MMA Fighting - Heck of a Morning | Bellator Wins the Weekend, AJ McKee's Future, Muhammad's Callout of Covington, More

Episode Date: April 19, 2022

After a chaotic weekend in the world of MMA, there seem to be a lot of question in regards to two of the notable names coming out of the UFC Vegas 51 and Bellator 277 main events — one from the winning side, the other from the losing side. On this edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to this past weekend's fight cards, Patricio Pitbull's win over A.J. McKee in to regain the featherweight title, Belal Muhammad's great performance against Vicente Luque and his post-fight callout of Colby Covington, takes your calls on how Khamzat Chimaev factors into the equation, the potential Kamaru Usman vs. Leon Edwards welterweight title fight, Petr Yan's next move, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 8 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And soon after this program, stops going live. It'll be on the MA fighting podcasting network. I am Mike Heck. Thank you for joining me this morning. This is actually week four of the show, beginning week four of the show. It is flown by pretty quickly. And thank you to all of you for being a part of it. I know it's early for a lot of you, but just the feedback has been tremendous.

The numbers on the podcasting network have been fantastic, and we appreciate that. And the fact that people call while they're driving in their cars, and I know they're doing it safely, because this is not one of those things where you need video or anything, it's what I envisioned with this show, like the sports radio feel, cup of coffee, driving to work, breakfast, all that stuff. That's what the show is all about. We have a lot to talk about. technically I'm still on vacation for like another day but I mean I wasn't going to miss the show you can't just like start off a show for a couple weeks and then just be like well I'm on vacation I'm just going to stop doing it doesn't really work on that way so just I think I'm back officially on Thursday but I mean I'm still going to be working today and tomorrow a little bit but we had Bellator 277 this past Friday we had UFC Vegas 51 this past Saturday it was a chaotic weekend indeed a lot of craziness happened along the way.

We had some big wins and main events. We had some unfortunate stoppages. We had questionable rulings. We had everything imaginable for just a chaotic weekend in MMA. And we'll get your thoughts on those cards and more on that in a moment. But first, I want to take a look back on April 19th in history because 2014, April 19, 2014, UFC on Fox 11 went down. Main event of that card, Fabrice O Verdume.

versus Travis Brown, Fabricio Verdoom got the win being an end of Cision in the main event. Co-main event, Misha Tate's defeats defeats Liz Carmouche, unanimouscision co-main event, featured about Donald Soroni

submits Edson Barbosa in the first round and the first fight on that main card was Y'all Romero versus Brad Tavares, which was won by Y'all Romero B, unanimous cision. Now, the prelims also included some names you might be familiar with. I don't know.

Feature prelim involved Habib Naramaga Madoff, defeating Hafieldo Sanjos v. Inanimous decision. A guy you might know by the name of Jorge Mazadol was on the prelims of that card, defeated Pat Healy v. unanimous decision. And listen to this one. The first fight of that entire card,

April 19, 2014, UFC on Fox 11, the Octagon debut of one Derek Lewis, the Black Beast made his UFC debut on this day in history eight years ago knocked out Jack May in the first round. There's the very first fight of the night

and look where we are eight years later. Derek Lewis is a main eventor or a co-main eventor in every fight he'll be in probably for the rest of his career. And then of course also on this day in history, 2008,

14 years ago, UFC 83 goes down. That was headlined by the rematch between Matt Serra at the time the UFC Welterweight champion and George St. Pierre, George St. Pierre gets his revenge, TKO, second round, those vicious knees to the body on the ground. The beginning of the end for Matt Sarah, George St. Pierre, who was the interim champion at the time unifies the title. Co-meant event,

Rich Franklin defeats Travis Luter via TKO in the second round. Nate Corey got a win. Michael Bisping, knocked out Charles McCarthy on that card. Mac Danzig was on that card as well. You get a third round submission than we had names such as Jason Day, defeating Alan Belcher, TKO, Jason McDonald, TKO win. Damian Maya submits Ed Herman with a mounted triangle. Remember that one? That was a crazy one. Rich Clemente, Sam Stout.

Kane Velasquez was the second prelim on that card, defeated Brad Morris via TKO in the first round, and Jonathan Goulet got it started with a second round TKO. Flight of the night, Jonathan Goulet versus Kuniyoshi, Hironaka, knockout of the night, Jason McDonald's, submission to night, Damien Maya, that's what the awards are a little bit different. So we're going to get to your calls in a minute.

I mean, just so much happened this past weekend. Bellator 277, which by the way, Bellator won the weekend. I mean, it's clear they won the weekend. I don't even think this is a discussion to be had. Belator had the better card, the more intriguing storylines in the aftermath. I mean, all of it on paper and in execution.

Belator was just by far the better. card than UFC Vegas 51. And this is no disrespect on the athletes involved. Belator, we do Bellator, the better car heading in, and it delivered. Unfortunately, there are some hiccups along the way, but I didn't watch it live. I watched the main card. I saw a lot of the prelim highlights, which basically told the story of most of these entire fights, as Bellator prelims typically do.

They load up with big time prospects who are massive favorites, and they go out and do what are supposed to do. That's typically what happens. And usually it ends in, in, uh, you know, pretty dominant fashion. We had some pretty crazy fights on the cards as well. One of the preams is just an all-time classic war of just attrition. It was insane. But it ended with Patricio Pitbull getting his title back against AJ McKee. And this is one of those fights where I was really glad that I watched it the next day. Because falling a lot, If I had watched it live Friday and followed along on Twitter and you saw everybody giving their scores and their opinions on how it played out, it's one of those things where you think, you kind of overthink it. You're like, hmm, maybe they're right.

Maybe, maybe A.J. McKee won that fight. But I came out of that watching it Saturday. No pressure, no Twitter, no nothing. I just watched it. And then two minutes in, I knew I had to mute the audio. And if you listen to past shows, you know why I had to mute the audio. you. But it was just so much easier watching it because I felt it was a clear Patricio Pitbull win. I thought it was a clear Petitio pit bull win. I didn't go, it was a close fight. Absolutely

a close fight. It's not like Patriciaio just went out there and blew the doors off, Agent McKee. But in the end, after watching that fight, I was fairly confident Pitbull won the fight. I didn't have to think about it at all. I was like, all right, Pitbull won three rounds. He might even won four rounds. So I ended up watching it the second time. I scored it 48, 47. Upon first watch, I scored it 49, 46 for Partitio Pitbull. I scored the first four rounds for him.

Watching it the second time around, I think I might have given one of those early rounds to McKee, maybe one. I don't know. I have to go back and watch it again and figure out like round by round what it was, but I didn't think there was like any controversy here. I thought Pitbull won the fight. I thought he won. This is not a robbery.

whatsoever. I thought Pitbull one. I thought it was a tremendous game plan. Did everything. This is why he's so good. And this is why I think he's the best Bellator fighter of all time. He's the revenge king. He's just the revenge king. You beat him. He comes back and beats you on the way back.

He does it to everybody. Does it to everybody. And he hands AJ McKeigh's first loss. And that gives us a lot of questions about A.J. McKee. A lot of questions. Was he overthinking this? Was he thinking too far ahead? Was he thinking too far ahead? Was he thinking, was he being too big for his britches, if you will?

He was already looking at the UFC. I'm going to be a UFC champion. And that's a great attitude to have. Like you want to have goals. You want to have ambitions. You want to have things you could strive towards. No doubt about that. But a lot of people are like, did he talk a little bit too much about the UFC?

Did he say too much about, I need a million dollars a fight to stay in Bellator once my free agency is over? And that's interesting too. What is up with A.J. McKee now. Is he a free agent? Because nobody seems to know. Scott Coker doesn't know. AJ McKee doesn't know. And I know the one thing that was kind of binding him to Bellator was being the champion.

And there was sort of a, from what I understood, a three-fight championship sort of clause that he had, that as long as he had the belt, he had to fight three more times, including this past Friday. But now he's not the champion. So what does that mean? Does he stick? Is he still technically a Bellator fight? could he talk to the UFC now? Would the UFC still as much interest? Will his per fight paycheck be as high as it was before Friday?

Probably not. I'm sure the UFC would certainly be interested in him. It's a bump in the road, but what does he do in the UFC's 155 Pundivision? Or does he go back to 145? Because right off the bat, he said, I'm done at 145. I'm done with it. Done with all that weight cutting. And good for him.

If that's what he really wants to do. but I think what made him so successful at 45 is he's just so big and so rangy made him so effective at that weight class how is that going to translate to to 155 if he fights Patricio or he fights Petriky how's that going to translate

what's he going to do in the UFC when he fights you know I mean you can do the the Michael Chandler fights right there for you because they have that rivalry for a long time what's he going to do when he fights if he has to fight Justin Gaci or Charles Olivaa or is the Amachache or any of these guys that are just huge 55.

Armand Sarukion. What's he going to do against a guy like Armand Sarukion? Would you favor A.J. McKea against Armand Sarukia in the UFC? I wouldn't. But that's no disrespect to AJ McKee. That's just because I'm so incredibly high on on Syruquian. But there's some other questions. Obviously, the co-made events of that card.

And I want to talk to you guys about all of this, because, again, we haven't had a show since all this happened. Versus Corey Anderson ends with the accidental clash of heads. I think we all clearly know who the better fight. is Corey Anderson looked fantastic. He looked great. I'm still not going to, I'm still not willing to say he's the best light heavyweight in the world. I still think that belongs to Glover to Shera,

and I think we'll still be having that conversation at the end of this year. But could he beat Yuri? And listen, I know Cory Anderson beat Glover to Shera in the past. I know it happens. I know he has the win, and I know when they chill Sunnan, who's the better fighter conversation, the guy who wins the fight, no matter when it happened, it could happen 25 years. years ago, it tails eyes, and I don't have a problem with this argument, they're the better

fighter. But I think if they fought again, I think it would be a little bit of a different story. I just think Glover is just a much more mature version, even at, you know, in his 40s than than he was when they fought the first time. So Cory Anderson looks great. He's, I think he's certainly the best 205 are in Bellator. He's a top four 205er in the world, including the UFC. hopefully this fight gets run back again.

We get some sort of conclusion to it. But I picked Vadim Nemcoff heading in. When they rematch, I probably won't be picking them again because Corey Anderson just looks great. He's on another level right now. Aaron Pico just continues to cruise. Lytton Vassell would have come back that was

against Timothy Johnson. And, yeah, it was a pretty good card. Some unfortunate stuff, some drama indeed. And then the UFC card, we had awful refereeing. We had technical decisions. decisions, multiple technical decisions, which is just insane.

We had points being deducted and then guys coming back and winning fights. And then we had Belal Mohammed defeat Vicente Lucke in the main event. Good, great performance from Belal Mohammed. Great performance. Very complete. The takedowns were there. He looked really good on the feet against Vicente Lucke. He had, he had Lucke frustrated by that third round.

And I know a lot of people are out there saying Vicente didn't look like himself. and yeah, maybe there's a little bit of truth to that. I think he was a little off his game as well, but we can't take anything away from what Balaah Mohamed did on Saturday. Because he looked great. Stand-up was good. The footwork was really, really getting to Luke A. The kicks of the body were really getting to him.

And I think those are the turning points of the entire fight, more so than maybe Luke A not being himself heading into the fight, but we can't take anything away from Bala. It was a tremendous performance. But I go on Twitter right after, right after, Bruce Boffer's about to say that Bala Balaam is going to win. And here's the issue that I have had with Balaal for a while. And I am not alone on this.

Bala, there's a difference between shooting for the stars and hoping you pull something down and just being completely unrealistic. And Balaal had a great opportunity. Even after his last win, when he beat Wonderboy Thompson, Balaamu Ahmed had a fantastic opportunity, a tremendous opportunity to call out Hamzaa Tchamai is right there right there

microphone is right there here's your chance what does he do calls out Usman which is cool like shoot your shot bro but you know you're not getting that fight you know what's not happening it's not happening you have like a 0.0000 0.01% chance

of getting that fight and then he goes on the media tour after and then he calls out Shamiyaf at every single interview. Great. Where was that the first time? And here we are again. Shavayev's coming off the win over Gilbert Burns. The conversation of him jumping over Leon Edwards to fight Kamar Usman off the table right now. Although some people are intrigued, are still very intrigued by that fight. I am as well. I would like to Chhaviviv get another win, maybe two under his belt before that happens, especially after going through an absolute war

with a guy like Gilbert Burns. It's right there for you, Ballal. And I went on Twitter. You can go back and time stamp it, go and look at it. I said, all right, Belal, now do your wizardry on the microphone. Do it right. I'm paraphrasing here, but do not call out Kamar Usman and do not call out Colby Covington because you are not, you have a zero percent chance of getting either of those fights. Go crazy on Shamiath. Cut that Shamiya F promo like you've never cut it before. Because if he goes out there and does that, there's a chance he gets that fight. I know the UFC wants to go the Shemayev Covington route. But Covington's a smart man, if you think about it.

He says some things that probably aren't so smart. But as a businessman, as a prize fighter, he is a very smart man. Let's fight guys with big names that are winnable fights and try to make the most money we can while doing the least amount of work. Shamiath is not that guy. Now, he's running, Colby's running out of those types of fighters. And I think after watching Shamiya Burns, he probably feels like, all right, if I'm going to, if I'm going to beat this dude, I got to fight him right now. And I still think I, and I've asked Colby about Shab before.

And he said if the UFC wants to book that fight, if they called me and say, hey, I want you to fight Hamzaa Shamaif in a main event, Colby's going to fight him. I honestly don't think Colby's going to shy away from it. But if that does happen, if Colby's like, nah, I don't want to fight him. The Law had an opportunity to step right in there. And he didn't do it. He called out Colby, I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. Colby's not going to fight Bilal.

He's not going to fight him. It's not because he's afraid. It's not because anything like that. Because Colby would be a pretty sizable favorite in that fight, in my opinion. I would pick Colby to win that fight. It just doesn't do anything for him. The risk-reward isn't there. Colby wants to get back to a title fight.

Beating Bilal Mohammed doesn't get him any closer to a title fight. And I'm not trying to dump on Bilal. It's just the way that it is. Like, Balaal's a very likable guy. He's a very good fighter. But he doesn't, he's, he's not a huge draw. He's not a huge ratings grabber. He's just not.

He's just not. And beating Balaal will just keep Colby where he is. Colby beats Shamiya, sure. That, that gets you back maybe to a third fight with Usman. That gives you some mojo. That gives you some leverage. That's a big deal. People will probably be clamoring for it if he goes out there and beats Homs up.

But Balaal doesn't do anything for him. Bilal goes out there beats Hamza. There you go. Now we're getting some interest to you fighting for the title. But right now, it's not there. So he's probably going to fighting Gilbert Burns. It's probably the best case of error for him right now. But man, Belal, he's so good.

Like everything else he does so, so well. But it's these post-fight callouts when the microphone's there and it's live and the camera's bright. And the lights are shunning upon you. You just pick up the biggest one of your career. It's right there. you just blast Shemaiah right there you might have a really good chance to get that fight you have a chance to get that one coli fight's not happening oosman fights not happening unless like listen i'm not saying it's zero i'll never say zero percent chance because injuries can happen weird things can happen

we got to fill a spot we got we got to get somebody in there to fight oosman right maybe belal gets the call in like a week and a half notice and comes in and fights them but that's where we're at right now You get two big main event wins, storylines galore. Bellator had a much better weekend. I think Bellator's got much better cards this weekend as well, for being honest. But I don't know. There's a lot to talk about. I've been ranting for 18 minutes.

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Visit canadalif.com slash business protection to learn more. Canada Life. Insurance, investments, advice. Let's get right into this thing. We're going to kick things off with Tristan Gordettes. I believe he was first in line here. Tristan, how are you? Hey, Mike, how's everything going?

What's up, but. All right, listen. Good, man. Okay, that's great. It's great to hear. I want to talk about, this is going to tie in together a little bit. So we saw Aaron Pico, and I was blown away watching him fight. It was such incredible display of tools that he had, arsenals.

This guy's throwing body kicks, headshots, this guy's using his grappling, his wrestling, using ground and pound. But the key thing for me, and I think you may agree, is he was throwing the elbows and throwing elbows are starting to, like, Anadi needs to be talked about being more. Like, it has to be talked about more, just looking at it because it's just, when you see fighters throwing these elbows, it's changing the trajectory of the fight, and they're looking like beasts, and they're winning these fights. And case and point, I go back and, you know, I go back to the Armist Suu Kian fight against Joelle Alvarez, and especially specifically, especially when you're in someone's guard

and you throw an elbow over the top, you could hit it in so many different angles where you could hit it on a person's bridge of his nose, on the top of the eyebrow, and it gets start leaking, and then it's downhill for that opponent from then on. Tony Ferguson is famous for this. Your boy, your guy, Calvin Care, is making it famous as well, and hopefully, I think you probably might interview,

Rob Fon because this fight is next week, I think, April 30th against some Cheeto Vero. And, you know, I think Font does throw a little bit of elbows, but not as much as cater. I think, to be honest, I think Fon needs to up and, you know, up that up with the elbows. So just your thoughts about, like, this has to be talked about more of, like, guys need to start using these elbows because it's doing wonders. And I just want your thoughts about that, you know, let's just me.

All right. Thank you, Tristan. Yeah, I mean, listen, it's a nice little mix-up strike. A lot of people are preparing for the fundamental, the punches, the kicks. Like normally when you get the elbows, it's when somebody's on top and your guard and they're trying to drop elbows. Or, you know, you don't see a lot of standing elbows. But, yeah, I mean, sometimes when you see these fights, when you see these performances and you see fighters coming out there and making these elbows effective, like John Jones was really good. he was times where he was using elbows as like jabs and fights.

So, I mean, it's not, it's not a new thing, but yeah, I mean, it's evolution. Cater against Chakazze, those things were nasty. Those are nasty. I wouldn't compare them to like the Connor shoulder strike, but I think once you, when you saw Connor land the shoulder strikes on Seroni, you saw fighters start to do it more. They were like, oh, all right, maybe this works a little bit. Maybe it's a little more, maybe it's effective. And probably for like that entire year, we saw a lot more fighters try to execute those shoulder strike.

And I feel like since Cater's performance in January, I've seen, I think a lot more fighters are trying to, those little step in elbows. I think they're seeing the effect of those. And Aaron Pico, I mean, listen, Aaron Pico, this guy is, he's got it. He's got it. And I give Aaron Pico a ton of credit for having the wherewithal and the maturity to realize, like, As good as he always thought he was, he needed to change some things up. He needed to humble up a little bit. He needed to learn from his losses.

And he did that. And he did a tremendous job. And I give so much credit, so much credit to Brandon Gibson for the work he is done with Aaron Pico. Because those two guys are like two peas in a pod. And Brandon Gibson has done wonders for this kid's career. And he's incredible. Aaron Pico is a great fighter. And I can't wait to see what he looks like, like three years from now.

I mean, I'm so intrigued. This is the guy when he came in, this is the guy. This was the super prospect. He's not even, he's 25. He's going to be 26 in September. He's like three to five years away from his athletic prime. My God. I wanted to see the Jeremy Kennedy fight.

I still think if possible, that's the fight I'd like to see. But if not, there's not really a lot of other places for him to go here. So he's either going to have to fight, he's either going to have to fight Mads Burnell, which, I mean, sign me up for that. The chaos that would ensue with Aaron Pico versus Mads Brunel, totally doubt for that. Adam Borch is probably going to fight Petrillo Pitbull for the Featherweight title next. He's certainly not going to fight Adrian McKee. So, yeah, I like what I'm seeing from Aaron Pico. go a lot. This kid is

the real deal. It's as good as he's as advertised when he first came in. He had to humble up a little bit. I love what he's done. The maturity is incredible. Brennan Gibson deserves a lot of credit for that. Let's get four-corner sports in here. What's up? Make sure you

on mute. Hey, Mike, I don't know if you can hear me or not. I wanted to talk about my dog by Aizance's fight. Now, on a three-fighted Rooms Creek, I was actually very in three going into to continue to fight between him in Tiala. Now, the question is, does the USC need to have Bayeza make me to take a step back? I mean, it seems like he's a little bit, you know, what's the called? I guess on the down, every single losing to Ponzo Nibio, and usually when fighters, you know, get their first L, you know,

we try to see how they react, you know, into their next fight, losing to chaos, willing, getting knocked down, and then losing to Thiala, what's the next move if you're in the Bayeza, you know? Thank you, sir. Yes, Miguel Baezza took on Andre Fialho. The fight did not go well. First round, TKO win for Fialo, and Fialo is just a chaotic fighter. He's always been like that. And him coming into the UFC got a lot of people excited.

Some people are like, hey, she's the guy from the PFL, which is a horrible take. UAE Warriors, I mean, the dude's legit. Really fun fighter. He's fought for Belta. It's my first tons of promotions. So when he came in, some people were, like, frowning upon it. And they were calling him the PFL guy. I was seeing that on Twitter.

I'm like, what are you talking about? What are you talking about? This guy is just an action-packed fighter. With Baezza, I don't know, man. It's weird. That fight with Ponziabio, if you're bored, if you haven't seen that fight, if you haven't watched that one in a while, I highly recommend you go back and watch that fight again

between Santiago-Ponzibio and Miguel Baezza, because it is so good. And it doesn't get enough love if we're being honest. It's just a really competitive, fun, back and forth battle, adversity, everything.

Everything you would look forward at a 15 minute fight. This fight had. It was so good. It's incredible. And sometimes when you have those wars, it takes something from you. And maybe that's what happened with Baez.

I don't know. Because he looked pretty, I mean, he was looking good in the Chaos Williams fight before he was losing. I have to go back, watch that one, but if memory serves me correctly, I think Bayezza was, it was either 1-1 or Baezza was up 2-0 and then Williams got the knockout. I have to remember, it was a close

fight, but I remember Williams may have been in a position where he needed to finish fight. I don't know, I have to go back and watch it, but I mean, those are two tough guys to fight. Ponsonibio, then Chaos Williams, and now you'd fight Andre Fialho, another chaotic fighter. He's got to take a step back. I think the UFC will keep him around. I mean, I mean, Look at the guy. The guy's a good fighter. He get great skills. They knew they had something in him after the Matt Brown win, after the Sato win.

They knew they had something here. Maybe he got pushed a little too soon. But again, much like Aaron Pico. Sometimes you have to take a couple of losses. You have to take a step back. Maybe take some time off. Maybe figure out what the problem is. Rework it out.

Get back in, take a step back. Now, maybe he fights, they, the UFC tried to book this fight before, and I hated it. I hated it when they booked it at first. I thought it didn't make a lot of sense. But it actually makes a lot of sense now. Let's do Miguel Baezza versus Mickey Gall. Didn't like it when it was first booked. I thought it was way, I thought it was way too much for Mickey Gall for being honest.

But right now, both guys kind of on a little bit of the Schneid. I think it makes sense. let's do that. And I think it's kind of a loser leaves town sort of matchup. So yeah, I would go that direction, but definitely a step back. We can't be throwing Miguel Baezze in there with,

we just got to be careful with this guy. Because I think they have something here. I think the UFC knows they have something here. But you got to be careful with how you book him next. But I agree. We got to give this guy a step back. All right, we've got to get Tote Gerting Jensen in here who said, I have an ought-no idea,

and on to the next one idea that was going to quote, I believe it said, knock my socks off. So I got my socks on, bro. I'm flying. What's up? Oh, you already kind of went that way, which surprised me.

But, you know, A.J. McKee, he's not long for Bellator, and I'm actually already sending him to the UFC. So what's happening here is he doesn't want to cut to featherweight. That's the deal. And, you know, when you have seen signs, one of the biggest stars from Bellator, they like to rub it in their face.

They did it with Michael Sandler with him almost getting a title shot right off the bat. And I think we will see something similar here with AJ McKee, even though he lost. So what I will say is the fight to make

is the winner of the Tony Ferguson Michael Chandler fight. What do you say about that? Versus A.J. McKee? Yes, sir. Wow I mean listen hashtag

Would watch toke I mean would watch but I don't know my socks are still on bro Sox are still on my feet My feet are still a little sweaty and a little toasty right now Listen I like the idea but We got like other things we got to take care of first We got to figure out AJ's contract situation

And by the way I'm supposedly I'm supposed to be talking to Scott Coker Tomorrow That's the plan that's what we're working on and I will ask him about that. And hopefully we have more answers on the AJ McKee contract situation, what that means if he is a free agent, if he's not a free agent,

you have to think if you're Bellator, if he is a free agent, or if he has one fight left of this deal, you got to do everything you can to lock this guy up because you need A.J. McKee, you need him badly. Even after the loss to Patricio, you still have a third

fight that's right there. And you could do it at 55. It cares about the title. Who cares? It means nothing. Go up to 55, have the third fight. And if he beats him, then you can have him fight but tricky for the title. You still get story there. You still get a couple of big fights you can book with AJ McKee with Bellator.

But if AJ is a free agent, I'm sure the UFC is going to go after him. And I'm sure AJ McKee will take something relatively close. I think Bellator will probably come with a more lucrative offer. But I think UFC will bring him more opportunity. and the chance to make more down the line and give them some more interesting fights. But I don't know. We'll see.

We'll see what happens. I don't know how everybody feels about AJ McKee's stocked. Did it drop you? I mean, we're having conversations on our ranking show, the NBA Fighting Global Rankings show, the only rankings that matter in the sport. And we're talking about this. There are people saying that,

I mean, we're having conversations that AJ McKee, is Agent McKee the best featherweight in the world? Like, could he beat Alexander, or Volkadovsky. Could he beat Max Holloway? These are conversations that were being had. Not just by us,

but by other people, too. I thought everyone was crazy with the Volkadovsky comparisons if we're being honest, because I just think Volcanovsky is that good. The Holloway one, maybe stylistically,

and I didn't like that. I didn't like AJ's chances of that fight either. The Volcanowski one, I never really liked his chances because I just think Volkanowski is just that great. He's great.

Not that good. He's that great. So we'll see what happens. I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know how the UFC's viewing this. I don't know if Belcher's viewing it, but it's going to be very interesting over the next few months to see what's going on. Let's bring our man Christopher in here.

Christopher, good morning. How you doing? What's up, buddy? Yeah, all good. I kind of just want to come in here and say, obviously last time we spoke, it was about Rising 35, and we kind of spoke about Satoshi. And I mentioned how, in my opinion, he's one of MMA's best kept secrets.

I don't know how much longer that will last for. What I wanted to ask you is, obviously, he got on the mic after he won, and he mentioned that he wants to fight Petriki for the belt. How do you think that fight would go? Do you think that fight will happen? And since you're talking to Scott Coker soon, how about asking him about that fight? I will ask him about that fight. Will it happen?

That's a great question. It should happen. I'll say yes. I'm going to be, I'm going to be cautiously optimistic. I'm going to say yes. That fight does happen. I think they will do the Petriki Sydney Outlaw fights. They were trying to book for like a couple months ago.

I think they will actually get that fight probably on the books. I would say that fight probably happens in the summer. And if that happens, then end of the year, maybe we could do the whole New Year's Eve right around that area. maybe we do the two-night thing. We have like Bellator do an event over there. And then we have, you know, the big rise in New Year's Eve car right after. And then just throw that on one or the other. I mean, I'd watch the crap out of that.

That'd be super fun. And how about Saika Zawa, by the way? Holy cow. She might be the most, she might be the most natural MMA prospect we have ever seen that nobody even really knows about. This, I mean, this woman is unbelievable. Running through Ayaka Hamasaki, two fights in a row. Two fights in a row finishes her in December in just her fifth professional fight.

And then they get the rematch again at Rise of 35, dominant decision win for Azawa. She's 24. She's only 6 in 0. This woman is unbelievable. unbelievable. We're talking about best kept secrets. DeSos is right up there. But maybe number two is Azawa.

She might even be number one. She's incredible. She's a really good fighter. Ryzen's a lot of fun right now. That was a fun card. So if you're looking for anybody to watch, if you were like, I just didn't feel,

I don't feel complete after watching Bellator of the UFC. Go watch Riseon 35. It's a lot of fun. Let's get, Joey T in here. Joey T. How you, what's up? How are you?

So I know this is about the next upcoming UFC fight card. You notice how the odds of Dean Barry versus Mike Jackson, like I know for embellator-wise, we see that more often when they try to get like a prospect to go against like a mediocre or a bad fighter just to slowly, you know, push them up. I know this is the first time in a wild

UFC's done this. Do you think they can see that more often for like upcoming prospects? interesting question. Yes, Dean Barry is finally going to make his UFC debut. And he's going to take on our old pal, Mike the Truth, Jackson. Let me see how many. They've tried to book this fight. This is the third time they tried to book it.

So they tried to book it in January of last year. And then Jackson got injured and the fight didn't happen. Then they tried to book it in May. and then Barry had to withdraw. He had some visa issues and all this other stuff. And basically, like, I don't know the full story. I know my colleague Damon Martin spoke with Dean. You'll probably see that conversation sometime this week heading into the fight.

But there was some visa issues and a lot happened. And from what I understand, Dean Barry had to spend like tens of thousands of dollars to try to get these visa issues taken care of so he could fight in the UFC. he ended up getting a fight with Titan FC, got a quick finish against a guy who was 6 and 30. So, I mean, I think we all knew it was going to happen. Now he's going to fight Mike Jackson.

Listen, this is a fine fight. The UFC clearly sees something in Dean Barry because Dean said that Dean's an Irish fighter. It comes from Dublin. It's a place they want to go back to. They're trying to build stars from that area. And it's a hotbed for MMA.

It's kind of an, like, now that Connor is not as, active. It's kind of an untapped market in terms of the UFC. Now, it's a very, it's a very fun area. Cage Warriors does a lot of stuff over there. Bellator's been over there a couple times and the crowd and the, atmosphere and the fans, they're incredible.

But the UFC is probably like, how could we get back over there? They have some fighters, sure, but how can we get back over there and build something? And Dean Barry's a fun, exciting prospect. He's going to fight Mike Jackson. Mike's going to be tough, 100%. Dean will probably win the fight. I have to see what the odds are. I have to say Barry's probably...

I'm going to guess like a five-to-one favorite. Am I crazy? Where are we here? Oh, geez. Minus 1125. Okay, so I was way off. All right. So, yeah, I think that's probably lined correctly.

We haven't seen Mike fight in a while. Was the punk fight the last one? I think it was. And that was 2018. So it's been four years since Mike Jackson fought. So, yeah, I think we all know how this is going to go. But you never know. Maybe Mike has been spending the last four years, working effortlessly,

and he's become like the Aaron Pico of the UFC. Who knows? But, yeah, I don't think we're going to see that very often. But I think we all know why this fight's happening. Hot-take Higgins, what's up? Hey, Mike. I had a couple questions for you. The first is non-MMA.

As a fellow New Englander who moved south, I was always curious what led you to uproot the family and moving down here. And my second question, to piggyback off what Tristan said, I'm so pumped for the font Verifite. I was curious who you like in that, and if you think a win for either, puts either of those guys in the title contention. Thanks.

Thank you, Hot-Tay Kiggins. Appreciate that. So I moved, we decided to move down to South Carolina because winter sucks. And winter has sucked for a long time. And we realized that at our age, why do something that sucks when we don't have to do something that sucks anymore? So we decided we're just going to, we're just going to leave. We're just going to go where there's no winter and it might get a little colder, but there's no snow and there's no ice. and we could actually, like, go out and do things.

Because during the pandemic, I don't mind snow. Take me in the snow all day. I will sled and I will go snow tubing. I'll be like an eight-year-old kid out there. I love it. But it's like two below zero every day. And then it's wind chills hitting like minus 20. F that noise.

That sucks. It's awful. And then, like, on top of the pandemic and everything, my wife and I was just like, we got to get out of here. This is horrendous. What are we doing here? my parents are down in Florida just like sitting by the pool

they're out with their friends wearing shorts in January I'm like I want that that's what I want I don't want to live in a 65 plus community but I want those kinds of things in my life where it's January and if I want to go outside I could go outside if I would wear shorts in January

I want to be able to do that maybe I could jump in the pool and that's kind of what I did here I want to play golf in January and I got to do all of those things. So made the right decision, spent the first winter down here. I will say one thing I don't like about South Carolina, and it's a minor thing. I have horrific seasonal allergies, really awful.

Like swollen eyes messes with the upper half of my face. It's terrible. But they have like three allergy seasons down here. You have like a two-month reprieve. Other than that, I'm just, I mean, I just have a swollen face all the time. all the allergies. There's not enough allergy medication in the world to make me feel 100%. But I will sacrifice my face for warmth any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Let's get another Mike in here. Mike McMichaples. Hi, Mike. Just got on mute. There you go. Are you there? Sorry, Mike McMichaels.

Try again. Let's get Wally in here. Wally. But I'm Wally. I will. I know you're looking for a mic. Mike. So my question is, is the next fight for DeVos-Willi, Jan? And is that a terrible fight for Jan, seeing how Al Jamein kind of was able to hang on to him? What are your thoughts there? Thank you, Wally. It's a great question.

It's one that we have been pondering quite a bit since UFC 273. It all depends. I think this is probably more of a Pioter Jan and his team's decision more than it is a Mareb de Walsh-Willi-Dish-Willi decision. it all depends now maybe after being involved with sterling in this whole rivalry and everything this happened over all this time or these last two years maybe yon this team gets together and they say we want to get as far away from this as possible right now we need a break from sterling we need a break from all of it and who is very close to aljurne sterling who is backstage with Al Jermaine Sterling near a near Bupkus went down.

It was Marab de Walsh, really. They're very close. They are teammates. They are friends. They are very tight. So it all depends. If Yon is just like, I hate this Al Jemaine Sterling and I want to get back to him as quickly as possible,

then yes, you fight Marab de Walsh, Willie. That's the best way to do it. You beat the teammate. I beat your teammate and I'm going to beat you. Sure. Because it's not a fight the UFC is going to go right back to right away. Yon's going to need another win. probably two to get there.

So I don't think it happens. I don't think that's a... There's a storyline there, but I don't think it ends up happening. Again, and I've been saying this about Marab for over two years, though. He's got to have a hard time finding fights. He just is. There's nobody, just nobody in this top 15

that is going to be hankering to fight Marab de Walsh, really. nobody. No one is going to open up their email and be like, yes, I have a fight contract. Who am I fighting? Oh, Marab. I mean, I guess. I guess I'll have to fight this dude. Like, that's the reaction. No one wants to fight this guy. And I'll blame him. The risk reward, like we try to factor that in with these future matchups all the time. But I will give, if Jan goes out there and fights, if Jan's just like, yeah, line up Marab. My respect for that, man, will just go through the roof. But I don't think that's the fight that ends up happening.

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Ahid, what you got? What's up, buddy? Mike, are you good? I'm good, man. How are you? Too bad, not too bad. So, like, some couple points. Firstly, I want to say after that, like, after the Bilal and Vincente fight,

Leon Edwards does not deserve a title shot. He's being given one out of pity and sympathy. And let that sink in, okay? And this is why. And it's so crazy the like woke MMA community or like a feminist who are offended by Colby and what Colby says. And this is why.

There's a stat that's come out of Bilal after his will of Vincenti. and Bilar, it shows, it's basically listing all the top welter weights in the world, and it's showing their wins over top 10 welterweights. And it's always, it's always Kobe. I mentioned this before, but I think it got drowned out by other topics, but it's always the criticism is always on Kobe. Kobe hasn't fought a top 10 guy. Kobe hasn't done this.

Kobe hasn't done diversely. Kobe for Maizvidal, Maxidale, Six. And it's like, you know, they always try and put him down. When he thought Woodley, Woodley was still there. Obviously, he's gone now. But why does, even with Woodley, when he beat Woodley, why does Gilbert Burns get so much credit for it when Kobe just did it a couple months later? Why does Vincenti Lucke get so much credit for it?

When they did it off Kobe, it's so crazy to me. Then you look at, you kind of stack the records up and you realize that people just don't like Kobe and the little snowflakes that I want to put him down on purpose and ignore the hypocrisy towards other people. You want to go after Kobe? Like, all right, let's let's break down others. Let's break down Leon Edwards. And even, like, obviously, Gilbert Burns took the hums up bite.

He lost. But prior to that, it was just like Stephen Wonderboy Thompson. And even that, for me, like, all those, like, illegal shots, as far as I'm concerned, deserve a point taken off. And even before that, it's like, come on like, what, he beat Damien Meyer. years after Colby did it. He beat like a wood, like, okay, Woodley.

But, and then you look at Leon Edwards. Let's look at the record, okay? Let's go back. Nate Diaz, come on. Are you serious? Like, Colby's winner of Jorge means so much more. And then what have we got? We've got Belal.

That fight never, listen, the little fan boys, MMA, this is silly. Like, he won one round. It wasn't even like a 10-8. Like, okay, he won, he picked him apart. He was looking good. maybe he would have gone on to win, stop the fight, but we don't know because he nearly blinded the guy. Okay, and then before that, RDA, a year, a whole year after Kobe did it. And that

Usman did it beat RDA before then, too. It's silly how it's, and the hypocrisy is always on Kobe, amongst other topics as well, like as in, I mentioned this before, but he got drowned out, like, with the Masvidal attack, like people, like, oh, saying, oh, Kobe deserved it. Masvidal talked about his kids. and Justin Gagee said the exact same thing. Colby never said anything about Maspedal's kids. He said about Masfordel's ability as a father was poor. Justin Gage said the same thing, word for word.

End of 2019, 2020, when Connor attacked some guy at a pub. Like, Justin Gagey said Connor was a shit father. And no one can challenge me of this, because I remember what, like, Connor was pissed. Connor was like, I'm going to kill you. So, like, I know it for sure. And it's so, but it's funny. No one said anything then.

people always like to go after Kobe is the hypocrisy and talking about hypocrisy as well one last point is about Lizaz and Daniel Kinnahan I wasn't going to like obviously like last time I brought up the

whole Israel-Palestine thing I wasn't going to bring up again because why but why mention outside things outside the octagon but it's funny right like all the journalists hailing the guy asking about Daniel Kinnahannan persisting like how do you turn up to an MMA press conference and that's your only line of questioning. And since you're so passionate about outside the Octagon issues,

you're not going to ask Bilal, like you're not going to really highlight the actions of evil, evil, Israeli, Zionists, like, invading mosques again. Again, the morning of the fight, they did the same thing. Belal mentioned Palestine in his post-fight interview. Nada, like, nothing significant as far as I, like, there's nothing I could see that was, like, really highlighted. but again all these journalists they want to pick and choose the narratives i brought it up before and then

it's come up again i didn't want to bring up again i was like it's all i've already talked about but again pick and choose and people want to hail um journal like this is journalism no it's not you picked and choose the same way you pick and choose with colby colby bit maslidel you tried to crap on that victory but we know we all know if leon did the same thing to masvidal 269 you would have like everyone would have be like, hail Leon. He'll give him his title show. He's the best. So it's again, hypocrisy is ridiculous. I already talking about RDA. Hypocrisy. It's just pathetic hypocrisy. Ah, he'd bringing the, bringing the smoke as always. Yeah, man, I mean, I mean, listen, like, what else does Leon have to do? I mean, just give the guy a title shot. And listen,

here's the thing. The whole time Shemayev was getting ready to fight Gilbert Birds, we were like, man Leon's going to get leapfrogged isn't he we all thought that but now like made him look somewhat human and now like

this is the this is the conversation now this is what we get Leon Leon gets the fight not like not that I didn't truly think that Leon was going to get leapfrogged but if Shamiya went out there in 19 seconds Gilbert Burns

and just picked him up slammed him and knocked him dead the conversation would have changed There's no doubt about it. That's why we, that fight has not been officially announced yet. But I still felt like Leon would get the shot. It is what it is. It is what it is.

Now, my whole thing was, and I still stand by this, that what you do here, and this is if Usman is not ready to fight in July, just do Shemaiah versus Leon, just do an interim title fight. Let those two guys fight it out. Interim title, main events. Let's have some fun.

And then the winner fights Camaro in a fight that is 10 times bigger than it would have been before. If Camaro fights Leon Edwards now, and listen, if they do that fight in, like, Africa or they do it in London, that would be great. Because you'd have fans who would be like super duper into it. It'd be awesome. That'd be great. Do that one in Vegas. Do it in New York. Do it in Sacramento, wherever.

It's just going to be like, all right, cool. Who's been the pound for pound number one guy? Let's just go watch him fight a guy I already beat. So, I mean, I don't know. Maybe they have plans to, like, make this interesting. Maybe they have plans to do it somewhere else. I don't know. But this is just kind of the fight right now.

But if you did the interim title idea that I've been pitching since UFC 268, if Leon Edwards beats Hamzaa Chimaev, you do that fight, in November, MSG, it's a way bigger fight. And people would care a lot more. And if Hamzac goes out there beats Lee on Edwards, I mean, come on. How much bigger is that fight now? I think interim titles are stupid 95% of the time.

In this case, it's not stupid. Because we all know what it means. It's a glorified number one contender fight. We're putting a second title on there. And we're just giving Usman time. We're not saying we're going to put this interim title because Usman is scared or he doesn't want to fight anybody. No, Usman's been like your most active champion over the last couple of years. Let's give this guy a break.

All he wants to do is spend time with his family. He's recovering from an injury. Why Rush Usen back? What's the point? When you have a fight that would be with the guy who's a bigger star right now than Usman, you do Shamiyev versus Leon, main event, interim title, bigger fight. More pay-per-view buys, guaranteed, because Shemayev's there. And if Shemayev wins, him versus Uspin is one of the biggest fights you can make, period.

And if Leon Edwards wins, it's way better than it would have been now. So it's not going to happen. Wishful thinking. I'm like, go west up in here, the king of wishful thinking. It's not going to happen, but it's way better. It's a way better idea. And then the other stuff I'm not really going to dive into. I get where you're coming from.

yes, Munir Lazzez, timing was not good. And I do believe that those questions should have been asked during the post-fight press conference. 100%.

But I'll leave it at that. Do we have to drill him under the hot lamp for 10 minutes about it? No, you didn't. But did it need to be asked 100%? And that's it. And then this is spurred up

this whole other debate about journalism and what to cover and what needs to be asked and all that stuff. And, you know, we're seeing Kareem Zadad getting crushed on Twitter. And I don't know why. I mean, this guy's doing what no one else is doing. Cream is the man. I mean, this guy, holy cow, read up about Kareem. And this guy just gives no Fs at all.

So good on him. But, yeah, I don't know. I don't want to get into all that. We're going to take a couple more. because I've got to get out of here and get a workout in. Glenn Pinch, Tilarmy slash Glenn Pinch. What's up? Are you there?

You just got on mute. Hello. Hey, how you go? There we go. Got him. What's up? Yeah, I think it'd be pretty silly to make an interim title for the World Warweight Division right now. That's what you were talking about before, wasn't it?

Why? Why would it be silly? My idea is better than Newsman Edwards right now, isn't it? It is. It's silly. I get it. From merit, interim titles are stupid. And I'm with you.

I believe interim titles are stupid too. Like the heavyweight one with the whole and Ghanu thing doing Derek Lewis or zero gone, stupid. Made zero sense. No sense at all. Usman's hurt. Usen needs time. He wants to spend time with his family.

He's the most active champion they had. We all know the interim title means nothing. But it's just a cool fight to set up a number one contender fight. And it makes if Leon beat Shemaiah, it makes Edwards, versus Usman way more interesting, way more, like five times more interesting. And if Shamiya wins, it's the biggest fight you can make in the whole promotion right now. It's not for wrong with number one contender fights, but they make minimum titles at the moment.

Anyway, how long is Usman out for? Well, I mean, he had hand surgery. Yeah. Okay, so the plan was they're going to try to make it this summer. Let's just say like the hit, let's just say they announce this fight and then we find out that Usman needs like two more months. and I have to push the fight back. They just wasted two months. It's not a month since he's last fight before he fought to get.

I know, but this is not a penalty. We're not penalizing, Rusman. We're making him more money. We're making him more money with this. Because the fight, whoever wins that interim title fight, and I'm doing air quotes right now. I'm doing air quotes. Because we all know what it means.

It's a glorified number one contender fight. We're both fighters competing for this interim title that is not the actual championship. They're just going to make more. money and we're going to give Edwards what he wants a title shot. It's just not for the actual belt. He gets his title shot. Shamiath gets his opportunity. Whoever wins that fight will go on to fight Kamara Usman in a fight that is 10 times bigger and a fight that makes Kamara Usman eight times more money. What's wrong with that? Look, there's no doubt that Leon Edwards deserves

a title shot probably right now. He's been very consistent over the years. He's fought yeah a lot of people hasn't he so yeah there's no doubt that he's well deserving so yeah we just have to see how he goes yeah listen I'm with you I think they're gonna do Ousman I think they're gonna do Ousman versus Edwards but let's I'm just saying

if for some reason Ousman needs more time let's just say Ousbe can't fight till October November let's just have some fun let's just have some fun Oh for sure there's fights to be made in that division. Like it's such a active division. Yeah,

and so, so loaded. But the World Weight Division always has been, hasn't it? Like, it's always been an awesome, awesome division in the UFC.

Yeah, since way back when St. Pierre was champion, even when St. Pierre was moving through the ranks himself. Yeah, it's just been a loaded division for a long, long time. Yeah,

it's a marquee division for a, sure. Yeah, we'll see what happens. It's going to be an interesting year for this division. We'll see where Balaal ends up. We'll see where Colby ends up. I'm going to take two more. Let's see if Mike McMichaels can get back in here. We tried before. Can we make it happen? Mike McMichaels, are you there? Hey, hey, hello, hello. Yes, what's up? I just want to say that I agree with a comes up Leon, fighting for interim belt. I think it's an excellent idea because, you know, it's clear the UFC has, you know, their new star and what better way to make him a bigger star by giving him a shiny belt.

That's if he beats Leon Edwards. And brings me on to the point where I just want to say I really disagree with Ahid when he said Leon Edwards doesn't deserve a title shot. Because this guy has been presented with so many opportunities, just like McCarchev. and you know he was offered to fight woodley he accepted the event was on and then COVID happened he accepted to fight comes up you know accepted and then you know nothing happened again I think because of COVID as well and it's just like you know put some respect put some respect on the Leon's name man come on fucking fucking you made Belau cry he made Belau cry in the fight you know you fucking punched him in the face and like Belal was crying for some reason for like

a long time. So yeah, give him the title shot. And if he doesn't get the title shot, give him an interim belt. And, yeah, that's all I had to say. Damn, bringing the heat. Love it. Listen, yeah, I mean, Leon deserves a title fight. I get it.

I get it. I mean, I get where other people are coming from. The problem is, and if you listen to BTL over the last couple of years, Jed Mishu has talked about this a million times And I'm not going to go as far as to I don't necessarily agree Completely with what Jed's saying But in the Jed Mishu way of explaining things

His whole thing is it's not that Leon is a bad fighter It's that nobody cares It's just that he just is just there In a lot of people's eyes And the UFC is giving them opportunity And a lot of people like Well the UFC needs to do a better job of promoting that They just put

him in a fight with Nate Diaz. They gave him a showcase fight with Nate Diaz. And he was winning, but he wasn't blowing the doors off Nate. This wasn't going to be a performance we were going to be talking about for 10 years. And then Nate almost beats him. Nate hurts him, almost finishes him at the end of the fight. And what are we talking about? We're talking about Nate Diaz. We're talking about the last two minutes of that fight, not the 23 minutes that Leon Edwards dominated. But it's just the UFC has given him chances. They've given him opportunities to shine and get him over. They're trying to get him over. And he hasn't been able to answer the call. He's winning, but he's not getting over. He's not, he's not a fighter that people are going to be like,

holy crap, I get to spend 75 bucks to watch Leon Edwards fight. And Leon's a really good fighter. He's a good fighter. But is he a guy that the OCS is going to be like, you know what? We've got to, I mean, we got two paper reviews in July. Let's just say, let's just say that's the International Fight Week main event. And I have no insight to this whatsoever. Let's just say Usman versus Edwards is the main event for the International Fight Week card. Okay? It's a good fight.

And most of us in the space, I know I'll be watching because you can remember, July 30th, there's another event. There's another card. Let's just say they do, I'm trying to pull this out here. Let's say international flight week, they do Usman Edwards in the main event spot. Again, no insight. It's not, I know nothing about this. Co-main event, let's say they do Kenya versus Nunes, too. Okay?

There's that card. July 30th, they do Adasanya, can in the air, and they do Volcanowski Holloway. Which one are you buying? You're buying the second. one. It's not even a discussion. It's not a discussion. I mean, well, it depends on what they load the rest of the cards with, but if we're going fight for fight, we're going, okay, I'm trying about Ushman Edwards, Pena Nunes, on one side. And on the other side, you have Adasania, cannon air,

and then you can do Volcanovsky Holloway 2. I mean, it's not even close. It's not even close. That's the thing. But again, and that's why I've been pitching this interim idea since UFC 268. Uzbin said, I need time off.

I need something that excites me. I want big money fights. He's calling out freaking Canelo, which is the stupidest thing in the world. Like, there's Reacher for the Stars. There's Bilal Muhammad calling for Colby Covington. silly and then there's ouzman calling for canello silly and freaking bala looks like a looks like a genius right now for for comparing the two but that's the thing i mean it's just

the thing it's not no one no i don't think anyone's underestimating leon edwards the fighter i think they're just saying just people aren't all that interested in him i mean that's just it just is what it is now you go out there and you beat shimai if guess what people are interested Mike Lawson Final word my man What you got Mike Ech of a morning bro

I agree with your interim decision That's actually a pretty good Take with Chmive and Edwards Terrible Terrible terrible terrible take though On how you think Balal Remember the decision

Muhammad is calling out Covington a bad decision I think that's actually a good played both wrestling styles is that'd be a nice matchup to kind of see who takes a little bit more of a dominance Colby's kind of been quiet

every time Chimaev has ever been brought up and I'm losing you Can you hear me? Hello? Yep, I got you now. All right, sorry, driving in the car.

What was the last thing you heard? You said something about wrestling and the wrestling and then you said the last thing I heard you say was he's been pretty quiet when talking about Shamaev and then I lost you. Yeah so he's been quiet about every time Chimaiov has been brought up

and meanwhile Bala needs somebody to, I'd say he's two away from a title shot at this point and what better to take the number one spot than you know fighting Colby Chimayev is not I don't think a better

call out just because Chimaev is probably the hottest thing since Connor and Balal, to be quite honest, is Bala. So yeah, I'd love to hear your take on that. Absolutely. And I can't wait to get my take on this.

Okay, here's the thing. Do I think overall it's a bad callout? No. Okay? You take a shot. The problem is Colby, he's not going to fight, Colby is not going to fight Bala Muhammad. He's just not.

There's just nothing in tight. about fighting Bala Muhammad's Colby Covington. I can tell you that right now. Nobody has interviewed and talked to Colby Covington more over the last seven years than I have. And I will tell you this without even asking him. I know the answer to this question. Balaamah will not interest him one iota.

Why? Because he is a prize fighter and there's no prize to fighting Bala Muhammad. There's no, there's literally nothing. he beats Bilal Muhammad. What does that get him? It gets him a win. And I don't even know if his contract structure where he gets a win show.

So literally he just gets a win on his resume. It does nothing for him. Nothing. He's fighting a guy backwards with some buzz, not a lot. And here's my thing with Bilal, okay? When he called out Usman after his last fight, that's fine.

Cool. But keep that same. same energy throughout. Because he went on the media tour and did a million interviews. And what did he call for every single interview he did? Not Usman. He called for Hamzad. Every single interview.

But when the moment counted, he didn't call for that fight. But in the media interviews after, that's when he called for it. So he gets a second opportunity to do it again. Here's your chance, bro. Shabaev, everyone's talking about has Shamiyaev's stock dropped? has Shemayev's stock gone down since the Gilbert Burns fight? And here you are. You're fighting Vicente Luque, a guy who knocked you out.

Biggest win of your career. And I knew it. I'm like, don't call out Usman and don't call up Colby, because you're not going to get those fights. Go for Shemayev. Go after it. Everything you've got. Spend the next 90 seconds.

Cut that promo. And what does he do? He calls out Colby. Come on, man. Like, I get it, but I guarantee you. And I have not listened to this yet. I guarantee you. Guarantee it.

My colleague Damon Martin interviewed Blah Muhammad yesterday. I will guarantee you he calls Oh, Hamzat Shamaa from that interview. Guarantee it. Guarantee it. Why not just do it there? You have, that fight is there. There's a chance. And you know what?

There is a chance if he had called after the Wonderboy win, if he had called out Hamzad after the Wonderboy win, after the Wonderboy win, it probably wouldn't have been Gilbert Burns fighting Hamzat. It probably would have been below fighting Hamzat. He just missed his shot. He was too late.

He was too late. And he's doing the same thing here. Because Colby's not going to fight him. Colby is not going to take that fight because it does nothing for him. I think Kobe will fight Hamzat. If they offer that to Colby, I think he'll fight him. Main event, if they do it,

exactly what Dana says. Main event, on ABC, five rounds, I think Colby would take it. I'm trying to find the exact quote that Colby gave me about Shemaya back in November. And then I talked to him again after the win over Mazdaal. The feeling hasn't changed. If this is what the UFC wants, if they want to put together and turn this into a big fight, that I will do it. But he knows the ball fight is not that fight. It's just not. Blalza is a great guy, a good fighter, great social media follow, just a good dude. He's a good dude.

But he's not like a draw. He's not going to make Colby any extra money. Colby would rather fight Mazadol again. There's way more story there. That fight makes way more money. Tomzat makes him way more money. And it does something for him. If he fights Hamzot and wins, he's probably getting a title shot.

He'll probably get that third fight with Usman. Fighting Balah doesn't get him any closer to a title fight. It just gives him a win. You fight Balaf, you're just like, you know what? I want to fight. I just want to fight. I'm sick of sitting around. I get some frustrations here.

I just want to fight. Oh, Bilal's available? Sure, I'll fight him. But if this is about business, and look, there's talks about him fighting out of Sonia right now. Not like within the company. Like, this has been broadband. This is a thing.

Like, Colie Ralph, go up to one. 85 and fight somebody up there than fight Bilal Muhammad. It just is what it is. Sorry. All right. I'll give HK. One more shot. I keep, wow, I'm going over an hour here.

HK. Final word. What's up? Are you there? Hello? Hello? Yes, yes. So my thoughts on this are basically on Bilal.

As you said, he messed up his chance to go with Hamzat. So I do think Hamzat steamrolls him is in. his intensity is too much for Bilal. Then we go to Colby. I think Colby is a bit of a coward, to be honest. He just wants to go for the title shot. It won't risk that against anyone. And so I'm not really sure what he's going to do.

And that's all I got to say. I appreciate that. Okay, so this whole thing about being cowards, I just don't buy it. Listen, these guys get in cages and fight other people. No one's scared to fight anybody. They're just not. But when you get to a point in your career

where you're just like, I'm not just going to do things just to do them. I'm going to do them to like make money. I'm going to do them to secure my future or at least take a step towards doing that. So Colby fighting like Vicente Lucke or fighting somebody like that, like, makes, or fighting Balal makes no sense. Like, Balal's in a nice streak right now, but like, fighting Bilal Muhammad does, like, I'm sorry, it just does nothing for him.

It just nothing for him. Colby is a prize fighter. He's going to look for the chance to make the most amount of money and do they least amount of work. That is what a prize fighter does. You go out there and you make the easiest money you can. He knew that, like, he knew he's going to beat Mazadol. Like, he knew it.

He knew he was going to win that fight. That fight was built up. He knew he was going to be Tyron Woodley. Talked about it for years. He knew as soon as he got in the cage of Woodley, he would win. Now, he messed that up originally. He talked himself out of a title fight, which would have been a way bigger fight at the time.

But he still got the Woodley fight, and people cared, and he ran through him, and he made a bunch of money. Then he gets the Mazadol fight. Everybody knew how that fight was going to go. And he went out there and won. and made a lot of money. And they talk about the pay-prey points, whatever.

He still made a lot of money. Al-Lah doesn't make him a lot of money. He'll get his paycheck and stuff, but, like, again, for the future, it's either big money fights or get me closer to a title shot. Al-Lah does neither. Hamza definitely does. That's why I think he ultimately would take that. But he's not just going to fight him, like a three-round fight on a co-main event,

on a pay-per-view. This is a main event fight. if they're going to do it on ABC, if they present Colby with this fight, they say, hey, you, Shemaiah, ABC, and John Anick better be wearing that gold jacket. I think Colby takes it. I honestly, I think he takes it. I think he takes that fight.

The only other fight I think he would take over that is if they offered him the Mazdahl fight. Because I think there's big money in that, even with everything going on right now. And he knows that he's just going to beat him. He's probably going to beat Mazdal again. Whatever happened to that first fight, it's probably going to happen again. And people would care because of everything happening behind the scenes. Do I think that fight ever happens? I don't know.

Would the UFC try to make that fight? Absolutely they would. 1,000% they would try to make that fight. And they would use this whole thing that has happened on the mean streets of Miami Beach to their advantage in promoting the fight. But, yeah, if it's between Hamzat and Bilal, Colby's taking Hamzat a thousand times. because it makes sense.

It's a bigger money fight, and it gets him closer to a title fight. Well, Balala does neither of those things for him. But, all right, this is fun. This is fun. You know what? I'm going to take one more, and then I've got to get out of here.

Alvin, are you there, Alvin? Come here, man. What's up? What's up? Yeah, I got... All I calms out, man, I think... I don't know. I think Kobe's not...

scared, but I just, I don't think he wants it. Why? His wrestling, that's what he's used to his wrestling. He always goes to his wrestling, and Hamzaq can wrestle. I just think his wrestling's better. Maybe. Yeah, that's why, so he makes it interesting, right? I want to see it.

I want to see that fight. I want to see what happens. Now, here's the thing. Hamzat is a monster. And there is a possibility that he, just goes out there and just runs Cuffington over. But Coveington is very durable. But let's just say, if Hamza just runs through Coveington and knocks him on the first

round, would it be the most shocking thing in the world? No. It wouldn't. And this is maybe just the hype that we built upon ourselves. But I think Hobbs that's going to learn a lot from this Gilbert-Burn's fight. But at the same token, if we get that kind of fight again, and this fight gets extended. into the fourth, fifth rounds. That's Colby's world.

That's where he shines. That's where I think this fight gets really interesting. If Colby can win one round, if Colby can win one round between one, two, and three, one round, he's got a very good chance to win. That's an it. That's a big if. Because you're going in there with a huge band,

it's going to try to knock your head off. but Colby just needs to win one of those first three rounds. He has a very good chance to win. As we saw Hamzaa gets get tired down the stretch, he cuts a lot of weight. Colby doesn't get tired ever. He just keeps going. He's a freak when it comes to that. I just think it's a compelling fight.

It's a really compelling fight. Hamza is the much more powerful guy, but Colby's got the gas tank and the wrestling and just that grind. really fascinated. If the UFC could pull that off on ABC, sorry, I just sat down on the bed, that's huge. That's a huge, fascinating fight.

And the winner gets a title shot. I don't care that Oosman beat Colby twice. If Colby beats Hamzaa Chamaif on ABC in a main event, he gets his third fight. Or he fights Leon. He gets it. 100%. And if Hamzaat beats Colby, boom.

He gets his title fight. We get a massive fight. So we'll see what happens. I like all of this. I mean, that is the fight to make if they can get it done. But it's not Belal versus Colby. I can tell you that right now. But that's it, everybody.

We went a little overtime today. I was like, I'm going to go for like 45 minutes. We went for an hour and 15 minutes. Hour and 17 minutes, actually. But the good news is we'll be back on Thursday. It will do it again. And then we'll be back on Friday. It will do it again.

And that Friday show is just going to be nothing but your calls. But I have a feeling that tomorrow might, or Thursday, excuse me, might be the same way. So I appreciate everybody who has jumped on, who was requested, who has asked questions, who has been here since the beginning. I appreciate you all very much. Hope you have a heck of a rest of the day. It will see you guys on Thursday. It's going to be a busy one.

We'll have this show, the return of BTL on video. And I got a couple of fun interviews coming up this week. Stay tuned for that. I'll be talking to Mr. Drkar Close later on today. So I don't know if we're going to put that on the pod. I don't know how we're going to handle that. But we're going to do something with that. I can tell you that right now. So enjoy the rest of your day, everybody.

Thank you for listening. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay. Only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. You know,