MMA Fighting - Heck of a Morning | Does Anybody Actually Want To See Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor 2?

Episode Date: June 24, 2022

Reports have surfaced that a second boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor is currently being discussed. While the jury is still out on whether or not that's actually what will end up happening, if it does, would you be willing to pay to watch it again? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, it's a Free-For-All Friday where MMA Fighting's Mike Heck takes listener questions all show long — which includes thoughts on a potential rematch between two of the biggest stars in combat sports. In addition, topics include Jake Paul vs. Tommy Fury being set for Aug. 6 at Madison Square Garden, the UFC Vegas 57 main event between Arman Tsarukyan and Mateusz Gamrot, UFC 276 prelims being set to air on ABC, Bellator 282, James Krause as a coach, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 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

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-by journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. You may have heard of the sex cult Nexium and the famous actress who went to prison for her involvement, Alison Mack. But she's never told her side of the story. now. People assume that I'm like this pervert. My name is Natalie Robamed, and in my new podcast, I talked to Allison to try to understand how she went from TV actor to cult member. How do you feel about having been involved in bringing sexual trauma at other people? I don't even know

how to answer that question. Allison after Nexium from CBC's Uncover is available now on Spotify. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Well, hello there, everybody. It is Friday June 24th, 2022. And it is indeed a heck of a morning live here on the MMA fighting Twitter spaces. And if you come in a little bit late, show starts a little too early for you. It'll upload shortly thereafter on the M.A. Fighting Podcast Network. I am Mike Heck. Happy Friday.

Hope you're all having a wonderful week. There's a lot going on in the world of combat sports. We got three events tonight. we got Bellator 282, we got PFL, we got BKFC, Cage Warriors this weekend, we got the UFC this weekend, there's just a lot going on. And then we're officially on the road to UFC 276, International Fight Week.

That card is absolutely ridiculous, and you may have seen that there is a change to the UFC 276 card, as we found out Bobby Green is no longer competing next Saturday in, Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena. He is out for undisclosed reasons, and in comes the cowboy. Donald Seroni to face Jim. That fight is on the main cut.

Sean O'Malley versus Pedro Munoz has moved to the featured prelim on ESPN, which I actually think is a great move. And that card is just absolutely redonculus. And I am excited and honored to be there representing M. fighting. This is a free-for-all Friday. We're going to take your questions about anything and everything real quick. I just want to tell this ridiculous story. So if those of you who have ever played competitive sports, if you have ever played baseball, if you're an old bald man like me, and the only way to really compete in this world, try to find that baseball glory of the

past is to play men's league slow-pitched softball, then you will understand the story. So we are in the my team that I was on, or I am on, we're in the playoffs. Last week we played two games. You lost the first game. Absolutely dismantled the team in the losers bracket. So we had to come back last night and play a game again, a winner of the previous game. We were short-handed, only had nine guys. And we battled.

We battled. We were down 25. at 19 heading into the last inning. And we just came alive, people. We came alive. Tied the game. And then we get to the bottom of the lineup, our two worst hitters.

Number eight hitter hits a base hit to right field. We take the lead. Then our worst hitter gets up. Remind you, I'm short-handed. And he hits a little bit of the other parts. Let us play with eight guys. Let us play with eight guys. please, for the love of God, let us play with eight guys.

I don't know if you even heard that story, but basically we lost because our lead player, tore his ACL getting a base hit to give us the lead. We had to carry him out to the field in the bottom of the inning. Carry him out. And he just stood there. The umpire actually threw the ball back to the pitcher. We couldn't throw the ball of the plate.

They scored three runs that we lost. But you may have missed some of that story, because my wife just took my car, the Bluetooth connected to the car. So she probably heard this conversation, and it doesn't matter. Let's go. Let's talk some MMA.

This is just silly. Zach, left kicking us off. What's up, buddy? Mike, you hear me? Yes, sir. Awesome. Well, yeah, I missed up end of the story, but it seemed like an epic comeback

that unfortunately with the players there, getting hurt, might have hindered that. But I think all of us have experienced, you know, some baseball, or some sport moment like that at some point. But to get through my question, so this week's main event with Armaziruki, and it kind of reminded me of something that I was meeting after a couple of weeks ago, but just couldn't really get on here with the timing and everything.

With the whole Gregor Gilefsky, Armant Sarukian thing, and fighters fighting up and down and all this. And I've been hearing a lot of fighters do this lately with, you know, Sean Brady, Bola, Mahmud, where, you know, Blal's like, I need to fight up and then he finally gets the opportunity, but now he won't let somebody necessarily, you know, who's also on the come up, fight him. Same of the guy like Bryce Mitchell who thinks he just deserves somebody who's maybe above him,

even though he got the opportunity to quote unquote fight up against Edson Barbosa. So when it comes to these fighters and everything, I have kind of two questions. One, have you noticed a trend or is there like kind of an unwritten trend of like, you know, if you do fight up, then maybe you have to fight down because you did get that opportunity in the past to fight up and, you know, hold your spot. And the other one is with Gregor Gilleski and maybe your rankings would do this compared it different to the UFC's rankings. but let's say he did fight Armand and he won that fight compared to what he said, you know, he had to fight up.

Would you have moved him up your rankings or the UFC rank or you thought the UFC might have moved him up, even though he technically is lower, but maybe a harder competition at this point than a Tony Ferguson who was ranked above Gregor Gillespie. Thanks, Mike, and have a great weekend. Thanks, buddy. Again, apologies for the softball story, but I'll tell Akeh, the story later.

I know he wants to really hear it, but let me look at my rankings right now. So right now in my rankings, I have Syruquian ranked above Gillespie. I think I have Sirukian ranked higher than anybody else. We get some people who have him at nine. I have him at eight. Nope, I haven't... Where do I have him? Yeah, I've Syrucian at eight and I have Gillespie at nine.

So, yeah, if Gillespie wins, he would jump Surukian. As a matter of fact, if Gillespie fought Sirukion and beat him, I would probably put him above RDA. it'd be Oliver Apoye, Gaichi, Machachev, Darius, Chandler, Gillespie, if he beat Surukion. I'm just that high on him. I think he's that good. And in the same token, I have Gamrod number 11 in my rankings, because I'm incredibly high on him. I have Gamrott ranked above Tony Ferguson right now.

That's how high. Yeah. So my lightweight ranking. So Oliverer, Poria, Gaichi, Machachif, Darius, Chandler, RDA, Serucion, Gillespie, Fizzi, Fizzi, Gamrot, Ferguson. I had Monfeo in there at 13. He will not be in the top 15 come July. And I got Brad Riddell and Diego Fajara.

That's my top 15 right now. So that's going to change. And the trend about fighters just not being willing to move back. I mean, I guess I get it. I get it. Belal's been on a nice streak. and he got the Wonderboy fight, he got the Luke A fight,

and he's got the second longest winning streak in the division right now. So I kind of understand where he's coming from. A win again, Sean Brady does little for him. But unfortunately, I don't think he's going to have much of a choice here because he's not getting, he's just not going to get these big fights that he thinks he's going to get.

Like maybe he gets Shimaeuf. Maybe. That's the best case in there. But again, like Bilal Muhammad a lot. I really like him. I interviewed Bilal Mohammed before he was in the UFC. We had a great relationship. We would talk a lot. We would do a million interviews. Then he signed with his management team and now I can't even talk to him, which is just dumb and stupid and ridiculous. But be that as a may. I mean, if he just got on the microphone after the

luke fight and called out Shamiath, I mean, it was like a week or two after Shamiya beat Gilbert Burns. He was right there. Shamiyaf was still like the biggest talking point in the sport after that fight with Gilbert Burns. And I remember tweeting it out. I remember tweeting it out. Go all in on Shemayev, ballal. This is a huge win. Go all in on Shemayev. Do not call out Usman or Covington. And what does he do? He calls out Colby Covington. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. It was on a T. It was on a T. And now you can go out and do all the interviews you want and you can talk about Shemaiah if that's the fight I want you go on social media and all that stuff but you got to make your mark when you have a live microphone in front of

you everybody's watching you you got usually a Hall of Famer interviewing you after the fight who do you want to fight next they're setting you up and then you call Colby you have zero chance to fight Colby you wasted the call out you wasted it and there's I understand people say like shoot for the stars, shoot for the moon. Hopefully you find a star and you can pull it down and you get what you want. Closed mods don't get fed. Well, you opened your mouth and you had no chance of that fight. The Shamiya fight, you actually had a chance to get.

You had that one. If he went out there and just cut a promo on Shamaev and said, hey, yo, Hamza, I saw your fight with Gilbert. I would beat your ass. Let's go. He'd probably have that fight in the books right now. But no, he calls out Colby. No chance he was getting that fight.

It's just such a waste of call it. He did it the fight before. After the Wonderboy fight, he called for the title shot. Come on, man. Come on. Come on, man. You're better than that. He had two chances at the Shemaya fight.

And then after that, he did all the interviews, and he called out Shemayev. And it's too late, man. It's too late. Ugh. Made me so mad. When he said Covington's name, I was just like, you've got to be kidding me, man. Come on. But I understand where you're coming from.

It's a little frustrating, lightweight, welterweight, you want to get up the ladder. I get how it is, man. What's up, mayonnaise? Manet's face. I forget what my Twitter name is these days. What's up, Mike? Manet's face McFlanigan. I love it.

The whitest person in the area, I figured it was fitting. So, based off what you just said, I have a weird question, but it's kind of driving me crazy. What do you think is the, who do you? think in the last maybe like five years or so has pulled the best promo after a win who's got the best lips on the mic so to speak let me know mike thanks man yeah i mean for a while is clearly mcgregor the nate dyes has two of the all-time greats the one after the win over michael johnson when he called o'connor and said you take everything i worked for and i want to fight your ass. That was one of the all-time greats. And then after he beat Connor,

I'm not surprised, MFers, that was tremendous. I got to say right now, and there's some, I mean, there's some good dudes on the mic, Michael Chandler might be the best in the sport right now. The dude is so opportunistic. He does it right. He speaks clearly. He's got intensity. He's following the pro wrestling model. Michael Chandler is a professional promo cutter, a professional promo cutter since he came to the UFC. And I knew it was in him. Even from past interviews I did with him in Bellator, he always had it in him.

And I actually believe him when he says Bellator wasn't like the best organization, didn't have the best fighters in the world. So I chose not to really let that part of my personality out for the world to see. I wanted to wait until I got the chance to be in the UFC, the biggest organization in the world, more eyeballs on me, et cetera, et cetera. I actually believe him when he said that.

So Chandler's right up there. And then there's just Shamiyev's great in just his own way. I always thought Habib was really good in his own way. Colby, you can love or hate Colby. And sometimes it's a little cringy. Some of the things come out of his mouth. But Colby, again, Colby's very smart. He plants seeds.

And then obviously Chil Sunan is right up there too. and Connor. But right now, Chandler is, Chandler's just crushing it. Chandler's promos are outstanding. And I kind of like Charles Olivera with this whole, there is a lightweight champion in the UFC and his name is Charles Oliver.

I kind of like that too, even though it's through a translator. But Chan, I think right now Chandler's the best on the microphone. He's just so good. And he just, he has it. It's pretty awesome. Tristan, Gordetz. Don, you're on deck. What's up, Tristan?

Hey, Mike, how's everything? Good, how are you? All right. I have two questions. Can I don't know. Can I get some clarity on what's going on with Tamir Valiath? Like, he's no longer with the roster, and, you know, he's departed from the UFC. So do you know the reason why?

Because I was pretty taken aback by that because he's been pretty good. I mean, he lost his last fight against Jack Shore, which was very close. and before that he was on a good win straight. So I just want some clarity on that or if you have any deeper knowledge on that. And then my second question is towards Danny Sabatelo his fight tonight. I mean, I think he's going to get this win,

but do you view him as high as you view Armis Surukin? Like, do you feel like it's inevitable that might be Bant's weight champion? Or do we feel like, hold on, you know, let's wait and see? because if he wins this fight tonight, he's going to probably fade some stops. And that's going to be a very competitive, a tough fight if those two,

obviously those two will face each other, I guess for the interim band's title since Sergio Pettis is on the sidelines due to injury. So just your thoughts on those two questions that I have, Mike. Thanks a lot. Have a heck of a morning. Thanks, buddy. Okay, there we go.

I don't know what's going on. My phone is being wonky and weird. So I'll address the Timor Valley of thing I have no idea what's going on on Timor Valley I have no clue saw the bots tweet and Yeah we've I'm trying to find it Trying to find some sort of answer

And I'm not getting it from anybody So I have no idea It could just be I don't know I don't know if he's gone or not It looks like Hazira Bantorin He was also in the bot And apparently it has been confirmed

That he is no longer with the UFC so yeah, I don't really know. The value of one is interesting. Like if he just got, if he just got sort of booted and released, that's kind of a puzzling one. But maybe he just asked for his release, and the UFC was just like, okay, go.

And Nate's not going to get that, but they look at Timor Vallev, who's a talented fighter, but he's not a draw for them. Maybe they're just like, okay, you don't want to be here, go somewhere else. That's fine. And with the Danny Sabatello thing, I have been very high in Danny Savitello, which is why when I had the What the Heck show, I had him on.

And I told everybody, like, keep an eye on this guy because he was fighting Brett Johns on less than a week's notice. And people just were on the comments, like, who the hell is this guy? Where did you have this guy on the show and all that? And I try to tell you, this guy's good. And he's got a personality. And he could be a star. if he gets the right break, if things fall a little bit,

Domino's fall in his direction a little bit, he could be a star for them. And when they put out this Grand Prix, I think it was on BTL, the day that they announced the bracket, I was like, they should extend this to 12 to 16 guys just to get him in there

because he could emerge as a star from this whole thing. Like, what's the point of having a Grand Prix with the same dudes? Like, it's always the same guys over and over again. But you have other guys that like a Sabatelo that I felt like this is where, like you do these tournaments sometimes, not only just to see who the best is and tournaments are fun, but you also want to try to find somebody a diamond in the rough, a needle and a haystack. And Sabatello could be that guy.

Now, when we lost Pettis, we lost James Galaher, they were smart. They put them in. They did the play in fight, which play in fights, which I thought was dumb and ridiculous. ridiculous and silly, but they did it. And it was actually a good thing for Sabatelo because now he's got all this momentum because of the performance he had against Jordan Al Lugo, the promo he cut afterwards. This guy's got something. I think Bellator sees that.

That's why they inked him up to a multi-fight long-term deal. They're paying him a little bit more money. And I think he's going to run over Leonhardo ego tonight. I think we're going to see a very similar performance. I don't know if we're going to see what he did to Jordan Al Lugo, but I can see a world. where people are just going to be booing the crap out of Sabatelo. Like he'll just take him down and just advance position and just use that top pressure.

And it could be a boring fight. And Sabatelo, like, he wants you to feel that way. He wants you to feel that way. He wants you to boo him. You want you to have some sort of reaction. Whether you love him or hate him, he just wants to invoke some sort of emotion out of you. And I have publicly said, and I said before the Hawaii card,

not only was I picking Sabatelo to beat Jordan El Lugo, I'm actually picking him to win the whole damn thing. Just because his wrestling is so good. Now, is there a chance he gets caught knocked out? He's been knocked out before. Erwin Rivera knocked him out. That was a while ago. That was before this long winning streak that he's on now.

That was before he's really let his personality shine a little bit. And that confidence is at a sky high right now. So his wrestling is better. It's just so ridiculous. His pace is so ridiculous. He's a Banim weight. He won't agree with this. but from a stylistic perspective,

he's a band-a-m-way Colby Covington. And his striking's only going to get better, but with that wrestling, the pace, what he could do with that, he's not going to stop. And if Leandro Ego gets tired at all in this fight tonight and it gets extended, he's in a world of trouble.

And he can do that to pretty much anybody in this tournament right now. So he's the wild card in this whole thing. I'm very high on him. I think he can come out of this thing and win the entire Grand Prix. but Bannonweight's a tough division, not just in the UFC, but Bellatory as well, because if he wins this fight, he's got to fight Rafihan Stotz,

and that's a banger. That's a really interesting fight. So we'll see what happens. Black Friday is here at IKEA, and the clock is ticking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-havs to cozy at-home essentials,

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Air Canada. Nice travels. Wi-Fi available to AeroPen members on equip flights sponsored by Bell. Conditions apply. See Air Canada.com. Don. What's going on, Mike? What's up, my man?

I'm good. Are you? I'm good, man. Heck of a morning. All that, jazz. I want to switch the change of pace, you know what I mean? and talk about two things. So Tommy Ferry fighting Jake Paul.

We know we all don't want to talk about Jake Paul, but I'm actually excited about this matchup because this is the matchup where I feel like he has the most to lose because I'm a boxing mark. I love boxing. And Tommy is early in his career too, but I feel like they're on the same level. They have the same physical like feats too.

This is not a guy he's going to be able to just like rough up and like do all that stuff with. And also his cardio, I mean, Jake probably already knows, cardio is very lack of lesser sometimes. So I don't know. How are you picking for that fight? And are you actually excited about it? I thought this is an actual fight I'm excited about

because it's actually something where I don't know who's going to win. Like I ain't going to say that Jake's going to run him over. I ain't going to say Tommy's going to run him over. My second question is, I love that you're a pro wrestling fan because I'm a pro wrestling fan through and through, man. I don't care. I wanted to know who is your Mount Rushmore of, like, pro wrestlers. You can grade them on any type of scale you want in terms of popularity,

in-ring, promo cutting ability, whatever you want to grade them on. But I got to know who you're, you know what I mean, who your Mount Rushmore is. And last thing, whoever makes the beat at the end of the heck of the morning, they need to get paid, man. I'm a rapper. That beat is fire, man. Every time I'm freestyling at the end of every episode because it's just crazy.

Hey man, keep doing your thing. I have a two sweet day, as you already know, and having a good morning to you. Thanks, buddy. Appreciate that. Jake Paul versus Tommy Fury. Yes, that is happening, August 6th at the Mecca Madison Square Garden. Who thought three years ago? If I told you three years ago that Jake Paul was going to be headlining a boxing card at Madison Square Garden,

you would have called for me to resign or have Vox Media and SB Nation fire me. Because you would have thought I was the craziest person in the entire world. And I probably would have, I probably would have resigned if I said that myself, because I wouldn't been that crazy. But here we are, Year of Our Lord, 2022, Jake Paul, headlining the world's most famous arena against Tommy Fury. I am, how do I feel about this fight? I feel like it's the fight that had to be made.

Do I care? Not particularly? I guess I'm intrigued just to see how far this Jake Paul thing can go. And heading into that August fight card in Cleveland when Jake Paul fought Tyre Willie the first time, Tommy Fury was on that card and fought Anthony Taylor, who was 0-1 as a professional boxer. He was an MMA fighter. It was basically set up for Tommy to go out there.

and I like Anthony a lot, but it was set up for Tommy to go out there and have like a showcase performance to plant seeds and build a fight to maybe fight Jake Paul. Like Jake knows what he's doing. He knows what he's doing. So we put him in there with Anthony,

get Anthony paid, which is a big thing for Jake, but also set the tone for what could be next in his career. And not a great performance. He won. It wasn't really, I mean, it was somewhat competitive, but not really.

Because plus Tommy Fury is like 50 pounds heavier it seemed than Anthony Taylor. He just looked so much bigger and just sort of coasted into a decision. And I was like, what do you do? Right there for you. All you do is go out there and just run this guy over or at least just put him on his heels a little bit. And you get this fight. And then he gets it. Then he can't fight.

Woodley comes back in there. Just a horrendous fight until the knockout. And then on the Tyson Fury card, at Wembley Stadium in April, Tommy's on the card, and no one knew about it. No one knew Tommy was even on the card until like three days before he's fighting.

And he fights Daniel Bocianski, a guy that he was heavily favored to just do kind of the same thing. And again, he just looked okay. And somehow he still gets his fight. And before he fought Anthony Taylor, I felt really good and really confident that Tommy Fury would go out there

and just beat Jake Paul. Now I'm not so sure. I think it's a pick-em fight. It's 50-50. I'm sure it's not going to be all that great. And I think Jake and team and company, very smart putting Amanda Serrano on this card in the co-main event.

Crowd's going to be hot. Most of the tickets will be sold to watch her. Obviously, Jake's got a following too. So this event will sell out. It'll do bonkers at the gate. Boxing fans will come to watch Amanda and all the social media peeps will come and watch Jake Paul fight Tommy Fury.

I mean, it's... Is it something that I'm like, oh, man, please, M.A. fighting. Let me cover this one. Not at all. Not at all. I covered a Jake Paul card. I've been there, done that.

I mean, if they want to send me, I'll go, but I ain't asking to go. I can tell you that right now. I love MSG, and there's something about the history in that building, but... Yeah, I'm okay. I'll answer your other question a minute.

I want to get Viking M.A. in here. He usually has a lot to say and usually comes in a little bit later. So I want to give him a chance to say, what's up, buddy? Good morning. Yes, he is. All right. I just do, hi, Alex. Say hi to Alex.

And I'm sorry about what happened last day. Leave that aside. That's okay. What's going on? Good evening. And I just want to ask one question. How are you thinking about? when Alderman Stirling is not signing the contract because of the money you don't deserve.

But they think there should be a fight between Dominic Cruz and sorry, T.J. Dillishaw and Peter Young for the interim title. Have a good evening. Interesting. Thanks, buddy. I don't think that... Listen, I like Al Jermaine a lot. I like where he's coming from.

All fighters deserve more money. Champions deserve more money. Everybody deserves more money who competes in the sport. They all do. I think we're all in agreement of that. No one's saying otherwise. Not everyone's making the money they deserve. And Connor makes ridiculous money when he fights,

and you can make a compelling argument that he's not even making what he deserves. We all know the pay structure is what it is. No one's doing anything about it. So we can complain and we can go in the media. We can talk about the fighters getting underpaid all we want. But the fighters are not doing anything about it. They're not doing anything about it.

They're not forming an association. They're not coming together as a crew to try to change that. So we could say whatever we want about it until we're blue in the face. But the fact of the matter is nothing's going to change. It's just not going to. and people blame the UFC for that and I get like the UFC they're making so much money hand or fist

but when you're making that kind of money and no one's coming together to form an association to be like hey there's 700 of us you have all these cards to fill we just ain't gonna fight like we just won't fight until the pay structure changes

if they did that maybe something happens but they're not going to. So I get where Sterling's coming from. Maybe they'll give them a bump. I believe the Dillishaw fight will happen. Cooler heads will prevail. I think Sterling's going to ask for one sort of number. The UFC will counter with their number,

and then they'll meet somewhere in the middle, and this fight will happen on September 10th. I know Suhudo is doing Suhudo-esque things, and he's trying to work himself into this title fight. I don't think it's going to happen. I hope, God, I hope, when I'm in Vegas, I get to talk to Dana White one-on-one because I have to ask him about Henry Suhudo. I have to ask him where his head is at in this whole situation.

Because something tells me, when I ask him about this, he's not going to have great things to say about Henry. Maybe as a competitor, you will, which is, like I've said, as a competitor, I have lots of great things to say by Harry Suhudo. But the way he's handled this thing since the Dominic Cruz win has been horrible. He has botched this thing from Jump Street. It's horrific. So I think we'll get Al J. Dillochal and Stirling versus T.J. Dillashaw, September 10th.

Boston, from what I understand, I know my good buddy, Nolan King tweeted this out. It looks like Atlanta GA is the front runner for that card. I don't know who's going to headline it, but now we got Marlon Vera, Domina Cruz, August 13th and San Diego. August 20th, we got Jose Aldo versus Barab de Walsh, Willie. September we got Corey Sanhagan versus Song Yudong. So this band-of-weight division is starting to get interesting. We're starting to get these big fights on the books.

But we notice one man, Mr. Sehudo, doesn't have a fight booked. The fight to make is Sehudo versus Jan. Now, if for some reason, if for some reason we come to an impasse between the UFC and Al Jermaine Sterling. We're not going to strip Sterling of the title. But maybe we do an interim title fight.

Maybe you do Jan versus Dillashaw. Maybe Dillashah just waits to fight Sterling later in the year. And you could do Sohudo versus Jan for the interim title. I mean, I think it's all going to work out. Sohudo, I'd be stunned if Sehudo fights this year at this point. Because it doesn't seem like he has any interest in fighting Piotr, Jan. But again, let me just say this. He should just fight anybody.

Fight anybody in the top 10. Rob Fawn took a beating in that Marlon Vera fight, but if for some reason Rob could fight at the end of the year, do Rob Fawr versus Henry Sehudo. Who cares? It's a fight I'd favor Henry to win. Rob presents problems on the feet for sure, but Henry just has that wrestling and that athleticism,

so it would be an interesting fight. Like, just fight somebody and then, or go up to 1.45 and fight somebody. Go up to, if you want to be the triple C, go to 145. You fight Josh Emmett. You fight Kemp. Calvin Cater. You fight somebody like that. Then one win, you're in. And I'm fine with it. But Bannamwait's so fun right now, all these fights are great. I can't wait for them. Let's get James McDonald. What's up, buddy? Hey, Mike, I had a couple of morning to you. Indeed. How are you? I'm fine. Thanks. Hey, you may have covered this already. I was on a pointless conference call for work, so I couldn't listen to the beginning. but I want you to explain to people why,

if they're not in on Armand Sarukian, why they should be. This is just me giving you an opportunity to wax poetically about Sarukian. So you're welcome. Have a good weekend. Thanks, buddy. Look, the proof is in the pudding.

You've seen a lot of what he could do. And the one thing that, I'm not going to say it's disappointing. The one thing that was kind of shocking early on in his UFC career was he wasn't finishing guys. He wasn't finishing guys in his first few fights. Now, his UFC debut, he took on short notice against freaking, I mean, against the guy that everyone feels is,

a lot of people feel is the best lightweight in the world in Islam Makachchev. He gave Makachov some fits, man. It was a close fight. Makachov won for sure. But he gave Makachov fits. When was the last time you saw Islam Makachep go to a unanimous decision? decision. He did against a 22-year-old making his UFC debut on short notice, and he gave Makachev fits. Then he fights OAM, runs him over, decision. Then he fights Daveyamos,

decision runs him over. Then he fights Matt Frivolta. Decision runs him over. I mean, he hasn't really lost a round. So he's won three in a row in the UFC, gets Christoskeago, who at the time, I believe, had like five wins in a row, and he just ran him out of the freaking building. Showed he could strike, too. Land of that left hook, beat him down, and beat him in just over two minutes. And then Joel Alvarez,

there were people picking against the Rukia on in that fight. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. Well, he's not that great of a striker. Yeah, he is. And you saw it because he hurt Joel in the feet a couple of times. And that ground upon, I mean, the guy just does.

everything so well already and he's only going to get better. His wrestling is great. His striking is great. His top pressure is incredible. His ground and pound is one of the best in the entire division. And maybe the best thing about him. And this is why I feel so confident that the betting line in this fight is pretty much spot on right now.

I want to see where it is right now. Quickander. It is... He's minus 275, so some money coming in on Gamrod. Gamrod's biggest path to victory is just wrestling Armand Sarukion, and he does have sort of championship rounds. He's been in five-round fights, like a lot of them, because he was a two-division champion in KSW, and Batush could wrestle his ass off.

But Armand Sarukian's defensive wrestling, his defense in the striking department, It's unbelievable. It's one of the best in the entire division. Already. His wrestling defense is absurd, which is why I feel as much as I like Matush Gamron and I'm very high on him, I just feel like Surukian has way more ways to win this fight.

I feel like Gamrod's best weapon feeds into Sarukion's best weapon. But we'll see. Maybe Gamrod just has this incredible cardio and he's just going to chain wrestling. wrestle Saurukyan over and over again. He's going to try to do a Bryce Mitchell approach, which is not going to work early on in this fight.

But if he continues to do that, this fight gets extended to round four and round five. I'm curious to see how Saurukian handles that. But golly, such a good fight. I can't wait for it. But I think Shurukyon's going to win. I actually feel really confident in this Surukian pick year, not just because I'm extremely high on him.

I just feel like Gamrod, it's just kind of a rough spot for him. on a role, he could have gotten a fight with anybody in this division, really. And I would maybe favor him against a lot of these guys. But this is the one guy I feel stylistically is just a terrible matchup for him. So it's still an interesting fight. Anything can happen when he locked two men in an octagon and they fight. But I think Surukyan wins a clear-cut decision tomorrow. 4946 or worse, I just think I'm bad high on him.

I really think he's that good. Let's get Derrico in here. I think he's a first timer. Make sure you unmute Derico and then you're up. Hey, what's up, Mike? How you doing? Good. How are you?

Not bad. So I just got like three things to ask you real quick. Maybe not ask, but one is to jump off of what you were talking about with Jake Paul. At the beginning of him in Fury, kind of starting this spat, I guess, I was really hoping for Fury to knock him out. But just the other day, I was hearing about this stuff that Jake was putting out, calling out Tommy for backing out once again. At this point, I just want Jake to start him, and I think it could happen. Number two is, I think Cheeto at the 35-pound division. I really think he's like, gun for the top right now.

His last, like, kind of setback was Aldo in a three-round fight, which I think if Cheeto has five rounds against any of these guys, like, not that he's definitely going to win, but his chances in a championship fight, I think he could probably beat any of these 35ers on any given night. And not to say that he'll hold the belt for a really long time, but I think the 35-pound division that belt could just be swapping hands left and right for the the next few years. And now my third point is John Jones.

I don't know why people are disrespecting Steepa the way they are, the arguably greatest heavyweight of all time. But I think if John Jones comes back to his Stepe fight, he's getting dealt with, and Steepa's knocking them out. So if you could just go back and maybe comment on my comments, that'd be great, Mike. Thanks for this opportunity and what you've been doing. Thanks, man. Appreciate that.

Yeah, the Jake Paul Tommy Fury thing. Like, I kind of get where Tommy and his team are coming from. Like, you're trying to build up this boxing career. Like, you're just getting started. You have this name. The Fury name is so big in the sport right now. And you have a little bit of momentum. You're undefeated.

You're trying to build this career. This is a very risky fight for Tommy Fury. a very risky fight. Jake Paul, it's a risky fight as well. No doubt about it. And Jake's going to sell it and he's already trying to do so. This is the toughest fight of my life. This is big because that's what you do.

We talked about pro wrestling earlier. By the way, Mount Rushmore, Hogan, Rock, Austin Flair. That's it. There's others that are on deck, but those are the four for me. But that's what you do. You talk about how you're going to destroy your opponent. I'm going to knock. this dude out, I'm knocking him out.

But then you build it up by saying like, this guy's good, he's tough, he's the toughest guy ever fought, blah, blah, blah. Because then if you say this guy's a piece of shit and he sucks at fighting and then you lose, then you look like an asshole. So Jake knows that. But if Tommy loses to Jake Paul, boy, that's a tough hit. And that's something that's going to take him a long time to recover from. Look at Ben Ascord.

I mean, Ben handled that loss about as well as anybody. but Ben's still hearing about it. Tyrant Woodley's never going to get past getting knocked up by Jake Paul. He's going to try and he's going to do all these different things. He's in A.W. He's doing all these fun stuff. But Tyrant's never get, he, everything he did in his career in the UFC, to most fans, like if I walk to the grocery store right now and I say, hey, do you know what Tyron Woodley is?

They're going to say, yeah, he's the guy who got knocked up by Jake Paul. Like, that's who he is. And it sucks. It stinks. Because Tyron when he was in the UFC and he was running, he had some dud championship fights. But Tyrone was a great fighter. He's one of the greatest welterweights of all time. But now he's going to be known as the guy who got knocked up by Jake Paul.

Fighting Jake, there's a lot of pressure that comes to that. And now that Tommy Fury is a boxer trying to make this thing, make a run at this thing, boy, the pressure is high. The pressure is high. Can he deal with that pressure? Can he deal with the Jake Paul fight week in person? can he deal with that plus fighting at Madison Square Garden? Boy, that's a lot to deal.

That's a lot for a guy like that who's just trying to get his feet wet in the sport. That's a lot. 23 years old, man. Risky, risky fight for him. More so than Jake. I think all the pressure is on Tommy Fury. Jake's got some pressure.

If he loses, he'll spin it. He'll find a way to spin it. Slipped on a banana peel. He had an ACL injury. I wasn't ready. Weight cut sucks, and somehow he'll be able to deal with it. But I don't know. Tommy's opponents, I mean, people talking about who Jake has fought.

Look at Tommy Fury's run. First fight, he fought a guy who was 10, 102, and 3. Then he fought a guy who was 0 and 26 and 2. Then he fought a guy who was 2 and 26. Then he fought a guy who was 0 and 11. Then he fought a guy who was 0 and 9. then he fought a 2-0 guy then he fought an MMA fighter who was 0-1

and then he fought a 10-and-1 boxer who wasn't really all that good so probably the right fight meritocratically to make honestly the Marlon Vera thing I agree with you

Marlon's great Marlon's a good fighter I love the fight with Dominic Cruz I think it makes perfect sense I'm curious to see how that one plays out the Jose Aldo fight like I don't think five rounds would help Marlon in that one

I scored a 3027 for Jose. I know all three judges scored at 29, 28. A lot of people gave Vera the second round. I thought Aldo won the second round, but Aldo winning the third round told me pretty much everything I needed to know about that fight. I don't think five rounds changed much. I just think it was a tough stylistic matchup for Marlon.

But Marlon went in there and scrapped with Jose Aldo. And I gave him all the credit in the world. And he probably took so much from that fight. Maybe they'll run it back. Maybe they will run it back. Maybe Aldo wins the belt and you get the rematch. Cool. I'm in for that.

But Verra Cruz is a great fight. Vera just keeps coming and he's so durable. Rob Fon beat him 7,000 times and didn't even look like he got touched once. It's just insane. The durability on this guy, the gas tank on this guy. He just keeps coming. It's wild to watch. if you're a guy like Rob Fawn

who just has such a good boxer and is so effective with the striking you're hitting a guy over and over again and he's just smiling at you and not like a and not like a like oh you caught me smile

that didn't hurt it's like a that's it all right dude that's it's got to be a little bit demoralizing but Marlon's good I think he will fight for the title at some point. Will it become the champion? What a story that would be? We'll see.

I love Banimate, so many fun fights, and there's more... I mean, just look, we got the Adrian Yondas of the world coming up. We've got lots of fun guys at 135. Jimmy Wang Yang, hello. Mike, good morning. How you doing? I'm good. So I came in late today.

I'm a little late. I don't know if anybody... I heard that y'all was talking about like the U.S. The MMA boxing crossover fight. So first I just want to ask, how do you personally feel about it if it wasn't X? And then they said there were talks about Floyd and Connor again. Who would you give your edge to if that rematch does happen?

And then who would you also give your edge to if we got Tyson Fury and Francis and Ghanu if they fight? Have a good morning, right? Thanks, buddy. Yes, the Jake Paul versus M.A thing, I love it. I actually, it's the right thing to do. It's the right thing to do. Like if Nate can somehow break free from the UFC chain, if you will, hashtag Wilson Phillips, I mean, that's a big fight.

And a fight that I would favor Jake to win just because he's so much bigger than Nate. And I mean, Nate would give him some fits with the volume and stuff like that. What they probably, like, what would have been kind of interesting to set the table and plant some more seeds? You could have done Jake Paul versus Chris Avila because basically it's like looking at Nate. I mean, they fight similarly. they speak similarly, they get that Stockton Swagger, both of those guys.

Like that would have been an interesting fight because he goes out there and beats Chris, you're just telling the story to lead to Nate a little bit more and more and more. With the Connor Floyd thing, God, I... Why? I mean, I get it,

Ching, Ching, money, money. But, I mean, honestly, and you guys can chime in here and tell me if you, like, if I'm insane, I have no interest in seeing that fight again. I had not, like, I was interested in the fight.

first time just because it was such a big deal. But, like, there was not, I did not have, I did not have one second in my life in the build to that fight where I thought Connor was going to win. And there were people, like, there were people I went to high school with that were telling me that Connor was going to knock off Floyd Mayweather. Like, they were, I had people, I went to high school with telling me, but they, they bet thousands of dollars on Connor McGregor to knock off Floyd Mayweather. I was like, you got to get your head checked.

You got to go see a doctor, and you need to get your money back right now before this fight starts. Like, this is never going to go any differently. Floyd's going to win. Floyd's going to win. I don't care. Like, I don't, I've seen it. I didn't really care to see it the first time.

I definitely don't want to see it the second time. I don't give a shit. I don't care. I mean, Conner wants... These guys don't... These are the two guys I don't want to see in a fight like this. give me Tyson Fury Francis and Ghanu though See you want to know why

Because Francis deserves that kind of payday And if the UFC allows this to happen It can be such a win I would just love Francis swaggering in there Looking like a couple Billy Getting ready to get pissed up by Tyson Fury more than likely But Francis just looks like Francis looks like a guy

He just looks like a killer He looks like the heavyweight champion of the world how the UFC hasn't marketed the hell out of Francigano made him this massive star is insane to me he's probably the easiest guy to promote in the company he doesn't even have to speak just look at the freaking guy and then when he speaks you're like wow

what a nice jolly guy what a nice guy serious just one of the nicest guys in the sport but you could promote him without even speaking just run a highlight reel of his knockouts in the UFC the house just put the Alastor Robreem knockout on repeat.

Listen, do I think Francis Ingano is any chance of beating Tyson Fury in a boxing match or any kind of a fight that doesn't involve takedowns or kicks or grappling? No, I don't. But would I be interested to see it? Like, would I be happy for Francis to get that opportunity and make a whole bunch of money and get that big thing? I would care much more about Engano Fury than seeing Floyd Mayweather, Connor McGregor, too.

Golly. And then previous caller, John Jones-Stepey. Yeah, I hope that's the fight. We'll see what happens. John Jones is such a mystery right now. He hasn't fought in a long time. He's gigantic. And I'm curious how that translates over.

Especially with Steve Bay coming back after getting knocked out pretty brutally by Francis and Gano losing the title. Hack the holidays with the PC Holiday Insiders Report. Try this PC Porchetta. Crackling, craveworthy. You gonna eat that? Who are you? I'm the voice for the next ad.

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Please feast responsibly. Let's keep this party going. Semi-Casual MMA. What's up? Hey, Mike. Just a quick question for you. I'm heading to Bellator 282 tonight. forward to that. What do you think

is going to be the best fight on that card that's not the main event or call main event? Good question. That's a good question. I like a lot about this Bellator card actually. Let me just pull it up.

Just to have it here, I would say there's a lot to choose from here. There's a lot of fun fights on this card. Brennan Ward, Cassius Kane will be fun just because those two guys are just going to absolutely slang until somebody falls down and is unconscious. Like, if we're looking for A.K. I might have to take the earphones out of your ears, AK. But if we're talking about favoring the mixing of the martial arts at a high level, Brent Primus Alexander Shabbly will be a really good fight.

Be lots of mixing in the martial arts. You're going to put all the martial arts in a blender, and that you're going to get with those two guys. I'm curious about Alejandro Lara, because she's been out for a little while. She's been dealing with some health issues, and apparently she's in a good spot. So she's fighting Ilari Joani, which isn't interesting.

But it seems like Sabahamasi versus Bacon Mendonka is sort of the one circled right now. They've gotten a little skirmish at the ceremonial weigh-ins. And by the way, can I just say the best thing Bellator has, done in the last two years was bring Bert Watson on. Bring Bert Watson on. Bert Watson is a gem in these types of situations because he's telling all these, he's telling all these guys like, don't get in a fights up here,

and then they get in a pushing match and Bert Watson's out there. Come on, baby, trying to get everybody out of their seats and cheering and laughing and having a good time. Bert Watson is such a great pickup for them. now they just need to work on actually telling people there's fights

on certain days because they just do not do a good job with that but yeah there's a lot to like about this Bellator card you can make a strong case that top to bottom this is the best card of the weekend even better than the UFC's the UFC's main event's way better

and Gagar Musassi versus Johnny Ebblin has some sort of intrigue but I feel like we've watched Gagar Musassi have this particular stylistic matchup, his last two fights. I think Johnny Eblen's a better version of Austin Vanderford and John Salter, but I feel like we're going to be reading the same story for the third consecutive time. Emilio, I hate, you're on deck, buddy, so start stretching out, start cracking those knuckles.

Amelia, what's up? What is good in the hood, Mike? Glad to hear your voice again. It's, I could honestly listen to you, talk about whatever. for days on end, all day, every day. So thanks again for what you do. Anyways, this time I don't really have, I mean, I guess I do have a question,

but it's more, like, it's more of a topic. And that is, I wanted to talk to you about James Krause, the James Krause as an MMA coach. I don't know. And I know that he, he wants to be. wasn't in the news recently or anything. It's just something that I've been wanting to talk about with somebody who knows the sport and watches MMA.

I think he is by far one of the most overrated coaches in the game. Wow. I mean, I'm looking at his fighters, like a list of all his fighters at the moment. apart from maybe grand dawson like they're not he doesn't have that many good fighters and Jeff Molina

definitely no okay I will say that but I don't know I feel like he is very overrated he doesn't really have a fighter yet that has broken through hell he doesn't even have a fighter in the top 10 of

any division. So, I don't know. I guess I have an issue with him because everybody in the commentator booth, I mean, not everybody, but a lot of people in the MMA world give him so much credit

and they talk about the great James Krauss and oh my God, here comes Jeff Molina, whatever, with the amazing James Krauss as a coach, you know, he's in his corner. That's a great thing. And I'm just like, I don't know, I don't know what people see. Maybe I'm blind. Maybe I'm dumb.

But yeah, I just wanted to get your thoughts on the James Krause. Because if you take a look at, I mean, he is from his, from all of the fighters in his gym, he is the one that has the better record. He is the one who's actually like higher up in the rankings, I guess you could say. I mean, I know that he hasn't fought in two years, and he's probably not going to fight anytime soon. But, man, I don't know. Maybe he should go back to that because he looks hell of stressed out. I don't know if it's because his fighters are just not performing.

But those bald spots tell me something else. Trust me, I had one of those before. One, and it was because I was going through a very, very stressful time in my life. the guy looks like a freaking Dalmatian. So yeah, I don't know. Maybe he needs to chill a little bit or maybe find some more success. I don't know. Again, I don't know the guy, but I think that he is very overrated.

And I wanted to get your take on it. Anyways, thanks again, Mike. Have a heck of a morning. And, yeah, talk to you the next time. Wow, that was Jed Mishu. right there. That was a spicy hot take from my man, Emilio. I don't think, I'm trying to like,

I guess I get where you're coming from, I guess. Like, I guess, but I mean, this is an ATT. It's not AKA, it's not, like, this is a small gym that has grown into something pretty big. Now, Grant Dawson is an excellent example. basically Grant was there homegrown he was basically like the guy

he was like one of the first students in the gym at Glory MMA and you can only be a big fish in a small pond for so long before you have to just move on to other things and Grant I think Grant got as much as he could out of Glory MMA

and then as the gym got bigger it's basically like this is not a there's some veterans on this team no doubt about it Derek Minner has been fighting forever. Tim Elliott's been fighting forever. Trey Ogden grinding away on the regional scene for so long. Other guys, other fighters, like, these are, that's just how it is.

But for the most part, he's molding younger fighters into getting these opportunities and making into the UFC. Like, look at Jeff Molina. You know, there's guys like Mike Greeden who come in. But, I mean, Megan Anderson's a good story. I mean, this girl had, like, I understand that most people don't view Megan Anderson as this, like, unbelievable fighter who had this story career. She's not a hall of fame or anything, but Megan Anderson, like, was not a fighter. She's not even an athlete.

And James made her somewhat of a star, helped her out, tried to refine her game as best as he could, got her into a title fight. So, I mean, but some of the speeches, like, he just knows his fighters so well. And I think the best part about Krause is not only does he go through the fire with these. fighters, but he knows how to talk to him. He knows, hello, son. He knows what to say at the right moments to get the best of his fighters.

Now, Tim Elliott's been on a nice run. He's won three out of four. I know how much James Krause is meant to him personally. Kraus has been a huge reason for the success Tim Elliott has been having. No doubt about it. Brandon Moreno's there. You mentioned Jeff Molina. I'm going to throw out another name at you.

David Onama is a super fun guy. He's a glory guy. guy. And there's other guys that are there. Like Anthony Gutierrez is a homegrown guy. He was close to getting to the UFC. He was knocking on the door. Hasn't fought in a few years, but he won his last five. Like, he's a good coach. He's a good coach. Is he the best coach in the world? Probably not.

But is he a good coach? Yeah. Does he get a lot of love on the broadcast? Mostly because of what he says to his fighters? Of course. Now, unfortunately for us, here in the United States, we don't get to hear these speeches all that often because they go to freaking commercial break every time so we don't get to hear what cross to say to these fighters but for those in canada like AK and those who get to hear those corner cams in those corner speeches it ain't Tony Kelly in there I can tell you that all right ahead get after it

let's go ahead bronze standard apparently 276 prelims on ABC and apparently cowboy and Miller has just been put onto the prelims, which makes space for Sean O'Malley and Pedro. And I think that's the worst thing to happen. They put them back. What? Who happened? No, because earlier they switched it.

They had Soroni Miller on the main card, and then they moved O'Malley, Munoz to the prelims, and now I guess they switched it back. Okay. Yeah, they switched it back. And I think that's... That's huge. That's neat.

To be honest, they should both be on the main card. Listen, Mike, you know, I'm pretty brutally honest. I'm pretty up front. So I'm going to be honest. Like, I'm sorry, Tate and Murphy should not be on the main card. You can, like, anyone can get offended by that and whatever. I'm sorry, like, this is how the order should have been. Omali, Munoz as the opener.

And then you got Cowboy and Miller as the second to last. Then you got Strickland Perera, because that's the number one contenders fight, and you've got the two title fights. Like, I'm sorry, but that, Tate and Murphy, you should be removed. That's, if people want to get offended, that sounds like a them problem. That doesn't really sound like a me problem.

But, like, I want to go on to Shavka Rakhmanov, because I watched all his fights, and I just, there's techniques he really enjoys, like, and that's fine that he likes to use again and again. The two that stand out are the spinning hill kick and a stepping knee, and that's fine. And, like, the best quality of Shafka is he's really intelligent. He's clearly.

really, really, he knows when to do things, where to do things, and it's brilliant. But I'm just thinking, like, you know, people always, like, MMA fans and, like, just, like, media. They're a bunch of sheep. They just kind of, like, follow whatever rhythm there is. They just, they see these crazy knockouts. They see the promos. Rachmanov might knock out Magny for goodness sake, right? But they just, they're just, oh, this guy's going to go right to the top and he might.

But they'd always look at what's there. but they don't look at what's not there. And I'm just thinking, right, like, he's really intelligent, but maybe the techniques aren't as polished so that when you get to the upper edge Leon, when you get to someone like a Colby Covington, who's not going to stay at range with Shafkat, it's not just going to let Shafkat do what he wants.

Someone like a Leon Edwards, I've said, Leon doesn't deserve the title shot for shit, but he's good. I'll say that he is good. And he's not going to let Shavkat do what he wants. When you get to these upper echelion, I just feel like, you know, like the fairy tale might end or might get dented a little bit. Because people don't look at that. People don't. People just want to stay in delusion all the time.

And my final point, like final point, Mike, is that is Hamza Chimayev a traitor? Is he a traitor? Is he a traitor? Is smash bros over? Like, you know, like, in the Cold War, people talk about Russian double agents. People are calling Hamza a double agent. gaining Intel, like, as in training, like, his boy, Darren's fight Hermanson, but he's training with Hamanson. And people are saying he's a triple agent, that he's going to, he's

training with Hamansson to give Intel to Darren. I say he's a quadruple agent, that he's actually, he's gaining intel on all of them. He's the lone wolf because he knows he's going to fight all of them. Hobbs that doesn't give a shit. Hams that doesn't care about anybody. He's coming to smash everybody. So he knows that and he doesn't care. Like, he's just going to fight all of them. a run over. He's gaining intel on everyone for the future. That's my thoughts, Mike. I had just bringing the heat all the time.

Just tremendous stuff. The band just, when the shackles come off, when the cuffs come off, the leash comes off and you just let him run into the wild, man, he brings it. There's some other breaking news as well. It's not really breaking, but there are reports out there.

I've reached out to see how much information I can get on this, but Sports Illustrated is reporting that, since we're talking about boxing MMA crossover, that negotiations are ongoing for Katie Taylor to fight Chris Cyborg in a boxing match. The report from Chris Manick says, no deal yet, but the hope is for Taylor to face Cyborg in December and then move forward with a rematch against Amanda Serrano in Ireland next spring. Boy, Holly Holm just sounds way more interesting, doesn't she? I mean, good for Chris.

again, get that bag, get that money, but I feel like Holly Holm is just a much more interesting fight for Katie just because, you know, she's a boxer and is a Hall of Fame boxer. But that's just big. Good for Chris, if that's what actually happens,

but looking into it, see if we can get in the news on it. Let's keep this show on the road. Toke! What up, buddy. Yes, sir. An hour shift as a copywriter, which is basically death. So, but I'm on here because, you know, I'm the two-step of this set.

You have, I am what is needed at every Dave Matthews Band show or, you know, at every heck of a morning. So what I will say, what I will ask you is actually, how do you cope with being in a dead-end job? I'm not saying you're in one now because you have your dream job. But I'm sure you have had a bad job before. So I was wondering what your philosophy is when you're in a job that pays the bills that you want to get out of. And that's actually, because it's free for all right. It doesn't have to be a mail of it. That is, uh, that's interesting question.

I'm trying to think of like the job I hated the most was. The job I hated the most was the job, like the actual job I had before I got to M.A. fighting because I was in radio for five years. I hosted afternoons in Massachusetts on like a hit radio show. So our hit radio station, excuse me, where, you know, it was Taylor Swift and Ed Shearer and Justin Bieber all day long and never stopped. Same shit over and over again. And, you know, there were stuff that we got sold, turned into like more of a digital

media company so I got to do some digital content websites and stuff and that was that kind of drove me crazy but I loved being on the air loved having a microphone in my face just loved it's like one of my favorite things in the world like doing shows like this I just love it and talking to people that's that's it but we wanted to change of pace we wanted to move out of the area in western mass and move to Cape Cod that's what we wanted to do in Massachusetts. We want to move to Cape Cod. So I got a job still in radio, but more on like the marketing side of things. And boy, I hated it. I hated it.

And again, you can make the argument that where you're on the marketing side of things, you're still talking to people. And yeah, I did. I did okay just selling spots and selling ads on their website and things like that. Like it was fine. But like just being at a radio station and just seeing everybody talk on the microphone and not being able to do it yourself. it sucked. It stunk.

And after like three months, I knew it wasn't for me. But I just kept plugging away. Kept plugging away. And then we realized that timing, finances, everything, it just wasn't going to work. Houses in Cape, like the housing market on Cape Cod was just ridiculous. Everything was way too overpriced for what we were going to need. And we just kind of made the decision. Like, we just can't do this right now.

So I moved back to Western Mass. Because I had been on Cape by myself for six months. So I would drive. I had a place to rent. I rented a room. So I would drive from one part of the state to the other on Sunday. And then I would work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And I would get I work 5.30, 6 o'clock p.m. on Friday.

And I would drive all the way back to the other side of the state just to see my family on Friday, Saturday. And then I'd have to leave Sunday. So I would only get like a day and a half with my family every week. It sucked. I did that for six months. But the plan was, you know, plant something down. They'll move and everything will be cool and it did work out. So when I moved back, it was radio station offered me a job to come back.

There's obviously an option. But then I asked my wife, let me take a run at this MMA thing. Just let me go off my own. I'll see what I could do. Like, I'm not going to make a lot of money. Just let me just go. Let me just get after it. I'll hustle.

Give me a year. I asked you to give me a year. And I said, if within a year I don't get a full-time job in MMA, I'm done. I'll never cover it again. I'll watch as a fan. But me covering it, interviewing fighters, doing shows, all that over. And she said, do what you got to do. And I did.

And I did stuff for, I mean, so many websites. I wasn't quite where like James Lynch is or he's writing and doing interviews for, like, everybody. but I was working for a lot of different, a lot of different people. I was doing shows for multiple networks and grinding away and not making a ton of money doing it. But then over the summer, I was doing like PA work for a minor league baseball team.

So that was like some money that was coming in because there would be like two, three, sometimes four games a week. And I got pretty decent money every game that I did that. But yeah, you just got to grind away. And if you see an opening for something you want to do, you just got to run through it. But obviously I have the support of a wonderful woman and a tremendous son who were just like, get after it, do what you need to do.

And if you think you could do this, go do it. And they did. And I think it was seven months later, I was on with them A fighting. So, yeah. But you got to pay the bills. You just got to do it. But we're in a weird time in the world where everybody's hiring and everybody needs somebody. So if you're not happy with where you're at,

there's chances are the path you want to take, there's probably opening. So go get it. All right, we're going Zeke. Then we're going Timmy Tip. Then we're going Brian Cashman. Zeke, what's up? Zeke are you there?

All right, try again, Zeke. Of course, the landscapers are like, let's mow the lawn right now. Let's get Timmy tip in here. Timmy. Make sure you unmute. Try again. we'll get you in i promise all right do we have you z we do have me

how are you mike what's that buddy of course a little technical difficulty is not going to hang me on a three for all Friday uh i will be short and sweet uh i'm excited for this card coming up i mean of course we had a really good card last week uh this card's going to like low-key fly under the radar

because that bang we got coming up next week but do not sleep on this card i'm going to enjoy it i'm going to have a couple beverages because people are there's going to be violence on our screen Saturday night. And with what's going on in sports right now, no NBA, you know, NHL slowly dying down. All the guys is the NLB. I love my Yankees, but it's just, it's enough. It's enough.

You've got to get your friends, your family, whoever it is, watching fights because this shit's awesome. So my big thing for you is what is going to happen if Shafcott Rachmanov runs through Neil Magny? Is it guys that you were mentioning in the World Warwick Division? does he get shot up the cannon completely to like a humsad or a Leon? Like what's shock cut's next steps if he does run through Neil Magny inevitably? The line says minus 400. I think that's a little wide in my humble opinion. I think Neil's definitely an athlete.

He's got a shot. But Shofcott could be a different beast man. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I mean, we'll see. I mean, it's just you kind of have to wait and see how the performance is. You have to wait to see how everybody reacts to it. and then you have a better gauge. So I don't think he's going to get the Shamiyaf treatments

because, I mean, like Shemayev speaks decent English. And that, as weird as that sounds, like that's such a big positive when it comes to promoting guys. And I'm sure Shafkat's going to learn and slowly get better at that.

We've seen Piator Yan improve his English quite a bit over the years, and people have appreciated that about him. And, yeah, I don't know. If somehow Balal gets the Shemaya fight and Shafkat beats Neil Magni, maybe he gets the Sean Brady fight. I'd like to see that one. I know sometimes you think two prospects can't really do it,

but I think in this case it would actually make some sense. So if that's the direction they go, I wouldn't have any problem with it. But it'll be interesting to see what the performance is like, how he performs, if he wins, and then how the reaction is on social media are people just going to go bananas for him? I don't know. Timmy, I saw you in here.

You can hop back in. I'll get you right in next. Brian Cashman. Hello. Good morning to you, Mike. What's up, buddy? All right. So first off, I'm just going to start off with this James Krause slander

because what the heck was that? James Crouse is a legend. And I don't think a former UFC flyway champion of Brandon Moreno would change camps and go seek out James Krause if he wasn't a good coach. So let me just get that straight. Second of all, I was looking at the opening lines for Magamette Ancolaev and Anthony Smith. They got Anthony Smith at like a plus 350 and Ancolaev minus 400. Didn't know what you thought about those odds.

Another thing is do you think they're going to, they're more likely to give Wonderboy Kevin Holland or Michelle Pereira? and then my last thing is if Chavcott goes out there and beats or dominates Neil Magny do you think he's next for Nate Diaz that's all I got a heck of a morning to you

thank you sir um yeah Shafcott Nate no Wonderboy versus Pahetta Holland yes I think it'll be one of those two

for sure the James Krauslander will not be tolerated although that was a very interesting take and I have to be honest with you I forgot the first question so maybe the next person could help me out

maybe Muhammad can help me out with that Muhammad are you there just make sure you're unmute there we go Mohammed are you there I had you try unmuting again

I had you all right try again about Ahmad yeah Good morning. Good morning. Same to you. All right.

So my question is about Max and Alex Wolfenovsky. So, you know, Alex is very, very difficult to finish. What happens if Max eaks out a decision or not eke it out, just like it clearly wins a decision, but then, you know, what's going on with the judging, they still give it to voc to voc? what happens with that MMA community? I mean, everybody's going to lose it. What happens then? Interesting question, but I think we know it happens

because in a lot of people's eyes, we saw it in the last fight. A lot of people felt like Max Holloway beat Volcanovsky in the second fight. I was not one of those people. I have watched over the last two years, almost two years, I have not watched a fight more than Volcanowski Holloway, too. One, because it's just one of the most underrated fights of all time.

It's so good. and if you're looking for high-level mixing in the martial arts, you're not going to find anything better than that second fight. So close. It was one of the closest fights you'll ever see. Unbelievable stuff from both guys. The way Holloway adjusted from fight one to fight two to where Volcanowski adjusted in the middle of the fight against Holloway

after being down two rounds was a thing of beauty. It was incredible, incredible. One of my favorite fights ever. One of my favorite fights ever. Is it one of those ones that is going to be in the UFC Hall of Fame someday? It should be. It probably won't be. But it's not Forrest Griffin, Stefan Bonner.

It's not Cub Swanson, Duo Choi. It's a masterpiece. It's so good. But the answer to your question is, if Max Holloway beats Alexander Volcanofsky, whether he eeks out a decision or he knocks him dead, they're fighting again. We're getting the fourth fight.

because how like you have to do that you can't get like can you met like there'd be an uproar if max beats vulcan then he doesn't get volk doesn't get a chance to get it back after winning the first two fights but and i won't complain about that i could watch volkenovsky holloway fight forever because it's such a compelling matchup i favor volkenovsky to win and volkinovsky's on the precipice of something big and if he goes out like I said before and this this might be a hot take and I don't care because I got James Krause is a bad coach or not a bad coach but overrated coach if we're playing hot takes and I've said this before I'll say it again guess what

Alexander Volkadovsky beats max holloway on Saturday next Saturday he's my number one pound for pound fighter that's it he jumps over Usman now if Usman beats Leon maybe Usman takes it back. But to me, I really want to put Volk in that one spot because I honestly think pound for pound skill for skill you, there is a case to be made he's the best fighter in the world.

We'll see how this fight goes. I can't wait to see it. Holloway's such a gamer, so fun. And Volk's just on another level right now. It's popularity starting to get bigger. He's starting to be a little more comfortable with himself. It's getting a little more I don't know.

He's getting a little more getting a little more UFC champion. And I dig that about him. But he's not, but not in like a, I'm going to wear a $5,000 suit to the venue while I'm walking in the building kind of champion.

It's just the mentality of the champion more than anything else. All right. We're going to go Indigo, A. Koster, and then Justin. And that's it. Indigo. Hey, Mike.

First of me, I hope no one's talked about this. I don't want to go super long on it. Darren and Ariel, what is Darren's problem? I get that his brand is just to be like an insufferable gremlin and just as big of an ass as he possibly can

but like he comes at Ariel Ariel hits back in 10-7s him because that's what Ariel does and then he, Darren posts his number like what you're gonna, that's like such a toddler move that I couldn't believe that a grown ass man did that.

Yeah, it was I'll be honest with you. I don't care necessarily. I mean, I like Ariel. Obviously, he's a colleague and a tremendous one at that. But I saw it like in passing. But yeah, that was kind of dumb. It's kind of silly.

There's certain lines you don't cross. That's one of them. So, yeah, Helwani wins the battle. I guess Till maybe apologize a little bit on social media. but I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I wasn't really paying attention to it, but wrong. You don't do that.

I will say that. Helani wins again. All right, A. Koster, you're up. What's up? Had a little take about something you said the other day. Let's go. You mentioned about Charles Olivera should not take the fight against Islam Makachev in October

in Abu Dhabi. Personally, I think that's probably a good idea if he were still the champion. So how do you think him actually not being the champion if he decides to not want to fight in Abu Dhabi? And Dana says, well, you know what? Screw you. Somebody else is going to take the belt that you don't actually have anymore. Also, keeping that in mind, what do you feel like happens if he does take the fight but gets injured on the way somewhere between now and October?

What happens with the title? Does Islam fight for the undisputed title? Does it become an interim title? I'm just curious to see what leverage he has left in this situation. Also, if you ever need a backup, Alex Kay from Canada, I got you, and happy birthday, AK. Oh, man, AK, he's trying to come for your job, buddy. Yeah, so again, I think Oliver does have some leverage. I know when the UFC was in Singapore, they were talking about, I forget who was, one of the VPs of Internet,

said that they want to go to Brazil this year. They said they want to go to Brazil this year. They said their goal is to have a card in Brazil by the end of the year. And if Charles Oliver is not on that card, that is a travesty. That is an absolute travesty. The last card, like, the weight missed, whatever. It's so dumb. Like, the whole thing was so dumb.

And there's clear, there was some tomfoolery going on. Like, whatever. It doesn't matter. He missed weight. He should be penalized for that. Like, find the man, take 35% of his, like, whatever. But he should still be treated in some way as the champion, I think. Especially after that performance, he should still be at least treated like the champion.

Now, he doesn't have to be the champion. You can vacate the title, but he should be on the posters. He should be getting championship money. He should be getting all the perks that the champion gets. because the whole thing is silly and dumb and I don't know any other any other commission in the United States

Oliver is 155 on the nose it just is what it is they're slamming that damn thing home and we're not even having this discussion right now and I think the UFC knows that which is why they're not burying Charles of this whole thing they have to at least take a stand

I guess like you can't be missing weight pal but again, if I Listen, if that's the point of contention for the UFC Is that, hey, you have to fight Islam For the vacant title in October in Abu Dhabi Or you don't get this fight If I'm all over, I say, okay

Have him fight somebody else And I'll fight the winner Fine with me Because even if he says no You think the UFC's going to just bench him And not give him the fight? like the next fight like let's just say Charles's like no I'm not going to

fight it in enemy territory again I'm not going to fight I'm not going to go to Abadabia and fight this guy I'm not going to give him the home field advantage I'm not going to do it then the UFC is say okay it'll be Makachev Darius for the undisputed title fine and then Oliver gets the winner

like you can do that I think he has some leverage and even if he does it you just say no I'm not fighting in October in Abu Dhabi. I'm not doing it. If they're going to do a card in Brazil in December, Oliver is going to fight his ass off to try to be on that card, and they'd be done not to put,

not to main event him on that card. It'd be a horrible decision. So I'm curious how it plays out. Habib has said, and I know Machachev's team has said, like, we'll fight you wherever. You said it. So go fight him wherever.

I know there's reports that fight's done for October. like I've said in the past and I'll continue to say, if it's not an MAFighting.com, it's not done. I'm not saying that the report's wrong by any stretch, but we haven't confirmed it.

We haven't written it up, which means in my eyes, it's not done. Maybe it's being discussed. I'm sure that's something the UFC's thinking about, but if we didn't report, it ain't done. Justin Phillips,

close the show. What you got? Good morning. Just a couple of things I need to run through, and then I have a question for you. Number one, to A. Koster, the champion has the name. His name is Charles Olivera. I love that. I love that.

Number two, I think Jake Paul starches Tommy Fury. And, yeah, I got Jake Paul at Plus Money, and I can't believe it. So, yeah, I think that will be easy work. I would favor Tyrone Woodley over Tommy Fury if they were to fight. Wow. So that's that. Number three, last time I was. was on here. It was my first call. My heart was beating all fast. And I thought maybe featherweight

was better than lightweight. Jed Mishu came after me on that one, and he was right. Lightweight's better, so I'm not going to mess with that anymore. And I don't want to be known as that guy with that bad take. So light weight is better. It'll probably always be the best. And then finally, question for you. If you were a Vegas odds maker or sports thick odds maker, what would you put the betting lines on the notion that there is a future UFC champion on Saturday's UFC card? Thank you, buddy. I mean, I'd be crazy if I did. I will say, I'm not good at, like, setting lines.

I'm good at, like, reading what is an interesting, juicy line. Plus 110. I don't want to get too crazy, but plus 110. Because I think Surukian's going to win the title. I do think Syruquian's going to win the title. And I've said this before, and I'm going to say it again. I'm going to say it again. Right here for you all to hear.

If Sirukion fights Islam again, he's going to win. A full camp, Sarukyon, when they actually fight. Because when they fight, again, it'll probably be for the belt. It'll probably be two years from now. Surukion's going to be getting that man strength a little bit more. He'll be 27 years old. Maybe 26, 26, 27, 28. Full camp.

Syruquian beats Islam in two years. So, Syruquian will be champion. Rachmanoff. We'll see. You know, minus 120. because Umar Namaga Madov's on this car. I mean, there's a few guys. There's a few guys in here who,

Umar could be a champion. Rachmanov will see. Surukyan, yes. Surukian would definitely be a champion. And maybe Gamrod will be a champion someday. I don't know. But we'll see what happens in that fight. Let's see if I'm just insane.

But I feel really good about my Surukyon pick. I've been very high. I've been high on Surukian since before he's in the UFC. And I feel like my futures prospect pick here in Surukian is just going to pay off. But we'll see what happens tomorrow. Great UFC card. I know it's not star-studded.

I know people on BTL in the comments are saying the card is trash. And if you feel that way, you're wrong. This is going to be a card where AK's gymnastics scale is going to get met, maybe exceeded. Because there's just some fun fights on here. Chris Curtis, Ciddafiere is fun.

Parles Oldberg, Tafon and Chukwe. It ain't going to be pretty, but it's going to be damn fun. Shailon, Nerd to Bianchi, T.J. Brown, that's going to be fun. Piva, Brozoff's going to be fun. J.P. Bays and Cody Dernan's is going to be, it's going to be like the Tasmanian devil, just spinning around and throwing a bunch of trash in the air and dust and craziness.

These two guys are just going to be spinning and going bananas. Brian Keller, Mario Patis is going to be fun. DeMopoulos, Junio, Frye will be fun. It's not a namesake. It's not like a Wikipedia-centric card, but compelling matchups, exciting guys. And then just a fantastic main event and a really strong co-mate event. So don't sleep on this one.

I know we're feeling a little bit of the hangover from 275 and everything that happened there. UFC Austin was incredible. It's unfair to put this card on the level of those two. But let's just go in there, open-minded. Let's not feel like this card is trash because it ain't. And let's not feel like this is going to be

the greatest card of all time because it's probably not going to be. So let's just go in there like we're seeing a movie. Let's go in there like we're seeing Anchorman. like the first day of Anchorman before you talk to anybody about it. You just go in there and you're like, okay, Will Ferrell's going to fake mustache on

and he's going to read the news in San Diego. And then you laugh your ass off and you're like, wow, that was way funnier than I thought it was going to be. That's how we should approach this card tomorrow. And of course, busy night tonight for the fight world, Bellator 282, PFL. Jed Bishu's going to be at PFL tonight. He says he's going to try to interview the smart cage.

And if that happens, forget anything I'll do in Las Vegas next week for International Flight Week. Jedmishu's interview at the Smart Cage might just steal everything. And I don't know how I'm going to be able to top that. And of course, BKFC going down as well, Jimmy Rivera making his BKFC debut. I'm very interested in the Beck Rawlings, Britain Heart rematch. So that should be fun as well. If you're looking for chaos, I think you go to BKFC. if you're looking for a marathon MMA event,

you go to PFL. And if you're looking for a fun Bellator card with okay commentary, I think you're good to go. But that's it. We've got to get out of here. I don't want to get in trouble. Thank you all.

We did this for four days in a row, and I appreciate that. Next time you'll hear me on this platform will be Tuesday morning. Time TBD. Let's plan on 9 a.m. Eastern Time. because I will be at the Atlanta, Georgia airport,

doing the show from there because I'll be on a layover before my flight to Las Vegas. So I'm just going to sit in the airport and do the damn show and if people want to look at me like them crazy, that's fine too. So enjoy the rest of the day, everybody.

Thank you very much. And as always, have a heck of a morning, you crazy animals. To the Vox Media Podcast Network.