MMA Fighting - Heck of a Morning | Khabib Nurmagomedov Says It's Too Soon To Compare Charles Oliveira To Him — Is He Right?

Episode Date: May 20, 2022

Khabib Nurmagomedov had a lot to say recently in regards to the UFC's lightweight division and its most recent champion Charles Oliveira — most notably it being unfair to compare Oliveira's 155-pound run to his at this point. Does Nurmagomedov have a point, or is it closer than he's willing to admit? On this episode of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to Nurmagomedov's recent interview with ESPN and his thoughts on Oliveira's lightweight GOAT status, as well as Islam Makhachev being the actual champion of the division in his eyes. In addition, listeners ask about Conor McGregor's potential return, Michael Chandler's recent comments in support of the UFC when it comes to the fighter pay debate, the PFL instituting a 50-50 split for their new PPV Super Fight division after getting a $30 million investment from a group including former MLB star Alex Rodriguez, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 8 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Friday, May 20th, 2020, and it is a heck of a morning here on the MMA fighting Twitter spaces. We are live, and when we wrap up here live, the show will be uploaded to the MMA fighting podcasting network. I am Mike Heck. It is Friday. There's always something just so refreshing about a Friday. We worked our asses off all week. And if you're an MMA fan, the week's not over because we got a card tonight and a card tomorrow. If you work in the space, it's not really weekend, but still, whether you have weekends or you don't, there's just something nice about a Friday. And here on this program, it is a free-for-all Friday, which means I'm just going to take your calls. I'm going to get your thoughts.

I'm going to take your questions. I'm going to get your scorching hot takes about the wonderful world of Michigan. martial arts. So we're going to do this as long as you want to ask questions. We're just going to get after this thing. We could talk about Eagle FC 47 going down tonight. We could talk about UFC Vegas 55 tomorrow. We could talk about some of the big fights that have been announced. We can talk about UFC 275. We could talk about a whole bunch of stuff. Whatever it is you want to talk about. You can talk about. There's just a couple of rules. One, I mean, these aren't really rules or just guidelines merely suggestions if you will one keep asking questions there is no

bad question so let's just talk about if you have something on your mind let's discuss it and two db aa as we learned yesterday don't be an asshole because i'm going to call you out and you just won't be allowed to be on here anymore i mean you could have some we could disagree on stuff my man toke and i got into a little bit of a fun back and forth, and that's okay. But don't come on here and be a dink, because that will not be allowed. Although that guy has kind of taken a beating

in the social media world, but hopefully we don't have any of that. It is Friday. Let's get right into this. And you know what? Just because I'm feeling so bad, let's get me to Mike Lawson, I'm sure you have some things you want to say to me,

sir, after the absolute thrashing. Dude. The Boston South takes put on the IMEE last night. I'm just getting it out of the way right now. Broken, broken. And the fact that you called me out right at the start, I feel like I ate a family-sized salt and vinegar chips, bro. The salt is real right now in my mouth, dude.

After the stinker that the heat left. I mean, I don't, dude, I don't even know. No, did the heat play that bad? Or did the Celtics just dominate? Because, I mean, dude, franchise record going into the half for the most points scored. I mean, dude, were the heat just really that trash? Or did Boston just come out of nowhere with the heat? And, like, I don't know.

Something amazing. Yeah, I mean, I don't think they came out of nowhere. I don't think they came out of nowhere. I just think they had all the pieces in place. Horford was back. Marcus Smart was ridiculous. He had the highlight of the game with the crossover and the ankle break and the basket. Like, it was just, they just, they just, I kind of wish they won that game by 50.

I really wanted them to just run up the score. I really did. I was like, just send a statement. You're going, you're going back home, win by 50. But it is what it is. You could say, Mike, you were right. And we can talk MMA, which you guys. Yes, sir. I do want to ask you a hypothetical question.

You know, there's been a lot of talk about Islam and a lot of talk about the champ. His name is Charles Olivaira. Now, in this hypothetical matchup that everybody thinks it's going to happen when he runs through Charles, do you ever think he moved to 170? I mean, granted, he's not going to do it now because Loosman and, you know, they're all buddy buddies. well um but let's say usman you know does his thing and leaves do you ever see islam moving up there and if you do i mean by that time you know hamzat's obviously going to be the champ what do you think about that matchup that that's my question very interesting thank you mike and condolences to your heat now we get uh we get ourselves a new series so i appreciate you being a good

sport about that. It's, I mean, hypothetical, that's probably a good way to put it. I think we're even putting that as a hypothetical. I think we're trying to run a marathon before we even get off the couch. Islam, as dominant as he has been, his resume is just not as good as most of the guys in this division. He just hasn't beat really. I mean, Dan Hooker, again, is his best win.

His best win is Dan Hooker. and there's nothing wrong with Dan Hooker. He's a fun, exciting guy. But he's not a guy who's going to be fighting for titles. He's just not. He's just a fun, exciting fighter, and Islam treated him accordingly. And let's not forget that fight was somewhat short notice. So I think kind of talking about the 170 thing is a little premature,

but I get what you're saying you did preface it by saying it's hypothetical. He's going to have his hands full with Charles Oliver. if they go that route. And if they go the other way and just go with the B'Neil Daryush idea, if they just want to book that fight for October, he's going to have his hands full of B'Neil Dariush too.

These guys, again, with all due respect to Dan Hooker, these guys are not Dan Hooker. They're not. Benile is not just going to let him, take him down, sit on top of him, and just work for an arm bar. It's just not going to happen. He's going to put up a fight.

He's going to punch him. Islam Makachchev in the face, and we're going to have ourselves a fight. And Charles Olivera, I just, it's amazing to me how people, like so many people just feel like he's just going to run Charles Olivera over. It's amazing after everything Charles Oliver is done, all the doubt that people have had about Charles Olivera, the adversity that he keeps going through, getting in these wars with these heavy hitters and coming out the other side with wins and finishes and we're still doubting Charles Oliver. He's still a massive underdog. This is not even going to be a fight. He's just

going to get run over. It's amazing to me. I'm not saying you're doing that, Mike, but there are a lot of people who feel like he can do that. Now, if he goes up to 170 and fights Kamar Usman, I don't like his chances there. He's a, he's a very good size 155, but Usman is a monster. and I don't know I need to see how a fight with Darius a fight with Olivera how that would go before I could really start

to take a fight with Oosman seriously but Ousman's just on another level right now I feel like both their wrestling is pretty close and I feel like Ousman's got the power and I feel I don't know I just I would favor Ousman to win that fight just more of a size and a physicality thing

It's not that Islam's like a bad athlete or anything, but Oussman's just a super athlete. But if that's a fight, that would have. It would be an interesting fight if it happened, but we got to build something up here. I mean, we're not even fully convinced at this point as a majority of an MMA community that Islam is the guy to fight Charles next,

which is crazy. He's in that discussion. He's probably number one on the list, but he's still on a list. So there you go. Christopher. You know, you mentioned this on Twitter, my man. You don't show up to a show and we get negativity.

And now you're back. I think the vibes are positive. Yeah. So too, man. I'm good. How are you? Good. What's up?

Yeah. I mean, first of all, that guy needs to get a life. But secondly, what I really wanted to come in here and talk to you about is Jelton Alameda fighting at heavyweight this weekend. Just wondering what you think about that fight with Parker Porter. Does he have a future at heavyweight? obviously probably not right but what could a win for him in that weight class do and yeah that's pretty much it man positive vibes positive vibes indeed thank you christopher yeah this is a weird one

this is very weird i get why he's going up to heavyweight he's a man who just wants to fight somebody and this just happened to be the fight that was available to him i'm trying let me just go back and look real quick because where are we? So he was supposed to fight Maxim Grishen on this card at 205. Grishen got hurt and we're in a weird position where if you're a 205er, you got to either be a newcomer or someone who is just trying to get in the good graces of the UFC to even think about, oh, yeah, let's fight that guy. Maxim Grishen is a monster.

He obviously looks good coming off of the bus. So he big jacked up super athlete. He's out a 10-fight win streak. He's just 30. So he's about to be 31. And he's really just in his athletic prime right now. So this is a guy who's getting ready to fight on May 21st. This is a guy who coming from Brazil,

the travel thing, he probably, maybe there's a visa. sort of issues where he only had specific dates where he could travel, at least this time. He probably got cleared to fight on this date. And Paco Potter, my man from Connecticut, he ain't going to say no to anybody. He's like, okay, I'll fight this incredible athlete, this Jelton Almeida. And yeah, the Wayans are going to kick off at a few hours now. But I'm pretty sure we're going to see Parker Porter with like a 40 pound weight advantage on the scale and maybe a 50 pound weight advantage of the fight.

Jelton Almeida is a massive favorite heading into this fight. I want to look it up real quick. I'm sure he's the biggest favorite on the card. It would not shock me if that was the case. Minus 600 favorite. Yeah, he's the biggest favorite on the card by a long shot. Come back on Parker Porter is plus 435. I feel like Jailton is the better athlete.

But again, Parker Porter is a grinder. This guy doesn't make it look pretty. but he's very effective in what he does. He's a very solid wrestler. Jailton's wrestling is good. His ground attack is sensational. But I'm curious what happens if Jailton doesn't get that early takedown. If he can't get an early takedown on Parker Porter,

if he has to really work for it, let's just say he has him up against the fence that he works for for like two and a half minutes. And then finally gets him down, just trying to improve his position, gets at a big spot. looks like he might finish the fight and then Porter somehow survives. This fight gets real interesting

because when you're built like Jelts and Almeida is, the longer the fight goes, the more taxing it is on the body. And Parker doesn't have a gas tank problem. He might not look like a fashion model or anything. But the guy kind of has that Roy Nelson-esque cardio in gas tank where he's not going to stop.

He puts up a ridiculous pace. Like, he really does. The pace he puts on for a guy who, if you just looked at him, if you found an M.A fan on the street and showed him a picture of Parker Porter, they'd be like, this guy would pass out in two minutes.

Not the case. He could go full 15 minutes of this guy and push that frenetic pace. So I'm picking Jalsanao made it a win, probably get a finish in the second round, but if he does it, if he really struggles to get him to the ground, and runs out of gas.

Parker's got volume. Parker's got cardio. And he'll go the full 15 with Jelton. His gas takes probably better, if we're being honest. So I wonder how much that size discrepancy will play a part here. But Parker Porter plus 435, I'm not taking that line. But if you wanted to sprinkle, sprinkle something, something on that, if you want to find a line, I'm curious what Parker Porter by decision is.

I'm not confident in this. but if you're just looking for, let's just say you had a great start. You won bets in the first four or five fights, and you just like, I got all this extra money. Let's sprinkle $10 on Parker Porter by decision. It's not a terrible bet. It's a really risky one, but it's not a terrible bet. Because you're banking on Park Reporter getting out of the first round.

You're banking on Jelts and on Meda, working hard in the first round and not getting them out of there. Because if that's the case, this fight actually gets really interesting. That's at least my thing. And this is not the New England bias talking. I've been following Parker Porter for a long time. This guy's got a really good gas tank. His cardio is outstanding.

So we'll see. But it's very possible that Jelden just takes him down and submits them quickly. But Parker's are tough out, man. He really is. Let's get D-D to the A to the X. Good morning, man. Hey, Mike. Just for reference, I got Parker Porter by decision at plus 1,400.

my man not recommended but i had ummeda in a few parlays and i got to hedge that nice i listen i like the gusto that's not a bit that's not a bad bet at that line there's a lot of value there if he can get out of the first round like you said very risky but if he can get out of the first round and almeda works really hard and can't get him out of there that's a bet that you're probably going to be feeling a little bit better about or at least feel like you have a chance to win yeah i'm hoping but who knows well i'll think about that saturday um First, so I saw on Brito Soldiers' Instagram yesterday, he took a picture of one merch and took a picture with Chhatri. I'm probably mispronouncing that, but the one championship guy, is that something he's doing to, you know, raise the offer from somebody else?

or is that a possibility? Who is this? Solich, Roberto Solich. Oh. Also, I just want to say Go Flames, nine goals in the first game, all the way to Stanley Cup. Thanks, Mike.

Thanks, buddy. I'm rooting for your flames. How about that? I mean, I don't really have a dog in the fight, but I hope you win. I hope everybody wins. I hope it's a tie all around. Interesting. Here's the thing. Roberto, I spoke with Roberto Salditch at the beginning of the year, and it was a really interesting conversation.

It's one of the more memorable conversations that I've had this year. He's not a free agent yet. He is supposed to be a free agent. At least this is what he told me. If he does not have a fight booked, because he's got one fight left on his deal, middle of July, he's a free agent. So he could accept offers,

or at least field offers from everybody. and he's already he's already kind of fielded them. He said he's been contacted essentially by every promotion, every single one of them. The UFC won, PFL, Bellator, all of them.

All of them have contacted him. Now he can't make a deal yet, but all of them have reached out. Here's what I know. I know he's met with the UFC. I'm sure he's met with one. I'm sure he's going to meet personally with all of them to take a pitch

because at his age right now, where he is in his career, he's got, he's certainly got gas left in the tank. He's certainly got miles left, but he's 27. He's about to hit his athletic prime. And he's about to enter that point where if he's really going to make a run and he's going to be a face of an organization, which he kind of is now for KSW, you got to strike now. Now's the time.

And he sort of knows that too. doesn't want to be the 40-year-old guy that is still fighting. He doesn't want, he's very smart, he's very aware of the situation, he's very aware of fighters before him. So he's trying to weigh out what matters more. Is it the legacy? Is it being the best guys in the world? Is it money? Is it both? What, what's more important to him? Because from what I understand, he met with the KSW brass a couple of months ago. They hadn't been a couple of months ago. and their team met with KSW because KSW has them. He makes really good money for them because KSW is a big, huge promotion.

And most fans in North America who are not familiar with KSW may not realize how big they are. But in that part of the world, KSW is gigantic. They are huge. They bring it a lot of money. And he makes good money for them. And from what I understand, that meeting went really, really well. And he was offered a ridiculous amount of money. Like, shocking.

money i don't know figures but from i understand it was a lot of money a lot and what soldish told me was he was going into that meeting with a number here's the number that we're thinking of and if you guys match if you guys say yes to this number i'm staying i'm staying with ksw because this must be a huge offer from what i understand i don't know if they met the if they said yes to the offer or they counter with something ridiculous, but they counter with something ridiculous. Now, I don't think the UFC is going to be able to match the type of per fight dollars that KSW could match. I don't think one, maybe, I don't know even know if one can match it, but I think if it's

between KSW and one, I think he's probably going to pick KSW. Maybe PFL is interesting for the million dollar idea and what they're trying to do. They're investing in the company. They're trying to do different things. But to me, it's probably UFC or KSW. I don't know. I have no idea that this is going to go. It's going to be an interesting summer.

In Gano, excuse me, is definitely one of the more interesting stories. But if you're looking at it from a hardcore fans perspective, where Roberto Soldeach ends up, boy, that's going to be interesting as well. Let's get my man, Henderson, aka Hendo Slice. What's up, buddy? just make sure you unmute. Hey man, heck of a morning to you. Right back.

So I actually, I wanted to talk a little bit about Chase Hooper. I'm not the biggest Chase Hooper fan, but I became a bigger fan because I'm one of those Wonderboy fans, you know, and he's been training a lot with Wonderboy, which I thought was a really interesting mix, you know, just like Chase has almost no sense. stand up and like a lot of BJJ and Wonder Boy is pretty much the opposite. So I think they're trying to take from each other, you know, and I wanted to know, do you think there's a chance that Chase Hooper throws some sort of exotic kick? And not to knock someone out, but maybe just to move them back against the cage and force some sort of grappling, almost how Derek Lewis does it, but not to

throw strikes more just to get into a grapple. So is there any shot at that? And what do you think of his chances tomorrow? Can I ask why you're not a chase super fan? I meant more not just like not a chase hooper believer, you know, because he had a ton of hype coming out. And he seems awesome. Like as a person, I'm just like a fan of his, but everyone was like, oh, he's going to go right up. And I'm like, this guy is so young. I'm in my 30s. So like looking back, I'm like, what? Like how?

So, yeah, so I just wasn't a big believer in the hype, especially after those first couple fights. But now I'm becoming more like, I think actually he might be underrated, especially if he can improve that striking and gets him like, I don't know, if he could just mix it up just enough to trick people into just playing his game. kind of like Olavera does, you know. He could do some cool stuff. So now I'm way more interested than I was.

All right. Thank you, Henderson. Yeah, I mean, listen, he's been training. He's been kind of bouncing around with different people for a while. He's been training with Wonderboy and those guys at upstate karate for a little while now. Last few camps, I believe. I don't know if I, I don't know. I think it was after the Alex Casares fight.

He started making trips out there. I know he's not training with him full time, but I know he has made trips out there to work. I mean, golly, if you can work with Wonderboy. What a nice guy. What a nice guy. Chase Hooper is just a really interesting, she's just had a really interesting run, hasn't he?

2018, he's what, 20, he's 18 years old. Freakant 18 years old. Goes on the contender series. Gets a win. It was a decision against, it's a pretty tough guy, gets it done, and they give him the developmental deal.

Now, it's just, it's just weird. You kind of wish that he got on the contender series like two years later. Because any time in eight, anytime you hear the number 18 in any sport, there's this 18 year old kid who might be good at this.

They're going to push him to the moon. It's just, it's just that number, 18. Wow, he's 18 years old and he's getting in fist fights. When I was 18 years old, I was,

trying to find a place to sneak out into the woods and drink beers. Like these are the problems, these are the first world problems we had. I just want to make sure I don't drink too much so I can go to work. Not that I'm condoning underage drinking, but it was a different time back in 2000, 2001. Anyways, this guy's fighting on the contender series in front of Dana White in 18 years old.

He gets the developmental deal, which he had three fights in development, I kind of wish he spent more time on the development. mental deal, but then he comes in, he fights Daniel Tamer, who, let's be honest, not trying to be disrespectful, not the better Tamer, not a great fighter. Was it some big trouble in that fight? Somehow he got the fight to the ground and he got the win. And the matchmaking since then, they jumped to Alex Casares, which I didn't understand. And Chase Hooper, let me just remember this. Chase Hooper was a minus 2.30 favorite against

Alex Casares. That's insane. That's absolutely nuts. That's crazy. And he got pieced up. He got the, as my man Daniel Levy likes to say, got the vet lesson. And that was good. Peter Barrett,

he's losing that fight to Peter Barrett as a minus 310 favorite, comes out in the third round, gets the Hail Mary heel hook, the heel Mary, if you will, gets the win in the third round. And then he fights Stephen Peterson, Stephen just took him down and controlled him and did his stay. I think Peterson may have missed wait for that fight, but still, now he's fighting Felipe

Calhara's. I'm sure his striking has improved. I'm sure it has. But man, Chase is really interesting right now because I just don't know. Like, there's not a lot of paths. He can take him down. The problem of Chase Super is he's really good once the fight gets to the ground. he just has a really hard time getting it there.

His wrestling is not good. It's just not good. And the level of competition that Felipe Coleris has fought, I mean, Alex Casares sure is a very tough competitor, no doubt about it. Filippa Carus has fought Gerald de Freitas, Domingo Polarte, good win. He went 15 minutes with Montel Jackson on short notice

and got absolutely lit up in that fight. by Montel Jackson, who has fists the size of Brock Lesnar, and he made it through the end of the fight. And he fights Luke Sanders, gets the win there. That was a crazy fight. Kind of a controversial decision, if memory seriously correctly, but he goes out there and gets the win. And this is like,

this is when Luke Sanders was fighting kind of like Clay Gwita, just that all outpaced wouldn't stop. And then he went the distance with Chris Gutierrez, who was ripping his leg apart with leg kicks. I thought Gutierrez should have won that clearly, but close fight. I just don't know. I just don't know if Chase Hooper presents a lot here.

Maybe Wonderboy is giving them some tricks, but I just, let me look at the lines here. Again, I'm not really a better, but I just look at value. I don't go dig in that. Carr is a minus 180 favorite. I mean,

I think this is the first time Chase Hooper's been an underdog in a fight, which is wild to think about as well. So I don't know. Maybe Chase got some tricks up his sleeve. And I like Chase a lot. He's a really good kid. He's super funny.

He's got that dry width, that dry sets of humor. I like that fight pass is using him for different things. That thing with Mazadol after the Ben Asker knockout was one of the greatest clips you'll ever see where he's like, why did you knock up my dad? Amazing. Chase is a great personality. He's great for the sport. Hopefully, I don't know.

I just don't want to see him get burnt out from the sport. I don't want to see him lose his potential. I think there's a lot there at 22 years old. I just hope that he doesn't fall in love with the sport so quickly. We'll see what happens. I don't like his chances against Felipe Calhars, but you never know. Maybe Ben Asking taught him some wrestling and you can get fights to the ground. If he can, he's got a real good chance, but man, it's really tough for him.

His wrestling is just not great. But I like Chase a lot. Let's get token here. Toke. What are you going to argue about me? What are you going to argue with me about today? Hi, pal. An intro for me, but I'm not here to start any shit this time.

But what I will do is on a free-for-all Friday, why not ask the question, since E. Casey Leiden has actually gotten his next, like he's coming back into fighting and he's going to fight a lightweight. wait. I'm curious about which next MMA journalist would it be to also step into the octagon. I know, and so what I'm thinking is who in the MMA media would be best fit in your opinion to actually get into an MMA gym and actually get ready to fight. That's all.

Interesting question. I know my man John Hong Coe is actually in the middle of training and I believe he's the light at the end of the tunnel that he's doing right now is to get into the cage and fight

so I'm gonna go with that. I know the ALTA program is going on. I just, my man, New Yorker just let me know that Oscar Willis is in the ALTA program. And I, you know what? That's the answer. That's the answer. Even if Oscar wasn't in the ALTA program, he would probably be the guy.

Oscar is, Oscar is the man and he's got a little bit of that crazy to him that you would need to be a fighter. So yeah, I would go with Oscar Willis. I'm a little too old. I'm the one that's like, I played two softball games last night. It was 100 degrees, mind you. But I was dead at the end of those games.

But I also play like I'm 19 and I dive and slide and run and leg. everything out while everybody else is kind of jogging around but yeah plus my wife would probably never let me do that it'd be a cool little challenge one one of these days but i think i think i'm past my my prime when it comes to that but it would have been something i would have done five six years ago probably and i know case he's older than i am but yeah i'm okay but Oscar is a great Oscar's a great pick and I'll go with that

and Oscar would probably be a really good fighter too let's get Tristan in here James you're on deck Lockhegon your third on deck my man Tristan What's up on me? Hey Mike how's everything? Heck of a morning to you Indeed right back at you All right, all right, all right, all right, all right. All right. So I got two points so two questions actually

So I asked you yesterday about Jalen Turner. I guess, you know, because I was asking so many questions, you probably forgot about that one. But I want your assessment of Jalen Turner, because when he fights Braddow and if he starches him, he's in the rankings, is he, do you feel he's a concern in that lightweight division because of his size and how he's overwhelmed fighters?

So I want your thoughts on that. Because I'm concerned. I'm concerned about that guy, especially if he gets into the rankings, and he beats Brad Radell. Okay. Now, my second question is a fun one here. So I want to make preference here.

All these fighters, these matchup I'm going to ask you about, they're healthy and they're healthy. Everything is okay. And this is down the road for the future. And these fights possibly may happen one day. But if you have to choose one, and they're all in the same card. You're in Boston.

You're ready to go. They're on the main card, and you're like, oh, my God. Like, this, you know, this is great. But your wife, for whatever reason, your wife is like, we got to go. You got one fight to watch them. We got to go. So here are the three fights here, okay? The three fights would be, this is down the road, future projections.

Everything's all good as far as injuries and where the trajectory is going to go in their career as far as a prospect is concerned. So you have here. Okay. Here you go. Here you have. You have Hamza Tchamayev versus Shafkamp Rachmanov.

Then you have Armand Surukin versus Ilya at lightweight. And then the third, obviously, we got to see how she comes back. She's going to come back with her knee and everything. Tatiana Suarez versus Jessica Androj. So there goes your three. Three fights, three choices. You're in Boston. You're there in the building, all on the same car.

You can throw Calvin Cater on there, all Boston guys. But you're there. The place is rocking what your wife is telling you. You got to choose one, and we got to get out of here. And mind you, I pick these fighters because you're very high on them. You really like all these fighters here, but you only have to choose one. Thanks, Mike. And let's see what you say.

Thank you, Tristan. First point, because I don't want to miss it a second time. Jalen Turner absolutely can be a problem. This Brad Riddell matchup is really interesting. I like the matchmaking here. I don't get my at no point because I pick Jalen Turner versus Claudio Poyas, which would have also been a great fight. And Claudio Poyas probably deserves to get a fight like that as well

against a back half, top 15 kind of a fighter with the run he's been on. But yeah, man, Jail and turn go on and beat Brad Riddell. I think he's going to send a serious statement to this division. and essentially goes out there and finishes him and does what he's done in his last few fights. With the list that you gave me, there's intrigue in all three, but the one that,

and I have no real explanation for this, but the one that stood out to me is Hamzaab versus Rock Botoff. Because I feel like those two guys are going to fight at some point. I feel like a lot of people compare the two, and there are some folks that I've actually spoken to when I was covering UFC 273 in Jacksonville, there are people telling me that they feel Rachmanov is better than Shemayev right now,

that they fought right now, Rachmanov would beat Shemayaf. And maybe, maybe that's the case. I don't know. But that'd be the pick. As much as I am high on Surukian, I just don't know if Tuporia,

I don't know if Tricoria's going to stick around at 155. I think the weight miss was something he's going to learn from. So I would favor Sauru Kian to win that fight. in a big time way. He's just going to have such a size advantage. I think he's going to have a skill advantage overall over Tuporia. And I just think the size is going to be such a massive difference in that fight. I think Shurukia wins that fight going away.

No disrespect to Tuporia. Right now there's talks. There's no official date, but there's talks about Teporia, Edson Barbosa, which is a pretty sick fight. I'm all in on that. I know Ariel talked about on the M.A. hour. I've since confirmed that's in the works right now.

I just know really specific date. They're looking sometime in the summer, maybe in August, and putting that fight together. And then Suarez Andrade, that's a good one. That's a good one. That's probably two. I'll go, I'll go Shemaya of Rachmanoff. I'll go Suarez, Andrade,

just because that's a really interesting style matchup. And I just want to see Tatiana Suarez fight at this point against anybody. And then I'll go with the least likely of the third. that I think would be booked and the one I'm probably most confident about the result. And I'll go with Surukia on to Porias as the bronze medalist. But all good choices, you can't go wrong there. What was I doing?

Yes, there we go. You guys are killing it today. I appreciate that. James McDonald. What's up, man? Heck of a morning to you. Right back at you. All right.

Firstly, I want to address that caller that trolled you yesterday. And all I want to say is the only time that you were talking to yourself was when you were buying time for him after he shit the bed when you gave him the floor. Exactly. Thank you. And he spent like, you know, 10 or 15 minutes of his day waiting to throw a tantrum on air. So I think he's got a lot of issues that neither of us are qualified to solve for him. So but anyways, what I really wanted to say is I want to. wanted to ask you, what do you think it will take to have a legitimate push for open

scoring? Will it take some huge marquee fight ending in a robbery? Or will that never materialize? Love your show. Keep doing the great work. Thank you, James McDowell. I appreciate that very much. All the kind words. I don't know, man. The open scoring thing, it's amazing how passionate some people are about open scoring. And there, was maybe a time early on when it was first introduced and the thought process of like how big it could get and where it could expand that may be interested in it. But the more it's talked about and the more people are willing to die on the open scoring hill, the less am interested in it. You know what I mean? I understand the value behind it. But I also understand like Ally Quinta,

who has been in this game a long time, came on the show, asked me about open scoring. And I maybe there's part of me that wanted to see it tried out on a bigger scale. But at the same time, I don't know. I don't know. Like, there are certain cases where maybe things would change and the style of the fighter who might be down when they thought they might be up. But it's also like a really mental, it's got to be a mental blow too. When you're thinking it's either one-one or,

you're up 2-0 or whatever and you know every round let's just say like you feel like you won the first round and then all three judges scored the other way and then you feel like you won the second round and all three judges scored the same way for the other side and you're down 20 to 18 when you feel like you won two rounds like that's got to crush you as a fighter that's got to crush you so maybe it just kind of takes the fighter out of it plus like as a viewer as a consumer of the product there's something there's just something about waiting for joe martinez or bruce buffer to announce who won that split decision and sometimes you're going to get that and even sometimes the unanimous decision you're like you don't know you're like man this fight could have been scored either way but if open

scoring it kind of takes that element of surprise out of it there are some fighters who are in who like it and there are some fighters who just don't like it at all so i think we're a long way away from universal open scoring in MMA. I don't think we'll ever see it in the UFC if we're being honest. Maybe something happens. Maybe if there's collective bargaining, but that's your answer.

Until the fighters come together and they collectively bargain with the UFC or something happens where everybody's on the same page, I just don't see a world where open scoring happens. I like that Invicta does it because it's kind of their thing, right? And I know other regional promotions

have attempted to work with open scoring and try open scoring and try to figure out how they can make it work. But I just, it doesn't make the judging any better, if that makes sense. Open scoring doesn't change judging. It just makes it more open. Like we just trashed the judges for crappy scorecards on Twitter earlier than we would have when we heard the actual score. So I don't know.

There's some work to be done all around. but until the fighters come together, which we know is probably not going to happen anytime soon. I just don't see a world where the big organizations, the UFCs, the Bellator's do open scoring. Belator, who knows, Belator might actually do it. Who the hell knows? Let's get Locktagon in here.

Indigo's on deck, and then Kay is next. Lockedgo, what's up? Good morning. Right back at you. So, first, I am not a Bostonian, but my wallet is, so go Celtics. Nice. Secondly, I know how high you are on Gamrod.

And I guess I'm of the belief that Guram Kudjitilatseh lost that fight. But if he had a fight that competitive with Gamrot, what do you think his ceiling is? I know he's got a fight with Izmogilov coming up soon. And lastly, I just want to say you are proof that the good guys can make it to the top in this space. And I think you're doing great. So have a heck of a morning. Thank you so much. See, this is like a much different show than yesterday's show, and I dig that.

Thank you, Lock to God. Kutantalate is good, man. He's a tough out for anybody. I love that fight with this. That fight is ridiculous. I can't wait. That might be the most under-the-radar, low-key-banger that we have on the actual docket for 2022 for the UFC right now.

That fight is insanity. It's so good. It was like an automatic, ooh, as soon as it was announced. And it's been a while because he goes out and beats Gamrod in his Octagon debut in October of 2020.

It's been almost two years since we've seen him fight. It's overcome some injuries. He was scheduled to fight Don Madge a couple of times. It's just injury, problems, just getting to the fight, and then, you know, the next,

nasty injury he had needed some surgery. But now he's back and I'm excited to see what he could do. And Isma Gulov is just another guy that just doesn't get enough credit. He's won 18 freaking fights in a row. He's 23 and 1. Got wins.

I'm trying to look at his UFC run. He's beat Joel Alvarez, which that was February of 2019, Joel Alvarez. That fight aged very well. Tiago Moises, tough out. I feel Alves Tough out Alex Georgie's

Not really I mean you 7 at 0 at the time But he went out there and did the damn thing That's a great fight I can't wait for that fight on Jude 18th So we're like less We're less than a month away

From that fight happening So I can't wait for it Just I can't wait Big ceiling on him Where that fight's gonna be going places That's for sure Let's get Indigo in here Indigo

Hey Mike Hope Paul's You too. What's up? So I know we're still a couple weeks out, but I was just wondering if we could talk a little bit about Andre Fialho. I hope I'm pronouncing his name right. Yes, sir. Four fights in 2021.

Coming up on four fights in 2022, while the records at five, I'm pretty sure, held by multiple people. I think he's going to smash it out of the water, honestly. I didn't know much about him before he was in the UFC, but man, he's slowly coming up on being one of my favorite fighters, especially at 170. Yeah, he's good, man. I like him a lot.

And I know the UFC likes him a lot because he's a guy that's just like, I don't give a crap. We'll just go fight. Had the top of him, Michelle Paheda. I mean, he took that on relatively short notice and it ended up getting pushed back a week. And then he goes out and knocks out Miguel Baezza. and then he goes out and knocks out Cameron Van Camp and Cameron Van Camp brought it at UFC 274. He landed some good shots.

He had Fialo not rocked, but he definitely had him like a little staggered, definitely got his attention. And Van Camp went in there with really nothing to lose and Fiallo came out and landed that ridiculous left hook and there you go. Now we're going to get a little bit of a test here because he's going to fight Jake Matthews on June 11th,

which is both three weeks from now. Yeah, three weeks from tomorrow in Singapore. And Jake's good, man. He's real good. I'm trying to look at his UFC record right now. Wow, he's been in the UFC a long time since 2014. So he's four, three, five, six, seven, four, eight, nine, ten. He's ten and five in the UFC.

He's ten and five. He's good. He's tough. Sean Brady, he got submitted by, but Sean Brady does that to pretty much everybody he fights. Lost to got submitted by Anthony Rocco Martin. This is when Anthony Rockalmart was really cruising. Lost to Andrew Holbrook,

but that was the decision that a lot of people thought Jake won, Kevin Lee, James Vic, when James Vic was winning a lot of fights. So, I mean, he's got losses, but outside of the Holbrook won, name value-wise, I mean, some pretty solid names. Sean Brady, Rocco Martin, I thought he won the Holbrook fight, Kevin Lee, James Vic.

Not bad. Not bad. So we'll see what Fiala is all about. And Fiala is one of those guys where I don't think we're going to be, I mean, who knows? I could be completely wrong. Maybe just the surge he's on, the confidence he must have at himself. Maybe that will translate into this incredible run. I don't think Fialho is going to be a guy that's going to be fighting for the Walterway title.

But he could have like a Kevin Holland's kind of run. where he just fights like two or three months and just has exciting fun fights with exciting fun fighters and there's a lot of value in guys like that. A lot of fighters have made quite the living just getting in fun fights and fighting as... just being as active as possible

is guess what I'm looking for. So I like him. Good fighter. Durable as hell. Fun to watch. And we'll see. If he goes out there and stops Jake Batson, Are we going to see him?

Light in July. Who knows? Maybe he'll just fight like eight times this year. Maybe he'll have a Chris Curtis type run in him in the UFC, which is not easy to do. Okay, so let's get, I'm trying to get him in here. Uh-oh. Try that again. Okay.

Although I think it's a heed. I don't know what happened there. You try to get him in. I don't know. all right but if anybody else who's jumping we can have that we can talk about whatever you want to talk there he is all right let's try this again

it's spinning the wheel spinning okay wait a minute is this a heed so what I just felt like changing it I was just like line on are you the same no wait a minute is this the same guy that New York Rick was talking about on the ringer show too

like or am I just more like that I've got the work take, apparently I've got the worst take. Apparently, yeah, I think so. I think you got some praise for being a great caller. I don't know. I haven't, I didn't listen to it, but I know that the name was shouted out from New York Rick for something. Maybe you change your, like your account was gone or you change your account. I was like, is this the same guy? Yeah, it's the same guy. No, no, I'm the troll who I don't know who called yesterday. There was a troll. I came in so late

that I didn't realize no, it's me, it's me Mike, don't worry. It's always me. How's it going, Mike? All right. It's going great. What you got this morning?

Quite a bit, listen. Quickly, because like it just came on my feet. Shout out to Sean Brady, the Welthwaite, who is calling out a matchup like Stephen Wonderboy Thompson just trying to use like an easy matchup. But when Shafkat,

when Shafkat, man off needed a fight and you two are both in the same position where you're climbing up you're not established yet you i heard crickets i heard crickets from shone if shakar does what he does to nil magni as he's done to everyone else man if we hit crickets from shorn still that's so poor that and it's so typical right people just want to use like other people as a stepping stone but whatever is what it is anyway um with my Michael Chandler, Michael Chan did an interview and I found out Mike how Michael Chandler gets his Dana White privilege, right? He licks up Dana's crusty asshole because he's like he did an

interview, he did an interview right and I try and stay out of this whole out of the octagon the Dana White Kay thing I try and focus more like the fighting martial art stylistic stuff but he did an interview and he was talking it was such rubbish he was talking about how Fighters should complain about Fighter Pay because Dana did 10,000 sleepless nights and Dana's the one that's setting up and everyone should be grateful. And I'm like, give me a break. Give me a break because when Fighter Pay and Dana was initially brought up and by like people like Ariel and the rest of the family, I took it with a pinch of salt because I didn't know when it was like just something just to go out Dana for, you know, because people don't like Dana and that's fine. But now, ever since that whole Paddy Pimlet situation,

where Paddy got paid the same amount of money that Connor got paid eight years ago when they were in the same position, right? And they got paid the same amount of money and the UFC's net worth, their profits have just grown exponentially. Where's all that other money going? I understand you have to reinvest money to the company. I understand that.

But seriously, the same amount of money. That's crazy. I understand there's more opportunities, but the same amount, that's when things started to turn serious for me. And it's like when Chandler clearly he's been given a platform, he's been given his little privilege and he's trying to kiss up to Dana. So, you know, people from the lower roads of society are throwing stones at the upper rungs of society, trying to bring up. People don't know, like Dana needs to pay more, right? We saw with Connemagreger, he earned 33 million according to four. for his fights against Dustin Porre. But Fais St. Garnu gets paid $600,000.

And I know there was things with contracts and maybe he could have got a million, but that's not okay. That's not okay. 33 million, 16 and a half million per fight. And the champions can barely scratch 5 million. That's so poor. And your channel is just trying to kiss up.

It's so crazy the lengths people will go to to kiss up to people for their own benefit. I understand. You want to maintain a relationship. but to be a kiss-up and it's not just Michael Chandler. Like one more thing to have about Michael Chandler, I'm not one of the woke people or like, woke-blowers who like want to give just like everyone

handouts because they've got a soft story. I'm not, but at the same time, Michael Chandler completely disregards any other fighter, anything they're going through just because he's been given privilege. And it's not just Chandler, it's Michael Bisping on BT Sport as well. like after the 274 like before the whole incident with mark ratner the news came out with mma fighting like this thing with his boys on vt sport was like oh with the whole weight scale thing he was oh it's a conspiracy it's not the ufc's fall it's charles for charles missed weight what a way to kiss up to dana

to keep your shiny commentary job it's so sad and lastly conner i've seen the video of connor training and Henry trolling him. I'm going to say how it is. Like, is no one else going to say, Connor doesn't look like himself. Connor looks like the person Connor despised five years ago, slow. And he said, these are his words, forget me.

All right. If you don't want to listen to me. He's, his words, slow and rigid, slow and stiff, stuck in the mud. That's what he looks like. And people are, oh, Conner doesn't show the full story. But we see in this fight, she looks a bit slow whenever he tries to look fluid,

like it gets poor. three. It didn't work. For goodness, a con is done, brother. At this point, he's a celebrity. You might as well stick him in there with Jake Paul. People are going to laugh. But come on. That's the only thing he's bringing at this point. And I'm just going to say it because, like

New York, Rick says, people don't like my picks, but I'm a straight shooter a mic and drop the mic. Mike, that's it. Pew, pew, pew, pew. Damn. I never messes around. A lot to unpack there.

The Connor thing. Sheesh. We'll see what happens. I mean, he does bring something, and he brings a lot of money. And no matter where he is in his career, the streak he might be on, what have you,

the guy still brings in eyeballs and he brings in lots of money for the company. Connor against literally anybody for his comeback fight is going to do a million pay-per-view buys against literally anybody. If you give him a title, fight, it's probably going to do $1.5 billion. Give him a fight

with another star, might do $2 million. Like, he brings money. Might not bring a lot of wins, but at this point, the UFC probably doesn't really care all that much because he's still going to be in title contention, even if he loses his next fight, and he's still going to be in the conversation for big

fights because he is, I mean, he's business. He's must see TV. Whether you think he's a great fighter or not, you're intrigued by everything he does. You want to see if he can come back. You want to see if he can become the old Connor. That's just what you want to see.

The Chandler thing is interesting. I know Jed Bishu brought this up on BTL. He has had a pretty interesting roller coaster ride relationship with Michael Chandler since he came over to the UFC. He's been on the side that Michael Chandler sucks for a while. After the Tony Ferguson win, immediately after, he said he no longer sucks. And then after that interview that I hate was talking about, Michael Chandler now sucks again.

There was a lot of, yeah, there was a lot of bootlicking, if you will. That's how Jed put it. It was, it was, it was, it was bad. It was bad. The 10,000 sleepless nights thing is just a joke. I mean, anybody involved in the sport, we've had, we've had sleepless nights too.

It is what it is. It's just, listen, Dana has, Dana has done an incredible job. You cannot take anything away from that, man. But the fighter-paid thing is a joke. It's a joke. And Connor making... Where's Connor here?

Yeah, $30 million... Where are we at? Let me look this up. 33 million from the two fights that does it pourier. That's good money. 60 and a half mill? That's good money. He should be making more than that.

And so should everybody else. The Francis thing, can't wait to see how that plays out. But yeah, Chandler's out of his mind. And see, and here's the problem. That's why nothing's ever going to change, friends. That's why nothing's ever going to change. We're going to

sit here and we're going to fight for fighter pay until we're in the nursing home watching fights on ESPN Plus. And we're just sitting down eating our jello gelatin, maybe eating a piece of apple pie. And we're just going to be

like, why aren't these guys getting paid more? and these women getting paid more. Why? Why isn't that happening? It's because of this. It's because of this. The fighters might come together. Some of them are going to say,

we need more of this, we need more of this, we need more of this. And then the bigger stars go out and do interviews and say, oh, we can't complain about both fighter pay because Dana White hasn't slept in 10 years. Who gives a shit? What does that have to do with anything? What does that have to do with anything?

So dumb. And that's why, and that's why this is never that's why the fighter paid things never going to change that's why we're not going to have a union that's not why you're going to have an association joe loz on has told me on multiple occasions it's never going to happen because most of the time fighters are just and it's listen in this sport it's an individual sport and there should be some selfishness to it of course you want to do the best you can for yourself for your loved ones for your family, for your bank account,

you want to be able to leave yourself with a future. When you're done fighting, you want to be able to not have to worry about anything. You don't want to have to go out and work two or three jobs. You want to make sure you're taking care of. So in that respect, I get it. And it's like that in every other sport, even in team sports.

Each player wants to get the most amount of money they can for themselves. But they also are playing in sports where there's players associations, where they get incredible revenue splits, and they're willing to walk out. They're willing to just be like, I ain't showing up to spring training or I'm not showing up.

We're just collectively not going to go to the early workouts for the NFL or the preseason for the NHL or the suburb stuff for the NBA. We're just not going to go. We're just not coming until you fix this. This is what we want. This is what you want.

We're going to negotiate. One of us is going to get what we want or we're going to meet somewhere in the middle. MMA fighters don't do this. Look at Derek Brunson. Look at Derek Brunson. What did he tweet out yesterday? I have to pull this up because I looked at this yesterday.

What did he say? Tweets out. At Usada or USA anti-doping has to be the worst testing program out. Imagine trying to handle business outside of the octagon and having to take quick flights to check on properties, having a family and other stuff going on, et cetera, and then giving you failures before you got to update the whereabouts program. Let me pull up the rest of this, because this was quite the rant from Derek Brunson,

and I dug it. I liked everything he said. Let's see. So glitchy, okay, pull up the whole thing. Excuse me. I just have to make sure I get this right. Okay. At Usada has to be the worst taxi program out.

Imagine trying to handle business outside of the Octagon. having to take quick flights, check on properties, having a family and other stuff going on, et cetera, and then giving you failures because you forgot to update the glitchy app. There's several athletes out here taking PEDs, but no one failing. Get your GPS feature back. Giving someone a failed whereabouts isn't the same as someone failing a PED test. And then he went on to say, just to be clear, you Sada gave me a whereabouts infraction because I didn't update let my location, stating I have two whereabouts.

infractions and one more could result in a two-year suspension. They used to have GPS tracking, maybe get back the system that worked for fighters. This is stupid. This is dumb. Not Brunson, just the whole system is dumb. All of it is dumb. And there's nothing the fight, I mean, there's something the fighters can do, but because of the way they approach everything, and it's, it's just, they're just never

going to do it. Joe Lozano said it. We will never see. and I hope he's wrong and I hope I'm wrong, but he said, we'll never see a union. We'll never see a viable association with the fighters band together. It's just not going to happen.

It's just not going to happen. And the reason he says that is because of the selfish nature of the sport. Because if a certain fighter wants more, then for the most part, they're going to be worried about that certain fighter. So let's just say Fighter A says, well, I'm not fighting until I make such and such million dollars

or such and such dollars. for every fight. They're not concerned about the guy making 10 and 10. They're concerned about him. They're concerned about themselves. The Usada whole situation. Like, all this stuff just happened. The fighters had no say in it.

None of it. And they're supposed to be, quote, unquote, independent contractors. This is stupid. As independent contractors, you have to let a testing entity know where you are 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So they can come just randomly. me knock on your door and test you.

And you had no say in this. You had no say in it. You had no say in the uniforms. You had no say in anything. It's just nuts. And that's why I just don't think anything's going to change. Because look at Michael Chandler. Look at Michael Chandler.

Oh, the fighter pays out of problems because Dana White doesn't sleep in it and he works so hard, yada, yada, yada. And it's the same reason where the UFC will book a big title fight or at least try to. Let's book Fighter A versus Fighter B. And Fighter B is a draw. But Fighter is definitely a draw. Fighter B is a pretty good draw too. But Fighter B wants more money.

All of a sudden, Fighter C's manager calls the UFC and says, hey, we'll fight for the title. And we'll do it for like $200,000 less than you were going to pay Fighter B. Okay, you're in. That's why. That's why we're in this predicament. And what scares the UFC? What scares the UFC?

The media talking about doesn't scare the UFC. The occasional fighter going on Ariel's show and talking about it isn't going to scare the UFC because they know that there's going to be somebody else who will do what they're doing for cheaper. Is that a bad thing? It sucks for the fighters, but as a business

they're like, what are we scared of? They're not going to do anything. You think these fighters are going to, you think 600 fighters are going to come together and just be like, we're storming out until things change. It's never going to happen. It sucks. It sucks.

When that company sold for $4.2 billion, that's when something should have happened. When they sold the company in 2016, that's exactly the moment. That was the moment to make a difference. And they didn't do it. It's crazy. It's so unfortunate.

I'm going to take two more here. Clearst values. What is... How you doing, Mike? I got two quick questions. Sure. First, is Dan Igay a manager with dominance? And I saw something on Twitter about the PFL being a 50-50 split.

Is that true? So, okay, so the Danny Yegay thing, I don't think he's actually a manager. I don't even know if he's with dominance in the world. I have no idea, honestly. I knew it at a time. He was basically like, I don't know what the title was.

Kind of like an assistant where he would basically help the company and the managers with different things, like maybe to help schedule interviews or, you know, help put things together. I don't know if he's still doing that. honestly. I know he was doing it a few years ago, but I don't know if he still is. I have no idea. I can find that out though. And someone probably knows the answer to that question. And then the 50-50 split thing, I'm so glad you brought that up, by the way.

So the PFL is, if you saw, we wrote about it on the site, PFL got some investment money coming in. They did a series and they brought in about $30 million of investment money from a group that included Alex Rodriguez. The former Major League Baseball player who, by the way, talk about a guy who as an athlete I absolutely despised. But post career, I kind of dig him. I kind of dig A Rod. I like everything he's done. I think he's pretty good as a broadcaster. he's i like what he's doing with the with the business side of things he's pretty good when he's on

shark tank like the guy has changed the way i view him i still think he's a cheating son of a bitch for taking all the roids and all that stuff and being just an awful teammate in major league baseball but what he's done post career i've sort of changed my mind it's one of those examples where they say people can't change i think a rod it's kind of the uh the example that you can't can. So I feel like he's a different guy. But anyways, the reason for this investing in this series is they are using this money to build a pay-per-view superfight division. So what they're going to do is outside of the actual tournaments, the PFL is going to put on pay-per-view events where they're just going to put on big fights. And when they re-signed Kayla Harrison and they made that deal happen,

this is a big part of it. They're going to put Kayla on pay-per-view. They're going to try to find her big fights, maybe do the Chris Cyborg fight, maybe co-promote if they can, or just go out and spend a whole bunch of money on free agents and try to make these fights happen. On top of that, the, you know, Peter Mari and Don Davis have done a lot of media and a lot of interviews, and they're saying that when they do this pay-per-view, when they do this pay-per-view, they will split the money of pay-per-view 50-50 between the company and the fighters themselves, which is great, by the way. Like, good on them for having the foresight, the wherewithal to do something good for the fighters.

Here's my issue, though. If a tree falls and nobody's around to hear it, does it make a sound? If there's a pay-per-view on and nobody buys it, what's 50% of nothing? Who is going to spend money to watch the PFL and pay-per-view? Like right now, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the PFL is going to go out and just sign a whole bunch of names. but I don't like I don't even here's the thing because of how the bad taste in my mouth the PFL left me last year with the pacing I don't watch Kayla Harrison for free most of the

time and it's no disrespect to her but like if my schedule is I'm covering Bellator on Friday and then I'm covering the UFC on Saturday but the PFL's on Thursday and I'm going to be up till two, three, sometimes four, five, six in the morning covering these other events. You think I'm going to spend time watching a 14 and a half hour PFL card? No. And now you're asking fans, which by the way, most of you here right now are big-time MMA fans, right? And maybe you have figured out nefarious means to consume your content.

And if you have done so and you've gotten away with it, kudos to you. but those who do not do it that way and they pay for ESPN Plus and they buy all the pay per views and they pay for showtime and they pay for all this other stuff, it ain't cheap being a MA fan. It is cheaper to be a fan of pretty much any other sport than it is to be an MMA fan. So now you're asking people to pay $7 a month for ESPN Plus, which by the way is a great value if you watch other sports. So I'm not saying that's a bad thing.

if you are just a fan if you're just an mMA fan and you want to watch bellator and you only get showtime for bellator that's another 11 bucks a month so right there before we're even talking pay reviews that's $18 a month pay per views for the UFC are $75

so that's another $75 we're looking at a brown $100 right now and now you're asking us and that's on top of all the other stuff we can watch and now you're UFC fight pass another $10 a month and now you're asking us to, and this is boxing, which is different.

And now you're asking us to buy PFL pay-per-views. Are you kidding me? What are you going to charge for these pay-per-views? Are you going to come out here? Are you going to have the testicular fortitude to charge $50 for a PFL paperview? That's what I want to know. What are we charging for these things? And what kind of fights you've given us?

Because if you give us Kail Harrison versus Chris Seiborg for $50, maybe, maybe, maybe. if you stack up the rest of the card. I just don't, like, I'm looking at their roster right now, and they have some good fighters, but, like, is Roy McDonald going to get you to spend 50 bucks? I like Clay Collarler a lot. Is he going to get you to spend 50 bucks? Is House Monfeo going to get you to spend $50?

Like, I don't know what they're going to charge. So while it's cool in concept to do a 50-50 split with the fighters, what is there to, like, if there's nothing really to spend, split, then how does this work? I don't know. I'm skeptical. And this is what the sport does to us. We've been hurt and crushed by so many things. We've had all these companies come along and say, we're going to change everything. Everything's going to change. We're fighter-friendly, fan first, all this other stuff, all these other cliche things that you have to say to try to separate yourself from the company. We have 417 billion people watching.

our product one championship. Not true. Geez. Hi, Just Simply, Rob. I can't really hear you, man. You're all, you're a little muffly. What about, what about now, Mike? My apologies.

Good morning, Mike. Thank you for the opportunity. How are you? I'm wonderful, man. Good, brother. Can we, is there any way that I can ask a quick question about the Habib interview that came out yesterday and just get your perspective on it? Sure.

Yeah, man. I watched the internet. I was a little frustrated and wanted to get your perspective on, you know, Khabib had said that he thinks Islam is the rifle champion. And I think that, in my opinion, I think, I really still think that he should wait and fight Baino D'Ryush. I mean, this is kind of frustrating for me because when I watched the interview, it kind of reminds me of Khabi that he wants everything to work in his favor. I mean, he's saying, he said in the interview that he wants Islam to fight Charles in Abu Dhabi. And I mean, that seems like it works in his favor because it's in their time zone. And then, too, I didn't really understand how Habib was trying to downplay Charles a lot.

Avaera when, yes, Islam Makachev has a 10-11 fight win streak, but, I mean, it's taken out of the context that he's fought cans. And then he went and he basically, and then Islam went on record and said that Charles' record wasn't as good as him. And he went and said that Drew Dober, Tiago Moses, and Bobby Green was enough to give him a contender fight against Oliver and that he was just going to wash him. Like, do you find any truth in this? And, I mean, what's your opinion on it? because to me it's just laughable to think that a guy who's who beat. And then he said that Charles O'Olaverer only's fraud strikers. Bobby Green is a striker.

Like these guys are not even like high class top 10 top five in the world. So what do you think about that, Mike? Thank you. Thank you, sir. Yeah, there was kind of a lot to unpack from that interview. I mean, it is what it is. Listen, there are certain companies that there are certain entities, if you will, that the

dominance MMA contingent gets along better with. ESPN would be one of those. So that's why when we break news or we talk about stuff or Ariel puts something out about

here's what happened, here's what might happen on this date. Maybe this guy who is a dominance enemy fighter might. That's the plan. Let's maybe headline with him. Manager reaches out to that.

and then it's a whole bunch of interviews about the situation and how to get guys over and stuff like that. And you realize that you're basically listening to the same interview three different times, just from three different perspectives. Ali, Islam, Habib. Now, do I blame Habib for saying the things he's saying? Of course not.

Because that's what you're supposed to do when you are a coach or a manager or all that. You put over your fighters as best as you can. you say that you have the best your guy is the best guy ever that's how you're supposed to do it but some of the other stuff is just it's just some of the other stuff is just insane that islam's the champion that charles is he feels he's the champion but he's not undisputed but is come on dude that's insane again i've said it before and this is not taking away from islam because it's not his fault.

It's not his fault because he's been booked in big fights and for some reason, it's just that they don't happen. There's injuries or something happens. He's supposed to fight Benil, Benil gets injured. He's supposed to fight RDA. There's an injury. Supposed to fight some bigger names. There's injuries.

So he takes the fights that are given to them. And he treats them accordingly. Goes out there and just starches these guys. But in the end, records, math, They don't lie. His best win is Dan Hooker. And again, there's nothing wrong with that. Dan is a fun fighter.

I like Dan a lot. He's a great presence in this space. But if we're looking resumes at who, quote, unquote, deserves this fight, which, by the way, I've learned many years ago. When you're talking about M.A., just get rid of the word deserves because it means nothing, especially when it comes to the UFC. but if we're looking at

if this was Bellator okay if this is Belator because a lot of people are like oh this is dumb we should do everything meritocratically Bellator does everything meritocratically if this is Belitore Benile Darius is getting the title shot

he's the next man up because while Mokachev has the longer winning streak Benil has fought better competition he's got top five wins so he probably ranked higher in their rankings. I mean, listen, that's just the way that it is.

Benio has a better strength of schedule than his on Machachev has. It's just he does. It's not close. Michael Chandler has a better strength of schedule than his on Machochev. In the four fights he's had, there are many other names in this division

whose strength of schedule is much strong. You can make the same, even though he's not winning, Connor's strength of schedule is much more difficult than his on Machochev's. He might not be winning, but the strength of schedule clearly on the side of Connor. It's not even, it's not even a debate. And I've said this before. If they're

going to do Olivera Makachef, fine. It's cool. If I'm Olivera, I ain't doing it in an Abu Dhabi. I'm not. You say absolutely not. No way. And if that means the UFC does UFC-esque things and they say, fine, then you're just, you're just out of the fight. We'll do Islam versus Darius for the title. And if I'm all over it, I'm just like, okay, fine. I get the winner. Sure. as long as I was fighting Abu Dhabi gives a crap. Like, who cares? Alvara has been a man of principal for a while. Remember when Oliver got the title shot?

We all thought he was insane for waiting for the title shot. Remember that? Remember that whole thing? Beats Tony Ferguson and he's like, Michael Chandler had said that they offered him Charles Olivera on like super short notice to fill a card up. And Oliverer said no. and then basically went on this rant

where he was like, I'm not fighting unless it's for the title. I just won't fight. And we all thought he was crazy. And it turns out he was right the whole time. He made the right decision. Waited, got a title shout with Michael Chandler. We can kind of thank Dustin Porre for that, if we're being honest,

because Dustin took the Connor money and he should have. Nothing wrong with that. He got the win, he got a whole bunch of money for it. So it was smart move. But he's also smart on all of his part. He made his stance. He put his feet in the sand. and he dug in and he got what he wanted.

He got a title shot. He was the champion. This whole situation is unfortunate. So Charles does have a little bit of power here. If he doesn't fight for the title now, like, he just gets the winner. It's not like they're going to knock them out of contention. So I don't know. This whole thing is interesting because Islam could just shut up everybody and just get a top five win.

We talked about it. A collar brought it up the other day. Dustin Porrier looking for a fight on July 30. Islam would be heavily favored to beat Dustin Porier, in my opinion. He just would be. As long as he extends his fight, gets to, like, the second or third round, he's probably going to beat Dustin Porier. He's probably going to be a minus 600 favorite to do it as well.

If you want your top five win, it's right there for you. You can just do it now, and then you could fight Oliver at the end of the year, and there's no question about it. You're the guy. There's no other options. There's no other names in the list. Chandler's off the list. everyone's up to us.

Connor's off the list. Even Darius gets pushed behind because you've done the one thing everyone says you need to do to get this fight. Or you can just go fight Bainil in October and I think stylistically if you're Islam Makhachev, if you're looking for it to make an impact, you're looking to make a statement,

a win over Dusted Poria needs more. Even though Darius might be the better fighter, it just doesn't have the same impact. Pore is a bigger name. Poree is a star. Benile is the tougher money. And the definition, a prize fighting is to get the biggest fights you can for the most amount of money but are the

most winnable and i feel like and this i'm not saying this to be disrespectful islam machochev has a better chance to be dustin porier from a stylistic perspective than he does benille der euse i i would favor machogeff in both of those fights but i feel like you'd be a much bigger favorite against dustin than he would be against benille and win over a guy like dustin who is a star will tread deeper than beating a banal der a erieus so this whole thing is in shambles. I don't know what's going to happen with it. This could just be a simple

recency bias kind of thing. Like who's going to be the more active guy in the top five? I don't know. I don't know how this is going to play out. But it's interesting. The other thing about that Habib interview was this is unfair to compare me and Charles Olivera

in this lightweight champion, lightweight goat discussion. Like, you can't even compare us as premature. And he's saying that in order to make this comparison fair, that Oliver needs to beat Islam, Benile, and like two or three other guys. What? I mean, I don't get that line of thinking at all.

Do I think Habib is the greatest lightweight of all time? Absolutely. Do I think Charles Oliver is closer than a lot of people think? I do. I do. Sometimes you get so wrapped up in the zero that we forget about everything else. Habib was just was just so good all the time. But a lot of times he wasn't getting a lot of finishes.

And a lot of times we didn't get to really see Habi's best to the end of his career. And Oliveira, if we look at like the last 10 Olivera, the last, if we look at this current winning streak that Oliver is on, this 10-11 fight win streak, and we compare it strength of schedule-wise, compare it to performance-wise. to Habib's last 10 or 11 fights, all of there is, all of theirs is probably better. If we're being honest, it's probably better.

Last thing, I just have to do this. And just please bear with me. Sometimes I think to myself, and I just go on these little tangents, and then we go after this thing. But now I want to pull it up and just see if I'm not talking out of my ass, because I want to make sure that is not the case either.

So Habib Mammagamato, his last 11 fights in the UFC. 29 and 0 cannot take anything away from the man. So let's see. Ended this career with Justin Gagee, Dustin Poirier, Connor, Ally Quinta,

Edson Barbosa, Michael Johnson, that's six, Darrell Horcher, RDA, which was probably the win that everyone was like, oh damn, this guy's legit.

Pat Healy, Abel Trujillo, Tiago Tabaras. Those are the last 11 fights for Habib, and he won all of them. Charles Alvarez's last 11 fights, which he's won all of them. Justin Gaichie finished him in the first round. Dustin Porre, finished him in the third round. Michael Chandler, finished him in the second round.

Tony Ferguson ran him over. Kevin Lee submitted him. Jared Gordon, knocked him out. Nick Lentz, knocked him out. David Tamer, choked him out. Jim Miller, choked him out. Christos Gagos,

choked him out. Clay Guida. Submission. 11 fights, 10 finishes. The one he didn't finish was Tony Ferguson. And that was like a 30-24. I mean, it's close.

It's close. I favor Olivera in this discussion in terms of the last 11 fights of the careers. but I would not put Oliver ahead of Habib right now. But I also don't think it's not incredibly asinine to compare the two, to at least have a conversation. Now, if Oliver goes out and beats Islam,

where's the discussion now? And I'm curious if Oliver is the one guy who can get Habib back. Like, if Oliver goes out and beats Islam, Islam. Will that compel Habib to come back for one more? I don't know. A lot of people think that that could be the thing. But holy crap, it's 925. I got to get out of here. Wow. You guys, you guys got me fired up at the end. I appreciate all the calls. I appreciate you guys all hanging out with me. You guys are the best. You guys are the absolute best. We'll be back again next week

on Tuesday. And we'll do it again. 8 a.m. Eastern. Get your coffee's ready. And if you came in late, we can get the show up on the MA Fighting Podcasting Network, probably the next 30 minutes or so. So until that, everybody, I am Mike Heck. Have a heck of a morning. Have a heck of a Friday. And have a heck of a weekend, everyone. The Vox Media Podcast Network.