MMA Fighting - Heck of a Morning | Who Should Charles Oliveira Fight For Vacant Lightweight Title After Being Stripped At UFC 274?

Episode Date: May 10, 2022

Charles Oliveira is no longer the UFC lightweight champion following his submission win over Justin Gaethje, but he is the No. 1 contender for the title he lost at the beginning of Saturday's main event. When he gets his chance to reclaim the championship, who should get the shot? On this episode of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck gives his thoughts on UFC 274, along with Oliveira's historic weight miss. In addition, questions come in regarding whether or not Islam Makhachev is the automatic choice to face Oliveira next for the vacant title, how Conor McGregor could factor into the discussion, where Gaethje goes from the submission loss, Rose Namajunas' corner during her strawweight title loss to Carla Esparza, Brandon Moreno vs. Kai Kara-France at UFC 277 for the interim flyweight title, recent fight announcements, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 8 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I am Mike Heck. Hope everyone's having a fantastic Tuesday. There's just so much freaking going on right now. But I am in Florida right now. And in the villages, which is basically in the most. middle of Tampa and Orlando down here for a little family thing. Not a great reason to be here, if we're being honest. But I was actually pondering whether or not to even do the show today, but because of what is going on. But I decided that I'm just going to do it. I'm going to try to get my mind off of everything. And we're just going to try to power through. And we're going to talk to on May because golly. This is a newsworthy Tuesday.

That's for sure. We're coming off of UFC 274. Lots happened on that card. The main card was an emotional roller coaster started off strong. Then it was kind of bad. That it was really good, depending on who you ask.

Then it was pretty bad. And then it ended really strongly. And it ended with Charles Olivera submitting Justin Gagee in the first round. It was a crazy fight for as long as it lasted. Olivera hurt Gachi with the first punch he threw. Gachi, as he typically does, battles through it all, drops Olivera not once but twice. Oliver, the quote-unquote quitter that people just keep calling this man.

Battles through it all. Made Gachi fight a firefight. Something that Gaci has been trying to avoid through most of his career. Normally he's a lot more patient and laid back. controlled chaos like he used he likes to call it himself olivera took him out of that mindset altogether made him brawl and made him pay

dropped him pounced on him almost got an arm bar transitions rear naked choke gaethe taps goes to sleep Charles Olivera wins now normally we would be saying that Charles Olivera would be retaining his title but unless you were hiding under a rock

for the last five days. You know that Charles Oliver missed weight by 0.5 pounds. By the way, I'll reiterate, I could care less that he missed weight by 0.5 pounds. I think the whole thing is stupid. He should be the champion still. I understand rules or rules and all that, but come on, this is just dumb.

It's not like he waited at 158. It's not like he waited at 160. He didn't even weigh in 156. He didn't weigh in 156.5. There are other fighters on that card who fought in lightweight, fights who weighed in at 155 and a half or 156 and they were good to go. No penalty.

Charles Oliver misses by a half a pound. And he loses the title. It's just so stupid. It's just so dumb. But at the end, Oliver gets his 11 straight win. The guy is 1,000% the best lightweight in the world. And now he's the number one contender for the title he lost seconds into fighting Justin Gachie.

Fight begins. He's no longer the champion. And the fact that Charles Oliverer went through all of that, went through all that adversity, went through everything he had to think about, then fight a guy like Justin Gachey with all that going on, then finishing Justin Gachey. Just, I mean, unbelievable.

It's just really unbelievable stuff. But the whole thing's dumb. The whole thing is dumb. He should be the champion right now. And hopefully the UFC does right by Charles Oliverer, because I think deep down they think this is stupid too, although they should have just tripled down on this being stupid and just put the belt around his waist

because this is not a Phoenix Commission championship belt. This is the ultimate fighting championship championship belt. It's the UFC title. They can do whatever they want. They can give the title to Habib right now if they wanted to, and there's nothing anybody can do about it. And Habib's not even fighting. They could just give him the title.

It's their belt. This is so stupid. So let's just give Charles Oliver the title. And when he fights next, whoever that may be, for the vacant title, he better get pay-per-view points, he better get all the perks that come with fighting for the championship, he better get champions, money, all that stuff. Because if he doesn't, it's like 10 times more stupid than it is right now.

And it's really stupid. This whole thing is just really dumb. But now the question remains, who does he fight? who does he fight for this title and what's interesting about this is that there's so many ways you can go about this you could go with who should it be who will it be because those could be two completely different answers there's a lot of people feel like if we're going on meritocracy if we're going on next man up in a lot of people's minds it should be charles olivera versus islam machochev and then there's the question of who will it be that's a completely different

thing because a lot of people feel that Connemar Greger somehow on the Schneide that he's on is going to slide his way into a title fight when he returns from injury against Charles Olivera. Now, I will say this, if Charles Olivera is treated correctly by the UFC and is given paper viewpoints and is given championship money, and he gets the Conner fight, like, that's great for him. So part of me, because of all this that he's going through right now, because of how stupid this is feel that that would be a good thing for Charles Alvara.

This kind of washes away this stupidity in a lot of ways. But I don't know. There's a lot of ways you can go with. There's Chandler, Michael Chandler, who had the knockout of the year. I have a hard time believing anyone's going to top that knockout against Tony Ferguson. He could have earned his way back. There's a lot of options for Michael Chandler. There's been Neil Daryush, who there are people who feel like his resume, at least right now,

the strength of schedule, the guys he's beaten that had numbers extra their names that were very low, maybe he deserves the shot. Maybe they give Dustin Porey another shot. I mean, there's so many ways you can go about this. My idea, and this is, I don't think this is going to happen, but I just think it would be really cool. If Volcanofsky beats Holloway on July 2nd, let's have some fun. The title's vacant, so why not just have some fun with it? Let's do Oliver versus Volcanovsky.

you can do that and then you can do Machachev versus Daryush in October the winner of that gets the first crack of the undisputed title listen I think Machinchev is great and there's a very good chance he could beat Charles Lover but this is a very good chance he could he might not be Charles Lover and I just need to see I just think it would be a bigger fight

if all if Mokachev got one more win if Mokachev got that that one top five win I know he, like a lot of people feel he deserves it. If they book it, I'm not going to be upset about it. But I would just like to see him fight Daryush. His best win is Dan Hooker. And there's nothing wrong with Dan Hooker. Dan Hooker's a fine fighter.

But that's his best win. That is his best win is Dan Hooker. I just think he deserves. I just think he needs to give me one more. I think he needs one more. Dan Hooker and Bobby Green are two tough guys. I feel like Dariuzzi. last like five or six fights,

I think his strength of schedules more. I think it's higher. So we'll see. I mean, there's lots going on. Plus, as we just, as I officially confirmed to like 6.15 this morning, our man Ariel Hawani reported,

and by the way, if you listen to On to the next one on Sunday, I told you this is probably going to happen. Brandon Moreno versus Kai Kair, France, agreed upon for an interim flyway title, July 30th, at UFC 277.

Now, as far as location goes, there are multiple options here. Chicago, Boston. And right now, as of now, Dallas is the slight lean frontrunner, but that is far from done, from what I understand. But Dallas would make sense

to have a Brandon Marino fight on it. Texas, Arizona, California. That's where Brandon Marano should be fighting he's not going to be fighting in Mexico but it's a rematch from their fight from UFC 245 I thought Moreno won that fight pretty handily it was a fun fight but I thought morena won it pretty handily so interesting move to go the interim title route as I told you on on to the next one not surprising at all figurato out probably until the end of the year

with injuries to both of his hands so yeah like I said these title fights are filling up we need to fill holes for these pay-per-views It would not shock me to see multiple interim titles on the line. We know we're going to get the heavyweight one at some point. It would not shock me, and I've been clamoring for this, for an interim welterweight title fight. Because we don't know what, like, we don't know what's going on with Kamarizman. He showed up at the, he was a guest fighter at UFC 274,

and he said his hand's still healing up. He's not done yet. Like, his hand's not ready to go yet. He can't even sign a contract to book a fight yet. So again, Tuting the horn, just do Shemaiah versus Leon Edwards' interim title fight. There you go. Bussman gets the winner. It's a massive fight.

There you go. But anyways, a lot going on here. There's lots of happen to UFC 274. Let's get to you guys. This is why we're here. Tristan Gordette, kick us off, my man. I'm not going to be. I want to talk about this because it's really concerning.

now. I've watched the post-fight show on Saturday, and Jedman Shue had brought up like, for example, he brought up Justin Gachie, and he's now starting to get worried about the durability of Gai Chi now,

because of all the punishment he's taken over the years, and I think it's starting to catch up to him. We saw what happened with Tony Ferguson. Ferguson's 38 years old. He's ready to go back in, and I'm just like, we got, you got Like, these guys got to start taking long breaks and, you know, figure out a way to not get hit anymore because it's starting to really catch up with him.

You know, I was as surprised as him that how, you know, Gachi was on his back foot throughout the whole fight. I mean, Olivera was coming in and was putting pressure on him right away. Yes, Gachie was able to knock down Oliver twice, but once he got hit and got clipped, he went down immediately and then you know olivera did what he did and just submitted him and you know proved that he's the best lightweight right now in the in the division and i'm really starting to worry about these guys durability at this point um you know you got to be kind of like you got to be

on vokonoski vokinowski does not get hit a lot he gets hit some but does not get hit a lot he moves his head moves around moves his feet going and he doesn't get hit as much and he's able to win these fights convincingly and beating these guys. So I just want your thoughts on that situation. Start, you know, we start got to stop worrying about the durability of these guys. You know, that's what I give, you know, I heard George St. Pierre an interview the other day. I'm just talking about, man, listen, you know, you get in this game, you get to the highest peak as you can.

If you're able to win the title, great and defend it a couple of times. But at some point, just be like, all right, I did what I can. I beat these guys, and then I get my exit and get out. I give credit to Habib a lot. Abed knew at some point. I mean, obviously, I had other things that contributed to him retiring, but I think he knew where his peak was, 33, right then and there. You know, if you kept going, I'm not saying he couldn't continue and keep winning and

dominating, but he knew at some point I'm at my highest peak right now. What really happens at that point is it goes. down here from there, especially at the lower weight classes that Jeddney shoes have been talking about, like especially those guys, man, your chin could hold up for so long at some point, it's not going to be able to hold up anymore.

So your thoughts on this and maybe, you know, you got to start getting a little bit concerned for these guys of like, you've got to know when it's time to just be like, bow, I'm even saying that. And you got to even say that for Usman. I think he's got two more fights left in him. And it's like, all right, guys, it's been great.

I'll see you on the other side. Because I'm getting worried. These chins are not going to hold up long. Just your thoughts on that hostage on the durability of these fighters at some point. All right, Mike. Thanks. All right. Thank you, Tristan.

Yeah, I mean, look, Justin Gage has one of the more interesting UFC careers. Okay? Just think of the first three fights this man had in the UFC. He went hammer and tongs with Michael Johnson. Hammer and tongs with Eddie Alvarez. and then hammer and tongs with Duster Porriot. So almost 10 minutes in the Johnson fight, almost 15 minutes of Eddie Alvarez,

and then over 15 minutes with Dustin Porriette. And then from there, knocks out James Vic quick, knocks out Edson Barbosa quick, knocks out Seroni quick, doesn't take a lot of punishment in either of those fights. Tony Ferguson, this is just a one-way beating.

Ferguson landed some shots on them, but it's not like, it's not like Gachie took a lot of, of damage in that fight. It's, he took some, but not a lot. Habibi didn't take any damage in. The Chandler fight was a little different, but again, Chandler, Chandler hit him a few times early, but it's not like he took significant damage in that fight.

The controlled chaos that this man has been talking about since after the Dustin Porre fight, you've seen it. He just goes in there, goes leg kick, leg kick city. Eventually, lands a big shot, the fight's over. over. All there was different. All there went after him. Because you don't see a lot of guys who fight Justin Gage and just go right after him.

Michael Chandler, he admitted. That was not his strategy to go right in there and get after Justin Gachie. He did. And then Gachie hit him a few times. Chandler, of course, wobbled him a little bit in the first round. But then Gachie sort of took over. Yeah, Chandler landed some down the stretch, but nothing with incredible significance because they had been beat up, pretty much the whole fight.

Olivera told everybody at the media day, I'm going to meet this guy in the center. We're going to collide. And I don't think Gachie believed him. And Oliver went right after him, put him on his back foot, just kept landing shots, took all Gachie's best shots. And you could kind of see the look on Gachie's face, like, what do I have to do to beat this guy?

And the answer was, you just couldn't on that night. So I'm not overly concerned about the day. damage he has taken recently, but I am concerned about the damage bar, if you will, of Justin Gachie, because the damage bar was lowered pretty quickly. It kind of came back slowly over these last five or six fights, but yeah, he got beat up by Charles and got submitted. And, I mean, it's 33. It'll be 34 in November.

I think the questions need to start coming. How long does you want to do this? at some point he's got to realize that his goal, his dream of becoming UFC world champion. It's not at Tony Ferguson levels yet, but we're getting there because this division is just the wild, wild west right now. There's so many contenders,

and Gaichi is way back in line. To get that shot, because he lost a Habib, was out for almost 13 months, beats Michael Chandler, and then gets put right back at a title fight. Now the division is crazier than ever. unless the UFC decides to, I don't know,

have some fun and maybe do a tournament or something, which do you know they're never going to do because the UFC doesn't like to have fun with anything. I don't see him fighting for a title again, unless it's some last minute, we need a spot to fill, something fell out a week before, kind of a situation. So, yeah, unfortunately for Gagie,

he's just in fun fight territory right now. So you want to throw it back in there with Dustin Porre, a little rematch there. Not going to complain about that. You want to just do fun, scraps. You want to give him the Connor fight? I mean, who doesn't go to watch him fight Connor McGregor? That's fun. It's just fun and fight time for Jesse Gagee at this point. And maybe that's what he wants, but I don't know. We haven't really heard much from him

outside of just giving all their props. So be interesting to see where his heads up. Get you and your crew to the big shows with Go Transit. Go connects to all the main concert venues like TD Coliseum and Hamilton and Scotia Bank Arena in Toronto. And Go makes it affordable with special e-ticket fares. A one-day weekend pass offers unlimited travel across the network on any weekend day or holiday for just $10.

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and use the money to fix your car. Bell Air Direct, insurance, simplified. Conditions apply. Let's go to Stephen Svitzko, perhaps. Steven? Just got on mute, buddy. Hey, sorry about that. I'm just driving up from work right now.

I just got the night shift. I just had a lot to think about over my, I'll think of like the most random things. And part of what I thought about last night was just thinking about Justin Gitching. And it was actually about his title shot and title contention in the future. How many times have we seen a fighter get back into that title spot into the contention, with his name even being tossed around after losing twice?

Probably not that often. I couldn't think of any, and I didn't have the time to do the research at the moment because I was doing my other job. But I don't know, like, why do we automatically assume that it could just never happen again? Now, is it because, like, before thinking about it, the caliber of the guys he lost to are incredible world-class, arguably some of the greatest of all time, if not top ten greatest fighters of all time, to ever come through. It's hard to say about Oliver now because it's so early, but why, I feel like we automatically want to jump to the conclusion. Like, we haven't even seen Wu's next fight is. His next fight could be against Dustin Porriere, for all we know.

Like his durability, like we said, like you just said, Mike, hasn't been tested. tested that much in the past couple ones. Yeah, he got dropped, I think, once by Chandler, once by Tony, and then, of course, by Charles this weekend. But, like, it's not like he was getting cut open and taking repeated head trauma for 15 minutes at a time, you know, like he's doing to some of these other guys. So why do we – him and, you know, other people alike,

after a loss to a real time all-time grade, why do we just kind of count him out right there? Thanks, Ben. Thanks, Stephen. Again, I'm not counting him out. I'm just saying that the road is way longer now. It's not going to be one win and he's back into a title play. It's probably going to be like three wins and a lot of luck.

The division was in a much different place in November. It just was. Alvara, won a vacant title, defended against Dustin Porre. And then just fans clamored for Justin Gachie. Justin Gachie basically sold himself into the fight, planted seeds during Media Day. I get title shot if I win or we riot.

It just was a more interesting fight than Islam Makachaf at the time or Benal Daryush at the time or really anybody else at the time. I mean, who else could you put in there? You could have given it to Islam. But again, I think Islam is in the same. position he's in now. He doesn't have that marquee win and you can make arguments against him fighting for the title right now. It's just, it's just strange because three fights ago, you could have thrown Islam into a title fight and thought he had a really good chance to win.

He's kind of getting the Habib treatment where we can see it coming. We know it's coming, but when is it going to happen? Do we want to pull the trigger too quickly on this? Now, we knew with Habib that eventually who's going to fight for the belt. We knew that. Did the UFC wait too long? I don't think so. The UFC sucks at building new stars. But one thing they are very good at is pinpointing when they know a guy is going to be a star.

And I don't know how much sense that makes, but they're very bad at like, it's clear. like when you have guys like Shemayef and things like that it was obvious to everybody. This is the guy we're going to put the promotional backing behind this guy. And then when they see guys that like are getting to that cusp if you will they're very good at like slow rolling

at the right pace. And sometimes people get annoyed by that. They don't feel like it's going quick enough. But I feel like the you have I feel like if I feel like if Habib became I feel like if they pulled the trigger on Habib earlier he wouldn't have been the star that he

retired as if that makes sense so I feel like they're going to kind of do the same thing of Machachep that's why I really think they're going to do the Makachov Daryush fight give him that marquee win then it's no doubt about it he goes and beats Daryush there's no doubt about it

there's no other person in line there's no other name but now you can just have some fun you can just build a big fight. You can do Connor. You can do something fun. Like, now is your time to do fun. Because eventually,

Machachev's going to win that title, or at least fight for it. And if he wins, boy, oh, boy. Could be a long road at 155. It's nothing wrong with this. There's nothing wrong with having a dominant champion. Let's go to Farid.

Let's see if we can get them in here. Fried are you there? All right, we'll try that again. Let's get Dax in here. Dax. Good morning, buddy. Hey, Mike. So, listen, I'm a huge Charles Olivera fan.

I've been for him since he knocked out, Flash Gordon. But I'm fine with the weight thing. You know, it's a half pound. He signed the contract. I just want everybody to be held to the same level of accountability. You know, like, Khabib, or, I don't know, there's a few examples throughout May history. So I just like, you know, to be pretty constant.

Also, one thing I thought was a little funny, Ferguson dropped Chandler with the same punch that Charlie Elves did. The on Chandler step back, the left hook. So if I'm Chandler's next opponent, I'm just spamming that as hard as I can. And I'm really surprised he got dropped twice in row and Gagey hit him with it too. Hmm.

Yeah. Interesting point. I think I'm going to focus more on the first point. Listen, I understand the standard thing. Sorry, I'm multitasking right here. So let me get to this in one second. The standard thing. Now, here's the thing about standards.

If we're going to be consistent across the board, then we need to be consistent across the board. Either we do the one pound, allowance for everybody or we do the one pound allowance for nobody i think the whole thing is dumb especially and here's the other thing about the whole olivera situation and i know ariel talked about this yesterday and i talked about it even before that Dana white into a live microphone on the record before that crazy card in brooklyn said that ally quinta who did not weigh in a championship weight and i know that the situation was a little bit different but ally

Quinta, who fought Habib for the vacant lightweight title, who was not a championship weight, Dana White on the record publicly said, if Ally Quinto beats Habib, he's the champion. We will deal with the aftermath after the fact. It is our title. If he wins, he's the champion. You've already set precedent for this. You've already said it. And again, if Oliver weighed 156.5, we're not having this discussion.

We're not. It's stripped the man of the title. Done. But this is 0.5 pounds. On a usual UFC contract, he made weight. And I agree with other people. I'd been to UFC weigh-ins. We watched Habib in Abu Dhabi.

Step on that scale, and we were joking about it. Go back and watch it. Go back and watch the UFC-254 weigh-in show that we did. We were commenting about the commission, gentlemen, not even checking the weights. The guys are stepping up on the scale and he was just slamming it, yelling out weights. Moving on, we were laughing about it.

Laughing. There was no way, Habib was 155. There was no way. We saw how concerned this man was when he stepped on the scale. He just picked, I mean, literally it's just bad luck. any other time. This is Las Vegas. There would be no issue.

This is Abu Dhabi. There would definitely be no issue. If this is any other place in the country, there's no issue. Move it along, son, 155. But then he gets a guy, this must have been like his first day doing Guayans. I don't want to make a mistake in front of my bosses. It's just all stupid. It's just all dumb.

155. $155.5. Loses the title. Loses money. Might lose pay-per-per-ve. viewpoints for his next fight might lose championship money for his next fight it's all stupid it's all dumb if he missed the a lot even if he was 156 i would even i would even be okay with you saying strip the man of the title but 155 and a half come on come on the second time around

rounded down for the love of christ it's so stupid it's so dumb let's go to let's trying to get Farid in here again. Let's see if we can make this one work. I don't know. The wheel's spinning. Fareed? There you are. What's up, buddy? Hi. What's up? What you got?

My question is, what do you think next next lightweight champion title? Islam and anybody else, what you think? Islam and who? We'll see. Okay, so if we do, I think he's asking, I think it will be Islam. I don't think it's going to be Islam. I think it probably should be Islam,

but I don't think it will be. I think they're going to go forward Islam versus B'Neil in October, and I think Gullivera is going to fight somebody else. Whether it be Connor, whether it be Chandler, whether it be Volcanovsky. I don't know. Mokachev is probably the way they should go,

but I don't think they will. I think they will try to build him up by giving him that marquee win and making it undisputable that he should be the guy. I could be wrong. Maybe Joe Rogan changed Dana's mind, but certainly didn't seem that way.

Dana seems to really want that fight between Machinchev and Darius, and I still think there's a bit of a bad taste in Dana's mouth about the whole RDA situation, which again is dumb, but he put his hand up. He said, I'll fight you, and they said, okay. And he said, nah, we're not going to fight.

Dana wasn't happy about that. Dana is a petty, petty man. He's going to make you pay for it. That's what he does. Let's get Mr. Emmanuel on here. Hello, sir. Make sure you on mute. Okay.

There you are. All right. I have an issue with the Islam. I think I am with you when you say that you don't think Islam should get the fight. I actually think he shouldn't because first of all you he had a fight with Rafael RDA and then Dan Hooker came in as a replacement last minute replacement then with Darouge Bobby Green came in as a last minute replacement both times you beat them yes now you've got a chance to also do something for the UFC by also going in and fighting

RDA or as a last minute replacement somebody you had already prepared for in the past but then for whatever reason you decided not to do it at this point I still think that he should go on and fight derrish because he hasn't beaten anybody in the top fight so maybe they can make oliviera wait till December and then they go and finish that and then maybe the winner would go and face olivera because at this point olivira I don't think he should get into a fight so recently because fight he gets knocked down there's a point it will catch up to him just like it has catch up to what's his name gaigi so the the fact that he keeps on getting hit

getting hit getting it there's a point it will catch up to him so I think that for now he also needs rest and then maybe he can wait for them till December and also I I wanted to talk about the co-main event, but I think I'll leave that for next time, because I have, no, no, I have someone else that I think is the problem. And I actually think it is Misha Tate. Because I'll just, let me just go on, Misha Tate attack on Aspen Lad, Aspen Lad's boyfriend, I think has caused a problem because now, You see Rose's boyfriend or husband right there not being able to go at her, but he has to try to talk nicely to her and all that. It happened again when Aspenlad was fighting. Aspenlaude fought the next time,

the boyfriend could not go at her when she was not doing anything. And that's just because Misha Tate called him a douche. And now any other person who is going into any fight where they had boyfriend of the lady they cannot go and do that again because then they will become the talk of the town and I think that's a problem because in there they are not boyfriends they are coaches and as a coach if your fighter is not doing what they are supposed to do you got to get at them where was missa Tate when somebody was at what's his name oh this fighter from Sweden

um the the smile Bruce the other guy when he was fighting and then he wasn't going according to yes smile when to my was not going against according to the game plan what happened the coach went at him well was Michate to come and say that hey you cannot talk to your fighter like that that Michate was not there to come and say anything at this it works you do not know what happens with certain fighters the first time it worked for us for Milan nobody said anything second time he did the same thing didn't work

Now he was a douche. And now every other fighter whose boyfriend is the coach cannot go and shout at them because it will be like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Imagine if this guy had actually told Rose that Rose, you are losing and you need to get out there and go and fight. If he had done that even in the fourth round or the third round, I think Rose would have won that fight. But they couldn't because what happens?

If he does that, there's a problem. Yeah, so that's just my tip for today. next time i'll have a nut thank you sir oh sorry i mean to cut you off um yeah a lot to impact there yeah i'm kind of with you on the islam thing i just i just i think dana's so petty that even if he deserves it's just not going to give it to him very good chance of that you make an interesting point about the misha tate thing i actually thought you were going to say misha was going to be a problem in terms of being a title contender but then i realize that it's a different division altogether um i don't know if i necessarily agree with that take because

the whole Jim West Aspen Ladd thing became a non-story like a day later. It was just, maybe we lasted a couple days, but it became a non-story. And for the same reason that, that you just talked about. Aspen Ladd even said to herself, if I was a guy,

we wouldn't even be talking about this. But it just was what it was. Some fighters are motivated in different ways. I've talked to Lauren Murphy about her fight with Valentina Shubchenko, and her corner got absolutely annihilated for the way that they talked to Lauren in between rounds. They told her she was doing great. That's what Lauren wants.

All fighters are different. Some people, here's an example. Everybody is coached in different ways. That's one thing you'll learn. There are certain people who respond to harsh criticism. There are other people who don't. I remember my first varsity baseball game, I came in like late innings and I made an error.

And the next day of practice, my coach told me I sucked. Told me you suck. You cost us the game. I was okay with that because he was right. I sucked and I cost them the game. I responded fine. I came back, made sure I didn't make those mistakes together, at least tried my ass off to not do that.

Some people don't respond to that criticism. Some people are just like, all right, it's okay. You know, get them next time. You got to coach people in different ways. people have different personalities, different traits, different ways of motivation. Some people, it's anger and yelling. Other people, it's just positive reinforcement. So, yeah, the whole thing with Daspin was kind of a blown story.

I don't necessarily, I think if Rose got screamed at, I don't think it would have made any difference, just probably would have made her a little more timid. Rose is just, Rose is an interesting person. I feel like there are many MMA 30 for 30s that would be really interesting. I feel like Rose Nami Eunice would be like in the top five of that. Make their holiday unforgettable with a gift that says it all from Pandora Jewelry, a gift that tells a story and shows you know theirs that doesn't just sparkle, but speaks. From new festive charms to forever rings and personal engravings,

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Mike, you hear me? Okay, a couple things. One, I've been seeing a lot of banter on Twitter and stuff like that from different sides with different biases. And I wanted your opinion on something on how Charles Olivera's legacy kind of compares to Khabib at this point. If you look at their resumes, they're getting kind of like. eerily similar. Like, they're beating very similar guys, like their last two wins were Dustin Porre, Justin Geh, Charles is finishing them a lot quicker, obviously.

But I think by the eye test, Habib is still a lot better. So I just wanted you to think, like, I still think that Habib is the best lightweight ever. I want to know how much more you think Charles has to do to kind of get more into that conversation. And my second question is, is Rose and versus Carla, too, the worst? fight ever and if not what is thank you tim uh the first question i think all there is in the all there is now in the conversation he's not there he's he's not he's probably number three

you have to i know the end of bj penn's career kind of tarnished things but when bj was on and bj was going through that run i mean he was the best fighter in the world wasn't the best slight way in the world. He was the best fighter in the world. I think people kind of forget because of how BJ's career sort of wrapped up how good he actually was. So I think Oliver is in the discussion, but just being in the conversation of those two guys is ridiculous. It's ridiculous.

So he's sniffing that number two spot, in my opinion. I still think he's slightly behind BJ. And here's the reason why. dominance. Oliver is not, Oliver is winning. And he's winning in emphatic fashion, and the fights are crazy and they're exciting. But you have to place some emphasis on the domination. Habib just ran through everybody.

He lost like two rounds his entire team. Maybe three. I'll say three. Let's just say he lost three rounds. Three rounds. Three rounds, his whole career. That's ridiculous. And he just destroyed everybody you fought.

BJ Penn, when he was running through guys, just ran over everybody. He ran over everybody. And a lot of people thought that he got screwed out of the title in Abu Dhabo when he fought Frankie Edgar the first time. Now, I was happy about that result because I wasn't covering the sport at the time. And I placed a bet on Frankie Edgar that night.

And I probably shouldn't have cashed. it, but I did. It was the only bet I ever made at MMA was Frankie Edgar beating BJ Penn in Abu Dhabi. And it was probably a robbery. But that was an off night for BJ. But before that, all those other fights at 155, the title wins, the title defense in the sky was a killer. But Oliver is right there. And again, putting him at number three right now is not an indictment on him at all. It says so much about him. But right now, it's not a indictment. Habib, B.J, and Oliver is, like, right behind B.J. One more title defense. He jumps B.J., in my opinion.

Or title defense. One more win. He wins back the title. He jumps B.J. And then Habebe. He probably needs, like, needs a couple more. Oliver beats whoever he fights next. And then if he beats Islam, if he's right there, and what happens if he beats Islam? Let's just say he fights, let's say Alvair fights Chandler and, like, September, right? Let's just throw that out there.

Or beats whoever. Then you do Islam versus Darius. And Islam, let's just say Islam beats Darius. Then, like, February rolls around. They do Oliver versus Islam. Let's just say Oliver stops Islam. Guess who's going to be in Islam's corner to watch it all? Habib, could this be the fight to get him back?

Could that be for one more? I don't know. I don't know. Let's get Tadjig Bay in here. What's up, buddy? Oh, there you go. Hello, Mike. Hello.

Can you hear me okay? Yes, sir. Yep. Okay, great, great. Yeah, great space. You know, I definitely have to take a moment out of my morning and join it. So a couple of thoughts. I think in terms of Charles Olivera, first, the scale gate, right?

At the scale gate, I think commission said that the scales at the back were not calibrated by them. And so they could not have control of that. So that's why there was the difference in the scales. And I think there is a good line of communication between the UFC and the commissions. So at the time, I think what has to happen going forward is to make sure that, you know, at least on the UFC side, that the scales are calibrated and are matched with the scales in the front. I think that has to happen in order to make sure that the skills are accurate on both ends, right? Because otherwise it defeats the purpose, right?

Like you go in the back, you're at weight, and then you go in the front and you're not at weight, you know? So that's kind of, I think, has to be figured out and worked out between the UFC and the athletic commissions going forward. In terms of Charles Oliver, I think Charles brought some innovation in the game in the sense that when, Justin was hitting him hard. He chose actually to go to the ground. There was one time that he got knocked down, but there was another time where he just lost his balance, and he could have stood and kind of got wobbled

and tried to regain his composure, but he chose to go to the ground, win a little bit time, recover, or see if Justin maybe wants to go to the ground with him, right? And that won him some time and he allowed him the time to recover. So I think this kind of flew a little bit under the race, because Charles did something special there defensively, and I think he deserves more credit for that.

In terms of the Rose Namayunus, I think, I don't think Pat Berry should be just in the corner of Rose Namayunus, and I think Eric Nixie talk about that. He speaks more like a husband, more like a boyfriend, than not as a coach, right? And so he need to let Matt Weiman do his thing, you know, and so everything else can be addressed, you know, at home. So that's kind of like a couple of thoughts I have.

I think in terms of the goat. Oliver, I think, is kind of in the conversation. But obviously, you know, we will continue comparing everybody to Khabib just because he never bled, barely lost any round. So I agree with you there. Overall, great space, great event. Happy to join and give my input. So, yeah, thanks.

Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I mean, the commission thing, I don't know. man like the whole thing with the scale and all that stuff and the calibration like it's all so dumb because so after that whole thing happens gyrma cruz talked to a couple of the fighters that's how this whole thing kind of started really with the hold on with the scale and scale gate and all that craziness and you know and by the way just to clarify the scale gate quote unquote thing had nothing to do with the actual beam scale that the fighters waited on what the scale gate comes from is that they're saying that the scale that the fighters use at the fighter hotel that they used in the back they weren't the same as as the beam scale.

So here's here's something that Eddie Alvarez tweeted out or said recently that I thought made a lot of sense. Eddie Alvarez said at that scale, bring your own. bring your own scale that you trust that you know is right you bring your own scale that way if there's any tomfoolery between the ufc scale or the scale in the back or whatever you know that your trusted scale is correct then there's no doubt you're not you're not hoping that it's right you have your own to say that it is right but the commission did say listen, we provide this scale for the UFC and we approve this one with the UFC. The other scales, we have nothing to do with.

We don't even provide them. The UFC provides them. And that's it. Again, just like the title. It's a UFC belt. It's a UFC scale. It's a commission has nothing to do with it. Nothing.

They take the UFC at their word that these scales are legit. Most organizations, like if you cover I mean, maybe Bellatory does, but maybe PFL does, I don't know. But most organizations, like, you do it on your own. You go to the gym.

You step on their scale. And then you head over to wherever the way-ins are taking place and you weigh in. That's it. So, not, I mean, I don't know. But again, the whole thing is dumb because the half-pound, the love of God.

All right, we're going to take two more. Let's get Joe in here. Joe what's up buddy what's happening Mike heck of a morning uh want to sure want to touchdown on the light way to you know so I know that the talk is Islam first veneal but Dana said at the press conference after the fight that he loves that fight but he is now not ruling out letting Islam fight up to Charles. And I feel like Justin and Dustin are going to get to fight each other for a third title shot, which is ridiculous.

And I think that instead, Islam, B'Neil, and Gillespie should be allowed to fight up to Charles, Dustin, and Justin. Instead of keeping Dustin and Justin locking up one of them top spots off of losses, title losses, is what I meant to say. I know it's, they both got a couple wins, but two title losses. I just wanted to get your thoughts on 155 and how the UFC could move that division around. Thank you, Joe. Yeah, there'd be there's a lot of ways you can do it.

There's a lot of ways. And here's the thing. Here's the thing. For once, the UFC has carte blanche to have some fun. They could do fun things here. They could do a wily fight. I suggested just because I feel like the timing works out And we don't have like a true we have a number one contender

We have a number one contender The knock with Islam as good as he is it As he is and as dominant as he has been Is he does not have a marquee win on his resume He has Dan Hooker and he has Bobby Green And that's it Like he's got a lot of wins And the Armand Sarukhian win aged very well

that that Serukian win was on a month's notice and it was his UFC debut and Serukian gave Makachev some fits in that fight. So, I mean, he just doesn't have a top five win. If we're comparing actual resumes, Benil Daryush has a better case than Islam does for the title, just because of the wins and the strength of schedule. And by the way, this is no fault of Islam's

because he's been booked in some big fights and they just didn't work. But again, Habib took the long road to the title, and Habib became a much bigger star because of that. So what's the big deal? If Islam waits one more. Just give him the big fight with Darius. That's a massive fight in Abu Dhabi.

You make two fighters very, very happy. Put him in a big spot. You could do five rounds too. You're the UFC. You want to do five rounds of those two guys in like a featured fight spot or a co-main event in Abu Dhabi? Give them more money. Just give them more money. They fight five rounds.

Winners the number one contender. Winner that fight faces the winner of Oliver versus whoever. And it's a much bigger fight. It just is. What's the big deal if Islam has to fight one more time? I just don't see why it's that big of a deal. I don't get it. One more.

Just give him one more. Beat Daryush. There's your top five win. And there's no questions. The next time we do heck of a morning on October 24th or whatever it is, we're not having a conversation about this. It's Islam fighting for the title. He's earned it.

There's nobody else. We can't have that discussion right now. We can't. We could make an argument that he could get it, but he's not unequivocally the guy. He beats Darius. he's unequivocally the guy. I don't care what happened.

Michael Chandler could do a freaking backflip drop kick off the top of the octagon. And if Islam beats Darius, by split decision, he's the guy. Go fight Darius. I mean, I just don't understand why this is such a huge deal if we wait one more fight for Islam. Everyone makes more money.

Everyone makes more money. It's a much bigger fight. And he gets the marquee win. And there's no questions. If they book Islam now, they're going to go up to the press go. What's the first question he's going to be asked? A lot of people feel like you haven't gotten that marquee win yet. I don't think he cares at the end of the day.

But he goes out and beats Darius. There's no question. He's the guy. Why do we have to rush these guys in the title fights? There's no need to rush him. He's probably got beat Darius. And then he's the murderer coming up to fight the champion. Right now he's like he's one of five options that could fight for the title.

He beats Darius. He's one of one. Let's just make it completely unequivocally obvious. Then he's the guy. One more win. Make it five rounds. Give the man more money.

Then he fights for the title. Not a huge deal if he doesn't. This is not some sort of catastrophe if somebody else could spell. Now, Connor getting a title shot is just stupid. But I get it. It's a huge, it's a big money fight. But it's dumb. It's completely stupid.

But I like my idea. I like my idea better. I like my idea better because you're only going to get one shot at this. And I feel like now's the time. If Volcanofsky beats Holloway, do Oliver Volcanovsky. Because you might not get another chance. You might not get another chance. Because if Islam beats Oliver, let's just say all of these things that I say happen,

Olivera wins his next title defense Makachev beats Daryush and then Machachev fights Olivera wins the title. I don't see Volcanovsky rushing up to fight Machachev. But Volkinovsky would fight Oliver and that's a super interesting fight in my eyes.

Right now. Like right now that's an interesting fight. So let's just do it. What's the big deal? Volcanovsky loses. It does nothing. It does nothing. The man tried to step up and make history he fell short against a guy who might be the best lightweight in the world.

Might be a top three lightweight of all time. But if he wins, that's an incredible story. He's a two-division champ. You got to do it. I feel like you have to do it now. Of course, he's got to beat Max Holloway July 2nd. And if he does, the featherweight division is in a place. It would make sense for him to go up.

The biggest fight you have right now at 145 that's on the books is Calvin Cater versus Josh Emmett. I like both those guys a lot. But what's a more interesting fight? What's a bigger fight for Volkadovsky? Volkadovsky Kater? Volknoffsky Emmett? Or Volkadovsky Olivera? Yeah, that's the answer.

Let's just have some fun. If you're going to do it, you've got to do it now. You've got to do it now. And if Mokachev beats Darius, the winner gets Mokachev. That is a much bigger fight come the first quarter of 20. 23. It doesn't hurt Machachev to wait one more.

And of course, maybe Darius wins. And if that's the case, we were right all along. I think there's just more questions that need to be answered. But in the meantime, when we figure that out, we can do some fun things. Maybe the UFC feels like Conner's the fun fight. I don't necessarily think that, but I understand

the business that fight would do. But let's just think outside the box here. All right. Christopher, last word, my man. For all those waiting, I apologize. If you miss the beginning, there's a lot going on. So I got to roll out after this. What's up, buddy? It's a quick one, Mike. As the president of the Armand-Saurukin fan club,

I'm surprised no one's asked you about the Armand-Saurukin gamrock fight. So, yeah, man, talk to us. How do you see that going? I know obviously it's early doors, but how do you see that fight going and how excited are you for that fight? Thank you, Chris. Wonderful question. I am very high at both of these guys. I have been high on Surukyan for years and years, even before he was in the UFC. And I feel like this guy will be the champion. I think he will be the champion.

2024, Armand Sarukian will be the champion of the UFC. I feel very strongly in that stance. I've been saying this for a long time. And I feel, I feel like he could. Never mind. I was going to say I feel like he could beat his on Machachev. I'm not going to say that just yet, but I feel like with the right development,

a few more wins, full camp, he could give Mokachev fits. He gave him fits the first time on short notice in his UFC debut. This guy is the real deal. Now, the Gamrod fight is ridiculous. It's a ridiculous fight. I cannot wait for it.

And I hope it's the main event. Give these guys the main events. What else you're going to do? What are you going to do? I'm looking around. Who else is going to headline this card? And who's going to complain if Suruky on Gamrod is the main event? I mean, you got to pay them more, five rounds.

But let's have some fun here. Two guys who could fight for the title, right? Two guys who could fight for the title in the next year and a half. Let's just do five rounds. It's unfortunate that this is. the fight that's being made because I feel like it's too soon. This could be a number one contender fight down the line, but so

what? We're here. From what I understand, the initial plan was to do Syruquian versus Gregor Gillespie. Didn't happen that way and we get Matush Gamrod instead and an embarrassment of riches, if you will.

I love the fight. I would love to see it for five rounds. I feel like if it's going to be the main event, they better make that decision pretty quickly because we're about a little over a month away from that one. But God, that's a great fight. I lean Sarukian to win. Gamrod's really good. So I could be completely wrong here, but I think Surukian just got more ways to win.

I think his striking is getting a lot better. And I just feel like his ground game is just suffocating. He's just a very big, strong one. 55er. But yeah, I love it. It's going to be a fight that nobody's stock really lowers that much. And someone's going to be in line for a massive fight at 155. And now's the time to get into that discussion because it's pure chaos at 155.

So the timing for this fight could not be better. And, you know, after everything that happened this past week, maybe that was the fight to make. Maybe it's time to streamline one of these guys. And maybe it's Syruquan. maybe it's Gamron. But one of these guys, no matter what happens, I feel like both these guys

are going to be fighting for the title at some point in their careers. But that's it, everybody. I got a roll. I appreciate it. For those hanging out, I apologize. We'll be back on Thursday. Same time.

Maybe we'll just take your calls the entire time. No early rants, no nothing. We'll just get right into this to make it up to you. But I got to get out of here, some family stuff going down here in Florida. I appreciate you all very much. Back here on Thursday. have a heck of a morning

and a great rest of the day, everybody. Next Media Podcast Network. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.