MMA Fighting - HOAM | How Do You Grade PFL's World Championship Event?

Episode Date: November 28, 2023

The PFL completed its 2023 season by crowning six $1 million champions with the promotion's World Championship event this past Friday. In addition to the six title fights, the card also included the long awaited return of Kayla Harrison, along with the PFL debut of Derek Brunson, and more. While there were interesting storylines, and great moments for the new champs, does the promotion need to take a deeper look at their annual championship pay-per-view event structure? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to the card, talks why it gets a mid-level grade, and multiple improvements that need to be made to make it successful in the future. Additionally, listener questions include Cris Cyborg's reaction to not being in attendance for the card and a potential matchup with Harrison, Saturday's UFC Austin fight card, the stakes in the Beneil Dariush vs. Arman Tsarukyan main event, Jalin Turner stepping in to fight Bobby Green on short notice in the co-main event, Dana White announcing Anthony Smith will now face Khalil Rountree Dec. 9, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe 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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What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.

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It is Tuesday, November 28th, 2023, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the NBA fighting Twitter spaces. You can hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter. on the MFA Fighting Podcasting Network. What's going on, everybody? I am Mike. I hope you are all having a wonderful start of the week. If you guys celebrated,

hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving. A lot going on in the combat sports world. We get a very busy weekend coming up. Big BKFC card. We have UFC Austin. We had a bunch of fight announcements last week from Dana White, including the co-mate event for UFC Austin. We found out Dan HoaghaniFSI event for UFC Austin.

We found out Dan Hooker is out of his scheduled match with Bobby Green and now Jalen Turner steps in on short notice, which is super interesting. We found out that UFC 298, the Volcanowski-Tuporia card, as we talked about on this program, one of the options in play was Anaheim. That is now the official location for UFC 298. and we found out Joe Pfeiffer is headlining his first UFC events, February 10th, and he will take on Jack Kermanston.

I'm trying to think of what else we found out. Oh, yeah, we found out that the Kaleel Roundtree, Azamat Mirzikana fight for this Saturday is off, but we found out that they're just going to push back Kaleel Roundtree to next Saturday, UFC Shang Vegas, and stepping in on two weeks notice or so, but 15 days will be Anthony Smith. So a lot of announcements there. And on top of that, we had the PFL World Championship event on Friday. And boy, oh boy, was this, this is a card, my friends.

this was a card and it was a card that lasted for freaking ever. This thing would never end. It's insanity. How long this event lasted. We had the prelims, four fights, and I remember tweeting out before this started. Like, PFL has some good momentum. Let's hope that the pacing of this card will match the momentum,

something to that effect. And the prelims went by, like, relatively quick. I know the broadcast started at five, and they basically did a five Eastern time. And they did a pregame show. And a lot of people are already responding to that tweet saying, well, it's 30 minutes in the broadcast. We still haven't had a fight yet. To be fair, PFL did basically advertise that the prelims, the actual fighting,

wasn't going to start until 5.30 Eastern time. And once they started, like, it wasn't, it wasn't bad. Like, they were paced pretty well. Well, first two fights went to a decision. The Jesse Stern, Josh Bladen fight wasn't bad. The Kara Kappa Kivu fight kind of went the way I expected it to go. We got Biaja Ali Walsh and Joel Lopez in an amateur fight. We got the big finish from Biageo Ali Walsh.

We had a championship fight to close out the prelims, the featherweight bout, Hazie Spanato versus Gabriel Alves Braga. To be fair, that one probably should have been. on the main card, but then we get to the main card. And it is one, two, three, four, five, seven fights, five of which are title fights. We get Derek Brunson and Ray Cooper the third. We start off right there and we're like, okay, there's no way this is going to the cards.

Either Brunson's going to tackle him and beat the shit out of them and finish him or Cooper's going to land a big shot and knock out Derek Brunson. Derek Brunser just rolled Ray Cooper the third, went to the cards. He got some 30-25s. Solid debut. It's exactly what the PFL could have hoped for. And then we get to Kayla Harrison, Askin Lad.

Kayla just dominates Askin Ladd. Askin had some moments. And then we get to the title fights. It just went forever. Impagos Agonite, Josh Silvera. It was like the same round every time. Magamemad Karamov, choking Sadabu Kibu Kyi. Thank God that happens, because that was a slow burn.

Larissa Pacheco versus Marina Monta Tika. I just felt like Larissa was just going to clobber her, and it just wasn't that fight. They went out. The first round was pretty fun, and then both fighters just got really, really tired, and Pacheco just kind of sat on her the rest of the way and tried submissions and Marina defended,

and it was just a slow fight. Heavyweight fight, we get to the second round. oh my God, I can't do this for five rounds. Luckily, Verrera knocks out Goldsoff, gets the big punch, lands the hammer fist, and then the main event goes the full five. This was a C for me. Like, we had some cool stories. Like Impa Kisang and I being on the wrong end of one of the worst knockouts, maybe in the history of the UFC, and then bouncing back three years later, winning a million and barely broke a sweat doing it.

Like, that's pretty cool. Dude had a fight on the freaking challenger series to get an opportunity, and he wins the million dollars. Like, super cool story. Very, very cool. Magamad Karamov probably should have been the welterweight champion, like, every year in the PFL, but the PFL did the stupid thing last year

where they decided to move the playoffs to London or the UK, and they couldn't get the visas transferred in time, which I still don't understand that move. we get the Pacheco win it just was a long long card it took forever it took forever

and you couldn't even it's like wasn't even really enjoyable because you were just like oh my God we still have like four more fights to go this is an issue this is a problem that they have to fix heading into next year

I like the concept like I'm I'm trying to give PFL a chance here I really am because we kind of have to at this point, right? Bellator is sort of absorbed into the promotion, and it's going to be like these different entities, which I don't think is going to last past 2024, if we're being honest. And I like the concept of this all. But then we get to the end, and it's like we're watching a card for like nine hours. And it's just not all that thrilling if we're being fair. So if we're going to continue to do this,

we have to mix things up a little bit. We have to go more bellatorish when it comes to positioning these events. Like instead of starting the prelims at 5.30 p.m. Eastern, start up at 3.30. Start them two hours earlier. And then do a whole bunch of the title fights on the prelims. Put them on ESPN Plus, put them on ESPN2, wherever.

And that's fine. If people are done shopping for the day and they want to watch sports, and you want to try to sell a couple of pay-per-views, like, do that. Make the prelims, like, extended. So if people are super into it and they want to buy the card, then there you go.

And then just take, like, your four or five best fights. I would probably do four best fights and put those on the main card. Derek Brunson, that fight could have been, like, the featured prelim. Most casual fans or most fans know who Derek Brunson is. There's some casuals. We probably know who Derek Brunson is. That could have been the featured prelim, and then you just end the card with,

you do the main card with Kayla versus Aspen, maybe you do the Impa fight, you do the Pacheco fight, and then you do the main event, and everything else should have bet on the prelims. These are just tough. If you spend 50 bucks on this, I'm guessing you were just like,

yeah, this could have ended like two hours ago. So, I don't know, it just was, it just felt like I was watching the PFL for the entire day. And it's just, they don't have the roster or the exciting fighters to justify that. They just don't. So again, love the concept. You want to do a marathon card that's fine, but the main card needs to be four fights. It cannot be seven. and you can't do five title fights.

You can't. Last year was, at least we got a lot of finishes. We had the big story of Pacheco beating Harrison. So like at least we came out of it like, okay, this is cool. Like we have something to talk about. We even did a post-fight show after. I knew like an hour into the main card. There's no, I was like, we're definitely not doing a post-fight show for this.

Because it's just a tough hang. It's just so long. So a C, for me for the PFL world championship. OAM, Clay Collard, great first round. Collard started to turn things around down the stretch. OAM just kind of tackled him and sat on him,

which he should have done, especially with down the stretch where his leg was just getting battered, he was compromised, basically fought the last half of that fight with one leg. So kudos to OAM, but at that point, we're flirting, we're way past midnight, and we're like, this is definitely going to the cards. I can't believe the Pacheco fight went to the cards. That was, that was insane.

But, yeah, you guys don't talk more about that we can. But we can talk about whatever, since we haven't been here for like a week. We haven't been here for a week. We'll go to the calls. Again, I just want to say real quick, apologies for the later start. technically it's my day off but I didn't want to not do a show. If you guys heard last week's show, I was sounding like I was dying, thought it was allergies. Turns out it wasn't.

The doctor today, I actually had to go to the doctors because it just, none of this was getting better. The voice sounds better, but everything else is worse. And the doctor checked me out and said that I have the worst sinus infection. One of the worst sinus infections he has seen all year and he's seen a bunch. my whole face is just like numb. It has not gotten better. The doctor determined I had a sinus infection by looking at my eyes. He said there was an infection in the back of my eyes and you could see it.

That's how bad the sinus infection is. And I just can't shake it. It's making me frigging miserable. So I knew it wasn't just allergies. I had to go and get it checked out. So hopefully a couple days, antibiotics will be good to go. But yeah, it's been pretty miserable. But let's go.

Let's hear from you guys. Four Corner Sports. Start us off. Hey, Mike. So I didn't watch any of the PFL just because I guess I'm seeing on Twitter that the pacing was terrible. Do you, I saw a beat, not so, I was watching, I was listening to VCL. And I think they should just spread them out like you and Judd had recommended. Just because that's a lot of, what was it, like a seven-fight main card?

I think that's pretty insane, especially with all the prelims. I don't think you need to extend an extra two hours because I don't think a lot of people want to be sitting around for like nine hours watching MMA. I mean, some people might, but I just think that the PFL needs to work on it, just making shorter fights. I mean, you guys have always advocated for, you know, the perfect, I think setting would be like 11 fights. and I think that if the pacing could just be a little bit quicker and, you know, do two title fights and, you know, spread them out throughout like the month. So there's a consecutive weeks.

I think the PFL just, if they can do something like that, they can get something rolling. Because if they try to do something like this, when, for instance, you know, if he ever fights with the PFL, I mean, people are going to be waiting around, you know, forever for the main cars to start getting rolling. but I wanted to talk about the damn you were good damn they were good what's the quote episode

I thought that was one of the best episodes that you guys released on Brock Lesnar that was phenomenal stuff and I really wonder you know how his career would have transpired if he would have you know continued in the UFC if he never left and then came back all right that's all I have thanks Mike Thanks, man. I mean, look, with PFL, this was an 11-fight card,

but six of them were title fights. It's just too much. It's just too much. Or just, like, do a two-card event. Like, do it, spread them over two weekends. Do one, like, the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and then do the Friday one. Like, that's fine.

That's fine. Or just do one card with the title fights. You want to throw Kayla in there? That's fine. But like some of these, like, look, I get what they're trying to do with Biazsche-A-Wa. Does he need to be on this card? No. No.

I understand why the Jesse Stern fight was on there because she had to sell tickets. You had to get some locals in there to sell tickets because otherwise, you're probably not selling that place out. I know it was determined as to sell up, but certainly didn't seem like that on the broadcast. But it's just too long. It's just too much. And there's no stars. There's no stars. Kayla, yeah, but did anybody think Aspen Ladd was going to win that fight?

Even Don Davis on the MMA hour called it a warm-up fight. Even Don Davis called it a tune-up fight for Kayla. You know, Aspen fought well. She did all right, but she just kind of got ragged all by a bigger, stronger, more physical athlete. But this is, it's just too much. They got to find a way to shorten these up or cut them in half. do that. It'll make it better.

Like you want to do a Bellator event like on the Saturday? Take half the fights and put it on that. And then do the big Friday day after Thanksgiving championship card. And just make it more digestible to the viewers. It just took forever. And one other thing that I just cannot stand about these broadcasts is the in-fight Zoom interviews. Why are we doing this?

Why? Why? Why do I care what Jake Paul thinks about Larissa Pacheco against Marina Mokentica? I don't give a shit

with Jake Paul things. I don't care what Ryan Bader thinks about Henan Ferreira and Dennis Goldsoff. I don't care. Bring him in after. Bring him in after. There's like,

11 minutes between the fight ending and the decision being read. Bring in Bader for a quick minute. Hey, what did you think of Ferrer's knockout? Oh, it was pretty cool. Be nice to fight him someday. But I'm going to beat him. Oh, yeah? Would you rather fight him?

Would you rather fight him? Would you rather fight Fries and Gano? Oh, I'll fight anybody. It doesn't matter. Thanks, Ryan. Appreciate you. Bring Jake Paul in after the Derek Brunson fight. Bring him in after the Kayla fight.

Hey, Derek Brunson called you out. What did you think of that? I don't even think that was mentioned to him. in that whole thing. The whole time Jake was on, I was like, all right, what are they going to ask about Dark Brunson? They didn't. It just distracts from the rest of the fight. Like, it's just too much. You want to put the smart cage over and do the stats like that's interesting and unique. I don't like it, but if you want to do it, cool. But you can't put a hat on a hat when you're already doing that much. It's just too much going on right now to have these in-fight interviews. They're just awful. takes away from all of it. So we got to fix that.

Yes, we did a day and they were good on Brock Lesnar. It was a lot of fun. The entire build to it was super fun because you got to go back and watch Brock Lesnar fights. And if you just have an hour, just go back and watch Brock Lesnar fights. Because that's all it's got to take you. Because his fights, except the Marcund fight. You could probably ignore the Markhan fight if you don't want to watch that one because

it's not very good. But the rest of it is friggin' electric. from the Frank Frank Mayor debut loss to the terrible point deduction to him just running over Heath Herrig even though that one went to the cards

there's still like a lot of fun because Brock just annihilated that guy one of the coolest highlights ever is what he dropped him with a punch and broke his orbital Heath Herring like does a backward somersault and Brock just charges at him like he's gonna run him through the frigging cage

and then the second Frank Mayor winning the time. title and then the second Frankmere fight and the Shane Carwin fight is crazy and then the wheels kind of fall off with the Alasoroveree and Kane Velasquez fights but excuse me super fun to do really enjoyed it yeah I thought it was a really good episode as well so if you guys are you got a couple hours you get some long drives ahead of you fire up damn they were good on Brock Leszor I think you'll enjoy it boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes.

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Good morning, man. How you doing? Hope you haven't been heck of a morning. I just have two questions I want to ask. With the PFL event, I think it was, I agree with you with the C. There was definitely some nice fights in there. Some would just air.

I'm really happy for, I forgot his name, but the guy that, Buckley, basically, yeah, that guy, I'm really happy for him, and I think he definitely has a good future

in that organization. And I would really like if the PFO can promote him more. The Kayla Harrison, Chris Cyborg fight, look, I kind of, of don't get why that fight is so important right now.

I'm not sure what your thoughts on that personally, but I'm curious to know what you think about the whole situation moving forward. Now, another question I have, U.S. related, I'm sure you've heard rumors of people saying George St. Pierre versus Nick Diaz for U.S. 300, which I think is absolutely blatantly stupid to even think about happening, because it seems that a lot of fans probably just having this nostalgic revisionist history probably due to the fact that, oh, you know, because like Brock Listener, he had a surprise

comeback and, you know, USC 200 and then, you know, yadri, I know, all that. So I don't see how Nick Diaz and George St. Pierre would ever want to return to the Octagon. I mean, you know, yeah, George's obviously always training and stuff, but he's clearly done. He's been out of the MMA game for nearly seven years. I'm not sure where that room is coming from or why it's coming from. I think it's more likely we see, you know, Nick Diaz probably fighting like some small-time veteran in his comeback, in George St. P in my opinion. That's all I have to have a great day. Yeah, that's the first I've heard about VAT for UFC 300.

I know those two were linked to a grappling match on Fight Pass. which if they do that like that's great that's what you should do that would be the perfect thing to do with those two guys uh but yeah it doesn't i don't think gs p's coming back to fight anybody at this point because it didn't seem like he even likes fighting anymore uh never really seemed to like it in the first place he was scared to death of it and just but just didn't it was really good at it and made a lot of money and now he's like living his best life so and even as like a fan it'd be kind of cool to like see

I don't even like there's no draw there really I mean two huge names like you probably get some casual buys but it's not going to be all that compelling of a fight like I would be stunned if that's even like actually

being discussed I don't really want to see it and plus I think we've if you want to see it go back and watch the first fight it's not very good it's not very good. It's just GSP tackling Nick and just jabbing him and tackling him. And that's the whole fight.

And it wasn't that good. The fight did not match the build. I think that's a fair thing to say. So, yeah, that's the first I've heard about that at all. As far as the Harrison Cyborg fight, I get it. You kind of want to strike. Because I just don't think Chris Cyborg has a lot of time left in this fight game. There's just no real compelling fights for her.

And she doesn't seem all that happy with the BFL right now anyways. Because we saw Champions Row and, you know, we saw Jason Jackson, and we saw Patchy Mix and Patricia Pitbull and Johnny Ebblin. They were all there. All there. Chris Seidborg was not there. Which, by the way, if you're going to bring one champion from Bellator to that card, to create some sort of intrigue,

wouldn't you bring Chris Cyborg, especially with Kayla Harrison and Larissa Pacheco, both fighting on the card? You're about to embark on this journey where you're going to try and have to sell paper views. And you didn't bring Chris Cyborg there? What are you doing? What are you doing?

So all we got from Chris Cyborg on Friday was her tweeting, her airing her grievances by not even getting a phone call about it. And then a short video of her reacting to Kayla calling her out. I don't know. It's just two stars fighting, I guess, because, like, Larissa Pacheco is really good at fighting. And I think from a fan standpoint,

I would like to see Chris I book fight Larissa Pacheco. But if we're talking about selling pay-per-views and doing this on the same card as a Francis fight, you got to do Cyborg versus Harrison. You have to. It's been trying to build this thing for like two years now. And there's another thing we need to keep in mind as well. Kayla Harris is going to be a free agent in like a month.

What's going to happen? Is she going to stay at NFL? Is she going to go to the UFC? Because the UFC's got to take a shot at her. I don't know if they're going to bring back 145, but Kayla has said in other interviews, like, maybe I'll go to 135. I don't know if she could do it.

But I don't know. I don't know what they're going to do. It doesn't seem like Chris Cyborg's very happy. And if Chris Seiberg, Mike, just want to box. Like, it just keep boxing and making money there. One tweet that she said that really stood out to me was, if there's one thing that's not going to happen is no, I'm going to be the one that's going to control the end of my career.

So, yeah, I think PFL made a big misstep. And I don't know if they try to contact her or not, but kind of have to take cyborg at her word here that she didn't get contacted. And why would she not be there? I just, God, of all the face-offs you could have done, you want to get over, you want to get some social media traffic, you want to create buzz?

Like, by far, that would have been the most talkable thing coming out of that card. But alas, they didn't do it. And Chris is pissed, and I'll blame her for it. but I do think that's the fight they're going to try to make, but they have Chris Cyborg on the contract for as many fights as they have her for that she had left with Bellator. And I know Bellator just resigned her

heading into her most recent bout with Katzangano. So she probably has like three fights left. So they have her. Kayla, by the time the calendar switches, to 2024, she's going to be on the open market. So if they're going to try to make that fight happen, they better move pretty quickly because Kayla's going to be

Kayla's going to get some other offers. That's for sure. And I think the UFC would take a shot at her. But we'll see what happens. Let's go to Annelese, perhaps. We got the Wheel of Doom. We'll see if we can get through this.

Let's see if we can get the connection here. Doesn't look like we're getting it. If it gets through, then we'll try. CV, go ahead. Yo, Mike, can hear me? I got you. Hey, man, heck of a morning.

Glad to have you back. I hope your Thanksgiving was good. Yeah, let's get to it. Let's talk about the Austin card. Main event. It's funny. Saruken would probably have been in dispositions if he won the fight against Gamrod.

last year. So yeah, I just want to get your thoughts on this main event and like what happens to the winner. Are they like one fight away from the from the belt? And also the co-main event with Turner stepping in for short notice against Green and when what do you think about Anthony Smith stepping in short notice as well against a Cleoela Roundtree? Thanks. Yeah, I love the main event on Saturday. I like this entire card. This is pro- like it stinks losing Dan Hooker Because Dan Hooker Bobby Green is like a totally different fight This is still very good I'm not complaining about Bobby Green versus Jailen Turner

There's some These two have gone at gone at it in the gym many many times apparently And this will be interesting But one thing that concerns me Is Jalen Turner going to make weight He's a big freaking guy I don't know if he can make it He missed it on a full training camp last time

So I'm curious to see. Let me look at the website because one thing that was kind of missed during this announcement was, let me see if they put it as a catchweight or not. Now they're calling a lightweight boat. So I just don't know if he's going to make it. That's concerning. If he misses by a lot, like, is this fight even going to happen? So I'm cautiously optimistic that jail will make weight. but look at the rest of the card. It's freaking great.

Darryor Surukian is a great fight. Turner Green's a great fight. Rob Fonk, Davis, and Figurado. Great fight. Sean Brady, Calvin Gasselm, great fight. Clay Guida, Joaquim Silva. It's got to be fun. It's got to be absolute insanity because that's how those two are. Puneas Soriano, Dustin Stoltzvith, someone's going to sleep.

Misha Tate's back. Julie Obelahs back. They're fighting each other. Joe Selecki, Jark, Close. closest first fight in a long-ass-time. Selecty's had a quietly, is quietly put together a nice little UFC run. He's five and one. But he's not a guy that a lot of people talk about

because he's not a big trash talker. He's just a nice, knowledgeable guy. Cody Brundage, Zach Reese, Steve Garcia, Ocasio Costa. We got Ehor Potaria back against Rodolfo, Bolas. Lato, Wellington Termin, Jared Gooden,

Jamie Lynn Horth, Veronica Hardy. This is a really good card. I like it a lot. Where does Darius Sharukin go? Where does the winner go? A win away? Probably not. I don't know.

Lightweight is so nuts. You have to think Oliver is next. Gachi is probably going to wait around for the winner unless he gets like a huge money fight. maybe the UFC pivots and goes with Gaichi, Connor. I don't think they will, but Gachi would probably take that fight. But you have to think, like, in Gai Chi's position where he's at in his career, if it's not Connor, he's probably just going to wait for the title.

So that could be a hot minute. So I'll say they're very, very close. They probably put themselves in position to be like the back. backup fighter for the title fight when that actually happens. It gamrots fought both these guys. Darius beat him. I thought Sauru Kian beat him every single time I've watched it, but still in a great fight.

Maybe just run those two guys back again. I wouldn't have a problem with that. But, yeah, you can't really lose in this division right now. You really can't. Darius, I mean, I just, I want to see Dariu's, fight Islam still. I still think stylistically that's a super interesting matchup.

And Sarukin getting the rematch on a full camp with Machachev is fun. So yeah, lightweight, this is, lightweight just the best division in the sport. But because it's the best division of the sport, and because it's been so veteran heavy with

big names, that there hasn't been a lot of movement. So these fights just become so much more important, especially for for Darius right now. I mean, if he ever wants to fight for the belt, like you can't lose again. And if Surukian wants to get a title fight anytime soon,

he can't lose either. There's just a lot on the line here. You can't move backwards in this division. It sets you back for quite some time. But this card's great. This card is very, very, very, very, very, very good. The Anthony Smith thing, I like it, man. I like it.

I know Anthony has it looks spectacular. as of late, but these are the types of fights that Anthony Smith comes in and plays spoiler with. I know Kaleo Roundtree's looks like a wrecking ball, but if we really look at, like, if we really look

at his resume, and he's up and coming, you can only fight the guys you're supposed to fight, like, look at this win streak he's on right now. If we really look at it, Modestis Bacoskas, Carl Roberson, not in the UFC,

Dustin Jacoby, a lot of people felt like Jacoby won that fight. And then he knocked out Chris Doccas, who cut down the light heavyweight and has been finished by pretty much everybody. So this by far is his toughest fight of this run. And Anthony Smith just, these are the fights Anthony comes in and wins. Two wins over Ryan Span, who's a very dangerous striker. Jimmy Crute, dangerous striker, big finisher. Anthony Smith found a way to beat him. These are the fights he wins.

So it's very, very interesting. Would I prefer the Mersakana fight? Yes, because I think both those guys are, like one of these guys is going to make a run and the other is just going to be a fun, exciting finisher. So I would have liked to see that fight. I think that's the better matchup, but hey, Anthony Smith on the resume.

If you can go in there and just do it again, Smart move. I like it for both guys. Panda, go ahead. Panda. Panda, why does this always happen? Let's try again. All right, I think we have you, Panda.

I mean, Mike, I don't know. It's really annoying. No, I got to get him fixed. I'll be quick, first, and then second. So I got two questions for you. Number one, this Ian Gary fight. I feel like it's going to be a good one. Is he actually going to get, like, tested for a full fifth?

minutes here on this on this card coming up to i mean i've been asking for this cobi leon fight in this space for maybe eight months talk to me about it now that we're two weeks ahead do you think cobi just wrestles them and takes control of the fight right away you think leon gets you know his points with is striking early who do you think comes out hot who do you think finishes the fight hot do you think there's a finish because i'd be very surprised there's a finish i think we're getting 25 minutes of action in two weeks. All right, my man, Mike. Ian Gary won, main event, too.

Have yourself a heck of a week. Thank you, sir. We'll see with the Ian Gary thing. I know he's been making headlines and his wife's been making headlines. I'm certainly not going to talk about that. It's just, it's, I'm just, my Twitter has just been a shitstorm with that whole thing. which is crazy. But yeah, I think it's a great fight.

Leuke can hit like a truck. Ian Gary can hit like a truck. Ian's a great athlete. Lucke's a great athlete. Lucke's game is evolving. Even at this point in his career, I thought his last performance was super impressive. I didn't think he was going to be able to do that,

and he did. So it's going to be an interesting fight. Is it going to be like a straight banger? I don't know. It all kind of depends on who leads the dance. I think if this is an Ian Gary leading the dance kind of a fight, then I think it's going to be a lot more exciting. But Luke A's going out there just trying to get another win.

I think it could be a very similar fight to RDA, and maybe who knows? Who knows? Because if you talk to Ian Gary, he will tell you that he's the greatest grappler in the entire world, but he just hasn't had to use it yet. So, yeah, I'm intrigued by it. I think he will be tested. And if he just goes and just dominates with Sente-Luke, I mean, no matter how you feel about him.

And the things he says, I just don't know how you can deny him anymore that he's, like, very good at fighting. I mean, he just, he just ran Neil Magny. I mean, that fight was not competitive for one second. It was just all domination. Like obviously we would have liked to have seen a finish out of Ian in a fight like that. But Neil is tough as hell and survived. But Ian Gary looked incredible. So we'll see.

We'll see. I like the fight. Colby Leon, I think's going to the cards. I have no, honestly, I don't know. I have no idea. Colby hasn't fought in a long time. It's going to be what? March, there'll be 21 months between fights for Colby.

But knowing Colby, as I do, he certainly has not been sitting on his ass for the last two years. So I'm sure he's going to be in great shape. God, that press conference is going to be rough. It's going to be rough. with Colby and Patty and Ian Gary and Leon and everybody it's just gonna be rough it's just gonna be rough I don't know who's gonna win it's a tough one to call

it's one I'm just gonna have to like probably wait to like the preview show I would say like part of he's like leaning towards Leon but I don't know man if Colby can start hot I think he wins But we saw in that second fight with Usman that sometimes in these big spots he starts slow and then he starts coming on strong. So I guess to kind of answer one of your questions, like who's going to end the fight with momentum? Probably Colby.

Probably Colby, because that's just what he does. Dude doesn't get tired ever. But I don't know. How does the fight start? Is Colbygie? Not gun-shy, but does he just take too long to get going? That's a big question we're going to have about that fight.

So, yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to going back to New York for the Watch Party. It's going to be a busy week. It's going to be a busy week. Because I believe I'm going to be going to Orlando that week as well for the Jake Paul fight. So we'll do some coverage out there. there for that. Jose will be in Vegas, obviously, for

296 and all the stuff that goes on that week. So it's going to be a busy week for everybody. But the watch party, last one of the year, should be incredibly fun. Tristan, go ahead. Mike. Kind of, but you are, there's a lot of crackling and popping. Can you hear me now? Yes. Okay. I just wanted your thoughts on Mitsubak Uruvi.

you know, what you think of him, especially the fact that he's going to drop down to lightweight. I forgot who you had him against on Atena. You know, how do you see him in the lightweight picture? I know it's obviously the best division in the sport, but I'm really high on him. Especially with that performance, beating yours medics in like two weeks notice like that. So I think he's going to fit well in that lightweight division. I mean, I think I had him against, I have him against Mark DeKessie. I think that was my Otno pick. But if he wins his first fight in the lightweight division,

I got him fighting from top 15 down, from top 15 to top 20. I could see him by Cargo Moises, Drew Dober, any of those guys. And I give him a pretty good chance to beat those guys. I just, I think he's that good. I think he's that high. I think he's with a great team with Uriah Fabor in that whole squad.

I'm really high on him. Just your thoughts about him. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, dude, he's a problem. He's a problem. I've been hearing about him for a long time. I talked to his manager quite a bit. He continues to put him on my radar.

Basically for the last couple of years, this guy's come and wait until he gets there. He's a hitter, man. I know it was a very grappling heavy fight with Eurospeditch, but dude is a hitter. He is a frigging monster. But I think he just fought safe, knowing that who Medich is, and he's very durable and tough to finish on the feet.

So let's get him on the ground and try to eat out a win on short notice. And boy, did he do that. I actually think I picked Jacasey as well for the 155 drop. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. Because either way, we're going to see, we're not going to see D1 Jacasey in that, because that's not going to go very well for him.

So probably fight, fight ends up on the feet. It's where Jacasey's the most fun. But it's also where Oralby is the most fun too, because this dude can frigging hit. He can crack. So, yeah, looking forward to seeing what he does next.

155 or they just, you know, they need somebody on short notice at 170, and he said he's down for that too. So, but yeah, full camp, 155. Cures, see what he looks. like down there and dude's going to be a problem for a lot of guys he is really really good and let me see how old he is he is 25 yeah i thought he was like 26 27 he's only 25 this guy this guy's going to be around for a hot minute uh doing some damage he's a problem and very excited for his future whether it be

a 55 or 70 or both at some point. So, I mean, he's far away from a title, so I don't have to worry about two-division championship talk with him just yet. But I think he's one of those guys that can get over real fast if he stays active. And he can do it. I mean, this guy has fought multiple times in the night before and can turn around pretty quickly. So, yeah, he's going to be fun. He'll be a fighter to watch in 2024 for sure.

So, but yeah, UFC Austin coming up. We got BKFC this weekend. It's going to be a good week. It's going to be a good week. Then we got UFC Shang Vegas the week after that. And then it's on to a very busy week in Las Vegas for UFC 296. There will be so much going on. There'll be the MMA awards and all sorts of fun stuff.

So really, we're going to end the year in a big way. in a very, very big way. We, a lot of people been asking if AK and I are going to do the onto the next one predictions two-parter and you're damn right we are. You're damn right. We are absolutely going to do that. So if you guys want to be a part of that program, basically what it is is we answer buy, sell questions for the year.

And we don't want just like normal, you know, like, we want like fun questions. Like mix them up. Like I'm trying to think, I don't know, let's have some fun with it. Just buy or sell questions. Not like, you know, buy this, sell this. And then AK and I compare notes at the end of the year. We'll see who does better. And then we do like a champions prediction type thing as well.

But that is my favorite show of the year. We kick it off right off the bat. We do it in two parts. First part is us going through the 2023 predictions to see how we did. And then we do another episode, 2024, the buy sales. and those are always like really thought, well thought out questions. And it's a show I've been doing since before M.A. fighting. And people who followed along still, like even before I got to M.A. fighting,

like still submit their questions like to my super old email address. And they send them throughout the year. So I already have like probably 15 or 16 of them like ready to go. And then we get a nice influx of them at the end. So start thinking, buy cell questions. Send them how you would normally submit. your Otno questions or Otno matchmaking predictions and then we will have some fun. So we're going to get out of here in a minute, but Cole is going to take us home.

Go ahead. Mike, I don't know if you talked about it because I kind of just tuned in, but CM Punk, the return. Were you watching live? I wasn't sadly. But, yeah, what are your thoughts on that? And also, how do you think they used him last night? Did you watch last night? I thought it was a little, like, lame.

I don't know. I could have done something better than him just being like, I'm not here to make friends. I'm here to make money. I don't know what the hell that means, but okay. Yeah, just thoughts on that. I'm a little mad I wasn't watching. It was like the 13-year-old in me.

He was pissed. Yeah, man. I'm with you there. I was not watching live because I had to cover PFL the night before. And I went, I think I went to bed at like 8.30. on Saturday night because PFL just drained all the energy out of me. I was in Florida as well. And yeah, I did the PFL coverage to like 2.30 in the morning.

Woke up at like 6 a.m. I went and played golf my father. I was just white. PFL just like zapped all the energy out of me. Plus not feeling great. I didn't watch live. Didn't expect punk to show up though. I didn't see it coming.

I think someone asked a couple of weeks ago on Free For All Friday if I thought he was going to come back and I was like, I just don't know, man. I don't know. But I didn't watch a lie, but I got to tell you, I have probably seen

the video of Survivor's series about to go off the air and then the music hitting and the crowd reaction. I probably watched that video 500 times because it's just, it's unbelievable. It's just insane.

It was just so shocking. Even now, like knowing that it's happened, I'm still shocked by it. The crowd just went bananas and like, just everything about it was A plus. It was A plus. And I have to say, I have actually gone back and watched the full card

from start to finish. And it's really good. It's really good. AW is in deep shit. It's pretty much my biggest takeaway from all of this. They are in deep shit because their product sucks right now. It's so awful. Their last pay-per-view was just atrocious.

And then WWE just taking up all this momentum from them. Like, they are screwed. They are totally screwed. Like, they're not going to go out of business or anything because Tony Kahn has a floppy-gillion dollars in the old trust fund. but yeah they they're just done like they're they're screwed totally screwed at this point I did watch raw I watched punk's promo I thought it was fine like I get why people I don't know what you expected there like a lot of people were pissed about it and they thought like oh this

is we waited all night for this I get it it's kind of like the pfl feel where you because Ross three hours. Like you have to wait a long time for that for that segment to happen. And he comes out and he just is happy to be there and said what he said. And I get why people are like, oh, fuck,

I stayed up like this late. I sat through that whole show for this. I get it. It's a time-consuming thing. But I thought he said everything he needed to say. I liked just the pumpkin say so much or just a look.

and I thought it was fine. I thought it was fine. Hopefully they do him and Seth Rollins, like right off the bat. That'll be interesting. But yeah, dude, they landed the whale. The best return in the history of modern,

it might have been the best return ever in the history of professional wrestling because nobody saw it coming. Nobody saw it coming. There were reports and, you know, everything was pure speculation. and just how it all came together so quickly, the reaction that it got,

it was fucking awesome. It was incredible. So, yeah, combat sports is fun. Boxing is fun. Like the Katie Taylor, Shantelle Cameron fight was ridiculously good. There was just like, and then PFL just kind of did the PFL thing.

But, yeah, for a Thanksgiving weekend, a lot happened. A lot happened, a lot of newsworthy things. and I have a feeling we'll have more of the same with this coming weekend with some fun cards. So all right, we are done. Thank you all very much. We'll be back on Thursday.

We'll do it again. Normal time. Back around 10 a.m. Eastern, we'll do the damn thing. We'll be back with a live BTL on the YouTube channel. And we'll have preview shows galore for all the events. We might even do what we did for the Francis. and Gano Tyson Fury fight for the BKFC card for the last two fights. We might even just do like a little watch-along for the last two fights of the BKFC card.

So still work in progress. We'll see if that happens, but it is being discussed. So it's going to be a very, very busy weekend here at MAPFighting.com. And we appreciate you all being a part of the ride. Thank you all very much. See you all on Thursday. Have a heck of a Tuesday. And have a heck of a morning, everybody.

Only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first? There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.