MMA Fighting - HOAM | Conor McGregor In Trouble Again, What Does This Mean For His Future?

Episode Date: June 16, 2023

Conor McGregor’s career could be in jeopardy following sexual assault accusations stemming from an alleged incident that took place at the NBA Finals in Miami last Friday. This isn’t the first time that McGregor’s name has been tied to such allegations, so could this be the incident that forces the UFC to make a decision on his fighting future? On a Free-For-All-Friday edition of Heck of a Morning, guest host Alexander K. Lee talks about the McGregor situation and what this means for The Ultimate Fighter 31 and his expected matchup with Michael Chandler, plus what to make of the trio of major fights announced Thursday, including Max Holloway vs. “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung. We also answer questions about Charles Oliveira’s GOAT argument and what we can expect in an Islam Makhachev rematch, Holloway potentially fighting one of the upcoming “BMF” title challengers Justin Gaethje or Dustin Poirier, Ian Machado Garry’s step-up fight against Geoff Neal, whether fighters should wear shirts and have more sponsorship opportunities, 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 Follow Alexander K. Lee: @alexanderklee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Yo, yo, what is up, everyone? This is not the voice of the wonderful Mike Heck, though it is still a heck of the morning.

This is your guest host. Alexander K. Lee, just filling in for Mike, just having themself a little a little morning off. Everything's good. Everything's good with Mike. It's just, uh, we're, uh, we got the summer schedule going on. People, people are partying early in the morning or partying late at night. Maybe that's where he is. I don't know. You know, he is a DJ. But it will be a leave of a morning for today, though. It will still be a free for all Friday. So please send in guys any of your

questions. Let's get the show started. Uh, we actually have plenty of news to discuss. You know, this is a free for all Friday. So really, you can talk to whatever you want. We welcome non-MMA topics. But listen, the past couple days, we've seen some, we've seen some ish go down as it were.

Of course, there's the Connor McGregor, the latest sexual assault allegations based around an incident that allegedly occurred at the game four of the NBA finals, the Miami Heat Denver Nuggets

NBA Finals. This was at Kasea Center in Miami. Some pretty strong accusations being levied against the UFC superstar. There's a lot to unpack here. Again, I don't, I, if you guys can read the story at M8Fling.com, of course, the story was broken by TMZ.

There's video this morning, and we're sort of working on a story about that video as we speak. So you guys will see that on NMAFighten.com, but also you can see it. Listen, obviously check our coverage on it, but the video is out there. It's on, it's on YouTube, TMZ Sports. If you, you can watch it as you want. So there's a lot going on there. I'll adjust the video really quickly for anyone who hasn't seen it. feel free, of course, to ask more questions about it later.

It's a little hard to tell what's going on. TMZ, I think, did a decent job of sort of framing it, showing sort of the alleged victim and Connor. He does appear to be leading her into a washroom, but we really don't know the nature of the interaction. If you saw the story, there's also accusations against the Miami Heat and Kasea Center security, possibly being involved in the incident, as well as McGregor's own personal security being involved.

And you do see some men sort of shuffle into the scene. again, unclear what's going on. I don't want to say, make heads or tails of this video and say, well, this clearly shows this or this clearly shows that or it doesn't clearly show this and it doesn't clearly show that. Again, you guys can find a video. It's like 60 seconds long. You can't judge for yourselves. It is hard to tell. But obviously, I think I assume, I assume I can't be sure that that was put out there by the accuser's attorney and the legal team.

I assume we'll find, we'll find more footage as well. I mean, this was in the middle of a, it looks like it was the VIP area of the Kasea Center. A lot of people around, even in the video, you can see this like a, I don't know, 100 people just milling about in this, in this very small area. So very hard to tell what's going on. But yes, Conradger being accused of a sexual assault as well as, again, accusations against Kasea Center security, I guess, possibly Miami Heat Security and McGregor's own security. So that was a hell of a story that broke in. that is developing. Miami Heat and UFC have issued statements,

both pretty similar standard statements that you would issue in a situation like this. They're aware of the allegations and withholding comments pending further investigation. That's as a corporation, probably how you're going to handle most of these situations. Miami police did tell a Mayfiting, and by the way, huge shout out to Stephen Morocco,

who spearheaded a lot of the reporting that you see under Maefighting.com regarding the story. And also we had Sheehan Elshadie and Damon chiming in. I was involved very lightly to just sort of helping with the editorial side of things. But as far as reporting the legal side of things,

Damon, Stephen, Shaheen, outstanding work. So a lot of things to them for covering, again, a really difficult story to cover. That's no other way to put it. But yes, the police are investigating. They didn't really specify McGregor's name. They kind of suggesting their regressive, or excuse me, investigating this incident.

that occurred at the at the cassaya center so make of that what you will it is an open investigation obviously the police are not going to comment much further than that okay uh we also had a bunch of fight announcements so i won't go in depth again i want to hear what you guys have to say about it we've got uh corey sanhagen versus umar nirmagumegov uh ufc nashvvc nashvc nashvc nec obfxxx nashvc sivvc stevil gan sergey spivvac ufx september 2nd i should said nashville is august fifth And Korean zombie and Max Holloway looks like will headline UFC Singapore on August 26. So that was huge. Also, probably not a coincidence that the UFC dropped this news.

Dana White himself, I believe this is all done in a video, right, on Twitter, dropping this news on the same date that this Connor McGregor, these allegations broke out. I think they're related. That's my opinion. I don't think it's uncommon or absurd to suggest that. this news dump is meant to, you know, sort of distract from what's going on with. Again, one of the UFC's biggest stars. I know you, I know McGregor hasn't fought in a while, but he is still, you know, with the UFC.

He's currently on the Ultimate Fighter 31, which I'm sure many of you, which I'm sure you all know because you're all also tuning into our tough 31 reaction show every week, tough hang with myself and G.C. Connor Brooks and E. Casey Leiden. So I don't know what's going to go on with the show. I assume it's just business as usual. I can't imagine that they're going to postpone the show, like temporarily take it off the air before the season is finished. There are three episodes in. It's a 10 episode season.

So we'll see. Again, the show airs on Tuesday. So we have four days until the next episode. And I'm sure more details will come out. McGregor's legal team has commented on as well, of course. They're saying completely false. They're saying this is a shakedown. It's just someone trying to get money.

It's worth noting that initially the way this came out was via a demand letter from the accuser's attorney. So, sorry to circle back to McGregor stuff, but obviously it's pretty much the biggest news of the last 48 hours, as much as the U.S. may have tried to bury it with fight announcements. A demand letter, not, but they are seeking legal recourse now. But it was initially a demand letter sent to McGrearrier's team, you know, I guess suggesting let's settle this now before, you know, we have to go to the court. So again, people can have their opinions on what this means as far as the veracity of the allegations. But that's, I'm just stating the facts. That's what's out there.

But yes, I hope they, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what's going to have Old Fighter 31. And I have to talk with G.C. and Casey about how we're going to handle McGregor coverage. Because we talked about McGregor a lot on the show. we obviously try to separate McGregor, the character that's on television from the personality, because, I mean, personally,

obviously, I'm not a fan of the man. He's had previous sexual assault allegations. Generally, he's a pretty, I mean, publicly, he's a pretty brash guy. He's had other run-ins with a lot beyond just sexual assault allegations, breaking a fan's phone and all these things. He just gets in trouble with the law a lot.

He punched an old man at a bar. I mean, we know that. That was video of that. He's apologized for it. He's done a lot of rough, heinous stuff. And as we did we've been doing the show, you know, we've been kind of saying like, okay, well, this is, listen, this is, we're just going to talk about McGregor. Let's avoid all the personal stuff for now, all the outside of the cage, outside of the show stuff. But once something this pops up, how can you not mention it? And how can we talk about McGregor with the same kind of enthusiasm and levity that we have been on previous shows?

Because I recently, I myself recently said, oh, wow, the show's doing a lot for McGregor's rehab, uh, public image rehab. have because it's a lot of showing him like, oh, here's him interacting with a kid who made action figures of McGregor and McGregor paying him like $1,200 for the action figure. What a cool guy, Conn McGregor is. And look what a great coach he is. Look at him chumming along with these aspiring UFC hopefuls. So I think the purpose of the show was meant to sort of, again,

get people to sort of like Connor O'Gregor again before he fights Michael Chandler. But when something like this comes out, I mean, if I'm if I'm if I'm if I'm if I'm if I'm the open fighter staff I'm probably reediting some of these episodes You're probably gonna I wouldn't be surprised if you see less Connor on some of these upcoming episodes if they just continue with the show as it So it's very strange situation as for the Michael Chandler fight Lesson they never had a date people having a lot of doubts that it was gonna happen this year Especially with McGregor media lesson guys Aaron Bronsiders out there constantly David Martin constantly checking The side of the database to see if McGregor's metested he hasn't

and by stand you know when you're out this long you do have to undergo six months of testing before coming back of course the ufc can issue in exemption under extraordinary circumstances and keep in mind the ufc kind of defines what those extraordinary circumstances are so if they wanted him to come back you thought it wouldn't really be the big hurdle but now you add in that plus these allegations mcgregor versus chandler two looking questionable for 2023 all right let me bring you guys in uh and see what you guys want to talk about again talk about mcgregor talk about mcgregor talk about the new fights. Talk about the fights this weekend. We got fights tonight, Friday night. We got fights UFC on Saturday. Let me bring in, he was here first. Tristan, I'm going to bring you back. What's going on, Tristan?

I can hear you, yes, sir. A couple of things real quick. I'll try to be brief with everything. Take your time. Take your time. Okay. As far, listen, as far as Julia Pena and the whole situation, what happened? You know, she's playing the game. It's a game.

People understand this. It's a game. She's taking the Kobe Covington round. It is what it is. I don't even bother to listen to it because I'm just like, I understand what you're trying to do. So it is what it is. As far as Jedmishu,

Jedmishu had said that as far as the band of the division is concerned, to bring back Round de Roz, and I just, I don't see it because, like, people don't have to understand. And I went back to read certain articles. Back, I think she did an article 2020 or, or whatever the case may be, it's not only coming, like, to come back to fight and to probably obviously save the women's band-and-weight division,

it's the other stuff that she doesn't want anymore. The media, the travel, the selling the sport, she doesn't want to do that. It really affected her when she came back to fight Holly Holm and, I mean, I came back, but fought Holly Holm and then fought Amanda Nunes, where she did no media. She didn't speak to anybody in that whole situation. And I remember, too, she was like, she wanted to leave as undisputed women's champion with the undefeated record. So once that was gone, that was it for her. She was like, no, I'm not doing that anymore.

So I understand Jets point, as far as a business standpoint, it makes sense. But I just, I believe she's not coming back. I think she closed that door. To my other point, as far as Charles Oliver, great performance against Benny Daryouche. The thing about Charles Olivera is

that dude is so good. He's gotten so much better and he's evolved. I don't want to express this with Mike. And I want to see the rematch between him and Islam because I think Islam can be beat

but you've got to be smart about it. And that's the thing about it. He has to really sit back with his coaches and figure out what did I do wrong because if you're saying that wasn't myself or that wasn't the real me in there then what's going to have to happen is you sit down and figure out what is Islam's weaknesses that I can expose um vote watch the vote fight you know watch when Islam got knocked out watch the arm and sirrucun fight and figure out you know how they were able to become competitive even though you know those two had lost so I think

there's a way to do it. It's just, I think he has to be, he has to have control. Oh, Tristan, you're breaking up, Tristan, you're breaking up a little bit. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? I hear you now, yeah.

You were saying he has to have controlled, he has to have controlled something. Controlled aggression. Don't be reckless. Be smart about it. Because the thing about, the thing about Charles that I'm seeing is he likes to put pressure

and like to come forward and put pressure. Back up, Islam to the cage. You could do that because I saw both did that a little bit, you know, push if I'm towards the cage, back him up. So these are things that he has to think about. So, you know, that's my whole thing about it, because I think Charles could be, if you be, oh my God, forget it,

it might be the greatest, like, wait ever, but we'll see. And then moving to the NBA, Toronto Raptors, we talked about this. The thing is, I don't, listen, the NBA draft starts June 22nd, free agency right after. Toronto is going to be very interesting. It looks like, from my point, I'm guessing here, that they're looking at Scotty Barnes, like you're going to be the guy and we're going to build around.

Okay, because it talks about the outcome being traded to go to Portland. We'll see what they do with OG and all these things about it. But if Scotty Barnes is your guy, you know, Toronto's got to figure out we've got to build pieces around them. We got to. And then it's also Scotty Barnes part in the offseason. I'd have to get better. It's like how Yokic, we just saw what Yokic did, how he got better over the years.

So Scott has got to be, I got to be better too, because I think he can. I think he could be a star, but we'll see. All right, thanks, A.K. Thanks, Justin. Yeah, let me, let me touch upon, excuse me, guys, let me touch upon some of that stuff quickly. I don't have a lot to say about Julianna Pena and Nunez. I've probably said a bunch stuff on BTL this week. I might have even tweeted about it.

I'll just say if Pena somehow talks Nunes and the coming back then all this nonsense that she is proud of is worth it I'm just I'm like you I find it pretty like dull I just

I will say but it gets a reaction out of me it gets I do think it's dull I do think it's pointless but there is a part of it that annoys me and I'm not a believer like that all news is good news or all reactions or good reactions but I think at this point that is what Pena is going for a lot of people are making the Covington

comparison and I and I totally get it I think um without without sort of the political slant to it it's it she does seem to be doing this very super exaggerated a chel sonin as well yeah that i'm i'm the best fighter uh because i'm not a fighter I'm a warrior just kind of weird almost like this kind of word salads promotional word salad and and good for her if anyone buys it I i see a lot a lot of people it's probably a vocal minority it's probably not the majority it's just you know the kind of people who reply to these kinds of things saying like yeah like Nunes should have fought her a third time like where it's unresolved

because you know Pena finished her in the first fight and and Nunez couldn't finish her in the second fight and I'm like I I'm not can I have no interest to seeing a third fight if it happened sure like I wasn't like against the I wasn't against the it was originally booked to be a third fight I wasn't against it I didn't love it

I was preferred the Aldana fight as bad as that turned out being but I'm not dying for it. And I don't think Nunes has to prove anything. So Pena, listen, at least she's keeping yourself in the headlines for whatever she fights somebody, whether it be again, it's not going to be Nunes anytime soon, but, you know, Raquel Pennington

or one half of a presumed vacant women's Bantway title fight. Charles Islam, too, I agree. I'm a huge Charles guy. People know this. I would love to see him get another shot. I also think he has the skills

to beat Islam, but But you couldn't tell from that first fight. That first fight was all Islam. Islam was just looked fantastic. Again, this is more credit to him, I think, than to Charles' detriment, which is why I don't like Charles saying, oh, it wasn't me. I was not my best. Probably true. Probably true.

Listen, maybe he was not his best. But I don't know if the best version of him be the best version of Islam. I think Islam-Makhashab, again, right now, skills. Now, again, if they fought like 10 times. I could see Charles, like, winning three out of those 10 fights. For sure, sure. So that's why I want to see it run back at least once, right? Because maybe, maybe that one rematch falls within that 30% that I'm suggesting.

But if they fight again and Islam beats him, it would not surprise me. I would probably would not need to see it again. I don't know where Charles would go. He could go up. He could go back down, as he's always saying, he's not done with featherweight, which just seems ridiculous given the weight cutting problems he had there before. But yeah, I definitely want to see it again. And listen, neither result will surprise me.

I think when you're number one and number two, and I think Charles has done a pretty good job of separating himself from the pack, really, it's not a coin toss, but it's like, again, if they fought 10 times, Charles maybe wins three out of 10. And that sounds like an insult, but no, when we're talking about Islam, like, this is supposed to be this, like, dominant, dominant guy. Because I would say, if Charles fought Habib, I'd give Habib like 9 out of 10. So Islam's just a notch below that.

And again, if Charles catches him on the right night, he can finish anybody so first fight all islam no question if i'm islam i understand why he has didn't care to fight charles again but now listen they both fought once both charles has earned his way to rematch i feel let's let's see it happen and again could go the same way but ufc championship rematches rarely do uh go the same that is and quickly about the rafters i'd love to spend the whole time talking about it but we got a lot of people requesting i do want to get you guys in here uh apologies for anyone who wasn't able to hang on um scottie barnes

yeah, great young player, regressed in some ways, last season, advanced in some ways, needs to become more of a score. He loves playmaking. He loves creating for his teammates. That's great. That's what you want in a star, but you also need someone who's going to score. So can he be a number one guy like you can really build around the NBA? Maybe, maybe. But he does have to up that scoring because there's before, there's some comparisons to Giannis as far as his profile, like being a big guy who can, with great length, who can,

end of the ball who can, you know, do the, you know, create for others. But he does not have that, that unstoppable scoring ability of Giannis. He doesn't quite have that strength yet. But can he put that kind of strength on? Can he get that kind of coordination? Can you get that kind of killer instinct? I think so. But I'll just say the next few years of Raptors basketball are going to be strange and maybe

a little tough to stomach for some people. So, uh, four-round sniper. I'm sorry. I lost you. If I can get you back later, please hop on. I know you had to wait a while. but I will go to Subum 5 right now. Subum, can I get you in here?

We're connecting, we're connecting. Let's give it a second. Four Corner Sports, I see you as well. I try to write down everyone's names, you guys, chime in. I apologize to Zolo and King George V as well. I know you guys were trying to get in here. I'm sure you guys have things to do. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining

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Subo, you're in, but you're muted. Oh, yeah. Sorry, sorry. I just thought that you are a big Charles, a little fan. I just want to ask you some questions. I got you. Please. What do you think? Islam will go against Alexander? We're going to ask you Charles Bolivia. Oh, okay. Okay, thank you. Thank you for the question. Yeah, like I said, I mean, it should be Charles next. We did a little article on

M.Afighting.com, which the champ replied to himself. The article was, who was next for Charles Oliver, a bit of a roundtable with my pals, Damon, and Jedmishu. And listen, we write these things to create, obviously you want to create controversy. Also, you know, to present different angles,

to present why things might happen. So I chose Charles. I chose to make the argument for Charles, which is to say. Damon leaned more towards possibly the Porrier Gaithi-Gi winner, and Jed, the wild card, as always, went with Connor McGregor.

This was before, of course, before the allegations came out. I'm sure Jed would very likely change his answer now because that is almost definitely not happening. I can't imagine a scenario where McGregor skips the line now and somehow fights Charles Oliver. So that's not going to happen. But either way, Charles himself responded, and I think he gave the best response, one word, just come on.

That was it. So, champ, listen, that's another first round knockout for the champ, telling us to shut this debate up. suddenly people don't belong in this graphic with him. He is the number one contender, and I'm inclined to agree. I would love to see Volkanowski and Makachep against someday. And I'm glad we got it once. I'm glad we got it once.

There was definitely a camp that was like, oh, couldn't we see Islam defend the title a few more times? Because Volk has been a dominant champion. And don't we want to see like two dominant champions go against each other? Plus, there are names from Volkanowski to fight. Like, I think a lot of people are glad that he's finally fighting Yahir. I think Arnold Allen is

I know he just lost But he's got to be in there Somewhere he's still in the mix And featherweight again Like lightweight and phantom weight There's a lot of young guys that just keep coming up Like these divisions build up contenders fast So if Volcanowski wants to stay at 145

And rattled off 6, 7, 8 championship defenses He absolutely could But You know, listen he had that chance to go for a second title Everyone wants that champ champ status He came very close to winning it some would argue that he did. And I understand why he's still,

you know, he's never really kind of stopped talking about a rematch since, even ahead of his going back to 1045 to defend that title. Because he probably will fight Islam again someday or challenge someone, challenge someone for the lightweight title, because he was so competitive in that fight against the guy who, you know,

like again, we expect Islam to go on his own dominant run. And it almost ended right there. So, but I've definitely leaned towards Weinstein, to Oliver to, again, as opposed to Volcanovsky too.

But we probably end up seeing both if everything makes sense. Let me go to Ogun. Ogun Ferali. Let me see if I can get you in here, sir. I'm just putting around with these buttons here. All right, Ogun, I got you. Hey, what's up with you, man? I'm an M.M.A fighter out of Mississippi,

and I just want to come up real quick and tell you, I appreciate all the things that you do on your page, man. I have been seeing a lot of the stuff that you guys post, and it has been, you know, been a lot of conversations, as it work for me, you know, it's been giving me a lot of things to look into. So once again, I just came up to say thank you, brother. Oh, oh, God, hold on. I probably misproness your name. Say your name again. Tell people what amateur pro record. Do a little, use this chance. Give yourself a little promotion here.

Yes, I'm an amateur MMA fighter. My real name is Jamal Jenkins. You can look me up on tapology. Okay. My record is 5 and 1. I have four knockouts. Excuse me, three knockouts, one submission, one loss. I lost by decision on that one in January. But I just had a kickboxing bout this past two weeks ago on the 27th, and I won that one.

So that was awesome. My Facebook, if y'all guys want to look me up on Facebook, is Monster Jenkins. my IG is Jamal Jenkins 5 You know I got a couple of my fights on my page So if y'all want to check me out Check me out on there

I got merchandise coming soon And I appreciate you man And Jamal, do you know when you're fighting again? Yes, I'm trying to fight again on July the 8th Island fights has a As something coming up down here in Mississippi In Biloxi Mississippi And I'm trying to be on that card

All right Jamal Well thanks for calling in Thanks for the kind words really glad to hear it. And congrats on the kickboxing win and best luck going forward, man. Thank you, man. Thank you. Oh, that was nice. There you go. Yeah, listen, people ask all the time, can we get fighters on here? Let's get me. Four Corner Sports CV. I see you guys, but I got to get four-on sniper in here. He was, he did have to dip, I think, and now he's back. Four-ounce sniper. Let me get sure. Hey, what's going on. Okay. Well, I joined in a little bit late. Not sure what happened with Mike, but thank you for stepping in and hosting the show for him. He's fine.

It's literally just his day off today, and he's got other things. And he would normally chime in with you guys, but it's like a day off where he just can't really spare the time. He has a life outside of us, sadly, but he'll be back on him. No, I got you. He's fine. No, I just want to say thank you for stepping in. I wasn't sure what happened, but we appreciate you.

No, Bob. Everything's good. Hosting the show. I just wanted your thoughts on, like, the unfortunate events of a Zalgasuma Gulob's UFC career, because it seems like he keeps getting, I guess a lot of people would say robbed in decisions and then opponents keep pulling out and now he's fighting he's actually fighting a teammate of mine uh joshua van he's a fighter in houston texas he's he's pretty good it's going to be a tough fight for zagas and i'm sad it's going down but it should be fun i just wanted

your thoughts on uh you know the bad luck of zagas zumagulah all right thanks for us yeah let's talk a little let's talk a little zalgus uh let me just bring up this here we go uh yes zalgus zaguzumgulov for Anyone who wasn't aware was supposed to fight this Saturday in a flyway bout against Felipe Bounis. Sorry, I should say Bunez. Sorry, that was a brutal pronunciation of that name. I just want to take a look at Zagas' recent record here. Because, yeah, we got to talk about some of this bad luck he's had. Yeah, sorry, he was supposed to fight Felipe Bunez on Saturday, U.C. Vegas 75.

Apparently, according to Bunez, it was a failed drug test that is forced him out of the contest. and forced Zagas off this card. Though luckily for Zagas, he will be fighting next week, as Foron Sniper just mentioned, against a highly touted flyweight prospect. I think he's only 21 years old, Joshua Vann, 9-1, and I think all his wins by finish. I know I featured him in Miss Fiss, I think, once or twice. All I hear is good things about him.

So this is a big test for Zagas, frankly. And maybe another turn of bad luck, because I think he's, I didn't see the odds. I'm assuming he was favored against Bunes. And he might be the underdog against Joshua Van. Again, given what I've heard about him. And it's not like a secret. I hear a lot of people talk about this young man.

So it could be more bad luck. But yes, Zagas, this is his third opponent that he's missed out on in the past two months. On May 6th, May 6th fight card, he was to fight Nate Mainis. Manis got injured. and then he was, and then Manus was replaced by Hafeel Estevam. Estevom botched his weight cut. Sorry, this is UFC 288.

Estabon botched his weight cut, he got taken out. So this was, so luckily a month later, they were able to get Zagas another fight with Boonis, and now that fight's gone. Three opponents within a month, guys, pretty rough. And now we have to fight a, not undefeated, but very highly touted prospect in Josh Bands. So it's tough.

And then you talk with the split decisions that almost made him retire. I mean, there was rumors that after his loss to Charles Johnson, that's a split call, that Zagos was going to retire. And I think he had one more fight in his contract. So he's like, okay, let's get this one fight. And then if I win, obviously, I'm sticking around.

If I lose, you know, then TBD. TBD, maybe he revisits retirement thoughts. But split decision is Charles Johnson. Before that split to Jeff Molina. It's been tough. He's one in five in the UFC. The good news for him, as we said, at least he got rebooked at U.C. Jacksonville.

And he's one of the most talked about one in five in the UFC fighters that I've ever seen. I'm sure there's someone back in the day that I'm forgetting but yeah he's got this crazy Beatles haircut or Prince Charming I don't know what you guys want to describe it as he's having

he's loving it he's got the memes going he was joking that it's because of his hair that his opponents have been pulling out he said the hair is now 2 and 0 it's good stuff it's good stuff from Zaga so if there's any guy who again one and five who can turn his crew around with a few wins it's him it's just going to be a tough

test but if he beats joshua van then suddenly he can say he's got this this ginchy new haircut that everyone's been talking about for again the last month and a win over again a really really really hyped prospect is august could be back on track he only been two and fired that but he could be right back on track and we put this uh put the silly retirement talk aside but uh we'll see it was august it has been a very strange run uh UFC run and one i think if if people when people go back and look at it like man look what happened in this guy he he he before he did the he had wins over. Ali Baku-Utinov, Tagir Ulanbekov, and Tyson Nam.

Those are his three wins before he got signed by the UFC. So huge things are respected. And it just hasn't worked down, unfortunately. So a bit of a bummer. Four-corner sports. I believe you are next. Let me bring you in here. Four-corner sports, what is going on?

A-A-K, so it sucks for Zalcas because uncancellation hasn't been so far that he has not. I feel like it's been, like, over three? yeah it was three in the last month yeah three to his last three bookings all definitely not healthy for the body that he constantly has to keep on cutting weight and cutting weight and cutting weight at some point they just got to just throw somebody you know maybe like a a backup fighter whenever he comes up because it's just pretty inconvenient for him and well that's what they're doing I mean they're giving him I mean they're giving him the first guy up and unfortunately the first guy up it looks like

again is a blue chip prospect so good luck August um I wonder so I know Dana and now yesterday, Max Holloway and the Korean zombie. Is this something that the Korean zombie might just call it a quiz after this fight? Is this the reason why they're going back to Singapore? Another question that I have is, what's it called, Ronnie Lawrence. So I know that he's buried in the prelims, but I know he's two and one in the UFC. I know he lost his last fight. But I feel like what's the quote, Ronnie Lawrence, like the way that he writes kind of reminds me of

the guy from Belasor with the blonde hair I forgot his name having like a brain fart right now but not one of the champions the guy that I lost to Rafion Stats forgot his name I thought of his name I'm atel

I feel like what's the quote Ryan Lawrence has similar fighting style as him how far of of a trajectory that he can go with a win on Saturday I know he's fighting Argueira on Saturday and if he wins he becomes three and one and I know Banoi is very sad,

but what's this ceiling you think Ronnie Lawrence? All right, thanks, Akey. Okay, thanks, Forkorn. Yeah, let's talk about TKZ first. Listen, this is a fight both guys wanted. They've both been interested in it for a while.

Probably they would have liked it to happen, you know, a few years earlier when TKZ was a little less shopworn. But we're getting it now, and for the reasons that you sort of just asked about Four Corners, that this does you know, it is expected for this to be the swan song of zombie. He's openly talked about retirement. If they have been able to go to South Korea last year, he would have retired. And, you know, they're going to Singapore.

So not obviously not the same thing, but, you know, at least a bit of an easier travel maybe for some of his friends and family. My geography is terrible, by the way, guys. If South Korean Singapore are like a 20-hour flight apart, please let me know. But I'm pretty sure they're not a bit closer. So, yeah, this is what TKZ wants. I know I was super jazzed about it. I tweeted about it right away. I'm like, yeah, good.

I would be sad if Max Holloway and Chen Song-jong never got to fight each other. So again, it's unfortunate it didn't happen in their primes, but that it is going to be on their resumes and we look back in their careers, I think is a nice thing. Yeah, look, people don't want to see it because zombies is probably going to get squashed. Right? As tough as he was, the chin has deterioration. even if he doesn't get squashed like

caoed it could be a very uncomfortable like five round just like smack down and I don't think people love the idea of that either especially with someone on their way out it's kind of sad to see right you you want to see them either go on a win or not go out taking a sustained beating

because really the whole point of retirement is to preserve not the whole point sorry one point of retirement is to preserve what's left of your health so if your last spice me and Max Holloway you know whatever's left your health is going to get it's going to take a bit of a dent um but this is listen this is a fan friendly matchup this is why for me this is this is sort of the the most simple way to make a match is is do you want to see these two people fight and i've always wanted to see max holloway and korean zombie

fight do you want to see these two will fight now again mileage may vary um but i'm very happy with the matchup holloway is going to be a minus i don't know 500 favorite i don't know how much faith people have in Korean zombie at this point. And if your zombie, again, this is the way you want to go. You got to fight. You got to go out fighting one of the greatest feather weights of all time. Arguably, number one. Again, obviously, I'm still going to say Jose Aldo

all the way. And he fought Jose Aldo, too. So if you're a zombie, listen, he's a fan of the game too, man, and he's just going to be like, I fought them all. And he fought Volcanovsky. So he can really say, I fought them all. I fought them all. So fingers crossed, this matchup stays together. Everything's

good. Everyone's healthy. win or lose, TKZ, a legend, Max, a legend for taking this fight, because Max doesn't have a lot to gain from this fight. If by some chance he gets upset, gets caught by a Korean zombie bomb just gets put in his ass, it only hurts him, right?

It only hurts his career. So he doesn't have a lot to gain, but I think he's a fan like zombie too and just, you know, he wants to say he has zombie on a resume because he's also fought all the greats. I love that the featherweight division, we always kind of wedged in between lightweight and band to weight, talking about like the best division in the sport featherweight is up is right up there it has

always been right up there and i love that the best of the best of the best all got to all got to fight each other you can even throw connor in there connor fought holloway connor fought um zombie sorry not zombie excuse me connor fought aldo connor fought uh justin porre right so the featherway has been pretty much giving us what we want for the longest time wokenosu's got a great defending champion it's it's been it's been really enjoyable to see so I get it my people might not like this matchup but uh

say lavi if you're gonna if tk z is gonna go out uh at least at least it's with uh it's with something he wants to do something he wants to so it might be a little bit sad let me talk about uh please if anyone wants to call in uh please do i'm happy to answer questions though i do also want to talk about the other two matchups that were announced.

I couldn't, I didn't, again, I wasn't really on social media a lot last night, so I couldn't get a super gauge on, uh, where people are as far as the Corey Sanhagan, Umar fight and the Cedel-Lagan Spir-Vak fight, but I'll, I'll guess. I'm going to guess here. I'm going to guess. I'm going to, uh, kind of argue both sides of these matchups. So I like them both. What a surprise. Prince's positivity and enjoys these, uh, these matchups.

Uh, Cedelagon, Sergei Spivak. uh look i i like it because i think listen cedil you know he needs a ranked opponent sergey's coming up sergey deserves this uh he's really put together a nice run after some early stumbles in the ufc and man a win of rsidel gone you know puts them up there in the in the title picture again i don't think he's fighting john jones anytime soon um i don't know john jones fighting anyone anytime soon frankly but um but at least he gets him towards some sort of towards the title picture whenever that clears up whether it's because you know Jones beats Jones fights Steepay

and the winner of that moves on to fight someone or those guys just both retire and this belt is free for Cedal Ghan, Sergei Spivak, Sergei Pavlovich, Jelza and Almeida to compete over Tom Aspinall. It might be better once you know John is steeper out of the way. But regarding this matchup itself, I actually

like it for Cedill because I still think he's just such a great athlete in heavyweight which is not that Spivax's a bad athlete. Spivx probably actually slightly above average but I think Ceylagan sort of next level as far as his movement, as far as his agility. And that's going to be huge against Gael-like Spivak, where the last thing he wants to be is stationary and get taken down.

And that is sort of the argument against this fight, right? You have a lot of people who are like, why in the world, after what we just saw with John Jones, after we saw Cedill lose the decision because of wrestling to Francis and Ghanu, why in the world are we putting him in there with a person who's another grappler. And I totally understand that because yeah, listen, if this does become a grappling fight, huge advantage of feedback, huge advantage.

But I think CEDL needs to answer these questions. I don't think CEDL views himself was like, oh, well, I'm, you know, I was happy winning the interim title. I'm okay if I never fight for the title again. This is a guy who I'm pretty sure sees himself, you know, still as a guy who can be the U.S.

Everywhere champion, especially with again, John Jones' possible. retiring. Steve Mioch is possibly retiring. Francis Ganoe in the PFL. If you're still gone, you're like, all I got to do is shore up this grappling and prove I can beat grapplers. And

I could, you know, string together like a couple of heavyweight, win the heavyweight title string together a couple of title fights. He can't shy away from these matchups. Eventually, he's probably going to have to fight a Curtis Blades. And how's that going to go for him, right? We're just going to see Curtis Blades blast up him right from the start. So he has

to take on these challenges, Vivek is a great grappler, but I don't put him in that realm of heavy waste that can just take anyone down at will. And that's something that I think Cedal's team has taken into account here as for why they accepted this matchup. So I understand people not loving it, but it's Cedal, it's Paris. It's you got to give the people what they want, the Paris people it is. Corey Sanhagen and Omar Nirmagomagamettev is definitely interesting.

Corey has no fear. Corey Sanhagen does not care about, he is not a squatter. You know, we criticize squatters a lot in other divisions, lightweight, welterweight, especially sort of older veteran guys who don't want to, who don't want to risk losing their spot. So you kind of hear a lot of people calling them out, but you don't hear a lot about the fights actually being made. Corey's not old, by the way.

I'm not calling him an old veteran, but he's certainly a UFC veteran by this point. He's been enough big fights. He's fought for an interim title. He's fought, again, pretty much everybody, all the big names. And if he wants to get to a title shut again, he has to beat a top competitor. And Umar is right up there. I think Umar personally, I would pick him to beat anybody in the world of 135. Actually would favor him in a fight with Aljo.

I think he's that good. I think he's that complete. And I'll favor him this fight with Corey Sanhagan too. But listen, this is why they fight the fights. And this is why the media were wrong on these predictions a lot. So I'm riding the Umar train all the way. But if you're Corey Sanhagen, listen, you're aware you're hearing all this stuff. You're hearing all these people counting you out.

You're hearing all the people saying that, you know, you don't, oh, he's never going to fight for a title fight again. He's, he got his shot, but he's lost, he got dominated by Aljo when they fought, you know, before Aljo won the title, just completely got ran through. You know, Corey Sanhagans, a top five guy, but not number one guy. You know, you're Corey. You can't listen to that talk. And you probably see Umar as a winnable fight now. You're probably doing one of those. Let me get this version of Umar now before Umar gets even better.

Um, though again, personally, I think Umar is pretty close to his prime already, if not in it. So, uh, that strategy might not work. But again, you can't be afraid. And for Umar, what an opportunity. Again, Corey Sanheng, top five guy. Very, very tough fight for almost every other than that one loss to all Joe, course hanging has been a problem for everybody. win or lose he has been a problem for me that fight with piotr yon was frigginn awesome sandheng was doing

really well early on before piotr turned on the uh turned on the robotics turned on the analytics and just downloaded him and and went on to uh to win a comfortable decision uh so it's a big test for um he's again he's a great fighter but who are his best wins so far let's take a quick look he's fought sergey morizov super tough guy i like actually like that win a lot brian kellerher how many bocelloselos. Good fighters, good fighters, but guys who are in maybe, you know, the top 20, 25 range. This is going from them and Morozov to a top five guy. And if you've seen Umar, you're probably not worried for him, but it's a leap.

It's a legitimate leap. Now, the other thing to go with this is if he beats Corey, I mean, does Umar and or Megamatov just launched himself into a title shot? Because I'm not sure what more he has to do at that point. He would be 17 and 0, 5 in the UFC. And yeah, you could quibble over, well, can he go 6 and 0, 7,0, get a couple more wins first? At some point, you've got to just pull the trigger. And, you know, maybe he has to fight Marab.

I don't know, but Marab is booked, if I'm not mistaken, right? Marab, oh, no, Mara just be Peodor Young, right? And Marab was calling out some other names to sort of act as whether intentioned or not, as Al Jo's bodyguard. So all right, CB, I've been rambling long enough. I will get you in here. Thanks for coming back. Sorry, I couldn't get you in before. Marshall's buyers travel far and wide, hustling for great deals on amazing gifts.

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On link on C4A.com or in magazine. CV, are you there? Oh, AK, I'm here. Thank you. Thank you for your patience. I apologize for my time. It's all good. I had to jump up real quick because I had to answer another call.

But yeah, just two quick questions for me, man. I'm not sure if it's been covered before from the previous callers. But I'm assuming Max is going to win. against Korean zombie. And I'm going to assume his next flight is going to be at 155. Do you think it'd be reasonable to have him face the winner or loser of the BMF title between Poria and Geichi, their second fight?

And second question, I need your thoughts on our new head coach, man, Darko. Is he going to be our savior? Thanks. Oh, Steve, once a say, did you say Holloway versus BMF loser? Oh, winner or loser? I think it would make sense personally, but I just need your thoughts on that. Okay, yeah, great.

Thank you. Thank you. All right, guys, let me stew on that for a second. I actually also am covering something on the side here. Like I said, we're on our summer hours now. So I've got some people on vacation. So, you know, a little more responsibility for your boy, AK. Let's see.

Just get that there. Okay. Yes, let's answer these questions. And by the way, I'm sorry. I forgot to talk about Ronnie Lawrence before. I will get to that. I will circle back to that. Let me address first.

Holloway versus BMF winner, loser. I mean, that's perfect. That's perfect. Now, obviously, I think I would rather see him and Gathe G. Right. Holloway Gagee is a dream matchup. It's brought up on onto the next one all the time. I was just saying, wouldn't it be a shame if we didn't see zombie versus Holloway at some point?

It would be an incredible shame if we never saw Holloway versus Justin Gathech at 155. I can't even imagine it. I love watching Max Holloway fight Dustin Porre. We've seen it twice now, I believe, right? We saw it 155. We saw it at featherweight. And both fights were fantastic. The first fight, obviously, a little more definitive for Dustin Porier,

as far as getting a finish. The second fight, also a convincing win, but at least it went to distance. And, man, what a great fight that was. It's a fight that just isn't talked about as much because it was on the same card. This was the, that's right. after the gas a designe gaslam war so people forget what an awesome fight for you it was it was it was really really good and a great performance by porre so i don't know if we want if we're going to see that again again if you got it who's going to complain who's going to complain

more poor a hall five more rounds of poor a holloway hello and it has to be five rounds by the way i don't care if it's a comian event and if it's uh if they say it's not for the bmf title or it's just you know because we don't really defend it that way uh just please guys agree to a five fight for the fans. Not great for your health, but I mean, for us, I say it all the time. You got to give the people what they want. So yeah, I'm totally down with that. And again, I prefer G. I prefer G. I prefer G. Win or lose. I'd love to see him in Holloway fight. But if Holly really wants that BMF title, especially again, if I don't know if BMF title holders are getting like, you know, the same money that UFC title holders are. If they are,

then you definitely would love to have that gold or under waste, gold or silver, whatever color it is, platinum. So I can see him mind to face the winner, but I would rather get you winnerless. If I got to talk about the Raptors head coach, Darko Rakoyevitch. Let me make sure I'm saying that right. Oh, sorry, Darko Ryakovich.

Darko Ryakovich. I apologize. Darko Ryakovich. It's a silent J. I had to learn that for the first time when I saw him do the press conference with Maasai the other day over this past Wednesday, I was. I don't know a lot about him.

I've read about as much as I can. I know he's coached overseas. I know he was a coach in the G League. I know, of course, he was just an assistant with Memphis, and they did a lot of great things in Memphis. That team has been on the come-up over the past few years, and frankly, would have been a contender this year where not for John Morant going full John Wick on people.

I don't know what the hell that deal is. So I don't know a lot about him, and I can understand the trepidation among Toronto sports fans. Why didn't they go after one of the veteran names I was floating out there. You know, Monty Williams went to Detroit for an exorbitant fees. I'm glad we didn't do that. But like, you know, why didn't did they, were they even in talks to go for a Monty Williams?

What about, what about a Doc Rivers? Guys got a one in one NBA title. You know, he's had a lot of playoff feelings, but he's won an May title. Why didn't they hire internally? You know, Adrian Griffin, assistant coach, he went to Milwaukee. Was he not in talks to, and the players really like him? Was he not in talks to become Raptors head coach? So I haven't, I don't know. I don't really have my finger on the pulse of this one,

but I imagine there's a lot of skepticism. But I'm someone who is, I love to see fresh voices. I hate the coaching carousel. I hate the shuffling of the deck chairs. I don't understand why coaches can get fired by a team for like an ugly playoff failure and then immediately get hired by a new team six weeks later. I just, I don't understand it. And I'm happy again for guys like Monty Williams like that who find jobs right away.

I'm not hating on them. It's just, I feel like we just benefit from fresh voices. And here's the, before I move on for this. Here's a little thing for you. Try and name the last team that won an NBA title after hiring by bringing in a big name coach. The last one I can remember is maybe Frank Vogel with the Lakers, the bubble championship. And I wouldn't necessarily call Frank Vogel a big name coach, though he did very well with Indiana. So if you want to count that, I'll say that.

But that's like one exception. Other than that, it's a lot, it's always Taran Loo with like half a season with the Cavaliers, one NBA title. It's a lot of fresh new voices. And I think that's what teams need. So listen, this Rayakovich signing could be a disaster, could be what this team needs, again, to sort of settle them and send them in the right direction of the next few years.

I'm optimistic. I thought he came off nicely during the press conference. Very, very bright, cheery attitude. I'm the Prince of Positivity. I always want to see that. So, Darco, I am rooting for you, sir, not just for my sake, but for the good people of Toronto who've suffered in other sports enough.

And yeah, sorry. Someone was asking about Ronnie Lawrence before. It's a shame Mike's not here because Mike is a big Ronnie Lawrence guy. He's he touted him to me before he came into the UFC. And listen, he's only, he's two and one so far. I'm looking at his record, Vince Cicero, Manna Martinez, and Saar Jacob, Khakramanov. No shame in losing to Kachramanov. I know he's outside of the UFC now, but he probably should.

have been released. We're not entirely sure what happened there, why Sayy Jacob was released because he only lost the one fight to Saeed Narmagga. He lost the... I'll say this. He lost the Saeed Noremegal Madov. What's up, J.D. Felt, hang in there. I will get to you. Sayy Jokhov lost the battle of Saeed to Saeed Noreg Mettov, and maybe they thought there's only room for one Saeed in this town. And it is not Sayy Jacob, unfortunately. So, but yeah, I agree. Ronnie Lawrence, huge upside. Anytime you have that kind of grappling ability, also, um,

it's such a cliche, but like that kind of aggressive style, I feel like you have to have that at Bantamway. It's such a speedy, it's such a speed of vision where like, if you don't beat people to the punch, like it's, it goes down to the hill for you really fast.

And I think that might have been what happened with him in the Kakramana fight, you know, just whatever. And again, I think Kakramano's good. But Argoetta, good match up. I'm glad Dan Argo da is coming back down, I think, to 1.35.

So I actually, think highly of him too. So I will say this might not be like a showcase fight for Ronnie Lawrence, but it will be in the sense that if he overcomes a tough opponent in our Greta, then we can really start saying, okay, maybe he bumps up slightly to the next tier of bantamades. You know, if he's in tier four right now, maybe he bumps up to tier three and by next year we're talking tier two, tier one. But yeah, Ronnie Lawrence for sure is one to watch again. Mike has been touting him for a while. J.D., please let me get you in here. What is up, J.D.? Good, sir. How are you? Oh, a little.

leave a warrant to you as well. I'm doing fantastic. So sorry for just now getting in. Has anybody asked you about your opinion on the Jeff Neal Ian Gary fight? I didn't even know if that's been a reporter on MMA fighting. I don't want to, you know, break any commandments on bringing

something up. That's not official. I'm not official, it is, but it is. Yeah, officially reported as well, yes, by M.A. Fight. Okay, cool. Excellent. So I would love to hear your thoughts on that if no one has asked. And my backup question in case someone did ask, What is your favorite meal you've ever had?

And a lee of a rest of your day to you, good sir. You're excellent. A lee of a weekend to you, J.D. All right. Bye, bud. See. Yeah, it's really catching on. No, no one asked about Neil Machado, Gary, yet. And, yeah, I love it.

I love it. I think it's the right next step. I see some people, I think, based in the UFC rankings, Neil is, like, number eight. Machado Gary jumped into number 13. after beating Dan Rodriguez. In our rankings, Machado Gary unranked. I don't even think he's received votes, but he's right in the cusp.

He's running the cuss. He might have received votes in another month, but oddly not after beating Daniel Rodriguez, I'm not sure. I will just say Gary now, by the way, for the sake of brevity, but of course, I do respect the Machado Gary name. I think it's great that he's doing that, sharing this sort of his wife's name for the, you know, to make things easier for their child. But I will just say Gary just for brevity. Yeah, I like the matchable a lot. I don't think it's too big of a leap up.

Neil is number, I want to say, 11 or 13 in our rankings. Again, this includes non-UFC people. So, of course, everyone usually is going to be a little bit lower. But it also is more illustrious when you make the top 15 of the M.A. fighting global rankings. Neil's number 11. Neil's number 11. So he's up there.

Very, very tough test. Very tough test. But this is the right way to go. this is he he has uh speaking about gary he has passed past every test really well and also faced adversity he hasn't blown through all these opponents there were there was moments in some of these fights where he was definitely getting either getting hurt or um wasn't quite asserting himself as much as people had hoped i i think those two like i think daring weeks is super tough so i'm not taking anything away there i think people thought he might have been able to finish you know gave

green but they felt he quote unquote fought safe and listen when you're in the UFC you're just trying to rack up wins I don't criticize him for that at all and then he got to finish against canaan song a very tough fight or song canaan I should say a very very tough fight I see you guys see a couple of requests I'll get you guys in soon and then down Rodriguez finished him in the first round and like nobody knocks out down Rodriguez so that was impressive no this is the right way to go I'm not as people say I think Neil Magni but Jeff Neal as I mentioned just like with the Sayy thing Jeff Neal, remember, lost to Neal Magny. He is the lesser of two Neal's.

Sorry, Jeff Neal, it's just the truth. He's a lesser of two Neal's. And I think for developing Gary, you give him the lesser of the two Neals for now. I think Magny's a little bit of a tougher stylistic matchup for him. And we could see that down the road, but Jeff Neal is the way to go. Love this matchmaking. Love how they're handling his career. If he loses, I don't think it sets Gary back that much.

I think people know how good Jeff Neal is. So let me go. Oh, I will answer the other question as well. sorry guys, I don't want to leave any stone unturned here. Very quickly, my favorite meal, I'm very basic. I'm not a foodie. I love fried chicken of all kinds. And my favorite is Taiwanese fried chicken from Hot Star.

It is a franchise in, I don't think it's only in Toronto, but we have a couple of locations in Toronto. If you have a hot star in your area, I cannot recommend that enough. It is just very delicious. A big chunk of, just a big chunk of chicken to bite into. It's a little sweet. You can get it spicy. I'm not a spicy guy. You can get it spicy.

But yeah, hot star, fried chicken, mooie de liceo, so it makes me very happy. I'll go to Black Belt MMA first here. Henderson, I see you. Black Belt, M.A. Let me get you in here. All right, Black Belt. Hope we can get this connection. I see you.

Just got to turn your mic on. Black Belt, you're on. Hey, Black Belt, what's going on? Oh, I'm just getting static. I'm just getting static. I'm going to give you fives up. Okay, no worries. We lost you.

Henderson, your time is now. At Hendo slice, let's go. All right, Henderson, you are on. Hey, AK, great to get on one of your episodes. I'm a big fan of your work, and I love Mike's show, so this is a nice combination, you know. I just want to, I always call in and ask Mike, like my crazy proposals for different things in MMA that I want to change, right?

So I wanted to get your take on one, and this one's kind of out there, but I think, I think there's potential. So here's my proposal. I think that we need to just make all MMA fighters, or some promotion should do this, probably like PFL or Bellator or whatever, just make all the MMA fighters wear shirts while they fight.

I know it's always been a thing that men fight shirtless, but that's kind of bizarre. And more importantly, well, everyone should just be able to have sponsors, different like gear imagine all the different outfits and all the different um fighters how they would come out it would be a huge conversation every time like what's the shirt going to look like like they could wear like a rash guard like they do in jiu jitsu you know um it's tons of space for sponsorships and especially in these other promotions like bellator pfl that need something different

need to make their fighters like actually have some personality and also the fighters are allowed to sell So I think we could have seen some great stuff in the UFC. Imagine like what Tito's gear would have looked like or what Liddell's gear would have looked like if they could design more than just their shorts. So anyway, just wanted to hear what you thought about that. And to stay on a few.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the shirt thing, okay, so that was just a spot for sponsor. I was confused where you were going with this at first. The shirt thing is a sponsor thing. That's why you wanted everyone to work. Yeah, it's not about like modesty or anything. I don't care about that. It's more just like, especially also,

we've seen with the women, like they wear a lot of them wear like sports. Don't mention we lost to you. Problem. Have people wear something. It's not going to help with submissions. Like I've heard that argument where like a gee helps with certain submissions, right? But that's not what this would really do.

It's more just getting the fighters to look different. I mean, every single fighter out there looks pretty much Sam or has atrocious tattoos. So we don't need that either. Yes, covering up those would go a long way, I feel like to making the product more enjoyable. Okay, I'll comment on this. Anything else to add about the shirts, sponsorship?

No, that's pretty much it. I also just wanted to say if Ian Gary wins and if Wonderboy wins, I would love to see that fight. And I think that the winner of that fight could get a title shot against Leon Edwards, just because that's the kind of fight that Leon Edwards might want. Oh, wow.

Calling it. Calling is shot. All right. I've made a note here. I've made a note, you're calling your shot. We'll get a huge, you'll get a huge on to the next one point. I'll save it in my bank. Thanks, A.K., and have a great show.

All right, yes. I like, listen, I'm all for fighters having more peril options. I don't think the UFC would ever, and most emotions really want to do that. I think, I'm trying to think of a nice way to say it. I think they think that shirts look amateurish. I mean, because I think you see this in the IMMAF. I'm pretty sure the amateur tournaments, international amateur tournaments, that they wear shirts and shorts.

I'm pretty sure everyone does. red and one of them wears all red one of them wears all blue and I think for the purposes of those tournaments it's good just for like it just feels more organized and it feels more like you know blue side red side

you don't know these are they're not trying to build stars in the IMMAF right they're just they're just trying to give people fighters opportunities to get experience get high level experience fight amateur so you know wearing just kind of plain all red or all blue here kind of makes sense but when you get to to the professional

MMA, I think so much the appeal is sort of getting to admire the fighter's physiques. I don't know, maybe I'm speaking for myself here. And obviously, listen, you're right, if they've got gear, that could still accentuate that. Anyone who's watched, you know, combat jujitsu, people wear full-on, you know, full-body gear, and you can still tell

these people are in great shape, but I think if you ask, like, Dana, it's like, it would be like, why do we want to, we want to cover up our athletes as little as possible. Because I think that has long been sort of the mantra not mantra, but sort of the thinking in pro sports is the more identifiable your athletes are,

the better it is for your sport. The one exception will maybe be, obviously the NFL, which is like one of the biggest sports in the world, but just based on body type, it's sort of easier on the field to tell, you know, who's who. I think hockey suction is a lot. I think one thing in the NHL suffers from a lot is people got, you know, full on helmets,

huge, chunky gear. And for casual, like myself, I'm watching a high game. I don't know who's who. I don't know what the F is going on. NBA is great at this is why NBA has always promoted. It's individual stars so much because it's guys in a tank top and shorts and their...

It's got in tank top and shorts and other than that, they're very identifiable. You see everything they're doing. So I think the UFC would always want to emphasize that. It's true. Like, a shirt's not going to cover their people's faces. And it would be nice that they had so much more freedom with sponsors.

We say this all the time. Just like more individuality. Just think of some of the most, again, iconic looks you know Anderson Silva's under Silva's yellow shorts PG-Pan had very distinct shorts it's

it's just so like it just hurts the I always it hurts the game so much when you don't have when you don't let your fighters just but if you're the UFC I'm sure they see their uniform policy as a resounding success over the past few years people make fun of them

they made fun of Reebok make fun of venom whatever whatever they make fun all they want the deals have led to a lot of money for the UFC and also led to avoiding weird problems like that one time Cody McKenzie came in wearing shorts with a tag on it. You know, I think that was during this new era, but still like, oh, sorry, more importantly

would have been, sorry, avoiding the Hallman, Dennis Hallman Speedo. That did not go over a while. That's something that the UFC is glad they didn't see again and probably most fans too. It was before I worked out that way. So, Anderson, I'm with you. I really am.

I would love it. I would love it if we could just have a little more fun and more creativity with what the fighters are allowed to do. I don't see it happen anytime soon, especially since, again, if it was a shirt that they were allowed to wear, it would just be a Venom. It would just be a Venom brand shirt, and Venom would be super excited about it because they're like, oh, cool, here's another piece of year we can sell, and now we're getting free advertising for it every time guys step into the cage. so um and i'm sure i'm sure uh i'm sure uh i'm sure uh fighters will attest also like it's probably just a bit easier to fight without without a shirt on it's why i like the less less restrictive it probably gets super hot in some of that gear i'm sure you can you can design uh i know you can design um you know i'm sure you can design a certain ways that

breathes a bit better but uh why go through all that trouble when you know you can just keep things the way they are if it ain't broke don't break it, I guess, right, as they say. So, all right, listen, guys, I don't see anyone else chiming in, and I do see something website related that requires somewhat urgent attention, so I better address that soon. But thank you guys. Thank you, everyone who called in. Mike, I see you listening. Mike Heck will be back as usual next Tuesday? Tuesday. So it will be a heck of a morning once again. But guys, thank you. Thank you for, oh, hold on. Black Belt,

MMA, I'm giving you a chance. I'm giving you a chance to chime in. I know we kind of cut off before. Black Belt, you're on. Hi. How are you, my friend? I'm great. I'm great, how are you?

I'm great, how are you? I have two questions. Go ahead. Do you think Charles Olivera is the great of the old time? But if you don't do, if you don't think that, Do you consider it after he will defeat Islam-Marcachev? This is the first question.

Okay, and the second one, Arkansas Chmaif can defeat Marvin Vittori in your opinion. Okay, okay, yeah, I'll answer both those questions. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Black Belt. All right, guys, that'll probably be the last two questions for the day, both good ones. Charles probably isn't the greatest of all time. Again, listen, we just saw him lose to Islam.

He has a better resume. He has a better resume. If you literally were just stacking up resumes now and say, who has had a better career, Charles all the way. It's not close. If you're talking about who's the better fighter, again, I've said, if they fight, I said, Islam probably wins seven out of ten times. Just skill for skill, just projecting, I think Islam's better. So, if you, you know, I imagine you have to add a lot of that to the equation, as you should. we just saw head to head.

So I'm going, he can't be the greatest. Yeah, if he beats Islam, then we're having a conversation. Still very difficult to put him over Habib. There's a lot of holes in the Habib's resume. Don't get me wrong. He didn't, like, fight the best of the best, the best, really until near the end, right, until during his title run. But his performances are so definitive, and it's so easy to project how Habib would do against,

you know, a lot of the big names he didn't fight. Charles, Charles. Like, I keep saying, I've said for a long time, I would love Charles to fight him. I think Charles can beat him. I'm definitely blowing some smoke. Like, I don't know if the time came, if I could, I'd make the prediction.

I just don't know if I'd believe it. So it's just hard to unseat Chabibh. And he left at the right time. He left at the right time. We say that so much, like, if Habib had hung around for 15 more fights and, you know, sort of BJ pending it near the end than just losing to younger, you know, less shop-worn competition.

How would we view Habib? We'll never know. And we never have to know because he did the smart thing and he went out on his own terms. So you can put Habib number one. You can say he's benefiting again from just good career management. And that's to his credit. That's to his credit. You've got to know when to walk away.

If Charles beats Islam, is there any path for him to become the greatest ever? Certainly, certainly. I'm sure he would have, again, he'd have to rattle off two, three, four, five, six, seven. He'd have to go on like a GSP, Anderson Silva, Escarat. And he's already pretty late in his career, so I doubt it.

But I'd be willing to entertain this again. If he, let's say he fights, you know, let's say he beats Islam, fights like Armans Rukyon, beats him, name another, you know, up and coming lightweight beats him. And then fights Islam again, beats him.

Let's say he wins a trilogy with Islam. then we're talking, okay, is he not only, again, the better, you know, stronger resume than Islam and maybe Habib, is he the best ever? It's still, it's still hard to beat what he did, even if the scenario, I just suggest it played out. But I'm a big Charles Olavera fan. I'd certainly be willing to make the argument for it. So, and Hamzat Shamaev, could he beat Marvin Vittoria? Yeah, of course he could. I'm talking about being on trains.

I'm a big Hamzat guy. He's on my pound for pound list. I think I'll have him around somewhere 17, 18, 19, something like that. I know it's weird because he kind of fumbled his last weight cut. But when you watch Kamsat fight, boy, how can you not just see him just trucking through everybody? People always point to the Gilbert Burns fight. Gilbert-Berns is really good. That tells you how good Gilbert-Brens is, not how, like, if Khamza has any weaknesses.

Vittori, solid fighter, but he's just not dynamic. He's not dynamic like Hamzad is. and I don't think he could stop, Khamzaa from taking him down. He's a good wrestler. I don't think he can stop Khamzaa from taking him down. So can Hamzaa be Vittori? Yeah.

Could Hansa beat Canaeroneer? Yeah. Could Hamzaa beat Israel Adisania? I'm just saying, there's a champ. All right, guys. I do have to wrap here. I probably said it on a little too long. Thank you.

I apologize to the guys who are waiting and want to jump in or jump in again. I see you, Suebo. But again, Michael will be back Tuesday. Please, feel free to fire your questions off at him. It has been a lee of a morning, as always. and thank you guys for listening.