MMA Fighting - Heck of a Morning | No. 2 MMA Promotion Debate, Fight of the Weekend, More

Episode Date: April 15, 2022

Is Bellator entering Friday's Bellator 277 event as the No. 2 promotion in the world, or has the PFL, or another organization surpassed them? That question is discussed on a Free-For-All Friday on Heck of a Morning with MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, along with whether or not Aljamain Sterling has taken his victory tour too far, where a win over Corey Anderson at Bellator 277 would put Vadim Nemkov in the discussion for best light heavyweights in the world, RIZIN's card this weekend, Charles Oliveira vs. Justin Gaethje, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 8 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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and soon to be on the MMA fighting podcast network. I am Mike Heck, hope you're having a great week. It is Friday. If you have a long weekend ahead of you, enjoy it. And if you're an MMA fan and you want to spend your weekend watching M.A., You have a plethora of options. It is a pretty big weekend for mixed martial arts. Of course, we have Bellator 277 coming up later on today from the SAP Center in San Jose, California.

Two title fights. Main event, the rematch for the Bellator featherweight title. Champion A.J. McKee puts his title and his undefeated record on the line against the man with whom he took the title from. Last year, Patricio Pitbull. that's the main event and probably the most compelling fight of the actual weekend it's in the co-main event of that card

the finale of the Bellator light heavyweight Grand Prix champion Vadim Nemcoff defends against Corey Anderson the winner gets to take home the title the trophy and the million dollars I love that fight

this is by far the best fight of the weekend I know McKee Pitbull is probably the biggest fight of the weekend Nemcoff Anderson is the best fight of the weekend. I'd say the bronze medalist is the main event of the UFC card, Vicente Lucay versus Blaham, which is a good fight. Stakes are high, but the two Bellator title fights

are more intriguing and better fights, in my opinion, than the UFC card, which is going on tomorrow. Not the greatest card in the world. I mean, I like it. There's some fun fights. We're coming off UFC 273. We're coming off just a trifecta. of fights featuring big names and compelling storylines.

Yeah, the main event is compelling here. There are some storylines you can seek out. There's some just good competitive matchups, but yeah, it's not a deep card. Let's just put it that way for the UFC. I'm trying to be as nice as possible, but the main event's a good one. But this is a free for all Friday on M.A.

Fighting's only morning show. So if you have a question, get the request. I see if you lined up. We can talk about everything is you want to talk about the sport of mixed martial arts. We're going to go for about 30 to 40 minutes today. Because again, if you missed the last couple shows, I'm technically on vacation.

I'm going to do some rollerblading, maybe go to the driving range in a little while, but I didn't want to leave you guys hanging on a Friday morning. So Mike, I believe, was first. So we'll get Mike Lawson in here, and we'll get after this thing. Mike, good morning. Just make sure you're on mute.

Mike. What's up, buddy? How you doing? Can you hear me? Yes, sir. Nice. In the car, they didn't know if the signal was going to work. Heck of a morning. Most definitely a heck of a morning, bro. I got, what's going on?

I got a little bit of a bonapick with you, man, if I must say so. I was listening. With me? Yes, sir. I was listening to you yesterday, heck of an afternoon, while I was working the graveyard ship. And how can you be okay with Aljo going around parading? Like he molly walked Peter Young. Come on, man.

Come on. Bro, he barely made the decision. At best, he had the tie, which nobody's going to give it to him. But come on. How could you be okay with him going around, picking fights with Big John, calling him all these names, going off calling Dana White, saying that he didn't agree with his decision when he barely made it fast. Come on. All right.

Don't go anywhere, because I have questions for you. Let's hear it. Who won the fight? Did Al Jemaine Sterling win? In the, if it was, he win the fight. The official decision. You can say however you want. That's semantics.

That's semantics. Did he win? Yes, sir. He won. Did he win? Now, heading into that fight, did you give him a chance to win? Did you think Yon was going to run him over? Me personally, I thought it was going to be, I thought Yon was going to get the decision in the end,

but I thought it was going to be a lot closer than what the better said it was going to be. All right. So I'll give you that. At the end of the day, all the heart. You look at Orr's knew that Jan was not going to walk over Aljo just like that. I mean, come on, the first round, like, it was pretty competitive until it wasn't. I mean, listen, you watch social media. We host a million shows.

Every time we've talked about that fight, we've had our own panelists on the ranking show. Two of them say that Piara Jan was going to destroy Al Jermaine Sterling. This fight was not going to be competitive for a second. And Aljo heard all of those things from everybody, from everybody. Big John and beyond. Because Big John hasn't had the kindest things to say about Al Jermaine Sterling over the years either. And what Al Jermaine Sterling did was he kept receipts. And he used those receipts after he won.

So I don't feel bad for Big John at all. I actually agree with Al Jermaine Sterling. I don't think Big John's been the most respectable guy towards fighters. And I actually think he makes a point when it comes to using names and tagging fighters for additional views. I don't think he's wrong. I don't think he's wrong. So I have no issue. I love the Sterling tour.

I love it. He's using receipts and he's using him to his advantage. Now, is he going a little overboard? Is he taking it a little too far? Perhaps. But when you go through what this guy has gone through for the last year plus, everybody doubting you, everyone's saying you're going to lose. And then you go out there and win, whether it's a close decision or not,

you got the right to go on this tour. And he's doing it. And I love every second of it, Mike. I love it all. I love it. all right all right all right you know what still i don't i don't agree with it just because i mean it was just he snucked by that you know i mean it wins a win at the end of the day but damn dude he's acting like i think it's a clear win for sterling oh i thought it was a clear win for sterling it should

have been a thought it was a clear win a clear win not even at the end of what most people or some people i should say are starting to say where you know it was a tie even though at the end of the day he walks away with a belt because even if it would have been a tie you know that that's how the rules are but you know it still would have been on the scorecard given that he had you know the 108 round and given that the first round went to peoter um i thought sterling won the first round go back and watch it again yes go back and watch it twice i've heard that watch it twice i've heard that and you know how many strikes though did he pass by and and did he control because i've heard how you say listen with the with the volume off and listen to it again and i've i've done both and i'm still i'm

it's that first round again i think it's a coin flip i think you can you know either catch it on either side of it but i hear you i mean listen i mean it's judging is judging i thought i mean i thought i thought yon did literally nothing in that first round he just marched forward threw some shots didn't really land all that much and the guy who did land was sterling they were kicks they weren't like big time punches to the face but if we're adding up the actual damage in the round, Sterling actually did stuff. So he won the round, in my opinion. But it's close.

Listen, it's tough to see. Like, unless you have a close zoom in of every shot that's thrown, and that's very difficult to find, it's, it's tough. I mean, listen, if you want to score the round for Jan, that's fine, but I hear you. And that's my point. Like, with such controversy, Aljo's walking away and talking, like, wholeheartedly, like, he just stomped all over Pioter. and he should

good for him it's got to be listen now he's got to put it he's got to put a finish line on it he can't do this for the next year and a half sure take another few days take another few days live it up and then

take some time away from MMA get off social media enjoy some time with the loved ones and then we'll see you in the fall when you defend your title Mike spirited debate I appreciate it thank you thank you see

Mike in the car this is what I when I thought about the show this is exactly what I thought about all right we're going to try this all right we're going to try this we have failed like six consecutive episodes but maybe we can get Dana spite in here Dana Dana spite do we actually get you guess not man every show I'm trying I'm trying Tristan Gordette I know will be there Trista, what's up, buddy? Hey, what's up? What's going on, Mike? Can you hear you?

Yes, sir. Yeah, all right. So I want to talk about UFC, Vegas 51 that's coming up on Saturday. There's two questions that I have. All right, so let's look at, I want your outlook about Pat Sabatina. He's fighting T.J. Laramie on this card. I'm really high on him. You know, he's going for his fourth straight win here.

I just want to know your outlook on where you see him. you know, as a prospect in that featherweight division, you know, what is a trajectory is in that division as a prospect. And then my second question is Miguel Baezza.

He's fighting, I guess, Andre Fillo. I don't know if I'm pronouncing his name correctly. Yalu. You know, he's coming off back-to-back losses from Chaos Williams as well as Santiago-Banzanibio. I saw him on the press conference

I guess yesterday. He was talking about he got a sports psychology coach to mentally, you know, you know, help him. He also said, you know, he felt that he should have won those fights between, you know, with Panza Nibio and chaos. Kind of, kind of agree with him. I think because the thing is that I think he did make errors. Because, I mean, I think he's really, really good.

You know, I'm not giving up on him. So, you know, he's expecting to really do some damage on Saturday and get back. on track. So I want your thoughts on him as well, heading into his car. I'll hang up and listen. Thanks. All right. Thank you, buddy. All right. The great Tristan Gordat. Pat 17, he's good, man. He's good. He's actually exceeded my expectations in a big way. He's, he's a very solid hand. I mean, has his UFC, I mean, he's actually pretty good. Tristan Connolly is a decent win. submitting Jamal Emmer's who I've been pretty high on for a while.

Tucker Lutz is a really good win. I mean, he's beating these prospects pretty well. Now, do I think this guy will be running up the top 15 and fighting for a title in the next few years? No. Do I think he dominates the T.J. Laramese of the world? Yeah, I think he'll go out there and win and probably get a finish in the first seven minutes of the fight.

He's a massive favorites. One of the biggest favorites on the card. Mine is 5'10 against T.J. Laramie. But after this, it's probably time to give him a little bit more of a step up. I do. And it's not like he's just running through cans right now. He's beating good guys. The Tristan Connolly win is actually a really good win.

Remember what happened with Tristan Connolly when he came into the UFC? What a splash that guy made. And now he's kind of taken a little bit of a step back with this Laramie fight. But Laramie's got a little bit of a chip on his shoulder too. but I think from here we have to start looking at the Bruce Leroy's, the Julianna Roses, the Nate Landwheres of the world, like these are the types of fights that maybe a Billy Q, like he goes out there and beats T.J. Laramie, these are the kinds of fights that, that the UFC should probably be looking at next because that'll be three and O in the UFC,

four and O in the UFC with the win. He'll have six straight wins. We got to step up, give him a step up and see if this guy's for real, for real. I think he's a solid hand. I don't know if he's going to be a top 10 guy, but we don't know the answer to those questions until he actually gets in there and fights those guys. For Miguel Baezza, I mean, this guy came in with a lot of hype

coming off the contender series. He came in, obviously, he, it looks good coming off the bus, if we're being honest, goes out there, gets a decision win against Victor Raina. I think a lot of people wanted him to go out there and just knock him silly, but then he comes in the UFC

gets a knockout win in the second round against Hector Aldana knocks out Matt Brown with a vicious left hook in May of 2020 and that was kind of the one that got him on the map they're like oh damn like this dude just knocked out Matt Brown I know Matt Brown isn't really in the prime

of his career anymore but he's still an exciting guy and he's still a name and then he submits to Kashi Sato we're like okay this guy got some depth to his game he could do a lot of different things so they give him the step up with with Santiago Ponsinibio, which is one of the more underappreciated fights of 2021. That was a really good one.

That was a top five fight of the year fight, in my opinion. And then he goes in there with Chaos Williams, who's just a very dangerous guy. So yeah, he said he's had a tough road. If we're comparing roads between Pat Sabatini and Miguel Baezza, both guys have had interesting paths, have been on interesting roads since coming into the UFC. But Baezas has had the tougher road. I mean, map around second fight, Sato third fight. Then you're fighting a fringe top 15 guy in Ponziabio.

Then you're fighting Chaos Williams. I mean, he's had a crazy road since getting in there. And this is another really tough fight with Andre Fialo, who is no joke himself. I'm curious what the betting line is. On this fight, I would assume, I don't know. Bia is a minus 170. Sheesh. We'll see.

Fialo's a live dog. I'll put it that way. Let's get Scott McCraight in here. I know he's been waiting. Scott, what's up, buddy? I'm doing great. I'm doing great. I'm going to take the low-hanging fruit and try to get your pick on Nimcov Anderson.

And just as a bonus question, I want to ask you, have you played Harbortown since you've been in your new place? And I'll hang up and listen. Thanks. Thank you, Scott. I assume I've not played Harbourtown. coincidentally enough we took a boat ride on

Tuesday yeah it was Tuesday took a boat ride on Tuesday it took a little dolphin tour on Hilton Head Island and our captain took us out to where the RBC heritage is taking place

so he brought us out to the 18th hole and normally the official kickoff of tournament week they launch a they basically fire off a cannon off the 18th fringe or fairway towards the harbor. And we're sitting there, we're looking for dolphins. And I'm like, wow, there's, where the heritage taking place.

And I'm looking down, I see a dolphin swimming in their hair. Kaboom! And they fire off the friggin cannon. And it almost gave me a heart attack. I was like, wow, this is pretty cool. But I wish I knew was coming. But I didn't. And we're going to try to head over there and maybe have some lunch.

But unless you have media credentials and things like that, you can't get in there. And my wife's like, well, you're a media. And I wanted to just give her a hug right there. But we couldn't get in. But I would love to play that course. It's like 300 bucks a round. So that's going to have to be like a special moment in my career. Like I get voted to like vice president of MMA media and get like a hefty pay raise.

And then maybe my wife would be like, all right, you can go play. And plus like I can't justify spending $300 play a round of golf when I'm not the greatest golfer. as terms of the co-made events tonight at Belleter 277 I'm leaning Vadim Nemcoff I think this guy is super good he might be the best light heavyweight in the world I have him I think he had him number four right now

and if he wins this fight I'm probably bumping him to number two of my personal rankings Cory Anderson is probably going to be in the same boat this is a great fight this is the best fight of the weekend and it's not even close but I'm leading Vadim Nemcoff I think this guy's the real deal

I think he just needs to weather the storm. If he can get out of the first couple rounds, I think he could win this fight, but I will leave, I will lean Vadim Nemcoff. I think top to bottom, skill for skill, he's the better fighter, but Corey Anderson's just on a tear right now, and sometimes that momentum can carry you in all sorts of ways.

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So I've got two small questions for you. The first one I've got is why does the UFC clearly not like Aljo so much? And it's not like it was the Yon thing to begin with because I go back to the San Hagan Aljo fight and that wasn't for the belt, which I thought was a little crazy. And then the next thing is I'd love to hear who you think is the clear number two organization. For me, I kind of am leaning PFL. I know they've been off for a while, but I think as far as production and star value, I think they've surpassed Bellator at this point.

So I've heard this a lot, players values. So I want to get your response on this. And I know a lot of this has stemmed from Dana saying that he thought the judge has screwed up and scored it for Sterling over Young and then sort of led to like a back and forth between the guys. what is it that sticks out to you that makes you think the UFC is not in the Al Jemate Sterling business? Is there anything that was said in the past that maybe I missed? Like, I know they would prefer probably Jan because he's just the more interesting guy, I guess, and he's, I don't know.

I mean, Sterling won the fight. He's 2-0 in the official record books against Peyodor Young. But I think a lot of people were very high on Jan. Maybe he could be one of the pound-for-pound rates, at least right now, top five guy. but Sterling went out there and beat him. So like what have you seen that makes you think that the UFC doesn't want to be in the Sterling business or is not a big fan of his? So for me, I think it was how quickly Dana was saying that Jan won. I think he was quick and I think he was immediate with it.

The next thing is I've never really seen them promote him as an athlete rather than what happened during that. at Yon fight. It always just kind of seemed like they were promoting, okay, well, he got the knee. All right, now it's time for Yon to officially win. And not, all right, he got the knee. Now it's time for Sterling to get revenge. I always kind of felt like the storyline was very clear

where it was Yon's redemption moment, not Sterling's revenge. Yeah, I mean, listen, I can see where you're coming from there. What I'm going to be looking forward to is how they built his next fight. It's just going to be, or we're going to go back and look at the knee 50 times in a package. I don't know. And what was your other question, by the way?

Well, I would just love to hear how you would write the next major organizations between one PSL or Bellator. Okay. Thank you very much. Yeah, I mean, listen, I don't know. I mean, I'm sure this victory tour and Aljo talking about Data White is probably not going to get him a lot of fans in the UFC front office. But I don't care. And he shouldn't either. if he wasn't he must not feel that he's in the great graces of the UFC anyway so lean into that

shit lean into it um in terms of i mean bell toer in my opinion is still number two but where they were maybe a year ago or two years ago to where they are now i mean they are clinging to that number two spot they're they went from bare hands and strong back muscles to we got to put some gloves on with super glue to hang on to this spot because PFL is coming. The problem with both organizations really in my mind are both broadcasts are horrible. They're both tough watches. They really are. Like the UFC broadcasts, like you get through it sometimes like maybe Rogan will just

have it off night, but still at the same time, we can get over that because he's Joe Rogan and he's a voice that's synonymous with the brand and we can deal with that. Sometimes he gets partnered up with the, maybe him and D.C. get a little too silly and maybe Joe doesn't do all his research. And that's like the biggest complaint we have. And if I'm a sports organization, I'm cool with that. Like if that's the worst complaint our product gets in terms of broadcast, cool. We're good with that. Man, the Bellator broadcast is a tough watch. It just is. I love more Rinalo. He's a G. I could deal with him. big john is a rough listen especially like early and often i think john's a good color commentator but he just needs to be a color commentator i and it's not even john's fault i don't really blame

john for this because john's put in this listen what's you gonna do say no hey john i want you to do the color work hey john i want you to do the post fight interviews hey john i want you to do the voiceovers hey john i want you to host the the press conference show i oh hey john i want you do all this. Like, they're giving John all these jobs and he's doing them to the best of his ability, but it's just not great at a lot of them. And it's, again, what's he going to do? Say, no, I don't

want your extra money for all these jobs you're giving me. And then they go back to the desk and you have, I think the best thing they've done is they brought Amanda Gierre in from CBS Sports to run the desk. I think she's done a fantastic job doing that. I like her

personality. She came into MMA with, it's not an easy sport to get into, especially as a woman getting on television. And she jumped right in there, and she was comfortable with herself. She did a great job right away. The problem is she's with Josh Thompson, and that dude can bring down a broadcast. He just can. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but like when we have an hour and a half Josh Thompson on a broadcast, it's way too much. It's just way too much Josh Thompson. So it just kills it. And sometimes these prelims go so fast, then we have to go to the desk for like 45 minutes. I'm like, good grief, man. And

it's too much it's just too much Josh Thompson too much go to go to him for a little bit like go to the dust for Josh for a little bit maybe Josh is like the backstage guy we bring him in for like a quick hit interview with the fighter perfect you get Josh for short spurts good to go pfl is just like god you want to watch the pfl and you want to get into it and they build these cards and they're trying to build these stars but then you have to spend like 17 hours to watch a PFL card. It's so bad. And the fights are fine, but like,

we're waiting 90 minutes between fights. And then we're like, okay, here's the Challenger series. There's four fights in the Challenger series. So this can't be too bad. We'll be here for an hour and a half max. And the Challenger series card was like four hours. I mean, I'm exaggerating. But it's just

their builds, the way these broadcast flow for the PFL. It's just awful. It's just awful. We got to flow these a little bit better. I don't want to be spending 18 hours on a Wednesday night watching the PFL. I don't. I don't. I just want to go on there, watch my fights and go to bed. It's Wednesday nights. I already have to spend seven hours watching the UFC on Saturday, which is I'm not complaining about, but now you're asking fans to spend like the equivalent of like two and a half days to watch

the PFL, Bellator, the UFC in one week. Come on now. We got to get better than that. But right now, if we're we're talking organizations. It's UFC, Bellator by a thread, PFL's a common, and won championships on its way up as well. And, I mean, you can make arguments for, it just depends on where you're at in the world. KSW is a huge organization

and doesn't get enough credit here in the United States. But KSW is a great organization. I really like them too. All right, let's go to Christopher. Christopher, good morning, my man. How you doing, Mike? Wonderful. Okay, my first question is I wanted to talk about the greatness of big John McCarthy on the mic.

Now, I'm just fucking... On the topic of organizations, I'm actually happy that that question came up because I was coming in here actually to shine light on Rising 35 this weekend. For the first time in two years, Rising are finally allowing foreign fighters to travel to the country. So you have Spike Carlisle making his debut for the organization. You've also got Johnny Case fighting for the lightweight belt. Against Satoshi Soza, who I think is probably MMA's best kept secret. I guess what I wanted to ask you is, where do you rank Rising among everything?

Obviously, it's not at the size of like a Bellator or anything like that. And I guess my other question is, will you be watching Rising 35? Lastly, last thing, shout out to Katie Perez as well in Victor Atomweight Fighter, who's in our Twitter spaces right now. Oh, what's up? So we'd like to hear. Thank you, Christopher. Thank you for pointing that out.

Risen rules. Rise is just special, man. And Risen does it perfectly. They don't go out and hosts two or three events a month. They don't go out there. And they might put on like five, six events a year. And they're all special in their own way. And they mix things up.

Their posters are freaking awesome. They do just such a good job of making you miss them. And then they come back right when you miss them at their peak, and then they come back with a fire card. I said I thought Corey Anderson versus Padim Nemcoff was by far the most intriguing fight of the weekend. I might be wrong about that. I think DeSosa-Jonty Case might be in that discussion as well, but no one's talking about it.

It's a good card. I like the Hamasaki-Izawa fight. Zawa is a 5-0. she take on and defeat someone like Hamasaki. She's a really interesting story right now. So I'm curious to see. Will I be watching? Probably not.

Will I watch maybe like a couple days later? Probably. Sunday's my kid's birthday. It's Easter. There's a lot going on. I'll still be sort of on vacation. Will I go back and watch it? Will I make an appointment viewing?

Of course. Will I watch it live? Probably not. But that's no knock on rise. And just I'm not, I'm probably not even watching the UFC card on Z. Saturday. I'll probably sneak glimpses of Bellator today

just because I'll still be in Florida and my family would probably be asleep by the time that the big fights happen. But I don't even think I'll be watching the UFC this weekend, if we're being honest. But, uh, Risen's great, big fan and uh, this is a good card.

This is a very interesting card. I love what they're doing. Their New Year's Eve cards are appointment viewing. You look forward to it. It's like MMA's version of WrestleMania. and I love it. Let's get Zach. Let's get Zach left in here.

We're off probably for about 10, 15 more minutes. Zach, what's up, man? What's up, Mike? Can you hear me? Okay, so I got two questions. First one is, do you think Al Jermaine Sterling could have a similar type of early title run to Volcanovsky where people are kind of doubting him a little early on?

Might have not won the fights, kind of won the fights, but then beat some names that are good in the division, especially because Bannon weight's pretty deep and some people start to respect him a little more if they don't have respect for him now. And then the second question would be with UFC 274 coming up and Justin Gagee getting this title shot, I've always been curious about why some guys can get a title shot

after, let's say, just one win after a loss and say in a title fight like he did or Cody Garbrand versus a guy. Like a Robert Whitaker, I'm a big fan of who he was a, you know, he won his title, then he lost Izzy and not the best fashion the first time. but he had to fight three killers to get back to that. So I was just curious about your opinion about why you think the UFC determines one guy for another or what your opinion with what determines that, I guess, overall. Thanks, Mike.

Thanks, man. Appreciate that. Yeah, the Alger question, I don't know. I mean, it's very possible. I think Alger is one of those y'all must have forgot kind of fighters where he just goes in and gets these massive wins and has tremendous performances. Like, people forget the Corey Sandhagen performance. They remember Jan versus Sanhagen

because there was such a compelling fight and even though I thought Jan won four of the five rounds it was still it was like a game of inches like that fight was absolutely the game of inches but then Aljo fight Sanhagen and just runs them over and submits him

in the first round like people forget about that Aljo's real good he's beat real fighters along the way like this guy's resume is incredible he's got a really good resume sometimes the personality rubs people the wrong way

but like I said I love everything he's doing right now I love it get after it use those receipts call them all out everybody do it

but now like after you're doing this and going on this tour you got the winner of yon now what he goes out there and beats C.J. Dillishaw goes out there and beats Joseo Aldo if Al Jalien Sterling

goes out and beats Joseo no one should have anything bad to say about that guy at all. I don't want to hear it. The Aljo Slander will no longer be tolerated if he goes out there beats Jose Aldo, my opinion. I think he has a good chance of beating T.J. Dillashaw

for being honest. I thought T.J. lost the Corey Sanhagen fight. He got the nod. He might find himself into a title shot. But the fight I want to see at 135 right now is Aldo v. Dillashaw. It seems like Sterling wants to take a little time off. Once to take a couple, you know,

fight in the fall, maybe. November, maybe a little sooner than that. But take your time. Let's let Dillishon Aldo battle it out, five-rounder, pay those men, give him a bunch of money, let him get after it. And then we'll see what happens. Winner gets the title shot. And then Aljo, whoever he beats, if he does win, I mean, there's a lot of respect. So good on him.

What was the other question? Oh, the Jesse Gaci question. Why is Gagey getting a title shot? it's because he's just a freaking gaichi everybody wants to watch justin gaetchi fight jason gaetchi won a round against habib miragamadeoff how many people have been able to say that

i didn't think he won that first round i mean you could make the argument that he did but two of the judges when he fought habib gachi won that round and i think him and connor are the only ones who could say that so i just think gaiti's just pure chaos and people love chaos and he is like the definition of chaos

he's the definition of like people who don't know what MMA is like they've only watched one UFC card in their lives and they're like okay I want to watch more you show them Justin Gachie fights you show them who Justin Gitchie is as a competitor and you'll be like

all right I'll watch that guy so I think you know him and Chandler coming out that crazy fight at 268 Gage and Gachi Olivera even if Gachi lost like four fights in a row and then beat Chandler and then they gave him a title fight just think about the matchup stylistically between gaichi and olivera it's fascinating and it's a fight we haven't seen before it's a fresh matchup and i can't wait for it i can't wait the closer we get to may 14th or whatever that card's happening i mean this show is going to be the energy level on this particular program is going to be off the charts i think it's off the charts anyways but it's really going to be off the charts all right we'll take a couple more we'll get sol h

H, what's up? What's happening? Thank you for working on your vacation. Truly appreciate you. Second question I got for you is Vicente Lucca versus Belal Mohammed. What happens to the winner? What's their rankings?

What does this fight actually mean? Because I haven't heard too many people talk about it this week. What are the implications for the winner? It's a good question, my man. Thank you, Saul H. I appreciate the kind words. Yeah, so this fight is happening on Saturday. It's flying under the radar in a big way.

We got Sente Luque, who his could be very, you might, I don't know if he's in the Justin Gichi class in terms of chaos, but he's very close. He's probably the next guy in. He's probably pledging for that fraternity. I mean, look at what this guy is done. Look what this guy's done. Let's just go for the last, let's go since,

October 2017 submits Nico Price crazy fight knocks out Chad the priest first round knocks out Jalen Turner who I mean this is at 170 but at the time

I mean we look at what Jalen Turner has become that knockout ages very well knocks out Brian Barbarina in one of the craziest fights you will ever see in February of 2019 knocks out Derek Krantz in the first round gets a split decision with over Mike Perry and another one of the crazy

craziest fight you'll ever see. Loses to Wonderboy Thompson. I was there for that one. Nico Price beats him, stops him. Randy Brown stops him. Tyrant Woodley stops him. Michael Kiesa stops him.

Vicente Leuke is one of the more underappreciated guys, not by the fans. I think the fans get what we have. I think we all understand what we have with Vicente Leuke. But with the UFC, he's just,

if Vicente Luque was a lightweight, or a middleweight, he would have already fought for the title. But he just happens to be in this division with Usman and Covington. And now you got Hamzot. And now you got Gilbert Burns, who's a teammate of Vicente Luque, and they're not going to fight each other. So that kind of creates a little bit of, I don't know what's the right word I'm looking for here, but creates a little bit of a bump because if Vicentee Luca fought Gilbert Burns and won,

he's probably fighting for the title, but those guys are just not going to fight each other. So that's a little bit of a roadblock in here. his path. Blah Muhammad is on a great run right now. He's won six in a row. It's coming off a dominant win over Wonder Boy. Let's see what he's done. Look at that. I mean, his UFC runs has been really impressive. I mean, since he got knocked up by Luke A, UFC 205. Cision, Randy Brown, Jordan Meen, which is a great win at the time, decision. Tim Mean, split decision, chance for encounter decision loses to jeff neal decision over curtis millinder submits to kashi sato beats lyman good beats diegel lima the leon edwards fight happens damia maya stephen thompson pretty close resumes

i think luke's is just a little bit better because he's getting finishes over these guys but i think in terms of implications and stakes for this fight i don't think either of these guys are getting a title fight i don't think either at best at best at At best, these guys are fighting for the Hamzat fight. Because the UFC wants Hamzat versus Colby. If Colby's just like, nah, no thanks. I'm not going to fight this dude right now. Or if Hamzat's like, nah, I don't want to fight this guy.

Maybe the winner gets that fight. Maybe the winner. If Lucke wins, his best bet is the Hamzat fight. Maybe he gets Colby. For Muhammad, I think his best bet's the Gilbert Burns fight. I mean, maybe he gets Hamzaa, but neither these guys are fighting for the title. Neither these guys are getting a Colby fight. Hamzat, possibly, because Hamza is probably going to have to get another win before he gets a title shot.

And I think you could do that against either of these guys. You could do it against Colby. You could do it with Luke A. You could do it with Muhammad. Either these guys would fit the bill. So that's probably the best bet. But I would say, I'd say Lucay probably has a better chance of getting. and Luke is probably like a step ahead.

Like a win for Luque probably needs more when it comes to the title discussion. But I'd like to see if Lucay wins and they throw him in there with Usman or something, let's say like Leon Edwards can't make it to whenever that fight happens and they need a backup, Lucke would be my first call

if he beats Ballahad, 100%. But I like the fight. The stakes are there. It's just, I think it's more of just, these guys are kind of fighting to stay where they're at right now. And maybe that's not fair of me to say, but that's pretty much where we're at right now

just because of the Hamzat train, just trucking through and, you know, Gilbert Burnstock just rose tremendously after that fight. So, yeah, we'll see what happens. Now you've got to cut a promo. Before I get to a heat, I'm about to bring him in. If you're Bilal Muhammad, I will say this,

because I thought this is a huge misstep on his part. Belal Muhammad after his win over Stephen Thompson, that was the perfect opportunity because he went on the media tour after and said, I want to fight Hamzat. But if he took that opportunity in December after he just ruled through Wonderboy and said, Hamzat, you've taken everything I work for,

Mofo, I'm going to fight your ass next. If he just focused all that attention on Hamzat in that post-fight interview, he probably would have got that fight and who knows where he would be. Maybe he would have been the guy. But instead he overshot, shot for Usman, when he had negative 7% chance of getting that fight

and then he went on the media tour after and called out Hamzat. If you're below Muhammad, you go out there and you beat for Sente-Luke, the first name that comes out of your mouth, better be Hamzat Shamaa. Like whoever's holding that microphone about to ask you a question, you rip that microphone out of his hand. Rip it out of his hand. Hey, D.C., give me that mic.

Get out of here. And then you just cut a promo on Hamzad. That's the best thing he could do. Other than that, he might get give a burn. maybe he sneaks his way into a Hamza fight. But it's all about Bilal, not just in the cage, but afterwards when he has the microphone of his head. Ahid, you are alive, my man.

How are you? Hello, Mike. How's it going? What's up, buddy? All right. So a couple points. Firstly, like with all my organizations, for me, it's UFC, then it's one championship easily.

Like, if UFC's 1A, one championship is 1B, without a doubt, not just because of MMA, but because of the Muay Thai. they're kickboxing and now they've got submission grappling. They're getting the best people like Gordon Ryan, Mikey Musamek, like as in a Muay Thai, there's just names upon names that I can't, Liam Harrison and then like kickboxing. There's like Georgia Prochosen Superbond,

a submission grappling like, yeah, Gordon Ryan like Mikey Musamek, anyway, so one championship for me is one B. In terms of Justin Gaichi, he like doesn't, I agree with someone else he doesn't deserve, that title shot. I think he beats Charles Oliver but he doesn't, he can knock Charles Oliver out, but he doesn't deserve that title shot, especially because like

he already had one and he like he lost and it's just like and then you look at his resume okay, he beat Michael Johnson, he already got a main event which he deserved because of his past history is that all right, could we give you Eddie Alvarez Dustin Porre, you lose both.

Then he's talking about retiring and then it's like he beats Edson Barbosa but he poked him in the eye just before he beat Cowboy Soroni, who like, it was a bit like an aging cowboy Soroni, but it's all good because he beat James Vic. And then afterwards, he beat Tony and put on that clinic. Beautiful, brilliant.

All right, that's what got your title shot. You lost. And then it's like, oh, but he fought for the title that was against Habibu. But then that's silly. Let's like, oh, give him Dustin an immediate title shot. Connor just like, it doesn't work like that. And then he beats Michael Chandler, but we've got some like Islam Makachev,

who has put the work in. who absolutely, that's a more interesting, like, stylistic matchup to me, like the top pressure of Samba on wrestling versus the bottom game of Brazilian jihitsu. That's better for me. But, and like, I feel Justin's a bit of a hypocrite talking about, like, because there was talk of Conner getting the title shot and Justin's like, oh, I'm going to throw a dolly. Like, Connor's so entitled. I thought that was an interesting show of hypocrisy because, like, as in, like, you're a bit

entitled. Like, you're getting this title shot after one win. Rucker Choeff has had seven. So that's a bit more, maybe. I don't know. But like, that's a bit weird. But anyways,

that's, that I've got two more points. The set, talking about hypocrisy, man, like I just saw the powerful pound rankings. And Kobe Covington is still not on there. And it's pathetic.

It's absolutely pathetic. You've got Dustin still there. And you've got like his fan boy saying, oh, um, you know, Dustin has a better resume at 150. How like,

How much are we going to lead on this? You lent on this before his title shot and people are, okay, fine. That's all right. We get it. But then he lost and Colby won against Masvidal. It's still like, oh, Kobe, you know, it's the same things. Like, Kobe has to be ranked guys. Like that's not true.

Like Masvedal was ranked at the time. Why is it that Vincente Lucke gets more credit for being Tyron Woodley than Kobe Covington does? Why is it that Gilbert Burns gets credit? And it's like, oh, he's one of the best in the world. But then a couple months later, Colby does the same thing, finishes him. Nada. It's so crazy to me.

It's the hypocrisy against Colby that it's very clear to see that like there's a dislike of Kobe that sways people's actions. And it's on everything. Like, bro, even the attack on Masvidal, I didn't get to comment on this on anything, like any platform. I'm going to comment now. People are talking about, oh, Masvidal's about that life. Kobe talked about his kids.

Kobe never said anything about Masvidal's kids. he talked about Massvedo's ability as a father, which by the way, Justin Gaichi, word for word, and I don't want anyone to challenge me on this, because I know he said it. Word for word,

Justin Gaich said the same thing about Connor McGregor. He said it was a shit dad. At the end of 2019, 2020, when Connor attacked someone at a pub, Justin Gaichi said the same thing. No one said a thing to Justin Gaichi. Cricots.

Only Connor was pissed. Connor was like, I'm going to kill you. Apart from that, no one actually, the media never said anything. So it's very, and then not only that,

like Mazvedal concealed his identity, attacked Kobe from the side, you know, and everyone's like, well, Kobe kind of deserved it. Mazinor was about that street life. But he, what life? He just like sneak attack someone. How is that any different to, and I really hesitate to use this example, but Falvacay, this, for those who don't know, the city kit boxing guy, the attacker just got charged with a bullshit sentence. And it's like everyone's disgusted by that, mainly because of the cowardly nature of the attack. It's so like, it's like me getting a mask and attacking a UFC fighter. That's what Masvidal did. It's, it's not different. And it's like, but for some reason, Mazvedal's about that life, but we like are horrified that the Falvacca attack. It's silly.

And like my last point, and I don't care if I get bad from it, but I've got to make it. Like, I find it's, we're talking about hypocrisy, media hypocrisy. It's so cute how USC 272, to ESPN goes out of their way to give attention to like Marina Morose and like as in obviously for those who don't know Ukrainian woman who's obviously like she's suffering a lot of trauma because of the Russian invasion which is fine like fine give her attention like give her attention but keep that same energy it's funny right like she is a woman who's on the undercut all respect good fighter like again deserves their attention but al-Mohmohama a main event like He's a main event. I guarantee he's like Mark Freemundi is not going out of his way to interview Bilal

on the like an American Palestinian Muslim man who's like being, whose home is being attacked by like a vile Israeli Zionist. He's not getting attention. Keep that same energy. That's the thing. What is this? Don't mix politics in it with sport. That's not what it is. It's don't mix politics with sport unless it's the specific narratives by Western media to make themselves feel better about themselves. It's pathetic. And now, I've got to say, it's just so sad. Like, as in, whatever it is, keep that same energy. Either you don't cover it at all because you want people to, and you let fighters talk about what they want to talk about in the interviews. That's fine. But if you're going to go out your way, again, keep that same energy for Belal. Belal didn't even get a post-fight

interview back in UC-263. He didn't get that Marina Moro's treatment. And it's sad. It's so sad. it's the hypocrisy's pathetic and yeah you're like yeah MMA media didn't cover anything fuck him that I don't care like I've got to point out those are my four points a lot a lot to impact there so I mean let me let me just give my my piece in the ball all thing I agree I agree with what you're saying I will say personally I've and it's it's not and I've been accused of this throughout my career of like taking sides so that I could get interviews with a certain manager's fighters,

which is the biggest bunch of horseshit I've ever heard in my entire life. But I will tell you this, the buildup to the Bilal Muhammad fight when he fought for Sentei Lukia the first time, whoever was managing him at the time, no one knew who Bilal Mohamed was. I had been interviewing Bilal Mohammed probably two years prior to that UFC 205 fight. Okay. So I did a weekly interview early in my career with Bilal Muhammad. Just like, all right, five, the last five weeks of his training camp, we did the podcast that I was hosting, we did a weekly show with Bilal Muhammad.

And we just did interviews with him every week about how the week has gone, like built him up. But now I can't, now I can't talk to him for some reason. Now I couldn't get an interview with Balah Muhammad. I actually got denied interviews with Balah Muhammad. even when I was with them fighting which I thought was like what are you kidding me and yeah it just got to that point

it got to the point where I don't interview any of their fighters anymore unless it's not coming from them like the last time I interviewed Gilbert Burns it wasn't because I interviewed it's not because I reached out to his management team it's because his sponsor reached out to me and that was the only time I can interview these people's fighters

it got to the point where I reached out to their PR and I said, take me off your list, because I'm not, if I'm getting denied interviews with Bala Muhammad and Aaron Pico, then I don't want an interview with anybody. Like, I'm trying to help, like, I'm trying to like have conversation with these fights, trying to give them different things to talk about, and you're just straight up denying me. And that's fine. Maybe they just don't want them to talk about like real things. You know, it's just look at the media tours that these fighters take sometimes.

It's the same guys. same interviewers, same questions, same everything. I don't do it that way. And maybe that's why I wasn't in the interviews. I don't know. I don't really care. It's all good. So I get where you're coming from with the Marina Morose

and the in the Belal thing. I get it. 100%. The one championship thing is hilarious to me because I do agree with you. I like that they're trying to be fun and do different things. But one championship is like, Like, when you're like, when you're in elementary school and you play sports and you're telling your friends about the game that you had against the other team, like, you might have been playing Little League baseball and you hit like this little bloop over the third basin's head.

And it landed on the foul line and you just happened to be hustling out of the box and turn it into a double. But then you go to school and you tell your friends that you hit a ball off the wall. Like I hit a ball that would have been a home run, but it hit the fence. when in reality you hit the ball like 80 feet. But you tell your friends that you hit one that would have been a home run off, the fence wasn't so high. That's what one championship is. They hit a ball that hit the fence

when in reality they hit a bloop double over the third base and said. We eight cajillion people watched one X. No, they didn't. No, they didn't. And that's what gets, and that's what hurts them. It's just the inaccuracy is. and the lying and the inflation of statistics when it comes to people viewing the product.

It's dumb. It's dumb. One could just go out and not mention that at all and people would care more. But when you throw out stuff like that, we just look at you like, you're nuts. You're absolutely insane. And that shouldn't be a way for us to like watch or not watch a product. But that's what they do. That's just like, it's just super annoying.

But we're going to move on. I'm going to take one more call. We're going to get. we're going to get Cheyung Hocken in here to get the final word. Good morning. Good night. What's going on?

I just got a question about my favorite division, the Bannon White division. So Marlon Chito's fighting next against one of my favorite Rob Font. And you know, I'm just wondering what's next for those guys?

Do you think if Rob Font wins again? you know, they'll get a rematch against Joe Zayaldo, and what's going to happen after that? Yeah, and just keep it short like that, you know? Cool, man. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

That's a great fight. I can't wait for that one. April 30th, Marlon Chito Vera against New England's own Rob Font. It's a good fight. Banimate's super fun right now. There's a lot that could happen here. I would say the best bet, I mean, maybe Corey Sanhagen to the winner, maybe Pierre Rion to the winner.

Maybe one of these guys are fighting for the chance to fight Piotr Yon, which I'm down for any of those fights. And that just shows you just how good Bannamweight is right now across the board. But in the UFC, the UFC's Banned and weight division is ridiculous. Jed and I were talking about this on Bt L yesterday. one of the more fascinating stories moving forward in 2022 is where Pieter Jan is going to go from this past Saturday night. Who's he going to fight?

What direction are they going to go? Because you can go multiple ways with this. Smart money is you do Cheeto versus Fonz, whoever wins that fight, gets the Yon fight, gives one of those guys a chance to get to a title fight. Super cool, totally in on it. you could maybe do TJ. I doubt that happens.

But it all depends on, it all depends on whether or not the UFC wants to continue this Jan Sterling storyline. My wife's waiting to go rollerblading. One minute. I'm sorry. I got to finish this last point and then we're out of here. If they want to continue the storyline, they will do Peartrean v. Marab de Wallach-Willi,

because you already have promo material for it. You have video of their backstage, a little run-in. You continue the storyline. If he goes out there and beats Barab, then Aljo can try to get one back for the teammate. But if you want to just get away from that altogether, give him the Fon Chito winner. If they do Aldo Dillishaw, the loser of that fight,

you want to do, if Dillishaw gets a title fight, give him to Aldo. I would watch Yon Aldo for three rounds. Yon Aldo for five rounds, I always will favor Yon, but Yon Aldo for three rounds, that's a different fight. We haven't seen Yon in the three-round fight in quite some time.

so that makes things really interesting. So all right, as you know, for those who are married, happy wife, happy life. I'm getting out of here. Thank you for all the calls. Thank you for all the tremendous takes. I think we all had a little bit of Friday energy today.

So enjoy your weekend, everybody. Enjoy Bellator tonight. Enjoy UFC tomorrow. And we'll see you back here on Tuesday, 8 a.m. For another edition of Heck of a morning, which I hope you all have. Thank you very much. Enjoy it.

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.