MMA Fighting - Emergency Reaction: Conor McGregor Is OUT Of UFC 303, Alex Pereira Saves The Day

Episode Date: June 14, 2024

In this breaking news podcast, MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew, Damon Martin, and Eric Jackman react to the breaking news that Conor McGregor is OUT of his UFC 303 fight against Michael Chandler. Rumors have circulated for weeks that the UFC 303 main event was in jeopardy and on Thursday evening, UFC CEO Dana White finally confirmed that the fight between McGregor and Chandler is off due to injury. Instead, UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira steps in on short notice, putting his title on the line in a rematch with former champion Jiri Prochazka. On top of that, Brian Ortega now faces Diego Lopes in the co-main event, and Carlos Ulberg now faces Anthony Smith, who steps in for an injured Jamahal Hill. All that plus the UFC Saudi Arabia card has a new main event as well. The MMA Fighting team reacts to a tumultuous day for the UFC. Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Damon Martin: @DamonMartin Follow Eric Jackman: @NewYorkRic Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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all the communities and teams within the U.S. soccer ecosystem. They're supporting talent from across the U.S. soccer extended national teams and are focused on helping to give these less widely known forms of soccer a platform moving forward. From the pitch to the sand and everything in between, welcome to our turf. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Everyone, that's right. You just heard the breaking news horns because something major has happened. It kind of feels like it's not breaking news, frankly, but officially, the rumors have

circulated officially UFC 303 is in shambles, but it may be rising like a phoenix from the ashes. Connor McGregor is officially out of his fight with Michael Chandler, UFC 303, and that fight is officially off. it is being talked about being postponed, but in its stead, Dana White announced Thursday evening, late night Thursday that light heavyweight champion Alex Perjeda is going to put his title on the line in a rematch with former champion, the guy he took the belt from Yeri Prahashka. That is now the headliner for UFC 303. A couple of other fights and or shifts occurred.

Brian Ortega is now stepping into fight Diego Lopez in the co-main event and the pre-examination. previous light heavyweight fight that was on the main card of UFC 303. Jamal Hill is out of his fight with Carlos Olberg. And instead, Ulberg now faces Anthony Smith. We've got all this plus one other thing to react to. And since it's been a big day, we had to get an emergency reaction pod.

We rounded up the crew late night, the people burning that midnight oil. I have joining me. New York, Rick. Thank you very much. Damon Martin and I myself, I'm Jedmishue of MMAFIN.com. Felis, initial reactions.

We're going to get into all of this as we do this emergency react pod. We've known it was coming, but Damon, let's start with you. What's your initial reaction to this finally being set in stone? We finally have resolution. Weirdly, even though it's huge because it's Connor McGregor, it's also the worst kept secret in the sport because I think we all kind of saw this coming, sadly. I kind of followed along with Ariel Helwani's reporting where it was like, you know, I was hearing very much the same things.

Ariel certainly doesn't need me backing him up, but as he's reporting this kind of stuff, I'm like, yep, he's right about that, yep, this is happening. Yep, this is going on. And so, you know, as he's saying, there's optimism, I heard the same thing. I was told flat out, we are confident this fight's going to happen. It's like, all right, cool, great.

And then week later, not so confident anymore. And so, yeah, I've kind of, like, lived with the reality of this fight not happening for the better part of the last week or so, or at least five or six days. So, yeah, it's the worst kept secret. finally out there now. So I do, I want to circle back to you in just a moment because you have been so on top of this. I would like to get kind of a timeline of events. I know that you, you're pretty on that. But I do want to go to Rick first and just say, Rick, you have been under the weather. So, I mean,

you're a real trooper for stepping into these circumstances. And obviously, you've been part and parcel of this journey, you know, for the last little bit, but you haven't been on the hour because of of the illness. So, you know, I'm sure you've been keeping up with all the shenanigans happening, but what's your reaction? First, first blush, what did you think? Yeah, I'm glad Damon highlighted kind of Ariel being out there and saying this because he took a lot of flack for some of the things he was saying and people kind of- He's coming at people right now on the Twitter machine. And rightfully so, I would say. But I'm glad Damon said that. I'll take a different angle. I'll just react to the, to maybe the fight that we've been presented, right? Conner's out.

out and we've kind of finally put that to bed. And now we've been presented with Alex Pereira and Uri Pajaska in a rematch, which I think considering the circumstances that the UFC was under, the dire straits that are that are kind of, they find themselves in and the options that were available, they did pretty damn well. And anytime you go to the Alex Pereira well these days, I think you're kind of doing well, right?

He is somebody who has fast become in a very short time. started with the UFC in November of 2021. He has fast become one of the biggest stars that the UFC has available. And in addition to that, one of the most game, we're like, if you call him, he will fight. He has made it very clear many, many times that even if it's not ideal circumstances for him, he will fight. So the UFC pulled that lever. They broke the glass in case of emergency and pulled it.

And Alex Pereira stepped in. And it is a good fight. It is a fight that people have been wanting since the first one happened. And so unfortunate news for Connor McGregor to be out, certainly there is only one and there is no replacement. But considering what the replacement is, I think fans can still be happy about it. Yeah, I've said it a bunch and I'm going to keep saying it. Alex Pereira is just, he's the main character. The rest of us are some version of NPCs or what he's the guy.

And I mean, stepping in on this notice, you know, save 300, saving this, man's, man's having a career. We're going to talk a lot about Pereira and kind of this fight and sort of the fallout from this. The big story here is Connor, but I think to get into the Connor stuff, Damon, now I do want to come back to you and kind of just lay out a rough timeline for what has been going on. Because, you know, certainly today, I feel like we covered a lot of ground. The sand shifted a lot this morning, you know, between the last couple of days. But, you know, two weeks ago, this fight was on. And then the press conference happens. And since then, it has been a roller coaster of ups and downs and kind of give us your kind of,

there's obviously some stuff we couldn't say at the time that maybe we knew about, certainly that you and Aaron and others had been on, kind of lay out this timeline for us. So I certainly don't need validation. And as I said, Ariel absolutely does not need my backup because he does a fantastic job in what he's doing. But you guys can speak internally. You know our internal conversations in Slack. the information I've had over these last two weeks and put them in the Slack channel and said, here's what's happening.

We can't say anything, but here's what's going on just to kind of keep everyone up to date. And I'll say as much as I can without certainly betraying any confidences. But after the press conference cancellation, I was just told that no one really knew what was going on. It wasn't good, no one, but no one really knew what was going on for sure. It just kind of canceled the last minute. They said, this isn't happening. And we're not really sure. And there was a lot of radio silence from the UFC in terms of, is Conner fighting,

on or not fighting is he injured is it's a contract dispute i heard a lot of different things about that during that first couple of days and then towards the end of the week talked to a couple sources and they said you know what we're feeling pretty good and that was the literally the phrase i heard from one person we're confident this fight's going to happen we're all right great and i just kind of let it go at that point because i didn't was like almost i didn't want to jinx it and then early in the week aerial put it out on monday i started putting out feelers and i started getting the same thing back, which is, yeah, maybe not so much. And then at that point, so last week, just kind of gave you that heads of them. So originally they had tried, they were, they were getting

backups potentially in line to face Michael Chandler, because it was pretty clear this was coming from Connorside. Again, I had heard potentially injury, it also heard potentially a contract dispute. Obviously, Dana announced it as an injury. Is it an injury? Seems to be the case, but that was what I heard. It was either injury, there's some kind of contract thing going on. But I heard they started reaching out for feelers for potential replacement. I know that they had reached out and tried to maybe secure Max Holloway. That didn't happen. From my understanding, Max is, you know, basically lining up to fight Ilya to Pori later this year.

That's the fight he wants. And why would he give that up for a short notice fight against Michael Chandler? No offense to Michael Chandler. So that kind of fell, by the way, said then it became, what could we get in line just in case Connor can't fight? And I heard they put out feelers to Dracus Duplice. I heard they put out feelers to Israel out of Sonia. I heard they put out feelers to Sean Strickland.

I heard a lot of things. And again, these were all just like, you know, this is what I'm hearing. And then late in the week, it was pretty much right before this, the day before this news broke, that it was pretty much a done deal. Connor wasn't fighting. And it was time to basically, you know, ring Defcom 9 and, you know, secure a replacement. And then I heard rumors. And obviously, that's the one that ended up happening is Yuri Pajshka and Alex Pereira stepped in. and then out of nowhere they get Brian Ortega and Diego Lopez and then of course

Jamal Hill gets injured and they have to replace that too so yeah I just feel like somewhere like Hunter Campbell's just got like a fire extinguisher on his hip at this point putting out fires for the UFC so that's a rough timeline I can't tell you for sure when Yeri and Alex were first contacted I can tell you that when this whole thing started after the press conference cancellation after the press conference cancellation there were a lot of calls made That's why I said I'd heard DDP, I'd heard Israel, I'd heard Shirkland, I'd heard Holloway, I'd heard, I'd heard, basically they were calling anyone and everyone to say, is there a chance you can step up in case this happens?

And Alex and Yeri were the two guys who said, yeah, let's go. And by the way, I want to be clear about this, I don't know with 100% absolute certainty how many people were contacted. I know a couple for certain. I don't want to, again, don't want to betray any competences. But the reality is this is extremely short notice. And if you're asking a champion, like let's say DDP, Drake's Duplice, I mean, you got to make weight. You know, you got to travel.

He's in South Africa. Like, that's a lot to ask a guy like that. So, like, I wouldn't. I wouldn't blame Alex in year if they said no. But yeah, so that's where they ended up. That's what we're getting. It is still a phenomenal main event. I love the co-main.

Brian Ortega, Diego Lopez is a hell of a fun fight. But as Rick said so astutely, they're still not Connor. Connor's the biggest starting sport. You can't replace him. I don't care what you put on here. Can't replace him. I mean, he is absolutely irreplaceable. And I think, you know, it'll be interesting to see how this unfolds, right?

Because a lot of people already bought tickets. A lot of people made plane flights and arrangements. And, you know, the tickets say card's subject to change, but this is not the change you're booking in. So I would be interested to see that aspect of it. But kind of, to me, one of the biggest things here, and we talked about this a lot this week. I was on BTL earlier today and this was the topic of conversation. And one of the things I said was I just wanted this to be over so we could know. Like we obviously had heard rumors and we kind of knew where stuff was going,

but I just wanted to at least have the answer out of why Connor is out. And that answer that has been proffered is that this is an injury that they thought they could overcome. And so it's out. And so as a result, how this was pitched to Dana White. I'll be honest, I have very little sympathy for Dana White in general, but the video he put out, that man looks like he has not slept in a hot minute and kind of even was exasperated at the individual.

It was a crazy week, y'all. What we have now is saying Connor is out, but we are going to rebook this. And Ariel has reported, and others have kind of gone along the same bend, that they're trying, they're going to look to rebook this, not at the end of the year in a few months.

You know, previous talk it's been, I don't know when this would happen, maybe in December. Looks like they're going to try and do something sooner if they can, even if that ends up adding additional unexpected pay-per-view. And Sir Rick, I want to go to you, because the biggest question I have right now, is Conne McGregor ever fighting again?

Is this, where do we stand on the confidence level that Connor McGregor is going to return to the cage? I've been high. I'll tell you that. I've been higher in terms of my confidence level. Here's what I'll say. I'm not a reporter like Damon or Ariel, right? I have not been reporting on this story, but I have been following the story. And I've been paying attention to what has been being said. When it was, when the press conference was canceled, my radar went off. My antenna went up. And I thought, why, right? We never got an answer at that time. But it was far enough out that I thought, whatever the answer is, there's a world where no matter what the answer is, there's enough time to make it to the fight. Once we got toward this week and we still had no posts on social media from Connor McGregor saying, relax everybody. The Mac is back June 29th. I started to get more worried, right?

Like there's an obvious silence here around all this chaos that led me to believe that if you're paying even the slightest amount of attention, you could recognize that something's going on here. And the likelihood is very slim that that we're going to get a Connor McGregor fight. And so in saying that, I think that Connor McGregor was being a good partner to the UFC here. He was trying to wait for them, which is what they do is they went on the on the package, on the heels of bad news, they package good news. They always want to have that new main event ready or that new date for the Connor McGregor fight ready so that when they say Conner's out, here's the good news, fans rejoice, that they can be able to package those things together.

It's smart. It's good PR. It's what you need to do for fans. And so that tells me that Connor McGregor was being a good partner to the UFC, at least, in terms of his silence or his potential silence. My amateur read, but that's how I'm seeing the situation. And then that leads me to believe with Connor McGregor still trying to be a good partner to the UFC, the UFC kind of accepting that from Connor McGregor, that there's a hopeful chance that maybe they are still on good terms together and Connor McGregor is injured and he can recover from that injury and then can fight later this summer into fall, hopefully not end of year.

That's a little bit far away. But that this is exactly what we assumed it to be and exactly what it has been stated to be. I buy the company line. I buy what has been sold so far. And the reporting from people who are closer to this than me seems to line up with that. So I'm confident that the parties involved will give their best effort toward that. Am I confident that Connor McGregor has it in him or is going to make it to that fight? I've been more confident and it has been diminished.

It is lessened. But if I'm if I have to place a wager right now on this date, I'm going to say yes, that I believe Connor McGregor will make that next date come hell or high water. Because I still believe that he wants that reputation that he has held to this point of being the guy who always shows shows up. This would be the first time that he didn't, he didn't show up when he had that date booked and said, I'm going to be there. This would this would be a stain on the mark, on the record for him.

And I don't believe that we'll sit well with him. I think he wants to be that guy still. And so I believe yes, currently sitting here, that he will make his next date. But I'm less confident than it have been previously. I also think you guys, and just so this out there, I think it also depends on the nature of the injury. I've not heard what it is, you know, and obviously from what's out there is that, you know, it's minor enough. They think they could maybe rebook this in August or September. I looked at the land of the land after.

They could maybe make it to 303. So it can't be like that bad. Yeah. But it also depends on what it is. And what I mean by that is, is it a knee injury? is it on the same leg that was broken? Even a minor injury. You know, is that just, is that a bigger problem that's going to exist now that he's coming

back for a broken leg and he's pushing himself harder and harder in a training camp? Because he hasn't had to do that in the last three years. Is that going to be, is that going to be the result of what is shown to be a catastrophic injury in combat sports? I'm not trying to play the Harbinger of Doom here. I'm just saying, like, I think we got to be, we got to, we got at least know a little bit. Now, rib injury, arm injury, you know, something minor, ankle, you know, the other side. Yeah, then, yeah, I mean, I'm very much with New York Rick in the sense of like, I'm not, you know,

I'm not beaming with confidence right now because this is the first time this has happened. Connor's 35 years old coming off three years layoff. It's not a good sign when you have that much time off and right in the bit, you know, right in the think of a training camp, you get injured again. It's never good. But yeah, I mean, if they're really going to try to rebook this in August, September, my fright goes away a little bit. But again, until this is, because this is also very secretive, until we know a little

bit more, you know, I can't sit here and say, oh, go ahead and book your travel. Like, go ahead and just, just hold those plane tickets and rebook that hotel because it's coming in August, September, until we know for sure what the injury was, how severe it was, and how quickly Connor could get back into training. I'm not going to feel totally confident about anything because this is a guy coming back from an injury that the staff at the UFCPI has called the worst injury for a combat sports athlete. We've only seen a couple of people try to come back from it and no one has ever come back looking the same. I would just add to what Damon said. I think that's completely fair,

first of all from a physical perspective, but also from a mental perspective, right? If it's the same leg and all of a sudden you're dealing with multiple injuries, like that can mess, that can mess with somebody's head in a major way beyond just the physical limitations. And then just to kind of clarify maybe the thoughts I was I was rambling on about a little bit before, but like, Connor McGregor's silence on this to me is a good sign is how I'd simplify it, right? If he was trying to blow this up and there, he wasn't fighting and he wasn't going to fight, the guy who speaks about every single little thing that comes across his mind or every single little thing that he sees on X would be doing that.

I think the, the reservation to me says that there is some composure here, that there is some forethought that there is some idea that, okay, we're going to handle this professionally, and we are going to rebook this, and we are going to get back on track. So that is where some of my optimism comes from, is that we have not seen a kind of unhinged version of Connor McGregor where he is intentionally trying to blow things up. Defenders in cybersecurity are always there when we need them. They should get a parade every time they block a novel threat and have streets, sandwiches, and babies named in their honor. But most of all, they, deserve AI cybersecurity that can stop novel threats before they become breaches across email,

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where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, ghosts in the machine, available now only from Audible. Well, I respect both of your optimisms. I made up that word. I don't think optimisms is a plural. I'm not certain I agree, but there is one man who probably agrees, if for no other reason, he's got no choice but to.

And of course, that's Michael Chandler, who just six, short hours ago was tweeting the amount of time fighters have pulled out of fights in their career zeros next to his and Connor McGregor's handles which is true until you know 35 minutes ago or whatever it was I just want to touch on him very quickly obviously he is the passenger of this story

but he is stuck in this car now and you both seem to think this fight is going to happen I am substantially less confident that this ever happens. I've kind of been on that train for a long time. Understandably so, by the way, I would not. A year ago, I thought that this fight wasn't happening. Then I thought maybe I was wrong, and now here we are. How long, so currently they're looking to get this, you know, in the fall is what it's being reported.

That can't happen. How long does Michael Chandler stay riding this ride? because it has already been two years for him of doing this. Well, 18, 19 months. But by the time this goes off, it's looking close to two years. And so I'll just throw this up, whoever wants to jump on. How do you feel bad for Michael Chandler where we're at and kind of how long if you are in Michael Chandler's camp do you say, all right, man, we just got to cut our losses

and move on to something else? I don't feel bad for Michael Chandler because literally, everybody on the planet was saying what a doofus Michael Chandler was for waiting for this fight. Like everybody and their mom was coming out of the woodwork to call him a doofus. And he was ready to dunk it back on them and say, look, it's finally here. And I did it. And you're all the schmucks. So I don't feel bad in that regard because I think he played it as best you can play it.

He has the hand he's dealt and he has the red panny night in front of him. And it looked like it was about to come to fruition. So I don't feel bad for Michael Chandler in that regard because I just think he did what he needed to do. Does he do it again is a really interesting question? Because I was previously of the camp you wait as long as it possibly takes because these Conn and McGregor fights only come around once in a lifetime. The reality is, is it may not come around. And that is something that I was less prepared for. Now I'm starting to be more prepared for. I'm leaning further toward that outcome. And so I don't think you wait forever. I don't think you wait forever. I think you wait forever.

I think you give this till the end of 2024. And if it is not for some reason materialized by then, it's time for Michael Chandler to move on. He does not have many good years left. Like he is getting up there in age and there is just an expiration date on how many years he's going to be a top level athlete and be able to make the kind of money and fight the types of fights that he fights. And so I say end of 2024 seems realistic to pull the plug if it doesn't happen.

Yeah, I think, I think before Ariel reported that they, were actually thinking of adding a pay-per-view to basically give a new date to this fight, which doesn't surprise me totally because it's Connor McGregor. Of course, the UFC is going to move heaven and earth to accommodate Connor McGregor if they can get him back sooner rather than later. Although that's just more revenue for them. If you judge by Connor, he's wanted to come back much longer than this. So again, neither here nor there. But my guess was originally was December because when you look at the pay-per-view schedule, July is Manchester, August is Perth. September's the sphere, which the sphere is great, but you got to realize there's

going to be less people packing into that arena, so the gate could be smaller. You're not going to fit 20,000 people in that, the sphere like you would, T-Mobile Arena. So you're not going to get the same $23 million gate. At least I don't think you will. What if each ticket is a million dollars? I think they probably could, but yeah, it's a whole different thing. Yeah. Yeah. So then you got October Abu Dhabi, November's MSG, and we know that's probably going to be John Jones, Stevie Mioch. So I was looking at December already. Like I was already thinking, man, this doesn't have a June 29th. We're probably looking

at December. Again, that's not thinking they would add an extra payper view, which I think they would. But yeah, I did give you a Michael Chandler. You gave it the December 31st deadline. If you don't have a date booked and your contract signed, then I mean, it's like, dude, he's about to be, what, 38 years old? He's coming off a loss two years ago, which we've all kind of forgotten about at this point because it's so long ago. Trust me, I haven't forgotten about that at all, but you please continue. But it's not like he was closing in on a title shot or he was like giving up some great position of the division to wait for Connor. He was in a position where he got this coming off a loss and it was like the perfect fight at the perfect time.

So outside of him being financially burdened by this whole thing, which it doesn't sound like he is, then yeah, you wait to the end of the year. You hope this comes back together. And just like New York Greek said, I'm confident the sense, like I get every sense they're going to rebook this fight. But I'm also kind of little Jed there where I'm like, do I really feel confident? Because I've had Matt Brown in my ear on my podcast for the last two years and Conner's ever fighting again. And so I'm just like, maybe maybe not. But yeah, you give it until December 31st.

If you don't have a date and a contract in hand, you've got to move on, man. You're just going to, you're literally going to sacrifice the last years of your career waiting for a guy who may not come back at that point. So yeah, there's your deadline. December 31st. You don't have a date and contract. You don't have a contract in hand by December 31st. Dude, you got to move on.

I don't even shout out to. Armin Sarukian or his ghostwriter or whoever wrote that like Michael Chandler could have had four losing Fight of the Knights by now. Like he could have. He could have been banking some some big checks in the time since. So that's a lot of money he's foregone for this. And I, you know, I'm not rooting for it not to pay off for him. In fact, I hope it pays off for him as big as it possibly could pay off for him. But we just have to deal with the reality of it. And it seemed like it was finally here and he was going to get that that big payday. I think I think you wait But, man, if it's not done by December 31st, like, there's just nothing that could keep me in that fight.

That's where I'm at. I think you give it this one. I'm not accepting a contract in hand by December 31st. I had a contract for this one. If this fight does not happen by December 31st, you just got to move on, man. And I know that that sucks. But you and RDA can form a club of the people who almost had and fell short for reasons. that, you know, the gods conspired against them. That's enough on what we've lost, though. And I do want to talk very briefly about what we've gained. I don't want to spend for everyone to be here for an hour because we will certainly have a lot of time over the next two weeks

to kind of discuss this fight. But obviously, we've already mentioned it, Alex Pereira stepping in Yuri Perashke, rematch of the title fight that Alex won to claim the belt. A fight that I think many people, if not most people, thought we were going to get. you know later this year at one of the paper views but it just not on this timeline and so uh personally i'm stoked like these are two fighters who there it doesn't matter they've had no time to prepare

this still going to be a banger of a fight because alex boops people and eerie's a lunatic but i do want to ask you guys or do you have any you know is this diminished in any way because of kind of the slapdash nature that this has been put together or are you just pumped for what's to come? Because of the two people involved, not even a little bit. For one, I think that Yeri was kind of preparing for Alex Pereira for quite a bit. Like, I don't think he was under- He's always prepared. I don't think he's caught up guard.

He's just living in the snow. Yeah, he's doing weird samurai dope stuff. Exactly right. And so that takes care of the Yeri side. Then the Alex side, I've followed this guy's career before he got into the UFC when he's fighting in glory and just trying to scrape by every single week to get a fight like this is how this guy lives this is how israeli as sonya used to live like this is just the lifestyle for for these guys and also Alex Pereira's propensity to just step into the biggest

moment with whatever preparation he has available to him and then rise to the occasion is unparalleled like as i said he's been the author of so many ridiculous moments in his very short ufc tenure he's like the guy at the moment that I have no no I don't think that we're getting a diminished product in any capacity and even if we were I'm okay with that as an outcome accepting that and then going sure run it a third time I'm down for these two that's fine no problem for me and poor maga and ankle I'll just sit there yeah sorry sorry they're being the best and waiting yeah I don't I don't I'm yeah I'm yeah I couldn't have said it much better than what New York just said.

Like, he's absolutely right. Like, if it was any, if they had actually pulled off other fights and again, I'm just throwing out names here, like I said, if they, because we all know we're looking at DDP in Adasania, if they had somehow pulled them in last minute, will we have appreciated sure, will we got excited? Yeah, absolutely. But will we have felt really, truly confident that those guys were at their absolute best on two weeks notes?

There's just no way, you know, I don't know how much they were training him, cutting weight, all these different things. I don't have that. I think he probably lives in like a monastery and just trains like samurai like 24 hours a day. Like I feel like having in the woods. And he just, he's just constantly. And then Alex Perr is just a born savage.

Like this man is just, he lives for these moments. By the way, if not for Kazushi Sakaraba, who got in the UFC Hall of Fame with one UFC fights or technically I guess two on the same night, Alex Pere might have had the shortest path ever to a UFC Hall of Fame. Because in like seven fights or eight fights, he's now a two-division champion.

He saved UFC 300. He's now saving UFC 303. This guy's going to cruise right into the Hall of Fame with like the shortest amount of fights ever. Actually, I'm not concerned about this. He's probably fewer than him now. Because Hoyst just had the tourneys and like one or two later.

So maybe. I think, yeah, like, maybe, yeah, he's getting out of you. I always live at Sakharava. He had one fight and he's in the O.C. All right. And also, he's not forever.

So it's fine. Yeah. Oh, dude. I, you're not going to find a bigger. I just always found it funny. The guy was won UOC fights in the U.S.C. All of Fame. But, yeah, like, I have no – this is, like, again, worst-case scenario, losing Connor. Of course is worst-case scenario.

Best-case scenario, you get Alex Pereira and Yuri Perash going to step up, and this is going to be a great fight. And so, yeah, I'm not concerned about these two guys. And also, yeah, Brian Ortega and Diego Lopez, I don't know how prepared they are, but, man, that's a fun fight. So, you know, I'm not – I'm not – I'm there for it. Because that is where we are going next on the wrap-up is – You said best case, worst case scenario. You're never going to find me saying great things about Brian Ortega. I'm not personally a huge fan.

Objectively speaking, this is now a better fight card than it was at the start of this morning. It's not as important. It's not as significant. It does not have the same broader cultural appeal. I've had people texting me who are not MMA fans, being like, what's up with Connor? not going to have any of that happening about these fights occurring. But if you look at this fight card, adding out of nowhere, frankly,

the Brian Ortega-Diego-Lopez fight just significantly boosts this card. And so, like I said, we're going to have plenty of time to talk about that fight in particular. But we're adding that, Anthony Smith jumping in against Carlos Olberg, replacing Jamal Hill. This card is better than it was. And so Rick, kind of do you agree, I guess, with that statement? You agree that UFC 303, you know, not Star Power, you know, not what it's going to draw

pay-per-view. This is a better card now than it was eight hours ago, correct? I had not thought about it until you mentioned, but yeah, I totally agree. Like, I don't think that the Michael Chandler versus Connor McGregor fight represents the level of athlete that even, you know, just Erie and Alex on its own does at this point. So one for one, you're already beating it. Now you're adding Ortega and Lopez, and it takes it two. a different level. So complete agreement, not even debatable for me, but certainly, like,

if it gets increased in skill by 20%, it gets decreased in stakes by 80%. So that's the trade. Not an even exchange, but there is a silver lining here. And then the fight that no one will talk about will be the Alberg, Anthony Smith thing, a fine, a perfectly fine and reasonable fight. On the Ortega Lopez thing, I'm a little interested. I kind of thought that we might get something like that for the sphere. So I don't know if they robbed Peter to pay Paul here or, you know, they can still turn around both of those guys for that sphere card. But some interesting things afoot.

And one other thing we have to talk about before we get out of here, guys, because we debated doing a reaction pot earlier in the day because prior to the 303 news breaking, another major piece of news broke today. The UFC has been putting out fires all day long. and it is next week's UFC Saudi Arabia card has a new main event. Hamza Chimayev, it was forced out due to injury. His manager recently posted, apparently it has been sort of a prolonged illness that they were trying to work through and were unable to.

And in his stead, the UFC has robbed Peter to pay Paul. They have removed Iqram Alaskarov from his co-main event spot this weekend at UFC Vegas 93 against Antonio Tricoli. And they have scrapped that fight. As far as I'm aware, I don't think. think Tricoli is getting a last minute replacement. And instead, Alaskarov is now going to Saudi Arabia to headline against Robert Whitaker. And so don't need to spend a ton of time on this.

But since we are here talking about the emergency stuff that is happening, Damon, what, what do we do we do with this? What is happening with Hamzaa Shmaev? Why can't he fight? And how do you feel about this new main event? Has anyone's career taken a weirder trajectory? Then Hamsla Chimayev, a guy who came in and became like a massive star inside of a month because he fought like three times and two different weight classes. And since then it's just falling apart.

The end of Gilbert Burns fight and then it's just been a downward spiral ever since. Yeah, it's unfortunate, man. I don't know. Like, my faith in Chameh is pretty much gone at this point. I have about as much, I have probably similar faith in Chamaier as you have in Connor McGregor right now, Jed. Like, I just, I just, I don't know. And I don't know how much I'm supposed to care because. you know, his last fight, he got a lot of hype off beating Kamar Usman on 10 days notice,

and Kumar Usman's not a middleweight. So, like, how excited can we be? I was curious, but yeah, so I don't know, man. I hope he comes back, hope he gets held day. I certainly don't risk, I certainly don't wish the worst for anybody. I like Icrim Alaskaroff. He's a monster. He's looked like a freaking beast in his first couple of fights,

just taking the heads off Warily Alves and Phil Halls. That's a massive step up in competition to go from that to Robert Whitaker to his credit he was getting ready to fight on Saturday at what is objectively the worst UFC card in history. So, you know, upgrade for Alice Gerell? Big opportunity. But yeah, take your shot. Yeah, and listen, kudos to Robert Whitaker, man. Like, kudos to Robert Whitaker. He does not need to take this fight. He does not need to fight a prospect who I believe is actually a pretty dangerous dude and he gains nothing. Like, he gets nothing out of this. He gets, even if he wins, he goes out there lops off Alice Geroff's head. No one's going to say, oh, man, you get a title shot. Who's going to say

that like he's not so kudos to robert whittaker for you know doing the damn thing and taking this fight when he clearly doesn't have to but i think the bigger story sadly is like where no what is is chemaiah ever going to live up to the hype that he had in that first like year of his career in the oc because it sure doesn't look like it yeah man yeah i was just gonna i was just gonna add you asked earlier if i'm confident connor mcgregor will ever fight again and i'm fairly confident. If I'm confident about Hamzaa Shamaa ever fighting again, the answer is like, no, I'm not confident that we will ever see him fight again. Like, I just don't believe it anymore. It's gotten real weird. And the lack of kind of like transparency and explanations around everything,

he just seems to be out all the time is real weird. So I'm getting concerned about somebody who I thought could have been a champion in multiple divisions. Yeah, Damon, you honestly summed up my thoughts really, really well there. A dude taking a career trajectory like this, because it's not that, oh, he fell off. When he is competing, he is still winning. He's still winning impressively, for the most part. It has just come so sparingly. And this was supposed to be it.

This was supposed to be, hey, you beat Robert Whitaker. You beat Robert Whitaker. You're going to get a title fight. Now, he's definitely not fighting for the belt this year. Sean Strickland may be quietly like the biggest winner of today because he now really is in prime spot to get another middleweight title fight. And Robert Whitaker, him and Alex Pereira and Yeri Phrashka are kings and heroes and deserve to be celebrated and hopefully compensated for what has happened because things have been absolutely insane. We've talked about this enough, fellas, frankly. It's a little late, and we're going to talk about this a lot more

because this isn't one of those emergency things that happens, and then it's, oh, here's the emergency thing. UFC 300 is still three weeks away. There is a garbage card this weekend that we will not spend any time focusing on, and then it's immediately into the Saudi and the Whitaker fight, and then it's immediately into 303. So this will be the topic of conversation on the website for the next two weeks. make sure you stay with the website.

Keep up, mifighting.com. We'll keep updating you as we learn more. I'm sure we'll get more information about the injury, timelines for the McGregor booking, et cetera, et cetera. So keep it locked there. Thanks for being with us. And mostly, I just want us to end on this note of the day the UFC signed Alex Pereira

was the greatest day in the company history other than when they sold for $4 billion. because this man is bailing them out time and time again. So credit to you, Alex Brer. Rick, Damon, thanks for hopping on with me at this late hour. Keep it locked inamyfinding.com. Love y'all. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap.

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