MMA Fighting - HOAM | Could Bo Nickal Be A Potential Option For Israel Adesanya's Next Title Defense?

Episode Date: June 20, 2023

There's been a lot of questions about who Israel Adesanya could face at UFC 293 in the promotion's return to Sydney in September with all of the middleweight bouts on the books, but could Bo Nickal be one of the names in play should he get a quick finish of Tresean Gore at UFC 290? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses that possibility after the question is proposed by special guest caller Eric "New York Ric" Jackman, and talk whether or not the UFC would give Nickal that opportunity so quickly in his promotional run. Additionally, listener topics include a potential Jared Cannonier vs. Khamzat Chimaev fight following Cannonier's UFC Vegas 75 win over Marvin Vettori, Arman Tsarukyan's next move following his third-round finish over Joaquim Silva in the co-main event, the PFL's poor pacing continuing with their cards, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco 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. 2023, and it is, you're live on the M.A. Friday. Twitter space,

as you can hear the show, hit its entirety, shortly thereafter, on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. Hello there. I am Mike Kack. Hope everyone had a great

weekend. I hope everyone's having a wonderful start to the week. We have some MMA for you this week. We have PFL back this week. Shane Burgos on the card, Olivia Aubin-Mersie versus Anthony Romero, the main event. So we have that. And then Saturday, UFC is back in front of a crowd. They're in Jacksonville, Florida for UFC Jacksonville. It'll be an ABC card, which means we get some early day MMA, just the way we like it. Noon Eastern prelims, 3 p.m. Eastern main card. Love that so much. Main event.

Josh Emmett versus Ilya Teporia, big one at 145 pounds. Amanda Hebas, Macy Barber is the co-made event. That is a fun fight. Justin Taffa, Austin Lane is on the main card. Not sure why that's on the main card. I mean, I kind of get why it's on the main card. Austin Lane having the Jacksonville ties. We have David O'Nama, Gabriel Santos,

Brandon Allen, Bruno Silva. I believe that's your main card right there. Five fights. Neil Magny, Phil Rowe on the card. Randy Brown's back against Wellington Termin. Julian Robertson. Trying to get another big performance at 115 pounds. It's a big test in Tabitha Ricci.

Trevor Peek is back, Tira is back. A lot to like on this card. A lot to like. dig it. This past weekend we had a ton of mixed martial arts from Octagon having an event. We had Bellator on Friday, Bellator 297. Badim Nemcoff defeats Yoel Romero in the main event. I don't think anybody was truly surprised. That was everything you would expect from a 46-year-old Yol Romero fight. Sergio Pettis with a tremendous performance against Patricio Pitbull. History will have to wait.

for the current Bellator Featherweight Champion, but what a performance from Sergio Pettus first fight in well over a year. It comes back and just delivers. And now we're going to get Sergio Pettis versus Patchy Mix, and that is a tremendous fight. Very much looking forward to that. We had Corey Anderson versus Phil Davis in a fight that if you didn't watch it, you could probably imagine what that fight would look like,

and that's exactly the fight we got. split decision. Corey Anderson gets it done. And then the main card kicked off with the most heavyweighty, heavyweight fight you will ever see in your life. Bocauancaricam defeats Daniel James, Chicago crowd not happy.

I have thoughts. That fight should not have been on the main card. I've said it on preview shows, said a million times. That fight should not have been on the main card. You should have put one of your prospects on there that you were building. Take them off the prelims, put them on the main card. Norwood Novemany Jr.

That performance, the way he looked in that fight, that incredible knockout. Can you imagine how much differently we would be looking at that card? If that was the first fight of the main card, we'd look at it out a lot different. Or could have done Archie Colgan and Manuel Sanchez. That was a fun fight. Could have done that to kick off the main card.

Just Daniel, it made no sense to me. Made no sense. And unfortunately, Bellator didn't get a lot of buzz off of this. events outside of Sergio Pettus's performance. It's just tough. It's just tough. There's like little tweaks they can make that can make a big difference. But in the end, I think they're the third most talked about card of the three majors. In terms of in cage action, the UFC had the best card. Martin Vittori, Jared Kahn, Knair, beat the hell out of each other. That was the best card.

Like that was the best card on paper. Not on paper, but that was the best card in terms of in K. Jackson of the entire weekend. Armid Sarukian looked good against Joachim Silva. He was a massive favorite. Joachim Silva had a puncher's chance, landed a big punch, had Sirukian hurt for a moment. But Serukian battled back, recovered, said F this in the third round, got the finish. We'll see what happens next for him. Arm of Petrosian, Hans Christian Ler, Roy.

Duncan his first loss. Pat Sabatini. Great performance. Manuel Torres with one of the best knockouts of the year. Knocking out Nicholas Motta. Nicholas Dalby gets a big win. The card was good. There was some weirdness with the Ronnie Lawrence, Danielle Argetta fight, the Carlos Hernandez-Denis-Bondar fight.

But all in all, it was a pretty fun watch. And then PFL, I mean, Larissa Pacheco, great performance. I don't think anybody's going to be talking about the PFL card at all in terms of the fights. But obviously, we had the big face off with Francis and Gano and John Jones. That stole all the headlines for the weekend.

So there's just kind of a question here. Who won? Did PFL win the weekend? I think there's a case to be made and it has nothing to do with the actual event. But getting Francis and John in the same room and having them do a face off and setting that up perfectly, you can make a case that they won the weekend based on. on that two-minute clip alone. Because that's what everybody's going to be talking about

coming out of this past weekend. But if you want to talk about the actual fights themselves, I think the UFC won the weekend. I think the UFC had the better card. And I think Bellator is number three on both of those fronts, if we're being honest. But we'll see. Belator had a big chance here to get some momentum

and there's just a solid B-B-minus Bellator card. It's the same thing we always, the same thing we've been getting. But Sergio Pettis, stock roast tremendously, set up a nice fight with Patsy Mix that I think people are a little more excited about. That's pretty much all the momentum they got. Prelims, they had some great performances. I mentioned No No Jr.

He looked incredible. Archie Colgan, great fight. Jordan Newman, great performance. Had some good knockouts, some good finishes. But the prelims just like, it just doesn't seem like there's any importance to him. We just go from one to the next, to the next, to the next. We get no post-fight interviews, none of that. You can't build stars that way.

You cannot build stars that way. We heard Scott Coker sort of confirm that. I mean, we knew Bellator was up for sale, that they're taking some suitors, PFL in the mix. And then Ray Cepho confirmed from the PFL side that there are talks going on. Now, there are other entities in play here, some well-known ones from what I understand. But PFL being in the mix, a lot of people are excited about that.

What does that mean? What does that mean? What will that mean for the UFC? How will they react to this? I'll tell you how they react to this. They won't care. This does nothing to the UFC if they merge. Or if there's some sort of deal, there's a partnership.

The UFC will just be like, oh, that's cool. They'll probably have Dana go into the studio and announce a couple of fights, steal some headlines, and then literally that's it. That's like all they'll react. That's the only way they'll react to it because they're so far ahead that it doesn't even matter to them. So we can talk about that. We could talk about this past weekend. We can talk about Jacksonville. We can talk about whatever you want.

We had some fights announced as well that we confirmed. Henry Sehudo, I mentioned last week, UFC Boston coming together. there might be a couple of Banimate fights added to the mix. The Henry Suhudo Marlon Vera fight was one of the fights I was talking about. I knew that was being discussed. I knew it was probably in the red zone. I knew Sehudo had agreed to the fight. It was just a matter of logistics all the way around.

And the broadcast partner, ESPN, broke the news yesterday. that fight is verbally agreed on both sides. We confirmed that last night. That fight happening in Boston. Good addition to that card. That Boston card's coming together looking real nice. And then I had heard rumblings yesterday that Kai Kar, France, was going to fight Minel Kopp

on that Cindy pay-per-view in September. Confirmed it in the afternoon. Couldn't fully confirm it till about 1 o'clock this morning, Eastern time. And that's it. That fight's happening as well. Both verbally agreed upon, no contracts yet. But both those fights are targeted and being close to being finalized.

So there you go. A lot to discuss. Let's get into this thing. And we'll start with Four Corner Sports. He was first in line. What's up, Four Corner Sports? Hey, Mike. Are you being?

Yes, I can. So I didn't want a PFL card, but one of my voices, and man, if the PFO ended up doing like half the speed, that Bellasor would do it with their prelims, I think there would be a more watchable and enjoyable. What's the goal for promotion to watch? Because I had friends of mine that were watching the PFL, and they were saying that it was dragging. And I told them, I was like, look, you're going to feel like you're going to be watching the PFL for about, like, 10 hours. hours and it was just they were complaining about the pacing but I wanted to talk about the main event and the core main event of the UFC card now I'm fully convinced of Vittori and Max Holloway are like tier one status with like the most titanium

chins in MMA because man Vittori ended up taking a beating from Jared Canoneer and I just thought that he wasn't able to make the adjustments and I think the power from Canaanier was really affecting Vittori. I felt that it was great that Canineer actually improved and was actually working on trying to put more output because the Strickland fight, it was okay. It was way better than the Adasani fight because Adasani fight just looked like,

I don't know if he was starstruck. I don't know if he was having a difficult sign trying to get the reads off of Izzy. But it was clear that on the International Fight Week card last year that he just didn't, he wasn't throwing enough. And this time he actually threw enough and is now actually intriguing in the spot that he's in, where he can actually, you know, be possibly in a title mix or maybe in a title eliminator. I feel like he might get the Hamza fight, if anything, as a number one contender fight.

But it really depends on what happens on an international fight week card. Because I have a feeling that Whitaker isn't going to have a tough time spending it around in less than a two-month span. I think DDP is not going to come out there as the winner And it's going to be pretty much If the UFC wants to go with a cannonear Or if they tell Jamal Hill here Fly out to Sydney You know, we'll make this into like a champ versus champ fight

And because I feel like the UFC is kind of tied within their own hands Or unless for some crazy reason They tell Hamzat And I feel like that would actually do better numbers than all the other other opponents that I mentioned for the Armand fight I felt like Armand kind of got exposed on the feet um do you think that what's the call though with this performance he's still going to have a tough time trying to fight and fights just because uh you know he actually did really well on the on the ground game against a Joaquin sova but clearly he got cracked in that second round and um

i just feel like if he was to fight somebody like Justin gauchy he might get exposed on the feet but I don't know what you think and as always good talking to you Mike thanks thanks man with the Armand thing I don't think he got exposed in the feed he didn't get exposed he didn't get exposed this is this is an Armand fight this is an Armand Syracian fight went out there took him down beat him up warred on him made Joachim work it's how he fights second round came out maybe he should have gotten the fight back to the ground but he wanted to stand there and trade Joaquin and he was winning all of the exchanges except for one except for the one he got tagged got a little too excited maybe got a little too pumped up to try to get him out of there he got hit got hit

really hard walking silver can crack man he took walk him's best shot got wobbled a little bit overcame it recovered real fast got the takedown didn't win the round but got all the momentum and then the third round he's like screw it i have to get this guy out of there and that's exactly what he did. So I don't think he got exposed. I think he was just kind of, I think there's a part of him that was just kind of bored with the matchup. Like, why are we doing this? Will he have a hard time finding fights? Maybe. I think the Darius fights the only one that really makes sense right now. If he has to wait until December, I mean, you just got to do it at this point unless you just want to fight backwards. There's other fights coming up at 155, some really tough, like high risk, low reward

fights, if we're being honest. Like, Grant Dawson is fighting, Isba Goulof. If Grant wins, like, maybe you could do that. You could do one of the Jalen Turner, Dan Hooker fighters, depending on who wins or loses that one. But I think you just wait for Benile. And I loved what he did. I loved the Michael Chandler call-up.

He ain't going to get it. He has less than a 1% chance of getting that fight. But he at least put down some scenes. and he's right on the news cycle. The Connor fight, people are not optimistic that that fight's going to happen before the end of the year. Take your shot, man. Like, I don't have a problem with that. He's not going to get it, but take your shot.

Plant some seeds. If you don't get it now, maybe you'll get it later. Down the road. But I think Darius is the right fight. I think the UFC can probably convince Darius to fight a little bit earlier than December. go back to Abu Dhabi. I think that fight's perfect. What else is perfect for that card is Jared Kahnterner versus Hamzat-Chayah?

That is 1,000% the fight to make. We talked about it on this show. Somebody had brought that up as far as what have Vittori and Canada are fighting for. Are they fighting for the Hamzot fight? And yeah, they probably were. They probably were. And I know he was asked about Hamzat specifically at the press conference. He kind of turned the question into other questions.

and I think for Jerry Kinnear, if he wants to get back to a title fight, the quickest route for him is fighting Hamza Tchamayev. If he somehow beats Hamzaa Chamaif, he is getting a title fight, even if Israel Adisani is still the champion. He is going to get such a rub from beating that guy

that he will get a title shot. So that is his best chance of getting one, not saying he can never get one, but as long as Israel Adasania is still the champion, the only chance he gets that fight again is if he beats Hamzaa Tchamayef, in my humble opinion. So he was wondering, all right, well, if I get a title shot after the win, sure I'll fight this guy.

And I think he would. I think that would be an eliminator fight. I think that's how it would be maybe the UFC wouldn't position it as such. Maybe Dana wouldn't go, won't 100% commit to that. But that is the fight to make. 1,000%. They're not going to give Hamzat Izzy now because I don't think Izzy is going to be all that into it right now. We have to give Hamzot a win against a top.

rank guy. Just because he hasn't fought in so long. By the time he fights again, if he fights on that Abu Dhabi card, it's going to be 13 months since his last fight. So we got to get him in there with a high rank guy. Let's do something interesting. And now all of a sudden we have ourselves a fun, interesting opponent. Like, cost is just fun because those two would just, the build would be ridiculous.

The Usman idea never really bought to begin with. unless they do it at 185. Now you have something. Now you have something. Go ahead and book that fight. Announce it like next week. Get it done. I don't care how much you have to pay Gary Candidier.

Get that fight done. I don't know who is he's going to fight. They'll figure it out. But let's go ahead and just get Canadiere and Humzot ready to go. Let's announce it for October. And let's go. What are we waiting for? Let's get right into that.

Let's go to Just Simply Rob. What's up Just Simply, Rob? Hey, Mike, my brother. How are you? How's everything on your end? It's good, man. How are you? I'm doing pretty well, man.

I had some tough thoughts earlier, but since you talked about Hamza, I wanted to talk about that as well. I wanted your opinion on a couple of things. I have a weird sentiment about Hamza. I feel like at 170, he's more of a champion contender, in my opinion. But that jump from 170 to 185, I'm not convinced that he's going to have success because of the simple fact that, obviously it is a big jump from 170, 185, and the people that cut down to 185 are already naturally big. So I don't know that his wrestling will fare well at 185,

just for the simple fact that I don't think he'll be able to take them down as easily as he would at 170. And then if it has to stay up on the feet, I notice that he's very heavy on the right side. He's a right upper cut, right overhand kind of guy. And I think that some other guys at 185 that still pack on that weight, that, you know, make that big cut. If they put some hands on him, I mean, remember what Gilby,

Burns did to him and Gilbert Burns came from 155. So if a 185er puts hands on him, then it's like 185 or heavier 1805 or that cuts down from, let's say, 200 to 220, I think it could be problems for him. What do you think about that, Mike? I mean, I guess we just have to see it. You know what I mean? We just have to see it. We just have to see this man fight.

But throwing Hamzot in there with like a top, like throwing him in there with like Eric Anders makes no sense. Throwing him in there with like Mark Andre Berrio makes no sense. You got to throw him to the wolves. If he's going to fight at 185, he just beat Kevin Holland, who was a long-time middleweight. Now, he's not as big as a lot of these other guys, but he was a long-time middle-weight. On top of that, Hamzaa Chimayev, and I've said this a million times, Hamzot Chimayev is a monster.

That dude is gigantic. I've stood next to that man in Jacksonville last year. He is humongous. he could probably fight at 205. That's how big he is. He is going to have to cut a pretty sizable amount of weight to even make 185. He's a huge guy, very, very big. So to me, I think middleweight's probably better suited for him.

He's still going to have to cut like 20-something pounds to get to 185. He's cutting a lot more to get to 170. So I think physically he can hang. And if you saw some photos on social media palms hot, he looks like he's packing on a little bit of muscle. So he's probably even bigger than that right now. So it seems like his middleweight frame is coming together. He keeps teasing 170.

To me, this is like, to me, this is like Charles Olivera continuing to tease that he's done with featherweight. Like go to 185. See how it goes. If you go to 185, you fight Characantan-N-Air, and it ain't good for you. Then you can go back to 170. You can get a dietitian. You can take it really seriously.

You can do what Kevin Holland's doing. and just really focusing on staying in shape and not getting too bulky and not putting on too much weight. But at this point, I don't really care who Hamzad fights. He needs to fight a rank duty. He just needs to fight.

This is the question we get so much. It's the most asked question in MMA. Where's Hamzaa Chamaia? When is he fighting? You would assume Abu Dhabi, but if he doesn't fight on that card, I'm just losing hope altogether. Like, I understand there's hurdles he has to come over.

but there's a lot of talk about, is travel to the U.S. an issue, and nobody really knows for sure. Nobody really knows for sure. But Abu Dhabi, let's get him on that car. Canadiere is a perfect fight for him. It's the perfect litmus test. And if he goes out there and just runs Canadiere,

give him a title shot. That's it. But let's see what he could do. Let's just get him in there. Against a really good guy. Let's test him. It's not like he's 22. The dude's fought Gilbert Burns already.

He's fought Kevin. He's fought good dudes. Lee Jing Liang, he just absolutely massacred. Just ran over Kevin Holland. Gilbert Burns 5 was a little different because I don't know what it was. Sometimes you just need those fights. But let's see. Let's get him in there.

Maybe a lot of problems, but maybe he won't. Just get him in the octagon and let's see. And Kenner is the perfect guy to test him. CV, hello. Oh, Mike, heck of a morning. Two quick questions for me. First question, early thoughts on the Sejudo-Vero matchup? Man, that UFC Boston card is looking fire.

Hopefully, nobody gets injured. Second question, can you give us a quick, like, scouting report, or just a little background info on the other Hamza? I saw that post yesterday, I'm like, I thought it was like his twin brother, man. But, like, yeah. Thoughts on that as well. Thanks. so i'll be honest with you like usually i have my my finger on the pulse of the prospect world

uh i've no idea what this guy is honestly i don't know i don't know he uh let me pull up the article hamzat maev doing hamzat shmiyev doing humzat shmiya things uh look he look good 41 second finish he obviously is getting comparisons to hamzat it's not a bad guy to be compared too, so I'll look into him a little bit more. Let's, uh, let me just pull up his topology real quick. We'll just do this right here. But I honestly, I have to go in and watch a little bit more, more tape on him. Let's see.

4 and 0. How old is he? Not even sure. 4 and 0, all first round finishes. On an O and O guy, another O and O guy, another O and O guy. and a one-on-one guy on the Brave card. Dudes seems to be sort of a murderer in that respect, but yeah, we'll have to see.

I don't even know how old he is. His topology page is just N.A. across the board. So another mystery, another mystery, but seems like he's on the right path. Seems like Brave promoted him quite a bit. They put him on a poster saying, like, please watch this guy wait until you see what he can do so Braves pretty solid promotion so they have a good eye for talent

so he's somebody that I'm going to be paying attention to do a little bit more that's for sure and then I'll answer you out of the question a minute Ronnie hello Ronnie you're there you're muted right now I don't know if you know that there you go what's up man heck of a morning brother I saw Kai car in France versus Manel Cape I was one of the your thoughts on that. That's really all I have.

Thanks, man. So, yeah, that's a good little transition. We can talk about both of those fights that are almost finalized. Tycar, France, Manal Cop, great fight. I think it's perfect matchmaking. Let's see what Menel Cop can do. Let's see what Menel Cop can do.

He's had some bad luck recently, booked against Alex Perez. Perez had a medical issue the day of the fight. So got pulled from that. What car was that? What car was that? What card was that? I got to look at him. I just wrote the freaking article, too, and I forgot all about it. What fight was car was that? San Antonio. It was San Antonio. That's what I was thinking. I just tried to make sure.

And then he's booked to fight the former champion, Davis and Figurato. Figurato tells our own Guillermo. I don't know why the UFC announced that fight because I'm not medically cleared to even compete. I have lingering injuries. So that fights canceled. Now's on International Fight Week. That probably gets him a title shot if he wins that fight. So what's like the next best thing we can do? Let's have him fight Kakar, France. Tough out. Dude's going to get some work. That's for sure. I like the matchup. I like the matchup. It's unfortunate we have to wait. It's going to be nine months between fights for Minel Kopp. And a lot of people felt like this is going to be his year to get to a title fight.

maybe after this, he goes out there and beats Kai Kar-France and does so convincingly. His next fight, there's a very good chance that's for the belt, depending on what happens with Amir al-Bazi and Brennan Royva, what happens to those guys. So it's a great fight. It's a great fight. Cai-Cara-France close to home. He'll have the crowd behind him. It'll be a good one.

The other fight was Henry Suhudo versus Marlon Ver, and I have to check with my best friend on this. I should get not no point for this because ladies and gentlemen, this is the fight I wanted from Jump Street. This is the fight I wanted right off the bat. When Sohudo said, I'm coming back. When he was in the Usada pool, I said, do not give this man a title shot right now. Let's get him in there with Marlon Vera.

And then they announced the Corey Sanhagen fight, which I just couldn't stand. Great matchup, but didn't really need to happen. This was it. This was the fight to make. Sohudo wins. It's a good test. It's actually kind of a favorable matchup for him.

Wins that, gets a title fight. You get no arguments for me. He could go and fight Volcanovsky after beating Marlon Vera, as far as I was concerned. But they gave him the Sterling fight. It went the way that it did. And now we're doing this fight. And I like it. I like this fight.

I favor Henry Suhudo. I think Suido's got a lot of the, at least ground advantages that Corey Sandhagan had. but Cheetah Vera is a gamer man he is a gamer man he is a gamer and it'll be interesting to see what happens when they exchange on the feet can Vera be a little more aggressive can he find his openings because he couldn't really find Eddie against Corey Sanhagen so but it's a good fight if we can't I know Suhudo really wanted a fight on that card because it's the 15 year anniversary of when he won the gold medal I believe it's like on that exact day so he really wanted a fight on that card.

Marab de Walsh really was kind of his first choice, but obviously Marab had some surgery, had some injuries to deal with. So I think the state of this division where it's at, I think it's perfect matchmaking. Because we have to remember this, ladies and gentlemen, especially with Corey Stan Hagan,

Umar, Ramagamatov coming up. We are not in the meritocracy business. We are in the big, building the biggest fights we can business. So Sohudo winning puts him in a very good spot. If Sterling wins, titles vacant. So you could do the Sehudo Marab fight for the vacant title if he wins.

Let's just say Sean O'Malley goes out there and beats Al Jemaine Sterling. Because Sterling has said many times, this is his last fight at 135. Win, lose your draw, he's done at 135 after this fight. If Sean O'Malley wins, Suhudo. O'Malley is an interesting matchup. There's some heat there. They will probably put that fight together. But if Cheeto Vera wins, even though he lost to Corey Sanhagen,

you know what the UFC is going to do. They're going to do Cheeto Sean O'Malley 2 for the title, and that's a big-ass fight. So I think this is great matchmaking, not just from a stylistic perspective, but for business and the future of this division, considering this is more than likely Al Jermaine's, Sterling's final fight at 135.

You can't go wrong with either of these guys winning. And you've got something pretty much in place either way. That's interesting. It will get some heat and sell some pay-per-views. And plus, you still got Corey Sanagan, Umar, waiting in the wings. It's going to be a fascinating time for 135. But I think some people are going to be pissed with how this all plays out because of this

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Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Barbara Russo, hello. What are you doing today? Good. Good, good. I just want to ask you about the phantomweight division. You say that yourself, the steaks seems to be a title shot for Sehudo versus Shetuvara.

What about Sandhagen? He's putting a lot on the line and he's taking a very hard fight with an opponent who is undefeated and seems to be unknown. What's his potential to be? And is there a possibility that the winner of San Hagan fight for the title? This is my first question and the second about. It seems really hard right now to put a title fight for Addisania in September. Don't you think that the U.S.ia thinking about Shimaif? I know he should fight another guy like you said previously, but it seems like if DDP doesn't win his next fight

and go through war, or Sean Strickland doesn't win either. It's going to be better than putting Jared Canoneer against Israel in September. Thank you, Mike. I mean, we have, this is, I don't want to sound like Dana White, but this is a, we have to wait and see what happens kind of thing. Because coming up next Saturday, not this Saturday, next Saturday, Sean Strickland's fighting Abis Magamatov.

Now, that is not the most thrilling main event. It's one of the more head-scratchy main events that we've had in quite some time. But if Sean Strickland wins that fight, and Sean doesn't take a lot of damage in his fights, if Sean wins a decision or something, he's in the mix. Like, he might be at the top of the list. He's the dude. He'll jump over Jared Cannoneer, even though Cannonier beat Martin Vittori and that win needs a lot more. but Sean has incredible recovery skills

where he could just turn around real fast and if he could just go in there and win a decision and have a nice promo on the mic which I've talked to Eric Nixon about this many times since they announced that fight Sean's going to be ready to fight for the belt and they have video material to sell that fight and the build between those two guys

is going to get uncomfortable but if Sean Strickland is going to make it interesting and he's going to get people interested in that fight, even though a lot of people are going to give him much of a chance to win. So you could go that route. You could go that route if he beats Abis Maghrebatov. So he will certainly be in play and he will find a way to turn back around in two and a half months

and fight Israel on Sanya. That fight is there when you need it. He's obviously got to win, but he's in the mix. The rest we just have to see how it all plays out. Because what if Whitaker just goes out there and knocks out DDP in the first round? What if he just goes out there and melts him in two minutes? What if that happens? And Whitaker doesn't take any damage.

He can turn back around. Will he want to? There's another question. What if DDP somehow pulls off the big upset? Because if he wins, it's going to be something shocking and out of nowhere, and it's going to be a finish. I don't think he's winning a decision against Robert Whitaker. If DDP is to win this fight, he's probably going to chaotically finish him in the first round.

If that's the case, there's another guy you could turn around real quick. Hamzat, I don't think is in play at all. That fight is not, that fight is there. And when it happens, it's going to be gigantic. But to me, that is not a, oh, we have nothing else to do. So let's make this fight kind of a fight. That's a fight that deserves a ton of build and hype around it. Potentially Hamzot's crowning moment.

And I don't think you can rush that. I don't think it's, I don't think it has the same impact. People will be cool with it and people will be like, wow, this is happening. But I don't think it'll have the same pizzazz, if you will, that like if Izzy goes out and fights DDP and knocks him out in the first round. And then Shemaiah fights cannon air and ragdalls him in the first round. Like that fight means much more. That fight means much more. So there's options.

Maybe Jamal Hill. Maybe they do Jamal Hill. That would make more sense to be a, okay, let's just do something cool. We don't have any other options. That makes more sense than just Chuck and Shemayev in there. So, yeah, again, Dana-esque answer. We have to wait and see what happens. And then Banamway with Sanhagen and Omar and Ahmademagamate, excuse me.

No, I don't think the winner is going to get a title fight. I do think the winner that fight is next in line. Maybe they have to fight one more time, but it all depends. It would all depend on whether or not Sean O'Malley beats Al Jemaine Sterling. Because if Al Jemaine Sterling wins and the title is vacated, then the winner of if Sohudo win, I don't know. Maybe they could. Maybe they could.

If it's a vacant title, perhaps. But you have to think Marab de Walsh willie is one half of that fight. You have to think Marab is one half. unless the other scenario plays out where O'Malley, but if Sterling wins, Marov's going to be in the vacant fight. Suhudo beats Cheeto. I can see them doing Sehudo Marab.

But if Cheeto wins, I don't think they'll do Cheeto Marab. I don't know. There's a lot of needs to happen, but I would say the winner of Umar versus Sanhagan does not get the next title shot. But there is a small sliver of

hope for both guys, depending on how this mess plays out. The homie. Hello, the homie. You're muted, The Homie. Hey, Mike. Thanks for having me. What's up, man? Hey, I kind of wanted to get your take on something that I think is a bit of an unacknowledged

problem in the sport, which is that we tend to see a lot more late stoppages than we really talk about. You know, on Saturday, we saw an unconscious Dennis Bondar take like five. brutal elbows to the face. And, you know, just drawing another one out of the hat, I remember that, you know, Alonzo Menafield delivered, like, disgusting ground and pound on an obviously knocked out

Misha Sarkhanov a couple months back. Is this just something that we have to get used to as having a sport with ground and pound? Or is there a way to discourage fighters from just wailing on unconscious opponents until the rest pulls them off? You know, I remember not too long. long ago, we actually saw Joaquin Buckley step in and land a punch on Andre Fialio

after the ref came in between them to try to set them apart. So do you think there's something that can be done about this? Because, I mean, personally, just knowing about the effects of CTE and brain damage in combat sports, it makes me uncomfortable to watch. I don't know if this is something that other people feel as well or what. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, look, it's a sluble. slippery slope, man, because some of them look bad and some of them look like, well,

the ref doesn't want to, you don't want to make any mistakes as a ref. Like, I know there are referee mistakes and, you know, I did a full thing on that Fury FC thing and that was like the biggest blunderer in quite some time as far as referees goes with the Gianni Vasquez, Edgar Chira's situation. This is a tough one. This is a tough one. way too many extra shots. And

yeah, it's just a slippery slope. To me, I would rather see fight stops quicker than too late, but a lot of people don't feel the same way. And as far as the responsibility of the fighter goes, it depends on the fighter. Like some people will see, like, like Norman November Nivenny Jr. landed that big right hand

and then he walked away on the Bellator card. He was like, all right, he's done. The ref should just step in and stop this. He probably should have. But the ref didn't. He's like, oh, shit, got to go in there and land more shots. And he did, and the rep pulled him off. Alex Verona has told me many times, like, his mentality in a fight is that if he drops a dude,

he ain't stop until the rep pulls him off. He goes, I'm just in that zone. I've worked so hard. I get to that point. That's the mindset that I have. That if I heard a guy, I'm just going in until the rep tells me to stop. And then I'll get off him.

So, yeah, it's, it was tough to watch that, man. It was tough to watch. But again, what if that knockdown landed and the ref just stopped it? Like right there and then. What if he just stopped it right there? Bondar shoots right up. And he's like, I was fine, man. Then we're going to be like, oh, another referee controversy.

So, but yeah. And this is not the first time he's allowed that to happen. So. But it's a tough job, man. It's so tough. I mean, I'm talking. I mean, look, when this show comes on in a celebrity jump, We got to boost them.

So New York Rick, best theme song in MMA. Good morning. Heck of a morning, Mike. How are you? Good. How are you? I'm doing really, really well. I feel that the answer has been staring us in the face, Mike.

It's just been there the whole time. We're talking about Israel, Adasanya, and the middleweight division. And we're talking about, well, if Sean Strickling gets a win against an unranked opponent, can we turn them around quickly enough? Because what if Robert Whitaker and what if DDP can't do it? But the answer has been there the whole time, and it's not Hamzat waiting in the wings. I'll tell you exactly who can turn around real quick and give a fight that people want to see. It's one Bo-Nickel.

Bo-Nickel gets a dub. Everybody else kind of falls to the wayside. Bo-Nickel versus Israel-Asonia in Sydney. Boom, there it is. Holy smokes. I want to say things about it, but like, if this happens, it would not shock me. It would not shock me.

It would not be my first choice or my second or my third or my fourth, fifth, six, seventh. But that'd be a wild, man. Can you imagine Bo Nicol, like, goes, what's he? He'd be four and O after he beats Treschen Gore, five and O.

They just throw him into a time fight with Israel, out of Sanya. Holy shit. That is not going to happen. but wouldn't it be wild if it did? I don't want, like, that's a huge question, though. Like, what would the betting line be on that fight?

You would have to imagine Izzy would be the favorite, but not by much. Not by much. It's interesting. Not my choice, but it is interesting. I don't think it's going to happen. Patty, hello. So I got a question on Ian Gary.

I'm wondering, so I know he had that whole six-fight plan, you know, to get to the title. But now I'm wondering with this change of matchup, if he could be in question for a title Eliminator if he goes out there and wins his next. No, probably not. It's kind of like the Bo-Nichol situation. Bo's in no rush. I think, like, I think Bo gets it. Ian Garry's, Ian McChado-Gerry's definitely not in a rush.

He has the six-fight plan. And I think timing actually works out really well because Stephen Thompson is fighting Michelle Paheta at UFC 291, which is the pay-per-view right before 2992. And neither of those guys are ranked like incredibly high. Like they're both top 10 guys. I know Wonderboy is.

I don't know if Michelle Pahed is top 10 guy. Let me look at that real quick. This is the UFC rankings, not the rankings that matter. Walter Way. Michelle Pahedaz 5. Gary's actually ranked higher. Thompson's 7. So the winner of that fight

will probably remain in the number 7th spot. If Ian Machado Gary beats Jeff Neal, who's number 8, Ian Machado Gary versus Stephen Thompson or Michelle Paheda seems perfect. Thompson's out of Chamaif is still

ranked at Welterweight. Shafka Rokhmadav is number 6. I don't think there's a world anywhere where Ian Machado Gary versus Shafka Rokmanov's going to happen. Then he got Burns. And here's an issue too. Burns trains with Ian Machado, Gary.

And I think when Shafcott like trains in America also trains at Killcliffe. So yeah, I think I think that's where we go. And then maybe he wins one or two more and then he gets there. So I love this fight with Jeff Neal. Love it. I want it. You all know what I wanted. I wanted the Kevin Holland fight or at least to call it of Kevin Holland.

didn't love the Neil Magny callout, especially with Neil having a fight booked, and if he loses, then it's just a throwaway call it all together because Neil Magny's fighting Phil Rowe and Phil's a good fighter. But if it wasn't Kevin Holland, Jeff Neal was

Jeff Neal was second on the list. So I don't think it's a title. I think he's still with a win like two to three wins away from getting a title fight. Toe-Clo. So firstly, I want to say Eric Jackman,

you mad scientist genius. My God, I am. This is the exact sort of chaos that I want. And please, just inject it into my veins. And I will say it will be Israel Adasania minus 150. But let me pivot because I am the resident Dane in this community. So I would have to, I would be mistaken if I didn't mention Negro Stolby. And I, with the transformation that he has had between his first run and his second run is quite remarkable.

In this first run, he kind of never really lived up to what he had shown in Cage Warriors. It all seemed this compilite. Yeah, it seemed wrong. He seemed out of sorts. And he's explained why. And now he's on a three-fight winning streak. And with this, probably what his most impressive win in this run coming on Saturday, I think it's time

and I said this on Otno but I'm going to repeat it here I think he is the guy to welcome Kelvin Gastle him into the welterweight tuition and I think that does more for him than a top 15 fight a random top 15

fight as I wrote to AK because this is name value this is something that he can actually leverage to do something more he is getting up there in age so if he wants to something. I think he has to take some, he has to take the chances that he is given. And I think if he got this chance, he could, that would be the fastest track to get into

the top 10. And I mean, the dream matchup for me is going to be Dolby Stephen Thompson. That is the dream matcher for me because they are just going to have a fun kickboxing match. And I would love to see that. But I would like to hear you. your opinion on his efforts. I like that idea. I like that idea. I don't think that's what they're going to do, but I do like that idea. He looked good.

That was a good performance. He is a Muslim Zalakov is not an easy out. But that was a very solid performance, very veteran savvy. I loved everything about it. This guy's got something right now, three in a row. I don't think he's going to get that. I suggested Chaos Williams. Probably not the step up he would have, he would love after a win like that.

But I think that's just a fun fight. Let's see how he deals with the chaos. And chaos is really good. I actually feel like Gasolam is going to get, I kind of feel like Gasolam is going to get fed to Shafka, Rokmanoff. Honestly, I feel like that's how it's going to go because Shafcott's going to have a hard time getting a fight. I would like, like, Shafcott versus Kamar Usman is like perfect.

Do that in Abu Dhabi. I love that fight. I just don't know if Usman takes it. I don't know if the risk reward factor is there. Colby's getting the title shop. Bilal seems at least right the second to be next in line. I don't have a ton of confidence in that if we're being honest. Burns just coming off the loss.

Shmaif going to 185. Thompson probably ain't taking that fight. We already saw a Shafkaa fight. F. Neal. Sean Brady's fighting Jack Delamette, Madelana. I kind of feel like Gasselm's in play for Shofcott, just as a name and a guy that he could actually fight. But yeah, you want to give me Nichols-Daubey versus,

you want to give me Dobby in that spot with Calvin Gassel? I think it's a good one. I think it's a good idea. If this is Bellator, it's probably the fight they make. But I don't know if it's a needle mover like Gassim Chof-Kott would be. But yeah, he's been impressive. This second run has been sweet. Marshall's buyers travel far and wide,

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Hello. Eric Jackman, where would you rank Charles Olivera in terms of all-time lightweights? If you're going to give him a scale factor of 1 to 10 and we'll obviously, for comparison, put Kabib out of 10 in terms of skill, in terms of talent.

Where is Charles on that list? All right. New York, Rick, tag back in, buddy. Question for you. where do you rank Charles Alvera in terms of skill set one to ten maybe it's like a video game ranking

of some sort New York Rick if you want to jump back in I'll bring you in a second let's get to Panda and then we'll tag in New York Rick to answer that question panda hello my man Mike how are you I got a question for you what were your exact thoughts

like I would love to hear your internal thoughts during the Armand's Ruki and Joaquin Silva second round when Armand was on absolute skates because you were probably the only person I was thinking about. I was distraught. I just, I didn't think Joachim was ever going to get to him. I thought maybe, maybe that is ignorant to me, but I don't know. I think Armand is a future champ and future champs don't get hurt by Yaquim Silva in

the second round. I mean, they could. Dude can crack. The dude hits hard. and Serrinking got a little too excited. He was doing really well

on the feet. Those shots of the body, those body kicks were nasty. Those were ruthless. He got cracked. My initial thought was, holy shit. And then he recovered,

and I'm like, all right, he's fine. But that could have been a disaster. It could have been a disaster of monumental proportions for the title hopes of Armand Serukia. But he recovered,

and it's all. good. That was my thought. I was like, oh my God, holy shit. Then he recovered. And he got the win. Got finished in the third round. Said, F it. Got it done. All right, New York, Rick. Respond. Where do you rank Charles Olivera, lightweight skill set of Habib is a 10? Where is Charles? Before I do that, which I will, can I just talk about like how I just come in and drop gold like right in the middle of this and I mean, come on. But happy to do it. This is the best show in MMA. Okay. See, here's the problem with that assumption.

And my friend Nicholas, who I happen to know is a very, very big Habib fan and a fan of all the Dagestani wrestlers. Here's the problem. There's an assumption there that Habib is a 10. But is Habib a 10? Like, if we're looking at all the attributes across the spectrum, you'd have to think, like, Charles has advantages in the striking, in the submissions. Like, if we're doing it like a video game, like, let's say, like an NBA 2K, like his

sliders on some of his actions. attributes are going to be pretty high, whereas Habib's going to obviously have cardio wrestling, all the things that you need to execute that style. But overall, like, his rating might probably be close, if not higher than, uh, than Habib. But if we're going simple one to 10 scale, who do I think is going to win fights? Then if Habib's a 10, Charles has got to be at this point for me like a nine, right? Like there's, there's pretty much it's Charles and then it's Islam and then it's Habib with that style. But if we're doing 2K where you've got all the different attributes,

I don't know, man. I think Charles might be up there with some of the best in terms of what he's got maxed out. He's got subs maxed out. His striking's coming along really nicely. He's got toughness. He's got heart. Like the dude's probably one of the more well-rounded guys right now. So, yeah, we're going to give Charles a nine on the simple scale,

but I'd be interested in a more like comprehensive MMA stacks. slider type of conversation. Yeah, that's a good point. I would say they'd probably both be like 98-99s, like total value, both of those guys. I think that's pretty fair.

But I like the question. I like the video game slider scale. All right, VB MMA picks. You will close the show. What's up? Hey, man. Thank you for having me on. I wanted to ask you about

Elia and Emmett Feilina. What do you think happens with Ili if he gets it done here? And also I want to respond to a guy who said, like, oh, Armand got cracked by, you know, Joachim Seah. Can he be a champion? Like, I mean, Islam got knocked out by some, you know. I think his name was like Adriano Martins. I think that guy, but he became a champ.

So if it's things happened, you know, so I wouldn't, like, I won't rule out Armand as a champ, to be honest in the future. but yeah my question is what you think happens with ilia if he gets it down you think he's next in line thanks man um yes i do yes i do if he beats josh emmint i think he's next in line i think he's next in line but again if yair rodriguez beats alexander volkenovsky then they're going to run that back so it's just a matter of like do you want to wait that long for a title shot or do you want to stay busy. Kind of up to him at that point. But yeah, I think if he goes out there, I'm picking Volk to beat Yayaeur Rodriguez,

but I don't think that's going to be an easy win by any stretch of the imagination, as Yayae typically does to his opponents. He takes a piece of you with him, win or lose, and I think he's going to take a piece of Volcanovsky with him. So could be, I know Volk wants to be active and fight a million times this year, but could be tough after you fight Yaya Rodriguez. But yeah, I think I'm pretty confident that if Iliate Teporia beats Josh, I'm and I'm picking him to do so.

Although Josh is good, man. Josh is a little underrated, but I am picking Ily to win, and I think if he wins, he's next in line. Because this is what I want to see. I don't want to see Volko up to 155 right now. I don't. And I understand that he's in play. He goes out there and just wrecks Jaya Rodriguez and gets on the mic and says,

Islam, you came to my hometown. I'm going to come to yours. I know it's not the hometown, but you came to my crowd, and I'm going to go to your crowd. Let's run this back. I still feel like I won. The UFC is going to think about that very, very hard.

They're going to go into that Tuesday meeting, and they're going to have a debate about it. And there's a chance that fight happens over the Olivera fight. I will be like, oh, man, I want to see these two guys fight again. I want to see Volkovsky. get that Islam fight again. Just not now.

Let Islam get a couple of title defenses against lightweights. Let Volcanovsky get a couple more defenses at featherweight. And if they both win like their next two or three fights and still have the belt and all that, December 2024, UFC three something, whatever that is, that could be the main event, the rematch. Because I don't know how much, like we just don't know how long we have. either of these guys are for being honest, I don't think Islam's going to be a guy that's going to fight for four more years,

and I actually don't know if we're going to have Volcanovsky for that long either. I think Volk's just setting himself up for the rest of his life. The dude is going to do very well outside of fighting. He wants to do as much damage and get all the accolades and all the statistics and all these accomplishments in the book so he can move on.

Be a dad and be a husband, and just just be that and then do cooking shows be the next Julia Child, be the next Emerald. He can do that. He's not here for a long time. He's here for a good time.

And I think we got a few more years of both of those guys, probably less with Islam. So we don't need to rush that fight. End the next year. If both guys continue to win, then we can do it. We don't need to do it now. We don't need to do it now.

Teporia get, let's let him get a shot. He deserves it if he does. So that's what I want to see. All right, we'll take one more. UFC KSA. Hello. Hello, how are you? Thanks for the opportunity.

Sure. Yeah, I have a question. Do you think Muhammad Mukayev have a chance to break John Jones' youngest UFC champion? And also... Oh, shoot. Come back in. Come back in.

My bad. Jump right back in. I'll get your other question. Okay, he's back in. Sorry about that. I thought you were done. What was your other question? I was saying,

not only Muhammad Mukayev, if there is a possibility for anyone with the new regulations can have be a champion with a young age than John Jones. What, John was 23. what's like the actual number Jose Young's would like know this off the top of his head John was 23 in like some months I just don't know how many months

let me look up let me look this up real quick so John won the belt in March of 2011 he's July so he was 23 and eight months around there Muhammad Mikhail is 22 he'll be 23 in July So he'll have

Till what? January 3rd He'll have to March 2023 to get there I don't think he does I don't think he gets there Now I have been I'm still on the Muhammad Bahiaf train

I'm still there There are people who have fallen off I was one of the couple I was one of the people who went on an MMA fighting podcast and set into a live mic phone that I believe Muhammad Mahayev could be a two-division champion in the UFC. I've said that.

If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But these last few performances, they are wins and wins are everything. But maybe not everything. He has not left a great taste in people's mouths in terms of his performances, being as big a favorite as he is. Mahayev has incredible skills, his striking's getting better, his wrestling is great, his grappling is really, really good. But for some reason, he, like, when he made his debut and he fought Cody Durden, he was pissed off, he wanted to make a statement, and he had a killer instinct on him. That instinct has sort of gone away. That guy, we haven't really seen in his last few fights.

we've seen a guy that's happy to just go out there and win a third and 27 and that's cool you want to get wins and stockpile them of enough of those it's going to get you to a title fight there's no doubt about it but if you want to be the youngest champion you want to get that like john was out there melting fools he was out there running over everybody he was finishing everybody it got to the point where he was undeniable you had to give it to him He's just not there right now. And Flyweight has a lot of guys. Look at the jam we have right now. We have a title fight coming up. We got Brandon Royval. We got Amir al-Bazi. We got other guys on the come-up.

Manel Kopp is another guy. If he meets Kairkar, France, he's right there. The path to Muhammad just seems a lot longer now. After that Dirdin win, we were like, okay. Let's give him another one of those kinds of fights. Durdon's a tough guy. Bottom end's top 20 guy. Let's give him another guy.

Like that. And then if he did the same thing, okay, now we're off. Now we're off and running. We just haven't really had that from him. He just hasn't shown, he's getting finishes, but they're late in the fight. And he almost, I mean, he almost lost his last fight. Jepel Filio gave him hell. Malcolm Gordon gave him a tough fight.

He got a lot of flack for the Charles Johnson performance. I actually, to me, I was like, that is a scary-ass performance for anybody in this division because he just ragged all Charles Johnson over 15 minutes. Like a million takedowns. The dude was just couldn't stop. And then Gordon gave him some problems. Fielio gave him some problems.

He just wants to get to that record, but he's kind of hurting himself by getting there. He's not recovering from injuries. He's not taking enough time off between fights. He's putting himself in just tough positions trying to break this record. And I just don't think it's there. I don't think the path to it is there for him right now. Will he get to a title?

Yes, I feel very confident that he will get to a title shot. And by the time he gets there, he'll probably win. But he's just not there yet. There's no need to rush this guy. There's no need to rush him. I don't think he's going to be the youngest champ. I actually am very high on, and I just want to pull up the numbers here.

Boom. Tatsuro Tira is 23 as well. He's not going to get there because he turned 23 in January, but that's another guy who, and he should be getting more of a push from the UFC than he's actually getting. Tatsura Tira is a problem at 125. I don't think he's, and I think he's a really good prospect, like a really, really good prospect.

Do I put him above Muhammad Baha'iath? No. But do I think he's very close to there? Yes, I do. Mahiath gets all these big prelim spots, gets on main cards, and Tatsu or Taira is just getting buried in the prelims. This kid is really good. I think he's the second fight on this card. Come on, man.

Like, he should be up higher than that. He should be up higher than that. I know it's a fight night card and whatever. But he is, it's a 14 fight card. And he's the second fight. By the time the card ends, like, are we even going to remember what Tetsuro Taira does? He should be up higher on the card. You got a lot of good prospects at 25.

It's higher is one of them. But to answer your question, Do I think somebody will be John Jones's record? Yes. Do I think it'll happen in the next five years? No. But in the next 10, 15? Sure.

It's a whole different world now. There are people who are in the UFC that like found MMA like three years ago and got there. But there's going to be another generation of up-and-coming fighters who started training when they were like five. and we're doing grappling tournaments and kickboxing tournaments when they were like really young. So by the time they were turned 18 and could legally fight like in the U.S. and I know there's like kids leagues and parts of the world and even in the U.S.

Like Raul Roes Jr. before he got to the UFC, he was fighting dudes and he was like 14 to 15 and 16, like full on fights. And there's going to be another generation of fighters like that. who are going to be coming in the next 10 years. So I think that record will be broken. It just won't be broken for the next, I don't know, eight, nine, 10 years. But all right, we're done. Thank you all very much. I got to get out of here.

You all are the best. Little news for you. Thursday, we'll be back 10 a.m. Eastern. And a lot of you have been saying, Mike, what are your thoughts about bringing fighters on the show and letting us talk to the fighters? Well, we're going to do that on Thursday, and we're going to do it right out the gate on Thursday. You might remember her great performance

from UFC 289, about a little less than two weeks ago, defeated Miranda Maverick. Jasmine Jazz DeVizius is going to hop in right at 10 a.m. And she's going to talk to us for a little while, and she's going to take your questions. probably have her on for like 20, 25 minutes before she has to go train. So she's going to join us Thursday, 10 a.m. Eastern, confirmed it this morning.

So a little Q&A with the UFC ranked fighter. How about that right here on heck of a morning? So we'll see you then. We'll have some fun. And until then, everybody, thank you very much. Have a great rest of your Tuesday. And as always, have a heck of a morning, everybody.