MMA Fighting - HOAM | Aljamain Sterling Deserves Better, Reliving Memorable Memorial Day Weekend UFC Cards

Episode Date: May 26, 2023

Aljamain Sterling has been catching some strays as of late from UFC President Dana White, who said that the bantamweight champion "can't seem to get out of his own way" after Sterling wanted to get some lingering injuries checked out following his recent fight with Henry Cejudo earlier this month. Surely, one of the company's world champions deserves better, right? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses the way Sterling has been treated as of late ahead of his quick turnaround scheduled title defense against Sean O'Malley at UFC 292 in August, Henry Cejudo wanting to add his name to the mix, and how actual promotion is being graded for the UFC and its fighters. Additionally, listener questions include the NBA Eastern Conference finals and the Celtics dominating the Heat in Game 5, how the UFC at this point in the game feels similar to the WWE during the Hulk Hogan era before WCW changed the game a decade or so later, memorable Memorial Day weekend cards in the UFC, including UFC 146 and UFC 160, and 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

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. 826, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the MMA fighting Twitter spaces. You can hear the show in its entirety. Excuse me. Shortly thereafter, on the MMA fighting podcasting. network. I am Mike Heck. Hope everyone's having a great week. If you're in the U.S., maybe you took the day off to get an even longer weekend, but it is a weekend without the UFC. So it's kind of a

strange weekend because we don't get very many of those, and we're not going to get another one until the first weekend of September. So enjoy this time off, my friends. Enjoy this time off. also opens things up to for a very interesting show because normally because we always do free for all Fridays on Friday which means we could talk about MMA we could talk about whatever event is happening on the weekend and we could talk about other stuff going on we get a lot of questions about the MMA media space get a lot of questions about different things pro rasselin other sports what have you and we get to take some of those things off the table because there's no hard to really preview this weekend.

So I'm looking forward to this one. I'm looking forward to it. So let's just get right into it. Free for all Friday. Let's let our hair down, those who have it, and let's have some fun. Toke is going to kick us off. There he is.

What's up, man? Hi, Mike. So I wish that I was in a good mood on this Friday because I saw a report, or not really a report, Let me put it a different way. John Huang Kuo, sorry, I can't pronounce his name, but he said that the main event has probably been found for UFC Singapore,

and he said that this is a matchup that most don't want, but he is looking forward to the violence. So please tell me this isn't Max Holloway versus TKZ, because I feel like I know that I know that Korean Sampi wants to end this way. He wants it to end this way. But just as you don't let kids lick on your six-volt batteries, you don't let TKC get knocked, I mean, just get crushed to oblivion by the second best featherweight in the world.

So this seems like a very, very, very bad idea. And I hate if that's the case. I don't know if you have heard anything on the UFC-Sikaport card. about the main event. But if you have, please let me know that it's not that fight, that would be great. Thanks.

And have a nice Friday. I've heard nothing about any of this. I mean, I've seen reports and rumblings about Singapore and what there could be, but I don't know. I don't know. When Max Holloway called for that fight,

he didn't express any interest in going to Singapore or Asia. He said he heard the, UFC's going back to Australia. That's the card he wants to fight on. So, I don't know. Maybe they offered him a bigger bag. Maybe he does ones. Maybe Singapore's on his travel list.

I don't know. I'm like, the human being in me is with you that I don't want to see zombie just get volumed up by Max Holloway for 25 minutes. But at the same token, I don't like really any matchup for TKZ right now. I mean, he got pieced up back.

by Brian Ortega. And there's just not a lot of names that, like, I'm excited to see him fight. Like, I know for a while, when they were going to do a card that they, the road to the UFC thing, and then they moved the entire event to Vegas, they were going to do,

there's a lot of conversation about Korean zombie versus Giga Chikaze. I would much rather see TKZ get a Max Holloway fight than Giga Chikaze. Because if, Gies is just going to knock his head off more than likely, and I don't really want to see that. And Max will give him, I guess, the respect that he deserves.

And at the same token, if this is Zombie's final fight, and it's a dream of his to fight Max Holloway, then give him Max Holloway. Max is still very good. Still very good. We saw what he did against Arnold Allen. but at the same token Max's Max is Greg Maddox right now

he doesn't have his fastball anymore but he's still very very effective he can still get people out he can still win fights he could still use his brain and find ways to win he could paint the corners if you will but he doesn't have his fastball anymore

Max ain't throwing 100 max ain't thrown 98 miles an hour anymore Max throwing like a solid 89-90, which could be very, very effective. Tom Glavin won a lot of games throwing 89-90. So did Greg Maddox, like I mentioned earlier. So I'm not as opposed to it as you might be. I get where you're coming from, but I don't think it's, he'll probably get volumeed up, but I'd rather kind of see that than him just putting somebody over or a positive,

a very good potential of putting somebody over. Like, I don't want to see, like, Ilya Taboria fight the Korean zombie. And, like, the Giga win. Like, if he fights Gigan, Gigan knocks him out, like, I don't want to see that. Giga's going to celebrate, like, you just, like, Vitor Belford knocked out a Vander Holyfield more than likely. So, yeah, I would rather see, I'd rather see the Holloway fight. Zombie wants it.

Holloway wants it. Both these guys are kind of getting up there in mileage. sure but i don't know i haven't heard anything about singapore or a main event or any of that stuff but i do think that's the fight the rots ability going to make max is a star max ain't trying to hold up the division called out a name that name responded and said i'm in that's probably the fight we're going to get so we'll see what happens uh let's go to bull bull how are you bull how are you Oh, boy. How you doing? How you doing, man?

I'm good, brother. Good talking to you. Hey, I just wanted to know really quickly or, you know, preferably in detail. What do you think about how Dana and the UFC are handling this Aljo O'Malley Sahudo situation? If you don't mind, get into that for me a little bit. Thank you. Well, I mean, look, I have gotten into this. quite a bit over the last couple of shows. I have ranted quite a bit about it. I don't really think there's much more I can add to this. The one thing I didn't really touch on was the Sohudo thing,

because that was a big part of the press conference was it was like $100 to anybody who will, or I'll give you three guesses on who could have called and said, I'll take that fight. And someone, who else could it have been besides Henry Sehudo? that Dana would have made such a statement about. You never believe who called me. Douglas Silva-Dey Androge.

He wants the fight. You think that's going to happen? No, of course it was Henry Sehudo. Who the hell else do you think it was going to be? And Sehudo's like, hey, Aljo's a P-word. I'll step in and do the fight. Of course, Sehudo's going to step in and do the fight. Why would he not?

Why would he not make that phone call? Of course he is. of course he would fight shot o'malley because he would destroy shot o'malley he would take shon down to beat the hell out of him and he'd get a title and a big bag of money of course he would take that fight he's it's not a bridge too far for henry saudo to call dana way in the phone and say hey i want to take an easier fight than i just had that i will make more money with and probably win the title and dana acts like this is the greatest thing i've ever seen this guy's stepping up to the plate. It's not like Suhout.

I mean, Suhudo called out Mara, but it's not like Dana's like, Suhudo called me up 15 times. He won't stop calling me because he wants to fight Marab de Wallis, really. Of course he wants to fight shot on Malley. Of course he wants to fight shot on Malley. And Henry is back apparently in the good graces of the UFC

after he screwed them over when he was the champion. So apparently they're all good now. And Dana and company are okay putting the man over. So I don't blame Henry for going after it. He should. He's doing exactly what he should be doing. But to act like, wow, I'm telling you, I looked at my phone. And it was a FaceTime.

And I saw the eyes of Henry Sohudo on the other end saying, I'll fight in Boston against Chatea Malley. And it was like an angel got its wings. Like, it's just so ridiculous. But then Al Jermaine Sterling can't get out of his own way because he wants to get his injuries checked out before fighting. Three months after he just had a five-round battle. It's insanity. This whole thing is ridiculous. And Dana's getting a little bit rattled, I think.

I don't know if you guys are seeing this, but he is, now he's like screenshoting headlines from outlets and putting it on his Instagram feeds. Have you seen this? He's done it in back-to-back days. He's done it in back-to-back days. Someone posted about the demise of barstool, which data obviously didn't say.

we know like if you could put two and two together like the outlet isn't even an mMA media outlet so i don't know what the fucking problem is like i don't know why they're lumping everybody together and i think that's dan is like biggest issue with his relationship with the media is that he lumps everybody together and that's just not how it is and then last night did the same thing did the same thing trying to remember which article it was um I want to pull this up because I looked at it this morning I'm like, man,

have you ever seen Dana White do this? That was a little stunt. Like, all this is a little shock. Oh, the Hamza Tchamaya thing. That's what it was. Midnight Mania,

Hamza Tchamaya Firmai of unfollows Dana White, UFC matchmakers and Darren Till amidst troubles booking a fight. And apparently that wasn't true. I don't know why that's really a story anyways, but Dana was like, eh.

And then he posted something with faith. But what is it? Like, Dana doesn't do that. Dana doesn't do that stuff. He just shits on the media. And normally, a lot of people will be like, yeah, fuck the media. But Dana's losing people. He's starting to lose people. It's weird. Because like, we did BTL yesterday. And there's a lot of data talk. A lot of talk about like fighter pay, which you guys don't my stance on fighter pay at this point. I would love to see the fighters make more money.

A lot of people blame the UFC for that. I don't typically blame the UFC for that because until the fighters come together and try to invoke change, nothing's ever going to change. Why would the UFC do anything further when they're making so much money and no one's doing anything about it? So they're just doing business and no one's stopping them. We talked a lot about the France stuff, the Aljo stuff, and a whole bunch. And normally when we do shows like that where that's the topic and we wax poetically and we're, honest and give our actual honest feedback on things. Like normally we just get like I end the show and I'm just like, what were the live chat comments?

Like, did we just get absolutely bolstered on there? And they're like, no, most people were like with us on this. And I was like, really? That's typically not what happens when we do shows like this. So I don't know if Dana's getting rattled, but I think he's starting to realize that he's, he's, some of these things are slipping away from him, man. And the one thing Dana had in all of this was he could find a way to win in the court of public opinion. Because a lot of the fans would just be like, Ah, Dana's the fucking man. He's without him.

None of this is possible. And look, if you listen to that BTL, I gave Dana a lot of credit. And I typically do give Dana a lot of credit for building this sport and building this promotion to what it is today. Now it's not all on his shoulders, but he is a big part of it when he actually promoted and gave a shit. Now, it's not like he doesn't give a shit, but he's won the battle. It's the same conversation we've had about Conn McGregor in fights. Like, once you wake up in the silk sheets in a billion-dollar house, like, do you have the same hunger and drive? And the answer is, yeah, with power slap, but not really with the UFC anymore.

And there's nothing wrong with that. That happens to everybody. sometimes the motivation changes and you have different challenges and different goals you want to accomplish. What else can Dana White accomplish being the president of the UFC at this point? This dude has won the game.

The UFC is killing it. They are printing money. They're making more than any other combat promotion by far and all of them combined right now. They're crushing it. People are calling them on the phone and saying, hey, we will pay you

millions of dollars to come to our city and host one event, sometimes two, sometimes a multi-year deal. Like, that's incredible. And when this TV deal comes up, they're going to be making like three quarters of a billy a year in profit once that TV deal comes up. So they're just, I mean, they're killing it. And Dana is killing. Like, he killed it to get to this point. But it seems like it's more about just winning the court of public appeal. It's about being stubborn than it is about promoting the brand. You see how he talks about PowerSlapp. That's how he was like 15 years ago.

That was like the vigor. That was the excitement. That was the promoter. Promoter Dana White. And how many people has he shit on from PowerSlapp in any of those press conferences? The answer is zero. The answer is zero. How many slappers

has he said can't get out of their own ways? The answer is zero. Even though 90% of the roster has failed a fucking drug test already. It's crazy. It's crazy. He's an important piece of all this.

But again, and this is brought up of BTL yesterday as well. If Dana left the UFC, someone said if Dana left the UFC, the UFC would crumble. That's just not true. That's just not true. And that is not meant to be an insult.

It's meant to be a compliment as well. Because he has built this thing to run itself. And that's impressive. And it's going to make money with or without him. They're going to do the same amount of business with or without him. That's what you do. I don't know. It's just crazy.

Just promote, man. Just promote. That's all you need to do. Get people excited. Don't just shit on everybody. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time.

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My first thing I've started off very simple. Regarding the guide figure radio, it's been the fire. I think his name is Carpe, if that's how I pronounce it. Obviously, we know he's not going to fight for a greater than what's really necessary for him to do in order to possibly get a title shot down the line. Does he maybe fight, excuse me, does he maybe fight the loser of the Pantorja and Marina fight? Or would he have to fight some maybe down the ranks or up? How could you see this playing out? Because for me, I think I reckon he should fight the loser of that fight so that can push into a title fast.

Maybe let's say Marino wins. He has another contender that's not figurator that he could fight. My second thing is just regarding how the UFC markets they fight. Do you think it's really solely on the fighters to be able to market themselves become a superstar whether on a UFC level, even a more global level, if other sports fans want to be interested in them, or is it up to Dana to do that? And my last thing, there's nothing to do with the EOCs just to do with the NBA game that happened yesterday. You know, what do you think is really going to take Miami here to truly win this series that they want to close it out in game six?

Because we've seen how horrible their defense was. Bamar DeBio, Jimmy Butler, you know, Kevin Love, they all seem to have been struggling, making easy layups. The only guy who was doing shooting proper threes was Duncan Robson and I think his name was Caleb. what do you reckon Miami Heat would have to really truly do, I guess, both on defensive and offensively with their strengths and weakness, to truly, I guess, out to my Boston Southwick. That's all I have. Have a great day, mate.

Thank you. Speaking of rattled, Miami looking rattled out there. I enjoyed every second of that game last night. It was nice to, like, not have to sweat even a little. they just beat that ass and I loved it. I guess, I mean, I'm not going to get into like technical things, but I will say this from a guy who has been part of many roller coaster playoff runs.

And I mean this wholeheartedly, and you can take this and receipt me later. Whoever wins game six is winning the series. If Miami does not put Boston away in game six, they are, they're effed. They're done. they're going to get run out of the building in game seven if they don't win game six. So the only way I'll answer it is Miami has to win game six. If they don't, they're done and they're going to be in the history books as the only team in NBA history to blow a 3-0 lead. And the Kevin Malar vibes are within me.

when Kevin Marr's out here just tweeting videos don't let us win tonight it warmed my heart I was like there's no way the South Dix are going to win there's no way the Celtics are going to lose this game it was beautiful

golly it was beautiful other questions who has been L Kopp going to fight I don't know that's a great question you can't do Alex Perez Mateus Nicolao would be fun Burner Royval is going to be the backup for the title fight.

So the fight I've been wanting since Minel Kopp got to the UFC is Minnell Kopp versus Brandon Royval. That's the one I want to see. But I think Brandon, I think Brandon did a lot with that Kansas City fight, like being on the prelims, finishing Nicola out the way that he did, saying what he said, the UFC actually taking his back, being like we effed up, we should have never put this guy on the prelims. I think Roy Val is as a button as good of a position. he could possibly be in right now.

So I don't know who Cop's going to fight. We got Al-Bazi fighting Kai Kar-France next week. Maybe the winner of that. But it just all depends on when Minnell wants to get back in there. But yeah, he's probably going to need two wins to get there. Probably. But they could give Roy Val a big bag of money and say, hey, I'm going to have you fight Minnell cop in a number one contender fight.

I don't know if he would turn that one to. down. Cap's going to be an interesting, an interesting player in this division. I mean, we were super high on him in MMA fighting before he got to the UFC. Once he got to the UFC, we're like, let's go. We're very excited. Seems to be in a groove right now. So let's see what he does.

And then the other thing is it up to the UFC to get every fighter over? No, it's not. It's not. And the comparison I used on BTL yesterday and I continue to use it is, where the UFC is right now is where WWE was in 1987. And what I mean by that was

WW is making a lot of money. They were doing very well. They were selling out the freaking Pontiac Silver Dome for a wrestling pay-per-view. They had Hulk Hogan. They had like five or six big-name stars that were making all the money.

And what they did contractually back then was, hey, we don't give you guaranteed money. We don't give you this massive piece of the pie. But what we will do is we will give you the opportunity to be on television and get yourself over. And if you could do that, then we will strap the rockets to you. And there you go. If you can get over with the people, then you get over with us. We'll give you the opportunities. There you go. The people want to pay to see you, you will be paid. That's how it works. That's where the UFC is right now.

That's where they're at. Because WW is just killing everybody in the 80s. But it took change about nine, 10 years later when WCW became a big player and changed the game when they got big names and were offering big, life-changing, guaranteed money contracts. And once that, happened and someone became the equal to WWE, which by the way, back in the 80s, everybody was

saying, no one's going to touch these guys. They're so far ahead of everybody else. And guess what? At some point, somebody caught him. It took them a decade, but somebody caught him. And once they did, and they could make a move, they did. And it changed the entire industry. WWE went from Hey We're not just going to give you opportunity We're going to give you a big bag of money too So you don't go there

Maybe this Francis deal with PFL could be that change It ain't it yet There's a lot of things that need to happen We have a lot of time between now And when Francis fights again And who they can bring over in between But seeing this deal that Francis got gave me WCW vibes.

Because even when WCW got Kevin Nash and Scott Hall and gave the guaranteed contract, they were behind. They were number two. They were moving on up, but they were number two. And that move changed everything. And that's how we're going to invoke change in this business,

is that we need somebody to come close to the UFC. Right now there's nobody even on the same map as the UFC. They're not even on the same. planet is the UFC. They're a party. For example, I was playing, I play in a softball team on Thursdays. And people like are figuring out what I, because we never, like, I never really tell anybody like what I do.

Nobody really gives a shit. They're like, oh, hey, hey, Mike, you want to play softball? Cool. Oh, yeah. You're okay. You can play with us. And then like, someone watched the Connor McGregor documentary and was like, hey, were you, were you?

I thought I heard your voice in the Conard McGregor documentary on Netflix. So I was like, yeah, I was in it a couple times. And then I started talking. I was like, yeah, then there's Belator and the PFL. They're like, who the fuck is Bellator and PFL? I'm like, okay, there you go. That's everything you need to know. That's the casual appeal.

And that's how people treated it with like WCW back in the day too. So that's kind of how I look at it. UFC is going to provide you opportunities, but they don't need to promote you. Again, they're number one with the bullet. They make so much money. They make so much money. That's why we're getting the cards that we're getting, people. but it's going to take an organization to make a strong move

and not just get Francis and Ghanu, not just get one name or two names or three names. You got to get like a bunch of them and float it in with some exciting up-and-comers and then floated in with some veteran names that people know. And once we get there and they're happy and they're making money, it'll force change within the industry. But until that happens, this is what we're going to get, people.

But for those saying, like, it could never happen. Just go back to that model. Go back to what WWE was or when it was WWF. Go back to where WCW was in 1987. And then fast forward 10 years and the whole entire wrestling business changed. And this is a very similar sort of time frame. It reminds you a lot of this. But is PFL WCW?

Can they be that? That's the burning question. If they can, we're in for a fun ride that's for sure cv hello mike mike good morning happy friday um yeah yeah since it's a free for all friday um just a few things to uh bring bring up uh bear with me um okay i was on IG last night and um i saw i don't know if you remember this but um i saw a highlight of jds landing the spinning back kick on mark hunt and i went i looked into it and that was actually 10 years ago now, like 10 years ago yesterday.

That was UFC 160. And if you're listening right now, and if you have a chance, you should do a quick Google search of that card because that card was actually crazy. Main event was the Velasquez Bigfoot rematch. I don't know if you remember T.J. Grant, he also finished Gray Maynard in the first round.

And freaking Robert Whitaker was on the prelims. And there's also a couple names on the prelamps, too. that you'll be surprised to see. Second thing, I'm going to do a future Otno pick. Kind of a crystal ball here. So I want Charles Olivera, win or lose against Darius. I want him to fight Dan Hooker, winner lose against Jalen Turner.

I think if Charles wins that fight, he's probably not getting a title shot. And in my opinion, if he loses that fight, I think his days of being like a top title contender and lightweight's over so i think you can you know do a couple of fun fights with him and um yeah oh one more thing um george saudoropolis i don't know if you guys remember that name um i think he actually has a fight right now in melbourne um which is crazy because dude's like 45 years old and um yeah that's all that's that's that's it for me today um have a great weekend and um go celtics damn right go southpics uh

UFC 160 is a card we talk about a lot because it's like one of those retroactive, like, most stacked cards that like flew under the radar, maybe in the history of the company. Velasca Silva, JDS, Mark Hunt, Glover Tashara was on that card, T.J. Grant, Donald Serroney, Mike Pyle, Rick Story. There's a young man on the prelims. I don't know if you ever heard of him. His name was Max Holloway. He was on the prelims.

Robert Whitaker, prelims. Guy, maybe you've heard of this man. Stephen Wonderboy Thompson was on the prelims. Maybe you recognize this name. Some of you might not. Habib Narmaga Madoff. Yeah, he was on the prelims as well. Jeremy Stevens on the prelims.

I mean, retroactively speaking and like going back and just looking at this card, it's pretty wild. It's pretty wild. UFC 160. So literally 10 years ago. to the day. One card I truly remember is UFC 146. Actually, today is the 26th.

Yeah, so that was 10 years ago yesterday. 11 years ago today was UFC 146. I remember this card very, very well, which Junior O'Santos is in the main event of that. Beat Frank Mier, finished him in the second round, the main event for the heavyweight title. Kane Velasquez beat the shit out of Bigfoot Silva.

Roy Nelson knocked out Dave Herman in, at a minute. Dave Peewee Herman. That's right. It was an entire main card of heavyweight fights. Steve A. Meachich was on that card. Second fight of the card. And Stefan Strove, Lovar Johnson was the opener.

And I remember this card because Oh, Glover to share, Mike Brown. Mike Brown and Daniel Paneda was the first fight of that card. Pretty crazy to think about now because Daniel Paneda back in the UFC, winning fights, Mike Brown,

renowned head coach, Glover Tashara, second fight of the card against Kyle Kingsbury, Dan Hardy prelims, Jason Mayhem Miller was on that guy. Jesus Christ, I remember this so well.

This is literally what I did the night before my wedding. The night before my wedding was me and all the dudes that came up, or in the wedding party. We played poker and drank beer and watched this card. And this is a bloody, violent card.

Kane Velas, like, the beating Kane Velasquez put on Bigfoot Silva actually made people uncomfortable. So I remember that one very well. This is, this was like, this used to be a very big weekend for the UFC. Nowadays, they don't run cards on these weekends, but back of the day, they used to. And they, this is like, those cards were like, as Brian, Campbell would say this is like one of their majors. Memorial Day weekend was like one of their major weekends and they would put on like these big stack cards but they haven't done it in a while

I can't I mean with this new TV deal I ain't mad at it because I think we could all use a little bit of a breather but this used to be a very big weekend for the UFC and now they they don't run cards on that long weekend so yeah it's interesting to to go back and look at these cards. Zach, hello. Hey, Mike. How are you doing today? Good.

I got three quick questions for you. Well, not questions, but first, I say this facetiously, but you're not a real Boston Celtics fan if you weren't sweating last night when the benchwormers cut it down to nine with like a minute and a half to go. Not a real Celtics fan if you weren't sweating that out. But two quick questions. First off, a little personal. I got a baby boy on the way, and I know you have about, what, like a 10-year-old son?

How have you introduced MMA to him, if you have, if you plan on it? Just want to get your thoughts on that a little personal. And also professionally, as an MMA reporter, commentator, however you want to classify everything you do, why do you give Colby Covington the time of the day to even spew his bullshit out there? I know it's a little brash how I put it, but that's just how I see it. Thanks, Mike. Fair enough.

I respect that question. I'll start with the first one. Well, the Celtics thing. I mean, look, is there a part of you that things like the NBA will just invoke like a 30-point basket when they play the Celtics? Sure. But I felt pretty good. Even though it got cut down to single digits at a certain point, like, I still felt pretty good about it. I just didn't like to see the backup players in there,

and I know that's kind of a hot take. I wanted to see the Celtics win that game by 100. Like, I didn't want them to stop. I even tweeted out, step on their throats, no lead is big enough after that first quarter. And I really wish they won that game by 50. But it is what it is. Miami got a little streak going,

but Celtics have all the momentum. It's unbelievable. Miami Heat fans are quietest I've ever seen. seeing them and it's pretty awesome. So as far as M-Bade goes, once in a while he'll watch with me and mostly it's just because

he'll be like, all right, I want to pick a fighter and then you have to take the other fighter. I'll be like, okay, and then he'll pick somebody and I'll be like, all right, I'll take that guy. And if my guy wins, he gets pissed. And if his guy wins, he like dances all over the house. He's not truly into it. if he wants to get into it, like I'm down,

like I'll be happy to show him, like fights and classic fights and all that stuff. Sometimes it comes up because, you know, kids can be assholes now. And sometimes kids are going to pick on you and you got to kind of learn how to defend yourself and do all these different things. So you have to sort of separate

doing the right thing and defending yourself at the same time. So there were in certain conversations like my son and I have had where it's like, yeah, so if he says this again, I'm just going to punch him in the face. I'm like, whoa. I'm like, no, no, no, no. That's not how it works. He goes, but you watch these guys fight on TV. So what's the difference?

I'm like, well, these guys are professionals and they sign contracts and they train and like, they agree to this. it's not like you just pick a random guy off the street and you punch him in the face and it's on television. It doesn't work that way. I was like, if you're going to hit somebody, like it's got to count and it's going to matter. So I always, I know it's a different world now, but I always gave the advice my father would give me. You like, hey, someone puts their hands on you. They start pushing and shoving or whatever.

You ask them to stop and if they keep doing it, light their asses up. That's it. in the 80s, early 90s, it was don't throw the first punch unless you have to, and always throw the last one. And that's kind of what I taught him. And he's learning that. So sometimes the job in real life

come together in such a strange way, but he kind of understands where I'm coming from at that. But yeah, if he wants to watch and get into it, I'm happy for it, but if he doesn't, then power to him. He loves golf. It's his thing. We go and play golf a lot. I love golf too. So we got our common ground. The Colby thing, look, I have been I've said this before. I've interviewed Colby longer than anybody in this space. No one has interviewed

Colby more times than I have. No one has interviewed Colby for longer than I have. Colby's always been very good to me. Even before he got into the UFC is when I started. I was interviewing him when he wasn't a ranked fighter or even anywhere near it. I was interviewing him when he was the interim champion. And even before that, when he was trying to get the Woodley fight, in every pretty much moment in between. He's always been really good with me. And I understand, like, he says a bunch of dumb things.

And I also understand that that is just the persona. That's not the guy. That's not the guy. The Colby Covington that I know, that I've known my whole life, text me on my birthday and says, happy birthday, Mike. Just out of the blue. When we jump on a Zoom chat,

before we even hit record to do the show, the first thing he asked me is how my wife and kid are doing. How's your family? How's Holly? How's Grayson? Is he still remembers everything? Is he still into Spider-Man? Like, that's the guy.

And then the camera turns on and you hit record and then the other dude comes out. And it is what it is. Colby Colby does three basically does I mean he'll jump on like Bisving's podcast and stuff like that

but for the most part he talks to me he talks to James Lynch and he talks to submission radio that's it that's it it's not it just is what it is

like I don't look at Colby as the character I look at Colby as Colby the guy I've been interviewing for eight years now that's that's how I look at him and he's playing a pro wrestling

character. It's like when you interview MJF, when you interview MJF, it's the same thing. Like MJF, when that camera is on him all the time, anytime that's on, he is that, he's the character. Always. Like that character, when the light is on, he's the character. And that's how Colby is. Does he cross some lines? Sure. When he said that John Annick shit, did it make me uncomfortable? Yes. Did it make me reach out to John Annick and be like, dude, I had nothing to do with that? Because I knew that thing was going to become a thing. yes but Colby's always been really good to me

so she's got to deal with the character and that's what got him over Barbarusa Barbarusa Hi Mike, how's your Friday? Good, how's yours?

Perfect, perfect, thank you. Mike, I just want to ask you about how do you think the UFC is dealing with prospects right now because I see the guys with most potential are putting on ice as of late. For example, Omar Noor Magumadov, I think he has undefeated. He put somebody out cold last time, but it's been eight months now,

and he's not fighting. the same thing goes for a lot of other prospect. How do you think about that? Thank you, Mike. I mean, it all depends. Look, this is the UFC. This isn't Bellator. This isn't the PSL.

It is a different structure in the UFC. And I think a lot of us understand the talent of a guy like Umar and Magamada Madov, and we want to see him tested. but why would anybody risk their spot to fight this guy who nobody knows, who's really good? The risk reward just has to be there. And there were talks about maybe throwing him in there with Marab de Wellish.

Like, why would Marab ever take that fight? That fight makes no sense to him at all. And why would it? Your teammate and current champion is about to leave the division so you could fight for the belt. And now after beating Peter Young, pillar to post, you have to take a step, like nine steps back according to the rankings and fight this killer. Like, what does Marab gain by beating Umar to Bogamadoff? He gains nothing from beating him. Like in our eyes, we'll be like, damn, this might be the best band of way in the world.

But in the grand scheme of things, it means nothing if Marab beats him. Zero. And if Umar beats Marab, then that's everything. jumps to the front of the line. So the risk reward is like, it's non-existent from Rob. And it just seems like Umar only wants like top five, top ten guys.

And there's just not a lot of dudes available. Maybe they do Corey Sanhagen. Like I could see maybe Sanhagen taking that fight. If he doesn't get them, and looks like Barab ain't fighting anytime soon. So maybe they'll do the Sanhagan fight. I don't know. But,

the thing is like and I've said this about Shafcott and I've said this about Sarukyon and I've said this about some of the other up-and-comers you can sit there and fight rank guys all you want but if you're only fighting once a year or once every 18 months like it means nothing you have to get out there and fight that's how you get over with the people that's how Kevin Holland got over that's how Hamzaa Chamaif originally got over that's how you get over. You have to get out there and beat people and you have to smash them.

It's like I understand Umar wants to fight a top to right guy. Just go fight the 40th rank guy. Who cares? Go out there and whip that ass and get over. And then be like, I'm going to fight again next month. And then just do the same thing. If there's not a top 10 guy available, go do that.

Like just get out there and fight and let the people support you and get excited about you. That's how this works. that's if you're not a if you don't have the gift of gab if you're not the five tool fighter and has it all then it's just

recognizability is how you get popular that's why Kevin Holland is so popular right now he's learned people have understood now that he has a little bit of the gift of gab and he isn't the greatest fighter in the world but he fights and he fights often and that's why people love him

so the UFC isn't great at developing prospects unless they have like a surefire path for what you want to do. And it's just more of like individual matchmaking. Like the Alex Pereira thing, like he's not a prospect, but when they brought him in, they had a plan.

Our goal is to get him to Adasanya and they did it perfectly. Nailed it. Absolutely nailed it. And they can do it. But Bellator is the best of developing prospects, I think. I think they are better than anybody. they're they bring in guys like one and oh and oh and they develop them and put them a great like look at guys like patchy mix and a j mackie and erin pico and like they're just they're so who's been to maga made off like they're so good they're so good at that you havec could kind of take a lesson from now for being honest but

yeah it's either the two the uc's are too slow or too fast like poor natty ice natty ice They didn't even watch Daddy Ice's fight. And she was like the prospect on the UFC Vegas 73 card. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats.

Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice, drink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too, along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Uh, JD, hello. Mike, what's happening, buddy? Good morning to you. I'm great, man. So,

I got a definitely a free-for-all question for you. So I'm getting ready to head on my Bachelor trip this weekend with me and a bunch of my chef buddies. So my question to use do you

have any stories from your bachelor party or Bachelor trip if you had one? But anyway, man, thank you so much. You're awesome. Do-de-lou. Thanks, man. So I didn't do much for the bachelor party. Like I just, we rolled deep, man.

Like, I have like a big family. I have a lot of like cousins and three brothers. A bunch of friends from like all over the country. So, I mean, there was like 35 of us. It was insanity. Plus, like, people I was working with at the time at the restaurant I was bartending at. there's just a lot happening

so we didn't really do a trip we just did like we picked a day and we basically went to the local country club and we we just kind of took up like 10 tea times

played golf, had some beverages just feeling pretty frosty at the end of it just had a couple of cigars we had some lunch and some beers after them. They went back home and continued on just hanging out and chit-chatting.

Got ready. And then we went to, I basically was doing karaoke and hosting trivia nights. And there was this one place that I did stuff like three nights a week for. And they basically were like, we'll close the whole restaurant for you. Like just bring everybody in. Like you'll have to obviously pay for shit. But like, we'll give you discounts on the food and all that. So we did.

We basically took over this restaurant. They closed it for us. We had a tremendous time. We played this giant poker tournament, eight like kings. And I finished second in the poker tournament. Then we played a cash game. And at that point, things were getting a little blurry after multiple scotches. And somehow I woke up the next day with like $500 cash in my pocket.

And I was like, how did that happen? because everyone kept going one on everyone kept playing cash games with you and you just kept getting these monster hands and you kept going all in and everyone thought you were just like half dead and they were calling you and you just had like these massive hands and you took like everybody's money and I was like wow I didn't even know that happened but interesting but yeah that's what we did we didn't do anything fancy but it was a great time and then my wife did something similar like right around at the same time they went out and like dance and had dinner and food and stuff like that but But have fun, man. It's a good time. Those are good times. James, hello. Hey, heck of a morning to you, Mike. Hey, uh, always seems like of these USC cards.

I always have an inch to watch Fides. Maybe I'm just used to watching everything Saturday. I know there's a LFA card Saturday. But, uh, is there anything? Like, what's the five card of the week? What's going to, what's my cat going to be watching? this weekend. Thanks, man. Have a heck of a weekend. And thank you for what you do for all of this. Everyone, have a great long weekend if you have more. Thanks, Mike.

Thanks, man. What fights will I be watching this weekend? I'll be watching no fights this weekend. I'll be watching zero fights this weekend. I'm getting away from it. I'm going to play some golf tomorrow morning. It's the wife and I's anniversary this weekend. So there'll be no watching those fights. Monday. I will be on the desk for like a half a day. But it's also Memorial Day. I'll be doing the MRF Monday morning. Try to get through that craziness.

And yeah, I will be avoiding fights as much as possible this weekend. I'm going to enjoy the weekend off from fights. It's nice to separate from once in a while. Now, listen, I'm not telling you you have to do the same thing. If you want to watch fights, go watch fights. It's boxing. There's Go to Kapos's

account. He will find you like 14 cards that nobody knew what's happening. So if you want to watch it, it's there. It's definitely there for you. But for me, I'm going to try to avoid it at all costs. Let's go to Lon Wolf. Then we'll go to Tristan.

What's up, Long Wolf? Good. I want to talk about UFC 290 on which Volkanowski is going to fight. So do you think Rodriguez sends any chance against Volk? Like, Volk already crushed all of the featherweets, yes, feather wits.

He crushed all of the feather wits. Do you think Rodriguez has any chance like defeating Volk or still, Waltz will remain the champion of this division and eventually will fight Islam for the second time? What do you think about Walt's future? And UFC. This is my question. Thank you, Mike. Thanks, man.

I'll tell you what, man. And this is, I understand this is not as big as either of these. Like, this will not do the business that either of these do or anything like that. Totally get it. Volk Rodriguez is the fight I am looking forward to the most this year. As of right now, what is on the docket, what is on the books? That fight, I am completely.

fascinated by. I'm probably going to pick Volkadovsky to win, but Yaiyer is just a problem for everybody. He's a problem for everybody. And Max Holloway is one of the most durable SOBs you'll ever find in your life. And Yayae put the boots to him in that fight. Max won it. But it seemed like one of those fights were like Max won the battle, but Yai Yir won the war. Like, it was just one of those types of situations.

Yair is really good. He's coming into his own. That Josh Emmett performance was something else. And if Volk gets, not saying that Volk's going to like overlook Yaiyir at all because of the possibility of a potential Islam rematch hanging in the balance, which I do think is possible. He goes out there and just melt Jaya Rodriguez and Charles Olivaira beats Binal Daryush. There is a real world. The UFC is going to try to give Volkanowski a big bag of money to go to Abu Dhabi and fight

mock Chaff again because that's a gigantic fight. But boy, I can't wait to watch this fight. This is going to be a hot take. I'm looking more forward to that fight than I am Dustin Poria versus Justin Gaci too. For different reasons. For different reasons.

We know what we're going to get from Dustin Poria versus Justin Gage 2. We know what we're going to get. We don't know who's going to win, but we know the kind of fight we're going to get. Don't have any clue we're going to get at this one. No idea. can't wait absolutely cannot wait for july 8th wish i could be there will not be there for international flight week but uh we will have the watch party and i man i can't wait for that one cannot wait so do i think the other question was do i think yeah you has a chance yes i do i do

think he has a chance i think he has a better chance than really anybody that volk has fought in this division tristan what's up mike can you hear me yeah okay um Two questions here. This is pretty much like a sneak peek of the next week's card. Amir al-Bazi versus Kai-Kai-Kha-Frentz. Just your thoughts about that match-up a little bit. I did watch this morning some tape on Amir. He looked really good in his last match-up.

Obviously, he's more of a grappler. Kai-Kai-Ki-Ki-France, obviously, is more of a striker. But I think Kai-Kai-Ki-France take-down defense is pretty good. So it's going to be a close fight. I just want to know who you giving that match-up to when that fight happens. next Saturday. And then my second question is in regards with the Boston Celtics. They won yesterday.

It looked really good. Jimmy Butler at the press comments pretty much said, we're going to win game six and end this thing. We'll have yet to see that. We'll see about that. My question goes beyond that. If they win or, I mean, if they lose,

then it's going to be rough. But here's the thing. I was listening to Brian Winhorse on ESPN and they were talking about Jalen Brown and Jason Tannum being eligible for the Supermax, both of them. So the commitment would be $590 million between the two.

You know, what would you do at that point? I mean, do you just like bite the bullion and just like, oh, we've got to bring them back? Because the thing is, the free agency market is not really great. So they're not going to really have any choice to look, you know, if they have to make some changes on the

team, it's going to have to be around those two. So what's your thoughts about that? Thanks for everything, Mike. Have a hug of a hug of a day. Hmm. I like Albazzi against Kikar, France, but that's a close fight. I'm looking at the betting outs right now. It's complete pick-em, so, and I totally understand that.

But that's a good one. It's a good fight. Looking forward to it. I mean, I think the Celtics will try to, like, try to get both of them at a slight discount, but my hunch is that they're going to keep Jason Tate, and if they have to choose between one or the other, they're going to keep Jason Tatum and they'll dump Brown. And Brown might, like, I don't know.

It's tough to say. It's tough to say because I think Brown could be like a gigantic, valuable piece on any team in the league. But I think Tatum's just the dude. Tatum is the dude in Boston. Like, Jalen Brown is a solid 1B, but Tatum's the guy. And I think Jailen needs a place where it's like, okay, I might not be the guy,

but I don't even want to be, I don't even need to be in the conversation to be the guy. Just let me like sort of pick up the pieces and just be that sort of under the radar element. Colin Cowher was talking about this. And I actually thought about this and I was like, it made a lot of sense because he usually says a bunch of dumb things too. But Jalen Brown, like on the Warriors, good God Almighty. What a great addition. That would be for them. And I think J-Len would be a great addition to a lot of different teams,

especially if he doesn't have to be the guy. If he could just be like a really solid number two, number three guy on a starting lineup, that team gets exponentially better. So my guess is if they can only keep one, they'll keep Tatum. But I think they're going to do their damnedest to try to keep both of them. And that's what I'm hoping for.

And if they win game six, The Celtics win game six, they're going to win game seven. And if they win game seven, sorry Chuck. Sorry Chuck Mindenhall. You're going to get run over in the finals. Kurt, hello. Kurt. Okay, nothing from Kurt.

There we go. Four on sniper. Yep. Hey, heck of a morning. So no MMA-related question for me today. I just wanted to ask you, who would you see? say in your eyes is probably the biggest what if in WWE history, whether that be somebody that

maybe had all the potential in the world and WWE for some reason didn't push them, or maybe they suffered an injury that didn't allow them to compete anymore. Just, I guess your opinion on that. That's all, Mike. Man. Golly, that's a good one. That's a really good question.

A lot of it would have to do with, like, timing, I think. Like there were a certain time, like when Rick Flair first, like, came to WWF, like, the timing was just bad. And it was just straight. Like, when Flair kicked, because I was like a, like, I was a kind of a geeky wrestling fan where I watched everything. Like, I watched everything. I watched WCW. I watched. I watched WWF.

I watched, you know, everything I could watch. Like, everything I'd get my hands on, I would watch. And so, like, when Rick, obviously, when Rick Flair went to. WWF, I was like, this is freaking awesome. We're going to get like Hulk Hogan versus Rick Flair. Like, this is going to happen. It's going to be like a WrestleMania main event. The two biggest stars in the sport,

two of the biggest names in the sport. But you know what I realized when Rick Flair came to WBF? Is that like WWF fans, for the most part, knew nothing about WCW. They knew nothing about them. There are a certain small percentage of people poor WWF fans who knew who Rick Flair was, but not a lot of them.

So he just never really got over at all. And it was just a hardcore fan signing. And that's why his run was not very good. It just wasn't good. Never really resonated with the people because no one really knew who he was. The jet flying, limousine riding, kiss stealing, wheeling,

son of a gun. Like, no one knew. and that's that's when I realized I was like huh I guess not everyone watches everything and that's kind of that's what I say like

where MMA is is kind of where pro wrestling was back then it's 100% true it's 100% true that's where we're at right now if I'm trying to think of like trying to just throw a name out there

like if Adim Knavokh signed with the UFC tomorrow, all of us in this room would be like, oh man, that's really cool. And then if we saw a fight poster, I was like, Jamal Hill's fighting Vadim Nemcoff for the UFC light heavyweight title

at UFC 297, the hardcore is like, oh, wow, this is cool. But most people who would react to that would be like, who? Who? Who the hell is Vadim Nemcoff? That's kind of where we're at right now. So, I mean, the more I talk about these things and the more I think about them, the more similarities that I see with, like, where the sport of MMA is right now, it's almost mirroring where the pro wrestling scene was like 30 years ago.

It's crazy. It's crazy. But biggest what ifs. Hogan Austin would be a big, is a huge what if. Hogan Goldberg, not Hogan Goldberg. Austin Goldberg We never got to see that Where Brett Hart's career

Would have ended up if Goldberg didn't kick him in the head And end it There's a lot of other Like if Rick Flair Got into WWF in like 1987 When Hulkomania was running wild brother That would have been an interesting time There's a lot I have to think about it

But it's a great question There's probably like obvious ones that I'm just not even thinking about. We'll take one more. We'll go to Harry and then I'm going to get out of here. Harry, hello. Hey, guys. I'm going to stop doing.

Everything can be. Order. I don't know what he's saying. I don't know what he's saying. All right. Sounds like you're on a school bus, perhaps. Maybe going on a field trip? I don't know.

All right. I think on that note, I don't think we can get any better. I don't think we can get any higher than a school bus call in. So thank you all very much. You are the best. AK and I are going to be recording a special edition of On to the Next One. That'll drop on Sunday. We're going to be recording that in a couple of hours. We got a lot of questions and looking forward to answering them. And I believe there's going to be a nice little roundtable podcast coming up. well on the podcast network.

I believe it's Dana White related. So stay tuned for that. And that's it, everybody. So for those in the U.S. who are about to have a long weekend, enjoy it, get some sun. Remember what Monday's all about. And if you're doing MIRF, good luck to all of you.

Let's go out there and kill it and PR it. And enjoy your weekend off from the Ultimate Fighting Championship, everybody but back on this show Tuesday 10 a.m. Easter, we'll do it again. Have a great rest of your Friday and as always have a heck of a morning everybody. A podcast network.