MMA Fighting - HOAM | Did UFC 279 Presser Chaos Change Your Opinion On Khamzat Chimaev vs. Nate Diaz?

Episode Date: September 9, 2022

As everybody in the MMA community is likely aware of by now, Thursday's UFC 279 press conference was abruptly cancelled after chaos broke out backstage in Las Vegas. Both Khamzat Chimaev and Nate Diaz were allegedly involved — along with Kevin Holland — but does that change the way you look at Saturday's main event between Chimaev and Diaz? On an all-new Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck responds to questions about whether or not Chimaev may be a bit too emotional heading into the UFC 279 headliner, and if Diaz will be able to capitalize on that. Additionally, listener questions include Holland's future, and the stakes involved in the welterweight division for the winner of his fight with Daniel Rodriguez, reactions to the alleged altercations backstage, who Chimaev could face — at either 170 or 185 — next with a win over Diaz, Francis Ngannou and the heavyweight division, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It is Friday, September 9th, 2020. We are live. It is a heck of a morning on the MMA fighting Twitter Spaces. You'll be able to hear the show in its entirety show thereafter. On the MMA Fighting Podcasting Network, I am Mike Heck. Obviously, a lot going on in the world of combat sports. A lot going on in the world of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Of course, UFC 279 going down tomorrow.

Wayans are going to be kicking off around noon eastern. We'll be live for that on the M.A. Fighting YouTube channel. but everybody's talking about what happened yesterday, last evening, last night, whatever you want to call it, everything that happened. In regards to the UFC 279, post-fight press, or pre-fight press conference getting canceled, we talked about it last night on our YouTube channel. Jose was obviously there. Jose and I jumped on a chat. We hit record. talked about what we knew, what we were told, things of that nature.

So I know it's a free for all Friday. I know we have a lot to talk about before we do that. Allow me to get some things off of my chest, something that, let's just say, Boston Mike might come out for a minute because I'm a little pissed off on this Friday morning for a couple of reasons. Mostly I'm kind of pissed off of myself, but I'm pissed off about. a lot of different things if we're being honest, but here's the deal. And then we'll get to the calls. And I'm just going to talk about this one time and I'm never going to talk about it again.

Okay? People want to troll me and give me shit. I don't care. But here's what happened. Okay. So here's how my Thursday went. I worked all day. Did BTL. Did this show. waited for the wife to come home, made my kid dinner, and then I went off to softball practice, and then I went to the gym, clanged and banged. And then as this is going on,

I started noticing that things are going down at the press conference. Dana White comes out, said it was a shit show backstage. He was going to bring fighters out in pairs. Here comes Kevin Holland. Here comes Daniel Rodriguez. And then,

as they're having their short press conference, their short amount of time, Dana White comes out, says essentially to hell with this, we're done, we're canceling this bad boy for the safety of the fans and everybody in the building.

Of course, when that happens, everybody starts looking for information, right? And we're all reaching out to a lot of the same people. And a lot of the conversations I had, which I talked about, were pretty accurate in regards to what others are reporting as well. That Kevin Holland and Shamiath got into it. That Diaz's team and Shamiya's team got into it, that there were water bottles thrown. Things got a little bit physical.

Hamza Shemayev push kicked Kevin Holland in the chest. This was reported and confirmed by multiple people. I got the same information. So as this is going on, something told me that there's probably another person who was there, who I know was there, that nobody reached out to. So I was like, you know what? I'm just going to do it. I'm just going to reach out to this person because I know for a fact they were there.

And I said, hey, I'm not going to reveal the name. It's just going to be anonymous sourcing, all that stuff. What happened? what did you see? Did you see it? I mean, I knew he saw it because he was freaking back there. So he tells me what he saw. And he tells me something that I hadn't heard before. And then he followed it up with literally everything else that happened back there.

That I had already confirmed with multiple people on scene, managers, people who were backstage, things of that nature. Confirmed the Holland thing with Shemayef. Confirmed the Diaz thing with Shemayev. Said that Diaz's team was ready to go. Things were getting real crazy back there. But one thing that he also mentioned was that Paulo Costa was back there as well. And that essentially it began with Paulo and Shemayev having words.

Now, this is what this person told me, who was a thousand percent there. So I see this and I don't just go out and report it or anything like that. I'm like, really? He says, yeah. I said, Paul Costa was back there. And he said, yes. I said, the UFC middleweight. He said, yes.

I was like, why? He goes, I don't know what WTF he was doing back there. but and then he's the rest of the tweet the rest of the text was Shamaia of Costa, Shemaya of Holland, Shemaya of Diaz and I'm like okay so I'm thinking of myself this dude's there he's probably 10 feet away from everything that has happened he confirmed everything else that happened to a T like how can I not believe this

how can I not believe this is the case? Especially since I asked 500 more times if that was true. So we didn't report it on the site. Jose and I did our reaction video. And I basically said, this is what somebody backstage who was there told me what happened. And I dropped the Costa Nugget. I threw out words like apparently and this is what I was

told, things like that. Now, there's a reason why it didn't get put on the website because we didn't have enough to really put it there, but we're just kind of spitballing, talking about what we had heard, what we were told by people who knew or were there. And apparently, Costa wasn't there. So, of course, when I find this out, I'm like, God damn it.

And I'm just pissed off. I'm pissed. So I reached back out and I'm like, wait a minute. You told me he was there. And then I didn't hear anything back. And I'm like, finally, I get the response that just really irked me. And it really made me very upset at myself. And the response was, basically, there's an old saying if you're an old pro wrestling fan,

if you listen to like pro wrestling podcast from like the 80s and 90s, there's a saying, an old cliche in the wrestling world, telephone, telegraph, tell a wrestler. And what that means is it's kind of like the game telephone, where it starts as one thing, and ends up becoming another thing. So I'm essentially told that I'm not 100, actually I wasn't 100%, but that's what I was told. I'm like, you son of a bitch. You freaking kidding me right now? So not only is this happening, and I'm like just so down.

about it at all. Because I don't get shit wrong. I pride myself and I'm getting shit wrong. But in this situation, I was like, this dude is frigging 10 feet away. How could this not be right? And of course, it wasn't. I couldn't believe it.

So I've been thinking about this a lot. I did not sleep very much. And on top of all this, by the way, which really set this thing off and made it worse than it actually was, is that there are certain social media, media sites that have certain followings. And when you say

something, like I said on the reaction video, something to the effect of apparently this happened, this is what somebody who was backstage told me happened, it turns into something way more. Oh my God, Paul Costa started the fight.

Oh my God, Paul Costa storms backstage and started the fight, which I never said, which I never said. I basically said what I had in front of me. basically took my phone and read the text. Didn't read everything, but I read the text as I got them.

So I find out that this information from the dude who got everything else right, it was there the whole friggin time, wasn't right. And my stomachs sank. And I was just pissed. And then I'm not pissed at this person. I'm pissing myself.

I'm pissing myself. for not doing more legwork. I should have just left it alone. And it sucks. It frigging sucks. And like I said earlier, I didn't sleep very well, except for maybe 30 minutes. Just thinking about this, just letting it gnaut my brain. I had people reached out to multiple people that I have a lot of respect for, some in the industry, some not in the industry.

Because I just couldn't stop thinking about it. And I still can't. and basically they're just told, hey, you learned a lesson. You learned a lesson. How could you... I mean, you had to believe this person. I mean, most other people would. But I learned a lesson.

I actually learned multiple lessons. One is that I just hate reporting shit. I hate it. It's not fun. It's too stressful. I'll still do it. but it's going to be done with like a fine tooth comb from here on out. Secondly, when I lay things out like that, I'm going to do them with kid gloves.

And I usually do it this way. If I say something that I know is like comes from a reliable person, but it's not 100%. I will typically preface it or I will say things such as, hey, don't go crazy and report this as fact or don't go crazy and do this, this is what I was told by somebody who was there. And I didn't do that here. I just read the text, Jose and I were chit-chatting, and I kind of just got a little lax about it. And I'm pissed and I'm sorry.

I apologize if you feel like I'm no longer trustworthy in that aspect. I get it. I get it. If you feel a certain way about it, you lost respect for me, cool. I mean, what can I do? But just bust my ass and try to get it back. But yeah, I mean, that's all I'm going to say about it.

People are probably going to respond. I'm sure the embedded video is going to come out because I still see like some of these reports from these other sites. People are like retweeting it and stuff. And I'm just like, God damn it. like come on so i don't know bummer last night chaos last night it's wild man it's wild it ain't easy it ain't easy being in the space but it's just been yeah it's been a rough 12 hours

let me just say that so it's weird that like there's a part of me that just hopes that at the at the the press conference or at the way ends like something else crazy happens we can just forget about all this but again apologies to you apologies to everybody else apologies to paula costa all that i fucked up should have done more i was confident but i didn't get enough and i screwed up so there you go all i'm going to say about it never going to speak about it again apologies hopefully we could move past it, and I will never, ever, ever do that again. So there we go.

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Cross Training Tread Plus powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus at OnePeloton.ca. Let's take the onus off of me and let's get to you guys. let's go to Mikey bats to start things off Mikey hello

what's up Mikey hey man you're doing it listen man it's not your fault that your sources is full of shit so this is going to say that off the top you guys get all this flag for trying to report that at the end of the day half the people on all the people on me twitter wish they could do it that you do and even if they tried to do it it'd be just as hard you know what I'm saying so let's get that right out the way also shout to my mutual was in the chat

you know who you are. I'm going to be short this week because I got to start getting ready. I know it's a few hours away, a few hours away, but I'm going to try and make every meet and greed I can't this week today. So I'm going to be hell on a swivel today.

But just wanted to get some things off by just about the brawl. I just find it really interesting that the UFC is talking about like, oh, we weren't prepared for this. I'm like, wait, you weren't prepared for two guys who have openly talked about that they were basically going to start a brawl if they see each other. And they both, from my sources,

and by the way, my source is one of the UFC's marketing people who got direct word, they were like, oh, Mar, oh, Shemayev rolled with 20 people, Diaz rolled with like 40. So I'm like, did they not get the hint that something might happen? Like, what are we doing? Why are people, why are they insulting our intelligence

You know what I mean? And just, yeah, I mean, I'm still looking forward to the card. I mean, now this is going to add some spices to the card. And, of course, you know, the conspiracy theories on the Twitter are going to be like, well, the UFC intended this to happen. I'm like, I hope they don't usually want these things to happen, contrary to prior belief. But it's like, it's just crazy, man. Because could you imagine if they all got hurt in that brawl and had to cancel the whole event?

Just that's why it's all these conspiracies theories. Oh, they're using it for promotions. Like, yes, the UFC risks their entire event being canceled, just so they could get some clicks on embedded. You know what I mean? Give me a break. Anyways, hope everyone has a good time tonight with the fights this weekend and all that stuff. Much love with everybody.

If you see me around, say hi. Later. There you go. Yeah, it's, I mean, the whole thing's weird. It's, especially with a D.S card, you, I mean, I get that you're, you have, this is the first time that's something like this has happened. So I get,

I get that aspect and maybe you weren't adequately prepared for it as terms as far as numbers and things like that go. I get it. But this isn't like, this isn't a normal fight week. This is a Nate Diaz fight week. When literally, 24 hours before that,

Nate showed up to his media day scrum with like 25 people. Like, how did you not expect Nate to not roll in there with 25 people? Now, on the flip side, it didn't start with Nate. It started with Holland. And they had words. Things got off. Things went crazy. Shamiah put the push-tick to the chest to Kevin Holland.

All of that shit. All of that happened. This is before Nate showed up. Now, as I said on the reaction video, there were certain gaps that I hadn't been told anything about, like, why did Nate get involved? What happened? And I know Ariel did a little short video talking about Tiki, Tiki Goshen, who was basically the guy who broke things up originally, got it between.

And then once Nate's team showed up, they saw Tiki standing next to Shamiath and his team, and they felt a certain way about it. And then things popped off again. The water bottles are thrown and all that stuff. So, I mean, you just wonder, like, if the thing with Kevin doesn't pop off and there's no separation with Tiki, does anything pop off with Nate and his team? I don't know. I don't know. But, yeah, things are probably going to change moving forward.

That's for sure. Maybe we do the pairs. They'll definitely be more security moving forward. It's going to be real interesting to see how things are handled at ceremonial. today, I feel like you should just have two phone booths and just put one guy in one phone booth and one guy on the other and they just stare at each other through a Bill and Ted phone booth because they ain't going to let anybody get anywhere near anybody else. So, yeah, it's crazy.

And we'll kind of see where the UFC's out with this. I don't think this is like, hey, start a fight backstage so we could sell more, we could sell this arena out or sell more pay-per-views. But it'll be interesting. When that embedded drops, is the fight going to be on it? That'll tell you everything. Fights on it. I mean, they'd be dumb not to use that video as promotion if they have it.

But it'd be real interesting if they're just like, nah, let's just hype this up and we're not going to show anything in the embedded. Keep the mystery alive. I don't know. But it was crazy. Weird day. Let's go to Four Corner Sports. What's up? Hey, what's up, Mike? So, yeah, I really didn't watch any of the press conference up until I heard the cancellation.

Because, honestly, I was more worried about the opener of football. And I was going to say, I was going to watch it during the halftime, and then I realized everything was going down. I was like, let me just look at this. And then I noticed it's like Shemaya, Holland, Nate Diaz. Honestly, I got to say, I agree with Dana White. There's no reason why, you know, a fighter is going to be walking around with 30 plus people, 57 people.

I think that's absurd. I think that I actually am happy about the fact that they're going to reduce, you know, the amount of people that are they going to be able to walking with. I think that having that type of amount of people is just going to cause some type of chaos. Now, I did hear about the stuff that happened with Darren Till. I don't know if it was accurate or not. Did Chris Avila did hit him? Or was that all made up or anything like that?

Oh, man, no fault for that. This is one of those things where there's fake Brad Acomoto accounts. Gotcha, okay. So, yeah, that I don't think anything happened there. I know Drake wrote about it this morning. I'll open it up because I haven't read it. But yeah, it sounds like not true stuff. Sounds like just cut up a troll account.

Okay, okay. Yeah, because the first thing I thought I was like, damn, I was like, if he gets hurt, I feel bad for DDP because that would have been a great matchup right there. Because, you know, this guy Till has been known to have an injury history. And I was like, the last thing we need is for Darren Till to be hurt. But, yeah, I don't know what's your opinion on the fact that Dana wants to reduce now these people coming in with smaller groups. And do you think that this isn't a boost up of pay-per-view?

sales. I mean, I don't know. The first thing I thought into my head was the Shane McMahon song. You know, here comes the money. That's immediately that came to my head when I heard about this cancellation. I was like, this is in a spike of pay-per-view sales. And I'm seeing a lot of, like, people that don't even watch MMA are getting, like, more interested just because of what ended up happening last night. All right. Thanks, Mike. And I have a good one. Thanks, man. Yeah, I mean, whether that footage gets leaked on embedded or not, I think this is going to only help the UFC, honestly. People are going to watch ceremonials today and wait for something to pop off.

And I mean, it's already crazy enough as it is. But we'll see if, we'll see if there's footage leaked. We'll see if we get actual video on the embedded feed. We'll check it out and see. I mean, I don't, if you're going to sit there and be like, oh, well, the UFC didn't want to talk about, but then they leaked the video. Of course, like, why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you use it as promotion? You should.

You should. If you have it, but they could also be like, no, we're not going to do it. Like, we're going to keep this to ourselves. We don't want people seeing what happened back there. But they're going to, it's probably going to be out when that embedded goes down. We'll probably see Holland and Shemaiv getting after it and water bottles thrown and all that from everything that was told and everybody else is told and what's being reported. I know Aaron's here.

He was backstage. She talked about some stuff that he saw as well. I mean, it's just, it's just chaos, man. It'll be interesting to see how these press conferences are handled moving forward ahead of these fights. But, yeah, people tuned in for it. They just didn't get to see much. And then they saw one just get outright canceled. So craziness.

All right. Let's go to Phil. It will go to Mike and then we'll go to a hit. Phil, hello, man. What's up? Hey Mike, first of all, great reporting. You've probably been my favorite reporter since I've gotten to MMA. So kudos on your end.

You're always very accurate. I want to talk about the trajectory of Kevin Holland. So, you know, everyone knows Kevin's kind of stepped in and made a name for himself in the UFC. He's been, I mean, he's been on a pretty big tear besides the last two losses at middleweight. And now he's down at welterweight. You know, him and D-Rod seemed to be in the same place as far as, I'd say, you know, whoever wins this fight is probably going to get a number next to their name. I mean, D. Rod was ranked and then he hurt his hand, the thing was unranked.

I think now that it's probably a good time for either one of them, whoever wins, to enter the rankings. My question is who's next for either of them? You know, this fight is at a catch weight, but, you know, we all know that their future is in Walterweight. And, you know, the one thing I'd like to add is, I don't know where Darren Till is in his career. He's in middleweight right now, and I know he has a fight coming up against DePless. but it seems like that Holland and Till have gone back and forth many times and they're kind of setting the stage for something to happen in the future maybe if Holland goes back up to middle weight. So I'd love to get your thoughts on that and you know, thank you so much for the awesome

reporting that you do. Thanks, me. I mean, maybe Holland, I mean, I talked to Holland during International Fight Week and he said that he's told the matchmakers, hey, I want to do one more fight at 170 and then I want to do 285 fights for the end of the year. So they own that essentially. I mean, I don't know. I don't think there's anything in his contract that says he has to fight X amount of times a year. But you know, you know, freaking Kevin Holland. The guy could fight D. Rod and tomorrow, win or lose, fight in two weeks.

That's just who he is. And on the flip side, Adio Rodriguez is pretty much the same. A.Ks here. We talk on to the next one that Kevin Holland, kind of a band fighter on onto the next one because every time you try to predict what's next for him, he steps into a fight two days later against somebody else at a weird weight class or whatever. It's just hard to gauge. And D-Rod, too.

D-Rod's the same way. When I talked to D-Rod during International Fight Week, he was just like, the only thing I care about is that phone rings and a short-notice opportunity comes, and I'm going to take it. And that's how he views things. The dude just wants to be active and fight. Now, if it helps his career trajectory, sure. But it's so hard to match-vig for either of those guys because if a spot opens and they,

either one of them gets the call, they're going to take it. They're just going to. With the till thing, I mean, it could happen. Like, let's just say Holland fights on Saturday. He'll probably fight again, maybe in October. And let's just say like something happens, DuPlessy, like a couple weeks out. And they call Kevin Holland to fight Darren Till, 1-85. He's going to take that in a second.

D. Rod probably would too. But I actually love that matchup. I love the Darren Tildrickus duplice matchup. That's exactly where they should be going with Darren at this point. I suggested either DDP or you do Nastodian Nemov. Either one of those is fine. This is a perfect situation where it's a win-win for the UFC. Darren wins.

He's back on track. Izzy's been calling his name for a while. I'm not saying they just thrust him right into a title fight, but at least he gets a step closer. And if DDP or Imov beats Darren Till, that's a good name to get the rub off of. It gets you over a little bit. This is not the same thing as Nate Diaz versus Hamzaat Shamaa.

It's not the same thing. Because a lot of people are like, oh, I mean, you have to take the veteran out in his last fight on his deal to get the young guy over. Hamzaa Shemaya is as over as he's going to be. He can't get any more over unless he wins the title. he can't. Beating Nate does very little for him.

And if he struggles at all, it's going to diminish it a little bit in the eyes of the folks. And Nate's just kind of playing with house money right now. No one's expecting Nate to win this fight. No one's even, very few people are expecting Nate to even be competitive tomorrow. I think he's going to be a little more competitive than people give him credit for. I don't think he's going to win,

but I think he's going to have his moments. And that's the thing about Nate. He just needs one moment. If he just goes out there and gets trucked by Hamzaat Shamaif tomorrow, it's a loss on the record. We hope he's not, like, injured or anything like that. We don't want to see that happen. But if he just goes in there and gets tackled and beaten up

and the fight is stopped and he's bloody and he's all right, Nate's stock doesn't change at all. It just whiz what it is. He's expected to go in there and lose. He's going to flip it. the middle fingers up to everybody. He's going to walk right out of the T-Mobile arena, head back to Stockton. That's what he's going to do.

And if Nate, and Nate's stock could rise. All I used to do is just laid one shot. Get Hamzaat back it up a little bit. If he points at Hamzot, flips him off in between rounds, stock rises. And then if he wins, holy shit. I mean, I just, I try to put myself in a weird world because it's been a chaotic year. I can't really envision that one. fully, but

golly. What a what a crazy turn of events that would be. Let's go to my man, Mike. Mike Morgan. What's up? What's up?

How you doing? I'm really, really well. And, you know, first off, I just want to say, I'm pleased what has happened to you, has happened. I tell you why. It's a right of passage for all media owners, for all journalists, to have your source tested. Because it should never be a source.

as you know, it should be sources. So I'm pleased it's happened to you because you're now doubling down on the fact that you've had that experience. I know it can be quite comforting to go to trusted individuals who you have probably gone to before. But it's only until something like this happens that you have to fall back on true journalistic principles. Now, I know it's probably a tough pill to swallow, Mike, but I'm pleased it's happened to you because look what's come out of it. You are much stronger in terms of doubling down in your journalistic principles. So all power to you.

But the thing I wanted to say and was a very, very quick point in that is if anybody on this chat, if anybody in this room is listening and thinking that Dana White isn't rubbing his hands at the prospect of that footage you for being sneaked out or included in the embedded footage

which will actually ramp up pay-per-view cells, you are on another planet with Lizzie. The way that I look at it is this. It can only enhance. It can only help it will not hinder tomorrow's showing in terms of bums on seats okay not in the arena

but at home people will be flocking to this wait until that embedded footage comes out and then you can say you are wrong might or you will say you are right when you see what actually manifests we've been here before look what happened with the dolly look what happened with Conner

look what happened with you stayed on bus to be the mega made of The way that I look at this, it will enhance. It will not hinder. Thank you. Thank you, Mike. Yeah, man.

Like, like I said, they're going to show it, and they should show it because you have footage and you're trying to sell a fight. It's business. If you have footage and it's real, you should show it. It's not going to hurt you at all, especially the UFC. It's just going to be like, especially with the casual audience, because like most people in this chat, we're buying it, we're watching it, you got us already. But now we're trying to get it out to the other people who are just hearing about the sport or just hearing about

the chaos backstage and it gets them intrigued. And maybe they watch the events and maybe they love it and they become new fans. I'd be stunned if Embedded didn't have the footage. But here's the thing about this whole thing. Even if they don't show it, it's still just the fact that people are talking about it right now, just the fact that it happened and so many things were confirmed from the whole situation, this is a boost.

It's definitely a boost. We're getting, I mean, just on our end, I mean, there's way more interest in this card now that I anticipated, for sure. And it was even, I mean, even Wednesday after the media day. There were some great headlining stuff. There were some great talking points.

Nate, even though he made the media wait for two hours and 45 minutes, went in there, answered questions. That's a big deal. You don't get Nate in that kind of form that often. And you get Shamiath and Holland and everybody else. Yeah, some stories came from it, but it wasn't like, it's not like Nate's scrum video did like 500,000 views or anything like that. It did very well, but it's not like it did a million or anything. This helps. This helps. The interest is generated. People are fired up. And this is what we talked about through the bill.

Like something crazy is going to have to happen on Fight Week to really get people's juices going here because most people look at the main event as just a squash match in a way. Like it's two big stars, but I mean, just look at the freaking betting lines. So this all helps. Video released or not, this all helps. But I'd be, I mean, I just don't see a whirl where we don't see footage later on today. let's go to ah sorry ahead we'll go to clearst values

that we'll go to it clearist sorry I was on mute I'm on my way to get my large dunkin now so there you go

I'm drinking mine as you speak see that hear that hear that ice nice and refreshing we go do we go regular

or cold brew what's your what's your go to I'm boring large black ice coffee every day okay I've moved into a cold brew

and I haven't turned back and it's a bit problematic So, anyway, I just want to make, like, two small things. So the first, fun thing for A.K., you've been talking about Nakes stock a ton. So a little stock and meme, or not mean, a pun for you. Just keep that in the back of the pocket, you know, just in case you ever want to use it. Second, I would be curious if they don't release that footage for some reason.

if a fighter said a word something they shouldn't. And I think that's what that would be an indication for. And another little point that nobody's made about how this is good for the UFC is that those press conferences have stuff. I can't watch it. They're not fun. So the fact that one got canceled, probably for the best, because they're not fun.

But now there's going to be some more interesting. going forward maybe i'll watch the next one because i feel like the ufc needs to kind of make it more not fan friendly because that's all it is now but you know like there's nothing going on during it nobody's answering questions nobody's doing anything so maybe we'll see some improvement from it thanks guys thanks man yeah i mean i get it some of the press conferences are aren't bad like the one in Jacksonville is pretty good I liked uh it's weird not having Dana there but

we got it anic was there and they didn't do any face offs or anything but then like Volkovsky and korean zombie went out and like did their own face off and aljo and yan got after it and obviously homzat was up there gillab burns all fired up so like that was cool it didn't really get

completely weird but there are certain ones that got that get completely weird the one that always comes to mind is the the Mazadol one is just, man. But the one thing that like kind of irks me about the fight week setup, especially now because

like I remember covering like UFC 208, covering UFC 220, and when you went to Media Day, you just had fighters with their own spot sitting in a chair and you just walked up to them and you did one-on-one interviews with them. Or you did like little mini-screens

scrums if it was a big star like you have c220 you couldn't get near daniel cormion unless you were surrounded by a bunch of other people couldn't get near dc couldn't get near francis couldn't get near stepe but you did the best you could you try to squeeze in so i would get like one-on-ones obviously calvin cater was fighting on that card Shane burgos uh john valante was on that card so like wide bin wasn't on that car but he was there and you just try to make do with what you have but at least you get like different footage than everybody else. Now you bring all these fighters who are on the main card, some on the prelims,

all up to the dais to answer 15 minutes worth of questions. And then six of those people, sometimes more, after doing Media Day, do the press conference the next day. Like what is left to ask these people? And then it just gets weird from there. So I mean, I get the value of Media Day.

I think like the main eventors you could probably just like I understand like sites want to have the big names doing media scrums but it's just weird like seeing them talk for 50 minutes answering all the questions and then they have to answer the questions again the next day. It's just it's just weird. But hopefully hopefully things will get better. I'm excited for a world where things can kind of go back to normal when we go back to doing like one-on-ones and stuff like that. It's just so much better. but I digress. All right, ahead. My apologies, but now you're in.

I got you. How are you, buddy? I talk about the backstage brawl and everything. Mike, do you know about a TV show called Ballers with Dwayne Johnson? Have you heard of it? I've heard of it, yes. I have. So I think we need to recreate a season in China and use Liying Liang in that suit.

like oh my he spent money he looked fly he looked like money and he didn't even get to really show it off so and like Tony Ferguson was hilarious coming up with that whole next question thing that was funny but like that brawl is anyone really shocked that happened you know again like everyone else has said Nate came with 50 people Hums that came with 30 it was just like it was ridiculous. But like Ariel was saying it was a bit confusing because Ariel said hums up, like Ariel said from Sosa's close to Chamaev and I was like, well, that doesn't make it like they're going to be biased. Like they said Chamaier was on his own. And I was like that that's can't be right. Because like at the PI, Chameh was with 10 people with Costa,

tried to threaten him, did nothing. But then Darren Till said Chameh was on his own. But that whole layout confuses me. But the funniest part of that. press conference was that Dana and the scrum said that four out of the six people were involved in the brawl. Now obviously we know about Holland, we know about Diaz and we know about Chimaeuf. Who is the fourth one? Was it like Ferguson throwing sand or was it Lee inviting people to like try his cooking? I don't know like and then also is like a hot take for you Mike. Did the UFC set this up? Some people have alluded to this. They did tell Chimiref to start a fight, but did they leave security out just to see what would happen?

And lastly, Mike, where the hell is Colby Covington? Like, where is that dude? Like, I know you said you're going to text him, but what happened? But that's all I've got for you today, Mike. Drop the mic, Mike. Thanks, buddy. No, I mean, I don't think this is like a plan thing. I don't think Dana was like, hey, Kevin, go mess with Shabaev.

Or Shabaya, go kick Kevin Hahn in the chest. I don't think that happened. I don't think at the end of the day, I think in the short term, you don't want that to happen. You want, especially when you have a bunch of fans in the building that you're trying to sell the fight to. And if you need to sell extra tickets, you want some of those people who are there at a free event to potentially buy those last tickets, which from what I understand, there's less than a thousand left. So this is actually selling, this is as of yesterday after you before all the chaos.

So the ticket sales this week have actually picked up quite a bit from all the websites and stuff that I've seen, the color codes and everything. But I don't think this is like a plan thing. I just think it happened. I don't think I think everyone was kind of upset about it at first. I think from a business perspective, it's hard to be truly upset about it for a number of reasons. One, you got buzz. Two, everybody's talking about it. And three, and this is the most important thing.

Nobody got hurt. Nobody got hurt. Nobody got injured. Fights are going to go on us planned. And that's the most important thing. Nobody got hurt. Now, if somebody got hurt and Diaz took a water ball to the eyeball or something and the fight was canceled, that's different. Now we're talking about a whole different thing.

But they went in there, ruckus happened. From all indications, this could have been way worse than it actually was. it got a little crazy and weird, but it could have been way, like a lot worse. So you can hold your head. You can hold your hat on that. But to me, that was like the most important thing is that nobody was hurt,

especially with all those people back there. Not just the fighters, but even just the staff and any security that was back there. A manager is the one separating the craziness and then takes water balls up the head. He wasn't hurt. So to me, that's the most important thing. When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners,

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a major quality of price on line on C4a. or in magazine. Let's go to Tristan. Tristan, hello.

Hey, Mike. How's everything going? What's up, buddy? Good. Yeah, the thing about the bro Kevin Howland, that man, God bless that man.

This man's becoming Dominique Cruz where he's getting under everybody's skinning and everybody wants to fight this guy. And he's like, probably saying,

more fight you. for me. Let's go. So I'm like, man, Kevin Holland, man, this guy's hilarious, man. This guy is just doing what he wants to do and getting on the people's skin the right way because he's, he just, he's like, Darren Till wants to

what, Darren Till's going to fight him now. I'm not a smite wants to fight him. I mean, everybody won't fight this guy. So, I mean, shout out to Kevin Hollander, man, because he's doing what he needs to do, I guess. My question goes, though, to when Jelton, Almeida,

I didn't see him. I don't know if Jose got to speak to him in the media, the media day or whatever. I don't even think he showed. I don't know if he even showed up, but can we, do we know his plans of what he's going to do as far as going back and forth between light, heavyweight and heavy weight? Like, is he really stubborn to the fact that he's going to stay at heavyweight and just going to fight and try to get, try to win the title? Or is he at some point going to have to come down to light? heavyweight because that's that's the division i want him to fight at at 205 so just your your um thoughts on that like what's what's going on with him as far as if he's just going to you know jump

back and forth thanks mike uh thank you sir yeah so from i mean from everything that i've seen and things that he's tweeted out on social media and stuff like that i think he's i think he's got to stay at heavyweight for the foreseeable future now i know this fights at a catchweight at 220 and all that, which technically, if you really think about it, it is a heavyweight fight, although it's more of a cruiserweight fight, but technically it's over 207 pounds, so it's a heavyweight fight by definition. So, I mean, Jailton's not a guy that's going to weigh in 250 anyways, probably a normal, like, 25, 230 guy, and Turcology is typically a light heavyweight.

So, I mean, it's, it actually fits perfectly and gets Turcology's his first fight, on a big card, which is good for him. I know he's tight with Shamiya's and all that, so it's cool to, like, have him on the card with all those guys and with that team and everything. So that's good, and Almeida is still going to get his chance to shine. Turcog's a good fighter. He's a tough wrestler, really such a grinder,

but Jailton's just a freak, man. And honestly, no matter what he wants to do, he's going to be a problem. If he wants to stay at light heavyweight, he's going to be a big problem there. And if he wants to stay at heavyweight, he's such an athlete that he's going to cause a lot of fits in this division. So the Shamil fight would have been better, honestly, because I think he just would have to truck Shamil. And I believe Shamil is still ranked. And usually when you beat Shamil, that's kind of a launching pad for these guys.

But at least he still gets to fight on the card. And they'll do the thing. But all indication now, and maybe that'll change. maybe he goes in there and I don't think he's going to really struggle all that much with the strength and the size of Anton Kirtaj. But

maybe in the future he has a heavyweight fight and he fights somebody that's like I mean, he fought freaking Paco Pocoda who's like right at 265 and he just tossed his ass around. So I think Jelton's going to be a dangerous heavyweight

and I'm excited to see what his future looks like. That is for sure. Let's go to Viking MMA. Viking, hello. How are you doing, buddy? I'm good. How are you, Mike? I just want to...

I'm good. I just want to tell you that I was awake, you know, until 6 a. And for this press conference, and that didn't happen. That's all right. But you know what McGregor did with Khabib and what Kevin Holland did

with Hamzathis weren't the same thing. I tell you how, I mean, which is absolutely insulting their religions. You know, look, Mike, I've been living with many Muslims, with my whole life and my many Muslim friends had bearded and bearded. It's a main part of their religion. And, you know, Muslims are very, very, I mean, very serious about their religion. Their religion comes first before everything. I mean, literally everything, all the stuff,

they are died for their religions. And Kevin Holland just, I think, and my many friends think that he did not say that in a good manner. And maybe that's what Hamzath hurt. And, you know, you know, they don't grow beard or they don't grow beard for style or to look good. I mean, I can guarantee that you can dig on the internet, that thing. And the security thing, I was going to ask you about that thing, man, come on.

And actually, I was going to ask you that security thing. But, you know, I had to lift a space. to lift space for a reason and, I don't know, fighter got killed in some places because of fans or the other fighter's crew. You know, I saw that thing coming in the UFC, but then I couldn't see that. I mean, that's a shame. Thank you, Mike.

Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I mean, lesson learned, right? I think a lot of us learned some lessons yesterday, and that's one that they learned. I mean, they've done a bunch of these. Once in a while, you might have like a quick little skirmish on the dais. Michael Kiesa, Kevin Lee, perfect example. And there's a couple of security guys on stage.

You only need a couple of guys to just get in there and separate them. But you don't really expect a hundred dudes backstage, essentially, almost getting into fistfights. But like I said, trying to stay positive with it. Nobody got hurt. Nobody got injured. Just shouldn't have. happens. It's unfortunate in a lot of ways. And it's, I mean, potentially for business, it's actually kind of fortunate because you got people talking about it. This embedded,

that's going to drop. It's going to be the most anticipated embedded drop of all time, probably, because people are going to want to see what happened. And whether they choose to put it out there or not, doesn't matter. This is all good for business. And the fact that nobody got hurt, None of the fights have changed. No one's off the card. It certainly doesn't hurt. And hopefully this doesn't happen again. As we head over to Tocke.

Then we'll go to town. Then we'll go to Jackson. We'll get everybody in. Tocke, hello. Yeah. Well, Tristan, he got me thinking when he talked about J.L.T.L.S.M.L.M.A. because now I want you, as you've done before, to take on the role as Dana White.

Because we are creating a new division. We are creating the Cruiserweight division. and I want to ask you who on the current roster you would have in the inaugural title fight is Jailson Almeda versus Depe the answer? That would be my guess

but I would like your thoughts on it. Thanks. Damn, it's a good question. I think Jailton's a little soon. I think he'll get there, for sure. I think it's a little soon to start chucking his name around for some of these fights.

I mean, Stipe's talked about bulking up and putting on some more size, so I don't know if he's the guy. I don't know, man. It's probably some 205ers that would do well there.

I bet Chris Dachas would do really well there. I don't know if you just chuck him right into a title fight, but Dacchus would do really well there. I think a guy like Tanner Bozer would do really well there. William Knight. And that's a guy could probably do 225 pretty, pretty easily.

And then you look at some of the light heavyweights who cut a lot, like, like, Jan could probably do 225. There's a whole bunch, like, there's a whole lot of guys who cut a lot of weight to get to 205. So it'd be interesting if they opened up that division, because there are certain, there's certain fights where you see a guy that's like 220 and he fights a guy, it's like 265. There's, like, no real discrepancy between light heavyweight and heavyweight.

So I've always been kind of an advocate for a cruiser. weight division. But like as the years have gone by, it's kind of gotten less and less, if we're being honest. But yeah, it'd be interesting. Jailton's a perfect 225er. Like OSP probably a good 225er, menafield, guys like that. Mostly just 205ers who cut a lot of weight because they feel like they're too small for heavyweight, but they might be cutting a lot to get to 205. There's a bunch of them, but those are some of the ones off the top of my head. Let's go to Tallin. Then Jackson, you're on deck. Tallon, hello. Make sure you're on mute. There we go. What's up, buddy?

All right. So the main thing that I wanted to bring up today is the potential of Hamzat Shamaev being a little emotionally vulnerable in the sense that there have been several instances of Shemayev. getting upset, being involved in either verbal or nearly physical. And now we're talking about physical confrontations with a variety of different people. Going all the way back from Daniel Cormier, he had exchanged comments with him, said he would beat Cormier in a wrestling match, all kinds of silly stuff. And that didn't seem like quite as big of a deal. Up until in the lead up to the Gilbert Burns fight, he was upset. slammed the table during one of the press conferences with Gilbert Burns when Burns was making

fun of his accent and the way that he speaks English. He was very upset and emotional after that Burns fight with his performance. It seems to be like there is a bit of a trend developing and him getting a little rattled, particularly in the fight week lead up to bouts, not even, necessarily with his opponent, but with anyone who may potentially antagonize him during that time. That's an interesting point. And that's one thing that I've, I mean, not really in the same realm, but it makes a lot of sense that Nate's best chance in this fight tomorrow is to get Shemaya to just not really emotional, but get him in a position where he's just going to try to knock Nate

out on the feed. That's Nate's best bet, 100%. And the big question, and even Eric Nixik told me about this and said the same thing. If you are on Shamiya's team right now, your plan, your whole strategy moving forward for the next 36 hours is to get this guy's head on straight. Focus on what you need to do. Don't worry about this bullshit going on backstage. Don't worry about what the media is talking about. Don't worry about Nate. Don't worry about any of it.

Focus on doing what you do best. Get in that cage. Take Nate Diaz down because he's not a great defensive wrestler. Take him down and beat his ass and go home. Don't get caught up in the hype of the crowd because that's kind of what happened in the Gilwood-Burn's fight. Jacksonville went bananas for that fight. The whole frigging building shook.

And I'll blame him for that. You've had some very easy wins against guys that, you know, some were veterans, some were guys that you should have trucked. But now you actually have like a tough fight with a game opponent. And fighters talk about certain fights, even though they look brutal on paper and on television. These are like the most fun fights for them.

They have so much fun. And Shamiya hasn't really been in a fight like that. And the fans are going crazy and the like the goosebumps and the emotions run over you. And I think you learned a lot in that fight. Now, with everything going on this week, maybe you have to shift his focus a little bit, but we'll see what happens tomorrow. But if you're Nate Diaz and his team,

I don't think, like to me, doesn't really change the result for me, but it's certainly an interesting wrinkle in this fight. If Nate could just like walk up to him, slap him in the face, get him mad, and force him I have to just want to stand toe to toe with him and knock him out, which Hamza could do, but that's Nate's best chance to win this fight

take a beating not really a rope a dope style but go in there land your shots trade with him try to get him tired by throwing strikes hope you catch him with something Shamiath can win this fight either way but the least past the resistance is taking him down getting on top of him and beating him up

and if Nate can force him to shift that thought in any way that's very good for him So that's an interesting point. Let's go to Jackson. Jackson in the car. How are you? Hi, Mike. I'm actually pretty mad this morning,

and I'm here to air it out. Francis Ngano is the most disrespected man in M.M.A. right now. Cyril Gaon gets one win. You have hucksters like Jedmishu talking about, oh, he's the best kickboxer in the heavyweight division. Oh, Curtis Blaze is probably the best heavyweight, really. guess who has three wins over those two guys.

Francis and Ghanu, one of those wins with no need. People are talking about like, oh, John Jones, Steepa, Cyril Gahn. The reason I love MMA, you feel like that fighter who's the camp is the best in the world at fighting in that weight class. And heavyweight especially, I want to think that guy would be any other person on earth in hand-to-hand combat. That's what makes heavy weight so cool to me. And I feel like Francis and Ghani's that guy. So the fact that we're talking about, oh, Francis might leave, talking about, you know, these other guys,

I want to see the best guy in the world is the camp. The U.S.C. should be trying to keep Francis. We shouldn't be given, you know, time to this other nonsense of Cyril Gondis, Curtis Blades, that. I want Francis and Ghanu fight. I don't care who he fights, but he should be fighting. And there's just a lot of disrespect going around this week, and I'm about tired of it.

that's all I got for you Mike have a good morning man I love it I love the passion that is awesome I don't know if I like I I'll preface this by saying I understand where you're coming from you watch BTL we're talking about the aftermath of Paris and we're talking about what's next for Cyril God and Cyril wants this and Curtis wants this and this is available these are of course everybody in there everybody in the world would love love to see Francis and Ghanu back in the UFC if they do him right, if they give him what he wants and what he deserves. If they pay him a better wage for being the freaking heavyweight champion of the world, if he gets to box Tyson Fury and do some of this things that he wants to do,

that's what we love. And from a fan's perspective, we want to see Francis fight freaking John Jones. That's what we want to see. We want to see that fight. But Francis has got to look out for number one. Francis has to look out for himself. And if he's not going to get what he wants from the UFC, it's going to have to look elsewhere. It's a story and it's something we have to bring up and it's something we have to keep in mind because we could be living in a world where Francaiagan, who is not the UFC heavyweight champion, not because he lost the belts in a fight, but because he was just done with the UFC. And he's got that option right now. He can just ride it out, go do something else.

So you can go to boxing and make a bunch of money. He can go to PFL and make a bunch of money. Belator will pay him a bunch of money. Wherever he would go, he would make a bunch of money. Probably more chances more than the UFC. But I mean, if I'm Francis and PFL is an option, I'm seriously looking at it. Just because of the potential money that can be made.

And I'm sure PFL would be open to letting him box Tyson Fury or whoever. So he's got up. He's going to do what's best for him. But because we just don't have any clarity anywhere, Dominoes might fall in certain ways. Maybe Cyril finds his way in a title fight. Maybe it's him in Blades for the interim title. Who knows?

These are just options. But I think all of us here, as fans, agree with you that we want to see France's fight frigging John Jones. That's what we want. We've been wanting this fight since the freaking pandemic started. But it's not a question of, do we want it, it's a question of can we get it?

And we'll see what happens. Let's go to Richard, perhaps. Richard, do we have you? Try on muting. All right, Richard, try again. We'll get you in. Let's go to Abswalia. Now we'll go to Jaden, unless Richard jumps back in.

Azwalia, are you there? Yes, up, man. What's up, buddy? I won't discuss about Hamza since we're all discussing by him. So, like, the first thing, I have two things. say, but the first thing is about Hamza. So, you know, I've noticed he's a very emotional man, and he's a very good fight. And I think a lot of people are actually locally discreding and hating him.

That's just the toxic MMA community, because as you've seen, like, what happened after the Burns fight, you know, it was a very close fight. I think you can argue with the jaw, you know, yadri, yeah, yeah. But let's get to, I'll digress now. Regarding with his emotion, I think he really needs to work on being more calm and collective, you know, if you see something like Kabib, you know, for example, he's really an example. RDA, they know how to be composed and calm. They don't let, you know, other fighters get

into their head or they get very emotional. And I feel like Hamza, that's going to be his downfall as a fighter, not only just in the cage, but even off the cage. You know, he might end up getting to some shit he doesn't really want to do. And then there's also the fact and how he's not very listening to his coach. And I've already can see that I don't think he's going to follow through with the game plan, maybe outside of wrestling if he fights Dias on, you know, Saturday. And, you know, the second thing is also like,

I think I would really be interested to see what he does next. If he goes to middle way, I would love to see him for Costa or Whitaker, maybe because they're really interesting matcher. Maybe Costa, especially because he's a really huge dude, and I think it would be a good test to see how he can fare with someone who's probably a natural light heavy weight. That's really all I have to say. Thanks, buddy.

Yeah, I think a lot of people sort of feel the same way about Shamiya's mentality, and that's one of the big questions heading into the fight from anybody I've talked to you on the record, off the record, just hitting up people in the community, coaches, fighters, just asking them casually about the fight. That's one of the big concerns. Can Shemaiah fight his fight? Can he keep his mind right and just do what he needs to do? Or does he want to go in there and try to really hurt Nate on the feet?

Which is, he could win that way, by the way. He could win the fight that way. But Catholic Leith's Resistance, we know what it is. take him down, wear them out, beat them up, cut them open, and just win the damn fight. But sometimes you got a point to prove. And he's a minus 1,200 favorite. So maybe he just wants to go in there and be like, see, I could strike two. I don't know.

That's why we're going to see these guys fight. As far as the middleweight move, I just don't know if they're going to give them Costa. Like, I know, you know, whatever, they had their little thing. and but costa's on the last fight in his deal unless he re-ups like if he can resigns maybe they would give him that fight but if he's going out if he's like fighting out his deal they're not going to give him to shemayev there's no way they're going to use him to put over somebody else maybe an imamov or or someone like that Whitaker would be real interesting that's the one I want.

If Shamaif beats Nate and then Shemayev's kind of in a weird spot where it's, do I go to middleweight, do I go to Welterweight? If Pereira wins and they run it back without Asana and there's a holdup in both divisions with the Leon Kamaro thing at Welterweight and he just needs a fight, I love the Whittaker idea because it's a win-win. Whitaker becomes the guy no matter what happens, gets to fight for the belt again. and if Shemayev wins, like I said before. It's like a highly touted high school athlete making his college decision.

He will be the number one contender in two different divisions, and he gets to choose his own path. It's like the UFC's version of money in the bank. He can cash in that briefcase, whatever he wants, to a certain extent, but in either way class. And I think that's just, that generates a lot of fun questions and a lot of thought and a lot of what ifs. and that's always fun.

Let's go to Jaden. Hi, hello. What's up, man? I just want to say a few things and some things I'm excited for. First off, I'm really excited for Saturday night. I think overall, like, no matter what happens, it's a bunch of legends facing, like, the new prospects.

And, like, I just think Tony Ferguson looks good. And it's going to be fun to watch and everything. And then also, I'm, like, really excited about a lot of, like, glory kickboxes starting to do. to come into the UFC more often. I forget his name. He just had a fight, I believe, like last week. Magno Medicov, he had a, I think he had a knockout

on his first round. But, yeah, middle-way starting to look really good. And I'm really excited for Alex versus Izzy. And I've seen Alex work with Glover versus Chera is really interesting. So I wonder how that's going to go into play. Because I know Izzy has really good submission defenses, even against Robert Whitaker. And so I'm really excited for that fight,

and I really want to see John Jones versus Zero gone. Yeah, man. That's a fight I want to see as well. We got to get Francis done first. But if we can't get Francis done, and they can't get Jones v. Stipe, you've got to do Cyril. That's just a really interesting fight.

Cyril is a very good fighter, especially on the feet. and John wrestles really well and we'll see how all that transitions to that bigger frame and that heavyweight and what he could do with it. But from a stylistic perspective, good God, John Jones versus Zero Gan is fun.

But we got to get Denghanu first. If we can't, you want to go to that well? Sign me the hell up. Let's go to crypto currency. Then we'll go to Musa. They will go to Scott. We'll go to Raphael.

Crypto, what's up? What's up, buddy? Good. Yep, I got you. I hope you're doing good as well. So, Mike, you were being way too hard on yourself at the beginning of this episode. You're doing good, and I wouldn't want you to go into the weekend being all down and sad. So therefore, I think it's time for us to finally talk about the biggest news that came out of UFC Paris.

And I get it, Mike. You don't want to brag. You're a humble guy. But at the same time, credit needs to be paid where credit is due. So, Mike, at the beginning of last week, on. this show, a small seed was planted into the fertile souls of MMA. And this seed then kept on getting watered by the MMA community throughout the week until it eventually blossomed on Saturday when we were awoken by the beautiful news that Dana and Mick just

could not handle the pressure anymore. And you might wonder, what the hell am I talking about? So what I'm talking about, Mike, is the pressure of the movement that was initiated here on heck of a morning when they finally announced that Imavov-Bocli is being moved up to the main card and we did it Mike this show was actually the first place that mentioned that this fight belongs on the main card and sure you're going to get all these haters saying that they talked about this too but we were first so Imavov and Buckley you're welcome and to be honest with you Mike one might even say that we are now officially to fight card place as I don't know, Greek culture is to democracy, what Isaac Newton is to gravity.

Okay, that actually didn't make any sense at all, but still, you get what I'm saying, Mike. You get what I'm saying. And other podcasts and media, I mean, they react to things that happen. That's basic. We don't do basic here, Mike. You know, talk about events. We make them happen so that other people can have a job to go to and talk about the things we tell them to bring up. So, Mike, to summarize, don't be too hard on yourself.

I'm just joking, having fun here. You're now officially the freaking CEO of the International Fight Card Placement Association. Thank you for all the great work you do. And as Dana would have said, if you didn't know, now you know. Thank you, Mike. Wow, that was incredible stuff. Thank you very much. Yeah, we did it, baby.

We did it. We planted the seeds here, you're right. And then we just kind of use the other shows to water those seeds down. BTL. Then Friday, we had the preview show. We talked about it and people reacted to it. And then we wake up Saturday morning ahead of UFC Paris. And we come to find out that it got moved up to the main card.

So yes, we did it as a community. Great stuff. Great call. Let's go to Scott. mosa you're on deck scott are you there scott try again cannot hear you let's go to mosa and we'll go to rafael take a few more and then i gets to go moussa what's up good question and it's about what defines the the draw in the compact sports is it the international recognition and the social media is it the just the Paper view, is it just selling arenas? And what would you prefer?

Because if it's international recognition, it would make Habib one of the biggest. But if it's payper view, it would make Masvidal bigger than Habib. What would we say about it? Thank you, Mike. That's a really good question. It's a combination of all of those things. But I would have to say that, I mean, especially with the UFC's, right now, me and AK could go fight in Tacoma, Washington to headline a UFC card.

And while you might scratch your head and think that's puzzling, the arena will still sell out. It's the brand. People are buying the brand. When the UFC goes to your town, it doesn't happen all that often, especially in today's day and age. They're going to sell the damn place out. So I think pay-per-view is probably a big factor right now, especially with where the world is at and where has been the last couple of years. But Habib is like,

Habib did real good on pay-per-view too. Like I obviously, I mean, Connor is obviously the biggest draw in the history of the company. But Habib is attached to the biggest selling pay-per-view of all time. He's part of the story. And if Habib, if none of that stuff happens and Habib is not part of it and the journey that to get there didn't happen, it probably doesn't do over 2 million pay-pviews.

It does over a million. sure because Conner gets anybody does over a million, but Habib, being Habib, helped put that over the top. And Habib got the rub from that. Now, the way that it all ended and him jumping out of the cage and everything that happened after that, super unfortunate. But after that, man, Habib was a draw. Habib Pori did well. Habib Gachie did well. the guy was becoming

he was probably sitting at the table when he left he was sitting at the big table and if he stuck around for a couple more he definitely would have been there so all in all I would say Habib is probably checks off more boxes than anybody else does

but Mazdal is obviously a draw and there's draws in different ways like even Shamiah is a draw I mean and it's just like buzzed too like like i said and i've told the story a few times when i went to jacksonville to cover ufc 273 we had two freaking title fights on the card one was a grudge match rematch but all anybody wanted to talk about was hamzaa shama if that's it's all anybody wanted to talk about with me but i was down sitting in the bar having a beer and someone saw me and wanted to talk m m m ms it's all

they talked about was freaking hamzat shimaiif he's becoming a draw nates a draw connor's a draw It's a tough question. It's a little bit of all of that, but if you can generate enough pay-per-view interest, that's probably the most important thing to the UFC. All right, we'll go to Journey, and then we'll go to Rafael, and then I've got to go. Let's see if we can get him. It's connecting. Do we have Journey? Do we have him? Let's see. The wheel is still spinning. It doesn't look like it's going through. Okay, Journey, if you want to try real quick, Again, we'll give it a shot. Oh, wait a minute.

All right. Hang tight, Journey. Are you there? All right, Journey, try again. I don't know what's going on, but I can't get you. Rafael, are you there? You just got on mute yourself. Yes, yes.

Thank you, Mike. Yep. I got you. How you doing? I'm doing great. Awesome. How are you doing? I'm all right.

What's up? Okay, I got a couple of things. First thing, Francis. Francis, a couple of guys. mentioned that he's in disrespect that I agree. He's one of the greatest heavy rates now. If he is unable

to fight this year on a little title defense, I think the income would be, the logical would be Jones versus Gond. That would be the logical matchup to make. Hamzad, Hamza could probably be

on the far or it would is up in common saying with McGregor or Kabee the way he's fighting and with all the trash talking and so so I think he could be the next biggest thing

even if he beat the winner for the trilogy against Usman and Leon wins the title moves up to middleweight challenges if he beat Izzy then that would be an awesome

fight to think And yeah, that's that's what I want to talk about. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, you make great points. I think we would watch all of those fights. I love, like I said earlier, I loved the idea of John Jones versus Cyril Gahn. That'd be sick. Maybe we'll get it next.

I mean, a lot has to happen for that to happen. But, I mean, God, I'm... Let me just say this about Francis Ingano because people are saying that he's being disrespected now that he's out. Francis Gano has been disrespected for a long time. And here's why. The easiest fighter on planet Earth to get over to market, to sell as the baddest son of a bitch in our company is Francis Sangano.

The guy doesn't even need to say a word. It's great when he says a word because you look at him. He's just this massive dude that could beat the snot out of you. He's a giant. And then he speaks. And he's like the nicest guy ever. But all you need to do is just show this man all humongous and jacked and just show that video, all his video clips of the knockouts. Kane, Curtis Blades.

Alster Overim is one of the most iconic knockouts of all time. You don't need to do anything. You don't need to do anything. You don't need to put together like any weird out-of-the-box promos. I do is just take clips of his knockouts and him walking around without a freaking shirt on. And you're just like, damn, if I see this guy, I would never, ever step to him. And they didn't do it. They didn't do it.

It's crazy. It's crazy how he's in the situation right now. It's crazy how they didn't get him over. Everything he, everything Francis has accomplished, all of the notoriety he's gotten. I mean, the UFC, I'll be fair. The UFC during the first stretch of Francis' his UFC career, they built him up big time.

When he fought Stepe Mietich, I didn't fully agree with Stepe, but I did agree with him in a small way that the UFC focused a vast majority of the promotion on Francis and Gano, and not as much on SEPA. And it led to this belief amongst the MA community because I was at that event.

I went and grabbed a bite to eat right before going into the garden that night in Boston and just talking to fans. And they were like, Francis Gatton was going to kill this man. He's going to kill him. I'm like, okay, we'll see what happens. And then he loses,

and then he has the Derek Lewis fight. And then from there, it's like, he's gotten made events spots and all that. but he hasn't gotten that rub really ever since. And everything he's done since then, it's been him. It's been him. Him with his performances. Him with just everything else.

And the UFC didn't really help all that much if we're being honest. So hopefully it all works out for him. Whatever his decision is moving forward. Hopefully it's the best for him, best for his family, best for his team, everybody involved. whether it's in the UFC or if he goes to boxing or fights John Jones or goes to PFL or whatever he does, it's his decision to make. He's gotten himself to where he's at right now.

He bet on himself for the Cyril Gahn fight, took that fight on one freaking leg, and he beat a really good guy on one leg doing something he's not known for at all. The guy deserves our respect. Not just from us. Not just from the media. but from the company as well.

But that's it. I've got to go. A lot going on. You see Mr. Alexander Kay Lee here. He will be donning the microphone once again. Noon Eastern. It's like a Christmas miracle. It's like a Christmas day celebrates for A.K.

Whenever he gets the host, the Live Wayans stream. Newt Eastern, M.A. Fighting YouTube channel. We'll see if there's any drama at the official wayans. Of course, ceremonial is coming up later on. We'll have a preview show at 3 p.m. Eastern. Lots going on. But thank you all for joining me. Appreciate all the kind words.

It's nice to get some things off by chest. And now we move on to a fun weekend, a fight car that's got to be fun tomorrow. I'm going to be positive. This thing's going to deliver it a big way. Hamzat and Nate. Could be the last time we see Nate fight inside the UFC Octagon. So let us appreciate him once.

Once again, maybe for the last time in the UFC. So enjoy the rest of your Friday. Get yourself a nice cup of coffee, relax. We've got lots of coverage coming your way. So enjoy that. And have a heck of a morning, everybody. Fox Media Podcast Network.