MMA Fighting - HOAM | Fallout Of Super Weird UFC Atlantic City Event

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

UFC Atlantic City sure had its moments, and delivered a bunch of talking points coming out of it — both good and bad – but the seemingly unanimous phrase used to describe the event as a whole is "super weird." Between the multiple eye pokes that led to finishes, to hip knockouts, to finishes and results that left us scratching our heads, this was not a normal event. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to this past Saturday's event, Manon Fiorot's dominant decision win over Erin Blanchfield in the main event, Chris Weidman's controversial victory over Bruno Silva and how the former champion has reacted to it, along with Joaquin Buckley's great in-cage performance, but not-so-great microphone work after getting the co-main event win over Vicente Luque. Additionally, listener questions include the UFC St. Louis main event between Derrick Lewis and Rodrigo Nascimento that has been unanimously criticized, referees still not enforcing penalties during fights, UFC 300, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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on the MMA Fighting Twitter space. You can hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter on the MMA Fighting Podcasting Network. What's going on, everybody? I am Mike Keck. Hope you all had a fantastic weekend. If you celebrated Easter, hope you guys enjoyed that with friends and family. We have a lot to talk about, my friends. We are still on the road to UFC 300. April Fool's is over.

Thank God. That is like the worst day covering this sport. You just have to deal with a whole bunch of BS all day long. You see a bunch of fake stuff everywhere. It's just super annoying. But that is over and done with. We just had UFC Atlantic City, which came and went. A lot of stuff happened there.

I'm sure you guys will want to talk about that. We have UFC Vegas 90 coming up on Saturday. And I got to tell you, my friends, normally I'm the guy that comes on here and it's just like, these cards are not good, especially the apex cards. This one's not bad. I got to be honest with you.

This one is not bad. There's some good fights. There's some ranked fighters. We got some returns that I'm very interested in. We get some promotional debuts that I'm certainly interested in. We get a main event with a bit of a storyline. and the best part about it, 3 p.m. Eastern time, prelims, 6 p.m. main card.

I mean, just perfection right there. Perfection. It's what every apex card should be right around that time frame. I would actually prefer, I think the best way to do it, 1 p.m. Eastern prelims, 4 p.m. eastern main card. and I think all the different systems we score these cards would rise, you know, half a point every single time. But that's just one man's opinion.

And I could react to a whole bunch stuff, but we're not going to do that. I'm just going to let you guys ask all the questions because I'm sure everything I would talk about you want to ask about anyways. So one thing I will say, 8 p.m. Eastern tonight, 5 p.m. Pacific time. we're going to have some fun. We're going to go back into the time machine for the second consecutive Tuesday night. Last week, we rewatched UFC 100.

We talked about the ins and outs. We got some boots on the ground stories from those who were there covering. Tonight, UFC 200 rewatch party. And I got to tell you, I am super excited for this one. Not even just to go back and watch the fights, because 100 was a great one to just go back

and rewatch the fights. the fights and there are some interesting things that happened along the way that I forgot about or wasn't aware of to begin with. 200 is the most insane fight week. I'm not going to say it's the most insane, but it's at worst, top three most insane fight weeks of all time. You can make a strong case. It's number one.

And not even just the fight week, just the entire story to UFC 200 and beyond. because that was smack dab in the middle of the craziest year in UFC history, which was 2016, and I'm very excited to rewatch this card and have on individuals such as Jose Youngs, such as Shaheen Al-Shadi, Casey, et cetera, who were there. They were all there during the chaos. And we'll go back in time with all of them. They could share their stories about how the main event got changed. John Jones testing positive and being taken out of the main event.

Anderson Silva coming in on two days notice. Brock Lesnar coming back, et cetera, et cetera. I am super excited for this one. So 8 p.m. Eastern, join us. We'll rewatch the main card. We'll tell some tales, especially all the newer fans. I don't think the newer fans understand how pivotal 2016 was to the growth of the UFC. It is the most crazy year of all time.

And it's just unbelievable. And I'm very excited for this. So join us. We'll go back in time in the Delorean and watch 200 and tell us some tales. It's going to be a good time. All right, let's go to all of you guys. Let's start with P-Money joining us on the program. P-Money, are you there?

I think we might have you? I think we had you for a second. It's not connecting. P-Money, hop out, hop back in. We'll get you back in. Usually that's all it takes when there's a connection. connection issue. Thomas, do we have you?

Do indeed. How are you, Mike? How are you, sir? I'm good, thanks, I'm good. Just wanted your thoughts on the information that came out about the UFC Saudi card so far. Your initial thoughts on Whitaker against Hamza

and the other ones I can see are the other fights I can see are Sergei against Volkoff, Gastram against De Rod, Ozdemer against Johnny Walker and Sharon Magamadoff against Ehor Porte. Just your face.

your thoughts. Thanks, man. Yes. We did talk about this last week, but we've had a few days to sort of sit on it and let it simmer a little bit. It's pretty damn good.

Whitaker Shemaya is a great fight. It's a tremendous fight. It's probably the best fight you can make in the division that doesn't have a title on the line. In my opinion, I know there was probably a little more sizzle when it came to maybe doing like Shemaya versus Paul Acosta because of the heat between those two guys.

but to me, if we're going to talk about the best guys that aren't necessarily in the title conversation, at least right the second with what's on paper, this is awesome. Like, we're going to get a whole bunch of answers to a whole bunch of questions with this fight. The stakes involved are super interesting. It's a number one contender fight,

although if we're being fair, Hamzat's fight with Kabbar Usman was also supposed to be a number one contender fight. and when you say it like that, at least preface it by saying it's a number of contender fight as long as the performance is up to par. At least that's how they look at it. So Shibayev is essentially in his second consecutive number one contender fight at 185 pounds. But this one is so damn good. But then it leads to a lot of questions about the rest of the middleweight division.

Are they going to do DDP versus Izzy? Are they going to do DDP versus Strickland 2? If they do DDP Izzy, who is shot? Don Strickland going to fight. Is he going to fight Paul Costa? Where's Jared Canada are going? All these things that we still have questions about. So, like, what's going on with Izzy in general?

Is he going to take some time off? Is the winner of this fight actually the number one contender? They're just got to get DDP next in his first title shot. Title events? I don't know. There's a whole bunch of questions. I'm so much looking forward to this fight. But when you have a guy like Shemayef in there,

there is a part of me that, you know, has to knock on wood every day. Like, is he going to make it there? Is he going to fight? I feel confident he will. But there's always that question with a guy like Shemayev because he's so inactive. And a lot of times there's some weirdness that happens heading into his fights. So if this goes through, it's awesome. Pavlovich Volkov is interesting.

We'll see what happens there. you know, we talked a lot about the Gielsen Almeida Alexander Volkov booking, which was 100% real. They just decided to shake things up. Not sure what's going to happen with Almeida. I've heard some things. Could get a little weird, but stay tuned for that. Could be some news in the pipeline as regards to Jelton Almeida and UFC 302.

We got Johnny Walker Volcanozb. Good fight. Sharma G. Madov-Eyato. Ehor Potieri is awesome. Someone's going nine-night real quick. And then Calvin Gassum Drod's good fight. It's a good fight. And then we got also Nasrat Haq Parest versus Jared Gordon on that card, which should be a fun one. So so far so good.

This is a million times better than what Saudi was originally going to get in March before they were just like, nah, give us something better, essentially. And this cuts the mustard for me. We'll see what the rest of the card looks like. See the rest of the additions. It's going to be an early start time, which is nice. and it's going to be on ABC, which is a very big deal. And it'll also be a very good sort of all-day promo for June 29th, which is International Fight Week, doing it on network television.

And hopefully, they will be promoing the return of Connor McGregor against Michael Chandler, which should be massive. I mean, this is just good all around. So we'll see how the rest of the card comes out. Maybe they do, they add Muhammad Makaya versus Brandon Royval on that card and some other ones. So, thus far, very, very good. Very, very good. And hopefully the rest of the card comes together nicely.

And it's a stacked one. P.Mahini, I think we have you now. All right, cool. Yeah, so I was having connection problems. Hope you got a great Easter. So I was just going to talk about the card this past weekend. Because I remember last week going into it, all the pre-fight coverage was, you know, this is an average Apex card or better than average Apex card, but not even a great Apex card.

And there was the late start time and all that. And it ended up being a very weird card. But I feel like just being in front of a crowd made such a difference because I'm in a big basketball family and, you know, it's March Madness. But in between, it was half time of the Clemson Bama game and I switched over and my family got mad at me because, you know, they don't watch MMA. But the Nate Landware fight came on. and like that that fight was freaking awesome

and there was a crowd and everything and then they all ended up loving it and so like it's just so clear to me like it doesn't even matter you know with how bad the apex guards are it's like just throw it in front of a crowd it makes it 10 times better you know like yeah they're

because I mean if that fight night was in the apex I mean think about the main event like that would have been tough um you know it wouldn't have it would have taken so much away from it but I just don't get why we're still doing fight nights in the apex because then you throw bad cards in front of a crowd like this and just a crowd being there like gets the casual audience

involved i don't know that's what i see and yeah you know i i agree with you they need to fix the timing like why are we doing 10 p m main cards on the east coast makes no sense but i mean just even with these bad cards i feel like having a crowd makes such a difference but yeah that's all i got yeah i mean look the whole apex thing it's just it's soul-sucking and the fighters just deserve better like they deserve to fight in front of a crowd. And it also, to some extent, depending on how you view this. And I thought this is the case until Saturday. I'm sure we'll talk about the big main event that was announced before UFC Atlantic City started. But it almost forces the UFC to like try harder to put these cards together. And you're right. Even the, the biggest turd of a fight card in

front of fans is still something. There's still just a different energy to it. And the 10 p.m. Eastern main card, like, I get it. There's, you know, as you said, March Madness is going on. There's some big games going on. When you have the main card at 10 p.m. March Madness games, like the Elite 8 games end, you can just flip right over to ESPN, watch the fights. You know, so you have a full day of sports.

So I understand that. It's just awful for the MMA fan. and not every MMA fan is like P Money who follows other sports very closely as a basketball family or a football family regardless a lot of MMA fans are just strictly MMA fans so the start type doesn't really matter to them because you know they're going to be there anyways

but yes but I mean you could hear the crowd Nate Landware just brings the ruckus just absolutely brings the ruckus he's like the perfect guy to have in front of crime like Nate Landware should never ever fight in the apex plain and simple. Then we get the Achini and Joe Kowani Reese McKee fight, which was not good.

That was a tough hang. And of course, we could talk about the judge who scored that fight for Reese McKee, who should never, ever be allowed to judge of his fight ever again, because that is the frontrunner for the worst scorecard of the year thus far. Kyle Nelson, Bill Algeo,

ruled. That fight was great. They just threw hammer and tongs till the referee was done. Bill Algeo, I was going to say, until somebody fell, but no one really fell. Algeo would get dazed, and I don't have a huge issue with the stoppage there. I just think Bill took a lot of damage, and the referee did give Bill some chances to try to recover and try to get some momentum back, and it just seemed like every time he's almost about to get his wits about him, he just got drilled like six more times, and it just got worse. Then we got to Nersulton Ruzabov, who does have local ties, trains and he's just.

Philadelphia. So we had a lot of fans there. We had Syed Rickey Dumas as the opponent. We get a quick finish. I poke gate begins. So we have a little drama right there. And then we get to the Chris Wyman, Bruno Sillow fight. And it seems like at least listening to the crowd and then more confirmation from G.C. and crew who were in attendance for the card. Everyone was there to see Chris Wyden. It was the Chris Wyden show.

Biggest pop, biggest reaction. Everyone weren't crazy when he came out. And it just seemed like after Chris got the win, it just seemed like people were still around for the fights, but once the main event got to like round two and round three, you heard nobody. It was almost like the crowd was just like, okay, let's go gamble.

Let's go do this and that. But still, the crowd just makes such a difference. And you'll see it Saturday. Like Saturday's card, top to bottom is good. Like it's a good. There's some good action-packed fights that if you threw this card in Atlantic City, I think it would be a good one. I think the fans would love it. I understand there's a lot more local appeal in AC, but this is a card that would do well in front of a crowd. But instead, we're back at the world's most famous apex, and it's going to be tough to watch because it's just 18 people in there. And we know why the UFC is doing it because they make a ton of money when they do cards at the apex, because they don't have to. take the cage up and down, they don't have to load up production trucks, they don't have to

travel, all that stuff. It is such a cost saver to have cards at the apex. And when you have to fulfill 42, 43 events a year, it just makes life a lot easier to do that. And even like, even Dana said when they started doing this, like, look, I hate that we're at the apex. But this is what we have to do to at least get fights going. But now that's over. Like COVID is, you know, it's still there to some degree. But we should just be going back on the road. And we need to be doing just putting on cards.

Show that you care. That's all. Look at the St. Louis main event. That is Garbo. What are we doing here? But I'm telling you right now, the St. Louis main event is the test. this is the test okay

I thought about this a lot on Saturday because I gave my initial reaction to this main event it's an awful main event it's an awful main event and my immediate message to the people of St. Louis

was here's your chance to do the cool thing don't buy tickets don't go demand more demand better and this is nothing against Derek Lewis Derek Lewis is a main event fight night guy

but Rodrigo Nassimento is nowhere ready to be headlining a card in front of people, especially St. Louis, Missouri. Like, where is Rodrigo Nassimento's ties to St. Louis? That fight's going to go one of two ways. It could go very well where Derek just goes in there and gets a quick finish, or it could go very, very poorly, and Derek Lewis is on his back for 25 minutes,

much like he was against Jelton Almeida. That is a real possibility here. That is a real possibility. So my message was like, don't go. Just don't buy tickets. and force the UFC to pivot to a better main event. I've had time to think about this. And now there's a part of me that's saying,

you know what? I know the UFC is doing this as a test. They are testing out if fans will just buy tickets to anything. Because if they sell this building out with this main event, it'll prove that they can book any fight on the road and people will buy tickets. And the more I think about it, the more I realize, is that a bad thing? Because if this sells out, does this mean the end of the apex?

This is me we could put fights like Brennan Allen versus Chris Curtis too on the road and people will buy tickets and sell it out? So at first I was like, don't buy tickets, force the UFC to do better. But then there's like the angel on my shoulder that's like, wait a minute. If they sell this out with this main events, maybe this means the UFC can get out of the apex. And we can take the show on the road a little bit more, that the product is just so hot that we'll just buy tickets to anything. And we're not in the apex anymore. We'll still have shit cards, but at least they'll be in front of people to make the viewing experience better.

So I have gone from full, this sucks so bad, don't go. and now I'm like torn because St. Louis deserves better than this. You deserve better than a Rodriguez-Nazimento main event. And I'm not trying to shit on Rodrigo Nassimento. He's just not ready for this spot. Just like Shabil

Gadsiev wasn't ready for a main event spot. That was in the apex. Shabil Gatsyiv was probably more ready for a main event than Rodrigo Nassimento is. So I am now torn on all of this. But yes, to your point, it is much better to be in front of a crowd, but is Derek Lewis versus Rodrigo Nassimento better in front of a card if this is a

Nassimento's way? Because if it does, we're going to slog for 25 minutes and it ain't good. It ain't good. I just don't, I still don't understand why we're not doing Derek Lewis versus Jarzina Rosenstrike. What the, like, what are we doing? That fight is right there for us and it's got to be fun as hell. But we're doing everything to avoid it. I don't. I don't. I don't. get it. I don't get it. Let's go to old Pat. Old Pat, are you there? What's up, ma'am? Fight Night cards on the, on like the, you know, shitty little thing they have in Las Vegas or whatever it is. Well, we have, well, I live in Adelaide, Australia. We have a fight night card here, like, once every five years, and we get 40,000 people at it. Well, we have it at the Adelaide Entertainment Center, so it's a full theater.

I don't give a fuck. Yeah, I mean, I hear you. I hear you. All right, I'll try to get you back, Pat, but you were breaking up like crazy there. Do you have you, Pat? Sorry. Do you have more to say? You were breaking up.

That's why I'm just saying, I'm saying like, we get like literally one. card a year, not even in Adelaide, but maybe one every two or three years. And it's just a fight night card. And we get, we get 30 and 40,000 people at it. Like, it's in a theatre, you know, like, as in a, like an entertainment center. Like a, and like, they don't care. They don't care. Yeah.

UFC doesn't care because we don't make them enough money. I don't know. I mean, we do make them enough money, really. Like, we get 40,000 people going to see a fucking shitty mid card. Yeah. Oh, I lost. Sorry. You were breaking up.

But I get what you're saying. They don't. They don't. And here's the thing. A lot of people keep going back to, like, the UFC 300 poster. Okay? A lot of people keep going back to the UFC 300 poster. Oh, this is the worst effort you've ever had.

Why are there no fighters on the poster, et cetera? because this is what the UFC. That poster encapsulates exactly what the UFC is in 2024. It is about them. Those three letters are the star, and they know it. They know it. They don't care for the most part. I still don't know who in that matchmaking meeting on Tuesday

stood up as they were pondering how to fill out these main events, stood up and said, I got it. I got it, guys. I know what the main event should be in St. Louis, Missouri. Derek Lewis, yeah, yeah, yeah, against Rodrigo Nassimento. Who was like, was this a unanimous? Fuck, yeah? How could it be?

How is this the main event for St. Louis? I still don't get it. But again, the UFC knows that they're going to make a shit ton of money, just for putting this card on, that they're going to sell a whole bunch tickets to it because they, like old Pat was saying, they don't, St. Louis hasn't had an event in a long time. There's a starvation there,

and they're just going to do it. Now, at least Australia is getting pay-per-views now. Perth got one last year. They got two, actually they got two pay-per-views last year. They're getting another one this year, and they're getting another one next year. and those are pretty good those are pretty good cards

so there is I would assume St. Louis is just like hey let's just go to St. Louis I don't think it's a buy like we see from Salt Lake City like we see from we're seeing with Newark we've seen with Perth

Saudi Abu Dhabi Houston, etc. where these cities are paying the UFC to come and host an event. So that obviously probably helps with the card placement as well because if someone is paying for you

to come, they will put forth more of an effort with building the card. But with like St. Louis, if there's nothing like that, then it's just like, yeah, we'll just throw a bunch of shit together and throw a couple of local fighters on the card

and people will still buy tickets. So again, I'm still torn on all of it. there's a part of me it's just like look you should as fans especially those in the united states and i don't really know what the what it's like around the world in terms of like how much it costs you to be an mma fan without going to an event but here in the united states if you watch everything legally you're paying like 1,200 bucks a year to be a ufc fan you're paying like six to ten dollars a month for ESPN plus and you're paying 80 plus the taxes. It's $79.99 plus there's taxes. So it ends up being like $84 after taxes for every

pay-per-view event. Some months you get one. Some you get two. That's a lot of money. That's a lot of money. You're already being demanded to pay more money to be a UFC fan than a fan of any other sport. On top of that, ticket prices are through the roof. So as a fan, you should demand the best product possible if they come to your town. I understand on a fight night, you're not getting a title fight, but come on. You deserve more. You deserve more. So there's a part of me, it's just like, don't buy tickets.

I hope they sell 500 of them because you deserve better than this, and you should demand better than this as fans. So when we say, like, when we're hard on the UFC and we trash the cards, it's not because we, this whole thing, most people are starting to come on board. But when we started like, what I got here, we started doing BTL, we started doing the preview shows, and we started just being honest about the product. People were like dog at us. They, oh, you just hate the UFC.

You hate data. No. No. We just feel that fans deserve better than what they're getting. And I don't think that's a bad thing to say. But the big problem is they have no competition. I mean zero. So why did it?

And I'm not, again, this is not me blaming the UFC. The UFC is doing what they can and they're killing it. It's, I mean, so much money. They're just, they're tripping and falling over stacks of cash without even really trying. And now, with no competition, like, it's going to be this way forever. The new TV deal is going to make them so much money when they stay with the SPN or go elsewhere. They are just rolling in the cash right now. and no one's going to stop them.

They, no one's going to stop them. Don Davis can tweet out all the graphics and statistics he wants. They are so, so far away from the UFC. They could not be further. They're actually further away now than they were maybe two years ago, even with Francis and Ghanu on their roster.

And that's crazy to say. But they are further back. They just lost their. biggest star to the UFC. And if the UFC at any point wants to make a dent in PFL, they can just do it. And no one can stop them until there is actual competition. Someone that can at least

sniff where the UFC is. This is the game, guys. This is what we're going to get. No one's leaving. The fan base is growing. Despite the cards just not being good. Like just not good. They're not good. 298 was fine. 299 was electric.

300 is the best card they've ever put together. But then we get to 301. Woof. That's tough. We'll see what 301. But all the fight night cards have been bad. All the apex cards this year have been awful. 297 was awful.

I mean, it ain't 2016 anymore. There's no big stars. It's a whole different ballgame now. And then we just got to live with it. Support for this show comes from Volkswagen. As the U.S. gets ready to host soccer's biggest moment on a worldwide stage, Volkswagen is helping people discover new turfs and new ways to play the beautiful game right here in the U.S. From deaf and power wheelchair soccer to beach and futsal,

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Yes, sir. All right, that's good. I guess on that, following through pretty nicely, you know how Jed, or I think it's Jed that says it, I'm not sure who else says it, but like the UFC is one injury away from, like, making a better fight or something along those lines. And I'm just kind of thinking,

it's not even an injury that would make this happen, but, like, if the UFC just, like, thought with some basic logic and was like, damn, let's go look at the comment section real quick and check what the reception's looking like for this Rodrigo Nassimento fight night arena main event. And I don't imagine they're seeing a whole lot of excitement. And so, my opinion, I saw more excitement in the comments sections for Rebellis to Spain versus Waldo Cortez-A-Cost on Big Marcel's Instagram

than I did for this fight. So you know what I think is the UFC needs. to just go, all right, we got Rebellus to Spain, this 6'7 Cuban dude who's knocking everyone out in 20 seconds, where you've got Derek Lewis in the main event, who's got the most knockouts, does he have the most knockouts in the UFC history right now? He's up there.

Yeah, up there. But like, just do that. Do Derek Lewis versus Waldo Coutes a cost star, and then just do Nassimento versus Walt, sorry, did I say, Waldo? I said, do Derek Lewis versus Despain and then do Nassimento? Like, that is just too much better in all ways. Would actually be fun because if you're looking at the heavyweight division,

there's basically no hope on the horizon. And if it's anyone, it's going to be to Spain. He's the only guy that is looking to be somewhat promising in any aspects that isn't already in the top five. So, like, at least then if he goes out there and melts Derek Lewis, in 10 seconds or 15 or 20 or 30 seconds, which I'm not saying would happen, but if it did, you can then say, damn, this guy just immediately chinned the knockout guy at heavyweight, and you can market that and you can get behind him so easily. Obviously, I assume they do want to slowball him a little bit, but I think that's what they

should do. A couple other quick things. You said the card this weekend's pretty good. I actually agree with you. I'm really looking forward to a lot of the fights. for me again I know the card placement conversation is always going to be one I think they've done a decent but not great job with this obviously the main event's the main event but then I think for me the co-main in my mind in terms of just excitement levels I'm looking at Morgan sherrier versus Chetma Scull as my second actually probably my most anticipated fight at the weekend like we've seen Alan versus Curtis um maybe it goes differently I think Alan going to win, but just in terms of what I'm just excited to see

and a guy, or both guys that I'm actually pretty high on, I want to see that fight. And then also a bunch of other stuff on there. Trevor Peaks always going to be fun. Johnny Walker's brother, Walter Walker, is making his debut at heavyweight as well if people don't know who he is.

Caesar Al-Madan on the prelims is a guy that's actually one and two in kickboxing against Pereira. Norma Jamon versus Jureen Jermandami. I probably said that name wrong is on the prelims I think that should arguably be on the main card

like this is a bunch of fun stuff Damon Jackson versus Hernandez Marona versus McGee I mean it's pretty one-sided but they're two names like there's actually a bunch of fun stuff on this card so I'm looking forward to it and yeah apart from that what did you think about my suggestion to just

chuck Rebellis to Spain in the main event instead and you know let's just do Nassimente versus Waldo chuck that down as the opening prelim and we'll get a lot more good reception to that fight than what they've currently got right now. So what do you reckon about that? You, my friend, listen to the people's

free fight show, because I said exactly the same thing after I ranted about how trash that made event is. Just swap them. Just put to Spain in there. Like, what is the difference? What is the difference? You either build the star or Derek Lewis gets

the shining moment. Like, who cares? They clearly don't. they're just like well Derek Lewis will sell tickets that's great but now you're putting him in a position where he's either gonna he's either going to get a quick finish or he's going to get

tackled and sat on for 25 minutes like those are your options at least if you put the Spain in there you can A build a star if he wins and B if he doesn't like Derek Lewis knocks about like it's a good moment for Derek Lewis so what

so what but now you're going to put Rebellis to Spain against Waldo or Cortez Acosta in a fight he could possibly lose. Like, what are we doing here? Rebellus to Spain is 35 years old. It's not like he's 24. He and Aaron Blanchfield,

where, like, he can lose and come back. Like, Aaron Blanchfield will be fine. But I just don't understand it. I don't get it. I don't get it. But, again, I'm torn here. I'm torn. Do I want this to sell out?

So it's another step forward to getting out of the AP. pecks for good, or do I want the fans in these cities who don't get cards to get something that they deserve for their hard-earned dollars? We're thinking about it. Four out Seifer. Go ahead. Yeah. Hey, heck of a morning.

Real quick, I wanted to talk about the co-main event that went down this past weekend, Vicente Lucke and Joaquin Buckley. So I noticed in round two, I think it was. where Vicente, I don't know what happened, but I guess he decided he was going to shoot a takedown and then sort of pull guard. And from there, it looked like he honestly quit in a sense. Like, I don't want to say it

because I feel like I'm shitting on him, but I'm really not. It looked like he just pulled guard and quit because he didn't try to get up. It didn't try any submissions from his back. He didn't do anything, but take punches to the arm. I think a few to the face. So he didn't take that much damage,

but it looked like he wanted out of there. it was a good win for Joaquin, congrats to him, but yeah, it was tough to see Vicente go out like that. I personally think he should retire because I guess that brain bleed is still in the back of his mind, and if that's the result

of that, if that's what he's going to do, moving forward, I don't want to see him get hurt. So I want him to retire, and I also want you your thoughts on that, Mike, every morning. Yeah, it was kind of weird. Like, at first, watching it live,

And this is something I normally wouldn't think watching a fight, but we had just seen something similar, but like a little more extreme earlier in the night. My first thought was that Vicente Lucay pulled in Andre Petroski and ran into the hip of Joaquin Buckley and just dazed himself, and then that was pretty much it. I don't, I don't, I can't really argue against, the aesthetics of how that fight ended.

Because my initial thought watching it was outside of the hip thing was like, all right, Vicente is just waiting for the referee to stop this fight. He's just waiting for it. He's just sitting there like, okay, you can stop this now. I'm done. But he didn't want to like tap out. And Joaquin just kind of did the thing. So, yeah, I don't know.

We haven't heard from Vicente Lucke. I'd love to kind of get his thoughts on what happened. And maybe we'll see. I don't know. I don't know. As much as in a lot of people's eyes, Vicente Lucke's stock dropped with the loss. I got to tell you,

this is, I think Joaquin Buckley's stock dropped so much. Not from the performance. He went out there and looked good and got a win. But man, has he fumbled the bag since then? He has been awful. First, the post-fight interview was horrendous. It was so bad.

I want a fight in St. Louis, Anheuser-Busch, sponsor me. Great. Kudos to Michael Bisbing for trying to get something interesting out of Joaquin Buckley. Call a name out, dude. You are in a division, which you are now, like, just outside of the top 10 of, I would assume. I haven't seen, let me see where he is ranked now, because I'm sure the rankings are out. At worst, he's like number 12. Might even be number 11?

He's tied at number 11 with Neil Magny. Dude, you could have got the MVP. Call it MVP. Like, that was right there for you. Hey, MVP, never been to London. Ready to stamp my passport. Let's go. That's something. Gets headlines. It gets people talking. Get me a big fight. Get me something cool. And then his appearance on the MMA hour was so awful yesterday. like it's just uninterested like why are you even going on the show then why are you going on the show i like i know ariel you know gets into it a little bit if someone has a problem with him he's kind of like i am we're just like all right let's just like let's talk about it let's talk about it

and walk he was just kind of just saying things like he didn't let it go like Kevin lee and Ariel had like a great back and forth Kevin let Ariel have it and now they're like fine and they were fine afterwards. This is just so awkward to watch. It just wasn't good. Like, when you get that time, especially on that particular show, where everybody was going to be watching it because CM Punk was on there. They were doing the

all-out interview. Like, that's what you deliver on the biggest show in the world covering the sport. It was just awful. It was so awkward. Rocky Buckley has just dropped the ball, man. Just drop the ball. Now he's going to fight. Now he's going to fight

like Michael Morales or something. St. Louis, he ain't going to get a big fight. Who knows? Maybe the UFC will applaud him for going after Ariel. Who the hell knows? But you got to be smart, man. You got to be smart with the mic. If you don't want to go to air your show, don't go on. Or if you've got to, like, make a scene, like, make a scene, but do it good. Just do it well.

This is just so awkward to watch. It wasn't even, like, it wasn't good. So A on the performance, but it. It's been an F since. You've got to be interesting. You've got to be better. Got to have a name. Something.

Even if you don't get it, like at least you said something interesting. Yeah, not good, man. Not good at all. But, hey, do what you got to do, my man. But you got to be better at that. Octagon Blog.

Go ahead. You are muted, Octagon Blog. Mike, how are you? Good, man. How are you? Yes. I like to talk about what you just mentioned

about Buckley, now about Manon Fioro. She's not doing her best to learn English. If you look at Francis Engano, Benoit Sandini, especially Francis who came from Cameroon where nobody is speaking English, Benoit San Deney is from a, well, poor, middle class background. He went to the armed forces and he just recently learned English. And Manon looks very very very. great as a woman, but she doesn't want to learn English. How can the UFC continue promoting her? I like to hear your take. Thank you and good luck.

Well, I mean, here's the difference being like her and Buckley. Buckley's in a division where you have to make moves. You have to because it gets so stagnant at the top. And of all the divisions where it is like the toughest to earn a title fight, welterweight is probably in the top three. Just look at the names who were up there. Like, Belal Muhammad, we're knocking on the door of a year since Belaw Mohammed last fought. And he still doesn't have a title fight on the books, despite fighting in a quote-unquote number one contender fight.

You have Shafkat Rokman off there. You have Colby there. J.D.M. is making moves. You have Gilbert Burns. You've got Ian Gary, Sean Brady, Wonderboy, Jeff Neal. MVP's there who's always going to be a step ahead. of Buckley across the board because he's a way bigger star.

Kevin Holland is a bigger star, has a win over him. So like Buckley is so far behind the eight ball already that like he needs to be interesting. Manon Fioro, yes, it would be nice if she learned English and could connect more with the American audience because that's the biggest audience

the UFC has right now. But she's also in a place where like there's nothing more she needs to do to earn a title fight. Like, she's done it all. She arguably earned it beating Caitlin Chukagian. And then she arguably earned it

beating Rose Dombeyudas. And then she went in in a clear, like, by the book, number one contender fight. You have two women vying for the top spot. They fought,

Fioro dominant wins easily, essentially. Like, there's nothing else for her to do. To get a title fight. the thing that doesn't hurt her all that much either is that the UFC goes to Paris every year now. And they support their own as well as any part of the world when it comes to fist fighting. Those crowds are electric.

They are the best crowds in MMA right now. Even for the PFL, which doesn't bring great cards to their areas. They bring like one fighter and then like other fighters who compete there. They're just on the ball. And if put Manifioro in Paris, people are going to show. show out and go crazy for her. So I don't think it's a huge issue yet. We'll see.

We'll see. A lot of this is going to depend on what happens. Manon's timing is not in Manant's favor right now because she could do one of two things. Actually, there's a couple things she can do, maybe three. She can take another fight and stay busy, whether it's at 25 or maybe she wants to try 35. She's probably one win away from getting a title shot at 35.

So maybe she waits to see to see what happens at UFC 300 and if Holly Holm beats Kayla Harrison then she can be like, you know what? Maybe let's go to 35 and give this shot. Because she'd get a title shot with one win and she would beat a lot of girls in that division, I think. She would.

She's building a 35 or anyways. Or the other option is she just weights it out. And if I'm her, I'm not fighting anybody else. I'm not fighting Macy Barber. I'm not fighting anybody. Like, I'm fighting for the belt. Maybe you're the backup fighter.

You make a couple of shekels by weighing in to be the backup fighter for Grasso Schifchenko 3. We don't even know when that fight's happening yet. Seems like most people feel like it's going to happen in September at the Spear. But that's what? Six months, five months away. And then by the time Fiera fights for the belt, it's going to be like a year out of action. at best, at best. Does she want to wait that long?

So, and you know how it is in this crazy sport of ours? Let's just say, like, Manon's like, nope, I ain't fighting anybody for the belt. Let's just say Natty Ice comes along and wins like three fights, beats Rose, like, beats a Lauren Murphy and, like, beats a Jescon Drage. And the amount of time it would take for Manon to get a title fight. Like, Natty Ice would get a whole bunch of momentum, and the fans would be clamoring for her to get a title shop. So she's in an interesting spot.

I don't think the lack of English is going to hurt her all that much, at least right now. But we'll see. She is going to be in the M.A. hour tomorrow in studio, which is a smart move. Defenders in cybersecurity are always there when we need them. They should get a parade every time they block. a novel threat and have streets, sandwiches, and babies named in their honor. But most of all, they deserve AI cybersecurity that can stop novel threats before they become

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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-by journey where identity, memory, and more. 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. Uh, CV, go ahead. Hey, Mike Keck of a morning. Uh, just one quick question for me. Um, I saw a tweet from, uh, Weasel MMA. Uh, he's a, he's a MMA YouTuber. He said that

if Whitaker the Whitaker Chimaya fight, if Hamzat ends up winning that one and if we do eventually get DDP versus Izzy and Izzy wins that, would Izzy and Hamzat potentially be the biggest middleweight fight, middleweight title

fight in UFC history? And just to add to that question, is that like a big fight that you can potentially see maybe next year as like a fight that everyone's going to look for because like we got 300 coming up and we got 301 coming up maybe we'll get Islam versus Dustin and other than that I can't think of like like a big title fight that I'm looking forward to towards the end of the year because I feel like I feel like 300 is the

card of the year so I don't know if there's any other fight that could top that but yeah just that for me Thanks. Maybe. I don't know. The thing with Hamzat that is tough is that like we don't know what his situation is. You are a company that is based in Las Vegas in the United States. And Hamzat hasn't fought,

Hamzat has fought in the United States. It was, it's been, we're going to be flirt with two years until that happens. Like, we don't know exactly. what his issues are, but it appears there are some issues. How can you trust a guy to fight for a belt that may or may not be able to go everywhere to fight? That's like the weird holdup with all of this, is if Hamzaa can only fight in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, like, what does that mean?

Is he, is that it? He just can only fight in those spots? Like, we don't know. So that's something that needs to be, like, figured out and quickly and quickly before, like, I can have confidence in Homsup fighting anybody for the belt. Homsat Setti, multiple times. We wanted to fight a 300. Didn't happen.

So, I don't know. It's going to be, it's, it's, I don't know what's going to happen here. Middleweight is such a weird division right now, but like, in the best possible way. and then think about it from Robert Whitaker's end. Robert Whitaker's lost to Izzy twice, got melted once, and then he got melted by DDP. Is that going to be a tough sell? If Whitaker wins this fight, which he very well could.

Will people buy that? I would. I want to see Whitaker fight Easy a third time. If Robert Whitaker beat Tom Zat Shamaia, if you have to give it to him, like it doesn't matter what happened in the past. There are certain scenarios where, like, it's just, it's undeniable. Where even if you get multiple shots at certain guys in certain positions,

there are certain wins you can get where it's just like, all right, we don't have a choice here. Like, you can't argue with it. If Rob Whitaker goes out in Stiles on Hamzot, I don't care if Izzy and DDP knocked him out 10 times. He gets a shot. Like, that's, this is a smart fight for Rob. He gains a whole lot from this one, a whole lot. And I love it. Hamzaat one scares me a little bit.

So I don't know. Would Hamzot Izzy be the biggest fight of all time in the middleweight division? Maybe. I feel like Strickland is like the star of the division right now, though. Even more so than Izzy. I feel like everybody, everybody's on the Sean Strickland train right now. So I don't know. It's going to be, I'm real curious to see how people will react to Izzy when he comes back.

because people were just kind of done with them. They were just kind of worn out by him. Like even Sean Strickle was the hero in Australia over Izzy. And I know like New Zealand and Australia are not the same place, but you've seen Izzy fight in Australia before and he was a freaking superstar. Not that time. So we'll see how it plays though. I don't know.

I think any big fight involving a lot of these names, 85 are massive, massive fights. We'll try to get Nicholas in here. hopefully his connection works. Got the wheel of doom. Did we have him? We'll see. Give it a few more seconds. I cannot believe we have not had one Chris Wyden question today.

Not one Chris Wyden question. Stunned. I got to tell you, I'm stunned. I thought I was going to be talking about the Wyman situation the whole day. The whole day. I mean, I'm just going to bring it up now. I'm just going to bring it up now. I think you guys are well aware of what happened.

in Chris Wyman's fight with Bruno Silva. Lots of eye pokes. Lots of... Well, maybe Chris will ask about it. Go ahead, Chris, what's up? Chris, you are muted. There you go. Hey, sorry about that, brother.

Since you're waiting for someone to talk about Wyatman, I thought I might as well then. I don't really... I don't really have an issue. Like, the fight is the fight, right? It's unfortunate a guy gets poked a bunch of times. I think most of the ire is just like the way Wybin handled the post fight right like to hit for him to be like oh he shouldn't

he shouldn't have fell to the ground like that i mean that just that happens in fights you get poked in the eye bad enough it hurt dudes fall over uh i think it's big i think most of the yeah it's mostly because like everyone like Wyman's just like a crowd favorite and to hear him say something kind of like ignorant like that because you can tell he wanted that win so bad i seems to where a lot of the heat, if there is heat, I guess, there's some heat, I guess, over this is. I mean, Chris Wybin's a stud to come back from what he came back from, to conduct himself in the way he continues to, for the most part, other than that post-fight interview. I mean, it sucks for Bruno Silva.

That guy deserves something. I don't know, another opportunity or something. But then again, like, I don't know. He didn't even really show up for the first round and a half or so. So I don't know. But anyway, I ain't mad at Weidman. the gloves are stupid and need to be fixed and it seems like the referee followed the rules

so I don't know thanks I mean you nailed it the reaction is the thing now and here's the position that Chris has put himself in he can't turn back now it's too late you can't be like you know what the emotions are high no you had your chance of the post fight scrum

and you didn't do it you could have been like ah shit happens. You know, I was wrong. You know, it was my first win in three years, you know, three and a half years. You know, all that emotions. I'm in the place where my career began. Like, there's a lot coming over me, you know, coming back from the injury.

I think people would understand it if he went to the post-by press conference and said, and said that. You know what I mean? But he goes to the post-by press conference and says, He doubles down, not only just double down on it, he says something to the effect of, yeah, maybe Bruton wanted a way out. What?

I couldn't believe my ears when I heard that. And now, as we talked about on the post-fight show, like, you can't, you can't take it back now. You have to go full, all in on this with this whole notion that Bruton quit, essentially. And you just can't. If you turn back now,

it's going to look like, well, because he'll be on the MMA hour tomorrow. It's going to be real interesting to see how he handles this. If I'm Chris's people, I'm just like, dude, you just got to keep going with it.

As Jed likes to say, if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly, you can't go from a grizzly to a teddy bear after four days. You just can't. You got to go all in with it. I'm not,

I agree with you with the gloves. They're stupid. But here's the thing, guys. here's the biggest thing of all. And the amount of people who have come on board, and now I see all these people on Twitter who are like media members, and they're throwing this shit out,

and they're like, look what I discovered. Look what I'm telling the people. I'm breaking this to all of you. You should just cheat. You should just cheat in fights because no one's going to call it. Yeah, bro, you're three years too late. What have we been saying the whole time?

There should be 15 minutes in every MMA class where it's devoted to cheating, where it's devoted to cheating, grabbing the fence, poking the eyes, kicking a guy in the balls because they don't call anything. We did get a point taken away

earlier in the night, and I started feeling better about stuff, and then Chris Wyman pokes Brito Silver in the eye four friggin times and doesn't get a point taken away. You have instant replay. I think it would also hurt the situation too is that Bruce Buffer announces a TK a win.

If they just said, look, we went to the replay, we're just going to the cards, like, fine. I think that would have softened the blow a little bit too. But, man, just cheat. Just cheat your ass off. Referees have gone, like, in interviews over the last, like, a year and a half and have said, I believe Herb Dean was one of them.

Was like, look, why don't we take as many? points because we don't want to feel responsible for a fighter losing half of his money. If it's one point that decides in a three-round fight, that's tough. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? You either call it or you don't. There are rules. Rules are in place for a reason.

It doesn't matter whether you meant to do it or not. And we bring up all these different things. Like, if it's a Super Bowl and fucking Tom Brady throws a ball down the field down by a field goal and dudes running down to try to catch the ball and the defensive player accidentally trips the receiver, it's fucking pass interference. It's a penalty. And you get to deal with it. They're not going to say, oh, it's a Super Bowl.

Can't call it. What the fuck are you talking about? Of course they're going to call it because it's the rules. whether it's accidental or not. That's my biggest issue with all of this. I mean, if Wyman continues to play it like this, actually I will have a whole lot of respect for it. I think if he goes on the MMA hour tomorrow and, like, says,

you know what I was wrong? Not a great look. I think you just kind of double and triple down on at this point. Because we also have to think about this, my friends. This is MMA. This is MMA. UFC 300s in a week. We ain't going to give two shits about this story.

in like the next three or four days. By the time Sunday rolls around, we will not care about any of this. We will be moved on. 18 new stories will come along. We'll have another fight card in the books that we're going to talk about for a day. And then all signs,

all lanes are at UFC 300. We are not going to care. So if I'm Chris Wybin, I'm just going all in on this and just sticking with it and I will have a lot of respect for that. But the main issue is these referees,

need to start calling shit. Because just cheat. Like seriously, every fight, title fights, I don't care. Cheat. Grab the fence, do it all, poke people in the eyes and kick them in the nuts. Because all you're going to get is, okay, just be careful next time. Oh, he kicks him in the balls again. All right, come on.

I know it's accidental, but, you know, be smart about it. Then it's a third time. All right, now I'm giving you a warning. And then the fourth time, maybe they take a point. It's fucking stupid. It's fucking dumb. Enough is enough. Grow some balls and take a fucking point.

There should be points for everything. And by the way, you get the first warning in the locker room. The referee goes back. Whoever's reffing the fights, they go to the back, and they tell them about the rules. If you do this, if you do this, you can't do this, you cannot do that. So you already, before you even walk, to the cage you've already gotten your first warning.

Don't do this, don't do that. And then you get three or four more in the fight before a point is taken. It's frigging ridiculous. It is ridiculous. Be better. Call some shit. And you know what's going to happen? People will stop doing it.

It's the same thing as the weight misses for newly signed UFC fighters. If you are a newly signed UFC fighter making 10 and 10, miss weight by three pounds. Go miss weight. Because what's going to happen? You lose 20% of your purse. Who gives a fuck? It's nothing.

But if you get your win money, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Because they allow it. All you lose is 20% of your purse? Who gives a shit? That's nothing. Change the rules on that too. Then people will start making weight.

a fucking point if they miss weight. Take a point. I love that rule. I think that would be a tremendous addition to the rule book. Take a point away. That way, we're starting to fight with you already down a point. And the incentive to miss weight, especially that when you're that early in your career, so that you want to try to get the extra win money, so you still walk home with something and you feel like if you don't cut the extra weight, you get your body's in better condition. Like, come on, man, we got to, we got to knock this shit down. Eye pokes her a point.

Ding, ding kicks her a point. Grabbing the fence is a point. Or if it's not a point, you need to do something. The fence grab thing, I get it. Like with the fence grab, it's like a natural reaction to like, oh shit, I'm up in the air, let me grab something. Like, I get it. but the takedown should count, and then you stop the action.

It's the fighter who grabbed the fence is on his back. It happens again. You move into the middle of the octagon. Take-down remains. Fighters on his back in the center of the cage. And if it happens a third time, it's a point. And if it happens a fourth time, it's his automatic disqualification. At least make it a point where these things matter.

Make it a point where these things matter. and the sport will be better. You'll see less eye pokes. You'll see less kicks in the nuts. You'll see a shitload of less fence grabs. Joaquin Buckley against Vicente Lucke had one of the most egregious fence grabs I've ever seen. No call. No nothing.

No stop of the action. Not even a warning. And you know what? I don't blame Joaquin Buckley for that. You should do that. Because if no one's calling it, then you're not breaking the fucking rules. If no one's enforcing the rules,

then is it really a rule to begin with? But I've been preaching, we've been preaching this for three years. So every fighter should be cheating because it's not cheating if it doesn't get called. Chiefs fan, go ahead. So real quick, I just want to say, is it about time we start taking that discretion away from the rest

then and just making it an automatic point deduction so they don't have to, you know, wander under that fire or whatever it's not up to them they take the point automatically that's all i got take it easy yeah i mean i don't know if you could do that though i don't know if you can do that it's it's the problem because the referees feel bad they feel bad taking the point because they don't want to be responsible because they know fighter pay is where it should be either and again i don't want to go down this rabbit hole but it is what it is the win pay the wind show thing is dumb and it's outdated and it's ridiculous.

And half the reason the referees don't call these fouls is because they don't want to feel responsible in a three-round fight with the scoring the way that it is and the pay of the way it is with the structure of it all, they don't want to be responsible for a fighter losing half their pay. They don't want to be the reason for it. I get it from like a human nature side of things, but this is professional sports. There are rules for a reason. you just got to do it.

You want to give one warning, fine, which would actually be the second warning because you've already given the warnings in the back. But Jesus Christ, man, it's just crazy. It's just crazy. Honestly, what probably should have happened is Wyman should have lost a point and they could have gone to the cards

and at worst it could have been a draw. Like, I don't think that's terrible. but I don't know. It's, this whole thing is dumb. The refs just let these fighters do it. And I don't blame the fighters for it. They should do it.

We've been saying it forever. Just fucking cheat your ass of. It ain't going to change anything. They're not going to call it. So just do it. Chris, go ahead and then we got to go. Hey,

first time calling in, but a long-time listener, a huge fan. So I'm a licensed referee and judge in my state. Every time you go through the training, there's always my, whenever I went through my training, I went through with Kevin McDonald.

He was talking about a rule change. He wanted to get in quite a while ago. And it made sense. Like it was just like a like a simple change. Like you can't, you can't, you know, stick your finger. And they said they was trying to get the rule change to orifice instead of just, you know, something technical. And it made sense for everyone.

But every time you try to get a rule change, it's a matter of, it's a matter of getting the like the unified rules changed and there's so much disagreement like with any issue in America it's the Democrats want this or the Republicans want this and even if it makes sense for the betterment of everyone it's it is kind of like it's it's squashed by one side of the other because we can't give credit to the other side they don't like to make everything political but it's just the truth so I think that has a lot to do with it that holds up a lot of things so that's a That's just kind of my thoughts weighing in. Huge, man, a heck of a morning. Thanks, man. No, I get it. Like, it's so easy for me and other people to just be like, hey, she just change the rules and do this and that. Like, I know how difficult that is.

I know how difficult that is. My big issue is we already have rules in place and fighters break them and there's no penalty for them. They're just allowed to do it. That's the problem. that's the biggest problem of all i'd love to go ahead i want to go to one of these like abc things and just go and check out like the rules that are on the table and how we could change unified rules and all that stuff like i'd love to just sit there and like take notes and be a part of that whole situation but we already have rules so how like if how can people be confident

if the rules that we already have in place aren't enforced but that we're adding new stuff you know what i mean like that's my big problem with all of this and you know hopefully we get to a point where it doesn't matter or you just be like just change the writing of the rule you're like hey if you poke somebody in the eye or do this like you get five warnings before we take a point and then it's just like accepted it's fine but again that's easy for me to just be like change the rules and rewrite all of them but these rules are already in effect you can't poke a dude in the eye multiple times you can't can't a guy in the balls multiple times you can't grab the fence in the takedown multiple times you can't

even do it you're not even supposed to be able to do it once so again fighters grab the fence do it all because they ain't calling it uh and until they start calling it you got nothing yeah yeah heck of a morning big might that man um so i don't know well i'm pretty sure you saw it but uh i'm trying to understand bow nichols like issue with jordan burrows it it seems like when i was reading about it and he kind of put out a tweet saying he was, oh, he was targeting, I guess the wrestler starts, Sarucci's injury in competition. But I also noticed that him and D.C. both said it. So I don't know if they have like some sort of past issue and him calling Jordan Burroughs, like a fraud and stuff like that. And Booneckles seems like a chill dude, but I just feel like

every time he talks, his ego just continues to grow. But just wanted to get your thoughts on that. yeah super weird i don't really know enough about it um i think damon is probably like the right person to ask about that because damon's like tapped into the wrestling scene and he like he watches it he follows it uh he's a huge huge wrestling fan um on that level much more than i so he'd probably be the one i don't know where it stems from it could just be an ego thing. But yeah, kind of weird. A little super weird.

But the combat sports world. What a place. What a place. All right, Ahmed, I will grab you and then we got to go. Are you there? You got to unmute yourself. Ahmed.

So what are you guys talking about? Everything. Everything. Okay, so Islam versus Poirier in Jews. What do you think? So this has been another fun topic this week in the world of Mike Hacks, Instagram DMs. Dustin Poirier getting a title shot against Zalmachach.

I get it. I get it. Would it be the thing I do? No, would not be the thing I do. But three years ago, we started the Always Cheat thing. That has aged incredibly well. The new thing that I've adopted over the last nine months to a year is, This quote, which every fighter should posterize and put on their wall.

Availability is your best friend. Availability is your best friend. And Dustin Porre's best friend right now is availability. The fact that he got a head start over Max Holloway and Justin Gatchie and Armand Searukian and Charles Olivaira by fighting Benoit Santini in a five-round fight at UFC. 299 was brilliant. It was brilliant. Everything does... Dustin Poyer, like, if we were doing quarter-year fighter of the year,

Dustin Porey is the quarter-year fighter of the year. Like, he is the fighter of the quarter. There is no close second place. It is Poreen by a landslide because of what he has done this year. First of all, just accepting this fight with Ben Waus-Sultz, and he got him big style points. then the public negotiation just putting the boots to the UFC

in a public landscape to get more money, which he got by the way. It was brilliant. The way he presented it was even funnier. It was really one of my favorite days covering sport. The good guy got one over. It was the best. And then the performance goes out and knocks out Ben-Wa-Santini.

Like everything Dustin Pover has done this year has been an A-plus. Absolutely everything. So that on top of the availability being his best friend, he is in a tremendous spot right now. He knows that Al-Machchev wants to fight in June. He set the table beautifully. And there's no chance Justin Gachie's fighting in June.

Probably no chance Max Holley's fighting in June because those two are going to beat the shit out of each other. Porre's big hurdle, I think, is going to be the Armin-Sorukian Charles Oliverer fight. Because I feel like, that fight is not going to last long. That fight is probably going to end very quickly.

And if the guy who wins that fight doesn't take a lot of damage, that could be something that could affect Porreier, but UFC 300 is also April 13th. I would suspect unless

Connor Chandler is not a thing that Islam Porre will headline 302. will Vera and Surukin be ready to turn around in like six weeks time? Or do you just wait? That's the thing too. Let Poria get his shot, prepare for Abu Dhabi.

You could do that. I don't know. But Porre is in a tremendous position right now. And I think he just would kind of, I don't, I think the UFC would be smart not to announce this fight until after 300. See how it all plays out and that we talk and that we can go from there. But, yeah, Poir is in a tremendous position. What a story would be. Last chance at a title.

He beats us on Machachev. Like, that would be the fucking story of stories. But I don't think that fight goes very well for Dustin Poria, if we're being honest. But again, availability is your best friend. Dustin's a star. Islam's a star. Do bonkers box office. It would do bonkers pay-per-view numbers.

Not a bad place to be. All right, we got to go. Thank you all very much. Don't forget. UFC 200, rewatch tonight, 8 p.m. Eastern on the YouTube channel. It's going to be fun. Telling old tales. Shaheen, Al-Shadi, Jose Youngs, Casey will be there as well to share their stories from

UFC 200. The craziest fight week ever. The craziest build to a card in the middle of the craziest year in UFC history. Just the best. Just the best. Good stuff all around. I'm very excited about this one. I'm more excited about this one than I was with 100, if we're being honest.

But we'll be back here on Thursday. 10.15 a.m. Eastern time. We'll do it again. We'll have BTL on Thursday. BTL might be a little bit of a weird one based on scheduling, but we'll try to get something going. Might just do another Q&A and bring the battles back for 300. And then Friday we'll be back here as well.

So thank you all very much. Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday. and have a heck of a morning, everybody. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first? There, the last one.

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