MMA Fighting - Heck of a Morning | MMA Draft Chatter, Usman vs. Canelo, Urijah Faber Joins the Show

Episode Date: April 28, 2022

If you were promoting a brand new MMA organization and you were taking part in a multi-league draft, and all active fighters were available to be drafted, who would you choose first? That question is discussed by a lot of callers on this edition of Heck of a Morning with MMA Fighting's Mike Heck. Listeners give their thoughts where they would draft certain names such as Conor McGregor, Israel Adesanya, Max Holloway, and others. In addition, questions about the UFC Vegas 53 main event this Saturday between Rob Font and Marlon Vera, interest levels in a potential boxing bout between Kamaru Usman and Canelo Alvarez, and more. Also, former WEC champion and multi-time UFC title challenger Urijah Faber (51:08) joins the show to discuss his new MMA promotion Urijah Faber's A-1 Combat and their inaugural event this Sunday on UFC Fight Pass, Maycee Barber's recent win over Montana De La Rosa at UFC Vegas 52, how he would book Aljamain Sterling's next bantamweight title defense, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 8 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Nice travels. Wi-Fi available to Aero Pembers on equipped flights, sponsored by Bound. Conditions apply. Caircanada.com. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Thursday, April 28th, 2022, and it is indeed a heck of a morning here live on the M.A. Fighting Twitter Spaces,

and shortly thereafter, the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network, I am Mike Heck. Hope you're having a great week, having a great Thursday. And before we get in everything, I know in some of the early shows, we would run down MMA birthdays and things like that. We've kind of veered away from that, but I would be remiss if I didn't shout out a very special woman in my life.

My mom, today is her birthday. So happy birthday, Ma. Thank you for everything you do, everything you've done. She's down in Florida with my dad living the retired life, driving around golf carts all the time, playing golf, just living the dream. And I spoke to her this morning. Her and my father got to take a nice little trip.

to Sarasota, Florida for the night. We're going to have some fun. And happy birthday, Ma. I love you very much. So we're going to have a very fun show today. There's a lot going on. I will say this. If you are listening after the fact

on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network, if you're listening here, you're going to miss out on this. But I'm going to give you another reason to download the podcast. At the tail end of our conversing here, you're going to hear my conversation with the former WEC World champion, multi-time UFC title challenger, coach, entrepreneur, the guy is like 17,000 jobs, including MMA promoter.

Uriah Faber is going to join us on the podcast version of what the heck could a, but a 15-minute conversation with him, talked about the new promotion, talked about Macy Barber and her performance this past Saturday because he is at Team Alpha Mail and Yariah has seen a lot of changes in Macy Barber. So I wanted to get his thoughts on her performance, what those changes are in his mind. And then he kind of weighs in on the Bannam White title conversation on who should be fighting Al Jemaine Sterling next, how he would book the top of the Bannamweight division if he had the magic pencil and wears the matchmaking hat, like my best friend, Alexander Kaylee,

and I attempt to do every Sunday morning on the M.A. podcasting network. So here's what I want to do today. You guys can certainly call in and talk about everything you want to talk about. because there was a lot to discuss. By the way, BTL live 3 p.m. Eastern M.A. Fighting YouTube page. Jose Young's was victorious on the show last week.

He called out our man, G.C. Connor Birx from the M.MA hour, Georgia's own. Unfortunately, Connor cannot do it this week. He's a very busy man. So Jose is going to take on another man from Georgia who is happy to represent the state and try to give Jose a little bit of some comeuppance,

if you will. It's Jose versus Jed Bishu today at 3 p.m. Eastern, M.A Fighting YouTube channel, and then shortly thereafter in the M.A. fighting podcasting network. So it should be a lot of fun. And it should be sort of explosive at times. Two trash talkers getting into it.

You guys will decide who wins. All right. So here's what we're going to do. Coming up today, MMAFighting.com at 11 a.m. Eastern. And you may have already heard this on the M.A. fighting podcast networks. The podcast went live. It wasn't supposed to be a podcast. We were bantering about this during one of our meetings and it just became a podcast. Since the NFL draft is about to kick off in a matter of hours, we decided what would happen if we did sort of an MMA promotional

fantasy draft. So it is myself, AK, Sean Al Shottie, Jed Mishu, and Damon Martin. We all basically became the promoters of five different promotions. The UFC, which you will find out if you'll listen to the podcast, the promotion formerly known as Bellator MMA, the PFL, one championship, and we threw Eagle FC in there as well. We did a five-round draft.

I was Eagle FC. I got the very first pick of the draft. I think you guys would be very happy with that selection. I think you'll be even more excited with the second pick of my draft on top of the first selection. just a little teaser. And you could draft however you want.

You could draft based on just the best fighters in the world, trying to make an impact, trying to do it from a business sense. However you see fit, you're setting yourself up for the next five years. And then next year, when we draft again, we'll keep the same rosters. We'll add five more guys that we can mix a match from other promotions. So the topic of the day, the question of the day, and again, if you guys are requesting to chime in, you can talk about everybody as you want to talk about.

But the main topic I want to discuss today is if you are, part of this draft, if you were an MMA promoter, if you had the first overall pick in an MMA draft and you could draft any fighter right now to build your promotion around, to make a splash, to make an impact, who would that fighter be?

Who would it be? Is it going to be a future star? A guy who is becoming a star? Is it going to be a guy who is an established name? Is it a Massazar? Is it a champion? Is it a upstart, a future champion? Who's it going to be?

It could be whoever you want. I mean, there's no real wrong answer here. You could justify it however you want. Like I said, it could be business, merit, high ceiling, etc. However you see fit, you could draft here everyone. And let me just remind you again, we can talk about whatever you want to talk about. But that's what I want to focus on today if you guys want to talk about that. Who would be your first pick in an MMA draft?

You can pick anybody you want. Anybody you want. All right. I'm going to start with, I mean, maybe this is a promotion of itself, Wildlife Fight Club. Good morning.

Make sure you on mute. Hello, hello. Hello, what's going on? Man, I'm walking a daughter, getting ready for school. Yes, sir. Love your work, by the way. So, yeah, man, my name's Zach.

I'm an eye doctor from Alabama, Hugh Jim and Mae fan. So I guess to answer your question, being the first one on the spot, just off the top of my mind. And I'm as big of a fan, I'm not of his. I think you'd have to go with Israel. You got the villain story. You got him a rival already.

And he's a superstar all across the country or all across the world, honestly. So I think if you had to build a promotion on one fighter, I think you have to go Israel. That's a great pick. I will say, just to play a little spoiler, Israel is an early selection in our draft. If you haven't heard it already, you'll see you on it. MAP fighting.com. So can I just ask why you're not a big fan of Israel out of Sania? Not that I'm not a big fan.

I think he's a great fighter. And I think, and honestly, I think he's the best. I don't, I don't think there's anybody, especially after watching the Yon fight, I don't know if there's anybody,

if it was a fight to the death, him and Nate would probably be the two guys I'd pick to win. Just they got the cardio and they have everything. I don't know. I just, I'm just not sure. just some of his, I didn't like him humping, what you call it, Paula Costa. I wasn't a fan of that.

I mean, I know they had a robbery and I know, you know, Paula was kind of being a douchebag about it, but, you know, actually beat somebody and just humping him on national TV. I don't know. I kind of got turned off from that. But, I mean, I still watch all of his fights. I think he's an amazing fighter, but he's not the guy that I'm like, yeah, this is my guy every time he fights. All right, fair enough.

Thank you very much. Zach. I, Doctor from Alabama, I appreciate it. I understand what it's like getting your child ready for school. I did that already. So, Zach is going with Israel Adasanya with the first pick, and you can't go really wrong with that. Let's bring Christopher in.

We can have a draft pick, Christopher, or we can talk about whatever you want. What's up, buddy? I do, Mike. Good, you? Yeah, not bad. Heck of a birthday to your mom as well, dude. That's right. That's right. Mrs. Heck.

Mrs. Heck. Yeah. What a legend. Okay, I want to take part in this draft. Everyone's going to pick Israel. Everyone's going to pick Gehji. Everyone's going to pick Usma and everyone's going to pick Connor. I'm going to go completely left field. We are going to start a women's MMA promotion in the UK. We don't have one.

You know, in the US, you guys have a victor. In Japan, they've got deep jewels. So we're going to do women's UK MMA, Echo Arena. give me meatball Molly McCann fighting anyone who sucks for the belt anyone who sucks you said the easiest fight possible

let her win a belt at the Echo Arena in Liverpool let's make some history interesting interesting selection Christopher I appreciate going a business he's looking at it for a business perspective

okay he's going with Meatball Molly McCann English promotion women's MMA, he's going to make her the star. This is a business move from Christopher. Now, I will say from a business sense, it's probably got to take a little time to get off the ground. But if you're going to build a UK women's MMA promotion, Molly could be your star.

And I think putting her in there and getting her over, if you will, maybe not glorified squash matches, which I think you're kind of leaning towards, but kind of getting her over as a star. Interesting selection. but like I said, there's really no wrong answer. Let's see what Joe thinks on this Thursday morning. Joe, how are you?

Good. How are you, Mike? Heck of a morning. Good, my man. What's going on? I got to go with Patty. Tough pickover, Chimai, but if you're building a promotion, I think Patty's the guy you want right now. Why is that?

Sells. I mean, I know here statewide, like he said, you go, the last speaker said, if you were over in Europe, Patty's going to out. sell anybody you could put in the states here except for Connor. And to me, Conner's washed up. So I'm going with Patty. All right. Joe is selecting Patty Pumblet.

So let me just say, just kind of going through these draft picks that I've already heard this morning, Otisanya is part of our draft. He went pretty early. Molly McCann, I know this is a shocker, did not get drafted at all in the first five rounds. But I mean, listen, maybe next year. She does have the, the CO of the year right now. Patty Pimbled also did not get drafted in the first five rounds, although that was a, that was kind of a surprise in some people's eyes, because, I mean, you have to look to the future. You're looking at it from a business sense. But everybody sort of justified their picks in

different ways. It's pretty interesting how it all played out. The first overall pick has not been mentioned yet. I will say that. I am Eagle FC. I made a selection. and it is neither of names that have been thrown out there yet. Let's go to Dax. Dax, what's up, man? Hey, Mike. How you doing? Pretty good.

You know, I hate to disagree with what the last guy said, but I got to take Connor. I mean, even if he's washed up, even if he goes out and gets finished first round three times in a row, he's still the biggest draw by a mile. And he's who I want, especially to get eyes on my mind. promotion at first. It's, I don't like the guy, but it's just kind of necessary.

Yeah. I mean, if you're an upstar promotion, I feel like you kind of have to get Connor in there. I will say Connor was drafted. And I will say there's probably some value on Connor in where he was drafted. He was one of those picks that I feel like all of us wanted, but we also felt it was kind of a risky pick.

So, I mean, the way we sort of looked at it was, we're running this like a business getting the fighter we also have to negotiate with them and then we're hoping although they're competing

in other promotions in a lot of ways we're hoping that they compete for the promotion that they actually currently fight for so we could kind of build value upon that so if you bring Connor in and he doesn't fight you know what does that do but again there's value in Connor

just being there you put Connor front row or you have him in the back doing interviews or something and just have him somewhere, cornering a teammate or something. There's value in that. Look at the dent he made for Bellator MMA, just showing up and jumping into the cage and almost getting in a fight with the referee.

I mean, that was huge for them. So that's a solid pick. There's nothing wrong with that at all. That's a good business selection right there. Your business doesn't move in a straight line. Some days bring growth. Others bring challenges. But what if you or a partner needs to step away?

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Tristan, how are you? I'm good, Mike. How's everything? Wonderful. What's that? All right. So the draft, I would start it off a Max Holloway. I'm going as the most exciting fighter that you could possibly see starting off of Max, and then I'm going with Dustin Poirier right off the back. That is just like must see like, all I got to be like, listen, just see one fight from this guy and you'll be hooked.

Or one highlight, just one highlight. And you'd be like, yeah, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to go. Like, I'm going to see this promotion. This guy is incredible. So I think that's what I would start. And then I have a question. My question is for this Saturday, Saturdays Car,

I want to talk about this upcoming prospect. It's making a USC debut. You reported it back in February. And that's Tatsuro Tierra. I think his name is. Taira. Okay, Tatsu Tara. This guy, I mean, I went back.

I did a deep dive on this guy. And I'm like, man, the flyweight division is, you know, more talent. And if this guy could perform and, I mean, blow the doors off in his UFC debut, I mean, we might have, now we have, what, Muhammad, Mikhail. And then if this guy comes around, I mean, how do you see this fight going? I mean, again, I watched, I watched Kate on this guy, and I'm like, man, this guy looks serious. I mean, I might be getting ahead of myself, but, I mean, If he debuts and he blows the doors off, I mean, the flyweight division is just going to be absolutely just even getting better as we speak.

So your thoughts on that and just told you about my draft. So there you go. All right. Thank you, Tristan. I will say Holloway and Porre were drafted. I'm not going to tell you where. And I will say they were both drafted in the same promotion. So get excited for that.

As far as Tetsu Retire goes, I spoke to Tetsu Retire yesterday, along with a very nice translator in Vegas. What a delightful young man he is. It's just a delightful young man. He does speak a little bit of English, not a lot, but he does speak a little bit. He's 22 years old. This kid is a finishing machine. The one knock on him from certain people, including members of his opponent's team, is that he hasn't really been. battle tested that they kind of question his strength of schedule, if you will.

Not that he's like beating cans. He's beating decent fighters, but Carlos Candelario's team feels like that they have fought better competition along the way. And I think that's a really interesting fight because Candelario is sort of battle tested. He has overcome a lot in his career, not just in the cage, but out of it as well, dealing with some injuries. I mean, the man was out of action for like three or four years. from one contender series fight came back fought for c s got a win after like a nearly four year

layoff then goes on the contender series again like two weeks later loses a controversial split decision a fight that almost everybody scored for candelario he gets his first pro loss and then he gets a ufc contract so this is a really interesting fight i did ask tyra about mohammed mahaev because i asked him what sorts of fights in these divisions stand out to him He said his dream fight would be Max Holloway, although he doesn't feel like that's going to happen because he can't make $1.45. So if he said,

if there's any way we could shrink Max Holloway and turn him into a Banimway, he would be a very happy camper. But he did mention Muhammad Mahayev. He did mention Tim Elliott as future opponents. Obviously, not looking past Carlos Kandallario, but then I asked him what he thought of Mahiaf's debut, thought it was tremendous. And then I asked him if he felt his debut is going to be better.

And he said, of course, in English. Of course it's going to be better than Muhammad Mahiahev. So I would keep, if that is the case, I'd probably keep those two guys away from each other for a while. But eventually we get two young guys, a 21-year-old, a 22-year-old, getting after it. That's just a lot of fun. But excellent draft choices. Let's see what Mike Lawson thinks on this Thursday. We're doing some draft chatter.

We're talking about whatever you want to talk about on a heck of a morning. Mike, how are you? Let's make sure you unmute. Heck of a morning. There he is. My bad. What? It's all good.

I'm hopping in all over this draft pick. How has nobody said Kamsat yet? How? That, the number one pick is most definitely Kamsat. His rise to fame has been like none other. Everybody's been comparing it to Connor back in his prime day. I mean, take a look at his Instagram followers. I just took a look.

3.8 million. Dude, when was the last time you've seen another UFC fighter with such a short amount of time being there? Grab that many followers. Exactly. The hype behind his is absolutely insane. I would have slowed him down. I wouldn't have given him Gilbert Burns. I would have let the fans cry, cry, cry, cry, cry. I would have built him up nice and slow. Fed him to the line. Like, no, no, no. I would have taken my time with him, not rushed him. Gone the whole double weight class thing with 170 and 185. I would have milked that cow. That's a great pick. Yeah. That's a great pick, Mike. I will, uh, I will see. I mean, we're spoiling things, but yet the whole thing is listening to the podcast and reading it, the reasoning. Obviously, Hamzat was an early selection.

He goes in the first round. Again, we have not knocked off the number one pick yet. Hamzat was not my number one pick. Now, had I gotten him late, if I was drafting later, I would have snatched him right up. But again, I was Eagle FC. We're here to make an impact. we're here to make a statement and we're here to do good business.

We're here to make money, all right? We're here to make real dollars. And Hamzah could make us some real dollars, but we have to come out of the gate sizzling with some pizzazz with things that the M.A community is going to talk about. And I feel like my number one pick has done that. And then you top it on,

and then you add my number two pick on top of it. I mean, we're ready. We're ready. We're set for the next five years. That's a gar and damn tea. So if you're just joining us, it is heck of a morning. The NFL draft is coming up in a matter of hours. And we're playing a fun little game of if you had your own MMA promotion,

who would you draft first? Who is your first overall pick right now? You're a brand new promotion. You have the pick of the litter, anybody you want. who is your first pick and why and there's you could justify it however you want it could be the best fighter you think the most exciting fighter could be the best business could be an upstart that you want to build a promotion around it could be whatever you want you can justify it however you want i will say with my eagle fc picks i came out just on fire right out of the gate i was way ahead

and then i knew i had such a big lead that i wanted to do some different things i wanted to do some star building. I wanted to bring in some good personality. I wanted to bring in somebody who could bring just ultraviolence to the equation. Some people shook their heads at some of my later picks, but I'm happy with it. I'm happy with her. Remember, these are the first five picks. I still have the rest of the roster that nobody stole for me from. So we can still do great things with the roster we have plus these additions. And next year, I could build upon that. I think you're going to love my first few selections.

My number five pick, I think you might scratch your head a little bit, but just understand where I'm coming from. Read the description, get my reasoning, and I think you'll understand. Let's get my man Patrick in here. Patrick, how are you? Good, Mike. How are you?

What's up, buddy? Wonderful. What's going on? first pick three words jorgen de castro i mean listen i i i love me some yorgon de castro a new england guy just a good good solid hands good dude solid individual great body too i mean look at that guy i mean

um just just a multi millionaire waiting to happen patrick i uh i did i cheated i already had uh i'm two picks in to the podcast. Oh, so you heard my foe, my foe to Castro pick. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't think you were gonna Castro. I like the journey that you took this on, though. Your first, is it nice?

We're nice, man. Oh, man, we're set. I'm gonna wait to see how long. We're set over here to Eel-Efsy. I'm gonna wait to see how long it takes to get to your first pick. I'm not gonna spoil it. Yes. But I was like brainstorming.

What would my promotion be? and I was thinking about like the boogeyman fighting championship and then I thought this isn't necessarily like a pick but what would it be like if say someone gets declined three fights in a row because they don't want to fight them

like a Hamza or like a Usman early in his career or even Leon you know like someone or a marab someone gets their contract offered and they get turned down by three different fighters and they get like a ding ding ding ding ding ding boogieman status and then they go and they actually have a bounty and they go into this other little like side bracket that gives fighters incentives to fight them i think that would be a fun little thing like put into uh an existing promotion you know i like it thank you Thank you, Patrick.

And by the way, I think this would be perfect for the PFL. Jed and I have been joking about the PFL. Not even really joking. We've actually been dead serious about fun things we could do with the PFL because they have the smart cage and they have all these statistics that nobody really cares about. But Jed has always, he has pitched the damage bar for PFL for a long time, which I think is a tremendous idea. And especially when Kayla Harrison fights, just thinking of different things we could do.

like I used to host I used to host music bingo before I jumped on with them A Fighting I would host like trivia nights I would host music bingo and what we would do is we would play the fourth round we would call it like blackout bingo

so you had to fill out every spot and we would start the we would start with a $50 bounty and if nobody hit it within 50 songs or less then we would double it and it would just go up so it would go from 50 to 100 to 150 to 200 to 250

and it would just keep building. And then once you got to like 500 bucks, we just gave it away and then we'd start over. That's how it should be with Kayla Harrison fights. There should be like a $10,000 bounty every time she fights. And if she wins, now it's 20. Now it's 30. Now it's 40.

And every time she wins, we just keep adding to that pile. We're adding more incentive to this. We also talked about bringing in a wheel, some different styles. Like Kayla has to fight with like one arm tied behind her back. or she's not allowed to throw a punch, no takedowns. Like, just have some fun. I feel like PFL is in a great position to do that. But we'll see.

PFL is in the draft. And there's some very interesting picks from the Professional Fighters League. And if you haven't listened to the podcast, it is a lot of fun. If not, if you're more of a visual learner, the article will drop at 11 a.m. You can check out our draft picks. So again, if you're just joining us, we're doing some M.A. draft chatter.

if you were a promoter, if you were running your own promotion, and we're doing an MMA draft, and you had the first pick in the draft, you could choose anybody you wanted, no one's protected, it's wide open, who would you pick? We've had some interesting names from the callers. We've heard Connor, we've heard Hamzaa Tshamai F.

We've even heard Patty Pimblet, we've heard Molly McCann, we've heard Max Holloway, we've heard Dustin Porier as an early draft selection, Israel out of Sanya was another name that went early. I had the first overall pick in our draft, and no one has picked my pick yet. No one has picked my pick. And again, let me just throw this out there.

There are no wrong answers here. Zero wrong answers. You could justify it however you want. Again, Molly McCann was a first round draft pick at one of our selections, and I like the reasoning. We're going to start a UK women's MMA promotions, and we're going to draft Molly McCann.

We're going to treat it like WWF superstars, back in the 90s. We're going to put Molly in there with an enhancement talent. We're going to get her over. We're going to get her victories. And we're going to put a title around her waist. Again, there's no wrong answers here. Let's bring in the natural grappler himself.

Good morning, natural grappler. Make sure you unmute. What's going on? What's up? Thanks for having me on the show. So we're talking about draft picks. I got two for you. Number one, A.J. McKee.

Just a boating star. It's undeniable. You know, he's a wrestler. His pedigree, his dad. You know, he's climbing the ranks. Even in the loss, he looks good. And he's only going to get better, in my opinion. But I got a better pick than that.

Claudio Puelas. I've only seen this guy fight one time, but it doesn't take long to know this talent. And that man's got it. I saw him fight Clay Quigua and he had knee bar submission. Oh my goodness. When you tell me that man's landed at knee bar submission in three prime time fights, that's all I need to know.

Like he's doing things that are unconventional and he can climb the ranks pretty high. He's going to be a stable in the promotion. And I don't know. I'm just getting the Charles Olivera vibes from this man. So that's a very interesting selection right there, natural grappler. I like it a lot. I think there's a, I think there's a lot of talent.

I think there's a very high ceiling for Claudio play. This has won five fights in a row in arguably the toughest division in the sport. Submitting Clay Guida like that is not easy to do. And I loved the performance, honestly, because he had Clay in some trouble. Clay was able to escape. Clay had that look at his eyes like, now you're going to get it, son.

And just when Clay was starting to get confident. Boom. Slick knee bar. You had to tap. Five wins in a row. If you haven't listened to A.K. and I show on to the next one, our matchmaking podcast on Sundays. I have the best matchup for Claudio Plius.

It is Jalen Turner. We put two streaking guys just outside of the top 15. Right in there. We'll see who the better guy is. We'll see who is long for the rankings. Who is long for a title. run. I like that style. I like that matchup. It's going to be fireworks. That's the way to go. I think that's the way to go. By the way, I'm just going to give another little spoiler with the

AJ McKee pick. AJ McKee is a member of Eagle FC according to our draft. AJ McKee is part of my roster. He was not my first pick, but he is part of my top five. And I will explain why. you haven't listened to the podcast or you could read it at 11 a.m. But Agent McKee is a member of my Eagle FC roster. Let's get our man, I think it was Zach, Wildlife Fight Club back in here. All right, guys, I've had a change in hard since I've dropped my daughter off. I've been thinking about it, listening to it. I think I was bouncing.

I was like MVP's got the spark, you know, over in Bellator. I just don't know how it's following it. But I think, you know, just to get something going, I might actually take Colby Covington. Really? It's controversial. The landscape of politics today, we may set up like a Democrat versus Republican fight game, let him champion it out the right. But yeah, if you just want to bring guys in somebody who's, you know, probably more hated than he is loved, those guys seem to get a lot of love. And I think I might switch it up and maybe go with Colby.

Colby Covington, interesting selection. I will say Colby did not get drafted in the first 25 picks. But again, there's a number of reasons why we draft certain people. Although if I drafted Colby to Eagle FC, him and Ali and Habib all together under one umbrella, I mean, that would be interesting. But yeah, I mean, Colby's talented. He creates buzz and controversy and chaos, pun completely intended. he's a great fighter

and you take him away from a division that does not have Kamar Usman in it and he's probably going to be a world champion in any organization that doesn't involve Kamar Usman. Let's get our man four-corner sports in here. It is draft day. Maybe we get four-corner sports in here. We'll see.

There he is. What's up? Hey, what's going on, Mike? I wanted to talk about, I wanted to talk about the main event. for this Saturday. And I was listening to what Marlon Vera had said that he doesn't have a training camp. He's always training all year round, right? My question is, so he's fully prepared all year round for a five-round fight.

Now, who do you favor between Rob Font and Cheeto Barrow? This is Cheeto Barrow's very first domain event. I think this is Font second. I think Fons first was it, was it Jol-Font-E-Von-Event? Aldo. No, this is third. Cody got.

Oh, that's right. Yeah, that's right. That's right. My question is, what's the one? The Bond's third, how many more chances you think he has

crack left at possibly competing for a title? And who has more at stake when it comes to for this Saturday? All right. Thank you for Corner Sports. Yes, this is a great fight.

I'm really looking forward to it. It was kind of a shocking one, if we're being honest. but I mean I like it I thought Rob Font might have I know Corey Sanhagen has been back I thought Font Sanhagen was was a perfect fight but alas who we are we get Marlon Vera who a lot of people feel is quote unquote the next guy a guy who could fight for a title sometime in his career clearly I think the pressure is more on Rob Fonts here's the thing Marlon Vera Marlon Vara is an exciting fighter. He's got a great personality. He can talk some smack-de-smack. Interesting guy.

You kind of want to learn more about him. Rob Font is a, he's a New England cartel guy. He's all business. He's like, he is like a member of the New England Patriots. It's, we're not looking past our opponent. We're on to this Saturday. Our focus is on nothing else. Maro and Vera, he'll field questions about Sean O'Malley,

he'll feel questions about the champion, he'll feel questions about other things. Rob Fawn is like, not thinking about that. We got to win this fight first. Then we can start thinking about that. So there's two sort of similar mentalities, but shaped differently. Fond, all business, Vera's a little more loose as a goose.

Having said that, I'm looking at the betting lines right now. And in my eyes, this is a 50-50 fight. We have Rob Font, minus 135, but comeback on Marlon Vera is plus 115. Now, from a gambling perspective, and again, I do not gamble on MMA. This is probably a dog or pass situation. If you're giving me plus $1.15 on Marlon Verra, you give me plus money on Marlon and a 50-50 fight,

I'm going to go with the underdog. That doesn't mean I think Marlon Vera is going to win, but if we're taking it from, Mike, here's $20, what are you going to do with it? I think it's worth plus money to take a dog shot on Marlon Vera. as far as my actual prick goes, I always, in a 50-50 fight, I weigh two different things. I weigh experience in big moments. And that's probably the most important thing is experience.

When it's 50-50 fight, I always weigh on the side of experience. Rob Fon has been in main events. He's been in big spots. He's been in two of them. He has fought Josealdo. Marlon Vera also fought Josealdo. Fon actually did very well against Josealdo. Not saying Vera didn't.

But we knew clearly, I don't know, both were interesting fights. Font, like if you go and look at the numbers, if you hadn't watched Rob Font fight Jose Aldo, and you went strictly on the statistics, not knowing anything that happened, if you just looked at the striking numbers, you would think Rob Font won that fight.

So Rob Fon outstrikes Josealdo significantly. And that's a part of it, but just overall, if you look at the actual numbers, it's it's kind of fascinated to see how the fight plays out i'm gonna i'm gonna pull him up right now real quick but yeah i mean font like i almost doubles him up on strikes so significant strikes rob font lands 149 jos aaldo lands 86 round one font landed 36 aldo landed 26 round two font landed 48 aldo landed 23 round three front three font landed 37 round three font landed 37 Aldo landed 12.

Round 4, 10 to 10, round 5, font 18, Aldo 15. So we talk about judging and how to judge fights in 2022 all the time. Now, if you're looking for a perfect fight to judge and analyze how we get scores in today's modern MMA, that is the fight you go to.

Because, again, you look at it from a numbers perspective if you don't have never watched the fight you would think Rob Font won you would think he won at least four of the five rounds at worst three of the five rounds that first round Font was looking real good and then with about 30 seconds left Aldo dropped Font

and the whole momentum of the fight changed and then the second round comes out and font looked really good landing a lot of shots again I mean it's just one of those things like statistics tell one story, but the actual fight is a different story. Fant looked good, like he looked good against Jose Aldo.

He made a couple of mistakes. A couple mistakes, he got dropped, got taken down in that fourth round, kind of got worn down. And that, I mean, that was the big thing.

So him going through 25 minutes with Josealdo and having the success that he had through a lot of the fight, I think Fon could win this one. I think his boxing is really good. I think his job is really good. Marlon Vera can mix in some takedowns and start to wear Fond out and frustrate him and keep him guessing. That's his best chance to win.

Vera is a good striker too. But if I'm Rob Fon, I think it's pretty clear when you look at a Marlon Vera fight, what you need to do. You need to jump out to a big lead early because Marlon Vera is a slow starter. But once we get to that midway point of the second round, that's when things change. That's when Vera starts to turn it up. Third round, that's what he really gets cooking.

So I'm really interested to see how Vera approaches a five-round fight. How is he going to handle it? Is he got to keep that same sort of energy and just use that first round to gather some data, figure it out, and then get cooking as the fight goes. Is he going to take two rounds of that? Is he going to take two and a half rounds of that before getting cooking? I don't know.

It's a good fight. 50-50 fight in my opinion. I really think it's a 50-50 fight. But I will lead, my official pick will be Rob Font via unanimous decision or by decision. But Mar-Over is a very live plus 115 underdog. And if you're betting, I think there's value on Mar-on-Vara plus money.

It's a good fight. It's a really good fight. Out of the last post-UFC-273 main events on a fight night, this is the best main event. Surely. Most competitive fight for sure. Sometimes the best gifts aren't gifts at all. Their experiences, journeys, something that unwraps them. This year, help them explore their past with ancestry DNA.

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Excuse me, we're going to go for like five more minutes because we're going to get this rolling. Again, if you're going to listen to the podcast version, you'll hear my conversation with Mr. Uriah Faber. So you'll hear that coming up. And then we got, by the way, Jorge Mazadol has his arraignment from last week got pushed to today. So I got reset.

So we got that going on as well. So I'll be jumping on that momentary. Aheed, you have the final word, my man. Well, you've got Usma, I've seen Usman chirping at Canelo again wanting that payday. Pay day. You got Ali

doing the same. It might be Ali on Usman's account. I don't know these days. But if this is the kid, like, we all know it's for money. Like, forget all that stuff about like boxing versus MMA because like Usma's

talked about he wants a hundred million if he fights he's open to fighting Jake Paul for 100 minutes he's open to fighting Adisania like for 100 million he'll put the friendship aside for 100 minutes so it's that number he wants that Maymac

type money so this is what you do you just you do Connor's coming back you just give like Connor that well-awake title shot I've said it before and I'll say it again like Leon

like no one's deserving of it and Leon is in either and I mean the UFC's coming back to London it seems Aspinall is probably going to be the main event anyway so because Aspinall's talked about he's going to have a big fight so you give I've said it before Leo doesn't deserve it like as in you like we just saw with Dean Barry and Mike Jackson it's so funny people's hypocrisy because the thing is it's like Dean Barry pokes Mike Jackson and everyone's like how to see disgusting disqualification. It doesn't matter if Dean Barry is doing well.

Like he should be disqualified, blah, blah, blah. But when Leon does it, oh, you know, we feel bad for Leon. Leon deserves the title shot. It just shows like the two sides. Like as a, Leon nearly blinded the dude. It was worse in Leon's case. So, no, Leon does not deserve it. No one deserves it, to be honest, in that division.

So you just give it to Connor, let Usman have his payday. you do Leon versus Belal and you do Humza and Colby. That's it. Thank you, Ahid. Always appreciate your perspective. I think it's a little different. I think Dean Barry, I think people just kind of wanted to see Mike Jackson win a fight no matter how.

But at the same time, like, what are the three fouls in a minute for Dean Barry? I mean, come on now. And Leon, if we're being perfectly honest, Leon should have been disqualified too. And I said that from Jump Street. Leon should have been disqualified. Turns into no content. But again, and maybe the Dean Barry situation changes things up, we have talked about it for a while.

If you are a UFC fighter, if you are a UFC fighter making 10 and 10 or 12 and 12, why aren't you cheating at every fight? Why aren't you cheating? We talked about like, we talked about missing weight and things like that. Like, if you lose 20% of your purse making 10 and 10, like, who cares? It's not that big of a dent. But if you get some kind of advantage and you're, going to be allowed to fight and you still have a shot at that win bonus.

Like, why wouldn't you just do that? You know what I mean? But it was good on Chris Ione. There were too many warnings. But then he disqualified him. And that was the right call. And even D.C. was like, oh, there's no way he disqualifies him. And he disqualifies him.

That was the right call. The right call. Now, this Uspin-Kinello thing, you know how, like, I don't know, for those of you who are on Tuesday's show, I talked about the ultimate first. fighter. And I talked about that coming back and how nobody cares that the ultimate fighter is coming back. And then I was jokingly, but kind of half serious saying that the one thing we care less about than the ultimate fighter coming back is Henry Suhuda coming back. Maybe that's the thing we care about the least. I'm wrong about that. I'm wrong about that because the thing we care

about the least is Kabar Uzman versus Canelo Alvarez. I mean, that is just awful. Nobody wants to see that except for Usman and Ali, Canello, Canello like, will absolutely mop the floor with Kumar Usman. Like, this is the easiest money Canelo Alvarez will make in his entire life. But even he doesn't even want it. He doesn't even care about it. It's the easiest money he'll ever make. But he realizes it's probably not going to be a ton.

Like, who has actually come out and said publicly that they want to see Kamar Usman box Canelo Alvarez. The answer is nobody. Nobody wants to see that. Nobody wants to see it. This is not Inganu Fury. And listen, let's be 100% clear here. If Francis Inganu boxes Tyson Fury, he's going to lose.

He's going to get his face boxed off. And Tyson is going to win that easily. Now, you mix in the different rule sets and you try to do it. You still have a terrifying individual in Francis and Ganu. boxing Tyson Fury. You have two very interesting personalities. You get the UFC heavyweight champion taking on boxing's heavyweight champion.

There's interest there. You can put those two guys on a poster. Just throw a promotional video together of Fury Landing, uppercut knockouts, and Francis just knocking dudes dead. That knockout of Alistair Overeem. Just use the promotional video of just those two just throwing knockouts

and standing next to each other. two massive dudes. I don't care who you are. Combat sports fan, MMA fan, boxing fan, there's a part of you that is at least intrigued by that idea. Even though Tyson Fury is going to win

and win easily in a straight boxing match. But the Usman-Kinello thing is just awful. I mean, there's literally no interest in that whatsoever. Like Dana White's not going to promote that. He's not even going to put his money into that. If I'm Dana White and you hear Francis Gondon's interview,

on the MMA hour. And he says, the Tyson Fury fight has to be part of my new contract negotiation. Just do it. Just do it and get it done.

You're going to get a piece of the pie. And people are going to care. Is it the fight to make? No. I'd rather see Tyson Fury fight Anthony Joshua and fight Alexander Usik, of course. And those are probably bigger money fights than Francis.

But at this point in Tyson Fury's career, the dude is just done, seems to be done, just being a boxer. Like a straight-up boxer. The man wants to go out, have some fun, and make some money. Floyd Mayweather does it. Why can't Tyson Fury do it? And there's money to be made with this Ngano fight. It's probably a nine-figure fight, as silly as that sounds.

But Usman Canello, good Lord, that's like, that's just not fun. All right, I'm going to get just simply Robin here, and then we're going to get out of here. Rob, how are you? Hey, good morning. How are you? Thank you for the opportunity. What's up? A minute, quick question. Are you guys, are you talking specifically just about either of those two fights, the Canello, or could we talk about other things in the community of USC as well? I don't want to get off topic.

We can talk about whatever you want to talk about. The main topic that we've had today is that since the NFL draft is coming up, the NBA fighting crew, we actually put together our own like five organization, five-round fantasy drafts. So the main topic of the day was, if you had an MMA promotion and you could pick anybody you have the first overall pick who would you pick and why that's the main topic but we can talk about whatever you want

oh okay cool no I can go off of that active fighter do you want it to be active fighter yeah active fighter like if you all the fighters in a room you're Roger Goodell you're jumping on the stage you're reading off your first pick who's it going to be and why wow that's a great question

I would probably man I would have to lean with Usman or probably Usman honestly, I would have to say Usman. Seems like the most. If Kabib was here, I'd say Kabib. But I would probably have to say Usman. It would probably be my first pick.

I mean, listen, you get the best found for pound fighter on the planet. It's not a bad pick. But again, you can look at it from whatever perspective you want. And we've taken a lot of calls about this. And again, now, I'm just going to say it. I'm just going to say it because you get out here and read it anyways. No one said my, the first overall pick in the draft, which I had. I'm representing Eagle FC.

you know what, I'm not going to tell you. I'm not going to tell you. I will say as a hint, we said his name not long ago. You know, screw it, I'm going to tell you. My first pick was Francis and Gano. And my first order of business as the drafter of Francis and Gano is we are letting him fight Tyson Fury. Yes, we want a little piece of the pie.

We're not going to ask for a huge piece, just a sliver, a very fair sliver. Francis and Gano, welcome to Eagle FC. Because here's the thing about France and Ghana. We get that Tyson Fury fight. Just the sliver we're going to make off of that fight is going to set us up financially for a long time. And then I think you guys will like my second pick to kind of bounce off of that pick, a little hinty hint, if you will. But we get the Tyson's Fury.

And Francine Ganu against anybody is just awesome. Like put him in there with the Oregon to Castro. Put him in there with whoever. We all know what's going to happen. We're going to get a highlight reel. France is going to go in there. He's going to make money. It's going to be our heavyweight champion to the world.

He's just going to bolt fools. He's going to win. He's going to do it devastating. And if he wants to go box, we're going to let him. If he wants to play tetherball with Tyson Fury in the middle of the Eagle FC Cage, we're going to let him. He wants to do a 5K race with Tyson Fury. We are going to let him do.

Whatever he wants to do, we are going to let him do. Because that's what you do is a promo. motor. You want to box Tyson Fury, Francis? Welcome to Eagle FC. You're boxing Tyson Fury. You want to do something else? Go ahead. We'll let you.

But that was my first pick. But again, we can listen to our picks on the podcast network. The article is going to drop 11 a.m. Eastern on M.A. fighting.com. And we are done. So thank you very much. I appreciate you all listening. Podcast is going to be up in about half a half a

an hour. And on top of that, you're going to get my conversation with your eye of favor as he gets ready for his first event as an MMA promoter, at least under this regime. He has tried it before, told an interesting story about how that was put to a halt by the UFC. But some fun stuff there. We'll be back tomorrow, free for all Friday. We're going to have some fun. There's also an interview that's going to be on the podcast tomorrow with the brand new interim.

Bellator Bannamway champion, Raffion Stotz. So that'll be on the podcast network tomorrow on heck of a morning following our live show. And tomorrow it's a free-for-all. We're going to talk about whatever you want to talk about 8 a.m. Eastern right here, MA fighting Twitter spaces. We got BTL coming up 3 p.m. Eastern live on the YouTube channel. Stay tuned for that. Jose Youngs versus Jedmishu.

It's going to be fireworks indeed. And then I'm jumping off right now because I get it ready for this Jorge Mazol arraignment. So I'll let you know what happens. either on Twitter or it will probably be a write-up of some kind on MAAfighting.com. So thank you very much. Have a heck of a morning, everybody. Enjoy the rest of your day. All right, let us say hello to a man who is worn and continues to wear many hats,

former WEC champion, multi-time UFC title challenger. He's a coach, trainer, business owner. You may even see him as a translator from time to time. But this Sunday, you will have the role of MMA promoter as we get introduced to your Raya Faber's A1 Combat, which streams on UFC Fight Pass. Uriah Fabor, kind enough to join us right out. Uriah, how are you, sir? I'm doing good, brother.

How are you? I'm doing great. It's great to have you here. First off, I know you've been a part of promotions and events that have streamed on Fight Pass in the past. Some really innovative grappling events that we've talked about in the past, some team events. But here we are, you're in the promoter seat for an MMA organization. How did this happen, especially since you have like 200 jobs already?

that's the key is as having the right partnerships and having the right connections you know i would say my biggest strength is as a connector you know i'm i'm somebody that can stay in my in my lane and so i've got a great partner on this uh Tommy Anderson and his wife Mel that that really do a lot of the heavy lifting uh Chad Shepard are a matchmaker he's actually got a uh his own business that that helps put matches together all across the nation and um and then i bring in the relationships to know how uh and in and help put the the pieces together so i'm pumped to have a new venue uh an amazing venue in the hard rock and part pumped to have the fight past partnership and now even more important is uh you know a place for the fighters to

to really make their name and a quality event that they're going to get treated well um it's all is coming together. Yeah, it's good to have the right people at your side, as you were alluding to. And, you know, you fought for WBC, you fought for the UFC. You fought for the UFC. You had Dana White as a promoter. One of the guys who has looked at is one of the best promoters in MMA, probably the most iconic, the most memorable. Have you spoken to Dana at all, gotten some advice from the, from the big man in regards to putting on an event like this? Not yet. I think I need some questions before I waste his time with advice because, you know, I've had a lot of talks with Dan.

I try to pick and choose my battles with that guy. And as soon as I have this event, it goes well or goes bad, and maybe, you know, we're doing May 1st and we're doing May 28th and 29th back to back. Maybe I can get a little more advice from him. But I have been reaching out to other promoters that are kind of on this level, you know, starting out and whatnot, you know, regional guys and getting a lot of feedback. Because, you know, I'm a student in this thing and on top of a crafty, event of the space. So I'll save those questions for Dana when I have some really pressing ones,

not just to BS with this time. Fair enough. Main event is for the flyway title on Sunday. Jesse Tofoya taken on Jack Duffy. Really interesting fight. I was surprised to see Jack Duffy's name up there because he's a really interesting story in this sport because he started off so hot in 2012, four and no four finishes. But I hadn't heard his name since like 2017. And it looks like he hasn't fought in a while. And I know he was a guy at a lot of people's radars. But Your thoughts on Jack getting back in there and this title fight headliner against an eight-fight veteran and Jesse Tafoya? Yeah, Tafoya looked amazing in his last fight. You know, he fought a show that was building up to this show and had a really quick knockout against a really tough guy that I think he might have been the underdog on that.

Definitely come a long way with his experience. And then Duffy, he's been in and out of the gym for years battling injuries and he took a job out somewhere for a little bit and really trying to focus. But, you know, when I put him in there with the top dogs in the room, it's very evident why he's where he was before he's slowed down. You know, he's a confident guy. He's been new to jih Tzu since he was a little kid. He likes to fight. He's a scrapper.

And, you know, I feel like the muscle is going to be on the other side, but the skill and know-how is on Duffy side. So I'm excited for this, this title fight for sure. Did I see that the great Taruto Ishihara is on this card, too? Did I see it? in the co-made event spot? Yeah, Taruto Ishaara is out there. And for those that don't know,

Tarutu Ishaari is probably best known for, you know, on top of having heavy, heavy hands, saying how he loves his bitches. And that he does. He's out here, you know, doing his thing. And he's been, he's had kind of a rough go. It's been really hard to find a guy like that, who's a veteran, but had a little bit of a slide,

uh, fights. Like people don't want to fight him because he's that high of a level. And so if they do want to fight them, they're really tough up-encomers. It'll fight anybody. And then it's always a close fight. And then the pay is never where it should be. So I'm really excited to have Taruto able to showcase his skill and show that he's still out there, you know, putting it down for the combat, A1 combat. We've seen a lot of fighters sort of get into this promotional space.

Like Calvin Cater's been doing it for a long time. We've seen Mazadal do it. He's got a couple of different promotions now, one in MMA. He's got the bare knuckle. Anthony Pettis just got one rolling and others. What have you learned from those guys? I don't know if you talk to them. I know you've talked to other promoters sort of in the same space,

but what makes A1 combat unique and what, in your opinion, will make it stand out? Well, first and foremost, I've done events before way back in the day. You know, before we kind of had the blessing of the UFC. They kind of actually shunned it back then. I remember, you know, talking with Dana and Lorenzo, and they were like, hey, knock it off. and the climate's changed, you know. At this point, there's a real need for content.

There's a real need for a fight organization in our region. There's a need for quality promoters. And I understand I've had great promoters and I've had crappy promoters. So I understand that part of it. And creating a fun, cool event. I mean, that's all good. I've had talks with some of those guys. I would say, you know, I talk with Anthony Pettis a little bit.

um we share our experiences and then um you know who's a who's so savvy in the sport and and kind of under celebrated about that is chel p s Anand and that guy's been holding events forever and he's been doing all sorts of cool stuff and spaces that other people weren't doing stuff and so you know talking to a guy like chel sonnet and and i feel back because chel's going through some some BS right now uh so it's good to get get him on the phone and just remember what a great guy is and remember, you know, what a gem of knowledge he is in the space. Oh, yeah. I mean, when the pandemic was going on, he was doing like things in a mystery warehouses somewhere. Yeah, for Northwest. It was amazing. It was, uh, some of the stuff to you

was doing. So you're a very busy man. I want to ask you about some other things as well, because this past Saturday, Macy Barber picked up a victory against Montana de la Rosa and she was very physical and she used her strength and clearly won all three rounds, very soft. Very, solid performance. What did you think of it? What stood out to you about Macy on Saturday? You know, I've had a pretty short time getting to know Macy, but you find it all out right away. I mean, she's all business. She's super Uber focused. She's doing all the right thing. She's got multiple coaches for her life in general. She's always trying to get more time from the coaches on our staff and just a consummate professional. And I was glad to

to see, you know, all her hard work and dedication and self-belief come to fruition against a really tough girl. I mean, she basically, you know, beat the girl in her own game as a grappler. And I think Macy had that in mind. She wanted to do that. So, you know, she's just setting herself up, as herself up for some more opportunities. And, you know, I think she's going to stay ready for a short-notice fight. She'll stay ready for whatever's next, but wants to climb those drinks and get to that belt. And yeah, Macy's, Macy is somebody that, that, you know, does a great job at staying self-motivated and visualizing her success and having it come to fruition. So I was, I was pumped for that.

I lost your, uh, your visual areas. Yeah, that was my dad's calling. He's probably going to call it two to three more times. That's what he does. So just morning. Yeah, it happens. I know what that's like, what's interesting about Macy is that, um, the Macy barber who burst onto the scene, was full of piss and vinegar. She was a little bit brash. She was probably more than flirting with the line between cocky and confidence. And now we're seeing she's a little more humble, still confident, still got that confidence. But there it is.

You weren't kidding. Told you. She's at least seeing things as a marathon rather than a sprint. So I know you haven't spent a ton of time with her, but what would you say is like the biggest change you've seen from her? I've talked about it with her when she first came in because I'm just like, look, I know the team she's been on. She's been on with great coaches. You know, Duke Rufus is an awesome coach and the crew out in Denver, you know, Montoya, he's an awesome coach. He's all these great coaches that she's had in her presence.

And I just let her know, like, look, we've got a great recipe here. We've got great energy. We've got a great atmosphere. We've got the right, you know, coaching staff and the right people in the room. but it's not about that. It's not about the secret move or this or that. It's about your internal belief in staying on the journey and growing with people not trying to get something from them to get what you want.

It's literally, you know, embracing us being in it together. And I think that she needs to stop. And she was, you know, she was 23. She'd been in like five gyms. And I said, hey, I don't know what that's all about, but it's, it's not the secret. That's not the answer. And so she had some influences in her life and some things in her life that I think, you know, we're helping her out to make those decisions.

And now she's in a place where she's an adult. She's figured that piece out that is an internal thing. And she's got that internal thing. She knows how to work hard. She knows about, you know, discipline. And she understands how to learn. She asks some great questions. And it is really somebody that has a goal.

is going to stick to it. So I think internal, internalizing the space of mixed martial arts versus making an external thing has been the key. Last thing for me, because I know we're running out of time, you're on the scene, if you will, you're doing the media tour, getting ready for this vent, but your old buddy, T.J. Dillishaw is in the news because he's getting ready to get back in there. He's targeting a fight with Al J. Stirling for the title. Now, since you're wearing the sort of promoter hat in this conversation, I'd love to get your opinion on this. If Dana White, your old pal calls you up and says, hey, Eriah, you're the Banimate matchmaker for the next year, would you book Aljo versus T.J as the next fight later this year? Or would you say, you know what, TJ, I need to see a little more from you after the Sanhagen fight.

How about you and Aldo, five-round main event, winner gets a title shot? How would you do it? Man, that's a great question. I would obviously love to see T.J. Aldo, but I'd also like to see Aldo versus Aljo. So, you know, I don't think that T.J. needs to show that he's not there yet. San Hagen could very easily be the champ or title contender himself. He's an amazing fighter. And they had a close fight.

Some people thought Stan Hagan won. But for, you know, right now, relevancy, I think T.J. Aljo is the fight to make. And then Aldo, the winner of that at this time. I think a T.J. Aldo fight would be huge as well, but you don't have that hunk of metal on the line. And so it's doled down a little bit. And then also, Aldo lost a yawn. And so I think the story is still a T.J. Aljo fight or an Aldo fight. Because Aldo is somebody that has taken that loss of yon and really lit a fire and looked better than he ever has. So I'd like to see that, too. So who gets it?

You can only pick one. I would say TJ. Fair enough. Uri, you are the man. I wish I had another like 15 minutes of you, but we'll wrap it here. Don't miss Uriah Fabers A1 Combat 1 event this Sunday, 6 p.m. Eastern.

You can stream it on UFT pipe fast. You can't make it out to the Sacramento area. It should be a lot of fun. Yariah. Thank you, sir. All the best to you, the team and everyone involved with the event on Sunday for the rest of this week.

I appreciate your time. You got it, brother. Thanks for the time, man. Enjoy the fights, guys. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first... There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.