MMA Fighting - Heck of a Morning | Open Scoring Debate Continues On, Holly Holm Wasn't Robbed, the Good (and the Bad) of Eagle FC 47

Episode Date: May 24, 2022

The scorecards from the UFC Vegas 55 main event between Ketlen Vieira and Holly Holm created a lot of controversy, thus continuing a heated debate in regards to whether or not open scoring is the answer. On this episode of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to Vieira's win over Holm this past Saturday and why the former bantamweight champion wasn't robbed by the judges. In addition, questions are answered about Vieira's title hopes following the biggest win of her career, open scoring and why there could be more issues people aren't thinking about, what the fight, KO, and submission of the year are near the halfway point, the good and the bad of this past Friday's Eagle FC 47 event, why Scott Coker and Bellator needs to co-promote with Eagle FC — and do so quickly — and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 8 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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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. Good morning, everybody. It is Monday, May 24th, 2022,

and it is a heck of a morning indeed live on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. And soon on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network, I am Mike Heck. Hope you're all having a fantastic week so far. It's Memorial Day week, which means we get a long weekend ahead of us.

here in the United States. Summer is around the corner. No UFC card this weekend, and we had a lot going on this past weekend in the world of mixed martial arts. We had UFC Vegas 55 on Saturday, which ended in a little bit of controversy. And I just have to say, I don't really know why.

I don't really know why there was so much backlash, so much controversy coming out of that main event. But more on that in a moment. We had a very interesting Eagle FC 47 card on Friday. Main event, we saw Jorgon DeCastro defeat Junio Santos. Via injury TKO in the third round, GDGDS was looking real good in that fight, cruising to a win, separates his shoulder, and DeCastro wins the fight. The celebration was a little much, but he admitted as such,

apologize for it and I like Yorker to castor a lot. One of the nicest guys that you will ever speak to in the sport. Just a great guy and in the end on his resume, just a gigantic win over a former UFC champion, just an unfortunate ending.

That card in general, how should I start this? I'll go back to Eagle FC. We'll talk about Eagle FC later. Let's talk about UFC Vegas 55 because interesting card. There was some good fights. The main event is the one that everybody's talking about.

Holly Holm versus Ketland Vieira. In the end, Ketland Vieira wins a split decision over Hollyholm. And just like, actually, this is probably worse than the Logan Storley Michael Page fight. Twitter just exploded.

Twitter just exploded. Robbery, robbery, robbery. Post-fight shot, I think 81% of people thought that Holly home got robbed and I saw so much of that heading into Sunday morning, heading into on to the next one. But I have to say from maybe Sunday afternoon, Sunday evening until yesterday, a lot of people change their minds.

Not that this is a fight that people were clamoring to go back and watch a second time because it was not that kind of a fight. but most people who went back and watched it a second time actually scored it for Ketland Vieira. They went back, watched it closely. I saw somebody on Twitter, somebody I respect a lot in this industry, say live they scored it 4 to 1 for Holly Holm

and then they watched it again and they scored it 3-2 for Ketland-Viera. And that has led to all these different conversations. Watching it the first time, I think I scored it for Holly Home live. but I didn't think it was a robbery. I thought it was a super close fight. I thought Ketland landed a lot of damage.

And I thought there was absolutely a case to be made for Katelyn Viera winning that fight. Then I went back and forced myself before AK and I recorded on to the next one Sunday morning to watch the fight again. And I watched it again. And I felt even stronger that Kettlun Viera won the fight. I felt very strongly she won. Why? Because her shots landed more. They just meant more.

you could tell the discomfort on Holly Holmes face when Catlin Vieira landed punches and landed strikes. It was a big difference. Not saying Holly didn't land, but there was a lot of clinch work, a lot of just controlling of Katelyn Viera. But in the end, and listen, literally nothing else is happening with this new scoring criteria. None of that matters. You can sit there and clinch somebody against the fence at all. But if Ketland Vieira with their back against the fence lands like two elbows and

a punch, she wins the round because she actually inflicted some kind of damage. So I have no problem with Kelvira one of the fight. And now we're back to the open scoring debate. Why isn't there open scoring? What the hell is going on with open scoring? Everyone wants open scoring or doesn't want open scoring. So because of one fight, we had strangers on Twitter fighting one another about how they scored the fight and then a big debate about open scoring again.

I'm so tired of the open scoring conversation. I understand where it's coming from. I understand why we want to make changes and we want the fighters to know where they're at and things like that. I get it. But, I mean, every freaking card, we have to have a debate about open scoring.

It just drives me insane. It just drives me nuts. It's not going to happen. You can do open scoring all you want. We're just going to complain more. We as a community as MMA fans, We try to stay positive as much as possible, but this place can be a complaint-heavy kind of a sports

because there's always something, especially with the gambling aspect, there's always something. There's always something. With this 10-point must, with this boxing scoring model, you can do close scoring, open scoring, it doesn't matter. We're going to continue to have problems.

We're going to continue to have arguments. We're going to continue to have debates. We're just going to continue fighting with one another. It is what it is, folks. It is what it is. This was not a robbery. This was not anything of the sort. I actually felt confident Kenton Vieira won on second watch.

And watching it live, I saw a world where Ketland could have won the fight. I didn't think it was a robbery at all. So there you have it. We'll see what happens with Ketland Vieira. Holly Holmes got some decisions to make. It'll be interesting to see where she goes from here. I think if Misha Tate loses to Lauren Murphy on July 2nd at UFC 2nd at UFC 2, I think you have a very sellable rematch between Misha Tate and Holly Holm.

Maybe that can happen. Obviously, if Misha Tate beats Lauren Murphy, there's a very good chance she fights for the title next. I'd be shocked if that didn't happen. But huge win for Kettlen Vieira. She continues to roll on. She's got back-to-back wins over Tate and Holly Holmold, two former champions. Good win for Michelle Paheda. He's won five in a row.

He's making some pretty big callouts of Nate Diaz and Jorge Mavis. He's talking about Mazadol sliding into his wife's DMs. This has become just a weird story in South. Cheney Inchukwani, nasty elbow knockout. Wins for Tabitha Ritchie, Jung-Yung Park. Joseph Holmes gets his first UFC win. Jeltsin Al-Meda. Just a madman.

This guy's going to be a problem for pretty much anybody. Whether he goes back to light heavyweight or stays in heavyweight or does both, he's going to be a problem. Euris Madich, nasty knockout. Jonathan Martinez does Jonathan Martinez type things. against Vince Morales. Sam Hughes gets her first UFC finish. She looked real good in that fight. And Chase Hooper, young Chase Hooper,

gets back in the wind column, gets a TKO finish of Felipe Colharis. All in all, it was a pretty fun card to watch. It's just unfortunate that it ended in such controversy because of the scoring in the main events. And I'm telling you, if you are, I challenge all of you. And I know this is going to be tough.

Maybe you have to rip a couple of tequila shots before you do this. If you're still torn, if you still feel like Holly Holm was robbed on Saturday, rip them back and go watch it again. Because it's not an easy watch. But I assure you, if you watch it again and you are open-minded and you watch that fight by itself, not after watching 10 other fights before that, go back and watch that fight by itself, I guarantee you you're going to look at it differently. You're going to look at it differently.

So there you go. I'll have more Eagle. I'll have Eagle FC thoughts a little bit later. Maybe you guys are going to talk about it. We'll see. Let's go to you guys because this is your show and I'm getting off the damn soapbox. We start with Mr. Julio. Julio, what's up?

Just make sure you unmute yourself. There you go. Are you there? Julio, I cannot hear you. Try again if you want to get back. Let's get Zach. left in here. Zach, are you there?

Hey, Mike. What's that, so question actually about the next pay-review coming up for UFC. So there's been a lot of talk about inactivity in this main event with Glover and Jan and just their schedule of fighting.

But if, I know you don't believe this, but if Yuri does win over Yan, I mean, over Glover, do you think that Yuri will defend a little more active? He's had kind of a weird start because he's had two just massive finages and kind of propelled him up so quickly up the rankings.

And I looked at his previous stuff, and he was a pretty active fighter before coming to the USC. So just wanted your thoughts there. Thank you, Zach. Yes, I am looking forward to this fight. I'm kind of nervous about it because I have put myself out there since October of last year since Glover won the belt.

And I've been pretty convinced that Glover is going to win this fight and he's going to do it quickly. He's going to submit Yuri Perashka in the first round. I have been on the mountaintop shouting this out because all this man, and I mean this wholeheartedly, all this man needs is one takedown. If Glover takes Yuri down at any point throughout this fight, he will win. It's over. He wins the fight.

One takedown. That's all he needs. Now getting that takedown is not going to be easy because Yuri is a madman. So there's a very good chance that Yuri wins. If Glover can't take him down, Yuri's going to probably finish him and knock him out and it's going to be nasty. I think he will be more active.

The thing with Yuri is, especially since he's gone to the UFC, is that he has to just go out and run guys over. He wins very impressively, and his fights are super exciting, but he takes a bit of a beating to get to that finish. Go watch the first fight with Volcott-Ozde-Ber. Those two are landed just,

heavy machinery at each other. And then finally, Yuri was just like, to hell with this, I'm out of here. And got it done. The Dominic Reyes fight was a real tough fight. Both guys were hurt. Reyes had him in some big trouble at certain points. And then Yeri landed just an incredible spinning back elbow. I thought, I, for, we do the awards at the end of the year.

And I feel like Yuri got the big fat hose job from the rest of the M.A. Fighting staff, because I picked that as knockout of the year. and I picked that as fight of the year. Yuri versus Dominic Reyes. Those are my picks. Yuri should have been a two-time award winner in my eyes. I understand there were other knockouts and it wasn't a very popular one

because it happened kind of earlier in the year. But Yuri and Dominic Reyes was a phenomenal fight for as long as it lasted. There was absolute chaos. And I just don't know if Glover's going to get himself in that kind of fight. I think Glover understands. I just need to take this man to the ground

and I get a chance because Dominic Reyes, who's not a big submission artist, took him down, he mounted him, had him in some big trouble. And if Glover does that to Yuri for Hashka, he gets him down and advances his position, which he'll be able to do. Uri's in trouble, man. He's in trouble.

I understand that everyone wants to jump on Yuri right now because he's so good. He's looked so fantastic and the fights in Risen and some of the wins he's had in his career. But do not sleep on Glover-Teshire in this fight because I seriously believe that he just needs one takedown and he can win this thing. But I think Uri can be more active for that reason. I don't think Glover's going to go up there. I don't think they're going to go hammer and tongs with each other. I think if he loses, he's just going to get strangled, and that's it.

And if he wins, it's just going to be something where Glover might land a couple of shots, and then Euro's just going to get him out of there. So I don't think he's going to take a lot of damage in this fight. So there's a very good chance win or lose that we will see him more active. This won't be the only time we see him fight this year. Let's see if we can get Julio back. I think we might have him. Julio, do we have you?

You got to unmute. Hey, Mike, thanks for having me. Here we go. There we is. What's up, buddy? Hey, I'm probably just about to echo a lot of what you just said, and I know you don't really want to talk about open scoring, but I just think it's kind of crazy all of these debates

that people are having about it on Twitter and things like that. I mean, there's just this huge list of ways in which fighters are disenfranchised from fighter pay to not getting a proper cut of the sponsorships from crypto.com and Benham and all of these things. And I just feel like open scoring is so low on this list of things that should be priorities because at the end of the day, UFC has shown basically zero interest in even acknowledging this concept. Why are we, why are people going so crazy talking about this thing that has shown zero

chance of literally ever happening? It seems like we are, it's like people are arguing back and forth about, you know, bringing pride scoring back to UFC or something like that, just something that's really never going to happen. And people are having heated debates about this. And it just seems kind of pointless. I don't, I don't really understand all the open scoring debate. I know you have to talk about things to bring them into the wider conversation and make them happen. But it just seems so far off. and I can't believe that people talk about it as much as they do.

And that's about it. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I love the show. Thanks a lot, Mike. Thank you, Julio. I completely agree with you. Of all the issues going on in the UFC and the sport in general, open scoring is like the 12th most important thing right now.

Honestly, I get it because, listen, if fighter pays. was where it was and we didn't have to rely on the two paycheck bottle for a lot of these fights, would we even be having this conversation right now? I understand one sort of ties into the other, but if fighters are just being paid flat fees, being paid with their worth, win or lose, I don't even think this would be a conversation. Now, I'm going to play the game just for a moment, because let's just say Dana White says, all right, F it. I'm going to eat my Friday. macaroni and cheese dipped in whipped cream. And then after it was so delicious that I'm going to be like, you know what?

My mind is in such a, in such a delicious mess right now that I'm going to just say, I'm going to implement open scoring. I'm going to implement open scoring. It's going to happen. All right. We're going to do it. If you want to do it fine, but here is my, here is my one rule. The other judges, the other judges should not be allowed, the judges themselves,

should not be allowed to see the scores at all. Find a way to blindfold them while they're showing the scores. Those judges cannot know the scores. Everybody else, the crowd, the people at home, the fighters, coaches, et cetera, the broadcasters, they want to know the scores, fine. The other judges cannot know because they have a hard enough job as it is trying to score these fights. And let's just say, Judge A and D. Judge B scores a round for Fighter 1, and Judge C scores the round for Fighter 2.

What is Judge C going to be thinking about the entire round for round 2? They're going to be thinking about how did I screw this up? What mistake did I make? Why did they score it for this fighter and I didn't? Hmm. So they're not going to be focused solely on the fight. They're going to be focused on why they didn't score it the same as the other two judges. What are they missing?

What am I missing? Does that judge feel like they have to, as an umpire does in baseball and beer league softball from time to time, do I have to implement a makeup call or a makeup 10-9 round because I screwed up in the first? These are problems you're going to have with open score. Like people talk about the fighters and if there's going to be stalling and all that stuff. I don't know if that's as big of an issue as people make it out to be

because I don't think it changes much. A fighter thinks they're up two rounds. They're just going to fight the way they fight anyways. And a fighter thinks they're down two rounds. They're just going to fight the way that they fight anyway. But we have to think about how the judges are looking at things mentally. Are they going to be able to focus on the action in front of them? Or are they going to focus on even a little bit?

Even if you put a quarter of your mindset into, man, why do those two judges score it for Fighter 1? But I scored it for Fighter 2. Did I do something wrong? I think that's going to be a huge problem with open scoring. So if we can find a way to make sure the judges have no clue how these rounds are being scored round by round. If they're the only ones that can't find out, maybe you have something here. But I think honestly, that's going to be one of the biggest challenges is the judge's mindsets and how they handle it and how they feel. I mean, there's going to be some judges who are like, these guys suck.

I'm right. They're wrong. but a lot of times they're going to be like, oh, I must have missed something. Maybe I'll make it up in this round. Hack the holidays with the PC holiday insiders report. Try this PC porquetta, crackling, craveworthy. You gonna eat that?

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Try the season's hottest flavors from the PC Holiday Insiders report. Please feast responsibly. Let's go to the vice president of open scoring. New York, Rick. Hi, buddy. Heck of a morning, Mike. Heck of a morning. You know, I've got some things to get off my chest about open scoring.

No, I'm just kidding. With no major MMA, no UFC, no ballot, all due respect to KSW. and Kage lawyers. How are you spending a light MMA weekend is my question for you? Thank you, New York, Rick. That's a great question. On Friday, it is actually my wife and I is 10th anniversary. Holy cow. Ten years ago, we walked that aisle, baby. We said I do. And now we're here. I'm here in a room with all of you guys. So that's what we're going to be doing. We're going to be celebrating that. And that's pretty much it.

Memorial Day weekend. I think I have to work for like a few hours on Sunday. But Monday, we're getting the grill all fired up. We're going to go to the pool and Cannibal City, maybe. Just be a nice relaxing weekend. I'm excited for it. And I think we all deserve it. I think we all deserve it.

I mean, listen, if you want to watch MMA, it's there for you. You can always find it. You can always find it. If you can't take a weekend off, you got those two. events that the New Yorkerick talked about. Plus, follow my man Caposa, who is just an absolute gem in this space.

He will lead you in the right direction. He'll find 30 events for you. If you just want to do a MAA marathon this weekend, Coposa will help you out. So that's what I'm doing. I'm celebrating the anniversary. I'm going to chill out. Let's get Tristan Gorda in here. Tristan, what's up, buddy?

Hey, Mike. Heck of my morning to you. How's everything? Good. What's up? All right. So shout out to you and A.K. Lee on Otno yesterday. No need to read my picks because you guys were in the same mindset as I was with the picks. There was no need for it. Just the one pick was I wanted, was on the wild card, was U.S. Mesh versus Mavamed Mastayev. And, Mike, I need to know what's going on with Mastaya because he hasn't fought almost a year.

The last time he fought, what was supposed to fight was against Izma Gula, but his Mugul had a wait minute, so they called a fight off. and fight since. I don't know if he suffered an injury, so maybe you could shed light on that. That's the fight I would like to see. I think Medici is one of those up-and-coming prospects. You can throw him in there with Armistam-Sirukin, Kazee, all those guys in the lightweight division that's going to be coming up in the rankings. So, you know, that's a dude to watch out for. going back to the Holly Home versus Vieira fight

I don't know what's going Vieira I don't think she believes in her hands or I don't know there's a disconnect between her coaches but they're pleading and yelling her in the corner and like let your hands go you could finish these people this was the same issue she had when she fought

Misha Tate she was piecing her up badly and was like could finish her at any point. And I saw certain points with Holly Holm, where she called her a couple of times and you saw Holly Home wobble a little bit. And I'm screaming at the TV Vieira.

Go after her. All the combinations you could finish it. And the coaches were screaming at her, pleading with her because I'm telling you right now, yes, she won and that matters. And you have to win. Winning is all about trying to get that win.

and moving on. But if you, if you, if, if we see a man inunes go and starch, um, Julia Peña,

and you're going to fight a mannauna's, good luck with that because you're not, you're not going to have a chance. Okay. And you see the, the difference with San Jules and what, um, Saeed was telling her,

was like, you know me, go in there and finish this girl. And you saw what Sam Yu was like, yeah, yeah, I'm going to go finish it. I'm going to go in there.

and do what I need to do. She believed in her something. I could finish this girl. And what she do? She went out there and finished her opponent. So I don't know what's going with, Vieira. I'm on the side of her coaches of, and I understand fighters respond differently.

They got to, you know, some people respond favorably. Some people don't. But Villarra's got to understand, man. And the words of Ken Flo, you got finished fights out here, man. And look, on I know yesterday, even though she got the win, you guys were like,

you know, do you think she really needs? you think she deserves that shot? You guys were, you and A.K. were like, I don't think she deserves it, man. I think to see, I think you see more. I need to see finishes. And you got to let your hands go. You got to believe in yourself.

You got to believe what the coaches are telling you. You got to trust them. You know, finishing fights matters. And that's how you're going to get title shots. You can't just go out there and just squandered opportunities where you have chances to finish home and as well as Misha Tate. So that's my thoughts about it. I want to know your thoughts about it.

about it. You know, have a heck of a morning, Mike. Thanks. Thanks, buddy. The Moosefive thing, I have no idea, man. He was supposed to fight Moikano. He has a five, well, February 2020, it's been a while since the Brad Redell fight. So he was supposed to fight Moikano. Boycano got injured. He was out. Then he's supposed to fight Gamrot on that same card, October of 2020. The Moistaf had to withdraw. And then he was supposed to fight. Demir Isma Gulov at UFC 267, and that was the car where Isma Gulov missed weight, and the fight was scratched through really no fault of Moosefayev. So I have no idea where he is, no clue. So I haven't heard anything in regards to injury or anything like that.

So I'm not really sure. To your other point, I get where you're going with this, Tristan, and I love you, buddy. but you cannot compare Elise Reed to Holly Holie Holm. You just can't. You could go out there. Her team could have screamed at her and said go out there and finish her,

but she's fighting freaking Holly Holm and there's a lot on the line here. She couldn't lose that fight. Going in there and finishing Holly Holm emphatically makes a big statement. But I think even if she went out and finished Holly Holm, she probably wasn't going to get a title shot anyways.

She's just in a really interesting spot right now because if Nunes wins, they're going to do a third fight, more than likely. And if Valentina Shvchenko wins on June 11th, she's the number one contender in my mind. Honestly, I think she's the number one contender. She'll probably fight for the Bannamway title next. If she beats Taila Santos, it does it easily and impressively. I think they're going to try to give Valentina that chance. I think she's the best, she is the best female fighter on planet Earth right now.

I don't think there is a debate to be had, a discussion to be had. Valencia Chivchenko is the best female fighter on planet Earth right now. And if she beats Tilos Santos, which she is very likely going to do on June 11th, I understand that anything can happen. You got to give her the chance to go up and fight for the belt. I think even if Nunes wins, you got to, even though the second fight was not a tremendous watch, I kind of want to see her go up there and fight. for that title, no matter who wins.

And then you can do the Penae trilogy after, or you did the rematch with Pena with in Schochenko, if she wins the belt. But I think Schochenko, I think you needed something just killer to take Schoenko out of the equation. Now, if you're Caitlin Vieira right now, I think you are the biggest Tyler Santos fan on the planet right now. You have to hope for some sort of an upset,

some sort of a miracle. Otherwise, you're probably going to have to fight again. You're going to have to fight somebody again. Maybe you do the rematch with the Rini Aldana. maybe you get the winner of Aspen Ladd versus Sarah McMahon. I don't know. But it was going to be tough for her to get that title fight anyways. Let's bring in Miami Mike.

Miami, Mike. Two, two, baby. Two, two. Are you there? Or do you not want any of this, Mike, after the Celtics put the beat down on the heat last night in Boston? I understand. I understand. You try again.

Let's bring in Brent. Brent, what's up, buddy? Great show, really enjoy it. I got a quick, very random question. What do you think the super heavyweight division could look like in a hypothetical world where MMA athletes got paid more like other high-level pro athletes, like NBA, you know, NFL, European soccer, et cetera? But great show.

Thank you. Thank you. Super heavyweight. Wow. I mean, Pugianowski's my guy, for sure. That guy is just freaking ridiculous. Yeah, I mean, listen, there's a lot of fighters that actually cut down.

Like, Derek Lewis would probably be happy competing over 265. I think there's Pacoona would be okay fighting over 265. There's a few fighters who have to cut down. Maybe in France, Gano wants to bulk up a little bit. bit and bench 415 a million times and put on some sides. So I don't know. But Pooge is in there for sure. That guy's probably the face of my super heavyweight division

because any fight, trust what I tell you? Anytime that guy fights, people care. It's pretty wild. All right, let's try this again, Mike. I understand you were scared the first time. You want to deal with it. You want to deal with the key. Uncompletely intended.

But what's up, buddy? Dude, I have no idea. of what you're doing. It's not a coincidence that the heat lose on both nights before a heck of a morning. I have no idea what kind of Celtic gods you're praying to, bro, but keep praying to them because it's obviously working. On a real question, though, I wanted to mention, though, the Eagle FC commentary on point, and my fan boy for Henry Sohudo, I know you hate him, has gone up so much because

watching him choke on the mic the whole night was absolutely hilarious. Now, for my question, dude, I was originally going to ask you about with Eagle FC and cross-promotion and all that, but dude, open scoring came up and I got to address it. Now, if you had the keys, if you had the Royal MMA keys, Mike, heck, what would you do? Because I know you're not really the biggest fan of just going for it. And as you mentioned earlier, that, you know, there's got to be certain things that they got to give and take. and like things like conditions like the judges, you know, not being able to see the car and the scored and all that. But what do you think is the goal then or the solution to get everybody on the same page?

Because I've heard it's also like maybe from other people like I heard DC even talking in jail that, you know, the judges are supposedly going to go back and, you know, get like a judging class. So is that the solution? Do we have to restructure some sort of rules to get all the judges on the same page to where like a takedown, for example, is worth half a point? Or like, what exactly do we do to eliminate this controversy that seems to be growing and growing week after week? Or do we just kind of keep it all and say, screw it and, you know, let the controversy be controversy and let the Twitter Wars be Twitter Wars. I'm curious to hear your take. Thank you, Mike. Go sees.

Yeah, I mean, it's not going to fix judging. And I think most people who are in support of open scoring, I know Ariel Hawani might be the biggest advocate for open scoring out of anybody. But it's not going to change judging. It's not going to change judging. It's just going to anger people more, if we're being honest, from a viewer perspective. Well, we hear a crappy scorecard.

What's the first thing we do? As a MMA community. We go on Twitter and we find, who that judge was, we tell the world that that is an awful scorecard. And now we're going to have to hear it every round. I mean, wanting to be a judge, I mean, you have to, like, what is going to,

what inspires one to be an MMA judge? I honestly, I don't know. Like, when I was in kindergarten, I wanted to be a game show host. And I told the world I wanted to be game show host. I showed up to kindergarten on certain days and wore a full suit and tie. So my kindergarten teacher Would let me host a game show

Like I wanted to be a game show host You game show host you're on TV Sometimes you spin a wheel Like how cool is that? Wheel spinning People can win money and solve puzzles And answer things in the form of a question And name that too

Like so many game shows So much fun MMA judging Like who is What kindergarten kid wants to be a freaking MMA judge You don't want them to be going to grow up? I want to sit in the corner and watch fights get paid shit and have everybody rip me apart and get no praise. At least as a referee, you get a lot of shit, but at least you get

some praise once in a while. You make a good stoppage or a bad stoppage. Jason Herzog's tremendous a referee. Once in a while, he'll stop action, he'll retain position. He'll take points. He'll do all these things. Submit warnings or take a point of the second warning. He'll do these things. And we praise him for that. And then Herb Dean will come in and do the Cupid shuffle on a stoppage. We're not really sure what he's doing. And then he finally makes stoppage. We're like, what is he doing? Why? Judging, you get no praise. No praise. We're not going on Twitter saying, wow, that's Sal DiMato. He got it right. Great scorecard, Sal. Sal. We're not getting it.

Like, there's no motivation to be a judge. So you have to find, you have to make judging more appealing. Maybe offer a signing bonus to be a judge. I don't know. You have to, like, make it appealing in some way. Because there's only like, there's not a lot of judges out there. And why would there be? There's no appeal to it.

It sucks. What a terrible job that is. It's just a terrible job. Where you just get crapped on all the time and get no praise from the public. It's wild. It's wild. So I don't know. You just got to find better people.

You have to make judging more appealing. Yes, they are doing different calls. They do them, I think, quarterly. And I think California institutes them. I'm not 100% sure about this. But Steve Morocco, my colleague was telling us about this. Where even like media members to jump on this call, and what they do is they get a lot of these judges together

and they break down certain rounds. certain fights, and they watch them together, and then they discussed them. They discuss what they saw, how they would score it, why, et cetera. And I like that idea. I like that idea. But it's, again, you still got to implement these things. Putting MMA in a boxing scoring system is not good. It's just not good.

It's just not. and then the Eagle FC thing I'm going to talk about Eagle FC when the time is right I'm hoping somebody tags me in but we have more people want to talk like Pedro Pedro

What's up Just make sure you unmute Pedro Hop back in line Pedro I'll get you in here all right Let's get Michelle in here Joe Actually there's multiple Joe Michelle what's up man

So my question is about the the women's title fight on June 12th between Valentina Zichenko and Santos. I think it's gone under the radar compared to that the main event, and I think the Waley and the Uganda rematches took a bit more shine to that title fight. And my opinion on that is, I feel like if Valentina does win, which I'm not expecting her too, I feel there's nothing left for her in that division. Regardless of what happens between Penault and Nunez and July, I think, I still think whoever wins that fight should fight,

Valentina next. I think the only two people in the flyweight division that could even hold a candle or try and beat Shushenko will probably be Suarez or Fon. I can't say a name. The French, cannot pronounce the name, the French woman. Sierra.

Yeah, yeah. I think she's a bit big, so that could be an interesting challenge for Shishenko, but I don't think anyone can beat Shishenko. So what's your opinion on that? Obviously you said earlier, but that's my thoughts on it. Thank you.

Thank you, Rachel. Yeah, I honestly see a world where Valentina fights the family title next. However, if Misha Tate meets Lauren Murphy July 2nd, I see a world where they do that fight. Because that's a big name. That's a big name. Misha's a former champion. That's a great legacy fight. Add to that incredible resume.

I think there's some value there for her. But, yeah, that's a great. It's a big if. I think Lauren's going to give her hell. It's going to be a tough fight. It's a 50-50 fight, in my opinion. I think Lauren's got a very good chance to win. But it's a good one.

If Misha wins, then the namesake value, you can sell that fight. So Lauren Murphy wins. She's definitely fighting for the Banimoy title next. If Misha Tate wins, if they could turn that fight around relatively quickly, I think they'll do it. But we'll see. A lot of factors here. Let's try Pedro again And then Joe all I do is UFC you're on deck

Pedro are you there Yes sir What's up buddy What's up? What do you got? Oh no I lost you Pedro Sorry buddy

Let's get Joe in here Joe what's up What's happening there Mike Top of the morning to you You too what's happening Well I give two cents on the open scoring that I think if you will, I agree with what you said about the judges can't see it because it will allow people to infiltrate for fixed scoring or manipulated scoring. But I actually wanted to comment on Mediak looking great.

I think Medich, I think he should go to a top 10. And I had, I'd like your thoughts on there's a fighter coming into the UFC, Asgar Mahara, fighting Alonzo Medafield. I'm pretty high on him. And then I want to hand off to you the, what do you think of the main event of Eagle FC? I know you're dying to talk about Eagle FC, so I'll throw it out there for you. Oh, bless you, Joe. Bless you, Joe. All right, so hang tight for those who are requesting.

I will get you in here, I promise. We'll go a few extra minutes if we have to. Masked off is good, very good. Menefield's a good opponent for him. He should shine. but Meadowfield's getting better. Should be interesting. Open scoring's tough.

Yeah, I feel like this is going to be the big conversation of the day. But let's talk about Eagle FC, shall we? Let's talk about Eagle FC 47. That main event, you know what Eagle FC 47 reminded me of? And some of you might understand this reference. And some of you might understand this reference. If you are a pro wrestling fan in the 1990s, there was obviously WWF, there was WCW.

Eagle FC 47 reminded me of an episode of WCW Saturday night. You have the studio setting. You have squash matches left and right. You have a main event with names with people who are probably past their prime. You have the occasional name sprinkled in somewhere else. So basically you have like a U.S. title fight. You get a TV title fight. And then you just have a bunch of squash matches.

And I feel like that's exactly what we got. on Friday, the Eagle FC 47. Or we had what should have been squash matches. You know, occasionally you have to have a little bit of a barn burner, Roosevelt Roberts, Alexandra, Dale Neda. But that it was just like, finish, finish, finish. Like, is Omamato coming over from Bellator to fight Zach Zane? Like, I didn't understand this whole thing.

I didn't understand it at all. What's the point of bringing him over to fight Zach Zane? What does that do for him? And this is why I want to know the payouts of these cards Because we are we all know who manages his Almamatov, right? Like we all are aware who manages this guy and take a sip of coffee And then we spring him over And we give him a fight where he's a minus 4,000 favorite

Against Zach Zayne What did we think was going to happen? Why is this even on the card? I don't get it. Like, I don't understand it. Was it just to get him a win? And again, we know who manages him. How much did they get paid?

Did he get paid the same as Bellator pays him? Or did he get the... Did he get more because of who manages him? Those are questions I have. Ahmed Aliev. Again, another guy, squash match city. I think he was a minus, like, 1,500 favorite against Darryl Horcher. And Darryl Horcher has a little bit of a name.

Yes. He fought Habib. but we all knew how that fight was going to end and Allie up knocked him on 30 seconds. Bring in Andrew Sanchez. Gabriel Checo. Sanchez beats him. Wasn't a great performance, if we're being honest.

He won easily, but it wasn't a great performance. Andrew Sanchez should have went out and steamrolled him and he didn't. Macchi Pitolo fighting Doug Usher. I mean, what do we think was going to happen there? What do we think was going to happen? And then the co-mate event is just, I hated, I hated the co-main event the whole entire buildup. Like, why are we putting these two guys in a cage to fight each other in 2022?

What is, what is Hector Lombard and Tiago Silva doing fighting each other in a co-main event on what's supposed to be a major MMA card in 2022? Now, the fight ends in a strange way with the illegal need, ends in a no contest. You could make a strong argument that it should have been a DQ. but I have to say as bad as that thing ended I was relieved at the way that it ended

because we were going on a road we were taking a trip to dangerous town things are about to get not bad but it just felt like things were going to get bad bad bad real bad in that fight and I was actually relieved

that it ended the way that it did it probably should have been a DQ but I don't want to rematch I don't want to see it. I don't want to see it. Enough. No more. No, don't need to see Lombard Silva, too.

We've seen enough. And then the main event, whatever. GDS look great. Jorgon was fine. Yorgon wins the fight. Maybe he fights for the heavyweight title. He's probably not going to win that fight. Maybe they do JDS and Fador and they do the co-promotion thing.

which I'll address in a moment. Eagle FC 47 as a whole wasn't great. It just wasn't great. The pacing is what I've loved about these two Eagle FC cards. We can dunk on Henry Suhudo in his awful pronunciations and his just not great commentary. I thought the commentary as a whole was not great.

And I don't blame Cyrus Fis because he is, he's got a great opportunity here. And I like Cyrus. Great guy, tremendous ring announcer, a lot of good positive energy, but he's doing what he's told. So you can't really put the emphasis on him. Shale and Suhudo together are tough.

But Kamar Usman saved the day, in my opinion. I thought Usman did a fantastic job. I think he always does a fantastic job. I think he is an excellent color commentator. and I think the UFC should use him a lot more in that role. Put him on the desk. Utilize him. He's great.

He's one of the best you have on your roster, and they don't use him. I don't get it. He's so, so, so good. The broadcast changed because Usman talked a lot more, and it made it more bearable. Sometimes you have those personalities, and you throw us a hoodo in there.

It's just a rough listen. It's a tough hang, man. It really is. But then you get Oosman in there, and the professionalism rises. He just does such a good job. He's so relaxed. He's not screaming at you. He's just so chill.

He does such a good job. I don't want to dump on Eagle FC that much. Here's one thing I will say that I frigging hated on Friday. I liked some of the promo packages they did. I liked the Tiago Silva promo package. That was good. The Lombard one was fine. I liked it to the Castro line.

I hated the JDS one. I hated it. I wanted to know why I hated it because they they took that promo and found a way to insert Kane Velasquez into it, that whole situation.

Was that necessary? Did we really need to put the Kane Velasquez situation in an Eagle FC promo because JDS fought him at some point in his life? I just thought that was so weird. and bizarre, and it was so unnecessary.

We're putting his mug shot up on the broadcast, promoting JDS fighting Jorg and the Castro, because he once fought Kane to Alaska's. Why? And then we're asking JDS's opinion on it. I just thought that was so weird. It's so unnecessary. I thought it was in bad taste, honestly.

I'm sitting there watching. I'm like, is this really, like, we're talking on our private Slack channel about this. I'm like, what do they do? What is happening right now? Why is this a thing? There's just certain things that they do that just make no sense and they're unnecessary.

You don't need it. Eagle FC does a good job. And the promos and stuff, I thought the pacing on Friday was not great. What I enjoyed about the other two cards, the U.S. cards were, it was just boom, boom, boom. It's like watching a old UFC Fight Night event on UFC Fight before the ESPN deal.

When they were on Fox or FX1 or whatever they did, we had to deal with commercials and all that stuff. But when they did FightPass events that were exclusively on FightPass, you could have had 35 fights on there, and it went by so fast. Because one fight ended, next guy was walking. That fight ends, next guy's walking. No commercials, no nothing.

We're just going boom, boom, boom. This one, we didn't have that. This was more of a baritour pacing. when they're on showtime where we have to go to the desk we have to go to the commentary booth for 20 minutes we have to go and run 10 promos like just go to the fights

your production's great you do a lot of good things but now we're pacing the show so it's like five hours it doesn't need to be that it was 11 fights it was 11 fights and it almost lasted as long as the UFC car did

and you have no commercials you have your own app you have your own platform. annoying. I don't want to dump on them too much, but I have serious questions about this promotion. On the co-promotion thing, if I am Scott Coker,

if I am Bellator, I'm jumping all over this co-promotion thing. I am. Do it. Co-promote multiple events with Eagle FC. And Eagle FC is smart getting Bellator into this thing because I, listen,

I don't know where Eagle FC is getting this money. I have no clue. Where are they getting it? They're signing these huge names. From what I understand, they're paying a lot of money for these big names. Where are they getting the money? How long can they do this for?

At least if Bellator jumps in, they can split the cost of production and all these different things. They can just split it down the middle. It saves the money in the long one. And if I'm Bellator, I'm jumping on the hot hand right now. I'm striking while the iron's hot,

because I don't know how long Eagle FC can sustain this. And Bellator needs a boost badly. God, do they need a boost. They have had a horrible year. They need something to happen that gets people talking. Maybe a co-promotion is the way to go. But if you're going to do it, you can't wait. You have to do it now.

You have to do it now. Anytime Eagle FC and Bellator run events on the same day or the same weekend, Eagle FC crushes them. in traffic on our website. It's not even close. It's not even close. It's like four to five times more for Eagle FC. Maybe more people are watching the Bellator card,

but more people are interested in what happens with the Eagle FC card over the Bellator card in terms of website traffic. It's not even close. It's not even close. So if I'm Bellator, if I'm Scotty Cokes, I am taking that meeting with Habib, and I am booking it. Asap. That's a smart move.

You may have heard of the sex cult nexium and the famous actress who went to prison for her involvement, Alison Mack. But she's never told her side of the story until now. People assume that I'm like this pervert. My name is Natalie Robamed. And in my new podcast, I talked to Allison to try to understand how she went from TV actor to cult member. How do you feel about having been involved in bringing sexual trauma at other people? I don't even know how to answer that question. Allison after nexium from CBC's Uncover is available now on Spotify. All right, back to the calls.

Let's get Elon Burger in here. Elon, are you there? Just unmute. Elon unmute. All right, maybe we'll try that again later. Let's get motivated Andy. Hello, motivated Andy. What's up, buddy?

Good morning to you. Let me just say this. I don't hate Henry Sabuto. I don't hate him. I've said this many times. I respect what this man has done in combat sports. He is not a good comment. He's not a good broadcast.

I didn't watch it. I think he could even say that himself. Oh, he's so bad. I mean, in all fairness, I did watch the first two or whatever, and I thought they did great. I thought the chemistry between... You did it great?

Well, not this last event. I didn't see it up until the JDS fight, but the last two, I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the commentary in the... kind of like the back and forth, they seemed really comfortable with talking to each other. And for a team that's new, essentially, I thought it was going to be really weird. So I thought they did better than what I expected.

My question is, though, so we're at the halfway point of the year. And I was writing out my sub, my Kio, my fight. And is it just me or are all of these just going to be locks for the remaining year? I have Jessica Androja's arm triangle, sub. The CO, I mean, nobody's going to be Chandler punning Tony. I'm sorry. And then fight of the year, Homzop versus Burns. Do you think anybody that's slated right now can hold a candle to those three?

Are we talking just UFC? Are we talking? The whole gamut. Okay. All right, good question. I think Chandler's a lock for sure. it's going to take something really special to beat Homsat, Gilbert, for sure, just because of everything around it.

That was the main event of that card in a lot of people's minds. That was the fight everybody was the most interested in. So it's going to be really tough for a fight to live up to that hype and then just deliver the way that it did. Submission's got to be tough. The Andrajone is good. It was rare, and that's always a good thing. But to me, Oliver Enkamp has the submission.

of the year because we saw a freaking buggy choke. We saw a buggy choke. We never see buggy chokes. And we saw one. So to me, Oliver Enkamp has the submission of the year. The Androge one is super impressive, but to me it's the buggy choke. That's my number one. But I understand where you're coming from with the Andraj one.

Let's get K in here, perhaps. Kay, what's up? Oh, I know. Yeah. Ahed, what's up, my man? Ahed, it's Ahead. But... Ahead, my bad.

No worries. But listen, Mike, before I get on to... I've got a rant, but I want to start off with a congratulations. And that's okay. First, I've got those two points. Congratulations to you, Mike, for... Because I know you must be feeling a bit smug. You must want to say, I told you so.

When you saw Hamza at Chimaya tweet at Leon Edwards, and you know Kamara Usman's hands hurt, and you must have been feeling like, I said this from the beginning. So before I get my rant off, I'll let you say I told you so, because I know you must be thinking like a little bit, Mike, come on. Listen, I'm not going to say I told you so yet because it's not done. But all I'm saying is, and you know this pretty well ahead,

you know that, and people listen on to the next one, don't let anybody else take credit for floating the idea of Leon Edwards versus Hamzaat Shabaya for an interim title. Because I am the driver of that train. I am the conductor. I have been conducting that train since UFC 268 ended. Since Camaro beat Colby the second time, I said this is the fight they should make. They should do Edwards, Shemayev, interim title.

Let's just do it now. That's the fight to make. And I'm sticking by it. And if that fight happens, I want all of the Otno points and I want all of the praise. No one else is allowed to take any credit for this. And if anybody here that is listening to the sound of my voice sees that, you blast them. And you tell them where that came from first.

Continue on. Rant away. Yeah. Okay. So here comes, like, fair play. Like, that makes all the sense in the world. But let's go on to the ramp. Open scoring is bullshit.

Absolutely. Enough is enough is enough with this. Like, okay? Okay, let's go to Holbeierra. Like, firstly, with Holbeira, I actually found asleep for the card, like, as in because it's the UK time. and I'm so glad because apart from Chidi and obviously Pahara, it was apparently just all like decisions.

Listen, but I saw the highlights and all I've got to say is this. If you're not ready to go in for the kill, don't be upset. And you're not actively going for the kill. Don't be upset when it doesn't go your way. Okay? Like, for goodness sake, like Ariel needs to stop this. Like, this is gone too far. Like at the start when Ariel was talking about open school,

I was like, okay, this is quirky, this is a new way of looking at things. Like, open score has been talked about before, but I like the push. I like the new, uh, unique way of thinking, but no, that this is enough is enough. Like, no, open scoring does not work for multiple reasons. Firstly, firstly, there's like, Glover Tashira mentioned it as well. Like, fighters will just like play as a game rather than like a fight more. And something further has to have, you say, one of the all-time great coaches is MMA is the site where you test what works in full combat.

I got heat by like on the Ringer show and Ariel show like just on Spotify Live for saying, oh, you know, MMA is not a sport. No, I stand by that because it's more like a death match at the end of the day, right? A sport is like baseball, basketball, football, whatever. You can play baseball. You can play basketball. You can't play fighting. And that's the USP of MMA, the unique selling point, which is what attracts people.

okay it's like people go in there and we fight and we see who the better fighter is it's brutal but you know we love it at the day and at least now we know we can regulate and keep people safe but if you start making this a game like glover to show said it like as in if you let people know that they're two rounds up how easy is it going to be to how easy is it going to be for someone to shoot a double and get these little pitta pitta penta pound shots stuff to steal the round. Okay. And it just introduced even more crazy nat like because we see Bala Muhammad, he does this. And it's fine because Balao's filed like a cheat code. But you don't want to encourage more of this behavior. Okay. If people are able to get away with it, good for you.

But that doesn't mean you encourage more of it. And that's what you're going to do if you do open scoring. Secondly, right, and this links on to the first point, it's such dorky. I hear these argument. Oh, Fighter A had 10 more significant strikes than Fighter B, therefore Fighter A won the round. Fighter A had 87 seconds more control time than Fighter B, therefore Fighter A won the ride. What are you talking about? For goodness sake, someone can land 10,000 petty little jabs, but one brutal right cross is enough. That would be enough to win the round. What do you want? Do you want, like a significant strike counter in big LED light so the fighters can keep track of that as well? Do you want that? Do you want a timer to keep control, keep track of control time? What you want is

better judging. That's what you want. And something that was contradictory towards like what Ariel said. I only saw like the first minute of like Arril's like on the nose. It was like, oh, I never said open judge, open school would make judging better. But it would be a bridge. How would it be a bridge? Like when you just admit like it won't actually do anything because if it will just lead like you said before, it will lead to people getting more angry. But aren't people angry already? Well, it'd just be more of the same. It wouldn't result with David say,

oh, I can't believe that scorecard. And everyone would say the same thing. It's just more of the same. It's ridiculous. And the score cards get released anyway after the fight by MMA junkie, MMA fight, whatever. Like, they get released.

It's so insane how this argument has happened. Like, you want to keep it more of a fight, less of a sport for MMA to be more markets. You don't want people to feel less interested in MMA and then amongst the fight a pay crisis. So no, this is ridiculous. What you need is better judging. The way you do it for me is like, Holly Holm was this clinch. She didn't do anything.

Like it's deterring people from wrestling in jiu-jitsu. You can wrestle jiu-jitsu. They're beautiful arts. But I think Mastodastardust, you want to advance position. Okay, so you need to get, I think you should get Maitai judges. But because Maitai encourages work in the clinch. has clinch, but it's work. You've got to work. Boxing judges, kickboxing judges, you want to get MMA jih Tjitsu judges, like MMA fighters who are great jihitsu, because there's a difference

between pure Jiuts and MMA Jiu Jitsu. The same thing goes for wrestling and then maybe get like an MMA, like someone to judge just how well fighters mix up the martial arts because this has just become so dorky and ridiculous. And no, like there's fighters that disagree with us and this is ridiculous. Always bringing the heat ahead. I appreciate that. I will say this, just to not be a negative Nancy on the open scoring discussion. One thing that it is doing is we're getting on the road to getting on the same page. All right. Now, most of the people who have had issues with scoring are fighters who have been fighting in the UFC for like an awful long time. Holly Holm, even listening to Dominic Cruz on the broadcast,

listening to DC on the broadcast, occasionally Michael Bisbing on the broadcast, when you do something for so long, and you did it for so long where it was done a certain way, it's hard to change, especially like Dominic Cruz and Bisbing. I mean, those guys have been fighting

for like freaking two decades, maybe more in some cases. And they were used to things being scored a certain way. Things have changed. And when you do things for so long, it takes a while to get used to this new thing. And I mean, think about, like, all the rule changes in football, all the rule changes in baseball, all the rule changes in all these other sports. Like, it takes time, it takes reps, and eventually you'll figure out that damage is the number one score. It doesn't matter. This is in 2007. This is in GSP just getting punched in the face, 14 times. And then,

but then taking his opponent down and laying on him for three and a half minutes. You can't win around like that anymore. And eventually, I think everybody would get on the same page. At least this open scoring discussion is creating conversation that maybe we can get on the same page. And you can see on Twitter on Sunday, John Anick talking about it and leading his discussion, giving his honest thoughts on things, and his knowledge of the new rules and the criteria him talking to the Sean Sheehan's of the world and talking to some of the people

who have really dove deep into the scoring just so he has a better understanding of it. And I implore Cruz in Bisbing in D.C. And anyone else who's going to be on those broadcasts to do the same thing. Because the two guys on these broadcast consistently who are most familiar with the criteria are not the fighters and the color guys.

They are the lead voices. Annick and Brennan Fitzgerald know the scoring and know the criteria now better than the actual fighters do. That's a problem to me. Good on Annick and Fitz for doing their thing because they're leading the way. But they're the guys steering the ship.

They shouldn't be the ones with the knowledge of the new ABC criteria. It should be the fighters, the color guys, who are providing the information and the insight and the experience. but that's why Anick is the best in the business and I think you can make a strong case

that John Anick is the best play-by-play guy not just in MMA but in sports. In sports, I think Anick is in that conversation. You throw Anick on an NFL broadcast right now and I think he'd crush it. Absolutely annihilate. I think he would do a tremendous job. You could throw him in any sport right now

and he would absolutely crush it. He's one of the best in sports, and this is why. Perfect example. But at least we're getting a conversation going, trying to get on the same page here. So sometimes you have to, as they say, kiss a few frogs before you find your prints, and that's what we're doing with open scoring.

Let's get Denny in here. Yeah, Daddy, what's up? Denny. Unmute. Oh, there we go. Okay. There is. What's up?

Okay. I agree with you that in-camp submission should be submission of the year, although I did read that it wasn't actually a buggy choke, but was more of just an inverted triangle choke. And as far as fights that have a good chance to overtake, Kamsat, and Burns, I think Saruki and Gamrod has a real good chance. And is this Eastern Conference final series one of the most disappointing? playoffs series that you've ever been a part of. How so?

Because it's like a bad heavyweight fighter, a fight where a fighter lands one punch, and then the other fighter shells up and doesn't do anything for the rest of the fight. They've all been decided in the first quarter. Game three, not really. Southwark almost came back and won that game on Saturday. Okay, they came close, but yeah, they didn't. So, yeah, that one's a little different, but it's still, it's whoever, jumps out to the first quarter lead has won the game.

Yeah, I mean, I get it from, I get that from a non-Miamy or Boston fan. I mean, I can tell you, I've been emotionally invested in this whole thing. It's been, it's been, it was the best of times is the worst of times. And that's what the series has been. Because when the Celtics show up, no one, like, no one in the Eastern Conference is beating them. it's just up to them if they can come out sluggish at times

they can come out and like who would have thought that Jason Tatum would be the thorn and the ass of the Celtics in game three because he stunk he was not good in game three

he was the honestly he was probably the reason they friggin lost that game but we're not here to talk about that uh all right you know what we already heard from Julio but we'll hear from him again and then we'll get Brenton, and then we're going to get out of here.

Julio, what's up? Real quick. Hey, Mike. This is the first time I've been able to listen live, so I have a backlog of questions from a couple weeks ago. But you mentioned a lot about Jake Hadley and how the matchmaking was sort of pointed for him. And I remember seeing his contender series fight where he performed very well, but he missed weight. And they kept referencing about how he made the matchmakers really. mad. And I'm just curious, can you speak a little more as to what he did to piss the UFC matchmakers

off so much? Because I keep hearing all of these vague allusions to it. And it's just, it's really piquing my curiosity a little bit. Thanks. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. So as you mentioned, Jay Cadley was on the contender series. He missed weight. And apparently, and this is what Dana White was saying during the broadcast and then the post-fight press conference that night, apparently Jake Hadley was not very kind to the UFC staff members as well. He was not very nice to them throughout that week, especially after the weight miss. So Dana, despite the weight miss and despite all those issues,

gave him a contract, which apparently was. was against the wishes of Sean Shelby and Nick Bader. They did not want him. They said, do not sign this guy. And Dana went and signed them anyways. And apparently they stormed out of the building. They were that upset about it. Which leads me to believe maybe the matchmaking might be towards getting him out of there.

I don't know. Listen, Hadley's young. He's really good. But the Nassimento fight was an interesting choice. It was a very interesting choice. considering this whole situation. But that was the whole story. Matchmakers didn't want Dana to sign them.

Dana signed him. Yeah, I talked to Jake not long after that on M.A. I think if you go back into the, I think we YouTube that. If you go on YouTube and just go to our page and look for Jake Cadley, I did talk to about it. And he gave his thoughts. He thinks maybe some of the things were lost in translation.

when it comes to just communication, how they communicate in his part of the world to the United States, maybe there was just some miscommunication. Some things were not meant in the way that maybe they had sounded. But yeah, that was that whole story. Brent, what you got real quick? And then we're going to get out of here.

So I don't get yelled out by the bosses. What's up, man? Why do you think that Scott Coker has not been able to replicate more of the successive strike force? I don't think that I'm just remembering strike force too fondly. I was surprised to hear that they get beat up by Eagle FC in the website traffic. That's it. Thank you. Oh, boy.

We're going to take this road right now. Here's the thing with Bellator. It's just the matchmaking is horrendous. The decision making is horrendous. They don't have any stars. And when they do have stars, they either left. them go or they don't treat them as stars. Perfect example.

A.J. McKee beats Petrchio Pitbull, puts him away quickly, emphatically. He's your undefeated stud. And he has, with that win, he became the face of the organization. What does Bellator do after that? When did we see A.J. McKee again? We didn't see A.J. McKee again until Jake Paul. boxed Tyrone Woodley on Showtime like a month later. Why is this guy not on Good Morning America?

Why is he not on SportsCenter? Why is he not on all the shows? Why is he not doing the media tour? This guy should have been everywhere. He should have been on every show. Put him on freaking Fox NFL Sunday for God's sake. CBS NFL today, whatever. That guy should have been on every television show that had to do with sports after he won that fight.

He didn't. They didn't do that. And then by the time he fought again, they were just like, okay, who's this guy? The Showtime thing is tough because, again, I've mentioned this before. It is very expensive to be an M.A fan. And for those of you who are on here right now, I salute you for watching all this stuff. If you're paying for all of this stuff, I know there's no. nefarious means, and I'll blame you for finding them because it is expensive to watch the sport.

And outside of UFC pay-precious, like, let's just say you didn't watch a UFC pay-per-view at all. Let's just say you just watched Fight Night Cards and you watched Bellator events, and that's all you want to focus your time on. 75 bucks is too much. I get it. It costs more money to watch Bellator than it does to watch the UFC. it's a great value for the UFC. If you're doing three fight nights a month and in a pay-per-view and you have ESBM Plus, you're getting all of that for $6.99.

But if you just get ESPN Plus to watch the UFC, it's $6.99 a month. It costs you $10.99 to watch Bellator. And that's every... Sometimes you get one card. Sometimes you get two. Sometimes you get none. It costs more money to watch Bellator than it does the UFC outside of the pay-per-views. That's a problem.

That's a problem Belator needs to get a freaking TV deal Not on Showtime And if they do And if they want to get more viewership They need to Maybe

Here's the thing Like Peacock Peacock has different tiers If you have T-Pcock You get the Like if you're a wrestling fan Let's just say you're a pro wrestling fan Like I got Peacock from

To watch WrestleMania Because I watch WrestleMania every year I don't miss it The two-night thing is stupid that's another conversation for another day. But if you have Peacock and you want to watch Peacock, just for WWF, you can get the plan with no ads, you can get the plan with ads.

I think it's $499,99.99. And then they have a free version, too. You can still watch certain stuff with ads for free. If Bellator was smart, they would put themselves in a tiered system with Showtime, where you could either pay $4.99 a month, but all you get is Bellator, or, which is probably the better concept,

just do Bellator for free. Just do Bellator for free. Here's the free version. We're throwing these commercials. But more people will watch Bellator if they did it for free. Or they put them back on television. You're part of Paramount. You're part of CBS.

We can't find a station. Put them on MTV or something. Who cares? But you got to get them off a showtime and you've got to stop charging $11 a month to watch a show. because no one's going to watch it. With Eagle FC, it costs you nothing. All you can do is download the FlexCast app

but you can watch Eagle FC for free. That's why Eagle FC is always going to do better. Plus, they have bigger names than Bellator has. Eagle FC's roster has more stars than Bellator does. That's a huge problem. And that's why if I'm Scott Coker and I'm Bellator, I'm jumping all over this co-promotion deal with Eagle FC. just getting Habib attached to your product is huge.

You got to do it. You've got to do it. You've got to find a way to make this fight. Now, I don't know if they can, because I don't know how long JDS is going to be out for with the shoulder injury. But who cares? Do other things. Get cards together and just work together.

Because I think it's good for both organizations. I just don't know. I have no idea what Eagle FC's finances are. I have no idea who is their CFO. I have no clue. I have no clue. But there's no way that Eagle FC can sustain this financially. Signing all these big names to big deals with big money

and then not charging people to go to your cards or watch your cards. How are they making? I just don't know how they're making money. I don't know. I mean, maybe there's something I don't know. Maybe they're just, they have tremendous salespeople. people who can sell advertising like nobody's business. And if that's the case, good for them.

But I just don't know how this can be sustainable. I have no clue. So this is a good time for both organizations to come together. And just do it. Just get after this thing. Belator can get some interest. You get Habib behind you who is a star. Because Belator is hurt, man.

It stinks. It makes me so upset because they have a good roster. I love the people who work for Bellator. The people who work behind the scenes. They just got Michael Fidel on there as part of their PR team, which is a great. I love Michael Fidel. He's a great guy. One of the great guys in this space brought him on.

Great signing. Great addition to their PR staff. But now we're going to do something through this. We got to make it. We got to give fans something to watch. These last two main, this year has been rough. Rough. These main events for titles have been rough.

McKee Pitbull 2 was not a fun fight. It was not a fun fight. Whatever star par, which is very little after that first, after that McKee win, that you have with AJ is gone. It's just gone. He's got nothing right now. And it's unfortunate.

Pitbull, not a star. Other pit bull, not a star. Then you gave us Bader Congo, too. Horrible fight. then you did Michael Page versus Yaroslav Amosov. You were going to try to do that, which is a really rough fight for Michael Page in London. And then Yaroslav's gone.

And then what do you do? You give us Logan Storley. Why? Why would you do that? What sense does that make? We knew how that fight was going to go. Page is going to get taken down over and over again. Nothing was going to happen.

That's exactly what we got. We've had horrible main events. we've had horrible, it's just not good, like the Bellator, the France card, I'm not the, the London car was great, top to bottom, is like really fun. But it ended in such an awful way that we don't even remember the buggy choke. We had to go and look up the buggy choke in some of the cool moments that happened. It was just sad. Main event stunk.

And then we got Leona Machina getting absolutely deaded by Fabian Edwards. Like that's the takeaway is. it's got to get better like we got to do better we have to do better we have to create stars they have none they have no stars

their biggest star left Fador is probably their biggest star and he's got one fight left and I just want Bellator to do so well I really do I've made this comparison before but if you weren't here for it I'm going to make it again if you were a fan of the

not the new Fresh Prince of Bel Air show that absolutely sucks on Peacock, but if you watch the old Fresh Prince of Bel Air with Will Smith, Will Smith moves in with the Banks family and they see all this potential in Will. He's there.

There's so much potential there. Will, we know you can thrive. We know you can shine. But then you just keep doing dumb things. You sneak out the window to go to a concert when Uncle Phil told you not to go. You go and buy a car. And don't get insurance on the car.

Even though Uncle Phil told you, that's what you should do. Will Smith just kept shooting himself in the foot and getting trouble, even though he's got all this personality and this punk, and you know he can do great things. So he puts his mind to it. Bellator is like Will Smith moving in with the Banks family. It's there. They can shine.

They can do good things. They just don't. They keep shooting themselves in the foot and doing dumb things. And you don't even tell people that you're having cards. Nobody knows Nobody knows You just think that you're the UFC That you can just put a card on

And everyone's just going to watch it It doesn't work that way It doesn't work that way What the UFC does so well And yes, they're very smart and strategic With how they do it Their fighters are going on Pat McAfee They're going on SportsCenter

They're going on ESPN They're going on this network and that network and this TV station and that TV station and that podcast and this podcast. They're all with this person and this person. They're going out, taking different avenues to promote their cards.

Bellator does not do that. They just have a media day and a way in, and that's it. And now there's a fight happening. I can't begin to tell you how many people, when they ask me what I'm doing tonight, oh, I have to cover this Bellator card. Oh, wait, Belator is a card tonight. These are people who watch the UFC all the time.

They're MMA fans. So yeah. Long rant over. Show over. I am done. We got a lot off our chest today, and I appreciate that. This is why I love this show so much. I love doing it. I love doing it three times a week. Maybe there's a way we could do this more. Stay tuned for that potential. But if you came in late and you were wondering what the hell we were talking about for the last hour, don't worry.

MMA Fightings Podcasting Network. This show will be up there. It's 922 Eastern, probably before 10 a.m. So thank you all. Appreciate all the callers. Appreciate everyone hanging out, especially this entire time. You guys are absolute maniacs.

We'll see you on Thursday. Same time, 8 a.m. Eastern. We'll be back for another episode of Heck of a Morning. I wish you a heck of a morning. Have a great rest of the day. Podcast Network.