MMA Fighting - Heck of a Morning | Will Joanna Jedrzejczyk's Long Layoff Help Or Hurt Her At UFC 275?

Episode Date: June 9, 2022

There are many questions surrounding Joanna Jedrzejczyk's long-awaited return to the octagon this Saturday at UFC 275 in a rematch with Zhang Weili — most notably, how will she respond after a two-plus year layoff? On an brand new episode of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck gives his thoughts on that, and the matchup itself. In addition, listeners ask questions about Paddy Pimblett's UFC London booking with Jordan Leavitt, the UFC 275 main event between Glover Teixeira and Jiri Prochazka, Valentina Shevchenko not getting the main event slot, a potential co-promotion between Bellator and Eagle FC and if it's the right decision for both promotions, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. is UFC 275, Eve, Eve. And it is indeed a heck of a morning right here on the MMA fighting Twitter spaces at our new start time, 10 a.m. Eastern, 7 a.m. Pacific. I hope you were all nice and refreshed. Got a little bit of extra sleep before hopping on here.

We appreciate you joining us live. Or if you're listening after the fact on the MA Fighting Podcasting Network, we appreciate that as well. I am Mike Heck. It is Thursday, like I said. We're a couple days away from a very interesting, loaded up UFC 275 event, especially the top three fights. They are all excellent.

They are all fantastic. And I'm excited for all of it. And of course, I'm in a great mood right now because your Boston Celtics went out and they didn't just beat the Golden State Warriors last night at the TD Garden. They put the boots to the Golden State Warriors. Golden State Warriors last night in Boston. They broke them. They broke them.

And I have never been more confident in a Celtics team in my life. Even the big three team. They went out, had hard fought wins, and then kind of blew the doors off the Lakers when they won that last championship. But they didn't straight up break a team like they did Golden State last night because Golden State didn't play a bad game.

They played a really good game. Their two best players showed up. and usually when their two best players show up, they win, like 95% of the time. But the Celtics broke them. They were dejected. They were distracted by the fans. They hated playing in Boston. And guess what they have to do tomorrow night?

They have to do it again. And I feel really good that the Celtics are going to go back to California, I,A, up three games to one. Because they're the better basketball team. They're the better team. They're the tougher team than a more physical team. and Draymond Green followed out and had to watch the last couple minutes on the bench and nothing made me happier. So enough basketball talk.

We're here to talk MMA and we're going to do that with all of you for the next, I don't know, 55 minutes or so or however long you want to keep this thing going. We'll talk about whatever you want to talk about. We will begin with a man who will probably present a number of topics to us, Mr. Tristan Gordat, the president of the Alexander K. Lee, Best Friend Fan Club. Tristan, how are you? How are you?

How are you doing, Mike? How's everything? Good. Good. How are you? I'm okay. I'm okay. I want to start up.

So you didn't get to answer my question that I had, the second part of it on Tuesday. And that question was about Benoit Santinisse and his performance last week. I just want your thoughts on him. I think he could be a prospect. I really was locked into his fight against Stolte, I believe. and I saw like he has his grappling is really really good I know you did an article you did the recap article of his fight on MMAfighting.com and you know he's a he's a very interesting person

and you know he talked about being on special forces in France so his mindset I think his nickname is what war of God so like his mentality is like I really like his mentality very aggressive he talked about being more patient because he did get rocked and with a knee. But he was just, he kept pushing forward and just gave no room to his opponent. It was just pressure, pressure, pressure. And then he was able to finish him off with the choke.

I mean, I'm really interested. I think he could do some things in this lightweight division. So I just want your thoughts on him. And then he also talked about actually being on the UFC London card that's happening on July 23rd. On the Otno picks, I think he should have fought, I think he should buy Mason Jones. from my mistake yeah mason jones and because he's from wales so he has a fan base there so i think that would be a really good fight if he could be on that london card might be too quick of a turnaround

and then um also on i heard you talking to jad msue on the the betting podcast uh the betting episode i'm filling in uh for his normal partner and um with jerry pahashka it's a very he's a very I remember the fight after I believe or leading up to Dominic Reyes where he was like, I'm getting hit way too much. I've got to work on that and try to avoid getting hit a lot. And then he said he talked about, and I think you guys discussed it about he's been working on his grappling for a year and he should be ready for it. But do you really think he's going to do that and you think he may just revert back to his old tactics? Just want your thoughts on that. All right. I appreciate everything, Mike. Thanks.

Thank you, Tristan. Yes, once in a while when multiple topics are going on me, sometimes I will just rifle through some things. And then I sometimes go off on tangents. And then I just kind of forget what else is going on. Yeah, Santad he's good. And he's very green. He's only been competing in the sport for like three years. And he's already in the UFC. He's got the one loss to Eliza Zaleski, but he took that fight on super short notice, and he went up a weight class to do it. As you can see, as a 55er, he's very solid.

He has some tools. He can be molded into something pretty good. I don't know if we're going to be talking about Benoit Santini fighting for a world title someday, especially in this division, but this is a guy who could be a pretty serviceable player in this division for quite some time, because he's only going to get better,

but he's going to stop getting absolutely shellacked in these fights, because he seems to just take a beating in every one of them, whether it's a thousand shots like Zaleski landed or just the one big knee he took that sliced his face open. So, yeah, if they do Mason Jones, it's fine. Hopefully that cut can heal quickly. If they can get him on that card, I'm sure Sonsigni would take it in a heartbeat.

I like it. With the Uri thing, listen, this is, it's hard. He's a mentally savvy, sharp guy. Absolutely. Yuri is a dangerous fighter. He's so super talented. He's really good.

But all the pressure's on him here. All of it. All of it's on him. Glover's got some pressure, just the normal pressures that come with fights. But he's loose as a goose. He's having a great time with it. I am, like honestly, like, I was caught. Those who have been listening to the show and have been following him in May fighting since Glover won the

title, I have been saying Glover will submit Yuri Perashka in the first round. Now, after watching footage and stuff, I still feel very confident that Glover wins this fight. I'm actually more confident Glover wins this fight. Now, I realize that there's a number of ways Glover

could win this fight. I think Glover could knock out Yuri Perashka. I think he could take him down and TKO him. He's got way more ways to win. There's no doubt about it. And from a betting perspective, there's a lot of value on Glover to Shera. Because to me, with all the ways Glover can win, not that attitude can always translate

into physical performance, but look at the two guys. Look at them. I mean, Yuri's just a wild man anyways, but who's the more relaxed guy of the two? It's Glover by a mile. And I love that mentality. And the fact, just, again, the mere mention of Yuri Perash's name just gets Glover excited. He's not worried about it at all. He's like, yes, I get to fight that guy. So we'll see what happens. I love the fight. I think it's closer to a 50-50 than the betting odds indicate. But I'm sticking with Glover. Nothing's going to talk me out of it. I've had people hit me up on Instagram. I'll just read it real quick because he couldn't make it. What did he say? He said,

one Glover's 42 and been beat up by Rumble, Gustavson, Santiago Santos, and Carl Roberson. I know he won some of those. Two, he always gets hurt early, and I don't think you can survive that against Yuri. This is Dad Jackson, by the way. Three, Yuri has four inches of reach and hair. I feel like you guys are really underselling my boy here,

and I think this is similar to Lesnar Couture. I agree with you guys on the ways Glover can win, and I'm ready to eat my words if I'm wrong, but I just don't see it happening. Well, hopefully you don't have money on the fight because I think if you do, you might be pretty disappointed. I feel really strongly that Glover's going to win. But it is MMA and Uri's a wild man. And Glover's kind of a wild man too.

People forget that. If the going gets tough, he's just going to go right in the fire. He's going to get or get God. And that's what I like about that guy, even at 42. I just think he's in a great space mentally. And we'll see what happens. It's a great fight. Let's go to the man who.

change this program forever, created one of the most memorable moments who will ever have in the program, Mr. CRJ. C.R.J, what's up? Mike, it's a heck of a morning. And I did not do that. We did that, you know? We did that, yes, but I'm giving you the credit for putting it on the radar. And, you know, not to stay on that too much, but man, people are nice. So I'll just say that. It's nice to told you. Sheesh. People are nice. Wow, look at that. I'm like, I feel like the most popular guy in New York now for just, you know, 30 seconds of work. So I'm back to my charming old self, Mike, and that's what we like to see. Yes.

So I have sort of a fun question and, you know, a real question. They're sort of tied together. You know, I like Patty the Baddy. Like I'm there. I like when we, you know, promote like kind of silly, stupid guys. who can fight, but I get really like Jordan's chances in this upcoming fight. And I'm questioning the matchmaking more and more each time I think about it. And I'm wondering if anyone else is feeling this error too.

I think Jordan is a really, really good fighter and a bad matchup for Patty. And then my second, funer question is I was thinking, you know, the UFC needs more segments for, you know, the amount of time, especially when they broadcast on the network, in case the fights go too fast or the, you know, you know, there's a couple knockouts in a row and they need to fill time. I was wondering if they could do maybe like little games with the fighters who are in the audience because I'm kind of sick of them panning to these fighters who are in attendance and the champs who are watching and then it's just like, okay, we're back to like

listening to someone talk about nothing, you know, for five minutes. So I was wondering if you had any suggestions for kind of intra-content segments. And also, verify, is anyone in this work for Twitter? Verify

Jed Mashu. You know how he must feel everyone else is verified? He's now verified. Twitter, get on it. I'm his number one advocate right now, not with some of his bad takes, but he deserves to be verified like all of his friends. He must feel so left out. All right. Thank you, Sir, Jay.

You're the man. You know, there might be a part of Jed who just likes it because he's kind of a lone wolf. He just kind of sits on his own island. And maybe if they gave him the checkmark, he'd send it right back because that's just the guy he is. with the broadcasting thing I don't know man like I would rather

especially on these fight night cards I would rather them just rather than do a prelim in a main card and treat it as such just do it like one big fight night thing one of my favorite things

about fight nights and during the old era pre ESPN was the occasional card we got on UFC Fight Pass I loved those want to know why Because there was no fluff.

We went from one fight to the next to the next to the next. Even if there's a title fight on top of that card, Eddie Alvarez RDA was a title fight on a fight pass fight night card. It was during like one of those hectic weeks in Vegas international fight week when there was just cards like three days in a row. But those fights began, there was very limited interruption.

They might have to play an ad or two here and there, but they just went boom, boom, boom, boom. It was almost like a bellator. prelimm. It was awesome. Well, the old Bellator prelums. Now, the new Bellator prelims, we have to look at Josh Thompson's face every single time between fights, and they've gone a little bit downwards

in that respect. But, yeah, just go. Just get right into the next fight. Like these fight night cards, like, you're not in any time constrate. Just get after it. We don't need the fluff. Just go. I mean, if you want to do games with fighters, it's fine. I don't know if that would really work.

It's a little too minor league basebally. if you will. I mean, what are you going to do? And I like your idea. We're trying to think outside the box, different things to make these.

I mean, what are we going to do? We're going to have like a water gun contest, a cannonball contest. Maybe we could do a shooey contest. Who could chug beer faster? I don't know. If you're going to do it,

just have some fun with it. But we want to keep this, you know, I want to keep it going. There is a lot of fluff. I completely agree with you on that respect. And then with the Pimblet Levit matchup, the more,

the more I, think about it, the more time that goes and Ezekiel, you're on deck, my man. I think it's perfect match rating because you gotta, I don't know, like, because if Leavitt wins, he gets catapulted and there's

something there. I think the UFC knows that. That's why they're giving him this opportunity. But also, Kimball's got to be the favorite in this fight. He's just got more experience. He's a better striker. He's not a great striker, but he's a better striker than Jordan and Leavitt is.

Leavitt's still pretty green. He got to the UFC real fast in terms of number of fights. I mean, it just happened quick. I remember talking to him when he was like 1 and 0, 2 and 0 as a pro, and it just happened fast. It would have happened faster had he been able to get more fights, but it got to the point where Leavitt was just running through guys and submitting them quickly that no one on these regional scenes wanted to fight him.

The juice wasn't worth the squeeze for those guys. you know how it could be on the regional scene. But I don't think Jordan's a real threat to knock Patty out, because if you watch these last two fights, that was a big issue for Patty. Got rocked in both fights. He ended up winning both of them. But, yeah, I just think the risk is lower for Patty,

but Jordan's still very serviceable on the ground. So it's an interesting matchup. I like it. It's a win-win for the UFC. If Patty wins, it's cool, and he gets the big pop and cool. great. If Leavitt wins, it's going to be a freaking riot in London

and it's going to be fun as hell. So I actually liked the bat. I just don't know what else you could do with Patty. We've talked about Patty Pimble on to the next one many times. Somehow his name gets brought up and we go off on these tangents. It is super hard to book this guy.

You got to, like I've been an advocate of squash matching Patty for the whole run. He only fights in London. You get him against a guy who lost in the contender series or just a very green fighter, somebody he could beat. Let him have his moment. Let the crowd go bananas.

Call today. But if you really think this guy's a title contender, I thought Alex Hernandez was a great idea. But I think it goes to show that the UFC is trying to find sort of a middle ground, which is not we want. You either go on one side of the other. You can't really gray area patty. It's either you just get them over, let him have his moment. or you push them.

And they're not really pushing him here, although this is a tough matchup for him. I would favor Patty. I think Patty's bigger. I think Patty just has more experience, more big fight experience. He's the better striker. But if things get on the ground,

Patty's very good on the ground, but Jordan's very sneaky and very slick on the ground. So that's where things could get a little hairy. But I like the fight. I like the matchmaking. Zeke, my man. I'm glad we could get you on here. What's up,

Big man, how are you? I will be as short and sweet as possible. I am currently in beautiful Hollywood Studios, Florida. Shout out Mike Heck, his hometown, which isn't really his hometown that he, you know, loves to travel to. Two things for it. First thing, first. What did you think of the road to the UFC show last night? I didn't get to catch it live, but I did catch some, you know, nice knockouts, some nice highlights.

I feel like the UFC could do a little bit better job promoting that, but we're not the promoters. We'll sit down and talk to Dana about that. And secondly, in my humble opinion, of course, in the main event this weekend, beyond excited. I love your thought process on Glover submission. I think if Glover gets them down, I think it's going to be an absolute, you know, just bloodbath for Yuri.

It's going to look really ugly for him. He's going to look like a fish out of water. And then in my opinion, I don't know if Glover can take too many strikes on the feet. So I love Glover by sub. I like Yuri by knockout. I'd be very surprised at this fight saw the cards. However, we saw Derek Loover. Louis and Francis Nangano go to the card.

So what the hell do I know? Have a heck of a morning. Mike, thank you for having me. And yeah, let's enjoy this fight week, man. Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow. Thank you, Zique. Enjoy good old Hollywood studios. As a matter of fact, I just came back about an hour away

from the Orlando, Florida area. Drove back last night with the two kids, the son and the dog. Got home around 11 p.m. last night so I could catch the end of the Celtic shalacking of the Golden State Warriors, It's just beautiful to watch. Yeah, I love the main event. It's fantastic. It's great.

I'm looking forward to it. The road to the UFC, I would love to come on here and break it all down for you, but I can't do it because I haven't watched a second of it. And it's not because I don't care. It's just,

I can only, for my mental health, I can only devote so much time to MMA. I have to take a break from it from time to time. I work on it all day. I host eight to 10 shows a week. Sometimes I got to take a break. I got to watch something else.

I got to watch the Celtics in the finals or I got to hang out with the family. I got to take a little breather. Now, luckily, I worked for the greatest website on planet Earth. And I was aware I got to watch some highlights. I got to see what was going on. Jose Young's is there. So I got to get some updates on our Slack channel what was going on. I'm glad these guys are getting the opportunity from what I understand.

The deals that they're getting to compete. on this is actually a little bit better than the contender series. So good for them. And I like getting the spotlight shown on this area of the world. And good on them. I like the tournament structure. It's all good. I wish the contender series would maybe do a season of the contender series where we have

a tournament structure too. I think that would be super fun. That would make things really, really interesting. Where the only guys who get contracts are the only fighters, guys and gals, only fighters who win there. respective tournaments. I like that idea. That'd be a really interesting season of the contender series. We got a lot of people waiting. I love this. Mikey Bats, you're up, my man. How are you? You're there, buddy. What's up? Rat. You guys hear me?

Yes, sir. All right, man, just going to drop a couple quick takes. Yawanna and Wayley should be five rounds. Is that five rounds or not? It isn't. It's three. It's three. That's stupid. It should be five rounds, especially since they're going to fly for the title. Second, quick hot take. Valentin Natalia should be the main event. If I'm not mistaken, Valentina's the longest 10-year champion in the UFC right now, and she's going to break or tie the most title defense records. I don't care of Talia isn't a draw. It should be all about Valentina.

She's probably the biggest star on the card, so she should be the main event. And as for the main event itself, Glover, Yerry, I'm 50-50 on. I think I'm leaning Yeri, but Glover's a sneaky little bastard. All right. Thanks, guys. Good see y'all. What's up, Adriana? Later. great Mikey bats nicely done uh sorry i don't know why there was like a little feedback there but

we got it and uh hopefully we'll be good from there yeah i love the fight it's great uh i don't have an issue with valentina beating in the cold main event and the reason is you normally the higher weight class gets the main event spot unless it's Connor or somebody else for the most part the higher weight class is the main event it's been like that forever so if there was a flyway title fight and a Straway title fight, Valentina would be in the main event. Yeah. I mean, that's really the explanation behind that. Valentina is the best women's fighter on the planet right now.

It's not even close. She's one of the best fighters on the planet, period. And watching her fight is an absolute treat. She's tremendous. I can't wait to see what she does against Talas Santos. I just don't see. I'd love to come on here and give you an underdog pick, and maybe you could change your life and put some money.

on Tylos Santos, but like I said, on No Bet's Bard. I filled in for Connor Birx with Jed. I'm not a gambler, but I do look at things from a gambling perspective when I make picks, what has value, what doesn't. And even if Valentina slips on the proverbial banana peel, with how good she is, she would just use that momentum to kick Tylos in the face and probably knock her out. So I'm not worried about a banana peel slip.

If she breaks her leg or something crazy happens, and she'd probably hide it, get through the rest of the round and get a finish before anyone even knew what happened. I just feel so good about it. And hopefully she cuts a really good promo and gets herself the Badaway title fight next. Especially if Giuliana Pena wins, you have to do Pena of Chichchenko too. And you know what? If Nudas wins again, do Nunez Chivchenko before you do the trilogy with Pena. I know the second fight was not good.

The first fight wasn't tremendous either. But you're only going to have so much time. to do this fight. I don't think the UFC world or Nunes is long for the UFC world. I think she's just got a few fights left, and I think she's just going to be done. I think she's had an incredible career. But we'll see what happens July 30th,

but I'm predicting a third round TKO near perfect game performance. I think this is going to be a mercy stoppage in the third round. I just, that first fight from Tyler Santos gives me worry. Gives me worry. Now she has bounced back ever since then. And I don't want to say this, it sounds disrespectful to Mara Mara Mara Borrella. But Mara Mara Barilla is, she's a back-end fighter. She's like a top 30 fighter in the division if there's even that many fighters.

And she lost to her. She lost, which tells me that when the lights are bright and when the spot is big, and there's nothing wrong with this, she just doesn't show up. Now, that's not to say that Tyler could never be a champion because Valentin is not going to be fighting for the next. 10 years, but I just don't see a world where she wins this fighter is even competitive. So I think we're going to get ourselves a nice little

Valentina showcase. And that's that. Let's get Jimmy Wang Yang. Yes. What's up, Mike? Heck of a morning. How you doing? I'm doing good, man. I'm doing. You actually tapped into it. I wanted to talk about Valentina.

And I feel like there's a little, like, she don't get promoted is being how good she actually is. Like I feel like, like you said, she's the best woman in the world right now, especially in some time for some time now. And I feel like she's better than some of the men. I feel like she should be higher

on that pound for pound list, especially around, maybe top two, top three. I feel like she's better than a lot of champion. Like you said, she's the longest 10-year champion is dominance. And then one more thing. Does, do you know what happened to Tatiana Shores?

know she was coming up when she was fighting but she just disappeared dude does anybody know what happened i know she was she was getting some drawl i remember her i think somebody said she you could compare her she's like the female cabee so what what happened to tautiana sores thank you have a good morning mike thank you sir yes valentina is the best female fighter in the world she's one of the best overall fighters in the world you can make a strong case she is the best fighter in the world because she's just so dominant She's just so dominant. Even when she has a bad night, she still wins pretty convincingly.

She's just so good. And I kind of like the mystery about her. Like the UFC should push her to the moon. This is the best fighter in the world. But I kind of like the mystique of her. I like the James Bond-esque sort of mentality that she brings to the table where, you know, if you don't see the UFC promoting her, what is she doing? Is she training?

Is she fighting crime in Gotham City? She could be doing any of those things that we would believe them all. She could be just jumping from roof to roof just for fun. It wouldn't surprise me. Nothing would surprise me with this woman. And let me just say this. There was an episode of the MA Fighting Ranking Show where I got chastised a little bit. And Jed's been with me on this as well, who I know is here.

But even before Amanda Nunes fought Giuliana Pena before the big upset happened, I already had Valentina's number one in my rankings, pound for pound. I had her as the number, I had her as the number one women's fighter of the world. even before that and I got crushed for that and I stood by it I defended it because Amanda even though she was winning she was not winning the way that Valentina was winning

Lauren Murphy is tough as hell and she beat the hell out of Lauren Murphy if you want to if you want like a prime if you want an example of what it's like to fight Valentina Shufchenko go back into the MMA fighting YouTube archives and check out my interview with Lauren Murphy just a few days after that fight.

I mean, one of the most memorable interviews of my career. I've interviewed Lauren a million times. I've interviewed, she's one of the first fighters to give me a chance on the UFC roster early on in my career. She's got an incredible story. She's gone through a lot. But the way she, the honesty that she puts out there about fighting Valentina Shifchenko, it's hilarious,

but it's also like, wow. You get a true glimpse of just what it's, like to fight her. She's, and she was very technical about it. She's like, I had this idea where I was going to do this. And then I went to do that and you could tell that Valentina already had something ready for me. I'm just going to tough this thing out. I'm going to take a beating and keep on going. And then she said the first time Valentina hit her, she's like, oh, boy, that's a shitty idea. I mean, it's just, it's incredible. So go watch that. She dealt with a lot that week as well. Don't worry about that stuff. It's still fascinating in the story of the fight. But

I mean, just the way she opens up about how outmatch she was, and it's just incredible. But yeah, Valentin is real good. She should be promoted as such. And Tatia Tours has had a lot of bad luck with injuries. The win over Nina Nunes, she hurt. There's some neck injuries, some back injuries, and then she's been trying to come back.

It's been a long road, and every time she's about to come back, something else happens. There's another injury along the way. So right now, I believe she spoke with the schmo. and the latest is she's hoping to come back fourth quarter of the year maybe late fall maybe get her in there we'll see if she fights at 115

it seems like she wants to come back at 125 at least for her first fight and kind of see how it goes but wherever she comes back if she is even 85% of what she was before she's going to be a tough out she's going to be a tough out and she'll find her way into a title fight soon rather than later let's get sirloin in here

What's up, Sirloy? Do, Mike. What I do? First off, I got a shout out Red Sox for sweeping and Celtics for cruising. I think Draylon Green and Grant Williams might be the next three-round boat. But, yeah, someone brought up Jordan Levitt. Just wanted to say I had them as my 2020 knockout of the year, just for what that's worth. I thought that was a really vicious K-O-SL slam.

Yeah, I don't know. I just want to say, go Celtics. I'll talk more for UFC 276. but yeah all right thank you sir loin yes the Celtics are awesome and I would pick Grant Williams to beat

Draymond Green in a three round fight a five round fight a game of four square kickball whiffle ball doesn't matter Grant Williams wins every single time let's get

Janafco in here Esteban you are on deck Janafco are you there just unmute and we'll see if we get you in did I have to go hello yes there is it's up it's fukunda it's pronounced fukunda i just spelt it backwards okay all right yeah it's cool um i have a question andre feel i've been fighting these three fights

this year he's on uh the preliminary fight the first fight on the prelims he's like fighting once a month i think he's gonna be the rookie of the year this year for the ufc if he keeps winning i like Ah, see, there you go. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Yes. And that last thing you said is the catalyst. If he keeps winning.

And on Saturday, I don't think he keeps winning. I think he's going to lose to Jake Matthews. I feel like there's a lot of value on Jake Matthews. I feel like Jake's the better fighter. I think Jake's been in bigger spots. I think Jake's the better wrestler. I think Jake can grind things out a little bit more. I think Jake's going to win the fight.

Now, is there a world where Fiala can go out there and just knock him out quickly? Sure, there is. Andre's a bad man and he hits hard and he's a powerful dude. But Jake's been out for a while. From what I understand, he's got a big hunger to him. He's reinvigorated. If you follow his Instagram, he's in tremendous condition. Maybe the best he's looked in his career.

And this is a great spot for him too, because Fiala's got a little bit of hype right now. I think he's got a chance to win this fight. Now let's see what happens. Can he go in there and avoid an all-out firefight? If he does that, he wins. He'll win a decision. But if he goes in there and he's like, I want to make the fans happy and give them a fight of the night,

that's a terrible idea. I don't see Jake Matthews doing that. So give me Jake Matthews with the upset. Not sure what the betting lines are right now, but I think that is certainly worth a look. Let me take a quick gander at where those betting lines are. He was plus money the other day. And he's plus 125.

that's juicy it's delicious get on that all right estabon you are up are you there hey mike heck of a morning heck of a morning um it is coming to you live from lima peru south america i don't know if anybody's ever called from these parts but um wanted to talk about first um well first of all i am team glover let's go ufc 275 my boy's going to take it can you you hear me? Yep, I can hear you. I'm just, I'm soaking it all. I'm sorry. Yeah, so I'm Team Glover all the way like you, Mike. Let's freaking go. My first question was about Dana White's retirement. You know, eventually it was going to come a time where he's not going to not going to be able to do the job anymore. And we know Hunter Campbell's going to replace them, but I have two

questions for you there. First of all, when do you think he'll retire? Do you think it'll be like a Vince McMahon kind of thing where it's like, you're going to have to take this job from my cold did hands when I'm 105 and all that. And second of all, what do you think he's going to do after? Do you think he's going to get into boxing because it's been like 10 years since they announced Uber boxing and all we've gotten is a T-shirt. So I'm not sure about that. But I think he's going to get into boxing. That was his first love. That's what got him into MMA. And second question, I know you're not a big Henry Sehuda fan, but I got to say one of the most unexpectedly wholesome things about MMA in 2022 is Henry Sehudo giving all these fighters a pillow of their families.

I don't know if you've seen that he gave one to D.C., to Habib, to Kamar Uzman. So my question is, if he were to give you a pillow of your family, would you take it? Thanks, Mike. Shout out to AK, Jed Mishu, Casey, Shaheen, everybody at MMA fighting. I love you guys, and I listen every day. I will shut up and listen now. Thanks, Mike. Thank you, Esteban.

I mean, the positivity in this room this week has been unbelievable. I should have pushed back the start time from the get-go. I just love the attitude. I love the positivity and the vibes going through here. It's amazing. Yeah, I mean, just it's kind of a lot. The Suhudo thing, listen, I have to clarify this. I don't despise Henry Suhudo.

Henry Suhudo, the human being, seems like a, A very nice, wholesome guy, like a loyal guy, guy you want on your side. And even, even MMA, Henry Suhudo, seems like a great guy to have on your side. He'll push for you. He might be cringy at times, but he will have your back. And there's nothing wrong with that. My issue is with Henry Suhudo, the actual UFC fighter, or formerly UFC fighter, the guy who tried to leave the company high and dry and the company didn't care one bit that

left. And now the guy who left the company high and dry, the company didn't care, they moved on incredibly quick, just wants to come back and fight for a title without having to do anything else. The resume speaks for itself. I get it. But just the way you screwed over the UFC, yeah, it ain't happening. It might happen, but I don't, I wouldn't be the way I book it. I know there's talks about Marlon Vera versus Dominic Cruz in San Diego, August 13th. Fine. I mean, that's a fine fight. But, to me, like, Suhudo should have to fight somebody in the top 10 before he gets a title fight. Show me you want to actually do this.

Win a fight against... I like the Jan idea. I like the Marab idea. Go fight one of those two guys. If you win, like I said, I will come on the show. I will show appreciation. I will verbally pat you on the back and I will shine you up nice. But until that happens, I ain't going to do it.

And to the other part of that question, if he makes me a pillow of my family, me, sure. And I'll shake his hand and I'll say thank you. But it's the character, Suhudo, that that boggles my mind more than anybody else. I'm sure Henry Suhudo, the guy, I've met him in person once before, and he was very nice to me. So, nice guy. Just not a great combat sports business man, great coach, too. I know the fighters that are around him speak very highly of him. Nice guy. Just some of the decision making in terms of promoting himself. as a fighter is just not smart at all. And with the Dana White thing, I don't know what he's going to do.

I think, I don't know if he's going to be quite Vincic man, where you have to pry the job from his cold dead hands. But I don't know. I think maybe just, I think he's stuck around long. Honestly, he stuck around longer than I thought he would. When they sold the company, I thought he'd be gone 2020. He'd come in, just make sure everything was going smoothly for a little while and then just peace out.

But it doesn't seem like he's slowing down. I don't think he's going to go until he dies, but I think he's got another five years left. And what's he going to do after? I don't think he promotes anything. I think he just goes and just hangs out with his kids and watches them grow up. I don't know.

He's one of those old school guys. Like, he'll probably find something to do, but something that doesn't require a ton of work. Just because he, I mean, look at the guy won. The guy won, sat in sheets for days. Patrick, you are in. What's up, buddy? Hey, Mike.

Hey, buddy. Just, yeah, chilling at home this week with COVID. Oh, no. Yeah, luckily, these symptoms are all pretty mild. But, yeah, this is 10 o'clock time. I just want to welcome all the new West Coast motherheckers. You know, I remember when, I remember back in the day when it used to be just us East Coasters driving to work with a Dunkin' Donuts. I'm drinking one right now.

And I'm also, I hope that the London lunchtime crew, you know, the Hids and the tokes and the Christopher's get back in here at some point. But anyway, I'm just going to send a little purple heart emoji to that crew. And let's see. Where am I going to go next? Okay. I think Patty and Jordan Levitt is a complete win-win for the UFC. it doesn't matter who wins there because

Patty is he's almost in a class of his own that people are going to watch him regardless of whether he wins or loses really he's probably you know they know that he's probably not like going to be a champ so they don't need to really protect

his record per se you know and alleged is just like he came out to Lord of the rings, not like anything from the actual soundtrack. The song that Pippin sang in Return of the King, Acapella, in that movie, he came out to that song.

It was like the most awkward thing. And I just love that. That's who he is. And Patty's, you know, just, he's a twerkah lad. He's like, not going to get beat by a twer is his mindset. but uh all right um now that i buttered you up with uh some of that positivity um eerie is the number one pound for pound no gravity league if there's a no gravity league eerie is number one on the pound for pound list in the uh fighting in space no gravity league um that's for CRJ and uh unfortunately

there is gravity and that does give glover a chance to win but i don't know if you got a chance to watch the dan hardy bt sports breakdown um it was it was really it was really good man it's like 45 minutes of him breaking down that fight and i think he's leaning he doesn't really give a pick at the end but i think that he is leaning towards yuri and if you watch some of the stuff that yri's doing man it's just there's no way you can train for that and And, you know, you somehow convince all these people that Glover is going to win. You convince Jed Mishu to put money on – well, I actually do agree that. If you're going to bet, you should hedge on a Glover submission.

Because that is an outcome, I think probably, you know, three out of ten times if they fight, Glover can find himself in a position where he's going to get on top and there is gravity. And no one is better at, you know, his hips, when he's on top and his hips are controlling you, he flattens you out like no other. So I'm with you there. I respect Glover's ground game. But Yeri is a liquid. He's like fucking Bruce Lee crossed with fucking Paul Bunyan. And he cannot be contained.

I do not agree that if Glover gets one take down, the fight is over. There's no way that just because it's one takedown, I think Yeri will sell out with everything in his being to get up, and he's getting up. He might not be able to continually do that throughout a five-round fight, but that first takedown, Yuri's getting up. I'll put money on that. And the punches that, like, if you watch that breakdown,

there's one thing where he comes with a right hand, and it looks like it's getting. and thrown. You know, because he throws them from low, he throws him from down at his waist level. He comes up with the right hand, and then it just stops, and his foot comes up, and just is a clean body kick.

And I just think no one has skills like him, man, and you can't train for that. Alex Pereja, Pahaia is just a technical fighter, and Glover is technical, but I just think that

that he was going to win. And someone's going to get the glory after, you know, you've been saying it for a long time. I've been saying it. I just, I want to hear some more Uri supporters, man, because everyone calls in and sucks up and says Glover's going to win. But anyways, Jack Delamadalena, also I just want to say, like, when I watch him fight, he kind of reminds me of a welterweight Peter Jan. Peuter Jan, like he rolls when he gets hit. He puts himself in the pocket.

when he gets hit, he rolls with it, and he just has this toughness that he breaks people down. And as long as his takedown defense, I think he's a problem in the welterweight division. And with that, I will shut up. Thank you, Patrick. Patrick Perashka over here. Listen, I've said this from the beginning. There is a very, there's a strong possibility. We live in a world where it's very possible that Yuri goes out there and just flatlines Glover.

It's a very, there is a extreme chance that happens. But I honestly, I think this is a 50-50 fight. And I disagree with you. I think Glover takes him down. Guess who's going to be ready for Yuri to absolutely sell out and get back to his feet? Glover Tashire is going to be ready for that. And he's got a plan for it. He's got a plan for it.

Now, Alex Paheta, while competing is kind of a technical guy. He's also kind of a wild man in his own right. And all Glover has to say is, hey, Alex, Be a wild man for the next five weeks. And that's what Alex is going to do. I just don't think Glover has... Yeri is a unique individual. His style is very unique.

The dude is an animal. He's an absolute madman. But he does get cracked. He gets cracked. He gets wobbled. And Glover hits really hard. I don't think like a lot of people are putting that into a conflict. Glover can crack too.

Glover hits really hard. As Jan Belhovic, how hard that man hits because while it was a submission and that first round was so good for Glover, Glover hit him with that left hand and that was the beginning of the fight. Glover wobbled him. Glover heard him and then took him down and submitted his ass. The dude hits hard and he's not afraid to get into the fire with Yuri. He's not afraid of that at all. So listen, he's 42. If Glover to share was 37, would we all be feeling the same way about this? I don't know.

I don't know. But Glover, like I was telling Jed on No Bet Smart, Glover has talked to Guillermo Cruz, our own Garmei Cruz, the Brazilian Bees, talked about issues of found himself drinking a lot and just getting lost in the alcohol. And he kind of put it down and focused a little more. And you've seen what has come from that, this winning street. It's almost like he's de-aged in a lot of ways. He's probably like in fighting years, close to 50 with what he was putting his body through. And then he took everything seriously, strength and conditioning, just overall training, his attitude, everything. It's almost like he's actually gotten eight years younger as opposed to getting older.

So I think this is a 50-50 fight. I think there's ways Yuri can win. I think there's more ways Glover can win. and I feel very strongly that one takedown could end the fight. But it's not going to be easy to get them there. But that's why they fight, and I can't forget wait for it. I love this made event. I really do.

Kirkland! Welcome! Make sure you unmute. Kirkland, are you there? Once twice. Kirkland, try again. We'll get you back in here. Let's get our man Terrence in here.

Hey, Mike. How are you doing today? Good, how are you? Good. Just have two quick ones. One is more like a hypothetical question. What if you had the opportunity to interview three different people? One would have to be like someone in like management like Dana White, Sean Shelby, Hunter Campbell, or one of those guys. One would be a fighter and one would be somebody in media. Who would you like to have an interview with and they have to have a lot of detective tests done while you're interviewing them. And then the second question that I have is, do you think it will be plausible? I don't even know if that's the correct word to use,

but should this fight for Zang and Joanna have been after the July card with the rematch with, not Valentina? The opinion. Reason being is because I'm pretty sure valetina is going to go well. when she wins his fight. And then Zang wanted to fight Valentina at 125.

She could do that by having like a title eliminator with Joanna, who also would do well at 125. If Zane wins, that's the fight that she can have at 125 as well. And as well, if Joanna wins, I personally, and I appreciate this is an unpopular opinion, but I would like to see her fight, Caitlin, just because I think they're similar fighters. fighting style and I just want to see that madness and then the winner of that could possibly fight Valentina or if she vacates the belt

can fight for the belt eventually that's all I got for you today thank you Mike thanks Terence to the first point I don't listen 125 is plenty interesting we don't need Yoanna

we don't need Zhang Wei Lee we don't need these women fighting for potential flyway title shots because we've seen the Yohani Chifshanko fight before. We have not seen Zhang Wei Li. But Zhang Wei Li, while she wants the Valentina flight, she's lost two in a row. She's lost two in a row.

She got knocked dead by Rosenami Yunus, and then she caught Rose on a pretty bad night and lost that fight too. I don't like that idea. I don't love it. I see where you're coming from. We have this next wave of 25ers coming up right now. We got Manon Fiore.

we got Casey O'Neill, we got Aaron Blanchfield, we got Miranda Maverick, Misha Tate's getting ready to fight Lauren Murphy, and if Misha wins that fight, that's a big one for Valentina. That's a big name. That's probably the best drawing fight at 125 that she can get right now, if we're being honest, if Misha goes out there and has a great performance

against Lauren Murphy, which is not going to be easy to do, by the way. If she goes out there and wins and finishes Lauren and has a great performance, that's a fight that draws eyeballs. That's a fight that draws interest. I would favor Valentina mightily in that fight, but at least that's an interesting name to put on her resume. Sure.

So I just don't love that. Now, the other question of the lie detector, so it was definitely Dana White. It's a one question, it's a one question interview. What were you doing during France and Gano, Cyril Gahn? What were you doing?

That's the only question. I don't need to know anything else. I would have a million more. But if we're doing the lie detector thing, Dane is a busy man. I only get one question. That's the question I'm asking, 100%. Fighter.

Hmm. Fighter's interesting. I have to think about that one a little bit. It would probably be either Mazadol or Covington, just because I want to know what really happened in Miami that night. It shouldn't have happened, but I want to know it really happened.

So there's two. And then for media, Stephen A. Stephen A. Smith. I think that'd be fun. All right, let's see if we could get Kirkland. Clearst values, you're on deck. Kirkland, are you there?

I am here. Thank goodness. We got him. And before my phone froze and muted, so I apologize. All good. So anyways, heck of a morning to everybody. But I have a question that's a bit of a downer. So I apologize for not sharing the positive energy. But my main question is, weeks ago, whenever Daniel Kinnahan was shouted out in a post-fight

interview and, you know, Mike Grab shot out by a freelance fighter, by a winner nonetheless, it seemed to stir the pot maybe for a week or so talking about how somebody who was, like, sanctioned by our federal government was, you know, the subject of a very emphatic shout-out. I just am curious about that. I'm curious about Kamsat Shemayev's connections to Chechnya, and people like me who maybe fit more, I guess, on the left side of a political spectrum, but definitely don't fit in a radical political spectrum. I'm just curious with fights airing on a network that.

that's owned by Disney, how do you see this landscape of people like Dana White actually controlling not only free speech within the UFC, but how do you see Dana interacting with a company like Disney needing to control things such as international criminals not being shouted out? while at the same time people like Dana come out and are the face of well nobody's allowed to bring a flag out whenever they fight do you see that as kind of a double standard and how much longer can that keep going if the UFC wants to be you know in the upper echelons of competing with various major sports leagues that would not put up with that so anyways i just have a lot of questions about that generally curious as to how much longer you guys think that can keep going but anyways peace love and heck of a morning thanks so much thanks buddy yeah that was uh the shout out there was was interesting homzat does the same thing kareem zadan is is the guy to gotta go with all that he has been

all over all of these things and he's done a tremendous job covering those things. It's just MMA is that sport, especially when you have cards every weekend and new fights and new stories and all that stuff. Like, it's not that it gets swept under the rug. It's just the new shiny toy comes along, and we just kind of forget about it,

and put it in the back burner. Now, to the other question, how long is this going to last? It's got to, the UFC is going to get a little more leeway than other sports, mostly because the UFC makes them a lot of money. a lot of money. It's gotten them a lot of subscriptions.

So as long as people keep watching the product and keep shelling out their 75 bucks a month, ESPN's going to be okay. Could there be a time where ESPN's just like, dude, you got to cool it on that? Maybe. I don't think it happens anytime soon. I think we're probably at that line right now,

if we get any further, like if Hamzats, we're going to get to a point where if we cross over the line, maybe there's a conversation we had, but I think Dane is not going to do anything about it unless ESPN is in his ear saying, hey, change this now or we're done with you.

And then there might be something happens. But yeah, we got the flag thing, and it's just a weird thing. It's just a weird thing. MMA is just kind of a different sport, and some of that's accepted. Some of it isn't. Some people like it. Some people don't.

It's just a weird line in the political sand, if you will. Don't agree with it. but it's just if there's any sport that you can kind of get away with it it's this one because it doesn't stop there's no offseason nothing changes we just move on to the next thing we turn the page very quickly by like tuesday of the following week it's an afterthought it's over and done with because we're already on the next fight week or there's another promotion and another thing i mean just it's a lot so i don't really know it's not really i get i like the question i get where you're coming from.

Kareem's probably the guy to really ask about that. It's not really my expertise, my specialty, if you will. But I get where you're coming from. Take a few more clearest values. My man. Mike, how we doing? I'm doing good, man.

Thank you, by the way, for the tips for that GoFundMe. Yeah, yeah. We got a little comment. I think we'll have some more Friday and hopefully Saturday and that I'll put everything in on Sunday. So I've got two little things for you. And first of all, I think the previous caller was awesome, right on point. And to kind of put in perspective, like, Dana White spoke at, like, the Republican National Convention.

I don't think, like, ESPN is anywhere close to being like, hey, you need to chill out. And then I had two little things. The first is when I look at the Yawanna and Jean-Way-Leafite, a big part of it is what was Yawanna doing during the two and a half years she was gone? And I've been really trying to gauge it recently. And I'm not really sure. You know, you had Carolina say that, you know, she's as strong as she's ever seen. But was she training for two and a half years or was she mailing it in because she knew she wasn't going to get a fight for a while? I don't know.

And then the second thing I had for you is a little bit of a throwback Thursday. It is Thursday. So it works out. I was lying down last night trying to fall asleep. And it came to me. I was like, what happened to the WS? We heard, we had a nice little like week long stretch there where that's all we heard and saw. And I was really excited because I was like, oh, it sounds like there's going to be a large influx of cash for fighters and other organizations to come to this new thing.

And that'll be fun to see. And it's gone. Have you heard anything? Thank you, Clarish Valley. Yeah, the first part I agree with the second part. Listen, I don't think you honest with sitting on the couch for two and a half years. I think she has been training. Has she done full-on fight camp training?

Probably not since this fight was announced, but I don't think she was just sitting around watching her stories and needing Bon Bonz. I think she was still training and getting her mind right. I think she still loves martial arts. She still loves getting in the gym and getting after it, and I think she probably did maybe use that time to fine-tune some things. Do I know exactly what she did?

No clue. But that's what makes this fight so interesting. What has she been doing? Is she better than she was before? Is her mind completely right? I mean, there's a lot of questions here. I think Yuan is a very interesting underdog pick. I think she won the first fight.

It's hard to say. It's so close. Those two just beat the breaks off of each other. It's one of the greatest fights we'll ever see in our lives. I thought you want to won. We'll see what happens with three rounds. We'll see how the judging is in that area. Who will actually be judging?

Will it be locals? Will it be the same usual judges we, get will that's will the area of the globe if they're local will that sway anything i'm curious to see how that works because anytime the ufc goes to london and we feel that there's a fight that goes to a close decision will always favor the hometown fighter but sometimes we don't even have local judges in there scoring the fight so i don't know there's a lot of questions here i just don't know i think yawanna getting away could be a good thing could be a bad thing i don't know maybe she's rusty maybe this is exactly what the doctor ordered.

And Jean-Wiley's coming off two tough losses, a vicious knockout losses in the title. She changed everything for the second fight, left the comfort of home, went to fight ready, went with Henry Sohudo, changed everything about her game, whole new approach to fighting Rose Nam and Eunice, did everything right.

And Rose, and she caught Rose on a pretty tough night. Rose did not As Jen said, I know about Sparrow. It ended up not being Rose's worst night because that happened very recently against Carlos Spars. But it was not a good night for Rose. Rose dug deep in the fifth round

and maybe stole it at the end, but that was a close fight. But she didn't win. She changed everything. She went through all of that stuff and still lost on this cards. That's kind of a factor in some way. So we'll see what happens.

There's a lot on the line here. Obviously there's it's the title eliminated according to Dana White. I'm not necessarily sure I buy. I mean, there's a very good chance because Dana wants to really break into this market and if they can get Zhang Wei back to a title fight, they probably will.

But if you're Jessica Andrade, you're like, what the hell, man? I'm probably the best straw weight in the world right now. And I'm not going to get a title fight. I'm going to have to wait for, like if Yawanna wins, it makes a lot of sense because I think Yowana Carla, too, there's interest there there's a there's a story there you want it's still very popular and then you can do carlo jean

there's kind of a story there you know both are managed by the same guy same company for a bit but jess goddrage man geez what else you have to do she probably got to fight and poor marina had Rodriguez is right there and she's probably got to fight jesska and drage now so interesting we'll see what happens and we'll see how

what this fight does will they go out there and just damage each other for 15 minutes. Because if that happens, if we get anything close to what we saw in the first fight, how are these women even going to be able to bounce back to fight Carl at the end of the year? So maybe if you're on drive, that's what you're hoping for. You're hoping for a repeat from the first fight.

All right, we'll go Chris, Brian Cashman, Jay Gabriel. Chris, what's up, man? Hey, Mike. Just wanted to first start by saying that I listened to BTL and on to the next one. and now all of Jed's podcasts with the damn they were good and no bets barred and really enjoying the content that you guys are producing. Also, I see that AK is on here and I want to thank him for not reading my do-do picks on Otno. So thank you, AK. I appreciate it. So I have two questions for you.

One looking back at last week's card and one looking at Saturday's card. So for last week's card, when I was doing my Otno picks, I came to this realization that it seems like the loser of the Rosenstrike Volkov fight was more likely to get a higher ranked opponent just because of the competition those guys have faced. And I just thought it was really odd. And I'm just curious your thoughts on that where there's really nowhere for either of those guys to go up right now. So, unfortunately, it seems like Jarzino might get the higher-ranked guy just to be sort of a record patter, I guess, or, you know, put somebody over. And then the forward-looking question to this Saturday is, I'm curious your thoughts on the Meladonna Amive matchup, because when I first looked at it, I thought, okay, this seems like too much for Delamilada. And he, you know, he's got one win over a guy that only had four pro fights coming into it. But then I was looking at Ameeves' record.

You know, he's got a much more impressive record, but he hasn't beaten somebody who had more than one UFC win in their career in, like, four years. So it seems like a good potential matchup to get Jack over and put an impressive win on his record. but at the same time, I have some doubts as to where he is just because he hasn't had an opportunity to show it yet. So I was curious on your thoughts on that matchup in particular. Awesome. Thank you, Chris. Much appreciated. Yes.

I actually, I think this is perfect matchmaking. I think this is absolutely what you need to do. I think we need to see. And this goes also to show you how the UFC views Patty Pimbled compared to how they view Jack Della Madelana. They view Patty Pimbley. it is as a guy to put butts in seats and we're going to put him over. He gave him two very winnable fights where he should have been a minus 600 favorite or more

against both of these guys. Now he gets Jordan Levitt. He'll be a decent size favor for that one. Doesn't really have to deal with the risk of getting knocked out in that fight. So it's an interesting matchup. And then Jack Delam Adelana. Yeah, he went in there and he fought Pete Rodriguez in his job in their UFC debuts. But Pete took that fight on like less than a week's notice, so we can't really blame the

matchmaking there. They went a different direction. And Ramazan is, Ramazon's a good fighter. He's good. What he does, he does very well. Now, if I'm Jack Delamadalena, as good as his boxing is, he needs to incorporate more striking to the arsenal. Again, go back and watch the, if I'm Jack Delah Madelana, who is a true student in the game, he's probably watched the Anthony Rocco Martin fight over and over again. That's the best way to fight at Ramazon Amive. Because if he just goes in there, and he just wants to throw hands and he just wants to box

Ramazan Ami, yeah, he might be able to win but Ami just gonna try to take this fight to the ground. That's his best path of victory. But we've seen Ramazan get leg kicked over and over again. He doesn't check any leg kicks at all. You have to mix things up when you fight a guy like that. And volume is going to do the... Volume is the key here.

You can't go in there and throw punches, just punches. You have to mix in a lot of stuff and you have to be very active and you have to throw a lot of volume. If he does that, I think he wins. If he doesn't, he loses, and Ramazon's a good fighter. So I like the matchmaking.

I think Jack's, I think JDM's got a very good chance to win. If he fights within himself, if he adds a couple of wrinkles to his stand-up game, I think he's got a very good chance to win. And I think he could, I got a, I think the first round is going to be kind of an information round for him. Just see what Ramadan could do. If Ramadan shoots for a bunch of takedowns, they can't get him. my confidence rises even more. So that could be one of those fights where

it depends how you look at it. You could just take JDM straight or if you wanted to see how the first round goes and then maybe go JDM as like a live bet in the second just depending on how that first round goes. Wouldn't blame you there, especially if Ramadan sneaks it out. But we'll see. I like the matchmaking.

It's perfect matchmaking. I dig it. Let's go. Brian, how's the Yanks doing? You know, you know. I'm a Red Sox guy, Mike. Come on. I know.

I know. First off, the spitting back fist, the podcast with Barstool. And they said something about Manow cops, the steroid popping and that he can't fight

in certain commissions or something like that. So I didn't know if you had any more information on that. Another thing with that Patrick guy that called earlier talking about Yuri and Glover,

the thing with that scares me about Yuri the most. It's not that he got mounted and taken down by Dom Reyes. It was the way he got up. He didn't use any technique. He just stood up. And you're not going to be able to do that against Glover.

Because you're going to have to use technique to get up. If you're just going to try to use your athleticism, he's going to catch you in a submission. And third of all, I didn't know if you had any information on the next Boston card, because I cannot wait to go. I'll be there as close as I can get and I'll be looking out for you, Mr. Heck. And lastly, is any updates on who's on BTL today?

That'll be all and I'm going to listen up. Thank you. Thank you, Brian. I'll go backwards to forwards. BTL. I don't know if we're going to do a contest. I think it's going to be more of a roundtable today. But it's going to be Jed Mishu,

and it's going to be Joe Selecki, who just got to win this past Saturday. So it's going to be, you know, trademark pending for Damon Meyer. It's going to be fighter versus writer. It's going to be Jed versus Joe. And we're going to talk a lot about UFC 275. So that should be fun. The Boston thing, I can say this confidently now.

I knew about August 13th being a potential Boston thing. It was off the record from multiple people for a while. I know Ariel reported it on Tuesday that Boston was the front runner. And it was the frontrunner. A lot of fighters on that card were told we're going to Boston, August 13th. That changed very quickly with this Dominic Cruz Cheeto Vera idea, which by the way, if that is, which still to this point, Dominic Cruz has not agreed to this fight. I expect it to happen, but it is not done yet.

Don't let everything fool you. It's the direction they want to go. This is what happens in the UFC. They announced things before. Penn hits paper. That's kind of what has happened here. But that's going to be in San Diego. That makes perfect sense because Cruz is from the area.

Cheetos close to the area. But Cruz obviously has ties to Boston too because that's re-won the title back after the long layoff and the injuries. That's where he beat T.J. Delishaw and re-won the title. So I don't know. I think it's a good thing that Boston is even being mentioned here. I would be shocked if we don't have a Boston card this year, I'd be stunned. As far as date goes, not really sure.

There are some openings. I would say, if I were to guess, I would say September, October, somewhere around that neck of the woods. But I expect to see a Boston card this year. It was supposed to happen August 13th, but then they called an audible. But I'm with Ariel 100%. what Ariel said, I was listening to the MA hour yesterday on my drive home from Florida, and he was like, if people want to go out and check about the Boston thing, go right ahead,

because people were giving him crap about misreporting. He was not misreporting. I was well aware Boston was in the running for August 13th. It was just off the record. But it's out there now so I can say it. But that was the plan. As of Tuesday, that was still the plan. and then everything changed from there. So as far as when they're going to try to go back, I have no idea. All right, Jay, final word, my man. I'm already over time, but I always have time for you, my family. Hey, Mike, what's up? Can you hear me?

Yes, sir. Hey, so first I want to say thanks to you and Jed for doing No Bet's Bard this week. I thought once G.C. was going to go to vacation that Jed was going to stop the show for a little bit, but you decided both to do it, and I want to say thanks to both of y'all. And so the first thing I wanted to talk about is with Manel Kopp and his fight this week. So if he finishes his opponent, do you think he deserves and the UFC will give him an opponent in top five for a flyweight just to try to build this hype up again for the reason why they signed him? And the second thing I wanted to bring up is actually non-UFC related. and it's with Bellatory trying to do a co-promotion with Eagle FC.

And how do you think that will affect both of those promotions ratings? Because in my opinion, I really don't think it's going to do that much, honestly, for both. I think probably at most maybe Bellator might gain more international fans from like the Eastern Asian side that Eagle FC has already built up. But I think most people who watch Bellator are already aware of like the big main events that Eagle FC has. has like jd s versus de castro and uh kevin lee versus Diego sancho so i want to get your opinion on that too and see what do you think will be the best outcome for both those so thanks mike oh sorry jay yes have a good day is to you as well um i'm glad you brought manel cap because i forgot to address that question before so manel is fight is fighting on saturday he did test

positive for M3 metabolites in April. So he is still okay. He was given clearance to fight a UFC 275. He's not suspended-esque, but basically here's the thing. He has to take multiple drug tests. And if he does that and passes without any trace of anything crazy going on by September 30, if he will be licensed to fight in Las Vegas again, so that all goes away.

So that's that. So technically, to the previous caller, there is some truth to that, but he's still able to fight on Saturday. Now, if he beats Hajir Abonterine, yeah, I think he probably gets a big fight. It's probably a win away from fighting for the title. I think the UFC sees something in him.

I think they want to push him up the ladder. I think that's why even before he had a UFC fight, they just, they had him as an alternate for Figurino Moreno. He weighed in, made it fine. And if something happened to those two guys, he was the guy to step in before he even had a UFC fight. So they see something in this guy.

Pajirio's tough, man. This is going to be a tough fight. It's going to be a tough fight. So we'll see what happens. I favor Manel to win, but I definitely see value on Bonterine if you want to go that route. Bonarine just fight a smart fight, take this fight to the ground. If it's going to be an exciting fight, Manel is going to win. If it's going to be a boring tactical fight, then Bonerian.

Contrined will win, and when you fight a guy like Minnell Cap, there's nothing wrong with being tactical because you got to win. You got to get that second paycheck. So, yeah, and then the last thing before we say goodbye, Belator Eagle F.C., I think it's a great idea. Both more so for Bellator for being honest, because Bellator needs help. They need help badly. They need something. Some sort of bump. just something interesting to move them somewhere.

They're just stuck in quicksand right now, and they're sinking very slowly. They just, they have everything there to be interesting, and they just find ways to not be. There's just so much about the product that needs work. The best thing they have done in the last, best thing they have done this year is they brought on my man Michael Fidel as part of the PR team.

I feel like that's going to give them a little more direction in terms of promotion, but you've got to do a lot more. You've got to book bigger fights. You've got to take chances. I understand you ought to be the meritocratic promotion, but at the same time, you have to do some things outside of the box. You've got to get ratings. You've got to get people to care.

And they've done a terrible job of that. And even when they try to care, we've get awful main events. I mean, awful main events. that London card was really good. Like it was an entertaining watch, but all we're going to be remembering is that Logan's Storley-Michael Page fight. That's the thing we remember from that card.

These main events stink. I like an Eagle FC, while I have many problems with Eagle FC, and I've addressed a lot of them, Eagle FC has a little momentum right now. They're kind of an outlaw promotion in a lot of ways where they just take chances. They put big names on the card.

They stack up their broadcast team with big names. And Habib is obviously still a megastar. And anything Habib does draws attention. It's just amazing how much people pay attention to Eagle FC stuff on our website more than Bellator stuff. It's not even close. Not even close. You have a Bellator card and an Eagle FC card on the same weekend. Eagle FC trounces Bellator.

Belator needs a boost. They got to find something. And you can't just do like, oh, we're going to cope. We're just going to lend fighters to you. Like, it's got to go beyond that. We got to do, if you're going to do Fador, JDS, cool. If you're going to do, like, an event where it's our champion versus your champion, cool.

But it's got to be fun and interesting. It just can't be, hey, send your fighters over here. And we'll get favorable matchups with Habib's friends and Ali's fighters, just so we can get them wins. Like, it can't be like that. It's got to be, like, legit. And I think that's what they're talking about. This is good for Belmont.

To grab that attention. I don't know how much longer Eagle EG FC can do what they're doing. I just don't know. I don't know where this money is coming from, but they're spending a lot of it. I just don't know how much, how feasible that could be. So a chance for them to cut some costs,

get some of that Viacom slash paramount money to co-promote a card. What's a big name? Good move for them from a financial perspective. And for Bellator, from an interest perspective, just hop on the hot train, man. ride that wave of momentum because we don't know how long it's going to last.

This can't be a thing, hey, we're going to co-promote an event in 2025. No, you co-promote an event like in September. Get on that train and do it now. Because if you don't, that ship just continues to sink. And Danny Sabitello should be on that card no matter what. Do Danny Sabes against Ray Borg or something. I don't care. Sabatelo needs to be on that card.

put that, let that guy go in there and just say a bunch of crazy stuff and get under people's skins. And yeah. And that's another thing. You got somebody, you got somebody with momentum right now. You got Danny Sabs. Sabatello has a lot of momentum. Push that man to the moon. If he beats Leandro ego, push that man to the moon.

Get him out there. Get him on big shows. I mean, you've got to be kind of careful because. He says a lot of things. But yeah, if I'm Bellator, I'm definitely taking Eagle FC very seriously and trying to figure something out that makes everybody happy because I think it's a good move for both promotions. But with that said, I've got to get out of here.

I don't want to get in trouble. I've gone a little bit over time. And I promised I wouldn't do that. But instead, I've done it two times in a row. But the good news is tomorrow 10 a.m. Eastern, we're back again. And there will be no ranting, no raving at the beginning of the show. It's just going to be me welcoming you and then just going to calls the entire time.

The whole thing. It'll be right after Wayans too. So that'll be fun. We'll have the UFC 275 Wayans in the book, in the books, and then we will react to it live. Live here. So that's going to be fun.

So until then, everybody, thank you very much. I think this is the most viewed stream we've had live, which is awesome. And if you're coming in late, you want to know we talked to before, you can listen over on the M.A. fighting podcasting network probably in the next 30 minutes so thank you very much have a great day

and as always have a heck of a morning everybody the vox media podcast network