MMA Fighting - BTL | Ulberg STUNS Prochazka At UFC 327, Hokit Makes Statement, MVP Presser Reaction

Episode Date: April 16, 2026

UFC 327 created some huge moments, capped off by Carlos Ulberg knocking out Jiri Prozhazka on one leg in the main event to win the UFC light heavyweight title. However, Ulberg's injury leads to an entirely different conversation for the division if he's out for an extended period of time. Following one of the best numbered UFC cards in quite some time, the panel reacts to some of the big moments, Ulberg's title win, and where the division goes from here on an all-new edition of Between the Links. Additionally, topics include Josh Hokit's ridiculous ascent after parlaying a pretty tough PR week into an incredible performance, a win, and two bonuses against Curtis Blaydes, MVP's New York City press conference promoting the Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano card on Netflix, UFC Winnipeg and RAF 8 going head to head, and much more. Join MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew as they answer your questions all show long. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Jed Meshew: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@JedKMeshew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. From M.M.A. Fighting Studios. This is Between the Links. And now, your host, my... The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of BTL. Happy Thursday to us all. We are coming off of a very fun UFC 327 event, and it's always good when a UFC event happens,

and we can discuss it for long periods of time. It's not like an event ends and then the next day it's over and we're already thinking about the next event That is not happening with UFC 327 although we are two days away from UFC Winnipeg We are two days away from RAF 8 in Philadelphia We are three hours away from PFL Belfast Lot going on in the world of mixed martial arts and combat sports. We are a day removed from the Rowsy Carrano New York City press conference I'm sure we'll just discuss that and much more with myself.

And this man, Mr. No Gray area, the hot take kid himself, the one and only. Jedmishu from M.AFighting.com. A man who learned a valuable lesson on Saturday, never count Carlos Ulberg out until he is out of the fight. How are you, sir? Man, uh, sure did learn that lesson. And I do, I would like to defend myself very, very slightly. Please. because in the clip that was posted to our socials,

which by the way, electric clip, it's great. Also very revealing people pretty dumb. It's sort of like, because all of the comments, not all of them, but like a lot of the comments were like,

these are analysts. They're like, guys, did you, we put this up. This was a choice by us to put up. We understand that I look stupid here. Like that's the gimmick.

That's part of it. This is you didn't like found footage us that we were trying to hide this. You bozos. But I would like to slightly defend myself in saying that if you watch the clip, my quote is something like, well, this fights over. How can Carlos Olberg knock him out? I mean, I guess it's not over over because I did just before. it happened, be like, I don't know, crazier things have happened. And then boom, he went down.

So full credit to call us Oldberg, I did look very stupid and I'm okay wearing that hat. But many of y'all look stupid too who are trying to tell me how stupid I am. Yeah. And it's just a small percentage. Everyone gets it. I ever loved the clip. They knew it was going to be. It's a great clip. We literally said it. Minutes after it happened, you're like, Mike, this is the clip. Like, we're clipping this off. And boy, did we. It was a, it was an election. clip. So good. It's just like,

I live my life in a different way than people on the internet, I suppose. Because when I see that clip, I'm like, oh, that's fun. That is a fun thing to show the volatility of MMA and how crazy of a comeback it is. Not, man, that guy's fucking stupid. Which is like how some people just took to it. I was like, man, you guys live your life through the valence of anger and sadness, I suppose. Not like, man, it's really like, what an epic comeback from Carlos Sahlberg? Like, it was, it was wild.

It's been a very illuminating, like, four days on the internet. Yeah, I was talking to Annick yesterday, and that was fun because he has to deal with that all the time. He put out, he put out a tweet of, that literally said, there are some who say, it wasn't John Anick saying, I'm saying this. it was some some are saying that ufc 327 is the deepest card the ufc has had since ufc 300 and he got torched for that and he was just like yeah it's a really good card but the tweet was like yeah there are some who say and it's just like oh you're you're a corporate butt kisser at all this stuff but he's got to feel even even though he didn't say that outright himself and this wasn't like hi i'm john annick and i think this is the best card since ufc 300 it's got to feel

feel a little vindication because that card friggin rocked. It was so good outside of one fight. Also, like it, that's not even a ridiculous thing. Like, 327 was a good card. It wasn't like an incredible card, but like, it's not like the previous 26 events

were all super stacked. Like, this is just it. It was a good car's best card of the year on paper. I think it mostly delivered on that. I think it's the event of the year right now. We had a great time, but for one moment. And And yeah, I am fascinated to see how long, as you said in your intro, I'm interested to see how long we'll be talking about it because it does feel like there's not a ton of energy to continue speaking about it.

But Winnipeg is just so ass that we might keep talking about it because there's not like, we got nothing else right now. But I coming into this show is like, I wonder what people want to talk about today because I am very curious. Yeah, I think we're going to be talking about this, especially the main event in the fallout of the main event. We're going to be talking about this for months, weeks at least, because we don't even know how hurt Carlos is yet. Like, I feel like that's something we're going to find out in the next few days, no more than a week. And then if it's a good outcome for him, then we have questions. Who does he fight next? How long is he going to be out for?

And if it's bad, is it like, all right, is he just not going to be the chance? happy it anymore because this is what happens at 205. They just move on with the next thing and who's going to fight for that and all that. So it creates an interesting dynamic over the next couple of weeks. But let's get into this. Let's discuss things. Fiery questions and superchatters get to the front of the line. Bolt Corpse. Can we get Rhonda versus Kayla and RAF? So the MVP press conference was yesterday in New York City. It featured Ronda Rousey, Gina Corano. It was nice seeing Nate Diaz back in our lives.

Mike Perry was up there as well. And then Francis and Gano and Philippe Lins. And Ariel Hawani asks Ronda Rousey a question. Kayla Harrison said, this about your fight, irrelevant, all this stuff. And then Rhonda just cuts the promo of the year. I mean, she just smashes her verbally. And it was really, really good.

It was definitely the best part of the press conference without question. We could talk further about the presser. I thought this was actually a bad day for the card, honestly, outside of that. And like, Nate said like a couple cool things. And Mike Perry, I thought was like the best person at the presser. But this did nothing to generate interest. This did nothing to get. people excited and it just it just didn't need to happen this is it just seemed like a forced press

conference when the buzz was so high already i think this actually took some buzz off of the card if we're being honest but let's talk ronda and kela right out the gate shed yeah uh i i just i want to talk about the presser first yeah please because like we're here yeah i didn't realize until yesterday, like, and maybe this is naive, but the purpose of press conferences? Like, because I've spent like most of the last

evening thinking about it, because you're right, like that press was quite bad. And I think there are a lot of reasons for that. Some of them, I just won't say. Some of them will talk about. But like, as I was thinking about it, like, as that presser

was happening, we were talking in Slack and I just asked like why why are we doing this because it became very apparent during the press conference that none of these people care about fighting each other. They're like marginally they're interested in fighting

each other for the sake of doing this but the energy there's no animosity directed at each other and there doesn't need to be animosity directed like I don't think every fight needs to have bad blood but there's not even really like a willingness

like an interest in fighting each other for the sake of competition or whatever. It is so transparently like Rhonda wants to fight Gina because she wants to stick it to the UFC and kind of wants to help Gina get back on her feet. And Gina wants to be famous again and is tired of not being famous. Francis is looking for a paycheck. Like he just, he just trying to get paid and this is the guy. Philippe Lins, this is the biggest opportunity. like he's the only person like actively invested in who he's fighting but nobody cares about him so it

doesn't matter and mike perry and nate dyes will be fun and they both seem interested to fight each other but you know neither of them are selling the fight on the grounds of anything other than like yeah i respect that dude it'll be fun to fight it like be good to fight him everybody is anti-unc here and that doesn't i mean that that that's a story but it's this we are got that story. We got that story in March when they did this first one. And so watching this was like, you're telling me the same story. And this time

Nate and Mike are there, but they weren't engaged enough to really give this like a purpose like a purposeful existence for this presser. And we're just like, what the, like, what is this? And until we finally got at least Rhonda talking about

Kayla, which isn't relevant, frankly, to this card, but at least was something to get people interested. but like I realized watching this is like man they they shouldn't be doing these pressers unless they are telling a story and you can't tell the same story you told last time so it needs to be something new there needs to be layers to it or else you are taking the shine off this card ultimately it's not going to matter everybody has Netflix going to watch it

but like yesterday was very all of the stuff talking about it it's going to be Kayla right like it's going to be Kayla and Rhonda which has no real relevance to MVP MMA. Kind of a misstep of a card. I think, you know, I also don't think they did it optimally and, you know, if they were going to do this.

But really, yeah, that card, that presser yesterday was quite bad until Rhonda kind of saved it by cutting a wicked promo. I actually thought, I thought a lot of the same thing you did. I'm like, why are they fighting each other outside of a paycheck

and trying to stick it to the UFC? There is one guy on there who, like looked like he wanted to fight it was Mike Perry like Mike was like come on like wants to fight anyone yeah he's like why are we talking shit like what are we doing here he wore the shirt like I he wanted to try to get something out of Nate and Nate's just not that dude right now like he doesn't Nate doesn't want this he doesn't want the bullshit at the press conferences he didn't want it when he fought Jake like the best the second best part of the promo was Nate was Mike Perry standing on stage ready to face off with Nate and

Nate goes to take it and goes to the bathroom. And we had to watch Mike stared with himself. It was unbelievable. But you could tell like, and by the way, Mike Perry would go back to the UFC in a friggin heartbeat if they asked him to. If he goes out there and beats

Nate Diaz and they call him, he'll be back in the UFC the next day. Like, without question, he will be back. He said as such, Dana White's already like essentially told his team like, all right, we'll see how the fight goes and maybe. We've seen guys come back and and do well. Like we've seen Jeremy Stevens come back.

We've seen all sorts of people come back. So yeah, this, this did, this did nothing. I will give Ariel some credit though. He read the room really well when it came to the Kayla question because we had a bunch of boxing media asking MMA fighters questions about boxing. And that heard it too because we weren't, we weren't getting that Kayla question without Ariel asking it. Without Ariel asking that question, that moment does not happen yesterday.

And then we'd be talking about the press conference being bad, but we'd be talking about it being maybe the worst combat sports press conference I've ever seen. Like this did nothing to promote the fight. This did not sell a ticket yesterday. None. Not one ticket was sold because of this press conference. And I honestly think it hurt it. It's going to do well on Netflix, but whatever, I think what.

ever buzz this card had, sort of the mystery behind it and the intrigue behind it, I think this presser heard it. I really do. I don't, I think it's too far out to have heard it, but that thing is also too far out to have built it in a meaningful way. Like, just we didn't need three pressers for this. And if you needed a presser, like it was just a here's a Mike and a Nate presser. Yeah. And let them go. Yep. I Ariel did frankly save it by asking the pointed Kayla question and that that sent Rhonda off didn't love the follow up with singing a weird birthday song which is like man you guys you guys had some heat there and now we're singing happy birthday which is odd but whatever like it just it was a strange thing and like the Kayla Ron and the thing that's strange is like the Kayla Ronda stuff feels because it was so outside the purview of whatever else was going on. It just sort of feels like a Ronda interview question, not like a question that pops at a presser about a specific event.

Because she's never going to fight Kayla. Yeah, and so, like, that's never going to happen. And we are just, you know, you can squint your eyes and be like, this perpetuates the beef between Ronda and the UFC. But like, that's, it's weird. I think the press conference yesterday was a misstep. And they probably shouldn't have done it, even though we got the good sound clip out of there.

And, you know, that's great for us. will generate clicks off that, but like, that's not going to build this fight. It's not going to build towards a fight between the two of them. And it's not going to build towards an R. Like, it's not even going to build towards an RF between the two of them. Let's just, those two will never meet in competition again.

They did it once when they were like 12 or whatever, and that'll be the end of it. God, I have to ask Chad and Izzy about that tomorrow. Like, make it happen. Apparently they got the money to make all this shit happen. So, you know, do it. I would guess that. the UFC would not allow that to happen.

Really? Ronda has like no interest in fighting there again? Yeah, I just don't think that. I think they'd be like, Kayla, we're not interested in that happening. I think they might be all over it because Kayla would destroy Ronda

in like any sort of competition. The other thing is Ronda's just never going to do it. So, yeah. It's, which is like, it's a weird thing because that's the other part of it too. Like I think Ronda was right, like 85% of what she said.

said yesterday. She'll been like all the way right. But like the pinch point of the conversation is going to shift because Kayla's, Kayla media was like, okay, fight me then. Which if you're- I did like that, by the way.

I thought that was just stupid as shit. I actually liked that, but I did not like the tweet this morning. The thing this morning was also bad. I thought to fight me than a stupid as shit because Ronda's whole point was you are talking shit about us. You don't need to.

You exist because of me, which is true. And like, I didn't talk shit about you. Like, she talks shit about Valentina Shepchenko, but she didn't say anything about like, actually Kayla Harrison is garbage or whatever.

And Kayla comes out as like, they're irrelevant. Okay, if they're irrelevant, why do you want to fight her? Like, you're lying then or you're lying now. So I think that's stupid, but nobody thinks like that.

They're like, oh, well, Kayla would kick her us. Yes, Kayla would demolish her. Kayla is a substantially better athlete than Ronda Rousey has ever been. She's a double goal medalist. She's better judoka. She's not as significant an MMA fighter, both historically and an accomplishment, though perhaps she could end her career more significant.

And she would thrash Ronda if they fought. Like, no one's disputing these things. But Ronda's point was, you stand on my shoulders and piss on my head. That's bullshit. And Kayla's response is just like, will fight me. And it's like, that's just chudworthy, man. And then this morning stuff is just like, okay, you're not mad. You're definitely not mad.

That's why you're still tweeting about it. Yeah, if you miss the tweet, good morning. She tags Amanda Nunes. I can't wait for us to have the greatest fight of all time. It won't be. And take women's MMA to a whole new level, the best versus the goat. Just sit out a couple plays. Like, you have to-

You don't have to- You don't. You don't. Like, I was actually okay with just, with the three words yesterday. Like, I was fine with that. Like, she had to do something. But then, like, that's it.

Now you sit out because the perception of this is that Ronda Rousey bodied you. Like, that is how the community looks at this. And there are some, obviously, it's like, yeah, if they end up fighting each other, like, Kayla would win. But that fight will never happen. So in terms of, like, how this is actually going to play out from a competitive nature, we're going to compare promos and we're going to compare what they said on shows or at press conferences. And Ronda clobbered her. Like this is this is one way traffic when it comes to that.

So like if you're Kayla and you're like telling her what to do and like advising her in any way, just tell her like, don't say anything. Just don't tweet a thing. Wait till you're asked about it in an interview and then you can talk about it. Because that's the thing. You will get asked so you can just not say anything. Yeah. Just not say anything. And like I know that I'm probably the only person alive who was like five minutes.

I was like that's so stupid. Is she irrelevant or is she not? if you want a fighter, she's not irrelevant or you're stupid. So you're validating everything Rhonda said with that. Like I just take the L, man. Sometimes we lose. I lost on Saturday. I lost.

Take the L. I lose all the time. I come on the show and like, yep, I was wrong. I was the guy who said John Willie was going to kill Valencia Chonko and I was so confident about it. That was pretty tough one for you. I'm not sure it's just tough. The head went right up. just going, but it was a pretty tough one for it.

It went right up. That's how we go. Cazzo, how are you matchmaking Gable Steveson, a UFC 329? By the way, with everything that happened at UFC 327, Gable officially signing with the UFC has flown so far under the radar. It's like not even news

with everything else that has gone on. Like, no one's even talking about this. I'm glad Cosmo brought this up. I mean, they really buried that announcement, too. Yeah. It was just like, I think, and we talk about it on the watch party and I am open to your idea which I'll let you tell to the people I'm open that that was the plan and then because things happen they they spun but like one anytime

you announce that as somebody is going to fight but doesn't have an opponent that's like not a good announcement it's just like oh they're gonna fight like TBD the dreaded opponent or whatever like you're taking some of the salt out of that and two it was buried behind that Joshua it's going to fight Derek Lewis the Whitehouse. Like, which has happened. And so, like, I can't think of a way that they could have made this less of a big deal.

It's not going to matter. Gable Steven's probably going to be a top 10 heavyweight for a decade. And I would assume be a champion, et cetera. But it does feel like they missed a, they missed an opportunity to do this better. Yeah. And look, I know I play, I know this is my gimmick for months.

And he should have been fighting at the White House. Like plain and simple, he should have been on the White House car. This is, this is silliness. And my theory was they shifted him literally that night because I think they were. It's not a bad theory, man. It's not a bad one. I honestly think they were going to be, B, Gable was there. Like he was literally sitting there with John Jones.

They made it and Dana made it seem. Dana is very good at like just moving on and flipping things up on the fly. my my hunch was they were going to announce like gable steveson was fighting derrick lewis at the white house that was going to be like one of their big announcements because they had been teasing it right dan had been teasing and by the way is this is this the big was this the big reveal that he told uh bar stool who's a guy outside of like the combat sports bubble like boxing that's got a fight he's like find out tomorrow uh was this the reveal gable like he's very much in the bubble. He's in multiple MMA fight. So I don't know what it is, but you could see it kind of on Gable's

face when they showed him and then they announced it. He's just like, yeah, cool, I'm fighting. But everyone assumed he'd just be fighting at the White House. So I think what happened was Josh Hokit did what he did and kudos to him. And between Joe Rogan suggesting it on the broadcast and Donald Trump like making the extra push for it, I think they changed course. And they're like, all right, Gable, you're just going to fight at International Fight Week instead. and we don't have an opponent for you yet. So yeah, man. I actually, deep down, as bummed as I, like, I say what you will about Gable and I agree,

it's a lot of what people would say about him. Not the greatest human being on the planet. But he's going to fight and they're going to push the shit out of him. So we have to accept the fact that he is going to be their next, the next thing that they're going to make happen. They're going to make Gable's decent happen without question. at least this time they're pushing somebody with like a just a pile of talent um so yeah we'll see you never know how things shake out um Mike out better for Gable though and in a like you should be

funny at the white house I wouldn't have thrown him into Derek Lewis anyways I think that's what the UFC was going to try to do here but I would have like I would have thrown him in there with literally the worst heavyweight in the world and just had him like after Steve Garcia and Diego Lopez beat the shit out of each other. Like, Gabe will just run over somebody. I actually, like, so I put on the feed on MFAind.com website. Great website. Yesterday or sometime this week, I think it was yesterday, maybe it was day before.

Just asked like, who should Gable Steveson fight in his debut? And I pitched who I thought. And I thought about this a lot. And I don't know if I'll get an Otno point for this. I'm currently flush without no points. just overflowing with no points from the Hocadir-Der-Glitz fight. That's great.

But I think I've got the perfect debut opponent for him. I'm listening. Concrete Steve Aspland is the guy because he's kind of over. He's not like a star, obviously. But people in general sort of like him. He's got like an interesting story. if through some miracle he pulls the upset that actually, like, is not a bad outcome for the UFC.

It's like, okay, Steve Aspen's cool. And like, Gable can afford a loss early in his career that would be acceptable. He almost certainly won't pull off the upset, but he's a fun dude when they, he is, because you need somebody, because it doesn't matter if Gable is opening the fight card, which he won't be. but like he's going to be on the dais for the presser you know like there he's going to be there and so his opponent will be there and you need somebody that can be there with him and i don't think you give him like ty tuivasa and a ranking this early but like are you trying to put like what random ass heavyweight are you trying to you trying to put like homdi on the on the podium

oh no no no homie you should not be fighting anybody but ste like you put step and aspland on there and he can have like a quote and it can be fun and interesting and he will get run over and the one at a million chance that he doesn't it's not even a bad outcome. I think Steve Aspland is the guy. I like Max and Menace has always been my pick.

That's the guy that Hokit debuted against and just he just obliterated him in like a minute. Just perfect guy who at least has some credentials you can build up. But he's not great and he hasn't really beat anybody good. at all and he gets got really, really good. And then we can go to Aspland.

That could be like the next one. And then we can go to Ty. Somewhere in the Gable arc, Stephen Asplen needs to be there. Just like, I think he's perfect. I just think he's perfect for it of like, he'll talk. We'll have some fun. People will like him. Gable will run over him.

Good time. I think there is a tremendous, like, if there is a, any heavyweight fights coming up. Is there any heavyweight fights on this Winnipeg card? I haven't even like looked deep into it. There is a heavyweight fight on this one of peg card. Who is? Tanner Bozer versus Gokin Suttikam. Whoever wins that fight needs to call a Gable. I mean, they definitely should. Everybody should be calling him out. Like every single one. A hundred percent they should. I don't know if they will, but yes. Yes. If I'm a fist fighter in the heavyweight division, I am calling out Gable Steveson. For sure.

lazy bit. So about a month ago, I heard the minimum purse for MVP card would be 40 and 40 yesterday. Rousey seemingly confirmed it. Hype for the event to decide, isn't this a win

for both fighters and fans? Yes, 40,000. The least amount of money according to Ronda Rousey that any fighter on the card will make is $40,000. This is obviously very good. Yes.

Not sustainable. I mean, it's definitely not sustainable. Unless this event is just a grand slam. I don't, I don't know what is and isn't sustainable anymore. Netflix is footing the bill.

And if you're not doing 50 events, maybe it is. I think that the first dominant, and if you take one thing away from this, is good. It is good. There's, that's it. Fighters getting paid more is awesome. Full stop. No notes.

If you want to dive a little deeper, Rhonda being like, if you fight three times in a year, that's way, like, that's way better than what the UFC does. It's like, okay yeah but are is it is MVP going to have even three events this year like that might not be the argument to be making here you're just paying more money per fight which is good that is that should be the crux of your argument

uh the other thing like just like a very minor nitpick is the like most of the fighters on this cord would not be making 10 and 10 in the ufc either some of them because you know Chris Avila's on here for reasons that are he's friends with Nate. But like everybody else, you know, like Saladin Parnaz is a good. Make 10. He would be making 40 in the UFC too. So there's a little bit that like we're patting ourselves on the back too much. But broadly speaking, quite good, full support.

Yeah, like Kenneth Cross is probably making 12 and 12 in the UFC. So that's obviously good for him. Again, these fighters, frankly, shouldn't be on the card. but good for them to be making 40k, you know, like, Eileen Pereira probably just shouldn't be here, but it's fine and good for them to get paid. Yeah,

we know why she's here. I'm sure she's not making 40 and 40 a Karani Combat, uh, or at LFA, uh, I'm trying to like, look, uh,

Rebellis. I mean, he's probably, Rebellis is probably making 40 wherever. With karate combat, yeah. Like, I don't think,

uh, Bellis and JDS would be making 40s. Mahayev-Moray's making 40s. And then after that, you get to like, dudes who probably just shouldn't be here. Yeah, like David, David McGoyan, David McGoyen ain't making 40 in the UFC.

He's super fun, too. I'm very, I'm very happy he's on this card. Jod Besad Wong is probably not making 40 with BKFC either. Yeah, man. Avila's fighting Brandon Jenkins, really? Is that the fight?

That's what Topology says. All right. Well, good for Brandon. You might just go out win that fight, too. So I don't know. Sure. It's Chris Avila. He's very beatable. Look, you got to respect the guy like Chris Avila, who has crafted a career by being friends with someone.

It's great. That is, that's my dream. Joseph, there's some media outlets that want Carlos Alberg to vacate the title. Is it because of this injury, which we don't know how bad it is, or as a frustration, that was the biggest choke job from Yuri. It certainly isn't the back end of that question. I don't, you would need to show me who. I strongly doubt that any media outlet wants him to vacate the belt.

I just think it is very possible that he is forced to vacate the belt. It has nothing to do with Yeri choking. It is because there has now been a precedent set at light heavyweight. And Carlos Soltberg is going to be out for a year. I'm not a medical doctor, but other medical doctors have said, you know, they're not in there with the stethoscope and the MRI,

but in general, you have a good idea if you're like an actual sports medicine practitioner, like, yeah, dude probably tore his ACL. That means nine months out and then a fight camp. So he's not going to compete for a year, and that's if he fixes it

tomorrow, you know, and doesn't take some time to enjoy being champ or whatever. If you're out for a year, at the minimum an inter, like, I think there is no world that we aren't at least getting an interim belt at light heavyweight. And I think it's 50-50 that we, that Alberg, you know, vacates of his own volition and then can fight for the belt when he returns. Yeah.

It all, it all comes down to what happens on May 9th. If Hamsat-Chemiya-P, John Strickland, Carl Soltberg is vacating the light heavyweight title. if he's got to be out for a year. They're going to do Hamzaa versus Paulo Costa for the vacant title. I disagree. Real? I, all in part. Okay.

I think if Alex Pereira loses to Cyril gone, they are going to do Alex Pereira versus Hamzaat for the vacant light heavyweight belt. If Alex beats gone and is staying at heavyweight, Hamzaa, I've come around. onto this. Not that I like it, but it just kind of feels like we're heading that way. I think Hamza versus Costa is for the

interim light heavyweight title if Alex loses, because they're not going to make Alex fight for an interim belt if he drops back down. But if Paul, I don't think they're going to let Paul Ocosta fight for an undisputed title off one win and being

bad. So I feel like they split the difference. Shemaya comes up in fights for the interim belt against Costa or he comes up and fights for the vacant belt against Alex. I completely disagree with you about the Paul Acosta thing. I think he's absolute. I think even if Carlos Olberg is fine in his back in six months, Paul Kosas is fighting Carlos Holberg in his first title defense.

That I don't believe at all. Who else is there? Hamzaa Tchamai. Maybe. I am as close to certain as I can be that Hamza Tchamayev's next fight will be for some form of a title at 200. Yeah, but the problem also is that Hamzad is not the most active guy in the world. So, I mean, it's a good, it'd be a good thing if he's out for an extended period of time and then they don't take the belt off of him.

But I think Koss is going to fight before Hamzad does if it means like a title fight. I think he'll jump on that very quickly. And Hamzaal would just be like, nah, I'll wait until I'm ready and see in February of 2027. I've seen these things. I've looked into the crystal ball. Homs out versus Costa interim title. That's what happened. Yeah.

It's a great night for Paula Costa. It's a really good night for him. Boy, boy, he has been tweeting since. Yeah. I mean, that man is always active on social media.

It feels like, oh, I'm out of fight camp. I can really spend all my time on Twitter right now. Yeah. So let's, yeah, his thing is,

oh, I want to go back to 185, win two belts, and now he's like, I'm just going to go call it Josh Hokit. Which I actually liked this gimmick because it's like, yeah, man, I should have got the bonus over him. And I actually don't disagree with him. I definitely think Costa probably should have got it over.

Hokit, the performance bonus. Fight of the night, obviously. Like, no brainer. Ryder, when is the Colby Golf video coming out? I think next week. That is the plan. We're going to maybe try to get out this week. We're back in the world's most famous apex.

I mean. Good main event, though. Okay, look, I'm not here to tell you next week's card is good. It is as good as this week's card. I think it might be a touch better. I say it, there's an argument that it's better than this week's card. It will be in the apex, and that's not as fun as Winnipeg, but yeah. Okay.

Where else we got here? Oh, I'm going to say. Dave, I'm going to save one, or I'm going to throw one up here. Throw it up. Yeah, throw it up. From our good friend Dave Sandine. Mike and Jed, what are your thoughts on golfers that blast music while they play? Mike, how do you feel about music while you play golf?

I don't mind music. I don't, I do mind if you're like, I mean, if this is a house party and we're just cranking, I have a little bit of an issue with that. But I think if you got your music on to a level where like you and your playing partner, can hear it and nobody else, I think it's just fine. But if you're just blasting, it's annoying as shit. I tend to play music when I play. I would never do that without, like, I do it because I'm always playing with friends.

But like, if I got paired up randomly, I would not just fire up tunes without asking. Like, hey, you good with this? And whenever, like, whenever I'm coming up to the green, I will turn. it down so that the people on the next T-box aren't like don't have to hear it or whatever because it's just how it's this is just being a respectful human being in life considering other people at all times so but I I love to listen to music while I play golf yeah I like it but again yeah just keep it at a certain level and as long as like you guys can hear it like I played golf two days ago with my son and they have like you could the GPS system in the the golf car. You can just put on a radio station and play it. Yeah, we had it on. We always have it on when we're there.

So, but just to a certain, to a certain level. A lot of Gable suggestions. Asplon's good one. Taitu Vasa. What, Hokit. I think probably a little soon for that one. Can't do it now. Louis Sutherland, Omdi, L-O-L-L, Tirel Fortune.

Alvin-Ein-Ins would be, actually. Worst answer? Alvin Hines might actually be the correct answer. He will be, I believe his suspension will end literally the day of that card. So I think he could compete. And I forgot about Boise. He was the talk of the town and then he failed the drug test for taking everything.

He did the, Shemiel Gadsiev. No, not him. No, no, no. Rizvon Kudiav. Yeah, Rizvon Kudov. Not Shemil Gadsiv.

My top 10 ranked Kooniev, who took the pharmacy. That is genuinely by like one of my favorite stories of the last like seven years. Yeah. It's just like UFC signed Risvon Kooniev after you got let go from BFL. Why? You took everything. And then just put him into the contender series once it's, once it's sucks. Oh my gosh.

This is the best. where's that Alvin Hines would actually be spectacular but he might actually like I mean he could turn he could turn Gabriel into like a little bit of a villain people people jumped on baby face album right away and then when Alvin like failed the test

he was just like yeah man didn't think I'd be fighting anytime soon so yeah I did it and I couldn't turn it down so I'm sorry draw Stan alone Methanelone Baldwin

19 Nora and Destor just so many owns happening for his van cunyev yeah that was a rip like that's one where it's like i don't i don't know what he i didn't know what he like pled or what he told them but like you have that many or are you just going to come with like a can of monster and be like this was tainted funny this buddy come on we know what they jumped up they let him right on contender series and And made of a thing. I love this sport. They loved it too.

Man, we don't, people don't feel drug tests anymore, Mike. That's weird. Kind of weird since you see in-house drug testing. Nobody fails drug tests anymore. Well, some do, but not of, uh, man, when was the last time any important person failed the drug test? Yes, not of the ranked persuasion.

That is for sure. Uh, Mike, and we'll leave it to Jed to you. On a scale one to 10, how excited are you for WrestleMania this weekend? And what matches are you most looking forward to on the card? I forgot that's this weekend. Someone also asked, like, what card is better? UFC Winnipeg or WrestleMania and I kind of think about it a little bit

I mean obviously I think I'll go with mania just because it's stars but boy this build this build to mania has been bad like it's so bad I don't even want to watch Saturday like I'm so happy I'm covering RAF and then I get to miss it and I'll just like rewatch it after the press conference and stuff because like I'll have time but

yeah this has been this is the first First time since like WrestleMania 3 where I'm just like, eh, I don't even want to watch it. Like I'm not even excited for it. Which WrestleMania is this? This is 42. 42. I don't even remember.

I googled WrestleMania and 42 is the first thing that popped up. And it seems to that seems to be correct. So looking at this card, night one is a vision. Logan Paul. I don't know who that other person is. I show speed with Paul Heyman. the Uso's and L.A. Knight in a six-man tag match

that don't care. We'll get a good spot of the I Show Speed getting annihilated, so that's always fun. Drew McIntyre's that huge dude who's like Scottish, right? Yes. Okay, so I do at least know who that is. I don't think I know who Jacob Fatu is

in an unsanctioned match. I don't know what that means. It means they're just going to like, they're saying it's unsanctioned in storyline to be like, all right, you guys can fight, but we have no control. control over what happens. Like you guys just do it. You can't sue us. Like, you know, this is not sanctioned by us. Stephanie Vacker versus Liv Morgan. I know who Liv Morgan is.

AJ Lee versus Becky Lynch. I only know who AJ Lee is because she's married to dude. Sam Punk. And Becky Lynch, I do know. Married to Central Allen. The irresistible forces. Don't know what that is. Charlotte Flair. No Charlotte Flair is. Alexa Bliss. I know who that is. I think I know who Bailey is. Lyra Valchir, Valkyria, no clue. Bella twins, know who they are. Sethons versus Gunther, I know them. That feels like that's a good one.

That'll probably be the best match of the weekend, then no one will be talking about it. In terms of wrestling, that feels like that's a good one, but I don't know much. And Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton, I of course know, with Pat McAfee. The McAfee thing has just ruined this entire thing for me. And then they're trying to like, look what Cody did to my studio last night.

And it's just so dumb. Like no one gives a shit. It's so bad. There better be some incredible payoff that comes from this. But I don't think there's going to be. I really don't. This is the, this is the tough part about being Dana White and the tough part about being like Triple H or anybody in charge is that if our Emmanuel wants you to do something. you have to do it.

And that's what's happening here with McAfee. And it's awful. It's so bad. It's so bad. I, and I might be burning possible career bridges with this one, and that's okay. I'm actually comfortable burning this particular bridge at this stage of my life. ESPN is an embarrassment, and it's astonishing how bad they've gotten.

I was having this conversation independently with friends the other week. during Masters Week, where it was just like, do you remember when ESPN was the Bible of sports? Like it was, for every dude who cared about sports, it was it. Like,

it was one of the websites I went to the most. I could cover all of my sporting needs. The app was functional. And now it's just like, it's all bad. Like, there's nothing, there's no program on ESPN I care about,

um, since UFC left it. Like there are, PFL, I guess, or whatever. Their app is a nightmare that I only occasionally use to check scores on something specific. And their programming is like, they treat wrestling like it's real. And I want to be super clear about this because I am not a person who's like hates wrestling. It's not for me.

But like I don't, if it's for you, that's fine. Why are, why is ESPN ostensibly a news organization treating it as if it's as if the fights are not predetermined. And so you will see things that pop up where it's like whoever in SportsCenter is interviewing Cody Rhodes about what do you think's going to happen on Saturday? It's like he's not going to tell you.

He knows what's going to happen. But like why this isn't a real sport. This is theater. And that's awesome. But you don't see ABC News going up. Like Barry Weiss and CBS are going up with a mic and being like, hey, so what do you think might happen on next week's Abbott Elementary?

Because that's fucking insane. ESPN is like a genuine embarrassment to me now to be like, you guys were it. And now what are you like, your existence is almost entirely predicated on a continuing deal with NFL broadcasting rights and like just being grandfathered in as the face of sports. because like I don't know a single person who tunes in DSP and to watch anything anymore. It is like what a fucking fall from grace that place has had. So bad.

So so bad. Yeah, it's, it's tough. Like every day I wake up as I'm getting ready for school and I'm meeting my bowl of cereal, I'm putting on sports center like automatically. And then I would come home. It was it. I wanted to see like,

oh, I need to see what happened in whatever sports last night. I don't even care. Yeah. I want to know what the top 10 was last night. Like I want to see I want to see Stuart Scott up there like doing his thing and Dan Patrick and Rich Eisen. I know Rich is back. But like I mean, just the personalities are great. It was like must watch.

And then, you know, I would come home and watch around the horn like after whatever practice I was at and PTI. And like even then like, you know, that shows like run its course. Tony Realli had enough of around the horn. And and then I knew on Sunday nights like, if it was football season, I watched countdown or whatever show their prime time, NFL prime time. Chris Berman would do the highlights and give everyone

nicknames is awesome. And then baseball tonight would be on Sundays with Carl Ravich and it rocked. Like, it was just appointment viewing. And now I'm like you. Like when I remember we were all saying like, I cannot wait till this Paramount deal starts so I can get rid of all things the SBN.

All of it. Football stuff is the only stuff that's still like good. Yeah. They still like all of their people who do that work on football are still quite good. And so like, but outside of football season is like I what. And it like it has come to a head when like they are just treating professional wrestling as if it's not theater. And that is like deeply embarrassing and pedantic.

And I'm just like grow up like you, I'm not saying don't, you know, you've got a broadcast or whatever deal with them. But don't like the this isn't the 90s. not pretending like there is no k-fabe. Nobody thinks pro wrestling's real. So stop treating it like that. For the sake, like it is like they are, uh, what like, I grew up and that was

well, like that would have been like a dream growing up to be to work for ESPN. And I'm like, I mean, if they paid well enough, sure, but God damn, dude. Like, I don't want to have to, I don't want to have to like do an interview with Cody Rhodes and act like he doesn't know if he's winning or losing on Saturday. That's very stupid.

crazy stuff Ace Boogie is Malat fighting the only ranked welterweight that he can beat Not the only one But I would say that this is We know what this is This is a setup I am climbing with Malat this week

Put that in this morning But let's pull up the rankings right now Like I'll run them down for you Jed Let's play a little mystery box I'm looking at him but let's run him down Let's run him down Colby Covington

He could probably be Colby at this stage of his career. I wouldn't bet my life on it, but I would bet on Mike Malott to win that fight. Daniel Rodriguez. I mean, D. Rod was staying sharp in the Tijuana prison apparently. So I would still think that Mike Mollock can beat D. Rod, but I don't know. Euros Medich. Yeah. I mean, that fight would be quite fun. That would be quite fun. It would be. Medich, the thing with Medich is he feels to me like maybe a slightly better version of Malat because Medich has just always been like, I've never considered him a real contender, I've considered him like a really fun action guy.

And now he's won enough to get to the rankings, but like Mike Malat could win that fight. MVP? I'd probably pick MVP, but Malat could, I wouldn't count Malad out of it. Gabriel Bonfim. This is the stage where I would definitely pick Bonfam. but bomb feme is also a hot or cold fighter man. So like, again, I wouldn't entirely count Malat out, but I'm comfortably picking bomb feme at this stage.

Buckley. Picking Buckley. That's actually like a really good fight. We're in the stage where it would not surprise me if Malat won, but I am comfortably picking the opponent. Leon Edwards. This is actually a really interesting one. That's probably the most interesting one because Leon should

work him over, Leon might be full-blown washed. So quite interesting. And then of the list here, would you pick either of these guys, Molot to be either of these guys right now? Usman, Brady, Pratchez, Bilal Mohamed, Michael Morales, Ian Machado, Gary, Jack Delam, Adelan, Islam Akachev. Nope.

I mean, Usman is the one that's maybe the most interesting just because he's also old, but I would still pick. I would pick anyone of that very comfortably ahead of him. Coswell, thank you. Remember for two months. Thoughts on Saudi backing out of live. UFC PFL next?

Are they out of Liv? I don't think it's official official, but it seems like they're out on that and it will happen abruptly and Liv will functionally cease to exist almost overnight. I don't think Saudi is tied in with the UFC, right? They're tied in with TKO and other stuff, but, you know, Saudi money exiting the UFC such that exists is not going to be a huge problem for them. It may be an enormous problem for Zufo boxing. I'm not, I mean, on the one hand, if TKO decides they still just want to be involved in Zufo boxing, they have deep pockets and can.

But like part of the Zufo boxing thing was that Saudi is functionally covering all the bills here. So might really hurt Zoot for boxing. I mean, money pulling out of the sport is absolutely going to hurt PFL. It's not going to be great for combat sports if the Saudi money train has dried up. But good on whoever, you know,

took the opportunity to get paid while it was still around. Yeah. I'm not going to bring that one up. Okay. I'm not going to bring that one up. I think you probably know what I'm talking about. I honestly don't. So I haven't looked at the chat because I was too busy playing, though.

Who could Mike Mollat beat game? I do love that. That was a very fun game. It was. I love a who can who beat game. It's a great game. Why does Chale say you guys are ruining the UFC? Who?

Chale said we're ruining the UFC. He said us specifically. Chale Sondon has literally, Chil Sutted has literally like made up report. and people have run with it for a long time. I watched the Chale bit the other earlier this week talking about John and Cable, trying to think like if there was anything in that that I remember where he was like, the media sucks or whatever.

And I can't, I can't remember it. So I, you know, everybody hates me. So if Chale hates me too. And Chale and I have been on pretty good terms. So it'll be a shame if he hates me, but that's fine. Yes, that was about a week here. Well, what did we do? I need context.

Yeah, give us something, man. And was it us or was it the media? If it was us specifically, I'm more interested in just like, the media is bad. Yeah. That's what I want to know. I mean, I don't know why. I'm in. Chale named Jed specifically, challenging him to an R.F.

I'm in. I will get worked. J.K. I'll get worked. Yeah. We need some context on that. Apparently named us specifically. Okay.

Like M.A. Fighting? Or is he just building off the BISBing thing? Because the Bissing thing got... My best guess is that it's just, ooh, you guys are talking shit about. Vegas 115 and look how Gale was. Chale also...

I'm just going to keep doing that. Let me tell you something. I also don't believe Chale's criticisms. Yeah. And I'm also like, this is actually super funny because there's only like one. And look, we're, I'll pat myself on the back. There's only one major combat sports website that has been covering the promotion that he touts and that he is a part of and that he literally spends most of his time promoting

on Twitter. RIF. We're there at every frigging event. No one else is there. We are. So how is he saying that we're like ruining it? anything. It's so crazy. That is so funny to me. I, and as a matter of fact, I'm going to make sure I'm going to do everything in my power tomorrow to talk to him at the after the press

conference. I want, I want a one on one and I hope you're listening, Chale. I want a one-on-one. I want a one-on-one with you, Chale. If this is true, because maybe there's nothing. Maybe everybody grew up. Simon Feck is screwing with us. But if there's actual truth to this, then I, I want to sit down with Chale. He, he just, I mean, you should and that'd be awesome. The thing is like, it's bait, is it bait? I don't know. I don't know.

I have no idea if it's bait or not. Chale, I can't be baited by Chale because Chale doesn't believe most of the things he says anyway. And he's just, Chale is like almost the textbook definition of a guy who's just saying stuff. And so like I can't, I'm not going to be upset about. that. Like when Bispin clearly does believe we're bad people or whatever

because we thought Biggest 115 was bad. And that's just like, it's very silly to me. I'm not upset about it, but it's just like it's very silly to me and a bit hypocritical at times. Chale is chale-bating us. Chale is just so beyond the pale

and I'm like, he could say like he could call me out by name and I was just like it's a bit because it probably is. You're like, Jedmushu sucks and I hate him. Like, all right, that's fine, Chale. Like you said, he and I haven't had a time of interactions,

but the few we have, we're on good terms. And I like, I like Chale. I don't agree with everything Chale says or has done in his life. But it's incredible, like, it's great. I'm happy for him to start a media beef with us. I don't want to have a media beef with anybody else. I would happily have a media beef with Chale Sondon. That would be fun.

Yeah, I, Jail, let's talk. Let's talk tomorrow. Chad Broadstein, Izzy, let's make this happen. I would love, and not just like a three minute talk. I want to sit down with this man and like let's, let's hash it out. Let's see what the problem is. I want to ask it out. I'll say what my problems are too.

I want to hash out on the match. You and I can. Here's the thing, Chail, if you want to wrestle me, I will wrestle you. And I will lose. I'm very aware of that. But like, let's do a best to say. seven series across sports. You know?

Just we put a bunch of sports in, in like a, on the wheel. We love a wheel here. We put them in, you know, like a ping pong ball thing, like a bingo ball thing.

And we just like best of seven. Okay, I get beat by you in wrestling. I would, I would work you on the golf course. You know, like let's play a game of horse. I'll do anything you want.

JLS fine. I love this. This is a great idea. Well, again, I don't want to have beef with anybody in MMA media. I just don't. It's not worth it to me. As a younger man, maybe I would have cared about that. I will have beef with Cheo because I think it would be fun beef.

Yeah, Will Fortun would be a good one. Yeah, I like that. Yeah. It could be like a dude perfect when they go up against people. Like there's all these different sports. You play the first thing. Whoever wins gets to choose the next thing. Dude, I became aware of dude perfectly a couple years ago,

and I've since seen a lot of their stuff. Because I think that there's like stuff to glean from watching them about how they have grown into like such a dominant thing or whatever. Not all of it is to my taste. But like I do think that they do some stuff good. I once saw somebody describe them as, I'm trying to think of the exact wording because it was really good. It was like, like,

like camp counselors I was like honestly that's pretty good because it's kind of kind of it but one thing that they did that has stuck out with me and is just like you probably can't make a whole gimmick off of it but man all sports golf is like the best idea I've ever heard of I don't know if you know that one Mike

but they play golf but without golf like sticks and stuff so there's like you have a bag and this this tournament or this rounds bag is like a baseball bat and like a hockey thing and like a discus thrower and instead of hitting a golf ball you hit a baseball as you're like you can choose to hit that as your drive and then you throw a frisbee and it's just like it is a shockingly interest and then once you get on the green you're putting with a hockey stick or or a pool cue. I was like,

that's a great gimmick. Chale, I'll play you in all sports golf. Let's do it. I like this idea. Let's hash it out, Chale. I like this stuff too.

Like, it's always like misunderstandings and then you actually have a conversation and it's just like, okay, now I see where you're coming from. I get it. That's how like every beef I've had

with like anybody. It's always like a misunderstanding or something like just gets portrayed in the wrong way. and then people just would rather go on social media and like blast it out. I'm just like, well, why don't we just like talk on the phone or like talk in person? And then we're fine.

Like, what's the problem? So. That's because you're a better person than I am. I have, I have, like people dislike me and that's fine. It's never a misunderstanding with me.

It's almost always correct. Yeah. I mean, we're kind of, it's also fine with me. Yeah. Which is, which is fine.

Yeah. But I also have to like, the worst part of the gig is like trying to confirm news and stuff. So I want to make sure I have like good relationships with as many people as possible. So I can confirm said dues or try to set something up or or whatnot. So it's a little bit different. Believe me, if I could. But I get it too.

Like not everyone's going to like me either. I haven't mended every fence in this in this industry. But most of them I've been able to. So we're just misunderstood people because, you know, we tell the truth. What a what a concept. Straight shooter. Yes. Jed, you should master of fun for PFL, but you aren't.

And MVP is calling. How would you promote the MVP MMA card to get the most attention for the event on May 16th? I think Lazy put this in chat earlier, and I don't think it could happen. But I won't shout out Lazy because I read this was like, this is a hell of an idea. It's like, what if people on the car just started showing up in random Netflix shows? like Nate Diaz is in like the latest season of Anola Holmes or whatever. I was like honestly that's that's a great idea. The truth is you don't have to promote it much, right?

Like you did the big initial and you should keep it sort of around by having people do media rounds lightly. Like having Rhonda go do stuff, have Mike Perry go do stuff. you don't need to over saturate the market about this until we are 10 days out. And then you do another full push of like, hey, this is on the front page of Netflix every day because like make sure you remember this is happening in tune in. You of course do a fight week presser. Like that's obviously a very good idea. And if you can get like the the one thing you have that I think maybe they'll take make use of, I don't know. I guess we'll find out. The UFC basically doesn't ever do anymore.

And partly I think it's because they don't have the people for it. And partly it's, I think they're not that interested. But like Ronda Rousey, to the lesser extent, Gina Carrano, Nate Diaz, these are famous people, like famous such that they can do a media junket that's outside of the purview of combat sports. You could put Ronda Rousey on the view. And you should put Ronda Rousey on the view 10 days out. from the event to talk about the event and you know she can talk with will be goldberg and be like and we're doing this for the sake of of athletes everywhere blah blah blah and like that is to me

how they should do it but we're we're good the events in like four weeks or whatever it is take the next two off i mean lazy bed this is great uh i was kidding the 90s guest spots on popular tv shows were huge if you popped up on a tgIF show you went over big time 100% as you walked onto the uh the step-by-step stage? I just think it would be very funny to imagine Nate Diaz and like piqui blinders. This is just like, Nate Diaz. My head immediately went to like,

yeah, let's do that. I mean, that makes sense, but can you imagine Nate Diaz on like step-by-step being like Frank Lambert's construction worker? Like, or Cody's buddy out in the van?

Like, be incredible. You have to spend seven days getting Nate to remember the lines and not cuss and stuff. But like, that'd be spectacular. Nate Diaz is walking through Port Washington, Wisconsin on step by step, but rock. Put him on Boy Meets World. I mean, all this stuff. It'd be fantastic.

So it's a fun idea, lazy. Yeah. I wish, but it's just not the same. It's just not the same. Masters, how do you feel about the Paramount era now that were a few months in? At presentation, programming, et cetera. Are you happy with it now? It's bad, but I'm still willing to give it time.

in general, especially because, like, knowing a few things I know, you got to give them time to get their feet under them. You would hope that they would hit the ground running a little bit more, but it does not seem that Paramount was entirely prepared for this. They didn't have, like, a massive lead time anyway. But their app is bad and has been bad for as long as I've had Paramount. So that's probably just not getting better because nobody's fixing their apps,

which is annoying, right? Like just whatever ESPN didn't fix their app, their apps sucked. You are a captive audience, they're probably just not going to fix that. The thing that bothers me the most outside of randomly losing fights in the middle of them,

which happens because of the app, is navigating fights on Paramount Plus is at best, very difficult. at worst, you can't do it. And so you just have to like, I just go to Fight Pass for stuff or whatever. I would like them to improve that. And that is something I think that can improve

as they have a little more time to, you know, dig into this relationship as opposed to like, oh, we have the UFC. Now we have to figure this out. And I can understand why that wouldn't be a high priority. I would like them to fix that. Because like, I think Fight Pass is a great app. honestly. It's like genuinely probably the best thing the UFC does.

It's not perfect, but like you go into fight passing, but like, oh, here's the event this weekend. Here are the fighters on it. Here are the fights from them. Like it's very smooth. Like, oh, yeah. And that seems so obvious to do. But it's good that you can go like, oh, I want to go watch every Mike Milot fight. It's pretty easy to do. You would like, I would like Paramount to be that level of like, oh, here, here's the toggle to go to see full events and then I search for the full event if I want to watch the whole event

and then here's a search for a fighter and when I go to that fighter here are all the fights from that fighter this should be very easy I hope they get that done within I mean I'll give them the full year but it would be better if that was done in six months you know of the start

yeah yeah I mean don't have much to add to that even watching like the master's coverage was was pretty brutal Their coverage is quite poor this year for Masters. Ladies, but thoughts on DROT saying he assigned to fight Leon Edwards

at International Fight Week, positive or negative feeling towards his matchmaking. I'll say about this is not an MAAfighting.com, which is a great website, and there's a reason why it's not MAAfighting.com, a great website. Can we leave it at that?

I'm not saying we never do this. because there are times when you do write a story that is X said Y, right? We don't ever say X said they're fighting why. It's like you just ask why. You just go ask why and see if Y says yes. And if Y doesn't say yes, then there's no point in saying X said he's fighting Y. Yeah. But like some people just like run with it.

Yeah, it's, but yeah, it's, it's not a thing. I, you know, I think that fight would make some level of sense and maybe it does get booked. But like, yeah. Or just, I'm also not entirely sure. Like, it's not a bad fight. I just don't, like, are we, are we trying to build D-Rod? Or we try, like, what? Or are you trying to get Leanna win?

Like, what is happening? Are you trying to get Leanna win, right? and like, you probably give him a other fight for a win, but you can probably beat you. I don't know. It's not a bad fight. It's just like, I'm not sure what the goal of the fight is.

Why? Like, what are we doing? Why are we not doing Mazadol and Leon? Like, that's literally like the only fight I care to watch either of these two guys. Like, I don't- It gets Leon a win, and I'm unclear. It's so obvious. It's been obvious.

For a long time, I'm just unclear why we're not doing that. Yeah, we're approaching seven years since three piece in a, or actually I think we've surpassed seven years since three piece in a soda. What are we doing? Like there is no better time to book this fight than right now where both guys are like, it's incredibly out of the title picture. It doesn't, like, it doesn't affect anything. And I thought they like weren't going to do anything with Most at all because like

Dana poo-poo, it was like, Corey Moswell's done. And it's like, okay, at least I guess if you're just out of the Mossfodal business. But now he's like doing stuff with Paramount. Like he's been on like shows from Paramil's like, if he's gonna be around, just have him fight Leon.

Like there's something there. I'm not saying this is what it would have been seven years ago or that it's awesome. But my brothers, you all are headlining a trip to Winnipeg with Mike Malat versus Gilbert Burns. you can give us Leon, you can give us a fight that people, at least the two involved care about. Like, it's weird.

Yeah, and they would build great. Like, you don't even have to, they don't even have to be at a press conference. They don't. Like, you literally just have to, like, just show the video. You show the video of Mazdao tuning them up backstage after Leon decided to go in and start talking a little trash. I don't understand. You can either headline an event with that or you can, give an event like a you could give a paper view that needs a feature that right because like if you do let's

say we do morab versus pio don't in august that feels like that might be the timeline we're working on for that one right i mean good fight but like if you paired that with if you do that and the women's flyweight title right good fights quality fights but like i mean it's functionally the same as we did for whatever that was 323 where it's just like all right that's not going to be that's that that's going to be a thing we're like good solid fights do people care i don't know you can put that as the juice to like some lighter lighter vault like lighter impact title fights or it could just headline baku or whatever i don't know why we're just book the fight man like yeah there are so many layups that hunter campbell is simply refusing to book at this stage that is

it boggles my mind yeah like what are we doing here it's so it's so simple it's it's so simple just book a card in Florida. Like any city in Florida, Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, like, just go back to Florida and put Mazadol Leon as the main event for a fight night. Like, it's totally fine. It's easy to do.

It'll do good numbers. People will care about it. Make the tickets reasonably priced so people can go to the event. It's not that difficult. Do a couple more and we'll get out of here. Masters, do you think Dana will stay with the UFC through the

paramount deal. So many say he's checked out. Will he stay for seven years? Oh, will we see a shift somewhere along the line? Think a little before you answer. I don't have to think really very much about this. Okay. What's your answer? He's going to stay. He stay in the entire time because his, his role is, yeah, he can, he's been checked out for four years now, at least since like, post-COVID, since 2020 was such a massive. success and he launched he made his team create a social media video shooting on the media who had questions about their protocols for the health and safety of the athletes competing on their events and since then like it's he just his focus has turned to power slap and his bull and the other

ventures the racing team uh the racing team uh nitro circus i believe is one of his things first form energy. The dude has, you know, a lot of hands in a lot of different jars right now. And good for him. But, I mean, literally his role truly with the UFC is, I mean, show up the occasional press conference, go on Instagram live and announce a couple of fights. And that's really it. Like, they need him for like some sponsorship deals.

I'm sure the Paramount deal wouldn't have happened without Dana because that's like his the most important thing he does right now. And I think he's just going to be there to, I think he's, I don't want to compare him to Vince McMahon, because Vince McMahon since some pretty horrendous things. But Vince is always a guy whose reputation was like, Vince can be a thousand years old. He will still come to work. He will still be the chairman of the board of the WWF. He will die in that position before anyone tells him to leave or he retires.

So, and I kind of feel the same with data. So I think his excitement levels go towards Zupa boxing and the power slap and all that stuff. I think that's like really fun to him right now. And the UFC is just not that fun to him unless Donald Trump's sitting next to him in an event. And that's fine. Like the dude won. He could be like I'm done with the UFC and like it's fine. You know what I mean?

So yeah, I think he's here until until the wheels literally fall off until he just physically and mentally can no longer be there. he's just out of the company altogether. I think that's probably true. Like, I don't know what drives people to do. Like, if I were Dana White, I would have retired a decade ago. I would have retired the day we sold it and I made several hundred million dollars. I'm like, cool, I'm going to go spend the rest of my life doing whatever the fuck I want, whenever I want, and celebrating.

I promise you, I love my job. I genuinely love my job. I love being here with y'all. I love doing this. if I won $100 million in the lotto tomorrow, I would still try to show up occasionally to goof around with y'all and have fun, but I would immediately be like,

I quit the job because I do not dream of labor, even if this is my dream job. I want to be beholden to nothing and no one. So I don't understand why he has achieved that and still wants to do this, but it seems that he does. He is largely just a figurehead. so he will continue to be a figurehead

for at least through the end of this deal. Now in seven years he'll be 63, 64, 62, something in that range. I'm not sure, he'll be in his 60s. Maybe at some point the math changes, you know, his family is like, hey, we'd like you to spend more time at home or whatever. But even if that happens, he will almost certainly just be like, okay, I'll only show up to three or four pay-per-views a year and do contender series because it's around the corner from my house.

He is very likely to be at least in this capacity with the promotion for a decade plus still. Yeah. And unfortunately, he is now positioned as the, I mean, he is the star of the UFC. He is the biggest star in the company. It's not a fighter. It's not the roster. It's him. That's how he is positioned to be the organizational face.

And there you go. I mean, you see him at the press conferences, and like once in a while he's like kind of into it. Most times he's a grump. It's, I don't know. I think they're just fine without him. Like the machine, like he's, and this is credit to him. He left tomorrow, nothing would happen. Yeah.

You would be no discernible difference. Yeah. And it's not. Other than like, I guess Annick would do pressers. Which he's probably, he's better than Dana than many ways. In general, but Dana usually gives, Dana gives clips. A post fight. The post fight.

Yeah. Some stuff like it. Anik won't have any takes or positions, which would be like a little, but it's almost meaningless functionally. Yeah. So you kind of lose that, but just think about it from like a media perspective. The post fight stuff is 30 minutes lighter now. Yes.

Because Dave Shaw ain't talking for 30 minutes. I can tell you that right now. No. Just a recap of the night. Yeah. But I don't get it, man. Like I do it makes you happy. And I guess this makes him happy.

It's a big wide world out there. If I had his money, I would be trying to see it all before I died and not doing this. Yeah. There you go. All right. Let's see if we have one more. And then we will call it a day. And I'll go with this.

McGregor versus Mossadol at International Fight Week. I like that fight, that fight's better than Max piecing him up. I actually do agree with this, Cosmo Kramer. I don't think it is likely to happen because there's no real benefit to that for the UFC, right? Like, I think Mossadol I would favor to win. Wouldn't say he's 100%, but I would favor him to win that fight. And if he wins, what does the UFC get out of that?

They're not really in the Horry Mosswoodall business anymore. With Max, they're at least still in the max business. Even if it's not for much longer, they're still in the max business. business. So that's a good win for them. So I don't think it's happening. But if you were just trying to make a more competitive fight, absolutely. I think Connor McGregor stands almost

no chance against Max Holloway at this stage of their careers. So, which would be why the UFC would put that fight together. Yeah. I mean, he's only got two fights left. Like this whole, this whole McGrega saga is just continuing

to get a little more interesting to me. Because like, if he doesn't fight at international fight week. Like, what are we doing? Like, how long is he just going to be on the sidelines? Like, it, they could just, he, and he can't do anything. He cannot go and fight anywhere else. Like, he's literally stuck there. So I mean, I said this years ago at this point. I don't understand Connor McGregor, because his career path was so obvious to me. It was incredibly simple. It was, like, I'm not a genius. And I could. see it and I don't understand

how he couldn't. The career path was take two fights. Whatever, it doesn't matter. Don't care. If the UFC comes to you as like, we want you to fight France Sangano for $4, you say yes. Except let's fight. And you

take the two fights because you just be, like you, you need of any fighter in the history of MMA who needs to be free, he does. Like he, the amount of money he can make outside of the UFC is astro-nomical.

And he has just continued to be yoked to them because, like, him pulling out of the Chandler fight with a toe injury is so, like, was so ludicrous to me. Not because, like, like, you're injured, okay.

You don't want to not compete at your best. Why do you think you're fighting Michael Chandler? Because you're confused. You are not fighting Michael Chandler to fight Michael Chandler or to accomplish something or to add to your you are fighting him to get one fight closer to fighting for real money elsewhere. And so like he should have showed up if his leg was falling off. And then he didn't.

So I don't, I do not understand what drives him, what he is thinking about, what concerns he has. If the answer is, I have a hundred million dollars and I just don't give a shit, then I at least that I get. But he keeps acting like he does care. does want to do these other things. So fight two dudes and be out of the UFC. And then go fight Natea as in a fight where you make all the money on Netflix.

And then go box, you know, Jake Paul. Because you can make $300 million outside of the UFC and you are just not doing it for reasons that I do not get. Yeah. It's love to know the behind the scenes of all of this, like the true stories from both ends.

But there you go. Someone suggested Mike Perry should fight Jorge Mazzuel. I actually love that idea. I think it's a great idea. A little dirty boxing versus GameBred MMA action. I'm so glad GameBred MMA is back. Can I just say that once again?

I'm so happy it's back. I had so much fun on Friday watching that event. They have some things I need to work on. There's some adjustments that need to be made, but it's just, it was just so much fun to watch. I really enjoyed it. So good on them.

Good on you, Jed. Good on all of you for showing up on a Thursday of RBC Heritage Week. So it should be fun Yeah First round underway So yeah Big week here in the low country

PFL tonight baby let's go PFL kicks the prelims kick off in an hour And 39 minutes from right now I'm sorry is that real I believe it's a 3-7 card How long are this freaking card So it's the main card that's seven Yes

Trying to figure out how late I'm working tonight I think there's only like four fights Only three fight main card Yeah I think one of the fights fell so yeah. That's not bad. Yeah, three bytes. That's not bad.

It is PFL though. So that could be three and a half hours. You have to go back to ESPN, which as we know from earlier, I love ESPN. They're great. They're my favorite. Nothing bad for ESPN. Yes. Well, there you go.

I am off to Philly first thing in the morning. RIF coverage kicks off tomorrow. So we'll see you at the press conference. Of course, the main event for that is Maraud Walsh, Lee versus Henry Sehudo, two on the wrestling mats. We have Armand Sarugian versus your eye of favor. All sorts of other fun stuff. I think RIF's just crushing it right now.

They just announced RIF 10 will take place in June in St. Louis. So perhaps we'll get some announcements on that card. And we'll be competing there. But yeah, lots of fun stuff going on. UFC Winnipeg preview shows, all sorts of fun stuff, Jed. But you're just on production duty this week, right? Tomorrow we will have a preview show that I, am not on.

I mean, I'll be on as operating the ones and twos, but A.K. Lee has a special guest joined in to talk about the inimitable UFC Winnipeg, which is why Mike throw me on solo very quickly, since I won't be talking about the card tomorrow.

Three fights above contender series on tomorrow's UFC Winnipeg card, and that is being generous. So, tune in. Tune in tomorrow as we, not we, but people, on MMA fighting, talk about UFC Winnipeg

and all the action this weekend and keep it locked tommfighting.com tonight for PFL Belfast coverage. A three. I'm trying to remember. Again, it's a generous three. Man.

Main event gets some love. Yasminerazanovish, Krieney Silva gets some love. And I'm willing to give the co-main. Kylea Phillips, Charles Rodane. That feels like an above a contender series level of a fight.

So I'm willing to give it that. No love for Mandel Nala? No. Because we know what this is? This doesn't, no. This is not, no. It's a replacement level of fight. Yeah, we know what a lot of this car is.

There's some other people on there. I have some level of interest in. Mark Bologdon making his debut. I'm pretty sure that's his debut. Like, that'll be fun. It's not all bad, but no. There's a real. reason why there's thousands and thousands of tickets left unsold even at discounted prices.

But I don't think it's going to be a bad watch. I think it'll be a fun watch for those who I would never say anything bad about a card because I don't want Michael Bisping to be mad at me again. Or apparently Chale Sondon, but there you have it. Chale could never. I love you, Chil. Love you too, Chil. Bye. See you next time. Love y'all.