MMA Fighting - HOAM | Aljamain Sterling vs. Sean O'Malley the Fight To Make After UFC 280 — Not Henry Cejudo

Episode Date: October 26, 2022

No matter how you scored it personally, Sean O'Malley defeated Petr Yan at UFC 280 — which as Dana White said before this past Saturday's card, should earn him a title shot against fellow main card winner and champ Aljamain Sterling. The now un-retired former champ Henry Cejudo has apparently entered the chat, but is that the right way to go? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck weighs in on the bantamweight title situation and explains why he believes O'Malley should get the fight with Sterling over Cejudo, and why the champ should be pushing for that fight over any other. Additionally, listener questions include UFC 280 reaction as a whole, Islam Makhachev's dominant title win over Charles Oliveira in the main event and a potential fight with featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski, Beneil Dariush and Belal Muhammad's big wins and where they could go from here, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs, with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus at OnePeloton.ca. When I got a great deal on a great gift at Winners, I started wondering,

could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. At just $39.99, how could I resist? This luxurious wool throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss? Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard?

At these prices, could I find something for everyone at Winners? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners, find fabulous for less. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. It is Wednesday. Yes, that's right, Wednesday, October 26, 2020. And it is indeed a heck of a morning, live on the M.A. Fighting Twitter Spaces. You can hear the show in its entire, in its entirety,

because we'll be sure they're after on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. I am Mike Heck. Wow, do we have a lot to talk about? Not only from UFC 280, we've got a very busy week and weekend coming. up in the world of combat sports. I have a feeling we're going to have a lot of UFC 280 talk because it is Wednesday. We didn't have a show yesterday because the MMA hour shifted to Monday, Tuesday. So we also shifted to Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

So we're going to go three days in a row to recap UFC 280 to talk about everything going on this weekend. Bellator's got a card this weekend. Tons of boxing, including the Jake Paul Anderson Silva card. we will be there for that. I believe there'll be three of us there. I think it's Jose, Sean, and Casey, I think are all going to be there. And then, of course, the UFC's back on Saturday as well with a super fun-made event.

Calvin Cater versus Arnold Allen, massive fight at 145 pounds. It is at the apex. It is what it is. I ain't going to complain about it because we're going to see that fight nonetheless. But a lot to dissect from UFC 280. First of all, let me just say. say for those who checked out

the watch party, holy cow, thank you all very much. That was so much fun. It was incredibly chaotic. Myself and G.C. in the studio. It's a long day on Saturday.

A very, very, very long day. It was up at 3 a.m. to catch my early morning flight. Flew into Newark, went right to the studio, got ready to go. We had some hiccups,

along the way, as you may have saw on the post, and I announced it, I think, on Friday, Rafael Fazeve was supposed to join us for the main event. Something went down and he wasn't able to make it. So we were like, uh-oh, what do we do? And I try to hit up everybody. We eventually got Chris Wyden to agree to do it, but then it just kind of got too late and he couldn't do it either. But I think it actually worked out great.

I think the hang was awesome. Sean Alshaddy hung out for the last two fights. We had New York Rick. We had Drake Riggs on for a little bit. It was just so much fun. And hopefully this is the first of many. I don't know. I honestly have no idea.

But hopefully we get to continue to do this. I think the viewership was strong. I think everybody dug it who tuned in. Some people probably jumped on there and thought they were going to be able to watch the fights on there. Obviously, we can't do that. But I just thought it was like a fun alternative, just hang out. be in that studio, it was just insane. And what we watched was a storyline-filled aftermath

because of what happened on Saturday. Of course, Islam Makachev is the new lightweight champion of the world, just dominates Charles Olivera, gets the submission in the second round. Great promo afterwards with him and Habib. Volcanowski comes into the cage, and it looks like that's the direction we're going to go. Maybe in February, some people are into this, idea. Others are not. Some people want to see Benil Daryush get what he deserves after his big win

over Matush Gamrott. I got to tell you, I was on the fence about this Volcanovsky idea for a while, but after that promo, the face-to-face, all of it, I'm all in. I'm all into it. I have to see it. It sucks for Benile, but I think we could still give him a massive fight, possibly against Charles Olivera. And if he wins that, it's undeniable. He'll fight either Volcanov. or is on Makachchev for the title sometime in 2023. And I'm fine with that. I am fine with that. I know it's a little bit out of the box,

but I'm in. Al J. Stirling defeats T.J. Dillishaw. I know some people have thoughts on the shoulder and all of that, and we can probably talk about that at some point today, but I had a take on the fight. It was just my feeling deep down inside that, look, the fight's much different if Dillusha has two working shoulders. But after watching the early stages of the fight,

just seeing those two guys in the cage together, going face to face, seeing how big Al Jemaine Sterling was, I was like, man, I think I completely underestimated the size and strength differentials in this fight because Aljo looked like a freaking welterweight in there. And T.J. looked like a Bannonweight. and Alger was just so much bigger than him. And he hit him on the feet a couple of times.

T.J. was uncomfortable. I get it. It's the shoulder. The whole thing is stupid. It just goes back to what I've been talking about for months. T.J. Dillashaw should not have gotten that title shot. It should have been Jose Aldo the entire time. Now Jose is retired. We're not going to see that fight. And now the Bannamweight Division is in a crazy place right now. Because what do we do now? Sean O'Malley fights Peter Yan just before that co-main event happens.

And that fight was fantastic. It was electric. It was incredible. Sean O'Malley gets the split decision. And everybody is up in arms about it. Everyone's screaming robbery. Everyone's saying this and that. Here's the thing.

Watching it live, doing the group hang, doing the watch party. We're in a different kind of zone. I scored the first round for O'Malley. Some people agree with that. Others do not. I scored the first round for O'Malley. I thought it was a very close round. I thought O'Malley landed the cleaner, better shots.

So I gave him the round. But if you want to score if Peter Yon, I ain't going to be mad at you. Third round, real close. A lot of people thought O'Malley won that round. I actually thought Yon won that round. I know Yon was busted up. I know the ear was bleeding. I know all that stuff.

To me, I thought Jan did enough to win that. That round, again, if you scored that round for O'Malley, I ain't going to be mad at you. Round two was the only clear round of the fight, and that was Peodor Yan's round. So those screaming robbery, go back and watch it. This is not a robbery. The scorecards, especially in rounds one and three, were all over the place. And I've had people hit me up and say, you know what? On Saturday, I was angry at this result, angry at it.

I thought Peter Yan won, and then I went back and watched it again. And it's not, and these people are saying, it's not egregious that Sean O'Malley got that decision. Don't know if I agree. I haven't gone back to watch it a second time, but I don't think it's a robbery. And with that being said, even if you felt like Jan won the fight, Sean O'Malley, because of what Dana White said heading into the fight, he said the winner that fight's fighting for the title. And guess who won the fight?

I don't care how you scored it, Sean O'Malley won the fight. And now we're going to see what we have to do. Here's what was kind of shocking on Saturday. For the first time in two years, in like two years, Dana White, in a not negative way, mentioned the name that shall not be named on the show. But we're going to have to name them here because it's in the news. Mention Henry Suhudo.

A journalist or a reporter who was in there was like, what do you think of the Banned and White Division? What do you think of what could be next for Al Jermaine's? Sterling. He goes, I don't know, what do you think would be next? And Dana White mentions Henry Sehudo's name. And the reporter was like, eh, didn't really think much about it, just really wanted to get his question answered, I guess. And even Dana said, because I mentioned Henry Sehudo to this guy and he didn't seem to give a shit. And guess what? Nobody does. Nobody does. So now we're in this weird situation where if you listen to the MAA our yesterday,

what the UFC wants, and by the way, to say that this fight is targeted would be premature, what the UFC wants is to do Al Jemaine Sterling versus Henry Sehudo possibly in Perth as the second title fight. I feel like this is a horrible idea. I feel like this is a horrible idea from multiple reasons. One, Henry Suhudo turned his back on you. He turned his back on you. You were trying to build him up. He was starting to make the rise up the ladder of being a star for your company.

and then he turned his back on you. And he said, I'm out of here. Give me millions and millions of dollars. I want that. Connor money. I'm done until you give it to me. And then Henry just kept teasing he was going to come back over and over and over and over again. Over these two years kept commenting on all the Bannamway title fights, all the featherweight title fights, all the flyway title fights.

Now he's apparently back in the Usada pool and nothing's on the books for him. But apparently he's, there's apparently what the UFC wants is for him to walk back into a title fight. Why? Why would you do this? Because let me give you an idea of what's going to happen. What's going to happen is if Henry Suhudo beats Al Jermaine Sterling, he's either going to say, now I'm retiring again because I, now I definitely want more money. Or the other thing is he is going to sit out until he gets the fight with Volcanowski.

So now you're not only potentially holding up one division, you're potentially holding up two divisions because Henry Suhudo isn't going to fight for the Bannonway Taita. It's not going to defend it because he's going to want to fight for a goddamn Alexander Volcanowski, depending on what happens there. And then, like, we're just going to go around this whole circle. Like, and by the time this fight happens, we might actually have some clear-cut answers of what's going out 1-45.

And then here comes Suhudo, and he's going to be like, nope, forget those guys, forget Cater and Emmett and Yai. and Yair and all these other dudes that are on the way up, it's me. It's me. By the way, let me just say this. Again, whether or not you agree with this or not, Sean O'Malley beat Piero Yon. You said into a live microphone,

the winner of that fight was getting a title shot. Sean O'Malley versus Al Jemaine Sterling is a bigger fight than the Henry Sohudo fight. It's a more drawing fight right now. It just is. You want to know how to change that narrative? Henry Sehudo fights somebody else and wins, and then you change that narrative,

because right now nobody cares. And the reason is nobody believes he's coming back to fight anybody. Because what if he signs on and says, all right, I'm in? And then two months before the fight happens, he's like, nah, I'm not getting enough money, I'm out. Then you're screwed. Then you're totally screwed. What are you going to do now?

So the fight to make to me is Al Jermaine Sterling v. Sean O'Malley. It's an interesting matchup. And if I'm Al Jemade Sterling, why are you not going all in on this idea? Stop, like, and this is a problem throughout on Saturday. Because multiple people did this. Benile Darius especially.

Whatever the UFC wants, that's what I'm going to take. What? What are you talking about? If you're Algemaid Sterling, your whole entire process coming out of this fight is going all in on fighting Sean O'Malley because he has a very good chance to win that fight. The way

his size, his athleticism, and I know O'Malley presents some length and some striking challenges to Al Jermaine, but Al Jamein is a monster at 135 pounds, and I would pick him to beat Sean O'Malley. It's the most winnable fight, it's the biggest fight he can get. This is prize fighting, Al Jermaine.

This is prize fighting. You take a matchup that you are favored in that you can get the most eyeballs on, that you can make the most money with, and you go all in on that. Colby Covington has done this better than anybody. Do that. what are we doing here?

I just don't get it. I just don't get it. What purpose does this Henry thing serve right now? I don't get it. And again, you're doing heel versus heel. You're doing heel versus heel. Who are we supposed to cheer for? Who are fans supposed to cheer for?

Because you didn't have anybody to cheer for in this Sterling Dillisaw fight. O'Malley is pretty over right now. He could become just a massive superstar for you. And if Henry wins the belt again, it's just, he is what he was, what he left. And Suhudo could still be a bigger star, but we have to give him a fight. We could do Sohudo versus Cheeto. This is the fight I've been talking about for a while.

Or if you want to do something even crazier, it's not even that crazy. This is like what you should do. This is like a mergercratic idea. Just do O'Malley versus Sohudo. Clear cut number one contender. There's an argument here. one person says Sehudo should get the fight the next person says shot on Malley should get the fight

so let's just have him fight and see who wins and then the winner gets Aljo Aljo Suhudo is a terrible idea I don't like it the UFC's probably going to make it and I just don't think it makes any sense I don't or I don't know and it's funny how Aljo views it because there's a part of him who feels like

they would book that fight because they think Sehudo could beat him and take the belt off of him but I don't know. I just don't get it. All I've been saying this entire time is that I need, and everybody else needs to see that not only is Henry Sehudo coming back, that he's serious about coming back,

that he's not just going to walk into a title fight, potentially win, and then say, deuses, I'm out of here again. The UFC hates that shit. That's why we're in this position to begin with. So that's a route right now. And then Badia and Ayrouche, great win. would have been nice for him to be a little more

a little more fiery on the mic and I know he's not a big trash talker, but you just get on the mic and say, look, I won eight in a row. I just beat this murderer that you just threw at me. I should have been fighting for the belt to begin with. You gave me this killer,

a high risk, low reward fight for me if we're being honest. And I went in there and beat him. What else do I need to do to get a title, Sean? Instead, he says, I'll fight 10 more times. Come on, man. Come on. I'm not telling you to go out of your comfort zone, but I'm telling you to like, at least give us something.

Come on. You killed yourself with that one. You crushed yourself. UFC's going to be like, okay, fine. Here's Armand Surukia out if he meets Demir Isma Guloff. You said you were going to fight 10 more times. And even then, even after all that, I felt that Darius's performance was great.

And that, okay, I actually felt for a second that Darius could be the dude. And then Habeb took the microphone. Daniel Kormier asked some questions. And then Habeab just puts over Volk, puts over the idea, the number one lightweight in the world against the number one pound for pound fighter in the world. And by the time they get to that fight, it's going to be billed as who is the best pound for pound fighter on the planet. the UFC is going to run with that.

And like I said, I'm in. And even if B'Neal cut that great promo, he probably would have been out anyways. But at least don't throw it. I'll fight 10 dudes. I'll fight 10 more times where I fight for the title. You might just have to at this point. And it's unfortunate.

But this is where we are right now. And these are just the beginnings of the storylines. Bilal Mohammed was phenomenal. What a win for him. Big win for Manon and Fioreau against Caitlin Chuggan. A lot happened at UFC 280. a lot happening this week. I have spoken enough.

Let's bring you all in to talk all about it. Well, it's our Four Corner Sports. Hello, Four Corners. Hey, Mike. I wanted to say, I need to apologize to one Balam Muhammad. I know I came on the show last week, and I said, nobody wants to see that man and fight for a title. If that man could replicate the same fighting style

that he did against Sean Brady, all in on watching his fights, or even just like how AK would say mixing on the martial arts, because he put a weapon on Sean Brady. and I wasn't expecting that whatsoever. I was expecting Sean Brady to utilize his wrestling, and he had no answers for the wrestling whatsoever. I, but, man, we got to give this guy some type of coaching

when it comes to on callouts on the mic, because I legit was about to throw my phone across the field when he was about to call out Leon Edwards. I'm like, this guy needs to, you know, have either Mike Heck or Ariel teach him on how to call people out because he's not getting that type of fight. And I think if he would have called out Hamza in the proper way, instead of calling him the wolf or whatever, he said the 179.8 pound fighter, he possibly would have got it. But now I think he's still, you know, he's not going to get a fight until who knows when.

I think Dana has said something about Covington versus Hamza. So who knows who this guy's going to end up fighting. I would have predicted Gilbert Burns, but this guy, what's it called, had a A-plus performance. got to apologize to the man. As for the Banoe division, man, screw T.J. Dillishaw. This man was injured. He screwed us over for the whole

Josie Aldo, potential title fight against Algeman Serling. If he knew he was injured, he should have passed up on the opportunity. I mean, it was an embarrassment that, you know, he got hurt and the performance. I mean, I was looking forward to the fight. I wanted to see, you know, if Aljo could have really, you know, held him down.

if he was healthy but at this point man like i have no care for any any type of a t j dillishol fight in the near future the man could have honestly held up the division for quite some time um if he didn't didn't get injured so i don't know man i mean as for as far as alja versus henry sehuto i really don't care for the fight i want i rather see shan o'malley should strike with irons high or what's it called put uh shon o'malley versus uh chee o vera that's not something that all of us fans want to see. All right, thanks, Mike. Thanks, man. Yeah, I agree. I agree with the pseudo thing. Like, I mean, it's

probably going to happen. But again, this is on, to say that it's targeted or it's in the works, it's just not true. Because for it to be in the works or to be targeted, both sides have to say, I'm in. And all that needs to be done is to sign the contract.

That hasn't happened yet. So this is like what the UFC wants. Maybe the UFC like presented this idea. and Ariel had gotten word of it, but it's not targeted, it's not in the works. Both guys have not agreed to this fight yet. Who knows? Maybe Suhud will be like, I don't want to go to Perth.

It's got to be Vegas or I'm not fighting. Like, who knows at this point? But if they do do that, I can see a world where they're just like, all right, we'll just do O'Malley Veritou number one contender fight. I still don't like the Suhudo idea. I think it's going to come back to bite him in the ass. But I don't know.

I have no idea. And I don't know if, like, what Aljo is saying is true. I don't know if, like, there's some beef between the UFC and Aljo and they really want the belt taken off of him for some reason and maybe Sohudo is the guy. But come on, man. O'Malley's the bigger fight. We have all these dudes that are working their way up right now. O'Malley, Sandhagen, Vera, Song Yidong, like, he's coming off of the loss.

But you have, you have these guys on the way up right now. And then you have these other dudes like Jonathan Martinez and Chris Gutierrez. and guys who just cannot even break into the top 50. Ricky Simone coming off a huge win. Like, these guys are never going to get a title shot. Ever. They're never going to get a title shot because of all this holdup right now. And you've been building this little bannamweight Grand Prix slash turdy elimination rounds all year.

All year you've been doing this. And what you're telling us now is that none of it mattered because Henry Sehudo is just going to walk into a title shot. It's insane. It's insane to me. Belal, tremendous, tremendous performance. I don't want to like, I'm not going to completely dump on the mic skills because what Balal did was he went to a stop sign. He could have gone left.

He could have gone right. What he did was he went to the left and then he realized, oh shit, I'm going the wrong way. And he went in reverse and then went right. And then was like looking at his phone while he was driving. So he kind of veered off the lane a little bit. But at least he went the right way. I just wish he did it better.

Hobbs at Shemayev, you son of a bitch, let's fight. Now, who knows if that fight's going to happen. But if they cannot get Colby into this fight, Belaw's the guy. Like, I'm in for it. And if Colby is in, we do Belaw versus Gilbert Burns. I'm cool with that as well. But I know there are, I can tell you this.

Don't go reporting this shit because it ain't, it's, again, kind of like the Suhudo thing. There are talks about doing Shamiya, Colby. There are talks. And there's actual conversations going on. To say that it's done or even near done is, it's not true. But there are talks about this fight happening, potentially in March, maybe on that March 4th card.

But there are, there is dialogue going on at least about trying to put that fight together. But again, it's not done. It's nowhere near done. There's just dialogue happening. happening. Okay? That's what I'll say. That's what's going on right now. Nothing done. Don't go reporting. I'll go tagging me. Permaeuk Jr. The set fights's happening in March. No, it's not happening, but there are just, it is being talked about in the preliminary stages right now, all right? And if they can get, I think this fight could happen. I think this is a good chance that happens. But I don't know. We got to get everybody on board's a lot going on.

It's up, AA. You said Baltimore's name, Mike. Bloody hell. I know, man. I have. have to. He's in the news. I can't believe it. Can't believe Dan it said his name. I know, I know. So I've got a few things. So I'll try and be as quick as I can. First, I think we need to sort of define what a robbery means because for me, it's kind of confusing when people disagree with the decision. But then people say if it's close, it's, you know, it's not a robbery. With this one, people seemingly change their minds of some people. Some people, after like a second viewing for me. I didn't really completely change my mind. I did on how I scored the last round of this is yarn versus Amali. We're talking about here.

Just obviously. I had yarn three nil lives and then I changed it. I gave Sean the last round on a rewatch. My second question is how in the world did Mark Goddard not do anything when T.J. Dillosh told him about his shoulder. like that is just so confusing to me that an official gets that information and just doesn't do anything about it and my last question john jones i know this whole story's played out but he's come out and said he's still training for 282 so your thoughts on that everyone have a heck of a morning man peace

yeah the the robbery thing is tough um AK wrote up the robbery review says it's not a robbery and guess what, I agree with my best friend. It's not a robbery. It's not a robbery. Want to know why? Because when you have conversations about specific rights, let me, there's one specific line in AK's robbery review, and I'm paraphrasing right now.

There's something like if we need to go to the secondary criteria, doesn't that mean it can't be a robbery? Like, I think that's like so true. Like if we're talking about secondary criteria, it almost takes robbery off the table. Not 100% of the time, most of the time. And then he reposted a fight that's an actual robbery, the Diego Sanchez versus Ross Pearson fight.

UFC Albuquerque, this was, God, this is a while ago. This was, let me pull it up. This was June 7th, 2014, and Diego Sanchez won a split decision. but it is it was just horrible this was this is like the robbery of all robberies so if you if you want to go see what a robbery actually is go back and watch that fight from june of 2014 go watch it that's a robbery where you come out of it and you were like this dude ross pearson clearly unequivocally beat diego sancho he won he won there's no doubt about it and then boom split decision for Diego made no sense home cooking to its to its finest that's what that fight was that's a robbery that's like what the hell are we doing here

that's that's three people who should never judge that's people who should never two people should never judge a fight again after that that's what kind of robbery that was so i get where you coming from i know there's like a narrative like close fights can't be robberies but let's just say Alexa Grasso versus Viviani Arrujo. Like that was a close fight. That was a close, it was a close competitive fight. But we all came out of that feeling

very confident that Alexa Grasso won that fight. Now, if Viviani Arrojo got the split decision, I think you have a case for robbery. I think you would have a strong case for a robbery. Because I don't think anybody scored that fight for Arrojo. I don't think anybody did.

Like no one, even like Arugio's friends and family, even more like, yeah, she probably lost that fight. That would have been a robbery. This one, again, you can have conversations about the first round and the third round. The second round was the only clear cut round of the fight. Peter Jan won the second round, no doubt about it. But the other ones, they're up in the air. There's conversations to be had.

It's worth a second look, maybe a third. So that's why I don't think it's a robbery. But Sanchez Pearson is a frigging robbery. That's a robbery. But that's where we're at right now. It's the matcha or the three ensemble Ciceroa of the Fett that I just deniches that I'm energize so much.

Mm, it's the ensemble. The format standard and mini-regrouped, what old are well? And the embellage, too beau, who is practically pre-to-downe. And I know that I'd these Summer Fridays

and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. I'm just the most ensemble, the Codesonsomber de Cajor desks Cepora of Cepora Collection and other part of the show. Let me get to be quick. Forgered for a better quality of price.

On link on Siforah.coma or in magazine. Let's go to Tristan. Hello, Tristan. Hey, Mike, can you hear me? I can hear you. So, in regards to, I'm going to talk about Neil Derriush not doing his call out. Like I said on the Postal Show,

it is what it is. It's just not going to do it. I mean, he's going to, you know, he's looking at it from the UFC's perspective. he does you know like he said he's not going to be backing for fights he's just going to fight the people that are in front of him i know um jedd mishu was very passionate about it i didn't like his tone of what he had to say about benio on the post-fight show i like your idea better like if you're going to call him out do it in a very respectful you know he'll do it in a respectful way i'm cool with that and everything but you know jett is you know it is what is jad's going to say what he wants to say i understand it but i just didn't like the tone but you know hopefully i I mean, I'm leaning towards the side that he'll get his day. He'll get his day to contend for a title for the lightweight. Because, you know, Islam did say that after his fight against Volcanoz,

obviously he wins, then he's going to give Van Nuo a title shot because of the fact that he's on, like, eight-fight win streak right now. Possibly it could be a nine win streak if he fights before, then this is in regards of Benio Darius. So, you know, it is what it is on that. Um, my other point, I wanted to, um, talk about what, um, Shaheen, al-Shadi had said about, uh, with his tweet when he said, um, that Islam is a, you know, people are saying that Islam is a very boring fire. And I was, I was pretty surprised about to hear, like, people were actually saying this.

I was stunned. Is it, what, I mean, is it just, do you think it was mostly casuals that's saying it? Because I can't see hardcore enemy fans saying this at all. So do you think that was just coming from a place from the casuals, like not really understanding the sport and not really watching Islam how he fights? I mean, he's like has multiple finishes. And it's not like he's laying and prying on his opponents when he's taking them down with his grappling skills. He's actually like really like ground and pounding and then submitting them.

So I just find that wholly weird. I mean, I find that really weird and everything. And I just, I just want to understand, you know, you think it's just a casual mindset. It's just coming from the casual fans that really don't know enough about the sport. It really is not watching these fights. They're just saying, well, I like this fighter or that fighter or whatever the case may be. He's boring. He's not.

I mean, I don't get it. I don't understand that point. And then my last point, with Cipay, John Jones, and, Francis, I mean, like I was saying to me before, when we were messing each other, I was like, can't wait three more months. You literally can't wait three more months where you can get some extra time, John? Like, I mean, and like you said, like Steve may take it, may not, who knows? But right now, I'm assuming UFC is renegotiating with Francis Angano on his contract.

And, you know, John and John and Francis can just fight in March. So, I mean, because like you said, if John Jones loses the steepe, it messes everything up. Like, now it's like, oh, my God. Instead of John Jones and Francis and Gano fighting for the title next year, you're going to have Stipe and Francis Gano again for the rematch. Does anybody want to see that? So I'm not really sure about that. I just want to hear yourselves about everything, Mike. Have a heck of a morning.

Thanks. Thanks, man. So, yeah, the banal thing, my way was like, hey, Habib's always been a man of his word. You retired, said he's done. He's never coming back. He's a man of his word. Islam, you mentioned my name. You said my name.

You said, I deserve it. Habib's a man of his word. Are you a man of yours? And I believe you are. Give me the fight. That's it. It's not you're a piece of shit. I hate you.

I want to punch you in the face. it's a respectful callout, yet you're calling him on something that he said already. There's nothing wrong with that. That's not against who he is as a person. It's a very respectful callout. And I would have a new issue with that. He should have done something like that.

He certainly shouldn't have said, I'll fight 10 more times. That was just bad. That just wasn't good. The boring thing is just insane. Now, if you're comparing Islam to Charles and like what Charles did heading into that fight, I mean, it's still, he's still not boring.

He's just, Charles Oliver is a unicorn when it comes to that run that he was on in terms of excitement and pure and utter chaos. And I think maybe the other part is, as well, is that people spent 75 bucks. They were hyped up for this very interesting, wildly competitive fight, and Islam just whooped his ass the entire time. Like, Islam just dominated him. Like, Oliver did nothing in that fight. did absolutely nothing. He landed 19 significant strikes, which by the way,

I don't know if that's true or not. And anything he landed significant was off of his back. It was either he landed elbows in the guard or he landed that upkick in that fight. Like other than that, he did nothing. He was stifled the entire time. So maybe it's that sort of like Mike Tyson thing

where it's like we were expecting a fight to last more than eight minutes and it wasn't competitive at all. So maybe it just kind of left a bad taste in people's mouths in that way. But I don't know. But anyone who seriously says Islam is a boring fighter is just incredibly wrong. It's just not true. This guy's looking for finishes all the time.

And he's on an incredible finishing streak right now. Sometimes it's not as aesthetically pleasing as what Charles Oliver is doing where he's getting drops, getting back up, getting dropped again, getting back up, and then finishing the fight. Islam, you just can't hit this guy. He's so defensively sound. And it's not boring. It's just dominant. It's just dominant.

Sometimes dominance is boring. The Yankees in the 90s, people thought they were super boring because they kept winning every year. When the Patriots kept running off Super Bowls, they were boring because they kept winning every year. When the San Antonio Spurs were doing their thing and winning a bunch of championships in the 2000s, like late 90s early 2000s, they were boring. Dominance is boring in a lot of people's minds because you're expecting a different result. You're hoping potentially for a different result. And it didn't happen. So I don't know where that's all coming from.

And then the John Jones thing, you guys probably saw by now. UFC officially issued a press release yesterday, giving the ticket on sale date for UFC 282. And they said in the press release, the main event is the rematch, Juniore, Perashkin, Glover, Tashirea. Does that mean that they still can't get John Jones in? Maybe. I doubt it. I doubt it.

But who knows? Like, this could have been a negotiation tactic on the UFC's part as well. Maybe just the mere mention of this, this being out. in the universe Stipe catch, Francis catches catches wind of it

and says, what are we doing here? If I'm ready to fight in March, why are we doing this? And maybe this was like, if you book, maybe Francis,

like, if you book this fight, I'm done. Like, I'm leaving. And the UFC's like, ah, this is exactly what we wanted. Now we're going to get

Francis to lock back in and now we get the fight everybody wants. So I don't know what's going on behind the scenes. I didn't like the matchup to begin with. Again,

if you wanted to put John on the card, cool, but putting him against Steepay, I didn't like. Like, I liked B.C.'s idea a little bit better, like, pulled Tye Tuvasa off the Pavlovich fight and just put him in there with John. Do a Derek Lewis fight. Like, do something like that. Like, I'm fine.

Still getting John on the card. Maybe Derek catches him or something, even though he's got a couple of losses. Like, it's something. Like, if you just want John to fight, just give him a fight. But it just doesn't have to be steep. It doesn't need to be like an interim title fight. Doesn't need to be anything like that. If you just want to get John some reps, give him somebody.

Give him a guy. I don't care, but the steep idea was just way too risky. And part of me is glad that, at least for the time being, that that's not going to happen. And I just don't know if steepe is even interested in fighting at this point. I don't know. I think Jones and Ganu would be like the only two he would come back for. He's not fighting Curtis Blades. He's not fighting Askenal.

He's not fighting any of those dudes. Those are the two guys he would come back and fight. And even then, it's going to have to take. something astronomical to do it because the dude's happy with his life. He's made a lot of money in his career. His relationship with the UFC has not been the greatest. He's widely considered the greatest heavyweight of all time in a lot of people's eyes because of the run he was on and the title defenses that he had. He's a full-time firefighter, which is his first love. Fighting was not his first love. He's got the family, two kids now. The dude's living life. He's happy. So he doesn't

need to fight anymore. And if he fights, cool. But it's going to be against one of those two guys. So we're on to the next one, listeners. If you start making matches for Stepe, that's not John Jones or France and Ghanu, it's officially do-do. Let's go to Viking because he was next in line. And then we're just going to run the gauntlet here. We're going to run the gambit after this with everybody waiting. All right? We're going to get to everybody. Hi, Viking. I'm good. I've been waiting for four days to tell you that the post-fighted show, UFC 2-80 show was phenomenal and it's amazing. And Ted Mishu is so legit, man.

That guy is on another level. That guy is on another level. And except that Dagestanian talk, but still that guy is a legit. And that show was one of the best show of the most MMF fighting YouTube channel. Absolutely great. show that was. What a show, man. And the things I would like to talk about, UFC 280 was, is Charles Soluera has no chin. And Islam Magadjo, that man's game plan, that man's team's game plan was phenomenal. They started Charles Solera, beat him in,

beat him in his own game. That's it. That was the perfect game plan to execute. And They're at Alderman Sterling. Sorry about the crickets. Algebra in Sterling, UFC just want to F him. Absolutely, that's correct. And Binil Darjush is the biggest nobody in the UFC right now. At the moment, he's a no-show. He's nobody.

He's not going to get his title shot, maybe even after fighting three or four times. Let's it, Bilal Muhammad, if he follows the game plan, if he make a good game plan, And he can at least be the contender, number one contender or the title challenger. Sean O'Malley, no more bear or trash talk about him. He's a great fighter. He can dance with all the tough tough fight, UFC fighters, UFC bantons. And Menon Firo is not at the level of Valentina Shaijanko. that's another thing.

So that's it. I have no question for today. Okay. Thanks a lot, Mike. Thanks, man. Yeah, a lot to unpack there. You can see, like, and I went back to watch the main event again. You could see how uncomfortable Olivera was immediately.

Because Machachev went in there and hit him like three or four times, like right out the gate. and you could see it in Oliver's eyes, like, uh-oh, I didn't expect this. I didn't expect this. And then he was just kind of done from there. Because I don't think Oliverer expected the pop that he had. And to come out the way that he did on fire landing like a multi-shot combination like that, getting Charles' attention, getting him on his back heels a little bit, that was really smart.

That was really smart. That was an incredible game plan. Aljo, I mean, maybe. Aljo kind of agrees with you on that whole situation. I don't agree with the Benile Darryor, so he's a nobody. He just, it's just not always, like, he can get there. If he fights Charles Oliver in X and wins, you have to give him a title shot. He can come out and say, I'll fight a hundred guys.

But at that point, he's getting the winner of Volcanovsky in Islam. If he beat Charles Olivera, it's undeniable. Gamrott. I mean, Gamrott's a great win. I've said this a million times. I still thought Sirukian beat Gamron in that fight, but I'm not going to argue with you. It was certainly not a robbery.

It was one of the... It is my favorite fight of the year. Is it going to win awards for being the best fight of the year? No, but it is my favorite fight of the year the Siru Kian Gamrod fight. It's so good. It's incredible. That's why I've watched it 27 times this year.

It's just amazing. Like what I'm running, I'm running on the treadmill and things are getting tough, I pull that fight back up and I run for another 25 minutes plus because of that friggin fight. It's nuts. Such a good fight. So I don't agree with you on that end.

And Bilal, I think, listen, Bilal, talk about stocks rising. No one stock rose more than Bilal's Malamance on Saturday, including Sean O'Malley. Like, Sean O'Malley is going to reap the benefits of this all because he jumps up in everybody's rankings. and all that stuff. He's in the title contention.

He's in the conversation to fight for the belt. Sure. But at least when this fight with Jan was booked, and even the betting lines indicated this as well, people thought Sean had a chance to win. It was a very intriguing, stylistic matchup. Nobody was picking Ballal to beat Sean Brady. I mean nobody.

And Balal shut everybody up. Not only did he do that, he finished him, and he did it in the place he did it where everyone went bananas for him. he looked like a star and they treated him like a star over there it's a massive win for him he's a now everyone's taking him seriously now it's big fights there's no more fighting backwards there's no more sean bradies in his future it's hamzott gilbert burns and the title that's it that's his future right now and he needs to go all in on this shemaiah thing because if they can't get shemaiah

colby together he needs to jump on that fight because that's his chance every fight he's he's the Rick Flair of the wealth to weight division. He's in the mix until he's not. Once he loses, he's out of the mix. There's no coming back. It's like Leon. Leon lost to Usman. He was never getting another title shot.

And Balala's in that same kind of position right now, where he's got to win everything. He loses once he's done. His title hopes are over. And maybe that's not fair, but that's just the way that it is. it's just the way that it is so massive performance you did exactly what you needed to do and more

and I gotta tell you I still think Hamzot beats them but I think I think it's an interesting fight I think it's an interesting fight let's go to sloppy dot core sloppy you're there

you just got on mute yourself don't hear you sloppy. Jump back in. Let's go to Toke. Yes, I can. How are you? I think Alex K. Lee gave this what, 9.6 on the gymnastics scale and it probably

landed on a flat five. And it's kind of... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, it's two non-competitive championship matches, one that shouldn't have happened, and then Islam, you know, doing the Islam thing. And from there, we get, you know,

we get the two main guys that came out of this event and were impressive, really impressive. You know, Sean O'Malley, that fight was great. That is going to count upwards. So fine, maybe five is a little low. But if we talk about Belal, we talk about Benil, talk about Fiore. These were supposed to be someone in the championship contention if they want.

Not exactly Belal, but he at least had at least have. a shot to actually get a decent fight after this. He bottled it. We both know it. We need to start a school where we actually teach these guys mic work, because this is horrible. Not mentioning Kamzad's name is horrible. Nothing short of horrible.

And then we get, oh, it's just so frustrating. And Manon Furo didn't do enough. She wasn't, she wasn't, he didn't. She didn't do enough to really set herself up for a title shot. So now we're in this weird position where we had all these great fights, and the result of it is all a bit nothing. Like, it's kind of frustrating because I was really looking forward to this, and I just feel like we didn't get any of the things we wanted.

What I will say, though, is I scored the match for Sean O'Malley, by the way, just if you're keeping score among your followers. But that's my two cents. Good day, sir. Thank you, sir. So, I mean, you score in the bow for Amali? I don't, I mean, I can't, I mean, I can maybe make a case, but I'm not mad at that. It's not terribly wrong.

It's not a bad take. It's nothing. It's nothing. Um, that's, that's fine. The five I, I have an issue with. Look, this card, this card was like the Halloween ends of cards where we were like so excited for it. We're waiting a year. It seemed like we're, the bill to this card took months and months and the excitement levels

continued to rise and rise. And then you just, you go in there and you want it to be great. You want it to be great. you want it to be AK's 9.6 You're hoping for it. And then it doesn't happen and you're like, oh, now I can't, maybe Halloween ends is not the best comparison

because most people who saw Halloween ends thought it was the biggest piece of shit of all time. I'm kind of in the ingredients of that. It wasn't great. But I just think the expectation of this car were just so impossible to reach in a lot of ways. And

five is right. wrong. 9.6 would be too high. Definitely didn't reach that. But listen, we're going to be talking about the fallout of this card

for the next three days. We're going to be talking about the fallout of this card more than Cater Allen, more than Anderson Silva, Jake Paul,

on this show for the next three days. So in a weird way, successful, I understand where you're coming from. We wanted to see a more competitive main event.

We didn't think T.J. Dillishaw basically had one arm. Although I still believe after seeing the size of Sterling and seeing Sterling land some shots early that maybe that fight doesn't go a hell of a lot differently. I mean, T.J. is able to defend himself a little bit more, but I mean,

Benil was great, great performance. And it sucks. Like, even if Benile cut a Nate Diaz promo at the end of the day, and we give him crap for saying, it wasn't the post fight itself, was him saying, I'll fight 10 more guys. if he said anything else if I had to fight one more time fine I'll fight one more time like still we would have hoped for more but

the 10 I'll fight 10 more times just not good but even if he said even if he came out like Nate Diaz and just went full heel on Islam and said he sucks at fighting and Charles Oliver is not good he's a lucky bastard and all this stuff like even if he said all these things he still wouldn't have got the title flight

because of what happened at the end because Habib took the bike set the table, Islam drove the point home, Volcanowski got into the cage, they had the face off, Conell wasn't getting the shot anyways. So,

I get where you come from. Manon, Manon didn't earn herself a title fight. And you know what? It all kind of works out because now we'll just do Alexa Grona versus Manon Fioro. We'll let Chivchenko sort of figure out

her next move, whether it's the rematch of Talos Santos, maybe she goes up to 135 and fights Amanda Nunes. Who the hell knows? at this point. But yeah, it wasn't a five because we're going to be talking

about this one for a week. So it can't be a five. I think it's in the eights. I think it's in the eights, but I also think the expectations for this card were impossible to reach in a lot of ways. Boating for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Oh, what?

Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo. Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won! Feele the fun! Boating will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly.

Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close to you, call 18663-3-1-260 or visit Comexonterio.ca. 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. Do we have you sloppy? Yes, you do. I knew I was going to get called right when I was losing service.

A heck of a morning, Mike. Hello. How are you? I'm doing well. Yeah, there's just three things that I was thinking about. I don't understand why Sehudo would get a title shot right away. And, you know, John Jones is already talking about fighting Steepay first. If anyone, like, would deserve a title shot right away coming back, in my opinion,

and it's Jones hands down. And then a few other things I was thinking of. I saw, I'm not too opposed with, you know, O'Malley winning. You know, it's dicey. I would still say Jan, but, you know, I was curious to see what your thoughts on him going up to, you know, number one ranked contender. I feel like that's still just a little high for him. We lost your sloppy.

but I think I got the grasp of it all. Him going up to number one. He didn't go up to number one on ours. We had him at three, maybe two. Let me pull them up. I actually have them right in front of me. The brand new, brand new, NBA fighting global rankings,

divisionals are live. Shot-O'Malley, tied for second. Actually tied for first. I mean, Sterling's number one. He's tied for second with Piotr-Yon. So he didn't jump Yon. He's just tied with them. And I think that's pretty damn fair.

And then you got Sanhagen, Marab, and Marlon. I have Marlin ranked. We have Marlin at six. I have Marlon ranked higher than six. I think I haven't had it. I think that's how I had it. Maybe two. I don't know.

I think it was Sterling O'Malley Farah is how I had it. But you can mix a match, whatever you want to do. But, yeah, I'm not stunned that he went to number one in the UFC rankings. This is what the UFC wants. It's exactly what they want. They want us to have conversations about it. But the Sohuda thing is just so silly, and it makes no sense. It's not like Sohuda was like this giant star when he left.

It just wasn't. It's not like he's not Connor. He's not even Jones. Like Jones is never like a giant pay-per-view draw. But Sehuda was never a pay-per-view draw. Like ever. Ever. Did he help make Flyweight a more interesting division and get more eyeballs on it?

Yeah, but you can make a stronger case that the man who really put the division on the map was Davis and Figuero because he's just bolting dudes left and right. Sohudo set put the ball in the T for him, no doubt about it. But Figuero just crushed it every single time. So the Bannerway division moved on without Sehudo literally the night after he retired. Like that night they moved on without him. And then we got Jan versus Aldo, which is a great fight. And then we had everything that came after that. Like, the division has moved on without Henry Sehudo.

So I don't get it. Like, I don't get it. I really don't understand it. And I think they should do the O'Malley fight. The O'Malley fight is bigger. The O'Malley fight right now is bigger than the Suhudo fight. But if Sohudo comes out and fights anybody and wins, maybe it's not anymore. The fact is no one believes Suhudo's fighting anybody.

we need to see if he's serious. That's why I've been saying the whole time, fight somebody else. Fight Marlon. You can beat Marlon. You can beat him. I would favor Sehudo to win that fight. But Marlin could win too.

And that's a good fight. Like, that's a good fight. But alas, here we are. And probably going to get Sterling Sehudo. And I'm just going to have to deal with it, I guess. It's like the UFC, like, listen to this show. And they're like, Mike Hex baldhead looks too similar to Dana. we're going to go against everything he says.

I just don't. I don't agree with it. I don't agree with it. And I just want to say this for the 500 of time. I am not taking away from what Suhudo has done. The guy's a great fighter. His resume speaks for itself. I have nothing against the resume. I have a problem with him leaving the company high and dry, saying he's done, holding out for Connor money,

and then just thinks he can slide back. in to a title fight when this entire division has busted their ass to get to where they're at right now. And he just gets to slide on in doing nothing and getting a title shot. All he's done is like tease returns. And just because he goes back into the Usada pool, he gets a title fight. Like I just don't understand it. I just don't understand it. I think AK wants to respond, by the way.

Hello, AK. Can you hear me? You might be getting some funny acoustics? There's no video component to Twitter spaces, is there? No. Okay, good, because I don't want to get us demonetized or in trouble. I'm fresh out the shower. Oh, boy.

Yeah, sorry, I don't want to get people too excited on a Wednesday morning. I've got one towel wrapped around my body covering up my nips. I got one seductively wrapped around my hair. So I apologize to everyone, but I was listening to the show while cleansing, as I often do. And I had to chime in because, and I'm sorry, I joined halfway. I joined the wonderful program halfway much. I had to chime in

because the AK gymnastics scoring system is being misunderstood and misinterpreted. I can't remember, it was two callers earlier. I know a regular caller. Oh, thank you. It was always my guy for chatting in. Saying I gave it a 9.6.

My pre-fight score was actually like 10.0. I said like this could be one of the greatest cards of all time if everything hits. Now again, to put it in gymnastics context, excuse me, and it's a surprise again that people are kind of getting confused about this, given that I assume there's like a 100% crossover between hardcore MMA fans and, you know, gymnastics fans. It's like a bend diagram, like the Venn diagram I would think would just be one full,

complete circle. But I don't know, maybe I'm wrong about that. I thought M.A fans love gymnastics. gymnastics has a degree of difficulty element, and that's what I'm talking about here, is beforehand. There's a potential score in gymnastics before a move is attempted. So that's what I, when I do a pre-fight show, that's what I'm talking about. I said the potential score for US 280 is 10.0, and that's if, again, we get five main card bangers, eventful results, new contenders, you know, three or four highlight real finishes in the prelimbs.

So I said like, even, I said like, oh, well, even if everything doesn't go perfectly, it could end up a 9.5, 9.6. That's probably where that comment came from. My actual post-fite score, after the way it unfolded, I'm kind of with what you said, Mike, maybe an 8.0. I could see people going lower. There was an element of disappointment, especially with the prelims, which were mostly forgettable, except for Balal, you know,

Blal closing the show with Sean Brady, which really should have been main card fight anyway. The rest of the prelims, fine. Some people had like okay performances. I don't know if anyone will be rewatching any of those fights or talking about those fights other than sort of a very educational performance by Makaya. We learned a lot about him. But entertainment-wise, I get it lacking. So I just wanted to clarify that.

I agree the card was kind of a letdown. But it shouldn't be just because you didn't get what you wanted. Like I had picked Olivaara. I had picked Beodor Yan and I was pleasantly surprised by Sean O'Malley doing so well. I was pleasantly surprised

mostly pleasantly by Islam just running through Charles I mean how can you not respect that kind of domination? So I agree. Definitely not a 10.0. I still stand by that it could have been it had the potential

to be one of the best cards of the year, one of the best cards of all time if everything played out. Obviously it didn't but I felt again just based on again Islam a Daryush Gamera up was a great fight.

love Yon O'Malley. I think that's one of the 10 best of the year. Maybe not top five, but I think top 10 for sure. I will see if it's in the top five at the end. There's been a lot of great fights this year. But yeah, maybe I'll settle on 8.0, 7.8. You know what? It landed. I don't feel

it nailed the trick accurately. And maybe it needed a little more sauce on that rotation coming off the pommel horse or whatever. But at least it landed. I didn't think it fell. And it landed really well. The landing was very graceful. and, you know, sets up hopefully to create an amazing fight with Islam and

Volkanowski or whoever is, whoever's next for Islam. So there you go. I just wanted to defend myself and the world of a gymnastics score. There you go. My best friend, there's your clarification for the gymnastics score. So now on the pre-fight show, preview shows, when he lays out the score, he's just setting a benchmark and let's see if it could reach it.

If it all goes perfectly well, it'll hit this. And maybe we'll get his post-jumastic score in the end as well. We'll keep the strain going. We'll go for probably another 25, 30 minutes maybe, because this is a lot of you. Ahead, welcome. Yes. Okay, Mike. So, firstly, first question is with the Hums at Colby thing, because I was so annoyed

coming off the back end of 280 fight week because of that interview with Dana Wye and Oscar Willis. And it was saying, Dana was joking. Dana was joking about making that fight as the co-main event in London and people, all these MMA pages started reposting it. And but now there's fresh rumors and Chimayev's team said they've come up. And I know you've mentioned it. So how close is that to being done before I get on to my other points? Not very, but we're at the, hey, we have this idea about this fight on this date.

And that's literally where we're at right now. And I know that all I could say from sources is that is being talked about. Like we're literally at the beginning state. Like, if this is a marathon, the gun just went off and we're like five steps into the race. Okay, fair enough. So like, here's the thing with the other, I disagree with most of what everyone said. So with the T.J. Dilloshal thing, I'm not that annoyed at him like it because he got his ass. He got whooped.

He paid the price for lying about that injury. So it doesn't matter. But I, and like, Mike, you're mad about Henry. I think it's a great fight. I think it's great. like as in Henry, I think he's a bit entertaining, he's funny, and honestly, he beat Al Jermaine Sterling, even if he was at 70%.

I really believe it. The wrestling's too good, but I know what's going to make you mad, Mike, because if Henry wins and whatever happens with Alexander Volcanowski, Henry's not only going to skip bantam weights, he's going to skip the feather weights. And it's going to be hilarious that he will jump the queue and he will fight Volcanowski,

whether Alex wins or loses. Now, the last point is about Yarn O'Malley. I am so, like, here's the thing. I scored it for Yarn, and I don't mind, like, the judge. It's not a robbery, but it's a petty theft, and it's still stealing the victory from Yarn. And I'm not mad at the judges because they made a decision in the heat of the moment. I'm mad at the people interpreting the rules, the unified rules. Like, keep on saying, damage is important.

Damage is important like a parrot. Listen, damage is important, yeah, but it's also, it's a, effective striking and effective grappling. And in that third round, for me, that was the decider, right? Sean got yarn with a knee, but yarn got shown with multiple counters as well. So that's kind of in the back mirror. So then you have to look at other stuff, like the takedowns. And if you're going to be so, for people are going to be so narrow-minded.

Like they just say, oh, but there wasn't any striking done on the guy. That's ridiculous because then why are you watching MMA? Go over to one championship and go watch more. tie. If you don't want to even value grappling where even if it's grappling transitions, even if it wasn't a submission attempt, like you won't value it and you won't like attribute it to the scores. It's crazy. And Bilal, I'm not, I'm still not that high on him. I think they performed well, but I don't think he's elite of the elite like Shavkat beats him Colby, Usma, Leon. Gilbert, they beat him. And Benil lastly, Benil versus the winner of Chandler and Poethe.

to guarantee the title shot. Drop the mic, Mike. All right. This is what I expected from my head. It's what I always expect from my head. Good takes. I like them. Here's the one thing,

because we address a lot of this stuff already. So let me just add to the Suhudo thing. I'm not against the, like, I'm not against the matchup. Like, I am intrigued with the matchup from a stylistic perspective. That is an interesting fight.

No doubt about it. The problem is the issue I have is not the matchup. The issue is the timing of the matchup and the fact that we have spent a year building up this division, these huge fights that have happened, these big main events were for nothing. They were for nothing. All of it was for nothing if Henry Suhudo just slides into a title fight.

Doing nothing. He left you. He screwed everybody over. I'm done. UFC's investing in this guy, trying to build him up. He was on his way. And then he said, no, worse retirement in the history of combat sports. And then he just all of a sudden is like, oh, I want to come back because Volcanovsky needs an opponent for that Jacksonville card because Max Holloway's hurt.

Then he says he wants to come back. Zombie gets the fight. Then Holloway match. And Volk puts on two of the all-time great title defenses. and now he wants to come back and he's going to hold the UFC up and then now all of a sudden after Dana has dumped on this guy for two years

all of a sudden he's in their good graces why? What do he do? What is he done? What is he done to earn this? What do you have Marlon Vera and you have all these other guys shot O'Malley, whatever? All these guys have been working their asses off

trying to earn this spot and then Tehuda just slides in doing nothing it'd be one thing if everybody was clamoring for it. If everyone's like, oh, we need Suhudo back. This division needs him. No one is saying that. No one is saying that. If Sohudo never fought again,

would anybody be up in arms? No. No one would be. He's a tremendous fighter. And if he just fights anybody, like I don't care who he fights. Anybody, just show me your shit. serious. Show me you're not going to do this again. Show me you're not going to do it again.

Because that's my fear. That's my biggest issue with all of this is that he goes out there, beats Aljo, wins the belt, and then does the same thing. I'm leaving. I'm retired. I did what I I told you I would do it and I'm leaving. Or I'm not going to defend my title against Vera or O'Malley or whoever because I'm just going to sit out and wait for a Volcanovsky. What are we doing? that's the fear I have with all of this, and that's why I'm so against this. Now, if you prove to me that you're serious and you're serious about making a run at this thing and being triple C and all of that, then I'm in. Like, I'm into all of them.

You've got to show me something. You doing videos on YouTube and you tweeting, shitting on all these fighters, it does nothing for me because guess what? You were doing that even when you were retired. When you weren't going to come back and fight. We're just doing the same thing. All you're doing is taking piss tests now. and doing the exact same thing.

Prove to me you're serious. And then I'm in. Prove to me you're serious. I wish the UFC would like contractually just be like, hey, we'll give you this title fight, but you can't retire. You can't retire outside of a catastrophic injury. You've got to give us four fights. If he signs that paper and guarantees four fights outside of catastrophic injury,

my opinion changes. But again, I don't think that happens. I think he could beat Aljo, and then he's going to hold up two divisions, and it sucks. But maybe I'm wrong, and I really truly hope I am, because Suhudo versus a lot of these guys is awesome from a stylistic perspective. I just have no faith he's going to come through.

That's my fear. Show me something. Show me I'm wrong. Prove to me I'm wrong. Go fight Sean O'Malley. I'm cool with that. We're torn on this number one and get tender thing.

Go fight Sean O'Malley. Go fight him in Perth. I don't give a shit. I don't care where you do it. Go fight him in the next four to five months. And then in the summer, you go fight Al Jermaine Sterling for the belt. I'm in.

I'm fine with that. Just show me you want to actually do this. And then I'll be on board. But I just ain't. I ain't even buying the ticket. If you handed me the ticket, I'm not going on the train yet. I'm not. Let's go to Milo.

Hello, Mike. Hello, Milo. How are you? Good. How are you? Good. It's Hecker morning here. Thanks for giving it the floor.

You know, just a couple of thoughts. I think the biggest talk of the space is about the Aljo versus Henry. Kind of not making sense. Maybe I can help clarify it because, like, I think UFC's calculation here is that Henry has a higher chance of beating Aljo than O'Malley has. And then O'Malley has a better chance of beating Henry than he has was Aljo. And I think that's kind of what you have to look into when you're trying to really understand why UFC is putting up this matchup.

Because, yeah, that's kind of like the thought on that. And then another thing for Belal, right? like Bilal, Benil, they're on this, what I call like a competitive trajectory, right? And what I mean by that is that when UFC making these matchups, right, they go like, they kind of like split the fighters in the two baskets, right? Like one is like a stardom trajectory, right? And another is competitive, right? You can put Sean O'Malley in the stardomte trajectory, whereas like guys like Benil,

guys like Bilal have to go through a very competitive matchups, right, before they earn their opportunity, right? So right now, with Bilal racking up so many wins and Benil racking up so many wins, now it's time where they cross, you know, from a competitive stance into maybe a startom, right? And to do that, they need a very good matchups with more recognizable names, right? And so for Belal right now, the best matchup that is possible in that sense is going to be against Gilbert Burns. For Benil, for that to happen and for his stock to rise, it would have to be the winner of Chandler versus Poria. And then what has to happen,

you know, Charles has a really interesting role. Like he cleaned out the division, right, for Mahachchev, which I think is interesting, right? Mahachiev could have done himself, but I think that's his contribution. Another contribution that he can make is to help elevate Rafael Fiziev. And I think what's next for him

is that matchup versus Raphael Fizier. So that's the thought and maybe the final thought about TJ. You know, TJ, in my opinion, was maybe the most overrated champion in the history of the UFC. And just a fighter in general. Because if you look into his recent performances, Corey Samhagen probably beat him. It was a close fight, but I think Corey beat him. Henry Sehudo stopped him. And before that, the only two wins that he had in the past, like, in the past, like,

years where again Scotti Garbrand twice who have learned is not only like no love but also no chin right like we have to be honest right before then Linneker losses Rafael losses wins they don't really add much to his legacy

if he had one so I think that's my thoughts hopefully Benil gets their star matchup Belal gets the matchup his if fights files Charles Olivera thank you yeah I mean a lot of good options for Benile.

Oliver is probably the one that gets him to a title quickest. I mean, if he goes out and gets Porier or Chandler too, that's fine. To me, it's just we got to get Benile. Benile's got to be active. So I think it's going to be sort of a who's ready to go first kind of a thing, because Poria and Chandler are probably going to beat six shades of shit out of each other. And I just don't know if we see a world where these guys bounce back. anytime soon after a fight like this.

Who knows? Maybe it ends in two minutes. But I don't think it will. I think these two are just going to have a battle. But if Alver is like ready to come back, if Alvarez wants to fight on that Brazil card and B'Neal can go, I think it's Binal's best interest to just get right back in there and keep reminding people how good he is.

The problem with Binal is he's just not active enough. He's not fighting enough. And you forget about it. how good he is until he actually fights. And then if it's another year, we sit there like, oh, this guy's one eight in a row, but it just hasn't fought enough. So if he can get right back in there and fight Charles Olivera,

that's huge. But again, that's what, three months away? You're asking a lot of both of these guys. Oliver just got finished. He got dropped hard. Bidiel had a really grueling fight with Matush Gamron. But hey, opportunity knocks, you got to answer. If you can do it physically, it's just kind of going to be who's going to be ready first.

If B'Neil's ready for January and Oliver is ready for January, that's where you go. That's where you go, in my opinion. So, your take is interesting. I'm not totally against it. Now, if they do something and Dan is like, look, I get it. Sohudo has been sort of untrustworthy. He screwed us. And I understand how you guys feel about that whole situation.

But we've talked to Henry. He's convinced us that he's serious about all this, that he's not going to be a pain in the ass. We're going to do this fight and Sean O'Malley gets the winner. Then still not totally on board, but if we get some clarity in that situation, Sean gets the winner. let's build it up that way, plant the seeds. Okay. Like, still don't like the idea, but I'm not, I'm better with it. What I, but here's what I think is going to end up happening,

because Ariel's talked about it, we talked about it here as well. If they book that fight, they're going to try their asses off to do Cheeto versus Shauna Malley 2, which is, by the way, big, big fight. It's a big fight. You got to do it five rounds, whether it's a fight night main events, or you throw it on a paper, review five rounds. It's a great fight. We're all going to be excited to see it.

Cheeto's on a tear right now. What if Cheeto beat Sean? Then you're like, oh, then Cheeto gets his title shot. That's great. But you didn't have the chance to strike on the biggest, like the biggest eyeball fight you can get in this division. Because it ain't Sohudo. It's Sean O'Malley right now.

Everyone's talking about this fight. For good or for bad. Everyone's talking about Sean O'Malley right now. And Sean's playing this great. That tweet, that little simple tweet, rewatch the fight, I definitely won. It's exactly what he should be doing. It's exactly what he should be doing. Again, it's not the matchup.

It's not like Sterling Sehudo in a vacuum is a great fight. My fear is, Shehudo will win and then he'll try to stick it to everybody again. I have trust issues with this man. And Dana White should too. But again, if we bill it this way, we do a little press conference la WWF style, Sterling, Sehudo, O'Malley, Dana. These guys are going to fight.

Sean is next. Marlon's going to fight this dude. Cool. But again, I just, I don't have faith that Sehudo is going to follow through. And that's my concern. my biggest concern with all of this because why should we why should we have faith he's giving us no reason to have faith zeke what's up man mike what's going on can you hear me yes i can

how are you doing on uh this heck of uh wednesday interesting start to uh the heck of a week i guess you could say we usually start on wednesdays yeah we had do a little shift m a hour shifted so so do we you know what we adapt we alast and we survive we survive in advance so Let me get off here, short and sweet. First thing first for Henry Sohudo, let's just put this conversation to rest. Fool me once. Shame on you. Fool me twice.

I definitely can't put the blame on you. So Dana White, it's going to be your fault when Henry Sehudo wins the belt and runs away. I don't even want to continue to talk about this man. Let's talk about Al J. Sterling. And the absolute bag fumbling that was in the Octagon after taking care of T.J. Pillashaw. How do you not talk about Sean O'Malley? I understand maybe you didn't think he won the fight. care what you thought all joe that check is so fat that check is almost Connor

McGregor like it's not Connor McGregor like maybe if he goes and beats Vera again then it definitely becomes Connor McGregor like however you're not going to get that check if you call out Henry Sehudo I don't know Mike I I'm out of here I'll see you later that was that was very george kastanza esk right there that's it for me see you later see here's the thing with aljo he didn't call it anybody he called out nobody he did the benille der a eustig that marlin's there sugar what i'm not going to say it he he mentioned sugar's name he mentioned sehudo whatever and then even like on the m-may hour like you get the you're on the biggest show in the world you're on the biggest

m-ma show on the planet and ariel's setting you up if you had a choice who's it going to be and he went with i don't care i don't care what they do you have to care i'm glad you have like money he talked about like the you know with everything he's doing he's making money and good for him i'm happy but isn't the name of the game to make more money because here's what i'm saying give to another fight, go fight Sean, he probably beat Sean in a fight that's going to draw a ton of interest more than the Suhudo will fight will right now. And then if Sehudo beats anybody and Aljo beat Sean, guess what fights bigger? Then the Suhudo fight becomes bigger. You knocked off the guy who's ranked number one in your rankings. Sohudo proves to the world that he actually gives a

shit. And then you can line those two guys up. And it's a bigger fight. Now you get two big fights. You get two huge fights. But Aljo, man, come on. You should be all in on Sean O'Malley. This is prize fighting, baby. This is prize fighting. Stylistic. He's got to have a rough time with Henry Sehudo. If Sehudo is like even 90% of the guy who left. But he probably beats Sean O'Malley. Probably does so pretty. Pretty bad. definitively and Sean's good. Sean will be competitive in that fight at certain points, but

I think Aljo wins and I think he should know that and should understand that as of right now, this is the fight that more people will be interested in right now. And you still have the chance to fight the hoodo down the line. So

I don't know. We'll see what happens. It's all crazy. Let's go to West Tilly. death? What up, West? I hear nothing. Try again. Let's try Paradise. Paradise are you there? Yeah, I'm here, buddy. How you doing? Good, my man. Good morning.

Hey, so I got on here and rambling about Oliver. It was a different guy and Islam and, you know, he's not going to be able to deal. Yeah, I was wrong. But all I said on a tweet earlier was was Islam that dominant or was Oliver, you know, maybe at a shit night, off night, bad performance. I guess we're not going to find that one out because I don't see if I'm ever seeing each other again. Benil Darius, God, if you ever just fought more, you got it

spot on. Eljo, oh, this kid does himself zero favors with the mic, spot on. I got to tell you, I do think that the whole Sohudo thing is to just try to get somebody that can beat Aljo because Dana White hates him. But I don't know why it hates him. the hell you would like Zahudo either. Your dead spot on that too. This whole division should be set up for just monster fights that are so natural right in front of them.

I don't know. But all in all, my one question was as far as, you know, everybody, I mean, I think they said that, I think they said that Volcanowski opened up as, I'm sorry, Islam opened up against Volcanowski like minus 300, like minus 300, I think that's ludicrous. I get it. He's a bigger guy, but Lokenowski's speed and what he's done

and what he did the Max Holloway, I watched that live, man. That was disgusting. What do you think Volk does against Islam if that way it actually happens? Have a good day, guys. Take care.

Thanks, man. I don't think it's, I just want to start at the Olivera thing. It's just, it's not that Oliver had a bad night. It's that Islam was just so good. And this is what I said

the entire bill. And I went into a live microphone and I picked Charles Oliver to win. But it was a, and I admitted every single time, it was a vibes pick. It was, I need to see somebody beat this dude. I need to see someone go into the tornado and come out of it. And once I see it, I'll believe that this man can lose because what this guy is done is an anomaly. It makes no sense. It defies logic. That entire run defies logic. But everything on paper told me that Islam Makachev would win. And he did. I mean, I don't think it was a bad night.

This is a terrible. This is a really bad matchup for Charles. But Charles just invokes that chaos and can drag people into his world. And he wasn't able to get anything going. Like, Islam just jumped on him on the feet, outstruck him, then took him down, sort of wearing him out. Oliver got back up. They had a clinch position that Olivera was able to get some separation in.

and then Islam just kept hitting him. And then Islam dropped him. Like Islam beat him everywhere. This wasn't a bad night for Charles. This is Islam just being as good as he is. He's just so good. And Charles just couldn't do anything chaotic against him. It was unbelievable.

The game plan was incredible. They were two steps ahead of Charles the whole time. So I don't buy into that theory. The Volk fight, I don't know. I think the line. opened probably correctly because you have to understand what the opening of the lines does. We're trying to get action on both sides. And I think that line's going to get action on both sides. I think like people like yourself who feel if this line's closer, they're going to

bet on Volk. And there are people who feel like this line should be wider based on that performance against Charles Olivera. So they're going to, this is trying to get action on both sides. And I think this line's perfect, honestly. It's not how I feel. I feel like personally, if I were making my own personal betting line, is ums minus 300, minus 290, something like that. But I definitely think Volk is interesting. A very interesting test.

The quickness, the speed, you're going to have two incredible fight IQs getting after it. And that's just going to be so fun to watch. Two spectacular game plans going at one another. There's just so much to like about this fight. Let's go to Terrence and go for like 10 more minutes. Terrence, hello. Okay. What's up?

So I like how you just talked about, like, what I was going to say earlier, well, say anyways, was the fact that Oliver Lawson is your fault because you said before you always bet against him. And now I think you giced him. So you owe all the fans an apology because now you bet for him and he lost. So it's all your fault. That's one thing. The other thing I want to talk about is like the need for a clickbait.

So I know like you get upset and I just get upset when it talks about like quick bake and stuff like that. I was looking at another article. I'm not going to name any MMA site. So I just talk about Serena Williams. she was talking about she's not done with tennis she's going to be a coach and she's going to do other stuff with tennis and things like that

but the actual article is just titled Serena Williams says she's not done with tennis so of course people who are like just going through Twitter or Facebook or anything to see that headline and like oh I knew she wasn't retiring but if you actually click on it

it says all that information so that's why I said the need for click page is there because in business, the call for action is always there as well. Like, hey, Serena Williams said that she's not done with tennis, click to find out more and read the article or something like that. So I know the difference between the two, and I know that's not clickbait,

but that's the reason why clickbait is needed. So you can say, like, hey, I know your defense on articles like with me, like, hey, did you actually click on it and see what it says? Like, I think it needs to be said because we live in the world war. we have micro stuff and like people are attention spans and as long as they used to be so with that being said that should happen um another thing that i want to talk about is esther used to have a show that i love that a lot people didn't watch but i think it should be brought back which kind of goes along with that where it's like micro like where you get all the news of late within

like 10 minutes or so and like AK can like lead it up or even like jet or somebody or if it can be like a rotational type thing um i think something like that needs to be brought back because that was fun and it was quick and people got their daily dose. Just want to know your thoughts on those things. Thank you. Yeah, I remember the MMA fighting news show. I believe this is an M.M.A. news show was what it was entitled. And I remember this is before I got to M.A. fighting. It's probably like a year before, probably less of a year before when it came out and people were reacting to it.

and I saw a lot of negativity towards it and I actually liked it for a lot of the same reasons you did that even on my own outside, because I wasn't with that MA fighting, I like did a quick video on my own like defending it. I was like, even if you don't like it, at least they're like trying something different.

And that was like my whole defense was like they're going outside of the box. Like they're doing something different. And I liked it. I liked it a lot. I will say that I've thought about that. I don't know if I would do it the exact same way, but even just like a podcast version of it.

But again, it's so tough with the MMA news cycle because it changes all the time. And the one fear I have with putting out content is that we put out the content, and then 10 minutes later, it doesn't mean shit because something happened that nullified the entire thing. We've had episodes of Heck of Morning where we're talking about Bo Nichols' first UFC fight.

Who should he fight? And then like 10 minutes later, we confirm he's fighting Jamie Pickett. And it's like, well, that was fun. We just talked for an hour and 10 minutes about this shit. And now it doesn't matter anymore because we have an opponent and the show literally the shelf life lasts like an hour. That's like my fear, but I have no problem with it. And the clickbait thing, like, again, we still don't understand. Most people don't understand what clickbait is.

Fighters especially don't understand what clickbait is. Perfect example. like Tim Elliott basically said in his post-fight interview after a win that he cheated. Like he literally said he cheated. He grabbed the glove, admitted it, said he cheated. I spoke with him like two or three days later and he doubled down on that, tripled down on it.

It's like, listen, it's a win show thing. I haven't fought 18 months. If I have to grab a glove or grab a fence or poke an eye or kick in the balls, I'm going to do it. I got to take care of my family. So if I have to, it's a fight. due to Bitsy Cheats. So we write a story with a quote from him talking about cheating.

And like some of these other people are like, hey, Tim, look, they're still clickbaiting you after three days. It's not clickbait if he says it. Clickbait is, I'm trying to just throw out an example. Rihanna showed up at the Grammys last night. You'll never believe what she wore. That's clickbait. That's clickbait. Miley Cyrus said, what?

That's clickbait. Because you're like, what did she say? You're forced to click on it. Most of our headlines tell you everything. Like we have quotes or like we tell you what the story is about in the headline. So like you don't even have to click on it. Now we hope you do to get more insight so you don't just read the headline and react to it. But that's a click base.

Clickbait is like you have to click to find anything out. And we don't do that. that. Some sites do. Some sites do. I don't think we do. That's the difference there. All right. Some of you've been waiting for a while, but this has been an insane show. We got five minutes, so we're going to go rapid fire. I'll try to get to as many as I can. Yeah, yeah, you're up. Big Mike. What's going on, man? How are you doing? Good. How are you doing? A crazy UFC 280. You know, and I couldn't just be more happy with how Aljo won, regardless of, you know, whatever feedback he got just continuously

proving the haters wrong. Now in terms of Makachov versus Volcanoxia, like it's such a unique matchup just because I don't see much weaknesses in Makachov's game versus like Volcanovsky. What do you think stylistically would

win each? Like what would win them match you think? Appreciate you, Mike. I mean, Volk just got to keep the fight standing, really. Like that's the biggest thing. and he's got to use his quickness to the best of his ability. Because eventually Islam's going to get his hands on him,

and then he's just going to put him on his ass. Just like Habib. Like you can say all you want about Habib, but even when he wasn't the champion, it was once he gets his hands on you, you're going down. Like you're going for a ride, and Islam's the same way.

He's going to wrap his arms around you, and you're going down. I don't care who you are. So can Volk stay on the feet? He's going down eventually, but can he nullify Islam in any? way. That's the big question. That's the big question. Sneak, you're up. Sneak, hello. Hey, how you doing, man? Thank you for giving me a platform. I'll be quick to allow all the people to speak. Just real

quick about Volk and Islam. Islam is going to destroy Volt. It's going to be a rear naked choke. He's going to destroy him with knees up the middle and on the side just like Khabi mentioned. And it's going to be quick. Now, another thing about Islam. I think Islam is going to be new like John Jones, to be honest with you. I think that he's going to destroy everyone at lightweight, move up to welterweight, and at that time, I would think that Shemaya will be champion, and then from there, Chimaya will move up higher than that at middleweight. So I feel like there, especially when Khab and everybody got along and they spoke together recently, I feel like they have a plan for, you know, it's time to move up, take up, take the belt from whoever's champion there,

or just take it as an interim when Shemayev moves up to middleweight. What do you think about that. It's interesting. We got a long way to go until we get there. I will say this. If Islam Machachev fought Leon Edwards right now, I'd pick Islam Machiaf to win that fight. Let's go to Siviram, perhaps. Siverram, hello. If I would rate the UFC 280, I would give a 5-1-10, and how would you rate that? And the main event and co-mainant, very disappointing. the Dagestani fighters fans. As a Chalas fan, I'm disappointed. But anyway, my quick question to you is,

is Chalas going to come back? If he's not going to come back, who will stop this Dajistani style fighters? Is it Dustin, Justin's or Chandler, Charles or is it Benil? Benile or who could be the fighter that's going to stop these, you know, the wrestling, high wrestling. skill-led fighters.

That's it, Mike. Thanks, man. Yeah, God, I don't know. It's too soon to tell, man. Like, it's too soon to tell. Like, I think Islam could be the champion for years at this point.

I don't think Charles is done. I think there's fights for him. I'd love to see him and Benny get after it. Yeah. I think Benile and Islam is an interesting fight. Like, I think it's a really interesting matchup. I think Volk's interesting. I think, like, I'm picking Islam to win,

but I think Volk's an interesting matchup. You know what else? A lot of people are going to agree with me, but from a stylistic perspective, you know what else is interesting? I think Michael Chandler is interesting. I would give Chandler a better chance to beat Islam than most.

And again, I would pick Islam to win, but I think Chandler at least presents some problems from a wrestling standpoint. Like, I don't think he's as good off, he's certainly not as good defensively as Islam. But Chandler does have wrestling and he does have power. And it's, I don't know. I pick Islam against pretty much everybody right now, though.

That's for sure. All right, we'll take three more because I have to go. Crypto. Crypto, hello. Hi, Mike. Can you hear me? Yes. Yeah.

So a couple of things, Mike. I'll try to be quick. First of all, how did Mouradav not get the performance of the night? How do you get warned 26 times during a fight? and no single point was deducted. I think that performance definitely deserves a bonus. 26 times. And yes, Mike, I rewatched the fight and counted it.

Like after warning number six or seven, trying to basically pull out the eyes of Kyo, the referee told him that go more warnings for you young man, but evidently there was an additional 20 warnings, no point in that you. Beautiful. Second thing, gangster move of the entire event is definitely Benil Darius. Going on a rant about Jesus in Abu Dhabi, that was beautiful.

But I'm not going to defend him anymore. I have to say that. I'm tired of this, Mike, because if he wants to have 10 additional fights, do it. Like, if that's your game plan, if you think that you need 10 more fights before standing up for yourself, this is exactly what I was talking about Mike last week. when I said that he needs to grow a pair of balls and start to basically speak for himself.

How can you beat Gamrod and just go on a rant about Jesus? I don't know. It's just crazy. Third and final thing, Mike, is that, and you're going to butcher me for this, but I truly don't like the Makachev, the Volcanovsky matchup.

Did you see the height difference inside the octagon between him and Makachev? And keep in mind, Volkovsky was wearing shoes. Okay. So basically, I mean, you know what's, what would be a worse idea, Mike, than to fight like a Sambu champion for Wokovsky?

That is actually a worse idea would be to find, sorry, to fight a Sambu champion that is bigger than you. This fight is not going to be as competitive as people think. And to do that in Australia, to leave the Australian audience with that final fight heading back home after seeing Islam basically butchering Volkanowski, not because Wokinovsky

is not an amazing and great fighter, but there is a reason why we have weight classes. There is a huge reason, and we're talking about Islam maybe moving up to welterweight. He's not a small lightweight. I love Volkanowski. I'm a big fan of him, but I

truly hope that he focuses on his division. There's many interesting fights left at Fed weight. He has not cleaned out the division. It's absolutely at least according to me, it's a huge mistake. Do I want to see the fight? Yeah, I guess I kind of do.

But it's the same thing as with Charles Olivero. We're going to try to find different things that we feel that Wokinovsky is able to do. And if he does those and Islam has an off night, he will win. But let's be honest, Mike. It's a terrible matchup for Wokanovsky. That's all for me, Mike. I mean, I don't dislike the take. I get where you're coming from.

but Volcanovsky's 34 years old. He ain't a spring chicken. Like if he's going to do it, he has to do it now. He has to do it now. And the reason is, like you said, there are a lot of interesting matchups for him at 145. Against who? Like, there are some in the future,

but there's none right now. We don't have anybody that is emerged as the guy. Not one person. We have Yair, we have Josh Emmett. Yeah, he won against Brian Ortega in kind of a weird way and then he went on a microphone and said, I ain't fighting anybody else, but Volk. Okay?

That ain't going to do any favors. Josh Emmett, most people thought he lost to Calvin Cater. He is not the guy. Arnold Allen's fighting Calvin Cater. If Arnold beats Cater, he probably still a win away. All Volcanovsky says, And I don't disagree with Volk. Like, this is the thing.

When people say like Volkovsky, you're holding up the division, he's like, what are you talking about? I ain't holding up anything. The division is holding up the division because no one's emerging. That's all this guy is wanted. I want contenders, one after the other. That's what I want. And there's nobody right now.

Like, no one has emerged as the guy. Nobody. That's why I had to fight Max Holloway again. Because the only one who did was Max. Max had one of the all-time great showings. against Calvin. And then he beat Yair in a crazy fight. Like he's the guy.

Like he emerged. What else could you ask this guy to do? He was the guy. He emerged. These fighters have had plenty of opportunities to emerge. And no one's done it. So I don't blame him for making this move because there's nobody there for him to fight. Like no one has broken through.

So I get the argument. Like he hasn't knocked off everybody in the division, but this is 2022. This isn't 2005. We just fight anybody, willy-nilly, whoever's available that's in the top 10. No. Volk wants the number one guys, and there isn't one.

Now a year from now, year and a half from now, he's going to have some. He's going to have Toporia or Bryce Mitchell or Vloyiv or guys like that. Sudeek. We'll see where Yaya does. We'll see what Emmett does.

We'll see where Kater is. We'll see what Giga is. We'll see what Arnold Allen is. Like, he's going to have that. He just doesn't have it now. And go get it, man. Like, you're not going to have a lot of chances to do it. You might as well do it now while you don't have anybody to fight.

Let the division sort itself out. Like, I'm okay with it. I know Jed's like, if you're going to do it, just vacate the title. But I wouldn't do that yet. All right. I'm enemining this last one. I have to go. What did I just do?

I pushed the wrong button. All right. Real Marwin. Are you there? Real quick, because I've got to go. All right. Nothing there. All right.

Ani, you get to take us home. Real fast. Hello. Let me quickly get a few yes or no questions. Sean O'Malley versus Marlin Vera is a bigger fight for the title. Yes or no. I mean, every fight's bigger for the title. Of course.

So it is. And Henry Seversonel. So Hudo is unreliable, yes or no? Yes. So after UFC 279, I don't think anything is crazy. So here's what's going to happen. Like Al Jha versus Hindi Sehudo is going to happen. Sehudo beats Aljo and retires.

The title is vacant and you make the title fight with Marlon Verra and Sean O'Malley. Everyone is happy. What do you think? This is just, you know, a lighthearted way to end the heck of a morning. That's it. Thank you, Mike. I mean, you're asking for a lot. If that's what happened, fine.

But it's going to take an awful long time to get there. So I don't know. It's all things a mess. It's a mess. Aljo, save us. Save us, Aljo. Go do a bunch of interviews and just call it O'Malley over and over again. All right.

I see you, Ebswali. I see you, Jera. I see you Rio Marwin. I see you the AM. Luckily, we're going to do another show tomorrow. We'll do another show on Friday. So you guys will jump the line. I promise you have my word.

Most times I live up to it. Sometimes I forget. This time I will not. All right. But I got to go. I gave you almost two hours. But I have other things I have to take care of today. I really do so I don't get in trouble.

So back tomorrow, 10 a.m. Eastern. We'll do it again. We also have BT out tomorrow. Fun matchup. Jet is still retired. But Jet has come through. He's found us somebody that's going to, he feels is a suitable replacement to go again.

we're going to welcome Drake Griggs back to the show. So exciting stuff. And then Friday, we'll be back again, 10 a.m. Eastern. And it's just chaos, baby. We get you ready for UFC Vegas 63. We get you ready for Anderson Silver versus Jake Paul. Bellator's got a card. It's just going to be a very busy week and a very busy weekend.

So thank you very much. I appreciate it. Have a great rest of the day. And as always, have a heck of a morning.