MMA Fighting - HOAM | Erin Blanchfield's Title Hopes, Interest In Jake Paul vs. Tommy Fury, More

Episode Date: February 21, 2023

Erin Blanchfield made a giant leap in the main event of UFC Vegas 69 this past Saturday at the APEX, but was her impressive finish of Jessica Andrade enough to get her right into a title fight, or would you rather see her get one more bout in before taking that next step? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to Blanchfield's stoppage win, and a possible fight with Valentina Shevchenko should she defeat Alexa Grasso at UFC 285, Additionally, listener questions include the return of Tatiana Suarez against Montana De La Rosa this Saturday at UFC Vegas 70, the interest — or lack thereof — in the Jake Paul vs. Tommy Fury fight this Sunday, Jon Jones vs. Ciryl Gane, Israel Adesanya returning in April to fight Alex Pereira, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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We are live on the M.A. Fighting Twitter space. You can hear the show at the entirety. Shortly thereafter on the M.A. Fudding Podcasting Network. I am Mike Heck. Hope everyone's having a great start to the week. Hope everyone had a great weekend. We are coming off of UFC Vegas 69, which yikes for a lot of that card, but there were some good moments. Main card was a really rough watch outside of the first fight and the final fight.

Freelms were a lot better, kind of sad at moments, but some good performance. from some up-and-comers, some relatively unknown fighters, which is always great to see. But I think everybody's talking about the ending of the card. And Aaron Blanchfield submitting Jessica Androge in round two, just a massive victory. And, man, just give her a title shot. Enough is enough. There is no soul rolling anymore. she passed the final test with flying colors and she gets it done.

A lot of people did not like this matchup for Aaron Blanchfield. I picked Aaron to win. I didn't think it would be like that. I thought if a finish were to be had, it would be from Jessica and Raj early. Maybe she'd catch Aaron with something, but Aaron took a lot of big shots in that first round and ate them, ate them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

and by the time that first round ended I felt pretty good that if Aaron Blanchfield lands a single takedown, she's winning the fight and that's what happened. She gets the takedown, right into side control, locks in the rear naked choke, fight is over, big moment for her. She calls out the winner of the title fight

between Valentina Shufchenko and Alexa Grasso, which is exactly what she should be doing and assuming Shevchenko beats Alexa Grasso, and of course, Alexe Grasso could come in and throw a bit of a wrinkle to this plan. But I am highly intrigued and highly fascinated with a Valentina Schofchenko Aaron Blanchfield fight right now. And I said this on onto the next one.

Maybe it's a hot take. I don't think it is. I am more interested in Valentina Shvchenko versus Aaron Blanchfield than I am in Valentina Shepchenko going up to 135 to fight a man in Nunez. If I never see that, fight, but I get to see Shevchenko Blanchfield, I'm fine with it. And I have a feeling that those

two are going to fight more than once, and I'm here for it. I am here for it. That is an interesting fight. I would pick Shevchenko to win right now, but I just want to see it. I just want to see it, and even if Blanchfield loses, I want

to see her come right back, you know, win two or three more fights, and then we see it again. That is going to be a fun little rivalry in this flyweight division for the next couple of years, in my opinion. But that win was so impressive. Congratulations to Aaron Blanchfield. Nice performance for Alexander Hernandez.

Gets it done against Jim Miller. A lot of people were upset about the scoring. I just don't really understand why. I thought Hernandez won all three rounds, if we're being honest. The third round was close, but I actually thought Hernandez won the third. I thought Hernandez won the first. second was a clear Hernandez round, but it's one of those fights where

I may have scored a 3027 for Hernandez, but it's one of those 3027s that you see and you're like, oh, he blew him out of the water, but that's not the case. It's a very close fight for a 3027 scorecard for me. I feel for BTL alumnus, Evan Elder, up two rounds against Nazim Satikoff, doctor stoppage,

nasty cut over his eye. fight is stopped immediately. Not really shocked by the stoppage, but Satikov going to his post-fight interview and saying he was due to a headbut. Eh, that's tough. But UFC comes through, gives Evan Elder and Sadakoff the fight of the night.

Elder gets a couple extra bucks. Myra Bueno Silva gets a bantamweight win. We haven't had a lot of bantamweight fights for the ladies. Submits Lena Landsberg. Jamal Emers, great performance against Kusain Ashgaboff. Philippe Lins, this is probably the saddest moment of the card, knocking out OSP in 49 seconds. A.J. Fletcher gets a nice elbow to gilly combo against Thumbagorimbo.

That was nice. That was very, very nice. Clayton Carpenter, who is in the running for the silence behind the violence nickname. Smits Juan Camillo Ronderos in the first round. Good performance for him. a lot of people talking about the William Knight performance or kind of lack thereof.

I give William Knight a lot of credit for just going on social media and just saying, hey, I screwed up, I froze, I effed up, and I lost the fight. But apparently a lot of people giving him a hard time. And the rest of the card, not really memorable. But this weekend,

kind of a different story, we have a lot of storylines. The main event's not fantastic on paper. Nikita Krilyle of Ryan Span, but we get Andre Mnese back against Brendan Allen. We get the return of Tatiana Suarez against Montetta de la Rosa. And there's just some pretty fun matchups on this card. This card is much better than last week's card, much better. Not saying it's a great card, but the storylines involved here are much better than the storylines involved as a whole with UFC Vegas 69.

So we'll talk about that. a big thank you to everybody who has checked out the new feature write-up slash podcast on m-m-a-fighting uh this was an undertaking for sure it took about a month to get this all done interviewed put together produced written up clearing hurdles getting clearance from the legal team all sorts of fun exciting things that you have to do do when you're putting together pieces like this. And I thought it came out great. For those who have checked it out, for those who have listened to the podcast, thank you.

For those who haven't, highly recommend you check it out to give us sort of a Cliffdotes version. Dustin Lampros, who you may remember from season 29 of the Ultimate Fighter, that was the Volcanovsky-Ortega season. Lampros was on Volcanowski's team. He had one fight on the season, got knocked out. And he went on to win three more fights. He's now the, he went up a weight class to fight for the Shamrock FC featherweight title, got a finish.

So he's looked good. I feel like he's on the cusp of a UFC call. But the story is more about what he is doing outside of the cage, teamed up with a friend, and they are outthwarting child predators in South Florida. They are going into the dark web. They are setting up decoys to. sort of trap these people into doing meetups. They show up.

They don't get who they expect. They get Dustin Lampbrose and his partner, Ryan Montgomery. They put him on film. They distract them long enough for the police to show up. And then the police arrest him. And you probably saw some of the clips. I know there were certain clips put up by, I forget who it was. But it was basically just Dustin having one of the guys do calisthenics,

do push-ups, do. squats, things like that. And a lot of people reacted. They're like, oh, that's really awesome. And as a dad myself, I looked at it and said, wow, that's pretty awesome. But there was a little part of me that just felt a little not icky about it, but I just, there's just no context to it. Like, we understood what was happening, but there was no why to it.

There's no context to it. So I reached out, got the context. And yeah, it's a pretty wild story. this was probably the most emotional one to put together, being a father of a nine-year-old, and just seeing how different the world is now than where I was as a nine-year-old. Because a lot of the problems that set this all up were not a thing when I was nine. There was no internet. There was no social media.

There was no Xbox. There's no PlayStation. We're not sitting there talking. into people playing video games. They're in different parts of the state and all the stuff. There's just so easy now to have kids get trapped into thinking they're talking to other kids and yet they're talking to a 30, 40, 50 year old that God knows what they're going to do when they actually meet up, whether it's what you think, whether it's a kidnapping,

whether it's worse. Maybe they kill the child. Like all this is scary and this is a tough one to put together. So if you guys want to read it, cool. If you want to check on the podcast, cool. We'd really appreciate it. The kind words have been great so far. So thank you for that.

So, okay, my diatribe is done. Let's roll, shall we? Let's hear from you guys. Let's start with Tristan. Tristan, hello. How many, how's everything? Good. I wanted to know

there's two things I wanted to talk about yesterday I was listening to the MMMA hour I see New York Rick was here and New York Rick was explaining was do you feel that Aaron Blanfield still needs a little bit more time because I was thinking about it until I was like

well I wish she had more reps and then I'm saying she still has a chance I still want to see the fight between her in Valentina, but I still wish she had just another fight before Valentin. So even though it's going to be very competitive, Blanfield may have even a better chance to win that fight against Valentina. I mean, Valentina still has the belt. So I just wanted to give thoughts.

I don't know if you did watch the MAA yesterday about it, what Eric was, what New York Rick was saying. And then another point that he had was, immediate title rematches. Like, do we actually need to see it? If Alexa Grasso goes in there and beats Valentina, do we need to see an immediate rematch? Can Valentina drop down, fight another person,

keep the divisions moving? So I think that was an interesting point that I never really thought about. You know, I'm sorry. I just wanted your thoughts on that, on what he had to say. And then my second part of the question I have is obviously against that we're going to see the return of Tantanosaurs.

Now, I did read an article from Kevin Ioli back last month when I think he believed he spoke to Eric Nixick. Now, Eric Nixik did not train. Tantiana, wasn't in a training cap for this one, but seeing her practice, he's saying some really good things. He actually said that she's the hardest worker in the gym, just that competitive spirit that we've seen before our injuries. So that's a good sign, a very good sign to me.

And that competitive drive that, you know, I want to be better than everybody in here, it goes a long way. And if she could dominate, again, we've talked in nauseam about Tantiana. If she goes out there and just trucks De La Rosa and then drops back down to 115, I'm giving her a big chance to win that title.

If she faces Jean-Wa-Ley-Lay-N-N-Now, she did say she won a fight on Rose, that would be great. I would be wonderful if I would like to see that fight, but if she even fought Jean-Ley-Ley-Ley-Legh, I'm picking Tarantianos to win that fight, depending, obviously, if she picked up where she left over, or even being just 70-80% of what she was.

So, Mike, your thoughts on that. that. Thanks for everything. It's interesting that, I mean, we've come full circle with this call because it started with, well, maybe Aaron deserves one more fight. And then now we go to Tatiana Suarez. Well, if she beats Montana Delaroza, who I don't even know if she's ranked right now at 125 pounds, we should just chuck her in there with Zhang Wei Lee and give her a title fight. Like, I don't know, man. Is Deloosa ranked? No. no she's not even she's not ranked in the top 15 delaroz is the perfect opponent for her by the way i'm

not complaining about the match event the match was perfect because montana doesn't give an f at all she's going to get right in there and she's going to give tautiana everything she's got she is no fear she will go on the ground with her she will strike with her she will do all of those things with her and not care at all uh so i think it's i think it's perfect matchmaking she'll also hasn't fought in like four years. So I'm not saying slow roll her, but I mean, she definitely needs more than one fight before we're throwing her into a title fight, especially if she beats Montana, who I, like I said, I feel like it's a good matchup. Move her up. You know, get her, get her, get her, if she wants to go back to 115, Marina Rodriguez is there. That would be a fun one.

I know she's, she's coming off of a loss. You could do that. Tisha Torres is like a, you know, that's another one. It's 2023 now. There's other fights there that can test her in different ways. So, yeah, I'm not really to go to that. We'll see how she looks. We'll see how she looks. We'll talk about it again next week.

But I also talk to Eric Nixick, and I ask them, like, outside of, like, the major names, who are the two, who are some of the fighters that you're looking at that could have massive years? And he said Tatiana Swares is one for that same reason. and he said Cody Stamman was the other. He said he has a big chip on his shoulder. So we'll see what happens. Blanchefield, like, I, look, if she gets, she even said herself, if something happens

and the UFC wants her to fight somebody else, cool, but I don't think she needs to. I don't think she needs to. I would pick her against everybody right now. I'd pick her to beat Santos. I was going to pick her to beat Santos anyways. She beats, I think she beats abandoned Fioreau. she already beat Andrade.

She beats Chacon, but I think they train together anyway. So then there's Grasso Murphy, Ara Ujo. Like, look, you have a performance like that. You get a title fight. And I think she's ready. I think she's ready. Now, if Grasso wins, they're going to run it back. I don't think you need to.

But if she wins, Valentin's been the champion for so long, they're probably going to run that one back. I don't, like, if you want to give Aaron another fight, just put an interim title on the line. Like I know they're stupid, but we've done interim titles for stupider things. Her next fight should have a title attached to it.

She's earned that right. 100%. So I think she's ready for Valentina. That fight is super interesting now. Let's just chuck her in there. She's 23. If she loses, she's going to get another opportunity. She'll come right back.

Lost doesn't hurt her. Just like losing to Jessica Androge wouldn't have hurt her. that much, but she went in there and went hammering tongues with Jessica Androge. It did a damn good job. And then went out there and finished her. I mean, how many people can say they finished Jessica and Drage? There ain't many. And she's one of them.

And I don't care about the short notice thing. I don't. None of that changes what happened on Saturday. In my eyes. So I'm ready to give her a title fight. look, they give her another one. Cool. There's just so much of a logjam right now.

Like Blanchfield, to me, is the number one contender. Grouse was getting the title fight. Tyler Santos, Manon Fioro can fight for the next in line. There you go. There's three people right now who have cases, and Blanchfield has the best case right now between her, Fioro, and Santos. And Santos, just being out has just

absence hasn't made the heart grow fonder let's just say that so i think she's certainly going to need another fight and if you're going to need another fight now just match those two up blancheville gets the title shot let's go to four corner sports hello four quarter sports hey good morning mike um wonder's all talks about a couple things one um you meant you got to the point that i wanted to talk about but possibly an interim title fight. Whether or not they do win, I think that regardless, Blanfield needs to be in there.

And I think it would make sense to have Tylenso's in there as well too. I'm very impressed on how Blanfield's striking has improved. It's not something that I saw. I'm pretty sure a lot of people didn't expect her to go total to toe with Andrage. But I just wanted to get your thoughts on

how long do you think that she would have to sit out for a fight? And do you think there is a strong possibility that Valentina does move up to 135 to try to claim two belts before she fights Blanchfield? And the other question I had was the piece you guys put out about Islamakajaf, his comments about his mom saying that he should hang it up. she didn't like how he got hit and the fight against the Volk so I just want to know

how many title defenses you think the Islam's going to have in his career all right thanks Bigg I don't know I don't know but I mean we've talked about it on this show that wouldn't surprise me if something like that came out and here we are so I don't think he's just going to like

be like I'm done fighting because there are some fights for him Um, I don't know. It's something you're going to have to ask him about two to three maybe. Like I don't think his, and even when he beat Charles, I didn't think this is going to be a guy who, I mean, he's a guy who certainly has the skill set and the potential to just run off a whole bunch of title defenses. But it's just a matter of, are there going to be things in his way that are more important to him than fighting? And apparently there is. family is more important than fighting.

So I'm with Habib, and seems like there might be something with Islam. I think Islam's going to hang around for a little while. I don't think this is something he's going to retire by the end of the year, but maybe he will. We have to prepare ourselves for that. So that's something to think about.

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We'll try to eat as many as we can. Viking, hello. Hello. Hello. You hear me? Yep. Okay, so I don't know if you have noticed Erin Blenfield's coach slapping her ass when she was entering Cage for an octagon interview.

And after the interview, he wanted to hug her, but Blenfield absolutely ignored him. And I don't think that the teacher encouraged his disciple by slapping her ass at front of everyone, especially if she is 23 years old. And Sean Strickland might be a fucking psycho. And, you know, you have to wear bulletproof rest if you are going to meet Sean Strickland in person. But he was right about this beautiful fucking thing in between coaches and their female disciples.

So I don't think how people react on this situation in America, but what's your thought on that Aaron Blanfield, Aaron Blanke would scotch slapping her ass at front of her when she was living for, when she was about to go forward an October interview. Thank you. I mean, I'll be honest, I didn't see it. I don't know. I didn't see it.

So I didn't even, like, this is the first I've even heard about it. but it's not something I went actively looking for either. So yeah, but look, I don't know. It's okay. Again, this kind of goes back to, I don't really not to answer this because I don't, maybe it's something that's been happening

your whole career. I don't know. But, you know, we've seen fighters get slapped across the face, too. We've seen guys get slapped in the ass on the way into the octagon. And maybe that's part of her, you know, what she needs to do to get ready for a fight. I don't know. I don't know. But I honestly had no idea that it happened.

And I didn't see it. And I honestly, that was the first time I've even heard of it, honestly. So I don't know. I'll have to go look at it and see her reaction. And maybe I'll have better response. But I didn't even see it. Didn't even see it. We'll go to Mikey, perhaps.

Mike you will try again, no connection. Let's try Cody. Cody, do we have you? Yeah, I'm right here. How's it going? What's up, ma'am? Good. I was just wondering,

it's kind of weird, but who's fighting on the UFC Vegas 69? I don't really know. I haven't watched it yet. Fighting when? Who are we looking forward to see? Fighting. on Saturday's card? Yeah.

Tatiana Suarez, man. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's coming back. Ryan Span, I mean, Ryan Span, Nikita Krilov is the main event. Andre Menez is back, fighting Brennan Allen, Mike Willots back.

There's some good fights on here. I mean, again, there's a lot of contender series fighters on these cards, but, I mean, look, You got Tatiana Suarez's first fight in four years. Mike Malat looked good last year when he fought Mickey Gall. Munez is probably a potential title contender. Brendan Allen's looked real good.

That's who, that's, and then the main event's not bad either. The main event's not great, but it's a better card than last weeks, I think. Well, I'm going to be honest with you. I miss Chuck Lidell and people like that, like in the UFC fighting. I kind of missed that a little bit. But other than that, the whole UFC thing, I think was great. I think they're doing a good job. All right.

Thank you, sir. Look, it's just a different time, man. Like, when Chuck, like, when Chuck was fighting, we could, like, look forward to Chuck fighting because it was a card. And then there was, we had a little bit of space. And then Chuck would fight again. And we were, like, so jacked up because we hadn't had a card in a while. And we, and Chuck was coming off a big knockout. And we had space in between truck fights.

in between fights in general. Now we don't have that because we have fights every Saturday. So, I mean, there are certain people who cross to that other side. But for the most part, yeah, there's just not a ton of stars anymore. Chuck was a star. And I feel like when we talk about the pioneers and the legends, so to speak, who helped make the sport what it is today, I feel like Chuck Liddell is to get enough credit

because there's a lot of different conversations, a lot of different people that get brought up, and they should be. Like the Fadors and the Shoguns and a lot of those names absolutely should be brought up. But I feel like Chuck just doesn't get enough credit because Chuck was a major star,

a major star for that company when he was fighting. Did he fight too long? Yep. Did he overstay his welcome in the sport as a fighter, yep. But when he was prime Chuck, that dude was something else.

But it's just a different sport now. It's just a different sport, different names, 5,000 cards. It's just different. I'm not complaining. But there are certain times we're just like, oh.

Like, someone asked me last week if we could put together a main card between these two cards, like this card and last week's card, and we put together a doozy. The last week's main car was awful outside of the main event and the Hernandez-Miller fight. The other three fights were just terrible on paper.

And then it turns out those fights were not all that fun to watch. So it is what it is. But this card is better than last week's, that's for sure. And the Bellator card's better than last week's UFC card too, in my opinion. Mikey, do we have you? No, we do not. All right. I mean, let's go to New York, Rick.

He always has takes and things to say. Hi, New York, Rick. Heck of a morning, Mike. How are you? Good. Congratulations on a heck of a story with Dustin. Check that out at MMAfighting.com or download the podcast if you haven't already. I'm curious about your level of interest in Jake Paul versus Tommy Fury.

How does it compare to your level of interested in Jake Paul versus Anderson Silva. Is the Jake Paul thing dwindling down for you? Are we laying in wait for Nate Diaz? I want to check in on your temperature on Jake Paul. I am more interested in Logan Paul wrestling Seth Rollins at WrestleMania than I am in Jake Paul boxing. Tommy Fury.

I just, I don't know. It's, it's, I'm not saying all the luster is lost, but this fight in particular, I don't, I don't, I just don't give a shit. I don't care. I don't know why. Because, like, this is kind of what people have been asking for. He needs to go fight a, like, an actual boxer. But I don't think Tommy Fury is very

good. And I think Jake's just going to I think Jake's going to beat him. And I don't think this fight's going to be all that competitive, honestly. I think Jake's just going to wash him. Which makes me not, I don't know. I just don't. I don't know. It's not the same as the Anderson fight.

But maybe it's just I think Jake had something with the MMA thing, but he's kind of running out of guys to fight. Except for Nate, like, I'd be way more rich than Nate. But I just, the problem is,

it's Tommy, because I just, there's, I'm like 30, 70, this fight actually happens on Sunday. Like, I'm not even 50, 50. I'm like,

I'm 30% convinced it's going to happen, and 70% convinced that something fucked up is going to happen and that they're not going to actually fight. And maybe the entire card gets canceled. So, and even when they do fight, I just, I don't care.

It's a Sunday. Luckily, I don't have to work it. So I might just skip it all together. I haven't decided yet. But that just shows you my interest that I might actually skip it. But no one's talking about it. Like there has not been, I'll get to Patrick at a second. There's not been one question about Jake.

That is the first Jake Paul Tommy Fury question we have had since that fight was announced on this show. Let's keep it that way. That should tell you the interest. Yes, Patrick, what's up? So one I wanted to say the article you put out this morning was great. Loved it. So when talking to Dustin, did you think that, you know, because the situations he's dealing with are pretty, you know, intense and high pressure, did you think that there was a vibe that he might ever slip up and cause an issue?

Because that's the only fear I have with him doing all this is really. It's just a scary thing to know that you have the power to give a lot of these guys what they really deserve and have to hold yourself back. So I was just wondering and talking to him, did you have any fear that he might slip up in the future or anything like that? And also just to impress you the most on this past week's card apart from Aaron Blanchefield. Thank you. Thanks, man. Let me start.

I'll start with last week's card. I mean, Jamal Emmer is impressed the hell out of me. Because, like, very few people were giving him a chance. I picked against him, but I thought this fight was closer than the betting odds suggested. So I would say he's a guy. A.J. Fletcher coming back the way that he did,

thought was great. Clayton Carpher just real good. But I'm going to, I think Jamal Embers is probably the answer. I did like what Alexander Hernandez did. I thought that was probably his most mature performance inside the Octagon since the Olivia Aubin-Mercier fight, which is a long-ass time ago. That was the second UFC fight. So it was just, it was nice to him get 15 minutes in. And while it looked like he was giving it away in that third round, he was able to compose

himself and get to the other side. So I was impressed with that. I don't know how I feel about him wanting to go back to 145, but it is what it is. As far as Dustin goes, I mean, we talked about that aspect of it, like the possibility of him just beating the hell out of one of these potential predators. And, you know, I think Dustin laid it up pretty good. And plus him having Ryan Montgomery with him, who has been in this field for a while, and has been doing this kind of freelance for a long time.

He's been part of thousands of these catches over the years. Ryan seems like a cooler head. And Dustin's a pretty cool head too. But they do understand as well that if whoever they're dealing with fires a punch of them, they have every right to defend themselves. So if Dustin were to get physical with one of these individuals, it's probably the only way I see it is if they strike him first

and if they do, he has every right to defend himself and that's part of the reason why they have that's why they're filming a lot of this stuff in case something happens Dustin gets physical and a guy says you know well this dude just attack me as an MMA fighter

will they be like well we have it on video that you hit him first and he was defending himself so I don't think that's going to be an issue. Maybe at first, because he's, I mean, he was pretty open about it. Like the first one made him squeamish, made his stomach turn and didn't really like the way it felt.

But the more he does it, the more he realizes, if he does that, if he succumbs to that pressure and crosses that line, then he can't do it anymore. And it's just the short-term gain is not worth. worth the long-term result of what they're trying to accomplish. So I don't think that's going to be a problem. I really don't. I don't. But thanks for checking that out.

It's a crazy story. Leo, hello. Leo, are you there? I hear nothing. All right. Let's go to Terrence. Terrence, do we have... Hey, Mike.

How are you doing? Good. How are you? I'm good. Thanks, for asking. So I just found out like a couple of days ago that Belta was having a car this week, which is awful in regards to like the promotion. I just want to know what, in your words, what Scott Coker does. Like I know it's just, it's more than him, but he's like the head of the company.

And you can compare him to Dana White and say like, oh, Dana White doesn't really promote. But like you'll see as a machine now. Like I feel like Scott Coker should be out of hustling, being on talk shows and things of that nature, making himself more of a person. so that way he can promote these fights. Because I know for you guys, it's rough when you have like these cars and for its Bellastore, UFC and things of that nature, trying to push out content. It's like squeezing the stone. Like I just want to thank you guys for doing what you guys do.

But I know it's hard for you guys. So what does he do and who should replace him if anything? Because it's almost like it feels like it's been done on. purpose because with the less promotion, the less value Belator has. So it's less likely to sell. So it almost seems intentional. So that's all I got for you.

Thank you, Mike. I don't know if I agree with that. I mean, it's not him. Like, I don't think, like, he's not out there doing a million things, but I mean,

you can't compare him to Dana. He's not the same guy. And I think you're to make more of a case that Dane is checked out, as checked out, if not more checked out, than Scott Coker. Like, Dane is there and he, like, what does Dane White do in terms of promoting UFC cards that Scott doesn't? Scott actually has, he goes on the MMA hour a lot, which he's getting a lot more

viewership on that show than Dana is on a lot of the shows he goes on. And a lot of the interviews that he does. But I don't know if it's him. I think part of it is the network they're on. Like the fact, like Showtime is just an awful place for them. It's awful. And I've talked about this a million times.

These cards should be on Paramount Plus. They should not be on Showtime. They should be on Paramount Plus. And not the, you have to pay for the premium to get Paramount Plus. The Paramount Plus, that is like the basic thing, these cards should be on Paramount Plus.

They should be easily accessible. Now, over in Dublin, has the promotion been strong? Yeah, because that's typically what they do. They go to a place, there's billboards, they fire the crowd up, they get everybody pumped, cool. Could they be doing more with this one? Yeah. Yaroslav Amosov is like one of the more interesting stories in all of MMA right now. with everything that happened with with ukraine and russia him fighting the war essentially the

video of him going back into his mom's house and finding his title it's just so crazy and i wish this fight was getting a lot more attention i really do especially his return and logan storely not the most exciting guy in the world, but they fought before a super close fight. This card's actually really good. And it's going to be one of those cards where if you watch it, you're going to be like, oh, that was a lot of fun.

And if you didn't watch it, you're probably not even going to realize that you missed it, but it's part of the promotion. There's a lot, there's, I don't know, they're trying. Like, they're trying. Like, I did a couple interviews for this car.

Nobriot Noveni Super prospect He's been out for a while With some nasty injuries And he's a I mean he's a super prospect Really high on him This just be a fun-ass card to watch

Pedro Carvalio Jeremy Kennedy's fun fight Peter Quilly Bryce Logan Like a lot of Irish representation on this card The fans are going to be insane It's going to be a fun watch but if you're going to take

if we're talking about like where you're going to put your promotional levels of making sure people are aware of this card you compare this to the CBS card I think you're going to put a lot more material into the CBS card I don't know

they could do be they could be doing a better job but we say that all the time and again I don't necessarily blame Scott because he does promote he does do interviews he does talk about the card and make announcements and

but I think honestly it's that the network is just not great being on Showtime like how are you supposed to promote shit on Showtime like 11 people have showtime

nobody watches Showtime so that's that's a tough spot for them I don't know we'll see how it all plays out but that'll be fun to watch I'm excited to watch it it's a good card and the fans are going to be out of their minds which is even better.

Leo, do we have you? Yeah, can you hear me? Yep, I got you. All right. Sorry about that. A heck of a morning. I just wanted to say that, yeah, the card last week was, you know, all right. But I wanted to actually, you know, I love New York Rick,

but I wanted to maybe push back on what he said on the M.A. hour a little bit, which is that Valentina wouldn't deserve an immediate rematch. I don't love rematches either, but, you know, she's pretty dominant. But aside from that, I wanted to ask you, no shade, by the way, I love you, Newark, Eric. But aside from that, I want to ask you if you have any update on Ortega and Deporia, what either of them are doing. I don't know, Ortega's injury situation, but I'm just really dying to see Teporia back in.

have a heck of a morning everyone and yeah thanks for letting me call on thanks man I have not watched the MAA hour yet so I'll have to check that out I don't know if I don't I would guess that New York Rick

didn't say that Valentina wouldn't deserve an immediate rematch maybe he would just prefer she didn't I don't know because I mean she clearly would deserve a rematch but again we're seeing

we talk about this all the time. It is so hard. One of the hardest things in all of sports, and I tell this to my friends all the time, like in the space and out of it, one of the hardest things in all of sports is being a UFC champion and being a long-reigning UFC champion.

Because you got to have your A game every single time, and if you're someone who has had the bell for three or four years, you're fighting people who have been preparing to fight you since they were, like, getting into the sport as amateurs. like anybody you talked to that got into the sport at a certain weight class was watching what the long-reaning champion has been doing and at least studying them in some ways, whether it's for an hour or an hour after every training session

during a fight camp. Like these fighters are preparing to fight these fighters for years while the Usman's and the long-reigning champions of the world like don't even know who these people are. It is so difficult to be great. and defend that title over and over and over and over again. It's very difficult to do. It's one of the hardest things in all of sports.

Because eventually you're just going to run to somebody who just has your number. We thought maybe Talos Santos did, but Chubchenko just, it was more of an off night to me. And I think we're going to see more of that chip on her shoulder when she fights Alex Legrasso because she's going to be asked about it. She's got to be asked about it. I think we're going to see more of the Valentina that we saw before the Jessica Androge fight

than the one we saw before she fought Tyler Santos. And that's the reason, and a lot of that reason with the Santos fight is why I don't think she's going to go up to 35 and fight Amanda, because if she does, she's got to take some time off and build up because she's barely, like she's barely a flyway right now. Like she's, she's like walking around it flyway. She's just small.

So, yeah, it's, it's tough. As far as the featherweights go, no update on Ortega, no update on Toporia. I saw some social media, pains in the asses reporting that Toporia and Ortega are fighting April 8th. Not true. Told by multiple people, that's not the case. in fact, both sides when I asked about it, anybody asked about it,

the response was, not that I know of, LOL, and they would know. So I think Tepoy did a recent interview, and I have to go back and check it out where he said that he thinks his next fight will be at lightweight. Don't know if that's the case or not,

but the rumors of him fighting Ortega at UFC 287 not happening. And there's something crazy is transpired, but I asked about it and they were basically laughing at me. When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. At just $39.99, how could I resist? This luxurious will throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss? Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices,

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Way, SIFARA collection and other part of VIT. Procurre you see Format Standard and Mini regrouped for a better quality of price. On link on Sifora.com.C.A. or in magazine. So, Anthony, hello. You're muted, Anthony. I just want to be the second person to welcome back New York, Rick, to the Parlay Pals.

I know you didn't see the MMA hour episode, but, you know, stay to the end for that one. I just wanted to ask you, who do you think Patty the Baddy's going to be fighting next? I thought it was clear that he should have fought Jim Miller at this upcoming UFC, but there was a whole lexie. injury and stuff. Who do you think he gets

malarkey? Maybe Hernandez if the UFC doesn't want him to go down, who do you think he gets? I think it's more clear now, so that's what I'm asking. Have a heck of good morning. It's kind of tough because he's banged up, so we don't know when he's going to come back. I pitched the Hernandez fight after

the Levit fight, I think. That was the one I wanted. Or maybe it was even after the first fight. Because I think, I mean, I think that's a great fight. I think that's, I think that's the right fight. So I like that idea. I like the malarkey idea too. That fight makes a lot of sense. I like the callout. It's going to be somebody in that range. You could do Terrence McKinney right now. I think McKinney has a better

shot of getting that fight than he did had he won his last fight. So he has options, but that's the general direction. I wouldn't go chucking him in there at the top 15 guy by any stretched the imagination. But I think all those names make sense. Malarkey makes sense. Hernandez is probably as high as I would go. And McKinney's fun, too. I think you just pull the trigger out of the McKinney's fight.

That's what I would do. But I ain't a matchmaker. But all those options seem plausible. And welcome back to the Parley Pals to York, Rick. Brian, hello. Hi, Mike. How you doing? Good.

I just had a quick question on the co-main. I actually find this, like, extremely interesting. Do you know of any reason why nobody wants to, I mean, I think we all know why Monez, nobody wants to fight Munez, but why no ranked guy is even like challenging Moneys. I mean, he's just not off of the top 10, I think, if he's like 11 or 10. Especially a guy like Karmanssen or anybody like that, I'm just curious how Brennan ended up being the guy for him to fight.

I'm just curious on your thoughts on that. Thanks. I mean, I think you answered your own question. There's just, the risk reward is just not there. There's no upside to fighting on Germany's right now. He's a hardcore fans delight, but nobody outside of like the hardcore peeps know anything about this guy. And his best win is against Uriah Hall. That's probably the answer to your question.

So this is a good fight. Like this is a really good fight. And as AK and I talk about all the time and on to the next one, the stakes are very high here. This is a legit co-made event, not just because you have, A couple of very good fighters on there. But we always say that in our rankings, in our eyes, Brendan Allen is the 16th rank guy, which makes him the middleweightiest middleweight champion of the world.

And this is a title held by Christoph Jocko for a very, very long time. Brennan took that highly prestigious middleweight title away from him. And now he's defending it for the first time against an absolute killer in Andre Muniz. the stakes are incredibly high in this fight. This win, like, if he goes out there and just dump trucks, a guy like Brendan Allen and puts him away quick, he's going to be hard to ignore. But I just don't think that you're, like, he beat your eye haul, no doubt about it. There's no controversy, no weirdness to it.

But it also wasn't like the most awe-inspiring performance. I think people saw some holes. And I think a lot of people thought he'd go out there. And your eye is tough, man. Like, your eyes tough to put away. But I think people expected that to be kind of a showcase fight for him, and it wasn't. So intrigued by this one. It's a great fight.

And I'm high. I'm Brennan Allen, too. So a lot on the line here. Chase Dad. Hello. You too. Your thoughts on Eugene Behramint saying that he wished Izzy would have taken more time before taking the Izzy rematch. And also, another.

the thing, I want Patty Pimlet versus Michael Johnson. Why not? And that'd be all. Thanks. That's not a bad one. That's not a bad one. Yeah, it's pretty good. I would do that fight. I would have done that fight over the Jim Miller fight. That's a good call.

Yeah, it's a good call. I forgot your first question. So, I'm an idiot. Apologies. I'll probably remember it because it happens, like, once a show where it'll hit me like a ton of bricks. Emilio, hello. What's up, Mike? Can you hear me?

Yep. Fabulous. Yeah, I hope you're having a heck of a morning. By the way, is it just me or was it Ryan? Yeah, Ryan. It sounded like Matthew Broderick. Shout out to him. Great voice. Apart from that, I got a question that is kind of related to John Jones making his comeback, allegedly. you know, not going to believe it until he steps foot inside the cage and, you know, and the bell rings. But because I was thinking a little bit about past legends of the sport.

I guess John is still a quote-unquote current legend. But I was thinking specifically about GSP. And you know how with John Jones, we are constantly, and I'm guessing this is because he's active still. we're frequently bringing up the fact that, you know, he kind of, you know, he barely won against Tiago Sanchez, and then he didn't win against Dominic Reyes, in my opinion. And he looked kind of meh against, what's I'm called, against Anthony Smith. And that got me thinking, why is it that we don't do something similar to? similar with a do the same with GSP's fight against Johnny Hendricks. I mean, the guy, in my opinion, again, my opinion, the guy didn't win the fight.

And it's one of those things where we just kind of collectively decided as an entity, as a, as a fan base to not ever mention that. Kind of forget about it. I just wanted to get your take on that and that's about it. Cheers, Mike. Appreciate what you do. And everybody else, as well as you, Mike, have a heck of a morning. Thanks, man.

I think it gets brought up. I think it gets brought up. It's more of, I don't know, like, GSP didn't have like a lot of letdowns. I mean, there were some fights that may not have been like aesthetically pleasing. But, I mean, we talk about that one as a potential robbery all the time. And we talk about how people viewed Johnny Hendricks after that fight, that he was, he was a legit dude. And I don't know, I think they're kind of handing it, but Jones just had like a bunch of bad fights.

Like he had a bunch of them. OSP one was terrible. The Gustafin one was good, but then it was Smith. He won not great. A lot of people still to this day feel like Tiago Santos beat John Jones with zero. legs and zero knees. John Anick told me the last time I talked to him, he thinks Tiago Santos has a better

case against John Jones than Dominic Reyes does. That's his take. He admits he's probably on an island with that one, but that's what he thinks. And then the Dominic Reyes one where most of the MMA universe thought

Dominic Reyes won that fight. So it was just the consistency. Like, GSP's had moments where like things got a little hairy, but outside of that Johnny Hendricks fight during that long run his champion and the mass Sarah loss too, I mean, these are pretty convincing wins for that man. So I think with John, it's just the performances haven't been great. He hasn't had like a great performance since the Gustavson fight. The second one.

The OSP one was bad, then Gus, and then the last three were not great. So I know he did an interview with Jimmy Smith and said a lot. lot of it had to do with just not being scared. There's no fear in fighting. And some of it had to do with his pay. Wasn't happy with the pay. He was trying to get himself motivated to fight a guy like Dominic Reyes, who didn't have any casual appeal whatsoever and making way less money than he

thought he deserved to be making. So, yeah. But I think Hendricks gets kind of mentioned with some of these different conversations. I know I'm trying to remember like Ariel got asked something on the nose last week about this. You know, stocks rising in losses and Johnny Hendrix is one of those names that you just kind of bring up right off the bat. PJ, what's up? Can you hear me? Yeah, I got you. I was listening to somebody say something earlier. I remember the first question actually that you forgot. It was talking about, do you think Izzy, um,

Izzy got ready for the fight too fast or something? But my other question was, I was listening to Patty's podcast with George St. Pierre, and he took a lot of advice from him. And I think Patty wants to wait because he's getting surgery on March 6th. And he wants to run it back with Gordon. And I want to see what you guys think about that. listen, I'm down for that. I'm down for that. Jared has a fight booked. I know that.

Is he fighting Bobby Green? Is that the one? Yes. He is fighting Bobby Green. April 22nd. Yeah, win or lose, you could just run that one right back. It seems like Bobby Green, at least from what I've seen on Instagram,

this is Bobby Green's last fight. Seems like he's retiring after this one. At least that's what he's telling people. Yeah. I mean, if they want to run that one, back. I'm cool with it. But this is the range of where Patty should be fighting. 100%. No higher. You want to go lower? I'm fine with that. But pushing Patty towards like title contention is just not the direction to go. Patty doesn't need it. He's over. Good or for bad. He vokes emotion.

Good or for bad. He doesn't need title fights. He doesn't need rank guys. He can call main events against anybody. Patty's over. He's just not a superstar, but he is a star. Throw him in there with anybody, really. But yeah, if they want to run the Gordon one back, I'm fine with that. For sure.

And as far as the Izzy thing goes, I'm not surprised Eugene said that. I was surprised when I had found out that they were going to run that back in April. I'm not surprised that that's the fight they were going to make, but I thought Izzy was going to wait until like July, August. maybe. And there was a part of me that I thought maybe Pereiro would fight somebody else before he

fought Izzy because, I mean, Izzy fights a lot. He fights a lot. Very, very active. So I thought maybe it'd actually take a little more time, July, August,ish range. But nope, not the way that Izzy conducts his business. He just wants to get right back in there and fight. So I wasn't surprised to hear Eugene react the way that he did, but ultimately, like all of us, probably all thought that at one point and then realize, hey, let's just get back into it. We'll take two

more. We have YVMZ and then we'll go to the Finesse father. YVMZ. Hello. Hi, Mike. I just wanted to get your thoughts on Islam's mom telling him to retire. Seems like he

wants to defend the belt a couple of times, but do you see him being a long-reigning champion like Khabib or do you think you may retire early? Thanks a lot. Yeah, I mean, we talked about this earlier, but I don't think this is something, at least to me and I could be dead wrong because family comes before fighting or it did for Habib. And I feel that's for a lot of people as well that are in the space. I think he probably fights a few more times. I don't think this is something that

he's just going to drop the belt right now and be like, I'm done fighting. I think there's big fights for him. I don't know. I would say two to three and then we'll kind of see where he's at. But again, we've talked about it on the show a bunch.

Like, we never, we do. You never know. You never know how different family members are thinking about certain things and how the fighters react to that, it's not really surprising that Islam's kind of in the spot right now, but I don't think this is a hey, you're the champion, walk away, kind of a thing. But I don't think Islam's going to be fighting for the next five years. Two years, maybe. Three, might be a stretch, but I think he's

got three or four fights left in him, at least. But that's what my guts on me. I have no idea. Ginesh father, take us home. We have you. Hey, I appreciate you for letting me speak. I had two quick questions I wanted to get off. What's your thoughts on this whole IV scandal thing that's going on with Islam in this camp right now? I have no bias over here. I'm Muslim myself, but it's just that from that camp, you have a Zubaira,

who already got caught for taking PEDs and took a two-year suspensions. You got Raslad Mahamanda, who got suspended three times, and it's now banned for life. Like, what's your opinion on what's going on with this IV thing with this one? And the second question that I had is, what do you think about Benile Dar Hughes just getting thrown in a hard fight after hard fight and never getting a title shot? Like, do you think he needs to speak up for himself or does the UFC just not want this man to fight for a title? Yeah, I mean, the Benny one's a weird one. I think a lot of people feel like he's more than done enough to fight for the belt. But again, we talk about this all the time.

It has become sort of a mantra here at M.A. fighting. Do the thing. Do the thing. And doing the thing means going for what you want and doing the things that you need to do in order to get them. And there's a lot that goes into that. One is going out there and winning fights. Two is winning fights impressively.

and three, make people care when a microphone is in your face. Now, I understand that not everybody has a legendary personality, and some people are quiet, and that's cool. I'm not saying this has to be for everybody. But Benny Darius, like, if you listen to a Benny Darius interview, it's an intelligent guy, speaks well, fun to listen to, entertaining, he's funny, quick-witted. He has all of these things.

It's not like Jonathan Martinez. Johntha Martinez is like shy. The fact that he ever has to speak with a microphone in his face scares the shit out of him. But he just does it because he has to. Betty's like a fun dude. And he's intelligent and he's smart and he says fun things. But man, after UFC 280,

when he beat Matush Damrod and he cut that post-fight promo, boy, was that different than the Elon Musk call out. The Elon Musk callout got a lot of play. People were writing about it. People were talking about it. It was good stuff. This was not great because it was kind of a strange one considering where they were at. But then he said, oh, I don't care.

UFC makes me fight 10 more guys. I'll fight them all. No, that's not what you're supposed to say. You got to be smart with these callouts. Chil's son and talks about it all the time. The next fight starts when the last fight ends. You got to start building it up. Start building it up.

And oftentimes, the fighters just drop the ball when it counts. I talk about this with Bilal Muhammad all the time. So many times Bilal dropped the ball when he had a microphone in his face. So many chances to call out Hamzaad. And he didn't do it. And he would call out Usman. And he'd call it Colby.

Fights he just wouldn't get. He's just not going to get at the time. And then he would do the interview circuit. and he would call it Hamzad. But at that point, nobody cared because when the lights were bright and you had the chance to do it, you didn't do it.

And Benil's kind of in that boat right now. After he beat Gamrod, that was the perfect opportunity. I'm not saying Benile needs to go out and be like, Islam, you motherfucker, you took everything I worked for, you son of a bitch. No, you could have been like, hey, Habib was a man of his word. When Habib said something,

and made promises he stood by them. He delivered. Are you the same Islam? Because you said in previous interviews that I was next in line. If I won, I would be next if you won. I'm a man of my word. Habib's a man of his word. Are you a man of your word?

Because I would love to fight you and I deserve it. And you said, if I won, here we go. I won. Your move. That would have been perfect. Not out of character. nothing crazy. He's not trying too hard.

He's asking for what he wants, but he's not being an asshole about it. And he didn't do it. Instead, he said, I'll fight 10 more guys. You can't do that. You can't do that. And you want to know how much that post-fight interview meant to Islam Makachov?

It meant nothing because he handed the mic over to Habib to call out Volkanowski. So now he's going to fight Olivera, which is fine. If he beats all of air, he's undeniable. It's undeniable that he's fighting for the belt. I don't know. It's so important to capitalize when you have a microphone in your face.

And I'm not talking about the headphones that I'm wearing right now doing a bunch of Zoom interviews. No, I'm talking about when D.C. or Rogan or any of those guys are in that octagon with you with the microphone. on you have to deliver. You have to deliver something. Otherwise, you're just not going to get what you want. This isn't Bellator. Belator, Benetna would have fought for the title like three times. They are a meritocratic promotion.

Whoever is next in line, for the most part, gets what they should be getting. UFC's different. They're trying to drop. They're trying to get everybody to spend $80 on a pay-per-view. You got to earn it. to be able to package you. They have to be able to put together these these promos, these video promos with highlights of them saying Islam, you know, with Islam saying stuff about Benil and Benile calling

out Islam. Like, you got to be able to do that. And if you can't, then that's why Vol cut the title shot. But to me, I would just pull, I would pull Badiol from the Ovalerify. I would pull them and just give them the bell, give him the title shot. But I don't think they're going to do that. I don't think they're to do that. He's going to have to fight Olivera. I do think he could beat Olivera. I think he's got a good chance stylistically to beat Olivera. That's a tough fight. It's a tough fight. And then I don't know what Islam's going to do. So, Vanil's not the most, like, active fighter. He's not a guy that fights three times a year. He fights once or twice. So we'll see what happens. We'll see what

happens with Islam. I do think Dustin Porre is in play. It would not surprise me, Porre got a title shot before Benny did. Wouldn't be fair at all, but it wouldn't surprise me if like International Fight Week Dustin gets a shot. I don't know. Dustin's a star.

Dustin's going to sell more pay-per-views the Vanilla's. Or like I said, just pull banal right now and just book that fight. June, July, August, whatever. It's a weird business, folks. It's a weird business and not everything is fair. All right.

When he gets to go, thank you very much. We'll be back here on Thursday. Very busy day today. I got a lot of interviews. I'm going to talk to Fernand Lopez, the head coach of one Cyril Gahn about his preparations for John Jones. Because that fight's happening next Saturday. There will be a watch party, by the way. So don't you worry about that.

I will be talking to Walt Harris. A lot of people wondering what's going on with Walt Harris. Wednesday is he coming back. So we will talk about that. But not only that, he has been working with John Jones to prepare for Cyril Gunn. So I'll talk to Walt about that stuff. And then a lot of people were very thrilled

with a particular moment from knucklemania this past Friday. A man with a bald head like myself with about 8,000 more tattoos than I had. have fellow New Englander, man by the name of Josh Watson, knocked out Greg Hardy in Hardy's BKFC debut. So I'm going to talk to Josh Watson later on today as well about how life has changed since knocking out Greg Hardy.

So it's going to be a busy week, everybody. But as far as this show goes, we're back on Thursday at 10 a.m. Eastern, and we will do it again. So appreciate it. Appreciate all the support for the article, the feature. If you haven't watched or read it or listen to the podcast yet, go ahead and do that. And we'll talk more about it on Thursday, 10 a.m. Eastern right here on heck of a morning.