MMA Fighting - Emergency Reaction: Dana White Announces Poirier vs. Saint-Denis For UFC 299, Oliveira vs. Tsarukyan At UFC 300

Episode Date: January 8, 2024

UFC CEO Dana White promised he would be announcing some big fights, and he certainly came through with a pair of massive bouts in the promotion's best division. On Sunday night, White revealed that former interim lightweight champ Dustin Poirier will face the surging Benoit Saint-Denis in the five-round co-main event of UFC 299, which takes place March 9 in Miami, and former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira will look to stop the title push of Arman Tsarukyan at UFC 300 in April. Following the big news, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Alexander K. Lee, and Jed Meshew react to the pair of high-stakes 155-pound matchups, discuss which piece of business is more surprising, White saying that the Oliveira vs. Tsarukyan winner gets champ Islam Makhachev next and where that leaves Justin Gaethje, which fighter has the most to lose, early predictions, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew 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 Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original blockbuster,

the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. ...to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Mike Heck here from MnMafighting.com reacting to some big news from Sunday night. UFC CEO Dana White just couldn't wait to announce some massive fights,

and he delivered from the best division in the store. sport white reveals via social media that the co-main event for UFC 299, March 9th in Miami will be a five-round matchup between former interim lightweight champion Dustin Poiré and Surgeon contender Benoit Santany. And at UFC 300, April 13th, Charles Olivera, the former lightweight champion, returns to action, and he will not be fighting Islam Makachaf for the lightweight title, but he will be facing Armand Sarukia, two huge fights. which means I need two other talking heads to join me to react to this,

as I'm being joined by two of my wonderful colleagues from MAAfighting.com, Alexander K. Lee and Jed Bishu, A.K., I want to start with you, because when I saw this news, when I woke up Monday morning, I thought of you, because as a man who helps spearhead the M.A. Fighting Global Rankings, the only rankings that matter. As a man who has been anti-squadding when it comes to rankings, especially in this division, now we have two fights announced, where the popular main event, mainstay veterans face the new breed, the up-and-comers, if you will.

I assume you're quite happy with these fights. I'm thrilled. This is how, this is how MMA should be. This is how life should be, my best friend. Yeah, we've done a lot of matchmaking shows, Mike, you and I, and we've had a lot of calls for these guys in the top five, top six, top seven, to face one of these up-and-comers, one of these super exciting fight night bonus collecting fighters. you know, fighters pegged as future champions, if they could only get that matchup, and now we have two of them.

So I was really happy to see this. I was on when this happened, I was on. So I helped Damon Martin and I were up. Damon Martin, by the way, if people don't know, Dan Marys, a nocturnal creature. You can find him doing things probably at like four in the morning. That is when he's at his most active and most dangerous. So this news broke, I think around midnight, 1230 Eastern Time, and there was some warning from Dana White. We should take this time to help people for the next couple of weeks,

at least, you know, as these cards approach and we're waiting to hear U.S.C. 300 news. Have your Dana White alerts on on Twitter or Instagram or whatever because he has been threatening to announce fights, and he apparently got back from some 78-hour fast or something, and he's been on vacation with his family, and you felt like something was going to drop this week. He didn't waste any time. Sunday evening, this comes down, yes, we get Dustin 4A, BSD,

and Charles Oliver Armon's Rukkian. So love these matchups. I have to give Dustin Porey all the credit in the world. I think I've been one of those people who's saying he's going to be really choosy with however many fights he has left in his career and a fight with a guy like Benoit, Santanyi just doesn't make sense. I probably said that exact sentence. Sure enough, here he is.

Hopefully they've made the money right for both guys. It is a five-rounder, according to Dana, that they both demanded to be five rounds. It's a very exciting option, and this is a really, really solid co-main event for UFC 299. And it's for Oliver and Surukyan. people know a big dope Bronx fan I don't have a problem with him

fight Islam again someday but even me again as someone who's really love this guy for a lot of his career was kind of scratching on my head

when they were so quick to give him the rematch even after beating Benil so him having to fight someone like Armand Surukian right up my alley whoever loses this

I don't think their stock drops that much they're still in the title picture heading into late 2024, 2025 so this is just great matchmaking. It's great for the fans and the UFC knocked it out of the park. Jen, I was going to ask you which one of these fights was more surprising. But, I mean, at least

for me, it's pretty obvious that it's Porre v. Santanyi. Although you can make some kind of a case for the Oliver Serukian fight since Dana has been so steadfast on Oliver getting the rematch with Makachev since Oliver Beepin-Ildearyush. But your reaction to these matchups? And is the Porre-Sant-Denie fight the clear more surprising fight at 155? Dude, I woke up and today was awesome. Like, this rules, guys. There's not enough energy for this emergency reaction pod. Like, I didn't, they did the thing.

We talk about it all the time. Do the thing. The UFC never does the thing. They spent all of 2023 not doing the thing to hilarious and calamitous results. Instead of just booking DDP Izzy, they book DDP versus Robert Whitaker nonsensically, and then that fight collapses and we may never get it. Like, they never.

did the thing. And we talked all last year. Charles Oliver is a, you know, all time great, et cetera, et cetera. One win should not earn him a rematch, particularly given how one-sided that fight with Islam was. He should have to win another one. And he was getting a title fight because nobody else made sense. But once he pulled out, Justin Gage, did make sense because he had won the, like, now let's do this thing. And then they didn't do that thing. And now they have an opportunity to that and to have Charles fight the clear guy who he deserves after Sarukian's dominant kind of showing we all came out and said and I honestly think everybody agreed in a perfect world Sarukian was probably Charles Oliver and then no doubt about it, number one contender

match. That world's not going to happen because Charles Olivares probably can get there and don't I don't know what's going to happen with Justin Gaichi. This is all a very weird situation. Instead, they just did the logical thing and it's awesome. If I woke up and that was the only news I woke up to today, I would be ecstatic because, like, that makes so much sense. And I love to live in a world that makes sense, guys. It's so fun. And then on top of it, you just get the icing, which is they convinced Dustin Poirier to fight BSD. Obviously the most surprising fight that they could book. I think I have gone on several programs and said that fight could never happen, because why would Dustin Poirier take it? There is no reason for him to take it other than he has

gigantic intestinal fortitude that hangs from him like Sam Cassell in the Big Balls Dance. Like he is just the man for accepting this fight. It's unbelievable that he would do so. He gains nothing from doing this realistically other than money. And he's not even getting to do it at UFC 300, which was like ostensibly the thing he wanted to do. I have no idea why he accepted it. But God, I'm happy he did. This fight is going to rule. All of us agree that this fight. Like that right there is your on-paper leader. Not a single punch has been thrown in anger in the year of 2024 yet at the time of us recording this.

That fight is leader in the clubhouse or fight of the year already. And this is just a kick-ass way to start the first fight week of the year, boys. I agree with everything you just said. I will tell you what was the biggest, wait, what moment of everything Dana White said? because both these fights are great. And I was ecstatic that one, Sarukian is getting his shot. And if you watched or listened to the,

onto the next one, predictions extravaganza. When it comes to Arm and Sarukian, I'm cashing in the briefcase. I'm going all in on Sarukian. That's a good bet for you now. I picked him to be the lightweight champion at the end of the year.

But here's the thing that kind of stunned me a little bit. And it relates to the Olivera Syrucian fight. Because Dana White said AK that the winner would face Islam Makachev next for the title. But Jed brought up a very good point. We also assumed that if they gave Siruki in this opportunity, that means Justin Gaichi would probably get the title shot. But that was not revealed at all. So, AK, if you're Justin Gaechi right now and you hear Dana's post-fast fight

announcement and you're hearing that these two guys are fighting for the chance to fight Islam Macha-chev for the title next, how are you feeling hearing that? Or do you think the UFC has cooked up something else for him that has made him happy. If you're Gatji, you and your often vocal manager, to put it kindly, are probably a little perturbed right now, probably a little perturbed. You want that tell of shot. You want the title fight money. You want that high profile events.

On the other hand, you can't be too thrown off. I think this does feel like a Dana said situation. We've said this many, many times. There's really no such thing as the number one contenders fight at M. We've had situations where they've presented matchups as such and everything works out and it's great and we're all happy and someone's a fight. We all get the title fight we want with the most deserving challenger. I have to think more often than not that we don't get that case. So for me, this is just Dana hedging his bets.

I mean, we don't know what's got. Look, these fights haven't even happened yet. I'm supposed to be the Prince of positivity, but there's a long way to go for $2.99. There's a long way to go for $300. Fingers crossed, everything goes through. Everyone has a beautiful training camp. injuries and we get these fights. But if not, I'm sure Justin Gates is waiting in the wings. I'm sure Mathieu's Gamerad is waiting in the wings. Not to say that Gatty would jump on one

of these fights. That might be a little bit strange. Maybe he'd want to face Oliver again, get a rematch there. But the point is, it doesn't hurt Dana White or the UFC at all to make, quote, unquote, guarantees like this to say, yeah, this is so much on the line for this fight. This is the number one contender fight. We just saw this with Kamar Usman and Hamzaa Shamaa. And I don't know if either, I don't know if Kamsat's getting the next title, but he probably can and should. But there's no guarantee. There's no such thing as being guaranteed.

If you're a middleweight, you're not stressing over like, oh, I guess I have to wait. I guess Kamsat's getting his turn. No, you're like, I don't know. You just need a big win. You can probably still get in there. It's the same thing with lightweight. So you're Gitchie, you're a little annoyed.

Like you said, Mike, it's possible. They've already made things right with him and his team. They've already said, listen, we've got this big money matchup instead. I don't quite know what that could be. I guess we'll have to, we'll speculate that, speculate further either now or on another show. But I don't think you're too worried.

I think if it is a surprise like Jed, you probably woke up, Justin Gachy probably woke up this morning like WTF, what the hell is going on? Like what a great fight? But also, what about me? What about what about Gaiji? But I don't think he has to be too worried.

I would be really, really surprised if we see, like, whoever wins the Armostruki on Charles Olivera fight, if like they book them versus Islam within the next like three weeks within a month. I just don't think that's going to happen. I don't think there's anything set in stone here.

So good news for Charles and Armin. Maybe a little bit of an annoying, you know, moment for Justin Gagchi. But nothing to be stressed about it. There's a very good chance that Gatzy still jumps over both of them and, uh, and gets that title shot. So I don't know. Hopefully we see all these guys involved in the title five for the end of year, but someone's going to get left out, it feels like.

What do you think, Jed? Where does this leave Gaiti? We talked about this on BTL. What do we do as far as the main event here? Is this the beginning of the shuffling of the deck that we sort of laid out? Maybe they do Machachev Gachi as the new main event of 299 and then move Cito O'Malley to 300. Does Gagee now headline 300? Maybe the main event for UFC 300 is Justin Gagee versus Max Holloway for the BNF title.

Why are you going to ask questions and not let me say that exact take? Jake Mike as ridiculously bad hosting because look, one, we should let's put a pin in and circle back to the reshuffling of the deck idea because that's got legs. I think we're going to get one of two outcomes here. I think I think this week we are going to have one of two things announced. And it is either, as you said, the UFC has opened up the coffers and they are paying Justin Gatesy to defend the BMF belt against Max Holloway in a fight that. will somehow impossibly immediately overtake Dustin Porta versus BSD in the fight of the year race. Like immediately, that will be the new leader in the clubhouse if that's announced. I'm not sure that that's the exact splash that UFC 300 once for like the broader public.

But I cannot think of a fight the hardcore fan base would gravitate to more than that as your main event. So I think that's one of the two options. I think the other option, and people may find this one a little more hard to believe because of timeline, I think the other option is that when Dana White said the winner is going to face Islamakachev, he really meant the winner is going to face the winner of Islamakachev versus Justin Gachi, which is going to headline the Saudi Arabia card. I know that card is set for March 2nd, the timeline is getting tight, but if the UFC is negotiating this quietly, the fighters are prepping.

I don't think there's still plenty of time to make that work. And Saudi Arabia is going to be a splash card for them. Every time they do something like this with a new partner, a new market, they are trying to make a big splash. And right now that card does not have a lot going on with it. I mean, again, it's still a little ways out, but there is nothing that's even sort of around it that looks like it could be. I know we kind of have collectively speculated that Hamzat might make sense,

but Hamzaq with this illness, I don't know how viable that is. Islam fighting here feels like the big splash, and they can just do Justin Gehche. I think that is still very much in play. But Mike, I love the idea of the shuffle here, because Ramadan starts March 10th.

You know what happens March 9th? UC-299, baby. You could shuffle that in, Duke Geichi Islam. Sure, it's in Miami, and that's not like really, there's no major connection. there, but there isn't a major connection for Cheeto and O'Malley either. So I would love them to do the shuffle.

So I'll say that maybe that's option three, because that, I don't think Cheeto or O'Malley would be like, no, I got a fight in Miami. I think they would love the opportunity to headline UFC 300. I think the shuffle idea is great. I still think that it is the, I think the least likely of those scenarios is that Gachie Max Holloway, BMF belt, headlines 300 because it feels too far-fetched that Gachie would agree to it and the UFC would say that's our 300 headliner, but it's not an inconceivable. I still think the most likely outcome is Saudi Arabia gets Islam versus Kachi, but I love the

shuffle idea. That's what should happen at this point. I love the shuffle idea as well. Boating for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. What? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo. Great idea.

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That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. We have four lightweights, all vying for big fights. And Dustin Poy, if he goes out there and beats Benoit Santany, a.k., he's certainly back in the title picture. That's for sure. He'll probably need another win or two, but Dustin's a very popular guy. And if he goes out there beats a guy like freaking Benoit Santini,

we saw what a win like that did for Charles Olivaire when he beat Benial Darius. So does Charles Olivera, is it cool? clear that he has the most to lose here in this set of fights because he had a title shot against his Lamakachev. The timing worked out great. Then he gets cut, has to bow out of the fight. And now he gets Sarukian instead of getting the title fight. You have to imagine if Charles Olivaire loses to Armin Sarukian, he's going to be in a really tough spot. If Syrucian loses, yeah, he's got work to do. If Suntin he loses, yeah, he's got a little more work to do. And as Jed kind of said, you can make a case that Dustin Porey doesn't have a ton to

lose here because he's stepping up and taking this dangerous fight against a guy that not a lot of people know outside of the hardcore fan base. So is it clear that Oliver has the most to lose here, or can you make a better case for somebody else? Yeah, well, it can't be Dustin or BSD. That's out of the question. Can't beat Dustin as, as Jed so eloquently put it earlier. He is, he is, but just by accepting this fight, he has once again raised his profile, maintained. that he is one of the baddest MEPs to ever compete in all of MMA. Win or lose, it doesn't matter. You know, unless he gets, I mean, even if he gets a 15 second startching,

which is nearly impossible, and I'm just going to just say now, that's just not going to happen. Even then, I don't think his reputation gets hurt much. You get the feeling it's going to be a great competitive fight. If BSD comes out on top, great for him. And, of course, Ben Wall Sandini cannot lose much from losing two Justin Poria, one of the greatest lightways of all time. And again, this is really San Dundi's first step-up fight.

So if he loses, we get a little. a little bit of a better gauge of where he is at at this stage in his career. And then, you know, we we, we, we, we, we, we recalibrate later for him. So it can't be Dustin. It can't be BSD. Charles, the obvious choice. I'll make an argument that Armand does have something to lose here. He's still really young. He's 27 years old. We still like he's in his prime entering his prime. It does feel like, oh, he loses

Charles again. Kind of like what I said, BSD. He loses to Dobranks. Do Bronx is one of the greatest lightweights of all time, former lightweight champion. There's no shame in it. And there's no shame in it. But I will say at some point, is it are we going to have start putting a ceiling on what we think our men can become i won't i won't i won't i won't i just wonder if he loses uh in a in a disappointing way again i may be getting if getting dominated by oliver just saying it sounds bizarre i don't think syracian can really be dominated by anyone uh but if that happened if that happened that's the only situation

where i could see people breaking out like oh he was exposed or like oh he's never going to win the big one because because and they'll point to well he lost islam in his first fight which is you know whatever. He lost that lost quote unquote, that very close fight to Gamrod. So he'll have three losses to top eight, top five guys and that could be a knock on him.

And again, this is just making the argument why it's not Charles. Charles is the obvious choice. It feels like if he loses to Armin, that championship window is going to close and narrow ever so slightly. Again, he's not out of it because he's Charles Oliver. He can always beat anyone and get back in there. But

Charles definitely has the most lose. But There's something on the line for Armand as well. I do think there will be some narratives coming out if he can't beat Charles. There'll be some he cannot beat a top. Well, he beat Diori, excuse me, but outside of that, he can't beat a top, I don't know, five guy in their prime. Something like that. I feel like there'll be some negativity towards Armand, but Charles Oliveri is the answer. Who has the most to lose here, Jed?

That's a really tough question. I think Charles is the chalk answer. I like a lot of what AK argued. I am not entirely sure that he is the correct. answer because I always sort of approach this question from both sides of it. It's like, yes, what Charles has, everyone has something to lose in any given fight, obviously. What Charles, Charles also has the added loss that, or the added part of this, that a loss really sets him out of the title conversation. Maybe for good, though I would not say that that's determinative.

Like he, he's still young enough. He's a big enough name, a former champion. Two wins puts him right back in there. Um, and he can beat a lot of dudes. Like, if he loses to Armand, but then comes out and beats him a Tush Gamrott and beats Hafeuil Fiziev or rematch with Dustin Poy or whatever, like that puts him right back in there. And he has so much already established. Like if he loses the rest of his fights, he's still an all-time grade. He's a Hall of Famer. Armand does not have that.

So if he loses, this sets him back. And yes, he's young. But I think we all sort of assume that youth will out. and that, okay, he'll have more opportunities, but sometimes you're Dan Marino, and you get to the Super Bowl early in your career, and you just never get back. Like, Armand absolutely has something to lose here.

I think Porier probably to me is the actual one who has the most to lose in this, and that he still has all the Charles Olivera stuff too. Like he is a legend, he is set. But unlike Charles, and this isn't totally fair, but it is true, he is not a UFC champion. He's an interim champion. He fell short in his title aspirations.

He fell short in the BMF title aspiration. And most critically, he's the only one of these four men that a loss is the second one in a row. And just by the nature of how BSD fights, it's not like it's going to be a happy loss. Like if he loses, it's probably going to be the second really violent end in a row for him. he's old in fight years he got a lot of tread on the tires and he has looked great despite it he's the one that of all the dudes coming out of this with the lost he's the guy i think has the least path back to kind of where he would aspire to be and is probably the closest to retirement with the lost just because he has already spoken about not wanting to stay like overstay

is welcome etc etc i think poor he has the most to lose even though his career is already you know, rock solid locked in, like, holistically in that respect. Yeah. And then like on the other side, you can make a case for all these guys. Porre wins. He's back in the title picture. If Olivera wins, he's got a real good opportunity. But if Volvera wins like a tight decision, but Ben Wasantanity just clubs Dustin

Dustin Porre. Like, is Dana White going to show up to the press conference and be like, yeah, man, I'm a man of my word and Charles is getting the next title shot? I don't know. I still think he would. but it becomes a question. Yeah. And the guy who's probably lost the most at all

who seems to be too scabrot who is fighting RDA in a fight no one even remembers has been booked and no one's even talking about him. And he was the frigging backup fight for the most recent title fight, which is crazy. He's fighting RDA? What? He's fighting RDA.

Stop it. It's true. What? I mean, honestly, that kind of works out because there's no good other opponent for him to fight. So. That's the best of the options available. So at least he's got that going for him. But he's already fought, you know,

Benil and Jalen Turner and Fazeve's dead for a while. There's nobody else from the fight because Michael Chandler's still holding out hope. Yeah. It's announced. He announced it. Connor announced it, Jay. It's great because Gamrod gets to pick up the pieces of whatever happens here.

Like how he gets to look at these for them, like one of you losers. it's go time, baby. Which one's it going to be except for Porre? So I think if Porreux, it loses, there's a 0% chance he fights Matush Camrod. Unless RDA beats Batush Gamrott, which is not... I still think he wouldn't fight him.

I think what I've, you know, it's been, I haven't had a lot of time, but I was trying to figure out, like, why did Dustin Porier take this fight? Because we all just sort of thought he wouldn't. And because, like, you know, he just straight up, like, Heismund, Benio. He's like, I don't want to fight Benio. I have no interest in fighting Benile,

but he's fighting, Bill O'Sont-Denie, who's like much lower ranked in the UFC's ranking, probably has less of a profile, even though he's getting some. And then I just thought it was like, oh, it's because BSD's awesome. Like, and I like Bineo a lot. Benio has been a very fun fighter. But Bineal also has fights that are not the most captivating to watch. BSD won, you know, I did the 2023 All-Stars. BSD was the all-pro of lightweight, three fights, three finishes,

three bonuses, like just an unbelievable 2023 from that man. Yeah, he's down to clown with people who are going to get in there and get busy. And while Benil Daryush is good and has been exciting, he does not have the same aura about him. Matush Gamrot, exactly the same. I think an incredibly fun and exciting fighter.

That's just not the kind of dude boy is going to get in there to get busy with. I think it would be more likely he would fight Hafeel Fazeev than it would be he would fight Gamrock coming off of this. I'll say also, I think the other reason Porriere picked BSD, even though he has the least to gain from this matchup, I think he should be pretty confident he can beat him. Because BSD is super exciting, super dangerous, has not fought anyone close to the level of Dustin Poirier. And doesn't Porri and his team know that.

And I like BSD. He's a guy who I think has the talent to fight for a title someday. But he's not a lock. He's not a lock like Armin. Not that we're necessarily comparing those two. but Armand is the guy again, since he came to the UFC, we're like, okay, well, this guy probably from what we know on, from his pre-UFC were, from just what we saw in the fight with Islam,

at his age of the time, he was like 24. We're like, yeah, Armands, if everything, you know, projects as we think it will, it's going to fight for a title someday. Ben Walsan, even after the first two fights, you know, when he bounced back from his bad welterweight debut, drops back down to 155, we're still kind of like, oh, it was a fun action guy. And it was only last year that were like, holy crap,

this guy could be a world title guy. But Matt Fovola, Tiago Moises, great wins, nowhere near Dustin Poria. So if you're Porre's team, you're pretty tackle about this. He knows, one, the stuff we've talked about, he's going to get a lot of credit just for taking this fight. And two, they probably think they can win. They probably think they have a very good chance of winning. I'm kind of giving my hand here, and I'm sure something's going to change before our actual predictions. I'm predicting a Dustin Porier win.

So that's another good reason for him to take this fight. Yeah, you made a great point about the ORE, Jed. Yeah, you made a great point about the O'R. of BSD because Benil has to do the thing to make this fight more interesting. Gamrat would have to do the thing to make this fight more interesting.

BSD don't have to do anything. You just need to show up and look at the camera and look scary. That's all he needs to do. And it's just like, honestly, just in the last few hours, as this has, everyone's woken up and this is sort of unveiled,

if they had announced Dustin Poi versus B'Neil Daryush, are we emergency potting right now? I'm probably not. You know, it's just like, oh yeah, it's a great fight. I'm glad they're doing it. No one's like,

hey, that's the front runner for fight of the year at the moment. Like, that is, Porier knows his game and game respects game.

And I agree with AK. I think he can, he can look at BSD and think this is a really opportune time to get a ton of credit and beat a dude because, look, BSD is not a defensive savant.

That's just not part of his game. And Poyer is like really, really good defensively. And we saw how that worked the first time Porrier fought Justin Gagey. And I think you can look at BSD and be like, there's a lot of similarities going on there.

And he can view that as an opportunity to get this one. So I am so pumped about that freaking fight, man. I just straight up did not think it was possible. And the fact that it is that they have made it happen is, it's my most anticipated fight 2024, other than DDP Strickland because I think that that's hilarious. How different are our first week January vibes? Sorry to the U.S.

this year. Did we talk about it in BTL last week? It's like, hey, we started better? We started way better compared to the vibes of week one in 2023. I'll tell you that right now. So I'm happy. It seems like you both are picking Dustin Poria as of right now. As of right now.

Things could change. I think so. Yeah, I think so. All right, Jed, I'll start with you. Quick prediction. Obviously, this can all change. Charles Olivera, Armand-Sauru Kian, UFC 300. What do you got?

Who do you think gets this one? I'm going to take Siruki, and I really wish this was five rounds. It being three is interesting. One, title eliminators should always be five rounds. It's categorically insane that they would ever be three. Two, I think that that probably does favor Armand. I think I would favor Armine anyway, but Charles Olivera is the exact sort of fighter who you just want to give more time to because he is such a finishing threat that the

longer the fight goes on, that's always a possibility. Whereas I think Suru can beat him violently. We've seen that he got hands now and is just like really developing into this unbelievable fighter. And it would be great if he does that to like really state a claim for, hey, my rematch with Islam's going to go very different. But I think if he gets in trouble at any point, he can just tackle, like you just tackle him and sit on, sit on Olivera for 10 minutes and win the fight. And so, O'Ever, not the easiest man to take down, but very content to play guard at times. I think that cost him in the first fight with Islam, as I said it would. And maybe he won't approach it the same way. But 15 minutes, I got a favor arm on. If it were 25, I probably still would,

but it'd be a lot closer. Okay. Are you with Jed? I'm such Charles Olivares, Stan. It's unabashed I just feel like Surukyon matchup-wise is just on paper is really good for him for Syrukion. I don't want to always harp on age. It's probably one of the biggest things I mentioned

when we're predicting fights, but Charles Oliver has just been he's been through it, man. He's been through it. He'll be, I know he's 34 now by the time the fight rolls around. Okay, so he just recently turned 34. And he's even older in fight years. He's one of those guys, right? He started so young. In the UFC, he's

started so young. It's not a guy who was like he started young to a pro and got to the U.C. when he was seasoned. We've seen him grow up. He was a baby. He was like a baby when he started the UFC at 145 pounds. So we know what this guy has been through. And he can compete at the highest level with anybody.

But this, I do see as a proper stepping stone fight for lack of a more respectful term. The B'Neal win showed a lot to me for Armand Srukian. Again, it's why I'm picking up. I picked Pori over BSD because I just haven't seen Sondini knock off a high-level guy, a super high-level guy to say, which strikes some of those guys.

But we just saw Surykhion just run through Banyl Darayush, which very few people have ever done. And it's hard to ignore that. Recency bias, again, is probably driving this pick, but I do have to go with Armand to do the thing and beat Islam. I'm sorry, excuse me, beat Charles and then make a very strong. case that he should be the one to move on to fight Islam instead of Justin Gagee again. We'll see how that whole situation shakes out. But it's going to be, my best friend, you're right. It's going to be Armin's year, man.

It's going to be his year. This fight's going to be three minutes of absolute chaos. I think Surukian is the last man standing after that three minutes. It's going to be like a cartoon Looney Tunes fight, which is dust everywhere. And I think Surukian comes out of that room with the win and a finish in the first round against Charles Oliver at a fun, crazy-ass taste fight. and then Sarukian's going to go on and hopefully fight. Either Makachev or Gaichi will see what happens,

but I want to see Makkahev, Surukin, too, so badly. Think about the winner, like, how much hype the winner will get for a title fight. Like, it is no one gave a shit about Charles Oliver Islam too. Like, no one cared about it because we had watched it. It was definitive. Yes, he beat Benel Derr-Jus, but like, okay.

and I have maintained that Charles O'Levara, like these are the two dudes I am the most interested in watching fight Islam from an in cage perspective and the winner of this will be like, yep, I just lock it up. I don't care that they are both rematches for Islam. The winner of this is going to be undeniable and it is going to be so much. Like this is the thing.

If this is what's to come for the UFC this year, whoo! 2024 is going to be the payoff from the insane that was 2023. Love it. Love it. And who knows, we might be, we might be back later on this week to do another one of these because Dana has said he's got more fights to announce.

He said on Tuesday he was going to announce more 300 fights. So maybe we'll get a main event. Maybe we'll get some undercard stuff. But some more you'd hope we'd get a main event. Yeah, we need a freaking main event. Geez, maybe we'll maybe we'll get an answer on. I think he's just delaying because he doesn't want to do, he doesn't want to say Leon Ballal until the last moment because he knows.

that it's going to lay in so flat. Sneak that one in. Let's try and let's, oh, look at all these other fights. And, you, Islam versus Gaichi, U.S. Saudi Arabia. And by the way, Leon Edwards is main event taking U.S. 300. He's on the phone with Mazadol trying to get him to fight Leon Edwards so bad right now. But we'll see what happens. Hopefully we have more answers on that main event question, possibly on Tuesday.

But if that's what happens, we'll be back to react to all of it. So thank you all very much. A lot to be excited about for AK, for Jed. Kack, thank you for listening. Stick with us at MAFighting.com for more UFC news in regards to possibly UFC 300. We'll see you later.

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