MMA Fighting - Heck of a Morning | Should Islam Makhachev Volunteer To Face Dustin Poirier At UFC 277?

Episode Date: May 17, 2022

Dustin Poirier is looking for a fight at UFC 277 on July 30 against "anybody that makes sense." With the lightweight title picture still a bit foggy with Charles Oliveira being stripped of the championship and needing an opponent for the vacant title, should Islam Makhachev volunteer his services to face Poirier and further separate himself from the pack? On this episode of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck is asked about the potential of Makhachev raising his hand to face "The Diamond" in Dallas following Poirier's recent appearance on The MMA Hour. In addition, questions include Jan Blachowicz's championship aspirations following his UFC Vegas 54 main event win against Aleksandar Rakic, Tatsuro Taira's debut win and what his ceiling could be, Logan Storley's win over Michael Page at Bellator 281 in London this past weekend, journalism in MMA, the current scoring criteria, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 8 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Right here on the M.MA fighting Twitter spaces, we're live. And then later on, if you miss half the show or maybe you're already listening there, the M.A Fighting Podcasting Network, I am Mike Heck. Thank you for joining us. I hope you're having a fantastic day. As always, a lot to discuss in the world of mixed martial arts. And this is the MMA morning show, all right? Boston, New York, all the big cities, they have their morning shows.

People call in and they give their thoughts on big topics in the sports world. And that's what we're doing here. So if you're new to the program, that's exactly what we're doing. So if you have something on your mind, you want to talk about this past weekend, you want to talk about this weekend, talk about whatever it is you want to talk about. Just hit the request. get it rolling. Before we get rolling, I want to wish a happy birthday to my little brother. Brian Heck is 35 years old today. Holy cow, a tall, skinny kid.

It's kind of shaped like James Vic, if you will. But happy birthday to him, 35 years young today. And yeah, that's out of the way. So a lot happened this past weekend. Saturday, Jan Blahovich gets back in the wind column. in a way that was a bit unfortunate. Alexander Rackich, we saw what happened in the third round of that fight. The knee went out. We found out, first reported by Ariel Hawani, that Rackich suffered a toward ACL, nasty injury. That's going to keep him out a while.

And it's unfortunate because he was looking pretty damn good in that second round. And if he continued that line of fighting and just kept taking Janbovich down, there's a very good chance he was going to win that. fight. I thought he was going to win that fight. I picked him by decision. I know most of the MA staffers, enemy fighting staffers picked him to win. Most of us picked him by decision, but just an unfortunate ending. And now the question sort of becomes, where does Jan Bolshevich go from here? Does this win, especially in this fashion? Is that enough to get him back to a title fight? I know Glover Tashira tweeted out at the beginning of the night. Hey, Jan, you win and I win. Let's run it

back. Of course, Glover's got his hands full with Yuri Perhaska on June 11th at UFC 275. Did Janbovich do enough to get Glover if that, if that's what actually does happen? If Yuri Prohashka wins, we get at least a fresh matchup there. And we have a big fight coming up at UFC 277, July 30th between Magamette and Kaliath and Anthony Smith. So do we wait two more months to figure this whole thing out? or does the UFC try to figure this out quicker?

I don't know. So, Janbovich's back of the wind calm. He did look really good in that first round. Second round, a bit different since Rackich had him down for most of it and controlled him down there. So who knows how the rest of that fight would have gone. But Janbovich wins. And then on Friday, good Lord, talk about Twitter just going bananas and then just

stopping. It took 30 minutes for this all to happen. But if you missed it, main event of Bellator 281, Logan Storley became the interim Walterway champion by defeating Michael Venom Page via split decision. And I know Ariel Hawati talked about this on the MA hour yesterday, and I understand everything he was going through because I scored that fight from Michael Page as well,

and I got annihilated for it. Absolutely annihilated. There's two things that I've gotten annihilated for more than anything else. And it has to do with judges' scorecards. One, that one, and the other was saying that Volcanovsky Holloway 2 was not a robbery because Volcanovsky won. I will say this again because when these conversations happen, I try to go back and watch these fights again, maybe a third time.

At least with Volcanovsky Holloway, I can watch that fight over and over again. It's super competitive. It's a great fight. It's an underrated fight. And it's an enjoyable process to go back and watch it again. and see if your mind changes and stuff. With this fight, Paige and Storyly,

I have no desire to go back to watch this fight. I have no desire to see 25 more minutes of that. I scored it for Page. I'm confident up that my scorecard was correct. At least when it comes to how fights are supposed to be scored with the new rules here in 2022. Damage always wins. It's always the number one factor.

Logan's story got takedown Jess. he got him with pretty relative ease, yes, but he did nothing with them. He did nothing with the takedowns. He didn't land any shots, very, very minimal. Maybe in the fifth round, he landed a couple. He didn't try to improve his position. He did nothing.

He did nothing. Take downs aren't supposed to be really scored in that way because you're not doing anything with them. It's just like you might as well just fought against the cage, like just clinched up against the fence. And if that's what happened, there's two guys up against the fence. Page, at least landing stuff with his back against the fence. He's landing short punches.

He's landing trying to land elbows. He's trying to do something. It didn't happen that way. They were on the ground, but it doesn't matter. Page is still busy or on the ground. Go back and watch Benson Henderson and Islam Mamadov. Mamadov got the takedowns, but Benson Henderson was doing more off of his back than Momonov was doing on top.

Elin is his transitionary position. Takedowns mean really nothing if you don't have damage behind them. It just doesn't work that way. Now, was Michael Page out there just lightened Logan Storley up like a Christmas tree? No. But in my eyes, he did more damage throughout those 25 minutes than Logan Storley did. Now, if you want to, I had people saying they scored it 50, 45 for Stoley. What the hell are you talking about?

How is that, how can you possibly score 50, 45 for Sturray? How could you give him the fourth round? That was an asinine scorecard, a ridiculous scorecard. It's just insane. It's insane how inconsistent we are worth the scoring. And then what was amazing was Twitter was on fire after that whole thing. People attack it everybody for how they scored fights, people arguing. And you want to know how bad that fight was?

Within 30 minutes, it was done. Twitter was on fire for 30 minutes. And then it was over. Scott Coker said he scored it for. page he thought page won the fight ripped storely a little bit and then that was it and twitter was on fire and then it was just gone and that just shows you the desire that in the end nobody cares nobody cares it was terrible matchmaking horrific matchmaking and i hated the interim title thing sometimes i don't mind an interim title if we have a fighter it's going to be out for a

a little while. We're trying to move the division. It's a glorified number contender fight. Fine. If there's reasons behind it, there's a fighter injured, like the Ouspid situation. I've been clamoring, shouting from the rooftops. They should just do Shamaa versus Leon Edwards for an interim title. Winner gets Ousband to unify the belt. It's a much bigger. Ouspen's out. He wants to spend time of his family's recovering from an injury. We're not disrespecting Ouspen by putting an interim title fight. We're just trying to put a big fight together and try to make that fight bigger. Yaroslav Amasov is. fighting a war for his country

against the Russian invasion right now. The guy said, now I'm going to forego this paycheck, this main event spot in a sold-out arena because I'm fighting for my country. And what does Vellator do? They put an interim title on the line. It's just dumb.

The whole thing was dumb. And then they put Logan Storley in there with Michael Page. Why would you do that? Why would you do that? Everybody knew how that fight was going to go. And this page, like, knocked him out, it was just going to be that store's going to take him down he's going to lay on top of them and then maybe page would do enough to win but i mean just terrible matchmaking horrible

this it's just very bellator-esque i just i don't get it i don't get it you could have put page in there with anybody anybody and you didn't have to put an interim title a lot just put page in the main event spot let him style on somebody put him in there with a striker and just let him do his thing out goes banana it's a nice moment. But no, we've got to put him in there with Logan Story. Come on, dude. Come on.

We got to be better than this. And then we almost had the same thing happen with Paul Daly. Paul Daly's final fight, hometown fight. We put him in there with a grappler who kept taking him down. Luckily, Daly got on his feet and just said, to hell with this, and just knocked the dude out in vicious fashion. So we got the happy ending. But there's a very good chance we weren't going to get that happy ending.

We're okay doing that with these up-and-coming prospects, just putting it in there with guys to shine. They're minus 2,000 favorites on the way up. Guys like Paige early in his career, Aaron Pico, although Pico's had tougher competition than most of these prospects, but some of the decision-making that they make in these types of situations is baffling to me. Like Big Tuna, Big Tuna,

big Tuna pulls off one of the biggest upsets in the company's history big knockout of Christian Edwards and he like the hype behind that guy after that knockout was incredible it was incredible everyone was talking about big two to we're talking about big two on NBA fighting for like seven months couldn't wait to see this guy fight again we're just like put this guy in there with anybody that could strike let's put him in there with a striker let him have some fun let's build them up let's get some wins and what do they do they put him in there with Sullivan Cowley who's just going to take him down and beat the hell out of them. Terrible.

And it was the first fight on the prelims. Ugh. Some of the things, Belator, and I love the people who work for Belator, but some of the decision making is just horrendous. It's so bad. But anyways, let's go to you guys. I'm going to jump off my soapbox for a moment. And we'll say hello to Tristan Gordat.

He was first in line. Four Corner Sports. You're on deck. Hey, Mike. Tristan, what's up, buddy? Hey, Mike, what's going on? Before we start, my apologies for yesterday. picking Jamal Hill versus Ryan Span. I must have looked at topology real quick and didn't realize he had a fight

booked against Santiago Santos. My fault on that, my apologies. I got to check that on the chin for that one. A couple of things. Greg McGillofsky and found out why he was off the roster. Well, you guys told me and he came out with an exclamation. And it still doesn't make any sense. I don't understand because I'm like, well, you're not going to fight fires that are behind you.

You want to fight fighters above you. But yeah, but then you admit that, well, I can't sit either. I'm just sitting here either. So it's like a kind of a conundrum he was throwing out to me. And I'm just like, all right, man, so you got to take a fight. You got to take whether it's behind or above. You got to take a fight. You got to get active.

You can't just be sitting here. You're in a rock. You're between a rock and a hard place. like we said before we talked about this last week. So, you know, I read what you have to say, and I'm just like, well, that doesn't make any sense, but we'll see what happens. Also, I wanted to know as well your thoughts on

Dustin Poillet's interview with Ariel Hwani. Is he going to get a 5th of July 30 and against two? I mean, is it going to be Kobe? But I can't see it. Kobe's still dealing with the whole situation with Jorge. We don't know his status as far as, you know, because he came out with a brain injury and I suffered this and separate that

between that altercation between him and Gamebred. So we don't know what's going on with that. I don't know if he's going to get that in time. The Nate Diaz fight, that's still I don't think it's going to happen. And then, I mean, I guess the only thing logical is the Wonderboy, but, you know, we don't know. We don't know. All we know is Dustin wants to fight July 30th.

So your thoughts on that. And then I want also your thoughts on the performance of Tattooa this past weekend, almost going to be. got that finished in the second round, but couldn't, wasn't able to get that, um, that arm underneath, uh, Candeliro's neck to finish the choke. He had to, I guess he bailed out of it, but still dominant performance by Ta-Tara. So your thoughts on that. And then I don't know, this is a lot here. Also, I want your thoughts on, um, uh, Tony Ferguson's interview with Ariel Hawani and the clarity that he had of what happened against Chandler and where he goes

from here at this point. So I just want to hear your thoughts and all that and I'll hang up and listen. Thanks, Mike. All right, thank you, Tristan. All right, let me go back away. So Gregory Gillespie, yes, as we talked about last week, not surprising the whole situation,

officially removed from the rankings because of inactivity. I know there were, I mean, Sunday was a crazy day because everyone thought he was released, but you have to remember, just because the bot says that he's removed, removed from the rankings pool does not mean that they're released. Remember, Yawani and Jacek's same situation. She had been inactive for a while. She was removed from the rankings pool, at least the

fan rankings pool, and sometimes the rankings themselves. That doesn't mean that they're always cut. It just means that they're just ineligible to be ranked anymore. Just like with the MA fighting global rankings, we give it 18 month window. If you do not compete within 18 months, you are ineligible to be ranked in our rankings. So that's just how they do that. Yeah, he's in a weird position. I mean, he's probably going to get the chance to fight somebody ahead of him because whoever wins the Armand Sirukion Matush Gamrod fight, you best believe they're going to be leapfrogging Gregor Gillespie in the ranking. So once they try to go back and maybe reoffer that one of those fights to him, he's going to have to say yes, because

that fits the criteria. They're right ahead of him. So we'll see what happens. I mean, eventually he's just going to have to fight somebody. You got to be. active. You've got to be active. We've seen what activity can do for fighters in these types of situations. Dana White, matchmakers, they're always going to favor of the guys that want to get in there and stay active. If you're only fighting once a year, you're not going to get the opportunities that a guy like a Kevin Holland got a couple of years ago when he was fighting six times, having just a ridiculous year. That's what you got to do. You got to stay in the limelight. This sport moves so quickly. You go and have a great performance. That fight with Diego

I had it was insanity. It was ridiculous. It was a great fight. But when we're talking about like fight of the year and things like that, so much time had passed, we weren't even talking about it. We weren't talking about it. That's what you got to do. You got to stay out there. You got to do media. You got to fight. You can't just fight once a year, especially in this division. You just can't do it. The Desiporia thing, I would be shocked if Colby is going to fight on July 30th just because of the whole situation with Mazadol. if we see somehow a plea is met or the charges are dropped or some kind of deal is made for restitution and they just drop everything maybe but I would I don't think that's going to happen

I doubt it and if I'm Mazadol side it doesn't seem like Mazadal side's willing to offer any kind of a deal in their own right because they could just say you know we'll just pay it for the watch or do this and do that and maybe we'll be done with it and doesn't seem like they're in any hard to do that. So I'd be shocked if Covington fights on July 30th. It's interesting to, and maybe deep down poor I knew that. I don't know. I mean, I don't blame him for making the call out. The guy really wants to fight. I doubt Nate happens, which is stupid, because this fight should have already been on the books. Wonderboy, maybe. And I'm just trying to think, like, who it could be at 55. Like, Chandler would be a great choice,

but I just don't know if he's going to be ready to fight on July 30th. So we'll see what happens. That July 30th card is looking nice, but we don't have a main event yet. We got the Moreno, Kai Kar-France interim title fight, but that can't headline. That's not a main event for a pay-per-view. It's a great fight.

It should be a lot of fun, but it's on a main event. And that card probably needs a little bit of help. So, yeah, I think if UFC's smart, They just get poory on that card. And who care? Throw them in there with Wonderboy. Who's going to complain about that? And then Ferguson, just being Ferguson,

just, uh, we'll see what happens with them if he lands a team. The interview with Halani, go back and check that out on YouTube. It's a fascinating conversation, a fascinating look into the mind of, of one Tony Ferguson that's, it's a retiree.

Great performance. Carl's K. Delaria is a dog. Dude is an absolute dog. He's tough. He's tough. to finish. He's a grinder. He's a grueling paced fighter. And Tyra

did the damn thing. Won all three rounds? He's only 22. He's got a very bright future ahead of him. I know he came to her performance. A better debut than Mohamed Bahia. That didn't happen, but it's still a pretty solid performance. And I hope he got to

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in a wardrobe designed to celebrate the season. Revell in luxurious velvet, shimmering satin, elegant silhouettes, and sparkling details. Whether you're going full glam or keeping a casual, you're sure to shine bright in our festive party wear, no matter the dress code. Just RSVP yes and let style carry you into the new year with Simons. Four quarter sports. You're up. What's going on? You just got on mute. Can you hear me? Yeah. All right, cool. I wanted to get your thoughts on the main event between Behovich and rackage and has there been any news on rackage's injury whether he was like an ECL or an LCL injury and um with a hoagic winning right he won a guy came winning the first round

rackage winning the second round does that do you feel like he's entitled to getting a second title shot potentially against a glover um i also wanted to get your thoughts on angela hill in her future because um moving to burn his band of What is she now? 13 and 12 record-wise. I mean, where is her career path going to go after taking a loss to Verna? I felt like that was a very important win that she needed to get. And then lastly, I know you mentioned about Usman.

When do you think his prime table is for him to return with the hand injury? I know that originally he had mentioned something of him wanting to come back in the fall. But I don't know, do you think that's likely? and it's going to be your thoughts on that. All right, thanks. Thank you for Corner Sports. So the Rackage situation, we talked about it a little bit earlier.

It's torn ACL, so he's going to be out for a little while. He's first reported by Ariel Hawani. We confirmed that information last night. So, yeah, he's just an unfortunate way to end the fight. We got to give credit to Jan Belhovic too because, you know, Rackich is dealing with a little bit of an injury.

I mean, Belhovic was, was landing leg kicks. He was really beating him up and he kind of forced rackets to put a lot of that weight on the other leg and that's just the way the fight ended.

Now in terms of the title conversation, I don't know, man. I don't know. We have to probably have to wait and see how these next couple of months play out. We've got to see how Glover Tashara does against Yuri Perashka. I would think if you're Janbovich,

despite the back and forth on Twitter, if you're on Behovich, you probably a Yuri Perashka fan right now. You're probably hoping he goes something fresh. And then we got Magamad, Ankleyev taken on Anthony Smith on July 30th. And I would say if Glover wins that fight, I'd say the winner of that one probably has a better chance. But Glover is also not the most active guy in the world. Like if he fights in June and wins, we probably won't see him until the end of the year, more than likely. So this is about as, it's kind of a cop-out, but this is about as much

of a wait and see situation as you're probably going to find. And then with the Usman situation, yeah, I mean, he was at UFC 274. He spoke with media and said that things are taking a little bit slower than originally anticipated. So you would think July 30th would make all the sense in the world. Usman has ties to Dallas. That'd be a perfect card to headline, but I don't know what they're going to do. I honestly have no idea.

That'd be a great fight to put on there, but maybe that's what they do. Maybe they go with my idea and do Shemaiah versus Edwards' interim title. That'd be a tremendous main event for that card, and then Oosman gets the winner. Newsman can be there, and they can have a little moment afterwards. But again, sometimes when you're putting these title fights on and you're trying to build with two or three title fights, you get to a point where you're like, man, what are we going to do now? What are we going to do? and if Oostman can't go July 30th,

I don't know what they're going to do. I have no idea, because they're not going to get Steve A. John Jones on that card. What are you going to do to headline it? I mean, you could do maybe Paynean Nunes too, but I mean, I guess, I don't know what you're, I don't know. I don't know what they're going to do.

Something tells me that probably end up being the main event. And then what, Angel Hill? Angel Hill is, Angela Hills about five judges away from being in a much different position right now. She's tough. She's going to be a gamer against anybody she fights. So, yeah, I think she'll be there for a while. She's multifaceted.

She could be part of the broadcast booth. She can do a lot of different things for the company. So I don't think she's going anywhere. I think she's going to be around for a while. I think I don't like using the word. gatekeeper, but I'll use litmus test. She could be a very strong litmus test for a lot of these up-and-coming 25ers. We're seeing this next generation of talent, or 15ers, excuse me.

We're seeing some of these, some of the new fighters coming in at 115. When you're trying to get to that next step, what are you going to do? Like, Brianna 14-0 beats Jessica Penne, a fight with Angela Hill would make perfect sense to see if she's good enough to be a top 10-type caliber. fire. That's where Angela's role is going to be in. I think she'd be fine. To be honest. Let's get Mitchell in here. And then we'll go to Joe. What's up, Michelle? So I got two questions. Number one, I was actually at the Bellator show at the weekend. I was going to give you my perspective of the main event. I kind of had like two minds of it,

which is kind of basic, but I kind of thought that maybe MVP would catch him with something or Logan would basically did what he did and drowned them out. And during the first round, you could kind of see where he was going. And I think the atmosphere was really dead. Like when MVP came out, it was very, it was hometown, so it was very reactive towards him.

And during the first round, you could generally see the atmosphere. Everyone knew what was kind of coming. And obviously I left early because I knew what was coming. I didn't want to see that fight. and I did not agree with a matchmaking at all of it was awful matchmaking as you mentioned earlier and number two

where do you think Mohammed Mokaiev could potentially be going in the next couple of years like I personally think he could be the champion within the next two, three years but I just wanted to know your thoughts on both of them but obviously you said the first bit. Thank you. Thank you Michelle. Yeah

that matchmaking was horrific absolutely horrible dumb, terrible made no sense you want to do pay i didn't even like the amosoph idea especially on that card in front of a home crowd like

if he thought storely was gonna do that to him amosoph it would have been much worse i just i would have rather have seen the freaking lemma trilogy fight over page fighting amosov but we got store but then with amosov

now you had an opportunity to do something else you could have done jason jackson you could have done you could have done anybody you could have done anybody you could have done anybody. Just find a fresh right. You could have done MVP daily too on that card. Like both guys

lost their opponents. You could have had that headline. Get that rivalry out there. Maybe they could put up a better fight than they did the last time. There's a lot more you could have done in that situation than putting Logan Storley in that fight. Good for Logan. He won. Got two paychecks. He's

the champion. Now he's going to get his rematch with Amossov. I can't imagine there'll be a ton of excitement when those two guys fight. Although the first if I was really close. Yeah, it just wasn't a good decision by Bellator, but this is classic Bellator. These are the things that they do,

and I don't understand it. And I want Bellator to do so well. I like their roster. There's a lot of things they do well, but man, is there a lot of things they don't do well? Matchmaking needs to improve immensely. And, like, just go back. Like, the last couple of cards have been,

like, the main events have been awful. Awful. Bader Congo 2 was awful. Storley Page is awful. And Gagar Musasi is going to headline the next car, but he's fighting Johnny Eblen. And there's a very good chance. There's a, not a very good chance, there's a possibility that we get a third one, third main event like that in a row. Now, I hope Musassi saves us, puts us in a better fight, makes things a little more entertaining on the main event front.

for Bellator, but there is a chance that we could be seeing another rough fight. If Ablin gets off and does what Evelyn does, this could be another kind of snoozer. But again, it's about winning fights, and I think Edelon will do more than Logan did. If Ablin gets Musassi down, he's going to try to do stuff with it. But I don't know, man.

Bellator needs a lot of help in a lot of ways. And I've talked about a lot of the things they need to improve on. As far as Muhammad Baha'iath goes, I've said many times that kid is the real deal. He was the real deal as an amateur as an amateur world champion. He was the real deal before he came to the UFC, smokes Cody Durden in less than a minute. Not only do I feel like he could be the flyway champion, I think he's going to be a two-division champion. I would bet money he will be a two-division champion. He'll be a flyway champion.

He will win the Bannamway title as well. I think he's that good I think the future is incredibly bright for him so I cannot wait to see him fight Charles Johnson I believe that is on a UFC London good God that's a really good fight too let's get Joe in here

CRJ you're on deck my man Joe what's up Hey Mike how are you a heck of a morning you as well two things I'll be quick First, I just want to, I feel like Jan is probably the most underrated or underappreciated light heavyweight in 10 years. Everybody picked Ratchet, I say it wrong.

I feel with their heart when you, I try to break them down on paper and there was nowhere that he could beat Yon, absolutely nowhere. So I'd like your thoughts on what you think Jan has to do to get his credit. or the appreciation that he deserves, and then I'll jump all the way back to the beginning of the fight. Petrovsky did, had an amazing performance. Where do you think that that pushes him,

seeing as that it seemed like Maximoff was getting the push, was going to go straight into the top 15, and he just got dominated. So where do you think that puts Petrovsky from here? Thank you, Joe. Yeah, Yon is underappreciated. It's unfortunate. it. But, you know, first time, clearly the UFC saw something

because his first title offense is against Israel Adasania. And maybe they were, maybe they just booked back thinking Adasania would win that fight. But still, he got put in a pretty good spot with one of the biggest stars. And it got the victory. So, Jan's good, man. And the rackage thing, I just think rackage is really good, too. The guy should be undefeated, well, should have been undefeated in the UFC heading into that fight. The Volcano Osamir fight.

I mean, I don't know anybody who thinks. thought Volkan won that fight against Rackich. I don't know anybody, except for two judges, but nobody else did. So he could have very easily been right there. You know, a win probably got him a title shot. And I thought the one advantage was Rackich just slowing things down, not letting Blyovic get into his comfort zone and land that legendary Polish power. And I thought the second round was kind of indicative of where I thought the fight was going

to go, which is why I picked Rackage to begin with. Now, if those two guys stood up and just banged the whole, time. I would probably favor Blahovitch in the long run, but Rackich has that wrestling. It's really strong and it's kind of underrated. But listen, he won the fight. He got it done. It's unfortunate how it happened. But he got the win. So good on him. And then Petroski just ruined every parlay in the world. Not a surprising result, if we're being honest, Nick's a good grappler. but Nick gets, Nick's one of those guys that

is just, his, his gas tank is relentless. He's got such a pace. And if he can land an early takedown, it could be a long night. He's got that, that style that Bryce Mitchell has, that Colby has,

or it's just, if I don't get the first one, I'm going to go for the second one. If I don't get the second one, I'm going to go for the third one, and I'm just going to keep trying to string these takedons together. Andre Petroski,

those guys over at Daniel Gracie and Philly, which, by the way, if we want to talk about it underrated, I think Daniel Gracie team is in that underrated discussion because that team is undefeated in the UFC right now with these guys that they have coming up. Sean Brady, Jeremiah Wells, they got some stunts over there that are winning fights, and they're not getting any talk right now.

So I liked Petroski kind of shouting on his team, took advantage of a situation, and if you're going to beat Nick, Nick Maximoff, that's how you do it. You got to get him out of there early because if you let him get going, you let him sort of assert himself with that gas tank that he has,

with that cardio that he has. He's tough to beat. Ask Puna Soriano. I mean, I know people thought Puna won that fight, but down the stretch, Maximoff just, that gas tank, the gas tank is just ridiculous. The longer the fight goes,

the more it favors a guy like Maxwell. But Petrasi saw an opening. Maxibov made a mistake. Matrosky submitted him, put him to sleep. Great win. Huge upset. I liked the call out of Gerald Mearschart. Unfortunately, he won't be getting that fight unless something happens with Bruno Silva

because he's fighting Bruno Silva on August 13th, and maybe if Bruno gets, he can't make it, we can slide Petrovsky right in there. So I liked the call of Gerald Mearschart. Unfortunately, he's just not going to get it right now. Let's get CRJ in here. CRJ was up. Hey, how's it going? Good morning.

or a heck of a morning, buddy, rather. Indeed. I wanted to ask about Tatsu Taira's performance. How far do we think this guy can go? I can't say I'm an expert, but it certainly seems like, obviously not on a Mahi'i level, but people are pretty excited about him and his skill set. So I figured you or someone else here might know a little more

because that fight was kind of messy. you know, he was clearly in control, but they were sort of just rolling around a lot. It was kind of silly. I was like watching all my phone. I was like, this is, you know, he's clearly winning, but, you know, I feel like maybe he was nervous because he wasn't able to finish him.

Yeah, it's an interesting to take. This is exactly what he needed. Because he could, I mean, Mahiaf is just, I think Bahaif is just kind of on a different level. He's just got way more experience at this point. He's been in big spots. and not saying Tyra hasn't because he's been in some big spots as well. But I just feel like, and I also feel like Candelario, no disrespect.

I don't know. Candelariro is like a really good opponent for him in this spot. Because with Baha'i, just think of what they do with Mahi. They put him on the London card. He opened up the main card. They put him in there with a guy that he was going back and forth with on social media. There's a lot of buzz behind this debut. There wasn't a lot of buzz behind this Tyra debut.

There's a little more buzzed a couple weeks ago when it was right there for us. And then Candelario got sick and we got pushed back a couple weeks. But this is the exact fight he needed. Mahia, you just need to get him over big. You need to make him look like a star. The star build for tire is going to take a little bit longer. So how do we boost him as much as possible? We give him experience.

We put him in tough spots. And Candelario is not an easy out. He's not an easy out. The betting odds were clearly in Tyra's favor, but I watched Candelario fight his entire career growing up on the New England regional scene, watching this guy compete. He's tough. He's tough.

He's durable, really hard to put away. Great defense. He's very tough to put away. He was in some big trouble. Tyra heard him on the feet. Tara had him in bad positions on the ground, but Candelario is just really tough and durable and scrued. squirre. So this is a great thing for Tyra.

Like if Tyra went out there just bolted, Candelaria would have been really impressive in my eyes, but he's not going to take away as much as he is taking away now. Going in there, a 15-minute kind of a grueling war with a guy like Candelario, he's going to take so much away from that fight. So I think his future is very bright. I'm not, I'm high on him.

I'm not as high on him as I am with Mahiaf, but I'm pretty high on him. Let's get Tony the Tiger. All right. Maybe. Tony, what's up, man? Make sure you on mute. Hello.

Can you guys hear me? Yes, sir. What's up, buddy? Thank you so much for the forum. I mean, like, you are the every man of MMA. I swear. I didn't watch MMA for a really long time until the pandemic hit, and I discovered you and AK and the show.

And it would have a question for you. General question. actually. I don't think I quite know what the difference between grappling and wrestling is. I constantly put them as synonyms, and I'd love for your perspective on what that actually is. And then on refereeing, there seems to be such a fine line as far as stoppages. It seems like a lot of the community is just a one punch. Either the referee allowed one more punch, or he stopped it before, you know, we saw that one punch.

The Karmouche fight where she had the champion in a crucifix, I felt like that was a good stoppage, and yet they're talking about running it back. I'm just kind of curious about your thoughts on those, and that's all I got. Thanks. Tony, you're the man. Thank you for the kind words. I really appreciate that.

The grappling, wrestling, conversation. I think if you watch Bellator 281, I think that's a prime example. What we saw Logan Storley do on Friday was wrestle. he wrestled he took page down over and over and over again didn't try to improve his position didn't try to finish the fight he didn't try to submit to michael page that's grappling grappling

wrestling is just the art of basically taking a guy down grappling is more strategic in in a fight sport improving your position going from one position to the next trying to finish the fight trying to submit that's the difference there what logan stirlay did on friday was grapple what tetsu retire did or i'm sorry what logan sturley did on friday was wrestle what tetsu retired did on saturday was he wrestled or grappled he tried to grapple he tried to finish the fight try to improve his position that's the difference so yeah that's that's the big difference and yeah i i definitely appreciate the kind of words about the pandemic Because that's like right when the pandemic, right when everything started to close and shut down,

that's when I got hired by a fight. Like literally the day they shut everything in Massachusetts down was my first day at MMA fighting. So talk about trial by fire coming in, trying to get some content going after a lot of the guys left here, like Ariel and Luke and Shaheen. back now, Ramundi, even Danny Seguerah left, like a lot of people left and

I had some big shoes to fill or at least tried and then I realized like I'm not going to be able to. So what could we do to try to do something? And I feel like we did a pretty nice job during the pandemic to get some stuff going.

And I feel like we did a lot during that time to kind of keep the sport going. Despite what the UFC says about the media, I thought we did a pretty damn good job. With Instacard, you get groceries that over-deliver So you can over-share your preferences Want russet potatoes with no brown spots? You got it.

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on your first three orders. Instacard, groceries that over-deliver. Service fees exclusions in terms apply. We know you love the thought of a vacation to Europe, but this time, why not look a little further? To Dubai, a city that everyone talks about and has absolutely everything you could want from a vacation destination. From world-class hotels, record-breaking skyscrapers,

and epic desert adventures, to museums that showcase the future, not just the past. Choose from 14 flights per week between Canada and Dubai. Book on emirates.com. Let's keep this train rolling with just simply Rob. So we'll just go with Rob. Rob, what's up, man? Make sure you unmute.

Hey, Mike, good morning, my brother. How are you? Good, how are you here? Thank you for the opportunity. I was, can we talk about Islam and Charles Olivero? Can I ask you? Yeah. I just wanted your opinion, Mike.

I was reading yesterday, I believe some of the posts you put it and then on ESPN, I may actually watch the interview. And Islam was saying that Charles won't be able to do. to him what he's done to others, which is walk people forward and then use his jiu-jitsu. But I mean, I wanted to ask you, I see such a matchup problem for Islam because, you know, number one, Charles Alvara, you know, starts off in the middle and he pushes forward. He doesn't go off his back. And it seems to me that from wrestling, you have to be pushing forward.

So. And then he said to me, and then he said in the ESPN, MMA, he said, I'm going to hold Charles down. It's like, how do you see Islam? I mean, I see how he does it to a striker if he can hold them down. but how do you see that realistically going with someone like Charles that he might not be able to hold him down? How do you think that fight plays out? Yeah, this has been quite the topic of conversations

since UFC 274 and Oliverer being stripped and what we're going to do with the title and all that. And it seems like Islam would be the favorite to get the fight. I have no idea how this is going to go. I honestly have no idea. Oliver says he's not ready to fight till the same. he wants to do it in Brazil, which Brazil is not going to happen.

I think we're all aware of that. UFC is going to Abu Dhabi in October. I have a hard time believing Islam is not going to fight on that card. So I'm curious to see if he's presented with the choice, how does it work? Will they, if they say, hey, Islam, we will let you fight in October in Abu Dhabi against B'Neil D'Aryush.

So you get that sort of hometown fight. that you've wanted for a while, or you get the first shot at Olivera in December in Las Vegas, what's he going to do? Is he going to wait two months ago for the belts, or is he going to say, no, I'll fight Darius first, then I'll fight Olivera.

I don't know. And if the fight does happen, clearly Mokachev's best path to victory is the wrestling and the takedowns. I just don't, like, on the feet, Oliver is going to piece him up. it's not it's it's it's gonna be ugly the long of that fight stays in the feet machochev is at big trouble not that makachev is a terrible striker but oliver has gone hammer and tongs with michael chanler with justin gaichi with dust and pori and those guys heard him but couldn't put

him away islam machachaf's not going to be able to isle malachshap does that like there'll be nothing is from islam striking that will cause Charles Oliver to worry at all. And the thing about Oliver is, what makes his striking so impressive a lot of the times is that he doesn't have anything to worry about. He has nothing to worry about. He has to worry about anybody trying to take him down.

Yeah, Mockachev, like he has to worry about Mockachev taking him down, but he doesn't have to worry about anything Mokachev resents to him on the feet. Literally nothing. So that's going to be interesting to see how he plays it out. Oliver can be pretty active off of his back. And if we're going a straight jujitsu match, Oliver is going to win that. But if we're talking about wrestling

and getting the fight to the ground and maintaining control on top, Mokachev's very good at that. Will he be able to submit all of his? That would be quite the statement. What problem could happen is Mokachev would just take Oliver down, just kind of lay on him,

land some shots. He has a very good chance to win that fight, which is why he's the betting favorite right now and a futures pick. But, I mean, Olivera has a lot of ways to win this fight. So I would have to look more, watch a little more tape. But again, Olivera has fought way better competition than Islam Makachov.

Way better. Like, you can't compare the two. It's not even close. Which is why I kind of want to see Makachev fight Benil first. See what happens. Get that marquee win. what's going to happen when you fight a top five guy in a big spot.

If he goes out there and just runs over Benile, then we kind of have a better read on what could happen with the Olivera fight. But I just think, I think Oliver being slept on again. What else does this guy have to do to not get slept on? He's getting slept on again in this Machachev idea. People just think Machachev's going to run him over. I don't think so. I don't think so.

I'm done questioning Olivera. I'm done. I was done after the Porre fight, which is why I picked Oliver to beat Justin Gagie. Yeah, I was on, I invoked the chaos clause at the time. It was just like, the weirdest thing that could possibly happen is probably what's going to happen after the weight miss. And that's exactly what happened. But I'm done.

I'm done questioning Alvair. I don't care who he fights. Habib maybe. Habib maybe we have a conversation we had if he does come back. But if Habibu is coming back unless he fights Islam and beats Islam, that's for damn sure. let's get Barber USA or Barbarusa

I don't know we'll figure it out what's up are you there yeah I'm there what's up I was just wondering about the Islam

Olivera fight do you think with Olivera didn't make weight he lost the leverage of making his comeback fight in Brazil and in the end of the year. And with Dustin saying that he wants to fight 30th of July and Islam doesn't

have a fight, why don't Islam just fight Dustin and this we can see Islam against top five opponent and then he can fight Olivera end of there. That's my question. Interesting. That's a really interesting point. Now Dustin Porre said in that interview with Aira Hawani that he was offered a number one contender fight against somebody later in the year. He didn't mention who. He didn't mention when. But he said it was towards the end of the year. Maybe he got offered Islam in October.

Maybe that's what happened. I don't know. He didn't reveal any details. But that would actually be, that's a great point. If I'm Islam-Machach, and I know he, I know he wants to fight on Abu Dhabi. I totally understand that. I get it. I get it.

but if his goal remember how I said earlier if he had two choices what are you going to do you're going to fight in Abu Dhabi you're going to fight Oliver at the end of the year for the title which one are you picking if it's the belt

like if his if the belt is the number one priority and fighting in a location doesn't matter all that much is the I'm fighting Dustin Poria is not a bad idea because that checks off the boxes that people want to see

get a top five win and if he goes out of there and just runs over Dustin Porreier. That does it for me. That puts him in that position. Because here's the thing. The position Mokachev is in right now is Machachchev is probably the number one guy in the conversation, but the conversation has multiple names in it.

You got Benil Darius. You got even Connor, which is silly, but Connor is there. Chandler is there. Like, these guys are there because they're stars. They move the needle and they want to sell. They're in the business of selling pay-per-views, which is why these guys are in the conversation. I would say Connor is probably unlikely to get it,

but maybe it comes back at the end of the year and the UFC says, screw it. Let's just put Connor in there with Olivera. Let's try to build this pay-per-view up and try to sell a mill, which they would. I think Oliver would probably win that fight. That's why I don't feel like Islam taking another fight is such a bad idea.

Whether it's Benile, Bineal is probably, stylistically, Bineal would be, he would gain, I mean, he would just get the top five win. He would stop this impressive streak of Binald there.

He would be a great win. But if he beats Dustin Poirier, let's just say he says, hey, Dustin, let's go. July 30th, let's fight. He goes out there and just beats and stops Dustin Poree.

There's a lot of impact there. There's a lot of smoke there. And there is, everyone else gets removed from the discussion if that's what happens. He fights Dustin. That's not a bad idea. If I'm Islam,

you just go get it over with. Go fight Dustin Porre. If Dustin really wants to fight, he wants to fight a guy that makes sense. He says it's got to be a 55er that makes sense. Islam, let's go. Go fight him. The impact that has is far more significant

than anybody else who can beat on the way up to Oliver. And if he does that, if he goes out there and just runs over, Dustin Poirier in Dallas on a card like that on a pay-per-view. Boy, you make quite the statement. That's a great call right there. I like it. Let's get Elon in here.

Jack, you're on deck, and then Viking MMA, you're third in line here. Elon, are you there? Hello. What's up? So I've got two questions today. The first one and the more serious one, is about MMA journalism. And I understand that obviously being a journalist is very hard,

especially in MMA where the fans don't necessarily support journalists asking hard questions. But I feel like journalism plays a really important role in making change in general in society. And certainly there are MMA journalists, yourself included, who I think do do their part in making MMA a more feasible means of employment for fighters. But my question is, why don't more journalists ask the tough questions

to the guys like Dana? And obviously, like Hunter and Sean Shelby and those guys, don't give as much access to the media as Dana. but that's my first question is why don't they ask for questions when guys like that are available. And my second question is about MMA scoring, which obviously we all know is broken. But recently, I think it's really funny that the first round of Rose Carla and the second round of Sterling versus Yew. beyond were scored exactly the same way by all the judges. So my question in that regard is,

if there's anything you think any solution there might be to that issue. Thank you, Elon. Good question. I'll start the second one first. I mean, I don't know. The scoring criteria and the lack of knowledge behind the current scoring criteria, it's just unbelievable. I mean, you heard it on the broadcast

if you watched the UFC card this past Saturday. Dominic Cruz is as smart and as intelligent as he is doesn't know how to score fights in 2022. He has no idea what the criteria is. And I'll blame him for that. I'm not knocking Dominic Cruz. I'm not knocking him.

The guy has fought in this sport it was a world champion for a long time. When you're used to something, as long as these guys, have been used to the scoring, it's hard to change. Back in the day, in 2007, okay, 2007, we look at Logan Storley versus MVP. 2007, that fight happens in 2007.

We're not questioning this decision at all. We think Storley won all five rounds. At worst, he wins four rounds. And when the sport and the criteria was the same way for another decade after that, it's hard to get out of that mindset. So I don't blame crews at all in this case. Now, a year from now, if we're having the same conversation

when he's talking about ground control having such impact or fence control or octagon control and all that stuff, over damage, then I'll give him a little more crap. DC is not good at scoring. The best part, the best on the broadcast, and far as scoring goes, Brennan Fitzgerald knows the criteria and John Anick knows the criteria. They know it really well.

Damage is always number one. Damage is always number one. You can take a guy down 38 times, but if you don't do anything with them, it's basically the same thing as standing and circling around and not throwing anything. It's literally the exact same thing. Damage is always number one. That's it. That's how the scoring is.

Domination is number two, which is why you cannot score. or Sterling Yan, the same is as far as a rose. It's just so silly. The 10-point must system is just awful. But again, none of the stuff's ever going to change because the fighters aren't coming together. There's no sort of association. There's no camaraderie between fighters,

the commissions, and the promotions. It's just a crazy situation. So I don't expect much change on that end. We're going to be talking about scoring and quote-un-un-coe, what fights a robbery and this and that for the next five years probably. The other part of your question with the journalism stuff, why don't journalists ask hard questions?

I mean, here's the thing. Dana does the media rounds with people he is comfortable with. People that, and I'm not saying they never ask hard questions, but they're not really going to challenge them. You know what I mean? They're just not really going to challenge them. I've asked for Dana interviews and haven't been granted them.

But the main reason why a lot of people in the field don't ask Dana hard questions is because they don't want to lose the access. They're in the UFC. It's not easy. It is not easy to be credentialed by the UFC. It's just not. There are a lot of hardworking people

who cannot get credentialed. There are certain websites that get a lot of traffic that can't get credentialed. Barstool gets credential all the time. They have a lot of traffic, but their knowledge of the sport is not great. And they're not going to challenge Dana with any of the hard questions.

They're going to give the UFC exposure. Dana will do interviews with them. It gives them exposure. UFC gets exposure, and Dana doesn't have to defend himself against anything. That's the way it is. That's why Dana has a certain group of people he does his fight week interviews with. People who, if they challenge him, they're not going to challenge him very much.

And I'm not saying that you have to go out there every time you interview Dana and just blast him. You have to sit there and put him on his heels and make him defend himself every time. But if there's things that come up, it's more than fair to ask him about these situations. Some people just don't want to lose that access. Me, I don't care. but again, I'm not a boat rocker, but if something needs to be asked, I'm going to ask it to anybody. It can be Dana, Scott Coker,

or whoever. If something needs to be asked, I'm going to ask it. I'm not going to sit there and get in a fight with anybody. I'm not going to sit there and get into a petty argument with somebody. I'll ask the question. If it's answered, I'll move on. If it deserves a follow-up, I'll follow up on it. Like, that's just how I do it. And I don't feel that asking a hard question once in a while should get you banned or help you lose that or make you lose access or

anything like that but to me i like covering ufc events i've since i've joined in may fighting i've covered one ufc event that was the jacksville card in april that's it two years with the with this company over two years i've covered one ufc event i want to cover more i'd love to but i don't care if i don't what's the worst i got advised dana question doesn't like it he says i can't go fine. I'll do it from home. Like, I've covered every other UFC event at home and do just fine. It's nice being on site, but I like being on site because I like to just do extra stuff. I like to interview John Anick on the street or Laura Sanko on the street near the river. Or go play golf with the fighter or go do something different. Like, that's why I like cover the events.

I don't care about, like, I'll cover the event and just sit in the back and do the post-fighter. interviews. I don't need to be cage side or anything like that. Like, I just like, I like the buzz. I like just talking to people about the cards. Like, that's what I like to do. It's just on site and getting that feel of how the public is feeling about a card. And I can guarantee you it was much different in Phoenix than I was in Jacksonville. Jacksonville was just, it was there.

Like, the press conference wasn't that packed. The ceremony of Wayans wasn't that packed. Phoenix, I'm sure they were slammed for all of it. but as he got closer to Saturday, you could feel it. People wanted to see Hamza at Shabaya fight. Like, that's why I like being on site. But to answer your question,

that's why. That's why people don't ask our questions because they don't want to lose access. There you go. And I'll be critical of the UFC what I need to be, and I'll be critical of Belator all the time. Belator's like,

Belator is like, uh, Belator is like Will Smith when he was, when he moved in with the Banks family. early seasons of Fresh Prince of Bel Air. You see so much potential there and he's a pain in the ass, but you know the potential is there.

You just want to do everything you can to get that potential out there for the world to see. But then every once in a while he sneaks out of the house and he misses curfew and you're just like, damn it, Will, what are you doing? That's how I feel about Bellator. Just so much potential there, so much you could do. And you're just like, damn it, you miss curfew again, go to your room. drives you freaking crazy I went all over the place on that one

we'll take two more Viking and mayor on deck Jack you're up Hey Mike can you hear me Yes sir Okay so I just had a quick question about Kind of the future of fight night cards And their locations I just wanted to know your opinion on

If by the end of the year You're going to start seeing fight nights Consistently being on location And us being able to buy tickets for them And actually go to them And then just one last thing, I wanted to know if you'd heard anything about fight nights or any potential UFC events coming to like a Seattle or Portland area because I'd love to attend my first event. And that's all I got for you. Thank you, Jack.

The fight night thing consistently, I would say no. I don't think we're going to be at a point where every week there's going to be a fight night car on the road. I think the apex will still be used the majority of the time for fight nights, but I'm trying to think how it worked. So March was, March they did London and Columbus for fight nights. April, they didn't do,

April there was no crowd won, May no crowd won, June Austin, which is the June 18th card. And that's it right now? I would say March, June, I would say maybe every two to three months, we might get a fight night on the road, but let's also remember too they're in the business of trying to sell as many tickets as possible.

And the Columbus card actually sold really well despite an okay main event. But, I mean, if I'm the UFC, I'm not, I mean, as much as you want to make the fans happy and you want to see fans buy a bunch of tickets and stuff, that's cool. But that apex is a freaking gold mine for you. People are spending, I mean, you can bring fans in there, 100, 200 people,

and they're spent, like, from what I understand, the tickets to those apex cards are freaking expensive, like really expensive. So they're still finding ways to make money and stuff. What I think will end up happening, what I think will end up being more of the future is I think they'll probably

and I know it's been talked about. I don't know really a lot of the details, but it seems like they'll probably expand the apex venue a little more so they could fit maybe 500,000 extra people. That'd be my guest to sort of give that ambiance of a bigger fight feel.

I still think they'll go on the road, but I think Pavey's obviously be on the road and then maybe at least for now, Maybe four times a year. Five, maybe six if we're including the London cards, the France card, international still, but like domestic travel. We get Austin.

Maybe we'll get like one or two more domestically for fight nights. Seattle, I know what's on the list. When I have no idea. Maybe the fall. I don't know. I know Seattle is on the list. That's for sure. I would like to see Boston again.

Boston's a good fight crowd. Maybe I'm biased, but Boston is a very good fight crowd. Boston's the kind of fight crowd where first fight at night, place is almost full. They love their fights. They don't get them all that often. Dana's from there. I would expect Boston to certainly have a card this year. Toronto, I think they will make their way back to Canada.

I think they'll end up in Seattle at some point. I don't know if it'll be a pay-per-view or they throw them on a fight night, but I think we'll end up there at some point. Viking MMA Are you there? Maybe not. I'm trying. It's not working.

All right. Clearst values. You're in. Final word. All right, Mike. I have a little bit of a fun one. I'm not much of a morning person, but this is what I got for you.

If you could do a Bellator Grand Prix style tournament in any USC division, how would you seat it? Who would you have winning? and yeah, just love to hear what you have. Oh, man. Can't really go wrong with, can't really go wrong with really any division here,

but I think you know where I'm going with this. Those who have followed me long enough, you know where I'm going with this. I'm going to the Banimweight division. It depends. Are we adding the champion to this mix? That's the question. It's got to be Bannamway.

it's got to be a 16-man tournament as well. So I'll have the champion. So just a no particular order. I'm not going to see them right now, but Sterling, Jan, Dillishaw, Aldo, Sanhagen, Cheeto, Marab, Rob Font, Cruz, Songu Deng,

Sean O'Malley, Pedro Munoz. And then here's, where things get tricky because Ricky Simone and Jack Shore are about to fight winner of that would get it. Kyler Phillips could be in there. Timor Valleyev could be

in there. Victor Henry could be in there. I mean, we'd have to do, like if we're going to do this, we're going to have some fun. This is going to be like the freaking king of the ring. All right? We're going to have play and fights. We're going to have number one seats already. So in my

If we're going to do a 16-man tournament, we have to do play-ins. But Sterling is automatically in. Jan is automatically in. Dillishan Aldo are automatically in. Those are your four number one seeds. And then everyone else has to fight to get in there. So Sanhagen would fight like a Victor Henry

or a Hione Barcelos or somebody like that. And then we would just kind of go from there. Cheetah would fight somebody outside of the top 15, so forth and so on and on and on we go until we get the 16 guys so it would be bad and wait 100%. Let's try Viking MMA one more time. Can we get them?

This is it. Last call for alcohol. The wheel is spitting. Are you there? Unmute. Can we do it? Yes, we can do it. Yes, I think we got them.

Hey, man. What's up, buddy? I'm from India and I just want to ask. you one question why is everyone talking about Islam versus Olivera or Islam versus destiny where Islam hasn't even fought even to match up with Olivera I mean no one is talking about just no one is talking about bin el-dari or you know it's like Hamza that everyone was calling him calling him out before the match and after that everyone is calling him out

It's all about, you know? Yeah, man. Here's the thing, Viking, I may. And thank you for the call. There is somebody talking about Bidiel Daryush. And it's me. I've been talking about Bineal Daryush, because I've been saying this entire time

that what the UFC should do is do just go forward with Mokachev Daryush in October. If Darius can make it there. I know he's hurt, but it seems he told our own Damon Martin, he'll be ready. It looks like he'll be ready for October. He wants to fight in Abu Dariq. Dobby as well.

I just, I mean, just do that fight. Like, I don't understand the rush, especially if Olivera isn't going to fight until the end of the year. And I've already said this. He's probably not going to fight in Brazil. But if we're going to do, like, if he fights, if Makachov fights Daryush and wins, there's no questions. There's no other name.

There's no other option. That's it. Right now, we have options. Makachov is kind of at the top of this list that also has Dariu's. Riyush, Connor, Chandler, and, you know, maybe mixing another guy. Maybe Volcanofsky's in that conversation. But if Mokachev beats Darius, or as an old caller suggested, if Mockachev steps up July 30th, it fights Dessa Porier and runs over Dustin Porre,

he's the guy. He has earned this. And let me just say this. If they booked Olivera Mockachev right now, I would not be upset about it. It's well earned. A lot of people feel Machachev is the best 55 are in the world. I am not ready to say that just yet. I think that's Charles Oliverer until somebody beats him.

And I think Olivera in Machachev is an interesting fight. But I don't think we have to rush that fight either. We could give Oliverus. We could let Olivera wait and let this division play itself out first. But Darry sure can be in this conversation. He should be. and the winner of that fight makes the fight with Oliveri even bigger

Makachchev beats Olivera or Machachin beats Daryush there's no more there's no more complaints there's no nothing he's done everything he's needed to do to earn a title shot the winning streak is impressive but there is a knock on him he hasn't beat a highly ranked fighter yet

his best win of his career is Dan Hooker Dan Hooker is his best win looking at rankings and he's treated all these fighters accordingly. He's run them all over. He's dominated all. Except for Aramran Sarugia. But let's be clear,

Armand Sarukian is going to be the lightweight champion in the next two years. There's no shame in that. He still won that fight. Armand is the real deal. But his best win is Dan Hooker. Bobby Green was impressive, but Bobby Green took that fight on less than a week's notice.

The thing that killed him was the RDA situation. And I don't even know if we could blame Islam for that. We might be able to have to blame the manager for that one. Whoever was running a social media account, screwed the pooch. 100%. But the knock on Islam is that he does not have a top 10 or a top five win,

or a top five win more specifically. He beats Daryusha beats Poria. He's got that. And then there's no more questions. That's why it's not, there's no need to rush this fight. There's no need to rush it. Markachev's going to get his shot. If he's as good as everyone says he is, he'll fight, get that top five win, and they

were done. All right, Max, I'm going to squeeze you in, man. Max, are you there? Make sure you unmute. What's up? What's up, man? Final War. What'd you got? All right. Kind of an off one here, but for the card this weekend, someone I'm looking at, and then I feel like everyone should be looking at is Gildon. I'll made a big favorite, kind of back and forth opponent with Parker Porter. Where are you at on his trajectory with a win? I think a lot of people are expecting it to come in the first couple rounds if he gets it done early and easily. Are we doing the big play? push, little push, fast track, keep it slow. What do you think?

Good question. I'm very high on jail town on Meda. I was very high on him before he came to the UFC. Been high on him for a while. He's got 10 wins in a row. The contender series fight was ridiculous. Nas Roodenov is a tough out. And you kind of beat that ass and got it done.

And then perfect matchmaking gets to Nile Marquez for his UFC debut and just kind of runs him over. this is weird matchmaking because he was supposed to fight Maxim Grishon which I actually liked that fight for his trajectory and then he just says kind of eff it

I'll go to heavyweight and fight Parker Porter who it's just fun Parker Porter is just fun it's got three wins in a row I mean it's just we're staying busy it's just such a weird fight

it's just such a weird bizarre fight but I ain't counting Parker Porter out of this one. I think like technique wise and stylistically Almeida is just way ahead. He's just the more complete fighter but Parker is just a crazy

man and can make things happen. He's durable as hell. So we'll see. I don't know. But yeah, I think Almeida is a very exciting name at 205 and who knows. Maybe this is a guy who can

run up the rankings in multiple divisions. He's super exciting fighter and I expect him to win but Parker Porter Parker Porter is going to be there for a little while he's tough as hell all right we're done I went a little longer than I thought I was going to go but you guys brought the heat all morning long we appreciate that very much back on Thursday we'll do it again 8 a.m. Eastern and then we'll have BTL Thursday afternoon Friday we'll be off running with the preview show and then Eagle

F.C. is back on Friday, so maybe Jed and I will jump on the Twitter spaces during the Eagle FC card because we love doing that so much. We just love going through these big fights and, of course, cannot wait to hear Henry Sehudo on the broadcast. That is always fun as well. And then Saturday, the UFC is back with UFC Vegas 55 and then we get a rare weekend off, I believe, before we head into June and get ready for UFC 275 and then into July with two paper views.

It's a fun time to be an M.A fan, everybody. So thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of your day. And as always, have a heck of a morning. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one.

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