MMA Fighting - Heck of a Morning | Interest Level in Henry Cejudo Comeback, Nate Diaz's Future, Anthony Taylor Joins the Show

Episode Date: April 26, 2022

Henry Cejudo seems to be on track to a return to the octagon after announcing his retirement at UFC 249 in May 2020, but how much do people actually care? On Tuesday's edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck gives his thoughts on the potential return of "Triple C," answers questions in regards to who Nate Diaz should fight in his final contracted UFC bout and what his future could look like, what could headline UFC 275 to cap of International Fight Week in July, Cris Cyborg's next move after her successful title defense at Bellator 279, Tyson Fury's dominant KO win over Dillian Whyte and where Francis Ngannou fits in the conversation, and more. In addition, Anthony Taylor joins the program to give his thoughts on past opponent Tommy Fury's win in the boxing ring this past Saturday, why he doesn't believe a fight between Fury and Jake Paul will ever happen, and what could be next for "PrettyBoy," whether it be in boxing or MMA. 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

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Tuesday, April 26th, 2020, and it is a heck of a morning here on M.A. Fightings, Twitter Spaces. And shortly, once we wrap this up live on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network, I am Mike Heck. Hope you're having a wonderful start to the week. A fantastic Tuesday. For those who like the 8 o'clock a.m. Eastern Standard Time, start time for the show.

My apologies. My dog had a grooming appointment this morning. I had to drop him off. It was scheduled for 8.30. I dropped him off like a half hour early because I had to do. But he needs a haircut and a bath and the nails trimmed, like all that stuff so badly. Couldn't put it off. So delayed start time to the show.

So thank you all for jumping on. If you guys got questions, thoughts, comments, we will get to those in a matter of moments. So raise your hand, send your request an artist. See a few of you doing that. But we have a lot to talk about. The options are a plenty. We could recap what took place this past weekend. We had two Bellator cards, lots of championship fights.

Friday, we had Bellator 278. We saw Giuliazza Velazquez lose her flyweight title to Liz Carmouche. Great moment for Liz Carmoo. She could finally call herself a world champion. However, the bout was, especially the finish, was Mired with some controversy. Bad position for Giuliazza. If you watch the fight, you know what I'm talking about. Liz Kamers, at least in my mind, was down three rounds.

Fight ends up on the ground. She gets crucifix position. She lands a couple of elbows. Velas, at least to me, looked like she was loosening up a little bit, about to make a move. As I was about to happen, referee Mike Beltran steps in and stops the fight. Now, this has been quite the topic because some people feel that the stoppage was justified. other people feel that it was way too soon. I'm more on the latter side.

I think it was way too soon. Listen, this is the first fight of the night. If it's a prelim featuring 1-0 Hawaiian pros fighting in a hometown fight, sure. You want to err on the side of caution, I get that. But this is a world championship fight. This is a main event.

You have an undefeated fighter, putting her undefeated record and her championship on the line. I felt like it was too soon. Now, could the fight, could it have gotten worse? Maybe there's a possibility of that. And, you know, referees want to be more cautious more than anything. I get that.

But I just felt in that situation, and we don't like to see fighters take additional damage. I felt like the stoppage could have, I don't know, could have let that go a little bit longer. But congratulations, Liz Karmouche, she gets done. We have two, the final two entries to the Bellator. Bannamweight Grand Prix, we have Enrique Barzola, former UFC fighter, had a great performance, and we had the emergence of Danny Sabatello.

And I'm glad to see that Danny Sabatelo is now on a lot of your radars. He's been on my radar for a long time. I've been preaching about Danny Sabatelo for about three and a half years now. Finally, he's starting to get the rub. Finally, he's starting to get the notoriety. Because he's a fun dude. He's a fun guy. He's got a great personality. He's a

fantastic interview and the guy can fight his ass up. Is it the most aesthetically pleasing performances all the time? Not necessarily, but he's fine with that. He's completely fine with that. And that's what I like about Danny Sabatel. This guy's going to be a problem. And you may have seen the clip. I'm picking him to win the whole damn Grand Prix.

I picked that even before the play and fight even started probably two days before that. You might think it's a hot take. I feel pretty good about that. So we'll see what happens. And then, of course, Saturday, a lot happened. We had Justin Raj, capping off UFC Vegas 52 with with a standing arm triangle choke of Amanda Lamos. Great performance for her.

Jessica Drozh might be the most underrated fighter on the roster, and she might be the most exciting fighter on the roster. She is just an absolute canon. She is a finishing machine. And I think her next fight should be for the strongweight title. I know we got Rose Namibuniz getting ready to fight Carla Sparza. I think Rose, excuse me, I think Jessica Dross should get the winner of that fight. There's a story there for either side.

If Sparza wins, we have a fresh matchup. And if Rose wins, we get the trilogy fight. We all know how that second fight ended. We all know how the first fight went. We all know how that second fight ended. Rose won, but the momentum was clearly shifting to the side of Jessica Androge. And I absolutely want to see that fight again. I'll see Jessica Androge fight anybody at this point.

So great performance from her. We'll see what happens. We had Tyson Fury knockout Dillion White in the sixth round. There's a brutal knockout. This is one-way traffic the whole way. Dillion White said, eh, it's a competitive fight. It was not competitive at all.

I thought Tyson Fury just picked him apart the entire time until he landed this unbelievable uppercut from the depths of hell. And Dillion White was done. Francis Ngadu comes into the ring. Tyson Fury, Francis Ngano have a great moment. And now what are we going to do here?

Are we going to see some sort of combat sports boat between Tyson Fury and Francis and Gano? Now, those of us who like a good time and like to have fun, we're all excited about this. I'm curious to see, like, where this all goes. What are we going to do?

The Jose Youngsons of the world? You know, they're not into that kind of thing. It's the purest sport. We want to have a purest attitude. I, for one, just want to see what they can do with this thing. Let's do a best of seven. Let's do a whole bunch of athletic competitions. We're talking on the post-fight show for all the events.

Can you imagine, like, Tyson Fury and Francine, and Francis Gano in a tetherball contest. I mean, we could have so much fun with this. A 5K race, you got to have a fight in there somewhere, but you can do all sorts of fun stuff with those two guys. So we'll see what goes down between those two gentlemen. Of course, Francis Gano was on the MMA hour with Ariel Hawani, and he said, if the UFC wants to resign him,

the Tyson Fury fight has to be part of the equation. And good on France and Ghana for saying that. I'm very curious to hear Data White's reaction. to all of this because he was not at the UFC Vegas 52 post-fight press conference. Not surprised by that with everything that had happened. You saw, I mean, you're basically, there's no way Dana White wasn't watching the Tyson Fury fight.

And there's no way he missed his heavyweight champion in the squared circle next to Tyson Fury having that moment that everybody's talking about. So Dana White is going to have a lot to say about this. We may not hear from him until next week when the UFC heads to Phoenix for UFC. 274 and I can't wait for that card. So that's going to be super exciting.

And then we had Bellator 279. Chris Cyborg defeats Arlene Blanco. This is one way traffic. I know we're giving Arlene Blanco a lot of credit for her toughness and her ability to take punishment. And she brought it. She had her moments where she went in there and she landed some shots. But this is, I mean, this was all cyborg.

She lost the point. I wonder if Arlene Blanco, of course, we appreciate her having integrity. and honesty and not taking the DQ, but in hindsight, looking at her bank account in a year, is she going to regret that decision? Not taking the DQ? Get that bag, as our friend Jen Bishu said. So a lot going on.

We have UFC Vegas 53 going down this Saturday. Love this main event. We got Rob Font taking on Marlon Chito Vera. The rest of the card, eh, not too shabby, not great. But this is a fantastic main event. This is probably the best of the three main events that we've had since UFC 273, in my opinion. Rob Fanchito Vera, great fight. So we have a lot going on.

We have the Ultimate Fighter getting ready to start one week from today. Who's excited about that? May 3rd, 2022. It's going down. New season of the Ultimate Fighter. Can I just say I do not care at all about the Ultimate Fighter? Let me just say this. There is one thing I care less about than the Ultimate Fighter.

That is Henry Sohudo. coming back to fight. I could not care less that Henry Sehudo's coming back. Yeah, he's a great champion. Yeah, he's combat sports athlete and one of the, one of the best and his resume is incredible. But this whole Henry Sehudo comeback thing, that whole entire situation of Suhudo beating Dominic Cruz and then retiring and then hoping the UFC would beg him to come back and make more money, this is one of the all-time great misses and whiffs in sports history, not just MMA history and UFC history and combat sports history. This was one of the all-time blunders in sports history.

Talk about not reading the room correctly. This was just awful. This was awful from the start. It's actually getting worse. Now, luckily for him, Al Jermaine Sterling is at least interested in fighting Henry Sehudo. I don't really understand why. Because the Suhudo thing, even though he says he's coming back,

and he's taking pictures with Hunter Campbell and Sean Shelby, and all these things. And of course, Ali is singing his praises and all that, not surprising. But until he actually gets into the octagon to fight, I don't believe it. I actually had more faith than Nick Diaz coming back to fight than I do Henry Suhudo at this point. I just don't care. I just don't care. And luckily for the ultimate fighter, I care about something less than the return of the ultimate fighter. Because this Henry Sehudo thing is just a joke. I don't care. And I don't think anybody else cares either. Algeman Sterling is the only one who cares.

This was one of the all-time great blunders, great whiffs in combat sports history. We talk about a 30-for-30 for Tony Ferguson versus Habe Unaragamadeoff. I want to see a 30-for-30 with Henry Sehudo on the comeback trail. The show's going to last 11 seconds because nobody cares.

Nobody cares. I want to hear from you guys. Let's get to... We'll start with Lactagon. Lactagon, what do you want to talk about this morning, my man? There's lots of options to choose from. A heck of a morning, Mike.

What's up, buddy? I guess a pretty boy can actually chime in on this as well. But after seeing Tommy Fury's performance this past weekend, do you think he has a snowball chance in hell of beating Jake Paul? I don't know. Probably not. I would favor Jake Paul right now, but there's a, I don't know. Not a great performance from Tommy Fury.

I mean, it was a win, and we go out there. to win fights, right? But at the end of the day, yeah, not a great performance. Although, if you watch that entire main card outside of Tyson Fury, Tommy Fury's fight was the most exciting. But that's not saying much.

That's not saying much. That's like having the least painful canker sore where you have seven of them. Look at this guy. I mean, I got to bring in Anthony Pretty Boy Taylor. I mean, the celebrities are just coming full force here on heck of a morning. Anthony, good morning, my man.

Good morning. What up? What up? How are you doing? I'm good. I saw the fight with Tommy. To be honest, Jake will definitely TKO Tommy. I won't say knockout, but just TKL to the point where the rest is going to stop it. You've seen Tommy fight me. He had a hard time fighting me and I'm 5'6. You see somebody, Tommy's height, we see the difference. Now you're talking about Jake Paul, who's 6-263, who is as much. taller than Tommy who can actually fight fundamentally. And people are looking down on that. Tommy does not have the dedication that Jake Paul has. Jake Paul is a better fighter and an overall better athlete. I told people this. I said, if Jake Paul was the fight Tommy Fury,

this fight will turn out exactly like Anthony Joshua versus Uffix. We know Tommy Fury is a one-two one-two fighter like Anthony Joshua. we know that Jake Paul likes to use the ring to his advantage he moves his around a lot he uses the ropes he uses his high IQ like Usik now I'm not saying Jake Paul is

on the same skill set as Usik but I'm saying the fight between Tommy Fury and Jake Paul will turn out the same resemblance to Anthony Joshua versus Usik's Interesting take and you would know this let me ask you this anything i know you and jake are pretty tight i don't know if you've spoken to him

obviously he's got a lot going on we get the big fight between amanda serrano and katie taylor happening this weekend so i'm sure he's fully engulfed on that right now but we saw his comments to area hawani about about tommy's fight do you think there's any chance jake would would fight tommy next like do you think that's the fight i know he wants to come back in august or sometime this summer but do you think tommy's even on his radar after that performance. Absolutely not. And I'm going to tell you why he's not going to fight, Tommy, period.

Tommy doesn't promote. He doesn't engage. You're betting on your last name to promote the fight. You needed your dad and your brother to promote the fight to help you. Before the Tommy fight, the week of the Tommy fight post happened, we were all thinking like, wait a minute, ain't Jake Paul fighting this week?

Because Tommy wasn't engaging. He wasn't entertaining the people to get them engaged in two wanting to buy the fights. He doesn't, he didn't promote when I was fighting him. He didn't do none of that. I,

right now, I can't say, what is Jake next opponent? Because his main focus is on Amanda Serrano. Me personally, I would like him to see him fight Hulier, Sazer, Chavez, Jr.,

or Anderson Silva. You know? That's a fight, Anthony. Anderson Silva, that is the fight. Absolutely. But who knows what's going to happen? We don't know.

But as far as Tommy fight Jake, no. Tommy had his chance. If Tommy wanted to fight Jake again, Tommy would have never took in this fight. He could have just waited and say, hey, let's resume this fight on another date when you're ready. And let's do that. Which he didn't do. So there's obviously speculations of what's going on in Tommy's camp. Personally, Tommy was not physically fit and ready to fight.

Jake Paul that day, personal. Yeah, it's, it's, we'll see what happens. I mean, that one's going to get a hurt, eat at him for sure. Thinking back of all that money he could have made, win or lose, kind of a rough one. And it sucks, man. When are you fighting again, Anthony? Oh, man. I've had talks with Bellator potentially, coming back, don't know when.

There's still talks with me in the UFC. I've told multiple people I wanted to fight Patty And there's possible talks of me fighting Roy Jones or Chad Johnson there potentially You know, Chad, Chad Dawson, my bad Okay, I thought you made Ocho Cinco. No, no, God no, God no. But who knows? You know, my future this year, I'm booked.

I got so much going on. I'm thinking about making my comeback to MMA this year because I do want to go to the UFC. I do want to see where my ceiling hits in MMA. Yeah, I love it. But, man, boxing pays a lot more. You know, like shit, like a lot more. Well, whatever happens, Anthony, we'll be watching, my man.

Thank you so much. I appreciate you, brother. All right. Anthony Pretty Boy, Taylor. Very busy man. One of the great stories in combat sports if we're being honest, because where this guy was a few years back

to where he is now, I mean, really incredible stuff. I've had some conversation with Anthony and go back into the archives on YouTube or the podcast network and check those out. Whether it's a pair of running shoes or a new car, you check how well something performs before you buy it. Why should investing be any different?

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Mr. New York, Rick. Good morning. Heck of a morning, Mike. Heck of a morning. Let me start by just saying how nice it is to hear Anthony Pretty Boy Taylor confirm what I, you know, suspected and thought yesterday is like Tommy Fury just doesn't have the juice. He's not a draw. He's not going to be promoted or he's not going to do his end of the promotion. I think it's important to remember and a lot of promoters kind of fall into this trap that like mainstream appeal, social media following amongst a bunch of people that don't buy pay-per-views doesn't really. do anything for the promotion. So all these Love Island fans

and all this other stuff that supposedly Tommy Fury is bringing to the table, I don't think that a single Love Island fan is buying that pay-per-view. And quite frankly, I just don't think it's a interesting matchup for Jake Paul. But that's not why I'm calling. It was just good to hear that.

Why I'm calling in is because we have to talk about this Henry Sohudo take. We have to talk. Yes, let's go. Let's go, New York. The fact that you are disrespect one of the greatest combat sports athletes of all time. Now, I will grant you, the way he handled this, completely botched. He thought he had more leverage than he did.

He thought the U.S.E was going to come crawling and making these superfights. It turns out they weren't that interested and the sport moved on without him. But now that he seems to be serious, now that he is back in the testing pool, now that he is potentially training to come back and fight, now that Alexander Volcanowski and Al Jermaine Sterling have both say, his name. I have to tell you, I care. I have to tell you

you said nobody cares. I care. One of the greatest convent sports athletes of all time is going to get back in the octagon. Maybe the boxing ring, who knows what he decides to do. I'm going to be watching it. Don't say that. I'm going to be watching the boxing ring, New York, Rick. Why? How dare you?

How dare you? Listen, he's conquered the wrestling world. He's conquered the MMA world. Why not boxing? Why not boxing for Henry Suhudo? all right hey listen i respect your opinion as always new york rick you're wrong but no listen listen i'm half joking about the sehudo take i'm not joking about the all-time great blunders absolutely not i don't think as many people care as henry thinks if they book a fight between henry sehudo and aljamaid stirling or henry sehudo and alexander volkanovsky i'm going to watch it and i'm

going to be into it, but until I see a press conference, until I see a way in, until I see him, until I see him physically in the cage and Bruce Buffer introduces him, I don't care. And I don't believe it. I don't believe it until it actually happens. And at this point, he could talk and do shows and talk with the schmo and all the stuff and he could talk to whoever he wants. I don't care. I don't care.

He still thinks he's like the biggest star in sports. and he's a huge draw. He's not. He's not. And I think this absence has proven that. Now, again, from a competitive standpoint, if he gets locked into a cage with one of these champions, and he actually fights and a referee says,

let's go and he starts circled around, he's about to throw a punch, yeah, I'll be invested. I'll be into the fight. But as of right now, I don't care. I really don't. Let's go to, I'm going to go to Christopher because he's sad that his Cal Rip,

heck of a morning street came to an end at what 11 episodes maybe 12 i don't even know how many we've done at these christopher good morning mike how you doing good yeah not much man um i wanted to come in here a bit of a fun one uh so i i listened to a lot between the links it's one of my favorite shows that you guys have on um so i wanted to play a quick game of buy or sell with you um okay if you're up for that let's go awesome all right i'll just fire off three quick ones, I'll fire three quick ones, and then I'll let you, I'll let your answer.

So, number one, does Claudia Poeus end the year with a number next to his name? Was that Chris Sidewalks the last fight for Bellator? And does Jordan get his wish and fight Edson

Barboza next by or sell on all three? I like that. I like the question. First one, Claudia Playa is with a number next to his name. Hmm. It depends because, I mean, I have to give an answer. The fight I want to see at this point, I think it makes all the sense in the world. If you haven't listened on to the next one yet, I'm going to give you a little spoiler.

I want streaky outside the top 15 fighter taking on another streaky outside of the top 15 fighter. Give me Claudio Plius versus the tarantula of Jalen Turner. That is 100% the fight to make. The winner of that fight will absolutely have a number next to his name. That's, man, it's tough. I'll say yes. I'll say yes.

But I think that's the fight to make. And if that's the fight to make, that's a real tough one for Claudio plays. But again, that fight gets to the ground. He's so slick. Those knee bars, those heel hooks. Those leg submissions are nasty. Second question, buy yourself,

Chris Seiborg. That was her final fight in Bellator. I will sell that. I think she will resign. Because again, I talk about this on the show all the time. How you win prize fighting is you take on not the easiest fighters. I don't want to disrespect him in that way.

You take on the least amount of competition and make the most amount of money. And Chris Cyborg's winning the game right now. She's going in there, she's lapping all of these women. She's now on going back and rematching all of these. Who's she going to fight next? She's going to make a lot of money to fight Shnade Kavanaugh. And she's probably going to win that fight rather easily.

That's a pretty good gig she's got going on right now. She's got a pretty good gig. Now I know she wants the Kayla Harrison fight, which is cool. I think we would all love to see how that fight plays out. So she could go to PFL and fight Kayla. But if she goes to PFL and fights Kayla, like that's,

I mean, that's all we really care about over there for her is if she fights Kayla. But, I mean, are they going to do a featherweight division? Are they going to sign a bunch of fighters for her to go through the million dollar season? Or are they just going to sign her to one fight deal to fight Kayla?

Now, if I am Bellator, and I love Scott Coker's answer to this question, when I asked them about it, all the PFL to do to at least have a conversation with Koker and the Bellator brass is to actually pick up the telephone and call him. Calling Cyborg out on social media, Don Davis, and calling out Bellator on social media,

Don Davis, and whatever else you're doing, stop doing that. You're not going to get Belator's attention that way. You're not going to get Scott Coker's attention that way. He's not going to care. I do think Chris Seiborg will resign because why wouldn't you? She got a pretty cushioning gig right now. re-sign. They're going to try.

Just make it part of the problem. She wants to go to boxing. Belator, it's been in her contract pretty much the entire time that if she wants to go box, she can go box and guess what? Belator's on Showtime. There's plenty of boxing fights to be found on Showtime. It's hard to find Bellator on Showtime,

apparently looking at the ratings, but you can find boxing on Showtime. So Chris will have her chance to box there. And what was, I'm trying to remember what third question was? Damn it. I went on too much of a rant. Third question. Damn it.

Maybe someone else could help me out. I'll answer it. In the granite. Do you remember what the third question was? And then we'll go to your question. Are you there? I can't hear you. You get the 617. Oh, what's up, dude? I'm sorry.

I thought you were trying to answer the third question from the other guy. I was hoping you could help me out with the third question. I forgot what to work. I heard it, but like you said, you went on a rant, and I was listening to your rant. I understand a podcast. I go on rant all the fucking time, and I forget. 6-17 Boston in the fucking house. Let me ask you something, my friend.

What do you think about Tony Ferguson? You think he came back too soon after that beating from Gai Chi? Because I never seen anyone do that to Tony Ferguson ever. Yeah, listen. It's hard to say. just the whole situation is bizarre with the whole Habib situation going in there and fighting Justin Gachi. I mean, it's two completely different fights.

I always think back to that weight cut the day before that Halibu I was supposed to happen. What if he didn't do that? I don't think the fight would have gone any differently. I think Justin Gachi would have gone out there and won. But I wonder what that whole situation did to his mental state. And then just going in there and the fight going the way that it did. when you fight Justin Gagee,

it's really hard to, it messes with your whole career, really. It's a hard fight. It's a hard fight. That guy is such a maniac. But I do, he's fighting Michael Chandler, and I know a lot of people feel like

Michael Chandler's just going to go in there and just run over Tony Ferguson, and that is a possibility. Maybe that happens on next Saturday, UFC 274. But I think Tony Ferguson has a decent chance to win that fight. Tony's going to get out of the first round, which he has proven to be durable, very, very durable.

Now, the fights have not gone his way. He's been thoroughly dominated pretty much every round since the Gaichi fight. But if he can get out of this first round, Michael Chandler, he's got a chance. I think he's got a chance to win the fight. I'm picking Chandler right now, but again, I wouldn't count Tony out of the fight. I would not count him out. did he come back too soon from the gauge you fight? Yeah, probably.

But Tony's not a guy who likes to sit on the sidelines if he doesn't want, if he doesn't have to. Let's get Joe in here. Maybe Joe knows the third question. Joe, how are you? Good. How are you? I do not know the third question.

I had to run my kids jacket into school and I missed it. I came back for what you were saying. I feel your pain, man. Do that. I've done that many times. Man, I think Henry's return, I agree with you. I don't think as many people care as he thinks, but I think when people look back in 20 years,

it's probably the most relevant return on the books if he can get to the 145 title and win it, which he's probably got a pretty good chance. And then on the cyborg fight, I don't think that happens. I think right now with Amanda losing the three big players, well, three of the big players can all kind of claim stake that they have the best female fighter on the planet as far as the heavier weight females go. So I don't think the fight ever actually happens. I think everybody kind of locks their fighter up and holds their position.

And then who do you think headlines 276, like the top three fights? Because they still haven't got to that. All right. Yeah, I mean, listen, I could certainly see a world where. Kayla stays at the PFL for the foreseeable future. I could see a world where Nunes ends her career with the UFC. And I could see a world where my laptop just like froze on me. And I can see a world where Chris Seiborch just stays with Bellator and fights under the Showtime banner for years to come.

Very possible. Very possible. And then, man, 276. I'm going to guess Adasanya Caninear will headline that card. I have no insight into this whatsoever, like absolutely none.

But that is my guess. And maybe we get Volcanovsky Holloway on that card. Maybe. I think that's a pretty damn good one-two punch right there for being honest. Now, I know there's a July 30th pay-per-view as well. At least that's kind of on the books.

So I don't really know. but yeah I mean I think those are two quality fights and who knows if we get colby and hamzat somewhere in there I know they're talking about they were talking about maybe doing it on ABC but that'd be a damn good fight to have on the card I mean there's lots of options at this point we are getting close to that we got to put ticket I mean listen the event's going to sell out it's international fight week we're getting to the point where we got to throw a made event on the books we got to do it pretty soon but my guess is adasanya versus Cannon Air, we'll headline that card. And then maybe we do Volcanowski versus Holloway 2.

I think timelines could line up. And yeah, we'll see what else comes out of it. I mean, we can't leave out John Jones versus Depe Mietich. That's kind of probably come up at some point. Where, when? Is it going to be on International Fight Week? Is it going to be on one of these other cards? It's going to be later than July?

who knows Christopher please tell me what the third question was because it's driving me freaking crazy hey Mike question number three

of bio cell was the Charles will then get his wish and fight Edson Barbo's the next oh yes okay that that's what it was I knew it was a good question

yes I think he does I liked the call out I didn't love it like on the build to the fight it was something that I'd be like yeah at the UFC made it I'd watch it But after the one-armed guillotine submission and the way he presented that fight,

basically is a gladiator fight to the death without weapons. Sign me the hell up for that. Let's go. Charles cares about rankings. Throw rankings out the window. If you want rankings, you go to M.Afighting.com. That's where you get the only rankings that matter in the sport. Let's just throw the rankings out the window.

Hell, we didn't even have to do it at 145. You just do it at 155. Who is not going to watch Charles Jordane versus that's in Barbosa? That's going to be a freaking banger. So let's go. Let's make that happen. I buy the hell out of it.

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Rocky's vacation here we come. Whoa, is this economy? Free beer, wine, and snacks. Sweet. Fast free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservations before we land. And with live TV, I'm not missing the game. It's kind of like I'm already on vacation.

Nice. Air Canada. Nice travels. Wi-Fi available to Aero plan members on equipped flights sponsored by Bell. Conditions apply. See Air Canada.com. Tristan, Gordetz. Good morning.

Good morning. Good morning. How's everything? Have been good? Wonderful. All right. So listen, listener, Otno, again, A.K. Lee, disrespecting Aaron Blancho. Again, he keeps doing it.

He keeps doing it. You got, I'm surprised you didn't. I know you held back. You were like, no, hold on. I'm like, all right, I'm going to let him go. I'm just going to let him go and just have to wait. But the disrespect again with Aaron Blancher, every time you bring her up,

because, you know, you want her to fight, Macy Barber at some point. He didn't, he didn't mention at all, Marina Maraz at all. Now, he's been caping up from Marina Maraaz for, like, the longest now, because he keeps saying Blanfield's not on her level. And listen, Mara's a good fighter.

I mean, she's got some, she's got, she fought killers. and she's on a three-fight Winstreet, but he didn't mention her to fight Macy Barber. So I'm like, yo, okay, it's like you're saying Maraz is so much higher than Blanchfield that, and I went back and went back to the UFC

272, I think, 272. I went, every time he says it, like, it infuriates me. I'm like, yo, like, yo, like, you, like, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, and I'm trying to be respectful here. I was, like, I was, like, two seconds away saying a DM

to Aaron Blanfield with this clip. I was two seconds away, but I'm like, you know what? Let me relax. I don't want to call him out. I don't want to put him on blast street. You know, just kill him on here. But I'm like, all right, let me relax. I'm getting too emotional here.

But, I mean, two seconds away, but I'm going to digress. I'm going to let things play out. You know, June 4th, let them fight. And then, you know, I just, I pray. I pray to God. that Aaron Plancher just cuts the promo and just be like, you know, I'm hearing a lot of people saying

I'm not on a morass level, okay? Let's happen. I'm like, all right, but I'm going to, I'm, but okay, let me digress. Let me get my question. My question is with Macy Barbara, saw the press conference. I know A.K. Lee came out with the story

about what she had to say after the fight after her win. And, you know, Macy's Bob is getting back talking greasiness now. And I'm like, you think, you think, you believe that she's going to be, wrecking people in the flyweight division because I'm like, you know, your performance was good. But let's just, let's just, you know, let's just settle down here. And let me see you fight, you know, the up and coming prospects.

Just your thoughts on her and everything. Thank you, Tristan. And by the way, if AK after June 4th, let's just say Aaron Blanchville wins that fight and AK matches her up and you're not thrilled with it, why don't you send me an email and I'll read on the air because I'm the only one who gets hit up on that show. When people have issues with picks for some reason, we have a whole segment on it called a mic check where people like attack me and my picks. A.K. doesn't get any of that stuff. So feel free to change the narrative there.

But yeah, I mean, Macy Barber, fine performance. I actually thought it was a good performance based on what she needed to do because she showed flashes of a little bit of everything. And she just out-physicaled Montana de la Rosa, which was the way to go. There's a smart game plan. Now, if she went in there and just try to, like, box her face off and try to knock her out in the first round like she did early on in her career, I probably would have questioned that decision. She probably would have lost that fight.

But she went in there, just kind of muscled her against the cage, just out-physicaled her, landed some big shots since she needed to. She won the fight. It was a clear 30-27. It was a fine performance. Now, there is one person who will be able to give a nice little grade on the performance, and I'm going to be talking to that individual later on today, one, Uriah Faber, who Macy has basically changed her life.

She's uprooted to Team Alpha Mail. I'm going to Yariah Faber around 530 Eastern today. And I'll get her, I'll get his thoughts on Macy's performance because obviously he's got to put her over, but he'll be much like fighters are, coaches are just as sort of self-critical. So Uriah will probably say nice things and he'll probably say some things that you needs to work on. So I'm curious to get his take on that. But yeah, five performance. I think the Blanchefield fight makes all the sense in the world. The time for Macy Barber to fight the Roxanne Mottifaris, fight the Joanne Woods of the world. I think that's over.

I think that that time is passed. She got her opportunity. I know the injury sucked, but she lost. She lost the Roxanne. She can have a hard time getting past that. She's still dealing with that. But I thought with everything that's gone on, even the Miranda Maverick fight, pretty much everybody thought Macy lost that fight to come back and have a clean sweep, no controversy.

I think that was huge for her. Let's go to J.K. J.K., what's up? Make sure you unmute, J.K. Thanks. Sorry about that. All good. Just a question. What is the best fight for Diaz

on his way out, in your opinion? And the second part is, what, in a percentage, what kind of a chance would you give him to beat Jake Paul in a boxing fight? Ah, interesting. Um, I mean,

I would clearly favor Jake to win that fight. Jake's just bigger. He's got more experience in boxing. But here's the thing. Nate would promote the crap out of it. It would be very interesting. Nate is a smart businessman. And he would go in there.

And even if he lost, He's a super durable guy. I don't think Jake would go out there and just cold him like you did to Tyrone Woodley in December. I just don't think that happens. I think Jake would win a pretty decisive decision. But Nate Diaz just needs one shot to actually feel like he didn't lose.

And we just saw it in the Leon Edwards fight. Leon Edwards dominated him. Wasn't the prettiest win for Leon? No. But all people talk about is those last two minutes. So let's just say this is an eight-round fight. Jake just boxes his face. base off for seven rounds, but Nate lands like one right hand in the eighth. And Jake starts

to like go backwards a little bit. And Nate starts to land some shots. Bell rings. Jake clearly wins a unanimous decision. But Nate has that moment. Nate has this way of having his stock rise, win or lose, domination or not, no matter what. And I feel like that would happen here as well. He'd make a ton of money. And he probably wouldn't win, but that's okay. Nate doesn't have to win. Nate, that fight would do bonkers numbers. It would do huge, huge, huge numbers. And the UFC is well aware of that, which is why Nate isn't being booked in the UFC.

Because they know that as soon as Nate leaves, he's going to go box Jake Paul and then go fight Connor McGregor outside of the UFC where both those guys are going to make all the money. They're concerned about that. Nate has put himself in a really good spot but unfortunately he's in the UFC as a quote-unquote independent contractor. He can't go anywhere.

And they answer your first question, just do the frigging Dustin fight. Just do the Porre fight. Again, they're just going to go in there. They're going to have a good scrap. Dustin will probably win. Nate's value ain't going to drop it all because he's going to make it through the entire distance and it's going to be a fun scrap, but he's going to slap Dustin Pori in the face once or twice, even though he's going to lose.

And that's all people are going to talk about is Dustin slap it in the face. or Nate slap at him in the face. And they'll hug and they'll have a moment. They'll put each other over in the press conference. And it'll be good for everybody. And then Nate will ride off into the sunset. But again, we're dealing with the UFC. They probably aren't going to book Nate a fight until he extends his contract.

All they have to do is offer him fights. Just offer him a fight. And then they extend his contract even longer. So hopefully we see him in there soon. I don't, I know the UFC wants the counter fight. I doubt that happens. but maybe just for that reason that I mentioned earlier because Nate sees value in doing that fight outside of the UFC. I'm sure Connor feels the same way.

Why not keep all the money? Make that bag. Mike Lawson. Good morning. Morning, Mike. Heck of a morning. What's up, buddy? Sure is.

Question. Did you see the Liam Harrison versus Mung Tai P.K. Sensai fight? I did not. No. Dude. If there's a recommendation, I would just say, guys, I was wondering, man, I saw all the shows. I saw nobody from MMA fighting covered it.

And it was just a heck of a Muay fight. There was, I mean, you could see the video on YouTube. That was a five knockdowns fight, right? Yes, that's the one. I saw that clip. I did see that clip. Yeah, I saw that one. Yeah, man.

The whole fight was like two minutes and 30 seconds. It was just absolute shit show. So I did see. I did see it. Okay, okay. Yeah, so I just wanted to hear your take on that and It was awesome. Yeah, dude, the whole thing crazy, crazy. All right, that was my question. Thanks, like. Yeah, so I'm not, I'm not familiar with like a lot of the

Muay Thai fighter names, so apologies for that, but as soon as, as soon as he said moitazas, like, oh yeah, I mean, he's only, he can only be talking about one fight. But yeah, it was wild. I saw it, uh, John Morgan actually tweeted out the clip and I watch it's freaking wild. back and check that out if you haven't yet. All right, we're going to take Jay's call and then viral Nico. You're on deck, my man, and you'll have the last word.

So Jay, we'll begin with you. Good morning. What's up? Hey, what's on Mike? Can you hear him? Yep, what's up, buddy? Hey, so I had two things I wanted to say first, just with the little bell to mix in this.

I think once Yocchi Horibucci's contract is over, the UFC should really try to get him because I think he could easily be the flight, champ at 125. I think 135 might be too big for him because, like, we saw in the Apache Mix fight because of his height-wise. I think a lot of people are liked in advanced way in the UFC, but I think 125 is really great for it.

And the other thing I want to ask is, I don't know why this isn't getting a lot of attention, but Bro, Akamoto, I believe, put an article out three days ago, and the UFC announced they're doing an eight-man tournament across four men's weight classes to find new Asian talent. They're going to do this, I believe, before the Singapore event on June. And I'm going to get your thoughts on that too as well. Thank you, Jay. Yeah, I agree. If Horguchi fights out his deal, he's a free agent.

Whether he goes to Risen or 1 or UFC, he needs to fight at 125 because that's his best chance to succeed. Still a damn good 135er. I still have him ranked in my personal top 15 at 135. I think I have him number 15 now. But yeah, you put him up against the patchy mixes of the world. Yeah, it's going to be a long night. And I knew that was going to be a tough fight for him, just because I knew Mix is going to look like he was 40 pounds heavier than him.

And that was the big difference. And Patchy's cardio was really good in this fight. He went all five rounds. Normally that's been a knock on him, but he actually did pretty damn good. So good on Patchy Mix. Great win for him. That's a great name to have on his resume. as far as the road to the UFC tournament,

let me give a shout-out to my man, J.H.K. He was the first to report that story. And when it first came out, I think it confused a lot of people because a lot of people saw it as, oh, damn, we're going to get a flyway tournament, a Bannamway tournament, a featherweight tournament. And we're starting to line up like, oh, we started to think of like Moreno and Figurado

and Sterling and Jan. Like, are they going to be in these tournaments? I think it was just kind of a miscommunication there. so people are super excited. It turns out it's just basically an Asian, more fun version of the contender series. Because I love the contender series. I like it a lot. But the contender series would be way better if it was in a tournament format.

It really would be. It would be way better. It'd be way more interesting. We're not giving a... The one I love the contender series. Freaking love the contender series. It's like one of my favorite things that the UFC does is they do this contender series thing.

I will say this, though, the contender series is starting to oversaturate, and I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like the fact that fighters who clearly aren't UFC ready are just getting contracts, while there are fighters who are UFC ready who aren't getting contracts. Anthony Romero, did you see what that dude did on Sunday for Fury FC? Anthony Ramero is one of the best fighters that has come through the contender series. one of the overall best like a guy with this super high ceiling

is really young, super skilled but because he went for a take down in the third round against Mike Breeding and you can give him a contract like this is the stupidest thing ever and now he's going to go somewhere else someone else is probably going to sign him and he's going to be a big star

that's the thing that's the thing we had guy and I like Carlos Candelario a lot and I thought he won the fight but he got a contract coming off of a loss like I thought he won but the first season of the Contender Series compared to where we're at right now,

it's like night and day. All you do is win for the most part in the Contender Series and you get a contract. And I get why. I think if we all sort of dot the eyes and cross the T's, money, money, money.

And that's why this tournament's happening as well. We get guys for cheap money. Whoever comes through, they're getting 10 and 10 contracts. Just the way for the UFC to bring in fighters and fill up these fight night cards for cheap money. And it's a good opportunity for these fighters to get the shine and to get on a big stage.

That's great. But again, there's a reason why these tournaments are happening. It's because we want cheap talent. We're not here to provide money. We're here to give you opportunity. That's the UFC way. Viral Nico. Oh, no.

Wheel is spinning. Can we get them in? Spin in. Oh, wait a minute. I think we got him. You got up mute. Good morning, Mike. What's up, man?

I just wanted to know your, like, opinions on, or your, like, reaction to the Fury White fight over the weekend. I was, like, extremely impressed by Tyson Fury. But, like, nobody's, I've seen, like, nobody's talking about it. Like, White did not make the adjustment at all. He didn't see that uppercut. So if, I don't know if anybody's, like, a boxing fan. that same uppercut knocked White out like two times with the Pavecun fight and also the Anthony Joshua fight. Like Fury, I don't know if there's like a clip.

There was like a blooper of like Fury throwing an uppercut and like hitting him in his face. But like this time, like over the weekend, that uppercut was like right on the button. And it just shut off like White's like like whole, he was out straight KO. I'm like, this progression of Fury has just been amazing. I really hope, like, he doesn't retire because I really want to see him versus the winner of Usik and Joshua when that fight happens in June. Like, I'm really sad. Like, I really don't want him to retire at all. Yeah, man.

I understand where you're coming from. Listen, I said this on the post-fight show. What I enjoyed about Tyson's performance so much is that it was almost like he used the first five rounds of that fight to set that upper cut up. It's like he knew his opponents so well. I'm just going to do these things. I'm going to make him guess just enough that when I actually throw that uppercut with full force in the sixth round,

it's going to land and he's done so. It was a beautiful performance from Tyson Fury. The guy is so fun to watch. The entrances are amazing. Everything about him, the footwork, the way he uses his length so well, the jab was there all day. He just kept jabbing over and over again.

White couldn't get near him. And I was a little surprised. Like I thought I knew Fury would win. I felt he would win. pretty cleanly, pretty clearly. There was going to be, you know, not as one-way traffic as it was, but I thought Dillian would be able to at least get inside

and land some shots. And it seemed like he landed a couple within there, but, I mean, Fury was unfazed, didn't even feel like he was tested the entire time. He just looked like he was having fun in there, just bouncing around like he was 145 pounds, like a middleweight, like a lightweight, just dancing in there.

It's like Fred Flintstone bowling in there, It's just so pretty to watch. He's on his toes moving around. He looks so good. Looks so good. I don't think he's going to... This is combat sports. There's a lot of money left on the tail for Tyson Fury.

This in Gano fight would really make a lot of money. But the Uzek fight, obviously, the anti-Joshua fight would make really good money, too. So we'll see. I mean, Tyson's a made a principle, though, as well. So he's going to be an interesting story. All right, I'm going to take one more. It is a morning show. So, I mean, we've got to get in the coffee fight club.

Good morning. Hey, how's it going, Mike? What's up? Yeah, I'm just wondering, do you have any updates on International Fight Week? Like, there are any guest appearances? And, like, Steepa, John Jones, is there any updates on that? And then with the ABC card, do you know anything about that? Like, they wanted Hamzok Colby.

And then I know they were trying to go to, like, Austin, Toronto, and veer out out of the apex. any updates on that? So let me see. So International Fight Week, the appearances, I have no clue. I assume most of the fighters on the roster, anybody with a name will be there. So that'll be cool. I assume the Hall of Fame thing is going to happen. I think it's going to go back to sort of normal international fight week stuff.

So that'll be good. As far as fights go, listen, John Jones-Stepe makes a lot of sense. I think there's a possibility there. I would not count on that. I could be wrong, but I wouldn't count on that happening International Fight Week. Again, as I stated earlier,

if I had to guess, if someone said, here's 20 bucks, you have to put on who do you think is going to be the main event of the International Fight Week card, putting it on Adasani

versus Canadiere. I think that's the direction they're going to go. They'll put Adasani in there. And if you need a co-made event, why not put Volcanowski Holloway on there? Volkanovsky wants to be active,

this year. He just had pitched a freaking perfect game against the Korean zombie. Just a tremendous performance. And by the way, spoiler, I bumped Volcanovsky. I have two spots in my Pound for Pound rankings. He's now number two, as you'll see on Thursday when we release those rankings. I think he's that good. And he might be number one. That's how highly I look at that was in of Volcanovsky. But those are the fights I look at. The ABC card, I'm not really sure. I don't know what they're going to do. maybe there's a lot of rumors floating around right now there's talks about London

I know some things have come out maybe July 23rd there's talks about maybe doing Oosman Edwards in London there's talks about July 30th being a very big deal there's talks about that being a second pay-per-view but again things are kind of fluid right now from what I understand the London stuff whether there's smoke there's fire I'll leave it at that

I don't know if the date's completely accurate but as far as the other stuff that's being rumored, I've heard the same things, but nothing is signed seal delivered, nothing is announced, but it seems like that's a direction they're heading. July 23rd looks like the London card, but I don't know, I don't know.

Maybe they make that the pay-per-view. I don't know what they're going to do. I don't know. And if they do turn July 23rd into UFC 277, then you have July 30th, maybe that could be the ABC card, and you can do that with, Colby and Hamzad and I know Dallas is being rumored for July 30th maybe they'll go to

Austin I know Austin was was rumored to be at some point Dana White has mentioned that Toronto Boston New York have all been discussed I would say New York is probably a done deal for November again has it been announced but that's November for sure I don't think we'll see anything outside of the city I know they did a card in Albany once before I know they were in Rochester. So I don't think we'll be seeing those types of places, but you can probably

expect MSG in November. Boston, you know I'm excited about. I don't know when that's going to happen. Right now, we get the Celtics in the playoffs. You get the Bruins in the playoffs. I would guess early fall, if they're going to do Boston, September, October.

I'd be totally down with that. And then Toronto, I'm not really sure. If you go to Toronto, you're not going to do a fight. Now you're going to do a pay-per-view. so maybe they do October for Toronto I don't know but I do believe I do believe those kinds of there's a lot of things Dana White says that I don't believe but when it comes to cities that are in discussion that the UFC could visit I believe him so and yeah so that's that's as far as I know Colby Hamzat I don't know anything whether or not that's the fight I've talked

both as many times. If I'm Colby, I'm jumping all over that. Wait, you know, because again, if you can't get, if you,

I mean, actually if you're Colby and you could somehow weasel this Mazadol fight rematch, just taking the money that's going to make with everything going on.

But Hamzaa would be number two, not Bilal. This is not going to happen. And he's been talking about Adasani too. So for some reason they can't get cannoneeer in there. Adasania Colby

doesn't sound like a bad main event for the middleweight title kind of about a left field but yeah that's what we're looking at all right i got to go i started late uh because of the dog and i have to go pick up the dog in a few minutes and i got to actually do some work today because this isn't work in my eyes so i want to think all the uh wonderful people who jumped in new york rick and anthony taylor for giving his insight on Tommy fury's fight and what's going on with jake paul and everybody else who chimed in glad christopher could get back on track start a new streak and for all the new listeners All the new people jumping in.

Appreciate that very much. Now, we're back on Thursday. 8 a.m. Eastern. We'll do it again. Same exact thing. And then Friday, it's all about you guys. Friday, there'll be no opening rant from me. It's just, we're going to the calls.

We're getting right after this thing. So if you jumped in here late, you're like, what the hell is he talking about before that? This show's going to be right up on the podcast network sooner rather than later. I do have some interviews coming up this week, at least it are on the books. but again, just like any kind of event, card subject to change.

Uriah Faber later on today, tomorrow. Tetsiro Tira, who's making his UFC debut on Saturday against Carlos Candelario. You're talking to him. I got a lot of people reaching out to me asking me if I would interview the brand new interim Bellator Bannamite champion,

Raffion Stotz. That is happening on Wednesday as well. And then Thursday, I'm going to be talking to Anthony Rocco Martin former UFC fighter. He's been dealing with a lot, but he's actually coming back to the world in mixed martial arts.

He's going to be fighting in the main event of the May 7th CES card for their middleweight title, I believe. But I'm excited to catch up with Rocco. It's been a while since I've spoke with him, and I expect a pretty emotional conversation, if we're being honest. We'll see what happens.

But make sure you follow all things M.A. fighting right here. M.A fighting on Instagram. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast network and on the YouTube channel. To the Vox Media Podcast Network.