim. But come on. Acrophobia was not what kept him in bed. He just didn't want to do that shit, man. He's just like, I'm not feeling the vibes right now. Yes. I agree with him.

Let's look. He, you know, you know, Romero's? Yo, Romero is a champion for the new era of work. Work from home, people. We got it three years ago. You can do anything you want via Zoom call, and he's figured it out. He's a man of the people, the soldier of God is, and he just wasn't here for. He's like, I want to go all up all those steps.

That sounds shitty. I'm going to stay here on my bed. I've got my Zoom camera right here, and I've got reruns of Big Brother or whatever it is. I don't know what kind of shows your Merrill might be a fan of watching. What kind of TV shows do you? You think he's a wire guy or like The Sopranos? So he's just doing that, chilling from his bed. Let him live his life.

He's an old man, AK. Let him live his life. He's an old man. Does he not fly? Does he not fly? Do you think they just like, he just passes out? Do they think they just like give him a couple of pills and just like, does he sleep the way to fly?

Does he not fly? Did we ever, did anyone, I don't, I have no idea, actually. Did anyone confirm that that's what Yowell said? Or are we taking his acrophobia from Chal Sondon as the... Did he say it or did Chale say it? I mean, Bellator like retweeted it and stuff and put it on their social channels that that was the game. I mean, again, I need a human being to proactively say that statement that's not Chale Sunnan before I really give it credence. Romero's through via translation, he apologized to everybody getting inside that building is a fight that he knows he's not going to win.

And then Romero said, and we have a lovely quote graphic of this on our socials, Romero said, not even with my kids would have to be able to go up on a Ferris wheel. So I don't know if he was joking. We have a YouTube video of him also being terrified in the article on NemeFlying.com. So he's pretty legit. I think he just is one of those guys that he just, they teach. There's no way he doesn't fly because he was at the Sydney Olympics. He's probably just asleep the whole time.

He's just asleep. Dude, just honestly, I'm more mad. We didn't do that. Give Yowell Romero like some Valium to be at the presser. Then that's just, that's just good. That would have been incredible. That's what you want for you. Maybe you don't want to do volume while you're cutting wind, though.

I could be the same. I'm not a doctor. It seems bad. It's probably not a good fore. A lot of good prospects on this card, too. I wish they put Norbert Novemion on the main card. I like, I think he's one of the five best prospects in the sports. right now.

So I'm excited to see what he can do. There's a lot of good up-and-combers on this card. Who have you established as one of the five best prospects in the sport? Norbert, Novenny, Jr. A guy who was going to fight Johnny Eblon at some point for the middleweight title. And it's going to be fun as hell. But let's move on. By the way, Jed, to make the 15 fight sound more palatable, like four days ago,

this is an 18 fight card and three have fallen off. I mean, still got time. Austin Vanderford. Austin Vanderford. We're losing it. We lost Austin Vanderford. Yeah. That was actually one of the more interesting fights on the card.

But let us move on to the other events. Yes, we can just leave. We don't need Cody Law versus Edwin Chavez. I'm looking where I can cut some fat here. Oh, yeah. Oh, I get rid of so many of these fights. Oh, man. Easy game.

Well, let's get rid of one of these points. The point goes to this ended up being a lot closer than I thought it was going to be, especially with AK laying out the guidelines of positivity first, but Jed was just positive enough to squeak out the round. It's 10 to 9. AK turned away. I kept it real. For once, I kept it real.

This is what I get. You guys, listen, you guys might not see your own. When keeping it real goes wrong. You might not see your own, you'll remember fight Friday. I'm just saying you might not see it. All right. I said it. I said it.

Okay. Well, if that is the case, I will transfer the point over to you. Okay. Yeah, that's more than fair. You're a fair man. I accept this. If you all does not compete tomorrow, we can go back in a change these scores. Yeah.

And if Rhonda Rousey is booked to fight in a UFC fight this year, Jed is the automatic champion of BTL, even if he loses 15 in a row. He goes into 2024 as the champion. Big time. With AmX Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the power. powerful backing of Amex.

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Speaking of the UFC, they are back on Saturday. The main event, very middle lady, Marvin Vittori versus Jared Canaaner. And AK, as you said on Otno, and as I've learned a little bit more looking at this card, and I'm interested to get Jed's reaction to this, I actually think compared to most Apex cards, this is a pretty solid card. This is a pretty solid one. What's the gymnastics score here? What do you grade in this one on paper?

Oh. I personally really like this card. I'm just looking at a lot of bantam weights, a lot of flyways. We've got name fighters. We have a few ranked. I want to say obviously in the main event, Arman and Lockheem, Zagas. I think Zagas is still in our, no, maybe not. No, I'm sorry.

I'm getting confused with David DeVarach. I apologize. Yeah, this is a good looking card. And I think one of those cards that a classic fight night, finishes on the prelims, and then maybe it slows down a bit on the main card, but then you get some compelling, like, sort of decisions. The main event, it's weirdly the main event, like, I don't love.

I'm proud. That's probably like, you know, if it were up to me, I would love to see Armand in the main event event, but I get it. You can't sell Armand's Rukki and Joaquin Silva as a main event fight. That's fine, but that's my main event for me. Why not? We used to do public executions in this country.

This is okay. Listen, Joaquin Silva is a respected veteran, all right? I will go 8.4. That's like my standard score, I think, for a overlooked but promising fight night. So I'll go 8.4 if everything goes correctly. That's pretty disrespectful to 289, which I give like an 8.8. So I'm saying like this is just barely a notch below 289. But I have a feeling a lot of people will agree with me on that.

So I stand by it. Jed, do you agree with that? That's insane, dude. That is insane. I need you to justify this. Like, I totally understand your score. That's not what the card is. That's what this card can be.

I need you right now to walk me through. There are 14 of them. I'll do it right now. I'll do it right now. Give me the top. Give me the four things that happen that make me walk away being like, this was a good use of my Saturday. I'm right.

I'll remember this fight card. I am ready. Dominant Armand's Rukin win over Joachim Silva. All right. Like I said, public execution. I'm down for it. I'm sick like that. Love it.

I'll go all the way down. I'm not going to do it top. Armand Petrosian, Christian Leroy Duncan. I'm very high on Christian Leroy Duncan, so that may have something to do with it. I admit Armand's fights. Armand's fights have not been. Are all awful to watch? I have not been great.

I dare you. So I'm leaning towards the Leroy-Dunkin side here and hoping that he takes care of business. I like Sabatuni Lucas Al-Meda. I think that's a really good feather-way fight. No comments, Manuel Torres, Nicholas Moda. You can probably toss that one in the bin. Dalby Salakoff. I love watching Nicholas Dolby fight.

I just wish he fought more frequently because I think he's one of the under-appreciated like bangers of the welterweight division. Bantam weights, listen, I'm never getting anything bad out. Bantam weights, we got two of those. Jimmy Flick, you know, that fight with Charles Johnson didn't go. his way. I'm still excited to see him fight again. Got a lot of flyweight under opportunities here, Jed, I'm saying.

I know they might be dead in 2023. I know 2020 hasn't been a good year for flywood unders. I think we might get two out of three on this card. I, I'm, I've bet them. We're going for it. But I actually listen to what you're saying right now. Hold on. I actually like the Bleda Fernandez matchup. I like the gate of Lawrence matchup. Paga, Bacoscus. I like

Bacoscus, but I think that's going to be ugly. You can toss that one in the bin too. So there's a couple of fights where I I could certainly live without. But. Yeah. And even the ones you can't aren't memorable or important. Like if this card goes the best it possibly can. It's like a seven.

It's like a seven that it matches out at. What's memorable? What's, we have literally what in the, just the UFC alone. And we're not even talking about again how many other fights are this weekend. You are saying I just want to make you take this and own this take. You are saying that this is less than a half point different than a man.

Amanda Nunes' retirement and Charles O'Livera beating the life out of the Neil D'Ary Ush. I completely stand by. That if this card maxes out like 289 did, you're going to be thinking in your memory of MMA, the night Amanda Nunes left the sport and the night Marvin Vittori just clinch wrestle Jared Canaanier for 25 minutes. That is an insane take, AK. I know that you don't want to, you don't want to shoot from the hip. No. You don't want to give this the seven that it maxes out at. But if this card maxes out, it is a seven at best.

You are confused. You as once again, well, I guess you're not confused it. You do understand the whole max out concept. I'm using your rules and explaining why you're wrong. And I appreciate that. I appreciate that you at least understand, Jed, the criteria that I am working under. And I agree. I think it's great criteria. This main event. I genuinely believe it's good criteria. This main event could bring it down a lot because the main event is. You know, kind of is, it's not the only thing you remember from these fight night cards, but it's a big takeaway. It's what most of our headlines are going to be about on Sunday, Sunday. When we talk about it on Hacker Morning and the following BTL, that's probably what we're going to talk about. Vittori and Canaanier, they're ranking in the middle eight. So it is unfortunate that that fight, boy, if we don't get a finish somewhere, I can't imagine it being an exciting decision.

Maybe we're wrong. Listen, Vittori's fight with Costa was fantastic, but I just decided this whole matchup with Canier on paper. Not pretty. It's not pretty. So theoretically, that should bring down the score. But again, I, I, I, the degree of difficulty, again, is always going to be higher than what we actually expect to happen, right? So I do think, I do think this could leave a very good taste of people's mouths. If they tune in, if they choose to tune in, I'm not saying every, I'm not saying like, this is not an 8.4 like anticipation rating.

This isn't saying like, oh, you should definitely tune in because this is possible. I just think that there are people who, if they're fortunate, will be rewarded. Will it land at the 8.4 range? I don't know. Again, I can't predict the future. But this is the most positive outlook I can have. And we've seen worse cards. Like the seven is I would reserve for some of the cards that we,

certainly some of the deplorable cards we saw last year. I guess if you wanted to, you could rate those even lower. But my scale is pretty. Yes, I would. My scale starts at like six and a half. All right. And then I add from there. How about that?

I'm very rarely going to say like a UFC level card is a six or below. So maybe I'm giving the promotion too much respect now. But I will say, it feels like I'm very rarely going to go lower than like six and a half. So you can use that as sort of a reference point as well. This is a seven, man. Like, of the 28 fighters competing, 16 have Wiki pages. And I want to stress to you, you can make your own Wiki page. You can literally just go do it right now if you're a professional fighter.

And over half of the competitors on Saturday have it. done that. Like it is just by that gauge this Belator card isn't great either. I agree. I'm not here to tell you it's great, but it at least has a high end where if it hits, we're talking about things forever. If this fight card hits, we are maybe talking about Armand Srucun for four days. Like it's just this is a seven at best. Hold on. I will add it. It is probably like a four. I will add this. I don't think you're giving. credit for the potential weirdness that could happen in the main event. This is a, this is not a middleweighty middleweight main event because again, these guys are contenders, like, you know, world title contenders. But

spiritually, spiritually it is, like I said, it's it just, it is this the beauty of middleweight, even at the higher levels, the fights are still just kind of, but I feel like this is, this could be bled in a fun way if something stupid happened. Someone's getting kicked in the groin. Someone's getting poked in the eye. Maybe the referee, maybe we see our first. All of those things are All those things can happen. And then we're talking about it in a funny way. And so now I'm really standing by my 8.4. Okay, this isn't an 8.4.

You're just doubling down because I have to. I have to. I have to. I don't know what card rates is a 10, but I think that's my main issue with the way you are so generous with your scores, is that I actually like a lot of these fights individually. Like it's some pretty decent matchups, but the totality of it is a wall of mediocrity.

And if this just doesn't, if this hits as best it can, it still doesn't deserve a B. It just doesn't deserve a B. It deserves a passing grade if everything goes right. And if everything doesn't go right, it fails. And that's where we should be at. That's why this should be a max score of like 72. And that's it. It's got to hit all the marks to get a passing grade.

Otherwise, we're talking D minus here. See, but it's like a Richter scale, though. It's like the degrees go up by so much. Like 8.4 sounds like it's close to 10, but it's not. really close to 10, right? Like once you get 9, then every point, you know, every point above 9.1, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3 is exponentially more than the previous point. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, it sounds like 8.4 is close to 10, but it's not. On my scale, 8.4 is really, actually really far away.

I'm just not going to agree with your scale in this. Well, I keep, well, listen, I keep, I keep, I keep changing it. You have too much friction there because I don't have a problem. It's hard to. That's a two. That is a two of a card and you should do other thing with your time. This isn't a two. It's a six. It's a six and a half two. If you're watching the UFC,

you're not getting a two, all right? That's the U.S. is a brand of excellence. This is a brand of excellence. How dare you? Listen, I'm telling you right now, if Zalguzuma Gulov goes out there and just runs, just runs over Felipe Bunez,

there's, like people are going to have so much fun. People are going to have so much fun with the hair doing everything. He's going to get a boost if he has a performance like that. I actually, I'm not 8.4 on this card, but I'm probably like 7-9 to 8-1 range. I actually think there's a lot of like really fun fights on here. It's not a ton of star power.

And I get Vittori-Canon-Ear could be, well, Vittori-Cannonier. But I actually think it's going to be a pretty fun fight, mostly because there's not a ton of stakes here. So sign me the hell up. I actually think it's going to be pretty good. Let's move over real quick to PFL5. And Jed will start there because, We'll start with you because you will be there in the in the ATL.

Your favorite divisions, your favorite divisions, heavyweights, women's feather weights. We have anti-Delijah, the PFL, the reigning PFL heavyweight champion taking on former UFC fighter, the crochet boss himself, Mory's Green, which means if Mory's Green is around, that means John Jones might not be too far behind. We got Larissa Pacheco in the co-main event. How excited are you for this one, Jed? So I said previously totally stand by the statement Worst two divisions in the PFL and that's very very true I enjoy them both a great deal because I'm a sicko And heavyweight fights will never not be funny to me

Because they're either going to be over in about 90 seconds Or they're going to be just the sloppiest awfulest 15 minutes of drudgery And fortunately I think we're largely going to avoid that this week Ante de Laja probably going to get a win but we got stakes here Mike because the PFL is dumb Love you PFL see you guys tomorrow

But your season is very stupid Because there is a very realistic world Where Anse de Laja can beat Mo Green tomorrow And not make the playoffs Because his first fight didn't happen Because he had to pull out of it And so he is currently at zero points in the heavyweight standings.

Maurice Green, got a second round finish. He's got five points. If some other things break and we have multiple people with, you know, six points, five points. Delajia needs they win in under like two minutes into the second round or something like that to move ahead of Maurice Green. And if he just gets a decision when it gets three points, he's probably like a lock to not make the playoffs at this juncture.

So stakes because the PFL's strong. is very dumb that their defending champion goes one and oh and doesn't make the playoffs and the duty beats will make the playoffs so you know that adds a fun little wrinkle of excitement he's got to try and get a victory whereas bacheco's going to um also kill someone so that's pretty cool and hana faheahe me and me and gc talked about it on noobetz bar there was like there was a moment there was a hanaan ferr moment where i was like maybe this guy's going to be something he's not but he still has the potential to do violent, cool things. So look, we're going to have to sit through Aspen Ladd and Julia Bud fights, which is tough.

But I've found the way to make that interesting by parlaying the two of them together in the double D parlay because Aspen Ladd with two Ds and Bud with two D's and just, you know, running that in. But the rest of these fights are whatever, the PFL fights. But I'm going to be there. So it's going to be dope. The double D parlay. Double D far away, baby. I am banking parlay money on Aspen Lad. What can go wrong?

On letters. Yeah. And on Aspen Lad, who has never let anyone down in a mixed martial arts cage. I hope it was reliable. That's what they call her. It should only be a quarter of a chunit worth of risk on this, right? Oh, yeah. Not a high level of risk.

But, you know, we're just here to have fun. I look for gimmicks where I can find. I've got the Christian parlay in the EOFC. Canones and CLD. There you go. A.K. And maybe Don Davis needs to create a graphic comparing the three cards for you to give an actual answer. But how do you like this BFL card?

Listen, I've stared at this PFL card actually multiple times over the week because a little inside baseball. You know, I'm one of the editors who helps handle sort of the, like when you see on Maffine.com, when you go to the schedule page and sort of see it updated. I'm one of several editors who handles that. So I've had to look at this car throughout the week, just kind of waiting for the order to be finalized. So I've stared at these names. I felt so little emotion. And I say this as a big fan of Larissa Pacheco, who, again, she should be main eventing over Ante Delicia and Maurice Green. Listen, fair play to both.

I know Delicia is also a 22 champion. He was the heavyweight champion last year. So they're both champions, I understand. and you get heavier in combat sports always goes top the card. But Pacheco, again, she beat Kaila Harrison. I feel like she got a little bit of a rub off that. I think even though Jed's right,

there's a lot of urgency with Delicia and Green because the leisure needs a first round finish to have a chance to make the playoffs. I think Pacheco and LeBrock has a big chance of getting finished. And I just think Pacheco is like really exciting. I almost wish they had a more promotional push behind her. I'm not saying like they need to push her as much as Kayla Harrison. I understand.

inherent advantages that Kail Harrison has as far as being marketed to a North American audience. I get it. That's fine. But there's a lot to, I do think there's a lot to work with Pichico. And I wish that they had, I wish they had made this the main event. But the rest of the card, Jed is right. You really got to spice it up with some gambling, I think. We had one fighter missed weight.

If that's intriguing people, Evelyn Martinez missed weight. I get for Marina Moknachtkina, the Marina Mokinakina fight. But yeah, the PFL season is just so, it's just so weird in the best of circumstances. And then you add in the drug test suspensions. And it's just, it's hard. It's hard to kind of get super excited for these, these regular seasons. I think it'll kick up again with the playoffs roll around, which is great. You know, the stakes are more clear.

And, you know, you have, you have probably the names that deserve to be there, though Delicia should be there. And we don't know what's happened there. But right now, it really is difficult to get up. The only thing is, I will say, I feel like PFL has had good luck this season with having some exciting finishes, several exciting finishes per card. This hasn't been the case every year. There's been some cards that have been a super drag, not just because of the pacing, but because you just get some listless decisions against fighters that, again, the majority of fans have no investment in. At least this year, they've gotten a handful of highlights. to be able to push those on social and make it seem like PFL is an exciting product.

And if you're, again, that's what, if you're the league, you're doing a great job of at least selling that. So I think there's a chance for finishes here, especially on the main card. And that is, that can only be good for the PFL. But yeah, I'm not, I can't lie to you guys. I'm not like super enthused. This would be like this would be in the 6, 6.5 range if we're talking degree of difficulty. Well, get excited. Weekend full of that.

MMA, two cards tomorrow, one card on Saturday. The point for round four goes to Alexander Kaylee, it's two to two. Sorry, BFL. Sorry, I got to keep it real. I keep it real for the video. All right. So that means it's time for the knock-or round. Well, each gentleman will have 60 seconds to answer a question.

We're going back to let's make a deal. We're picking doors. We're picking fighters and we're putting you guys in these fighter shoes. There's been a lot of topics going on in the world that makes martial arts. So a lot of fighters we haven't heard from about certain topics, at least not enough. So, AK, you were the last man of the two to get a victory. So you get to decide whether you want to go first or not. Or if you want to pass on over to Jedmish you.

Let's go, Mike. Number one, first. Always. All ways. All right. So you could pick any door between one and four. Door number one. All I do is number one.

Door number one. And I've been thinking about this a lot lately, AK, because there are, as you, you know, this sport moves very quickly and debatable topics outside of like the go conversation and all of that pound for pounds, those things can last a little bit longer. But there's one topic of discussion that has seemed to just last forever and it doesn't seem to be going away. It is this Daniel Cormier take on whether or not Jim Miller should be a UFC Hall of Famer. This just continues on. Everybody has an opinion on it. There's a million articles being written about it all over the place.

This will not die. This continues on. So for the next minute, AK, let's hear from the man himself. Let's hear from Mr. Jim Miller about all these conversations going on about you and whether or not you are a Hall of Famer. So one minute on the clock, you are no longer my best friend. You're Jim Miller. You respond to this debate and what D.C. said and what everybody else is saying.

Go. Hey, I'm Jim Miller. I'm from Choisee. Hey. Listen, I got a lot of respect for Dan Cormier. He's a good guy.

But I got the most appearances in the UFC history. I'm breaking records left or right. Hey, I understand. I never, listen, I never fought for the title. I was never even the number one contender.

But when you got the accolades I got, when you got the currency with the company I got, I'm good friends with Dana White. Dana White loves me. Listen, that's the number one criteria for getting into the UFC Hall of Fame.

I'm getting in. Hey, So with respect to Dan Cormand, listen, if Donald Soroni is in there, then how can they not find a spot for Jim Miller? You know, just because I never contended for the UFC title. Records, longevity has to mean something. I got the milestones. UFC 200.

I'm going to be at 300. 300 is probably where they're going to induct me. It's just good business, eh? Jim Miller, listen, A10. Y'all know me. It's A10. One of the most popular nicknames in MMA. Hey, I got to be in there.

So apologies to Dan Cormand. me in the Hall of Fame. Boy, you sound like Dana White there. Oh, well, guys, what happened there? The AK impersonations are just incredible. I really, uh, that's a spot on. If you heard Jim Miller talk, uh, it's spot on. It's spot on everybody's, I love the, do it.

I keep forgetting that these rounds are so memorable because every impersonation, male, female, champion, nonchampions, all Rodney Dangerfield all the time. Oh, that's right. No, this is different. It sounded similar to AK Dangerfield, but it's not, it wasn't exactly, it's different. It's different. I was singing Andrew Dice Clay for you there. Oh, yeah.

A little bit of dice in there as well. All right, Jed, so you have doors two three and four issues from. Like I'm going to take door number three. Oh, God. This is a sore spot. A.K. is well aware of how I feel about where transpired on. Sunday night in Miami, Florida. If you haven't heard my reaction,

you go listen to heck of a morning on Tuesday. I was not very kind to this Floyd Mayweather boxing card. It was trash. But door number three is John Gotti the third, Jen Michoud. So I also did to Andrew Dice. A man who took, he seemed to have taken this thing very seriously. perhaps he was a little bit naive heading into this fight with Floyd Mayweather.

And at this point, I'm sure you have seen what transpired. And as first reported by our wonderful colleague, Stephen Morocco, John Guy the 3rd gets a six-month suspension from the Florida Commission for his actions. And Floyd Mayweather got no suspension for his actions by bringing 800 people to the ring and surrounding it so that the judges and the commentators could not do their friggin jobs.

So you are John Gotti the third. React to everything that happened on Sunday and react to the suspension you just received and Floyd not getting any kind of suspension at all. One minute on the clock, go. It's anti-Italian discrimination, Mike. That's what it is. What am I doing here? What am I a putts?

This is nonsense, Mike. What guy comes to the ring with 500 of his guys? I just got me and my brother's just me and my brothers, Mike. Come on now. Bob couldn't even put me down. He's tries the greatest of all time. He couldn't win a street fight with me, so he had to bring all the people around the nonsense.

Kenny Bayless, can he's shameless nonsense, Mike? He's coming at me. This is anti-Italian discrimination, pure and simple. It's all it is. You go ask Tony Soprano about this. He'll tell you what's going on. We got to get a union.

We got to get the league together to fight this. This will not stand, Mike. I want this suspension revoked immediately, and I want to run it back because I'm going to show a pretty boy Floyd Floyd Money, but I'm going to show them

these two myths right here in this straighter out Connor McGregor on my back right here beside me I'll show him what's up this is absolutely ridiculous Mike Heck Wow

I'm so sorry I'm so sorry that I started this by the way I apologize to the listeners I have to do it if AK is going to do it anyone who is deservedly offended

by these impressions we just did I apologize. I am so sorry. We're all having a laugh here. I do apologize. This is like old SNL when Mike Myers used to host coffee talk. That's what both of you guys try to do. I'm feeling for clement. I'll give you a topic.

Talk amongst yourselves. Rhode Island, not a road or an island. I tried to channel my Silvio Dante. That's all I was trying to do in there. Yes. By the way, for context, door number four was patchy mix. reacting to the Bannonway title fight. Want to hear from him. Number two would have also been fun for Jed.

Michael Chandler reacting to everything going on with Connor McGregor. And Jed's already delivered one of the outside, right? Is it too late? I mean, it's going to be tough for Jed to beat his last Michael Chandler impression. I believe, I believe Jed had to be Michael Chandler and Julianna Pena. I think you had to do a Giuliana Pena impression at one point as well. which was incredible. Oh, no, that was David.

I remember the Chandler one for sure. Yeah, the Chandler one was great. Go back in the archives and find that one. So vote now. Like I said, preview show for the three cards was myself and Jose Young's. We recorded it last night. It's going to premiere 3 p.m. Eastern talking about a lot of the stuff we talked about here. We'll have a People's Pre-Fight show on Saturday ahead of UFC Vegas 75.

Jed will be in Atlanta for the PFL card. So did a great job last week. He'll do a fine job this week as well. I'm getting demoted. Did a great job. He'll be fine. He'll be fine this week. I mean, I don't know if Deonté Wilder's going to be there again.

I doubt we're going to get Deontay again. Maybe you get John Jones. Maybe you get some John Jones. Maybe you get a one-on-one with Don Davis and you can get his reaction to the graphic. That's what I want to hear. God, I would absolutely do that if that's an option. I know you would. Don.

Don, let's talk about the graphics. Yes. And then we can, but follow along with all that. M-Afighting.com, Bellator, PFL, UFC, etc. So get the votes in. Let's bring in his honor, the Honorable E, Casey Leiden. Hi, Casey. Hello.

Spirited battle here. Do we have a winner or do we need more time? We do have a winner. We have a winner. Who will take on New York, Rick, next week for the somewhat disputed BTL title? I'm just getting over those incredible impressions. He's got the goal. It's a me, I'm audio.

Oh, wow. That's incredible. Thank you. Your winner today with 55% of the votes is he's back, baby, Jedmishu. There he is. Jedmishu, challenging New York, Rick, next week. Wow. I will not be challenging him next week, actually.

I'm on vacation next week, so A.K., I hope you come in. I hope you can deliver Andrew Dice-Paylee and deliver us from this terrible world where New York Rick is our champion. But otherwise, have a ton of fun today, fellas. We ended on such a high note. I got to do a soprano's impression. That was just the best. So I'm feeling great right now, guys. I might have to do a New York Rick impression now they think about it.

Hey, hey, my name's Rick. I'm from New York. Hey, I'm walking here. I'm walking here. God. People listen to the NBA hour. They know that's what he sounds like. He is New York Rick after all.

That's true. Exactly. He's not Boston, Rick. No. He's not South Dakota Rick. He's New York, Rick. He'll be back back. Can we get a Boston Mike episode versus

Andrew Dice K. Lee episode full. A.k. A.k. Dice. A.K. Dice Clay. You got about 15 minutes of Boston Mike on Tuesday's episode, a heck of a morning. A.K. heard the whole thing. So I think he can attest what happened when I was talking about the Floyd Mayweather, John Gawley, the third trash card that we watched on Saturday. So Hakeasy, you can hit the music. We are done. Thank you very much for watching. We'll be back next week to recap it all. PFL 5. Maybe we'll recap something.

Elitour 297, UFC Vegas 75, and then it's on the road to Jacksonville, Florida, for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Josh Emmett versus Ilya, the main event. And the good news,

it's an ABC card. So we're going to get a little 3 p.m. Eastern main card action. We're getting excited for that. So thank you very much for AK, for Jed, for Casey on the ones and twos. The iconic voice of Esther Lynn takes you home. I am Mike Hack.

Back next week. Good night, everybody. Hey, this is Esther Lian. You've been watching between the links. Hey, I'm Esther Lynn. You can tell by my voice. This is how I always talk. Esther Lynn, that's my name.

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.