MMA Fighting - Emergency Reaction: Dana White Announces Three Big 2024 Title Fights!

Episode Date: November 6, 2023

The first quarter of 2024 already has four UFC title fights on the books with Dana White making a blockbuster announcement on Monday afternoon. MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck, Shaun Al-Shatti, and Steven Marrocco react to the UFC CEO announcing that Sean Strickland vs. Dricus Du Plessis for the middleweight title will headline UFC 297 on Jan. 20 in Toronto, Alexander Volkanovski vs. Ilia Topuria for the featherweight championship will serve as the UFC 298 main event in February, and Sean O’Malley vs. Marlon Vera 2 will take place at UFC 299 in March for the 135-pound title. Both UFC 298 and UFC 299 do not have a date, location, or venue announced at this time. Additionally, the panel ranks the three new title fights in order of intrigue and interest, what the announcement could mean for UFC 300, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti Follow Steven Marrocco: @MMAFightingSM 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 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. Hi, I'm Mike Hac here for M-Afighting.com reacting to some big news.

UFC CEO Dana White went to his social media. on Monday and announced not one, not two, but three big title fights to kick off 2024. UFC 297 is going to have two title fights. Not only is Raquel Pennington and Myra Buena Silva fighting for the vacant Bannamweight title. We just found out that Sean Strickland will have his first middleweight title defense, not against Hamza Chimae, but against Drickus 2 Plus C in Toronto on January 20th. UFC 298 will be headlined by a fascinating featherweight title fight between. between Alexander Volcanovsky and Iliate's Aporia.

And then UFC 299 will feature Sean O'Malley's first Banimate title defense. He will take on Marlon Cheeto Vera, UFC 28, 298, excuse me, and UFC 299. Dates, locations yet to be announced. So we got some big ones coming up to kick off the 2024 calendar year. And I'm being joined right now by not one, but two deputy editors, very happy here. We got Chahin Al-Shadi and Stephen Morocco. So gentlemen, some big news here. Shaheen, I'll begin with you.

Three big title fights. We have a main event for Toronto. It's not Raquel Pennington versus Myra Buena Silva, which I think a lot of fans are pretty excited about. But it's also not Islam Makachep versus Charles Oliva, something that was rumored. But here we go. DDP, getting his title shot, Shaheen.

Your thoughts on that fight and the other two main events, Dana White announced on Monday. Yeah, I love how fitting all this is. I know this part of it isn't new, but I do love that our good friend, A.K. Lee, your best friend. He gets to cover a Canada event with a women's band and weight title fight. That is his dream. That is all he ever wants to talk about is women's bans and weight. He's able to live out his dreams. So we're just making dreams happen here at anybody. No, man, I have three big takeaways from today's news because I will say

ultimately, I don't know that a lot of this was unexpected or surprising or really even new, right? Like two out of three of these, we sort of knew we're going to have. But then the third is what it is. First takeaway, I'm glad, even if it's only a month, I am glad that Alexander Volcanowski is waiting a little bit longer to jump into, jab back into the fray. Because it was so worrisome for all of us when he was talking about wanting to fight in January after the brutal head kick that he just suffered. That kind of concussion, that kind of knockout. You don't want to see that quick of the turnaround. February is still sooner than I would have preferred.

And if I was on his team, I would have advised him to wait a little bit longer. But as we heard from him, you know, he was a guy who wants to stay. busy and the bad things happen when he doesn't. So I'm glad we're getting a little bit there. Two, guys, it pays to call for what you want when you're a champion. Sean O'Malley just

skipped probably having to fight Marab in a couple other hard matchups. Whether it was a Corey San Erigan, whoever, because he called out Cheeto Vera and it made sense and he made the, he put the storyline out there, and the UFC picked up the storyline that he was putting down. That is, that is champion

101, what Sean Malay just did. He could, he could have had a much, much harder fight against a much harder stylistic matchup, but he did his due diligence. And when the Mike came to him, he called for one and he wanted it. He ultimately got it. That should be a lesson to every champion out there. Set your own story, carve your own path, because sometimes, more often than not, the UFC, especially when you're in that position, we'll follow through with it. But ultimately, my third takeaway, and the biggest one of all of this, it was the title fight that we weren't sure we were going to get. Justice for Drichus Duplice, we actually got it.

I was so concerned. I was so deeply concerned that the UFC was going to pass over this man purely out of spite, purely out of some ridiculous sense that you did not take a short notice title fight when you were injured, this whole nonsense, everything we saw going on at 185. I'm so glad that did not come to pass. Some things are just undeniable. Some performances, some wins are just undeniable. And if you put together a list right now of the top most undeniable contenders in the UFC, Driggis duplice is number one. because we have never seen anybody outside of Israel do that to Robert Whitaker. He went in there against all odds and did it.

He has a fixed nose. There's a dangerous man. And I am so glad that he is getting this opportunity rather than a Hamzat Shamaev who just beat a couple of welterweights, more or less. Stephen, your reaction to these three title fights. And even to getting Sean Strickland, Drinkist Duplase in Toronto, Canada, of all places. Yeah. If I had like a headline for this trio, it would be maybe they're, listening to us, you know?

Because it seems like kind of to what Sean was saying that there's a similar, there's a similar thread in a couple of these, which is that they were thinking about going one way and everyone was like, I don't know, I don't know. And now it looks like they're doing the more sensible thing. And in Strickland's case, it's putting him against the guy. in the title shot by being Whitaker in DDP. I also think there's a fascinating sort of matchup on the horizon there with Jared Cannoneer.

And it just, you know, it gives us a chance to start the Sean Strickland era, you know, with a bang, basically, because we've got full oxygen DDP, you know, that's going to be charging against him. And then, you know, potentially we get to see that cannoneer rematch when he gets healthy. Then for Volk, it's putting him on a little bit later, not as Sean said, when he probably should be fighting, which is, you know, March, April, May, something like that. You don't know the human brain, its ability to recover from person to person. So, but it's considerably better than doing it in January. So there's that.

And then O'Malley Vera, too, I mean, this is like, this is something that nobody's really arguing about it. It makes sense from the current UFC's business model from the way that they run things. There's definitely other ways it could have gone that would have been much more in line with a meritocracy argument. But this is, you know, for the Bantamweight division, if you've got a star, you've got to strike while the hand is hot. And I think that's definitely O'Malley versus Vera, too, in terms of matchups. So I think they did a good job. I don't really have a lot negative to say about it. Let me ask you, Sheehan, because there's stories attached to all of this.

And you mentioned DDP, justice for DDP, and had this fight not get booked, gotten booked for January, DDP's probably not getting a title shot. If they waited until April for Sean's first title defense, it's probably going to be Hamzot Shemayef and not trick as duplacy. So as I was saying after the Shemaiah Usman fight, that availability is DDP's best friend right now. That phone rings, even if it's like we need a decision in 30 minutes, you got to take it. So DDP after the win over Whitaker gets his shot over Sean Strickland. Really interesting fight.

Volcanovsky-Tuporia, obviously very interesting, especially with Volk getting knocked out and Tuporia looking like an absolute killer out there. And then we have the biggest fight you could book in this Bannamweight Division right now. Rematch everybody's been wanting since the first go around, both three, three and a half years in the making. We'll get Sean O'Malley versus Cheevera, and we'll see if this reign of Sean O'Malley can take off into another stratosphere. So rank the three in terms of your intrigue levels. in terms of your interest levels of these three title fights.

Oh, man, in terms of my interest levels, that's tough. Because I'm interested in all three. I've already gotten some response on social media of people being like, oh, UFC's first quarter of 2024 are going to start out pretty slow. And I don't know that I quite understand that reaction. Like all three of these are pretty compelling. I understand maybe there's not like a Conner fight in there or Islam Charles or something like that, but like these are, I don't know. I'm in, I'm in on all of these, more or less.

If you ask me to rank them, I would say DDP Strickland, thousand percent is my number one. Just because I am so deeply invested at this point in whatever this middle of eight division is right now and whatever its current in future form will be, because I love it. I love it, love it, love it, every time a dominant champion sort of gets beaten in this way and things start anew and that scramble, that scramble to the top to figure out what this. division now looks like is always so much fun to me. That's one of my favorite parts of this sport is whatever that post-dominant champion era of these divisions as everybody starts to figure each other out. Is Sean Strickland a long-time champion? Is he someone who's going to be here a while?

Or is this just a flash in the pan? And we've just been waiting for DDP. Also, something you and I have talked about extensively on various shows, Mike, heck, but the potential now for this DDP-I-I-Sy fight to come to fruition with a dynamic that none of us ever saw coming, where DDP is the guy holding the belt and Izzy's coming in as the challenger, having all these questions on Izzy and DDP is the guy. That is so crazy compelling to me. I would love to see what that would look like, but we have a few more steps to get there. But that would put that number one for me, the middleweight title fight. Number two, I mean, I got to go Volk versus Teporia. If only because I've been on the Teporia train from day one, I have been spearheading for this guy. I've been

championing for this guy. I think he was, I've said from the beginning that he's a future champion in this division. I was probably going to pick him whenever he did get this fight, and now I'm definitely going to pick him. But I feel like I'm probably not alone, right? Like, this is going to be a popular pick to pick Iliate Tuporia to beat Alexander Volkanovsky with Volkowski coming off of a very brutal knockout, short turnaround, but also just the fact that Volk is the oldest champion in the history of the UFC under 1505 or below. Like he is just that guy already. These lighter weight divisions are not built for older men. And he is, reached that point of older man status. And I'm just curious to see how long you can keep this going,

because there's a very real chance. Alexander Volcanowski might still be that guy at 145, but he also might not be too. And I'm just, I'm crazy compelling in that respect as well for me. And then, I mean, O'Malley, Vera too, you could throw that last, but I'm still in on that, right? Like, that is intriguing to me. I think by the time it finally comes between all the buildup and both those guys being real fan favorites and Sean being this sort of budding superstar. in this sport. And again, people love Cheeto. Cheetos's a really compelling figure. He can sell anybody on anything. If you get him on the phone for 20 minutes or on video for 20 minutes, I think there's a very real chance that will be the biggest bantamweight title fight in history, in the history of the

UFC at least by the time we get to March. So I'm curious to see how big that can get, what kind of promotion that gets, whether the UFC and ESPN sort of machine get behind Sean, because we even saw it when he fought Aljo and they just released the paper view finish pretty much like minutes after it happened. Like that is unprecedented in this era. And I'm curious to see if that's just the level to which they're going to get behind this guy and try to push him into the stratosphere and make him the next Connor. So I'll all in on it. I'm all in on all three of these. I love it. Steve and his list is 297 made event, 298 main event, two 99 main event in terms of intrigue and interest. Is your list the same or is yours different? I mean, I can make an argument for both.

I can see that argument and I can agree with those points that Sean has made. Just to be a little bit of a contrarian, I guess I would say that I would go with O'Malley versus Verre 2 is my number one because they have history. They have defined history. And we didn't really, that was in a different time, obviously, in both of their careers. O'Malley is now proven to be, you know, worthy of the hype that he's gotten. And now he's coming at it from a different perspective, being the champion and having to defend. easy to, you know, it's hard to become the champion, even harder to defend the belt, especially in the best division in the UFC. So we get to answer a couple questions. And Vera also, like,

Vera has been great, but he's also been kind of uneven. Sometimes he obviously lost to San Hagan. So I feel like there's some, there's a variety of intriguing storylines there. And I also think that the buildup is going to be more fun if I had to, if I had to gamble on it, because both of those guys are great trash talkers, great on the mic, and I think it's just going to be a little bit more fun. From a competitive standpoint, I think that Volk versus Tapuria is quite

possibly the best. I mean, I'll put it number two in terms on my list, but I just think it's the most competitive fight potentially because Tapuria is such a technical master. And Volk is the best featherweight

other than well, we shouldn't go into the pound for Let's not retread that. He's a great featherweight. He's one of the best to ever do it. And like, you know, Sean was talking about, there's a lot of question marks going into this. And if the best Volk shows up and the best Ilya

Tuporia shows up, that's going to be a phenomenal fight on the order in my mind of a Mendez-Aldo too, like a fight where I was just like, There is so much technique happening here. This is such a slick yet exciting fight that you just can't take your eyes off of it. So that would be number two. And then Strickland versus DDP, entertaining because of the characters involved, but ultimately more of a, it feels like more of a car crash because of their respective styles. You know, DDP, I feel like is, I feel like that fight is not going to last very long.

something crazy is going to happen. The craziest thing is probably going to be the buildup to the fight and the whack-a-doodle things that Sean Strickland says. So that would probably be number three for me. But again, I like all of these fights. I think they did the right thing. And the fact that people are saying, you know, no, it's a light schedule, I think is probably more the absence of somebody like

or, you know, is even, you know, all the ones that they announced today. Just real quick, I will say I am morbidly curious. I didn't even think about it until you were just speaking about it, Stephen, but I am morbidly curious to see sort of the interplay and the dynamics between DDP and Sean Strickland. Because in a lot of ways, they feel like they might be friends without having met each other. Right? Like, it almost feels like the lead up to that fight is just going to be.

be both of them. Are not NPR listeners? Like, they're both going to just kind of be talking trash about Izzy to each other, it almost feels like. And I feel like they're almost like they could, there's a potential for them to almost like bond over this mutual dislike of this man that doesn't matter to their equation right now. Like, I don't know what that's going to look like.

Now I'm suddenly very interested to see what that looks like. Yeah. I mean, we, we predicted that Sean Strickland's title reign was going to be like a car crash. And now that begins. And it's going to be very interesting to see what happens to him. It was so wild to see Strickland get over as much as he did in Australia. I don't know if he's going to get the same treatment in Canada because immediately he tweets out, Canada, why Canada? No freedom of siege, no guns.

GSP, did you do this? So I don't know how endearing he will be to the Canadians, but. Who knows? Maybe they don't like it. I love that. It's hilarious. It's so wild. Last thing on this, because...

Hold on. What about you? What's your ranking, Mike Hack? In interest level, what's your ranking? People want to know. People want to know. It's probably a Strickland DDP number one for me. I just...

I just... There's so many questions about Sean Strickland that I still have. And if he goes out there, it just waxes DDP in Toronto of all places. It's just got to be... It might be funnier than him beating him. is he, honestly, because it just wouldn't make any sense to me. In this world would not make any sense. He'd be the frontrunner for a back-to-back fighter of the year campaign. God, can you imagine? Which is insane to think about. It's so insane. Voltaporia had 294 not happen, probably would have

been number one. I drop it to number three here, because I am fascinated about it, but I want to see if Sean O'Malley can become the dude. Like, I really want to see if he can become the next guy at the head table. And if he beats Cheeto Vera, he's going to be that guy. What will that mean for the division? Will that mean for him? Will he get the opportunity to box and do all that crazy stuff? How big of a star can he become? He's got so much riding on this next fight because winning the belts is one thing, but it's all about the follow up. How can you follow that up? Can you go in there and get a win over probably the biggest rival you've had since you got into the sport? Since you got into the UFC. And a lot of people feel stylistically, Cheetos is just going to go out there and beat

the hell out of Shotomalley. So I wonder how he handles that pressure. And if he wins, that is just massive for him. And then, Volta Pori, I like. But honestly, to me, this is like 1A, 1B,1C more than 1, 2, 3. I am equally intrigued by all of these fights in different ways. And I'm very, very excited for them to take place to kick off the first quarter of 2024. And by the way, this whole, Oh, the UFC starting off slow is probably the dumbest thing you possibly make. I don't get that. What are we talking about here? We had Jamal Hill versus Glover to share on like two weeks notice in half MD Arena and Brazil to kick off 2023.

You're telling me this isn't an upgrade? What are we doing here? Also, I want to see in 2024 what the ripple effects are of Fury and Ghanu, if any. I want to see if there are ripple effects because it seems like a door has been reopened and perhaps really open for the first time because it's not Connor, it was Francis and Ghanu. And I want to see how that changes the dynamics of the headliners, the title runs, and their timelines. Because I think that something has changed here profoundly.

And I want to know if it reaches the UFC this year. It's a great point. That is a very good point. Sean O'Malley winning will probably answer some of those questions because we all know that Sean wants to go in there in box and who the hell knows what happens with Bannamweight. I have feeling perhaps we get an interim title fight out of this whole deal at Bannam Wade. If Sean does win because maybe he goes after boxing match, maybe he waits around to see if somebody can get over, I guess, to be like a B side that Sean can live with in terms of selling a fight and selling a pay-per-view. But we'll see.

Last thing on this gentleman, I'll start with you, Stephen, because you probably saw it on social media as well. You get these three announcements. What's the first question everybody's asking? Well, what's going to happen at UFC 300? So your guess now, after these fights are made, we're not going to have O'Malley at 300. Maybe we get DDP if he comes back. I'm not really sure if he wins the title, maybe Strickland, same thing. We're obviously probably not going to see Volkanowski and or Toporia at UFC 300.

So what does this mean to you? Did these announcements make you look to the future at UFC 300 any different kind of a way? Do you feel like you have an idea of what could be slotted in there? I thought you were going to ask me what my first questions were when they announced the fights. And the first question that came up was when and where for the last two. But yeah, I mean, as far as 300 certainly makes me think that. you know, Makachev versus

Olivera will be possibly there. Connor McGregor is still in the ether. So, I mean, I knew they were going to, I think this booking only just further lend support

to those things, that they're going to try to stack that as much as possible with the biggest stars that they have, obviously. So I think they're lining it up. It looks to me that they're lining that up after this, after today. What do you think, Shaheen?

Stephen thinks maybe we get McGregor Chandler, along with Machachev Olivera, maybe one or the other, maybe both, who the hell knows at this point? But did you look at UFC 300 at all and think like, well, these fights are up 297, 28, 299, that means blank is probably going to happen at 300. I'm kind of split on it because that certainly was one of the first thoughts that ran through my head. I feel like the easy answer and the easy assumption is thinking that, well, this makes McGregor Chandler a lock for UFC 300. And I don't know if that's incorrect. Like that very well may end up happening.

I do wonder, though, just knowing the UFC as I know them, McGregor Chandler is going to sell regardless. So I wonder if they're just going to put that at 301 and then go for the little bit. double dip there of getting like a mega pay-per-view at 300 because obviously the nice round number. You can put a bunch of title fights on it and then just do McGregor second because that's the thing with the McGregor card is if you have a McGregor on a card and then you have a lot of champions on the card who get pay-per-view points that budget for that event suddenly becomes much, much, much higher, which is why we have not seen Connor fight on a really stacked card in a long time, not since the one in New York. So, you know, that that leads me to believe that

probably saving McGregor Chandler for 301 just because again, I don't think the UFC's going to pony up all that money for whatever that champ, the champ salaries would be. But I think Islam Charles is probably a good, good bet to be on that 300 card. We'll see though. We'll see though, man. I mean, I don't know. I think the first quarter of next year looks really intriguing to me. And also, I just can't get out of this world in my head now where there's like a very real roadmap for Sean Strickland to be in succession in order. Israel Adesanya, Dricka's Duplice, Hamzat Shemayev, Israel again. And then all of a sudden we're looking at a Sean Strickland title reign that has like

a bunch of insane names. And we're talking about like is Sean Strickland a top three middleweight of all time. And this is like a real discussion. And M.M.A feels like it's going to, it's crazy enough and stupid enough to get to that place. So I don't know, man. I'm in. I'm very interested in all of this.

We will see when and where these fights happen. some rumored cities that I have heard Phoenix, Shaheen. I heard Phoenix is in play for the first quarter of 2024. I heard, I've heard some others. Nothing is set yet. That's why Dana didn't announce it. If it's Phoenix for March, because that would make all the sense of the world

for Sean O'Malley to have his first title defense in Phoenix, it's probably going to have to be like St. Patty's Day weekend because as I looked earlier today, March 2nd, March 9th, Phoenix hosting some big games, including the future NBA champ Boston Celtics on March 9. So I don't know if we're going to be able to bump that game out of there, Shade. I don't know.

I don't know about all this. I don't know about where we're going. But I will say there's a big Hispanic population also in Phoenix. And I think Cheeto would get over really well here. So you're hitting a lot of boats on that one. Absolutely. But once we find out, you will find out. So stay locked at M.AFighting.com.

Gentlemen, appreciate you guys jumping on for this emergency reacts. I have feeling this will not be the last one we have, probably before 2024 comes to an, 2022, excuse me, comes to an end heading into 2024. But 20203 is a chaotic year. 2024 off to a good start, it appears. So for Shaheen, for Steve Morocco, I am Mike Heck. Thank you for listening. We'll see you next time. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.