MMA Fighting - Emergency Reaction! Dustin Poirier's Magical Mystery Tour On A Very MMA Day

Episode Date: February 1, 2024

Dustin Poirier revealed on Thursday that his announced co-main event matchup with Benoit Saint-Denis at UFC 299 was no longer happening because he and the UFC "couldn't come to terms" on the fight and that contracts weren't in place before UFC CEO Dana White made his announcement. Although we've gone down this road with the UFC many times before in the past, and Poirier was the one who put it out there, somehow, White is putting the blame on the media. In the end, the fight is in fact happening as Poirier announced late Thursday afternoon. MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Shaun Al-Shatti, and Damon Martin take you on a journey as all of the chaos unfolded over the five-hour span, as they react to Poirier's explanation as to why the fight may not be happening, discuss how this isn't the first time Poirier has been involved in a story like this, their immediate reaction to White's Instagram stories in response, their prediction for how this plays out, all before reconvening to react to the fight being back on. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti Follow Damon Martin: @DamonMartin 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

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Visit darktrace.com forward slash defenders for more information. Hello there, everybody. This is Mike Heck from M.AFighting.com. It is Thursday, February 1st, 2024. And let me tell you, today has been a journey. It really has. And it mostly stems from everything that has transpired with this Dustin Porreier versus Benoit-Santanee fight

that was announced for UFC 299. Now, I'm sure you are all aware of what is going on. Dustin Porriere said earlier in the day that his fight was off. He never signed a contract, all sorts of stuff. It was announced, but they never signed anything, and then they couldn't come to terms. Of course, Dana White had a reaction to all this,

and we'll get to that in a little while as well. And now Dustin Poirier, moments ago, as I speak to you, as I record this, says, misunderstanding, fight is on after all. And this has just been one of the funniest days I can remember covering the sport. And sometimes when things like this happen, it doesn't really come to a conclusion so quickly

because we reacted to this briefly on BTL because we didn't really know what was going on. We got a little bit more context from Ariel Hawani and Brett Akamota from ESPN. And then after BTL rapped, myself, Shaheen Ashadi, and Damon Martin, reacted to all of this, reacted to it all. Porre saying the fight's not happening,

Porre releasing the statements. Will the fight happen? Will the fight happen? And then in the midst of all of this, Dana White decided to go on social media and give our own Guillermo Cruz a bunch of crap

because Gierre may posted a video with Benoit Santonis coach where the coach essentially said Benoit was sleeping when this announcement was made his wife woke him up and said,

oh my God, you're fighting Dustin Porier. And all of a sudden this turned into Guiller as a scumbag and all this, the reaction, and everything that transpired, our prediction on whether or not this fight is going to happen. And then literally, moments before we are to release this reaction podcast. In fact, it saw the light of day for about five seconds before we had to pull it. We get the announcement from Dustin Poirier, the fight is on. Wild stuff. So rather than take this epic and hilarious reaction podcast, this emergency reaction, if you will, to all of

this news and just drop it on the cutting room floor like it never existed. We are going to make sure this exists. In fact, we're going to play it in its entirety, start to finish, between our reactions to all of it from the Porre side, to getting our live reaction to Dana White's reaction. And then after this news breaks that Porre is, in fact, fighting at 299, our reaction to that news. So we're going to take you on a little bit of a journey. So we're going to go sort of in chronological order. So like I said, the reaction to the news, the reaction to Dana's reaction, our prediction on what's going to happen here. And then ultimately, you will find out whether or not our prediction came true because Dustin Porre says the fight is back on. So buckle up.

Enjoy the ride, everybody. This is just one of those unbelievable days covering the wonderful sport and mixed martial arts. Enjoy everybody. All right. I'm Mike Hock here for M.M.A. Fuddy. dot com on this Thursday, February 1st, 2024. And truth be told, I jumped on heck of a morning this morning. And just like I did on Tuesday, I thought to myself, this is just kind of a weird week because there's not a lot to talk about. All the craziness from UFC 297 is kind of come and gone. And we had a rare weekend off for the UFC.

And then we're heading into an apexy apex event, where there's just not a lot of big time news items. And then all of a sudden, around lunchtime, Just after noon Eastern time on this Thursday, Dustin Porreier sends the MMA community into pure and utter chaos by tweeting six words and a photo by fights off, but still working. And of course, Dustin Porier was announced by UFC CEO Dana White a few weeks back that he would be fighting Benoit Santini at UFC 29 March 9th in Miami in a five-round coal main event. Dustin Porier saying fights off. I don't know what's going on. We have worked tirelessly trying to confirm this news.

Nobody knew what was going on. And then we got a little bit more context, a little over an hour later from our good pal, Ariel Hawani, who tweeted out at 117 p.m. Eastern, I reached out to Dustin Poria about his tweet that the Benwasa Antenepidate, $2.99 is off. His response, quote, there was no contractual agreements before the fight was announced,

and we couldn't come to terms. Unbelievable turn of events. The UFC, for the second time in a matter of days, kind of caught their pants down because Dana White announced not one but two fights. Neither of them were signed sealed and delivered. And now, at least at this moment, according to Dustin Porier,

neither this fight or the Sean Brady-Vecente-Luke fight at UFC Atlantic City are happening, as announced by Dana White, a few weeks back. So there's a lot to break down here, a lot to digest from all of this. So I needed some help. So he brought in deputy editor, Shaheen Al Shadi, the OG, Damon Martin.

Shaheen, I got to tell you, we were dealing with all this on BTL. We saw this quote from Dustin Porre. And my first reaction was this is absolutely friggin brilliant from Dustin Porier because the way he has handled all of this, from the moment

Dana announced this fight, on Instagram never actually confirmed he was fighting Benoit Santini but just kept leaving little clues OG legend can't wait to get into this stuff it's time for a trip to go to hell and all these little things that he's putting out almost confirming the fight but never actually confirming the fight and then on the first day of February drops this little bombshell not fighting here's why I think this is brilliant dustiporia might be my new favorite fighter of all time I know fans aren't happy about this, but I think this is absolutely brilliant from Dustin Poir. What was your first reaction to this?

I love that veteran savvy, right? That is such, the way you lay that, like, that is so clever by Dustin. Again, just the breadcrumbs, but never really getting there. I have a couple of reactions to this. And as we've had a little bit of time to think about this, one, I'll just go selfishly, right? I'm really bummed out. Just like, really, like, as a selfish fan, I'm so bummed out. If you had to give me one fight left on sort of the calendar that we have, that's not like a title fight,

this was probably like the one I was most excited for because it's just so unusual for what we're used to with the lightweight division. Like this is a division of being clogged up at the top where a lot of these older guys just are not given the young guys their opportunities, especially a Benoit Saint-Denie who is not even top 10 right now. Like this just, this kind of matchup doesn't happen. and it seemed like it would be a springboard to potentially some really cool stuff in 2024 that Benoit was able to win. Maybe he gets a title shot right away.

Who knows, like, I'm just here for whatever kind of chaos that would be. So selfishly, like, I'm very bummed out that if this is how this plays out and we don't get this fight, that's a big loss. That is a big, big loss. UFC 299 is still a strong card,

but like that was my fight that I was watching the most. Number two takeaway, UFC sold tickets to this thing for like two weeks. knowing that this was just fantasy matchmaking, that this fight was as real as me versus Dustin Porre is real. Like, they were very aware of that. And it's all over the poster, right? Like, this was heavily promoted.

There were packages made, like video packages. It was just everywhere. Ticket sales, all of it. What does it cost to get a ticket for $2.99? It was like, a fan tweeted me today that it was like $750 for nosebleeds. Come on, man. Like this is Don King, like Don King circa 1980 would be a little ashamed at kind of these kind of tactics. Like I know this isn't the first time the UFC's ever done it and it's certainly not the last.

And frankly, it's not even the 10th time the UFC has done this. But this feels particularly egregious just because it is, like I said, such a unique fight, such a marquee fight, such a fight that everyone was so unanimously excited about. And to just so shamelessly promote it and market it knowing for a fact that, A, this is not done and be like this is very real. very well just could not get done and we're just kind of using this opportunity right now. That's a good grift if you can get it. So kudos to whoever was coming up with that because that's just tremendous business savvy. And then three, I'll pass it off to Damon after this. Good for DP, man.

Good for DP. I heard you guys on BTL and I 100% agree with where both you and Jera come from. Like this is king's shit right there. Like he let this marinate in the water or long enough for people to be excited about this, for the UFC to promote it, et cetera, et cetera. February 1st, just had that scheduled tweet ready to drop. Like, this is the deadline. And if you haven't done it, that's the end of it.

You said it, six words, economical, efficient with the way he was able to produce this. Like, yeah, man, if you're Dustin Porier and you're 35 years old and they're giving you this kind of fight without even really asking your permission for it or like asking whether you accept this and then you're sort of getting coerced into this situation. Like, yeah, dude, make your money. Absolutely make your money. These dudes are independent contractors. I've seen a lot of people be like, well, he's an employee of the UFC.

He should just accept this fight. It's like, nah, man, that is not how that works. He is an independent contractor who does not get health insurance once this is done. He does not get a pension. He does not get anything. He is out for himself. And whatever he makes in this game is what he leaves in this game. And there's nothing after that.

So, like, dude, you got to manicure your career as best you can. This was a very, very, very, very risky fight for Justin Poyer. And if they're not going to up the ante, if the chat is not going to make it better, dude, yeah, stick up for yourself and walk away. So it sucks, but also, yeah, man, good for you, Dustin. And it's just very typical. It is very, very, very typical. And I know Damon knows that as well. Yeah, so I'll remember going back several years ago. I got a text, and this should tell you how long ago was, because he's been retired for quite a few years. I got a text from a guy by the name of Mack Danzig.

Remember Mac Danzig? Ultimate Fighter winner, old school vet. I posted an article about, MacDansig, book to fight, such and such fire. I can't remember what one it was. It was years ago. And he texts me and he's like, hey, how did you hear about this fight? And I said, the UFC just announced it. Like, they just put it out there. And he's like, huh? And I was like, why? What's up? He's like, they never offered me the fight.

They never asked me if I wanted the fight. I was like, are you serious? Yeah, they never even called me to see if I wanted the fight. And I was like, yeah, they put it out. It's out there. And I sent him to, you know, I sent him to the link or whatever it was. And he's like, this is insane. He's like, they never even called and offered me. fights. So this has been going on for at least, you know, decades at this point, like, you know,

many, many years where the UFC will make an announcement and the fighter has absolutely no idea that they're supposedly fighting. This is standard fare for the UFC. They love to put out fights that aren't done. They also love to put pressure on fighters to accept fights because the narrative changes when they put a fight out and a fighter says, oh, no, I'm not taking that fight. Then the UFC can spit it and say, well, he didn't want it. He must not want him to fight. Didn't want to fight that guy, ducking that guy. When this story first came out this morning, and I was texting everybody I knew to see what was going on. And to be fair, nobody, nobody knew what was going on. Nobody. Nobody involved was like, oh, yeah, this is like, oh yeah, I heard about

this or someone's injured. No, no one had any clue what this was going on. I thought, this sounds familiar to me. Why does this sound familiar to me? And then I remembered UFC 254 for about 10 minutes, we were promised to fight between Dustiporrier and Tony Ferguson. And then the fight fell apart. And it didn't happen. And once again, could not come to terms on an agreement on a contract. And then magically, Dana White does a press conference and says, there's a million different ways to turn down a fight. Dustoporio just didn't want to fight. There's a million ways to do it. Negotiating your way out of a fight is one way to do it.

And everybody, every single person who knows anything about fighting laughed, shook their heads and scoffed at those comments because if there's one guy who we know does not turn down a fight because he's scared or doesn't want to fight a guy or whatever, it is Dustin freaking Porier. He is as old school as old school gets. We all saw through it. Dana can get away with that with a million other guys. You cannot get away with that with Dustin Poirier.

It's all over again. It's happening again. And it's, I mean, are we sure, by the way? Like, are we sure that Sean O'Malley and Cheetah Vera are actually signed the fight? Like, are we positive about this? Because this happens all the time. It just happened yesterday. Sean Brady of Vicente Lucke was never a done deal.

Now, that was about an injury. Sean Brady was injured coming out of the Calvin Gasland fight. He was not going to be ready by March 30th. The UFC knew this. This has been known for a while now, and they were waiting and waiting and waiting to see maybe he could fight. He can't. He cannot be ready by March 30th.

His situation is not related to money. It's timing. But same thing. Announcements made. Tickets on sale. People are going to see Sean Brady's from Philadelphia. And now he's not fighting any longer. This has been going on forever.

And it drives me insane that these things keep happening. And the problem is that when the UFC makes these announcements, like what are we supposed to do? Like, it's the UFC. There has to be a little bit of trust there, right? Like, they're the promotion. They're putting the fight out. Like, if I'm a Cincinnati Bengals fan,

if the Cincinnati Bengals put out a message saying, we re-signed T. Higgins to a five-year deal, and I'm celebrating as a Bengals fan, and then T. Higgins comes on and says, I didn't sign anything. What are you talking about? Like, I think we'd all be a little disappointed, right? Like, the organization that has the contract should not put out a message saying,

We recite. We've agreed to terms on a five-year deal with T. Higgins, then T. Higgins says, I have no idea what you're talking about. That's a problem. And that's what we're dealing with right here. It's so crazy. They announced, Dana went on and did the screaming into a phone thing. January 10th.

That's when he announced this fight. Tickets went on sale January 12th. Perfect timing, right? Poster comes out the next morning. We're ready for the on sale. And they're expensive. Like, I mean, astronomically expensive. maybe the most expensive tickets I've seen for a UFC pay-per-view event.

It's in Miami, a city where prices are already a little bit higher, but man, this is crazy. So I ask you, Shaheen Al-Shadi, after hearing all this and seeing how Dustin Porre is handling this, Damon brought up the past where Dustin did essentially the same thing. Dana ripped him. We all laughed in Dana's face from a distance, but we all knew what was up. Dustin doing this again. big fight in Miami, which, by the way, American top team, not that far away. So a lot of people are going to be buying tickets to watch Dustin Porier fight.

The disappointment in fans who bought tickets, the disappointment in fans who may or may not see this fight now, ultimately, do you think the UFC comes through and says, Dustin, what do you need? What do we, what do we have to do to make you happy so that you take this fight? In other words, will these two guys be fighting March night at the UFC 299, in my opinion? will cooler heads prevail after all of this. I'll address that in a second, but just quickly, I do want to add to what Damon just said, because we've all been in this space so long at this point that all of these bleed together so much.

We were talking about this before we were recording of, like, I vividly remember those Dana White quotes. I didn't even remember that Porier Ferguson had been booked, and that's what those quotes were linked to because this has happened so many times. Dude, in 2018, this one always sticks in my brain, of it. Dana White comes out, tells Brett Alkamoto, tells ESPN, oh, Jorge Mazvedal, Nick Diaz, Nick Diaz is coming out of retirement. He's going to fight Jorge Mazvedal. It's going to be a big deal, big splashy headline on ESPN. Within 30 minutes, we were able to independently confirm on

MMA fighting. Like, that is super not happening. I don't know where this is coming from. And then it's just a weird situation, right? Like, the figurehead of the promotion is saying one thing, and then the actual people involved are saying another. This has happened so. many different times, but this one just feels particularly egregious, right? Like, you have Gereme Cruz, the Brazilian Beast, beloved teammate on ESS, not he has been, MMA fighting, talking to BSD's, BDS's, BDS's, BSD? BSD. I never

get that right. BSD. His coach essentially saying that BSD woke up to his wife telling him, like, hey, you're fighting Dustin Porier. That's crazy, man. That is a crazy way to do business. Like, sure, if you're that guy, you're just assuming like, yeah, he's going to say yes, so let's just do it. But like, you don't even want to maybe just talk to him first to see if like, hey, maybe he's got a wedding that he's got to go to or maybe he's about to have a kid or maybe there's

just something happening. That's just, again, this feels particularly egregious. Going back to your question, Mike, do I think this, like, how do I think this gets resolved? I mean, I'm of two minds because selfishly, again, I hope it gets resolved. because I really just want to see this fight. I think this fight is a really interesting fight for this division. It kind of solves a lot of weird backlog in this division. I really think BSD is that guy.

I think he could be fighting for the title right now. It's just a matter of getting him there. And I was probably going to pick him to win this fight. And so, like, I'm just interested in him being in that mix. I don't know, though. I don't know that I have faith for the UFC ponying up whatever Dustin Poirier is asking for for this, right? We do not have a a vaunted history of

the UFC meeting fighters on these sort of money demands, especially in a situation where maybe they get embarrassed a little bit, where it feels like that's kind of happening today because this just happened so many times that a lot of people have seen, can see through these type of situations. I don't know that this is going to be one of the situations with the UFC's like, okay, Dustin, like, we see your point.

We'll meet you. where you want us to meet you? This just seems like DSD is going to end up being fighting the number eight ranked guy or the number 10 ranked guy or something on this card. And that's just how we're going to leave it. I hope not. I really hope not because, again, I love this fight, but I don't have high hopes. Damon, what do you think?

Because this is a contract year. This is how we've sort of referenced then. You've done a great job talking about TV deals and the business aspect of the UFC and the sport. and, you know, the TV deal isn't officially up, but we know that ESPN is going to come with, like, a really good offer at some point at the end of the year, and they're going to start shopping around. We're going to start to see the value of this product. And we already know it's super high, and you know the UFC wants to put their best foot forward.

So when they first announced this fight in the Oliver Serukian fight, we're like, okay, this is a contract year. They're doing the thing. We're starting to see some new stuff. Like fans are getting what they want. It's not just the same old heads over and over again. Does that factor into this at all? Or do you feel like, nope, they're just not going to give Dustin what they want.

Dana's going to show up the next press conference. The next chance he gets a microphone in his face, he's going to dump all over Porier, and it's going to be the Ferguson thing all over it. It feels eerily familiar to the Ferguson situation, and that's why I kind of lean what Shaheen said, where as much as I think this is a great fight, and I loved it when it got announced, because Dustin's coming off a loss to Justin Gaichy, so he's not going to sniff a title shot right away or probably anytime really soon. And Benoit Saint-Dini, I think we all have kind of pegged as like a future superstar or

future star in this division. His performances have been incredible. Five-fight win streak, finishes, left, right, and center, just incredible performances. I love to match up. I love to fight. But when you throw egg in the UFC's face, it almost feels like they want to throw it right back at you. And so I get similar vibes to that Tony Ferguson situation. And a couple of things I want to throw out there. You mentioned the TV deal. Like, a couple things I want to mention. real quick. When I did research for this article, right after this whole situation, I had with Tony Ferguson, Dustin ends up signing an eight-fight deal with the UFC. He announced an eight-fight deal, and technically he's five fights into that deal right now. The Justin Gachie fight was number five. So

technically he has three fights left on his deal. Now, I had some people say, well, he's under contract. Why, you know, how can he dispute that? He does have a contract. That's true. He does have a contract. But when you're a star of Dustin-Pourier's magnitude, Justin Gage's, Connor McGregor, of course, but like, you know, certain guys, you're always on a one-fight contract, meaning your next fight, if they want you to do something, you can renegotiate. That is standard practice at this level of the game. I think we all understand that and know that. So do I think that the business of the UFC is going to change based on giving us a fight we really want?

No, and here's why, in this particular card, for instance, I was looking at this card just now before he went on to do this podcast. Sean O'Malley, Cheetahe-Veer at the top of this card. Big fight, Bantamway title fight, Sean O'Malley, bit of a star, going to get a pretty hefty payday. You got Michael Venn and Page making his debut on this card. We've got to imagine he's making at least a somewhat decent paycheck. He's not getting paid penis.

And we know Kevin Holland, based on taking the Hamzaa Chimaa fight on short notice, he's under a new contract and I'm quite sure he's not getting paid peanuts. Gilbert Burns, established star. He got to imagine he's making somewhere, six figures, ish of that era. Jack Del and Madelena, probably not on that level quite yet. Peter Yan, probably in that level, probably making six figures somewhere around there. Song you dong, probably not.

Curtis Blades, established star, good heavyweight, probably around that range. And again, I imagine Jailton Almeida is probably around that range as well. When I get in the dollar and sense of this, they're stacking this card. I don't think they're going to go out of their way to give Dustin what he wants. I think we're going to get a Dana White press conference quote sometime soon of him saying you negotiate your way out of a fight. That's the way you turn down a fight is by negotiating your way out of it. That's just how I feel it's going to go.

And I think a part of it is because of what they've already invested in this card. As far as the TV deals and stuff like that goes, I mean, I hate pointing this out. And this is me going to be just the truce sayer here. And no one's going to like hearing this. somebody who was talking the other day on Twitter about, man, they're not giving us the fights we want to see or they're not, you know, they were talking about UFC 300. Like, it's kind of disappointing or whatever. And I said, I disagree, but they're like, they're just not in the business of giving us the fights we want. And it's going to hurt them.

The fans are getting fed up with it, something to that effect. And I said, you couldn't be more wrong because I see the financials. I do the financial reporting for MMA fighting. The UFC's never been more successful. They're producing higher revenues right now than they've ever produced. Ever since the pandemic, the UFC has produced insane monster revenue. Sellouts across the board. Big pay-per-view sales.

A TV contract coming up that people are estimated is going to be at least double what their last contract was. So for all the complaints about, well, we don't have this star. We're not getting this fight. We're not getting this fight. We're not getting that matchup. Connor hasn't been around for three years. John Jones wasn't around for a long time. Blah, blah, blah.

the UFC has never been more successful doing what they're doing right now. So as much as it may sting to hear this, to see this and hear this, I don't think they're going to bend over to make things happen because the fans of right now of the UFC have proven, they'll continue to buy the tickets, to buy the merch, to watch the programming, even if you're giving us, sorry guys, Roman Delizze and Nasredine M ofov as a main event. that's just where we're at right now. So that's why I don't know that they're going to bend over backwards to pay Dustin Poirier. Saving and investing well is an art and a science.

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That's B-E-T-E-R-M-E-N-T dot com. Investing involves risk, performance not guaranteed. Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Cadulian 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. Shaheen just dropped a very interesting screenshot into our Slack channel. And I have no words.

I don't even know what to say about all of this, but we're wondering how Dana White was going to react to all of this. And, well, he has reacted in just the strangest way, possible. Shaheen, what the hell is going on here? What's, what is this from his story? Calling out Guillermo Cruz, go eff yourself scumbag, and then putting out like a screenshot of text messages that he had with Benoit Santini.

It doesn't change the fact that Guillermo talked to Benoit Santini's coach and his coach said those freaking words. How is this Guillermo? How is this the first response from Dana White? Through all of this, was that? a screenshot and then telling Garme Cruz to go fuck himself. So you frame that.

So one thing, I highly doubt this is Dana's text message. It feels more like a Hunter Campbell text message just because I feel like I don't know that Dana texts quite like this. I would expect poorer grammar. I don't know how

to be nice with this, but I don't think this is Dana White's text. I feel like this is a Hunter Campbell text. Uh, number two, seems very odd to call out Giermei when the whole situation revolves around Dustin, not having a contract signed for a fight you've been marketing. It feels a little deflection-y,

uh, a little, hey, look at this shiny thing over here while we try to figure out the rest of this. Very strange. Very data. Very much Dana. That is,

that is the most Dana reaction possible to this. Uh, Man loves to say the word scumbay. I'll say that. This is incredible stuff, Daman. I mean, this is my actual surprise face. What I saw. I mean, I looked at it for a second, but if you really want to see my surprise face,

that this is what Dana used to react to all this, here it is. It's me doing nothing. I mean, this is, it's not, it's not, sorry to cut it, but it's like, not like Gierme made this up. Like, Ben Wastainee's coach told him this on video. What do we? What are you in? So unbelievable.

Like this is the, this is one of the worst reactions ever. But also there's like not even the side of the problem. Like that's a Benoit side. Like we're all talking about a dust inside. The fact that this is happening live is tremendous too. Oh my God. That's so, Dana. Can we see the text messages between you and Dana and Dustipore now, Dana?

Can we see that? Is that possible? Give me that. That's what I'm looking for. Let's see that. Because I think that's a problem. probably a different conversation, I'm guessing. I don't know. Maybe I'm shocked. Yeah, it's, this is, of all the things to respond to that- What did he say that wasn't factual?

Like, what did gear may say that wasn't factual? All he tweeted was like, this has happened twice now in the past couple days, which is true, objectively true. And then he tweeted a video of Benoit's coach saying, like, we had no idea and he woke up to find out about this. Like, what are we arguing? What is the, it's so strange, dude. It's so weird. this might be the weirdest day and a reaction of all time Damon this is this is up there and just like what like this is where you're shooting the the venom right now really what of all the this is so silly of all the people you're going to take aim at in this situation this seems like the weirdest one to take aim at like of all the things to get mad at and also as we've all said that this isn't

giareme saying this this has been waz saying denise coach saying this if you want to say f you scumbag why not aiming at his coach even then it would still be bizarre, but that is just utterly bizarre. I don't understand it. And I have, you know, it is what it is. Like I said, it's just, you know, you kind of roll your eyes and, you know, just kind of, you know, that's the, you know, it's the nature of the beast when things like this happened. But of all the reactions you could have to Dustin Poirier saying, I couldn't come to contractual terms and this fight is not happening. And your reactions to yell at a reporter who just showed the coach with the other guy saying, we had no idea it was happening either.

that is 100% pure peak Dana. I don't know a better way to say that. I put out a similar tweet a little bit ago. I'm sure I'm probably going to get something nasty said to me too that I said that this happens all the time. And this is standard fair that the UFC announces fights that aren't signed. I mean, this is, we all know that. We all understand.

That's part of doing business. I get it. Like verbal agreements are in place. I've done a million articles. We've all done a million articles where sources tell us fights are done. verbal agreements are in place. And I would say 95% of the time those fights end up happening. You know, it's pretty standard.

But when the UFC, the organization comes out and says it, you would have to assume that they at least have some pretty good idea that it's happening. And as I said, not to go back to my earlier analogy, but if this happened in any other sport, people would lose their freaking minds. Like people would lose their minds if they said, yeah, we've signed, you know, we've signed a player to an exclusive. We've agreed to terms of a contract with a player, and the player has no idea what you're talking about,

or whatever the case would be. We're moving a team to a different city, and the city's like, what are you talking about? We haven't agreed to move to a team. That's what I'm talking about. This doesn't happen. This doesn't happen in other sports. And so it's utterly bizarre.

And as I said earlier, if you're going to trust anyone reporting a fight, you would assume the promotion would be the most of, trustworthy, right? Like, that's, they're selling tickets. They're selling, they're getting people to tune into their programming based upon the fights they're booking. They should be the most trustworthy. Yet we've learned time and time again. That's just not the case. I just, I just can't get over this Dana thing. Like, there was no editorializing from Geat. It was only, hey, this is two fight, two days in a row now where this has happened. And then this video of this coach, like,

there was no editorializing. Why you got to tell Guy to go F himself? He's such a nice man. I mean, it's the Brazilian beast just in like, it's ironic. It's an ironic nickname. He's like the Brazilian nice guy. Like, he's the nicest man in the world. And I'll tell you, I'll tell you the thing I took away from this thing the most. I came into this maybe being the more positive of the three of us that this fight will in fact happen at UFC 299. I was like 63%. Like, I still think it's going to happen. Want to know what this screenshot has bumped me up to? 97% this fight happens because stubborn ass,

Austin Dana is going to come out and he's going to make sure this fight happens, not because the fans want to see it, not because he's making Dustin Porey happy or Ben Wasantini happy, but to stick it to Guillermo, Cruz, and the scumbag media. If we tell you something, it's true. Don't let these guys tell you otherwise. He is going to use this to take a shot at the media like he's been doing for the last since the freaking pandemic.

Now I'm confident this fight's happening at UFC 299. This has convinced me that we're going to see it. So it's weird. It's a weird way to get there. But I feel very confident we're going to see this fight. I'm with you. I've come all the way around. I've come full circle.

No one loves spiting people in particular spiting the media. No one loves spiting the media more than Dana White. This fight is 100% going to get done now. despite the media. Despite Guillermo Cruz, we will get to see an awesome, awesome fight that I cannot wait to watch. Thank you, Guillermo. Yes, thank you. That's, and that is the reaction. Anybody listen to this right now. Don't, don't take the Dana White Road right now, where it's, where it's F, Gierme Cruz. It's thank you, Gierme, because without this reaction from Dana, I don't know if we get this fight. I told you, I was at 63. Now I'm at like 97%. Dana,

David, does this make you feel any better now? Oh, it does. Like I said, I was on the complete other end of the spectrum before this just because I was like Dana, Dana is, Dana loves to spite people. My version before was he's going to spite Dustoporri for making this a public situation and kind of put an egg on the face of the UFC. Now it's gone all the way around to where he's going to spite Guillermo Cruz of all people and give, and give Dustopore an extra like 300 grand on top of his contract or whatever,

just to spite the media. That's where we're going with this. And now, yeah, I'm all the way around now, complete 180 from where I was 15 minutes ago to where I think we're probably going to see this fight happen at USC 299 for no other reason than because Dana White wants to say, F you to the media.

You're absolutely right. And so, man, I can't wait for Pore and St. Denis at UFC 299. What a great fight this is going to be. That is 4,000% what's going to happen now. And this is the most MMA four-hour span potentially in years. Like when I speak to other friends of mine who are media members who cover basketball or football or whatever. And I try to articulate to them like how weird and wild westy and like just kind of on the seat of your pants off the rails this gig actually is. Like I can never really like convey it to them fully.

Everything about the past four hours and the cycle we've gone through and ultimately where we end up where, again, I bet this fight is totally going to happen now because of Gareme Cruz and, you know, Dustin Poye should give Girmay a little bit off the top from that, just a little commission. This is the most MMA thing I've seen in a while. I love it. I love it so much. Dustin Porey is going to make so much more money and they're going to put a fake belt on the line. Like, they're going to jazz this thing up like never before. I'm just, this is unbelievable stuff. Thank you, Guillermo.

Thank you for making this all possible. But, yeah, I mean, I don't even know what to think. Like, I don't even know what to headline this reaction anymore because, like, reaction pod. Emergency reaction. Thank you, Guillermo. Here's why. I'm very confident this fight happens. So if you bought tickets, hopefully.

it's going to be worth your while. This fight is going to go down in Miami, and this just adds to the weirdness of 2024. And this is just the first day of February. Like, this is a whole different start to the MMA calendar year compared to last year, but it's still incredibly strange and weird. What a world, Damon.

Can you remember a time like this in all your years covering the sport? I mean, every year something weird like this happens. I mean, you know, I like to pretend this is something new, but really, like I said, it just happened two years ago when Dustin Porte was fighting Tony Ferguson. So, you know, no, I'm not surprised. This is nothing new. This is just, what is it Thursday?

Oh, it must be a Thursday, because that's how often this happens. True or false. Last thing. Will we get a major UFC 300 announcement to kind of, like, wash this off, Shahim? Do you feel like Dana will come out and make a big announcement to maybe wash some of the smell out of all this? Maybe. I mean, I'm sorry, I'm having a hard time focusing right now.

Will we get a UFC 300 announcement? Will we get some big announcement to balance this all out in some way? I'll tell you what the announcement's going to be. The scumbag media was wrong. Don't listen to the scumbag media. Dustin Porriere versus BSD is on. The media got it all wrong. Even though literally it was Dustin the entire time.

tall is telling everybody was off that's how this is going to work and then people are going to pile on and you know the cycle's going to begin a new oh man david what do you think is going to happen yeah i think it's pretty i think i think i think she's right on the money there this is going to be big announcement dustipore ben wazainty dundle for yosc two in it 299 you guys were all wrong there was nothing wrong with this fight it was always happening uh you know scumbag media you guys report stuff that you don't know you don't know nothing about this business You don't know anything about this business. This fight was never in jeopardy, even though Dusta Porre told everyone it was off. It was never in jeopardy. But it was good to go. You scumbag media. I guarantee that's going to be the message. The first seven round schedule fight, like, this is going to be a historic matchup once it's made official.

I don't even know what else we could say about this. They're going to book this fight. and then they're going to book the rematch of this fight for the following week just to be like, oh, see, they were so wrong. This fight's happening twice. We did this just for you fans. Yeah, it's, we told you the opening fight of UFC 300 is going to be crazy. And now you get Dusted Porre, Benoit Sontini 2 to open up UFC 300 to get their early MFers.

Forget the scumbag media. Well, this is friggin insane. Well, there's, I'm sure something else weird's going to happen. sure this isn't going to be the last time you hear from us on this Thursday, February 1st, 2024. But if something else weird happens, we will let you know about it and we will react to it. So for Damon, for Shaheen, I am Mike Heck. Dustin Pori, you're my hero. And thank you for listening. And thank you, Guillermo Cruz, for making this all possible. Hey, guys. Mike Heck here back with you on this Thursday, February 1st, 2024. And as I just

tweeted out moments ago as we're back on with the microphones in front of us. In a day that started where there was very little to talk about, this has become one of the funniest days I can remember covering the sport and mixed martial arts. Because literally, moments after this podcast was pushed live, we pulled it back five seconds later because Dustin Porreier, as we predicted, didn't think it would be this quickly, jumps on social media. and says, quote, sorry folks, I jumped the gun. I couldn't get a hold of my manager for a few days.

I just spoke with him and Hunter. Misunderstanding on my part. Fight is on. See you March 9th, Miami. Shaheen and Damon are back with me because I can't do this alone. We have to close the circle, Shaheen. We were very confident that this was going to take place and that this was going to be a spiteful move.

And this is just probably the beginning of things because I would assume that Dustin got a little bit of a bump here. I don't know for sure, but I would assume that Dustin probably got a little bit more, and we assumed that this would happen. So moments after we had this epic reaction to everything that happened, to everything Dana put out on social media on his Instagram stories, all the BS spewed our spewed Gear Mae Cruz's direction.

Dustin Porriott immediately comes out and says, Sorry, guys, misspoke, misunderstanding, fights on. What is your reaction to this? Like, this all happened in a matter of five, like less than five hours. This whole journey we have taken the people on is now closed? What? Already? This is it.

Good for Dustin, man. Good for Dustin. I'm stoked that Dustin got what he wanted. Because there was something that wasn't there for Dustin this morning and now it is there. right now. We called it, my guys, we called it. This was the most predictable thing ever. Like, I tweeted that among a sea of MMA media days, this is one of the most MMA days ever. And it truly is. You saw the real roller coaster that this industry is, I, everything about this is impossibly dumb. I'm not really sure how a few of these steps ended up happening. Somehow

our good buddy, Gearmei Cruz was framed as if he broke the story of Dustin being out, despite Dustin, tweeting that he was out, and then telling other people, including ESPN, that he was out. And somehow that's Guillermo's fault. And I don't know if people just think

the video of Benoit Saint Denis coach is like a deep fake or something. Because again, there wasn't a lot of editorializing there. It was just a simple video. But ultimately waited up at a cool place where this very awesome fight is still happening and Dustin if I can say it in so many words

got what he want from this he got what he needed from this I sure hope so Damon you've been in the fire with us this whole time you're the one that was asking all the questions nobody knew what the hell was happening and in a matter of minutes after we reacted to this we have gotten a conclusion Dustin Porre back in

misunderstanding your thoughts your reaction I've been covering the sport for 20 years. I'm old. I'm old. This has to be one of the top 10 dumbest days that I've ever covered in the sports.

Yeah, I mean, we called this and we joked. Like, we weren't joking, but we were kind of having fun with it saying that, like, Dana's going to make sure this happens out of spite. I don't know if that's ultimately what sealed the deal. I can tell you, I did confirm this independently that this isn't just like Dustin tweeting it out,

like there actually is a deal. deal in place. The fight is happening. And from what I understand, based on Dustin's original message to ESPN, our colleague Ariel Hawani, that we couldn't come to terms. From my understanding, Dustin Porreier came to terms. Take that for what you will. But I would imagine that means he's going to get an extra zero or two in his bank account.

What a dumb, dumb day. Read between the lines, y'all. Read between the lines of what happened today. what a remarkably dumb thing like it is just so like everything like everything that unfolded the last three hours like Dustin saying he didn't come to terms again not to rehash what he already said like that we've seen this before with him with Tony Ferguson we've seen this exact situation play out before now that one didn't get done and Dustin kind of got thrown under the bus that somehow he negotiated his way out of a bike what I'm quote this one turned into gear may didn't tweet enough you know if Gary May wouldn't tweet enough you know if Gary May would have tweeted a lot back then. Maybe it would have gotten done. Guillermo Cruz tweets a message from Benoit St. Denise's coach, not him, his coach, and somehow it's his fault. And now the fight is back on again. This is one of the top ten dumbest days having been around this sport. And I've seen some dumb stuff in this sport.

I covered the Yama fights, people fighting in a bowl, okay? I covered that event. Okay. This is right on par with like the dumbest things I've seen. in the sport. I'm so glad that both of you are saying this. I'm so glad that we're all right that we called this. And it happened in historically record time. And here's the last thing I'll say about this to wrap this pot in a nice little pretty bow. As we mentioned before we cut to this next segment with the fight being back on,

I'm reminded of what we said earlier. Hashtag thank you, Ghee. Because apparently he's the guy who got this done. He gets it done. So don't listen to Dana. Don't listen to the minions who work with the company. Don't listen to anybody. You go on Twitter right now.

You find Guillermo Cruz. You don't give him crap. You thank him. Publicly thank him for making this happen. Because had Dana White not found a target to go after on social media, I could assure you this wouldn't have happened as quickly as it did. So good for you, Dustin Porier. You brilliant, brilliant, brilliance, man.

You went public. you understand the business. Veterans Savvy, as Shaheen said earlier and one of our several reactions to all this insanely ridiculous stuff that has happened today. Good on you, Dustin Porreier.

What a day. I'm so glad that it's over. He played it perfectly. He said he absolutely did. Wow. Any final thoughts, gentlemen, before we say goodbye. I just want to congratulate

Garame Cruz for being a real journalist. He's a absolutely top-notch journalist. He actually is a journalist. a journalism background. He didn't graduate from Playboy You. I want to give him credit for that. So great job, Guillermo. You did your job, buddy. Shaheen,

try topping that. Gee. Driveby's Only an M.A. would this happen? There is literally no other sport in the world where this would happen. This is the most MMA story that I have seen

in a long time. And I'm just glad we got to a nice conclusion. That's all. Yes. I really hope this is the last time we have to edit this podcast. But thank you all very much for sticking with us through this journey, this multifaceted journey. And stick with us at Mayfiting.com because I have a feeling we might see some more news dropping

in the next day or two to get everybody's minds off what has transpired on one of the weirdest days of the modern UFC era to say the least. So for Shaheen, for Damon, I am Mike Keck one more time and hopefully the last time for this podcast. Good night, everybody.