MMA Fighting - BTL | UFC 333, Volkanovski vs. Evloev, Yan vs. Merab 2, RAF 14

Episode Date: October 20, 2026

Another very busy weekend in the combat sports world is upon us, including Saturday's stacked UFC 333 event headlined by a UFC featherweight title bout between Alexander Volkanovski and Movsar Evloev, while Petr Yan defends his bantamweight title against Merab Dvalishvili in a trilogy fight. While titles are at stake, what else is on the line in these two huge fights? On a special Tuesday edition of Between the Links, the panel discusses the mega stakes and conversations involved in the two title fights this Saturday, where each fighter goes with a win or loss, and how they may be viewed historically. Additionally, topics may include other standout fights on the card, Shakur Stevenson being granted his release from Zuffa Boxing, RAF 14 headlined by Arman Tsarukyan vs. Dillon Danis in a wrestling match, Khamzat Chimaev vs. Robbie Lawler in the co-main event, and much more. Join MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and José Youngs as they answer your questions all show long. Download the SB Nation app here ⤵️ 📱 iOS: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sb-nation/id6789240983⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📱 Android: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sbnation.app⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow José Youngs: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@JoseYoungs Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

anime fighting studios. This is between the links. And now your host, my... The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of BTL. Happy Tuesday evening to us all. Normally we're on Thursday around lunchtime,

but mixing things up this week. I am here in lovely Las Vegas, Nevada, getting ready for a super busy R.A.F. 14 match week. Wanted to get a show on because this is such a crazy week with that event. We got UFC 333 going on. Lots of stuff going on. So we are here answering your questions. Shout out to everybody on the SB Nation app.

Make sure you download it. We got a ton of questions on there, which will rifle through. And we're going to have a good time today. And joining me is a man who would typically be boots on the ground for a UFC event. But he's here. He's stateside. Not in Vegas, but he is still in the United States, live from New York City. Our social media guru himself, our road warrior, the one and only, Jose Youngs.

Back on BTL. How are you, sir? It feels good not to be on an airplane. I did like six cities and four weeks last month combined with like White House, Connor McGregor, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Vegas, L.A., Phoenix. Like, I'm just pretty cooked after being on planes for so long. So, yeah, fortunately, I'm not in Abu Dhabi. I actually was looking forward to covering that card in person. But, you know, Mike being at RIF, and it just felt like it's one of those things that it would be more beneficial for me to be stateside.

But yeah, looking forward to being, I can't even remember the last time I was on BTL. So this should be fun. Was it, I don't know if it was a Q&A. It might have been. But I think before that is when you did Bizarro links. We haven't done that a while. People have asked for that. We have to get back into that.

So again, shout out to everybody on the SB Nation app, which you can watch the show on there right now. We have a ton of questions. We're going to rifle through some of those. And shout out to everybody on YouTube and Facebook and Twitch and Kik and Twitter. We are everywhere these days. So make sure you follow us wherever you are watching right now. Let's jump to the app questions.

We're going to start with Saku's missing ear, Jose. This is a long question, but let's provide context. Volk is winding down. Father time undefeated and all that jazz. I think we have the measure of the top 10 and I don't see any of them matching Volk in terms of technical proficiency and entertainment in one man. A lot of those bigger names are either nearing the end

or have reached the ceiling. Looking to the future of featherweight, what do you predict for the division once Volk bows out? Do you see any of the unranked up-and-comers we should keep an eye on that could be the next Volk Aldo or Holloway? It's a very interesting question. It is.

Because he has a very tall task ahead of him in Movesar. Mobsar is sick. Hmm. What's his name? Black Panther. He was supposed to fight Pit Bull. He just went in Paris. He's fighting in Avada.

He's fighting Pico. Kaita. He's very, very, very good. If you can get his weight issues down. Pico, I think, is obviously a name. He's only had, what, three, two fights? Three fights in the UFC? Two fights?

He's always going to be a name. we're going to have to pay attention to. I think I think we have one right now. He's fighting in Qatar against Al Jameen Sterling. Kevin Vajos kind of seems like that seems like the guy. Yeah. I know everyone's really high on Luke, like Luke Riley and Tommy Guns are like names that we're going to be interested to see

in this in terms of like whether they're champions or not is another conversation. Right. Like Patty Pimble might never be a champion. He's very talented, but he's always going to be a guy that we're going to want to see. Sean O'Malley did because. I'm a champion. I think those are obviously the names that people are going to compare because they're

always training together, but I agree. Kevin Viejo is probably the one, right? And then I'm trying to think of who else is out there. Because you're right. A lot of these feather weights are kind of not peaked, but like they're already established. Hmm. I mean, John Silva, maybe. John Silva maybe.

has some gas left in the tank yeah Steve Garcia I'm curious how he bounces back I don't know if I ever be champ Diego Lopez is obviously a lightweight pit bulls on the wrong side of 35 um joannison brito is always good but I don't really put him in like the

goat status Jose Delgado just lost uh Sean Woodson I don't know where he is David O'Anama lost Kites it seems like Kite and Canvueijos Tommy Guns and Luke Riley are like the four young guys that I think we're going to be hearing a lot about like one year

from now would you be a surprise if any four of those guys are in a man of that probably not at least like maybe like an apex man event or something like that I know myron Santos is doing his thing but he had like the weight issue or was it the weight issue or the controversial ref judging issue or both a little bit of everything yeah yeah I was going to say um and then who joins him brito just beat giga right so like that's a name i guess but he's not really i don't know like it's those four those first four the ones i guess we would have to be keeping an eye out uh i really liked what i saw from pablo and druska in his debut against nathaniel wood but i think he's i think he's more of a ban on weight if memory serves it correctly but dude he could make a run of featherway too if he

wants to so that was a great win in his debut but featherweight is such a deep division and you know like you said kida uh fleet bailema is really good and there's just so many really good guys in this division. But I don't know if I put in any of those in like, I would be pretty surprised if any of those are in the conversation. Like you said, Aldo Holloway Volk. Yeah, like all timers. Those are like those three names belong in like the 15 greatest fighters ever,

regardless of weight class. Yeah. So I don't, I don't know. But yeah. Great question. Unless Iliad decides he's too small and drops down. Ha. That could happen.

Who knows at this point? Storehog. Why is the UFC so intent on bloating their cards to 13 to 14 fights when doing so means signing fighters lacking the experience and skill level to be considered UFC quality? Wouldn't some of the recent quality complaints be at least somewhat alleviated if the UFC cut every event to 10 fights by removing the lowest level fight on them? A few shit students can really drag down the class average. I mean, they're never going to change it. No, I like the comparison.

It's never going to happen once they get all the money up front from Paramount. what I would like to see is less cards. I think that's more of the answer than less fights on a card, right? Because if you look at what I consider, like, I think the golden era of MMA was like ended in 2016. And then that was the big turning point, right? Like UFC 200, I feel like, was like the beginning of like the downward, right? Not downward and like, that's where it kind of, you, MMA peaked because then we went

right into like 201, 202 in the Connor show. Yeah, 205 was But then people forget Like 207 was Rhonda's last fight Yeah, 2005 was massive But then we had like Holloway Pettus right after We had DJ fighting a tough Tough finalist and

What's his name? Wow, I'm literally going awkward MMA I'm literally blanking. Tim Elliott. DeMellate That's bad But yeah, so I think like 2016 was where M.A peaked

And even if you look at all the like the fights before that Like the cars before that especially pre-rebok, there were just less cards. That was maybe maybe we got lucky with two a month. And I'm not saying I want to go to one a month because that's not feasible with the amount of the bloated roster. I would like like an off week every month to start with. Yeah. Well, like if you're, I think if you are dead saying, I don't care about the apex,

you know, as much as other people, maybe that's because I've been to a million apex of it, right? I've been in the I've been there I maintain I thought the apex in like the COVID era where like people were like like right at the end of the COVID era when people they started to finally let people in and you had maybe like 500 600 people total and that was like a big turnout I didn't mind those events because it felt like you were watching a high school basketball game and like you could yell at someone and they would know you're talking to them so that dynamic was. fun. Like when Yayae fought Max Holloway, I was there and half the arena, I'm using arena, half the gymnasium was Hawaiian flags and the other half of the gymnasium was Mexican flags. But that's also Yaya and Max, right? Like those are two of the biggest names. People traveled for that. The apex, as it is now, is night and day better. Do I want them to travel more? A thousand percent. I don't want them to go to the apex ever. I want them to be at these places. But if they are hell-bent, I'm keeping it there, I think one Apex. A-Pex.

a month, one fight night on the road a month, one pay-per-view, and then the other two weeks, nothing, especially during Contender Series fight week with UFC, BJJ. I think that would be a good first step. Yeah. And, yeah, Jed and I have talked about this for years. We were completely on the same page with you, one apex, one fight night on the road, one pay-per-view. But if you want to load up like the summer and do like June, July, August, just bang out

12 events. I'm fine with that. Yeah. Just make it a big deal, the summer series or whatever. And I think that's fine. But yeah, I mean, this is the next six years. And I'm sure you've heard rumblings. Because one thing you get from being on the ground for a lot of these events,

you start to hear like dates, locations, main events much earlier. I'm sure you've heard it too. I don't know when the UFC is going to go back to the apex in Q1. I don't. There's a world where I think we are hitting the ground. every fight like for the several months right like we could we might not have an apex event for like the first two months of 2027 so you think they're going to be off because what 336 is January 30 30th 30th 30th yeah is that going to be the first event of the year no I don't think so I think

there's going to be a fight night potentially in Texas okay if I remember if I've heard a few things but then I also heard they want to go do a little bit more international things they could be going to the Midwest kind of where one of our colleagues presently lives right now. I think and I think it's a combination of two things. I know the UFC is doing more construction on the apex.

But I don't think they're expanding it. I think they're doing a lot of behind the scenes expansion. So like the media room is getting a facelift. A lot of actual beats like locker rooms and warm up rooms and stuff are going to get fixed up. And I also bet that a lot of it has to do

paramount. And I don't know this. this is all hypothetical because when I was at UFC in LA, they did the blue carpet. They had a lot of celebrities show up. They had a lot of influencers show up. They had a ton of activations, which we normally see for big pay-per-views, right? It's like IFW or the sphere. Like you can get your photo taken with a championship bill.

You can do the virtual face off. You can punch the, do the punch machine. I bet Paramount wants more of that. They want more activations and blue carpet. and like making it more of an event with Paramount branding everywhere which if I was a fan would be amazing

but that's just a theory I don't know for sure but I would be I have a feeling we are going to go to the apex a lot less in Q1 of 2027 as music to everybody's ears I think Thunder Cougar Falcon Boyd

a topic more than a question as fans we have no say in what fights get out on by the UFC with the recent advent of more squash matches than not. Y'all have voiced a lot of surprise at fan enjoyment of these cards. Well, I'm only on M.A. fighting and of course we are chatting while enjoying the cards,

most any card. I'm not witnessing the groundswell of squash match enjoyment. Is it a Twitter thing? Is it a media? Meaning you guys teaming up to hate on us, poor slubs, talk amongst yourselves. I just think it's, I see, I do see value in some squash matches,

especially on the apex cards, I think you have to have them because it can get a little sloggy. It can get a little sloggy in there. No matter how exciting the card is, you've got to have a couple of squash matches. 332 was like all squash matches and then the main event. So like that's, that's tough.

And then Coppulov was like an underdog and pulled out the upset. But most of those fights, like we knew who was going to win. And we knew they weren't really going to be competitive. And then, you know, some people would be like, oh, it was like, D.C. still says, like, it was one of the greatest cards of all time for the UFC. And I'm just like, eh, it's just, it was fun, but it's just no, we weren't really talking about it after outside of, oh, this is how some people feel. And this is how the hardcore fans feel outside, but specific moments, we didn't really do that. So, I mean, I don't know, it's, it's just, you just kind of see it.

some people are on there's a small percentage of fans they're like dude we just want to watch fights we don't care who fights yeah and and that's fine and most of the most of the time i'm like that too but like if i'm not working and it's just me sitting down watching fights like i'm happy watching a bunch of finishes and stuff like i like go into cage titans events i like going to regional shows where that's where you get a lot of that stuff but when we're working in this and we have shows to do and we want stuff to talk about if you have have a bunch of matches that you know how it's going to play out and then they play out exactly like that doesn't really give us much to talk about from like a storyline like 331

we were talking about 331 for weeks after that with we spent a whole week on gable losing before we started talking about armin and how good josh van and pantosia too was and that car was unbelievable and yeah it's just it's not even like the squash matches for me it's like even if like Peyton Talbot like I just want to learn something about the guy like he's obviously got something but you throw him in there with Suhudo and figgy and you know he has no chance of losing either of those fights like I can't wait for his next fight because he's going to fight Batista or Sandhagen or somebody like that maybe O'Malley I don't think it's going to happen but maybe maybe the loser of the main event he fights like I'm really looking forward to seeing him fight somebody above them that like he might struggle with so It just is what it is. Like there are fans who love that stuff. And me, I look at 333 and I'm like, we might not get a bunch of finishes,

but we're going to have a lot to talk about. And there's a whole bunch of competitive fights from the first fight to the last fight. I love the 333 lineup. It's excellent. So I don't know, different strokes for different folks. And that's my take on it. Yeah, I personally don't care one way or another.

I have literally, I said this one time I was on BTL. I'm the worst BTL guest because they always say, I have zero preference. I do not care. And that's me being honest because there's a world, like you said, sometimes you just want to turn your brain off and pay attention to something that's not work.

You sit at a desk all day. We look at this from the lens of like, we have to watch every fight. This is our job. I remember vividly when there was a time like I was in college and I was just fried and I'm like, I'm going to turn on. this fight. Don't know who this is. Don't pay attention. Like, have no idea what the storylines

going up. This might be a squash match. It might not be a squash match. Ended up being a squash match. And I'd be like, okay, move on to the next one. Because I think we also have to understand that there is a massive sect of people that don't pay attention to storylines. They just turn to fight on. They don't know about contracts. They don't know about contenders. They don't know about rankings or pay. this is, I'm going to watch this because I am snowed in and I am tired of shoveling and I'm going to watch people punch themselves in the face. Or Mike, how many times did you watch the Red Sox with your dad growing up? Probably all the time.

There's probably people that they don't watch baseball. They watch fights with their dad. And 20 years from now, there's going to be like, hey, dad, remember we watch that dude? My dad has been two fights in his life, two fight cars in his entire life. Does he remember? Here are the names he remembers. Connor McGregor he went to Connor Max he went to Connor Max and he knows the barbarian because he went to the fight in Maine because he's from Maine because he's from Maine so I went up to cover the fight in Bangor Maine my dad's like I want to go I'm from that area so he was like kind of like I'm gonna go so he remembers the barbarian doesn't remember Tim Boeche's name but he remembers the barbarian because he's from Maine and he remembers Connor McGregor and then he remembers Travis Brown front kicking Alster Overeem and he says whatever happened to that fat guy that kicks the kickboxing and I go yeah

see that's so that is a lens of MMA that I am like sometimes we have to appreciate and accept that they are just tuning into watch fights yeah love that all right I mean that's a great way to look at it a couple more app questions then we'll get to the chat

Tiger Kuma great job on MK last week Mike however what is one thing that you strongly disagree with Luke on I don't think Luke likes me so there can be here that's that's probably your I didn't really disagree with really anything he said. We had a damn good time for two hours.

The two hours went by real quick. So, but thank you. Yeah, I didn't really have a disagreement with him about much. So Zach Gaius, hey guys, long time listener, 2020, I believe. First time, Asker, with Movesar of Loya bringing that relentless wrestling style against Volcanowski, do you think Volk striking and championship experience are enough to completely shut down the chain wrestling? Or are we about to witness a legitimate changing of the guard at Featherweight?

I'll tell you my answer. I have no idea. I honestly have no clue if this fight's going to look like. It's so good. It's so good. I just wanted Mowazar to get his day in court, and he's finally getting it. And I think I'm picking Volk just because he's Volk,

but it would not shock me if Mowzar beat him in a number of different ways. It is interesting because when I interviewed Volk in L.A., I hadn't really pondered, pondered it. but he said the only, because Volk is, there's like a couple of fighters that I really appreciate how open they are about these things. Like Al Jermaine is very surprisingly one of these guys. So is Corey Sanhagen and Volk is too,

where like they live in a world where like, they understand they could lose. And they, he, Volkanowski's like, if I lose, the only way, if I lose, it's because Muhammad,

Mahay, I'm no, Mohzai, Makhai, Mav, was swinging wildly and clipped me and knocked me out. Like that is how he beats me. Because everything he does I am better at. Like he knows how to negate the wrestling.

He knows how to defend submissions. He knows how to negate striking. And if he just goes out there and gets frustrated, swings wildly, clips me on the chin and puts me down, then that's how I lose. So I hadn't thought about it. But that might be how it's done. Because outside of Islam, we haven't seen Volk just dominated, right? Like the Ilya fight was a flash

Flash knockout Second Islam fight Flash knockout Outside of that Has he ever really been in a bunch of danger Outside of like getting caught by that choke By Brian Ortega And even then he popped back up

And then just started raining punches down I'm very curious how this plays out Extremely curious Because I don't see a world Where Mahab and Mahab wins like a 49-46 It's got to be tough man He might just he might

stand and trade with Volk, man. Like, he, people sleep on that man striking. He was, he was out striking Lorone Murphy and big stretches of the fight. So, like, he's, he's really good, man. Anik told me something which I didn't even realize, uh, when I spoke to him. That interview was going to drop some time this week. He said that, uh, Mosaar of Lov in a fighter meeting three years ago, said, you know what? I'm not going to eat sugar until I win the belt.

And that was three years ago. Hmm. He hasn't had sugar in three years. One out true that is. My bet it's, I'm Mose, it seemed like a liar to me yeah i also remember i interviewed mohava maha i keep saying mozah i was doing social media graphics um mozah i interviewed him before his because a fight that i people i think is it wasn't a good fight but i think it's a performance that doesn't get enough credit is when

he just basically had a kickboxing match against um me and akim akim de wato in arizona um underrated fight because the entire fight week Mozart was like, I'm just better at striking than Hakeem Dawto. And everyone was like, what are you talking about? Like, Kim Duwado is like, might be the best pure striker at Featherweight. And even

Hakeem DeWater like laughed when we brought it up. And then you watched the fire. I'm like, well, fair enough. Mozzar. Like, you said it and you did it. So good on you. Yeah. A couple more. A lot about 333. D.H. King, I feel like the title fights this weekend have more at stake than just

respective titles. I feel that if Volk wins this fight, he has officially legitimized himself as the better way goat surpassing Aldo. I agree with that as well. I also believe that the winner of the Banimway title fight has a clear argument to be the goat of that division as well, especially if it's a Marab, but Jan would also have a strong case as well. Bots on this, agree, disagree.

Can't wait to hear you guys think. So you agree both of those. I agree 100% with the first one with Volk. If Volk beats Mozar, I'm fully on the Aldo train still, but I, I, you know, don't argue with people that say Volcanowski, if that makes sense. Because Volcanowski's beaten Max three times. He's beaten

Aldo, he's beating Diego twice. The only one he hasn't been in, essentially, is Connor, who he never got the opportunity to fight in Ilya, because he'll probably never get that rematch. But yes, if he beats Malve's up. I think I said this ages ago when I would, have been one of the last few times I was on BTL.

I said, I said that exact thing. And Jed was like, oh, this and that. I'm like, I disagree. I think if he beats Molliv's I don't think there's an argument that Volk isn't the greatest featherwood of all time. This co-main event is interesting because Al Jermaine is obviously there. His name is in there. Dominic Cruz is in there. And Purion obviously has the loss to Sean O'Malley. So I think there's, if he if Purion beats Marab like he did the second time, like that dominantly and then turns around and then beats Sean O'Malley, I think he's probably the goat.

If Mara beats him, I think and then he goes and beats like whoever next. A beat song your dog and I think he's unquestioned to go but I think there needs to be one more step right because I think for ages everyone said it was Dominic Cruz and I still kind of lean

that way but then Al Jermaine set like the defense record and then if Marab had all those wins in like rapid succession but then his argument was like oh he didn't get finishes but then he went and finished Sean O'Malley and he had it's crazy I think it's

there's probably one more win away from cementing them. And I say cement, right? Like, unquestionable. Because right now, if you argue with me that Peter Yan, Marab, Al Jermaine, or Cruz, are the greatest Bannamweight of all this time, all of them. And I don't think there's a wrong answer. Yeah. If that makes sense.

Yeah. It's a Bannamweight's definitely interesting. Jed's not going to agree with the featherweight one, but I think it's undeniable at this point. I think the answer to the Aldo Vol question, will be answered on Saturday. If Volk loses to Bozzar, I think it might be all, though, forever at this point.

But that's what makes these fights interesting. We get stakes and things to talk about. Two more, bald boy Joe. Two questions. An honor Marab fight week, what are your top three MMA noses? Since he's last fought, he rebroke his schnaz and did not have surgery to repair it.

How much of a factor is this in the on rematch? Give me your favorite nose in MMA. Broken nose, the first one, I always think of his Rich Franklin's. Oh my God. And Anderson Silva put his knee between his eyes. Only because that was really the bit that's, we've obviously seen it before.

But that first performance was like the first time on such a stage and it was so dominant that Anderson was like, you never thought Anderson was lose. Also, when they were going to announce the winner in Anderson, the camera's on Rich Franklin. And Rich Franklin looks up at the Jumbotron and you just see a mouth, just, oh, fuck. when he sees his nose. I love that. That was like such a golden era of MMA. Mike Perry's face.

Yeah, that's a baddered in, I guess Vicente Lucay. That was, that was more gross than anything. And then JDMs is a little obviously famous. Yeah. Those are the three that really stand out.

Yeah. The Mike Perry one was more disgusting. And the Rich Franklin knows is like iconic. But then JDM, I don't think there's anything. I'm not Mike Bond. I'm not going to ask him that question of Media Day. Yeah. And as far as the rematch, I don't think it's going to factor too much.

Marab always has a broken nose. But this is actually a really interesting question, though, as it relates to that fight. Worship As I rewatch Marab versus Jan 2 today. I love Marab, but I honestly don't know what he can do differently. Every time Jan was taken down, he got right back up. Jan will piece up Marab and force him on his back foot all night. I think that's the bigger question. It's like I talked to Marab.

That interview is live on our YouTube channel. And I thought it was so interesting that he told UFC on Paramount that he knew he was going to lose in the second round. So he was just going to go have fun. And then we dove a little bit deeper in that. Yeah. But like, what's his plan B? Like that's my biggest question. Like if the same thing happens, are you just going to wave the white flag again?

be like, yeah, I'm just going to go try to have a fight of the year contender and not try to win. Like, I honestly have no idea what Marab we're going to see because one, the second fight was so crazy and dominant. But two is also his fourth title defense of the year. Yeah. And now he has like almost a year away from fighting. Like he's done RIF and stuff and some like wrestling matches. But I don't know, man. I again, such a fascinating matchup.

I have no idea what's going to happen. I think I'm going to lean Jan because he just looks so damn good in the second fight. But I mean, who the hell knows, man? Marab might, Marab starts taking him down. I mean, look, go watch the first fight. I know Jan wasn't 100% in that fight, but Marab was shooting 60 takedowns on his ass and didn't slow down one bit. Yeah. I feel like this is because the first, Uriyanov clearly was not healthy the second fight or the first fight.

Marab, I don't know how much it caught up to him. And like you said, he was pretty compromised right out of the gate in that second one. The fact that they've almost had a year to kind of physically heal, I'm very curious how this plays out. God, such a good fight. Because there's moments where I'm like, Purion might be the most, I'm not saying greatest like resume wise. There are moments that I watch Peerrera fights.

I'm like, this guy might be the most talented M.M.A fighter in the world, right? In any way, class. Like his box, like, I remember I interviewed Porre once and I was like, who do you think has the best boxing? And he said, Peterion, I'm like, never. heard that one, but yeah, I don't disagree. And then I was Cadeside for Peerion, Corey Sanhagen. And that was my pick for fight of the year. I know everyone picked Gaichi and Chandler, I think, was that same week, which is a

fun fight, which is obviously an incredibly fun fight. But I thought Corey Sanhagen, Peter Jan, was such a display of high-level martial arts. And I remember leaving that. I'm like, damn, is Peterion the most talented bandweight ever? And I even, I thought about it for a while. If Purion is 100% and he is clicking all cylinders, I don't know what Bannon Way beats him. I really don't. He might just, he could probably go to Featherway and give a lot of Featherweight's problems. I know he's much, he's a smaller, he would be a much smaller Bannerway and I don't want him to go up, but, man, is he a problem?

And Sean O'Malley said it best, though, which I also agree, because I think it's a lumbar surgery that Purion had. If anyone's going to, if anyone knows about getting surgery and then jumping right back into a camp and how that can blow up in your face, it's Sean O'Malley. Because it happened with him in his rematch with Marab. He had surgery for, I think, his shoulder or something, and then got right back into a camp, and he just was very severely compromised, and he said it was his biggest regret.

If Purion isn't 100% because of this surgery and he's kind of working around it, it's going to be real difficult to have, to defend all those Marob takedowns with a surgically repaired lumbar. But we shall see. 100%. Dude, dude, 2021. It was such a sick year for fights.

I know. I voted. My number of was Yuri Perashka, Dominic Reyes. Yeah. We had Hallway Yair on that one. Hulk Ortega, Jan Sanhagen, Gachie Chandler, Olivera Chandler, Holloway Cater.

I don't know why that made the list. Marob Marl Marais, which is a crazy-ass fight. Czech Congo, Karatanov, collared Pettis. Daley Hamasi, Anzibio, Miguel Baezza.

So I think that was like, I think Mike Davis fought Mason Jones that year too, which is like an underrated banger too. Oh, yes, yes, on Fight Island.

Like, yeah, that was that, or is that 2020? I think that was 2020. I think that was like January, 21 because I remember that being on Fight Island. Like that might have been that one of those like three fight cards in three weeks.

Because we also had Usman Covington too that year and like at, at the MSG card, also. Oh, that's right. Let's see. Mesa Jones. Yep, you're right. January, January 2021. Fun. Yeah. Fun, fun, fun, fun year of scraps. Hell yeah. All right. Let's go to the chat. Thank you all so much. Masters, thoughts on Zufa and their longevity. Do you think if Turkey takes a step back will affect their growth or do you feel they'll be strong regardless? Well, they just lost Shakur Stevenson after three months. I mean, dude, the last time I was in Las Vegas, you were there as well. we interviewed Shakur Stevenson like a day after the signing was official and not only did not only did we interview we were the first people interview like Jose and Mike were the first people to get Shakur Stevenson on camera um it's hot i feel like if if if turkey backs out it's clearly gonna hurt like i don't know how many of like when we did the ryan guard we had the ryan garcy and conurb ban fight right i don't know how many of those will get but as long as they have the apex and they have that stable of fighters that are willing to fight you

white in the apex, then it's obviously clearly not going anywhere. They still have Jayo Bataya. If they do that, Jaya, David Benavitas fight, ooh, golly, that fight rules so much. But if David Benavitas wants to go to heavyweight to, like, fight Usyik or Deonté Wilder, like, God bless, man. Like, boxing is so fun right now. In terms of, like, skill. I don't know.

I really, because the Shakur one was big, right? That's huge. I was never sold on Conor Ben. I watched Conor Ben fight enough times that, like, $50 million. I'm like, I also didn't care that he got $50 million. Like get your bag. And if this means everyone else's pay goes up, so be it. But like also at the same time, if you got $50 million to spend, like probably give like

Sean Strickland like $2 million to fight. Give up that was my that was my big argument. But I was never big on Connor Ben's like world champion caliber. I thought he was going to get cooked by Ryan, even if Ryan didn't. Ryan Garcia could just roll out of bed and cooked him. Shakur Stevenson was a name. like that is a world where he's the best fighter in the world right like he beats he beat tio like he could beat ryan garsi he beat all these guys and to have the number one pound from pound fighter on

your stable rosters would have been massive for zupa but that it blew up in their face um so i don't know what i don't know because but like i said if they have that small because i've covered the smaller zupa fights right i was there when jaya bataya defended his title in the apex which is very bizarre to have a caliber of fighter that big in a time. This was like pre renovations Apex. That was weird. As long as they

have the stable of smaller younger fighters that are like 4 and 05 and 06 and no fighting and fighting in the Apex, it ain't going anywhere. In terms of the big events that are selling on T-Mobile, if Turkey backs out, you're probably going to see less and less of that. Agreed.

Yeah. I think Connor was more, Connor Ben was more of like a personality signing because that dude is money on a microphone. Put 50% of that man's mic skills in Jayopataya and you got yourself a freaking star. I think the issue that people also didn't realize, maybe Sufa didn't think about it or Dana or whoever,

but like boxing fans are very loyal to much more loyal to like backstabbing the people that got you there. Backstabbing is the wrong word. But when Conner Ben left Eddie, after Eddie went to battle, with like the whole like positive drug test thing and really stood by him boxing fans in england did not appreciate that so i think that was a that was a big that played a big factor and maybe and like again like ryan like ryan was clearly the a side in that fight like it was

not like connor ben i don't i didn't see a lot of brits traveling to interview now to cheer for connor it was all mexican fight it was also mexican dependent state week so um but yeah i don't as a if they can get another if they could have made that Devin Haney Shakur Stevens fight that would have been crazy that would have been a big fight if they can get Ryan Garcia versus anyone big that would be big too

for sure Joseph what do Mike and Jose think of RIF having separate divisions with rankings for the crossover match with RF I like it too I like it a lot because clearly those fight like the Armin and Colby are very good at wrestling

the second you introduce like Jordan Burroughs or anyone like that to a ranking, you're never going to have these guys number one. It's going to be Jordan Burroughs and then a whole bunch of other people. So I like it a lot. Actually reminds me. Thank you, Joseph. Shout out to Mike and anyone else on the team that helps along the way with the RAF coverage, really enjoying the fact that wrestling has a face again.

They're fun, man. It's very fun. I wasn't a big, like, wrestling guy. I'm into it now. I'm into it now. I've been, not every event is a grand slam. This is a big one though. This is really big.

I actually think it benefits that like I wasn't a big wrestling fan either. Like I always watched it in the Olympics, but I didn't watch it anywhere else. I actually think it's a benefit that we covered it from an outside lens, you know? Like they're not so like because Damon and Blaine who both work on our site, like they are in the weeds. Like they know everything about wrestling. And I feel like.

And not that that isn't amazing, right? Because I get really deep into the weeds, a lot of strange things as well. How that would translate to MMAfighting.com's audience, that would be a little strange, probably. But yeah, I think we're doing it. I think you do a good job. It's also not that it's a,

I'm not saying it's an easy fight week, but it's not as chaotic as a UFC fight week. Yeah. It's, I mean, this week's going to be wild because I'm going to be doing like a five or six hour live show tomorrow. So get your sleep tonight. if you want to watch all that. I don't know what's going to happen.

But it's just kind of nonstop. It's just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And it's a little chaotic. And it's really good. And the team is really good. So, yeah, they're doing a lot of good stuff. Getting the UFC guys involved in, like, separating them from the pack is super smart. Like, they're just making very big decisions.

333 talk. One of my favorite fights from the Twitch, Davy Hanna, Kavanaugh versus Temeroff. It's a banger. I'm going Temer off by K. What are your thoughts? I don't know. I don't know. I'm also interviewing Lonnie Kavanaugh tomorrow.

So I don't particularly, it would be hard for me to, like, make, make a big assessment and then interview him like 12 hours later. But dude's beating Charles Johnson. And usually when you tangle with Charles Johnson, you move on to bigger and better things in the world. And knocking out Steve Erseg and Abu Dhabi was really impressive. So knocking out former title challenger and a guy that has always been right on the cusp. real exciting also like flyway in general needs finishers and he

dude has a finisher dude has absolute dynamite in his hands at 125 pounds so I think that's a very underrated because Lonnie Kavanaugh looks I know he lost looks pretty damn good against Brennan Ravel until they got choked out and then obviously beat Brennan on short notice in a five round five Mexico City

Mike have you ever been to Mexico City no you get tired walking up the stairs. That because of the altitude. Do you remember when Mark Hunt took that short notice fight against Verdum in Mexico City? And he was going live on like his, I think it was vine at the time. And he was like running through the streets of Mexico City like laughing to himself. Like you could watch a man have a mental breakdown live on social media.

And like, so that was a huge. And I think we watched that fight at R.A.F in Tempe, if I remember correctly. So yeah. Lonnie Kavanaugh, though, it's also lost to Charles Johnson. And any time you lose to Charles Johnson, you probably fight for the title. You might win a belt. You might win a belt. It was so sad.

Shad Jolayev signed with MVP, I think you would hold the UFC title for a while. He's so young, too. That was a great signing, baby. Amazing signing. Amazing signing. MVP has a chance to just kind of be like, you know, the, the alt. Just be different, man. Just be different.

But I, you know, if the UFC's cutting the best fighters who they don't feel is entertaining, they should sign all of them. Shider Live, I'm sure they would love to have, but MVP just snatched him right up. They can make something to that guy. So we'll see. That was great signing. If it's a good signing, if they do something. I want to see MVP, MMA actually do something.

Yes. Like that first event was all spectacle, but how, like, first question we had, we tired of squash matches or what? That whole fight car was squash match. Like amazing first round, a lot of glitz and glamour, horrendous production in terms of pacing. Like as someone who is, as someone who is there, as someone who is there, it was abysmal. Because like you guys were getting the desk, right? We didn't get the desk.

We didn't even get the desk on the Jumbotron. We got. So if there was like an hour gap of like people like John Jones joining the desk on like all these people talking. If that was, if we had an hour break, we had an. hour video package of Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano shadowboxing for 60 minutes while like a very generic rock song is playing in the background. So yeah, that the in-house product needs to be better MVP. Oh. Scott Coker just tweeted something out 11 minutes ago, speaking of, uh, from the, from key MMA digital letterhead, quote, I've always believed MMA should keep evolving.

Key MMA has formally requested a rule change to bring elements of the global MMA rules into the unified rules, excluding soccer kick stomps and linear knee strikes as per rule 533. We've asked CSAC to discuss this topic at the December 1st stakeholders meeting. Okay. Cool. All right. Big if true. Big if true.

We shall see. Joseph DeJasidazate. Joseph Vizzi is do enough to leap rug over Alexa Grasso or will Dana wait till Valentina comes back? Say one more time? You've got to, you froze for a second. Did Jasmine, Jasifizis do enough to leapfrog, Alexa Grasso, or will Dana wait till Valentina comes back? He's definitely not waiting.

He's definitely not waiting for Valentina. Dana White told me to my face in Salt Lake City that Natalia Silva is not waiting for Valentina. And Natalia Silver, to my face, told me she was not waiting for Valentina. So Valentina is really out for a year. That means the next time we see Natty Ice would be like, what, December 2027? Ain't going to happen. She's like, I want to be an active champion.

She already beat Alexa Grasso in Montreal in a fight that wasn't particularly closer, exciting. I know Alex is like a superstar in the eyes of the UFC, and she's an amazing fighter, and I love watching her fight. I don't see that happening. I would hazard a guess that, like, Jasmine, I think, would, if they want to do the Toronto card, sick, like, do it up. if they want to stick that in maybe your part of the world in February, they could do that too, but I would love to see Jazz get it. I think she's really fun. I think she's a really good interview.

I think she's like an underrated, exciting fighter. Whether she leapfrogs or not is another story. I think what benefits her, and I asked Natalia this, and she wasn't in the mood to look that far ahead, and I could kind of tell it's like, I'm like, you've essentially beaten like everyone on your way to the belt, right? Like all these contenders you knocked off. Like you already beat Rose. You already beat Alexa Grosso.

You've already been Jessica Androd. She'd be Jessica Andrade? Or did I make that up? She's beating all these ladies. Yeah. So if they want to do the jazz fight just because it's a fresh matchup, I'm all for fresh matchups. Especially if they're going to try to go to Canada. I mean, it's fresher.

I agree. Natty beat the shit out of her in Natty's debut. Yes. So, but I mean like fresh like jazz is basically a different fighter since then. Yeah. It's, it's definitely a fresher fight. But I also, the, the Schifchenko thing is super weird. I think we all know like what happened there.

She's like, hey, can you fight in October? No, I'm not going to be ready. Okay. You're just not going to be the champion anymore. So I think Valencia could actually probably be ready to come back a lot sooner than originally anticipated. at least from what I'm hearing. So it all kind of depends.

Like if if they do if they do Natty Jasmine, great. If not, they're going to have to wait for for Chavez. Unless Carly Judeas just beats this shit out of Macy Barber. Tusha. She knocks out that. But imagine her just leapfrogging everybody else.

Why not? Why not? It's the UFC. That's true. We just got one of Hong fighting for the belt. Yeah. Why hell not? Like, Wong Kong fight for the belt.

when like, yeah, like, why not? After beating Tracy Cortez, which is bad at us. Braddon, any word on the date or even a guestimated date of the anime debut of Mikey Musamichi? I bet it's not going to be for like a couple of years or at least a year. Yeah. And he's not going to fight unless he's like ready to go. He's probably going to take tons of time to train. Let's live in a fictional world where Mikey fights in 2027.

I don't believe that to be true. I don't think so either. And I'm extremely confident. that doesn't happen but let's put on our make-believe hat i bet he doesn't fight until i fw because that they're going to give him like the gable treatment like oh you're going to debut or like the kela harrison debuted a ufc 300 gable steveson to debut on a corner card like they're not going to have mike musimici debut in like ufc fight night sue falls you think he makes us like actual MMA debut in the UFC

or does he do the LFA Yeah, I guess that's a good point I was always looking at the lens of like him going right into the UFC But yeah, that's not a bad shout Like give him the regional scene Yeah, you should have like five fights in the regional scene before Yeah, it's not a bad shot that.

Yeah, it's not a bad shot I've heard Oh yeah I've heard Peter Young Oh yeah Have an entire contingent of friends and family and attend a Saturday due to Louis-Crex. It's crazy.

Does the added pressure weigh on him or no? Dude, it's crazy. When I was there for the Purion, uh, Corey Sanhagen fight in Abu Dhabi, he not only had like a contingent of like family and friends, they were all wearing the same jumpsuit. It was like his logo.

It's like all white with like a gold eagle type thing. I don't remember if it was an eagle or it. In my mind, it was an eagle. And like they all showed up together. And I was like, who the hell are, these people like these power rangers just rolling through avidabia and it's like oh that's peter yon's

his entourage like family friends training partners i'm like and they were all like trying to get in i'm like do these people have tickets are they just walking in but god damn yeah 100% he's he's going to have like an army with him it's pretty crazy yeah uh master's thoughts on machiav's recent tweet there you go hosea back to social media uh posted on some site called mbma fighting you might have heard of maybe they're just starting out L.O.L. What do you think of Mikhail's tweet that you just made a graphic for? I get what he's saying. I actually do like it's tough, right? Because he's essentially for people that don't know, he's like, don't tell people to not wrestle and then like cut us and do us damage and saying we're hard to deal with. Like he's basically

being like you're damaging our brand and image, right? Like if we're branded boring fighters, like we're not going to be able to do anything. You're damaging our legacy. You're doing ABC. And he's basically like, yeah, if you release us, fine. That's your prerogative. But then what he takes issue with is when you get released and you are immediately labeled hard to deal with, but you don't give evidence.

It's like something happened. I'm not going to talk about it. But you don't tell what he was hard to deal with. That can create a narrative that people that would like hurt his reputation that would cause other promotions, think twice before signing these people. So now, do I think McHenmajave was hard to deal with? Probably because I was in Manchester when he tried to, when he fought Manal Kopp in the hallway and all that went down.

So I've seen it firsthand, him being very strange and then having that not the best fight. Like Mike, I remember we've talked about this. Like, fight has a lot of heat. Has there been a bigger disparity of like heat to outcome in a fight in recent memory? Probably not. Recent memory? No, that one is, that one is the cake. That is MVP Paul Daly of this generation.

And at least Paul Daly MVP was more like a regional rivalry rather than just like, these guys seem to actually hate each other. And then it was like a dog shit fight. So it's, so I get what he's saying. I actually do get what he's, but like I don't really, I don't know because the whole, I have more issue with the UFC telling the fighters to not wrestle than. labeling them hard to deal with because like it's MMA like I'm I also am fully under the belief like if you can't if someone if Ben Ascreen holds you

down like he did in Ballott's all right like prime Ben Asker and when he fought Douglas Lima and he just held him down if you can't get up you cannot be champion get like you know what I'm does that make sense like I feel the same way about the shift in baseball people complaining about like oh they're shifting David Ortiz all right hit the opposite field. It's not my problem. Like, figure it out. Go the other way. Oh, you can only hit to right field. Then you don't get to the MVP.

Then you aren't the best player. So I don't have a problem with boring wrestling. I really don't because win is a win and you get double your paycheck. That's the other thing. Now that they're incentivizing finishes, amazing. We're seeing a lot more finishes now, right? Obviously it has to do with the lopside match me. I have no problem with, quote, boring wrestlers.

I take more issue with the UFC telling people not to wrestle. then the UFC labeling people, uh, difficult because I don't have a peek behind the curtain whatsoever in terms of dealing with fighters like that. Yeah. She loves the gloves. Considering how much long term damage the Connor Ben signing did,

a part of me almost wants to believe that all this time Ben was a Trojan horse sent by Eddie to destroy Zufa. Big if true. That'd be the greatest story ever. I've heard this theory a few times. Um, and we also like, like,

we've talked about like what the Connor Ben contract did, right? Like, and I use did as in like ramifications. But like there's not this like, is he said, there's a bunch of fighters that said when they first announced it. But like we're assuming like Sean Strickland isn't signing this contract because of the Conner Ben, right? Like that's like things people are saying.

Like we are assuming. I don't, I don't know. I'm sure you saw that clip making the rounds of Sean Strickland talking with Rampage on kick. And he's like, what's your biggest paycheck? He's like $8 million. And he's like $8 million. I feel like that played more of a fact

he's on the Conner Ben thing, specifically for Sean Strick. And so I don't know. I get what she's saying. Big if true, it would be absolutely hilarious. But I don't think Eddie is that. Eddie is a smart guy.

I don't think Eddie would do that. But it would be really funny. Radible if that was the case. Oh, unbelievable. Not an MMA question for Jose. Reaction to the Kishimoto news. relating to Naruto. I have no idea what this is.

So cook, my friend. He announced that there's going to be a new manga, or I think it's going to be called Shadow Rising, if I remember correctly. And it's like teasing Naruto as the Hokage, who's like the leader, emperor of the Hidden Leaf Village. Apparently, Soccer has a baby,

and Naruto is going to fight Saske again. This is all, like, announcements. We haven't had anything yet. But yes, color me intrigued, because anything is better than what Boruto was. Boruto is like Naruto's son type thing and that sucks. I don't know anyone that likes Borisai.

Anytime I interview a fighter about anime and they talk about Naruto, I always say, do you like Naruto or Naruto Sheepinaner better? Because that's like, do you like Dragon Ball or Dragon Ball Z? It's like it's very apples to apples. And they all say, I go, what's your favorite like arc of Naruto, Naruto or Naruto Sheeperter? And they go, anything but Boratow. So that's not an opinion that is just like a hot take. Everyone agrees barrage to sucks.

So the more Naruto content you put out, the better. And the more money you'll make. So everyone wins. Plus people will go back to reading. And if it means we get more Naruto anime, sign me up. So 10 out of 10 good time. Fire a bolt, Johan, highly disagree with the previous RIF comment. I wish that it would get a lot less coverage on an MMA platform.

Maybe that would stop our MMA fighters to waste their prime and fight in the UFC instead. What are you talking about? I don't think there's a single fighter outside of Colby Covington because he literally retired to do things. I don't think there's a fighter that's like, hey, Mike, you would answer this better. Yeah. Has there been a UFC fighter that's like, hey, we want you to fight on UFC Dallas. I can't. I got R.F.

No. No, it doesn't happen. Because, yeah, they work hand in hand. why do you think this event is happening on Friday instead of the original date for this card was the day of 332 and the original date for raf 13 was the day of 331 yeah they got a phone call they move stuff around they work hand in hand armin like wasn't getting fights so he just wrestled and made bags of money umzat does not have a fight so he's just wrestling a whole bunch And let me tell you something.

I've been around Hamzaa Shamaim during a UFC fight week, and I've been around him during an RAA fight week. He is a much more less miserable human being at an RIF match week than he is in a frigging UFC event. He is a different dude. He is smiling. He's happy. He's a different cat. Armine's the same way, man.

Like, no one is, the UFC is not stopping. No one is saying like, yeah, I can't fight because I have an RIF match. No. If they have fights, they're not wrestling. Armin like took time off when he, once he had his UFC fight books, he didn't wrestle. And now he just won. So now he's going to go wrestle again. He's also been pretty clear that if he wins the title, he's going to be wrestling less because he's going to have defenses to rack all.

So I disagree. Yeah, dude, like Armin's wrestling Georgio Poulos, which was, I mean, that was a fun robbery, obviously. It's huge for RIA. It did. It was huge for RIF. Yeah, it was huge. Him and Colby was good. He's going to rinse Dylan Danis in like.

a minute and a half. Palmazat's wrestling Robbie Lawler, which is just like awesome that Robbie Lawler's competing. But dude, we all know what's going to happen there. But it's just like, you know, they're making bags of money.

It's not affecting their careers. Also, it's been said a million times. I'll just reiterate, like active UFC fighters cannot wrestle fellow active UFC fighters. Yeah. So like Sean O'Malley could not wrestle Cody Garbrand in RAF. Like it's just they don't allow it.

That's literally why Colby retired. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. Cody Garberet making his R. F. Sergio. Against Sergio Pedis. Yeah. Cody's a good wrestler. People forget about that. Also,

she loves the gloves, duty. I know you were joking. Yeah, we all, though. But it would be the most incredible thing of all the time. Congratulations on the new gig, too. Yes, absolutely. They're actually going to be out here. I talk to Casey Leiden. He'll be out here tomorrow night, I believe. So it'll be good to see them.

Who? E. Casey Liden. Who? The badest stature. I'm too much of a coward. I wouldn't know any of those people. Anyway. That's the universe. A little fun question for the show.

Jose will love this. Both of you rank these shows in order. Hey Arnold, Rockos Bar and Life, Red and Stimpy, Doug and Rugrats. All right. I got this. Hey Arnold is number one.

Not even a question. I put Doug two. I also, I, I think it goes, Harold, Doug. I wasn't big on the Rugrats I loved the Rugrats movie but I'm putting them five by default

is because I've watched them less I'm not saying it's a bad show I actually think it's a in terms of like learning things about life I don't it's probably right next to Harold right in terms of like learning like plus Stu Stu is the funniest dude in the world ah shoot Rock was my life

so good and the red and Stimpy on Nickelodeon was fun but it was funnier on Comedy Central. I loved it on Nickelodeon. That's by one. Ren Simpey is one for me. It's great. Hey Arnold is five, but for the same reason,

you had Rugrats at five because I didn't watch it. I didn't watch Hay Arnold. I did watch the other ones. I think I've been Doug Rugrats, Rocco, Arnold. I think I've watched Hay Arnold more than any other car. No, that's not true.

Batman the Animated series. If you remove all anime, I probably watch, Batman anime series in Hey Arnold religiously. I would throw, I also loved Rocket Power. I would put Rock Power in above Rugrats. Yeah. That's because I was a skater back of the day.

I still say like when my girlfriend walks in sometimes she'll have like baggy jeans and like an oversized shirt and I'll be like, oh, what's up Reggie Rocket? Can I go hit the sickest kickflip? Well played. Mike, if Mikey Musumich learns how to take a punch serious question,

who would actually beat him at 125? Unless they can KO him from a shot When he pulls guard He's going to ruins everybody's knees Did you watch Joshua Van fight Pantosia? That dude might not ever lose I mean, I say that

Benal Coffee is a tough fight dude That fight absolutely slaps I love everything about that fight So good That might be the most high levels I say that But then like Royvall is amazing Pantosia was amazing

Tyra was amazing Fuck man Josh God what a year do Josh Van in a whole like in a different world in a just a slightly different universe Josh van is the fighter of the year two years in a row in a slightly different world if the Pantosia fight didn't end the way that it did in December

he was the fighter of the year if he just went out and beat him like he did yeah a couple months ago he's 100% fighter of the year I he's got he's gonna get fighter of the year votes this year but he's yet despite having two incredible performances in two of the very best fights of the year. He's probably going to finish third on that list, maybe

fourth, on Fighter of the Year this year, because you got Gaichi, Gaichi's won right now. Yeah. The only one who might challenge him is if Josh Hokit beats Zero gone. Then it's just like, dude, he went from like

fighting Maxi Manes. He fought Max Jimenez, and now he's the fucking heavyweight champion of the world. Like that is bananas. Strictly will get votes. Strickland's three and then Vans four because of the hot-up attitude. Fan is so good, man. Quillan's good. Three and O, three knockout, three stoppages.

Yeah. It'll get votes. Volk might get votes depending what he does to Moves-Zar. Moldzar might get votes depending on what he does to Volk. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Can't you really do you on a morab.

I mean, Alexa Grasso for female fighter of the year. She's probably it right now. Yeah. It's a good year. It's a good year. There's a, there's a lot of like deviations since 332 of like, oh, look what the UFC's become. But like, let us not forget what the previous nine months were like. Like, yeah, we got some squash matches and some like forgettable apex events in terms of like storylines.

But like, dude, there are so many great UFC cards this year. Like Seattle, 324 was great. 325 was awful. That had an awful card. That was a 326 was not great. But then like 327 was excellent. 328 was excellent. 329 was excellent outside of the main event.

That was shaving up to be like the best card in UFC history until Connor McGregor got injured, five seconds in that fight. 330 was interesting. 331 was unbelievable White House. I mean, dude, it's been a great year for the UFC in terms of like card action. Sacramento was great. Noce was great. Yeah.

I mean, say what you will. Like they've had a great year. There's going to be interesting conversations for like every single award. Biva, M.A fighters and RF does nothing for me, but at least they're getting paid. I get it, man. Like I totally get.

They're a wrestling purists who don't like it. I get it. Totally understand it. But looking at it through like the RIF lens, like they're at least if you believe what they say, and I do because they're very consistent about this, the goal of this is obviously to be successful. The goal of this is to put more eyeballs on wrestling than there's ever been before.

and Armin and Colby and all those guys are doing it. Get paid. And they're getting bank too. I'm no longer in the camp of like, because I was also the same thing in comic books. Like the movies would really bother me. Don't care anymore. Just go get paid.

Yeah, get your money. I'm more concerned with people getting paid, unfortunately. Yeah. Like the hype fighting stuff I don't really love because we're hearing about like people potentially not getting paid. Go to AR if you're getting paid. So that's good. Yeah, but it'll be daring to get around.

We can't really compare that to the top fighters of the year. I agree. But I, in terms of like, is he, is he the breakout fighter, you think? No, Josh Hoken is. Josh Hoken might, Josh Hoken might win every, Josh Hoken might win three awards. Fight, fight. He's definitely winning a fight. Fight, breakout and fighter.

He could win all three. Yeah. That's been, it's frigging crazy, dude. Yeah, that's sick. Yeah, I hadn't thought about it. Shoot. He goes out there and wheel kicks cereal gone. Oh my God, dude.

Jesus. Kat, my mom's introduction to M.A. was sitting ground level at UFC Seattle. She saw the Musaya Baha Monday's fight and told me she's had enough. Holy shit. Dude, I was at an event. I don't remember this woman's name. I was at Fador Frank Meir in Chicago.

And I think that Dylan Danes fought on that card. I actually don't remember who else. I might not have been that card. It might have been the Paul, no, it might have been the MVP Lima, Chandler Pitbull, Pat Curran fought on that card. I think Hager followed the card. It was in Chicago. I think both of those were in Chicago.

And this woman sat next to me. She's like, I've never watched MMA before. Like, I'm here to cover it for so-and-so. Like 30 seconds into the first fight. She's like, nope. And then just left. I was like, bye. Jeez.

I mean, kind of know what you're getting yourself into. I think I've watched two events with my dad. One was UFC 205. He loved that. He had a blast. The other was, what was it? It was the first, it was the Mazadol Usman Fight Island event, where Mazdaal stepped in, like, last minute to fight Usman.

Yuri Prahachka made his debut on that card, and he watched, like, a bunch of the prelims, and, like, one fight had, like, five really gnarly kicks to the nards. And he had, he was just laughing so high. He's like, this is, like, a cartoon right now. now just watching ball kick after ball kick after ball kick um yeah my dad's a he's a fun he's a fun time hose's met my father yeah they're good yeah they're a good time my parents are good son all right i've seen this i've seen this i can't this question out which enemy characters

you just signed for man and co-main fighters u c 333 that's an excellent question i don't have enough time to think about this but i love this question next time i will circle back to this i promise you next time i'm on a show i'll give you enough of a heads up because i really this is a very fascinating question i want to take this seriously because someone's like oh one punch man is volkanowski how's that true just because they're both bald it's not true but this is a very interesting question that i want to take seriously um so your five dollars is not wasted for the super chat al a a la aline abul i'm sorry i'm gonna smash your name i want to take this seriously so your five dollars is worth it i will circle back to this at some point i love it

it. Unreal that he could too. I'm still not sure how good guns anti-wrestling is. We shall see. She loves the gloves. First fight my mom watched was Tuporia versus Gaci, the loudest never again the world has ever heard.

Luckily, my parents never deterred me from doing much of anything that were my passion, right? I was like, I'm going to watch fist fighting. They were like, okay. Yeah. The gnarliest fight I've ever seen, still to this day, is Gachy, Tote Ferguson.

and that is still just so gnarly with nobody in the building and just watching. There were a handful of people. There were like 16 people in the building. Yeah, I was one of them. And you were one of the people. I can't.

What was that like, dude? Weird, man. Because the weird, it's not, the parts that I remember are the upper cut obviously. But what really, I just did this with back when Casey and Esther were doing coffee talk is the low blow that Tony had on Justin, it's the

like hearing the writhing in pain. Yeah. Is when Justin's like basically dry heaving in the octagon. That's what stands out to be them. Because you don't hear that when there's like a thousand things. Like when we're watching the replay in the crowds reacting and there's like video packing and everything. So it's Justin getting

absolutely destroyed in the nads and him just rolling around for like five minutes. That's what burnt is burning in my brain. Yeah. I remember. And in the a glow of Scher, knocking out Anthony Smith's teeth because I was like 10 feet away from that.

Cater elbowing Jeremy Stevens was super gnarly on that card. Francis chasing down and beheading Jarzini Rosenstrike on that card was wild. The apex cards during the COVID were something else, man. To this day, the scariest knockout I heard was

it's not even like scary to watch. It was scary to hear was Vicente's luke's knee on randy brown it was like it was a it was essentially taking a baseball bat to a tree it was just and it like echo didn't like that that freaks me out yeah i i only covered one of those cards it was a bellator event uh bellator 260 it was headlined by lemma versus amosoff oh yes um there wasn't like i don't know there wasn't anything like really create like pico was hit in Aiden Lee a lot on that card. There wasn't like any gnarly knockouts

that really like vibrated through there. So I didn't get that whole like super gnarly experience. But there you go. We'll take a couple more that we'll get on out of here. Average Jow, our favorite movie ends or TV series of the year and one you're looking forward to within the next 12 months. Very much looking forward to the new Mr. Miracle show

that DC has finally like announcing. Favorite show? This year. I don't watch a lot of TV. My favorite movie I just saw was you can see everything. Or is that what it is that what it is the documentary? When Nathan Field. I always get him and Nathan Fielder.

They're confused. One of them is Guy Gardner and Lanterns. The other one just made one of the might be the best document I've ever seen. The Elizabeth Holmes documentary. It's three hours. Oh my God. Oh my God. I literally haven't stopped thinking about it.

It's like, you'll see it, my guy, if you go to see it, because you've been in journalism and you like watched a lot of like interviewing process and like it will make you angry, not for like, but like this is so good. Like you think you ever have those moments where like you think you're good at your job and then you see someone that's actually unbelievable. Yes.

And I was like watching this movie. I'm like, I'm so mad that Nathan is, Nathan is it Nathan Fieldman or Nathan Fielder Nathan Fielder that's right I get him and Nathan Fielder Nathan Fielder is so talented at filmmaking and this documentary is so good that I was like angry

because it's going to change how documentaries are for the rest of time. Yeah. It was absolutely unbelievable journalism. So I think that could, that couldn't get a best picture nomination as a documentary. That's how good it was. I feel that way every time I listen to like Howard Stern interview somebody. I'm like, damn, dude, he's so fucking good at this. And he does it for like 90

minutes. It's crazy. He's so good at that. I'll have to go check that out. I think my favorite movie was, I don't see it. Like any movie I go see now, it's with my kid. Sure. So, I mean, Spider-Man's right up there. Spider-Man was good. Right up there. Favorite movies of the year. Favorite TV show? I caught up on, I did watch season on Marble Land. which I thought was really good. I got two, I got two favorite shows. And for animated,

it's Mall on Disney Plus. That's by that, I think Andor is the best thing that has ever come out from the Star Wars universe. Mall is a close second. The best show is by far Widows Bay. Holy shit.

As someone who grew up in the New England area, Mike, you'd appreciate it to, they nailed everyone. I'm like, I, you, everyone,

it's a horror comedy, right? But it takes, It's supposed to be like Nantucket Island like type vibes like shantytown. Everyone that talks, I'm like, I've definitely met this guy in my life. So yeah. And it's funny because none of like the main characters aren't American. They're like Welsh and British.

Oh my God. So yeah, Widows Bay is the best show I've seen this year. And you can see everything is the best movie by far. But those are like everything else I've seen is like competing. for number two. There's only there's only one show that I was like looking forward to this year

and I already watched the whole freaking thing. It came on Thursday. I already watched the whole thing. I watched Crystal Lake on Peacock which is the prequel to Friday the 13th. Linda Cardalini better get a fucking Emmy.

Really? Oh my God, dude. She is so. I'm sure. Fing good. Because honestly like I enjoyed it. There was some nostalgia to it. She, without her, that show is not good.

Really? She's everything. She's everything. Go check it out. There's the first two episodes are crazy. Then it's still a little craziness mixed in. And then the last episode is spectacular. Spectacular.

It's really gnarly. Good. Very gory. But like, it's Friday the 13th, right? Yeah, it's the prequel. Okay. It's like, it starts with like Jason drowning.

And then it's just like, her dealing with it. Isn't Jason drown in the first movie? Yes. Okay. So they, so it's basically like, it's basically how Jason's mom becomes.

Oh, she becomes. And then you get the backstory on Jason too. And it's like, you see he's like this nice, sweet kid and he's bullied, but there's one friend that always was like there for him. And it's like,

there's always a friend. Yeah, it's, uh, it's really good. I was like, oh, this is sick.

Night of the Seven Kingdom was also very excellent. too, the Game of Thrones one. I really enjoyed that one. But yeah, so I'd say Widows Bay, Mall, 17, lanterns did not stick the landing, unfortunately. Landers did not stick the landing. But if you want to go hear my thoughts

about lanterns, go watch my literal 90-minute podcast of Robbie Fox over on Barstool. Jason X is the best Jason film. What a imagine, dude, it's a terrible question. Jason X. Jason X is the funniest Jason film.

It reminds me of, I was in a film class in high school and a kid in my class said Godfather three was his favorite Godfather movie and the teacher kicked him out of the room. He's like, goes in the hallway. That's the similar thing to that. He was like so mad that student thought Godfather three was the best Godfather as people are honking outside my window. And yes, to answer duty, yes, I'm going to watch cyberpunk. Let's go. Just watched all the Friday movies. Good. They're not good. Like, none of them are good. The first one is good. The first one's good. The first three are like five. Fine. Four is actually really good.

And then it's supposed to be over. And then five shit because it's a fake Jason. And then they just, it's just silly. Like Jason takes Manhattan is like the silliest fucking movie I'm mad. All right. All right. We'll get master's question in there.

I really don't have a really, I honestly haven't really watched a show in forever. Must question. Yeah. Apu is back on the Simpsons after being canceled eight or nine years ago. People have gone crazy over it. As no one had a clue, he's back permanently awesome.

how cool thoughts. Yeah. I honestly don't. The first like, I don't know, eight, nine, ten seasons. The first nine seasons are the best. And then I stopped watching it. So I didn't even know this is, so this is, so in 20 as people are honks,

see people are riled up outside my window. 2017, there was a documentary that came out called the problem with Apu. And it's about like Indians like and being stereotyped and racially profiled and there's like a lot of microaggressions and slurs and everything and a lot of it stems from people that grew up watching apu and the simpsons so i don't say that's the catalyst but it's a major part where it's also um Hank Hank his area voiced apu and Hank his area is famously incredibly white so they didn't cancel him they just shelved the character because 20s like 2017 20 people started to understand why that character was so problematic right because i've i've

I've been to very few stand-up comedies. I don't remember his name. I didn't open mic, and he was, like, doing crowdwork as an Indian gentleman. And he saw another Indian. And he goes, what kind of Indian are you? Are you an Apu Indian or are you a so-and-so Indian? Like, so they were using Apu as like a descriptive word, right? I'm not Indian, so it didn't affect me, but it clearly affected enough people that a documentary came out.

And then they just wrote him back into the Simpsons. They were like, but like they wrote him as been like, I've been away for 10 years. And you didn't even notice. and then like he has a new voice. So they nailed it. They nailed it. It's similar to when like how I met your mother when they had to write off one of the characters

because she was pregnant in the real life. In the show, she heard a joke that was so vulgar that she's like, I can't hang out of people anymore. Yeah. And then they like wrote her off for like eight weeks and they brought her back.

Yeah. Same thing. Like so he comes back and it's like an astronaut he takes his helmet off and it's all this dramatic thing and it's up who. So they don't, he doesn't just appear like he, has a dramatic entrance.

So I thought they nailed it. There you go. I had no idea. It was even off the show. I didn't even know they made a documentary about it. It's actually, even if you don't care about this topic, it is a very well done documentary.

If you're just a film documentaries. That and then my friend Bill or Bill and I or whatever, it's about the actual creator of Batman came out around the same time. And I feel like both topics were viewed as like, why did you make a documentary about this? incredible documentaries, both of them. I'll tell you the most disappointing thing. Hulu was pumping up this documentary about like the clowns.

Do you remember that? Like where people are dressed up as clowns. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was like, oh, I'll watch that. It's, it's fucking, don't even waste your time. Don't waste your time. I'll tell you that right now. I'm just like, that's it.

Don't watch it. I think that's it. All right. Big week. Tomorrow, I believe 6 p.m. Eastern is when we'll be going live from Las Vegas. We're going old school, we're going to know what the heck

live from Las Vegas. You'll hear from like Brendan Allen, Bobby Loller, Armie Kempaya, Elmira, Jordan Burroughs, and much more.

And whatever else happens to be around, we'll talk with us. So it'll be a great time for a few at a museum Eastern for that. And then probably no beat the on Thursday

is here. And then Friday preview show we'll have RIF coverage all week. UFC 333 coverage all week. Watch party on Saturday. It is going down. I'm actually staying in Vegas an extra day just so I could do the watch party.

So we got that happening as well. So we're going to have a great time this week. Thank you, Jose. Glad to have you in the States and you're not having to jump on an airplane. Thanks for hopping on, my friend. Anytime. Have fun in Vegas.

Tell Kenner, I said hi. All right. All right. For Jose, I, Mike Eck. Back next week to react to it all right here on BTL. we're out of here