MMA Fighting - Heck of a Morning | Will Jon Jones Fight Before Conor McGregor and Henry Cejudo? Plus, AK Defends His Honor

Episode Date: June 2, 2022

Jon Jones is planning on making his UFC heavyweight debut this year, but will it actually happen? On this episode of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck answers that question, along with whether or not Jones will step in the octagon for his next appearance before Conor McGregor and Henry Cejudo make their returns. In addition, listeners ask about Jordan Leavitt's recent appearance on The MMA Hour, Erin Blanchfield's ceiling compared to fellow up and comers Casey O'Neill and Manon Fiorot, whether or not refereeing is more of a problem than judging in MMA, Jailton Almeida seemingly making a more permanent move to heavyweight, and more. In addition, Alexander K. Lee defends himself against a longtime listener. 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

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster,

The Downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Thursday, June 2nd, wow, it is June already. 2022, and it is indeed a heck of the morning live on the enemy fighting Twitter spaces,

and shortly thereafter, this will be live on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. I am Mike Heck. Hope everyone's having a fantastic week. It's one of those weird weeks where we have the long weekend. It's Thursday, but it actually feels like Wednesday. And we have a UFC card coming up after a weekend without a UFC card. There's a lot of weirdness going on in MMA. There's a lot of newsworthy things going on in MMA. There's fighters talking crap about

another fighter. Other fighters are talking crap back about other fighters. We have the MA Fighting Global Rankings that just came out for June. So there's a lot going on. So we appreciate you hopping on. This is, if you're new to this whole thing, this is like a sports radio morning show where you come in, you give your thoughts,

we will discuss, we will react, and we will go from there. So whatever you guys want to talk about, we'll get after it. If you want to talk about the global ranking, the movers and the shakers, we can talk about that. You want to talk about some of the interviews

on the MA hour yesterday, we could talk about that. You can talk about whatever you want to talk about. You want to talk about Saturday, the UFC card, we could do that. I want to talk about PFL's silliness. We could certainly talk about that. Whatever you want to talk about.

Just request, we'll get you in. And no time like the presents to go to the peeps, all right? So kicking us off, our good friend Viking MMA, perhaps. The wheel is spinning. There he is. Viking MMA.

Got to unmute and we'll be good to go. Viking MMA, are you here? All right, try again. We'll get you in here. Let's go to Tristan. I'm sure he'll have multiple things to talk about. So what's up, buddy? Mike, what's going on?

How you doing, sir? All right. Mike, did you listen to the enemy fighting's world? global and ranking show yesterday? I did. Okay. I've listened to almost all of it. Okay, listen. A.K.'s in here. A.K.'s here, right? He's in here? He's in here. Okay. Did you have any issues what he was saying? I mean, listen, I know he's your guy, but like, you had to be like, come on, AK. Like, what's going on? And there was, and then there's another topic I want to talk about. But here we go again with the disrespect. So did you, I mean, did you, did you have any issues, especially when they

we're talking about the real deal intern and Fugazi of which one are you talking about I assume you're talking about the women's flyway division here we go here we go here we go and this is and this is A.K. I hope you're listening because this is because now you're getting insane now. So so here we

go with the Aaron Blanfield situation again. So here we go right. Let's go back again I got to I got to bring it up after UFC 272. Okay. We all know what he said. This goes back now to Marina Maraz, right?

What did he say about Marina Maras? He said, Aaron Blanfield is not on her level. I said, okay. Okay. Now, fast forward to the ranking show yesterday. So he says, and we all know, he says with Aaron Blanfield, at some point, Aaron Blanfield is going to be champion one day,

that she is the real deal. how's that possible if you if you said that marina moraz is is that am blancheal is not on marina morass's level it doesn't he's not he's trying to blake both sides here it doesn't he's not making any it doesn't make any sense there's no mention of marina moriz on the ranking none not even one i don't even one i don't even one mention or one vote he is very high marina maras so all of a like it doesn't he's not making it doesn't make sense you can't you can't he's trying to cover him himself. Just in case if Aaron Blenfield runs through J.J. Aldrich, and then for future, I know, that's the fight to make Miranda Maraars versus Aaron Blentfield because she fight, because Mara fights next month against Eubanks on that July 9th card. That's RDA versus DeZ. So that's

the fight to make. There's no, you can put that in October. Just in case, like, I don't think depending on if Blanfield and Maras, both of them don't get hurt, that's the fight to make. You make that fight in October and Abu Dhabi, and we're ready to go. So I don't, I keep, okay, you've got to keep that same energy, dude. You got to keep, there's no mention about Miraz. None.

And you've been high in her, and you feel that she's, and she should be, she should be in the range. She should, nobody's mentioning in the global ring. Where are you, where's the screaming at? Where's like, you guys are not talking about Maraz? You've been, you've been, you've been, you've been, you've been, you've been, you've been keeping up for her since you, since, uh, you,

I believe the UFC 272 when she defeated who she defeated Agapola. So I'm like I'm like you gotta be saying to yourself like listen AK I love you man but you can't you can't now you're just playing both sides here it just doesn't make sense

I if AK AK you got to get you got to put them up here and have them explain to something you can't you can't go back and forward and say well Air Bletch's gonna be champion one day when she's not on but he's but she's not on the same level as Moran. I'm like, dude, what are you trying to do here? So keep that same energy.

Keep the same energy. And that's all I'm asking. And as far as, you know, I want your thoughts on that. And then I was pretty taking a bag. They were throwing kind of shade on Bryce Mitchell. I was like, whoa. I was like, man, I wonder how Mike's going to feel because he's really high in Bryce Mitchell. So they was like calling through Gates on Bryce Mitchell.

So I want to know what you thought about that. I was like, I was pretty surprised. I'm like, hmm, okay. We'll see. You know, so just your thoughts. And I know what the rant, I couldn't hold it. And now Mike, you told me to save it from Mike check. I can't, I can't.

I can't let A.K. Just with a disrespect, I can't, I can't let it happen. I have to say something today because I'm sitting there watching. I'm like, this guy, man, this guy has something else. This guy is something else, man. I just like, I'm just looking at this guy. Like, what? A.K., what is going on?

So that's all I got to say. I'm sorry. I just, I had to say something. I'll let you go, Mike. Thank you, Tristan. I appreciate that. Now, I think I know where my best friend, A.K. Lee, is coming from with this discussion. I think I don't want to put words in his mouth. I just don't want to do that, especially since he's right here. And we're going to let the man defend himself right here. He's taking the virtual stand to defend these allegations. And you said some things, A.K. Tristan did not agree. In fact, A.K. Tristan's been calling you out quite a few times on this. program for what he perceives to be Aaron Blanchfield, complete and utter disrespect, A.K., defend yourself. Maybe. AK. Are you there? Okay. All right. We will let A.K. defend himself in a moment. Hop back in, AK. Request once more. Maybe we can make this happen. Maybe he's on a morning jog.

Maybe he's playing basketball on the mean streets of Toronto with the youngsters. They had an early morning game going on or something? I don't know. I will address Tristan in a moment because I want to let A.K. Get his shine. We'll try to get Viking M.A. back in here.

See if this works. There he is. What's up? I see you, Viking. I hear you. What's up? How are you, Mike? I'm good.

What do you want to talk about today? I just want to talk about, you know, UFC in India. I mean, I'm from India. and there is 140 billion people live here and still there is no UFC and you know people are watching WW in larger scale and even still they still don't know that it's fake so why don't Dana try UFC in India because you know hundred and people 140 billion people are here and you know UFC is so much addictive than

all the other stuff. You know, it's all about just the one right PR. You know, I got myself into U.S.C. by seeing just one Kahnem McGregor promo and right after that I'm so much addictive into UFC. It's all about, you know, one good PR in UFC, 140 billion people. Come on. Why they are not, why they are not trying UFC in India? I mean, come on, man.

It's 140 billion people. You just have to convince. Some of them. Yeah, that's a good point. Thank you, Viking, M.A. Yeah, I think the big thing is, it happens in waves, right? We saw it with, we kind of see it with Africa right now. We're seeing it with Ingun and Kamara Usman and Israelada Sanya.

and we're seeing these stars just kind of emerge all at the same time. We saw it with Australia and we've seen it with other parts. I mean, even Ireland, the UK, etc. There's just this wave of all these, this talent that makes it to the UFC and they shine and they make big moves and it all sort of happens at the same time. And while there's certainly a lot of people, as you mentioned, that are in India that would go to the arena and watch these events. I think they're probably just waiting for that wave to come from there.

Now, there are some good fighters from the area. Some have made it to the UFC. Some have not. Some have moved on from the UFC. But I think it's just kind of a wave thing. They just need some fighters to emerge, some stars to emerge, build interest through the fighters from that area. And once that happens, it wouldn't shock me to see the UFC head to India.

But I think they're just kind of waiting for that boom to happen. Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything. Like packing a spare stick. I like to be prepared. That's why I remember 988, Canada's suicide crisis hubline. It's good to know, just in case. Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a train responder anytime. 988 suicide crisis helpline is funded by the government in Canada.

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A.K. Yeah, Mike, I hear you know. That was weird for, yeah. It said my mic was on and just nothing was, nothing was coming through. I don't know, I don't know what it looked like on your end. Yeah, you were there. It said speaker and then nothing was happening.

And I think, I think Twitter just wasn't ready for the fire that was about to come out here. Listen, obviously, I just listen to Tristan. And by the way, shout out, shout out of fighting the good fight in India. Yeah, you know, hopefully, too shay.

Hopefully that is a market that, you know, I guarantee you, they are working to get into that market. As he said, he said, you know, just the sheer numbers, the sheer population, the potential for money to you made there. Trust me,

They are working on it. They are working on it. It is something they definitely want to do. And like you said, it just takes that one fight sometimes to spark people. So maybe that one hasn't come from the majority of the population yet. But you just never know. Man, Tristan, you know, yeah, listen, Tristan's our guy. He knows that.

I wish there was a coherent thought in his criticism today. I don't know. Was I the only one confused at him getting to the point of like what he was trying to say? like listeners throughout there throw up a throw up the peace sign emoji in the in the in the in the comment of the thing if uh

the space if you were like confused as to what where Tristan was getting at because he just kept going he was trying to get to a point never quite made it there uh he also only gave like half the story which is not surprising um okay so regarding Aaron Blanchfield yeah I was very high in Marina Morose I still think if they I yeah we didn't mention

her in the rankings show I'm sorry she hasn't fought since March I apologize that Marina Moroche was not at front and center of the flyway discussion talk, which by the way was specifically about Casey O'Neill he really didn't explain the segment. The segment was specifically comparing three fighters. Aaron Blanchefield, Casey O'Neill, and Menon Firo.

So I could have thrown Moros in there for some reason, but it's kind of getting away from what we were talking about. So he didn't explain the premise of the segment. So good job, Tristan. And in the segment, I did still question whether Blanchefield could be a champion someday. I had the same, I had a similar ranking to, to my cohorts to our MMA fighting pals,

as in, you know, being very optimistic about Blancheville's future, but I also played devil's advocate and said, well, here's why she might not be a future champion. She is only 24 years old. Casey Neal is only 25. And there's just really, in MMA, so much can change for people. So I'm very high in her, but I also am still skeptical. So yes, I am playing both sides, and that's okay.

When you're being critical and when you're analyzing prospects, you don't have, especially they're so young, 24 years old. Again, she's only fought in M. May eight times, nine times. You don't have to go all in and be like, oh, well, I'm sure this person is going to be this. Or I'm sure this is going to be that. Why would I do that?

I don't get bonus points. I don't get paid extra from right about these things. So why would I put my neck out there? No, I think she's an amazing prospect like most people. I would certainly, if a gun to my head, Do I think she's going to get a title shot or not or win a title someday? I'd say, yes, I think she is. But I'm not like pot committed.

I'm not like I have to be all in on Aaron Blanchfield. No, I think she's a great prospect and I think she will be champions today. That's it. I'll stand by that. But if she loses her next flight, guess what? Yeah, I'm ready to pivot or has a poor performance. I'm not going to stick by it. I'm sure Tristley will be out there like, oh, I don't care she had a performance.

I don't care she lost to whoever. She can be a champion someday no matter what. It's like, okay, good for you. Good for you. Your Aaron Blanchfield stock is safe and secure. I'm not that invested. I'm sorry. I'm not that invested in any fighter, frankly.

And what was the second? Oh, Bryce Mitchell. Again, he didn't explain the premise. We were saying Bryce Mitchell was the least likely to win a title compared to Ilya, Mofsar of Loya, and Mike, who was the other name we had in there? I'm going to kick myself now. He is. Oh, I don't know.

And Arnold Allen. Excuse me. That is not a slight to Bryce Mitchell. And I even, I even painted a path that said if he becomes the Bantamway version, excuse me, featherweight version of like Kobe Cumberton, if he adds a high quality volume striking to his incredible motor and great grappling, he easily can be a world title contender. That was said on the show. That is verbatim from the show. It was not, it was not slandering him at all. It was, I said, compared to Ilya, Mosa, Obloyev, and Arnold Allen.

So listeners, now you have the full story. Make your own judgments on Tristan's fiery take. Again, we love Tristan's passion. But, man, he's calling me, Justin, you got to tell the whole story, man, when you're making these criticisms. You cannot misrepresent me. And if this is what's been going on or not in the show, Mike, I guess I got to tune in and talk more often. I'm usually happy to be a bystander. But I cannot be, I cannot continue to be misrepresented like this.

That's not how it goes. All right, Mike, that's it. I'm done. Thank you, A.K. Yeah, I think with that whole conversation, at least, at least the way I perceived it early on was, at least this is the way Shaheen explained it was. Fugazi is just, it's just, they're just, you're just ranking three and sometimes four fighters, just on the likelihood that they will get to a title fight or I think that the interim was like,

will at least get to an interim title fight. And then the Fugazi was not meant, I mean, I guess Fugazi is kind of a weird word, but it was just meant to be like the lower of the ranked fighters there. So I think A.K. went with Fioro because she has the quickest path to a title. She's probably the most likely to get there first because she's fighting Caitlin Chukagin. If she beats Caitlin Chukagin, she's absolutely fighting for the belt next.

And then Casey O'Neill is there. And then there's Aaron Blanchfield. I have to say, I understand how things are ranked. I understand a lot of people, I understand A.K.'s take on Fioro sort of being the number one because she is a win-away. If we're talking about prospects that I am higher on overall, who I think has the best chance to actually win the belt, I'm actually going Casey O'Neill first. I've been high on Casey O'Neill since before she was in the UFC. I feel like her pressure, her ground game, her ground and pound, just her gas tank in general is such a big problem.

And she didn't really get to showcase that much in the Roxanne Mata Fari fight. Why should she? Roxanne is an incredible jiu-jitsu player. So taking her to the ground was not the smartest thing to do. But that's only going to get better. I don't think she's like afraid to take Roxanne to the ground. But I understand that you want to take the path to least resistance. she won the fight and you have to you have to imagine too that must have been such an annoying

process for her because it was all about Roxanne and her final fight and you know Casey didn't want to get wrapped up in all of that she's still a young fighter she hasn't been in the UFC that long and she gets a pretty pressure packed spot early on in her career against a fighter that everyone absolutely admires and loves it's a tough spot she went out there wasn't the best performance of her career, but all things considered, she went out there and frigging won. So to me, I think Casey, I think Casey could absolutely become a champion. And I think the way she's approaching her career is actually really smart. She's in no rush to get there. And I think that's what makes Aaron Blanchfield such a fascinating tale as well, because I feel like Fioro has just

been put in these spots, her age factors into this conversation where the UFC has the ability to push her a little bit quicker because the time frame, her career isn't going to be as long at this point compared to Blanchefield, compared to Casey O'Neill. So I feel like Fioro is the one. If we're going to push one of these fighters, Fioro is the one. And then we still have plenty of time to build Casey,

plenty of time to build Aaron. And who knows if Valentin is even going to be around by the time these two women are ready. Now Casey's going to take a little bit of a backseat right now because she's hurt. She's not going to fight again until next year because of the ACL and the surgery. But Blanchefield,

Blanchefield's really good. And her striking is going to get better. And Casey O'Neill's striking is ahead of Blanchefields right now. It just is. But Blancheville will get better. And so will Casey O'Neill. Casey's a problem. And I don't feel like enough people are giving her that credit.

She'd be number one for me. It'd be for me, not saying Fioros Fugazi, she's good, but I feel like she's going to get to the belt quick. She's going to lose to Shepchenko. And then what? then what are we going to do with her? Well, we still have time to mold these two other prospects. I think Casey's a big problem, a big problem.

I feel like she's her own worst enemy at this point, and I think she's going to get over some of those mental hurdles of big spots and big fight situations. She was going to run over Jessica I. And I'm not saying this to be a jerk. She was going to run over Jessica. Now Macy Barber gets the opportunity, and Macy has a very good chance to win that fight.

But Jessica's been great in these situations as well. But to me, it's Casey, Aaron Blanchfield, Manon Fioro. I think O'Neill and Blanchfield both have tremendous chances to win titles. And I think time is on their side because I just don't know how long it gets to the point where Valentin it just gets bored at $1.25. I do believe she'll fight for the belt at $1.35 at some point this year. I think if she beats Tyler Santos, her next fight will be for the Bannamoy title. But who knows?

We'll see what happens. Misha Tate beats Lauren Murphy. That might change things because that's a pretty big. fight. I like how we started off kind of Johnny Depp Amber Hurd style, just had a little court case going on. Henderson, we go to you, my man. How are you? Hey, heck of a morning to you, Mike.

Indeed. How are you? I'm doing all right. I'm calling in from Jersey, so I have to talk about Aaron Blanchfield because in Jersey, that's all we do is hype up our hometown people, you know? And I think that the card placement is just criminal.

I mean, like, everyone knows she's a top prospect and probably one of the, I don't know, most talented prospects to come out of New Jersey in a real long time, maybe since like Frankie Edgar probably. So it's just, it's like New Jersey has always been a place that has supported the UFC and supported MMA and Atlantic City was big for them for a while. And just the history here. and there's so many people who are into it. And the UFC just doesn't care, doesn't promote it at all. And it was nice to hear that caller from India talking about how, like, oh, I wish they would come to India. Like, it would be so easy for them.

And I really feel like that in a lot of different ways. Like, the UFC doesn't do a great job of actually, like, promoting themselves and growing MMA. And I feel like they could so easily just. make someone like Aaron like, oh, the next big thing from New Jersey, like a history of this. Like she's going to college in New Jersey for media and she wants to broadcast and shit too, supposedly. So like it's such a layup for them. And yet they just let it down.

So I just wanted to know what she thought about all that. And do you, I can just think of so many ways that the UFC could just easily be better. Like just make your fight pass app work, you know, step one. And then when you hear them talk about things like the ESPN deal, and they're saying, oh, yeah, we made so much guaranteed money off of this. Like, that was a great success, but only because a lot of people have ESPN. It's not, they don't even seem to know what is working and what isn't, you know? So I don't know, man. I get so frustrated with them.

But in the end of the day, like, they do sign the best fighters. So that keeps them on top. But only for so long, I think, if they just keep. keep not really trying. Thank you, Henderson. Yes, I think a lot of people agree with you on the card place with Aaron Blanchfield and JJ Aldrich. I think it's going to be a good fight. But to play, as AK likes to do from time to time, to play devil's advocate, I understand

where everyone's coming from, but at the same time, we're building her slow, all right? We're trying to build her up slowly. I think the UFC does see something in her. Maybe they're looking at it as, all right, let's get people to tune in from the first fight on. that's a possibility. And two, let's not put this woman in any kind of a big time pressure situation. She just had one sort of with Miranda Maverick. But I think she's going to be fine.

Like, it kind of sucks. But what these fight night cards are in this case, fight afternoon cards, kind of place with like, I don't take a ton of stock in it. Now, if this is a pay-per-view, if this is next week's card, and Aaron Blanchfield, J.G. Alder, just kicking off the fight-pass prelims, I think I'd be a little more animated about this, but it's kind of silly.

I mean, maybe it's just for the East Coast people. Maybe, you know, because it's a 1 p.m. prelim, I believe. I think it's a 1 p.m. prelim. They want the East Coasters to be able to watch their fighter. Maybe that's what it is. I don't know. And I think Aaron Blanchfield, overall, at least from the times I've talked to her, she knows she's going to get where she needs to go. But at the same time, most fighters in that situation,

and those young up-and-comers are just like, listen, I'm in Vegas right now. I get to fight at 10 a.m. And then my day's over. Sign me up for that. So I don't think she's upset as upset as most people are, but I understand why people are upset. I get it.

But the other stuff, again, kind of like I mentioned to Viking MAA, once a star emerges, the UFC pounces on it. We saw it with Zhang Wei Lee in that market, going to China and trying to, promote that area. We're seeing it with Africa. We saw with Australia.

And these other markets, like once you have these certain fighters from certain areas, fans that kind of commune those areas, like we saw with Brannam Moreno with his last couple of fights, doing his fight in Phoenix and then doing it in Anaheim. They're good when it comes to that kind of stuff, getting local fighters on local cards,

but it's been tough. It's tough when you have these apex cards. And it's just kind of blah and bland and vener. and all of that. But again, sign some of these international fighters. I mean, we're seeing what the UFC's doing right now with this road to the UFC. They have contender series. They have the ultimate fighter. They have avenues to try to find these folks.

So let's just see if they do it. I don't know. Let's get CRJ in here. Good morning, CRJ. Good morning. Good morning. How's it going? Good.

Good. Thanks so much for asking. I have sort of a for fun. question that I'm curious what you guys will think to lighten the mood and sort of a thought experiment so I'm like I'm putting you in the position of odds maker all right and I want you to give me the odds that five randomly selected people from the population could defeat a ufc waltrowweight in a fight like five on one but remember they're randomly selected from the population at complete random give me the odds

oh man i mean are we are we selecting five randos who are i'm not giving you on 95 information ah this is a weird one um golly let me think about this thank you c rj you're always thought provoking You're always making me think. Let's just say they're fighting Kamar Uwshman. We're talking randos. So all shapes and sizes. I feel like Oussman's a smart enough guy. I feel like five-on-one is very tough,

but we're selecting randos. And without knowing who the randos are, because we could have just, we could have like a 19-year-old 110-pound kid in there. We could have like three of those. Usman minus 110. Usman minus 110. Slight favorite.

I don't know. Without knowing who the randos are, it's tough, but I would probably slightly favorite Rousman. Now, if these randos are all like former Marine, you know, 280-pound monsters,

that might be a different story. But you're not telling me anything. I assume you're choosing the randos, all shapes and sizes. Give me Ustman is a slight favorite. Let's get Mike Feinson in here. Four Corner Sports, and while you're on deck. Kevin, you're after him. Mike, what's up? Just make sure you on mute and we'll be ready to go. How's it going, Mike?

Good. How are you, man? First of all, that's a heck of a question by CRJ. He needs to come and work at my office. That's the kind of stuff we talk about all day. Listen, first of all, I wanted to stay on topic, but I want to wish you a happy Celtics final day, also known as we no longer have to watch Kyle Lowry play basketball day. Oh, that guy sucks, dude. Oh, my God, he sucks. It's like watching a feather fly in the air. That dude flops his ass off.

He sucks. That guy's terrible. But it's embarrassing. Anyway, lots of things I wanted to throw at you, and then they let you get back to me on them. So the one I think I touched on it last time I spoke to you, but, you know, the MMA Twitter is just full of these guys talking about their comeback fight.

I'm coming back this summer. I'm coming back next month. And so I wanted to ask you another odds-based question. You can just throw these guys in order. of likelihood to return before the end of the year to least likely. And the three I've got are Jones, McGregor, and Sahudo. And then, you know, the other thing I wanted to mention is, you know, the next 10 weeks is just an excellent 10 weeks for MMA.

And, you know, to Henderson's point about promotion, you know, there's good cards help, obviously. But I think that the Yare Ortega card on ABC in the afternoon is an excellent spot for the, for the MMA world. And that's an East Coast card as well. I think Henderson was talking about East Coast promotion. So, you know, in the mix of the great fight night cards going on in the next 10 weeks, that's one I've got highlighted as well as, you know, just some awesome pay-per-views,

276 from top to bottom, and UFC London is a can't-miss card. So I think it's a good couple of months ahead for UFC promotion and for the sport in general. I agree, Mike. Thank you for that. Yeah. To address the first question, these are three very difficult ones. So is Connor, John Jones, and Henry Sohudo. Most likely to least likely.

By the end of the year. That's tough. I will say, I will say John Jones the most likely, and this is super risky. But I think they will get this fight done with C-Bae. I think they need this fight to happen. So I will go with Jones. I will go with I will go with

Suhudo although I'm not confident at all in that pick but I'm more confident in Connor I just don't know if that leg's going to be able to be ready for the end of the year I mean maybe it is but it wouldn't shock me to see him maybe headline January

those two are tough if I could just do one and then like 2A 2B I would do McGregor Sehudo in the same boat because I feel like Sehudo is going to be a pain in the ass to deal with because he's only going to want a title fight. Dana and the matchmakers are going to be like, nah, dude, you got to fight somebody else before you get a title fight.

And then Sehudo's going to go on his podcast with a schmo and complain about it and call out Dana and say it's his fault and all that stuff. So I'm torn there. But again, I will come on this show and I will do an hour straight to praising Henry Sehudo if he goes and fights a Cheeto Vera or a Peodor Yan or anybody else. Literally anybody else.

Go fight Marab. Go fight a one, go fight a Banimoyt contender. Go fight anybody. I don't care. Go fight Adrian Yannes. Go fight Sean O'Malley. I don't give a shit.

Go fight one of those guys. Pedro Munoz. Anybody. Go fight anybody in the top 10 at 135. If you win, I will come on the show for an hour straight and discuss why you should be fighting for the title next. Anyone.

You go up to 1.45 and fight Volcanoff. for all I care. I don't care. Go fight a contender. Then you get a title shot. You can't leave the company high and dry and then just walk into a title fight, especially when the company doesn't care that you left in the first place. I get on these rants about Zahood. And again, let me just say this once more. I respect what this man has done in his combat sports career. I respect what he's done in wrestling. I respect what he's done in MMA. As a fighter, him leaving the company high and dry, him thinking he's a bigger star that he actually is.

Not great. Not great. But if he goes out there and he fights somebody else, fights a contender, I will praise him for that. I will respect the hell out of that man. And then go fight for the belt. I will be here.

I will drive you to the arena to fight for that belt. How about that? Let's go to four-quarter sports. What's up? Hey, Mike Yammer. I got you. I wanted to ask you about, is it the right move for Jelton Almeda to stay at heavyweight? I know he's going to fight Shameo later this year.

Is that the quick, should he have stayed at light heavyweight? Because I don't know. My opinion is, I feel like it will be an easier path to him to get to the title as opposed to him fighting at heavyweight. You think it's easier at 205? Yeah, because, I mean, you have your Jamal Hills, Anthony Smiths, you know, that are going to be, you know, competing for championships and stuff like that.

I know Jamal hasn't competed for a championship yet, but I feel like you have, you know, more killers at heavyweight as opposed to 205. That's just my opinion. I don't know what you have to say about that. And then also I want to ask you about Alexandria Volcanowski's coach, him saying that Oliver is a more difficult matchup than Islam, Makhachev.

I don't know if you agree about that or not. I know Islam has a dominant throughout his whole entire UFC career, and Olivera's been on this amazing surge. So who will give the most difficult challenges for Bokanowski if they were to ever square up in the octagon? And yeah, and I wanted to say that I agree with you as for your take on Casey O'Neill possibly being like the best prospect to compete and win the title. because, I mean, you know, Casey O'Neill is a monster at 125, and it's just a shame that she tore her ACL. And I was really looking forward to seeing what she was going to be able to do against Jessica I. Because I just felt like I was going to be like the coming out party for her to, you know,

get catapulted into, you know, bigger fights moving on forward. And also I just wanted to say, go Celtics. All right, thanks, Ben. That's boy. Yes, that's how you end all the calls. That's how we should end all the calls. AK would agree with that. He's a huge Celtics fan,

and he's going to be wearing his old Kevin Garnett jersey watching Game 1 tonight. So, yeah, Casey O'Neill, if we can go back to, I don't know if it was the preview show before a UFC debut or the pre-fight Q&A before the UFC debut. Maybe it was both. But I told you guys about Casey O'Neill.

I told you how good she is. I told you she's going to be a problem, and she is a problem. She is an absolute problem. The injury sucks, but again, for someone who's taking her time, not in a huge rush, she understands that this is a marathon, not a sprint. It stinks, but maybe this is good for her. This is good for her mental game.

This is good for her to just kind of like relax a little bit because she's not the one that likes to just sit back and relax and smell roses and take time to herself, really. She's just always in the gym. She's always working. She's always training. So she's, yeah, she's, she's an animal. She's an absolute animal. Yeah, and the Jelton-O-M-A-T thing, listen, this guy could fight at heavyweight, light-heavyweight, middle-weight, doesn't matter.

This guy is a problem, a big problem for either division. He is such a freak athlete. 205, he would do fine. But this is his second heavyweight fight, and he's already fighting, I believe, of Duraimov is ranked. in the UFC heavyweight rankings. I could be wrong about this, but if he's not, he's like just outside the top 15.

Where are we at? Let's see. Shamil Abdurahimov is number 12. He's getting the number 12 rank guy already. That's big. That's big. And have you, if Jailton goes out there,

it does to Shamil Abderahimov, what I think he will probably do to Shemil Abderahimov, would just take him down and beat him up. I mean, he's already the number 12th rank guy. He's in this division, he's two or three wins away from fighting for the title. So I actually think the road to a belt for him is quicker at heavyweight, but I understand where you're coming from with light heavyweight as well. There's just not a lot at light heavyweight.

It's just not, I mean, it's an interesting division, but look what we have right now. We got Glover Tashira, who is going to submit Yuri Perashka next Saturday in the first round. I'm going to keep saying that. We got Yanni Blocko. Rackich is going to be back of the year. Magamette Ankylaefs fighting Anthony Smith. That's a big fight. Jamal Hill is getting ready to fight.

Tiago Santos. That's a big fight. Paul Craig's on the way up. Dominic Reyes will be coming back at some point. Ryan Spans making moves. Jimmy Crout's going to be back soon. Dustin Jacoby's on a nice run. So, I mean, I think he kind of weighed out the options.

What's the quicker path? I think heavyweight's probably the quicker path for him. But we'll see. And yes, the Celtics will win tonight and put a stranglehold on the series. Black Friday is here at IKEA, and the clock is ticking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-haves to cozy at-home essentials, all the little and big things you need to make this season shine. But don't wait. Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last.

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Choose from 14 flights per week between Canada and Dubai. Book on emirates.ca.com. Kevin from Chicago. What's up, buddy? What about his, I'm a judge. That's been the topic of discussion lately. And I wanted to talk about the Logan Sterley versus MVP fight because I'm surprised the amount of people are saying MVP won that fight. When Logan Sterley was in control of that fight, probably like 18, 20 minutes of a 25-minute fight.

Like every half of the round, he was spent on top control, just easing through a decision win. and people were saying that's, that was MVP's fight. He landed a few flurry punches the beginning of the round, and then Logan's story dominated the rest. It doesn't make any sense. I think what it comes down to is, obviously the boring wrestlers, they don't like that. That's the number one thing.

But they don't understand the degree of difficulty it is to take someone down and control them. It's so much easier to be to land a punch on, let's say, Israel, to Sanja, than to go take down. with Khabib and control them. Way harder. They just don't understand the degree of difficulty.

They never wrestled in their life. And that's what judging should be based on, in my opinion, the degree of difficulty. Because it seems like everything, the time they say,

well, we took them down, but what do you do with it? You didn't do anything with it. So it's like, they don't even want take downs to matter. Like control doesn't even matter.

No, you've got to take them down, you've got to beat them up. To me, that just, that doesn't make any sense. You could just, be able to take someone down, hold them down against your will.

If they want to post on their arm or put their back against a cage, that's their problem. They've got to take a risk to get up, not just wait for the rep to stand them up, putting in a stalling position. That's my thoughts on that. What's your thoughts? Thank you, Kevin. I figured we would get a judging question at some point. And I guess you're kind of calling me out because I am one of the people who score that fight for MVP.

And it's just the criteria now. Damage is the number one criteria thing. Now, if Logan takes Michael Page down one second into the round, does it absorb any strikes, anything at all, takes him down, holds him down, he wins the round. 100%. But you have to remember, especially with this new criteria with scoring, that a takedown is basically just a change in position.

It's looked at the same way as two-finding. fighters just standing around and circling each other or clenching in the middle or clenching against the fence. It's literally just a positional change. It's the same thing as two guys standing up. That's the way it's that takedowns are scored down. Now, I completely agree that taking a guy down and controlling them on the ground is very difficult to do. But there are examples, I believe that same week, I'm trying to think which card it was. I don't know if it was, I don't know which card it was. I don't know if it was the Holmvierre card or the

or the Blahovic Rackage card. I'm trying to remember. Yeah, I don't remember. Like it was like, it's different. Like, Chase Hooper fought Felipe Colharis.

And Chase Hooper was getting takedowns and getting on top and doing all these different things. And like, he wasn't landing a lot of damage, but neither was Colharis. but at the same time Hooper was improving his position he was going for submission attempts

he was trying to he was trying to finish the fight and Kohara's the Times was trying to do the same thing but that's the difference you could take a guy down and hold him there but like think about it as a street fight I know M.A's not a street fight

but if you're watching a street fight video and you see a guy and you see two guys getting ready to fight and fighter one throws a punch and misses Fighter 2 lands like four or five good shots. Everyone's on, ooh, a second fighter takes the guy to the ground, just lays on top of him. Like keeps him on the ground, doesn't throw any punches, doesn't try to do anything, just takes him down and lays on there.

Who are you thinks going to win the fight? Like, who would you say what? You'd probably say the guy who landed the punches. I mean, that's just, it's the way that it is. Judging still has a lot of, there's still a lot of problems in judging it's still pretty bad. No one's on the same page. And that's the thing right there. Because the way Kevin thinks, there are judges who feel the same way. But the criteria says that damage is the number one factor and that should be outweighed more than anything else. If you take a guy down and don't do anything

with it, it doesn't score anything. Like Sam Hughes was getting takedowns against Elise Reed on that same card. And Sam was landing big shots. She was landing ground and pound. She was improving her position she was mounting she was doing all that if logan's story he just got in a side control and threw a couple of elbows that's a different story he's trying to do something but he just sat in every piece guard and mp was still landing stuff off of his back he was landing elbows he was landing punches he was landing different things and it's not going to amount to a whole hell of a lot but at the same time he's doing more off of his back than Logan was doing on top look at benson henderson islam momadav that's a perfect fight to

go back and watch because Momadov got takedown. The Brent Primis fight too. Islam Mamadav took down Brett Primus for three straight rounds. But I scored all three rounds for Brent Primis because Brent is on his back throwing elbows. He's going for submission attempts. He's the more active fighter. He's trying to inflict damage. He's the one trying to finish the fight. Momadov then fights Benson Henderson. It's the same kind of thing. Benson's the more active fighter off of his back. He's landing more damage despite being taken down and controlled. He's getting back to his feet. I know MVP didn't do a lot of that, but Benson Anderson was having a hard time getting back to his feet too. And the judge's got that one right. The judge has got it right. If a guy

takes you down and the guy off of his back on the bottom is still landing punches, he's landing elbows, he's trying to move around. He's trying to throw up submission attempts. The guy on his back is going to win the rounder. He should. But we'll all learn that. We'll all get better with this. the judges will all get better, we'll all get on the same page. I'm glad we're talking about it, but I just, there's more issues in the sport,

mostly with fighter pay and some of the things going on behind the scenes than open scoring. Judging's a big problem by itself. Open scoring is not going to fix judging. It's just going to shine a light on the judging being as bad as it is right now or as inconsistent that it is.

more often. We complain about judging now. If we have open scoring, how much more are we going to complain about judging? We're going to complain about it so much more because we get to complain about it after every single round. I don't know. We have bigger problems.

Let's get Tocke in here. Then we'll get Miami-Mike in here. Toke, what's up, buddy? Okay, so my question is short and sweet because I've noticed that we have a CBA that's running out, which is the Vox Media one. And I'm curious about what happens if you don't reach a deal between the workers union and Vox Media.

What happens to all the content on MMA fighting? Oh, okay. Interesting question. I will say this. Now, I am what people like to call. I've been called on the show, and I appreciate that very much. much I'm am amazed every man. Okay.

And I like to talk with confidence about things that I know about. I am aware of what's going on with Vox. I am aware what's going on behind the scenes. Everybody can look it up. There have been articles written about it. New York Times did a piece about it. It's there for you all to read. Now, have I been completely focused on what is going on behind the scenes with that?

Admittedly, not particularly. have I read material, signed certain things, perhaps, but is this something that I have been in all the meetings on that I've been in all the discussions on? No, I have not. So the question is, because I worked in radio for a long time, I worked in small companies in radio, I'm in a huge company bought us. And we were not unionized. So this is the first time I've ever been in a company that is a union or been part of a union like that. So I literally have no idea what's going on. So as this is all unfolding,

I'm learning how this all works. I know a few years ago before I joined on with that M.A. This was a big thing that happened. There was a CBA that I believe was three years ago. I believe there was, I don't know if there's a strike or not, but I know it was discussed. And yeah, that's really all I know about it. We'll see what happens.

I know there's been meetings. it's been lots of conversations between the union advocates and the powers that be. And I will just leave it at that because I honestly don't know a whole whole lot. But, you know, I get where the union's coming from. That's our part of the union. They're trying to, you know, make sure the people that work for the company get what they deserve. Now, I will say personally, I'm very happy working for M.A. fighting. And that's it.

That's all I can really say. Miami, Mike, you're up. you're next and then Joe you're on tap. Mike, what's up? Heck of a morning, Mike. Heck of a morning. I will not congratulate you on those Celtics winning. You don't need to, Mike.

You don't need to. Your voice, your voice, your sadness. That's congratulations enough. I was trying to miss the last two episodes too, so you wouldn't have to hear the sadness in my voice. But goddamn, feel there. Dude, I hope you guys win just so I could come on the podcast

and say everything is possible, okay? That's all I want to say. on the Celtics winning. Now, my MMA question, dude, what do you think is the next thing for Volk and Max? I mean, given that, let's say Max somehow wins, I don't think he is, but let's say he does. Obviously, Volk is going to get that rematch.

I don't think he's going to move up to 155. But let's say Volk wins. Everybody's been thinking, like, move up to 155 to kind of show this, like, pound-for-pound debate that to show, like, he's at the top of it. He's better than he's better than Uzman. He's better than everybody else. But what do you think about Max, too?

I mean, if Max loses, does he kind of cut his ties on 145 and move up to 155 and try his luck there? And at that point, does Volk stay there? Or does Volk also move to 155 and kind of see Max there? So what do you think? Thank you, Miami, Mike. Go sees. Yeah, so. And there was another question about.

Volkovsky, Eugene Barrowman did an interview with submission radio, and Eugene said that all there is a tougher matchup, but I'm sorry I didn't address that to begin with. Yeah. I think I understand where Eugene's coming from. I just feel Eugene probably sees just more weapons from Charles. I mean, it's true because Islam has, Islam's very good on the ground. His wrestling is incredible.

He has his thing that he does very, very well. while Oliver has many things he does very, very well. So I think that's probably the way he's looking at it. Now, in terms of what happens with this fight on July 2nd, this third fight, if Holloway wins, they're going to do another fight. They're going to do Volcanovsky 4. I feel pretty confident about that. If Holloway loses, I could just see him going to 55 at this.

I could see him going up to 55. I think he'll just be in position to just take fun, tough fight. which is what he's wanted to begin with. Even heading into the Calvin Cater fight or even after the Calvin Cater performance, which is one of the all-time great performances, he said, I just want tough fights. Like, I don't need belts. I don't need a fight for titles.

Just give me fun, tough, exciting fights. That's why he kind of put himself in the silly Habib hat when Habib was clearly retired, but Dana White was doing these, oh, here's a Kabib update, every frigging card that was going on. bought it. No one believed it. Because we were actually getting no updates. We were getting nothing. It was just, oh, I talked to Habib, and we're going to have dinner next week.

And people bought it. People were all in on this. But that was like the, it was like comparing, I compare that to like Floyd Mayweather versus Connor McGregor. There were actually people out there thought Connor was going to win that fight. When in reality, there was no chance Connor was going to win that fight. There's just no chance. And Habib retiring, like most people knew, like he's not coming.

back for especially not that fast you're not going to sit there in october and say i'm done explaining the reasons why and then come back in january like there's no chance that was going to happen but i understand where the ufc is coming from they're trying to generate interest use you know put that name out there trying to get viewers trying to get people and involved and intrigued and they did that successfully but yeah that we knew how people wasn't coming back But Holloway just will just be in fun fights. Like he didn't have to fight Yairair. That was just a fun challenging fight for him.

He could have just waited and fought for the title. And he said, no, I'm going to go fight Yayae instead. And there you go. That's just the kind of guy Max is. He's going to be picky and choosy and he's going to. Max is a huge star for the company. He's a huge star outside of the UFC. Max doesn't need to fight.

So if he's going to fight, it's going to be something that challenges him and motivates him and gets him fired up and excited. Let's get Jay in here. Jay, what's up, buddy? Hey, Mike, what's up? Can you hear me? I can't. So I had two things I wanted to get your opinion on. The first thing was I was listening to the MMA hour with Ariel and his interview with

Jordan Levitt. And what I saw that was really confusing was how he said he got a lot of backlash from the UFC and from fans when he would do his dances on people after he would win. and I just found that pretty odd because it made me a fan. I thought it was hilarious, and I wanted to keep doing it. And especially if he beats Patty in London, I would love to see him do that. But I'm just confused for why the UFC would give them some backlash, because there's always fighters who have their own stick and own act

and do things to piss off the crowd in fans. But they don't mind that, but they want to give a warning to Jordan Levin, which I'm confused on. So I wanted to get your opinion on that. And the next thing I wanted to ask was, I believe someone else already asked the question, but it was with Jelts and Almeida moving to heavyweight. And I actually think even though he is rushing up faster with getting that match with Shamil, I do think it might be a little more challenging just because of the more prospects they have there, like Ramanov, Pavlovich, who else, Tui Vasa, and Aspinol.

And we don't really see that in my heavyweight. We still see, like, the old contender is still there. I think why heavyweight staying there actually maybe would have been better for him, like because there's not that many names up there. But he definitely probably will do good in heavyweight too, so I can't complain about that. And also just a little quick side-no thing. I actually think Miami got finessed in game seven by the rest,

especially with the three from Max Strauss because he didn't step out of bounds. But I don't know, I'm not saying Miami would be in the finals, but I just wanted to throw that in there. And have a heck of a morning, Mike. Thanks, Jay. By the way, if you want to talk about the refereeing in that game, go back and watch it start to finish because there were so many phantom calls against the Boston Celtics.

It was ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. Game six was a travesty. A travesty in sports officiating. It was disgusting, horrendous. But that's neither here nor there. The Jelthelmaid thing. Listen, here's another thing that I didn't really address that I think makes sense.

Jilt. Alameda is not a small guy. He, when he weighed in for the pack of porta fight, he was 225 and he didn't cut a pound. So when he cuts to 205, he's probably cutting like 30 pounds. That's a big weight cut for this guy.

And now he could focus on putting on some size. He could lift a little more. He's just such a freak, man. He's going to do really well at heavy weight. And they're not going to match him up with Romanov anytime soon. I just don't think it's going to happen. Yeah,

I think they'll keep those guys away from each other. You just kind of give him the the Shamiles of the world. Maybe he gets Christakis with a win. Like he'll just move his way up. He'll move his way up. And I think he, I mean,

just his athleticism, what he brings to the table alone, this guy has, good Lord, this guy has championship written all over him. I think he could, I feel, I'm not going to say I'm supremely confident,

but I will say I'm confident that Chaltern Almeida will fight for the heavyweight title at some point if he decides, this is my weight class. I'm a heavy weight for the rest of my career. I think that guy is good enough to fight for a belt. And he's only getting better. The Jordan Leavitt thing is so interesting because it was, by the way, seeing Jordan Levin on the MMA hour just made me so happy.

I've been interviewing Jordan Levitt since he was like a 2-0 pro. And he has been the exact same guy then as he is now, exactly the same. The books, the reading 100 books a year, all these things, these things he does to challenge himself, the dancing, the celebrations. He's been doing this his whole career. Like literally from fight one to now, he has done the exact same things. He's the same guy. He's the same guy. He's not going to change anything about himself for anybody.

For the UFC, for fans, for anything. He's just going to be the unique individual he is. And he has always been like that. And to see him in the UFC and shining and getting these big opportunities and I was on the freaking MMA hour, that is so cool. It's so cool seeing a guy. And this is what I tell like up and this is what I tell young media members who reach out and say, what do I need to do? You need to interview everybody. You need to find these guys.

And when promotions reach out to you and they say, I have this prospect. He's one and O. I think he's going to be really good. and they pitch you on him. You don't say, nah, he's not Connor. He's not a UFC fight. I'm not going to interview him.

You say, yes, I'll interview that guy. And I can't even begin to tell you how many early interviews I had in my career that are in the UFC right now. It's amazing. It's incredible to see. Like, go listen to my interview with Sean Brady. I've been interviewed Sean Brady

since he was a CFFC champion, like way before the UFC. And he knows that. And these guys remember that. So it's just so cool to see Leavitt on the MAA hour. And if he beats him, Patty Pimlet. Oh my God. That is going to be insane.

Freaking insane. And he can do it too. That's a very interesting fight. That's a very interesting fight. I like them. The more I talk about it, and I kind of, I was on the fence with the matchmaking at first. But now I dig it. The more I talk about, the more I like it. Wow, it's 9 o'clock already.

Joe, final word, my man. What do you got? Heck of a morning, Mike. Always love the space. Thank you, my man. Not too bad. Hope you're having a great day. So you said earlier that the UFC tries to run with people they think can be stars. I think I've said his name twice in the space already.

I just want to be the guy remembered for saying Mazharov. I probably say his name wrong, but Asgar, that's the guy they're looking at right now. But what I wanted to ask you was I'm not real hot on open scoring, and I'm not real hot on the topic of open scoring. But for me, I'm irritated by a lot. all the talk of open scoring because I feel like referees being more liberal about taking points should take priority over that. As like fans, we should be more worried about

the referees being more liberal when they should take points. And the scoring system allows for 10-10s, 10-8s, and actually even 10-7s to happen, which I doubt will ever see that day. So like if you could pick one of the three to correct the referees taking points like should. Judges scoring like they should or open scoring, which one would take the priority for you? Thank you, Joe. Great last question.

I mean, open scoring is not going to be the first thing. It's going to be the last thing, because I just don't think it's going to change anything. I just don't think it's going to change anything. It's just going to make us matter. The more we watch these fights and we see bad judging and we hear the scorecards, what's the first thing we do when we're, we hear a questionable scorecard. We go on Twitter and we say 30, 27, question mark, question mark. That's what we're doing. Now we're going to have to do that after every route.

It's going to stress us the frig out. It's what's going to do. It's just going to make us more stress. Well, we're trying to find positivity in this space. So to me, I mean, the scoring, the 10-9, the 10-point mustism is not going to change anytime soon. So I'm just going to leave that alone. You make a tremendous point about the referees, however.

I like the referee thing. the referees having the wherewithal and the, I guess, courage at times to take points when they're supposed to be taken. Nothing annoys me more than watching multiple warnings, especially like Mark Smith does it. Chris Tione does it a lot. Sometimes Chris Tione shows up on a Saturday night and he's just ready to take points. And then oftentimes he'll give a warning, another warning, another warning, and then it pulls him aside after the third time and he says, okay, this is a stern warning. This is a hard warning.

You do it again, I'm taking a point. Like, you should have taken a point before. The eye pokes are ridiculous. The low blows are ridiculous. If it happens once, you want to give one warning, fine. But if we're seeing it two or three times, like if you kick a guy in the ding ding, and then you poke him in the eye 30 seconds later

and you don't take a point, you're wrong. You should be taking points. Take points. we should be taking more points in these fights. Honestly, I think that's a big problem. We haven't seen, then we're getting the no contest and the DQs and all this stuff. That's another conversation for another day,

but we've got to take points. You've got to take points more. Because then people won't do them. We've had conversations like, the Tim Elliott thing. The Tim Elliott thing blew up. Remember that? When he grabbed the glove and then he went in the back and said,

yeah, I grabbed the guy's glove. And I interviewed him like three days later. And he was like, yeah. I'm in a fight and I get two paychecks. I'm going to try to win the fight. So I can get my second paycheck. I haven't fought in a year. I'm trying to take care of my family.

This is what we have to do. So, and then we had a thing like, should you cheat? Should you cheat? And most of us say, yeah. Because no one's going to stop you from cheating. If I can poke a fighter in the eye four times

to get the second half my paycheck and no one's going to take a point away from me, why wouldn't you do it? why wouldn't you grab the fence if no one's going to stop you from doing it and no one's going to penalize you for that why not if you're losing you're in a bad exchange

and you kick a guy in the balls but the referee's not going to take any points why wouldn't you do that when you have the second half of your paycheck on the line I'm not advocating cheating I'm just saying if it's there no one's going to stop you from doing it and half of your money is on the line

line, what's to stop you from cheating? You know, it will stop you from cheating. Taking points away. And the referees just don't do that enough. So that is a tremendous point, Joe. That's a tremendous point. You know what? I'm going to take one more from somebody else.

Let's get Marcellus in here. This is the true final word, because I got to get out of here, and I don't want to get in trouble. Maybe, perhaps, the wheel is spitting. Still spitting. it's not going to happen. The good news, Marcellus, is that we're back, oh, you know what?

God, golly, golly, special guest, Oscar Willis, soon to be MMA champion. How are you, man? Obviously, fit is a fiddle, you know, training. 6 a.m., work never stops, even on the Queen's Jubilee Day, you know, putting in those miles, putting in that time. my man. I'm great, man. Good to hear from you.

Thank you, too. I was just listening to your discussion on kicking people in the balls and how you encourage it to happen more often. Well, I mean, if they're not going to stop us from doing it, if they're not going to take points away, then kick away. Listen, in certain parts of the world, you can pay extra to have that sort of thing. So to get it done for free in Saturdays, it's a lot too bad. How's the training goal? It's all right. It's only week two on a Thursday.

So what, like day four of week two? And it's all right. It's a little bit more taxing than I anticipated, but I feel better than week one. And, you know, it's all right. It makes me feel very fit and disciplined. I haven't had a drop of alcohol since it started, which, as you know, is a testament to my dedication at this point. Absolutely. So the big question is, Oscar, will we see Oscar Willis compete in a cage after this is all done? After the 20 weeks are done, are you going to take a play? Yeah, sure. I'm already eyeing up to people. my class being like, well, I can't beat him, so stay away from him, but I could probably beat that person, so I'll go and bully them. You know, I'm a conniving person. I've already

planned it out. It's going to be great. I'm very excited for this. Oscar, you are the man. Best of luck with the training, my friend. Thanks very much. I appreciate you even mentioning it. I wasn't going to see I was going to talk about judging. But let's go. But I'm also overjudging, aren't you? I feel like everyone's been talking about it for two weeks now. It's okay. We can move on. There's a great heavyweight clash this Saturday to look forward to. Between, too high-paced athletes that are going to put on a show at the apex. That's right. What fight are you looking forward to the most?

None of them. I'll be on a plane to Singapore. Which, most people would say they don't want to be on an international flight. But I think when you look at this Saturday's card, I'm quite happy to be on a flight that I can't watch it. Oh, man. Well, safe travels, my man. And I'm sure you and Jose will be linking up in Singapore.

Oh, yes, indeed. Thank you very much, mate. I try to see. Thanks, buddy. The great Oscar Willis. I got to spend a little time with Oscar in Jacksonville, Florida. I mean, if you're going to spend time with Oscar Willis, nothing like the mean streets of Jacksonville to do it in.

It was such a delight being around that guy. And he's doing the train Alta program, which Casey Liden did. And he had his fight and got a victory. So we're seeing a lot more journalists get involved in that event. They're given, I believe they were giving away some scholarships and stuff for media members to go through camps and go through the, training and you have the option to take a fight after and not surprised that Oscar's going to get in there and take a fight. So very excited about that, very intrigued by it all and can't wait to see it happen. So we're going to get out of here. I don't want to get in trouble. I'm supposed to be actually like doing actual work. And this doesn't feel like work to me. So appreciate it very much. But the good news is we're going to do this again tomorrow. Same time, 8 a.m. Eastern. We're going to make this happen. Have another edition of heck of a morning right here. So you can have your voice heard here. You have your voice heard in the MA podcast.

Podcasting Network. BTL, back today, 3 p.m. Eastern, live on the M.A. Fighting YouTube channel. It will be a rematch. We're going to have a competition this time. Jed Bishu versus Drake Riggs, who is the actual champion. Yet he hasn't, we haven't had an actual title match on BTL in several weeks, but we're going to have one this week. Jed versus Drake, I think this is like part five.

And I believe it's 2-2. I believe it's 2-2. So this will be the fifth matchup between these two-jointed. gentlemen. So 3 p.m. Eastern Live and the NBA fighting YouTube channel. So we'll see you then. Until that, everybody. Have a great rest of the day. Enjoy your Thursday. Get your coffee ready, your breakfast, your alma, whatever, and have yourself a heck of a morning. Thank you very much. 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.

Thank you.