MMA Fighting - HOAM | Does Paulo Costa's Elbow Surgery Change Your View On UFC 294 Bout vs. Khamzat Chimaev?

Episode Date: October 10, 2023

Paulo Costa made headlines on Monday after revealing he had elbow surgery a few weeks back ahead of his scheduled UFC 294 co-main event bout with Khamzat Chimaev, and on top of that, vowed to not only show up to face Chimaev, but beat him. Does the reveal change how you view the matchup? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to the news, why Costa may not be getting enough credit heading in, and if this changes things less than two weeks from the contest. Additionally, listener topics include Bobby Green's big finish of Grant Dawson and where he goes from UFC Vegas 80, Usman Nurmagomedov's ceiling after his one-sided title defense at Bellator 300, Joaquin Buckley and Joe Pyfer getting big wins this past Saturday and what could be next for them, 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

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

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer,

but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network.

It is Tuesday, October 10th, 2023, and even though we started a little bit later, it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the MA Fighting Twitter spaces. You can hear the show in its entirety. Shortly thereafter on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. What is going on, everybody? I am Mike Heck. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

Having a great start to the week. Busy weekend in the world of mixed martial arts. We had UFC Vegas 80. We had Bobby Green pulling off the big upset against Grant Dawson. Just ether's him in 30. three seconds. What a performance from Bobby Green. Joe Pfeiffer was being Joe Pfeiffer. Good, solid card. Not the worst, not the best, but it was an apexy apex card if there ever was one. And then a few hours down the road, we had Bellator 300. No surprise, all three champions retain their titles in

pretty uncompetitive fights, honestly. Liz Karmouche and Lima-Lay McFarland was somewhat competitive, but that wasn't even really a fight. It was just a glorified sparring session, if we're being honest, but Lina-Lay-McFarlane had a knee injury heading in. As they said on the broadcast, Liz Karmouche landed some leg kicks. Liz could have ended that fight at any time, but she didn't. kind of let Alima hang around a little bit. It was just a sparring fight.

It was not a good one. One of the worst title fights in Bellator history, if we're being honest. But it's kind of what we should have expected when you have two friends and teammates battling it out, especially one with an injury and won that same fighter missing weight pretty badly. Chris Seiborke just annihilates Katzenganu. That fight went the way most expected it to. I did have kind of like weird, vivy, weird vibes when it came to that fight, but it didn't matter because Chris just annihilated her.

And then Usman Ermaga Madov just kind of played around with Brent Primus for 25 minutes, tried some new things, just kind of got bored with stuff. It just, he just got bored and just annihilated him. Even Brent Primus is like, man, nothing I could do to that guy. And he's super good. Usen and Raghamed off his ceiling just continues to get higher and higher. It's going to be real interesting to see where he goes. I really would love to see the Shabli fight should he get Basin Tricky Pitbull, and I really expect him to.

And I really want to see that fight. Because if Uson just runs over Shabli, like, I don't think you can really doubt him anymore, because Shabli's really, really good. And then from that point, I kind of want to see Uspin. Just go to the UFC. If TFL does absorb Bellator and they're like, okay, we'll give you the option you can stay with us and make this much money or can go and be a free agent, we've been fighting some of those lightweights right now and the UFC would be incredible. It would be incredible.

So that's Bellator 300. We'll get UFC Vegas 81 coming up on Saturday. Made events, Sunique Yusuf versus that's Barbosa. We've got the Misfits Boxing Prime events with. KSI and Tommy Fury, which no one's really talking about. And then we got Logan Paul versus Dylan Dennis, like everybody's talking about. And look, if you can love this stuff or you can hate it,

at the end of the day, come Saturday, this is going to be the most talked about event of the weekend. And it's not even going to be close. It's not even going to be close. So if you're one of those people, it's just like, oh, stop with the influencer box or shit. I don't know what to tell you, guys. Like, this is what everyone's going to be talking about come Saturday.

It's just the way that it is. And honestly, I'm somewhat intrigued by it, but I think there's a big part of me that's excited for it because I just want it to be done. Like, I just want this Dylan, Danis, Logan Paul fight to be over. I just want it to be a thing of the past. We'll talk about it for a couple more days and then we can just move on with our lives. But I'm really intrigued. I don't know why.

Call me a weirdo. Call me what you will. but that's where I'm at. So we're going to take some calls in a minute. It's been a weird day, my friends. We had some internet issues earlier. This morning, now normally during the week, especially when my kid has school,

I do the 8 a.m. CrossFit class, but because my kid had a doctor's appointment today, and my wife was going to take him to the doctor's appointment, so he was going to be late for school. I was like, I'm going to go to the 630 class instead. So I go to the 630 class. It's just one of those. workouts where it's just like, oh, this sucks.

Because it's like you have 20 minutes and you have to do a thousand meter run, a hundred calorie row and then 40 strict pull-ups in 20 minutes. And it doesn't seem like a lot when I say it, but it's a lot. It's a pain of the ass. And the way they describe it is like you could do it and partition it however you want. So I was like, I'm going to do 100 meter run. 10 calorie row and then four pull-ups. I was going to do 10 sets of that.

And then I just was like, by the time I got to the 8th set, I'm like, all right, I'm just going to finish this all and get it done. By the time I got done, workouts over, did it in like just over 19 minutes, and I just kind of like follow the ground and take my deep breaths. And all of a sudden, I just feel this like furry, smelly, shivering fur. like on my nose. And I'm like, what the hell is that? I thought it was like a spider, like a big ass spider.

It is South Carolina. It's not, it could be a thing. And then I look up and it is like the miniature version of my dog Shiloh. And it's just, he's just shivering and he's dirty and he's frightened. And he's just like laying on me. And I'm like, what the frig is happening right now? because we usually leave the door of the gym open. So he lays on top of me and I'm just like,

what is happening right now? And then he kind of runs around and like sees everybody, but then just kind of ends up back hanging out with me. And then he just runs out the door. And I'm like, all right, maybe he's just going out for a stroll. And now he's going back home.

And then we're doing like, we're practicing being upside down for like handstand pushups and stuff. We're just drilling that stuff. And I go upside down on the wall. And I feel the wet nose. just kind of get me on the neck again. I'm like, oh, it's the freaking dog again. So I go and dogs just like shivering or whatever.

So one of the girls that's in the class is like, well, I'll just take them like to a shelter or something. She's like, I'm going to bring them home and I'll bring him to a shelter. And she like lived here with their parents. I took a picture and I sent it to my wife and she calls me and she's like, bring them home. I'm like, but it's not ours. And like I think she might go home with this other girl. he goes well if she doesn't take him like just bring him home i was like okay walk over to her car and she's just like i can't bring him home i'm like all right we'll bring him so now the dog hops in the car

and then doesn't sit in any of the seats he jumps to like with the like the little top shelf in the back of like a full-sized car where the window is and just like snuggle himself up there for like 30 seconds and then he just comes over as i'm driving and just just jumps on my lap and just like falls asleep in my lap for the rest of the ride hall. I'm like, oh my God, we're going to get a second dog, aren't we? Bring this dog in. My other dog's like freaking out. Doesn't really understand what's going on. So I have like one dog on one side of me. I have another dog on the other side of me. One's laying on the floor. One's laying on the couch. If one dog comes over and wants to be pet, the other dog has to come over and be pet. If a neighbor is

walking down the street and one dog sees them, they both sit next to each other and bark. It's like they've known each other their whole lives. It's craziness. And then it's just been a day. And then we're going to take him to the vet later and see if he's chipped or anything like that. If not, then apparently I'm going to have two dogs after the end of the day today. So that's my story.

I'm sticking to it. And now I'm turning the show over to you guys. We will start with Omer or Omer. Go ahead. Man, you are muted. Hey, how are you doing, man? Good, how are you? Pretty good.

It's a pretty cool morning. I got a cat pretty recently, too. I just found her in, like, in, like, a church parking lot. So that was pretty cool. Good. Anyways, talking about UFC, so on, I don't know if you saw the interview, Syragans interview with Ariel Hawani, but he sounded really disinterested in the Tom Aspinno fight.

and I didn't see that he was too keen on the Sergei's Pavlovich fight too and saying that he wants to fight for the title and this and that and he doesn't really want to fight someone down in the rankings and like from being a UFC fan for a couple of years now I'm not like an OG but I think that's like one of the worst all-time moves I've ever seen and I don't in no world do I see like Zero Gone being thrown into another title fight again even if both John and Steepa retired. So I was just wondering what your thoughts were on like,

zero not wanting to take either of those fights. Because I think, like, the only other fight he'll be given that's even, like, sort of close to the title is Jalchen Alameda. I think if he wins, he'll fight, Cyril gone. But I just don't understand the logic at all because I don't think there's, like, any world. unless like someone gets her and he's like a backup fighter and that's what he's going for or something because i think if both john and steepier retire it's going straight to tom aspinall and sergey for the vacant belt um so just wondering what your thoughts are on that and then um if you've heard anything about the in uh the reason why peter yon pulled out um that'd be good to hear about too i know it was an injury but i don't know um how long or what it was um but yeah that's all i hope you have a good day thanks for letting me uh chime in. No problem, man. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, we talked about this before. It's Zero Gone.

I don't understand what he's trying to do because, I mean, look, I'm not saying he's, like, completely out of the title picture right now because he could just find his way in. You never know. Now, one of the things that could have helped Zero Gone is out of the question now. because if Curtis Blades beat Jelton Almeida, Cyril might have had a shot of getting in there. He might have. But now, Curtis Blades is out. Derek Lewis is in,

and Jelton Almeida is probably going to annihilate Derek Lewis. It is not going to be a fun night for Derek Lewis. Jelton's got to take him down once and tap him, and that's going to be it. Now, could Derek Lewis go out there and knockabout? Yeah, maybe. But I don't think that's going to happen. I think Jelton's eventually going to get his paws on him.

He's going to drag Derek Lewis to the ground. He's going to strangle him. And he's going to win. And at that point, Jailton Almeida jumps over. Cyril G.R. Gone. Because you can't penalize Jelton Almeida for fighting the fight that he has to get, has to fight now. It's not his fault Curtis Blades got hurt.

He was willing to fight Curtis Blades in a main event fight. Curtis couldn't make it. Derek Lewis stepping in. Jailton smushes him. They'll probably do Jailton versus Pavlovich for the vacant title. And then Sierra Gunn's going to have to fight Tommy Aspinall anyway. So don't really understand the strategy. Didn't understand it then.

Certainly don't understand it now. Now, if you don't want to fight Tom Aspinall, I get it. Like, you can be, like, I'm okay with that. If he's like, no. Tom, not fighting you. You beat Marchine Taibora. So, no, I'm not fighting you. But if he at least.

said, hey, Sergei Pavlovich, I'll fight you. That's different. But now he's just like, no, but I want the title shot. No. You got to be a little more, got to be a little better with that. To answer your other question, as we said on this show a couple of weeks ago, I don't know anything about Peter Young's injury. And the reason why is because that fight was never, ever done. It wasn't even close to being done. Now, I saw the reports and everyone's like, this is happening. the fight was never done. It was never, ever done.

Penn never went to paper, nothing. It was reported from somebody that it was happening. And as I said the next day, I was told that it's not happening, that it wasn't happening at all. Not saying that it couldn't, but at the time when that report came out, and even before, because on this show,

someone had said, oh, there's rumors that Peter Young's going to fight Song Yudong. And I believe on this show, I actually got a response saying no. And then that other report came out that got traction. And I reached out to the source again. And he said, no, it's not happening. So I don't know what the injury is. There was no pullout because the fight wasn't a thing.

Was it? Here's what I'll tell you. It was offered to one side. They said okay. And then that's it. that's pretty much all it was. And never got past that, never an official agreement on the table,

never contracts sent out and signed. The fight was never a thing. That's why I preached the golden rule, my friends. If it's not on the website, it's not a thing. And you would think that a fight of that magnitude headlining a card like that would make our website if it was real. But it wasn't.

So there you go. lesson in the golden rule my friends uh let's go to henry henry go ahead hey mike what's that man yeah man um i just uh found myself hearing your voice a lot of the time to be honest during the marab interview on the m m m m m hour last week there was a lot of deserved and uh you know meritocracy and stuff like that and he was just pooh-poo and the idea of the cheeto fight which i don't know whether he's just trying to really relay his point to get his title short or whether or not he's just being deluded about the fact that he thinks he just deserves it. Also speaking of guys that think they deserve title shots, which most people do as well. Balal Mohammed, he said he'd only

take championship money for an Usman fight. How realistic do you think that is because I think he's barking up the wrong tree there. And also, Usman Nermegamadov, I think he just marks everyone in if the merger happens, OAM, it's probably the biggest challenge. But I'd rather see him in the UFC, just your thoughts on him and his future. And yeah, that's it, man. I'm incredibly high on Oostman Ramaga made off.

I think it was on the preview show heading into the weekend, where Sheehan had asked me if when, it was pretty much like when Usman beats Brad Permanis, like, what do you want to see next for him? And I think we all want to see the Shobli fight. if Shobly beats Pitbull and I think he will.

I want to see that fight. Honestly, there's no other fight in Bellator that interests me with U.S. involving U.S. Maybe A.J. McKee, but I kind of feel like we'd be, well, we still could get it. AJ McKee beats Sydney Outlaw and

Usman wins the Grand Prix and they're still doing stuff. Like, I will watch that. And I would watch a Shobby fight. That's like it. There's nothing else. Usband is a minus 1,500 favorite at minimum against every single other guy he could fight.

So I want to see Usman Maghabeda v. Armand Saruky in at some point. Like that is now a fight I think we could get. And it wasn't realistic a year ago. It's probably a little more realistic now. I want to see that fight. I want to see that fight at some point. 1,000%. The Marab thing, look, Marab's not wrong.

He does deserve it. He does deserve the title shot. Blahmahmad absolutely deserves a welterweight title shot. But that doesn't mean anything. It means nothing in the UFC. Now, if this was Bellator, both of those guys would be getting ready for title shots. For sure. But this is not Bellator.

This is not the PFL. This is not even one championship. This is the business of making money. This is a company, the UFC, that is worth like almost $10 billion. They know what they're doing in terms of putting butts and seats and driving revenue. Marab isn't the guy. Bilal Muhammad isn't the guy. They're not.

They're not. You got to do something else. You got to do something else. Now, if I'm Balaw, like I said, on this program a few weeks back before this thing was even a thing, I said he kind of had to fight Kamar Usman. Like, that's it. That is what he has to do? He has to fight again.

the only thing he can hope for if he doesn't take the usman fight is that leon edwards beats colby and leon calls for him other than that ballerling getting the title shot unless he wins another fight the gilbert burns fight i hated it not the fight i hated the timing of it it made no sense to be on ufc 288 no sense absolutely no sense absolutely no sense That fight meant nothing at the time. Because Colby and Leon was not even on the books yet. None of that mattered. It was just a coddled together.

The fight didn't sell an extra pay-per-view. It didn't sell an extra ticket. It was just there. Wow, look at how tough these guys are. Gilbert just turned around on three weeks notice after beating Mazdaal. Ballal's taking this fight on two weeks notice. Like, it's cool and it's great. It's a good win for Belaw.

but Gilbert Burns gets banged up because he didn't have to take this fight and the Bala wins a fight that means nothing because it's five, six months later and there is no movement in this division at all. None. Absolutely none. So I honestly think Bala is going to have to,

he's going to have to fight Kamar Rissman. And I know he said he wants championship money and all that. He's just going to, if that fight happens, it's probably a fight night main event, so he will get more money. And as I said, a few weeks back, just December 2nd, do it in Austin, make that the main event. Perfect.

Done. Bilal wins, almost undeniable. He still needs Leon to win because if Colby wins the belts, I don't think Bilal's ever getting a title shot unless it's an interim one because Colby just got to go after Islam or go after some of these bigger names. But I think it would be in the best interest of Bilal Muhammad to fight Kabar Rusman. just like I think it would be in the best interest of Marab de Walsh, really, to fight Henry Sehudo. I know Sehudo is saying, hey, I'm supposedly fighting in January.

If I am Marab, I'm jumping all over that fight. I am calling everybody that needs to be called and saying, hey, I will go to Toronto and fight Henry Sehudo. Let's go. And that's a million percent of what he should do. Because Chito Vera is getting the Sean O'Malley fight. Marob deserves the title shot more than Chito does. I think we can all agree with that. But

Chottomali Chito Vera can headline a pay-per-view and it will do really, really well. There you go. It's hockey season and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything.

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age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton 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 Treadplus at OnePeloton.ca. Let's go to CV. J-Mack, you're on deck.

CV, go ahead. Yo, Mike, just two quick questions for me. Just first question, not really a question, but yeah, I just want to get more of your thoughts on Bobby Green's win from Saturday. and I know you said one of your odd-note picks, it was Matus Gamrod, but yeah, it seems like a pretty fun fighter right now. You can go do a lot of potential fun matchups. I was listening to Morning Combat yesterday, and BC suggested Holloway moving up to 35 and fighting Bobby Green. Seems like a good idea to me.

And also, another question, not related, but what are you planning to name your new dog? Thanks. So, Bobby Green, I mean, dude, Bobby Green is a freaking man. That was awesome. Like, that was crazy. And I kind of saw it coming, like, as the fight began, because Grant Dawson was just throwing a bunch, like, a bunch of haymakers. And I'm looking at Bobby Green's face.

And Bobby Green's face just told me, like, oh, boy, I'm about to knock this guy out. I thought Grant was just going to come in, maybe throw a couple jabs and just immediately take him down. And then Grant what, like, Grant seemed like he was, oh, just standing there strike with him. Look, I know the fight only lasts 33 seconds. I get it. But it just seemed like Grant was like, all right, I'm going to be out here trying to prove something that I can stand with this guy. And he just got lamped with one shot.

It was incredible. I just, like, I didn't even scream. I stood up in my office by myself and I just went, oh my God. Oh, my God. And then I sat down and was like, wow. That was crazy. Look, at Max Holloway, like, I don't think it's the hallway fight, man. Like, I like it.

I like it, and I would love to see it. But now's not the time, man. Bobby Green is in a weird, is in a very interesting position right now. We've been talking about Bobby Green for almost three years now on MMA fighting. When it comes to guys who are wildly veterans that people like, that want to see get shot up the rankings and maybe get to a title fight, like Mazadol did in 2018, 2019, in that run that he had, Bobby Green is like the guy. Bobby Green is the guy.

If there was ever going to be another lightning in a bottle, late career surge of superstardom, maybe to a title fight anywhere in the sport that could mimic what Mazadol did, it's coming from Bobby Green. And him going out there and lamping a guy like Grant Dawson, who everybody was so high, on as a future title challenger.

And to do that in 33 seconds, like, you've got to throw, you've got to push this man to the moon right now. Because it's a very interesting spot that Bobby's in. Because if you push him to the moon and he gets there, like, he is a frigging superstar. And if he doesn't get there, like, who cares? Then you can fight the Max Holloways. They think you fight the Dustin Porreys of the world, like in a tail end of the career kind of a fight. But right now, you have an opportunity with Bobby Green to build a superstar. I think you just got to take your shot here, man.

I think you got to take your shot. Now, if you want to do Dan Hooker, five. Get it. I saw Hanata Moikano call out and say a bunch stuff. I think Hadatamuikano has less than a zero percent chance of getting that fight. I like Hanata Moikano a lot. I love his personality. he had one of the best promos I had ever seen after one of his recent wins.

He's a good fighter. He's been around a little bit. Love the guy. Love money, Boycano. But he just ain't there. He ain't there. So for Bobby, it's Dan Hooker. I say it's the Gamrod fight.

Just give him to him and just see what happens. If Bobby Green goes out there and does the same thing to a guy like Gamrod, then you give him a number one contender fight, and then he fights for the belt in his next fight. Just give it to him. Just go. with them see what happens and if he loses who cares then we can still

do these other fun fights but right now you have an opportunity with bobby green i think you got to take it if we get the dan hooker fight i ain't going to complain about it but gamrod who is the backup for the title fight who did not fight for very long against raphael fazeve is ready to fight in december do it do it that's what i want to see and if gamron isn't ready not good

bobby green fights dan hooker beats dan hooker he jumps over Matush Gamrot. That's how the UFC is going to do the business here. So big moment for Bobby Green could be a game-changing moment for him. But he's going to get a big fight next. He's either going to get Dan Hooker or he's going to get Matush Gamrot next. So well done. As far as the little dog goes, I don't know. I'm not naming him yet because I don't want to get too attached. We have Shivo My son wants to name The Little Dog Milo

I don't love it for being honest Too confusing I think it's too easy To just rhyme the dog names But he does look like Shaddow's little brother Which is nuts So maybe we'll go with Milo I don't know

But I don't want to get too attached I don't want to get that far as shit J-Mack Go ahead J-Mack Are you there It's not going through. Try again, J. Mack.

I'll get you right in. Do we have you, J. Mac? I was just curious. Do you think maybe Grand Dawson cuts too much weight? Like, I know he's missed weight before, and I know he got hit clean by Bobby Green Saturday, but it looked like a punch that a lot of people probably could have taken. I might be way off, but just your thoughts on that, I think.

I don't know, man. I thought that when he cut to 45, because that dude was a featherweight. for a hot minute. So I actually thought he was perfect for him. Maybe it's not, I don't think he does well at Walter weight at all.

So I kind of think it's like 55 robust for him. And who knows? Bobby Green, like look, Bobby Green gets a lot of credit, man. Like I, the whole thing with the, the,

I'm like I call it a ceremonial weigh-in, but the face off there on Friday after the weigh-ins. Bobby Green was like Grant also was like a little rattled by that He's like what? What are you so mad about? Oh, I know you're a nice guy. I know you're a nice guy. Grant like I don't think Grant like could fathom was happening.

And then before the fight started, Grant goes over and does like the handshake and puts the fist out. And Bobby Green's like, no, we're not doing that. I don't think Grant was ready for that. There's a lot to that. But Bobby Green just handled this thing so well. It was just, it was a, it was magic. It was magic.

It was like meant to be. It was craziness. But maybe, I mean, only Grant knows the answer to that, but I don't think he's cutting too much 55. He's definitely cutting too much to get to 45. And I don't know if 170 is a good spot for him. So I kind of think it's 55 robust. J-Mack, do we have you? Yeah, sorry about that.

There's something wrong with my connection. Oh, good. But the reason I was calling, I was calling about this Paula Costa injury. I'm wondering, how can you fight five weeks after a surgery against one of the best guys in the world in grappling? It just doesn't seem to make much sense, but then Paula Costa never did make much sense. So I just wanted to get your thoughts on that.

And do you think that they will schedule Bobby Green versus Dan Hooker in December since they both seemed to want the fight? and Bobby's just coming off a big huge knockout and I think that would be that'd be a nice violent fight to cap off an event in December. Thanks Mike, appreciate it. I hope so.

Look, Bobby Green needs to fight in December. Bobby Green wants to fight in December. He fights in December and you do it against somebody that is, you put him up against the highest ranked available opponent. For sure. Even if like, if something happens, because look, there's, I know there's chatter about Sarukian versus Daryush.

I know some of the initial reports were, I think Darius is on Luke Thomas's live chat and said December 16th. I'm told that's not the date they're looking at right now. They're looking at something maybe sooner, maybe a main event for one of the two fight night cards, but none of that stuff. Like it looks like that's the fight. we're going to get. We just don't know when at this point. So, but let's just say something happens.

Like, let's say something happens, Sarukian gets banged up. Darius, he's an opponent. It's Bobby Green. Like, it's Bobby Green. That's the fight you're making. On the flip side, something happens to Darius, Bobby Green fights Syrucian. Like, you give him the highest ranked available fighter in December. That's how I would do it. And if it happens to be Dan Hooker, Fine. Totally fine. I'm totally down for that. The Costa thing, I'm going to...

Look, it's weird. I was kind of... I don't even know how to, like, what word I'm trying to use here. There is a story about this fight that I am well aware of that I can't really talk about just yet. And maybe I will

after 294. and I'll just kind of leave it at that but yeah, very weird. Looks like the fight's going to happen and that's it. But after 294 I'll tell you a story about what happened

I don't know if it was two or three weeks ago. I think it was two weeks ago like on Thursday two weeks, no, three weeks prior to that. It was a very weird day, my friends. And I will tell you after 294 about that day, there was like a 36-hour stretch, mostly on that Thursday, where things got super weird.

And I'll tell you all about it. But I can't talk about it now. I was thinking about it. I'm going to wait. I'm going to wait until after 294 to tell this story. It was a big scramble fest, but hey, kudos to Paula Costa, man. Dude wants to fight. You could see it in his face and he's super confident he could beat Hamzaa Shabayev.

I do feel like this fight's going to be if Paulo is ready to go and he's healthy and this whole thing doesn't weigh him down too much. I think this is more competitive than people think it's going to be. I really do. So we'll see. I'm glad we're getting this. I'm still glad we're getting it. But I'll tell you

The Tuesday after 294 I will tell you this story about this fight and some of the other shenanigans that happened along the way and it's pretty wild

I think you guys are going to be kind of shocked by it but we'll get to it in a couple of weeks Daniel go ahead Hey Mike can you hear me got you

perfect perfect Well, heck of a morning to you. Just had a couple questions for you. I'll make it quick. Just curious what you think the ceiling is for Joe Piper. Obviously, just getting finished after finish here. He's looking pretty good in there. Next one is just there have been so many upsets lately in main events.

I mean, obviously, just the two biggest ones off the top of my mind are Sean O'Malley and Sean Strickland. And shoot, now we got Bobby Green 30 seconds. So I'm just curious, you know, out of these next underdogs, who do you think has the biggest chance of pulling off an upset before the end of the year? Olivera, Derek Lewis, or Miochich. And then last one I got for you is just last contender series episode tonight.

Just what do you think about tonight? The last lineup. Thanks, Mike. Biggest upset opportunity. Let me take a gander here. I mean, just hearing the names, let's see, Islam minus 340, Charles Olivera plus 270. Steepa plus 310 to John Jones minus 395.

And then Leon is a slight favorite over Colby. I feel like Colby's got to be the favorite by the time those two guys fight. Because that line just keeps coming in on Colby. Probably Steepa, honestly. I don't know why I feel that way. Because I feel like Jailton's just going to smush Derek Lewis. And I just feel like Islam's going to be. Olivera but if Oliver wins like I would be more emotionally shocked of steep A one more than Charles

Olivera winning so I'll say steep A because this is that just kind of fits into the year that we've been having John Jones comes back after all this time wins the heavyweight title doesn't get the Francis fight Francis leaves Jones gets a create gets a quick submission went over Cyril gone where he barely broke a sweat says I ain't fight any of these killers. Give me Steepay or I'm done. This is probably my last fight. And that if Stepe beats them,

oh my God, that would kind of fit right in. Would it not? So I'll go at Stepe. I will go with Stepe. Boating for Flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea.

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and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Four corner sports. Go ahead. Hey, Mike. Question. So I was, I don't know if it's confirmed and not, but I saw Ilius Apore and he ended up announcing on a Spanish TV show that he's fighting Volcanowski.

Is that confirmed on your end or not? Just because I think he had the interview, I think yesterday, for not mistaken. then what's it called walking Buckley is he on the rise as to possibly be a top 15 fighter

at Walterway because it looks a whole lot better at supposed to middleweight so so he had a really good performance against Alex Marono. All right thanks Mike so we talked about Volk and Toporia a couple weeks ago on the show told you that that's the targeted fight for the January pay-per-view.

Looked like that's the direction everybody wanted to go, just a dotted in the eyes, crossing the T's kind of a thing. I guess, you know, talking to some people and just kind of going through everything. I think Teporius said in that interview that as far as he knows, that's the fight the UFC wants. There's some things that need to be ironed out, but he expects to fight Volkovsky January 20th. and he's not really wrong based on where I'm at, conversations I had.

I reached out to some sources as well, asked if anything had changed over the last couple of weeks. I was told by sources, both sides have agreed to it. It's just a matter of getting pen to paper at this point. So unless something, and I'm not like reporting this first because it's already been reports about it,

basically what I was told is like, Looks like we have a fight. But contracts have not been signed. It's not 100% done or anything like that. But I would be shocked if that fight doesn't happen, January 20th for the Featherweight title. I'd be shocked at this point. You mentioned Buckley. The last caller mentioned Joe Pfeiffer.

Buckley's great at 170. He's great at 170. I didn't love the post-fight promo from Buckley. if we're being honest. I was fine, but I wasn't, like, blown away by it. I don't think he's going to get a main event next. Actually, Joe Pfeiffer is a better chance of getting a main event next, if you're asking me.

But Buckle looks good at 170. My on to the next one pick was a crystal ball pick because I think we're not Fokk Ratin-off is going to beat Elizzyzy Leski. And now I think we kind of have to do Joachim Buckley versus we're not. 24. And Joe Piper, he nailed it, man. He's trying to get me an Otno point.

He said, I said on to the next one, give him the loser of the Brendan Allen, Paul Craig, made event, November 18th. Joe Piper said, hey, Brandon Allen's going to put the beat down on Paul Craig, and I'm going to fight him. So, yeah, I want to see that for Joe Piper next.

I need to see a fringe top 15 opponent. him. Let's see what he can do. Because he's just ethering these guys that are like in the top 25 to 30. I mean, what he did to Gerald Mearshardt, a lot of people ain't doing that to Gerald Mearsart. A lot of people high on Andre Petroski, he didn't do that to Gerald Mearsart. It's very tough to do that to that guy. And Joe Pfeer freaking did it. So I'm high on him. I'm high on him.

But now it's time. Let's let's give him a test and see what he can do. uh mikey go ahead uh so like i know this may not quote unquote makes sense but like i feel like maybe rightfully so the chatter about where michael venn and page is supposed to be going kind of died after paris we haven't heard it not paris uh you know the last uk card they did and if when or if he does time with the ufc i mean throwing him in there right against either oosman or Belal sounds like a good idea to me. And as far as Joaquin, like, I know Maulkeen is not going to get a main event, but who do you think you should get next?

You know what I mean? And also the Bellator card, kind of interesting how they're deciding that they're going to book Liam McCourt and Cyborg next with all the supposed stuff going on with Bellator and the PFL. So give me your thoughts on that way if you get a chance. And, yeah, as usual. You got the one there. Thanks, guys. Thanks, man. Yeah, Cyborg Bacourt. Sure. I mean, come on.

I got the little pub. Now it won't come inside. Come on. Sorry. Come on. Try to do a live show here. All right. Do what you got to do. Anyways, yeah, we'll get Cyborg McCourt. Like, look, Chris doesn't have to fight any of, she doesn't have to fight Kayla. She doesn't fight anybody. She's not going to make an extra dollar more fighting any of these women. She was the highest paid fighter on Bellator 300.

I think it was somewhere in the 300,000 range. I bet she made more than that all in. So she's just going to fight McCourt. Like that's it. And it seems like, I mean, from conversations I had, if this deal goes through,

like I think eventually it all become one thing, but I think it's going to be separate for at least a little while. So we could see that in Dublin. I think Cyborg had mentioned maybe doing it in Japan. I got no issue with that. If they want to do like a Belator Rise on New Year's Eve type of situation where we do that and we get like Belator title fights in Japan, like that's fine with me.

We're not going to have Chris for much longer. So let's just kind of enjoy what we get. MVP? he didn't get an ooster ball, man. Like, he's just not. He's just not. The UFC, like, MVP is over.

Like, people know who he is, but he's not a star. Like, he's not a big star. He's just, he's not. He's not a big, huge superstar. He ain't where Chandler was when he came over. You know what I mean? Like, everybody knew Michael Chandler was.

I don't think MVP is that. I really don't. Chandler was a former world. champion, he fought some beats of big names. Like, MVP's got some decent wins, but I mean, if you're throwing him in there with Usud or Balal, like, why would you do that? Because he's just going to get tackled and sat on for 15 minutes.

Like, he's going to probably lose both of those fights. I don't know. I don't know what they're going to do. I don't know what MVP's going to do, and I've talked about this before. It all depends on what MVP wants. If he wants the bag, then he ain't going to the UFC, because he's not going to get the bag with the UFC. but if he wants legacy fights,

if he wants to try to be the best fighter in the world, then he'll go to the UFC, and the bag doesn't matter. But I kind of think he's going to get the bag. And that screams to me that he'll either stay with Bellator, go to PFL and go be part of that absorption, or he'll do the influencer boxing thing

or do BKFC. So, yeah, that's what I think. Hang on one second. Got to get this little dog back inside. Where did you go? Come on. Sorry. Come on.

You've got to come inside. Appreciate you guys with the patience and staying with me. Carrying this little baby dog down the streets. Do, do, do. It's been a day, my friends. It's been a day. Okay, come on in. Come on in.

All right, you get down. I got two dogs jumping on me. All right. You sit here. There you go. Jeez, Louise. All right. We move on.

We got both dogs in the house. We're fine. Handa, go ahead. Wow, what a week we're going to have if I connect on the first try. What's up? I mean, we have endless possibilities now, Mike. I'll be quick. Got two for you.

One, yeah, very interesting what we saw yesterday. It looks like Derek Lewis versus Jolten Omeda. Derek Lewis is a master in stand-up G-A-2. However, with that being said, he hasn't grappled anybody to the level of Joltenhammeda. So I'm sure he's not just going to be able to get up as he, you know, tends to do. Secondly, Derek Lewis doesn't really have a neck, you know what I mean? So how does he sound Derek Lewis? I guess, you know, tune in and find out.

what in the world is going on in the poli-cost to camp like i think that line is now minus 400 and climbing like if this surgery is true and that's like actual news i mean hums are round two ragdalling like this guy barely even had a camp then if this guy's recovering from a surgery like what what are we doing here with this but what do i know i'm just a panda have a day mike i mean i don't think at the end of the day like it doesn't really matter who wins this fight because they're just probably going to end up getting Sean Strickland anyways and the UFC is looking at this fight like we win either way either

we're going to get Hamzaa Shamaa fighting for the belt or we're going to get Paul Costa fighting for the belt against Sean Strickland. So either way I think the UFC's fine with this but like I said there's more to this story and I'll tell you in a couple weeks when this is all over. And this fight happens and it all goes down. I will tell you what happened. Maybe I'll tell you on the watch party after the fight ends. Maybe I'll give you something to finagle here. But yeah, I will tell you the story. It was pretty crazy. But yeah, minus 360 for Shami if right now on Draft Kings, Paul Kost comes back at plus 285. There you go. Oh, someone asked about Contender Series.

Let me see. Let me pull up the line of. I know there's six fights. Tavares versus Romeos. We got Zanidem versus Lima. Connor Matthews, obviously I'm familiar with him. Fighting Jair Farias, Torres Finney. If you listen to this show after, what was it?

It was August of 2022. I watched Torres Finney fight live for the first time. This was at ICON FC4 in Savannah, Georgia. I believe this is the first, like, MMA events that Jorge Mazadol put on. Like, not the, not the Dare Nuckle stuff. Um, but just actual like just a straight up MMA event.

Like Icon was something else, but this is like that the first time that Mazol did like an actual MFA event. Uh, and I saw Torres Fannie. This dude is a fucking tank, man. He is a frigging tank. He's 5'7. He probably walks about 220. He's a middleweight. He is a freak dude.

This dude is a. freak of nature. An incredible athlete, super explosive and a gas tank that is just insane man. He is something else.

This dude is a monster. I like him a lot. He absolutely wrecked Justin Dorsey. First round finished. Then I saw him fight again two months later in the same venue against a five in one.

fighter. Now this one wasn't like what I saw the first time around. This was a guy who kind of had an off night, but still just poor Yvonne Botnich just got picked up and slammed like a thousand times and punched in the face a million times. And then finally like late in the third round tour is like, oh, I only got a minute left in the fight. I'm going to finish him. And he did. This dude's real good. So I'm excited to see what he can do again. against Yuri Panferoff tonight. Yuri's always, obviously, a really solid hand himself.

I've seen Yuri a bunch. Fought for CES a whole bunch of times. Good fighter, slick on the ground, really good submission artist, really good grappler. He's not a tremendous striker, but he's not bad. Finney's just an athletic freak, man.

So this is going to be super interesting because Finney's getting just body slam this dude a whole bunch. But it's a matter of like who will have the advantages once it's on the ground. Can Penferoff off of his back thwarts the absolute explosiveness of Torres Finney? I'm intrigued by that one. Super, super interesting fight. I really like Finney a lot. I like Connor Matthews as well.

Lucas Roach is really good. Betancourt's good. But I know we had the weight miss in the last fun. It should be fun, man. But, guys, we're getting six contracts tonight. We're getting six, maybe seven. This is it.

We might even get eight contracts today. Dude, we might get 12 contracts tonight. It's going to be one of those nights where we're like, okay, this is a fun season. I wish there was more. And then Dana's just going to give like seven contracts out. And we're like, what the fuck, dude? Like someone who won a lackluster decision is going to get a contract.

and the dude who lost that fight's also going to get one, it's probably what's going to happen, guys. But, yeah, it should be fun tonight. And then I'm kind of glad we're taking some time off from it. As well, yeah. What's up, man? So I just have a few things I want to ask. I'll start off with the Usmano Mogamidov.

Just if you are a matchmaker, and you want to make the best fight possible in the Lightway Division, which fighter would be your pick of a choice to match against Usman? And if you also had maybe a favorite of yours, you would like to see Usman face again, who would that be? I also just want to ask, is there a reason why the UFC's stacking up 296 so much? with all these big fights, you know, and, you know, rumors with like Amman, Sarukyan

and Benu possibly being on that card. I know you discussed it earlier, it might not be on now, but, you know, then we also now Randy Jackson versus Muslim Salikov. That's confirmed, I think apparently. I saw an MMA orbit. I'm just curious. Is there a reason why you see stacking this carder of other than, you know, spread it all diversively, like kind of how to do with, you know, 290 or like, you know,

288 and all that, you know, because, I mean, obviously, I would say we were in a bit of a slumber as UFC fans for our paper views, but I don't think we did very bad either. You know, there were some big highlights, you know, so I guess it depends. And I just one more thing, just regarding the Hamza and Costa, I think a lot of people really, really, truly overlooking Costa, because he could really have the perfect fight style to really counter Hamza. I remember just a few weeks ago when Sean Strickland for Ardysania, a lot of people kept saying, oh, Ardysanya is going to knock this guy, a beat us at.

And a lot of fans, including myself, said, hey, eat your words because it's possible Sean will win. And I believe this could be the same for Hamza. I'm not saying Hamza can't win. I think his best game plan chances are ground to pound, very diverse, multitude of grappling. and if he can utilize his right jab perfectly, like how he has done against Iqram, Gerald Mirshar and some other fires in the past,

I think it'll work in his favorite world. But my biggest consumer harms us, his head movement, because Costa can take advantage of that. I've seen some costas fight, you know. He's not Yo-El Romero with a fucking titanium chin, you know. And another thing that is really interesting is like, the gas tank you know so yeah that's all i have have a great day man yeah it's gonna be interesting i think people are overlooking palacosta they really do um i'm not too worried about

hamzat's chin because hamzat took a lot away from that gilbert bird's fight yeah i could stand a little bit but i don't need to i could just hoist dudes into the sky and slam them and then once i do that like the fights overshortly thereafter um but it is an interesting fight. It's going to steal the show. It's going to steal all the headlines. It's going to be the one that by the time we get to Saturday, we're like, yeah, we're going to get a title fight,

but everyone's going to be talking about Costa versus Shimae. That's going to be the one. That's going to be the one. Why are they stacking 296? Because typically the year-end pay-per-view is like one of the big ones. Like Brian Campbell on BTL, I love what he says, and he says it on morning

combat too, calls certain UFC events majors. Like the UFC has majors every year. It's like March, International Fight Week, Abu Dhabi, MSG, end of the year. Those are like, you have to expect that one of the, like most of these cards are going to be stacked up like crazy. Those are the ones they really like make it a point to stack. They kind of owe us for last year because last year was not good. even if we got, I mean, we were supposed to get

Yuri Glover 2 on that card, and I get it, but the rest of that card was not great on paper. We ended up losing the Yuri fight. Jan and Goliath gets bumped up to the main event in the title fight. But that was kind of like a one-fight card. And it was kind of like just, we're like, ugh. Like, I love the main event, but this is not a typical

December pay-per-view card. this one kind of back to normal and I think they're making up for last year more than anything. So yeah, that's what I think and it's fine. And then January looks like we're going to get Volcanowski to pour you. And I got to tell you, of all the fights that can be made right now, that one is one or two on my list. can't wait for that fight cannot wait for that fight

we'll do Cole we'll go to four-on sniper and then we gets to go cold go ahead Mike I love your pick for Bobby Green with that Gamron and I think that's probably what's going to happen but do you think it hurts Bobby that he didn't have a name

ready and just screamed it at the top of his lungs like I feel like that Gamrod fight is something he gets if he just dominates it like Grant throughout five rounds but he goes out there and he lamps. Shout out to the word lamped. Love it.

Thanks for bringing that back. Fucking lamps him. Fucking get on that mic and like conjure up some George Mosvidal 2019 energy. Call out Dustin Porre. It's like I'm what you want on the co-made event of a pay-per-view. Like those two are just perfect for each other. He's going to get a big fight either way. But I just like, do you think he?

it hurt himself, like, just to not have a name right off the bat. I don't Brian Campbell kind of feels his way, but at least he set a date, but man, like, he didn't just, like, beat him. He wasn't just a dog and beat him. He fucking went out there and slept the guy. Like, he's a fight away from a title shot now. I mean, I don't know. It's crazy, but, like, the word deserves is nowhere to be found these days in the UFC, man.

Like, you go out there and you do something like that, shoot for the stars. And I just think it might have heard him that he did. And I think that dog came up to you at CrossFit because it says you had the dog in you. So shout out AK Lee. AK loves that, loves that. I don't know how I feel about this, honestly. I mean, I get where you and BC are coming from.

And typically I'm the guy that says, hey, be interesting on the mic and say something that matters. and I have many times blasted Bilal Muhammad for being very bad at this, like one of the worst. It's just misfiring. Mal was a trier, but he never gets it right. Like so many times he should have called for Hamzat and then he would call for the title shot, which is just like, no.

And then I remember after Luke A wait, I'm like, do not call out Usman or Colby. Call out Hamzot. There's nobody else that you should be calling out right now. And what does he do? He calls out who he's been in Colby. I'm like, golly, man. Golly. We've talked about some of the whiffs and all that.

Could Bobby Green have called out Dustin Porier, sure. Do you think the reaction would have been great, though? To me, I would have been like, eh. Because I just don't see a world where Dustin's like, yeah, I'll fight him. I don't think Dustin looks at it that way, at least not right now. And you know what worked out for Bobby Green? Is that people came to him.

And if that's what he thought was going to happen, then it was brilliant. Hanata Moikano starts making videos. Dan Hooker calls him out. Like all of this. Like they came to him. Bobby understands the position. Bobby's over. He doesn't, I mean, calling people out's great, but it's got to be a realistic call.

Now, if he called out Gamrod, interesting. If he called out Darius, interesting. I know he's linked to Sarukyam, but if he called out one of those guys, that's like, huh, not bad. Not bad. But it almost kind of worked out they didn't call it anybody. He's got something here, man.

Like I said, December, he's going to get the highest possible ranked guy. That's available. So, yeah, I don't, I'm not dinging them for, not having a name. Works out, worked out. Because he's going to have people knocking on his door. Hey, Mike.

Poor on sniper. Go ahead. Yeah, I got you. Good morning. Just real quick, two questions for you. I wanted to ask how you scored the Vanessa of Dermopoulos and Kanaka Murata fight. I saw a lot of uproar online about the scorecards. I'm assuming people thought Kanaka did enough to win, especially in round two, where they both landed, I think it was nine significant strikes.

And she had about four minutes in control time. Not a fight that, you know, truly matters or has a lot of stake behind it, but I was just curious how you scored that. And then also, who did you matchmake for Joaquin Buckley next? He looked great at 170. Hopefully he stays there for the next few fights at least. But yeah, that's it, Mike. Joachim Buckley, I matched up Renat Fokr Tinov.

I understand Fokritinov has a fight. He's fighting Eliza Zaleski, November 4th. Fokker Tinoff's going to win that fight. And I want to see what Joaquin Buckees made of. He goes out there and beats Renat. Then, all right, we're cooking with gas. I think Granat's really good. I think Granat is a problem.

And I think he's a guy that could be a top five welterweight. Honestly, I like what I've seen from Buckley at 170. Do I look at him and say, yeah, this guy's going to be a top five guy? Not yet. But if he beats or not, then I would. will change my mind. Good win against Alex Marono. That one surprised me. I'm not surprised he won, but I'm surprised that he made it look as dominant and as easy as he did. So that's a really good step forward for me. Really good step forward. So we'll see. We'll see what he can do. But yeah,

I want to test him. I want to see what he's made of. Throw him in there with Rnaut. He beats Rnaut. you got something. You can headline a card, he could fight a ranked dude. Might even be a top 10 guy at some point. But yeah, that's the fight I want to see. Last one. The YT Boxing, sir.

I assume it's YouTube boxing, sir. Are you there? Hello. You are muted. Are you hopping in? Guess not. Okay. Well, we're done then.

Thank you very much. Appreciate you all. It's going to be a day, friends. I will be tagging in for the great GC on No Bets Barg this week. Myself and Jed, I'm actually going to be making some betting selections on this card, and then I will be making betting selections next week as well. We'll do some betting for UFC Vegas 81. We'll just some betting for Misfits boxing, the prime card as well.

All right, I'm going to try the YouTube boxing server one more time. It doesn't work. Then we got to move on. Do we have you? No, we don't. Okay. Well, that's it, everybody. As far as this show goes, we'll be back here on Thursday, 10 a.m. Eastern.

We'll do it again. We'll BTL Thursday as well. But until that, my friends, have a great rest of your Tuesday. And as always, have a heck of a morning, everybody.