MMA Fighting - HOAM | Does Jamahal Hill Have the Most To Lose At UFC 300?

Episode Date: April 9, 2024

Jamahal Hill is ready to show the world that he is the man in the UFC light heavyweight division, and if he beats Alex Pereira at UFC 300, he will certainly be known as the best 205-pounder in the world and get everything that comes along with it. But due to his incredible confidence heading into the fight, how bad would it be for Hill if he loses? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses the stakes in the main event between Pereira and Hill, and if the challenger has the most to lose on the entire stacked card this Saturday in Las Vegas. Additionally, listener topics include where Max Holloway goes if he defeats Justin Gaethje for the BMF title, what the main event could be for UFC 302, thoughts on the UFC making a big announcement this week in regards to new equipment, the card placement for UFC 300, 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 to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a free $250 credit for the next one. Get started at LinkedIn.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply. The Vox Media Podcast Network. It is Tuesday, April 9th, 2024. And it is indeed a heck of a morning. It is a heck of a week, everybody. We are live in the MA Fighting Twitter speech.

You can hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter on the MMA Fighting Podcasting Network. What's going on, everybody? I am Mike Kack, just in a tremendous mood, as most MMA fans are this week. Because we're here. It's Fight Week. And not just any old Fight Week. No, no, no, no. This is at UFC Vegas 917.

This is UFC 300. We're out of the world's most famous Apex. This is the card of cards. In my opinion, the greatest card on paper in UFC history. And we are four damn days away from it all going down at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Alex Pereira versus Jamal Hill for the light heavyweight title. Zhang Wei v. Jan Jonan for the strawweight title.

The Dream Fight. Justin Gaecie versus Max Holloway for the BMF title. Charles Freakin Olivera versus Armid Sarukian, Bo Nickel versus Cody Brundage, Yuri Perhoshka versus Alexander Rackage. Calvin Cater, welcoming Al Jemaine Sterling to the featherweight division. Holly Holm. welcoming Kayla Harrison to the UFC,

Sadiq Yusef versus the man with the best hair in all of M.M.A., Diego Lopez. Jalen Turner versus Hanata Moikano, Jessica, Jensk Andradez, Marina Rodriguez, Bobby Green versus Jim. I'm going to say it. Jim fucking Miller and Davis and Figurato versus Cody Garbrand. holy shit man this card is unreal i'm sure we're going to get a lot of questions about ufc 300

i'm going to try to ramp you up as much as i can if this isn't going to do it for you you can head to the m a fighting youtube channel because i got to speak with the legends the great john annick who will be calling the action at ufc 300 and we got after for a little over 30 minutes so you guys can go check that out it is uh it was good catching back up with john we didn't get to do for 299. Schedules didn't line up, but there's no way. There was no way we weren't doing a preview for UFC 300. So let's get into this.

There's lots to discuss. I'm sure you guys have a million questions. So let's go. I'm enimeaning this. We got five people in line. And let's see who I land on first. We landed on CV. How about that?

Go ahead, CV. Hey, Mike Keck of a morning. I want your thoughts on the Gai Chi Holloway fight. Well, specifically, if Holloway wins, he's going to be in a very interesting spot. Like, does he get like the lightweight title shot? Or like, can he potentially like go back to featherweight and fight to Poria, which I think would be a sick fight? So, yeah, what are your thoughts on that?

Much like a lot of this stuff heading into 300? I don't know. I truly don't know because if Holloway goes out and beats Gaichi and wins a split decision and a fun-ass fight, like people are going to be screaming from the rooftops for Max to get a lightweight title shot. And with the way this division is right now and Islam wanting to fight in June, if he ends of fighting Dustin Porier, I just don't know how this plays out. On top of that, Charles Oliver is fighting Armand Sarukian.

and if either Oliver or Saruki can go out there and just melt the other in the first round like that's super impressive so is this just like a mini tournament I don't know how this is all going to play out if Max wins this fight and he's like now I'm going to go to 45 I still think the UFC is going to give Volcanowski

the rematch so if you're Max I think you kind of ride this wave I think you ride this wave you shout from the rooftops that you want the Justin Gate not the Justicage fight You want the lightweight title fight. Put yourself in position to either be a backup or, I don't know. But that's the beauty of this card is nothing's obvious when it comes to a lot of these fights.

Nothing's out of play. But I have to say, I think of Max beats Gachie, that's a freaking huge win. He's probably at the front of the line, even if Oliver Siru Kian, no matter how that fight plays out, because he's a star and all that. I don't know. That's, again, that's why this card is so freaking compelling. That's why this fight is what it is. It's a dream fight.

But there is a lot on the line here. It's awesome. I will have, obviously we're doing the watch party in Vegas. So I will have, I think I'm going to have some sort of action on every single fight on this card. for this fight, I have a bet on Max Holloway, not to win. I'm taking the points. Max Holloway plus five and a half points at plus 100.

That's what I'm going with. I do think Justin Gachie is going to win. I see a lot of people out there saying that Justin's just going to go in there and kill him. No one's gone out there and just killed Max Holloway in a fight. No one's even hurt Max Holloway in a fight. And I know Justin Gachie is a bad out of hell, but I think this fight is going to be very, very competitive. So give me max to not win, but at least make it competitive enough to hang in there with Justin Gage.

God, I can't wait for this fight. I can't wait for all of this. I really can't. I'm so excited. Thomas. Go ahead. Uh-oh. Oh.

Nope. Nah, not connecting. try again thomas bounce back up bounce back in leo do we have you ike um i uh just calling in to say ask two things one i'm going to ask you about a fight that you probably are not going to get asked about a lot so i just wanted to it's probably the one overlooked fight on this card which is uh maria rodriguez versus just and drosge how do you see that going and um two the uh u fc newark uh i think it's three or two They go on sale in a few days and there's still no headliner.

I guess it's going to be, I would assume it's going to be Islam and Dustin because Belal's going to be in, or Leon's going to be in the UK. But I don't know. I guess this is just their mojo now. I couldn't tickets because they know they're going to sell even if they have no headliner. But thanks for everything you do, man. And have a heck of a morning. And happy UFC 300 week, everyone.

Let's freaking go. I'm leaning on Drage in that fight, but I don't know. I think when I say I'm going to have a little bit of action on every one of these fights, this is probably going to be some sort of propy sort of action. I'm leaning on Drage, but Marina looked real good in her, in her last fight. I know it was against a much lower ranked opponent, but we haven't seen like a ton of overall consistency from Jessica Androge,

but she's also not taking this fight on 12 days notice, like a lot of her fight. So I'm leaning on Drudge, but would I be surprised if Marino Rodriguez went in there and outboxed her and won a decision? No, it wouldn't surprise me. As far as 301 or 302 goes, excuse me, I think this is a week where you're going to get a ton of announcements. I have no insight to this, but I would say, I don't know if they could do it like before the press conference.

I have a feeling Conner's return will probably be announced. I think they'll announce the main event for 302. They'll probably announce the main event for the UK card. I mean, what better time to do it, right? So I think this is going to be a week full of news galore. So that would be my hunch. And we've talked about this before. Just because it's so obvious that Leon Edwards-Belahmohmad should fight in the UK,

it does not mean they're going to do it. How many times have they not done that? So we can assume, but we'll see if that assumption pays off. But I think we'll know the answer to that question sometime this week. Thomas, go ahead. Yes, can you hear me now? Yes. Perfect. Sorry about that.

A couple of questions, really. Obviously, this card's very competitive. The only fight I'm looking at really is a wee bit one-sided is the Booneckle fight. What is your opinion on the most competitive fight on the card? Obviously, there's a couple of come to mind for me. It's the main event's obviously very close. And I personally like the opener. I like Garbran and Figurito, I think.

is closer than what people think. I think they'll announce Tom Aspinall of his main event in the UK because he kind of dropped the hint that he's over in Vegas, meeting with the UFC, to come to an arrangement for a fight, and a bit of an

out-to-eye question. Who do you think is in the Hall of Fame? Who do you think's what? Who do you think goes into the Hall of Fame? For the UFC? What next year? Yeah, who gets announced that UFC 300 is the Hall of Famer? Oh, I don't think any...

I think... They haven't announced a fight yet. I don't think. Maybe they announce a fight. It should be Carlos Konda versus Robbie Lawler, if we're being honest, like, that fight should be in there. Maybe they throw Robbie Lawler in there.

I don't know. Is it a little too quick for that? I mean, it would be a year. Yeah, I don't know. I think they're probably an ounce of fight, though. They got a pretty stacked class already, but maybe they announced the fight. Let's go to Chubby Dana.

Hello, hello, hello. I had a question about what you think the outcome is going to be of Gathe versus Holloway. I think Gachy, after working with Trevor Whitman now for a while, I think he's more technically inclined. I don't think he's going to go out and try to take Max's head off. I think we're going to see a Ferguson versus Gatzy type fight where it's going to be really technical. And I'm wondering what is next for... Holloway, if he wins this fight, does he fight for the belt? Does he fight a top five?

Does it go back down to featherway? Yeah. Thanks, man. Yeah, so to answer the previous question, what's the most competitive fight? It's tough, man. I think the answer is Gaichi Holloway, honestly. I think the fight's incredibly competitive. I mean, Oliverer Surukian, I think, is more competitive than the betting line suggests.

the main event on paper is competitive, but I think in execution, it's not going to be competitive. I think I think whoever wins this fight is going to win running away. Either Pereira is just going to go out there and kill Jamal Hill in the first three minutes

of the fight or Jamal's going to take Alex down and just beat the shit out of them. I don't think this fight goes to the cards in any way. And I think whoever wins is going to impose their will, I don't think it's going to be a back and forth affair. I think someone's just going to do the thing and win. And the more I think about this fight, the more questions I have about it.

It's just, there's just so much surrounding it. The pressure that is on Jamal Hill here is astronomical, the way he's been talking, the confidence he has. Like, he has to win this fight. He absolutely has to win. or he is it's going to look super bad for him more so than it would have really it's a poor year for being honest so a lot on the line for jamal hill he is in a must win situation in my opinion so that's it's gonna be wild i kind of answer the holloway if he wins question

earlier in the answer again is i have no idea because we don't know what's going to happen with sarukia and olivera we don't know if his um's fighting dustin we assume that's the direction they may go, but we don't know. And I kind of feel Volk's going to get the rematch, so Hollow is just going to have to sit on the sidelines and wait. But as far as the fight goes, I,

like I said earlier, I have a bet on Max Holloway. I have a point spread bet on him at plus five and a half points. I got it at plus 100. That line has closed a little bit more. It's minus 120 now. So I think a lot of people are jumping on that. I think Gaiji wins

I think Gachi wins the fight. I think he wins a decision, but I think it's a very competitive decision. I agree with you. I don't think Gage is going to go up there and try to spinning wheel kick Max Holloway into the third row. I think he has a ton of respect for Max.

I think Max has a ton of respect for him. It's got to be sick. It's going to be a sick fight. I cannot wait. But my pick is Justin Gagee by decision in a fight of the year contender, which shouldn't surprise anybody. Riley, go ahead.

No earthquakes today, so that's good. I just wanted to ask, what do you think the UFC glove presentation is going to be? Do you think it's just going to be like a sponsorship or whatever or, I don't know, monetize, say UFC 300 on the gloves or something? Or do you think it might actually be a new design to stop fucking eyepokes? And secondly, do you think the canvas is going to be gold or do you think we're just going to get a regular white gray, whatever it usually is. Because I feel like if it's gold, it's going to be so ugly.

I don't want, like, I hated the yellow canvas. I don't want gold canvas. That's just me. All right, have a good one. Thanks. Both are good questions. I honestly have no insight to the equipment announcement,

but we'll find out this week. Be cool if they change the gloves. Something tells me they, I don't know. Maybe they will do it. Maybe they will do it. And again, I don't know if it's going to stop eye pokes, and even if it does,

it's still not going to change the fact that people could still cheat and still grab the fence and kick in the nuts and all that stuff and not get any points taken. So it'll be potentially a fix, but you already know, my friends, you know that the first

accidental eye poke that happens, even with a new pair of gloves, people are going to be like, see, didn't do a thing. We need to try again. Go back to the lab. But I'm curious to see, how this all works out as well. Definitely, yeah.

And then the canvas thing, I was talking to Annick about it. He has no insight on this whatsoever. It would be cool to do like gold, but it like actually has to be gold. I think the UFC tried to do gold for 100, but the way that it just sort of laid on the mat,

it just looked like mustard yellow. And I think if you went like straight gold, like, without the shine to it, I don't know how it looks, but if they could pull it off, that'd be sick. It just can't look yellow

and it can't, you got to be able to walk and move on it too. So I kind of feel like they're just going to keep it simple, but I don't know. I would like to see them just, I know they won't do this because of the sponsors and stuff.

I wish they could put the sponsors like on the outside of the octagon or something and just like put UFC 300 right in the middle. That'd be pretty cool just by itself, but they're not going to do that. Maybe they just have like a different logo in the middle. I don't know. We'll see what they do.

Because 100, people are still talking about how awful the 100 was, but maybe that's a good thing. Maybe that's a good thing. Race the runners. Raise the sails. Raise the sales. Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching. Over.

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they're grooming him to want to be that next guy in the middleweight division. So I'm just wondering what your guys' opinion on that whole switch and where Bo Neckle was at and how they're trying to groom him. So I think it was, because the lineup's changed like three or four times already. I think because originally the original lineup that they put out was a six-fifference, fight main card. Because I'm pretty sure, let me just look it up.

I know we wrote about this, but let me just pull it up real quick. Yep. There you go. It was at UFC 298, I believe. They announced a six-fight main card. The six-fight main card was Alex Burr of Jamal Hill,

Jean-Weilly, Jan Jonan, Justin Gaei, Max Holloway, Charles Oliver, Arminz Rukin, Yuri Perashka, Alexander Rackich, And Al Jermaine Sterling versus Calvin Cater was also on the main card. So the way they initially set up was six fights. Then they switched it back to five, which is fine. And then they took Yuri and Rackich off.

They took Sterling and Cater off and they put Bo Nickel in there. So the way the second lineup that they put out for the main card was Olivera Syrucian was going to open the main card. Then they were going to do Bo Nickel versus Cody Brundage. and then the three fights as they were from Jumpstreet with Gachie Holloway into the Strawway title fight into the light heavyweight title fight and then the next week they switched it again but they just switched the first two fights around so they did nickel so yeah nickel and Brundage opened the main card and we talked about this on the show I actually defend I still kind of defend it and I'll explain why John Anick completely defended it in our conversation you'll hear his explanation for it.

But the way the it was originally put out where it was Oliver Serukian leading off then Bo Nickle Cody Brundage. I love that idea because one, we obviously understand what the UFC is trying to do with Bo Nickel. They think he's got to be a massive star

if they're trying to push him. But the big, biggest thing to me was you're looking at three five rounders at the top of the card. Now, we can assume that the main event is going to end quick, and I assume that the main event is going to end quick. But there's a real chance that all three of these fights go all five. There's a very real chance that happens. And if you're watching this main card, there's going to be a lot of new eyeballs on it, do you want to risk putting five fights on a card, especially with three 25-minute fights

that all go the distance. It's tough. Bo-Nickle, Cody Brundage is pretty much a guarantee that probably ain't even getting out the first round. So the way they originally constructed it was, you know, Oliver Seruque in which I also don't think is going to go long, I don't think that gets out of the first round either. Then you get Bo-Nichle versus Cody Brudage,

which probably doesn't get out of the first round. because once that main card starts, all we're thinking about is Holloway versus Gachie's. Like, we just want to get there. And what's the quickest way to get there? You put those two fights on the main card to lead into it. So that's how I view it. That's why I have no issue with it.

A lot of people seem to have an issue with it. But you think Davis and Figuero and Cody Garbrand are upset that they're opening up the card? No, they're like, fuck yeah. I'm going to be done. Like, by the time they're done with their media scrum, they're going to be out of the, like they'll be done by 5 p.m. local time. They could go watch the card.

They can go eat pizza. They could go celebrate the day away and do whatever the fuck they want. It's a beautiful thing. So I have no issue with it to answer your question. I think it's fine. I think it's fine. And Yuri Parshka, Alexander Rackich, Al Jermaine Sterling, Calvin Cater, Kayla Harris and Holly Holme.

And what's the other fight? one, two, three, Sudi Q's, Diego Lopez. More people are going to watch those four fights than the actual main card because it's going to be out of ESPN, I believe it's on ABC as well. And there'll be over two million people

on average, probably watching those four fights. So not a bad place to be. Not a bad place to be. Henderson, go ahead. It's not connecting. Try again, Henderson. uh let's go to four corner sports hey mike so there's three fights that i feel like no one's really talking about i think it's the it's ery for hashka versus uh rackage you have usuf versus lopez

and um keater versus aljo um which one of those those three fights you feel like are going to be coming out with a performance bonus and i know i don't want you to reveal um like i guess like your hot note but like out of those three fights um who do you have like who do you have like closest to the title and who has the most to lose out of those six fighters all right thanks mike lots to unpack there who has the best chance of getting a bonus probably the angle of offense the way they're like kind of positioning him right now who has the most to lose unequivocally it's algerman sterling because if he loses the Calvin Cater, like that one, do you just go back to 35

where your teammates about to fight for the belt, knowing that as long as Sean O'Malley or Rob is the champion, you will not be fighting for the title? It's got to be him. And as far as who has the best chance to get to a title fight, it's going to obviously depend on who wins the main event. but if Jamal Hill beats Alex Pereira, it's Yuri Perashka, for sure. People freaking love Yuri.

We saw the Pereira fight. And even if they ran that back, I don't think anybody would be super mad about it because I do think there's going to be sort of a rivalry and a story between those two guys. But if Jamal Hill wins and Yuri Parashka goes out and Ices Alexander Rackage, they'll go Yerry versus Jamal Hill,

which is the fight I wanted to see from the get-go. But then... Jamal lost the belt, gave it up, and they did the vacant title fight. So, yeah. So those are my answers. I think I got all of them. Viking, go ahead. So thanks a lot.

Mike, I just want to know about the Roman Greens and Cody Rhodes. The Roman Rings had two championship belts, right? Cody Rhodes won the one of them so Roman reign still has one championship or not and explain me the championships of the WW I mean the main championship the two Roman reigns had and the other question this is a completely and irrelevant question the ship has sailed already but I think just Justin Gitchie and Max Holloway should have been the co-main event and Zhang Vali and Jan Shaunan should have been after that. So because of the BMF title, I mean, if they would have put Justin Gagchi and Max Holloway on the number two spots, I mean the common event, people should have been respected, BMF belt.

a bit. So what are your thoughts? Thanks a lot. Mikey. Thank you, sir. So I don't want to get too much in the weeds with the WWE stuff, but yeah, Roman did have two belts because they had

two different brands. They had two different titles. One was a raw title. One was a Smackdown title. Roman won both. He was the undisputed. There was like the undisputed title, and then there was the universal title. so Roman won one belt, won the second belt,

and then he became the quote unquote undisputed universal champion. And then during this long-ass rain that Roman had, they created another belt, which is the one that Seth Rollins had for a while, lost to Drew McIntyre, and then won by Damien Priest, the World Heavyweight title. So it looks like they took Universal off the table altogether,

so it's the WWF, WWE Championship is the one that Cody has now and the World Heavyweight Championship is the one that Damien Priest has. So yeah, it's super weird with all the fucking belts and stuff. It's hard to follow. But yeah, that's what it is. Should Gagey Holloway been the co-main event? No, I don't agree with that.

There is only one of two ways you can do it. It can't be the co-main event. It can't. It can't. It's either the, you either have, headline the event with it or if you're going to add like a second title fight, technically a third if you want to call the BMF title like a real belt, you got to put the actual belts up ahead of it.

But if you wanted to just be like, hey, we couldn't get a main event. So just engaging Max Holloway, you're going to beat the shit out of each other to end the night. Like I think that would be okay. There would be some people who still had a problem with the actual title, not being defended above a not. like real and recognized title but it's the UFC so none of this really matters anyways it's in boxing or pro wrestling but yeah it's either main event or it's the first of three

so i i don't have a problem with it i get where you're coming from but i don't have a problem with it it is fine uh henderson go ahead same allergies are so bad here in new jersey this morning that it's even destroying my phone signal i guess but i feel like i'm living your life down south. But speaking of New Jersey, I have an idea that I want to put out there for UFC 300. And this might sound a little crazy, but the more I think about it, the less crazy it sounds. So how about if Charlie Olivera loses and he's looking for his next fight and Jim Miller, if he wins, they'll both be in the rankings. Jim Miller versus Charlie Oliver three. They both have submissions against each other. I think Jim Miller originally won the first one in

2010. Seems impossible, but maybe true. I think they fought again in 2018. If Oliver loses, he's going to be looking for something to do. His career is kind of in a weird spot in that case. I think it'd be a low risk fight for him to beat Jim Miller. And for Jim Miller, that's a great fight to go out on you get a potential headliner against chaua a vera in the rankings so wants to know what you thought of that and if there's any hope of finishing that trilogy maybe i don't hate it i don't hate it i honestly here's here's would be super interesting to me let's just say even if they both lose. Even if they both lose, which, by the way, as of

right now, I'm picking the both to lose. Let's just say, again, because we don't know what's happening with Ilya. We assume he's going to fight Alexander Volcanowski. Let's just say, Sarukian does Serukian things, and Justin Gachi beats Max Holloway.

And they beat the shit out of each other, and Max is limping around. He's heard. Needs to take a little time. And Volkanowski wins the featherweight title. So obviously they're going to go and run it back. Give me Charles Olivaire versus Max Holloway, a fight that we never really got to see. Like they fought,

but it never really got going because of the weirdness of how that ended. I mean, dude, Chuckie Olives versus Max Holloway, it would be fun as hell too. But yeah, dude, I mean, look, Jim Miller gets that fight with Charles Oliver. I certainly don't think he's going to say no to it. So it would be a great story. And I feel like if Miller gets a ranking, I think they're going to try to push.

him quick to try to get that feel good story. So I'm not going to rule it out. I'm not going to rule it out because there's a chance Charles Oliver goes out and loses on Saturday. It could very well happen. Let's go to Nick. Nick, are you there? Yes, sir. Hey, so the same style of question. Another hypothetical, not U.S.U 300 delayed, but could you see a world where they're not announcing Connor and Chandler. Could you see them possibly doing Connor and Islam since they haven't announced Islam and Connor, or

Islam and Porre? Thanks. No, I don't see that happening. There's just, we gotta get Conner just in there. At this point, like, the way that they have just positioned these two guys, doing anything but Connor and Chandler would just be kind of a disservice

at this point. Like, it's been kind of funny. along the way, just kind of seeing how this all plays out. And Chandler just holding on hope the entire time. But, yeah, I don't think so. I think they'll do Islam versus Dustin. Can you, I got to tell you, it would be one of the funniest things that has ever happened

if that actually came true, though. You have all these lightweight fights schedule that all have such meaning. Dustin just got this big win over Ben Wausantaddi, Michael Chandler's waiting for the Connor fight, and then all of a sudden, Connor just jumps into a title fight. Oh my lord.

That would be hilarious. The reaction of everybody would be tremendous. But unfortunately, I don't think that's going to happen. I do think Connor's fight will be announced this week. Toke, go ahead. Hi, Mike. So I'm going to be really quick with this. I've never really set my piece on the bone nickel and the main card thing.

And my piece is, the UFC is just conditioning people that Bo Nickel is a name that you pay for. I mean, he's literally just, hey, let's put him in a squash match on the biggest card that we've ever had and then have him on the pay-per-view to kind of tell people, hey,

this guy's must see television. You have to see to pay him in the future. He's never going to be off on free television. This is a pay-per-view guy. This is just pure conditioning for me. So I like it. I think it's the right way to go about it, both business-wise and promotion-wise. I think it's clever.

And a short note, I'm going to, I know it's UFC 300 a week. They just slip this Nicholas Dolby read out Fakhrytina. Lasha. Dalby versus Fakhrachinov. Great fight. Great fight. I love it. See if Nicholas Dalby can keep this shit going, man.

He is just quietly put together something real fun. If this fight was happening in Brazil, I'd be putting, I'd be betting a lot on Nicholas Dalby because he just, it's what he does. But good fight. It's actually really good. It's a really good stylistic matcher for both guys because Dalby ain't going away. Falkritio's going to try to get him out of there quick, and Dalby is durable as hell.

And if that fight goes long, Nichol's Dobby can very well win that fight. So love the matchmaking there. Absolutely. And I agree with you on the Bo Nickel thing. I have no issue with it. A lot of people are up in arms about it. But no need.

No need to be up in arms about it. The fight's going to be over very quickly and that we get on to that we get closer to the big-ass fights. Go ahead, I'm Zwalia. So, Mark, Mark, heck of the morning. Firstly, I'm looking for TEOC 300. My goodness, I have to say with the lightweight fights particularly, there's a lot of stake and I'm rarely, really, really intro and kind of lurking nervous to see what happening.

Because this is going to be potentially game changing for the entire division moving forward. I mean, you know, if you look at the matchmaking, even just for every single finder's card, it is splendid and fantastic. I think, you know, that's why, you know, whatever people want to say, you have to give you to see their props. You know, Dana, Hunter, Sean. They know how to matchmate properly. I'm really curious to see who you have winning between Jalen and Renato Mokane. I think that's a beautiful fight. I also just want to ask you two more questions.

What are your thoughts on the Joshua Van and Sumadeji fight that was, you know, recently confirmed for 302 and also I heard rumors that I think from Burt MMA on his Instagram page that if the Helvovich fight with Volkov does not

continue to happen in a break or contract they might end up doing Karnenev versus Imov possibly I'm not too sure that's really true but I'm curious enough that on your end watch your thoughts on that that's all I have a great day I've heard nothing about either of those things.

Well, I mean, I can't. I mean, the reports that Kavovich Volkov may not happen, I have heard some rumblings about that. You know, we've talked about what this means for 302 and Jelton Almeida and stuff a few different times. So still TBD on that. I haven't heard anything about Canon Air versus imov and if i'm jerry kandir why in god's green earth would you take that fight that'd be

an awful fight for him awful it makes no sense you're already he's already sort of the forgotten man at the top of the rankings and you're going to go fight imovov yeah that would be bad that'd be bad paul costa's calling out jarricketer why wouldn't you just go for that I don't know. Van Superdeer's a good fight. Chance for Van to get in the rankings. A lot of people like him. He's on the come-up.

Fun as hell. It's good scrap. It's good scrap. Turner Moycano, I'm still kind of figuring out. Like, everything on paper tells me Jalen's going to do what Jalen does. But Moikano's tough is real tough. I don't know.

I think the betting line is spot on for that fight. Right now it's Jalen Turner. 2.38. Come back on Money Moikano's plus 195. I have no issue with the betting line there, but got to take again there at some tape before I decide. But right now, it's probably Jaylon Turner. Support for this show comes from Volkswagen. As the U.S. gets ready to host soccer's biggest moment on a worldwide stage, Volkswagen is helping people discover new turfs and new ways to play the beautiful game right here in the U.S. from deaf and power wheelchair soccer, to beach and futsal, Volkswagen is actively supporting all the communities and

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Moneyline, Mike. Go ahead. You hear me, Mike? Yes, sir. Hey, what's going on, brother? Happy UFC 300 week. We made it. We all made it.

Thank God we got through all these shitty apexes. But two things. I guess I would say, I don't know if you talked about it if I came in late with the new glove announcement. Hopefully it's not just some bullshit gold glove for UFC 300 and you're biting off the Dolsor. But, and it's actually the Trevor glove,

the Onix glove. I would really hope for that and get rid of these eyepokes or at least shorten the probability of them. Do you think we get Connor Chandler for the 165 title? And I'm just, let me be an optimistic fan. Mike, don't shoot me down early. Don't shoot me down early. We haven't gotten to fighting out of for a reason.

Are we getting this 165 title right now for Chandler and Mike? And then for UFC 300, who besides the top three, what's the most anticipated fight for you? Let me see. What am I doing? There we go. Thank you, Moneline, Mike. I appreciate that. No, I don't. See 165. Because you don't need it. You don't need it here. I'm not saying like they'll never do it. I'm more like if we're looking at this from a scale and one side is never going to do it and the other side is definitely going to do it. I would say there's like three or three or three. four extra little stones on the never going to do it side. But would they do it? Maybe, I don't know. But why do it for Connor and Chandler?

It doesn't need it. Like those two dudes can just fight in somebody's backyard and it's going to do a million and a half pay-per-views. It doesn't, if they add a 165 pound title to that, it doesn't sell one extra ticket. It doesn't sell one extra pay-per-view. People are watching that fight to see Connor McGregor come back. So it doesn't need it.

It does not need it. As far as fight I'm most interested in outside of the top three, I mean, you already know how I, I mean, Arm and Saruki and Charles Oliver is low-hanging fruit, just because I think you guys have heard me waxed poetically about Arm and Sarukin forever. I've been driving the train since he was before he was in the UFC. and this is my year

I'm pushing all the chips in the middle when it comes to Arm and Taruchin. But outside of that, if we're going off the main card, it is without question Al Jardin Stirling versus Calvin Cater. Super, super-enched in that fight. Not just because Cater's a New England guy.

I just want to see how Sterling looks at 45. He's usually the guy who has like the big, weight and size and power advantage, you know, when it comes to the frame. He ain't going to really have that here. Plus Calvin hits like a truck and Calvin can wrestle pretty damn well, even though you don't really get to see it that off because Calvin's boxing is so good. So very interested. Very interested in that one.

We're going to learn a whole hell of a lot about the future of Al Jermaine Sterling in this fight. Love it. Love it, love it, love it. We'll go to Chiefs fan, they'll go to left lane, then we'll go to Kevin. Chiefs fan, go ahead. To all the casuals who think USC 300 is a hyped apex card, I can't believe people are claiming that or even... Who is saying that? That's unreal.

They're trolling. All over Facebook. Harrison and Nickel, I think people need to check their accolades before they can start saying that they don't deserve where they're at. They're both, you know, it might not have been an MMA, but they both have a, a pass. asked that, you know, it's bona fide. The last thing I was going to say is the scoring criteria. How many fans don't know what they're talking about, like 90% of them? They just don't know how a fight is supposed to be scored.

And it blows my mind that they'll sit there and call a fight like, you know, oh, he got robbed. Well, you know, if a fight's close, it can't be a robbery. By definition, a robbery is something, you know, a fight where someone should have won and didn't. If it's close enough, and everybody agrees it's close enough for a rematch or whatnot, then can't be a robbery. And that's all I got. Have a nice day. I mean, I think it's partly they don't know the scoring.

And I think at the other end is they have money on the fighter who didn't win. That's a big thing. The way that gambling has taken over the sport. and people have, like, taking it so seriously. Like, I'll do them for the watch parties, but it's not like I'm betting anything significant. It's just fun. Like, it just makes it fun.

And if you're doing it and it's not fun, then why are you doing it? But there are people who just go crazy on it, and then when they lose a bet, it's, you know, between, oh, it's a robbery to, you know, shooting DMs to the, fighter who lost their money and telling them they suck.

Like, you're all, just don't be that person. Don't be that person. Yeah, the robbery is so overused. Like, I'm on the show all the time,

talking about how the fight I've watched the most over the last year and a half or so is Armand Sarukian versus Matush Gamrott. And out of all maybe 85 times I've watched that, that fight, I've, I've scored it for Arm and Serrucian every single time. Even I will not say after always scoring it for Armand Serrucian that that was a robbery. Same thing as Volcanowski versus Max Holloway 2. Super contentious, controversial fight.

Had the MMA community, it's just torn against one another. All I tweeted out after Volk won the fight, and I did think he won the fight. and every time I've watched it, I think he'd won the fight. All I said was it's not a robbery and people lost their shit. Everyone's got to relax. Relax. Oh, shit. Sorry, left lane.

You go next. Kevin, go ahead. Kevin. Sorry, I just realized my mic was off. Morning from North Charleston, Mike. How you do? What's up, man? Not much.

I've been listening here for a few minutes and I haven't heard anybody mentioned the main event at 300. And it makes me wonder if nobody is picking the main event as their fight that they're really excited for for 300. Are the UFC even excited for this main event? Or are they just kind of recognizing that this is just a setup for Magamemad, Anka Lai, to eventually be the light heavyweight champion, much to Dana White's chagrin.

Thanks, Mike. Have a good day. Man, I don't know about that. It was so funny because, like, Anik and I were talking about this in our conversation about, and we talked about that in the show a lot, about how people's expectations are way too high for this card. And to be fair to some of those folks, Dana also had said,

oh boy, you guys aren't prepared for this main event. You think you're ready for the main event, but it's going to blow your socks off. And as we said many times, my socks were on. In fact, it was like winter in New England.

A second pair of socks came on when they announced Alex Brewer v. Chabal Hill. And that's not me saying that it's a bad fight, because I think it's a great fight. I think it's heading into 2024. That was one of the top five fights I wanted to see in 2024. But it was just the timing of it. And the fact that Dana said that was going to blow our socks off and they oversold it,

it's a great main event. And if they just, when they announced Max Holley versus Justin Gagey for the BMF title, if they had just announced Alex Pereira versus Jamal Hill was the main event and just left it at that, no one would have complained one iota about it everyone been like oh shit great main event we're getting gaecie versus holloway this card's the best but it's just like the overhyping and all that i cannot wait for the fight i'm super excited for it i have so many questions mostly with jamal hill the again and i talked about the amount of pressure that it that is on this man's shoulders now because of how he has sort of built up this fight, astronomical.

Astronomical. He has the most to lose probably on this entire card. If he goes out and gets boinked and thumped up by Alex Pereira and gets turned into a meme, I don't know how you come back from that. I really, truly don't. I really, truly do not. But on the same token, Jamal might be that guy.

what he did against Glover-Teshire was incredibly impressive. I was more than okay, and I know Jamal Hill is posting videos of other people picking against him in the Glover to Chera fight. I picked against him as well. But I was also cool enough to come on this show the Tuesday after UFC 283, I'd be like, damn, I was dead wrong about that. I still didn't rank Jamal Hill as the number one light heavyweight in the world. I still don't. Because beating Glover to Cher was as impressive as it was, you didn't beat the best of late heavyweight in the world.

You didn't. You beat a guy who was very, very good, who was coming off maybe the greatest fight in history, and a guy who was going to retire, win or lose after that fight. I'm not taking anything away from the performance. But all the questions I have for this fight are about Jamal Hill. all of them. How is that Achilles?

Is he 100%? What happens? Can he kick? What happens if Alex kicks him? Is he going to be all right? But if he goes out there and beats Alex Pereira, he's the guy. He's the best 205er in the world. He will be my number one light heavy weight with a bullet. It will not even be close.

He will be the guy. If he wins, he gets it all. But if he loses, it is going to be. be a tough one for him. Alex Pereira can lose and still go fight Israel-Alasania. He could still go fight for the middleweight title if he wants to. He can still work his way back up.

He's a fucking superstar. Jamal Hill ain't that. Jamal Hill is very good at fighting. He's not a star. And if he loses, the road back for him is going to be a long one. So I know he's a company guy and the UFC likes him and he goes to all the events and he says good things. and that's great. If he can deliver on Saturday

and the biggest fight of his life, I will take my hat off to the man. But if he loses, it's going to be tough. It's going to be tough. I love the fight. It deserves more shine. The more we get closer to it, the more excited I am for it.

And I was never not excited for it. It was just sort of the expectations are too high all the way around between the fans, even members of the media, to Dana White in particular. But all in all, I mean, Jesus Christ, this is the best card of all time. On paper, this is the best part of all time. It just is. Every fight matters. Every single fight matters. Yeah, the main event is just so dick goddamn good. We'll go to left lane, then we'll go to Trace and then we got to go. Left lane, go ahead.

Can you hear me? Yes, sir. Just quickly, this is not my question, but just off the thing about how the expectations were like, quote unquote, not met because Dana was saying the main event was going to blow our socks off, which you did say. But apart from that, like, he's promised for the card was, you're going to see the prelims of this fight or the early prelims,

and we're like, what the fuck, that's an early prelim, which he delivered on. And I do think the only reason why the sort of blow your socks off made event promise was not met was like we all know jamael helvis alix preo was not their number one choice it was not their number two choice it was probably not even their number five choice they had so many wants like they wanted to do so much stuff but obviously things out of their control ramadan that took a lot of options off the table so i think people can kind of i'm not going to say that like yeah this is incredible this is the best main event they could have done but i think cut them a little bit of slack it's not like

they went to this is their first option if they wanted if they could have made like we heard they were trying to make leon edwards versus la makachev leon adiz versus humzotchev leon ad was humzuchemov like they were trying to make these crazy fights but obviously things couldn't come together that's not my question though my sort of thought man there's so many fights so many fighters and so many like little mini storylines i guess so not even mini but just storylines on this card that are kind of going under the radar. We've got two fighters fighting upper division in all of obviously Holloway and Al Jermaine Sterling who could assert themselves as top five guys if they get a win on Saturday. And then we've got guys like I think people just don't realize how many guys or girls could get themselves a title

shot or be like one fight away from a title shot with a win here. Obviously we know the winner of Gaitier versus Holloway is going to be very well positioned. Olivera Arman. going to be very well positioned probably both of those guys's next fight will be for a title but they will just have to wait for whoever else gets at first like rackich and yerry just yery because of the way that fight ended um and because he's a fan favorite and obviously we know the ufc does not want to give on coliva title shot rackage he gets a big kio win somehow if he i'm actually predicting that to happen as like a sort of unpopular prediction i'm actually picking rackage by K-O. But like if he gets that done, gets a good moment on the mic, he could put himself in position.

Obviously, Al Jermaine Sterling probably won't get a title shot, but would I imagine be one fight away, I would hope, if he got a big win. There's so, like, Diego Lopez obviously wouldn't be too close to a title shot, but like he's going to just increase his star power even more, become ranked. Holly Holm could probably get a title shot with a win. Even like, might be crazy to say, like Marina Rodriguez could almost find herself like just sort of shoved into a title shot if she wins and Wei Lee wins because how many other apart from Tatiana Suarez we don't know when she's back how many other girls there are actually like viable challenges I think they would rather go to Marina over Werner Jan Naroba this is my opinion um obviously turn on noikano just kind of

fighting for like who could get a guy just outside the top five I'd imagine um Even like Jim Miller, you said it before, could have himself set up for a big jump up because, you know, he'll be ranked if he wins this. They could give him like a Benile Dajush fight. Wouldn't be a crazy jump up, but like that's a top 10 guy in a rematch. He could find himself a top five guy. Cody Garbrand or Figurato with a big win. Could find themselves a top five guy, maybe one or two away from a title shot.

So that's just how, that's just why I love this card so much is because you look from the third fight on the card, obviously, the two title fights, they're fighting for belts. But every fight below those top two, they're fighting to be like one or two wins away from a title shot, in my opinion. So what do you think about that? Yeah, I mean, look, the card's great. Every fight matters. Every fight matters. The stakes could not be higher.

Yeah, we touched on a lot of the title significance earlier in the show. But, yeah, I mean, the card's awesome. card is awesome uh tracy go ahead hope i got that right if i got it wrong i suck can you hear me yes sir okay so uh just a quick question uh so uh if i'm seeing a lot of this beef between rquel and kela harrison if harrison goes out there dominates highly home like she says you're going to do in your opinion do Do you believe she should jump up the rankings to face her? Or do you believe she should fight another contender and let Juliana and Raquel hash it out before she gets a title opportunity? Yeah, this is, I think you give it to Giuliana.

There's some beef there. Rekyll and Juliana should have fought a bunch of times already. So I think you just get that out of the way, let Juliana do her thing. And let's be honest. This division is awful. It's so bad. But whether you like her or hate her, Giuliana Pena Pena makes it much more interesting.

And let's be clear. I think it's pretty obvious what the answer to this question is. What's a bigger fight? Kayla Harrison challenging Raquel Pennington for the Bannam White title or Kayla Harrison challenging Giuliana Pena for the Bannamai title. It's the latter. It's not even close. So let Kayla go in there, do her thing.

She sits back, watches how Raquel and Juliana plays out. She sits cage side for that fight. If she wins, by the way, she's got to make weight Friday. That's going to be super interesting. She's got to beat Holly Holm. If she does, then when Raquel and Juliana fight, she sits cage side. You do a little face-y-face-off. Boom.

There you go. That's how I would do it. Although it would be kind of funny if Giuliana got skipped over to see how she reacted to it. But yeah. But that's how I think it plays out. I mean, dude, she's got to cut a whole shitload of weight. She's going to have to wait a minute. She'll probably want to wait to see how it plays out.

Ryan, close us out, my man. I had you, Ryan. Where the hell are you? Maybe it was an accident. All right, we got to go. BTL today. Not Thursday. We're doing it today.

12.30 p.m. Eastern time. It's going to be pretty much across the board about 3. So get excited. Get ready. You know what? I'm going to bring Daniel in real quick and then I, Daniel real fast and then I got to go. That's not going. I got you, buddy.

Yeah, I got you. Go ahead. Just a short one about Jim Miller. You think that Jim Miller will be someday a Hall of Famer because of this 100, 200 and 300 thing now? Yeah, he better be a freaking Hall of Famer. He's got all the freaking records right now. Look, this is the UFC Hall of Fame. The UFC can put in whoever they want.

They're going to put Jim Miller in the frickin' hall of fame. I mean, Jesus Christ, guys fought 18,000 times. He's got 12,000 wins, 9,000 stoppage wins. I mean, the dude just fought for like 6 million minutes inside the octagon. He's fought a 100, 200, 300. He has a great relationship with them. He said tons of bonuses.

Dude's going in the Hall of Fame. 1,000% for sure. And this has been a Hall of Fame edition, a heck of a morning. Thank you all very much. So as far as scheduling this week, this week's going to be friggin insane, my friends. It's going to be absolutely wild. So we're not going to do a show Thursday

because of everything going on. Also, the MMA hour will be on the road. So they're going to have a live show Thursday. They're going to have a live show Friday from Las Vegas. Friday, there will be no heck of the morning either because I will be going to Vegas on Friday. And it's got to take me

pretty much the entire day to get there. Traveling, we're going to do, we're going to try to do a show. I don't know if we're going to, like, podcast it or not. I think we're probably just going to just hop on and chit chat

on the day of 300. On Saturday, we'll pop in for a little while. and we'll take some questions and get you ready for it. And then all the usual stuff. So thank you all very much. Be good people. Continue on doing all of that.

And we'll see you for BTL at 12.30 p.m. Eastern. Get excited. UFC 300 just four days away. Have a great rest of your Tuesday. Have a heck of a morning, everybody. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Defenders and cybersecurity are always there when we need them. They should get a parade every time they block a novel threat

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