MMA Fighting - Heck of a Morning | Reaction To Dan Hardy vs. Diego Sanchez, Scott Coker Joins the Show, More

Episode Date: April 22, 2022

Is the exhibition boxing match between Dan Hardy and Diego Sanchez something that was on your proverbial bingo card in 2022? Whether it was, or not, the bout has been slated for July 2 in Manchester, England, and has been met with mixed reviews at best. On this episode of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck gives his thoughts on the matchmaking of Hardy's first combat sports bout in nearly a decade. In addition, your calls about a potential fight between Colby Covington and Khamzat Chimaev, Belal Muhammad's championship hopes, the UFC's rumored return to London in July, Valentina Shevchenko's dominance at 125 and if the new wave of contenders could change that, the trio of events between Bellator and the UFC this weekend, the stakes of Jessica Andrade vs. Amanda Lemos, and more. Plus, Bellator president Scott Coker (1:14:13) checks in to preview Bellator 278 and Bellator 279, gives his reaction to the PFL calling for a cross-promotional fight between Cris Cyborg and Kayla Harrison, and AJ McKee's future. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 8 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Friday, April 22nd, 2022, and it is a heck of a morning indeed here on the M.A. Fighting Twitter Spaces live. And then later on on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network, I am Mike Heck. It is Friday. How could you not be having just a little bit of a better day knowing that the weekend is around the corner? Of course, if you're MMA fans, this is kind of like a Tuesday because there's always

events on Saturday. And in this case, we got Bellator 278 later on tonight. If you're watching one championship right now, they have an event going on right now. We have Harrison Fury Dillian White tomorrow. We have Bellator 279 tomorrow. We have UFC Vegas 52 tomorrow. So there's a lot going on. There's a lot going on in the world of mixed martial arts. And this is a free for all Friday, as you can see in the title, which means this is your show. We're going to talk about whatever it is you want to talk about. We're just going to take calls until there are no more.

And then we're going to enjoy the rest of our day. But I do want to get something out there right off the back because for some reason, this keeps getting brought up. Every time I jump on Instagram, there's a random DM from somebody. I mean, they're very respectful about it. But I think people are misconstruing.

some of the words that are coming out of my mouth, if you will. And the topic that I have in my mind right now is the Bilal-Mohamed callout after he defeated Vicente Lucke at UFC Vegas 51 this past Saturday, because this has been something that I have just been very against. I went on Twitter seconds before Bilal Mohammed got the microphone in his face and he said

and I said all right Balal good performance just be smart with the callouts don't call out Usman don't call up Colby because you have a zero percent chance of getting

either of those fights so go for Shamias just go after the man you might not even get in my mind like he might not even get that fight but in my And also, he has a better chance to get that fight that he did the Colby fight. Now, people are questioning that.

And no one's, like, really giving me crap about it. But I guess they wanted more of an explanation for me. Listen, this is not Bellator. This is the UFC. This is not a meritocracy at this point. It's different when you're a guy like Shamiath, and you hold a lot more cards. people are willing to spend money to watch you on pay-per-view. They're willing to make sure that they invest enough time to watch you compete.

And I'm not saying that Bala Muhammad is not that guy, but I guess in a way I am because Bala, I mean, Bala is a very good fighter. Is he the most aesthetically pleasing fighter? Maybe not, but the dude wins. The dude wins. He's on an incredible winning streak. All he does is win right now. the callouts after these fights are just really bad because in a world of meritocracy,

hell, if we took the UFC roster and put it in Bellator, Bellator would try to make ball Mohammed versus Colby Covington. They would certainly try, they would hear a Belas call out and be like, you know what, let's do that fight. Let's put that one on Showtime. Cool. But here's the thing. This is the UFC.

The UFC is not going to look at that fight. and be like, oh, man, we got a headline of an ABC card with this fight. This has to be a five-round co-made event on a pay-per-view. Colby versus Shemayev, a whole different ballgame. Whole different ballgame. So the reason that I didn't like the ball call is just because I don't think Colby cares. He doesn't want to fight Belal Muhammad. Why?

Because it does nothing for him. It does nothing for Colby. If he wins, he just wins a fight. It doesn't move him any closer to a title, doesn't move him any closer to a big fight. It moves him nowhere. It moves him nowhere. He's stagnant. And Colby Covington, like most fighters, is a prize fighter.

And what a prize fighter does is you take... The definition, at least in my mind, of, like, how you win prize fighting is you take minimal risk for a lot of reward. It would have... Like Covington fighting tired Woodley, fighting Jorge Mazdaal, super winnable fights. I mean extremely winnable fights. Nobody thought Jorge Mazda is going to go in there and beat Kobe Covington. They just didn't. And this is no knock on Mazdaal.

This is just the matchup that we saw in front of us. It was a big fight that people were going to watch. The casual audience was going to be in there because you have two guys who used to be friends that are enemies that really didn't like each other that are just going to bicker at each other all the time. Casual fans are going to watch the crap out of that thing. Colby's like, yeah, I am all in on this fight because I know I'm going to win, and I know I'm going to make a lot of money doing it. So the Belal, like the Bilal fight, I would favor Colby to win that fight.

I would feel pretty confident in picking Colby to win that fight. But again, a win over Bilal Muhammad does absolutely nothing for Colby Covington. Literally nothing. It gets no closer to a third fight with Kamar, He's been gets no closer to a fight with Israel, out of Sanya, which I know he's talked about recently, gets him no closer to a fight with Dussiporier. It's just him fighting.

It's just him fighting. That's, I mean, that's literally all it is. It's just him getting in a fight. And if he wins, he's probably on a flat fee anyway, so it's not like he's getting win and show money or anything like that. He literally gets, he gains nothing from fighting Balaamah. Belal gets the rub, but Colby gets nothing. And a lot of people I hear saying that,

oh, Colby's just going to find an excuse. to not fight Hamza at Shamaa. I don't think that's true. I really don't. I think Colby will fight him because there's actually something to gain from it. If he loses, yeah, it goes out and loses to the dude

that everyone's talking about right now. But also if you're Colby, you want this to be five rounds. You want this to be on ABC. You want this to be in a big spot. Therefore, I mean, if Colby gets the Shemaiah fight and wins that fight,

it's probably fighting Kamara Usman next or getting just a gigantic fight after that. He doesn't get the same thing with Bilal. So that was basically where I'm coming from. I've gotten a lot of messages about this. I'm not knocking Bilal in general. But if you're going to go on the media tour after the fight and after you have a live microphone in your face,

just keep that same energy. Just Paul Colby out and just go after him. But the problem with Balal is he'll make a crazy callout that he's for a fight he's not going to get and then he'll realize like oh damn it i should have called out this other guy and then he goes on the media tour that ali sets up for him and then he'll call out shemaiah and at that point nobody really cares you had you shot you only have like a 30 second window to make that impact and he just didn't and that's all i mean that's all it was it's no knock on belal i think the guys i've been following baller since he was a regional fighter

since before he was in the UFC. I've been interviewing him since he was a Titan FC champion. And it's a great fighter. I'm very happy for him. But at this point, like, you got to be smart. You got to be smart. And I think if he went out there and just kind of scathing promo on Shamiya, not saying, and this is just the just case.

Like, if for some reason they can't get Colby Shemayev together, if Balal just went out there and just went on a rant about Shemayev, guess what, bro, you're beatable. You're beatable. Gilbert almost beat you. I'm better than Gilbert. And if we fight, I'm going to beat you. I'm going to hand you your first loss.

Gets a little more impact. It's a little more clout. And for some reason, they can't get the Covington fight. The law has a good opportunity to slide right in there. So there you go. Just getting that off my chest. It's a free-for-all Friday. Let's get after this thing.

I don't know if I want to do this, but I'm going to try. We have not had a lot of luck attempting this, but a little Mike in Mikey Bats chatter on a Friday morning. Mikey, how are you? Yes. Awesome, man. I got feedback, though. Can you turn down?

Yeah, I'll turn down my phone. I'm not using a headphone. I'm just using air. Can you hear me? Yeah, that's better. Yeah, that's better. What's up? Finally, I think I saw that.

I think I'd need to take out the headphones. So, good morning, everyone. How's it going? What's going on, man? Nothing much, man. Yeah, dude, I agree with you. I mean, I personally didn't mind that he called. called out the Kobe but yeah that's just one of those fights where it's just like that's a fight for a fight sick and that's always nice but he's trying to make an impact because especially especially when you're one of those fighters like you said where it's just like if your mouth does more impact than you're fighting then you have to balance it out it's like it's like what mayweather did right like Mayweather figured out the game you know be flashy be flamboyant you know talk a big game but then like

put on the most, but then put on these safe defensive fights, and the key was just to get everybody to tune in to watch them. And that's what Kobe tries to do, and that's what Belal needs to do, you know, talk of a big game, and then, you know, get people to tune in to see him fight these people that either he knows he can beat or at least can, you know, garner some attention around. I mean, it's an interesting thing. It's in such a weird flux right now because, let's be honest, the last couple of Ousman fights kind of log jammed the division, you know, like those rematches with Mazvedal and Colby didn't need to happen at the moment it needed to happen, but it is what it is, you know?

And it's just, like I said, Walter Waite's not logjam, but it needs to get flowing more. And that's why I think Chimae needs to be the guy that gets the title shot next, just to keep things moving. And then the UFC needs to put a little more muscle into, like, you know, Shaft Kat Rachmanov, but he's gonna get Magni and that's, you know, that one needs to shake out. You know, I think some of these guys needs to wait and see how the division shakes out to, you know, get these fights going. And it's just, man, I don't know, man, it's just, that's what happens when you have a dominant champion, you're left trying to scramble to find viable contenders, you know, because obviously you can just run down the,

in a perfect world, you just run down the line, right? Like you do the whole war, it's like, all right, Uspen beat 1 through 4, put up number 5. But a couple of these guys got to talk. They got to ruffle some feathers and see what happens. But this is why, this is why, oh man, I wish that the UFC and Bellator and all these other promotions that have like really good fighters, if they can all,

I'm not for a pro promotion, but like a loan system or something, like can, you know, call Coker up and be like, hey man, can I borrow Douglas Lima for a fight? You know what I mean? Can I get Michael Venom Page to fight somebody? You know what I mean? So like, just, because especially in the other divisions, like you see what's happening in the bantamweight division, right?

And I'm like, everyone's like, okay, who's next for, you know, Peter Rion or Al Jermaine Stern? And I'm like, I got, for the first time of a very long time, Bellator has a few fighters that I legitimately, want to see fight other guys in the UFC usually it's always like a tier system it's like ah you know yeah that guy would be nice to UFC but most of the guys in the UFC are like you know better than are the cream of the crop but there's a couple guys in Beltaire that I really wouldn't mind coming into the UFC like right away and it's like and the UFC dropped the ball

a couple of times too in their sense because like look at Sergio like the fight would be the fight should be Al Jermaine versus Sergio but Sergio is not in the UFC so you know It's one of those things, man. It's almost like an embarrassment of Richard problem. It's like it's a problem you want to have, but it's just, as fans, it's weird because you're just sitting there watching it all in full and just praying for these things to happen. You know, like, AJ McKee talked up all this big game and then just drop the ball and drop the belt. And it's like, you know, Pitbull has been talking up trying to fight a UFC champion for God knows how long, but is not knuckling up for it. Heck, look at what PFL is doing the belts.

I'm like, how are you, like, you're not going to get. co-promotion trying to trash Bellator on social media. Just like, I hate to say it, and I usually don't say this about Coker, but like, Coker's right. Like, give me a call, man. You want to do this sideboard Kayla Harrison fight? Give me a call. You know, it's that easy.

So I'm just, I don't know, man. It's very interesting. I'm curious to hear what your thoughts are on. Thank you, Mike. I'm glad we were finally able to get you on. Yeah, I mean, listen, Walter Waite's interesting. You got a dominant champion. You got Camaro who's been.

I still feel like Colby Covington is the second. best welterweight in the world. Homest that's in that conversation right now as well. And just one of those fights. Like there's certain fights that I wouldn't mind seeing run back like a thousand times. Like, Figure 8 a Moreno, I'll watch that fight 10 times. You know, Covington Usman is a fight I'd watch like a best of seven of. Like I thought those are two competitive fights.

And I've talked to a lot of people who felt Colby beat Usman in the second fight. I am not one of those people. I thought Usman won that fight. but there are just certain competitive matchups that are just cool. And here's the thing, here's the thing Bellator does better than the UFC. They at least, a lot of times, like, they don't execute well,

and they have good ideas. The problem is nobody is aware of these ideas until, like, the day of. Belator at least, like, tries to have fun and do ground prees and do tournaments and do all these fun things. And yes, I know what you're going to say. The UFC is doing a tournament too, but this is not, this is not the tournament that we want to see. Like when the reports came out that the UFC was going to do tournaments in all these different divisions, it was like, wow, all right, cool. We're going to see like a flyaway tournament, a Bannamway tournament, a featherway tournament.

And like the winner of these tournaments are going to go and fight for titles. And, you know, it was very intriguing thought. And then we needed like two minutes to realize that the UFC is not going to have that. kind of fun. They're going to use this to bring in more talents at less money. So that's what they're doing this for. They're putting together tournaments. They're giving fans what they quote unquote want, but it's a reason to bring in fighters on 10 and 10 contracts and pay them less to fight on these other cards. It's very, it's just a contender series on steroids, if you will, but with fighters on the most part, like outside of Asia and that part of the world that not a lot of

people know about. So at least Belator like tries to have fun. Like a BELC welterweight Grand Prix would be super fascinating. Bannum weight would be ridiculously fascinating. Featherweight would be a lot of fun. Like some of these divisions where we have dominant champions like a Volkadovsky, like an Ustman, so forth and so on, a Grand Prix would be perfect, especially like in the heavyweight division right now.

Like that'd be a lot of fun because Ingano's not fighting. I mean, hell, he might not fight the UFC ever again. Maybe he will, maybe he won't. But look at the names you have at heavyweight. Some very interesting characters. Imagine throwing Alexander Romanov at a heavyweight Grand Prix right now, a guy that's not ranked, but a guy that everybody is super high on. What if he goes out there and just steamrolls everybody?

You throw Romanoff in there with like, it got it. Like, you get some really interesting storylines. But here's the thing. Bellator tries to have more fun than the UFC. It's just more people know what's going on in the wonderful. world of Endeavorland. Let's get Hendricks in here on a free for all Friday.

Let's see. The wheel is spinning. The wheel is spinning. Hendricks, are you there? You just got to unmute. I don't know if you have headphones on. I'm here. I'm here. There we go. What's up, buddy?

Oh, good friend. How are you? Good. What you got? Okay. Well, I think that since we're just going, we're not really specific in anything right now since we're just trying to

just freestyle considering what we're talking about. I would say being knowing the fact that the UFC is now more of has turned

into a little bit of a political more than talent. I would say Yeah, you know, we know that, okay, there are a lot of boring fighters. We have Bella, Mohammed. Prior to when Usman became champion, he was also this, he was, he was more of a sit down, lay on you, grappler, same thing, same, same thing Leon Edwards is doing.

And he's on a nine-fight win streak. But at the same time, he's not, he hasn't been, he's not even put in the, title conversation because nobody wants to see another man Leon, another man for, for how many minutes just consistently over and over. But at the same time, I think UFC is beginning to put, actually, no, mostly UFC, actually, because one, ballet tour, you know, they, you know,

you could say they put talent above the whole social media and, how do they say, say social media and your WW promote, I didn't want to use that word, but it had to get down to it because you know, it's becoming a way to

you know, I think it's nice, it's nice that people, fighters have their own personality and fighters can have you know, you can, you have Kobe covering to his personality, okay? When, before, prior to when Kobe was, developed this persona of the

savage the savage American you know make America that kind of stuff that I love that person actually

I wish he had he had done that I mean I wish that was prior to when it was announced that he would get caught you understand so him getting

him him developing that persona after we realized that okay he was going to get Dana was going to call him and all of that kind of thing

it just felt like oh this thing it's just like a coping mechanism or a way to rescue the situation and all that kind of thing. So yeah, but be that as it may, be that as it may, I think that the UFC is focusing too much on the personas that fighters can create and more than the talent that they have to offer. I mean, like I said, one isn't doing this, Belator isn't really focused on this. have the PFL, you know,

I just started watching PFL matches just how long ago. And I'm like, wow, you know, because I've been mostly strictly UFC by, ever since I started watching, and I've been mostly UFC my whole life. So watching other

promotions, doing things that don't just involve people having to yap and yap throughout press conferences and base the entire PPV around things like that. It's just,

it's, it's, I don't know, it's a breath of fresh air if you want to put it in that, in that context, you understand.

That's what I feel regarding, that's what I feel regarding, just the, the personas that UFC push. And another thing, for Hamzat Shimaev, I think you said something about the fact that he,

it wouldn't cost Kobe anything to fight him right now. because if he loses, he lost to a guy who has all the hype around him. And if he wins, he just solidifies his place as the top two water weights in the whole wide world. And I think you are right about that because at this stage, Hamza Achimai is that, you know, he's that new kid on the block with he's fresh, he's hungry, the guy is so hungry. He wants to fight.

He wants to dominate. He wants to own everybody. But, you know, I think that when it gets down to it, we can all argue about how, yeah, he wants, how he may lose, you understand? Because at this stage, I don't see him after what he did with Burns, it's very hard to see him, you know, because it's very hard to see him going anywhere with Kobe. You understand, especially Kobe Covington, not anybody as Kobe Covington himself. You know, I don't see him, though. But at the same time, the fact that he's hungry and his drive is very, is very lovely to see.

And I hope we get to see more of that in the UFC, not just the, you know, the persona that he has, he's, he's hungry. You understand? He pushes this person. He looks like he wants to fight. You understand? He looks like he's Twitter handle is active. You know, he calls out fighters. And that's cool.

But it's not just limited to what he, he says on the road. or how many videos he does or what he says on the media and everything like that. You can't see it in his eyes that he actually, it gives me this, this 20, McGregor, I think, 2013 or so, I would say, if I'm not getting the incorrect. You understand? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Atrix, I appreciate you, my man. We got to move on, though.

I don't mean to cut you off, but we get a lot of people waiting in line. Some interesting thoughts, though. I will say that, Hendricks. Here's the thing. Bellator won, PFL. I mean, if you're into that kind of thing, when you're not, you're worried about just martial arts competition.

You're worried about just fights for fight's sake. It is a refreshing thing. And that's why MMA is such a great sport because there's so many promotions, there's so many different things going on. There's, there is the breath of fresh air. And when people talk about the UFC

in some of the matchmaking that they put together, I always say, all right, well, if you don't like it, you go to Bellator and Bellator will put together the sort of matchups that you like. It's all Maritocratic. It's all one fights two, three fights four, five, fights six, all that kind of stuff unless there's injuries and other things. But see, here's the thing with the UFC. They're successful because the brand is what it is. Like here's a great example. I think pro wrestling right now, despite people saying that it's like in one of the best spots it's ever been, I think pro wrestling sucks.

Like I think it sucks. The WWE sucks. It's horrible. Ross sucks. Smackdown sucks. NXT sucks. All those shows are awful. And I made a terrible mistake of trying to watch those shows before WrestleMania because I never miss WrestleMania.

And I don't even know what's on the show. I have no idea what's on the show. But it's WrestleMania. It's the brand. And I'm not going to miss it. I'm not going to miss it. For some reason, I always find myself watching WrestleMania. Now, did I know that Steve Austin was going to be part of night one?

Of course I did. So you bet your ass I was watching that first night. But the second night, I fell asleep halfway through because the show sucks. Like, the show sucks. The way they put these shows together are horrendous. It's awful. but it's WrestleMania, it's the brand, and for some reason I don't miss it.

And that's what the UFC has done at this point. They have made themselves their own brand to the point where Belator 279 compared to UFC Vegas 52 is a thousand times better. It's a thousand times better card. They have the better fights. Main events, I mean,

well, the main event for the UFC is a little more competitive, but Chris Cyborg is a way bigger star that both women in the main event of the U.S. It's a better card, more intriguing fights, but more people are going to watch the UFC because the UFC is the brand. My father thinks the UFC is a sport. Oh yeah, you're going to do that UFC thing. Like he fuses UFC for MMA.

He thinks MMA is like its own separate promotion. But there's a UFC and then there's MMA, right? Like that's how people in the bubble and out of the bubble sort of view the UFC. it's pretty wild. But yeah, some interesting points. And the Colby thing, I just want to touch it real quick. Colby's a guy that probably nobody has talked to Colby Covington more than I have in his entire UFC run. And I will say that before this make America great political side of Colby that kind of got over in whatever way you want to look at it,

Colby was actually a really strong interview early on in his UFC career. talked a lot of fire. He said some things about, like, he, he fired at Kamar Ushman pretty early in his career. And I remember the first time I interviewed him before he got to the UFC. I was like, all right, this guy's pretty good. And then before he was, when he was winning fights,

he was trying to get top 15 opponents. He was talking. And this is right around the time when he was holding up signs outside and people were taking pictures of him saying, like, we'll fight for food or whatever because no one would take a fight with him. but he was on fire on those interviews and he didn't need to talk about politics or anything's controversial or anything like that he just fired he just went off the top of the dome was had some

some vigor to him some fire in his belly and he's always sort of had that in him he really in my opinion never really needed that persona it just never showed that when the red light was on and then his fighting style at the time wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing didn't have a ton a personality to back it up, at least when he had a live microphone in front of him. But he was doing those interviews back in the day with me in like 2017. Man, was firing on all cylinders. And it was a surprise to me that he never really got over. But he ain't shy about the red light now.

That's for sure. Let's move on. Let's go to Hamilton. Let's see. Wheel is spinning. Hamilton, just got on mute. Hamilton, are you there? Hello.

Hi. Hello, sir. Hi, good morning. First of all, my English is not so good, but I'm going to try to say one or two things. You are talking about Kobe Covington and Shimaevi, right? Yes. Well, we can talk about whatever you want, but that's one of the things we're talking about today, for sure. I think in a possible fight between them, I would bet one dollar in Kobe Covington. I think he's a very good fight. Shimeyev also, but I think the style of fighting by Kobe Covington would be enough for beating Shimeyev with wrestling and take it down, etc. Dourino, Gilbert Burns, almost won him some days ago. And I don't like Kobe Covington, really, don't like.

him but he's a very good fight I think he he could beat Shimaev and second thing I'm waiting for the Chris Cyborg's fight tomorrow and I would like to listen what what do you think about Chris Seiberg her career and her possible next fights in Bellator or out of Belator That's all. Thank you very much. Sorry by my bad English. And bye-bye.

Thank you, Heavenson. Your English is great. Your English is fantastic. Thank you so much. So Chris Iborg, listen. She's in the conference. I actually think she's the best female fighter of all time. Amanda Nunes, what she has done,

Amanda Nunes has the win over Chris Iborg. So if you want to say Amanda Nunes is the greatest. female fighter of all time. Sure. It's not anything I'm going to, like, go crazy about. And it's not a hill I'm willing to die on. But at least in my personal opinion, after Amanda got stopped by Giuliana Pena, not only did she lose the Banimoy title, but I think she lost the title of being the

best female fighter of all time. I think it's Chris Seiborg. I think she changed the game in a lot of ways. And I know there's, in some people's eyes, there's kind of an asterisk on that. because of some of the early drug testing and all that stuff, but who cares? You know, that was a long time ago. We still talk about when baseball is great,

when the home runs are being hit, McGuire, Sosa. Nobody cared about steroids and all that stuff then. This is a sport that needed to come back and get some juice behind it. No pun intended. But, yeah, I mean, there's no asterer something now. She's passing all the tests. She fought for the UFC. Yeah, she lost to Nunes.

but I would love to see what that fight would look like now, honestly. And that's why I really want to see what Cyborg versus Kayla Harrison would look like. I think that would be a really interesting fight. It's the most interesting fight you can make right now for Kayla Harrison. And for Chris Seabor, if we're being honest.

But who knows? And then the Colby Shemayev thing, listen, if you think Colby's going to beat Shemayev, I ain't going to argue with you. It's an interesting fight. Now, if it's a three-round fight, I'm favoring Shemayef to win. But in a five-round fight, all Colby has to do is win one of the first three rounds.

And I think he's got a real good chance to win. Just win one of the first three rounds, get into rounds four, survive the powerful onslaught that Shamiyav's going to bring. And he's got a chance to win. That style, he doesn't stop. He doesn't get tired. The chain wrestling, the attempt to takedowns, just the 100 mile an hour.

I'm going to throw everything at you, a pace that everybody would get tired from. It's not going to get him tired. He's going to keep going. And we saw Shemaiv get tired in that Gilbert's fight, and how could you not? Because that fight was ridiculous. But one person who wouldn't be tired in a fight like that is Colby. So that's what makes that fight really interesting.

I'm going to bring him my man Stevie Ray because if you haven't checked this out, he did a tremendous piece about a regional promotion, XFC, I believe. I believe that's what it was. But I did read it. It was really good. Kind of being some scumbags out there. Kind of being some scumbags. Screwed over some shareholders,

screwing over fighters. I'm seeing fighters on social media complaining. I've seen employees of this promotion complaining and rightfully so about not being compensated for their work for the promotion, whether it be in or out of the cage. And I was always a little skeptical about this promotion and what they were trying to do.

And it turns out my skepticism was right. And I know this for sure because of the great work of Stephen Ray, who joins us right now. You could read that piece on the scrap. You're probably seeing it on social media all over the place. Stevie, what's up, man? Great job on that, by the way.

Thanks, Mike. Thanks, thanks for having me on again. And thanks for supporting my work. And yeah, quite a shocking piece, I think, for everybody. Well, aside you much, we're skeptical from the beginning, I think. Yeah, I mean, here's a lesson in life. Me being kind of the old senior in the bunch in the semi-May media space, one of the older gentlemen.

If it's too good to be true, it probably is. So that's kind of how I felt about it. But yeah, you did a really good job on that, man. Thanks, my man. Yeah, I've got more coming on the topic more based on fighters who have been putting out stuff in their social media about not being compensated yet. But yeah, that was just mainly on the CEO, Steve Smith, who's kind of got this pattern, you know, as you would have read of kind of ripping off fighters, companies, employees, shareholders, things like that. Yeah. so yeah it's definitely definitely something i recommend listeners to keep an eye on yeah we'll have more

coming on the matter but today mike i just wanted to ask you a quick question about uh obviously the rumoured july 23rd card uh that should be happening in the UK sure so obviously we've seen yesterday that Mohammed macaa i've got booked against Charles Johnson which is a absolute bang over a fight 100% and i want to know your thoughts on that fight and also potentially on the thought of and Usman Edwards in the UK. Obviously, probably the first UK title fight since Bisspeng Henderson in 2016. Thank you, Stevie. Yeah, by the way, again, go check that out on the scrap.co.

Stevie did a really good job writing that piece, doing some really good stuff, talking to people on the record, just really good stuff. Well done. Great journalism right there. Steve's a good guy. Yeah, I mean, I've been hearing July the rumblings about the UFC returning to UK. these are rumblings that have been happening since the first card, since the March card that went over. When I was in Jacksonville, there was a lot of talk about July being a thing.

The date was kind of up in the air. Was it going to be the 23rd? Wasn't it going to be the 30th? I know there's been kind of a little wishy-washiness going on with the second pay-per-view. Is it going to be in Anaheim? Is it going to be in Dallas? It's going to be in London. Nobody really knows. So, I mean, a lot of the things are still trying to be worked out. Usman Edwards was kind of a targeted thing because Dana even said it after the March card that, man, the one thing we're missing on that car is the title fight. And here's the thing. And I've said this on the show before.

If you're going to do Usman versus Edwards, that's where you do it. That is the exact place where you do that. No one else makes sense. You can't do Usman versus Edwards in Vegas. I mean, you could if you just need to fill a spot, but like it's just going to be like two guys fighting in front of a crowd that's just like, cool, there's two guys fighting and one of them has a shiny gold belt.

But in England, here's people waiting for Leon to get his moment, right? He's winning all these fights. Has it been the most impressive? Probably not. Are people hankering to see Leon Edwards fight? some are most aren't if you listen to this show for the last 11 episodes that's just kind of the way people feel about Leon but if you want to get this guy over if you want to make him look like a potential star for your company you do that fight in London it will invoke emotion from that crowd people boo Usman out of the building

and Usman loves that and Leon will look like a massive superstar That London crowd was incredible in March. And can you imagine an English fighter fighting for a world title at that arena with those fans? It would be amazing. It would be absolutely amazing. And if that's what ends up happening, it's a great move. It's a great move on the UFC's part, putting that fight in London, trying to get Lee on the rub and getting Oosman that kind of like that heel persona, if you will, in that spot. So I love it.

The Mahiaf Johnson fight, I love great matchup. And it just goes to show you that. And I actually don't blame a lot of fighters for this. Like, I don't blame a lot of fighters for this. Mahiaf, I'm sure Mojave was offered to a lot of guys in the 125 pound division. Probably guys top 15. Maybe guys in the top 10 were offered that fight. But like, again, the risk reward is.

just not there. Like, I liked the Tim Elliott call-out from Mahiaf. I thought it was a great call-out. And Tim Elliott's a dog. He's a G. He'll fight anybody. But at this point in his career, especially after the long laugh that he had,

he's trying to make money, he's trying to win fights. Risk reward is an important thing. It's something that has to be thought about. It's something that has to be put into play. And for Tim Elliott, I don't blame him for being like, nah.

Not right now. win a couple of fights, then I'll fight you. The risk reward isn't there. But it's just, it's, it's kind of telling that the UFC had a goal outside the promotion to find a flyweight to fight Mahayev, which, listen, the guy is super talented. And I've said this before. I am very confident he will be a UFC flyweight champion someday. And I'm very confident that he will win the Bannamway title someday.

I think he's that good. I am that high on him. And he's super young. He's eight years away from his athletic, from his athletic prime, and he's still this talented. He is a blue chipper. He is impressive.

And Charles Johnson's no joke. I love the matchup. Really, really love it. It's good stuff. Let's get Bob Sexton in this morning. I mean, look at this picture. He's got the full suit on. I mean, how can I not?

Bob, how are you? Doing good, Mike. How are you guys doing? What's going on, man. Man, I just want to say, I think it's pretty clear-cut. and dry the the next three fights for welterweight i mean it's it's it's written you know right out it's you got uh usman against leon you got uh chameyv uh versus kovi and then you've got um burns versus

um um muhammad i mean it's clear cut and dry there's your there's your three fights it'll eliminate some people and then uh as far as you know People saying anything about what you said about Bilal's callout. I mean, I think you're absolutely right. I mean, these guys have management. They've got coaches around them. These things should be discussed before they go out. You know, if you win, here, like I said, it's laid out.

Here's the course. You're not going to get these fights. Let's go hard in the paint and let's call out Gilbert Burns. Or, yeah, you can throw your chimia. I know you're real big on the chimay of one. You know, you should have went hard in the paint for him. him but I think realistically that fight wouldn't happen after the after this win for him and uh yeah man i just like i said to me it's just so clear cut and dry and i absolutely agree with you that going

after ooseman or covington that's just not going to happen thank you bob i appreciate that yeah listen again i am a proponent of shooting for the stars and hoping you pull something down right but i mean come on man like you just made this man mistake. You beat Wonderboy again and Shemayev's right there. He's right there. And you get on the mic and you call out Usman. Like you're just waiting. It's like a buildup. It's like you're at an award show and you're like, okay, this guy's definitely going to win. This guy's definitely going to win. And you're just in, and it's anticipation, you're waiting for them to officially announce it. And then they announce somebody who you would never thought would win. And you're like,

Oh, come on. And that's how I felt about the last two Muhammad calls. And I was, this one hurt a little, this one stung a little more because I felt like he knew the mistake he made after the Wonderboy fight. Calling out Usman was just silly. It was just, it was a bad move. But again, if he called out Shami if there, it wouldn't have been Gilbert Burns in that fight with Hamzaat Shamaif at UFC 273. Probably would have been Belal Muhammad in that fight at UFC 273. And I think Muhammad knew that

And he was like, damn it. So we went on the media tour And then he started calling on Hamza. Okay, cool. But you had your chance. The window closed. You could say it and try to create headlines. But what everyone's going to remember is you taking that opportunity

and you calling out the champion in a fight that you were nowhere near, especially from a UFC level of business. And then you have another chance. You go out, you beat for Sente, De Luque, a guy who is super scary, very boogeymanish in this division, a guy that was so vicious. Kaposa was calling the all-violence champion. Well, you know how respected Kaposa is in this space.

And Blal goes out there, puts on a frustrating performance for you're a Lucke fan, just goes out there, stifles him, shuts him down, gets a big win, negates a knockout loss from several years back, and here you go, man. Shamiya's the talk of the town. People feel like his stock has dropped. He's been the most talked about thing since UFC 273. You get a live mic in front of you. Here's your chance, man.

Even if you don't get it, people are going to talk about it and be like, damn, that Belaw Muhammad. What a gangster. This guy doesn't give any Fs. Went after the boogeyman. Went after the big bad Shemaiah. Respect. And here's the thing.

If they can't get the fight with Colby Dunn, guess who the first phone call is going to be to. It's going to be to Blah Mohamed. He gets the first phone call. Why? Because they remember him getting on a live microphone talking to Daniel Cormier, calling him out and cutting a promo on him. But instead he calls out Colby, and it was just like,

really? Colby's not going to take that fight. He's just not. And it's not because he's afraid. It's because he's a businessman. He's a prize fighter. It's like Nate Diaz isn't going to fight below. Muhammad? Why would he? It does nothing for him. Same with Colby. That's all. Again, this is Belator. If this was Belator, Belaw probably gets that fight. Or at least they'll offer it. But Colby is not going to fight Belaw Mahomet. He might not even know who Bilal Muhammad is, honestly. And I'm not saying that disrespectfully. I'm saying that true, like with true honesty. He might not even know who Bilal Muhammad is. But, but, but, but

But I hated the callout. It was awful. It was just not good. It was just not good. Now, if you want to call Colby out, you do it reverse. You call out Shemaya, then you do the media tour. You double down on that. And then you can mention Colby.

That's the way you do it. You don't do it the other way. That live microphone is so important. It really is in those spots, especially if you're a guy like Belaw's winning fights, trying to get that respect, breaking into the top five. That's your moment. That's the moment everyone's going to remember.

Tristan, let's get you in here. What's up, buddy? Hey, Mike. So, before you give me your list, two things. I did listen to your interview with Dracar Close. And I was, I want to know your reaction because I was taken aback when he named the trainer. That was Eddie Child. It threw me off.

I was like, what? You know, when he had his beef. at, I guess, fight ready. So your reaction to that, because I didn't get to hear that. And then as far as on my list with Brennan Roy Val, I just don't know if he's going to be able to beat any of the guys above the top five. I mean, I think he's got a fight against Matt Schnell. I think he could win that fight.

And then I think he could be Alex Perez, but, I mean, Pantotages look great. Ascroft is going to be Ascarov's Ascarov. And then Kikai, Friends, is a totally different fighter. So, I mean, if you lose to any of those guys, I don't think the title shot is going to be there. But, you know, that's all I got to say about that. So I'll let you speak. Thanks, man. Yeah, I was surprised he dropped the name.

I think he kind of gave it away. So I don't think he really had a choice because he's like, yeah, he talked about all the other interviews. He never really named the coach. But then he kind of let it slip that he followed him over to fight ready. So I kind of knew what it was. And I think he knew that I knew who it was. So he dropped the name of Eddie Chow, which was, I have to say it was kind of surprising because I've known Eddie for a long time. And I've never heard anyone really say that about Eddie.

So that was a little interesting. Let me see. And then the Brennan Royval thing, listen, he fought Kai Kar-Francy and beat him. And it wasn't all, it wasn't that long ago. He finished him. That fight was insane. By the way, if you haven't watched that fight, go back and watch it. Brandon Royval versus Kai Kar-France.

It's ridiculous. Go back and enjoy some absolute. chaos. But Royval's good, man. And that's why he was, and that's why I was probably more excited about Brandon Royval signing to the UFC than anybody, because I knew this is the kind of fighter you're going to get. Now you have to find a way to control that chaos in a way. You have to find a way to take the Justin Gaichi of Brandon Royval and just tone it down a little bit. Like use the chaos to your advantage, but not be chaotic 100% of the time. And Gaethe, you can, you can, can say that he's chaotic 100% of the time,

but at least he tones it down a little bit. He does it in spurts. He picks the right spots for it. He's just kind of a zombie, if you will. And Revaal's the same way in a lot of respects. Revaal's super fun to watch. And I do think he could fight for a title. I really do.

It's just a matter of honing that and getting it all together because he's still a young guy. He hasn't been a full-time fighter for very long. He was working multiple jobs. He's still trying to kind of figure that whole thing out. like how can I what is it like being a full-time fighter? How could I balance out the rest of my life

and not just think about fighting all the time every second? How could I still be a student in the game but not be obsessed with fighting? The Brandon Royval, and I love like the psychological side of fighting, the mindset of a fighter. And I think Brandon Roy Val would be a very interesting guy to just kind of study the mindset of a fighter

because every time I interview him, it turns into like a therapy session in a way where I'm just so fascinated by the way he approaches the sport. Interesting the damn list. I mean, I talked about the contending for a title one, I think pretty well.

I liked a lot of your names. I'm going to add Muhammad Bahiaf to the list. I think that's the fifth guy that I have and the top five UFC fighters that you think may never contend for a title, but are the most fun to watch. I liked your list as well. I like the Juliana Rosa.

I think Charles Jordane's a good name. Nico Price is a good name. Michelle Paheda is a good name. I like Michelle Paheda. I think he's super talented. I just don't think he's fighting for a title. What's another name? I have to think about it.

Let me see. There's got to be somebody else out there. Pedro Munoz. He's an excited guy. I don't know. I should have spent more time on that, Tristan. I'm sorry. But I liked a lot of your answers that makes you feel good.

All right, let's fire through these. Elon. Elon, are you there? Yes. Hello, Mike. What's going on? Hey, so while we're on the topic of fly weights, I have a question about, I'm sorry, Mohamed Mahayev, and I have a question about the star weights that are fighting this weekend that no one really seems to care about, but I think it's a fun fight.

With Mohayev, my question is, if you're a ranked flyweight, say Rosario Bonterine or or Mateus, Nicola, whoever, in the bottom half of the ranked fly weights, why not fight Mojave now? While you can get him while he's super young and super raw, although he does appear to have pretty refined skills, why not fight him now? And then my question regarding the straw weights

is, what are the stakes for this fight? I'm kind of confused whether, whether Lamos is a position to be fighting for a belt if she wins like this fighter and the next one coming off of a pretty controversial split decision against Angela Hill that I thought Hill won and I think on MMA decisions like 11 media members scored it for Hill or something like that so that's all I got

thank you Mike thank you sir I want to hang out with that guy's hanging out he was like he was at an outdoor bar at 853 a.m. Eastern time. And yeah, let's go. Yeah, I mean, I don't know, Mahat McHiv's real good. And I think, I don't think people were, I mean, I was expecting him to be that good. And I think those who have followed his amateur career and those have followed his short professional career, kind of understood what they were getting with this guy. But you always have those questions. What's going to happen when you actually step in that octagon and those lights are upon you,

are you going to be able to fulfill the same thing? The quote-unquote octagon jitters are they going to be there. And if so, how much will they be there? How much will they play a factor in these fights? And Maheuf, Cody Dernit is a good fighter. Like, he's a tough dude. You may not like some of the things that come out of his mouth, but the guy can scrap.

And Mahi have ran that man over. Nobody runs that guy over. And he went out there and ran him over in less than a minute. That opened up a lot of eyes. They were like, damn, this guy is as good as advertised, might even be better. And I think flyweight's kind of a different division. It's not as deep as welterweight and lightweight and bantam weight. It's a fun division.

It's a division that's growing up and is starting to get some steam, especially over the last couple of years, with Tehudo and then Figurato and then Moreno and then back to Figurato. There's a lot of buzz around 125. It's kind of like how we view the women's straw white division, which we'll get to next. But you just know, like, these guys aren't going to let you down. You know, if there's a flyway fight on the card, yeah, maybe they bury it on the prelims or whatever, and they shouldn't do that, but you know the fight's going to deliver. And that's why.

It's just not a deep division. There's probably like 30 guys in this division. So every fight counts a lot more at flyweight than it does at welterweight and it does it lightweight and featherweight and so forth and so on. So, yeah, I mean, I mean, you could have that mentality. But again, is the juice worth to squeeze to fight this killer right now for very little reward? I mean, he's unranked. There's nothing really for you.

It's just a scary fight. And unless they offer you some more money, I just, I mean, the risk reward is just not there. I get it. I get it. That's why I had no issue with Tim Elliott being like, nah, I'm not. fight you, man. Win a couple more, then I'll fight you. Make the fight a little more valuable to them. But it's tough. He's really good. And then, yeah, listen, Lamos, I draw just a fun fight. I mean, if we're looking at UFC rankings, it is a good fight. I think Lamos, I'm

kind of stunned by this batchmaking because, again, you mentioned the Angela Hill fight, and I thought she, it was close. I don't think it was a robbery. I might have scored it for Hill. I have to go back and watch it and just to like double check, because I believe. believe that was the same card as because I was in Tampa I believe it was the same night as the Jake Paul Tire-Ruilly 2 fight and I was in the arena covering that

craziness as that show was going on. So I watched it. It was kind of on my laptop as the proceedings are going on in Tampa. So I didn't watch it fully close, but I know a lot of people thought Angela Hill won that fight and that's kind of the story of Angel Hill's career at this

point. Like she's in all these great scraps with tough fighters and loses these close decisions more often than not. But yeah, I mean, maybe what's it said? Not a title shot, I can tell you that, but maybe you find your way into a fight with like a Marina Rodriguez or something and maybe a number one contender fight. I don't know. I don't know. It's just, it's kind of a not a placeholder fight, but we're kind of just trying to keep our

same spot. That's where they're at. But you have two must win for both ladies for sure in the title. But in terms of like moving forward, you're kind of just defending your spot. At least that's the way I look at it. Welcome aboard Air Canada. Rocky's vacation here we come. Whoa.

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

Nice travels. Wi-Fi available to AeroPyme members on equip flights sponsored by Bell. Conditions Apply. See Air Canada.com. We're going to take a couple more. Let's get Max in here. Max, what's up? Max?

Hey, what's up? Hello. Mr. Heck, how you doing? I apologize. If my phone dies, it is a terrible phone. But I just wanted to ask your opinion on the Dan Hardy Diego Sanchez about. I know you reported it. a lot of things to talk about with that obviously with Diego's recent history,

Dan Hardy's decade-long absence, and yeah, I just kind of, I'll jump off here just so my phone doesn't die and leave me in the lurch, but I wanted to hear your opinion on it. Thanks very much. Thank you, Max. Check out On Point MMA, do good work over there. The fight's stupid. It's dumb.

I hate it. Absolutely hate it. Pretty awful. I hope they're, I hope they're making, I hope they're each making like a million dollars. Then it like softens the blow a little bit. But no interest in it whatsoever. I mean, literally no interest.

I really hope like, listen, I'm a company man. I'm a company guy. And if MMA fighting says, hey, Mike, listen, you drew the short straw, you got to cover it, you got to watch it, that I guess I'll watch it. But that's literally the only way I'm watching that fight. I hate it. I mean, I honestly, I hate it. I hate it.

Now, you want to throw Diego Sanchez an M.A fight? You want to throw them in a grappling match? Let's party. Let's have a good time. I just don't want to live in a world where Diego Sanchez gets punched in the face. I just don't want to live in that world, especially a boxing match. Like, M.A. might get punched in the face, but he's not going to get punched in the face as much as you would in a boxing match. And I know it's an exhibition.

I know it's 16-ounce gloves. But we have two guys who aren't necessarily boxers. We got Dan Hardy and Diego Sanchez. We're going to go in there and just going to throw bombs at each other. They're just going to throw 100 miles an hour at each other. Like, who wants to see this? Who wants to see this? I mean, if you do, if that's your cup of tea, then, hey, listen, you are who you are.

Fine. But in my eyes, this is dumb. This is dumb. Whatever, get paid. Functionally crazy, Chris. Good morning, my man. Are you watching Dan Hardy versus Diego Sanchez? July 2nd. Make sure you're unmute.

Functionally crazy, Chris, unmute. Let's go. Yeah, sorry, dude. There we go. Actually, it's kind of funny, right? It's kind of funny that's going on. If I find myself with nothing to do and I see a notification on Twitter or something that's happening that night, like, I guess I'll watch that, but it is weird, right? It's the same day as it's the same day as 276. So if you want to drop that, you want to drop it at noon? Yeah, you want to throw that. Darrow, well, I'm eating my turkey sandwich at lunchtime.

All right, cool, but that's it. I don't know, man. We got Mike Tyson borderline knocking somebody out on a plane. We got this boxing match happening. But I just wanted to touch on what you said with Bellator. I even saw recently on Bellator the last part. The common consensus that I saw was people just dogging Bellator for the marketing or lack thereof.

And I kind of, you know, I don't know what it is, but to me, if you, you know, put Scott Coker in the struggling days of the UFC, I don't think the UFC makes it. Correct me if I'm wrong. There's just something about the guy that's like the lack of energy. It's just like, I get the feeling that he's just kind of like, yeah, we're second in the in the MMA world and we're just kind of fine with that. I kind of get that vibe from him. It's weird because cross-promotion with certain champions, so on and so forth, would be kind

of cool. And my last thing I want to say is I doubt you remember, but I remember bringing up the mauler, Gustafson, a couple of weeks ago, and he reminded me he had a heavyweight bow coming up, and then, of course, it gets canceled. But an interesting thought I said, imagine if John Jones and Alex meet up at heavyweight. Just something that could be interesting. That's all I wanted to say, man. Cool.

Thank you, functionally crazy, Chris. Yeah. I will say this. I've talked to, as Jed Michoud calls him, Scotty Cokes many times over the years. I had the chat to talk to him on Wednesday evening. And Scotty Cokes was, that's a fire in his belly. He did. Like, oftentimes it's just, you can tell, like, you don't get Scotty Cokes, like, just by himself.

Normally, he's knocking out, like, a slew of interviews, like, back to back to back to back. And I think a lot of fighters, I see Aaron Brons that are on there. And I think Aaron can attest to this. Sometimes you're putting in these media days. situations and you're like third or fourth enlist and you want to try to be different and you want to try to ask some unique questions and try to get the fighters thinking in different ways but at same time it's hard to set those up without going back and asking questions that are somewhat redundant right like you have to set the table with questions they've probably gotten already but

you have to try to find a way to navigate in different ways with scott koker you could tell like off the bat there are some different questions that he was getting that he really didn't want to answer. But then I brought up the PFL thing and how they're trying to get this Harrison Cyborg fight co-promoted. And Scottie Cox had some fire in his belly.

Probably as intense as I've seen Scott Coker. And it's not like he started yelling and screaming and turned into Dana White and got all red face. But you could tell like he was pissed. He was pissed at the way that PFL has handled the situation. Multiple callouts on social media. Multiple appearances on interviews.

multiple tags and Twitter not the way Scotty Coker wants to do business he would entertain this idea Scott Coker has talked about co-promoting with other promotions if it's right for a long time since he took the reins of Bellatories

he's like listen you want to play this game like we'll talk pick up the phone call me up and we'll have a conversation that's why they've been able to work with Risen he said that they're talking to Eagle F.C. right now about doing something with them sending fighters to Habibn-Namaga-Madov's organization, maybe doing something there. Not necessarily a cross-promotion, but like maybe sending Eagle FC fighters to Bellator for a

fighter to, sending Bellator fighters to Eagle FC for a fighter too. Like Scott Coker said like these conversations are happening right now. So it's not like he's closed-minded to the idea of a cross-promotional event or a fight to book this fight because business-wise, booking Kayla Harrison, versus Chris Cyborg, if you can get a piece of that pie, you got to take it. Chris Cyborg has three months left on her current deal. It's not like a fight situation. I think July, it's done.

Like, Chris Cyborg is a free agent in July. Now, if you're Chris Cyborg, you have the opportunity to do what many people in business and life cannot do. You have the chance to have your proverbial cake and eat it too, because you have a pretty cushy gig right now. You're making big money. You're one of the faces of a promotion that people know about. And you're fighting people that you are incredibly ahead of, miles and miles ahead of. You're making good money to win fights. Like, you're winning the price fighting game. You're making money, you're headlining cards, your faces on the poster, and you're fighting

somebody that you're like a 12 to 1 favorite over every single time you fight. That is tremendous. That is a tremendous spot to be in. A really good spot. And now if you want to work in the legacy, you want to try to fight Kayla Harrison. Bellatory could use this as a negotiating tool to keep you around. Because if you're the PFL and Chris Seibor becomes a free agent, there's no matching clauses or no nothing.

She's an all-in-all-out free agent. PFL needs to back up the Brinks truck and then back up a second Brinks truck. Pay her, get her over there. She becomes a massive star. for your promotion and then you can set up that fight under the PFL banner. But if you want to keep Kayla Harrison and Bellator, you have to find a way

to work something out to get Chris that fight at some point before she calls it a career. It doesn't need to happen this year, but let's get something to the books for early next year. Set it up that way. But I liked Scott Coker's attitude with that whole thing and I completely agree to them.

I have not liked how PFL has handled this situation at all. Like you want to go out there and make a stir, sure, but know your audience, man. Know your audience. All right, I'm gonna e-me-mini-mo here for the last word. J-K., it's you. What you got? Good morning.

How the heck are you? Good, man. I got a couple of ruminations. I guess for the first thing is I kind of disagree about the goat comment with Cyborg. I do agree that she's incredibly accomplished, but Nunes has just beaten kind of literally everybody. So even though there's a bit of a stumble against Giuliana, we don't know what Giuliana is going to look like in the next year or two.

It could just be, I don't know, we don't know. But that aside, my question is regarding the women's flight wake division, I feel as though that for a very long time, since the inception basically, that Shevchenko has had an advantage in one way that is unique than any other way. I mean, obviously her technical skill is elite and apex, but it's her athleticism. I feel like her athleticism is, if you put Shevchenko in any other sport, I feel like she would be pretty amazing. amazing at it. Like maybe not like a professional level, but she's going to be able to step into any sport and do well just by sure athleticism. I'm not trying to disparage the past era or the current era of fly weights, but the next generation of flyweight say individuals like Grasso or

Macy Barber, Miranda Maverick, any of the new names are going to come up, even Talia Santos. They have a level of athleticism that I feel like I wouldn't say is necessarily comparable, but they can compete on an athletic footing with Shefchenko. So if they have a, you know, a close or like even anything resembling like a competitive technical element to their game, I feel like Shefchenko in the next year or two is going to have to fight like much more difficult fights than she has had in the past era. If you can let me know what you think about that. Yeah, I mean, listen, I think, I think 125 is in a really interesting spot right now

because you have some of these names up there. Now you get Misha Tate in the division, so you have a little more of a name. Of course, she's fighting Lauren Murphy in July. And now you have this sort of next crop of 25ers on the way up. Like Tyler Santos, who's getting the next title shot, like Alexa Grasso. who's starting to kind of find her way living up to the potential a lot of people saw in her.

Manon Fioro, Aaron Blanchfield, Maverick, Macy Barberer, so forth and so on. This sort of next generation, this next crop of 25ers, are going to be really interesting. The problem is Valentina Shepchenko,

I mean, the athleticism is just incredible. The skills are incredible, but the fight IQ, is really underrated in her game. Now, if you want an example of that, there are not many post-fight loser, and I don't mean loser in a negative sense. It's just what it is on the record books.

I spoke to Lauren Murphy, like three days after she fought Valentina Shepchenko. I mean, what a delight that was. I mean, this woman fought her ass off to get to a title fight. She got thoroughly ravaged, She knew it and admitted it. She dealt with a lot of stuff that fight week. But she talked about, like, some of the things she noticed being in there with someone like Valentina Shepchenko.

Someone, like, you can have all the confidence and the motivation and the positive vibes feeling like you can go out there and shock the world. And then you get in there and you see what it's like fighting somebody like that. And you're just like, holy shit. what have I got myself into? And that's kind of what Lauren admittedly went through that night when she fought Valentin the Shiff Chaco.

She compared it to like playing one-on-one basketball of Michael Jordan. She said at some point her and her team had this certain like step-by-step process of throwing certain stripes. And they felt like they watched tape on her and they were like, hey, listen,

at certain points, if you throw this combination, she's not going to be ready for it. And Lauren said like the first time the first time she threw it Shifchenko was like ready for it and just blasted her blasted her with a right hand and a kick to the body

and she was just like golly like this this isn't fun like this is not fun at all and I just think I think Valentina's fight IQ it's almost like she's two steps ahead of everybody so it's like playing chess and then playing a game of like please don't knock me

absolutely unconscious that's what it's like fighting Valentina. And here's the thing. A lot of fighters in her situation might just kind of get bored of it and just be like, eh,

this isn't that fun and that compelling and that motivating anymore. Like this, losing the, you know, the vibe of challenge, like the challenges aren't there for me. And Valentina's just like,

I don't care about that. Like, just line up the bodies. Line them up. I'm going to send them down. And we're going to start, stacking them up. And I think Valentin is going to get her shot at the 135 pound title this year.

Honestly, I think she's going to beat Tyler Santos. At least it's a fresh batch up. Tyler's on a rule. But again, like, once you're in there, Valentina, the whole Lauren Murphy interview is so fascinating. She knew, like, immediately. When she got punched once she knew, she was like, oh, boy, this is a whole, this is a whole different animal that I'm in that cage with. And I feel like Tyler is going to learn that same lesson. and then at some point, like, what are you going to do?

Like, if Misha Tate beats Lauren Murphy in July, DFC's probably going to try to put that fight together. Misha is probably going to be kind of smart about it, which she should 100%. She should take all the time she needs to prepare, work with Eric Nixik, try to figure out that puzzle and all that. Like, take a year off to try to prepare for that fight. And at the same token, just if you're,

Jeff Chanko, like, if you're the UFC, just bump her to 35. She either fights Amanda Nunes for the third time, a fight everyone's been hankering for and calling for for so long, or she fights Giuliana Pena, who she already beat, and Julia Pena has already talked about fighting her. So, I mean, the options are plenty for Chifchenko,

and then the next couple of years she can go back to 25. Some of these younger fighters have developed. They're moving their way up, the Aaron Blanchfield of the world, get a couple more wins under their belts. I mean Blancheville, I hope they slow roll. I think she is going to be a future title contender. And I think at some point, give her a few years, give her two and a half years.

Give her like five or six fights. I think Aaron Blanchfield is going to be a really interesting challenge for Schochenko, whoever the champion is at the time. Honestly, I truly believe that. I think she could be the one. But I don't want to see her fight for a title like next year. I want to see her slowly develop, slowly develop. Let's move her up, like one notch at a time.

Couple notches here and there. Like, Manifioro, like, I don't want to, she got out there fast. And it's not, this wasn't necessarily the plan. It just, this is how it worked out. I don't want to see Blanchefield up there that quickly. She's super young. She's got an incredibly high ceiling. It's okay to slow roll her a little bit.

I think skill for skill, ceiling-wise, she might have the best skill set of anybody at 125 of this young crop. But, I mean, and she's still a little green too. And she's that good. And she's that good. She's only going to get better. So, yeah, 25 is really interesting. All right.

I didn't realize you were going for 75 minutes, but golly. I have to actually, like, I mean, I don't consider this work, but I have to actually, like, do work for a Mayfighting. And I got to cut my hair and do all this stuff because we got preview show coming up at 3 o'clock for all these events that are going on this weekend. So join us then. And you know what? For the podcast listeners right now,

I'm going to throw the Scotty Coker interview on this as well. All right. So you're getting a little bonus. All right. If you haven't watched Scott Coker interview on YouTube, you'll give you a chance to listen to it. A little bit of a podcast exclusive for a heck of a morning. You guys came through it a big way on a free for all Friday.

I appreciate it very much. Back on Tuesday, 8 a.m. Eastern, another edition of heck of a morning. We're four weeks in, 12 episodes down. Yeah, that's right. Four weeks in. We're about a month into this thing. So hopefully we can continue to grow this.

Continue to have fun. The podcast number has been incredible. So thank you very much for the support. Thank you very much for having some fun. And thank you for giving the MMA space the chance to have a sports radio morning show. Because this is what it's all about. We've been missing this for a while. And hopefully this can help fill the void.

So have a heck of a morning, everybody. Enjoy your Friday. All right. There is a lot going on in the world of Bellator, MMA, including this week, not one but two events in Honolulu, Hawaii, Bellator 278 on Friday night, Belator 279 on Saturday night, three total title fights, four potential five rounders. Plus, we get the kickoff of the Bellator Bantamweight Grand Prix, all while coming off of a storyline-filled Bellator 277 event this past weekend.

So let us welcome in Bellator President Scott Koker, who was kind enough to give us some time on a very busy fight week. Scott, how are you, sir? I'm doing great. How are you? I'm doing great. Thank you for doing this. It means a lot. A lot to get into this weekend, but I do want to start with some of the aftermath from last weekend in San Jose, Bellator 277, main event, Patricio Pitbull, regains the featherweight title, exacts and revenge, Hans A.J. McKee's first career loss. It's been about four days since that

fight went down as we record right now. What's the first thing you think about in regards to how that fight played out? Boy, are you talking about the main event or the semi-main event? The main event. The main event. I mean, you know, a lot of people felt that, you know, maybe the decision should have went the other way. And some of my friends feel that the decision is correct. I think it's kind of split, you know, down the middle.

And, you know, for me, I always tell these guys, look, well, I'm not a judge. I would never want to be a judge in the sport. I would never want to be a referee. These guys are professionals of what they do. The responsibilities weigh on their shoulders. You're talking about millions of dollars swaying one way back or forth. could be decided by the quality of judges and referees you have. So we have a great team with Annie Foster here in California.

And they, they are the ones that came in. They make the decision. And I'm glad that they're there to make the decision because it's something I'm glad that I would never want to be, you know, in those shoes. I am curious, though, because we all kind of have internal scorecards and our heads watching these fights.

How did you score the fight personally? You know, I actually didn't score the fight like round by round, right? So it's really not a fair, you know, let's say, comparison to what they're doing because they're sitting down. They're scoring every round by round. I might have missed some action and, you know, talking to this person and talking to that person. But, you know, what I saw was, you know, pit bull was basically moving forward, trying to get the big shot in. I think he threw, I actually hit him a couple of times, threw a lot of nice leg kicks. I think that AJ was, you know, taking him down,

controlling the fight. And there's just a lot of great action. And that was, was really entertained by the action of the fight rather than scoring the fight. You were obviously very high on Agent McKee following the win over Pitbull, and I'm sure you're still very high on him, but you had said that not only did you think he was the best featherweight in the world, you also had come out and said you thought he was the best pound for pound fighter in the world at different points. Where do you rank him in those conversations now? And where do you put Patricia Pitbull in that discussion after this past Saturday?

Yeah, I mean, listen, it's obviously a good debate now, right? because of what happened. And, you know, I think that, you know, you can't put him there saying he's pound for pound the best and the greatest fighter right now because he just got beat. So at some point, and I'm not saying when, because we have other people waiting in the pipeline.

AJ has talked about moving up and weight and fighting at 55. So there's a lot of considerations. But, you know, if those two wanted to run that back one more time, I would never say no. But more things on that card and then we'll move on to this weekend. But there has been a lot of talk about, AJ's contract status, I guess lack of clarity. Like AJ had said a lot of things in the build to the fight,

really talking about his goals of becoming a champion, another organization someday, but also there's talks about champions clauses and some of that other stuff. Are you able to talk about what his status is with the promotion and where you see his career going in the next couple of years? I guess your confidence levels that he will be with you guys in Bellator, competing in the Bellator cage for years to come. Yeah, what I would say to that is,

you know, his contract, you know, in the public because really it's something that I don't think is right. And I don't think legally I could do that anyway. But, you know, when I think about fighters, whether it was strike force or whether it's here in Belator, the fighters that we really wanted to keep, I mean, really, really wanted to keep, which we want to keep AJ, we've always made a deal. And I think our record goes, you know, you know, I would say 99 and one maybe in those efforts where if an athlete's important to the company can move the needle and makes a doubt, difference than we're inclined to keep them. And that's, that's what I would say.

And I've said that all along. And so to me, it's like nothing new. This is something that we are in the business of, you know, continue to work with a champion and sign free agents, bill fighters from the ground up. But AJ to me is I still, I still see him as that kid, uh, that was jumping on top of the cage when I met him at 17 years old and was something special. And now he's now he's really developed and when you think about how much he's accomplished in the last four or five years. I mean, it's pretty phenomenal. And I think we, I honestly feel that we'll be working for, you know, working together for years for years to come. So, you know, we'll see what happens. But I feel very confident about our relationship moving forward. And then we saw the

unfortunate ending of the light heavyweight Grand Prix finale. Corey Anderson was looking pretty darn good against Vadim Nemcoff. And it ends in the way that it ended leads to a no contest. any sort of time frame that you guys are looking to rebook that one to have some conclusion there? As soon as Nemcoff is ready, we will rebook it. Corey, you know, I talked to him the next day. I actually just ran to him at a restaurant in San Jose. And he said, look, I want to fight this guy right away. And, you know, I feel like I was, you know, a little bit, you know, not done wrong.

But in a sense, like, you know, there's three seconds ago. They should let it go. And so there's just a lot of little things that happened in that fight that, you know, know that, you know, Corey wants to fight him right again. And Nemcoff wants to fight him again right away. He feels like, okay, now I know what I'm dealing with. And that's what he told me. He says, now I understand the power, the speed. And, you know, next time I'll, I'll, you know, beat him for sure. So you have two guys that are super confident. They're ready to go. As soon as Nemcoff, his eyes healed up. My prediction, if I had to make one, it's probably September, October for that rematch.

And the way I saw it, just to, you know, put a recap on it is, you know, as soon as the fight was over, came into the ring or the cage and I said to Andy Fosso, why would you guys stop the fight, you know, three seconds ago? What happened? I was trying to, you know, get him to engage in a conversation. And he's like, look, we're going to go to the video and we're going to see what happened. I think he just caught a lot of people off guard. But what, what happened was it was Corey that brought the referee's attention that Nemcoff had a cut from a headbut. And so, or he had a cut. And it was very deep and all the way to the bone is what they're telling me. And so they had to stop the fight.

You know, the referee didn't know how much time there was left. And so he didn't, you know, stop the time on purpose. It's just that when Corey brought to Frank Triggs attention, that's how much time was left. So they had to stop it. They had to go to the store cards. They had to, basically they couldn't go to score cards because it wasn't a complete three rounds. I guess that's, that's what their official ruling was. So with three seconds to go, if Corey would have just kept pounding and then I've been such a nice guy and say, hey, look, over here, this guy's cut.

then he would have won the fight because I thought he was up two to one in my in my opinion. So, you know, it's just, you know, unfortunate, but Corey is such a next guy, he brought to the referee's attention and that's what happened. It was, it was very bizarre, very weird, something I've never seen before. But, you know, we'll run back here in the next three, four months. And I think Corey in the long run would probably want it a different way as well. Like if even, even weighing the three seconds, I think a part of him would want to at least finish the fight and have some like finality to it. You know what I mean? That's just the Corey

that I've known over the years. Yeah. And you know what? The, the Corey that I had breakfast with the next morning or ran into breakfast with definitely wanted to have that fight. Like, you know, wish he wouldn't have the fight or probably. Absolutely. So let's talk about this weekend because we got Bellator 278 on Friday. We got Juliana Velasquez putting her flyway title on the line against Liz Karmouche. Big opportunity for Lij. She has the chance to be able to call herself a world champion. She is a former military veteran or a military vet, a former Marine, and this is a military-style events. You're giving it for free for military and first responders, and she's taking on Velasquez, who's coming off a super close title defense against Denise Keel hosts.

Your thoughts on the fight that closes the show on Friday? Yeah, I mean, the fight obviously has big, big implications on the line because when I think about Friday and Saturday for the female division, especially the 125, you have Aleema McFarland who lost to Juliana Belasquez on her last fight. It was probably about a year ago, eight months ago. So she's going to be sitting in the wings probably watching this fight very closely. And Liz was a former teammate who she trained with that actually, I guess my understanding is that they left gyms or, you know, that Liz or somebody left the program so they could actually not train together anymore. So I think it's going to be really interesting to see, one, what happens in that title fight?

And then two, you know, how does the Lima look? And does she handle her business so she can get back and get back in the mix? So to me, as far as our 125 pound division for females, this is like a pinnacle. This is going to be a big, big weekend fights that really lay out the chapter for the next series of fights. Also on that car, we get a couple of a play in fights for the Bannonweight Grand Prix. and one fight that really stands out to me that I was very excited to see when it was booked was Danny Sabatello and Jornel Lugo

because these are a couple of guys who could certainly be considered dark horses in this entire tournament. Is that how you view this one as well that one of these guys could be a very sneaky contender in this Grand Prix should they come out of it on Friday night? Yeah, and you know what we call them

the wild car fights, right? And so they kind of have to earn their way in to get the fight. And, you know, the thing about, you know, Wildcar teams is you never know. You never know, man. And MMA, you don't know because one wrong move and you're laying on your back going, what happened? Or one wrong move and you're getting submitted. So you're talking about guys that are, let's see, young and hungry and have the skill and are they going to be able to take it to the next level against the guys are fighting this weekend? And, you know, when you think about the fights on Saturday and you have Horgouchi and you have mixed, have archeletta, you have stats, I mean, you got just four killers in there. And so can these guys actually win? And then eventually go fight, you know, in the next, I guess, Magamemad, Mugamatov and the fights that we're going to hold in June. So the wild card fighters will continue on June 24th if they win and fight the other two veterans that we have in the blocks. And if they win there, then they're, I mean,

if they win Friday night during the tournament. And so the first round for them of the being officially in the tournament will be June 24th on Showtime and it will be at the Mohegan Sun. nice and then let's head to saturday chris cyborg headlining bellatory 279 defending her title against arline blanco it's a rematch i will ask i know you're not big on talking about contracts in the public but one of the big stories in 2022 thus far and she's actually mentioned this herself is it's been the future of chris cyborg as a bellator competitor she revealed a little over a month ago doing some media that she has one maybe two fights left in her deal i'm just curious if that's accurate to your knowledge as well. I mean, I know that we have, you know, a certain time frame that we have to fight,

Chris, and I think this is this is one of one of the fights that we're having her compete in. But as far as one of the exact contract end dates, I think it's sometime in the summertime. But we will negotiate with her and we will, you know, we will try to make another deal with her. Again, she's important to the company. We love her. I've been promoting here since 2000. She's 2009 is what I think the date was. or maybe 2008 because she fought Corona in 2009 in San Jose Arena, actually. So I think August of 2009 is when she fought the big Gina Corona fight, the first female main event in the history of MMA on television.

So, you know, to me, we've had a great relationship and, you know, business is business, but I think we provided a great home here for her at Bellator. And I think Showtime really, really likes watching her fight or having her fight on Showtime. And I think that, you know, when you think about the, you know, the friendship and the, and the relationship we had, I think it's pretty smooth. So let's see if we can put some together. Last things I know we're running out of time. But of course, Chris has this big fight ahead of her.

But as you may have seen, the brass at the PFL, they've been very vocal saying that they want to co-promote an event with you guys to give the fans the fight that they're seeking. Chris Seiborg versus Kayla Harrison. Is this being discussed at all amongst the Bellator brass? Is this something you may be interested in if the timing works out sometime this year? You know, I'll tell you, I'm not sure because just to be honest, look, I haven't heard from that at all. I mean, nothing.

And I know they know my number. And so I don't understand. I think they're doing a lot of social, you know, chattering and, and, and, and, and, to create a story. But to me, Chris is the greatest female fighter of all time. And she fights for Bellator. Keel Harrison is a great, great fighter. She's proven that. And she could be one of the greats of all time in the future as well. But she has to grow and to fight somebody and to keep growing. She's going to have to put years into it. So to me, it's like, look, you know what? It's, we'll see, but I, I'm confused by what, what they say and what they want to do because I

haven't heard from anybody. And, you know, these social attacks are, you know, their way of doing business. I just don't do business like that. So, you know, I pick up a phone, give me a call and that that's how we do business. So if they do call, that's something you would possibly entertain. Yeah, a lot of, a lot of things to work out. I mean, like we've been talking to Ali about sending some fighters to, you know, Habib's League and we do the, you know, Sucking Burn, I will sit down and start talking about December this year for the end of the year. We're not opposed to it, but that makes sense for both sides. And there's a lot of questions because not only who pays for what, who owns what and how does the rights work after. And there's just, there's a lot of details

of, you know, of these types of co-promotions. And, you know, I'm not sure if we could put a deal together and but if we can you know it's it's something that uh it's worth at least a conversation but like i said again it's you know doing business on on social on social just trying to take shots at us i mean you know that that's kids play and we're we're well this is a real business we're a real company and you know we're in the business of putting fights together so pick up a phone give me a call if you want to do something that's i feel i love the the the the ground pre fights i love archela versus stats i feel like archiletta is being extremely overlooked here. The betting odds are extremely in Stats's favor,

which is kind of surprising to me. It's like people are forgot about how good one archelaida is. That fight is super fascinating. That fight is super fascinating. Fight, especially over five rounds. But I do want to mention Alima Lea McFarland, because you mentioned her earlier and where she fits in this flyway title picture. She's fighting Justine Kish. Sometimes absence sort of makes the heart grow fonder. She hasn't fought since that fight against Juliana Velasquez, December of 2020 was the last time she competed. And I felt like her losing to Juliana may have come at the right time for her. You know what I mean?

Like take a break, refocus and kind of find the love for the game. It's kind of like she was a little bit burnt out, not by just being in Bellator, but just the sport kind of burnt her out a little bit and everything that comes along with it. How would you describe her mentality this week heading into Saturday and getting the chance to fight at home and have a moment in her return fight once again? I mean, she's excited. And how could you not be? This is like, you know, this is a home game for her, right? She gets to have a home game and everybody has to come to her and she's going to be the star of the night. And I really feel like this is going to be, when lose, draw, whatever, she's still going to be, you know, the crown princess of the ball. So, you know, when I think back at the loss to Juliana Velasquez, I mean, that's that, that's a tough fight. And this girl's a tough, tough fighter. So, you know, she had her hands full. But, you know, there's some injuries, things to tie up, and, you know, some, you know, things to, let's say digest.

And then, you know, now this is the comeback. This is the comeback opportunity. And I know she's put the work in. You can see it just by the transformation of her physique. She's in great shape. She's ready to go. And I think she's going to put on a great show on Saturday night. Yeah, I'm looking forward to both these events.

Scott, thank you so much. You know you're a very busy man. I appreciate the time. Hopefully we can do it again soon. But all the best this weekend. And enjoy Hawaii, sir. Not a bad place to be on a fight week. I will try.

I will try. Okay. Thank you, sir. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.