MMA Fighting - HOAM | How Do You Grade UFC's 2023 Pay-Per-View Slate?

Episode Date: August 11, 2023

The UFC has put on some big fights in 2023 with their pay-per-view events, which included the highly anticipated return of Jon Jones, Israel Adesanya regaining his middleweight title in highlight reel fashion, and Fight of the Year contenders. But for the fanbase that has to pay $80 per premium event, has the product delivered on that end? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck gives his grade for the UFC's pay-per-view slate thus far — whether it's already happened, or on the schedule. Additionally, listener questions include which UFC title challenger has the best chance to pull off an upset between next Saturday's UFC 292 event and UFC 295 in November, the MMA Fighting Global Rankings, Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington, Dana White's interview with Mike Tyson, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster, The Downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, ghosts in the machine, available now, only from Audible.

The Vox Media Podcast Network. It is Friday, August 11th, 2023, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the MMA fighting Twitter spaces. We can hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter on the MMA fighting podcasting network. What's going on? I am Ikech.

Hope everyone's having a great week. A wonderful Friday. You know what Friday means? It means fights are right around the corner. We got Bellator 298 going down tonight, headlined by Logan Storley versus Brennan Ward. That is one of 17 fights on this card. Holy cow.

emanating from scenic, rustic Sioux Falls, South Dakota. And then tomorrow, the UFC heads back to the hallowed apex in Las Vegas for a 13 fight card with very little stakes. Made event, fun one, Vicente Lucay versus Jafjalo Sanjos, co-made event. We got Cub Swanson versus Hakeem Dawadu. We got Khalil-Brown-Tree, Christakis, and then rest of the fights. I mean, I'm excited to see Yasmin Lucindo back in there with the rest of the fights. A whole bunch of contender series vets.

A lot of fighters, a lot of fighters on losing streaks competing tomorrow. So not the best offering, but the good news is we'll be knocking on the door of UFC 292 in Boston. And I am very excited for that. I am very excited to head to Bean Town. Back home, baby. Back home. it'll be myself and Jose boots on the ground in Boston, just the way it should be, just the way it should be.

A couple of New Englanders getting back after it, but this is a free-for-all Friday. We also got BKFC tonight too. That is actually probably going to be a pretty fun card as BKFC typically is. And let's just get into this thing. Free for all Friday, we talk about MMA. We could talk about combat sports.

We could talk about whatever the hell you want. So let's go. let's get uh mr corby in here i believe if memory serves me correctly uh he was in dallas boots on the ground and i believe he's in albuquerque uh for bkfc is that correct mr corby how yes mr heck has it going i'm here in the abq right now the 505 is that right is that what they say i'm going to take your word for that i hope so but i think you're right but yes i'm here i'm here covering uh john dodson jr ridge or maybe none of those people, the great Bryce Hall.

That's what it's all about. He's the, he's kind of the people's main event, is he not? I think so. I think him and G. Perez, who's coming up, I believe, 38 pounds from his career lowest to fight Bryce, who basically said to the promoters, look, I'll do it, I'll fight a proper barrenucle fighter if you give me a monster size advantage.

If you put me in with a flyer, weight and make them pump up i'll fight them but you know fair play to him he's getting in there he's he's made the weight which was difficult for him i think he was around 195 at the start of the camp so to make it down to 168 is pretty impressive and uh and he's certainly he's brought a lot of uh of different attention to this event yeah for sure man for sure um before let you go are you're going to boston he and gary's are back on the car is he uh is that mean you're making the trip to means. Yes, it does. Yeah, I, um, I had, I kind of jokingly tweeted because I had like, I got my credential and everything because I'll be in New York anyway. And I was like jokingly like,

yeah, I'm not going if Ian, like, Vian's fight is off. I, I won't bother making the trip. But in fact, um, I will, yeah, I think I will go down there. And I, I think, uh, Ian and, uh, Neil Magny's the better fight anyway. That's the fight Ian wanted. And he's not exactly a guy who, like, calls his shot all the time. So I don't know why they didn't make this one in the first please. Well, I mean, thank you, sir. I hope to see you in Boston. Well, the reason was, I mean, look,

we, AK and I host a show called On to the Next One. We do some matchmaking after all these events. And when Ian called out Neil Magny, that is what we call it do-do pick. And how we define a do-do pick is, you don't match up teammates, you don't match up people who already have, like you don't match up the winner of the previous.

card with somebody who was already booked to fight. Neil Magny was already booked to fight Phil Roe, and he wanted to fight on this card. So I actually liked the Jeff Neal booking. I was really intrigued by that matchup because I just felt like I get why Neil, why Ian wanted the fight. You know, he kind of said the word gatekeeper. Like I've said a million times, I typically don't like gatekeeper. I like litmus test.

and I feel like Neil Magny is like an excellent litmus test to enter the top 15, but Ian, Gary is already in the top 15. So I loved the Jeff Neal fight from a stylistic perspective. Jeff Neal is really, it's kind of like the next level above Neil Magny, in my opinion, where it's like the litmus test to get in the top 15 is Neil Magny. The limbus test to get into the top 10 is Jeff Neal. And if you can beat Jeff Neal, you're a top 10 dude, 100%. And then Ian really made it personal with the t-shirt,

during international fight week. And while I was in Dallas, I was trying to get some time with Jeff Neal because he hadn't really done a lot of media. He hasn't really talked to a lot of people. And I was literally less than a mile from Fortis MMA. I thought we were going to be able to work it out. And then he kind of like ghosted us.

And we were kind of wondering why. And now after all this, I think it all makes sense that health issues undisclosed. He's not going to be able to make a fight. But I favor, and Gary very heavily in this fight, the more I've gone back and watched and tape. I think the short notice stuff really helps Ian Machado, Gary. I know Neil is tough.

And credit to him, man. Credit to that guy for stepping in and taking a fight like this on super short notice. Neil may not be a guy, Neil Magny might not be a guy who will be in the top five. Again, he won't be a guy that'll challenge for a world title. But Neil Magny is a very, very valuable member of the roster. for reasons like this, because you're not going to find a lot of guys in Neal's position who, I'm going to say Neil's on the back nine, but his best days are behind him. You're not going to find a lot of fighters in his position that are going to take this fight on a week and a half notice like this.

So Neil is a very valuable commodity to this company. He's not going to sell tickets. He's not going to fight for world titles. But the dude is a gamer. Is as a game as they come. I'm looking forward to it. I'm glad Ian's on the card. And we'll see how he does.

You know, sometimes when you get what you wish for, it works out. And sometimes it doesn't. So it seems like everything's coming up being Gary. It's like the summer of George for Ian Machado, Gary. And we'll see how this all works out for him next Saturday in Boston. Let's go to Toke. Hi, Toke. Hi, pal.

Two things. Or firstly, I want to talk about the two. final fights of the prelims tomorrow on the UFC card because this screams under one and a half and both of them. So we have, I mean, we have JP Byes who's been knocked down eight times in the last three or four fights, I don't remember. And we have, and against Marcus McGee, who has legit power. and then we have the Terrence McKinney fight and I just don't see McKinney getting back on strike I don't know it seems like he's I don't know

if I remember correctly he hasn't really had an extensive layoff since the last one and this seems I don't know I don't like these matchups are going to be fast going to be furious and they're going to end in misery for like JP Byes is gone if he loses definitely and yeah

it's cool fights but they're going to be over quick and then I want to talk about our favorite boomer Dana White who doesn't know again I mean he might be doing it on purpose

but he doesn't know how to read statistics we've talked about this before but this time it's about the power slap game number one in sports Mike Do you hear it? I checked the Google Play app for fun to see how many had downloaded the Power Slap game.

50,000. He said that it's bigger than FIFA. I mean, oh my God. I don't know where I'm going with that last one. I'm just amazed that he just speaks this into a microphone and just acts like, yeah, we are bigger than EA Sports FC. we're bigger than F1, blah, blah, blah. I'm amazed.

I know that's what he does, but I'm amazed still. But thank him I can have a good Friday. Yeah, I mean, look, you can categorize those searches. You can do all sorts of different things to make yourself look better in those situations. Nobody believes that PowerSlapp is the most downloaded app in the sports. There's no way. There's just no way.

maybe for like that day because it just got launched and everybody had already downloaded the FIFA app and all that stuff and in the game or whatever but to say like it's number one it was probably number one for like that day or like that hour and you can easily look that up if you got crack social media teams who can pull up that information great

do you remember when Dana White used to care this much about the UFC I remember those days they were fond days and it kind of goes back to the Wonderboy topic yesterday because there was a time, my friends. There was a time not long ago. It seems like forever ago where Dana White would talk about what these fighters have to go through each and every time they go through a training camp.

And there was a time where Dana would probably be a little more forgiving with the whole Wonderboy situation, but that guy is gone. That guy is gone. That guy's already won the game. And I get it. I don't blame him for it. When you win the game and you dominate

and there's no one even close to touching you and in fact, they'll put no one near close to touching them for, I mean, unless this lawsuit really plays out against them. But even so, they're still going to be so far ahead of everybody. It's not even going to matter. I think Dana is just really bored and he's just finding something else to sink his teeth into and he's trying to find things that people are going to just doubt him on. so he can prove him wrong again.

This thing is going to do well, like I've said from the beginning, this thing will do well on social media because people will scroll through and look at the one-minute clips or 30-second clips of dude getting knocked off of the podium. And then, like, that's it. Like, they'll look at those a bunch, and then they're going to move out with their lives. Very few people are going to watch that event start to finish.

Very few people are going to watch it if it's ever on television. We saw it on television, and it bombed. No matter what he said, about, well, we did better for A, we did better coming out of AEW than anybody else. That is absolutely unequivocally not true. Absolutely unequivocally untrue. Untrue. And we've seen it since.

We've seen the overrun numbers for AEDD dynamite. And when PowerSlapp was on, they weren't doing that. They weren't doing that, those kinds of numbers. They weren't doing 857,000 viewers at the start of shows. AW's behind-the-scenes show did better than the power slap. This thing is going to have a shelf life. It's probably going to be a longer shelf life than I initially thought because Dana is just so gung-ho on making this thing work

and he's got influencers backing him, which is incredibly brilliant on his part. It's very smart. And he knows that members of the MMA media who are in Las Vegas are probably going to go cover some of these events mostly because not for the content and not for the sport, but you want to get that face time with Dana. You want to be able to pull those videos

and chuck them on your YouTube channel. That is very valuable. And Dana doesn't do a ton of scrums these days. It's been a minute. The Contender Series one, that was the first one he had done since 290, like over a month. and then he did another one on Wednesday.

So look, I can't tell the guy how to do his job. It's obviously doing well on social media. I'm sure it's doing fine. It's on Rumble. He's got the right people supporting it in terms of promoting it for him. I just really wish, if there's a day where they just

promote it on their own channel and not on the UFC's timeline, then I have no issue with it whatsoever. Like, do you, bro? I'm not going to watch it. If you want to watch it, I ain't going to judge you for it. I'm not even judging Dana for doing it at this point. But just if it's so big and you guys are killing it and crushing it so much,

then why do you need the UFC's backing for it? Why do you need to shove it all over the website? Why do you need to shove it all over the UFC's social channels? If your brand is so big and powerful, why can't you just let it do all the heavy lifting? Why do you need the UFC to do it? I don't understand. So until that day comes, the success that he plods is just not there. It's just not. It's doing fine.

But it's not where he's, it's not number one in sports. It's not, that's all a bunch of bullshit. Remember that whole thing where he said, like, it's bigger than everything combined on social media? All the other major sports, baseball, hockey, NBA, NFL, F1, WWE, it's bigger than all of them combined. And that was just laughable. come on man come on we know what this is we know what this is if it's so good do it up let it be its own thing let it be its own thing and then we can judge the success but again if you if it's if it's your cup of tea cool i'm not going to judge you for it it's not mine and that's it the other topic

after i'm off my freaking soapbox which i didn't even need to jump on uh the last two prelims Terrence McKinney, if Terrence McKinney doesn't win this fight, I don't know what to say, man. Like, I just don't know what to say. This is about as favorable a matchup as you could possibly get. Could Mike Breedden land a big shot? Sure. But if this fight hits the mat, it's done.

It's over. If Terrence gets a take down, this fight is over. And it's going to be over very quickly. Mike can be exciting. If you want to stand there and throw hands with him, that's a risky proposition. But if I'm Terrence McKinney, a guy in need of a victory big time.

He needs to tackle Mike Breedon to the ground and choke him very quickly. Because if this fight gets extended, Mike Breeden could win. And that's very bad for Terrence McKinney. That's very bad. This is no disrespect to Mike Breeden. He is who he is. But if he loses to Mike Breeden, yikes, that's not good. And Marks Vicki, JP Bays.

I think we understand what's going to happen there. JP's not a Bannumweight. He's a flyweight. through and through. We saw what happened when J.P. fought a Bannamweight. He fought freaking Montel Jackson, which credit to that guy,

there are a lot of Bannam weights who won't fight Montel Jackson on a full training camp, let alone stepping in on short notice. And the dude didn't get finished. He got knocked down a whole bunch because I think Montel Jackson is sneaky one of the best Bantam Wights in the world,

and I'm hoping one day he gets his opportunity to prove that. But, yeah, that fight's gonna... Who knows? Maybe J.P. could surprise some people. I don't think he will, but what if, you know, I'm not ruling it out completely. GP's very good on the, on the ground. McGee's good on the ground too, but JP's a very sneaky, sneaky cat. It's quick as hell.

He's got a big chip on his shoulder. He's had a lot happen to him, so I'm sure he's ready to let out some aggression. So, yeah, those two fights aren't seeing, aren't going over seven and a half minutes. This is no freaking chance. A lot of these fights aren't going to go to the cards. JD, hello. J.D. Good morning, brother.

How are you doing? Good, how are you? I'm doing fantastic. So I just wanted to tag in on a couple things. One, I'm definitely watching that BKFC card tonight with John Dodson because I love John Dodson. But I want to tag in on the Utah non-disclosure stuff that Steve in Morocco did earlier this week. I listened to the bloody elbow. episode on that.

That was really interesting. So I wanted to see what your opinion on it was. And then Proof-Fraw Friday. I'm assuming it's just as overcast and rainy in South Carolina as it is here in Atlanta. So what do you have planned for your day off, if not golf?

Thanks, man. Appreciate you. It's actually pretty nice here. It does seem a little gloomy, so who knows? And when it rains here, it's not a sprinkle. it just, it hammers you. So I don't know what I'm going to do.

I don't know. One of my nephews from Massachusetts is actually in town. And he's going back to Massachusetts with his dad tomorrow. So they're pondering like a going away party on the Marine base. So we might go and head over there and give him, you know, and send him off the right way. But I'm not really sure. My kid's not really feeling tremendously.

so it's kind of all up in the air. The payout thing is just really weird. I don't hate the option. I don't hate the option there. Because in Utah you have the option to say, yeah, I'll disclose it. Or you can just be like, nah. And it's supposed to be the fighter's decision,

but I 1,000% don't think that's. true at all. I think it's laid out that way, but I'm sure the management has a lot of power in that. And that's like a big issue with me. Because again, and we've talked about this a million times, the man, like the fighter doesn't work for the manager. The manager works for the fighter. Like the fighter is the boss. The manager is not the boss. The fighter is the boss. And more oftentimes than not, we've seen the rules reversed. And it drives me insane. And fighters don't realize that until it's too late. They think the manager is looking out for their career. and for the most part they are,

but it's not all the way there. And that kind of irks me. So you had the chance in Utah to disclose your pay if you wanted to, and pretty much everybody did it, except for four guys. Bobby Green, who made $300,000, Kevin Holland, who made $356,000,

Gabriel Bonfee made $24,000, CJ Vergara made $60. Now, if you're a fighter on this card. And especially if your contract is like coming up, wouldn't you want to disclose this pay?

Like wouldn't you want all the fighters to do it? Because then you have like bargaining. You have negotiations. Like you have a way to be like, hey, let's just say like Bobby Green beat Tony first. Let's just say that was the last fight on his deal. He could be like, dude, I was on the main card. I beat a former interim champion.

people reacted to the fight. Look at my numbers on this. Kevin made $56,000 more than me. I think I'm pretty much where Kevin is. So I want that or I want more. But if you have nothing to compare it to, how can you properly negotiate? And again, this is the issue with the fighters not coming together

because this is a selfish sport. It just is. And I'm not saying that's a terrible thing. But at some point, you kind of have to like figure out, listen, if we come together and we get this and we get that, like, if we get a bigger piece of the television numbers and all that, like we can really make a change here. And I know there's promotions out there, like the UFO that's like we're giving fighters insurance. We're doing all these different things. And that's great. but you're not like you're getting good publicity for it but you're not making a dent at all

it's just too soon for that so the UFC just has these guys like they just have them and I know Kevin Holland is probably thrilled to make $356,000 I'm sure you'd want to make more but look at where Kevin Holland was like three years ago to him like totally this is like a huge difference jumps into 2020 goes 5 and 0 look at how much more money he's making compared to what he's making that. That's how you can sit there and be like, well, look what he's making in 2020. Look what he's making now.

You see, we pay really well. No. No. And as I've said a million times, I don't blame the UFC for this. I believe him a tiny bit, but I blame the fighters more. There have been many opportunities for them to come together

and change this. And they didn't. They didn't do it. They can't. There's just too many of them. And now we have five new members of the roster. We have five new members of the roster off the Contender Series. And I would say three of them were probably should have gotten contracts, maybe four.

But come on. Like this is, we're going to see 50 new contracts on the Contender Series. That's 652 fighters on the roster is about to be 700 plus. because every single fighter who wins on the contender series is going to get a contract this season. If all five of those guys got contracts on week one, everyone's getting them. Everyone's getting them.

And that's how you justify it. And the UFC says, there's no way we're going to get 700 guys to come together. And you know what? They're right. They're right. And it stinks. It stinks.

Let's go to Drew. He was next. Then we'll go to Four Corner Sports. So we'll get to everybody. Drew, do we have you? Hey, how you doing, Mike? It's got a quick question. Obviously, we've seen these

a lot of graphics about these next four main events. And I know in a bit of a ranch just now, you know, I'll give Dana credit with what he's put on in 2023 because I think it's been fantastic with all these title fights. Not that the BMF was a real title,

but nonetheless, fireworks. So with 294, it's looking like a great card right now. Johnny Walker just got added, San Kalayev. I'm not sure about the Darayush. I saw some rumors about that, not if that's finalized. But I wanted your thoughts on the main event. I'm not the biggest Oliver fan, which might not appeal to everybody,

and I really love Mocketiv's grappling. No shame on Alvarez Jiu-Jit-to, but I think Moketov could easily or should easily do what he did to him the first time. So I wanted your thoughts on that. The fight's going to go exactly the same. Like, do I think Oliver is going to be a little more competitive, sure? It's just a terrible fight for him. It's just not a good matchup.

And I even said this, like, I even said this heading into the first one. Like, I officially picked Charles Olivera, but the reason I picked him was because I picked against him every time. And it was just like something's in the air. And Oliver is playing the chaos card. And even though everything on paper told me that Makachev is going to do exactly what he did to Charles Olivera. I still was like, well, until I'm proven wrong, I'm just going to pick him. Until he loses, I'm just going to pick Oliver from now on. And that's what happened. And we saw the

fight play out. I think when we go back and rewatch it, like, this is a mock. There's the Machachev show. Oliver did like have a couple of moments in the fight. So it wasn't like he got completely shut out and run over. But it's just a terrible fight for him. It's just a very bad matcher for him. So I don't think that fight gets, is great. To judge, like, the UFC's year, I mean, 283 main event, like, which kind of got coddled together. We did get Moreno Figgy at UFC 283, but that card was not great. We did get Mockachev Volk, which will probably end up being the fight of the year. We got John Jones back, but that fight wasn't competitive and most people didn't think it would be.

We got Edwards Usman. That was needed to happen in London. So that was a cool moment with that crowd. Pereira Adasani was good. 288 was not great. We got Sterling Sehudo, but that card was not great. 289 was real tough. 290 was real good.

One of the best events I can remember. It's been a solid year. But to say this is like a banger year is just not true. to me, 291 was solid. 292 is pretty good. 293, Adasani in Strickland are going to have to do a lot of heavy lifting there.

I mean, there's some interesting fights on the card. It's been solid. There have been, at least there have been events this year where I'm like, holy shit, I can't wait for it. Can't wait for it. And I think 290 was one of them. I think 21 was one of them.

287 was one of them. Jones, I was just, it was more about him than, anything else. But they got them back. So it's been, I mean, but then the fight nights, man, those are just, those are just been real tough, especially the apex cards. Man, have they been tough?

They've been real tough. This one, this one tomorrow is just not good. It's not a good card. I'm not saying it's going to be like a bad watch. Like if we, if you watch the card tomorrow, I don't think you're going to be like, oh man, it's wasted seven hours in my life. I don't think you're going to feel that way. If you're just, like, if you like fighting,

and I like fighting, but I also like stakes and storylines, and we have none of it here. We have no stakes. We have no storylines. It's just dudes and gals fighting, and that's fine. But in terms of like the aftermath of this,

no one's going to be talking about this event come Wednesday. It's just a throwaway. Let's, we have to fulfill contractual obligations card. And I think fans deserve better than that. Honestly, I think you all deserve better than that. They ain't all going to be great.

They ain't all going to be 287. They ain't all going to be 291. You have to have a 288 and a 289 mixed in there every so often. But it's just a lot of time and a lot of money to invest when we're getting more often than not these cards of the apex. They're just not great. But at least the good news is after this card, we're away from the apex for their multiple weeks, and I love that.

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Four Corner Sports, hello. Hey, Mike. So I wanted to ask you a couple questions. One of them is the curtain jerker. I think it's Luana Santos versus Juliana Miller. Julianna Miller. What do you know so much about Luana Santos? Because I believe Julianna Miller ever since

winning the ultimate fighter, she is winless. And if she comes up with a loss, you think the UFC would give her another opportunity to fight, or you think they'll cut her just because it's pretty bad. You know, you win the ultimate fighter and you automatically, you know, start off as a curtain jerker. You lose to Veronica Hardy. And now you have a newcomer come into this pretty bad UFC card, you know,

open up the card. I just want to get your thoughts on that. The next four pay-per-views, I know the previous caller ended up talking about it, but which out of the four do you see an upset happening, and which out of the four do you see it going all five rounds? I know you guys were discussing it about on BTL, and Jadu was saying that if you give him a month,

you could probably talk everybody into, stricken defeating Adisania. I mean, I can see that as maybe like a 10% chance, but that would be crazy. And then lastly, I heard Dana saying that USC 295th Kulmin event

will be announced. What's the likelihood that Leon Colby are not even mentioned on that for the MSG card, just because you know, the possibility of them not having anything linked up with Connor for the December card. and them squeezing in the vacant title fight for the women's banaway division.

All right, thanks, Mike. So honestly, I don't know what's going to happen. So there's, for the co-main event for October, there's two options, at least in my eyes. And I think one is probably more feasible than the other. one is you do the vacant Bannamway title fight. You do the Giuliana Pena, Raquel Pennington fight. Or if one of those two ladies isn't available, you chuck in Meyer, Buenos Silva,

there's your second title fight. It's certainly, I mean, if it's Colby Leon, I will be stunned because that fight makes absolutely zero sense to do in Abu Dhabi. And I know you can make the case that Pennington Pena doesn't make a ton of sense either, But if you're promised two title fights, everyone's there to see Makachev anyways. We're just throwing in another title fight. It seems like that one.

The other option, and I don't know if this is possible since this dude just fought a month ago. And an absolute war, you do Pantosia al-Bazi for the flyway title. If they could somehow convince Al-Bazi to turn around, or excuse me, Pantosia to turn around, Al-Bazi fighting at Abu Dhabi makes a ton. a sense, you could do that. Other than that, I just don't see anything else that really makes a whole lot of sense. Because we got shroud-way title next week, Banimway title next week. Flyway title, September 16th for the ladies.

We don't have a women's Bantamway champion. We're not going to have another Flyway champion. Flyweight just got defended a month ago, but I could see a world where they're like, hey, Pantosia will pay you more. money for a quick turn round you go fight this al-Bazi dude uh could do that uh banam whites next week volks injured so he's not fighting in aboubabi lightweight is on that card already walter weight's not going to be in abdabi adasani is booked i don't think if the vacant light heavyweight title isn't going to happen in september maybe they do that i

I don't know. I don't know. I kind of feel like it's going to be the women's fight. I kind of feel like it's going to be the women's Bannamway title fight. I don't know for sure, but that's kind of what it feels like to me. And then to answer your other question, which fight has the best chance of an upset? I think the favorites are going to win all of them. But I will say, I don't think this is going to happen, but I think Shot O'Malley probably. has the best chance to pull off an upset.

I'm picking Al Jermaine Sterling and probably going to do so very confidently by the time that fight rolls around. But I would say Sean O'Malley out of the four. Because I think John Jones is going to run over Stepe. I think Machachev's going to be Olivera almost the same way he did the first time.

I think Adasania beats Strickland's and I mean, I do think Sterling beats O'Malley, but I think O'Malley at least has the best chance out of the four. let's go to Joey T and then we'll go to Graham and I'll get to everybody I promise Joey hello

You don't Mike You man, good man How are you? Good, I have two questions What's your thoughts on the Amiram and Ruiz fight And the second question is I've heard fighters from New Jersey Like Joe Pfeiffer and Andre Petrovsky

Say it's pretty much a lock That UFC is coming back to Atlantic City, New Jersey I just I'm just seeing you know an ideal date frame for that at all? I have heard rumblings about that as well. I'm hearing end of the year, possibly

December, November, December. But nothing's like set in stone. I know it's being talked about. I know it's being discussed. The latest I heard, if it's going to happen, was December, but these things change all the time. You know, we thought we were going to get the UFC in Boston

last year. The Dominic Cruz Cheeto Verify. That card was going to be in Boston. And then all of a sudden it got flipped to San Diego like on a date, like just the next day. So anything can happen, but what I'm hearing end of the year is being discussed for Atlantic City.

The Amiram, dude, I like, I like Ammerham a lot. She's nasty on the ground. But one of my big questions heading into her debut was what happens if a fight gets extended? What happens if a fight gets out of the first round or like the first half? Because typically doesn't happen for Jacqueline. Usually she just gets a takedown and gets tap very, very quickly.

I mean, look at her pro career. 91 seconds, minute 58, 33 seconds, 10 seconds, minute 26, 439. my big question with Sam Hughes, and I actually picked Sam Hughes, I believe for that fight, for this exact reason, what happens if you get out of the first round? And Sam is tough. Sam is very durable. She's very tough to get out of there. And lo and behold, Ammer had her in some big trouble in that first round, but Sam was able to fight out of it. I have the same questions heading into this fight. Ruiz is an animal. She is a dog. And she looked really good against Chey and Elizabethan in her debut. She got just wrecked by Amanda Lemos.

But Amanda Lamosh, that loss is going to age probably pretty well. I mean, Lamosch is about to fight for the title next Saturday. But I have questions on both sides. It's been over two years since we've seen Conahe Hill. So I'm intrigued by it. intrigued by the matchup. But I would say the game plan for Ruiz

and team is, hey, she's probably going to get you in a tough spot or two in that first round. So just weather that storm, good defense, we extend this fight, you got a real good chance to win. So I kind of have the same vibes

here, but Amram is just so nasty. She's so nasty. If she gets you, man, she gets you in a tough spot. She can put your way real quick, but if you can somehow weather that storm, you got a real good chance to beat her. So that's where I'm out with that one. Should be a, like a grindy, fun fight. It should be fun, but I'm probably going to pick Ruiz to win. Graham, do we have you? Hi, yeah, Mike. Can you hear me here?

Yeah, yeah. Just one MMA, related one and one, not with a benefit free for all Friday. I know last week there was quite a lot of contention about the MMA fighting. Rankings and I was listening to Believe You Me podcast as well with Bispin and Anthony Smith and they were talking about the Jamal Hill Rankin again and sort of poo-poo in it a little bit. I don't know, since they become a duo on that podcast, I used to really like them individually. But ever since they got together, I don't know if it's just because of UFC homers or whatever, it's really put me off them and then sort of poo-poo and the Rankins completely. And it was really sort of, it felt like an extremely...

casual tape. I don't know if that was just me reading a little bit too much into it, but yeah, that was my take on that. And the other one was, I don't know if you've seen the clip of Rick Barry talking about Jalen Brown's contract today for the Celtics. I'm a Celtics family self.

And I just wanted to get your take on that. Have a great weekend, Mike. It's a massive number for J.B., but look, if we can keep him and if we can keep him and Tade me together for the foreseeable future, and then we just keep mixing in, the right ingredients, we're going to find something that tastes really damn good.

And then when it does, they're going to win a bunch of titles. So those two have to stay together for the next five years, at least. And then if we can't get a title to the next five years, then I just don't understand what the hell is going on. I didn't hear Bisving and Anthony Smith talk about the rankings. I'm not really going to go on and ran about this again. But I stand by our rankings, and I've stood by it all year. because even when Jamal Hill won the title, and this is what Bisbing and Anthony Smith

and everybody else doesn't understand. They think that because Jamal Hill won a UFC championship, that we automatically ranked him number one. We have never ranked Jamal Hill number one, ever, not for a second. And this is not us dumping on Jamal Hill. This is just the way it is. This is not the UFC rankings. We don't do our rankings the same way the UFC does, where the champion is basically out of the rankings, and then this happens.

And it's like a guarantee that if you lose a fight, that you just drop one spot. That's not how this works. There are other organizations in play. And Jamal Hill beating Glover Tashira for a vacant title when he was slated to fight Anthony Freaking Smith two months later on short notice does not get you the number one spot. I'm sorry. Yuri Perhashka was our number one ranked guy. Did Jamal Hill beat Yuri Parashka? No, he did not.

He didn't beat the guy. So what's the problem? I don't understand why this is such an issue. Jamal Hill has been in my rankings number four since he won the belt. Has he fought since? Has he fought since January? No, he hasn't. So we're supposed to reward Jamal Hill

and move him up the rankings because he sits in the crowd at UFC events? Come on. Like, I just don't understand. I stand by it. And do I think Jamal Hill could beat Erie Perashka? Yeah, I do. I was blown away by his performance against Glover Tashira. But this is also Glover Tashira stepping in on short notice at 40-something years of age

and was going to retire no matter what happened in that fight. And Jamal Hill looked incredible. He looked great. I've said this a million times. The fight I was looking forward to, one of the top three fights I was looking forward to the most of seeing this year was Jamal Hill versus Yuri Perashka. Couldn't wait for it.

Because I wanted to see what Jamal Hill was going to look like. We know what we're getting from Yuri Perashka. We're getting pure, unadulterated chaos. But can Jamal Hill fight that fire and win? And if he did, with a bullet, Jamal Hill's the number one guy. with a bullet. We explained this in January.

So I don't understand why Jamal was against it, because Jamal gave a shit in January about it. We explained ourselves. And guess what? Most people agreed with us. Most people agreed with us. He'll be Erie. And if Alex, he's got to be pissed if Alex Pereira beats Yuri Perashka,

because Alex Pereira is going to be the number one light heavyweight in the world. One out of why? Because he beat the number one light heavyweight in the world. And if Jamal Hill comes back and fights Alex Pereira and beats Alex Pereira, guess what? He's the number one light heavy way in the world. That's how this works. Just because you won a UFC title does not make you the best of the world. You know who wasn't ranked number one for us for a long time, even though he had run off multiple title defenses?

Charles Olivera. Did Charles Oliver go on a podcast or comment on our rankings complaining about it after winning and defending the title multiple times? No, he didn't because he doesn't give a shit. He doesn't care. He's like, all right, well, I'm going to go to the gym and train and get ready for the next fight. There was a time.

We had Dustin Poria's the number one lightweight for a while. We had Justin Gaichi as the number one lightweight for a little while. Eventually, after Olivera beat Gaichi, that's when he became the number one guy. A lot of, like, a lot of people had Olivera number one, but there are a lot of people who thought he was two. I didn't hear anything from Charles Olivera. And that's the best division in the friggin sport.

Like, it's just, it's so insane, dude. It's so nuts. Just because you win a title does not make you number one. Sometimes you have to, it's how you win the title. Davis and Figurato. Davis and Figurato went to a draw with Brandon Moreno. Then Moreno finished him and won the title. And then Figgie beat Moreno in the next fight.

Was Davis a figure out of the number one flyweight in the world in our rankings? No, he was not. In fact, I think Brandon Moreno still remained number one. Or is Demetri's job? Fingy might have been like three or four at that time. Because of DJ, because of Adrian and Marias. Like, it's not personal, man. It's just the way that it is.

That's it. Jamal Hill is far from the first UFC champion to not get a number one spot. And the way he got the title was different. And let's just put this into perspective as well. I thought Magabed Ankleyev beat Jan Belhovic at UFC 282. To me, Magamette Ankelaev should be the light heavyweight champion of the world. Would we even be having this conversation right now? Would we be having this conversation right now?

where would Jamal Hill be ranked if Magam and Ancolaev won the title in December? Number eight? Because he would have fought Anthony Smith, probably would have beat him, and then he wouldn't have fought since. So would he have been mad then if we ranked him number eight? I mean, these are things that people have to take into consideration. I don't care if Michael Bisbing says, I have a lot of respect for Anthony Smith

and what he has to say but to make a big deal out of this is just ridiculous and to make this personal is crazy and to say that we're a bunch of casual fan girls is ridiculous when the proof is in the pudding just winning a UFC title is not enough

sorry it's not enough and when you beat Glover to Shera who was probably at the time the fifth best light heavyweight in the world and Yuri Perashka who in everybody's eyes should have never lost the belt to begin with. Like, this is a stupid conversation. This is not even an argument that needs to be had.

Get over it, people. Get over it. Go beat the number one. Go beat the champion when you come back and you'll be number one. End of discussion. Joe, hello. Hey, what's up, Mike? I couldn't agree with you more.

I think the rankings are all fudged up. So, yeah, we need to change that whole system. Maybe throw it out and make a new one. first thing I want to get your opinion on Colby and Leon with that fight going in. I think my boy B. should get his title shot, but that's beside the point. I want to see your opinion on the matter. Second, I want to see what you think about the whole beef between Jamal and Ariel. I watched his response to the video, and I thought it was pretty telling of Ariel, but I want to see your view on it.

And speaking of Eric... How so? How so? What's that? How so? How so? I didn't hear you. No, you said it was telling of Ariel. How so? What was telling about it? Well, I've watched a lot of his stuff in the past, and I always feel like he does kind of throw those jabs in to see, like, to kind of stir the pot a little bit and then say things like... I think in that particular video he was saying that he said something to Yuri about the fact that...

that Jamal wasn't... Damn, I forgot it now. That Jamal wasn't what? Shit, it lost me, bro. So I appreciate it. Look, it's not my business, so it's between them. I've talked about it a little bit.

I'm not defending anybody. I'm not taking anybody's side. It's between those two dudes. So obviously, I work with the area, I spent a lot of time with him in Dallas last week and the guy's the man. So there was one thing that that Jamal said in his first video that I didn't necessarily agree with because the way Ariel presented this question to Yuri. It was the way Jamal took it was, you know, he talked a lot of shit about you saying hurry up. even in, you know,

Jamal said you're scared. That's not how Ariel said it. Like, go back and watch that clip. Go back and watch that interview. The way Ariel presented that question to Yuri was, you've done interviews saying like, hurry up or whatever. And then you, he kind of insinuated on social media that, you know, maybe you were scared or whatever.

And Jamal's like, I never said anything. Find it for me. It's still there. You can go to Jamal's Twitter and you can see it right now. Terrence McKinney tweets, June 27th, a picture of Yuri Perashka, Target for this week, Mountain March, and Mountain Climb. Screenshots and Instagram posts from Yuri Perhashka, right?

Terence McKinney says, Yeri will literally climb a mountain to avoid fight and sweet dreams. Jamal Hill quote tweets it the next day. Want to know what it says? I see no lies. And that's what Ariel was saying. He didn't say Ariel, Errol didn't say like Jamal Hill said, you're scared.

He said you insinuated that, you know, maybe you, were whatever. But the way Ariel asked the question, I didn't have a problem with it. I really didn't. And it's right there. I see no lies to Terrence McKinney saying he will climb him out to avoid fighting this guy. So in the way Ariel's question, I had no issues with. The rest of it, again, between those two guys, have nothing really to say. And I'm not even defending anybody here because I don't know anything. But just that comment in particular got people all fired. up and I'm like, wait, I saw what he's talking about. And Ariel never

said like Jamal was going on all of Yuri's post and saying, hey, bro, you're scared of me. But it's right there. Terran said, you're avoiding the fight. And Jamal said, I see no lies. It's right there. But it's between them. Hopefully

they can hash it out. I don't, this the whole thing's dumb. And I would talk to Jamal Hill about the rankings too. And I'm not, this is not a club thing. I could care if I could, I don't do lot of interviews anyways. But like if I go to Boston and I see Jamal Hill, I'm probably going to walk right up to him and just be like, hey, I'm on that rankings panel. Let's talk about it. I want to explain where I'm coming from. And then he can tell me I suck and I'm a shitty

ranker and that's fine. But I'm happy to have that discussion with him. I'm happy to have that discussion with anybody. And it doesn't need to be on camera and it doesn't need to be on a podcast. It can just be me and you having a couple coffee and talking about it. We can go to a freaking Dunkin' Donuts and do it, and I'm cool with it. And I ain't going to get contentious, it ain't going to get crazy. We're just going to have a conversation. Maybe you'll flip me.

Maybe after the conversation, I'm like, you know what? You're right. And I was wrong. Maybe you are the number one might have to read the world. Maybe I just need to hear his side of it. I don't know. But again, it's between them

and I'm not here to judge how either of them really handled it because they have it's their choice so hopefully it gets handled and squashed and all that and we don't have to hear about it anymore because that'd be awesome i'm sure both guys feel the same way uh henderson hello hey mike heck good morning to you i'm going to come with something perfect for a free for all friday and a little more positive less less drama so that's good too So one thing I love other than MMA is history. I'm a big into history, history podcasts, any sort of documentaries about history, whatever.

And one of my favorite podcasts is one called Our Fake History. And it kind of just like tells things from the history and things that we might think that aren't actually the truth, like the myths of the past and blah, blah, blah, right? So right now that podcast is actually doing a whole series. on the history of professional wrestling, like WWE going all the way back to like Catch as Catch Can and like Greco Roman and folk style. And the whole point is like when did wrestling, like the sport of wrestling,

how did that become like professional wrestling where all the matches are pretty much planned out and everything like that? So it's a great series and it really goes through some of this early, days of wrestling in like the 1900s when they were like coming up with the moves and stuff like that. So I know you're a wrestling fan and the MMA fan, so I thought you might find that interesting. And as a question, I was wondering, what are some of your favorite things about the history of martial arts, like documentaries, books, or movies or anything really? Just because I'm always looking for good stuff like that. Anyway, great show. Keep it up.

Thanks, man. I'm going to have to check that out. I'm going to have to check that out for sure. I'm like a casual wrestling fan. Like I pay attention to what happens. I can't. I just can't watch everything. I can't.

It's too much. Like raw is three hours. I just can't do it. I can't. I'll occasionally check in with AEW because MJF's there and I think he's tremendous. I watch like the pay-per-views and stuff. stuff. Like, I thought I was watching like bits and pieces of SummerSlam during the Paul

Diaz card because Andreas was sitting next to me and he had it on his phone. And there were a lot of fights. And there was a lot of downtime between fights. So it was cool to, you know, be able to check in on stuff. So as far as like docks is, I mean, again, I just don't have a ton of time. And probably anything that I would recommend, you've probably seen already. So like, I'm so behind on this shit. It's ridiculous.

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season shine. But don't wait. Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca. slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. Daniel, hello. Not working. What about Farmy?

I know Farmy's been waiting for a hot minute. Farmy, are you there? Just unmute yourself and we're good. That's not working either. Oh, wait a minute. Do we have me for me? Hello, I got you. Mike, can you hear me? Yes, I can. Okay, it sounds, the sound is a bit weird,

but if you can hear me, then I'll just try and go ahead. Yeah, thanks again for the opportunity to take part in this great show. My question for today, number one, I recently listened to this week's episode of Fighter versus Writer from Damon Martin with Gilbert Melendez on the show and they obviously spoke about the Paul Diaz fight from last Saturday and Gilbert was quite confident

about the two should be running it back in boxing actually and he was more or less he said come on Jake you can lose some weight you could go down to 175 and let's run it back at 175. This would be a fair weight meeting for the two. And then of course Nate's chances would be better

because Jake would have to be a lot lighter, would have to cut more weight. Do you see a chance for this to happen at all? And then just to pick up a few things that have already been addressed today. First of all, talk at the beginning spoke about Dana, Mr. Boomer White.

Just wanted to add to that. Did you see the clip on Twitter or social media that came up yesterday where he was on Mike Tyson's podcast and they were talking about Aljo and the upcoming title defense and then more or less the talk was, oh, yeah, Alcho, he's a tough champion, he's a good champion,

he's a tough fighter, and then they were asking each other's, who did he fight recently? And neither of them came about that it was Henry Sehudo, so Dana didn't know at all who Alcho's last fight had been. And then Mike Tyson said, oh, wasn't it Henry or Henry? Ruder. So he pronounced the name wrong and then Dana came across, oh yes, it was the hoodo, it was the hoodo. So maybe this is another example for Dana's lack of interest in the actual UFC happenings.

And lastly, you talked about 293 and the weight that Isy and Strickland will have to be carrying because of the lack of depth on the cart. I just looked it up. There is. only 10 fights booked for the card. So it seems a bit low or very low for a pay-per-view. I know we had 291 now with 11 or 12 fights and it was okay. But do you see any fights to be realistically to be added to this card still? Yes, it is already in what 28 days or something like that. So will we keep with, will we stay with 10 fights or will anything be added? So, yeah, thanks. And I wish you a nice weekend.

Enjoy your day off. And then can't wait to see your shipping up to Boston and rocking fight week there. And, of course, looking forward to the watch party as well. Thanks. Thanks, man. I heard about Dana forgetting Zahudo's name, but you know what?

Look, I forget shit too. It happens. Sometimes you get a brain fog when you're hanging out if maybe Dana got a contact high being around Tyson. I don't know. I don't know. I don't take too much stock in that. There was one clip that I thought was hilarious.

Dana was talking about, and I don't remember it specifically, but Dana was talking about, like, growing up on, like, old school hip-hop and stuff, and then Mike Tyson started singing, uh, you give love a bad name and data just looked at him. I'm just like,

that's Bon Jovi after Dana ran off like a bunch of like hip hop groups and hip hop artists I thought it was super funny super funny stuff as far as as 293 goes I expect JDM to fight on that card I don't know who he's going to fight I know there are reports that he's having a hard time finding an opponent there's truth to that I'm hearing and I can't really talk about it specifically

I'm hearing that they possibly have circled in on somebody and it's just a matter of getting it put together, maybe 50-50 at this point, but look, even if you throw JDM on there against a newcomer, like, who cares?

That dude needs to fight on that card. He needs to fight on that card. And there'll probably be like some local town that maybe get signed. But look, if they want to keep it at 10 fights, you're going to get zero complaints from me. You're going to get none. No complaints.

But I can see them adding a fighter too. I don't think we're getting at like a full 15 or anything. Let's go to Eric. What's up, Eric? You just got to unmute yourself. There we go. Sorry. What's up, Eric?

First time, long time. Love your stuff, especially BTL. Just wanted to answer back on that person, the caller that had asked about anything having to do with history. If I could throw in three things that I think the audience may like, if they like that kind of stuff. One of them, I cannot remember the name of, but there's some book that I started. reading that basically dispels a bunch of myths about the background of Taekwondo. It should be fairly easy to find because I don't know that there's a lot written about the history of Taekwondo, and it's a pretty short book.

The second one, if you haven't read it for modern history, is the one by Big John McCarthy that writes about the very beginning of the UFC, if you have an interest in that, and if you've been watching it for decades, like some of us, it talks about all of the challenges they had, getting it going, the legal challenge, thinking of a lot of the early competitors and those kind of things. And then the one that nobody would know about probably, unless they just happen to be in this same group, I happen to be friends with a guy that is one of the stars of this documentary. There's an old documentary called New Gladiators, and it details the history of back in the days of point fighting.

You know, when I was young, the belief was everything you'd hear from people is, oh, you can't possibly let people with martial arts skills have a full contact fight. You know, they'll kill each other. If you kick somebody, they'll die. If you kick somebody in the head, they'll be dead, just one kick. And that was the conventional wisdom. And so back in like the 70s, the U.S. had a team of point fighters that fought internationally against other countries' teams with some of the names, if you know any of the early names of the early point fighting stuff that turned into some of the full contracts, full contact Superfoot Bill Wallace, who you can still see around some of the UFC events. Sometimes I have a selfie I took with him a couple years ago.

those guys fought on this team. And that documentary, you're not going to find it on a streaming, I don't think. You're going to have to find it somewhere online, but it's called New Gladiators. It's a great watch. It's got a cool history on the documentary. It didn't get put out for decades after it got filmed because it was financed by Elvis Presley. There was some sort of a, I won't go into all the details, but there's a whole backstory with Elvis Presley and why the funding was cut off and all of that. It's very fascinating.

It has some great music in it, too. So just wanted to throw that out there, new gladiators. Thanks, man. There you go. Go check those out. Henderson, hopefully you heard that. You can add those to your list. So we got Panda, Daniel, Cole, Zach, four-on-sniper.

No more after that. I got to go. Panda, hello. My man, Mike. How are you? Good. Wow. First connection, first time.

first time in a while. I'll keep it short and sweet. Two things. One, I guess best regards to my man, Connor Birx, who got absolutely bamboozled by you and Eric this weekend. Do you have anything to say for yourself, Mike? No, I'm just kidding. Obviously, women's boxing. Anything can happen. Secondly, Kobe versus Leon, are we ever going to get this or am I just going to continue to scream down an alley? Thank you, Mike. I hope you have a heck of a weekend. I already addressed G.C. I haven't done it in person, but I will next week. I publicly apologize on this show. I publicly apologize on BTL. What else do I need to do? What else do I need to do? Yeah, it's going to happen this year. I just don't know when. It seems like November is a perfect time for it. Do it at MSG, undercarded John Jones. That is just a mega event if you can pull that off. But there's just, they could headline December. We don't know. There's,

could you do Yeri and Pereira before the end of the year? If you can't get Connor Chandler done, I kind of feel like we're going to get a Conner Chandler announcement soon. I don't know why. I've kind of felt that way, like by the end of this Garbo season of the Ultimate Fighter, outside of a couple of fights, that they're just going to give us the announcement and the date and everything,

and everyone should be like, see, like you've been worrying for nothing. maybe that's just me being the optimist that I am. But if that doesn't happen, you might need Leon and Colby's headline in Vegas in December. I don't know. But I do feel like that fight's going to happen this year. It appears like Leon is getting ready for camp.

My guess this is going to happen at MSG, but if other things fall apart, it'll happen in December. But, yeah. I feel very confident about that one. That's going to happen. And if it doesn't this year, like, then all this,

all of these conversations about how can you just name, how could you just name Colby the number one contender after 286 before Mazadol fought Gilbert Burns? Like all this stuff was for nothing. This fight gets pushed to 2024, but I do think it's going to happen this year. Daniel, hello. Thank you for trying again, Mike.

Can you hear me? Yeah, I got you. Perfect. Panda. and first time, first connection. A little bit of a subtle jab there. I'll take it though. So, you know, I mean, I'll just keep it quick here.

There seems like there's a lot of fighters coming in on a losing streak here this week. I think about seven or so, and I think three are on a three-fight losing streak. I mean, if you want to talk about the others, but I really just wanted to name Docis and McKinney. I mean, what do you think happens if either of them lose here and just how do you actually think those fights play out? And just a little kind of response. Everyone is bringing up that Dana White forgot Henry Sohudo. I mean, geez, guys, like, this guy can't bat a thousand here every single day. I mean, he's a human being.

I don't understand why that clip keeps blown up. But that's all I got, Mike. Have a heck of a morning, man. Yeah, man. Look, I forget things all the time. There are very few Jose Youngs's in the world who have, like, the elephant brain. They can remember everything. Now, there are certain things that I have the elephant's memory on.

But remembering thousands and thousands of fighter names and every single fight that's ever happened, no matter how recent it is, I get where he's coming from. As a fellow bald Bostonian, I get where he's coming from. So I don't really give him a lot of flack for that. There's a lot I've given Dana Flack for this year. All of it deserved, but I'm not really going to think that. And I'm not going to really go crazy on that. I give him a pass for that. kind of talked about McKinney

I mean he's got to he's got to win like this this is just about as good of a matchup as you can get I honestly feel like McKinney's just going to submit him in the first round I think he's going to just tackle him Mike Breed and tap him

like I think take the path of least resistance but go get a finish take him down beat him up get the neck choke him on to the next one that's kind of how I feel that's going to go

it's smart for him to take this fight this is lightweight Mike Breeden is maybe the 65th best lightweight in the world right now or he's probably like the 60th best lightweight in the UFC if Terrence can't win this fight

then I don't know I don't know I don't think they'll cut them but that that would be by far the worst loss of his career. Like by far. And again, I'm not trying to disrespect Mike Breeden, but you just got to go watch Mike's fights. Mike can be exciting. Mike could go out there and knock Terrence McKinney out tomorrow. It's possible. If this fight goes to round two, that is very

much in play. And if you're, uh, if you like to play the ponies, if you will, if this fight goes to round two, I would take a look at the live odds and just maybe you'd take a small, shot here. Just look at McKinney's typology. The dude just it's first rounder bust, really. But I think Terrence will win.

And I boy, I feel bad for Chris Dachas. He's just getting nightmare matchups at heavyweight. Now he's going down to 205 and he gets probably the riskiest, the highest risk, lowest

reward fight you could possibly get at 205 against Khalil round. I think Christakis is getting knocked out in the first round. And I don't know. I think Christakis needs to hope that the Khalil Roundtree, who fought after he just blew up Eric Anders shows up and just isn't, we don't get the Thailand version.

But yeah, I think Kalilohranchri is just going to knock him out. From Christakis, you tackle him. Tackle him immediately. Cole, hello. I'm Mike Kank of a morning. on this free for all I want from you is if you got in the NFL hot takes what do you got for the season people say I'm crazy when I say the Vikings are going to win the NFC North I can't believe the freaking lions are favored but yeah what do you

got oh yeah geez man um let me I want to take a look at something real quick Vegas odds NFL team wins 2023 let's see I'm curiously what the Patriots are at on this list over under 7 and a half for the Patriots over is that plus money

the Patriots will win more games this season than nah I mean I'm not even caught I was yesterday they went more games to the Cowboys but I'm not confident in that at all I don't really have like

I think Cleo I think this could be a very good year. I think this could be a decent year for the Cleveland Browns. I'm feeling pretty decent about the Browns. My hot take is the Cleveland Browns will make the AFC championship game, and they will get annihilated. They're going to be the Cinderella team that goes into the playoffs for the AFC, and then it's going to get ousted by whoever they play,

and the Patriots are going to go over seven and a half wins. I feel pretty good about that. Maybe they can sign a wide receiver, because I certainly don't have one right now. Four on Snifference. Yep, I got you. Are you scouting any hot prospects coming up on the day in the white contender series? In the next few weeks

or six three lines for the one added Oh, go ahead. Oh, no, you were breaking up, so I think we're good now. Okay, yeah, that was it, though. Thanks, man. So I'm not like,

I'm not totally tapped into the lineup this year. Like, I'll watch them. Tom Nolan was definitely one of them. Peyton Tablet was another one. I like what I saw from both them. Tom is just a freaking animal. He's so big and he's very, very exciting. Obviously, week two, that's where we're getting at George Hardwick.

And we're getting it. He's fighting El Sawadi. Both of these guys, in my opinion, should not even have to fight beyond the show. Hardwick in particular. Like, what are we doing here? What, like, I understand some people are like, well, they put Bo Nickel on the show. Bo Nickel was like 2-0 as a pro. George Hardwick has done more than enough to get a UFC contract.

So I have no idea why he is on this show. But he's going to be on it. So I'm very excited to see what he does. Like I like Hider Emile. He's fighting next week. I have to look at all the names and see if anyone really sticks out to me. Robbie Ring is someone that I've liked for a while. dude's 23

he's going to be a problem he just goes out there and just melts dudes in like 90 seconds or less so I really like Robbie I think that's a guy the UFC's probably had their eye on for quite some time I wonder if they're going to give I hope they give Gianni Vasquez

a shot he's the guy that Edgar Chiraz that whole situation with Fury FC I hope they give him a chance apparently he's like good to go he's cleared So I kind of hope they give him a little bit of a shot. I like Mitch Ramirez too.

It's hard to get like fully invested in the contender series cards because one, the stakes just aren't there anymore. It's just if you win you're in and it kind of takes a little bit of the flavor away. And then two, we see these fights get switched up and changed all the time. Guys get pushed to different dates, new opponents. So like for me, I kind of have to go weak by. week. And this should be a good week.

It should be a good week. We get George Hardwick. We get versus Al-Sawad. It's great fight. I like the co-main event, too. I like Mara and Silva, both undefeated Brazilian prospects. I mean, there's obviously

talent on these shows every single week, but all you got to do is win now to get a contract. And we know why. It just drives me nuts. I wish there was some some line

you have to, some threshold you have to get over in order to get a contract, not just, hey, all you have to do is win a decision when you get a contract. Zach, hello. Hey, Mike, can hear me? Yep. Okay. Just real quick, I want to know if you can give any commentary on the class action suit that's obviously in the headlines now.

I know I saw Casey tweet yesterday that there's some legal background to go before anything can really be said. but if you can comment, give us some comments. And if not, can we get a timeline of when you think MMA fighting will put a story out there? Thanks. Yeah, we're definitely working on it. We got the right man for the job. You know, it's Stephen Morocco.

Dude is very, very good at this. This is what he does. It does it as well, if not better than anybody. In the history of MMA reporting in journalism, he is incredible at it. If you don't believe me, go read his Spencer Fisher story, which to me is the best piece of journalism. Probably the sport has ever seen, at least over the last 10 years. There's nothing better than that. Nothing.

The good news, I mean, honestly, like, we've talked about it a little bit. The fact that this has gotten clearance from a judge and that it's going to proceed and it took a whole. lot of time. Like we're, we're knocking on the door of a decade here that this is going to be done. Basically, the UFC, like not paying fighters and talks about monopolization and all that stuff.

This is a very big deal. This is a very big deal. And I know, you know, he's even talked about yesterday, Eric McGregan or I forget how to pronounce his name. It's like, oh,

no one's talking about it. You got to do it right. You can't just, like, put out a story. You can't just be like, oh look what this guy wrote it's not like that you have to make sure you get everything right you want to get different sides of the story you want to try to get comments from people involved whether it's because that's a weird it's news but you want to get different perspectives you want to

get maybe the fighter the past fighters who were involved maybe some of the attorneys that were involved maybe you want to and if they get involved and they say something then you have to reach out to the UFC and get their side of the story or Zufa, whoever's named in the lawsuit. So you have to be very careful. This is a fine-toothed comb type of situation. But the fact that this got class certification is gigantic. I mean, it's huge. Now, the reason that I'm like not going gaga over this, right?

The second, this is obviously a very big roadblock to get over. Like they ran the roadblock over with the bus. However, the UFC has so much money and so many resources. It took us almost nine years to get to this place when the lawsuit was filed. It's going to take another five to six years minimum before anything ever gets done with this whole situation. And that's the thing about these. It is an important conversation, no doubt about it. We got over a very important piece of the puzzle by getting a judge, a federal judge to grant class certification to a plaintiff in a group of plaintiffs in a situation like this.

It is friggin enormous. But this is going to take forever to get resolved forever because the UFC has the money and the power to drag this on forever. And that's probably what's going to happen. So it's a very big deal. It's a very big win for the plaintiffs. But for anybody that's expecting anything to happen quickly, like, oh, this is going to go to court, we're going to figure this out in a few months. No, no.

I will have far less hair. My hairline will be much worse. And the salt and pepper my beard will no, there'll be no more pepper. It's just going to be, I'm going to be a gray bearded man. by the time we get any sort of answer to this at all. So great step. Took a long time to get here. It's going to take a very long time to get to a resolution to this.

So big news, no doubt about it. Bloody Alba's did a great job with this. If you want to go check out their coverage, a friend office sports wrote a good article about it. And I'm excited to see what Stephen comes up with as well, because I'm sure he's going to have multiple conversations about it. and he's going to get really in depth with this. Rel, you know what?

I'll get you in here. Send us home. How you doing, Mike? Caggar, morning. You too, ma'am. I just want to ask you two quick questions. First, in the Oliver Maka-Chave two rematch, do you think there's anything Oliver can do

that he can change in a rematch that will provide a different outcome than the first match? And second question, do you think there's anything, knowing that John Jones may retire after his next fight, I think that's the feeling going around. Do you think there's anything that Aspinall can do to get that fight? Get that fight in before Jones retires.

Have a good day. It's probably like two nose, but the latter has got a caveat to it. I mean, I guess Charles can just not get taken down at all. Don't get hit and don't get taken down. I mean, it's asking a lot. but yeah just stay on your feet that's your best chance to win and even then it's not a guarantee

because this is al-Machachev knocked Charles on his butt and won a lot of the striking exchanges so there's no guarantee that even this fight today's standing Charles could win it but it's probably all of his best chance he's got to be a lot more active off his back because Amacachev gets on like he's got to be so scrambling and squirrelly down there

he needs to really watch the Volkanowski fight go watch the Volk fight over and over again obsess about it work from that fight because I'm sure he probably took a lot away from that fight but I just don't I feel like just a really tough batch up for him and I don't think it goes any better could Tom Aspen I'll get John Jones' attention

before he retired look I don't think John's going to retire he might come out and be like I'm done here in my gloves but I don't think John's going anywhere I think John's going to take a sabbatical he's going to wait and see if something big happens. And to me, it's not Pavlovich that's going to get him back. It's not Jailton Al-Meda that's going to get him back. Honestly, to me, there's two guys, there's three guys who can get him back, realistically.

One is really not all that realistic. One is Francis and Ghanu. I don't, look, I just don't think that Dana and Francis will ever come to terms. or Hunter and France will ever come to term. So I don't think Francis will ever come back to the UFC. I think that fight is just gonzo. Francis is one of them, but very unlikely. Two is Tom Aspinall.

But for Tom Aspinall to get John's attention, John's going to, to me, John is just going to, she's going to strangle Steep A, beat him real quick. He's going to ride off into the sunset. At least he's going to say he is. They're going to vacate the heavyweight title. Tom Aspinall is going to be a,

part of it. And then Tom Aspinall will probably win it. And if Tom can get a couple of title defenses and get the North American crowd behind him, like in a big way, and get some buzz outside of the UK, I think

John will be like, you know what? I'm going to fight this guy. And the third is a guy who just re-signed. Derek Lewis. If Derek Lewis wins like two fights, let's just say they give Derek Lewis like two or three favorable matchups. You don't think people are going to like care to see John? Like people would be like, oh, John Jones is probably going to kill Derek Lewis.

But I mean, Derek Lewis fighting John Jones. Like to me, this is, if John wasn't going to get an immediate heavyweight title shot, like that was the fight they should have made. They should have done John Jones versus Lewis, John Jones versus Taito Ivasa, like something like that. where John is fighting a fun dude who's

going to bring something different to the table but I think Derek's sounding a new eight fight deal if Derek just wins a couple of fights I think he's in the mix and maybe John will be like look we can make some money together and it's about as prize fight

as a fight as John can get because Derek is very very popular and Derek's going to put butts in seeds and Derek's going to drive interest the fight will not be competitive at all but at least the build tool will be super fun. Derek probably getting John's face and shove him across the stage. And by the time we get there, we'll be like, ooh, this is interesting.

And then John's probably just going to strangle him in a minute and a half. But that's the type that's a prize fighting is. And at this point in John's career, he's already accomplished everything. Like what else is left for him to do besides make as much money as possible with these fights? That's why the Francis fight was the big one. didn't happen so he settled on Cyril Gahn, won the heavyweight title. That's why he's not fighting Patovich. He's fighting Steepa Mietchich.

He's fighting the big name, big arena, big money. Aspidal could be a money fight for him. It's not a money fight for him right now. But if Aspidal keeps doing what he's doing, maybe wins a vacant title, maybe he wins a title a couple of times, maybe he ties Steepa for the most title defenses. And then maybe John will come back and say, hey, I have two. Let's do it.

Let's fight it out. And let's see who can be the guy. Could happen. But those are the three guys. It's not going to be Sergey. It's not going to be Elmada. It's going to be one of those three guys. And Aspinall, probably the most likely.

But Aspinall is going to win and continue to win. And he's got to do it impressively. Because out of all these guys, Tommy Aspenal is the only one. that has gotten John's attention. There's something to that. So go get it, Tommy. Go get it.

All right, we're done. Went a little longer today, but you guys asked a lot of great questions. Thank you all very much. Not sure what next week's going to look like. Maybe I'll do a quick one at the airport on Tuesday because that's when I head to Boston. We'll have UFC 292 coverage.

It's going to be a crazy week in Beantown. We'll do a show Thursday. We've tried to do a bit. BTL like on site. Maybe we'll get Jose and maybe one other media member will do like a little roundtable show like in person, which I'd be pretty excited to do. And then Saturday morning next week,

I'll leave Boston and head to New York for the watch party. It's just going to be a fun week, everybody. So thank you all for joining us. And for all your coverage this weekend with Bellator, UFC, etc., mhmapfiting.com, BKFC, whatever. It's a tremendous website. as Jed Mishu likes to say. Preview show for UFC Vegas 78,

3 p.m. Eastern on the YouTube channel. It'll be A.K. Lee and Jed Mishu and E. Casey Liden. Tomorrow, People's Pre-Fight show, 3.30 p.m. Eastern, myself and E.K.C. Lidon. Post-fight show immediately after the Vicente Lucke RDA main event with myself, E. Casey Lided

and the incomparable New York Rick. So get ready, everybody. Buckle up. great rest of your Friday and as always have a heck of a more.