MMA Fighting - Fighter vs. Writer: Matt Brown Reacts to Conor McGregor’s Injury, Plans to Return for Final UFC Fight

Episode Date: July 14, 2026

On the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer, UFC legend Matt Brown and Damon Martin react to Conor McGregor’s disappointing comeback, the injury he suffered on Saturday night and his latest statement revealing plans to return for one last UFC fight to get out of his contract. Plus we talk about Paddy Pimblett’s ascension as the newest superstar in the UFC and Gable Steveson’s debut at UFC 329. All this and more on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer! Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome back to the fighter versus the writer. I'm Damon Martin. He is UFC legend Matt Brown. And Matt, we are officially living in a post-UFC 329 world where I guess technically you were proven wrong. Connor did make the walk and he stepped into the octagon. I was going to say the opposite. I was kind of proven right.

He didn't fight. He didn't fight. No, he didn't fight. Obviously, we got a lot of talk about today, of course. Connor blew out his knee. He did put out a statement this morning, which I'm glad timing wise we're able to talk about. He said, you know, surgery, rehab, get back to martial arts training, final fight at my contract. And pretty clear, we'll get into the nuts and bolts of what that means for the future.

But I got asked, like initial impressions, man, after all this, all five years away, the fall start against Michael Chandler, coming back, fighting Max Holloway, going all fight week long, everything. And then it all ends like that. Yeah, kind of amazing, amazing, man. It was, you know, it was lightning in a bottle when he came around in, what, 14 or 15, 16, era and you know kind of changed the world and it's just he's not been able to get back on track since man i don't know if maybe fame ruins people or the money or the his choices in life or whatever but boy what a rough road it's been his last five six years in terms of fighting i mean it's you know we call it a rough road but he's also like sitting on his yacht you know join life right

it's like okay well you know it could be worse yeah What do you make? Because I know a lot of people have asked, like, because, you know, Connor, like, throughout his career, like, not saying Connor never throws kicks. But Connor's obviously well known for boxing. Like, he's got fast hands. It's always his biggest weapon. But to come out and throw that spinning roundhouse out right out of the gate, jumping roundhouse kick. And we saw him practicing the end in the back.

Clearly, that was his plan to go out there and do that on minute one. That was his first movie. Planned in the back. Which, by the, I mean, we can play conspiracy theory. But, like, I've seen enough video and heard from enough people saying, like, he wasn't injured. I mean, listen, when you can see the video, his knee popped. Like, I don't think he faked that. Like, I don't think he went in there like an injury.

Like, you could literally see the video his knee popping. I mean, freak occurrence or is this just like, I know Sean Strickland said this on Twitter. He was like, I'm not calling, I'm not saying this is what it is. He's like, I do know guys who've used steroids for a lot of years. Their body kind of falls apart. I don't want to put those accusations out there. I'm just saying, like, is this just a freak occurrence or is this just a culmination of like, just, you know, Conner's body just not being what it once was?

Yeah, well, certainly the steroids could play a role. I think that's absolutely a legitimate argument. You know, the fact is it does affect your tendons more than anything, right? Like that's the biggest issue with steroids. You know, and also, you know, with his other injuries, cortisone shots, the non-anabolic steroids, right? Just the not, how do they call it? Anti-inflammatory.

non-steroidal or whatever but yeah but it's a you know that that could play a role um but honestly i think more than anything like the the reason that that happened is uh you know i think connor was nervous i thought max said it perfect i think he was weak in the knees like he was nervous um you know he i don't think he looked a hundred percent himself a lot of people have talked about that you know i don't i'm not one to judge body language uh too much because i've i've i've done made that mistake many times where you judge a body language and then they they perform great right so you know i don't think that's necessarily the best way to look at it but um but but look he had he's always been a man of very very high confidence right and he lived up to that to what he always said he was going to do

for so long a lot of that confidence has been taken away from him so he's sitting here saying all the right things he's pumping himself up making him you know feeling great walking into the fight, but somewhere deep inside, he knew that there's not, there's not evidence to back up all these things that he's saying, right? He said, you know, I can beat everybody. I can, you know, I'm this, I'm that. And it's like, well, you haven't won a fight in five years. You've been on the yacht drinking and your last fight, you know, you tore your shin and you were losing anyway. And you know what I mean? So there's like all of these things are contradictory to what he's telling himself.

So that just increases, you know, the nervousness, right? And, you know, he might have even been feeling good, but I think deep inside he was actually nervous. And Max said he got his knees weak and, you know, wasn't ready. You know, this is exactly why boxers do warm up fights, tune up fights. This is exactly why you work your way up the rankings and, you know, why you fight guys at the level. you know, this is why you don't go fight Max Holloway after five years.

Yeah, I agree. And I don't want to like, I mean, I can't help but wonder like, listen, we've seen freak knee injuries happen before. We've seen guys just take a misstep in their knee goes out. Like, it doesn't take much. But when you have that broken leg, you know, and on the other side, I've said, I said this a dozen times over the years. I said that might be the worst injury ever to come back from.

And when you think about all the guys who've gone through it, especially Anderson, Sylva and Chris Wybin. And you say, oh, yeah, they're older. Well, so is Connor. Connor's turning 38 this week, I think tomorrow. So it's like he's a spring chicken. He's only he's 22 years old. He's 38 years old.

No one has ever come back the same for that injury. Anderson certainly didn't. Chris Wyman certainly didn't. And you wonder, like, because there is like your body kind of overcompensates. Like your body works so hard to heal that one injury, maybe the other leg was just not as stable. It was not as strong. But let's just say for hypothetical's sake, it was just a, a freak occurrence, you know what I mean?

But how does that not just absolutely crush whatever confidence you had left? Because to throw a kick like that and, you know, maybe you want to go out there and have that, like, you know, Mazvedal, Ben Askeran moment. You want to throw a big kick and try to knock him out with the first kick. I get it. But when that doesn't happen and you go down immediately and the, and I know, and to his credit, Max is like, O'Connor's like, fight, don't stop. Like, you want to keep going. Okay, cool.

But how does that not like just shatter whatever confidence you had left because you're sitting there like in your head? You tell yourself, I'm ready, I'm good, I'm ready, I'm good. First move, you literally blow out your knee. Maybe it was just a freak-occurrant. It had nothing to do with the other injury, nothing. But still, how does that not rattle you going forward? You know what I mean? Absolutely.

I just went into, like, the broken leg is really a freak occurrence. Like, that is a totally freak occurrence. There's no way to plan for that. But your first kick in your first fight in five years and you blow out your knee, how does that not just, like, destroy whatever confidence you had left? Yeah, yeah. And look, Conner's very strong mentally, mentally strong person. I think, you know, he'll probably be okay.

He'll be able to come back and fight. He just, you can't, it's not a good idea to come back and fight a guy at the, you know, a world championship level. Like, you got to get a tuna fight. That's exactly why they do this stuff. And, you know, who knows what kind of role the steroids have played. Because, you know, when you're on that stuff, like, you know, you might be feeling like you're a king of the world and everything's feeling like you're a freaking God and all this.

then you come off at stuff who knows you know i don't know what kind of role that plays to be honest because i don't know all the details of his usage or or uh you know how he came off and all those things so you know there's a lot of there's so much shit that we don't know you know we're all speculating on all these things and that's why i just go back to look like he was probably just very nervous you know and he didn't show it a ton i mean you know it's connor mcgregor he's one of the best showmen in history so you know he's not going to go in looking fucking nervous. Like that's that would be stupid of them too right. But deep inside man, the motherfucker was nervous and I'll say it again man. Max said it. He was weak in the knees.

And I think that was exactly the case. And you know, he had to plan to come out with that kick. He went for it. And all this with all this said like all respect to Connor, look, he he does shoot for the stars, right? He goes for the biggest bag that he can get, right? He chose Max Holloway. like good for him like that's a fucking commendable thing to do um it didn't work out so you know what what are you going to do now are you going to come back and maybe do a proper tune-up fight which it's hard to imagine the UFC doing with one fight left on the contract you know depending if he resigns or not and you know there's obviously like a lot of um i guess business details that would go into something like that but like he comes back he needs he needs to do a

tune-up fight. Like, he needs to get time in the octagon, you know, skin in the game and feel what it feels like to be back in there again. We, we don't, here's what I love about the timing when we're recording, because we don't have to speculate too much because Connor already said on Instagram today, surgery, rehab, back to martial arts training, final fight of contract, final fight of my contract. So, like, I'm not going to be of the mind now to say, like, because if you asked me this 48 hours ago, I said, Connor's done.

Like, dude, he should just walk away and be done. Like, there's no reason to do this again. again, maybe your body's just not the same as it once was. I understand it's a freak occur. Maybe it really is just a freak occurrence, but still, how could you not think this is just like the universe telling me to stop fighting? But now 48 hours later, like he has that statement out there. And in my mind, like, I really do believe Connor wants and Connor will fight again because

he said very clearly final fight of my contract. He wants out of his UFC contract so he can go, you know, rematch Floyd Mayweather. Maybe he fights Jake Paul and MMA and makes a bow. boatload of money on Netflix and trust me they will pay to get a Connor McGregor fight on Netflix. So I think he's going to fight again. Now will it be a year, year and a half or not? Probably. I mean it's an ACL. He came back, when he had his ACL injury against Max Holloway, I did to math

yesterday. It was 11 months. He was out for 11 months, came back and had a fight. Probably longer now because he's 38 years old. I doubt he's going to bounce back that quickly. So let's just say December next year. He comes back and has his final UFC fight. It's pretty clear Connor wants out. of the UFC. He wants to make the lion's share of the province, whether he does BKFC or he does a

Jake Paul fight or something like that. He wants that. So I'm now saying Connor's going to fight again. Is it a good idea? Is it his best plan? Probably not. But he's going to fight again. Here's my question, Matt. If Connor does come back and the UFC knows he's not resigning, they're not going to do a new deal. They're going to do one last fight. By the way, if I'm the UFC, I don't know they really hate that idea. I know you're going to miss out on a big payday. But like, Like, after what happened on Saturday, people paying $30,000 for a ticket, the fight's over in 60 seconds or whatever. I don't know that, like, I would have a lot of faith in Connor moving forward. But if you're the UFC, of course you promote it.

It's Connor. He's going to, even if it's one last big payday, you're going to get one last big payday. But why would they do them any favors? You know what I mean? Like, why are they going to give him a warm up fight? Like, Carlos Prachis was on Instagram yesterday, like, mocking him because they wanted to fight. They originally wanted to fight Carlos Prachis. I'm like, good God.

You think Max Holloway is dangerous at 170. Imagine fighting that freaking dude at 170. I don't, like, if I'm a UFC, they're not going to do it. Like, they're not going to give him a warm-up fight. They're not going to give him a tune-up. They're going to give him Carlos Proches or some monster. And they're, like, if you're, why would the UFC do him any favors? Yeah, I mean, looking back, I mean, that's probably why I didn't end up fighting Michael Chandler, right?

Because, you know, that's a very winnable fight for him, right? That's probably one of the better matchups out there for. Yeah, what a situation the UFC's got to deal with now, right? Because they kind of need him to lose, I guess, right? Like, you know, if he's not going to resign, they're like, okay, we'll go out on a loss. Like, we're going to put you in with a lion. But at the same time, they need to make it a proper matchup too, right? Like, it's obvious if they give him, you know, Islam or, you know, which they wouldn't, right?

but you know like a Carlos protest like it you know it kind of brings out the obvious like okay we want you to lose this fight so that you are devalued on your way out um and i don't think that's a good look for the ufc right like that that's not do they care whether it's a good look i don't know but you know is that really a good look for them like just you know putting it out there like that so but it you know to be fair again like this is the ufc like it's you're supposed to be fighting the old fucking lions man and you know it doesn't always work out of out that way, right, when you're on your way up, like guys like, like Stevenson over the weekend. I mean, he didn't, you know, he didn't fight the toughest guy out there, right?

So, you know, it's kind of a predicament. And, you know, it's going to be really interesting to follow how all this plays out, you know, assuming that Connor does come back. I mean, that's the thing. He really doesn't have to come back either, right? I think he's totally fine financially and could chill on his yacht for the rest of his life. but it sounds like he wants to. And, you know, so I think that's going to be a real interesting,

there'd be a lot of drama behind the scenes there, I would think. Yeah, I imagine there will be. I mean, I get what you're saying. Like, you know, if you're the UFC, do you want to take the public hit of, like, you're matching Connor up against an absolute savage. But at the same time, I mean, Max Holloway wasn't like an easy fight. Like, there was a reason Max Holloway was like a four-to-one favor going into fight week. And, you know, the odds came down because people bet Connor is the underdog.

I get it, but, like, they didn't give him an easy fight this. I'm the only difference with, the only real difference with this fight was Max was coming up to 170. You know, Conner's insisting of being 170. Like, they could do, like, if Islam beats Ian Machado Gary next month, which I'm going to predict him to do, maybe you do the Ireland versus Ireland, you know, and Ian Gary is, Ian Gary is not known as, like, the most dangerous guy in the world. Like, he's not, you know, known as a huge knockout striker. You could do an Ireland versus Ireland storyline, maybe do that.

But if you're the UFC, like I said, why would you do him any favors? Like, if he's being clear, like, I'm gone. Like, I'm going to go sign with Netflix and make, you know, 20 million to fight Jake Paul in MMA or whatever. Or I'm going to fight Nate Diaz. They could do the Nate Diaz trilogy on Netflix. Nate's still a free agent. That would still sell like it or not at would. Absolutely, yeah.

So why would you, why would the UFC give him a fight to like, you're like, ooh, I think he's going to win? Agreed, yeah. You know, the other option is, you know, the UFC and Dana, like, they're pretty smart with this shit, right? They know what they're doing. You know, I wouldn't put it past Dana to, like, partner up with them, too. Look, we'll give you the proper fight on the way out. But your fight's going forward, we're going to work together on. It's not going to be just you, right?

Maybe they put them in Zufa boxing. Yeah, I don't know. But, I mean, with one fight, I mean, the fact that Connor said that today, final fight in my contract, it's pretty clear he wants out. Like, it's pretty clear, like, he wants to be dumbed to you. And I get it. Like, no matter how, unless the UFC really up the offer, which I don't think they did in terms of like paying a ridiculous amount of money, like boxing money. Yeah, he'll probably make more money to go find on Netflix against Nate Diaz because he's going to be like a co-promoter and they're going to put the lion's share of the profit in those two guys' hands and that's going to be it. And will we watch, absolutely will still watch.

I mean, we watch Bronner Rousey versus Gina Krono. We're going to watch Connor versus Nate Diaz. but if I'm in the UFC and it was funny I don't know if you probably didn't watch the post-by press conference but at one point somebody asked Dana about the Connor McGregor era how much he's meant to the sport

and he didn't downplay it but he's like we've had these errors before we had the Chuck Liddell era we had the Ronda Rousey era so he didn't just like sit there and praise Connor because I think he knows they got one probably one fight left with Connor and he's going to be gone no matter what now the viability like it or not

if Connor goes out there in his final fight year and a half from now and he fights and Carlos Prozzi is it gets absolutely mauled and destroyed. Does his viability as a superstar go down a little bit? Sure. But, I mean, Floyd Mayweather still sells tickets and gets people to watch him fight freaking John Gotti the 4th or whatever the hell fights he's doing these days. We saw, you know, Logan Paul fight Floyd Mayweather.

We saw, you know, I mean, people will watch freak shows, you know what I mean? So, like, I think Connor's still going to be viable. But, like, if I'm the UFC, why would they give him Michael Chandler? Why would they even give him Max Holliday? Right. give me a, like, send him out. If he's adamant about being gone, I'm going to go make a patio with Jake Paul.

All right, well, here's Carlos Prachas. Have a good time with that. Yeah, the interesting thing is, you know, if Conard loses on his way out, especially badly loss, loses badly. You know, does he kind of do, you know, these other fights? He's probably looked at more as like an influencer,

boxer or fighter at that point, versus, like, you know, we want to watch him because he's such an amazing fighter. And, you know, there's a big difference there, right? Like, people still want to watch Floyd because he's an amazing fighter, right? And we know he's not fighting anybody great, but we're like, bro, like, we're going to watch you tool this guy. Like, we don't expect anybody to have a chance against him.

Whereas, you know, we watch Jake Paul because, you know, he's an influencer, right? Or, you know, like, it's just a different vibe that you're watching. And, you know, that's kind of what I think would happen with Connor if he were to lose on the way out. Like just the vibe would be different. We'd all watch it the same, but the whole why we'd be watching would be different. Yeah. I know you were very adamant for a very long time

saying Connor's never going to fight again. And I kind of came around that way of thinking and then Saturday 90 steps in the ring and you're like, well, officially proven wrong and then 10 seconds later it was a much different prediction. But I think I can safely say I think Connor's going to try to fight again. Now maybe

he comes back and his leg just doesn't recover and he can't. Now, he certainly I don't wish that upon anybody, by the way. I don't want anyone to, like, go through that kind of debilitating injury where they can't come back from it. But I think I'm pretty adamant now. Like, he's going to try to come back. Like, he made it pretty clear today. And because he said that final fight of my contract, I'm like, yeah, he wants to come back and fight and then get out so he could go fight Jake or fight Nate in MVP or whatever.

Or BKFC. He's a part owner. Like, why would you not do that and make a huge amount of money and you also get to promote your brand? what is your interest in a Connor McGregor future though because everyone like it was like a balloon getting popped in that arena on Saturday night like it was just like oh my God this is the worst case scenario of Connor getting injured 10 seconds into the fight or whatever it was like you and you said this last week by two-year credit you said like we'll always watch Connor like Connor could suck and we'll still watch Connor he's Connor McGregor but like what is your

personal interest like do you have any interest in ever seeing Connor fight again? Yeah. Well, not really. I mean, just, but that's personally, like I only, I like watching the best of the best, right? Like, I like watching, you know, the guys that either the best of best or potentially best to the best, you know, guys that have potential. And, you know, I mean, I like watching the highest level. I mean, that's just me personally. I like watching the skills, the tactics, all that kind of stuff. Like, honestly, you know, Jake Paul fights just don't interest me. But, but just like everybody else, that's in the same space as me or same interest as me, like, we still watch, especially in this day and age when it's not pay-per-view and, you know, it's just on Netflix. It's like, well, like, why not watching? You know, all your buddies are watching, everybody's talking about it at the gym and, you know, so, you know, I got 20 people calling me, like, what do you think about this fight? Oh, my God, do I have to tell you again? Just watch the damn podcast. So, see, yeah, I mean, it didn't interest me last weekend either, really, right?

We mean, we talk about it here and, you know, it kind of turned out, you know, or I guess, you know, an hour before when I'm watching, I'm like, okay, I have a little bit of interest here, you know, just see what can he do on his way back. I didn't have high expectations for it, though. So, again, that's just me, maybe more uniquely. But I could, because I could see where everybody still wants to see him fight. Like, they want to, they want to see what he's capable of. And, you know, but again, I kind of see it more as, you know, you know, we've got to see him fight again against somebody decent. And we'll see if he's going to be an influencer style fighter or if he's a, you know, a legitimate contender or legitimate athlete at this point in his career. And I could totally see either one, too. I think the big thing that's going to make a difference here is this next year of recovery.

We already seen Connor has demons, right? I don't think that's debatable at this point. Like, he's got demons. Now he's got another year. after five years and going through what he's went through everything at least from everything he was saying like he felt great he felt confident and we we've seen a unique side of connor throughout the week too we've seen the the more stoic i guess Connor right we've seen him talking some pretty deep shit um but now like nothing good came out of the fight only bad right so now he's got to go through that process again and if he stay in If he wants to fight in a year or whatever, he's probably not going to be able to do the steroid thing like he did before. Right?

He can't just pull out of the doping thing and get back in like he did before. Most likely, I mean, who knows? You know, there's tricks for things. But with that said, so mentally, you know, what I would say, you know, if Connor happens to listen or anybody in his circle, like, I really hope the best for him. And I hope that he takes care of himself as a human being. and lives the lifestyle.

And that's what he has to do if he wants to come back. You know, this is a bump in the road. You know, it's tough for him because he's been so high for so long. Not even totally long, but, you know, for long enough that, you know, he wants that feeling back. And now it's been shot down a few times, right? For him to come back, he's got to have his life in order. He's got to keep his head straight.

And he's got to stay stoic throughout this, right? All those things he said, he's got to live up to those things now. He can't let those demons take over in this downtime and start drinking again or blowing it up the nose or whatever he does. And, you know, he's got to be on the straight and arrow for this next year or so and get through this. And that's my biggest concern just as a human being talking to another human being. No, I agree. Here's my thing with this Because you know on this show

Matt I said numerous times I don't ever like to tell a fighter to retire I've never been a fan of that It's only about having a couple of times Like I remember when Ken Shamrock Was still fighting I was like I'd really like Ken to stop Like I'd really like Ken to not do this again

But you remember that really awkward podcast That happened years ago When Joe Rogan told Brendan Shaw Like he needed to walk away It was like the most uncomfortable podcast Like Brennan's crying And Joe's like You gotta stop you gotta stop

And I've talked to Brandon about it. He's like in the moment he was really pissed off. But then like as time passed, he's like, yeah, he was just showing you care. Like, he was just showing you care about me. He didn't want me to get hurt. And he did ultimately walk away. Watching Connor, this is a weird, like correlation I'm doing here, Matt, but following me when I say this. Watching Connor throw that spinning roundhouse kicked open that fight, that to me felt like

a Connor game plan. That was not John Cavanall being like, let's throw a spinning roundhouse to open this fight. Because John Cavanall is a jiu-gitoo guy. I don't think he's coming up with the game plan to tell him to do that. I think that was Connor saying, I want to throw this spinning roundhouse or jumping roundhouse and catch him off guard and start to fight. Do you think there's enough people in Connor's life that would advise him? Like, hey, man, like, you got $100 million in the bank. You got businesses.

You got, you know, BKFC, you got four kids, you got a great family. Seems like you're trying to get your life on track. He said that numerous times. Like, he's no longer doing the party thing. You know, he's found God, whatever. Do you think, like, do you think someone in his life should be like, dude, Like just, I don't even know if he has anyone in his life He would say that to him, honestly.

I think that's the problem. Like, I wonder if there's anyone in Connor's life close enough, close circle of people, do it be like, dude, why? Like, why are you doing this? I understand you're a competitor and you want to go out on top, but dude, you just came back from a five-year level and you blew out your knee in 10 seconds.

Like, why? Why are you doing it? I wonder if he has someone in his life to have that kind of hard conversation with him. I don't know if he needs that hard conversation. I mean, I got to, I still think athletically, he still has a lot in the tank. And it just depends, like, we don't know enough about him mentally as a human being.

Like, you're going to have to dig deep to understand the reasons why and whether he should quit or not. I mean, those are very deep conversations and very personal things that the public will never understand. So, you know, I don't think that needs to be, I don't think it's necessarily the case that he, I'm not going to say he needs to retire. I think he still has a lot left. But like I was said before, he's got to stay on the straight and arrow. He's got to do the right things. If he can do all that, if he stays on the straight narrow for the next year, gets his life straight and finds peace, I guess you could say.

And, you know, gets his knee recovered. He could absolutely come back. I don't, I mean, I thought even five years ago, I didn't think he would ever be a world champion again. Right. So, you know, if he's trying to come back to be a world champion, you know, I think that's a tough road for him. And I think just the game has evolved past him.

And I don't think, I mean, he's not beating Islam, like, ever in his life, I don't think. But, you know, if he just wants to come back and fight, I think there are proper matchups for him, right? And I think, you know, he can make a lot of money and still enjoy his life and, you know, not take tons of damage. So, like, I don't think that's necessarily the call. It's just, you know, he needs to have a hard conversation to retire. But I think that, you know, those are very deep personal questions that we really don't have answers to.

Yeah, I think it's like, I talked about, like, how do you see should treat him on his way out? And I was like, I don't think they're going to be kind to him. I don't think they're going to give him a warm-up. They're not going to give him Michael Chandler. That's just not going to happen. Like, they're not giving a fight, so you got to have a spectacular. Because there's a world where Connor comes back, gets it actually gets a spectacular knockout and then pieces out and goes and fucks off and does his own thing. But, like, so I don't think they're going to get me an easy fight.

But if I'm the UFC, like, I would just, like, bide my time, make sure Connor's coming back. And then, like, why not? Like, they re-sign Jeremy Stevens out of nowhere. Rose, re-sign Mike Perry and make Mike Perry versus Connor in the Octagon. Like, fuck what everyone else is planned. You know what I mean? Like, don't let Jake Paul or whoever else, like, get involved and say, we're going to make this. Like, go to Mike Perry, offer him a boatload of money and say, you fight Connor.

And who wouldn't watch Mike Perry and Connor? Like, that would be a fun fight. And it would be a fucking insane war for as long as a lot. lasted. But at the same time, if you're if you're gonna fight Mike Perry, you fight your contract out and you fight him and bare knuckle. Oh yeah, 100%. But that's what I'm saying. If I'm the UFC though, that's what like, you know what I mean? Like you don't, you're not going to do them any favors. You know what I mean? They're not going to, I don't care how much Conner's

done in the past. I don't care how many pay reviews he sold. I don't care how much you built your business. If you know he's gone, you know he's leaving one day after his fight, you're not going to do him any favors. You're not going to give him Michael Channel. You're not going to give him a warm-up fight. You're not going to give him a fight he's supposed to win, you're giving somebody that's like, oh, God, Connor could get brutally knocked out or Connor could really, you know, so that's what I'm saying, but if you're, like, that would be my idea, like, sign Mike Perry, get him back under contract and be like, oh, now you want to go here, you're going to fight Mike Perry.

You know what I mean? Like, something like that, because I don't think they're going to get Nate Diaz, but, like, I could see a World War Perry is like, I'll re-signed for, you know, a couple fights and go fight Connor or something like that. Like, fuck with the, fuck with the future and, and they're not going to do him any favors. they're not going to give him a totally winnable fight. Like, I agree. It should be a tune-up, but it's not going to be.

Yeah, I agree. Yeah. You know, they'll probably give them like a Sean Brady or something. You know, and like, you know, so it's, yeah, again, like, if I'm, if I'm Dana White, like, I partner up with them. I'm like, okay, like, you don't want to do this with us anymore. Like, you want to do your own thing. Okay, let's partner up in it.

Like, we'll get you a proper matchup for the last fight, but we're going to work together in the future, too. And I could totally see them doing that, you know, especially with Zufa boxing. But, you know, there's other potential ways they could do that also. You know, I have no idea, you know, how they're going to handle that because, but again, like, you know, Dana and Connor, as far as I could tell, have had a good relationship for a long time. So I don't see them just splitting ways like that and Connor just fucking them over either. Yeah, it's true.

We're going to obviously, you know, we understand the bulk of this is going to be about Connor. But I have to ask, you know, I brought this up in our post-fight column. I said, you know, the Connor McGregor rub is real. You think about how much of a star Nate Diaz or Dustin Pore was before beating Connor, and then after Connor, it's like two different worlds. Like, they were two totally different superstars after Connor. Max doesn't get that, unfortunately, because he's just kind of, unfortunately, the other guy. And, you know, I mean, Max was already a star in his own right,

but he doesn't get the satisfaction like going out there and actually knocking out Connor McGregor. But I think the person who did benefit this past weekend was Patty Pimbled, because Patty got a massive ovation. And by the way, Patty said all the right things. This is Conner's week. I'm not the star. Connor's the star. But then, you know, heard the crowd.

Oh, Patty the baddie. And then he goes out there and has that kind of performance against Benoit Saint-Denie. By the way, a little victory lap here on my Ben-Wa-Saint-Din-Nee criticism. I said he folds in the biggest moments. And I think Patty did that to him again. But, like, in my opinion, Matt, like Justin Gage, he's a star. Obviously, Ilya is still a star. But, like, Patty could be the next, like, he's not in the next big thing.

he's already a very big thing, but it kind of felt like there was a real dissatisfaction the way the main event ended. I get it, but like Patty it felt like Patty took a step towards like a whole other level of startup on Saturday night. Yeah, Patty stole the show. 100% of that was his night.

Good for him. You know, he lived up to the expectation, too. The amazing submission on BSD is so Patty's done all the right things, man. He's saying all the right things. He's doing all the right things. And, you know, he deserves everything that he gets. I'll tell you, I know I'll probably take a lot of shit for this. Skill-wise, like, I'm still

just not sold on Patty yet. Like, I got to maybe, I hope he proves me wrong. You know, I'm not trying to be like Debbie Downer or a little fucking asshole over here and thing. Like, I'm just not sold on him, you know? And, you know, we'll see again. I hope he proves me wrong. So, but I'll tell you what, man, you know, I watched a, just came randomly on Instagram. It was a little thing Bill Burr was saying about comedians, right? And he said, you know, the way to make it as a comedian is you go out there and, you know, open

up for other guys and you fucking kill it so much that the main event guy doesn't have a chance. And they bomb every time because you did so well. And it just rang in my mind. I was like, dude, that was exactly what Patty did. You know what I'm like? He stole the fucking shows. His night. Connor bombed.

And like, you can't give you got to give a lot of credit to patty man he fucking did it right uh everybody singing his song and dancing and i mean i don't i don't think i've ever seen anything like that before i mean it was everybody was loving you know the energy the the the excitement and and then he he fucking got it done the way he got it done i mean you know it's just lightning in a bottle again right there you know it feels much like uh connor mcgregor back in his day you know because you know you Like I was, you know, I was the same way.

Like, you know, maybe I have a little bit of pessimism in me or non-belief, whatever, but like maybe more than I should have. But, you know, like I didn't believe in Connor either back in the day, right? I was like, yeah, you know, he is what he is. And, you know, I kind of, but it kind of feels the same way with Patty. You know, the only difference is like, you know, we have seen Patty. He got beat up pretty bad by just engaging, you know. So I think we know a better idea of where his level is.

So, but luck. dude fucking got it done against BSD man that's a tough fight and the way he did it was absolutely impressive so good for him yeah it was a nasty dars choked man like actually put him to sleep which i think is like i don't wish it's like a dars slash peruvian necktie it was it like wasn't a dars joke it was like you know dars the way that he connected his hands but he didn't finish it like you would finish a dars he finished it like a pruvian necktie i've never even seen that before so and i think he said he just did it on the fly so you know you got it again you got to respect that.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, listen, and I know the UFC doesn't like to headline, you know, cards without titles on the line, but, like, how is Patty Pimbleau versus Ilya Teporey not one of the biggest fights you could possibly make? Like, what do you wait until next year or whatever? Like, that is a massive, massive fight. Because Ilya is still a star, and his comeback is going to get a lot of attention, you know, him coming back from that first loss, you know, getting beat up, quitting on the stool, all that kind

of story is going to be there. And Patty is a massive, I mean, he's an even bigger star today than he was on Saturday. So, like, how do you not book that fight early next year and just watch the viewership numbers go through the roof? That's such a big fight. I guess it's just a matter of, like, if Patty wants to wait that long, right? Yeah. And also, listen, there's a world where if he beats Ilya, like, Ilya's, because Ilya is a star, but Ilya losing two in a row would be devastating for him. You know what I mean?

So, you know, so maybe they don't want to do that right now because they're like, we don't really want to crush Ilya. You know, maybe we want to put I'll be like another striker and, you know, let him go out there and get back on. track then we do the Patty match but um pat but that's the thing like when you're a star like patty you know he is now an A side you know he's not a B side anymore like he's an A side and whoever fights him is you know it's going to be the B side pretty much unless it's like Connor which we know that's not happening so like you know there's a world where they give him the gaiti rematch I don't like that idea but they could uh you know you could do the Ilya fight which would be massive you know what I mean so like Patty's in a really good spot right now

man he took full advantage of that that opportunity last week Well, I'd say what I think is if you're not going to give Armand the title shot, which they absolutely should. I think that's the easiest title defense matchmaking title defense ever for Justin Gagey. It should be Armand. Like, you know, Max and Conard, obviously not Connor, but, you know, Max doesn't really make sense to go to 170 and get the title shot off of what happened last weekend. I mean, it should a thousand percent be armin. But it should have been a thousand percent armin. how many times now?

Yeah. So if it's not Arm-in, if Armin doesn't get the title shot, and Patty versus Armin is a perfect fight, right? Because, again, I guess one of the concerns is Armine having, you know, the star power, you know, to have a title shot. You'll beat Patty, you get a lot of star power there. And if Patty beats Armin, I mean, you know,

he has certainly earned a title shot then. I mean, and that's a, that's not an easy fight for either person. So that's a, I think it's a proper matchup too. So I think that's the only other option. You know, if Ilya isn't going to come back for a long time, which, you know, like till next year, which is what it sounds like is going to happen. Yeah. I mean, I didn't listen because of who Patty is though.

Like, you could do Patty and Holloway. It would be a huge fight. Like, Holloway is still a star. And you could do, I know Patty mentioned this on Saturday, him and Oliver. Like, he's like, I would submit Charles Oliver. I don't know that I love that idea, but, you know, that's a fun fight. Like, and Charles is a star in his own right. you know, with a fan base he has in Brazil, so you could do,

and, you know, Charles has that fight with Armin, very good fight, very close fight, but he already is a winner of her max. You know, Charles has kind of stuck a little bit in No Man's Land right now, because they're not going to give him a title shot right now against, even though he has a winner of a gauge, they're not going to give him that title shot. You can do Patty and Olivera, that's a big fight. You know what I mean?

Like Patty, Patty, Patty's in a position. It's probably more likely because, like, they're probably not going to do Patty versus Armin because I think they probably expect Armin to win that fight, and they don't really, you know, they don't want to have Patty having another loss, you know. If, you know, if you just, again, we've talked about this before where they actually want a certain person to win. But, you know, I think they make matchups that where they're like, well, you know, this guy will probably win or this guy will probably win. Yeah. So, I mean, but like I said, that's the position Patty's in now is where, like, he can fight pretty much anybody and it's going to be a big fight.

And that, like, it was just crazy to see, like, how much, like, he was already a star, but, like, it was like, oh, yeah, we just saw a new, like, it was kind of, remember when Connor beat Porre. and he was like the third fight on a pay-per-view, and I think the main event was Mighty Mouse against Henry Sehudo. I think that was that card. I was at that card, I did post-presser. Connor was the star.

No offense to anybody else on that card, but Connor was the star, and he was like the second fight on the pay-per-view when he knocked out Porier. It kind of felt like that was like, yes, obviously Connor still got more attention because the whole way the fight ended, but like Patty deservedly got the rest of it.

You know, Patty deservedly got the rest of the attention. It kind of felt like that. It kind of felt like when Connor beat Porriet. and he wasn't the main event, but Connor was the main event. Not quite because Connor still, you know, Connor, but Patty was like, oh yeah, you're a clear number two now on this card. I'll tell you, it certainly felt like a little bit of passing of the torch to Patty Pemblet. And the tough part, again, you know, for Patty is, you know, I just don't think he has the ceiling that Connor had, right?

So he had, you know, he might do great things. Again, he might totally prove me wrong. But, you know, Connor was double champ. Like, do you think Patty would be double champ? champ ever. You know, I have a hard time believing that. You know, so star power wise, like he certainly felt like he stole the show and it felt like, you know, it was a little bit of passing of the torch, but you got to live up to it too. You got to, you know, you got to do big, amazing things. You certainly got to get a title at least. And, you know, that's not looking so great for Patty

right. Again, I hope he proves me wrong. Like, I love to see the guy become a huge star. I think he's an amazing guy. And, you know, he's fascinating to, watch. But I just think it's a little tougher road for him than it was for Connor in terms of athletic accomplishment. Yeah, I agree. Before we get out of here, Matt, obviously on the undercard, we finally got to see the debut of Gable Stevens, and he goes out there and has a barn burner of a fight. He goes out there and just basically, you went for one take down. It was just like him striking, and he ends up knocking out Alicia Ellison in the first round. And we saw some John Jones kicks in there. You saw those oblique kicks that John's so famous for that

cable was throwing those. We already know the ceiling for Gable is like limitless. Like we both predicted to become U.S. Heavyweight champion. But I'm curious, watching what he did on Saturday night, is there a little more nerves? Because here's my opinion. I'll just give me my opinion, Matt. I think he knew that Elisha Ellison was not going to present a whole lot of danger.

And obviously, in heavyweight, you always got to be careful because it is that big of a, you know, risk to just throw hands with somebody. You can get caught. But I feel like Gable wanted to go out there and just show he's more than a wrestler. and he knew he didn't face a lot of danger from this guy. He got hit a couple of times, but really didn't really get hit that much. And when he did get hit, he just kind of flinched at it. And then went out there and just absolutely laid waste of the dude.

But, like, was that like the perfect first impression or does it scare you a little bit? Maybe he's got this mentality. Like, he's going to go out there and have these bangers because we've seen that in the past, man. A lot of wrestlers, like, I'm going to throw hands. And then it ends up going on the other direction for him. I personally think he just didn't see a lot of danger from this guy. And he's like, I can go out there and bang this guy out. and you know in four minutes or five minutes or whatever it is uh i don't think he would approach a cyril

gone or or or tom aspin all with that same attitude no i think it was totally him just game planning uh to get some experience in the cage you know on the feet you know get get some uh game time you know doing some different things not just making it the easy fight that he probably could have made it right which is just go take him down pound him out and be out there in a couple minutes. It's like, no, let's use this as a learning experience because there's a high likelihood. There will come a time when, you know, it's harder for him to get the takedown, right? Maybe on like a Surreal gum, which, you know, maybe that's not the best example because he'd

probably get him down pretty easy. But, you know, maybe Sorrel gets his take down defense up, moves his feet. Like, Surreal's very athletic, right? So, you know, it may become, he may run into a guy that's a little bit harder to take down. It's like, okay, let's build up this skill and, you know, get some, you know, good, be a really good, well-rounded fighter. And, you know, that's the way I took it, that that's what he's doing. And I'll say it again. I mean, you know, the athleticism he has and, you know, the team he has around him, I mean, all of the stars are lined up for this guy.

And I don't give anybody a chance. Like I say, put him in a surreal tomorrow. I think he wins that fight. I'm sorry. Yeah, I mean, he's an athletic freak amongst athletic freaks. And I know they're talking about, there's a lot of buzz about him fighting Josh Hoken because, you know, Josh comes from the same camp. Love to see it.

And he's obviously, I had someone be like, you need to see Hoket's wrestling. I'm like, no offense. I'm not trying to dig on Josh Hock here. He was a one-time All-American at Fresno State. Still, congrats. Big, big, big applause. Gable is a two-time NCAA champion in Olympic gold medalist. There are levels, okay?

I'm just saying, there are levels to wrestling. Like, I'm not saying Josh Hogan isn't good. I'm saying if you're just comparing wrestling, that's just not fair. Yeah, and again, yeah, when you talk about MMA, you know, those two levels are a lot closer when it's MMA, right? Like, Robert Whitaker stop Yul Romero's takedowns, you know what I mean? Like, like the levels become a lot closer when you bring it into MMA. But I just, I think, you know, Gable is a very special person. athletically and obviously like with his wrestling skills and everything.

And I think Hokka is probably one of the tougher matchups out there for him. And I think it'd be a great fight to make. And I'd love to see them make it straight away. To Hokka certainly has shown, you know, within that Curtis Blaze fight that like he can take a beating and keep on coming. We don't know about that about Gable Stevenson, right? We don't know that he can work through, you know, some real pain and suffering. We've got to imagine that he can with his wrestling.

You know, wrestling is a very difficult sport. So we've got to think that he can. But, you know, when those lights are on and you're in that octagon, everything's different. And it seems to me it's also a very sellable matchup. And, you know, all the stars are aligned for that fight to happen anyway. So I say make the fight, let's go. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't be opposed to it. I mean, I don't think they're going to do it because, like, Hocut's got some star power now.

And I don't think they want to kill either one of them yet. Like, you know what I mean? they don't want to, you know, they just signed, you know, Gavell has like, you know, like, lifetime potential, you know what I mean? Like, that dude could potentially become the greatest heavyweight of all the time. He's 26 years old. Like, you got so much time. Probably don't want to rush him in there with that.

And, like I said, I don't, I hope it's very good, but I don't, you know, I don't like his fucking weird personality. That doesn't do anything for me. But he's a good fighter. Very clearly a good fighter. Now, now, that being said, you know what I mean? Where is Curtis Blades at in his career? I don't know.

Where is Derek Lewis at in his career? Like, I would like to see him. fight a Pavlovich or an Alexander Volkov, guys who are proven, if Hogan can go out there and beat a guy like that, then I'm totally fine with him getting the title shot at that point. But I think you've got to get one more really high-level guy before you...

Because I think Derek Lewis is probably like, you know, he's in the Let's Cash a couple more paychecks kind of part of his career. And I love Curtis Blaze. I've always said, but I mean, listen, Curtis is he's not a spring chicken anymore either. And obviously that, you know, and that was a great fight, by the way. You could have a couple

more punches. Curtis would have won that fight. It was a back and forth battle for a crazy as it was. So I'd like to see Hoke could get that like Volkov, Sergey Pavlovich kind of fight. He wins that. Give him the winner of Gan Aspinol. I'm totally fine with that at that point. Give him one more real test than having fight gone Aspinol. And with Gabli, just take your time. Like, there's no rushman. He's 26 years old. You realize how rare it is for a 26-year-old guy to come into heavyweight? Like, give him time. Like, I agree you can throw them in there right now, but why rush it? You know what I mean? You got a couple potential of big fights you can book in heavyweight. Let him take his time.

Let him go out there and wreck a few more people. And then next year we're talking about, you know, Aspinall versus Stevenson or gone versus Stevenson. Or maybe it is Hokka versus Stevenson. Like, you know, give him time. You don't need to rush him. Yeah, I got to agree on that. Yeah.

And it's, you know, I guess that's kind of what the UFC is, you know, with some of these guys, right? Gabe was Stevenson is an anomaly. I guess because when I think of the UFC, I think of like, like, you got to be ready to fight everybody. Like, you should be, like, the day you walk into the UFC, your first fight, like you should be willing and ready to fight the champion

because it's the lion's den and that's how it should be. You know, I guess there is unique cases, right? Right. Gable Stevenson, you know, they're going to build them up in the UFC. And like you said, they'll probably take their time with them and allow him to develop into the great fighter

that he's probably going to be. So, yeah, I get where you're coming from and I think you're right. And they learned, I think they learned a lesson with, Bo Nickel. Like, Bo had that kind of similar hype, and then he had to fight RDR, and now they're kind of going back to, like, building him up slowly.

Like, I mean, Kyle Dawkins is legit. That's a really good fight, but I don't think they're going to throw him in there with, like, a top five guy just yet. They're going to continue to slowly build him because they saw what happened. When he fought RDR and he got knocked out, he got finished, like, ah, shit. So they got to build him back up slowly. So I don't, like, and I don't, by the way, I don't think Gable would, I don't, I personally, because heavyweight is heavyweight, I don't think Gable would lose a fight like that,

but you just don't know. I mean, heavyweight is a weird division. You know what I mean? Like you just, something, you get clipped, you get caught, and boom, you're done. So I think they're going to build them up slowly, give them time. And like I said, you know, and by the way, there is no reason to rush them, especially when you got the Aspinall gone fight lingering out there. We all want to see that rematch. You got a guy like Josh Hocus.

You got a couple guys you can have to lean on for a little while to let Gable develop. Absolutely. Yeah, it makes sense to do that. And like you said, the UFC or in the heavyweight division, I mean, you know, you might be killing a guy and it just takes one sometimes. You know, these are big motherfuckers, you know, with some heavy paws, man. So, you know, that's kind of, I guess, what you don't want to happen to Gable Stevenson. You know, you got a potential superstar here. So maybe take care of them and build something, you know, kind of partnering up with them, really, you know, to build a superstar there.

100%. And John Jones, like I said, in his corner, I mean, I don't think it's a bad thing. I think we saw that John Jones influence on Saturday. Good coaches, Brandon Gibson, Greg Jackson, a good team around him. I think he'll be just fine. Yeah, he'll be good. Yeah, he'll be world champion. I'd put my money on it.

Yeah, I would too. This is not a Patty Pimble's situation. I don't know. You know on Gable's season. You're very common in Gable season. Some of my for that matter. I'm like, oh, yeah, he's going to be a champion. It's not a matter of if it's a matter of win.

It's a matter of win, 100%. Yeah. Overall, USA, like taking away the main event, UFC 329 was an awesome card. I mean, it was a really, really good card top to bottom. Obviously, bummerer to see a guy like Cody Garbring get knocked out again. might be having that tough conversation today about whether he should keep going. Robert Whitaker looked great.

Went out there and knocked out, Nikita Krilov. I don't know if I seen, I don't know if it was true what I seen or not. It was a, but Cody got removed from the roster is what came up on my feed today on Twitter. I haven't seen it. I'll have to double check. I know he took all his gloves in the octagon. I know Dana said on Saturday, like he had a conversation with Sean Shelby, but he didn't want to say what he said.

So probably letting Cody kind of go out on his own turn. probably, but I don't know. We'll find out. I'm sure in the next couple days, what's going on with that? So overall, though, incredible car, just kind of a bummer with the ending and how it all ended. But like I said, we didn't have a lot of faith about Connor fighting even like the night of the fight.

Like, is he actually going to do it? So, you know, I guess you can only have so much disappointment when you didn't have a lot of faith in the happening in the first place. Matt, we are going to be off for a little while. You're going to be heading down to Costa Rica. You want to tell people what you're doing down there? Yeah, retreat. Well, it was kind of MMA martial arts retreat for,

about a week at Cassus Kismet and Costa Rica. So look, next year we're going to be doing it again. So anybody wants to join in, man. All we do is surf all day, train, do some breathwork, some meditation, sauna, eat the best food you ever had in your life, maybe go fishing, catch some tuna a little bit, explore the jungle a little bit, and just hang out as a bunch of men and, you know, do some male bonding and shit, you know. It's a great time, man.

So invite everybody to come out next year. Maybe we'll promote it a little bit more next year. I have a pretty small turnout this year. But it's going to be a lot of fun, man. I love it. Yeah, I look forward to it. Obviously, people want to check you out while you're in Costa or anything else you've got going on.

Where can they find you? At I'm Immortal Instagram and Twitter, the Immortal Matt Brown on Facebook. And as always, I want to say, big thank you to everyone to tunes in the show. Like I said, we'll be off for a couple weeks. We'll be back. Obviously, we've got a big car come up in August, Islam McAchev, and Ian Machado, Gary. So we'll get into that. A couple of fights, obviously, coming up in the next couple weeks.

We've got, you know, Kamar Usman and DDP this weekend. We got the car going to China soon. So we've got a lot to talk about us. We'll get into more of that in the coming weeks. But as always, I want to say a big thank you to everyone in the Tuesday in the show. Make sure you to check us out on all your favorite podcast platforms, Apple Podcast, Spotify. And, of course, over on the best website in the world, mhmafiting.com. For Matt Brown, I am Damon Martin.

We will see you guys when we return in a couple of weeks for more Fighter versus the Rider. Thanks for tuning in. We will see you then.