MMA Fighting - HOAM | Bellator 290 vs. UFC Vegas 68, Bellator Honoring Legends For Fedor's Final Fight

Episode Date: February 2, 2023

With a historic event for Bellator MMA this Saturday, they are putting their best foot forward in the heads up battle with the UFC, which includes the final fight of Fedor Emelianenko's legendary career, along with the sendoff "The Last Emperor" will receive. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses Saturday's doubleheader, and explains why Bellator 290 is far better than UFC Vegas 68 on paper. Additionally, listener questions include Bellator president Scott Coker's announcement of a host of MMA legends attending the event to honor Emelianenko following his heavyweight title fight with Ryan Bader, the hopes of seeing more things like that to remember the history of the sport, Bloody Elbow's future, whether or not UFC 284 is getting enough promotion, Islam Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski, how Kamaru Usman matches up with Leon Edwards ahead of UFC 286, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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See app for details. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. All right, everybody. It is Thursday, February 2nd, 2023, first show for the month of February. And it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the MMA fighting Twitter spaces. You can hear the show in its entirety from start to finish. Once we're done here on the MMA Fighting Podcasting Network.

I am Mike Heck. Hope everyone's having a fantastic week. We have a lot of mixed martial arts coming up on Saturday. We have a double header. For the fans, we have Bellator 290, a historic event for Bellator MMA, as they debut on CBS. First card on CBS in a long time for the sport.

And the first ever for Bellator. And it will be headlined and capped off by the final fight of the last emperor, Fador Emilianenko. He will challenge Ryan Bader for the Bellator heavyweight title. Johnny Eblen has his first title defense, absolute under the radar banger with Anatoli Tokoff, Sabahamasi, Brennan Ward will be the first fight. Bellator puts on CBS ever.

So that'll be a nice little trivia question. And you know that one's going to deliver. That one is not going to the judges. Really strong card from top to bottom. And then about five, four hours later. Well, an hour later is the prelims. But four hours later will be the UFC main card for UFC Vegas 68, which will be headlined by Derek Lewis versus Sergei Spivak.

look I try to be I try to be the positive voice as much as I can but this UFC card is just not good it's not good and I'm not this isn't a slap into the face to the fighters it's just not good bellator's card is a thousand times better from start to finish derrick lewis slim and trim love to see it I just don't think there's a lot of people all that interested in sergey spivac if for being honest, but Derek's taking it seriously. He wants to bounce back. This is a really good matchup for him to bounce back with. And it is a big opportunity for Sergei Spivak,

but this probably has Derek Lewis K.O. written all over it. And then the other things that I mean, there's a couple of things I'm intrigued by and interested in. The return of Duho Choi is one of those things against Kyle Nelson, first fight in a long time. and the next fight for Tatsuro Taira. Very excited to see what he's going to be able to do because when we talk about these young up-and-coming prospects,

especially at 125, I feel like he's left out of the conversations a lot. I feel like he's kind of the forgotten man and he will kick off this UFC card at 10 p.m. Eastern as the Bellator card is going on. So we could talk about that. Oh, and by the way, if you guys missed the M.A. hour yesterday.

Big announcement from Scott Coker, there's going to be about a dozen MMA legends coming to the cage to celebrate the career of Fador, Emilianenko, following his fight with Ryan Bader. They're going to get into the cage. They're going to kind of have his back, if you will. And it's just incredible stuff. This is awesome.

This is awesome. guys like Randy Gator guys like Matt Hughes Hoyce Gracie Frank Shamrock Josh Barnett and I don't have the list in front of me but there's about six or seven others

and this is great stuff this is great stuff kudos to Bellator they're having a pretty damn good year they've had a pretty damn good five or six months if we're being honest and this is a big deal this card is this is a

big opportunity for them. This is a big opportunity for them. I would have loved to have seen a little more push from CBS during the conference championship on Sunday, a little bit of a read, a promo, a commercial, something. When you had, I don't know, 40 million people watching the AFC championship game, would have been a great opportunity to be like, hey, MMA fans. You haven't had any fights on our network in a long. long-ass time, but guess what? Six days from right now, you're going to get them. And you're

going to see this legend, this mythical creature, if you will, Fado or Emilianenko, is going to fight for the final time. Tune in this Saturday, starts at 9 p.m. Eastern. Just something. Jim Nance, give a nice little read. Like, that shit's awesome. I don't know why they didn't do that, but they chose not to, and I don't understand why. But it's a very big deal for Bellator. It's a big event. They got to get eyeballs on it. I think they're doing a pretty good job. What was interesting about Fador's interview in the MMA hour yesterday and then the press conference yesterday is that Fader's just kind of over it. He's just kind of over all of it. He's over the entire fight game. I mean, not the entire fight game because he still wants to help his team

and have some of those guys reach new heights. So he's still going to be involved in the sport. But as far as being a fighter and preparing for a fight and doing interviews and media and press conferences, the man is just over it. And even told Ariel that he is emotional about this fight, but mostly because he just wants to get it done. He just wants to get it over with.

And I thought that was pretty interesting. Seems very loose, very relaxed, but a little anxious to just get this thing done and move on to the next challenge. of his life. So it seems like this is not your typical MMA retirement. I know Fador has had past retirements, but 46 years old, this is it. He seems very happy with that decision to just get in there, get it done, and get the hell out of there. He's just over all of it. And I don't know how that's going to play into the fight itself, or maybe that'll help him. Who knows?

But we can talk about that. We could talk about the UFC. We could talk about fight announcements. We could talk about whatever. So Trista was first in line. and we will begin with him and then we'll just go through the cycle here. Tristan, hello. Mike, can you hear me? Yes. I think when we're talking about the U.S.

Apex card, I kind of agree with Jed and Connor say, I don't think the card is fine. I just think the fact that it's not being in Korea, in South Korea is a problem. Because if it was in South Korea and we would obviously have the Korean zombie versus Jikaze, so the feel would be so different. We'd be like, oh, oh, you know, this is great.

South Korea, this is awesome. The crowd would have been fired up. So I think it was just the fact that it's at the apex. That's the problem. I don't think it's the car that's off. The car is fine. You know, it's just where it's being held that, you know, it's being held at the apex is you're not going to get excited for that.

So that's the whole thing I think with that. And another thing I wanted to talk about with the situation with Bloody Albow, and, you know, I listen to you guys on not know, wax poetically about Bloody Albo and what. they've done and what they meant to the media and journalism overall. The concern, you know, the real big concern I worry about, and we talked about, and I think you talked about the bloody elbow, you know, being independent and continuing, but, you know, what I worry about, can they sustain themselves, can they generate revenue and hold up?

because the thought of bloody elbow going away is terrifying. And that's the sentiment that Luke Thomas had talked about. Like, if you don't have bloody elbow, with the type of reporting they do, the investigating reporting that they do has been just brilliant. And they go away. You know, this is going to be very, very concerning as far as MMA media and MMA journalism all in a whole,

because, you know, everybody could, you know, everybody fighting obviously you guys do what you can do and you guys do certain investigating reporting but you can't be everywhere at all times so you know having bloody up will go away it's it's really concerning it's going to be really concerning and really damaging just like how with the local newspaper industry going away as well because those the local newspaper was so important to to people doing that hard work and investigating reporting towards um corporations doing bad things. And, you know, that's the terrifying part. I mean, I'm hopeful that bloody ill will stand strong and be able to continue independently, but it's not a guarantee. So, you know, that's my thoughts about it. I just really hope they stay around because they're so important.

These type of journalism are so important to be around. So, you know, that's why I wanted us saying, thanks, Mike, for everything. Yeah, I mean, I hear you. And look, I know, and I've seen comments and I saw certain quote tweets and certain just social media statements from fans in some people that work in the media space that are just like good riddins. And that's just an awful response. Is everything they do positive? No. But this sport and bloody elbow has shown me in some respects that this sport is just not, it's not all rosy.

It just isn't. There is a lot of shenanigans going on in this sport. It's a pretty dirty place. And the more I've gotten accustomed to it, the more people I've spoken to in the space, you know, a lot of it is hearsay. So I have, you know, there's off the record conversations that I can't share anything like that. But I hear shit all the time. And it's just like, man. Because when I got into this thing, like I had a goal.

It was just I want to tell stories. I was just fascinated by the athletes who chose this as a profession. And life was great when that was all that we did. And we would host shows and talk about the sport and talk about the good and sometimes the bad. But it's the more. I've been involved in it, and the more relationships that I've made, the more things that I've been told. And it's just like, ugh, why is it like this? And I think this year, especially the way that it started, I think we're starting more people, fans in particular, starting to see that the same,

this ain't just the positive rose patch of a sport that maybe we all thought it was when it came to be and we just have to kind of accept that. But yeah, I mean, look, I do think, I do think independent bloody elbow is going to be better. I honestly do. They're going to be able to take more risks that they probably wouldn't be able to take under the Vox umbrella. And look, I deal with that myself. I do. sort of investigative pieces. You know, I tell different kinds of stories when I go into it,

stories that deserve to be told, maybe from lower end fighters. I mean, I think I've done two or three of like the full-on dive-in features with audio narrative podcasts and such. And I'm actually working on one as we speak. But you got to, you can't just, like when you work for a company like this,

You can't just do it. A lot of, and especially the things that I've done, outside of maybe the Cage Titans thing, was you got to get that stuff cleared. You got to get it cleared, and you have to get multiple people involved. The one with Eugene Aubrey, I mean, there was a whole thing.

I don't know if you guys, some of you have seen this and some of you haven't, but one of the first, like, big features that I did for MA fighting was about, a Philadelphia fighter named Eugene Aubrey, who was up and coming, well respected in the area, was on a nice run, seemed like things were clicking. And right when his life started to come together,

he got shot and paralyzed. He got shot in the neck and paralyzed. And his whole mindset since that day was, I got to do everything I can to get back to fighting. While the people in his life are saying, don't worry about fighting, just be healthy. Like, if you can figure out how to walk, like, that's a victory. And then we dove deep into relationships with his mom,

who he told us was very, very abusive towards him. And we wrote, I mean, I wrote this whole thing. It took me like a month to put together and produce the podcast, did it multiple times, edited it. And then we're like, all right, we're ready to publish this thing tomorrow. And then we take it to the company and they say, well, you know, you got to reach out to the mom and get a comment from her because, you know, he's saying some pretty heinous shit about her. I ended up getting in contact with her and did like a 15 minute interview with her. And I was petrified.

I was like, oh, my God, this woman who everyone told me was an absolute nightmare, I have to call her, left her voice. Mace mail was like, all right, good. We could just be like, oh, we contacted her, no response. And then she called me back and we talked. And, you know, she basically admitted to everything that Eugene said. So you got to clear some of those hurdles when you do investigative journalism, investigative reporting. Look at Stephen Morocco's Spencer Fisher article.

That thing took forever to get cleared. It's just a lot of things you have to go over when you're working in a company that because you could get sued. You could get sued and not just, you know, Bloody Elbow put something out. You know, it's not like Bloody Elbow gets sued. It's like the whole company gets sued, everything. The president, the CEO, everything.

Everybody gets sued. So now they get to take a little more risk. And, yeah, the funding is going to be a big thing for them. But it seems like they have a lot of support. I know that they have Patreon stuff out there. They have fundraising things out there. it seems like they're doing pretty well. So I guess what I'll say is that for the fans who want bloody elbow to continue doing

what they're doing, I feel like at least for the short term, it's going to have to be sort of in some way viewer supported. So if you want them to keep doing what they're doing, then help them out. Help them out. I'm going to help them out. I can't like throw them a title money because I just don't have that in me. you know, if you could throw them a few bucks, throw them a few bucks. Like if that's what you want, and I think it is necessary to have that type of journalism in the sport, yeah, I think that's important.

And it sucks for him. Like, I, it sucks. It sucks. I feel for everybody who works there, everybody who has to go get new jobs on top of this, because, I mean, they would love, obviously they would love to just keep working there full time and. getting independent bloody elbow off the ground, but you got to pay the bills. It ain't easy. Before I got to M.A. fighting, my wife, God bless her,

I told her to give me a year. I quit my job doing radio sales after I got off the air. We wanted to move to a different location. Company that hired me didn't have any on-air position, so I did do marketing, and I fucking hated it. But we had to pay the bills. and I was doing like MMA stuff on the side. And then I realized I just couldn't do it anymore.

And I asked my wife, give me a year. And if nothing comes of this, if I'm not making good money or get a job in this space in a year, I will stop covering the sport altogether. And she said, go for it. And then luckily it all worked out. Six months later, I got hired. But yeah, it's tough out there, man. It's tough.

and you hate to see, especially with up-and-comers in the space, I mean, Bloody Elbow was so important to launching careers in a lot of respects. I mean, so many people have come through there and went on to bigger and better things. And without Bloody Elbow, I mean, look at what Luke Thomas has done. Without Bloody Elbow, and bringing him on and others like that, who knows? The space would be in an entirely different place. So hopefully they can move forward and independent bloody elbow will just be an absolute monster. And I will support them and I will read their stuff.

And I hope you guys do too. If it's for you. And like I said, their stuff is not for everybody. Some people just want fight news and interviews and this is what's happening. And other people want more. And if you want more, bloody elbow can provide it for you. And if that's what you want, go support them because they deserve it. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes.

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Toke, hello. So this is going to be, I'm going to try and not keep it short, but it might be difficult. because this is almost like an essay forum if I wanted to. But what I want to talk about is, you know, billionaires, they have two things, they all have two things in common. They exploit cheap labor and they spend money on stupid shit. So what I want to get to here is I know you don't cover power slap. I know you don't.

And that's good. I don't want you to. But in the forum of Hakeba Morning, I kind of want to delve into this report from Sports Illustrated that they are going to have this as a pay-per-view, despite having low ratings on TV and despite, you know, everything against it. They're going to have this as a pay-per-view after a fight night, which is actually pretty good. But, you know, I mean, at least couldn't you just do what the other billionaires do and shoot yourself into space in a phallic missile? Like, this is, sorry, it's not to be facetious or anything, but this, I guess my question is,

more people going to buy this than the PFL pay-per-view last year? What number do you think is bigger? and I'm sorry that I took this long, weird road to get there, but that's my question. I don't know. I don't know. It's just, it's all so stupid. It's also stupid. And we saw the ratings boosts last week, and I'm sure Dana was high-fiving everybody involved,

but not taking into account that AEW gave them an absolute goal. gift with that card they put together last week, having the Jay Briscoe tributes, the Mark Briscoe, J. Lethal match, all that stuff. Without that, they ain't getting that number. It's just not happening. And they did, and a lot of times you look at these ratings and you're just like, oh, okay. But there's quarter hour breakdowns. And typically what happens with AEW with the quarter hour breakdowns. And we saw it on the first week is that they start strong. the show just tends to slow down. You get off to a fast pace and then you just hit a wall

and it's just like, oh, come on. And then people just leave. And they just leave the show. And they might start at a million because they're getting the Big Bang Theory people. But then as the show progresses, they lose like 150, 200,000 people for that last quarter hour.

This show was completely different because they started with like over a million and they ended the show like just under a million. They only lost like 10,000 people from start to finish, which for a pro wrestling show, especially AEW, is ridiculous. It's an incredible run from start to finish. And they got a huge boost from that. It's not because, and do I think there's some people who are just like,

they saw the negative press and they're like, this is the canker sore of television. It hurts like hell. I don't want to touch it. but I'm just going to play with it anyways, because it's right there. Yeah, I think there's some people who are gluttons for punishment. We'll see how it works out. We'll see how it works out this week, but I honestly don't give a shit at all.

To answer your other question, will it beat PFL? I mean, we don't know the PFL numbers. I've heard some people, I've had people tell me what they have heard the numbers were. They're not great, but it was also 50 bucks. If PowerSlapp does this thing for like $3.99, it's probably going to do better than the PFL. There's enough people interested that would spend like five bucks to watch it. But if they come out and do a pay-per-view for like $60, no, PFL is going to do better. But yeah, we ain't, like we were putting out stuff about the ratings and stuff,

but you're not even going to see that from us anymore. Like until the next, the next power slap story you see from us outside. Like unless Connor McGregor fights for Power Slap and signs a deal to compete with them, you're not going to see anything from us until the day that it's over. Power Slap shuts down. That'll probably be the next thing you see from us in regards to that stupidity. But I have not watched a second of it. I have to scroll through Twitter and just skip over the highlights, but it's just so stupid.

And I'm not trying to dog you if like, that's your thing, cool. but for me just god no absolutely not and i'm glad as as a site we ain't we ain't touching it with the 10-foot pole joe hello joe are you there you're muted mike there you go good morning to you hey buddy um one quick question uh i know you talk a lot about the welter rate division it's completely a mess up in the top but as one of the rare uh ballal mohammed fans uh what do you think is his path to the title because I feel like he's probably one more away, but with Colby in his situation and Hamzat looking like a 205er, I cannot imagine who that next one guy is.

So that's that's it for me though. Thanks so much. It's going to be tough, man. Like it's got to be tough. I would say that the best thing that can happen to him is that Kamara Usman just wipes the floor with Leonette. Edwards. That's what I think. And that Blah Muhammad, if he's if he's not already, he needs to

hit up his manager every five seconds and say, Ali, I need to be the backup for this title fight. Get me to London. Let me weigh in. I'll make weight. Let me be that dude. Because of Leon Edwards wins. They're not giving Bilal a title shot. I'll be stunned. I will be stunned because as great as he is and as great as he's looked, the UFC is going to look at it from a how can we make the most money perspective. And it ain't Bilal. It's Mazadol. If he beats Gilbert Burns, it's Colby or it's Hamza. So,

Belal needs to fight Hamzat or if he can't get that fight he needs to be the backup for the main event he needs to make weight and he needs Kamara Usman to just absolutely whitewash Leon Edwards then he's a fresh he's like the guy he's like the fresh

matchup left there's nobody else there's Hamza up but if Hamzat's if Hamzat's at 185 then it doesn't matter anyways so that's his best shot honestly, because if Leon beats Usman, he's probably fighting, he's fighting Colby, maybe Burns, or he'll fight Mazadov, Mazadol beats Burns.

And by the way, I think Mazadol has a much better chance. I think my pick will be Gilbert, like right the second. I need to dive into it more. But just seeing the reaction to that Burns-Mazidol fight, just seeing people saying that Mazadol is no chance of beating this guy. I think you're crazy if you think that way. Burns is not Usman. Burns is not Colby.

He's a decent offensive wrestler. He's great on the ground, but he's not like a chain wrestler. And Mazin al's grappling defensively is way underrated. Does not get enough credit. Ask Damien Maya what he thinks about Jorge in Mazdaal's defensive grappling.

Ask that guy. And he'll tell you that Mazdao is one of the best defensive grapplers he's ever fought. So I think that fight is much closer than people think it is. My pick, just because of the momentum, right now is Gilbert Burns.

But, like, if I'm betting on that fight right now, I'm taking a flyer on Mazadol because that fight is much closer than the odds indicate. And it's much closer than the fan space is giving it credit for. Honestly, that's what I think.

I mean, I could be dead wrong, but Burns isn't just like a chain takedown wrestler. He's not Colby. He's not Bryce Mitchell. If he gets him down there, he's going to have success, but Mazel's pretty good down there. It's pretty good at getting back to his feet.

Avoiding dangerous positions on the mat. He's good at that stuff. So, yeah. I think that's a closer fight than people think it's going to be. But if he wins and Leon wins, that's the fight the UFC's going to make, whether you like it or not, because it's going to draw like a mofo. Henderson, hello. What's up?

I've been listening every time that you do these shows, but honestly just been so depressed about the UFC recently, especially between Dana and the power slap and these terrible cards and all that. And just this South Korea card that never happened and is now this horrible Apex card is just such a prime example of that too because like South Korea has traditionally been one of the bigger mixed martial arts places in Asia and the UFC has had a pretty good connection with them and now just totally canceling this whole thing. And now it's like it's just nowhere near as fun as it should be. And then what rubbed it all in and made it even more apparent was, I don't know if you've seen this, but there's this show called The Physical 100 on Netflix.

And it's a South Korean show, kind of like, I don't know if it was inspired by Squid Game, but it's kind of like physical challenges, and it's all celebrities from South Korea and athletes and Olympians and all that. And a lot of the athletes that are there are these, like, lower-level MMA fighters from South Korea. and everyone loves them and is like bowing in front of them. And then I see Akiyama shows up.

And they're calling him by his South Korean name and he's treated as the most famous person on the show. Like people are like, I one day wished to challenge Akiama in a battle. It's like what these people love MMA and for the UFC not even to show up there is just pathetic. Like what? Because they would lose a little bit of money. They just can't even go. So I know they're waiting for a Korean zombie or he was hurt or whatever, but it just shows that when it comes down to it with them, it's not about building the sport. It's not about like growing these markets.

It's just whatever will make them money right now. So that is depressing to me. And I just wanted to know, one, did you see the show? And number two, what do you think about the UFC and Asia? And are they even going to try? Are they just going to let like risen and one just have that market? I do think they're going to try. I don't know why they still didn't just go there or find like a smaller arena.

Like I understand it was like the Korean zombie essential retirement card. So you wanted to give him that moment. So I mean, I would say as soon as zombies are like ready to go, they're going to do everything they can to go back. But I'm still shocked they didn't go back there. but the problem is it's not just about the market, it's about getting people to watch on TV. Not that it really matters,

but at the end of the day, it's going to be tough like getting Derek Lewis and Sergey Spie back to South Korea to headline that card. Not having zombie was a big hit to that idea. It's just weird seeing like the road to UFC finals being in the apex. It's just so strange.

Everything about it is weird. I still, I'm with you. I would have loved to have seen them just take the shot anyways. Sometimes the card matters somewhat, but sometimes it doesn't. Look at the Bellator cards in Dublin.

Those have not been like high value names across the board, but the crowd is just so into it that it doesn't matter. They just make it, the environment is just can't miss television. So, yeah, there's, there is a part of me that wishes they just kept us the way that it is. And if you look at the car from top to bottom, it makes sense to just do it in South Korea. But the show must go on and this is what they were left with.

I mean, they have a deal with the SPN. They can't just say, well, we can't do it in South Korea, so we can't do a card. They had to move some, move some things around. And this is what we're getting. So, I mean, it was going to be tough for him anyways, even with zombie because you got the Bellator card, which even with Zombie Giga, which should have been a cool fight, it's still not going to do the same. I think more interest is going to be on the Bellator card, at least in the United States. But, I mean, I guess they're trying to do South Korean audience a solid by shifting the start time. but yeah it's got to be weird seeing a lot of these fights inside the apex but i'm with you

but they're going to try have i seen physical 100 no i've seen the trailer i'm intrigued it's like the mtv challenge and like created sets at least what i saw i didn't know even know akiamo's on that show i just remember watching the challenges and i was the only the only thing from the trailer I remember specifically was there were certain like physical battles and they had women

just tossing dudes around which was kind of funny because they were paired up and all these different things I don't know maybe I'll check it out Four Corner Sports, hello How's it going?

Hey, so I wanted to talk about a couple things. One, I wanted to get your thoughts on Brady's retirement and then wanted to know about like what's something that stuck out with you in his career and I know we don't have like he always has this debate as for like heavy open night with goats up for goats in in MMA I know that many people consider Brady the goat but who would be somebody that you kind of like replicate like that's had like similar

um a career that he has had you know that's succeeded you know for as long as he has. As for what you spoke Mazeldo and Burns, I do actually have Mazdao the puncher's chance. Is a three-round fight or a five-round fight? That's one thing that I mean,

I wonder at all about. I'm not sure if it's three or five rounds, because if it's five-round favor burns, but if it's three, I mean, Paula has a really good chance. But if a person takes that same approach, he did against Wondi

and I don't know, I feel like yeah, he'll get the victory, but it's just a matter of, I think it might hurt his like momentum because when he was the boy, I mean, we were all excited for that fight and that was a complete dud in my opinion. And I just

I heard something on Twitter and I didn't watch the MMA hour about Scott Coker saying something about bringing a whole bunch of legends towards the octagon or the ring for Fador, Emzingenko. I just wish that they would have done something like that for Shogun.

You know, bring somebody like Rampage Jackson or something like that. I mean, that's like the perfect sum of off that you should have for a legend. And I think Scott Coker is laying out of the blueprint. All right, thanks, Mike. Yeah, I love that idea. I love Ariel's idea about introducing everybody together at the start of the show. I think that's brilliant. They should absolutely do that.

set the show on fire right off the bat. So I love everything they're doing. Like, I love this. And I would have loved to have seen that with Shogun too. But, and that's just a big, that's just a big problem across the board. And that's why shows on our network, like Jed Mishu's show, Dan, they were good is so important. It's so important for newer fans to learn about the history of the sport

and those who blazed the trail to get us to where we're at now. Like we just had one for Shogun and just going back and listening to that brings back all these memories as a fan. It kind of makes you want to go back and watch some of the old fights. I haven't listened to the Fador one yet, but they just did one for Fador. Sean Al Shadi and Casey just voiced and produced this like awesome video on our YouTube channel about why we need people should, even newer fans should care that this guy is not fighting anymore. Like this is it. And this is a big deal. and it should be a massive deal.

And bringing out all these legends and giving them their shine and letting them get the applause is so important for the sport. It's so important. And I 100% agree with Ariel when it comes to this 30th anniversary for the UFC.

Put together like a top 30 UFC fighter list, have an event, like international fight week. You're going to have the Hall of Fame and all that. That's cool. But during the International Fight Week card, let's bring off the legends.

Let's bring out the top 30 fighters of all time. Let's give them their own section inside Team Mobile Arena. And let's celebrate them. This is what we need to do. We need to do more of this. And I give Scott Coker so, and Bellets are so much credit for this. It's awesome. Everything about it is awesome.

Tom Brady retiring. I mean, it is what it is. I love the way he did it. Just like, look, I'm just going to hit record and do it. I'm not going to do this long, drawn-out statement because I did that last year. Yeah, I just think it's time. He gave him one more shot.

He thought he had some more gas left in the tank. I think we're not really surprised. This is it. He gave him one last shot. It's probably one shot too much. He still had some moments, for for the most part, he was just kind of a shell of himself. Yeah, happy trails Tom Brady.

You are the goat. You've created a lot of happy memories for me as a New England sports fan. Happy trails to you. Just enjoy all the money you're going to make being a broadcaster. Jordan, hello. Mike, heck of a morning. What's up? I wanted to talk about, and I know.

I know we talked about it earlier, just a tad. But I hate Logan Paul having the audacity to sign with Power Slap League. Like, I get it. He's at the end of the day a content creator, but all he's doing is legitimizing it. And that's absolutely awful. He should do that. He did?

When did he do that? Oh, he's fighting CM Punk. Yep. What are you talking about? Yeah, him and CM Punk. Get out of here. This is not real. Yep.

This ain't real. Get out of here. February. No. What did I see? February. Why would CM Punk do this? Because he's an idiot too.

No way. This ain't true. All right. This ain't true. This ain't true. This is what I saw yesterday reported in multiple places. Is it on MMA fighting? Are we reporting? You guys wouldn't report it.

Is the SBA reporting it? If CM Punk and Logan Paul, we're going to power slap each other, we'd probably report that. But that ain't true. That ain't true. This is probably, this is, yeah. I'm looking, I'm Googling the names right now. I see nothing about it. I just see if they fought in an MMA fight,

Logan Paul says he beat him in a UFC fight. That's literally all I see with these two guys. And then CM Punk rejected the call-up. All right. Well, then I apologize. I have no idea where I saw that. Yeah, it's, yeah, it's not true. All right, my bad.

Sorry, Mike. All good. I was like, what? I missed this? How did I miss this? Holy cat. All right, that's all I really have. Sorry about that.

Yeah. I thought you were going to ask about the big announcement that they have a deal with Prime is now the official sports drink of the UFC and that the prime hydration zones are now the red and blue corner stools and all that. And there's a lot of talk about whether or not any of this money is going to go to the fighters. I know Anton from Bloody Elbow had tweeted something out to Jake Paul. And Jake kind of responded saying, look, I support everything my brother does. I would love to see the fighters get a piece. But what Logan does has nothing to do with me. And then Logan kind of responded and said, we might have something in mind in terms of giving the fighter something.

So my guess would be, and I had no insight to this whatsoever, remember how they did like the the fan crypto bonuses, which lasted like as long as my Dunkin' Donuts large black ice coffee that I'm drinking this morning. I would guess it's going to be maybe something like that. That would be my guess. I don't know if it's going to be some sort of a crypto bonus or just like an extra thing, maybe for pay-per-views. I don't know.

That would be my guess, but I have no idea. But yes, I would like to see the fighters get more of a piece of these sponsorships. because that would be pretty awesome. But again, it's just crazy. Seeing all these big money deals, because these are big money deals. These ain't, you know, these aren't $1,000 buys.

These are multi-million dollar buys, I'm sure, over time. And the fighters don't get any of them. And it's absolutely insane. So hopefully Logan comes through and get some good pub. and maybe he'll do something for the fighters. I don't know, but there's no Logan Paul C.M. Punk thing.

And plus, why would Logan Paul do that? Like, it makes no sense. Logan Paul is like, Logan Paul is freaking killing it in WWE right now and boxing for trillion, like multi-millions of dollars. There's no need for him to slap C.M. Punk in the face on that show. Viking, hello. Hey, Mike Jr.

I just want to talk about MMMA media people on the Twitter are promoting Michael Chandler fight with Connor McGregor and there is no need to promote that fight because it's not going to happen I mean why would UFC

why would UFC want to fight to make a fight between Connor McGregor and Michael Chandler where Connor has the honor could lose that fight I mean absolutely Chandler can make him slip so 24 person is the perfect fights and everybody knows that Rony Ferguson is a winnable fight for Michael Chandler and even knows that Michael Chandler and Kornan McGregor is not going to happen because he is number one star of years who is going to ruin that guy and he's done after probably too yes everything and I want to talk about Islam. I started to like that guy because he is going to face more than three or four

legit rapists and I think this whole Ghanovsky thing is just like counsel that he can knock out Islam and he's just selling the fight kind of thing and Islam is going to sub I'm glad to the word of speech and the chirping is just selling the fight thing and please give me an answer about my defendant for a marriage or something

Thanks, ma'am. Yeah, I mean, I got to hear everything going on in the background. Sounds like a very busy area. So hopefully you're enjoying your day Viking MMA. Islam versus Volk is awesome. I'm very excited to see how that fight plays out. I'm picking Mokachev to win. But would Volkadovsky winning surprise me?

No, because he's the best goddamn fighter in the world. and he's a monster. So looking forward to that. As far as Connor versus Chandler goes, look, I had no insight to this. There are reports that Connor's going to coach tough. It seems like they're heading in that direction. I know Tony is doing what Tony does

and trying to shift the narrative in his direction. And I applaud him for that. That's what he should be doing. He's trying to get interest for himself because this news hasn't been announced yet. But look, man, if Chandler is, is available to do tough,

that's what they're going to do. That's what I think. It's just a massive fight. I get where you're coming from. We're trying to get Connor a win. But at the same token, if you're the UFC, you're making a floppy

trillion dollars, whether Connor fights or not. You have this deal in place. Paperview buys aren't as important as they once were because you have this deal in place. So, and by many accounts, Connor has two fights left on his current deal.

So I think there's probably a part of the UFC brass that are thinking to themselves. We might not have this guy for too long. So let's just make as much money as we can. And with all of the realistic options available to Connor McGregor right now, that are on roster, to me, Michael Chandler is the biggest fight. It's the biggest fight. It's bigger than Tony. Tony's a very popular guy.

But the intrigue level, the build between those two dudes is going to be gigantic. And it's going to do 1.4 million pay-per-view buys. Not that that all matters, but you might as well get Connor in the biggest, possible fights possible. So if I had to guess, if I had $20 of supplemental income to throw on if Connor is going to coach tough, who is going to be opposite of him and who will he end up fighting, I'm throwing it on Michael Chandler. Again, with zero insight, that's just what my gut is telling me.

That is what my gut is telling me. By the way, usually Viking asks about the BTL. show, 1230 Eastern. We will have a show. We'll have another battle. Some in, some M.MA fighting, infighting. Jed Bishu versus New York Rick. It's going to be a battle. And I know some of you're thinking to yourselves, ah, man, where's Luke Thomas? Luke will be on in two weeks. Two weeks. It's set. It's locked and loaded. Couldn't do this week. He's got his live chat. I believe. He said he's traveling next week, but the week after, the Thursday after UFC 284, it's Jedmishu versus Luke Thomas. Luke's first appearance on MMA fighting programming in many

years. So stay tuned for that because it's going to kick ass. 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 Treadplus at OnePeloton.ca. When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners, I started wondering, could I get

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I got two things for you. First things first, I'm not sure if it was spoken about, but I feel like the USC is doing a Bellator job with this Makachiev-Vokov-Vokovsky fight. In my opinion, they just haven't done a great job promoting it. Like, NELC did a better job going over to Russia and getting all that content that they got over Dana White, who we all know what has happened in the last few months.

I don't need to bring it up, but then he counters it with the power. hour slap league like come on man you got a great fight to start the first quarter of the UFC and we're not doing a great job promoting it but what do I know and secondly give me some pointers how in the world am I going to stay up for this UFC fight night card this weekend Saturday I'm going to do it because I have a problem but I would love to hear uh you know some pointers maybe some water on the face at three four in the morning whatever you think Mike I hope you have a heck of a week um yeah I've seen some people

people talk about the promotion for 284 and it kind of seems like the same, honestly. I think it's not like they need to sell tickets. I'm sure that building is going to sell out and because they don't go there that often. I think that's probably more valuable to them right now because, again, they have this deal with the SPN, so they're making a ton of money regardless if anybody watches it. but I think once they get there, once this card is over, they'll ramp it up a little bit. And yeah, I mean, you don't need to sell me on it.

I can't wait for that fight. That fight freaking rules. So, but you have to think about it in this sense. This card is not great. The main event is awesome. There's some, let me pull it up. We lost some pretty good fight. on this card. But here's

the lineup. Islam Machchev Volcanov. Tremendous fight. Gary Rodriguez, Josh Emmett, interim title fight. Yeah, it's a good fight. But it ain't going to get a lot of extra attention. Justin Taffa versus Pacoorta. Now,

believe you me, I love you some Paco porta. And I dropped the New England accent on this every single time. But this is he's fighting on the main card against Justin Taffa, who's five and three as a pro.

Randy Brown, J.D.M is a great fight. That's a fantastic fight. Jimmy crude Alonzo Menefield, solid fight. But like on most cards, Jimmy crude Alonzo Menefield is a prelim. But it's on the main card. Jack Jenkins versus Don Chanas. I like Don.

Jack's good fighter. Josh Kulabal, Mousa, Malsik Bagdasarian, Clayton Rodriguez, Shannon Ross. Loma Lekbuni, Elise Reid, Blake builder, Shane Young, Jamie Malarkey, Francisco Prado, Zubaira versus Elvis Brenner, Tyson Pedro versus the returning Modestis Poccascus, who I spoke with yesterday and is still a delight. It's not a great card. It just isn't. I mean, we had Robert Whitaker versus Paul Costa. That would have been a great addition to this one.

We had Kai Kar-France versus Alex Perez. Would have been a nice addition to this one as well. but they just lost some fights and now we have three like intriguing matchups on this card like I'm intrigued by

Boccus coming back but that's a personal choice but yeah it's just not great like 280 283 was better than this from top to bottom it just was

it's just not a great card but now they'll shift their gears to John Jones and Cyril Gahn in London and April 8th is a big one. So I like the card, but it's not... It's a hardcore fan's delight

with an interim title fight and a fantastic main event that they're going to sell like crazy. Randy Brown, JDM is a great fight. Crudal Benefield's fine. But Taffa Porter's probably not going to get out of the first round. the rest of the card is it's very fight nighty. So I don't know.

But I get it. I've seen people say that it's not getting a lot of promotion. But I mean, they'd be doing a lot of different things. Different faceoffs, different pressers, but mostly for the Australian crowd. And for the people who are going to be attending the events, the local area.

But yeah, I mean, it just seems like the promotion that most of these pay-per-views get outside of, like, the massive, massive- Good morning. What up, Anthony? Yo, I just want to talk real quick. These odds for the Islam and Volcanowski fight, they just, they blow my mind because I was very confident that Islam was going to beat Charles. It was like one of my most confident bets, and I love the price, and I bet the shit out of it.

But I'm looking at this line, and I wouldn't, I would have to favor folk with these odds. I favor Volk's chances to beat Islam way better than. and Charles. And what do you think? Because you sounded pretty confident. That's my first thing about the Volga. And then my second thing, you sounded pretty confident about Usman winning that second or that trilogy, the rubber match.

I don't know, man. I think Leon Edwards copies and paced round one at least three times. He wins a three-two decision. I don't think he stops Usman. But I think he wins this one pretty handily. that the elevation, you know, was fucking played a real big factor. And then people are saying, oh, well, if there's no elevation, isn't Usman going to be even better for the second fight? But no, that jet lag across the world really hits you.

I took that trip across the pond last March for the fight cards. And I was fucking jet lag. But Usman's a world-class athlete. And those are my only two things. However, I just want to touch on this real quick. don't think people should be up in arms about the Logan Paul signing with the corners. I mean, some company was going to do it regardless, so why not it be some 20-year-old that is doing pretty dope things.

And, I mean, fucking, if it was Gatorade or some shit, it would just be like, oh, yeah, where's the money? There's more money in Gatorade, so people would be, you know, expecting more money of the fighters. But unless Herb Dean comes out and says blueberry hydrations don't. Are you ready? Then, yeah, I'll have a fucking problem with it. All right, that's all, man. Have a good one.

Have a good one. Good morning. Thanks, man. I mean, I wouldn't say, I wouldn't say I'm confident Ustman will win. I'm picking him to win the same way I picked him to win the first fight. But a lot of things you mentioned are some of the questions that I have. Usman got knocked dead in that last fight. And sure, he was winning and he was a minute away from,

retaining the title, but he also got kicked in the face and knocked unconscious. And I don't care who you are. It's going to affect you in some way, especially if it's never happened to you before like that on that kind of a stage. So I'm curious. I'm curious how he's going to respond to that. I'm curious how he's going to respond to, like you said, traveling across the globe for this fight.

Normally it's kind of in Camaro territory. I mean, Salt Lake City. Usman's got ties there. There was elevation. There were other things. But, I mean, I think Usen is the better fighter. There are definitely road stylistically. Edwards can win.

I mean, we just, we saw it. We just saw it. So my pick is going to be Usen. But I'm not, this isn't Glover to share a Yuri Perashka confidence. I mean, that was probably the most confidence I've had. and there were moments where I was like, I'm going to be able to do my victory lap, and then I was wrong.

So what can you do? And I'm with you on the Logan Paul thing, too. Mohamed, hello. Do you hear me? Yep. I remember a couple of days ago, I don't know, I think it was Tuesday. I was watching Dan and Cormier to Ardashana,

and then he was talking about how, what's it called, he said that he got Patrick to take the rematch. And it got me thinking Tuesday. Because I remember in the press conference, I was talking about taking some time off. I feel like you rushed into the stream, man. You think so, too, and when I was talking.

That's it. Thanks, man. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I don't know. I wish I knew the answer to that question, but I don't. Seems a little quick. Seems a little quick. I thought he would probably take until, like, June, July. but he's ready to go.

It seemed like taking time off would be something, and then he kind of went on aerial show that following Monday or Wednesday, one of those days. And said February, March, essentially, he said he's going to be ready to bounce back, didn't want to take a ton of time off. So I'm interested. I'm interested.

I just have so, I still have so many questions about that fight and that matchup. like does like does perere just straight have his number seems like it and I guess like my other question is what happens if adasania wins are we just going to do it again

are we going to have perere fight somebody else and then get another fight I don't know I'm intrigued by it I think Pereira would probably be my pick based on history but is he look good at 281 Bob Marusa, hello.

Nice day. I want to ask you about Oliver against Derrush. Don't you think it's a bit too early to announce it or just to negotiate it? Because if Alexander wins, it's great that means he is going to defend his, let's say, his featherweight title. And then at the end of the year, he is going to defend lightweight. But if Islam wins, and this is more possible, don't you think it's going to be bad because they are talking about May, and that means Islam fights only at the end of the year? And we have a possibility that he seems to want to be an active fighter, and it's going

to be bitter if he fights three times. that means June, July, if he wins. And about promoting this fight, I really do think it's a little, needs a little more help because it's a fight between two guys who I don't recall they have never, ever been outclassed in a fight. They both have been stopped. Alexander in really, really early stage in his career. and Islam too,

and they're both riding on a great winning streak, and I don't know, I think it could have been better. Thank you, Mike. I hear you. I hear you, but I guess, I guess, like, my counter, and I'm not defending the UFC at all when I say this, but most people in this room, and most people listening on the podcast network right now,

we all know this fight's happening. You don't have to sell us on shit because we know what's happening. And we're all jacked up for it. I don't need to see a promo video to get me more excited for this one. Like I was excited in October. When Machachev beat Olivera and Habib cut the promo and Volk went into the ring, get it went into the octagon, they squared off. I was sold then.

All I needed to know is when it was happening. And then we found out it was happening. And that's it. Like I'm sold. You don't need to sell me on anything. And most of you don't know to be sold on anything either. A lot of these times when you promote and you throw these things out there, we are trying to get the casual audience to buy it.

Because they are very smart in knowing that they don't need to get us because we already know what's happening. A lot of us are going to watch Saturday's card even though it's not great. But we all know what's happening. And I just don't know if Islam and Volk have like big time casual appeal, at least right now. Like if I went to the grocery store right now and I just walked up to people that I think would look like a fight fan or a sports fan. And I said, hey, you excited for Alexander Volkanowski fighting Islam Makachab next Saturday? They would probably look at me and say, I'm calling security.

Who the hell are you and why are you talking to me about two people I don't know? So maybe that's part of the problem, but this is a hardcore fans delight. It's what it is. It's a hardcore fans delight. We are going to watch the hell out of it. We are pumped. And then they're going to save the casual build for John Jones, for Mazadol, Pereira, Izzy. And again, there's no real motivation for them to sit there and just go all out on promoting this.

a lot of times when we feel like this and we're like, where's the promotion for this? By the time we get to Fight Week and we get to Media Day and we do the presser and we get to weigh-ins and we do all that, it builds itself up. We're going to get jacked up. Like there are certain cards that just look kind of dumpy on paper, especially paper views.

And then we get to Fight Week and we go through the motions and we're like, by the time we get to Friday and Saturday, we're like, oh shit, let's go. We're here. And I kind of feel like this is a similar one. But I get what you're saying. I get where you're saying. Fight like this.

Number one versus number two, pound for pound. I get it. Like, we should be, this should be everywhere. But it's for us. It's cards for us. Super Bowl weekend. This card's for us. The UFC's aware of that.

They know what's going on. They ain't stupid. Let's go to Kurt and then we got to go. Kurt, are you there? Kurt, Kurt, Kurt. All right, I don't hear anything. Okay, so we're going to go. I appreciate all of you.

Oh, thank you. It's my best friend. The call earlier about the Logan Paul Seampunk Power Slap thing came from the MMA fake press account. And it kind of like, it's tough because, like, their logo kind of looks like ours in a way. So I can see why people might be confused. But, yeah, that ain't happening.

Just think about it in that sense. Like, why would CM Punk do that? And why the hell would Logan Paul do that? I think Logan Paul's going to just sign up and get slapped in the face. Just see him at the Royal Rumble? Like, Logan Paul is going to wrestle like Seth Rawlins at WrestleMania. You think he's going to sit there and slap around CM Punk? And vice versa.

This guys make so much. Like, CM Punk's sitting at home making tons of money right now. And Logan's, like one episode of Logan Paul's podcast is going to pay him more than what he'll get in a slap fight. Don't need to keep harping on, but I was wondering where that came from.

And then my best friend just kind of said that, my best friend AK sent that over. Scotty, I'll get you on and then we're going to take off. What's up? Good. How are you? Yeah, good. Sam Punk, first.

What? Who? Logan Paul? Really? There's a fake, there's a fake report out there that Logan Paul signed with Power Slap to fight to CM Punk and someone came on here and mentioned it. Logan Paul signed up to a UFC official sponsorship for his juice, his drink. But yeah, Logan Paul versus Sam Punk, no. That's not going to happen. at WrestleMania. But yeah, so what are you guys talking about, really? Whatever you want. It's a Colin Joe.

Oh, cool. Okay. So, I mean, like, Sam Punk, he's done. He's like, you know, he's, he's cut his ties with, you know, the, you know, Nick Carnes and the, say what. And, you know, it's exciting about Logan Paul. I mean, Logan Paul could officially, you know, wrestle someone at

WrestleMania, but who's he going to wrestle? Like, Sammy Zane? I'm not too sure. What are your thoughts? My guess is he's going to wrestle Seth Rollins because he threw him out at the Rumble, and then I watched Ron Monday, and they interviewed Seth, and Seth, they were like, well, Logan Paul

eliminated you from the Royal Rumble, so what are your comments? And then Seth laughed and walked away. So I would assume that they're setting up for that. But I could be wrong, and then C.M. Pong because there are people who still thinks CM Punk's going to come back to AEW and that this whole thing

was a work with the elite homies, Omega and stupid young bucks. But all right, we're done. I guess to go. BTL, 1230, PM Eastern Time. Jed versus New York, Rick, should be a lot of fun.

Lots to talk about. And then tomorrow's going to be interesting. We won't, we're not going to do a show at 10 a.m. Easter. I can tell you that. I have a rare day off on a Friday. Jedmishu and I switched. So I worked yesterday. So I have a Friday off for the first time in a long time.

So I might go play some golf. I think I'm going to go work out and I'm going to play some golf. What I might do is come on and do like an afternoon version of the show. And I bet you're thinking to yourself, what about the preview show? Well, we're going to do it today, actually. We're going to do it at 3.30 Eastern. We're going to do a Bellator 290 and UFC Vegas 68 combo preview show today. So stay tuned for that.

But busy day, I'm going to be talking a lot. We'll do something tomorrow, but I don't know what it's going to be and when it's going to happen. But we'll make it happen. And if not, we'll see you Saturday. I'll let you know, though. But thank you very much. Have a great rest of your Thursday. And as always,

have a heck of a morning, everybody. The Vox Media Podcast Network.