MMA Fighting - HOAM | Colby Covington Doubling Down, Paulo Costa Agrees To New UFC Deal, More

Episode Date: March 23, 2023

After a year away from the public eye, Colby Covington stepped on the scale as the backup for the UFC 286 main event between Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman, and was named as the No. 1 contender at welterweight to face Edwards next. While many were curious as to what Covington's demeanor would be upon his return, he has doubled down on his persona, but has that been detrimental to him in the eyes of the fans? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses his interview with Covington, along with his viral quote about Jon Anik, and how he reacted to it in the moment. Additionally, topics include if Covington is now getting "go-away heat," Paulo Costa agreeing to a new deal with the UFC and if a fight with Khamzat Chimaev is in his future, the bantamweight main event of UFC San Antonio between Marlon Vera and Cory Sandhagen, Jorge Masvidal's title hopes with a win over Gilbert Burns, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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You can hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter on the MMA fighting podcasting network. Hello there. I am Mike Heck. Hope everyone's having a great week so far. We're on the eve of the eve of UFC San Antonio. Yes, I know we're still feeling the hangover from UFC 287. and the fallout of that event. But UFC San Antonio has a massive main event at 135 pounds between Marlin, Cheeto Vera, and Corey Sanhagen.

I cannot wait for that fight. Get a fight night event in front of a live studio audience and a pretty significant audience. So that'll be fun. That'll be fun. A lot going on. And as I mentioned, it is March 23rd, which is a very special day for me. Three years ago, March 23rd, 2020, was my first day here with MMAFighting.com. So today is officially the three-year anniversary since I joined the squad.

It was a very interesting time. Not just for me, not just for my career, but in the world, too. Because literally the day I started with MMA fighting was the day that in the United States, in New England specifically, in Massachusetts specifically, where I was living at the time, everything was shutting down. We were right in the middle of the pandemic. It was like the beginning stages of the pandemic when everybody realized that this is actually a thing. And it was literally the day everything started shutting down.

And events were being canceled and all this craziness is going on. So it was a pretty nerve-wracking time for me because I was wondering, am I just going to be with them fighting for like three days? Is the world just going to stop? Is everything going to implode? Am I just going to get let go right away? I didn't know.

And it's been quite the ride. It has been quite the ride. Luckily, things didn't shut down for too long when it comes to the mixed martial arts landscape, especially with the UFC. They kept on trucking. I remember like the first thing that I did. I think I

The first thing I did was It was right after John Jones got arrested In Albuquerque So I had to do like a video reaction to that It was like the very first thing I did for May fighting And then a couple days later out of the blue I did an interview with Chil Sunnan And then what the heck began

And then a little while after that BTL began And that has since led to a whole bunch of other things Including this show So it has been a it's been quite the ride So I hope You know this is three I hope six, seven years from now, we're still celebrating these anniversaries on on shows like this with mhmapiding.com.

So I wanted to talk about that. Pretty cool to go back and reflect on everything. But I do want to get a couple of things off my chest before we get the show started, if you will, because it's been an interesting couple of days for your boy. on Monday late afternoon I spoke with Colby Covington for M.AFighting.com

and that interview dropped shortly before the show started on Tuesday and we kind of discussed some of the things that Colby talked about and during the show I think it was during the show or shortly thereafter

I'm scrolling through Twitter and I see that somebody clipped off Colby talking about Bilal Muhammad being a racist and then him threatening John Anick and it was just, it was just weird thing. So I've been kind of like off social media. I didn't really jump on yesterday very much. And because honestly, when that clip came out, I got a whole bunch of like DMs on

on Instagram and stuff, and people were giving me just all sorts of crap about it. And my first thought was, well, probably people didn't watch the interview and got context from it. And believe me, I'm not defending Colby. I just wanted to kind of give you my side of things. If you watch the interview, you will realize I didn't ask Colby about John Annick at all. I think I just asked him like a pretty general question. Colby went on a rant. He dropped that line about John Anick. And it was a very, it was a very uncomfortable moment for me because I did not expect that. I did not see that coming. And when that happens, there's two roads you can take. And apparently a lot of people who DM'd me and a lot of people I've seen on Twitter are interview experts and are trying to tell me how I should have handled everything and how they would have done it.

and all of this. So let me tell you where I'm coming from with all of that. There were two roads I could have taken. I could have just followed up with it and kind of battled back with Colby with the anything, which could have been a thing. I could have done it. But all that would have done is would have extended that into more of an uncomfortable place.

So I had to make a split second decision. and the decision I landed on, one that I'm actually pretty happy about, is that I just pivoted. I moved away from it. And there were a couple points in that interview where things got a little uncomfortable and rather than dive into it

and make it worse, I just pivoted and was like, all right, we're just going to take this down a different road altogether. And everyone's like, oh, you should have clapped back. You should have done this, should have done that. With Colby, and I know this has talked about with other people, I've known, as far as like media members having relationships with Colby, I have probably known him longer than anybody in the space.

I've done interviews longer than him than anybody in the space with him. You know, before he was a ranked fighter to, you know, a middle of the pack fighter to a ranked guy who could not get a fight with anybody to a guy who was almost cut by the company despite being a top 10 fighter. pre-gimic post-gimic all of that i've had these conversations with colby for a long time there is a difference between on-camera colby and off-camera colby or the on-camera recording doing an interview colby and then the colby you just talk to normally they're two different guys at least that's how it's always been with me so with the anything rather than just keep pushing him on the manic thing. I know that I'm not talking to Colby.

Like I am physically, but you're talking to the gimmick. You're talking to the character. And as uncomfortable as that threat was, and it was just not a smart thing to say, and I'm not really thrilled about it, it's not really him. It's just the gimmick.

And I wasn't going to feed into that anymore. more than it needed to. So that's my take on it. I did reach out to John and I wanted to let him know like, hey, if you watch the interview, like I didn't ask him about you. He put that out there on his own. I didn't want, because I mean, I think people at this point know how much respect, how much admiration that I have for John Anick. I look at John as as a friend in the industry. I look up to that guy. I think he's not only the best play-by-play guy in combat sports, I think he's one of the top three to five play-by-play guys in all of sports.

I hold John Anick to such high regard. And when I heard that, it was just, it was very uncomfortable. But I also understood that, like, Colby's just being Colby and he's trying to create moments and headlines. and why he took that road, I'm not really sure, but that was not something I was going to feed into more, if that makes sense. I was just going to let it go and pivot to something else immediately

because clapping back and having him say more stuff like that wasn't going to do that. I wasn't going to do that. So it's tough interviewing Colby. It's not easy. People think it's so easy to interview this guy. It is. It's not.

because you have to balance the guy that you're actually speaking with for an interview and the guy you're speaking with when record is not on. Because they're two different guys. They just are. Like conversation I had before the interview started and the conversation I had after the interview started were two completely different in the conversation, the interview we did, completely different conversations, completely different guys, completely different conversations.

So it was a weird moment. and that's it. Just people were coming after me for it. Oh, how dare you ask Colie about John Anick? You knew what was going to happen? I didn't ask him about John Anick. He said it by, he just dropped that out of the middle of nowhere, like just out of nowhere, all of that. So I don't know.

I did reach out to John. I've not heard back. But that doesn't mean like he's mad at me or anything. Maybe he is. I certainly hope he's not. But yeah, that was something. And I guess that's all I'm going to say about it. I mean, if you guys have more you want to ask about that interview, we can certainly do so, but it was not a fan of that.

And it caught me off guard and it had to make a snap judgment. Do we just keep this going? Do I feed into it or do we move on? And I chose to move on. And honestly, I think that was the right decision. And I was happy with that decision. I still am because that clip would have been a lot longer and a lot more uncomfortable if I fed back into it. So you got to make those decisions snap.

And yeah, I was not a fan of how that all played out. But it is what it is. It's what happens when Colby does interviews in big spots. And he's trying to keep that spot that he got from Dana. What's interesting is he's actually, that whole thing has actually given Belalma, a little bit of an extra boost. I feel like more people are on team Belal than ever before. So in a weird way, Colby making things kind of uncomfortable has actually done Belal

Muhammad a little bit of a favor because he's done the media rounds. Everybody's asking him about it. He's taking John's back like all the other fighters and all everybody else. And he's turned it into, I guess, a positive for him. and he's getting a little bit over because of it. And I think Colby might have done him a little bit of a favor. I don't know if it's going to put Bilal in a position where he jumps Colby. That's not going to happen.

But perhaps if Mazadol does beat Gilbert Burns, maybe the UFC pivots to a Colby-Bel fight. There's some juice to that one now. There wasn't 48 hours ago at this time. There definitely wasn't. But there seems to be now. So that whole thing might have just made this Walterweight division a little more interesting. But I don't know.

Just wanted to get my side to it. I got hit up a bunch about it. And just wanted to give my take on everything. So let's hear from you guys. Let's hear what you all have to say on this fine Thursday. Tristan, kick us off. Mike, can you hear me? Yes.

All right. I want to discuss about this COVID thing. Now, I might be a little bit long, but just. just bear with me here. No problems with the interview, you did nothing wrong. Nothing wrong at all. Everything has to do with COVID.

The issue is when you're playing two characters, they start to blur together, and this is where it becomes a problem with him. I was thinking about this a lot. It's like, I'll give an analogy. It's just like, if you watch the movie Friday, with Chris Tucker and Ice Cube, there's the scene where there's,

there's like a pivotal moment in the movie where Ice Cube, Craig's character looks at smoking and says like yo man, so what are we going to do about paying bad big work? And then Chris Tucker goes like this. Chris Tucker was like, man, I don't know. That dude's just playing.

And then, you know, Craig had enough. He was just like, man, like you think everybody out here is playing. Everybody's out here playing. Nobody's playing. Everybody you think he's playing about his money? And you think it's a joke. You think it's funny.

And that's what Kobe. Kobe Coventon is like, he thinks this stuff is funny. He thinks it's, I understand. It's a game to him. It's a character. I understand it. I understand what he's doing. I understand if he didn't do this, he wouldn't be where he is today.

And I'm cool. I'm cool. You're talking about the person, the fighter, and making fun, and that's all well and good. But once again, and this is what gets me agitated about him. Why do you have to mention about people's family? Why do you have to mention about people's character? I mean, I'm sorry, people's religion.

And this is the whole point of Jorge, when he said it, when he talked to Joe Rogan, he said, and he still, it's like, in the octagon, I want to take that du suh, because it's eating them up inside that he could talk like this, and there's, and, oh, I could just sue me. This is what Kobe comes to his fallback in. I'll just sue him.

I'll just, I'll press charges on him. He did this with Verdun. Go back to the Verdun tape. when we're doing through a boomerang at him. He went and called the cops. He's doing this. He did it to Jorge. Now, again, I don't want to condone what Jorge did.

What he did was not right. I'm not condone the violence, but at least I kind of understand where Jorge is coming from. You understand? And this is the whole thing. It's like, he thinks it's all fun and games when you start talking about people's religion

and when you start talking about people's families. And for you to threaten John Hennon? Like, I don't understand. I don't know how John is going to win. When he threw the fighter meetings, addict may have to excuse himself, he'd be like, listen, and he probably not. He's so professional, he's so,

he's so nice about it. And he, and he knows, and I know, like, John Agn knows what it is. He's like, you know, I'm not going to be. It's hilarious. Like, you know, whatever. But in a quiet moment, I wonder if John Attic's like, man, I should put a restraining one on this dude, man.

Like, for you to go and threaten the children, my children and my wife, Come on, man. And this guy, and you don't know, John Addick, I don't know, we don't know what John Addick's capable of. You think he's soft a way. Go, all right, you keep thinking that way. Because you may know people that we don't know.

So he can make that, he can make this back a real uncomfortable situation for Kobe. But he's not going to do that because, you know, he has a job. He's a professional. He's going to be doing always do the right thing. He's a stand-up doing. This is my issue with Kobe, man.

And it's all games. I get it. It's all games. I understand what he's trying to do. But this has got to stop, man. This has got to stop. And this is why Belaw was feeling a certain way. Like, yo, man, I see you in Miami.

I'm smacking him. And Belar never really speaks like that. Like, I'm going to smack. He's never done that. I'm going to smack this guy in the faith. Because you're talking about things that is unnecessary. Like, you don't have to add to your character. You know, it's like a Jacqueline high.

But the problem is they're merging together where people are not going to be able to tell the difference anymore. And maybe when he retires, he apologized to everybody. maybe he could have a comeback just like how Bitsbyn did, because Ms. Bittsman would tell you some crazy stuff, but now, you know, he's beloved. Hopefully, I hope that for him, because he better make this right when he retires because it's not going to be playing games anymore at this point,

and that's my whole thing about it. And then the second of all I want to point out is, I agree with Balao in the situation. I know they have told them that, hey, we're going to give you shop cop, Machuano, and he said, I'm not taking that. fight and if I'm him and I think that's going to happen when he talks to

Dana and the UFC brass on Monday I think what he's going to say is if I'm going to fight shopcott Rachmanov I need a guarantee that I'm getting a title shot if night if not I'm not doing it and either give me the winner of Jorge versus Gilbert I'll take that fight or Kamar Usman that's it and that's where the negotiation should be because it's like he made great points where if I face shopcott it it's It's too much of a risk. Not to say, and I'm not saying Belak can't win the fight. I think he could.

I think he could beat Shafka. But he knows the damages. You know, like, that's going to, it's going to be a hard fight where I'm not going to come out of that fight unscathed. Where I might have to take six to eight months off just to recover from that fight. You know, and it's true. And if I lose, then my title hopes are done. I'm not getting another title shot again. So, and he's like, also, too, and he broke up the point that I express is like,

I already fought down. I already beat. Sean Brady, I already beat an upcoming prospect. Now you want me to be another one who's even more dangerous, who has more heart and who has, it's just dangerous everywhere. So why am I going to do that? And I think the UFC are going to come to terms.

You know what? We'll give you a solid. You know, you've done, you promoted yourself, you did everything on your own and things of that nature. You know what? We'll give you the one of Jorge versus Gilbert or we'll give you tomorrow. And that's what I think it is because I think that, because it's not fair.

They know he's right at some point. You know what I mean? So that's my thoughts about it. And, you know, thanks, Mike. Yeah, I don't know. That's going to be an interesting meeting. I don't know if he has as much of a leg to stand on, to be honest with you. Unfortunately, I've kind of, like, predicted this path for Ballol, and it's unfortunate.

It shouldn't be this way. But I predicted he would fight Sean Brady, and I predicted that if Leon won, he's going to have to fight Chavkarakhanov. And from what I understand, that fight's been discussed for a couple of. couple of weeks now from a couple of people that I've spoken to I know belal is saying that was the first he heard about it maybe that's that's the case but um from what I understand there have been discussions about that fight for for a couple of weeks now but it'll be interesting to see what that meeting's going to be like I if if mazadol beats burns he ain't fighting mazadol I could assure you of that they're going to keep mazadol they're going to keep mazadol away from that

they're going to try to do Mazadal Leon or even Mazadol Colby for the title. Mazadal wins is getting a title shot. Plain simple. Burns wins. I could see them doing Ballal versus Burns. So they could go that route. Maybe Usman, but who knows what's going to happen with Kumar at this point?

And yeah, he ain't fighting Moss at all. That's not going to happen. So ultimately, I think he should probably just hope Burns wins. could fight him. Otherwise, it's going to have to fight

Shofkarukhar Kwanoff. And it's a tough one, but I agree with you. It's a fight that he could win. But it's a tough-ass fight. It's a tough-ass fight. And then with the whole Anik thing, yeah,

it's just, it was, like I said, it was super uncomfortable. That's why I didn't fire back at it because I just, I wanted the uncomfortableness

of it all just to go away, or at least not extended, ended even longer, but I don't know this for sure, but it wouldn't shock me if, like, Colby had reached out to Annick already. It was like, yeah,

maybe I crossed the line. I don't know. I don't know. But I wonder what the UFC's going to say about it. Because there's no doubt that Dana's going to get asked about it. So what are they going to do? Are they going to say, we talk to Colby told me can't do that shit? Or is Dana going to say, well, we have

700 maniacs on the roster. And we tell them they can speak freely about whatever they want. I don't know. I don't know. But yeah, it was not good. It was not good. Joking aside or not, it was not good.

QP, hello. QP. We'll move on. Let's try J.N. J.N. are you there? All right. I don't hear anything. With MX Platinum,

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Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Let's try Julio. Julio. Hey, good morning. So I'll tell you exactly what Dana's going to say perfectly. This is the fight business.

People say mean things. It's going to be somewhere along those lines of what he's going to say. But as far as Kobe, like, it's just crazy. And I honestly feel back for the guy because he He's clearly dug himself so deep In that character that there's just no way There's no way out of it, right?

He just has to say messed up stuff And you could tell like He's obviously not a witty guy And you know, coming up with stuff He may have one or two lines like ready to go But he like always stumbling across like what he has to say So I'm pretty sure the John Addick thing just came up in the moment and just said it out I don't know the guy

but he probably was thinking like damn I can't believe I said that or whatever but it is what it is like that's his character and he has to go with it my thing is it's just the sad thing is there's characters in every in entertainment right trash talkers in the sport you know like Tom McGregor Michael Bissing in this time Mayweather whatever and Whether you talk good or bad, good or bad about them, the point is to sell tickets, right, and make their pockets bigger. But just thinking in the long run, like, it's a cold world. And once this is all over, I just feel bad that it's going to be a lonely, lonely life for him. Like, I don't know who would want to associate with that type of person.

Like I said, he kind of dug himself so deep that he just seems like he has to keep going with this. And just thinking long term, like, nobody's going to want to deal with that guy, you know, because of the type of stuff he has said and attacking people's families and kids and religion and stuff. And it's crazy that, you know, you would want that or you would want to keep pursuing that type of persona. I guess my question, that's just really my thought. The question that I would say is, who do you think has been like, of the most hated fighters or yeah in an

in MMA besides Kobe like I could think of like Dylan down and Dan is like nobody likes that guy because all the dumb stuff he says and he's not relevant so yeah besides Kobe who do you think has been like the most hated

MMA fighter there's been thank you I don't know it's so weird Colby's right up there but a lot of people like him too a lot of people like him a lot of people defending him in all of this um so i don't know like it's hard to say like what hated actually is because you feel like john jones was hated for a long time and then he shows up at a press conference after three years away and multiple heinous arrests

and people are cheered him like he's hulk hogan in 1988 it's it's weird like hated is not necessarily a bad thing in MMA. There's like different kind of heat. Like Danes has, Dylan Dennis has like really bad heat. And I think Colby, like Danes doesn't have like really any supporters. Colby has supporters.

He has a lot of them. AK can attest to this. He reads the MMA fighting comments section. Colby's got people who have his back. 100% no matter what he says or what he does. Colby's got people on his side. Colby's got a lot of people who cheer for him. A lot of people who cheer for him.

lot of people who boo him, but he's got a lot of people who cheer for him too. And that's just how it is. And Jones is the same way, but he has a lot of people who cheer for him. A lot of people. So it's a tough question to answer, honestly, because I would say Ronda probably got there by the end. But even then Ronda had a lot of supporters too. So, yeah, it's an interesting question.

Being hated is not necessarily a bad thing in MFA because people pay to watch you get your ass beat. Dennis is a different story because I don't think really anybody has his back outside of like family and friends and a couple of training partners

and he's got Connor siding with him which is always like a good chip to play. And then, you know, with the other stuff, yeah, what was, I was curious about how Colby was getting,

like when he stepped on the scale Friday, I assumed he would do a scrum on Saturday at UFC 286 and speak with the media. and speak with the media. I wasn't sure if he would definitely do it, but I felt like he might. And I was wondering how he would handle himself. Would he continue on the same path he's been on?

Or would he kind of have a baby face turn? That didn't happen. That did not happen. He just came back and he was kind of the same old Colby, maybe even with a little more edge to him. It's, I was wondering if, you know, maybe he would turn baby face.

It would spend a year. Maybe people would have sympathy for him in some ways. And he just kind of doubled down on everything. So I was wondering if maybe he would change it up, change it up a little bit. But it didn't happen. And right now he's the number one contender for the Walterway title, according to Dana White.

It's very, yeah, it's a weird sport. It's a weird sport. And this is exactly what the UFC promotes. They like this. stuff. So, Blah. How we do, man? So, um, good.

Um, you know, the news about Polar Costa getting a fight, um, dealing extended. Um, do you reckon now there's a possible chance that U.S. will try to make him and Hamza have a battle out at, um, U.C. Sweden, possibly? Let me know your thoughts on that. Mm. I don't think they'll wait that long. Hamzat said on the MAI yesterday he would fight in July.

So that'd be a good, it'd be a good little fight to throw up. the International Fight Week card. If I'm Paul Costa, I ain't going near Hamzaa Chamaez. Go fight Sean Strickland. Go take that one. But don't fight Hamzaa because that is not going to go well for him. The build will be interesting and there'll be a lot of eyeballs on that fight by the time it happens. But I just don't see a world where Hamzaa just runs him over.

So, I mean, good. I give Paul credit for kids. continuing to call out Homsup, but wouldn't really advise it on this new deal to try to fight Homs out right up the bat. But here we are. Here we are. And good for Paulo.

He put his feet in the sand, had a big fight with Robert Whitaker, had Dana talking trash about him. And according to him, he still got what he wanted. And he got some more money and he got a better deal. And good for him. good for him but if they do homzat they'll probably do it in july and that's probably where it'll happen

international fight week that'd be my guess try to load that card up as much as possible and getting homz out on there would be a pretty good move be a pretty good move uh joe hello hey mike a heck of a morning um on the colby stuff i feel like i think ariel said it on the m m m m hour but he's running the risk of getting um well for me he certainly has but for everyone else getting Xbox heat or like just like go away heat. I think what initially attracted me to MMA was the personalities and what I like about wrestling is the gimmicks. And Colby is now getting into this like weird territory in between where it's just like

when I see him talk feels very robotic, doesn't feel human like the personalities that I do enjoy in MMA. at this point, like, I would trade 50 Colby Covingtons for one Yuri Perashka. I just want to see, like, more weird guys who like fighting fight than, you know, a guy who's going to come in and really put on a character. It's, it's, I'm not looking forward to a potential Leon Colby buildup. I think the fight could be pretty good and probably would be pretty good, but I couldn't, I don't think I would tune in for any part of that, that lead up.

all that being said on the ufc san antonio card um i was curious that the main card is actually pretty good um i really like the cop perez fight i like the landware lingo fight obviously that's going to be incredible but i was curious i saw holly home signed on to a new contract and i want to get your thoughts on that it seems like she's you know i know people sign on a contract don't always fight him out but It seems like she's pretty ready for, you know, six, ten, however many more fights. So what are your thoughts on Holly Holme going forward? Thanks, Mike. Well, I'll tell you what.

Holly Holm is the beneficiary of being part of just a really uninteresting division where there are never any fights. I mean, there are never women's band-in-way fights. that division has been ice cold for a year, year and a half. And you could make the case that she is the biggest star in this division right now. And I know Amanda Nunes is there and she's the champion, but Nunes isn't like a giant star. Hulm might be the most known fighter in that entire division. So keeping her is beneficial right now.

and you only have like 22 fighters in your entire division. So good on her. It just seems like a lot, like a lot of fights for somebody who is, is she 40 yet? She's 41. She'll be 42 in October. So, yeah.

I mean, I think the UFC had to do it. And it just worked out for her that she's at 135. So they could extend her and they need to keep her around as much as possible. They also need her to be active. She needs to fight a lot more than, a lot more and at a much higher rate than she's fighting now. It's been, what, 10 months since her last fight. And then before that, it was almost two years.

So we got to try to get in there at least one more time this year. But yeah, I'm not surprised by it. I'm not surprised by it. And we'll see how she does against Janice Santos. And again, with the Colby thing, Yeah, I think in a lot of people's eyes, he does have that kind of go away heat, that Xbox heat, but a lot of people still like him. They're all cheering for him. They're defending him.

They're in the comments. Yeah, Colby, yeah. They love him. So I don't think he has Xbox Heat just yet. Dylan Danes has Xbox Heat. Like, they're, I mean, it is very different. You have to search far and wide to find someone who will defend Dylan Danis. you don't have to search very far to find people who will defend Colby

and Dana seems to like him enough to give him a title shot so there we are and I don't even know if like you actually likes him who knows Patrick hello hey Mike how we doing today good I just wanted to say first off you did not have to address yourself for the Colby situation I know you feel like you have to but you can't really control sometimes what some of these fighters say so obviously not your fault

Two, I just wanted to ask you what you thought about Leon's accuracy in his performance against Kamaru. I went back and looked at the stats and he had the eighth most accurate performance in UFC title fight history. Just a very impressive stat that I think is being overlooked. And yeah, have a great day. Yeah, it was impressive. I think we were in the middle of the watch party. He was like in the fourth or maybe early fifth round. He had landed like 75% of his strikes.

It was impressive. He made all of his shots count. And that's why I scored the way that it did, because he was landing. Like, Usen might have been busier at times, but Leon was the one landing the shots. And when he threw three out of four times it hit. Great with the leg kicks, great with the body kicks. It was a very solid performance. Very solid showing.

So I got to go down as like one of the all-time great performances. but it was a sound, solid performance to get a victory in front of his home crowd and stifle Kamar Usman. So it was a great game plan. Yeah, those numbers are pretty eye-opening. So, yeah, very strong performance. Edward, hello. What's up, Mike?

I hope you're having a good day. Yo. I was going to ask you about Cheeto and Sandhagen. I wanted to see, like, if the winner of that gets. a title shot, like considering Corey has one win over Song Yadong, and should I bet on Cheeto by 5th round? Ha! Let me see.

Let me see what the betting odds are like for that fight. I assume Corey is the favorite overall. Corey minus 175. Let's see. Do we have Barrow wins in round 5 plus 1,800. I mean, I wouldn't bet the mortgage on it, but yeah, throw a couple shekels down. Who the hell knows?

Do I think the winner gets a title shot? No. I don't, especially if Corey Sanhagen wins. Marlon Varel being a much better position if he wins. But even then, I don't think he gets it, just because O'Malley's there. And I think O'Malley will get the title shot. And I don't know what they're going to do.

I mean, the best case scenario for Marlon is that, he goes out there and wins and maybe they just give him Sean O'Malley in a number one contender fight or they who knows like depending on what happens with Aljo and Sehudo like maybe maybe Aljo will just be like yeah I'm not going to fight John O'Malley and I'll just move up to 45 and then they'll do O'Malley versus Vera for the for the bacon belt so I feel like that's what the UFC wants they want those two guys when they fight again to fight for the title So how they get there, I'm not really sure. Well, Aljo make that weight cut again and get in his guy's way just to get the bag with O'Malley.

What he should have just gone for the bag to begin with? We've talked about that a bunch. And I think he would even admit that at this point. So I won't rule it all for Marlon Vera if things fall, if the dominoes fall in the right way. excuse me. But Sanhagen won't get a title shot if he wins. If Sanhagan wins, they'll have to fight Marab. And if Sanhagan loses, he probably has to fight Mara.

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SV3 Hey man what's up Hey I don't agree with you on the Palo Costa I don't think you would get dusted by Hamzot because A he's a lot bigger and B like he's shown some real good take down defense against like Romero but that's just my opinion

also like was the Colby interview like uncomfortable for you and do you think he's gone like crazy in this sort of way um so to start at the Costa thing I just, yeah, he's shown some decent takedown defense, but not against Hamzat. Like a guy like that, like Luke Rockhold was having success getting him to the ground.

And Luke is not the same guy by any stretch of the imagination. I don't care who you are. Hamzat's going to get a hold of you. He's going to take you down. Now, can Paul cost to survive is the big question. And if this fight can get extended, Paul's got a chance. But I just feel like it's a very favorable matcher for Hamzad. And I don't think Paul is that much bigger than Hamzad.

I think Hamzaa might actually be bigger than him. Hamzat is a gigantic man. Like, I've stood next to this man. He is a fucking monster. That was the first thing I thought of. Like, I saw him in Jacksonville, stood next to him a bunch, and I was just like, how the hell does this guy make 170? I don't believe it.

I just don't believe it. Because he was over, he could fight at light heavyweight. He could fight at 205. He could do it and hang. He's that big. He is a giant man. I know Paulo looks good coming off the bus too. He's a big dude as well.

Bahamza is a friggin monster. So, yeah, I mean, look, that would be, that would be a fight with a lot of casual appeal. That'll be a fight that on Fight Week will be built up to be gigantic. Paul is very good at that. Paul is very good at taking the attention off main events and putting it on him.

Him and Brockhold was the most talked about fight of UFC 278, even over the main event. by the time they got into the cage. And Hamzat's very good at that as well. Hamzad Gilbert Burns, when I was in Jacksonville, we had two title fights in that card. And anybody wanted to talk to me about was Hamzaa Chamaif. It's all anybody we wanted to talk about.

So it'd be a great fight to build towards, no doubt. I would heavily favor Hamzot in that fight, but I could be wrong. I could be wrong. Was the Colby interview uncomfortable? The annex stuff was uncomfortable. It was uncomfortable. When he said what he said, I was very, I was uncomfortable.

I was dead silent. I didn't react to it at all. But I immediately moved on because of how uncomfortable it felt. And I knew that anybody who heard that would probably feel uncomfortable as well. So rather than dive into it and follow up on it, I just left it alone. I was like, all right, next topic. Because I ain't going down this rabbit hole. I'm not doing it.

So, and there are a lot of people who DM. me they were like oh i would have fired back this first of all no you wouldn't have and second of all what good would that have done it just would have made the clip two minutes longer and more uncomfortable i wasn't going to do that i wasn't going to do that but yeah i got uncomfortable but i've done i mean like i've done many interviews with colby where things have gotten uncomfortable that was probably the most uncomfortable i've i've gotten was when he said that line about john because i didn't i just had no idea it was coming just did not see that comment.

When you mentioned John, I was like, all right, he's just going to like tackle, tackle noise. And then the threat came and I was like, oh, Jesus, we're pivoting immediately. J.D., hello. Good. How are you? Dude, I'm fantastic. This past weekend marked one month sober and feel awesome about it.

So anyway, I got two things for you. One, last year I asked you a question about Ray Longo and where he could stand in best coaches of the year. So I want to revisit that, considering now, in a lot of people's eyes, he has the top two bannam weights on his team, and he doesn't have a very large team. And then two, people obviously want to talk about, you know, this weekend's main event. We're going to get your thoughts on it for sure tomorrow afternoon. But I want to ask, is there any chance that the fight heads to the ground at any point?

Thanks, bud. Hope you have a great day. That's an interesting question. 25 minutes, yes. I don't think it will be a lot, but I think at one point maybe Corey will shoot, maybe gets a takedown, VAR gets right back up,

and then they just keep doing the damn thing. So I'll say yes. I'm not fully confident in that pick, but I think at some point, when you have two guys like that, especially Marlon, who gets better as the fight goes, I wouldn't shock me to see Corey mix things up a little bit, maybe try to get a takedown, especially later in the fight when Marlon's at his most dangerous points.

So, yeah, I'll say it hits the ground at some point. I don't think it'll be for very long, but I could see a takedown being shot for sure. And then Longo coach of the year, I mean, he's off to a great start. He's off to a great start. Aljo beats a hoodo and then Marab gets another win and Frivola beats Drew Dober and all this other stuff. Yeah, he'll be right in the mix. That was a great question last year too.

And he probably should have been ranked higher than he was. Toke, look at this. We got him in. That's a welcome change. I have changed absolutely nothing, so I'm glad to be in. So I'm just one, the only thing that I'm going to touch on, I don't have a rant this time, I'm sorry, I just don't, but I will say that I will, to all the betters out there, my condolences, because we are going to lose the most surefire bet in history, which is the live bet against Makwana Miyakani after round one. it's oh my god before the fight even started i i had a small sprinkle on jack shore round two submission which got through at odds what 10 to 1 i think and i mean it's just it's i'm feel very sad

that we're going to lose macuan now because there's no shot that he gets another fight i think but i wanted to talk about jack shore as well because what we saw in the first round still matters. We saw him being bullied a bit, being thrown around a bit, and I'm still not sure. I know he can't make, he says he can't make a phantom weight, but he does seem like a small filler weight. So do you think that's going to be an issue going forward? That's mostly what I wanted to talk about, actually. So glad to be back, Mike, and have a heck of a day. It's good to have you back. So I was worried about trying to get you in. I just, just didn't want the damn wheel to spin, and it worked.

And I saw Mikey Batson here earlier, so maybe he could try. Maybe we're getting everybody in. Maybe the issues have been fixed. I think that first round kind of went the way I thought it would. I mean, I thought Machuan would be a little bit more active with stuff, but I think here, and you just kind of have to understand what Jack was sort of dealing with, too. This is a guy coming off of this first ever lost Was finished badly by Ricky Simone

Coming into a I mean not a new weight class But a new weight class for the UFC One he hadn't been at Since I believe the last time he was at 45 Was his seventh pro fight So it'd been a minute He's fighting on a big card

Big pay-per-view in front of his home crowd Everything going on with his dad All of that Like there's a lot of pressure His dad's yelling him in the corner like working head kicks the whole time. He didn't throw a single kick. Second round came out like a bad out of hell

and submitted Makwanamir Connie in the second round and he got it done. So I think he was just, he had a lot on his shoulders heading into that fight. So perhaps maybe just the first one, you kind of figure it out, you do the math, you do the numbers, what do we need to fix here, what do we need to tweak here.

I think Jack probably hit the weights a little bit more, point a little bit of size, cut a little bit more, a little bit more weight so we can put on a little muscle. But I think I think Machon is like the perfect first opponent with everything he had

going on. And yeah, I mean, it's going to be an experience for him. It's going to be an experience for him. And eventually he'll figure it out. And I feel like he'll be good. He'll be fine at 145. He'll be fine.

He's got to get his body back acclimated to that weight class, the weight cut, how much size can I put on? How do I incorporate even more strenuous strength and conditioning to match some of the size discrepancies he might face in some of these fights? But yeah, I thought he had a, it was the perfect first opponent.

All you got to do is get out of that first round with Bacuan and you'll win in the second. And that's exactly what he did. So, yeah, round two, Jack Shaw is probably the easiest bet of the card. and any kind of a live bet after round one on any mock one on Ameri Connie opponent is a great bet it almost is surely going to cash so yes maybe they'll keep him around I don't know

maybe they just think his topology picture is so damn fire that they have to keep him going but I think Jack will be all right AA what's up good in saying that he's to rematch Porre. I think he was interested in that as well. I'm just

curious what you think. Why would Porteerier be interested in a fight against Gaecchi again, considering he's already beaten him, and I just think that every time they would fight, I just think the result would be the exact same way. I think it would be a war, and Porreier

would get the win in the end. So why would you think you'd be interested in a fight with Gaichi again? That's all I've got. Everyone, have a great day. Take care of yourself and peace. I mean, I think you're looking at this wrong wrong. Why would he not be interested in that fight? Gachi's got buzz right now.

Gachi always has buzz. And Porre is just on an island right now. I mean, that's literally the best thing he could hope for outside of finding his way into a title fight. And if he beats Justin Gachie, he probably finds his way into a title fight. But I think a lot of it has to depend on what happens when Oliver fights Benny. If Oliver wins,

Porre might not be interested in that fight at all because Pori might just get the damn title fight because I don't think they're going to go back to Oliver that quickly. Less, you know, one year after, I don't see it happening. So Poria could still be in play for the title shot. But as far as, like, big fights for Poria right now,

that's probably as good as it's going to get for him at this point. I mean, there's nobody for him to fight. He didn't seem all that in Chironioux. She already fought Olivera. He's not going to fight. Surukian or Gamrod or any of these guys. Gachi's the one. Gachi's the one.

That was a fight of the year the first time. Probably a fight of the year again. Different kind of a Gachi this time around. It's not the same dude. And it's something I think Poria did an interview that we wrote up and said like that fight kind of scares him a little bit. And those are the kinds of fights that get him going. So, yeah, I think you would take that fight.

The first one was a classic. And they're two different guys five years later. And Aporia wants to get a title shop. Darius beats Mokachev, then that's by far the best and biggest fight he can get right now with Connor getting ready to fight Chandler. So, yeah, I think that's, I think he will take that fight. Why the hell wouldn't he?

I get where you're coming from How do you do it better? He'll try, I guess. Chris, hello. Hey, boss. I just had a quick question going back to like the Colby thing. Do you think at all that

them being so quick to name Colby is like a, like are they in a negotiation with Edwards for his contract now that he's a champion? Is this like a stiff arm type thing? That's all I want to know. I have no idea, man. like it's again like i've been saying on the show for three weeks do not be surprised if

leon edwards wins if colby covington is in play i prepared you for this i warned you about this and some of you thought it was crazy and some of you were like yeah you're probably right and here we are now did i think we would get this announcement right after the fight on saturday no i didn't because everybody was talking about this mazadol burns fight, especially if Mazadol wins, like he could find himself at a title fight with Leon Edwards, and that's fight Leon Edwards wants. And you basically just devalued the second biggest fight on your card. Like, what is the point of even putting this fight together if the stakes aren't what we thought they were? Like, who cares about the fight now? It's just a fight. Like, there's certainly

storylines and questions to be had. Like, can Basidol get back on track? can he beat a guy like Gilbert Burns, was 2019 just lightning in a bottle, all these different things. But what made this fight compelling in the first place was the fact that Leon won the belt and he's getting ready to fight Kamar Usman and all of his on, can Mazadol do it? And if he does, they're going to, we're finally going to get something on this three piece of the soda story all these years later. and then to just go to the press conference and just devalue that fight in its entirety, I just didn't get it. It was the timing of it all.

Colby being in this spot is not surprising at all, but the timing of it is crazy. Now, Burns and Mazadal fight April 8th and Burns wins, and Dana goes to the press conference and says, Colby's next. Yeah, people are going to moan about it, but people are like, all right, I get it. I get it.

Like, Mazadol's out of the equation. Sure, Bilal will be pissed. Bilal fans will be mad. But at the same time, it's more, it's more understandable, right? It's more understandable. We get it. It's a draw.

It's a money-making venture. It's a business. Yada, yada, yada. But just to develop, just to make the stakes in Burns Mazadol, nothing is just strange to do it like that. it's just very, very weird. So I don't know if it's a contract thing.

At the end of the day, I think Leon putting his feet in the sand is not going to be necessarily a bad thing. I think it'll be something where they're just like, dude, just take the fight, like, we'll give you more money. And he'll be like, bet. I'll just take the extra money and I'll fight this guy. And Leon can beat Colby.

Like, Leon can beat him. It's a winnable fight for Leon. it's definitely a winnable fight I don't know if I would pick him like right the second but either way it's a close fight but it's a winnable fight for Leon it's not like he's fighting Hamzaa Chamaif

Colby's winnable like you could beat Colby and think of the rub he gets from beating Colby he gets a bit of a rub so yeah I don't think this is a oh I refuse to fight him I just I think the UFC will come correct

and be like dude just just fight the fucking guy. Here's all this extra money. That is, unless Mazadol just goes out there and obliterates Gilwood Burns. And I think that changes everything. I am working on, I am working on getting Jorge Mazdaal

for a conversation because they obviously, the boxing event. Mazel is supposed to come on the freaking watch party on Saturday. But it didn't happen. He was the surprise. It was, it was, this time last week,

I was feeling pretty damn confident that Mazdaal is going to be on the watch party. But it didn't happen. He ended up doing something with the Panthers hockey team. Something kind of came up last minute. Did a thing. He was kind of the center of attention for that game.

So he went and did that. I don't blame him. I don't blame him for it. But we're working on getting something cooking, sometime. Maybe this week, maybe early next week. But I am working on getting Mazdal and his response to it. But I think in the end, it burns wins. We are going to see Leon versus Colby.

And Leon will probably get a couple extra bucks to take that fight. And we'll see how it plays out. It is an interesting fight. It is an interesting fight. It's a close one. It's a close one. Emilio. Hello. Emilio.

I don't hear you, Emilio. All right. So that's that, I guess. All right. So back tomorrow. We'll do it again. I think we're going to wrap up here. We'll be back.

Yeah, like I said, 10 a.m. Eastern tomorrow. We do have BTL 1230 Eastern. Jedmishu versus Damon Martin making his return to the BTL virtual arena. So it'll be a lot. I'm sure a lot of takes about the Colby stuff. So we'll talk about that. The fall of UFC 286. We'll talk about Marlon Vera versus Corey Sannhagen.

The stakes, all that fun stuff. So we'll see you at 1230. And if you can't make it, we'll see you here tomorrow at 10 a.m. Eastern. Free for all Friday. We'll have some fun leading into UFC San Antonio and BKFC's back tomorrow as well. Big event in Virginia and Britton Hart versus Jenny Savage, too. going down on that one. There's some heat there, so that'll be fun.

BKFC is always a fun watch. But thank you all very much. Enjoy the rest of your Thursday. And as always, have a heck of a morning, everybody. The Vox Media Podcast Network.