MMA Fighting - Heck of a Morning | Reaction To Dana White's Response To Nate Diaz, Suggestion Diaz Should Go Fight Jake Paul

Episode Date: June 22, 2022

UFC president Dana White was given the opportunity to respond to Nate Diaz's request to get a fight this summer, or a release, as well as the popular fighter teasing a future bout with Jake Paul. With White suggesting Diaz should go face Paul in the boxing ring, does that mean the UFC will cut Diaz loose? On a special Wednesday edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to White's comments about Diaz and wonders why the UFC doesn't just give Diaz what he wants and set him free to pursue any opportunity he wants outside of the promotion. In addition, listeners as questions about UFC Vegas 57 this Saturday, the UFC's bantamweight division, if Sean O'Malley vs. Adrian Yanez is the fight to make if O'Malley is successful against Pedro Munhoz at UFC 276, Israel Adesanya's recent comments about Alex Pereira, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 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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Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca. Black Friday. Ikea. Bring home to life. Welcome to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Wednesday, June 21st, 2022, and it is indeed a heck of a morning here live on the NBA fighting Twitter spaces. Soon to be on the MAA Fighting Podcasting Network. Thank you for joining.

Appreciate it very much. Somehow, yesterday's show, as crazy as it was, was actually the most viewed live show we have done, despite losing power, losing the feed, losing my mind. Somehow, some way. You guys stuck along for the ride, and I appreciate that very much.

lot to discuss sort of a continuation of yesterday's show because Dana White has responded to Nate Diaz my good buddy Oscar Willis over at the MacLife took a trip over to

Utah where the UFC was promoting UFC 278 headlined by Kamar Usman versus Leon Edwards for the UFC Walterway title Oscar got a few minutes of Dana talked about the card, talked about some other notable things going on in the world of the ultimate fighting championship.

But then Oscar asked him about Nate Diaz. It's like, what's going on with Nate? The guy wants to fight. Why isn't he fighting? Dana gave a Dana type answer. And then Oscar followed up and asked about Nate teasing a potential fight with Jake Paul. and Dana just sort of spoke and spoke and said things. Nate's difficult.

Do you know how it is? He'd Nate, his brother, Nick, everybody. They're tough to deal with. But he's not Kamar Usman. He's only won one fight in the last six, seven, five or six years, yada, yada, yada. So then he says, we're trying the best we can. we're trying not to shit on anybody and disrespect anybody, but it's not like we're talking about Kamara Usman here.

We're talking about Nate Diaz. Nate's won one fight in five years. So we're trying to figure this thing out with him. And then after taking sort of a deep breath, he continued on and said he probably should go on and fight Jake Paul. That's a fight that makes sense. Nate, of course, is well tapped into the Twitter landscape. He pays attention.

He watches things. He hears things. He listens to things. And tweeted last night, send the release. As of now, of course, there is no release. There is no nothing. Because why would there be? Because you have a guy that doesn't want to fight for your company anymore.

Or at least he wants to fulfill his contractual obligation for the company and just fight and be done with it. And the UFC has come out and said many times publicly, if you don't want to be here, don't be here. And Nate clearly doesn't want to be there. He wants to pursue different opportunities. Lucrative ones, the Jake Paul fight would be just gigantic for his bank account. And Dana is saying, yeah, maybe you should go fight Jake Paul. So release the man. Release the man.

If that's how you really feel, send this man his release papers and let's go. Either that or give him a fight so he can move on with his life. It is just so silly that the UFC is holding the. this man contractually hostage when he just wants to move on. I get from the UFC's perspective, you want him to fight for your brand as long as possible, but he doesn't want to be there anymore. So either just let him go or give him a fight. Like I don't understand why this is so difficult.

I don't get it. I don't understand what the problem is. If the UFC was losing money or they were just barely making a profit and they had big, huge plans for Nate, that's one thing. But they're not hurting for money at all. Not even a little bit. They have guaranteed money coming in from this ESPN deal and from these other television deals they have internationally.

Losing Nate doesn't even begin to hurt them. I get it from a pay-per-view-by perspective maybe a little bit, but it's not going to hurt their piggy bank or their bank account at all. So I just don't get it, especially when you come out and say, maybe you should just go fight Jake Paul. That fight makes sense. That's what he should probably do.

Well, he can't do that. He can't until you allow it. Until you release him or you let him fight one more time. I don't understand what the problem is. So hopefully the UFC will give the man what he wants. What they should do is just give him a fight, said July or August. Put him on that Salt Lake City card against freaking anybody.

Put him against Porre. Put him against Shemaiah. He'll take that fight. Put him against anybody. just trot him out there for the fans, let him do his thing, win or lose, it's not going to matter. Nate somehow his stock will rise, and then he will move on to other things. I just don't get it. And then if you do this, you have a nice amicable splits.

You part ways on good terms, and who knows, maybe two, three years or now, Nate wants to come back. Or you want Nate to come back. And Nate will realize, hey, they treated me well. they gave me what I wanted, maybe I will go back for the trilogy fight with Connor or some other opportunity that the UFC wants to put together.

But just letting him just sit out and put him in contractual prison is just ridiculous. So be a man of your word. If you want him to go fight Jake Paul, go let him frigging fight Jake Paul. Go let him. What's the problem?

Let's get into this thing. Let's hear from you guys. Let's hear From James McDonald first. James, how are you, my man? I'm good. How are you? Heck of a morning to you. Thank you. You as well.

Hey, I know you guys discussed women's flyweight division a little bit yesterday, but I kind of wanted to go a little bit further in that because I'm really loving how this is setting up going forward here. I just want to go down this list here. We've got Tyler Santos at 28, Alexa Grasso is 28, Casey O'Neill is 24, Aaron Blanchfield is 23. Macy Barber, 24. Miranda Maverick, 24. Melissa Gatto is 26.

Tracy Cortez is 28. Amanda Hebas is 28. Maria Agababab, who I'm not as high on, but she's, you know, shown a little bit of promise. She's 25. And then Natalia Silva is also 25. My hot take here. I think in five years, Natalia Silva's better than all of them.

And I know that's a heater. But the last time she lost was against Marina Rodriguez when she was 20 and Marina was 30. I thought that she looked fantastic the other day. And, you know, in looking at some of her past fights, she's got good wrestling. She's pretty much good everywhere. I think that there's a lot of good prospects here. And, you know, if Valentina does want to go up, The division is in good hands going forward.

I think it's not quite, you know, the best women's division yet, but it's women's MMA is looking as good as it's ever been. And I just wanted you to maybe comment on that and see who you thought was the best of all those prospects. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, listen, women's flyweight is great right now. This next generation of 25ers is just really. solid and you still have some names in there you still have misha tade who's fighting lorn murphy

next saturday and if misha wins chances are she'll probably get a title shot against valentina and kind of give valentina a big fight and then like you mentioned you mentioned a lot of these names super young mid to load mid upper 20s all these fighters under 30 tylosanto's second best flyweight in the world in my opinion and then on and on we go casey o'neal it's unfortunate that she's going to be out for a year with the injury, but a lot of times when these injuries happen and you have a patient perspective on things, you're not going to rush yourself back.

She has all the time in the world. Time is on her side. And then you have Aaron Blanchefield, you got Miranda Maverick, you got Macy Barber, you got Manon Fioro. She's a little bit on the older side, but she's in a big spot against Jessica on Dharaj.

So she's in the conversation. I mean, the division's great. And then Natalia Silva in there, Good Lord. I think it is kind of a hot take. Maybe, I mean, maybe she will be. In five years, maybe she will be the best of the bunch. But I like Jasman Jazz DeVizius a lot.

I am a fan of hers. I've been interviewing her since she, before her first pro fight. And she's a tough, tough gal. She's a workhorse. She is a natural. She's a natural. And she's kind of a what if in a sense that what if she had found MMA, five or six years earlier.

What if she had found MMA when she was like 19 or 20? Where would she be now? Unfortunately, she's still a little green. She's only been doing this thing for like four or five years. And as impressive as that win was, I need to see more. That's why I suggested on onto the next one.

Throw Natalia Silva in there with Montana de la Rosa. Let's go. I think that's a great fight. We'll really get to test her. Montana will throw hands. Montana will wrestle. Montana's great on the ground and I think that's a good next step

I don't want to rush Natalia Silver at all It was a great win But I need to see a little bit more Before I'm confident saying this could be a top 10 fighter This could be a top 5 fighter But what a debut That's how you get the ball rolling That's for sure

Let's get Mike in here Miami Mike What's up buddy Mike are you there All right try again Mike I don't know what happened But try again Let's try Let's get to a hit early.

Let's see what this man's got going on. What's on his mind? What's up, buddy? A heck of a morning, Wednesday morning. Listen, I want to start this off by imagining Dana's head. It's like a tomato head. And if you cut it open, it's full of shit. Because what he said yesterday was nothing sure of absolute contradictory rubbish.

First, he says that Nate is in Kamaru Usman. And I'm like, okay, fine, yeah, he has won. What is it? He's won one fight in five years. Do you know who else has won one fight in five years since Barack Obama was president? Connor McGregor. What's data talking about? Title shots.

Yeah, and the data's going to go, oh, but Con has a draw. So is Nate Diaz. So that's out, that's your argument out the window. Also, like if Nate was this bar, and you know you think Nate's so bad and whatnot, then release him. We get him out. You have no problem kicking out Tyrant Woodley when the people he lost to, I know he didn't look great, but think about who he lost to in a row.

You, what was it, Usman, then it was Burns, then it was Colby, then it was Vincente Lucke, killer after killer after killer. That's a vicious bunch. And he did good as a chain. He did okay as a champion. Like, it's just so crazy how like it's one rule for one person and another rule for another. So, you know, Dana's just full of it. But I wanted to, you know, usually I go on last mic because, you know, save the best for last as always.

But what I wanted to point out is Mike, you can officially say you're stunned now. Because I've seen rumors from an Instagram page called Full Violence that Charles Olivaa and Markachev is supposedly being. done for October for the vacant title, UC 281, which of course we know is Abu Dhabi. So I know you said you were stunned Mike yesterday. I don't know how true this report is, but it's like it comes from a page that I've relied on that seems pretty accurate. It's called full violence. So yeah, that's very that that seems true. And also one last thing, right, because I had to get this off my mind, man.

Like Israel and Alex Pahara, all the fan boys of Israel. Izzy drive nuts. Absolutely nuts. Like what they were saying, this is MMA, it's not kickboxing. Like I saw Izzy saying, listen, I like Izzy, but, and he said, these are pillow gloves. You got knocked out with those pillow gloves. So I don't understand what point you were trying to make there. And by the way, that all these people say, oh, it's MMA not kickboxing.

Izzy's not an ADCC champion with all due respect. Do you think he's going to fly triangle Gordon Ryan and. Craig Jones and do that to Alex Behara. No, it's just crazy still play out on the feet. The only problem is kickboxing is three or five, three minute rounds and MMA's five minute rounds. That's a problem because Izzy's cardio has just reached astronomical levels. I don't know if that's to do with his titty and steroids.

I mean, I'm not going to go into that, but, you know, that's all. That's today, Mike. That's for today. but I'm glad we have a show every week every day now. We're just having a show every day. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I mean, a lot to unpack there. Yeah, the Dana thing is crazy.

I get it. It's nuts. Yeah, I saw the full violence report. And again, let me just say this. And I've said it very confidently, and I will continue to say this until my days with this website are over, which I hope is not anytime soon. If it's not on MMA fighting, it is not done.

And that is the gospel, my friends. If we haven't confirmed it, it's not done. It's not done. Our record speaks for itself. And trust me, we all saw that report. We all saw it. We've reached out. We've gotten no word back that that fight is actually happening.

It could. It certainly could, but we have not confirmed it. We got nothing. So we'll see. We'll keep you posted if we do confirm that fight. And then Izzy's just planting seeds, man. He's planting seeds. The fight with Alex Paheda is a big one.

Izzy knows it. Ever since Pahed to sign with the UFC, this is the direction they wanted to go. It looks like it might happen very quickly if he beat Sean Strickland. And either way, if Sean Strickland wins, Izzy could baby face that in a huge way right now. So I don't know. We'll see what happens.

I mean, I she's elite UFC 276 is a ridiculous card super good Miami Mike let's see if we can get you on now are there back of a morning Mike

have a couple morning can you hear me yes sir we got you's already bugging dude we've been spoiled for the month of June as far as fight goes I mean I'm talking about from the start with the pay-per-view card with Glover and all that madness to the Austin card to this weekend.

Dude, we've had a heck of a month. Not to mention the sweet, sweet icing on the cake, Boston Celtics crumbling. But we're not going to talk about that. We're not going to talk about that. I do have a question and a bold prediction for you. My question is, I was listening to you guys on, on to the next one. And I noticed that you guys said Adrian Yanez and Sean O'Malley's not the fight to make, and it makes absolutely no sense.

But the UFC actually put Yanez at 15 in the Bantamweight Division. So O'Malley's only 13. They're only two spots away. If he beats Munoz, Munoz is only 10. I still don't think it's too much or too far of a jump, especially knowing that, you know, the hype and let's, say, you know, I've heard another argument that, you know, they want their big names, their potential bigger names in the future and they can fight for more money, why not get a second fight in it with them once they do make that stardom level, you know?

So yeah, I do think that that is a good fight to make next. And my bold prediction, Gamrot, third round knockout. Damn. Wow. Miami Mike bringing the heat here. Holy cow. I mean, listen, it could happen. It could happen.

But I just, man, Surukian is just so good. Not saying that, Gamrod's not great. He's great. I just like Sirukian is just, I'm just so high on the guy and maybe it's,

maybe it's given me blinders. And I think the fight is tremendous. I think it rules. And there's a good chance that goes the distance. but I don't know, maybe it does happen. That'll be huge for Gamrod. And if he does that, in my opinion,

he will probably fight and fight four and win the lightweight title at some point if he beats Armand Sarukia. You mentioned being spoiled. We're kind of spoiled this weekend too. PFL, yeah, it's BFL. It should be a fine card. It's not bad.

BKFC's got a pretty solid card. The Bellator card's actually really good. Musassi Eblen's interesting. Danny Sabs is back against Leandro ego. There's a lot of meat on that phone for the Grand Prix. And then Maga bin, Magamada versus Enrique Barzola should be fun. Brennan Ward's back. Freelms are real good.

I mean, it's a solid card. The problem is this might be just the first time you've heard about it because I'm telling you. That's just the big issue. But this is a good bellator card. This is top to bottom one of their better offerings that they have put together. So it's going to be a good weekend. And we'll see what happens. I'm very excited for it.

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Hey, Mike, how's everything? How's everything going? Good. How are you? I'm doing okay. I want to put the focus on Saturday's card, UFC, with Surukin and Gamron. But the one I think hasn't been talked about is

Umar Nemeca Meadow versus Nate Manis. I have obviously I have Umar in the Megamatov winning that fight but we just like we just saw Adrian Yanis actually cracked the top 15 now but if Umar wins and he has another great showing

you know we're going to start thinking like man he's got to get it he's got to get he's got to crack 15 as well there's other guys that are coming up we also have Saeed and Megametteau coming up in that band if he has a great performance in his win then you got to start thinking about him

So, like, if you look at the top 15 of UFC rankings, some guys are going to have to drop off. I mean, I know A.K's in here, and his love for Frank Eager will always be in his heart. And I understand that, too. But even he has to admit, like, you got to take Frank Egger out of there at some point. He's going to have to drop off because one of these guys, they're going to have to start getting to the top 15. I mean, I mean, we're going to have to start getting these guys in there. Kyle Phillips, at some point he's going to get booked. He wins. He's got to get in there at some point.

I mean, Victor Henry, I know even he has one fight, but he has an impressive win over Barcelos. So, I mean, what do you think about that? Like, which guys, I'm not saying that deserves, but if they, if those prospects have emphatic wins coming up here, who are you putting in it, who are you taking out in that top 15 and putting in? Because one of these guys, like many of these guys,

I know how deep the bandweight division, is, but they're going to have to just start, I mean, maybe they're going to have to start facing each one another to start breaking through. But, you know, because I'm really high on Omer and the Mega Meadow, I'm like, man, it's going to be tough

for beating that guy. So, just your thoughts on that whole scenario. All right? Thanks, Mike. Appreciate it. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, to address my next other question about O'Malley versus Janice. There's so, there's time to do that fight. maybe O'Malley wants it.

Maybe O'Malley, if he beats Boudios and get on the mic, he'd call out Yonnas out. And typically what O'Malley wants or what O'Malley suggests could happen, he gets. So maybe O'Malley starts a campaign where he's just calling out Yannas and putting all the focus on Yannas and going on his podcast and just talking about Adrian Yannas.

And if he does that, chances are he'll probably get that fight. Because the UFC typically does what he wants them to do. It might take a minute to get there, but typically that's what happens. I love the Yanis Cody Garbrand fight. It was the great suggestion on onto the next one. I know Garbrand was supposed to fight.

Hottiyaya on July 9th. Yaya's out. There is hope from the Garbrand side. Maybe we can reschedule that fight for UFC 278 on August 20th. It doesn't appear like that's a likely thing. that's going to happen. So let's just do Yannes versus Cody Garbrand on that card. That's a great fight.

That's a great name for Yanez to have on the resume. He'd be a big favorite. I know it's the polar opposite of the Yaya fight, which a lot of people were like, okay, this is the right thing to do. But without Yaya on the table right now, unless Garbrand just wants to wait until like September, October to fight him, that's fine too.

But if Garbrand wants to come back and fight in the next couple months, he wants to fight on that August 20th card, he's going to have to fight probably Ayanez or someone of that nature. Now, you mentioned Umar and Marga Madov who is,

it's just crazy to look at this betting line right now. Nate Mainas, undefeated in the UFC, got finishes in his last two fights. Umar de Magamatov, a minus 900 favorite against a very game, Nate Maynus. Very interesting matchup. And yeah,

that's that's a stunning betting line speaking of betting lines armand surruchian now up to a minus 300 favorite against matush gamrott who comes back at plus 250 so yeah banabweighed is super fun right now i don't know who gets the boot i mean if umar just goes out there and just annihilates nate manis maybe he jumps yonnas i mean who else you're not going to take frankie out right now they might get to a point where inactivity gets him out, but it's not like Frankie hasn't fought in two years,

he fought in November. And he was winning that fight until he got knocked out by Marlon Varan a lot of people's eyes. So Frankie could still go. It was just a bad knockout he suffered. And then the photo that surfaced afterwards was just a very sad thing.

But, yeah, Bandaumweight rules. I love it. All right, James, then Dom. What's up, James? James are you there? Try again. James, we'll get you back.

We'll get you in here. Where's Dom? There's Dom. What's up, Dom? I got you, man. I just wanted to go back to the Nate Diaz thing. Why is Dana so reluctant for the idea of like a co-promotion? Like doing the Mayweather-McRegger thing again.

It would be nowhere near as big. They wouldn't do the world tours. But they have an opportunity there to get Nate on side. Have it be Nate and Dana versus Jake. have lots more eyes on the UFC. I just think there's a massive opportunity there to get Nate back on side and get what you want and what he wants. I don't know what your thoughts are on that and why he wouldn't do that.

And also, happy birthday, AK. I love it. I love how the happy birthday AK continues to get over. Here's what I think. And it makes, sure, it makes sense. Let's co-promote and all that stuff. But then Dana's going to be around Jake all week and just going to have to deal with the back and forth, stuff like that, which I don't think Dana really minds.

What I think he does mind is, I don't think he's very confident, Nate can win. I mean, I'd favorite Jay, I mean, I love Nate, and I would love to see that fight, and I think Nate presents some very interesting problems for Jake Paul

from, like, a volume level. Like, he's not going to be like Woodley and pick his shots and take his time, because that fight in December was a stinker. I was there. It was bad. I was ready to trot Frank Gore,

Darren Williams back out there again because those two went after it and they braw that it was super fun. But Woodley Paul II was horrible until the knockout. It was bad, bad, really bad. And it's one thing to have former champions and former fighters on the roster no longer under UFC contract, go in and fight Jake Paul and lose. Like you can deal with that.

You can spin it. a certain way if you're Dana in the UFC. But if you are accompanying Nate Diaz to MSG or whatever to go fight Jake Paul, and Jake stops Nate, like he beats Nate or knocks him out, I don't think he would knock. He's just so much bigger than Nate. So Nate's at a disadvantage there size-wise. And it would be, I'd watch the hell out of it,

but I'd have to favor Jake to win that fight. And I think Dana probably feels to say, way he doesn't want to sit there and have his company represented against j paul one because it's a circus and it's kind of silly and two what if what if his guy loses what if his guy loses then he's got yoke on his face for a long time and that's probably where where dane is coming from in this sense and i know jake's i don't know if his man kind of manager is his his MVP guy is his co-promoter, if you will. He used to work for the UFC,

worked to the finance departments. Doesn't seem like the relationship's all that good. So, yeah, that's what I think it is. I think, I don't think Dana has the confidence that Nate will win that flight. Otherwise, maybe he would co-promote it. I don't know. All right, let's get, let's see if we can get James back in here. and then Don, you're on deck.

What's up, James? Hey, good morning, Mike. There we go. Yeah, sorry about that for some reason when I press the mic off of it. My fingers must have been too sticky. But I know I'm going to butcher this name, but the guy fighting Neil Magni this weekend, Shurkov Rockmanoff.

Close. Yeah, Shafcott, Rahmanas. Okay, I can't roll my Rars. I'm terrible at that. But if he, you know, puts on a help performance, against Neil Magni. Can you see the UFC maybe booking him and Chimae since those two guys are kind of hard, hard for them to find fights?

Or do you think I'll just keep that fight on the back burner and maybe use them when one of them becomes champion? And shoot, I had another question for you, Mike, and I forgot. But anyway, I have a heck of a morning, man. Thank you. Thanks, James. But the good news is if you remember your question tomorrow, you could come back on the show because they're going every day this week for the rest of it,

10 a.m. Eastern. So you could bring that question tomorrow if you'd like. Rachmanoff, I would be, there's no way they're going to book him but Shama if at least not right away. Because the UFC, the UFC despite their faults and sometimes they'll wait too long to book fights. And sometimes it's not their fault. Like we saw Colby Mazadol too late.

We saw Colby Woodley too late. late. Maybe we have sort of a constant in there. Maybe that's the reason why things couldn't get done. Sometimes they wait a little too long for these fights to happen and they do and sometimes they deliver. Sometimes they don't. Chuck Liddell, Vandalay Silva was a fight we were waiting for so long to get to and we finally got it. It was still fun, but it was just two guys that clearly weren't at their best selves. So the UFC once in a while will drop the ball on that. But oftentimes they're actually really good at building things up. They're good at striking when the iron is at its hottest.

And Rakhmanov, Shamiyev is something you have to build up, unfortunately, because Rachmanov is an enigma. He's a mystery. I think people are starting to come around to seeing how good he is. And if he goes out there and just beats Dale Magni, that is a great win to have on your resume. That's an impressive win, and he'll probably get a big fight after that. But it won't be Shemaya because I think Shemaya's waiting in the wings to fight for the title.

Maybe Shemaiah gets an eight Diaz fight. If Shemaya fights again, it's going to be against Nate. And if he doesn't fight again, he's going to get the winner of Usman Edwards because what else is the band need to do? Now, I know Balaahman and his team will probably disagree with me. But there's just no, there's just no reward for Shemai F to fight Balaahma'amah right now. There just isn't. Like, he's already accomplished everything. the only reward there is is just like if he's bored and wants to fight and ball is really good he's on a nice little streak right now and if he beats bala it literally does nothing for him and if he loses to balla it's really hard to spin that into something positive losing to gilbert burns in a fight like that if you lost that split decision to burns that would have stung for sure but a fight with belal is not going to i just don't see it being like that i don't think it'll be that exciting it's going to it's either going to be to be

ball just wrestling Shamaia for five rounds or three rounds however long that fight lasts and he gets the win, which is fine. That's what it's all about in this pay structure is getting the win and getting the second half of your paycheck. Or Shamiah just runs him over, which is good for Shamiya, but it literally does nothing for him. So, but Nate, you get that name, you get the buzz. I mean, that's just a massive fight. If they put that fight on the UFC 278 card, that's what's selling the tickets. That's what's getting the pay-per-view buys. It won't be the main event.

It's Shemaya, if Nate, two guys who are two of the top five right now, biggest stars in the entire company. Both are bigger than Kamar. Usman, in my opinion, although Ushman's probably in the top five, but Nate and Shemaya for more of a bigger draw than Uspin is right now. And that's not a bad thing. Usen's still probably in the top five, top six, is doing just fine for himself.

But, yeah, they're going to keep Rachmanov and Shemaya away from each other for a little while. but maybe, I don't know. Maybe that's where Wonderboy slides in, which don't love that idea if you're Wonderboy, but I mean, you can't really be picky here. Maybe, I don't know. I don't know what you, maybe that's where Sean Brady ends up.

Who knows? Who knows what happens, but you got to get by Neil Maggi and it's not going to be easy to do, and it's going to be a good fight, really good fight. Let's get Don Cousan in here. Hey, how are you doing, Mike? A heck of a morning to you, man.

This is my first time getting on any of these. I'm a big fan of the show, big fan of everything Hamm and May fighting does is great. Y'all keep cracking it out. I just wanted to say two things. One, free Nadeez, man. We're saying free King. We need a free Nate Diaz, too, because it just don't make no sense.

Like you said, the last heck of a morning, it's petty, man. Just let them go. Let them go. Let them go. just BST, he's already a star. Everybody knows Nate. You watch MMA, even outside of MMA just because of his antics.

Let him go and make some big money. Let him go do his thing. But the other thing I wanted to talk about was the UFC London card. I know it's coming up against a little ways down the way. I wanted to know who your picks were for Tom Aspinall versus Curtis Blaze. And do you think this fight between Daryntel and Hermanson, is this make or break? Will the smash bros prevail? Is this make or break for Darynton?

I don't think so. I mean, he lost two. coming off two losses, but I don't know. There's a win like this. What does this do for Darren to? Thanks, Mike. Love your buddy. Keep doing your thing, man.

You're killing it, brother. Thank you, Don. You're the man. Thanks for hopping on. Love the first timers. Appreciate that very much. Yeah, free Nate. This is just all stupid,

especially now that Dana has come up publicly and basically said this guy over the last five years has stunk. And he's hard to deal with. and he should go fight Jake Paul. I mean, you literally said those things. So if that's how you really feel, then put your money where your mouth is. Release the man or give him a fight.

They should just give him a freaking fight. Put him on the July 30th card. Put him on the August 20th card. Either one. Just put them on one of these cards and let him fight. Otherwise, release them. Put them on the 277 card or the 278 card or let him go.

Let him go fight Jake Paul. That's it. is enough. London, I favor Curtis Blades to beat Tommy Aspinall, but the hometown thing, that's a big deal.

That's a really big deal. And I know Curtis has learned to relish the heel role and being the villain and the underdog and he's not going to be an underdog in this fight, but you know what I mean? The guy that's not as liked as his opponent, I feel like that happens

in a lot of Curtis's fights. but in this case it's going to be out there and we'll just see how Curtis sort of deals with the pressure and deals with the fan noise and all that stuff and maybe he'll just pounce all over it and he'll enjoy it but I mean skill for skill experience wise

I mean Curtis is tough to beat and I think Curtis Curtis needs this one because he just he's almost undeniable at this point you're trying to find ways to not give him the title fight and I get it because you're holding out hope that we get steepe John Jones. We're holding out hope that

Tai Tuivasa beats Cyril Gahn because he's becoming a star and you want to book the biggest fights possible. I get that. You want to get likable figures, like really likable figures in there fighting against the best of the best. And Curtis is so good. He just doesn't get the love and the admiration they probably deserves at least up to where his skill set is. Because Curtis Blitz is a great fighter. He's a great fighter and I would on it like you can make a case I mean he's lost to Francis twice so he's not the best heavy weight in the world right now but you can make a strong case is number two

because I would favor him to beat steepe I would favor him to beat john Jones I know that's a hot take but I favor Curtis blades to beat john Jones right now I would favor Curtis to beat ass I favor Curtis to beat zero gone tight two by all of them he's that good so I will continue to favor Curtis in these situations, but that hometown rub is a real thing. We saw it in Aspinall's last fight. And then with Darren Till, make a break, we're pretty darn close.

I don't know if I'm ready to say 100%, it's make a break for Darryntil, but if this guy wants to become a world champion and accomplish his dreams and have his visions come to life of being a world champion, he's got to beat him. He can't lose to Jackerbanson. He just can't do it.

especially in England, especially in front of a hometown crowd. This is not teed up, but it's about as good as it can get. And, yeah, it's about as close to a must win as you can have, that's for sure.

Let's get Tocke, then we'll get an Australian talk, and then we'll get Jimmy Wang Yang, and then we'll go up and down the line. Toke, what's up, buddy? So I'm going to ask you first about odds. So what I'm wondering,

I know you're not a better, but if you look up and down this card this weekend, what is the clearest value to you? And I will give you a bit of time to actually find the odds, but for me, it's definitely Chris Curtis.

Him being minus 135 against a one-dimensional specialist who has one-round cardio seems insane to only be 135. So that's mine. And then I would ask you, why do you want to kill Cody Gobbrand's career completely? What I mean by that, listen, there's a reason that they wanted him to get Ronnie Yaya.

It's because, you know, we can't see him get knocked out one more time. He's going to be out of the sport, Mal and Moray style if that happens. So it's kind of, this was the last. shot to kind of redeem him to get him against a very a guy that won't knock him out and if he does then it's definitely over but you know getting him in there against probably the only boxer in UFC that's better than Cody Garbrand seems like a bad idea so yeah the best value odds-wise and then Cody Gar-brand thanks buddy yeah I mean listened I'm not trying to kill anybody's career here.

But it all depends. To me, if I was advising young Cody Garbrandt on what to do next, I would have him wait for whenever Honeyaya is ready to come back. If it's the fall, September, October, whenever, wait. Wait for that, man. If you don't want to wait and you want a big fight, it's Yonnas. That's, they're not, he's not going to get anybody high up in the rankings. That's what he gets.

gets and that's yanas has some buzz right now so i mean the risk reward factor you weigh it up put them both on the scale it's there for cody it's there he's got the experienced former world champion he's been in there with better competition than adrian yanas for sure it's not even close he's been in there with better competition than adrian yannas like it's night day you could stop some buzz get your own back it just depends if i'm like i'm like you're like you're I said, like if I'm advising him, just wait. Don't be patient. Just wait for Yaya to come back,

figure out that fight, make it work. But if he wants to fight, if it's like, no, I'm fighting August 20th and that's it. I want to fight on that pay-per-view. I don't care who it's against. You do the Yonis fight. I think that's a great fight for both guys. And yeah, I know it's sad for Garbrand,

considering how these last few fights went, but I like that idea. Best value on this car. God, I mean, Curtis is a good value of minus 135. I'll give you that because the guy just doesn't stop. You can't finish him. You can't put him away. Vieira looked great in his last fight.

Showed, I'm not ready to be like, oh, this guy's a cardio machine, but he looked real good and he was getting stronger as the fight went on before he got his finish. And Chris is just on a roll right now. I actually don't love this matchup at all for Chris. but if he can keep this thing extended and just not get stopped quickly, I think he'll win. So there is value at minus 135. Let me see what else we got here.

Maybe some value on Neil Magnia at plus 320. I mean, I'm favoring Rockmodo to win. Vanessa Dimopolis at plus 220 looks really interesting to me because I think this is, I think this is a 50-50 fight with Jin U Fry. And Jin's look good. Demopoulos has a lot of buzz right now. She's got a lot of momentum coming off that,

come from behind submission win over Zavanya Gomez-Hawares, who herself, after UFC 275, she's got a little bit of momentum going on in her own right. I mean, this has 50-50 written all over it. Demopoulos is a scrapper. Jin's scrap too. I don't think, I don't think Jin's a minus 260 type of favorite against a lot of fighters in this division.

I'd favor her to win, but there's definitely value a plus 220 on Vanessa Demopolis in my eyes. So, yeah, that's what I'm looking at. I have to dig deeper into the props to see, but. Holly on Piva plus 120, it's not bad. But Demopolis of plus 220, that one really stands out to me. All right, Australian talk. What's up, buddy? Wheel is spinning.

Do we have you? Yeah, you've got me, Mike. Good day, mate. Thanks, buddy. Looking back with hindsight, was Prohaskar Glover a better fight than Guffsterson, John Jones won? Has Tai Tui Vasa got the strongest lower leg kicks in the entire UFC? And does Connor McGregor owe RDA the Red Panny fight as his comeback fight?

Hmm. Thank you. I was trying to talk some real good questions there. I don't think Connor fights RDA next. RDA has got his hands full already. Maybe if he beats Viziv and calls for that Connor fight,

maybe he gets it, but I don't see it happening. I don't know what they're going to do with Connor when he comes back. Mazadol is a good idea. Diaz, if they could somehow work that out, is a great idea. There's ways you can go with this.

Maybe you could always do the Porier fight. You could, depending on what happens, next week. You can do Max Holloway too. There's lots of, you can do Justin Gachie. There's so many ways you can go with the Connor thing. I don't think it'll be RDA.

Maybe we'll see who has a little bit of buzz at that point. I don't know. It's a great question. The Taitu Vasa leg kick question, he's up there. Jared Canaaner's leg kicks are ridiculous. Those things, I mean, they just melt you. They just melt you. Sheesh.

Yeah, those things absolutely melt you. But yeah, there's a lot to break down. I actually forgot your first question, but maybe Jimmy Wynne and you help me out, and then we'll take yours. Jimmy, do you remember what the first question was? I'm losing my mind here. Mike, good morning. What's up, buddy? How you doing?

Good, how are you? I'm good. So I wanted to first. He ain't take my point. He just said the same thing I was going to say. Dana, you went crazy. on Nate talking about oh he's only one five fights in the last whatever whatever Connor did the same thing and you're gonna give him a title shot

but I think that that's all that money stuff I think if if they pay fighters more you wouldn't have people like olivera looking at Connor as opposed to actually fighting you know somebody else that deserves it and then has anybody ever looked into why Kobe went from the quad good dude that he was to this suit. Now, I don't want to say political, because I think it's a gimmick. Is this what he chose? To just had this gimmick. I think that's another, like,

I think you got to blame not on the UFC because they told him, like, no matter when or lose his fight, you're being kicked out. And that's like, Kobe been a good fighter. From a fighting standpoint, I don't think he ever deserved to be kicked out. Like, he's one of the best wealth of ways in the world. I think you got to put I'm going to blame on the UFC for this little gimmick that he put on because he wanted to keep his job.

Have a good morning. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I mean, the Connor thing is just silly. And I think, I mean, when we're comparing Connor to Nate and how he's perceived, it's just so dumb. It's just so dumb. But the big thing is Connor has more than one fight left on his deal. So they're not going to drag him through the mud like they are with Nate. Nate has one fight left on his deal.

they want him to sign for longer. Nate's like, nah, I don't want to. I have other options. And who knows? Maybe Nate does sign an extension of some kind. Who knows? It's still kind of early in the equation, but I mean, if you're just not giving him,

like the whole thing, just give him a fight or boot him at this point. I mean, I just, it's so dumb. It's just so stupid. I just, God, it's drosy insane. It just drives me inside. So silly. 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 AeroPlan members on equipped flights. Sponsored by Bell. Conditions apply. See Air Canada.com. Hack the holidays with the PC Holiday Insiders Report. Try this PC Porchetta. Crackling, craveworthy.

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All for just $18. Okay, okay. Try the season's hottest flavors from the PC Holiday Insiders Report. Please feast responsibly. What's up, Ben? Hey, what's going on, Mike? Can you hear me? Yes, sir. Awesome. Well, I wasn't able to come in live yesterday, but I was able to listen. I'm glad this is going on all week. It's just super cool. Two questions. First, I just got an alert on Instagram or like a post. I just saw a post about UFC 189.

And I was wondering if you could talk about your memories from that fight week and the fight night itself because it was incredible. And then my second question is, as this is coming up on July 2nd, I'm a huge Sean O'Malley fan. And I've heard you talk about him before and you always talk about that he's talented. But I was wondering, what do you think his true ceiling is? Do you think he'll ever be a champion? Because I think he will be the champ. Thanks for the time. Thanks, buddy.

yeah, I mean, I'll start with O'Malley. The guy's incredibly talented. The guy's incredibly talented. The one thing I think might hold him back slightly is, and I have no insight into this whatsoever, he just seems kind of difficult to deal with. He has no problem just going on social media or going and doing an interview and just turning on the UFC.

I mean, he's done him many times. If he doesn't get what he wants, he will call the company out. He'll do it. He talks about money all the time, and the UFC doesn't look upon that favorably. So, I mean, I think he might be his own worst enemy in that sense. But tallow-wise, I think the sky's the limit for O'Malley. I got to see, like, the Marlon Verify gave me some pause for sure.

We've seen him take leg kicks and just not respond well to them. So I'm curious to see. What happens if Pedro Munoz, who throws really good leg kicks, comes with that approach? Can he be effective with those like kicks? Can he get O'Malley moving backwards? Can he get him kind of fighting more normal, I guess? But if he can't get those things going, and I could probably say this about most opponents, if you can't kick him in the legs and send him a message in that way,

he's got to be a problem. He's going to be tough to beat. his length, his size, he's an issue. He's a big issue for a lot of these guys at 135. So we'll see. I think he's his own worst enemy. He's his own toughest opponent. He gets at his own way sometimes

in the UFC typically doesn't like guys like that, no matter how popular you are. Look at Nate Diaz, for God's sake. But O'Malley's definitely got a very high ceiling. No doubt about that. UFC 189. God, what a card that was. I have to go back and just remember all the greatness from that card.

But the main card was just sensational. It was just so good. Thomas Almeida, flying knee. Gutter Nelson just runs through Brendan Thatch. Remember Brandon Thatch? Remember Brandon Thatch? The high hopes everybody had for Brandon Thatch. And then it just boom, just went away so quick.

Jeremy Stevens, Dennis Bermudas was crazy. Another flying knee. and then of course we get one of the all-time great fights ever Robbie Loller versus Roy McDonald Roy McDonnell was really never the same after that fight he's at his ups and downs had his good moments and bad but that fight really changed everything for Roy McDonald

and you could say that about a lot of guys who fought Robbie Loller Carlos Kahn did another guy and you could say that Carlos did the same thing to Robbie Loller that run for Robbie Loller every fight Robbie had was a barn burner It was ridiculous. That fight with Roy McDonald. If you've never seen that fight,

get out of here and go watch it. UFC 189 co-made event, Robbie Lollah, Roy McDonald. Holy cow. And then, of course, Connor McGregor against Chad Bendes. What's going to happen when Connor fights a wrestler? He keeps taking him down.

We saw it. Connor dealt with it. Knocks out Mendez in the second round. It's crazy. just a crazy event really really solid of course mendes took that fight on short notice we got to keep that in mind because it's supposed to be cona mcgregor versus jos aaldo mendes steps in they do an interim title there's a big moment for mcgregor's biggest win of his career and then that set up obviously what happened a few months later when he fought josea aldo and had the quick insane knockout that i'll never forget watching live but yeah that event was phenomenal it ruled. It was so good. And I can't wait to go to Vegas

to see this international flight week, my friends. Terrence, you're up, then Tony, then Brian Cashman. Terrence, is up. Hey, what's up, Mike? How are you doing today? Good, how are you? I'm good. Thanks for asking.

So I wanted to start off by saying, like, I know he's talking a lot about Connor today, but like the question I originally had was Connor and, like, his next fight. Two names that people aren't mentioning, which will sound silly, but I think it's a possibility, and they're both people that kind of respect.

One of them being the person he already fought, which is Jose Aldo, the second person, even though they're 1-35ers, and then the second would be Frankie. I know A.K. will hate that. But those two names, I think, as far as people like, oh, he needs cowboy-type fights and people with names, I think if Jose loses or even if he wins,

they can go that route. And if they tell Frankie, like, hey, You can sit out if you want this to be a retirement fight or what have you. I'd like to thank you and send you off. I think that would be one. The second question in regards to Connor, they always talked about like, oh, when he was supposed to come over, he originally wanted to do 155, but they didn't have any room for him in 155, so he went 145. How do you think that would have went for him? Will we see Connor McGregor as to the point he is right now?

Would he have lost steam along the way? and then the last one is more for A.K. Lee, I wanted to know how he did this past week when it came to vetting and will we have another No Bet Spard this week being that Jet is off. That's it. Thank you. Thanks, buddy. I think we will have a no bet spard. I think it's going to be the original lineup.

Connor Birx is I believe is back. So I think it'll just be a normal show. And I think it might drop today, maybe tomorrow. Not really sure. but we'll get A.K.'s response to how he did in a matter of moments. The Connor stuff, he ain't fighting Frankie. He ain't fighting although. I don't think he ever fights Aldo again.

It would have made sense a while ago, but there's just no way you can make that fight any better. You can't do it any better. And although he's been making weight very healthy at 135, and he's looked stupendous. And if he beats him, Arab, he's fighting for the title. So I like Gachi. I think that fight makes a lot of sense.

I like maybe Holloway if he loses the ball. I mean, there's so many different ways you can go with this. You could do Mazadol. That'd be a very big deal. I don't know. You got to be smart with it. You got to, it's tough because you have to try to get,

you have to try to book him a win. And I don't know if there's like that cowboy seroni-esque type figure out there where you get a guy with the name, but you're pretty confident that he'll win, if that makes sense. So, yeah, I don't know what happens. I don't know what happens. I don't know.

I don't think he'll ever lose the steam. I think there will always be a mistake for him. I think it starts to lose a little bit of momentum, but not much. I mean, when Connor does come back after getting pretty much run over by Dustin Porier and two consecutive fights. And I know the second fight in this past July, I know it ended in a pretty awful way, but it just seemed like all sides are pointing to things you're just going to get worse for Connor, and that Dustin was going to put away in the second anyway. So to me, it just wasn't going to go well.

But Connor's still going to do a million plus pay for you guys no matter who we fight. So I don't know. AK, do you want to answer that question? Yeah, excuse me, guys. I'm a little sick. Hey, Mike. Great show, as always. Terrence, thanks for checking in on me.

I came out in the minus as far as the betting goes. And I will say, though, I don't need to break it down here, Mike. I will be. I actually am on this episode of No Betts Bard. I'm right at the beginning. I'm right at the beginning. So it's great. You got to hear from, I got to team up with the wonderful Jed and also Connor Brooks.

First time I've ever done a show with Connor. So that was exciting. But yeah, you guys have got a full breakdown. I'll just say a couple of things. first of all Chris Lee screwed me not my brother not my brother

the judge Chris Lee I'm not happy about that like many I got screwed by that round four score and Gregory Rodriguez stop not mixing the martial arts

the wrong way I need to see if he had just gone to his jiu jitsu Mike if he had just gone to his jiu jiu jitsu my betting slips would have looked a lot the results my vending slips would a lot

It would have looked a lot different. But that's all I'll say for now, guys. Definitely check out that episode. Yeah, either I think probably dropping today or on Thursday. And I don't want to take up more of the listener time. But I was not happy. What a guy. That's my best friend, folks.

Maybe in the minus on the betting slips at the betting window, but always plus money in our hearts. Let's get Tony to Tiger in here. Are you there, Tony? Let's make sure you're unmute. and I think we might have you. Are you there, Tony? Try again.

We'll get you right in, Tony. I promise. All right, let's get Brian in here. What's up, buddy? Good morning, too, too, my friend. All right. So I just got to say one thing. I'm sick of all this Nate Diaz talk

because we're going to say the same things and nothing's going to happen. So I'm going to bring up someone really relevant that I know you'll want to talk about Henry Sehudo. I'm just kidding. No, I'm not talking about him. But a question I had to ask is, like, with these deep divisions, 155 and 135, I feel like they got to make, like, a top 25 for these rankings. Because, I mean, Adrienne Yanez and number 15, I love that guy.

I love watching him. I'll watch his interviews all the time. But if you look at the guys below him, I mean, I just think, like, Jack Shore, even Ricky Simone, the Nirmagamettev guys, like, I don't think he matches up less. against them at all. So I just want to hear your take on that. Thank you. And heck of a morning. Thanks, buddy.

Yeah, those two divisions are so deep and so strong. I'd love to see a top 25. I don't think it's going to happen. It's just such a mix and match at 135 right now because you still have, you still got the Frankie Edgiers in there. And we still get some of the veterans at the top. And we have just, I mean, you could throw, there's like 12 to 15 guys she could throw.

on that 15 spot right now. And I know Sean Al-Shadi likes to use the term hot potato when describing the light, heavyweight title right now. But I feel like that number 15 spot is going to be like a hot potato. I feel like if Umar, Nirmagam Adolf just goes out there and steam rolls, Nate Manis,

I think Adrian Yannis probably gets knocked out of that spot and Umar takes it. And then when Adrian fights again, maybe he takes it back. Or maybe the next guy comes up, maybe he takes it back. I mean, we still get guys like, I'm just trying to throw some bait.

Like Chris Gutierrez isn't ranked. and he's on a great run right now. I mean, there's lots of guys at 35 that deserve a ranking spot. And Yanis is just the flavor of the week right now. And he gets in there and we'll see if Umar does his thing. And if he does, I'm curious how the wonderful and very intelligent UFC rankings committee handles that. Let's see if we can get Tony back in here. Take two.

Can we get him? Tony to Tiger. It's great. Tony, I think I hear you. What's up, buddy? How are you doing? Yes, sir. Good.

How are you? How are you? Heck of a morning. I honestly think that you should embrace that more. I think that you're forming a community and you've got a lot of folks. And like every other call, people are saying heck of a morning. You kind of just hang there. So maybe that's an opportunity to, you know, build on that a little bit more because

there's momentum building for sure. I got two questions for you. One on the heavyweight side and then one on the street. straw weight side. I feel like Francis Ngano's contract situation is so much more of a deal than anything going on with Nate Diaz, but we seem to be talking about Nate Diaz a lot more. What is the status on Ngano and the interim championship fight that Jones and Steve A, are looking at? And then my other question is, is Carla Sparza really injured? And what are the chances that she does not fight

Zhang next. I heard there was talks about October, but she's trying to push off. I don't think there's any chance regardless of if she fights, she wins. So I wonder if that's what the cause for the possible delay is. That's all I got. Thanks.

Thanks, buddy. So with the Francis thing, nothing, no update, no nothing. I know Francis wants that Tyson Fury fight and he has said multiple times, and I believe him when he says this, if you want to resign me, I'll resign, but that has to be part of the package.

So we talked about co-promotion and things like that before. There's an opportunity. There's an opportunity to co-promote. I don't think Dana will, but there's an opportunity there. Why not? Like Francis, Tyson Fury is,

he's freaking Tyson Fury. Who expects Francis and Gano to go in there beat Tyson Fury. But if Francis just shows up and steps into the ring with that guy, like that's just a win in itself. And that's the way Francis is sort of handling this. Like, I know he says he's going to go knock him out. He's not going to say, oh, this will be a nice experience to have Tyson just piece me up.

But we kind of know what's going to happen in that fight. We kind of know. And Francis will make a giant bag of money, which is even better than all of those things. So no movement on the Francis front. I have a feeling we won't hear about. anything until maybe the fourth quarter of the year. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he'll do some interviews.

Maybe he'll provide some own updates on his YouTube channel. Maybe he'll go on the M-May hour. But nothing to report at this time. Same thing with interim title, Steve A, John Jones. Nothing to report at this time. Both men seem to want it in September. I know Steve A was like, I want to fight in September. There's a glaring spot at the top of that card in September.

I know there's all the signs they're pointing towards. Alderman Sterling versus T.J. Dilleshaw. That's probably not going to headline that card. So you have to think the UFC is going to put on the proverbial full court press to try to do Steepa John Jones as the main event of that card in a location yet to be announced. I know Boston is in the running for that card. So it is possible.

I think Anaheim is also in the running for that card. But we'll see what happens with that. But again, nothing that I've heard in that regard. and the carl aspires to think, look, if she says she's hurt, I buy it. I buy it. Long camp, getting ready for Rose.

The fight wasn't all that thrilling. She may have gotten hurt in some of those exchanges on the ground. I mean, who knows? Doesn't sound like anything tremendously serious, but something that is going to require some time and she should get time. She's not wrong.

Like, I know a lot of people read headlines and say, Marina Rodriguez deserves a shot over Zhang Wei Lee. And then if you actually like read the quotes, Carla's not wrong. Like Marina's resume right now in terms of like if this is Bellator,

it would be Carla Sparsa versus Marina Rodriguez without question. It would not be Jean-Wea Lee. It would be Marina Rodriguez. For my meritocratic standpoint, Marina should be the guy, the gal, excuse me. She should be the gal to fight for the type.

because she's on this long winning streak. She's got all these wins. She's got a win over the former champion. No, she didn't. She lost split scissors, but a lot of people felt she won that fight. So, yeah, I mean, yeah, she's not wrong. And I don't think, like, this narrative that she's scared to fight Zhang Lili is just crazy.

But I also hear what she's coming from. Like, if I'm going to fight Zhang, like, I don't want to go to Abu Dhabi to fight her. It's not, like, I'm going to let her dictate the terms. You have to have, you may not have a lot of leverage, but you might have a smidge of it. and you need to use it. Why, in your first title of the fence, why would you want to travel to Abu Dhabi and do what the challenger wants?

Like, I still think if the UFC offers your Zhang Wei Lee in November, December, she's going to say yes and sign it and go. Like, I just don't think she wants to, she doesn't want to give Zhang what she wants and just say October closer to where you live. She wants to say, my date, my time, my little.

location and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But for a meritocratic standpoint, John Lee is one and two in her last three fights and Marina is not. So I get where she's coming from, but she's not also saying like, I'm not fighting John Wei Lee. I'm the champion. I can do whatever I want.

She's just saying, look, John wants to fight in October. I don't think I'm going to be ready in October. It's not up to her. It's up to me. And that's it. And I don't blame her for that. Zeke.

What's up, buddy? Good morning, Mike. How are we? Good are you? I'm all right, man. I'm going to be short and quick here. I want to kind of pile on what you were just talking about, and then I want to look into July 2nd. I want to skip over this card coming up this weekend if that's possible. First things first, I have a feeling that Wayley-Zang is coming for blood.

I have a feeling that she has a lot of things unproven in this strawweight division. I think that Wayley-Zang, oh, my God. The way he's saying right now, if that matchup was to be booked, could maybe even close from a vetting perspective at possibly minus three to 400 in that matchup. I know that to be certain to say, but I just don't think that Carla Rose matchup is going to, you know, farewell for the eyes of, you know, the beholder, the eyes of the fans, the people who were like, well, us are a straway champion.

That wasn't really the best championship performance, to say the least, in my humble opinion, obviously. And I just think Waley has every way in the world to damage and harm Carla, especially with her takedown defense. Secondly, we got a little

Sean O'Malley, Pedro Muno's matchup coming up. I'm extremely excited if you couldn't hear, you know, the way I'm talking about it, Sean's one of my favorite fighters for sure. What is your thought process there? I hopefully think Sean can take care of him. I don't know if he puts

amount but I expect the striking show. You know, maybe it'll be a little less damage, a little more like Chris Matunio, I don't want to ruin my man's name. I know who was just released, but he put up, you know, took a lot of damage and kept walking forward. So kind of expect Pedro to do the same. But what are your, what are your, you know, homo opinions there? Thank you for having me, Mike.

Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I'll focus on the O'Malley-Munoz fights. Great fight. It's the fight that should be made. Makes perfect sense. I love it. I like the Ricky Simone idea, too. But this is how you build O'Malley.

You put him against a guy that everybody knows who's tough and he's durable. And he presents some issues that have been a hindrance to O'Malley in the past. But he also, from the other side of things, O'Malley has some clear advantages over Munoz as well. So I like the fight. I'm curious to see whose game plan gets off better. Munoz can start scoring those light kicks and really get O'Malley switching stances and making him uncomfortable.

He's got a chance to win. And it's not like a lot of people, I've heard people say that O'Malley will just, but Bune's just has to be super tough and just kind of gas himself out. O'Malley's not going to gas himself out. He'll just keep beating you up. If he gets an advantage and he starts surging, he starts getting off, he's just going to keep getting off. He's just going to keep throwing punches and kicks.

He's going to land. He's going to hurt you. But Munoz is a great opponent. I love the fight. I favor O'Malley to win. I just think he has more weapons. I think that size, that length, the reach, all that is going to be an issue for Pedro Munoz, like it is for most guys he fights.

But curiously, if Pedro wrestles a little bit. But the leg kicks, that's huge. And I know O'Malley knows they're coming. But if Munoe starts mixing the martial arts, as AK says, maybe fainting some takedowns, landing those leg kicks, finishing. multi-shot combos with leg kicks. He's got a chance to win. So I'm not counting Pedro out.

Love the matchup. It's the exact fight to make. All right. So I got Pastor. We'll go to Pastor here. Pastor, what's up? Pastor, you get to unmute? I don't hear you.

All right, try again if you'd like. Taylor, come on in. Taylor, are you there? Yeah, hey, Mark. What's up, buddy? Going back to this Sean O'Malley, Pedro, Muno's fight, I absolutely love Omali's nickname of Freeland Pedro. And I want to know what's your favorite nickname

that another fighter is given a rival. For me, it's Joanna No Paycheck and Colby Covington. That's a good question. That's a good one. I got to think about that one. I got to think about that one. Time. I'll answer that one tomorrow.

All right, see if we get Pastor in here, then Chad, the Johnny Wu, then Gunwood. Pastor, are you there? Unmute. I think we got you. What's up, buddy? Right, so sort of in the future, but I'm actually going to my first UFC event, UFC 277. I just wanted to ask two questions. Do you have any tips for things I should look out for while in the arena?

Any cool merch to buy while I'm there? And then my second question is, do you think Nunes could pull it off in the second fight? Thank you, Pastor. Have fun. Dallas is a fun city. I like the AAC. Been there a few times to watch your Boston Celtics beat up on the Dallas Mavericks. And I went to a UFC event there as well.

One of the earlier events, I still care of remember which number was 102. I don't know. It was one of the, it was right around the 90-100 range. I forget what it was. And I would just get there early and just enjoy. enjoy the card just get in there have some fun avoid the slobs who just

are going to take over Dallas and just drink their faces off where they just stumble into their seats just avoid that just enjoy it have some fun and just take it all in it's fun it's a good time

so yeah can Nunes get it done sure she can will she I don't know I'm picking Giuliana Paney to win that fight but I could be terribly wrong. All right. Chad, Johnny Wu, Gunwood. Chad, go.

Unmute. Chad, unmute. Nothing. Try again. Johnny Wu. Maybe. Johnny, your wheel just keeps spinning. I don't know if...

Oh, I know you're there, but I can barely hear you. Yeah, I can't hear you at all, man. Can not hear you at all. Let's try Chad again. Chad? Nothing. I'll try again. Unmute.

Unmute. Yeah, sometimes if your Wi-Fi is not in a good spot, it doesn't work. Chad, do we have you? No, Chad. Gunwood or Gunwoos, excuse me. Are you there? Hello, Mike. What's up, buddy?

Hello, Mike. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Hello, Mike. Good morning to you and everyone listening from South Korea. It is midnight here. I just have three quick questions. First question is, Mike, are there any Asian fighters you think could be UF champion in the next three years, except Zhang Wili?

Or any Asian fighters you are particularly interested in? And the second question is, does MMA fighting need any interviews with any fighters training in Korea? If yes, please let me know. I can do the interview, edit the video, and send it to you. And lastly, have you ever visited South Korea? If you have a plan to come to Korea, please let me know. I can show you around. And I just want to say that thank you for doing what you're doing,

and I really enjoy your podcast. Have a great day. Thank you, sir. Very kind words. I appreciate that very much. I like Janjohn-on-a-a-a-a-lot. I know she's not from Korea, but if we're talking about Asian fighters, I like her a lot.

I think she's going to be really good. I think she's going to get better. think she could be a could still be a title contender in this division so i do like her a lot i'm not like terribly familiar like i know there's some on the contender series i know there's some from the road to ufc that i didn't really get a chance to to really dive into and watch so i'll have to sort of get back to you on that i've never been to korea to south Korea. I've never really, I've only been outside the country like once or twice, Canada, Mexico. So I haven't really, I'm not a world traveler really at all. Hopefully that'll change in the near

future covering this wonderful sport of ours. But even, even in the U.S., like I'm going to Vegas next week for International Fight Week. I've never been to Vegas. And that'll be the furthest west I have gone in the United States. So I've been kind of a homebody. Like when I go on vacations, it's like to Florida. I've been to Texas, a couple of, like, different parts of Texas. I've been,

obviously New Hampshire and all those places, the Carolinas, things like that. But yeah, I'm kind of boring when it comes to travel, but hopefully next few years,

maybe I'll get to spread my wings, travel these different places, and maybe I'll head to South Korea. And, uh, and do that. So, all right, I got to get out of here, my friends.

This is actually my day off, but I'm still doing this for you guys. Because why the hell not? because you guys are the best. So we will be back tomorrow, 10 a.m. Eastern, right here, M.A. Fighting Twitter Spaces. If you're coming in late and you're wondering what the hell we were talking about, show will go up on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network sooner rather than later.

So again, back tomorrow, 10 a.m. Eastern. My parents are actually coming too, so I'll be excited to see them. Tomorrow, B.T.L. Well, BTL, I don't know who's going to be a part of it. I don't know what's going to happen, but something's going to happen. and then we have lots of stuff going on Friday, BKFC, we got Bella Tour, we got PFL, we have a preview show on Friday, getting you ready for UFC Vegas 57,

and then we'll have the card on Saturday, pre-fight show, post-fight show, onto the next one, all that good stuff. So lots to look forward to this week. But in the meantime, I am out of here. Have a great rest of the day. And as always, have a heck of a morning.