MMA Fighting - HOAM | Did the UFC Lose In the Demetrious Johnson For Ben Askren Trade?

Episode Date: August 30, 2022

Demetrious Johnson added his name to the KO of the Year list with a sensation finish of Adriano Moraes at ONE on Amazon Prime 1 this past Friday. Did that moment help solidify the trade of Johnson for Ben Askren for ONE Championship, or did the UFC get the better end of the deal? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck answers listener questions about the memorable trade between the two stars and former world champions, and discusses who ultimately got the better end of the deal. In addition, listener topics include UFC 279, Khamzat Chimaev's next move if he beats Nate Diaz, the rumored Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva boxing match, if the No. 2 MMA promotion debate should even be had, where Ciryl Gane and Tai Tuivasa could go based on the result of their UFC Paris main event, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Bundled for more value. Shop before they're gone. In-store online at Sephora.com. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. All right, everybody, it is Tuesday, August 30th, 2022, and it is indeed a heck of a morning live on the M.A. Fighting Twitter Spaces. The show will be live in its entirety. Well, not live, but it will be up on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network.

Upon conclusion, the final edition of Heck of a Morning for the month of August, it has been a crazy month. and I appreciate all of you joining us however often that you can. I am Mike Heck. A new week, we have a UFC card on Saturday. We did not have that last weekend, but we had a lot going on in the combat sports world. Some were a little freak showish, if you will.

There were some impressive things that happened. I did watch the BKFC card. It was actually a lot of fun. the main events sort of left things to be desired, if you will, but some impressive performances on that card. John Dodson, hell of a BKFC debut. I feel like there's oftentimes where you see long-time MMA fighters, long-time UFC fighters head on over to the BKFC ring,

and you're just like, oh, man, like, how is this going to go? You're kind of nervous. You're not really sure how things are going to play out. And then you see them fight, and you're like, Holy cow, this is actually kind of meant for them. You've definitely seen it with Mike Perry. I think he's probably the best example. BKFC was probably made for him.

We saw it with Chad Mendez. He looked good in his BKFC fight. And we saw it with John Dotson. I mean, the hand speed, the quickness, the explosiveness, plus you add in a little bit of technique. I think John Dotson is going to have a successful run with BKFC. took on. Now, I'd like to see him get in there with somebody not Ryan Banoid, a guy who just came from the UFC, some with a little more bare-knuckle experience to really gauge that.

But I feel like his style is explosive. This works really well, at least from what I saw in the, you know, less than two minutes that we saw. But he knocked Ryan Banoit down three times. The third one was the, the capper, referee had seen enough. And John followed in his brother's footsteps. His brother Eric made his pro-combat sports debut. I think he had like a 23-second knockout. So the Dotson brothers, a banner night. A banner night at BKFC 28 in Albuquerque, New Mexico is also a pretty good night for Christine Ferrea.

She goes out there and just obliterates Taylor Starling. After the first punch, she landed, Taylor was like, oh boy, this is not what I expected. this is not what I had hoped for she was pretty much hooked right after that she even said after the first knockdown like I can't do this I can't do this I blame her corner a little bit for not throwing in the towel there

like when your fighter is like literally yelling at you from the ring I can't do this I can't do this and you just allow her to go back out there I mean we talk about this all the time like the coaches know these fighters better but I think there are certain situations I mean we're literally 25 seconds into the fight

you kind of have to know at that point like your fighter doesn't have it. After just kind of getting bolted in that situation, and they let her back out there, she got punched again, and Starling surrendered. She just took herself out of the fight, and good on her. She knew she didn't have it, and you lived to fight another day.

But good win for Christine Faria. It was a fun card. I did not get to watch the KSI doubleheader. I did, luckily, follow along on Twitter with James Schue and Damon Martin, and I learned everything I really needed to know, and then we had a little private Slack channel chat going on. I kind of wish I watched it. But then there are times looking at the Twitter threads

or I was like, I'm so glad I didn't watch it. But I don't know. That was basically the most notable things that happened on a UFC list weekend. But the UFC is back in action. Their first card in Paris, France, this Saturday. The main event is Surreal Gone versus Tai Tuivasa, big one in the heavyweight division.

we also have the return of Robert Whitaker takes on Marvin Vittori and the co-main event. That's a great fight. And it should be a fun card. And I love the early start time. So with that, you said, let's just open things up and get after this, shall we? Four Corner Sports, I believe it's the first one on deck. So we'll start with him.

Hello, sir. Hey, how's going? What's up, buddy? So I wanted to talk to you about, so I know we had a USC-the-less crazy weekend. But I really didn't watch any of me. But my algorithm on YouTube ended up popping up about Jose Alto. And I was thinking, I was like, I looked at this video and it said the best moments of Connor and Jose Aldo. And it made me really think.

I was like, to me it's like one of the biggest what ifs. What would have happened if Aldo would have been able to survive that 13 second, you know, left hand hook from Connor? And like, how would we view? I feel like it would have changed like the whole. dynamics of how we view Connor and Jose. Because anytime I view Jose, I always think of that knockout

no matter how many, how much of a good run he had in the WEC and in the UFC. The reason I'm bringing this up just because I think I saw a post about his coach saying that he's going to have, he's not tiring. I think he wants to fight in UFC Brazil

in January. So I just wanted to get your thoughts on that. And I saw a little bit of the area versus Ariel interview with Rafion Stats versus what's called Danny Sabatello. How do you envision that fight to happen? I'm actually very intrigued on that fight.

I want to see if Danny is going to be able to keep Raffian from what's the quote using his striking and stuff like that because it just seems like Danny Sabatelo doesn't have the striking pedigree

to keep up with Raffion Stats. And then lastly, I wanted to ask you if you could only watch one 30 for 30, right? Between the 30 for 30, if they make it D.C. and John Jones or Habeem and Connor McGregor, which one would you watch? All right. Thanks, Mike. And have a good one. Thanks, buddy. The last question, it's D.C. and John Jones. It's not even close. I think there's more that happened there that we don't even know about. I'd love to get, like, sort of behind the scenes of that. And I've seen everything I've needed to see when it comes to Habib and Connor. It was an awful build.

Things got over the line many, many times. I mean, look, it was the biggest fight of all time. It was promoted in a way that we just kind of view the UFC in a completely different way because there, I mean, the Dolly incident was, I mean, it's a black mark. It's a black mark, but it was also used as like the biggest promotional tool to build that fight up. And yeah, it's DC and Jonjo. It's not, I mean, those two brought up the worst of each other. as well. But

that one came to mind. I watched Raw last night. I was like, I'll check it out. I've been a little, people are like, oh, no, you got to give it a chance. You got to give it a chance because they kind of crapped on the current pro wrestling product on onto the next one. So I watched it. I actually enjoyed it.

And they did a little split screen interview with Matt Riddle, former UFC fighter and Seth Rollins. And it was cool. And then they went to commercial break and they came back and they're like, they didn't realize it, but they were still miced up and recorded it. And they basically, they did the whole John Jones DC thing where Seth Rollins, he didn't say the P word, but Seth Rallens like, hey, you're there?

And then said some awful things. And it was very reminiscent of that. So that split screen situation, the hot mics, definitely a memorable moment. Stots and Sabatello, I mean, I think you kind of laid it out perfectly. If Sabatelho can't get this fight to the ground, he's in big trouble. But, I mean, Sabbs can strike a little bit. I mean, go watch his Titan-F-C fights. He could strike a little bit, but he doesn't really need to. But if this fight goes to the ground, and I know Stats is very, very talented,

then Sabatel is going to win it. If Sabatel can get takedowns like he did against Leandro Ego and against pretty much everybody else he's fought for the most part, or he can control Stots against the fence, it's going to be a long night for Stats. But if Sabatel can't do that, there's a very good chance to get lit up. in that fight. So that's a really interesting fight.

I have to go with Sabatello just because I've gone out in public many, many times, and there's video evidence of this, right? I said Sabatello was going to win the whole damn thing before I even knew how the brackets were shaped up. But to me, the winner, whoever wins that fight's winning the Grand Prix,

more than likely. So, although the other match-up's good, too. Patsy makes him like a made-off. So we'll see what happens in December. And then the Jose-Aldo thing, it's kind of tough to gauge. It's a what-if more. in my eyes, like, what would happen if they ran it back? Because on that night, with where Jose Aldo's head was from the entire,

he's probably mentally exhausted from the build to that fight, them traveling around the world, doing press conferences, and Connor just going off on him and getting over on him and taking the bell from him. And, I mean, he really tested the way Jose Aldo looked at the sport, because Jose was always a really respectable guy who's had the mark. partial arts mentality. And then you put a guy like that in that sort of scene with Connor McGregor, not just on fight week, but for months, months and months and months. They traveled around and did press conferences. And then the fight got canceled. And Connor's calling them out.

And the fans are taking Connor's side. Everyone's turning their backs on Jose Aldo and Connor beats Chad Mendez. And then we have to build the fight back up again for December. I think by the time they got in there. Like, you can even see it on Jose's face. When he walked out, when Bruce Bophorst announced to them, you could see it on Jose's face. Like, oh, man, like, you could tell he had a lot in his mind. So that's one of those fights where when we look at rematches and how things could go.

And we always ask the question, like, how can you do it better? I just don't know, like, if Connor would ever get up for that fight. But if Jose could, like, bulk up and get back to 155 or get up to 155 or something, I'd like to see. I would love to see those two guys fight. again. It would be a crazy little what-if, but I don't think we'll ever see it happen. And I don't think, I just think Connor wins that fight. I think the result is the same pretty much no matter what. Like if he, if he, if Aldo got bolted and then somehow was durable enough to get back

up or something or keep the fight going, it just would have gotten worse for him. So I hate going down that rabbit hole, but that was just Connor's night and it wasn't Jose's. Connor won that fight in the Octagon, but he won it before that fight even took place, just with the mental warfare. All right, let's go to a head. What's up? Hey, buddy. Mike, the disrespect for one championship is real, Mike.

Not a mention. DJ, DJ. Not a mention at the start of the show, BKFC, but not one championship. I'm sure, even like last Friday, not a, I didn't. didn't hear a mention. Someone asked that there was no mention. And let's not, obviously, we'll talk about Demetrius Johnson, taking out Adrian and Marias like that in incredible fashion, but there were other fighters on the car too. And I'm saying this again, Mike. I don't care what you say or anyone else says. I'm right. One championship is the second best promotion in combat sports, period.

There is no other like BKFC, like one of like Bell at all PFL. It's just a bunch of, it's like, okay, second level fighters, but one championship has the highest level in Muay Thai and in kickboxing and submission grappling and we're seeing it. Like Nongo, Gaianga down, the co-main event, one of the pound for pound best in Muay Thai. But like, let's talk about weight and DJ, because apparently DJ walks around at 136. So to fight someone who we all know, those hydration laws that one championship are garbage. Adriano is probably lightweight at that point.

We all know it's garbage. And to beat someone like that, that's crazy. A.K. Lee was on here, but he left. I'm not sure about the number one ranking at flyweight. I get it, but I don't get it. It's like either all. But let's talk about Alex Pahara.

Mike, I don't know if you've seen that video or that picture with Dominic Reyes. Everything about Alex Perera is bigger than Dominic Reyes, everything, every part of his body is bigger. It's ridiculous. And he's going to fight, is he? If I'm Alex, I might actually wrestle a little bit.

It's so ridiculous. And lastly, 170, we got 279. I feel like I've said this before. Fight disciples came back and they said they're British. They know the British don't respect wrestling. Leon pulled it out the bag, lightning in a bottle. Not lucky, but he set it up. But that was a one-time thing.

But the British fighters, unless it's Makayev or Jack Shaw, they don't respect wrestling. And that's going to get exposed by a, like, a top-level wrestler like Usman. Colby's even worse. Not worse, but it's not going to generate the type of value. So you go with a favorable matchup, even if it's Gilbert Burns. So it's Masvidal or Gilbert Burns. That's it. And lastly, Wonderboy, I feel for him.

I think he should decline the fight. That's fine. but anything after, if he declines any more wrestlers, I don't support him in that. And that's all I've got, with Shavkap, that's it. That's all I've got, Mike. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I mean, listen, I forgot about one.

How could I forget about that great moment from DJ? It's just Saturday was such a whirlwind with all the silliness that it almost like took away from it. But I will say between Thursday and Friday with the whole hydration horseshit, it kind of turned me off to the whole thing. It's just so bizarre and weird, and it's just conniving in a lot of ways. It's like sneaky and weird. And then you just see Adriano basically having,

he's probably bigger than 155 in that fight. Like DJ, it was like DJ fought up two weight classes and still got the win. As far as the rankings go, I didn't even, DJ was my number three because it's just so, it's so tough because, How do you rank DJ? How do you rank them?

Because, and I don't mean this disrespectfully. I mean it like, do you put him as a Banimate? Because he's technically not a flyweight. Do you rank him as fly? Like, I don't know. So, like, it's the same reason I did have Marias as number one. Because I just have too many questions about, about a lot. And like, how do we, like, is, did DJ be at 35 or in the rankings?

Because he even said on Ariel Show you, so he's not fighting at 125 anymore. Flyweight 1.25. Like, I know one is strange, and they're like, we support people not doing hard weight cuts, but then we get hydration test results, and we're like, how in the blue hell did Adrian Marius go from one hydration level to another and that short of about a time and lose all of those numbers? It's just, it's just bizarre. It's just bizarre.

And one's going to have to, they're going to have to open up the door a little bit more to give people more insight because it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, It's just very strange and weird. But it didn't mean to disrespect Mighty Mouse, Mighty DJ. What a performance. What a knockout. It's definitely on the list for K-O-V-the-year, for sure. And then with the Wonderboy, Rock Mono fight,

if I'm Wonderboy, I ain't touching that fight. Stay away. Stay away. Watch the D-Rod Kevin Holland fight. Both those guys are supremely active. And Wonderboy isn't going to be ready until the end of the year. November is probably the earliest. from all indications,

let Holland and D-Rod do the damn thing September 10th, and then Wonderboy can get the winner. Both those guys want to, as long as there's no broken bones or anything like that's going to keep them out for a while, both those guys would be available in two months, more than likely.

If there's any two guys in that division who would be able to bounce back in two months to fight Wonderboy at MSG, it's Holland and D-Rod. So I think the winner of that fight should get Wonderboy. I mean, Holland can wrestle a little bit. D-Rod can wrestle if he needs to. But I think for the most part,

those two are going to stand there and just try to punch Wonderboy in the face. And it'd be interesting. But to feed Wonderboy, Rock Monoff is just good for Shafka. I mean, that does nothing for Wonder Boy. It really doesn't. Because even if Wonderboy wins, it'll just be like,

well, I guess Rock Monoff wasn't as good as we thought he was. He doesn't get put over in a big way. especially with where the division's at right now. There's all the craziness with Leon and the trilogy with Usman and everything else going on. Just not time. If Usman had won, maybe I would entertain that because if Wonderboy beats Rachmanoff, he's in the discussion. But right now with sort of where everything is right now at the top of the division,

does really do much for Wonderboy right now. Let's go to Kay Faye. Hey, Mike. actually I had just kind of hit every point that I was wanting to talk about mainly just the the DJ disrespect and since AK's actually

in here I can say happy birthday in person for once have a great day y'all heck of the morning thank you I again I don't mean to be disrespectful the DACO is incredible the performance is incredible but Chech is going to be a problem

100% but again one just rubs me the wrong way in a lot of different ways with the hydration thing and just be more of an open book about it. Like, don't be a sneak. Just what they need to do is they need to fly AK out to their events. They need to pay him to MC their weigh-in process.

We could all see it ourselves and have AK host it because there's nobody better in the space that could host those way-ins than AK. I mean, John Attick's great, but John's under contract. bring on AK to MC those. I'd watch. And that would answer a lot more questions.

That drives me insane. Just like, we all know, like, we shouldn't have to be like, well, I guess one's just letting him fight. When we're looking at these hydration results and we're like, how is this even physically possible? But I digress. But great win for DJ. I don't mean to disrespect the ban. He's a Mount Rushmore fighter. one of the greatest of all time,

avenged a loss with one of the best knockouts of the year. It's just what one does rubs me the wrong way a lot of times. But listen, they put on good cards. I'm not trying to knock them for that, but just some of the things they do behind the scenes in terms of the, when you are the top of the fighter safety mountain, as you proclaim, and you try to reach the billions and billions of viewers

who watch your product, but yet you're not open. You can't show the weigh-ins publicly. Like, come on now. Like, we're past this. It's 2022. Get it together. Figure it out.

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almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. Let's go to Yasser. Yasser, are you there? Hello, Mike. How are you? Yes, sir? Hello, sir. Hello, sir. Hi. Thank you for having me. Of course. I just want to ask you you about you know the next show about Thai Tuayvasa versus Ghan I think his name like that I think tight way to why Vasa is that the future of the heavy weight I don't know if you agree with me or not so what do you think about about this fight And the second question is, do you think that Nate Diaz has the chance to beat Hamzat?

Because, you know, Nate has a high card, you know, like, how can I say it? He's durable. He is a monster, you know. He can't fight for five rounds without any issues in the movement. And he has knockout power or, you know, what I mean. So what do you think about those two fights? And thank you again for having me. Sure.

Absolutely. Yeah, I think they have a chance. Is it a great chance? No, but this is the type of fight where, Nate has to play the long game. He has to survive the onslaught. He has to absorb probably a ton of punishment to get where he needs to go. But if he can do that, like if Shamiya starts just unloading on him and can't finish him

and this fight gets extended, I think Nate definitely has a chance to win. But if this fight's going to get finished inside of three rounds, it's probably going to be from Shemaya. But if we go to rounds four and five, Nate's got a chance. Now, I'm picking Shamiath to win. but the thing about Nate Diaz is all he needs is one moment. He just needs one moment. And even if he loses, that's all he needs. The momentum stays where it's at, if not exceeds it.

Just look at the Leon Edwards fight. He lost like every second of that fight until he hurt him in the fifth round in the final minute. Leon survives and all we're talking about is, oh, Nate almost finished him. Leon isn't as good as we thought he was. Nate's the man. Pride rules, Nate wins, street rules, Nate wins, all of that. And that's what Nate does. Nate is so good at that.

It's incredible. It's incredible. But I think Shamiov's going to win. But again, and people will disagree with me. The longer the fight goes, the more it favors Nate Diaz. And that's absolutely true. With the tie to Yvesa thing, I wouldn't say he's the future of the division, but he's a guy the UFC has to jump on right now.

Right now. I was saying after Tai Tuivasa knocked out Derek Lewis that Tai Tuvaa's next fight should be for a title. He should have been fighting for the interim belt or something because eventually what is happening here is going to stop. He is a power puncher. He is super fun to watch.

He's a potential star for the company. He's just super fun. Like, who, he got, he got like a baby-faced rub in Houston after knocking out Derek Lewis. There are not many people who could do that. Tye's got a lot of momentum right now. He's got outside of baby Curtis Blades. He's got probably the most nightmare matchup he could get right now.

But all he needs is to land one big shot and he can win. If Taito Ivasa beats zero gone, geez, Louise, that'll be insane. It'll be nuts. And then you have to give him the title fight. Enough is enough. If Tycho Ivasa beats Zero gone, he's at the head of the pack. He jumps Curtis Blades. He's the guy.

And then we'll see how everything else plays out, whether it's John or John versus John Jones versus Francis Aganu, whether they do John Jones versus Stipe for an interim or they strip Francis igano because he's not going to resign. Tai Tu Ivasa gets the winner. 100%. You have to do it. You have to do it.

You have to do it quickly. Because eventually he's going to lose. And then that's it. It's all over. And he's still fun, and he can still draw, and he still creates interest, for sure. But Tai Tui Vasa, UFC title challenger, he's probably only going to get one chance at it,

but you've got to do it quick. That's why I was screaming for it after the Derek Lewis knock. I'll just give him a freaking title fight. Just do it now. Just do it now. Because if he wins, that's one of the greatest stories ever. And if he loses, oh, well, he can just go have fun.

fights and people will still love the guy, just like Derek Lewis in a lot of ways. Let's go to Mikey Bats. Mikey. That's up, buddy. Not much, man. First of all, I'm a Demetri Johnson fan, so let's get that clear out the way before a misconstrues what I'm about to say, but it's kind of funny how it feels like MMA Twitter hasn't kept the same energy for DJ this whole time.

Now everyone's like, oh, look, it's awesome. He's winning. he's, we're tuning into his fights. I'm like, where was this seven years ago when he was dominating the UFC? Listen, two things can be true. The UFC kind of dropped the ball in promoting him, but people, MMA fans just didn't admit they didn't care.

They didn't care about flyweight, and that's understandable. Flyweight was new back then, not a lot of the elite fighters are there now, but I don't want to hear this nonsense about how, you know, oh, you know, we were watching the whole time. They're like, no, you didn't, you didn't freaking care. Yeah, the UFC could have. put them in better spots, sure. Could they promote them better?

Absolutely. But ultimately, you can only lead a horse to water and you can't force them a drink. You know what I mean? And as for one, it's not that I never had a problem with one championship. It's just, can they just like figure out what they want to be? You know, like either you're an MMA promotion or you're not. And trying to crib off all these other styles. Oh, we want to host boxing, kickboxing, grappling.

It's like, so you want to be an MMA promotion, but separate literally all the styles because you can't. invent these like exclusive grapplers to fight in m-ma you know what i mean so it's like it's kind of funny to me like i like them i love watching them watching them since their inception we know when they had those ostentatious titles you know one dragon slayer and some stuff like that but final and then chattry it's fun you know chattry a few years ago at the height of congress popularity actually had the audacity to say we would never sign him he doesn't embody everything of one i'm like yes you would sign him stop lying to people you know i mean that's that's the thing it's like

Stop acting like you're, like, better than everyone. It's like, oh, we're exemplifying all these virtues in martial arts. I'm like, you're in Asia, bro. Like, stop. Also, it's funny that they're sitting there. They're trying to be the spiritual successor to pride while rises there, and they haven't done a show together. So I kind of find it interesting.

Anyways, can't wait till this card. Listen, Seril Gan is the favorite. He likely will win. But let's all have some fun and cheer for freaking Taitouvasa. Because if he wins, heavyweight will get it. fun. That'll be all this morning. Much love you guys. Happy birthday, I K. Thanks, buddy.

Yeah, I mean, I don't mind that they do different things on these cards. Like, the DJ Rodang fight was super cool and super fun to watch. So, like, I don't mind the mixing of the martial arts in a number of different ways on their cards.

What I mind, I do agree with you that one can't figure out their identity. And it's not because of that. It's just all the sort of empty promises, all the things that like Chachry says that like their lighter divisions are better

than the UFC's, which is just not true at all. It's just not true. It's crazy. They basically are saying like from welterweight down, they say basically they say Chattree, I think this was like last year you said this, but

Chattree said that the UFC is better light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions, but every other division favors one. That's just, it's just garbage. It's not true. It's just not true. It's silly.

Just, I mean, come on. Just like, just be honest. At least like, like, Scott Coker says, like, some silly things. But at least he's not going to, like, he says, like, some of his divisions are better the UFC. And there are, you can at least have conversations about whether or not Belator has, I mean, I guess in a way, like, you could say one has the best flag. weight, but Demetrius isn't even really a flyweight.

He's a one flyweight, which is basically a UFC bannam weight. And how would DJ do against Sterling or Dilleshaw or Jan or O'Malley or any of these guys at 35 in the UFC? Like, we don't know. We don't know. It's not the same thing. And how dare you? How dare you say that your lightweight division is better than the UFC's?

That's just silly. It's just silly. Like, Coker can say, like, we have the Corey Anderson. he could say like Cory Anderson's the best light heavyweight in the world. And at least you can have a conversation about that. We have a conversation internally about that on our rankings. We have people who have Cory Anderson number one. We have people of Yuri Perashka number one.

There's at least a discussion to be had there. But to say like the only divisions that the UFC is better than yours is light heavyweight and heavyweight? Come on, dude. Come on. Come on. It's just silly. Just, I understand you have to promote your brand and you have to say you're great and you have to throw yourself a parade in these types of situations. But to say that is just not right.

It's just not true. It's just not true. And I'm waiting for them to come back to the United States. Like, what are we doing here? What are we doing? I don't know. Let's go to Milo. Oh, Mielo.

Hey, Mike. Check, good morning to you. Can you hear me okay? Yes, sir. Awesome. Great. So I want to share some thoughts maybe about the kind of the upcoming matches between Nate and Kamzat. I think Kamzat in his interview is showing a lot of respect to Nate and the fact that he has a great conditioning.

I think it's a great opportunity for him also to go to work multiple rounds and improve his cardio. So just like with Nate versus Leon, I think a five-round fight is very... crucial for Kanzat to improve and test himself out. So I think it also kind of creates the door for him. Should he beat Nate? And I think he will the matchup between him and Colby, which I think a lot of people are anticipating, including myself. I think it will be an awesome match.

And as Dana said, Colby is ready to fight. So should Kamsat roll past Nate, I think it's Kamzat versus Colby. Now, in terms of the Gunn versus Tuivasa, I think, Obviously, Ghan is a dessert favorite, and he will look to shine on his home turf, and then should win this matchup against Tiuwasa. So I think in terms what's next for him, with Ngano being on the side, sidelines, I think what UHC is going to do is have Gunn versus Blades for an interim title, and then the winner gets Ngana should he resign, should he renew his contract, right?

So that's, I think, the future for Ghan. for Tuovasa, I think in his role, he will kind of, he will step in the role. It's an interesting position he's in because he's at the top of the lightweight division. So I totally see UFC maybe utilizing him as a stepping stone for Pavlovich, because Pavlovich is on the rise and he's a potential contender. So in terms of the matchup, I see future fights such as to conclude Kamzat v. Colby. gun versus blades for an interim title and then Tuvaasa versus Pavlovich is another fight

that's on the horizon for the Tuvasa which I don't think is a bad proposition for him that's all I have to say have a heck of a morning and yeah cheers thanks buddy yeah I mean I could see all of those things happening but yeah and to go back to the Hamza giving him a five round fight that's why I was saying

like from Jump Street just do Hamza versus Leon for the interim title and then Usman gets the winner. It just would have created a bigger fight. But I mean, look, technically I was wrong, hindsight being what it is, because we would have not gotten a moment that we had a couple of weeks back because that was an incredible one. One of the all-time great moments we will ever, we will ever see in terms of, and then one other thing I just, I just kind of wanted to add about

about the DJ thing. It's been a pretty good, like, it was a pretty good week stretch for DJ because one of the things that I noticed a lot after Leon Edwards won was the flowers, the respect going to DJ. After Usman lost, people went back and were like, man, DJ had 11 title defenses in a row. That just seems like almost impossible now. So it's almost like DJ got a lot more respect in a lot of ways after watching a guy like Camaro lose. to Leon Edwards in the way that it happened, just reiterating something that I say all the time

that Jed Bishu says all the time, and most of us say all the time that, while all their sports are very hard, the hardest thing to do, in my opinion, in all of sports, is to be a long-reigning UFC champion and just have to defend that title over and over and over and over again

and try to get everybody's best. You have to be great. If you have an off moment and you lose, like it's just gone. especially in this sport where it's look what you've done for me lately you're only as good as your last fight like those sound like clichés but that's how people view the sport look at what happened to amanda newness she's done she's washed she doesn't want to fight anymore and then she comes out the rematch gets juliana and sort of blows the doors off of her and we're like let's see she's she's still the best woman's fighter in the

world. I don't think so. I still lean Valentin in that, but you know what I mean. That's just how the sport is. And that's how all sports are. Winning changes everything. Tider Woods for a long time is one of the biggest pieces of shit in all of sports. He's going through everything that he was going through. And once he won a tournament, it was like none of it ever happened. So there you go. Winning changes everything. So we'll see how everyone looks at the rematch. And if Oussman can win, what happens then? But yeah, I think Hamza, on the other end, Tuva, we'll see what happens with that fight.

We'll see what happens with Gan. I'll probably fight Blades if you wins. And then if you do want to do Hamzaa, Colby, great. Or if Adasania beats Pereira, and Hamzaat's like, nah, I ain't waiting for the 170. Let's go up to 185. Could do that too. The UFC is not going to stop them.

that'd be up to Adasani, obviously, but that'd be the biggest fight Adasanii if he beats Pereira, that's for damn sure. Let's go to the combat guy. Hey, Mike, how you doing? Good, how are you, man? I'm good. I was just wondering about Jalton Almeda

and how far he can go in the heavyweight division, you know, being undersized and all when you think he's going to move down to the heavyweight. My other thing was about Mazvedal. And I think they want to set up that Leon fight eventually, but, you know, being 0 and 3 in his last 3, I feel like that's a hard sell right now. And I know they wanted to do burns,

but I feel like he just loses that. So what's a fight they can do that? That's winnable. And then maybe they set up a title fight with Leon. Thanks for your time, Mike. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, Mazelah's going to be interesting. But again, it's kind of too soon

because, I mean, I spoke to him earlier this month. on the mean streets of Savannah, Georgia. And he can't take any fights right now because I think his trial starts tomorrow. At least that's with the public record state. So he's got to wait and see how that all plays out. And then he can kind of figure it out. But if he had his druthers, he would fight Connor. He's down for the Burns fight.

He thinks he likes the Burns fight because of the challenge. Because he knows Burns is going to try to take him down. And he wants to fight a guy like that. he's a competitor. I mean, he's a prize fighter, but he likes the Burns fight. He thinks it's a good challenge for him. He thinks he can win. But you can throw Mazdaal in there.

Like, you could give Mazadol Wonderboy. Like, you could do that fight. You could do, they fought before they, Wonderboy won the first fight, but you can do it again. Both guys said they want it. So, I mean, that's a direction you can go too. And if you're going to set up or try to position Mazadol

to maybe get Edwards if he beats Usman. Like, you have, he has to win a fight. He has to. I don't think they're just going to willy-nilly throw him in there. Like, it makes sense financially. Like, it's going to do well on pay-per-view, but I just, with where this division is at right now, with Hamzat in play and, you know, even Colby coming back.

Because Colby's now in this mix, too, with Leon. Mazol needs a win. The story's there. You can just play the three pieces of the soda clip over and over again, but I think there would be some eye rolls too. But if Mazdaal gets one win against anybody in the top 10, it would be more easily digestible for a lot of people. But we're going to see the trailer first,

unless Oosman gets hurt or something. Let's go to Relo. Hello, Relo. Heck up a morning, Mike. How you doing? I'm good. So I just got one statement, I mean, maybe two statements and a question. So one statement, WWE keeps scheduling their events.

Like, it seemed like right at the same time as UFC, and it been happening lately. And I don't know why, but they need to stop. Like, I like getting my UFC on Saturday and my WWE on Sunday. I'm used to that. Stop scheduling it right at the same time as UFC. Just like this week,

they're going early on a pay-per-view on Saturday. Ain't that funny the UFC doing the same thing? I think there's something there. And then I wanted to ask you your opinion on, there's a thing in boxing right now where it seemed like the big fights matter more than the belts. And I wanted to ask the opinion if you, do you think that's something like I could ever cross over in the MMA

to where we're more focused on getting big fights between like two stars rather than the actual champions or whoever has the belts? Have a good morning. Yeah, I mean, we're getting it. next Saturday, getting Shamaa versus Nathan Diaz. That fight in a vacuum makes absolutely no sense. This is a, it just makes no sense.

It makes no sense. It is what it is. It's two big stars. People are going to be interested. The build on Fight Week will be fun. But the UFC's already been there. Like, they're already, they're already there. And the UFC just loves putting belts on things.

Like, they have just created interim titles. Like, there are so. there, like, to this, at this point, the interim title thing, I don't really care as much about, like, because they're, once, once you grasp what it actually is, it's just a glorified number one contender fight. The fighters get more money. It's, we just put a belt there. But a lot of times, like, you don't need a belt. You don't need a belt. Like, Mazadal Diaz didn't need the stupid BMF title. It didn't. I mean, it was like a cool little build, but then he actually saw the belt and you just like, wow, this is.

the exact same thing as a UFC belt. And you realize just how dumb the idea was to begin with. And then you like certain times like Holly Holm Jermaine, like they just invent divisions, invent titles. But the UFC's already kind of there.

Like they might just put an interim belts on the line for these things. But Michael Bisbing versus Dan Henderson was a title fight we never needed to see. There were, when you had Robert Whitaker, you had Yole Romero who were like, clearly one and two, or you could shuffle them up however you'd like,

but then he goes to defense's title against Dan Henderson. It made no sense. It made no sense. But the UFC's, that's what they do. It's not about, for the UFC, it's not about meritocracy. Certain points it is. Once Leon Edwards, you know, extended the unbeaten street to 10, it was like, all right, like 10 in a row, like, we'll just do the damn thing and get

it done. But for the most part, that's why we got the Colby rematch instead of Leon. That's why we got the Mazadol rematch instead of Leon probably too. I mean, that's what they do. They put the biggest fight possible that they can, whether it makes sense or not. And boxing, in my opinion, doesn't do that enough. There's like certain fights that are like, okay, we have to do it now, we have to do it now, and then it just doesn't happen. We have to wait like three or four. The Mayweather Pachial fight is like a perfect example. We should have got that fight like three or four years earlier and then

we waited until Pachial was on the back end of his career. Mayweather in some way, I mean, it was still great, but still kind of in the back end of his career. Like, it was still a big draw, big buy, but it would have done even big, it would have been even bigger. Like three years

before that. So, I don't know. I think I think the UFC is kind of more in the let's strike while the iron's heart the iron is hot business than boxing is right now. I mean there are certain things in boxing

that, but also the boxing world has changed. Look at where we're at right now. Look at where we're at. We have Jake Paul. We have KSI. KSI. KSI boxed twice on Saturday. Against two non, not good boxers.

Two of the very worst we've ever seen get in the ring. And I'm not going to talk numbers. But the amount of traffic that that event got on our website, it's mind-boggling. It's mind-boggling. How many people cared about what happened on that card?

It's bizarre. It's incredible. And now we're living into Jake Paul world, and there's reports coming out that Jake Paul's fighting Anderson Silva on October 29th, which, by the way, if that ends up being the case, oh boy, I will have a lot of respect for Jake. Paul if he takes that fight. I mean, that's literally the best thing he could do right now is fight Anderson Silva.

He's got to stick with this MMA thing and you go fight, you go fight the guy that no one thinks you can beat. Because no one thinks he beats Anderson Silva. I mean, I've been doing the show for what? Five months now. And every time we talk about Jake Paul, it's, well, he's never going to fight Anderson Silva because he'd get washed. He'd get run over. Well, if that's the fight, the guy give Jake some props. got to give jakes some props

but this is this is the boxing world boxing's all over the place it's just it's just wild you told me like 15 20 years ago when I'm watching Mike Tyson Lennox Lewis or even more than that

25 years ago whatever that we'd be seeing social media stars selling out Madison Square Garden or whatnot I'd be like get the hell out of here no way we got freaking Adrian Peterson

fighting Levyon Bell on a boxing card. I think September 10th that one's happening. It's just crazy. So yeah, there's some of that in boxing, but if we're putting the UFC in a vacuum, they've been on the, let's make money while we can, put the biggest fights together possible

with the biggest stars more than this guy deserves this, this guy deserves that. I stopped using the word deserves an MMA six years ago. With MX Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining, means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too.

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Let's go to Abzwalia. Hello. Yeah, hello. I got you. Yeah, can hear me? Yeah, so I just wanted to speak on just two things. The first thing is the Paris card. Let's say assume the serial gun wins, you know,

I would say he should fight Steepay next, you know, or Curtis Blade, because we don't know what's happening with John Jones or, you know, and Garna presumably, you know, if he even returns or John Jones is going to return this year. And Ty probably he could fight for the title next, you know. Anything could happen. And my second thing is regarding the Hamza fight. I think, like I said last week, if Hamza wins, I think he should move up to middleweight fight Rob would take her or, you know,

whoever wins that Vittori match. so he can prepare himself for the middleweight class, and that gives him an experience. And if he's at Walter Waite, you know, he should fight Colby because Covington's a very good match-up, and, you know, it's someone who's in his prime, and if Hamza can win that, it gives him a legit, you know, win on his win-string,

it makes us seem more convincing that he deserves the title shot next, because he's in his prime, and I don't think it would make sense that he waits more time and waste, you know, his best year, just to get the best matchup. Yeah, that's all I have to say. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, to me, the Seral gone thing is it's Curtis Blades.

I mean, maybe Steppe, who knows? But again, this all depends on, you say it all depends on John Jones. I actually think it all depends on Francis Ghanu here, because if Francis, I'm actually going to be speaking with Eric Nixick a little bit later on today, maybe I'll get some kind of update on where France is at. I don't know if we're going to get any updates on the contract or, negotiations with the UFC. I doubt we'll get any of that insight

because Eric's a coach and not a manager, but I'm sure he'll give me some insight to what Francis looks like physically and when he might be able to fight. So I'm curious to see where he's at there. But last I heard, Francis wants to fight maybe before the end of the year or early next year.

And at this case, like, if you're building towards John Jones, Francis Nganu, if the only reason you were doing John Jones steep was to do an interim belt with the chance of maybe John Jones fighting Francis, just wait in another month. Just wait. Just wait until Francis is ready at this point.

So I think it all depends on Francis. Like, is he going to resign? Is he going to stay in the UFC? Is he going to move on? Who knows? We'll see what happens there. But if Francis resigns of the UFC, they're going to go right to that John Jones fight, and they should.

And that kind of sucks for Stipe, because I don't think he's going to want to fight Cyril Gahn. I don't think that's going to get him excited. I think the only thing Stipe would want to come back and fight for is for the belt. And I don't really blame him for being honest. The relationship between him and the UFC has been a pretty rocky one for being honest. And Stipe's pretty happy with his whole life right now. He's got kids, married, firefighter life.

I'm sure he's making good money. outside of that with like sponsorships and all this other stuff like I'm sure he's doing just fine. So yeah, I think if gone wins, he'll probably end up fighting Curtis Blades and we go from there. Someone asked about Jelton Almeida a little bit earlier. I think this guy's a problem. I think he's got to just run over Porsche and be able to very he moth next Saturday. And yeah, it might be like a little undersized right now. He was what, 225?

But he's just going to get bigger. He's just going to bulk up and get bigger. The guy is still in his side. He's 31. so he's still technically in his athletic prime. He'll probably put on like 10 or 15 more pounds. Because you've got to remember, he was supposed to fight Maxim Grishen on that May card

before Grishen withdrew, and then he bumped up to heavyweight just to stay on the card and fight Pacoorta. Porter is like the big side of heavyweight. I think Porter is like 260 or something like that, 250, something of that nature. And he just ragged all them. So, Jen's a freak.

Dude is a problem. So it's a pay. I don't think he's going to go back to 205 or at least he's not going to do it anytime soon because I think with his athleticism, his power, the skills he brings in the table, this guy could fly right up the rankings. And I was super high on Ramonoff.

And then we saw what happened against Marche and Tebran. Yeah, maybe the altitude had something to do with that. But this guy, if he goes out there and just steam rolls of Dura Him off next Saturday, we could be looking at another another big-time player in the heavyweight division.

So guys, it's an absolute monster. And then with Hamza, yeah, I mean, Colby makes sense. 85 title makes sense. There's lots of stuff you can do with Shami. It all depends on him. If Shamiya's just like, nope, my next fights for the Walterway title, I'm not doing anything else. I get it.

I don't know if that's how he's going to portray this, but if the UFC wants to do an ABC type of card again and do a five-rounder with Colby and have him in the main event, pay him a bunch of money to do it, Yeah. Maybe he'll do it. I don't know. We'll probably learn more next week during the media day and the press conference and all that stuff, but we'll see. Let's go to Zach. Hello, Zach.

Zach, just got on mute. Zach, you there. All right, try again, Zach. I'll get you back in. Let's go to average avenues, perhaps. The wheel is spitting. There we go. average avenues what's up buddy one question for you about um charles and islam uh what is the chance that the grappling cancels each other out and um it becomes like a striking battle and in in that situation i think that charles would easily win and i just want to echo what someone said before let's let's make this fun huh let's screw the odds let's just support our boy to evis uh-huh you know i'm i'm going i'm getting behind my countryman so sure as saying all that

Anyway, have a heck of a morning, man. Thanks, buddy. And by the way, go and like on tapology, I think I might have been the only one from the MA fighting crew that picked Tai Tzu Vasa to beat Derek Lewis. So I got that one right.

It's a tough matcha for him. It really is. But I just has that power, man. And he's super durable and he's sneaky and fast. and I think God's going to win a decision, but, I mean, I don't know. Seeing reports Logan Paul, no, get the hell out of here. Logan Paul versus Zab Judah. Really?

Wow. Okay. I mean, that's, I don't know if that's true or not, but we'll see. I have reached out about this whole situation with the Pauls and the silvers, and I've heard nothing. I talked to multiple people who said nothing to say, no comment, or news will be announced in the coming days or next week. A lot of stuff that you've seen on Twitter when it comes to the Jake Paul Anderson Silva fight. But Logan Paul versus Zab Judah would be just very bizarre. But I don't know.

That's neither here nor there. And yeah, Tai Tewvasse got a chance. No doubt about it. And it would be pretty crazy if he won. and then he should fight for the belt next. All right, Zach, do we have you? Hi, Mike. Can you hear me? Yes.

Hi. So I was just wondering, what are your thoughts? I feel like a lot of people aren't really taking into account that Kamaro Uson was knocked out so cold, how that can affect the next fight in the trilogy. And also I just wanted to touch on all the talk of one FC and Bellator and PFL. I think instead of ranking them, like who, the next behind USA. I think it should all just be lumped together.

I don't think your MMA fan is like, oh, I don't watch Bellator. I only watch PFL, so on and so forth. So I'll take your thoughts off here. Thank you. I mean, it's not a bad way to look at it. I mean, technically that's kind of what it is. It's just a battle for number two. I mean, the UFC is just so far ahead of everybody.

It's just not even close. And honestly, if we're judging by like, interest of traffic and stuff for the most part okay and i know this is an mMA but just stay with me here for a second just because i i see what i see if you had a regular one championship event a bellator event a pfl event on the same night and you had a bkfc event on the same night as the other three MMA promotions, I would be very, very, very confident

that the BKFC results page is going to get more traffic than all of them. People care. I mean, maybe they're not going to go out and watch it, but they want to know what happens on that card more than anything else. And it happens all the time.

It happens all the time. And there are, there have been times where BKFC, like the UFC would have like an afternoon card and then BKFC would have like a night card on the same day, and the BKFC traffic would just crush the UFC. Crush them. I mean, I know it's on MMA, but whatever they're doing, it's garnering interests.

It definitely is. It's got people talking. But yeah, that's not a bad way to look at. It's like the UFC and everybody else. But I think it's like a fun little conversation to have between one and PFL and Bellethorn. It just seems like every time one of the. these promotions get momentum, they do something dumb.

And they're like, it's like they run into a wall of dumbness. It's like, it's just, it's crazy. Delta Tour will do it, shoot themselves in the foot. They don't promote their cards enough. And then PFL takes their playoffs international where their favorites who are, the ones who are probably going to win the million dollars, can't even frigging travel there. It's insane.

And then one with the whole hydration thing and just some of the things that Chhatri says, it's just like everything, right now one has all this momentum. And then Bellator comes in doing the media rounds. They had a nice little thing with A.J. McKee opening up on the M.A.R. about having a sort of mental breakdown after the loss of Patricia Pitbull. Because I got a whole different AJ McKee when I talked to him a couple weeks ago. I got a guy that's just like, eh, I didn't care about that fight. I wasn't even motivated.

Like, how could I do it better after just running him over in the first fight? I wasn't even motivated for it. You find out a little bit, he's a little more laxed, he's a little more open in that setting. I got just fired up, angry AJ McKee,

and the guy who showed up in studio with Ariel was the opened up, sort of open book. This is what I really dealt with, AJ McKee. And it was interesting. And then, of course, the Stott-Sabitello thing was,

was fun and they're just going to build the hell out of that but then they went and did multiple face-to-face interviews and I'm like, ah man,

you can't water this down. You can't. You can't water this down. And you just question decision-making there and then PFL just bad decision-making all over the board.

Like they might have, PFL probably has like the bigger star out of anybody because they have Kayla. And I think Kayla But Kayla's not really I don't know

It's just weird But Bellator probably move up And then they'll do something Not smart And then PFL will have their championship And it'll probably be like a 37 hour card

And we're going to be so mad That we sat through all of it Only to see Kayla Just destroy Larissa Pacheco again And we're like Oh, why do we sit through 37 hours of a PFL card for the result we knew what we were going to get. And then we wait until they do it again next year.

But I like what they're trying to do anyways. Like with the signings, like, I love the Shane Bergo signing. I'm sure there's a little more movement on the free agency end. I don't know. But it's just, it's really fat. I'd like to see a 30 for 30 on the battle of number two and just see how, how they, each promotion has held that spot for like a week and then they do something to lose it

because it happens all the time and it's pretty fun let's go to cleave i think that's what it says what's up ma'am how you doing i had a question about uh features johnson had won by the championship at one do you does it make it the uf is lost the trade battle in Ascrant like won as a bit like he won this trade off but they got to bet You broke up for most of that

but I think I heard you said Do you feel like the UFC lost the trade with one because they got DJ and the UFC got Ben Ascran? No, I don't. I mean in pure

MMA talents yeah, yes Demetrius Johnson is the more skilled fighter than Ben Ascran was as a mixed martial artist. I don't even think that's a conversation to be happy. Right. Well, what Ben Asker did for the UFC

in the short amount of time he was there was pretty spectacular. He had that crazy fight with Robbie Lawler that like Robbie probably should have won or it shouldn't have been stopped. There's a weird finish. And like, Ben got over.

Robbie got over. We had that iconic moment with Robbie and Herb Dean where he's pissed at Herb Dean and he's like, nah, man, you're the best. You're great. I love you, buddy. That was awesome. And then without that trade, we don't get Jorge Mazadol the superstar.

We don't get him. That flying B and that came from that, it's just so invaluable. It's massive. Life-changing moment for Mazadol, iconic moment for the company. It led to the BMF title fight selling out Madison Square Garden. it led to the two fights for Lusman it led to the Colby fight

and even Mazadol now is still a star and it's because of the Ben Ascran fight it's true like he could win, lose whatever he could lose five fights in a row but people still care about what Jorge Mazadal does

and that trade doesn't happen who knows but just think like it's amazing Mazadol is like the perfect example of how fans can turn on a fighter at the drop of a half. Because when Mazdaal knocks out Darren Till and then he's flying knees, Ben Ascring,

and everything that happened that year, everybody in the fan space was so happy for this guy. This guy paid his dues. He went through so much. He deserves this. I mean, he fought so hard. Like, look at all he's done in his career. And finally he's getting that moment.

And now he's, He loses a few fights and it's just like, this guy sucks. He's washed. He's terrible. How dare you put him into discussion for a title fight with Leon Edwards? All of this. It's just crazy. It's just wild how quickly people can turn on these fighters.

It happens. Just you snap of a finger. Oh, he deserves this. This is amazing. And all of a sudden it's he sucks. It's the sport, baby. What have he done for me lately? but yes,

UFC won that deal from a income generating perspective no doubt about it. I'm sure they probably saw the highlights of DJ's finish on

on Friday and we're like, man, him versus Peter Yan would be super fun. Him versus Azrian Sterling would be super fun but alas,

he's over there. And this is better for DJ too. This is better for DJ. anytime a UFC champion loses makes him look better in the grand scheme of things and he's making way more money with one

he's working way less the guy seems happy so if we're being honest like who won the trade Demetri Johnson won the trade because he's happy and he's getting paid all right we'll take we have three more here we have Mosa coming up now

we'll go to crypto we'll go to clear his values and then I'm going to go Mosa are you there Ramosa. Thanks for having me. I have a couple questions. The first one is about the double champ thing. I don't exactly like the idea.

I like when somebody wants to challenge himself and go up or its class or down. But to do it in the same time when you have a built in one division, I think it's going to be unfair for the other fighters. For example, what happened with the 155 and what it did to Tony Ferguson and Habib at the time

and they lost a couple of years and what did it with Glover Tischer when Izzy went up weight class? I think you should do everything you can do in one division and then leave it for good. But right now with Volkanowski, he wants to go up with class and he says the one division can keep him busy enough, but we can see that he's injured and then there's a couple of names as of Arnold and Emmett and Yair. They could fight for a championship.

This is my first take. And the second thing is about fighters who had their chance to at titles and they don't want to challenge new challenges. Like we have seen with Justin Gigi, he turned down the physique fight. I think he lost two title fights to two different opponents. And the UFC always gave him a perfect match. with Vic, with Barbosa, he never had to face a wrestler and our jiu-jitsu perfect unless it was a title fight and with Wonderboy, but Wonderboy did for a photo a couple of bad matchups. What should the UFC do with this?

They already had their chances for a fight and we want new challenge, new challenger to come Thank you, Mike. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, the double champ thing is kind of tough. Like, I actually, Volkinaw's going to do this probably now's the time

because there is no number one contender at 145. There is no clear-cut guy. Yair, one, one against Brian Ortega. Yes, he sort of initiated it, but it's still kind of weird and we still have questions. The Josh Emmett won. Most people feel like he lost that fight to Calvin Cater,

but he did win on the, on the book. So the easiest thing to do, and everybody's on board with this. Dana's on board, the UFC's on board, even Volkanowski's on board, just do Yaira versus Josh Emmett, do an interim title. Then we have a number one contender. And that's been Volkanowski's problem as champion. It's not that Volcanowski doesn't want to fight. He does want to fight. He wants to fight all the time, but he also wants to fight the guy. And he hasn't had really the chance to fight the guy. there hasn't like just go back and just look at where 45 has been since volkenoff he won the belt anytime there's a guy like a new guy who's next in line who has the chance to get over that they don't

win like cater could have been that guy and then max holloway just sort of blew he just blew the doors off of it and we can't we all came out of that even after two fights and we're like it's got to be max it's got be. And then he goes and he's set up to to fight Max. Max gets hurt. Volcanovsky's like, I still want to fight. The only guy available. I mean, Suhuda was there, but I actually thought that that would have made sense too, but

Korean zombie gets a shot. And people were really happy about that. And then Volkinovsky had one of the best title performances I've ever seen. So now Holloway's ready to go again, three months later. And Volcanovsky fights Holloway. Everyone thought was the guy. The number one contender. I can't even I can't begin to tell you how many people in Las Vegas

are telling me Max Holloway was going to beat Alexander Volcanovsky. And I was like, we'll see, man. And then just as I thought a Volcanozky title defense couldn't be any better than the Korean zombie one, he goes out there, does it better against Max Holloway. There's no controversy. This was a

whoopened from Alexander Volcanozky. This is one of the best 25-minute title defenses you will ever, ever see. he was so good he knew everything Max was going to do before Max did it it was sensational and now he has nobody to fight

there's team Emmett there's team Yair but we don't have a clear cut winner here so just have them fight each other and then Volk can fight the winner so right now he's hurt but he says he can be the backup in October so he's not like

hurt to the point where he's out for a year so now's the time like if he could sneak in there if Olivera beats Islam, or even if Islam beats Olivera, Vol could sneak in there. There's no doubt. I'm convinced.

Especially with the UFC doing a card in Australia, if they're going to do a pay-per-view in Australia, what's Islam going to say? No, he doesn't deserve? Of course, Islam is going to be like, okay, Oliver would be like, okay, I'll fight him. And that would be fun. It's just a weird situation.

Like, even when Jan Blahovic was the champion, There wasn't, Yeri was close. Years close. He was getting ready to fight Dominic Reyes. Yon really didn't have anybody to fight at the time. Izzy was ready to go. You bump him up, give him the chance. There you go.

I mean, I don't like it all the time, but there are certain cases where it's just like, okay, it makes sense to do it right now. Like, Valentin is getting real close. I mean, Valentin argued, like, before the Taos Santos fight, if she was like, nah, I'm going up to 35 and fighting a man and Nunes. Know what a sort of thing about it.

I'm like, yeah, absolutely, do it. Talasanto's fight happens. It was a competitive fight. I still think Shepchenko won that fight. And now maybe we hold off on that. She gets one more under her belt, and then maybe she does it. I don't know.

I don't like it all the time. I actually liked what Anderson Silva did. Just go up and fight a 205. Doesn't have to be for the belt. Pomsok could do that too. He was bouncing back and forth. I don't know. Some cases it works.

Others, it doesn't. And it's okay. Let's go to cryptocurrency, and then we'll go to Clearest Values, and I have to go. But yes, hello. A fight coming up this weekend, which I think could be amazing. Buckley against Imavov. I think this fight could be really interesting. Personally, I would almost say that it should be on the main card.

But looking at the odds here, Buckley is a plus 220 underdog, at least here in Sweden and the Swedish bookies and so on. So my question to you is, first of all, is should this fight be in the main card? I just think this could be a really fun fight. And also given that Imavov trains under Lopez is a home. fighter and so on. What do you expect from him? And is this line a bit strange? Is this the result of him being the home fighter? I know that he is an amazing fighter and I understand that he's the favorite, but I just feel like people are underestimating butly a bit because to me at least there were a lot of questions that were answered against Duraev. I think he really executed that

fight perfectly. And yeah, that's all, Mike. Thank you. Thanks, buddy. Yeah,

I'm looking at now. Draft Kings has Emovoff minus 255, Buckley at plus 215. Honestly, that's right around where I would have it. And this is not, I don't think this is a knock on

Joaquin Buckley at all. I was really impressed with his performance in his last fight. against Dariahf. But I think it's more on just how high people view Nasor Dian Yimov.

I mean, this guy is real good. Like, I think he's the best, he's the, people use the word dark horse very often and sometimes it's overused, but I think Yemovov is the dark horse

in this division. The Ian Hinesh win, it's not easy to go out there and just run over Ian Hinesh, and he did it. Then he went out there and just bolted him in Shabazzian. Jordan Williamson was good.

The Phil Haas fight was weird, but he bounced back from that. I actually think it's a good matchmaking here. And we'd be looking at things a little bit differently had he fought Calvin Gasolum in April, because I think he would have beat Calvin Gasolm at UFC 273, and then he'd beat a much different spot. But great opportunity for Joaquin Buckley,

and he continues to improve and get better, and he looked good against Derive. So I think the line's kind of where it needs to be, but I don't think it's a knock on walking Buckley. I just think people are just so absurdly high on Imaboff. And yeah, yeah, you add the fact that he's fighting in Paris. I'm sure that maybe joltz public opinion a little bit, but I don't think it skews the betting lines that highly.

Sometimes people can't fight at home. Sometimes people freeze. Like Derek Lewis hates fighting in Houston. He hated it. It got to him. some fighters love it cater loves fighting in boston font loves fighting in boston they're fighters who thrive on that some are just like they have to deal with a lot multiple people hey we went we were in math class in sixth grade man give me some tickets you

have to deal with that shit all week like that's a lot that's a lot for some of these fighters to have to deal with so i like the matchup i'm picking imov off but wouldn't stun me if if Buckley comes out there and beats him. Buckley's fantastic in his last couple. All right, clear his values. Take us home. Yeah,

I just wanted to add on to the DJ talk. And with the trade, I just think that a big factor also is how scale flyweight was when he was a champion just because he was so dominant. And once he left, we got all this parody. We got the Figurato, Moreno. We're on trilogy now.

Probably we're about to get a fourth fight. And I just think like that of itself. is probably the main reason why the UFC won this trade. It added so much parity to division that was stale. And, you know, I think the division was up and coming anyway. You know, we would have had Figuero versus DJ at some point, but, you know, it's hard to kind of predict these things. And I think flyweight worked out just as well as anyone could have hoped in the UFC.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it was a lot of timing, too. like Demetrius losing to Henry Sehudo and then Suhudo turning into the personality that he became and then knocking out T.J. Dilashaw was like a very big deal because for a long time like everyone was asking DJ about fighting for the second title. Go up to 135 and fight this person or you know for the second belt and TJ is like, you know what? I'm going to go down there.

I'm going to go down there and fight for the flyway title. And then Sehudo just goes out there and bolts them. and knocks him out in mere seconds. And then we found out that Dillushah tested positive and all that. Sohudo just took that and ran with it. His personality really helped put the division over. And then Sohudo wins the second belt, which obviously gave extra shine to the flyweight division

because, oh my God, like this guy, our flyway champion just went up to 35 and just won the Bannaway title. And he beat the actual Bannaway champion before that and then went up and fought the vacant title. the guy that I just knocked out in a minute got suspended. He was on steroids and tested positive for this and that. Like it made Sohudo not a star,

but he was trending in that direction, which is why him leaving after the cruise thing, I'll never, I'll just never be able to really understand. But be that as it may, Tehudo comes in, does this thing, gives the division some traction. Then he's no longer the flyway champion.

And then we, have Davis and Figurado coming in. And Davidson's just blowing the doors off people. Like DJ was getting finishes, but a lot of times DJ was winning lopsided decisions. And here comes Davis and Figurato just blasting people, knocking them out, finishing guys within two rounds. And we're like, okay, we have a frigging murderer at 125 right now. And then here comes Brandon Moreno.

Positive personality, smiling all the time. takes a beating against Davis and Figurato. Gives it back. Fun fight. Great fight. One of the fights of the year. Goes to a draw. Then they fight again. And Moreno wins the belt.

And it's this incredible moment. Happened in Phoenix. Place went bananas. There's a star-making moment for Brandon Moreno. The rivalry continued on. They have the third fight. Davis-in wins the third fight. Now we could see maybe a fourth fight.

It became just such an incredible rivalry. It was just Domino's falling one after another. The trade. Sohudo. Dillishaw. Wins the 135 belt. Vacates the flyway belt. Faggy comes out just annihilating people.

Then this rival with Moreno, like everything just, it was like not fate, but it was just one of those things where it was like, this is how it was supposed to be. Just a weird turn of events that. brought this division back to where it is. And now every time flyweight's fight, it's like, yes, we got fly weights. This is exciting.

This is fun. Woohoo. Good stuff. And by the way, could be another flyweight fight coming that's going to make you happy. Sometime this year, waiting to confirm the other side.

I think you guys will like this one. But, all right, I have to go. Very busy day. Very busy day. kept to talk to many, many people. Eric Nixick will be one of those people that I speak with. Daniel Rodriguez will be another person I speak with. And there was another moment that happened in MMA that went sort of viral in the New

England regional scene. And I'm going to be talking to multiple people from that whole thing. And I don't know if I'm excited or nervous or tringy a little bit because if you haven't seen that video from Cage, 1065. I don't know whether you should watch it or not because it is nasty. It's nasty, but we'll have more on that later on as well.

But I have to go, everybody. Thank you all very much. Back on Thursday, 10 a.m. Easter, we'll do the damn thing again. Thank you very much. Have a great rest of the day. And as always, have a heck of a morning, everybody. A podcast network.