MMA Fighting - HOAM | How Should the UFC Book Paddy Pimblett Next?

Episode Date: October 4, 2022

When Paddy Pimblett is ready to return to the octagon — whether it be at UFC 282 in December, or when the promotion heads back to London in 2023 — how should the UFC book him, and how much of a step up should he get? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses options for Pimblett, including his suggestion from this week's edition of On To the Next One with a fight against UFC Vegas 61 winner Mike Davis. Additionally, listener suggestions include referees allowing multiple infractions to go without any penalty, Bo Nickal's interview on The MMA Hour and his thoughts about fighting on the prelims, the lightweight title picture, Charles Oliveira being the underdog against Islam Makhachev at UFC 280, Mark Zuckerberg attending UFC Vegas 61, 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: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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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.

Tuesday, October 4th, 2020, and it is indeed a heck of a morning live on the M.A. Fighting Twitter Spaces. The entire program will be live shortly thereafter on the NBA Fighting Podcasting Network. I am Mike Hack. Hope you have it a great start to the week. We had a lot going on this past weekend in the world of MMA and combat sports.

We had the car of the weekend, in my opinion, came from one championship on Friday. It was a great card. Made event was fantastic. Saturday, we had the UFC, UFC, UFC Vegas 61. I like to determine it, we suck you. Big win for Jan Jhanan. She gets it done against McKenzie Dern. Nice win for Randy Brown.

Mike Davis. Doing radio ads in his post-fight interview after a victory. The card was a card, as my best friend, Alexander K. Lee likes to say. It wasn't all that memorable, if we're being honest, but it was a card. And there were some good fights and some good fans. finishes and some good moments. And then Bellator had their events, Belator 286 in the LBC, where we saw Patricia Pitbull just outclass Adam Borch in a fight that will not be

in our end of the year awards discussion. Agent McKeys by Carlisle, that fight might be somewhere in the top 10 to 15 most fun fights of the year. That thing was just insane. We saw Wada Tjoleta get a nice win against Enrique Barzola. He bounced back. And we saw an unfortunate injury

to Aaron Pico basically broke his damn shoulder in the middle of the fight. And we got to see Brandon Gibson try to be a doctor and Aaron Pico trying to pop his shoulder back into place in the middle of the fight and the dude just wanted to keep going.

He wanted to keep fighting. And I see, still to this to this day do not understand why there is even a conversation between pico and the doctor and the referee like pico's arm was hanging out like a chicken wing and i mentioned on saturday we were doing a little live watch along right here on the spaces that it was like erin pico was henry rowing gardner from rookie of the year his arms just hanging the tendons were too tight and maybe Aaron Pico's fastball in six weeks will improve, but he wasn't ready to go back out there and fight Jeremy Kennedy, that's for sure.

So Jeremy Kennedy gets a big win. Scott Coker comes out afterwards and says something to the effect of, you know, it's unfortunate. Aaron really wanted to win this fight. He wanted to get to a title shot, and he was well on his way to winning. And I didn't really like that too much. I wasn't a fan of those comments at all. And I know for a fact, because I saw it on social media,

Kennedy's coach Eric Nixick was like, what the hell are you talking about? Jeremy won the first round and you're trying to say that he was well on his way to victory. Like, yeah, it sucks that Pico got hurt, but to say that Pico was well on his way to victory after losing the first round was a little out of place. So, but be that as a May, Jeremy Kennedy gets the victory. Unfortunate way to get it.

But still, I just wanted to see. more of that fight. I wanted to see how Pico bounced back after a really tough first round. I think we know part of the reason why the first round went the way that it did, but it's unfortunate. We can't take away anything from Jeremy Kennedy. He looked good in that first round.

Even, you know, shoulder injury or not, he won the round and he won the fight. So, that was Bellator. And then BKFC, we saw Ben Rothwell go out there and do the damn thing. We got to see a chaotic made event.

between Lorenzo Hunt and Quentin Henry, where it looked like we had a quick knockout, looked like Lorenzo hit him after the bell. It looked like Quentin Henry was going to nominate himself for an Academy Award. They looked at the replay. They felt like Quentin Henry is going to win the Academy Award for an acting job, and they made him fight again.

And Lorenzo Hunt beat him again. So that was just a crazy event in itself. So we have a lot to talk about. A couple of other things I want to say before we get to the calls. to see a few people lined up. One, I tweeted about this yesterday. I don't like to talk about myself too much

unless it's prompted, but let me just say this. I'm a fan of Twitter. I'm learning how to use Instagram a little bit more. I've never TikToked in my life, but I should probably learn how to do that as well. But I don't, like, I can't stand Facebook. I can't stand it. I use Facebook for three,

things. One, to figure out whose birthday it is, if it's like a family member that I need to call on the phone. Two, to post articles on the MA Fighting Facebook page if I'm running the desk. And three, to look at memories. I like to go back and sometimes I like to look at the memories what happened in the past. And seven years ago, like literally seven years ago today was the day I made the decision that I'm going to cover MMA. This is what I'm going to do. The day before, seven years ago, we had driven out, it was me, my buddy Ryan Sprague who co-hosted the old SFLC podcast that I used to do.

And a couple of other buddies like flew into Syracuse, New York, and we went to this event we were invited to called the MMA Classic Fan Expo. And what it was was, it was like going to a Comic-Con, but this is for MMA, past and present. So guys like the late-grade Emmanuel Yarborough were there, like guys like Bert Watson, Pat Smith was there, Butterbean was there, some of the legends who fought in like the early UFCs were all there.

And then there were like current fighters there as well. Like Brian Ebersoll was a current fighter at the time. and Claudia Goodalea was there, Felice Herrig, Ashley Evans Smith, Carlos Sparza, and others. And I went to that event, and at the time, we were doing the podcast. We did have some MA fighters come on once in a while. But for the most part,

I just wanted an outlet for me, because me and my buddy Ryan both lived in the same area. We were both bartenders at the time when we were trying to figure out what we're going to do with ourselves. and we would always just argue about sports all the time. He was a big Chicago fan. I was a big New England sports fan.

And we would just have these conversations behind the bar or whoever was bartending, the other one would be sitting there. We'd have a couple of libations. And we would just kind of argue back in sports and everything going on in the world of sports. And we were like, oh, this would be like a cool podcast to do. So we ended up going out to this expo. And I remember I went to lunch

with Ryan afterwards for I was driving back home and I looked at him and I said the podcast has changed forever. We're not doing all the sports anymore. We're just doing MMA. That's it.

We're just going to interview fighters because I had interviewed a bunch from there and I just thought they were the most fascinating people in the world. I was enthralled by the mentality behind someone who actually wanted to get into a cage and fistfighted another human being

as their full-time job. And just talking to these people, it was just amazing. And I made the decision right there. And Ryan wasn't happy about it. He didn't like it at all. And I was like, I don't care. I'm the one producing all this stuff. I'm the one putting it all together.

This is the direction I want to go. This is where the train is heading. So you can either stay on and hop aboard or if you want to go do something else, like that's totally fine. And Ryan was like, no, no, no, we'll just do it. And we did it for a while. And we had some good times. We did some, a lot of cool interviews.

Some were picked up by different sites. I know M.A. Fighting did a couple morning reports on the podcast. And New York, Rick, who's here right now, used to come on the show often when we were do our fight pick shows. And the fans would basically, like, try to pick the fight cards better than. and us better than the special guest we would bring on, whether it be New York Rick or whether it be Matt Brown or Lauren Murphy or Mickey Gall or whoever fighter wanted to come on and talk some noise with us.

But yeah, that's where it all started. That's when the decision was made. We're going after this thing. We're going to make this happen. And there were some bumps along the way, some different things that happened along the way with my life and work and family and all this stuff. So there were a couple of like minor detours along the way,

but it never really stopped. And then, you know, a little over two years ago, I'm here with M.A. fighting. And now I'm in a room, a virtual space talking with all of you. So I thought that was pretty cool. And the other thing I want to talk about today before we get to the calls, my best friend Alexander Kaylee and I, we've gotten a little spat on onto the next one.

We gotten a little bit of a tiff. about matchmaking. Now, sometimes AK makes an awful pick, and I'll let him know that I don't like it. I don't use the word hate too often when it comes to picks. But I made a pick for Mike Davis, because I feel like Mike Davis is really good. He just needs an opportunity to shine.

He just needs to be active, and I think this guy could be a really good fighter, and he just needs something to get him over the top. So after Mike's performance against Slava Clause, I suggested because I haven't really liked any suggestion for this guy for a while. But Mike Davis, for some reason on Saturday after this performance, I was like, you know what? I like it. Let's pull the trigger on this. Let's do it.

Let's say the name that we don't like to say on the show because it leads to 20-minute rants about this guy. I said we should do Mike Davis versus Patty Pimbled. December 10th, UFC 282. let's just do it. Let's just do it. I was saying Jamie Malarky before, and Mike Davis is probably ranked right around the same place as Jamie Malarkey is. So I thought, let's just do it.

Because it's a win-win in a lot of ways. The short-term loss, if Mike Davis wins, it stings for a little bit, but then the UFC just goes back to London and you go back to doing what you were doing with Patty. give him the quote-unquote WWF superstar squash match get them over

gets the big pop takes over London it's not that big of a deal but if he beats Mike Davis that is a big deal and I know Mike isn't a big household name but you don't need to impress those people you need to impress the people who have doubts

which is us the hardcore fan the casual fan knows who Patty is they just think he's a character they don't take him too seriously. But the hardcore fans, the media, we're the ones that have questions about this guy. So to me, if just him accepting a fight with Mike Davis would be impressive to me. And if he goes out there and beats Mike Davis, this guy isn't just a London fighter.

This guy's just, let's just get him over, fighter. This is a, this is a guy who's legit. So to me, it's a win-win. Either Mike Davis gets over and becomes, a more synonymous name within the MMA community. Or Patty Pimblet wins, and he's a legit threat in this division. I like that idea. If Patty loses, yeah, it sucks for a little while. He's going to take a little bit of a beating on social media. But guess what?

Once the UFC goes back to London, you throw him in there at the 58th ranked lightweight in the world, or you throw him in there with the featherway who's jumping up to lightweight, and he goes in there and wins and gets the big pop, and everyone forgets about what happened with Mike Davis. So that's why I suggested that, AKA, hated that idea. He's still all in on doing Patty Pimba versus Tony Ferguson. But I like the idea. I've been trying to find the

right name. Jamie Malarkey ended up getting booked. So I was like, well, what are we going to do now? We can't have it always, ladies and gentlemen. It's either we're just going to do squash matches or going to try to build this guy up as a contender. We can't do both. We've already done the squash match thing. If we're going to seriously try to build this guy up as a contender, we have to give

a legitimate fight. Not saying that the other guys he fought aren't legitimate threats, but Patty was favored heavily to win all three of those fights. So let's give him a challenge. This is a challenge. People are going to be like, oh, damn,

it's going to fight Mike Davis. All right. Sign me up for that, but some people like it, some people don't. And I want to know. AK and I want to know, we wanted to go to you guys. So ask your questions today. Get whatever you want off your chest.

And then are you yay for Mike Davis versus Patty Pimblit or do you think I'm an asshole like AK does? Let's see what you guys have to say, shall we? Let's begin with Dax. Dax will kick us off on this Tuesday morning.

Hello, Dax. Hey, Mike. How you doing? I got you, man. Good. First off, I'm going to say nay on Mike Davis. I like for thinking. I just think it's too soon. with that eye and I don't know if he can do December, you know? Well, it's not the date, it's the opponent.

Okay, then I'll go yay. I'll go yay. I love it, Dex. There we go. One for yay. I'm tallying these up right now. Awesome. So I got two quick questions for you.

They're both pressing questions. First off, do you think the whole Marks-Eft Gerberg thing is going to be a precedent for other famous people, other companies even? to rent out the apex, to kick the media out, to do this all again. And second, Anthony Qasar, a collegiate champion from Penn State, in the corner of Boe Nickel on his consider series fights, he's also moving to M.A. Do you think the whole Boe-Nickel thing is going to be a precedent

for other high-level collegiate athletes to come right over into M.A.? in the matter of what, two, maybe three years? Excuse me, even? Thanks. Maybe. I don't know. I mean, we've seen some come over and try it already. Bellator has locked up a lot of those guys.

And it just all depends. Like a lot of times when I talk to wrestlers with a lot of accolades when they come over to M.A., it's just there's not a lot of places for them to continue competing. Like once their Olympic runs and their amateur runs come to a an end, there's really not much you could do. You kind of just find a way to keep wrestling, find these events that are very hard to find. You can get into grappling.

You can go to the pro, you can go to like the WWE or AWD and do it the pro wrestling thing. Or you can transition over to MMA. And it all, it just all depends. Like, do you want to be an Olympian? Do you want to battle in the Olympics? And some wrestlers are like, this is the dream. this is it. It's all in on this.

And they go and try and sometimes they try twice. And then they come over to M.A. And some are just like, you know what? I don't want to go through that whole thing. It's four, you know, I don't want to spend my time and try to qualify and all that stuff. We'll just go over to M.A. So I think we'll see more highly regarded wrestlers just take the plunge a little quicker, especially if they know that they may not make,

and making like the U.S. Olympic wrestling team is not an easy thing to do with all the qualifiers. And I mean, you're taking on literally the best of the best in the world, really, to earn that spot. And it's not easy to do. So, yeah, we'll have to wait and see. I think we're going to get a few more trickling over as the next couple of years go by. But I don't know if this is going to be an out-and-out purge of wrestlers just coming over, like national champion wrestlers just coming over to M.A. right out of college.

I don't know if we're going to see that. I think we'll see a few, but I don't think it's just going to be we're going to be writing all 50s. of them all in a row. As far as the Zuckerberg thing, I don't know. I mean, the way that it's being, I guess, presented, at least from the Zuckerberg side, that he was invited. But I still don't understand

why we closed it off to the public and why we closed it off to the media and all that stuff. So I don't know if like, I don't know if the Rock's going to call up and be like, hey, Dane, I want to come to events. Just don't let anybody else in. I don't know if we're going to see that. But hopefully it's just like a one-time thing.

thing. And, you know, a lot of us in MA fighting just feel like, since they weren't going to let the public in, let's just not let the media in and then just kind of test it out and see how they cover us. Are they just going to like not, are they going to be like so upset about it that they just don't cover us? Or are they just going to cover us like they normally do? And I will say we did the best we could with what we had. We didn't have a ton. The UFC said we're going to get post-fight interviews and what we got were like two-minute clips, really, that, we always saw on social media. There wasn't really much to write stories about or anything like that.

So we did the best we could. The whole thing was kind of weird to me. It's kind of icky seeing them up on the screen. And Janjan, Han's family couldn't come and all these other fighters' families couldn't come. It was just very strange and very weird. I didn't love it too much. Speaking of New York, Rick, let's bring him in.

New York, Rick, are you there? I'm here, Mike Heck. Heck of the morning. How are you? I am great. How are you? Very good. Congratulations on seven years. That was a really cool walk down memory lane. My question for you is, do you have any interest in Bader Hari versus Alistair Overeem this weekend? I am very interested, but I'm curious to check the temperature of yourself and other MMA fans out there,

whether you are interested in that fight on Saturday or not. and then as it pertains to Patty Pimbleau, I'll point out two things. One, it's very interesting that A.K. Lee is not here after all the tough talk he always does to defend his position. I find that extremely interesting. It would have been nice if he showed up to defend it. But I digress. Number two, I think you're coming at it from the perspective that we need to see if Patty Pimbleau is legit. and you're supposing that

Mike is good competition for him, but that also assumes that there will be wins and fights to be had for him after. I think the first loss he suffers is going to be pretty damning for his career, so I think the idea of slow building him and continuing

to give him fights where he's a huge favorite against people is probably the way to go. It also makes the internet and MMA fans extremely angry, and that helps build his fan base because let's face it, his haters are his fans too. So I think I have to fall on the side,

and I tend to agree with A.K. Lee, that a fighter like Tony Ferguson is the way to go with Patty Pimbled. I'll hang up and listen. I get where you're coming from. And let me address the Overeem-Ban Baháari thing. I am interested. I'm not working Saturday. And if my family is like, let's go do something.

And it means I don't get to watch. that fight, I'm okay with that. But I'll be certainly paying attention to the results. And if we're not doing anything, then I will find a way to watch it. So I am intrigued in that. Your take on Pimbleau is totally fine. I'm okay with that

100%. If we're going to do I've been advocating for the squash matches for Patty since the beginning. Like just keep doing that and put him over. Like he should only be fighting in London and you should just be getting squash matches. He should be heavily favored.

And he doesn't need to go up the rankings. He doesn't need to go and fight for titles or anything like that. He doesn't need it. He just needs to go in there and just win fights and get the London crowd going crazy. It just depends on what they're really trying to do, though. Like if they're going to build this guy up, like he's a legit contender in this division,

like if they're going to give him the rub, so to speak, and try to build him up, Like he's got to start fighting tougher competition. Like Jordan Levitt's a fine fighter, but I didn't think he was going to, I didn't think he was going to beat Patty. And neither did a lot of the gamblers. I mean, some took like some dog shots on him,

but that line just kept going up and up and up. But you just got to make a decision. If we're going to do the squash match thing, I'm cool with that. I'm totally fine with that. But if you're AK and you're saying, hey, let's get this guy in there with Tony Ferguson. Why can't he fight Mike Davis?

Like, we can't have it both ways. We're either doing squash match Central or we're going to try to build this guy up as a contender. We can't have both. And I'm fine with either, but we have to just pick a lane here. So AK saying, oh, yeah, go fight Tony Ferguson. But then I suggest Mike Davis as a competitive thing and it's like, oh, that's a terrible idea. What if he loses to Tony Ferguson? the way that people view Tony Ferguson right now

after that loss of Nate Diaz, what if he fights Tony and loses? That's rough. That's rough right now. And I know he's a name. And I know the sole purpose of even booking a fight like that would be to try to get Patty over. But what if he loses?

And I think Tony has a chance. I think Tony has a chance to win that fight. But who knows? Seems like we have a, we have a nay, which will make A.K. happy. And I agree. AK should be here to defend himself and listen to the peeps right now. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what?

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19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close to you, call 18665331-2-600 or visit comexonterio.ca. With Amex platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Let's go to Tristan. Mike. Hey Mike, I have a question, though, because there's some confusion with you matching them up with Mike Davis. I just want some clarity on this. So after the UFC Paris card, you matched up Patty Pimlet against Benoit San Dines. So which one, I mean, what was the reason of the change of it?

Because I thought I was going to get that explanation on that out of like, hey, I had him against my- I did? Yeah, you had a matched up. Because when Benoit said to these one is fight against Paris, you were thinking, you were like, you know what? Let them match up with, um, let him match up with Patty Penland. And then you gave your reasons why. So I'm just, I'm just, I just want to.

I don't think that that was my, I don't think that was my pick, though. I think a listener suggested it. And I was like, huh, that's actually not a bad idea. Okay. I, I, I thought you match. I mean, I have. I'm fine with that too. I'm fine with that too.

Okay. So it's either or, okay. because I thought there was a specific reason why you switch from Van Wanda to St. Denis to Mike Davis. And I just felt. Oh, I lost shot. Yeah, there's, I mean, there's no rhyme or reason behind it. I just feel like, I feel like Mike can be built up as not a star per se, but someone, someone who, I think Davis could be a bigger star than Santini if that makes sense.

Yeah. I missed half of it what you said. Okay, just go over a little bit because I missed a little bit half of it. Would you say? No, that's just what I mean.

Someone suggested Santini Pimbled. I didn't hate, I actually thought about it. I was like, oh, that's interesting. I'd be down for it for the same reasons. But I think if there's a choice between the two, I'm probably going with Mike Davis. Because I think Mike wins,

I think more for him can be done. But if Santini beats him, it's cool, but I don't know. if he gets the same rub that mic would okay okay uh thanks mike yep so there you go let's go to milo uh hello mike uh hello morning can you hear me okay yes awesome uh i have a take a bit maybe a different take on on patty pimblitz uh i have very you know serious doubts that we're gonna see uh patty pimbleith at 155 and his comeback five uh just uh just a very you know serious doubts that we're gonna see uh

Paddy Pimbled at 155 in his comeback fight just because of his weight-cutting struggle and currently having him amassed at least like 200 pounds of weight. I think what's going to happen next, at least for his next fight, he's going to fight at 170. And if I'm looking for an opponent for him,

at 170 is probably going to be somebody like Danny Roberts. And I think it's a good matchup for him. it's a winnable fight for him so yeah I do not foresee and I can make a you know a hundred dollar bet with anybody here in the space that his next fight is not going to be at 155 and another take is probably

about Bonniko you know two quick wins at the Denna White Contender Series it still doesn't I'm still not convinced he's a UFC level I almost wish like they had like a third Deno White Contender Series fights for him or had some kind of like developmental contract and I just don't haven't seen enough to suggest that he's UFC ready and that's that's two of my takes yeah but I don't believe that we're going to see paddy at 155 next one thanks thanks we'll see we'll see yeah I mean if he's ballooning up to 205 and he's cutting to 155 he's doing it but I just don't know how long you'd do that for in a in a healthy way but I get where you're coming from fights 170 I'm fine with that let's go to average

avenues. Yes. I've got two questions for you. One is, what did you think of Santos' performance? And my second question is, what was your opinion on people who thought that a darn Yon fight, the last round should have been scored a 10-8 in favor of Mackenzie? And on the whole Patty thing, well, initially,

I wanted him to fight Alexander Hernandez just because I thought that would have been like a fun buildup and stuff but Alexander Hernandez is booked at 45 I believe so I agree I think he should fight Davis I think that'd be fun Yes one more for the A category boom So we're we're kind of in the lead here Santos for forwards is great I mean that that fight was just insane I don't know how that dude took all that punishment and

was able to come through the way he did, but that knee up the middle was friggin nasty. It was crazy. The 10-8 round, again, I have to say, like, I have not gone back and watched the fight again. I have not really had the interest to go back and watch the fight again, but I was live blogging for MMMfighting.com,

and you can only do so much as the fight is happening and trying to type what's actually going on in real time. and MMA fighting's official stance on that fight was a draw, a 10-8-5th round. I didn't give it. Jed Mishu and AK both scored the fight 47-46 for Dern. They felt like she had a 10-8 second and a 10-8-fifth.

I didn't really feel watching live that the second round should have been a 10-8. I felt that the fifth round should have been 10-8 because there's one-way traffic, dominant position. She was landing strikes. almost finished the fight a couple of different times. Jan did nothing for five minutes except not get submitted.

And to me, that's a 10-8 round. Like, especially if, like, round one is a 10-9 for Jan. It's just weird. That's, like, I was, if you want to score the fifth of 10-9, like I'm not going to argue with you, but to me, I felt it was a 10-8. I didn't feel like the second was a 10-8. And you can make a compelling case that if we're going to score the fifth round, a 10-8 for Dern, that we might have scored the third round,

10-8 for Yon, because she had Dern on wobbly legs in that round, and she lit her ass up pretty much from start to finish. So again, I'm not going to fight you on it. I'm cool with it being a draw. I'm cool if you scored it for Yon. And I'm cool if you scored it for Dern. It's not a robbery. It's not anything we need a robbery review on.

But that's just how I feel about it. I scored it a draw. I'll go back and watch it, but it won't be anything. I'll go back and watch anytime soon. Let's go to Viking. Hello, Viking. I'm good. How are you?

I just want to ask about on Ariel Alvani show, Campbell McClaren said that, you know, UFC, there is some kind of movie you have to need to reach its glory time or golden. I just don't remember the terms absolutely said. How relevant is that term according to you? What film? UFC needs some kind of rocky kind of thing,

Rocky kind of movie. Oh, Rocky. Campbell McLaren said that. Campbell McLaren said that what about Rocky? Sorry. Campbell McLaren said that UFC need Rocky kind of movie if it's one to get that glory golden hedge or whatever, he said. Okay.

Campbell. Oh, you were breaking up, Viking. If you want to tag back in, I'll get you back in. I mean, look, I don't mute or block a lot of people on Twitter, Camel McLaren has been muted for a long time, and I think I'm a better person for it, if we're being honest, but I don't take a lot of what he says seriously.

I did watch his interview with Ariel. I feel like he is a little less angry, I guess, is the right word. But I don't think he's really in a position to give the UFC advice about anything, if that makes sense. I'm not sure if I totally understand the question, but can't. But listen, without Camel, we're not where we're at right now. That's for damn sure.

With what he did, he's part of the early UFC's. And so yeah, he's a, he's a pioneer for, for sure. Him, Art Davy, others of that nature. Let's go to a head. Yes. So I've got some headlines for hack for morning. And before you say anything, Mike, I don't care if I'm not put on. In my mind, I'm always the headline.

whether it was green room or heck of a morning. So you're ready to hear it, Mike? Ready to hear it. All right, cool. So here's one headline. Considering how much they go unpunished, should fence grabs be made officially legal in MMA? And you put Randy Brown's picture on there

because for goodness sake, you might as well make it legal. Because what the actual, what actually happened there with Brown and French? Francisco. I think I felt even more angry considering Francisco was old, so I felt a bit sorry for him. And it's like he stopped the takedown. Randy stopped the take down. And Francisco's clearly better on the ground. He could have controlled him. All he needed to do was win two rounds. And he would have got more money and he would have gone up. And people only talked about it for two seconds.

John Anick was like, someone better pull their testicles out and say something. It's like, No one did anything afterwards. No one cares. It's absolutely ludicrous. It's the same thing with steroids like Connor McGregor. I don't know. He might be on steroids. And I've always said, Jeff Novitsky and Usada are a bunch of morons.

But the other point I wanted to make was, okay, we saw UFC 283, Moreno, Figuero, the Tetralogy, or quadrilla, whatever, bro. That's done. Okay. But it's so crazy. A title fight for UFC 283. he's announced nothing for UFC 282. Still, Mike, still, they have to do it by 280.

They have to do it at Abu Dhabi. They have to announce it because if they don't, that's insane. Like, as if for promotional reasons and whatnot, like, I think they're trying to go big. I think the UFC want Jones and Miochich. Like, I know Yuri and Glover's an option, but Mike, that's a good fight, but not end of the year. I need something big, like some big name, something that raises the hair off my. like, I need something like a Colby Chamaev or Jones Miocchich, you know, I think they're trying to go that right.

We're going to find out in Abu Dhabi. They have no choice. They need to finalize something. I want to go Jones Miocch, otherwise go Colby Chimayev. Drop the mic, Mike. Hey, listen, if they want to do Colby Shemayef, I'm totally fine with that. I just don't know if we're going to get Jones Stepe. I just don't know if that's even possible.

I mean, it's possible, but without, it's all unfranchis. right now. If Francis called the UFC before UFC 280 and said, I'm not resigning, they'll do everything in their power to get Joan Steepa going. But again, we are running out of time here. And Stepe is not the kind of guy that likes to jump in a short notice fight or a shorter notice fight. He wants the normal amount of time.

So, and if you're Jones and Francis says, hey, I'm coming back, then you just don't even put Jones on a card until you fight Francis. You just do everything you can and you throw all your chips in that basket and I'm cool with that. The fence grab, I mean, listen, what else do I have to say about cheating in MMA? What else can I say about it? Just cheat your ass off.

Cheat your ass off because no one is going to call anything. It should not be legal. Fens grab should not be legal. It shouldn't be. Yet they don't call it. Just like kicks in the balls shouldn't be legal. Just like pokes in the eye shouldn't be illegal. Just like kicks to the, just like soccer kicks shouldn't be legal in the others.

I mean, if you want to do it, fine. But I know some people really like that. I'm cool about them. But you got to call shit. It's so frustrating to watch Randy Brown grab the fence and nothing happens. And you're just like, just cheat. Just always cheat. And I didn't even mad at Randy for doing it.

I'm not mad at them. Because no one's going to call it. And I'm not, and again, this is a very simple rule. This is a very simple thing to implement. If you grab the fence, like the Randy Brown situation, the referee should step in, stop the action and say, Randy, get on your back. It's a takedown. Francisco, get in his guard, restart the fight. If it happens again, you do the same thing.

but this time you do it in the center of the octagon you do it in the center of the cage you're not near the fence it's takedown but this is the second one we're going to the center of the cage if it happens the third time you take a point that's it that's it i'm not asking you to go crazy here but it should be it shouldn't be a point but it should be a takedown it should be a positive action an automatic takedown for a fence grab if you do it the second time it's a takedown in the center of the octagon. If it happens a third time, it's a point. That's it. And if it's a kick in the ding-ding or an eye poke, those are accidental, you want to give like one five-minute break, recovery time, fine. But if it happens again, it should be a point. When I hear referee say, this is your

final, final, final warning after like the fourth infraction, and we're not calling shit, it's so annoying. What are the point of the rules anyway? What are we doing here? It's just so friggin frustrating. So frustrating. So stupid. They're not rules. They're just like, hey, they're guidelines.

Let's go to Caleb. Caleb, what's up? Caleb are you there? All right? I hear nothing. Try again. Let's go to Octagon Blog. Octagon Blogger are you there?

Unmute. Doing great. How are you? Yes, I have something. Do you remember the fight between Tyson Fury and Dillion White. Yes. Yeah, that particular fight week, Francis and Ghanu was at that fight.

So, to my knowledge, Francis signed a contract with Queensberry promotion. The promotion of Frank Warren and Tyson Fury is a Queensberry fighter. To fight Tyson Fury, let's say, down the road. That's almost short, according to a lot of British boxing. media. Your take on this. Thank you. I mean, that's the first I've heard of that. Like, I know Francis was there. I know Francis wants that fight. I know Fury's interested. I mean, I thought that was a cool moment when Fury basically

invited. I mean, they invited Francis in the ring and they had a moment. You put Francis over and I thought that was very, very cool. I mean, I've heard nothing. I will reach out and see if there's any truth to that. But I've not heard a thing about that. And I don't even know if he can do that. if we're being honest, because technically he's still under a UFC contract. So unless he, unless he resigned with the UFC and the UFC said, go for it, like, we'll let you fight Tyson, do it. I don't even think it's legal for Francis to do that while he's still under contract.

But again, we don't really know what's happening. According to Dana and all parties involved, like, they're still running off the clock here. He's still a, he's still the UFC heavyweight champion. He's still contracted by the UFC. He can't just go signing contracts with other promotions. He can't do that. So I don't know if I necessarily believe that. Maybe there's talks happening.

There's some sort of like gentleman's agreement. But I would be stunned if that's the case. And if that is the case, then there's been a lot more movement on the UFC side than that I'm aware of and anybody else is aware of. So I would say probably not wholly accurate. it. I'd be stunned if that was true. But I know Francis wants that fight. Tyson would make a lot of money

taking that fight, and he would win that fight rather easily. It would probably sell pretty well. But yeah, to say that that's there's like even some sort of agreement and principle with pen to paper, I don't think that's true.

Francis France don't want to get sued That's for sure Let's go to my man, Brett I'm doing good How are you? I'm doing good Hey quick question

Does the gray man Do any wrestling or Jiu-jitsu? He did He did some MMA for a while He just The schedule just became A little too much for him

So he's taking a little breather Because he's getting in the golf He's doing basketball And he's got to start doing baseball So it's just a kind of a matter of Is he into your, like, media loving stuff? Is he love being a proud of it doing like whatever producing or whatever you're doing? Is he like getting involved?

Not particularly. He likes to know what I'm doing because he thinks he's going to be like every nine-year-old on Earth. They think they're going to be a YouTube star, like those other little kids who are making millions and millions of dollars doing it, where their parents are just like, yeah. So, yeah, I mean, he's interested in some things that I do. He's just like, why don't I have a YouTube channel? I explained to him that you're not going to have a YouTube channel until you move out of the house because I'm not going to let it happen. But you know how it is.

I love it. I love hearing that stuff. I hear the whole MMA side of you. I think you have the personal side for your audience to hear. But anyway, I was really glad that there were a couple calls prior to me. So I didn't have to go after a heed for like a third straight time because that's a really tough, tough, tough follow. I love listening to him and his mic drops. I just, that's a really tough follow.

And thank you for that. And the last thing I want to bring up is, I mean, I've talked to you about UFC 280 already, and I'm just getting so geeked up. So today I'm looking at odds. And I want you to take on two fights in particular, one, the Gamrod and the Gamrod fight. Who's your fight? I can't think of it at the second. And then I want to talk about Makachev and Oliveira.

And how is Oliveira an underdog? And this guy's one of the best 155s ever in the history of the sport. He's the underdog. That just drives me nuts. And that tells me that we have an underrated Hall of Fame fighter right in front of us that he gets like no credit. And how aren't people seeing it? So, Mike, I just kind of want to just get your take. I'm happy to hear about the gray man and life is good.

And have a heck of morning, brother. Thanks, buddy. I'm looking at the lines right now. is on Machachev minus 170, comeback on Charles Oliver plus 145. I'm not surprised by this, honestly. I don't bet on MMA,

but if I did, I mean, any dog shot on Charles Lillevere, I'm taken. I'm definitely taking. And I have a feeling that as the week progresses, as we get closer October 22nd, I feel like Mokachev is going to be favored more and more. I think by Fight Week, he might be like a minus 200 favorite.

I think the line, the gap will close. But I think kind of where we're at right now, minus 170 plus 145. I think that's where it's going to close. People just see, people just think Machachev is just that good. But people just continue to sleep on Charles Olivera. I am kind of stunned by the Gamrot Benil Dariush line, though. I'm glad he brought this to my attention.

Batush Gamrod, minus 180. back on Benile Daryouche is plus 155. So again, I'm taking a look at that one as well. Because think about like, Mituche, I still, I've watched Matush Gamrod Aramon, Surukia on a bunch of times. I continue to watch that fight. Still, still to this day, even after 30 watches, and I talk about this all the time, I still think Syrukeon won that fight.

Not a robbery. I'm not going to be mad at you. I still think that's one of the best fights of the year. That's going to be in my top three for damn sure. But Gamrod is a minus 180 favorite against Medile Darryusha guy that a lot of people felt should have got the title shot over Makachev. Kind of surprising. Kind of surprising. There's a lot of like kind of surprising lines here.

What else are we looking at? Like Man in Fioro is almost a two to one favorite against Caitlin Chukagian, which is really shocking. I'm not saying Fioro shouldn't be favored, but she's a massive favorite. And I feel like Chikagan's going to win that. fight. Because as Jedmishu likes to say, death taxes Chukagin by decision, I just, I don't know.

It's just very strange. Sterling's the favorite. Yons minus 305. The card's great. I'm excited for it. And so I've been kind of teasing something. It's still not done yet, by the way. Still not done. We are working on something

for UFC 280. working on something for UFC 280. Hold on a second. And if it happens, I'll say about it is, if it happens, it's going to be awesome. And I would say we're first in goal

at the seven-yard line with it happening. So stay tuned. Hopefully I will hear sometime this week that this deal is closed and that we're going to make this happen because it's going to be friggin awesome.

And I am just excited even thinking about it. So stay tuned for that. We will have Jose Youngs will be there in Abu Dhabi. So that's great. So we'll have somebody on site, but I'm talking about something for that card, on the day of that card that we haven't really done before. And we're going to try to do it this time, hopefully.

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corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross-Training Treadplus at OnePeloton.ca. We'll take a few more. Let's go to Chafan.

You're breaking up, Chafan. Are you there? Yeah, hi, Mike. A first time. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Good.

So I have three questions, Mike. So first one goes to Peotreyanan and Sugar Sean. So this match kind of, I feel, is where sugar gets exposed. From where he is now, I feel he was built up through his clash talking abilities. And obviously, UFC pushing it to get some promos out of him. That's number one. So I want your take on Peotrean and Sugar, and I feel sugar is going to get exposed. And second one, where does Hamzat stands now?

Meaning, do you think Usman should get a title shot or Hamzat should take a title shot? Or should it be Korby fighting Hamzat? And the third one, what's your call on Islam and Dubranks? Because like just a little while ago you said he's the underdog. It's surprising where Dubrox is the underdog. And like he's one of the greatest lightweights available right now. I would say Dubrons is good, but

one of the greatest is questionable. What's your call on that? Great questions. Jan O'Malley, I honestly feel like this is a closer fight than a lot of people give it credit for. Like, I think Jan's going to win. My pick will probably be for Peodor Young, but like I said, if

Shauna Malli comes out, shot out like a cannon and just puts the boots to Peodor Yan right out the gate, he ain't going to like that too much. much. So I just think O'Malley's range, she's just going to fight a smart fight. And it's a three-rounder. It's a three-rounder. We haven't seen Yon in the three-round fight in a while. He does super good with five-round fights because it takes him a little while to get cooking. And O'Malley can just come out and blast you right off the bat. So maybe that's the case. Maybe Sean does come out and

maybe Sean does get exposed in this fight. I actually think it's going to be closer. I think it's a fight where Sean Stock is not going to drop that much. I don't think he's going to win, but I think he's going to have moments in the fight, and I think he's going to be a little more competitive than a lot of people think he's going to be. Shemayev, he's got to fight Colby. He's not going to jump Oosman. That's not going to happen.

He missed weight by seven and a half pounds. No way he's getting a title shot next. So go fight Colby. That's the fight. And if that doesn't happen, go fight Paul Cost in Brazil. Just it's a fun fight. be a big deal. That card might need something like that. And I'm down for that too. But yeah, definitely not getting a title shot. And then it's still hard to pick Olivera Makachev

for being honest. I'm leaning. I've been leaning Olivera since Jump Street. I probably still am. And it's mostly because any, I've doubted Olivera a couple times. I've stopped doubting him. I've stopped doubting him before the Dustin Porre fight. I certainly have not doubted him after the Justin Gachie fight. I'm leaning all of air until he loses. I'm going with the Rick Flair mentality. To be the man, you got to beat the man. And if Mokachip beats the man, then my hat goes off to him.

But until I see somebody go out and beat him, I'm picking him. It's not just against Mokachev. It's against pretty much anybody. I am so fascinated by this fight. I really am. I was really fascinated for Yerie Glover. I was really fascinated. Mostly because when Glover won the belts, I said he's going to fight Yuri

and he's going to take him down and submit him in the first round. And I was so close to that happening. And then somehow Yeri survived. And then Yeri hurt Glover multiple times and couldn't get him out of there. And then Glover took his back late in the fight and couldn't get him out of there. And then the fifth round, everybody got moments. And then somehow Yeri submitted Glover Tashira in the fifth round with less than a minute to go. and it was just insane.

Just nuts. But golly, Oliver Mockachev is really interesting. I talked to Justin Gagee about that fight. That interview is actually going to drop tomorrow, 9 a.m. Eastern, by the way. I try to jam it as many things as I could. I only had like 13 minutes of them,

but we got a lot in. I got his thoughts about that fight. And he feels like, he doesn't have an official pick, but he feels like he has sort of a pick, but it's not like an official. I think this guy's going to win. It's more like probably this is going to happen.

So let's go to Terrence. How are you, man? Thank you. I was calling asking you, asking, I don't know, I came in like 30 minutes late. I don't know if anybody already talked about this or if you already talked about it. But the whole one card over the weekend,

with the leaf fight. So everything, of course, I know is, like, just as a whole. And usually it's pretty easy to determine who's, like, the winner or what have you. But in situations, like, where rounds two through five were kind of, like, toss-ups,

the one round, the first round or whatever, when she almost got finished. So, like, basically my question is, and let me turn is somebody, like, make, like, some kind of big impact in the beginning of the fight. It's the fight pretty much over

when the card is, like, judged as a whole. like where's the transparency with like how to fight is judged like what they favor more and things of that nature unlike the five point must or not five was it the 10 point must or rather you really don't know so I don't know I don't know if anybody else knows I don't know if you know I want to know what your thoughts on that and then the other thing I want to talk about is what he was talking about earlier when it came to like cheating things I know we talk about you all the time but I want to talk about the enjoyability of watching fights whenever people are cheating.

It's almost like watching football or like basketball, something like that one's like a favorite file or something and it's not getting called. Like for the viewer, like do you think anyone cares or is it just me like it's just like way less enjoyable? Like when you're seeing like a fighter you know would have won or like a position would have been called in any other sport and it's not being called at all. so are they losing with your own i can't speak today are they losing viewers are do they not care that's it thanks man yeah the one thing i mean i don't know a ton about the one scoring like how they come to that like i know we're not going to get judges coming out and like trying to explain their scores and stuff uh just like referees don't come out and talk about different things that work for one because with the whole eddie alvarez thing with the uh

the old contest and everything. I try to get the guy who refereed that fight to give a comment and he wasn't allowed to. So I don't know. I just, I mean, it's probably what it is. You have a big moment. You have to try to get one back. But, yeah, it's just, it was a great fight. I'm cool with Lee not getting the decision.

Like, if this is at the apex, she might have got it. But I don't know. It was a great fight. The card was good. and just the cheating thing like it's kind of hard to compare the other sports because they're so fast-paced and there's so many people on the court

and on the field but in football like there's no oh I didn't mean to hold them I didn't mean to block them from behind I didn't mean to grab his face mask it's a fucking 15 yard penalty

every single time so but at MMA like in MAA you get two guys in there the referee is basically looking on like Ace Ventura in the dolphin tank

when he's trying to figure out who stole a stole flake he's got the eyes in there he's looking right at it Randy Brown grabs the fence and the referee just slaps the hand off just slaps his hand away

like you're looking right at it you know what's happening and you slap his hand away it does nothing it does nothing all it says is I see you but I'm not going to do anything about it and I understand

I understand like, like playoff basketball, playoff hockey, sometimes in like playoff football, the referees will come together and be like, look, the AFC championship game. It's the Eastern Conference Vitals game seven. We're going to let these guys play a little bit. You know, if there's something like, if there's something we have to question if it's something that we're on the fence with, we're just going to veer to the side of we're not calling it. unless it's like super egregious. And that's fine.

Like if the, like if there's a fence grab in Charles Oliver versus is on Macha Chess, and they want to like one slap it or whatever, like that's fine. But Randy Brown versus Francisco Trinaldo, like call something. I don't know. It just drives me nuts.

But again, until that changes, every coach should have like 10 minutes after practice where you're grabbing. of the fed you're doing fence grabbing practice defensive wrestling i mean you get you get two or three of them you get two or three of them there should be fence grabbing practice at every single gym around the world like the final five minutes of pro practice because they cheat and they're not calling it we say cheating but it's if it's not called then it's not cheating i don't know it's so stupid tries you crazy, and I've just learned to accept it at this point.

Let's go to Zeke. Mike, good morning. How are we? Good. Can you hear me? We're good right now? Love it. All right. So as a degenerate, I'll be completely honest. I had money on Francisco Trinnello, though. And when that situation occurred, I knew I was screwed because Randy Brown could just sit back in that round and steal it. And I don't think you can really do anything about the cheating because, Mike, you guys, you know, You go on and on about it, and it's great because they're fighting.

It's combat sports. And in any itch of the moment, you're just going to react. And when no nonsense, Dean Peterson is Keith Peterson, it's a dean, oh my God, is in that octagon. He's putting up with nonsense. You know what I mean? Like that fence grab is egregious to the point where it honestly caused Francisco that fight. But what's the difference? You know what I mean?

Like, it's not life-changing, altering, career-altering for Francisco. You know what I mean? He's 44 years old. We still respect the shit out of him. My question to you is, what did you think about that decision? And then secondly, I mean,

there's a lot of stuff going on right now. I don't know how true it is with Hamzaa Timaev and this passport. Any comments on that? Or do you just kind of want to wait and see how it all unfolds? Thank you, Mike. Have a heck of a morning.

Yeah, first I heard about any passport things with Hamzatz, but I'll look into it. But, yeah, I've heard nothing of the sword. And, I mean, he was able to get to Vegas for all that chaos last month. So I think if he has something on the books and he'll be able to get where he needs to go, probably. But we'll see. I actually heard nothing about it. And I mean, listen, the fence grab, who knows if that would have made the difference.

or not, but still, it's just, we're just allowing it to happen. We're just allowing it to happen. And Keith Peterson is accepting all the nonsense this year. All of it. That's cool. I love John Anick. Because John's right. I'll get to you Absolu in a minute.

But John Annick's right. Pull out your testicles and make a call. All the referees don't want to make a call. They've all, like, Herb Dean has gone on record saying, well, when it comes to a fence grab in the 10-point must system, We don't want to cost these people to fight. Like, you take a point away, you're giving the fight away. That's so, like, what are you talking about?

What the hell are you talking about? So you're just inviting people to cheat because, well, the referees don't want to, it's the well-being, it's the livelihood of the fighters. And I get where you're coming from. But the guy who's grabbing the fence, it works out great. But the guy who's not grabbing the fence, he gets screwed because you didn't take a point away. or you didn't switch it to an advantageous spot for the guy who didn't cheat. So I hate that.

Like, I hate that explanation. It just doesn't make any sense. Well, if we took a point away for the fence grab, then that guy's definitely going to lose the fight. Okay. Well,

what about the guy who's about to land a takedown to steal the round? Did you think about him at all? That's the thing. The reasoning is stupid. If you're not going to call it, just make it legal. Like, if you just,

if you're not going to ever call it, it just make it leave you all right absalaya you're up hey so i'm what's going on um so i have two questions to ask the first one is about drink his duplicates i just want to ask you do you see him being a future contender or he could just be the next let's say derrick brunsson and jack commands and just a gatekeeper who wins a few fights and loses and and to add on to that regarding how he seen his fight with darren till play out And my second question is, is there a possibility if Charles Oliver wins at 280? He might fight soon at 283 in the Brazil card.

That's all I have to ask. Have a good day. Hmm. I'll address the first question. I think DDP is definitely going to be a player. The thing about DDP that I think is so interesting is that he has, just done so well. I just want to pull up his page real quick.

Let's see. He's 28. I just want to see how old he. He's 28 years old. He has all these accolades. Champion in KSW. The guy is legit. He's got a win over Roberto Soldeach for God's sakes.

This guy is super legit. And he's on top of that, he's a lot of fun to watch. This dude does not mess around. He goes in there. and tries to finish at all times. He is a pleasure to watch. And even at 28 years of age, and even with all the titles,

and even with, you know, the K-1 kickboxing background and everything else, this guy is not as good as he's going to be. He's only going to get better. He's still a little green right now, even with 19 pro fights. He's just pure chaos. Now, we saw it toned down slightly

in the Brod-Tavar's fight because I asked him about being such a chaos. fighter and he felt like, well, I feel like I've, I've toned that down a little bit. It didn't seem like you did, but that's cool. I think he's going to beat Darren's Hill. It all depends on what is game plan. If he goes out there and mixes the martial arts per se, I think he wins easily. If he wrestles a little bit, I think he wins easily.

If he wants to turn it into a stand-up kickboxing match, I think he wins that as well. the margin of error grows because Darren Till can still crack you. Ask Robert Whitaker. You cracked Robert Whitaker. And if you can crack Robert Whitaker, you can crack DDP. So,

DDP takes this thing to the ground, mixes things up, mixes some takedons. I think he beats Dantil pretty lopsided. But if DDP just says, hey, I'm just going to go in there

and have some fun and give a good invite to the fans, Daryntil's good shot. But I just, feel like DDP's going to win that fight. All right, take three more. We got Caleb the Am and

in cryptocurrency. But we'll start with with Caleb. Caleb, hello. Life is reading to pal. Morning, Mike. How's it going? What's up, ma'am? A long time listener, first time speaker.

I just wanted to get your thoughts on who you think the powerhouse gyms are around the States and around the world. Wow. I mean, shoot the box is great. ATT is great. AKA is great. I mean, there's so many.

Extreme Coutre I'm very high on. I think Eric Nixick's a friggin' ridiculously talented coach. I obviously favor the, I like the New England cartel guys. They're small, but I like what they're doing over there. I mean, you can make a case for a lot of these different gyms. I think Kilcliffe FC. formerly Sanford M.A. Formerly Hard Knocks 365.

Great gym. I mean, there's so many. There's so many great gyms out there. But most people will just look at even if Gloria MMA is another one. I mean, there's so many great gyms. But I think people look at ATT. They look at the Florida gyms.

They obviously look at AKA because of all the champions they've gotten out of there. And now a lot of those champions have become coaches and there's just there's so many but shoot the box is great there's there's a ton there's a ton of great gyms uh syndicates great i mean all these gyms with massive teams they're they're massive for a reason let's go to the a m hello the a hi mike good morning good morning okay so uh chandler said a win against paris should be enough for him to fight for the title again while we have uh der u shang who are fighting on the 280 card and who have been on a long win streak.

I think Gamrod only has one lost his whole career. Who do you think should fight for the, should be the title contender in the 155? And who should, not only who should, but who do you think will actually fight for the title next? my second I have another question you talked about Paddy Pimplett what do you think what's your thoughts on him

versus Ottoman Zaita and have a good day I mean I'm okay with that one too I'm okay with that one but again we have to figure out what we're doing here what are we doing with Patty Pimplettling are we just getting him over letting the crowd react to him

let him get wins If that's what you're going to do, I'm totally okay with that. Like, I'm totally okay with that. 100%. If we're just going to squash match, Patty Pimbleau, we're going to do WWF superstar style. I'm fine with that. I'm fine.

Get him in London and just let him win. Let him get finishes. I'm fine with that. But if we're going to play this, let's build this guy up to be a contender thing, he's got to fight legit dudes. If we want to fight Ottman, I'm fine. It's not by first choice.

but I'm okay with that. He wants to fight. I love the Mike Davis idea. Those are the fights he's got to fight. But you have to make a decision. You can't have it both ways. The first question is almost impossible to answer right now. It's really difficult.

Because, I mean, it really does all depend on who wins October 22nd. If Islam Makachev wins and Matush Gamra wins, and Michael Chandler beats Dussuporier, they're going to do Machachev versus Chandler. That's what they're going to do. It's very tough with

who do you think should and who do you think could? Because unfortunately for Daryush and Gamrod, they're not big draws. Chandler is a draw right now. People care about Michael Chandler. He's a presence.

Michael Chandler versus Islam Machachev for the title is going to do better on pay-per-view than Islam-Machachev versus Benil Daryush or Isl Mokachev versus Batoch-Gamr. That's just the way that it is. It's just the way it is.

Now, if Charles wins and Chandler wins, I don't think they're going to run that one back right away. I don't. I think Conner's in play. I think Daryush could be in play. Gamrock could be in play. Who knows? I know someone asked earlier if we think,

if I think, I think O'Over will fight at 283. If he beats Mokachev, I don't know. It depends on the opponent. It's tough. I know he wants that Connor fight. And I think Conner's, I think, I think Conner's in play. I have no, like, actual insight to this, but of course, Conner's in play.

Charles beats Islam. I mean, what else does this man have to do? If he wants to get that red panty night, get him the damn red panty night. And let him fight Connor. It's got to do blockbuster numbers. It's going to do gigantic numbers. It's going to do 1.4 million pay-per-view buys. And Oliver will probably run his ass over.

And that's a good win for Oliver. It gets paid and gets a win and then go back to slaying these 55 dragons that are on the come-up right now. And there's a lot of them. but a lot of those guys still got a little bit of work to do but there are a lot of guys that are right there it's just so interesting like a lot of these questions you just can't answer because you don't know what's going to happen we don't know timelines of these other guys and October 23rd I think we'll have a little more of a clear picture

but then we still have to wait for 281 to happen before we can have any other answers so all right crypto take us home can you hear me yes yeah so first of all what is this cheating you speak of. I mean, you've been talking about this cheating the entire episode. I saw no cheating this weekend. There was no point deduction. There's no consequences. But what I did see, Mike, was a robbery. And that was actually, I mean, this was really crazy because you're telling me that a guy that performs the perfect fence grab, which changes the trajectory of the fight, does not deserve a bonus. I mean, Randy Brown, he was amazing. He just performed that absolutely

beautifully. So there was no cheating going on, but Randy actually got robbed, to be honest with you. We need to call it as it is, because it's getting so annoying. I mean, this is just so ridiculous. So let's not call it cheating. Let's give the man his bonus. Secondly, Mike, and I'm amazed that no one brought this up, but how to hell did the UFC not promote the Latifio-Laynik fight as like the real DMF title?

I mean, come on, do you realize the numbers that fight would have done if people knew and one guy has an infectious disease that could potentially kill his opponent. And I actually look this up, Mike. So staff infection has a 20 to 25% mortality rate. That's crazy. Think about it. I mean, they could have promoted it completely differently.

I mean, you can see the guys entering the apex being introduced, facing off, and you know that Elenik is literally just not, I mean, not just facing Latifi, but also this deadly disease. I mean, that would have been a hundred times more. interesting. You would have got, I mean, I would have watched that entire fight with just pure intensity. So, Mike, I mean, this means that we have now solved the main event for 282. Let's do a real BMF fight where we put a guy with staff infection against someone with Ebola, for example. That would be fired because evidently no one cares anymore about any form of precautions. So let's

have some fun and live a little. And the best thing, Mike, is that it does not matter who the fibers are. As long as one has Ebola, one has a staff infection, we are good to go, and the pay-per-views will be crazy. So I solved it. You're welcome the UFC. Yeah, just a final comment also because this, I mean, this really grinds my gears about this whole Mark Zuckerberg situation. And I saw the tweet from Reid Harris. And Reed Harris, for anyone that doesn't know who that guy is, is a UFC executive. And he has written, it's almost like a beautiful love letter in the form of a tweet, where he praises the Facebook team and thanks them so much for attending the event and watching the fights.

I mean, that's just so sweet of him. I mean, such an amazing guy. But Mike, wait, there is actually more. And I want you to listen to this phrase. He actually says that based on the questions that the Facebook people were asking during the event, the team inside the apex must be practicing MMA. So, oh, I mean, we're sorry. I mean, that is, I mean, personally,

the first thing I think of when I hear the word Facebook. It's top athletic performance, arm bars and tough guys. So, I mean, this is just so ridiculous. But thank you, Reid, for clarifying this. I mean, these were actually athletes attending the event, not spoiled billionaires. Yeah, I mean, Mike, look at Mark. He wore a T-shirt at the event. He's such a down-to-earth guy. I mean, what amazing guy. I also wear a T-shirt. We're basically the same guy. So freaking cute. So yeah, Mike, I mean, this is just so ridiculous. I'm not going to continue this rant,

but I just want your take on this how the UFC executives and the people at the UFC have been handling the questions regarding this Facebook attendance. Thank you, Mike. Well, I mean, the UFC is doing probably what they should be doing. You just got to lean into it. Everyone thinks it's like either people don't care that they think it's the dumbest thing in the world

that that all happens. So you might as well just lean into the chaos and that's what they're doing. Leaning into it. That's what they should do. Oh, what are they supposed to say? Oh, you know what? We regret inviting Zuckerberg out to this card.

We should have left the fans in after all. No, you're going to lean into it? Wow. See? What happens? I sat on my keys and the old explorer just started beeping like crazy. So I won't do that again.

Dog left the bed. He's all freaked out. Yeah. I don't know. Your other ideas are fantastic, but listen, hopefully this doesn't happen again. And by the way,

Zuckerberg picked, like the fact that Zuckerberg out of all the cards he could have chose, he chose that one, is the best. That's the best thing in the world. So there you go. We do have some breaking.

news before you get out of here. Not shocking news, but breaking news. The PFL has made another signing. We have confirmed this as well. A report from ESPN, the broadcast partner of the Professional Fighters League. Aspen Ladd has signed with

the PFL. There you go. Aspen Lad, free agent, no more. She has signed with the PFL. and I don't know what they're going to do. Right now the only female division they have is 55, so she got to fight at 55. But there go.

Aspen Ladd with the PFL. And if she misses weight for lightweight, we have a real problem. All right, we'll take one more, then I've got to go. William, what's up? You there? Yes. I always lose you. Sorry about that.

Real quick, because I know you're trying to get out of here. Bo Nickel, yesterday on Helwani show, and I understand he's building his character, he said that if he gets put on the prelims, he will retire. My question is, because I don't think he's that serious, do you think that's something that he would do? Because through doing some research, it looks like the main card for USC 282 is already filled up. So my question is, how serious do you think he's being about that? And what do you think his reaction will be if he isn't on the main card?

Because as I said, it looks like it's already filled up. Thanks, Mike. Well, I mean, it can't be filled up because there's no frigging main event yet. So it can't be filled up. We don't even know what the main event is. We don't know what the main event is. Nothing is sets. I know if you go to Tapology, maybe they have Per Hashkin to share up there,

but there's no main events. So it's way too soon to figure out how this card is going to be built because the card is still being built. Like yesterday, I reported that Ronnie Lawrence and Cameron Simon are fighting. I mean, that's not going to be a main card fight, but the card's still coming together.

We still don't have a main event yet. For Bo, I don't think he's like, honestly, to me, if Bo's fighting on the early, prelims, I would have an issue with that, but there's no friggin chance that happens. But if you're Bo and you fight on Big ESPN, or maybe it's on ABC as well, are you really going to have a problem with that? More people are going to watch Bo Nickel fight if he's the featured prelim of

UFC 282 than actually on the main card. It's true. By a lot. So I don't know if he understands what the prelims are. I don't know if he means like the early early prelims or if he means the ESPN prelims. I don't know. He's probably just talking curtain jerker, but he'll end up on this main card. I'll probably open it up and yeah. But it's too soon to even figure out what the main card's going to look like. So you don't have a main event yet. We don't know what the rest of the car's going to look like either. So, yeah. There you go.

All right, I got to go. We'll be, oh, by the way, I forgot to mention this. There is no MMA hour tomorrow. There's no MMA hour tomorrow. It's a sad day. There'll be no MMA hour until next Wednesday. But don't you worry, my friends. We're coming back tomorrow here on the M.A.

fighting Twitter spaces to make up for it. And not only that, we're going to be back. Monday as well. So even though there's no MMA hour, we're going to have a heck of a mornings for both days that Halwani is off. So we're going to try to give you something. All right? So we'll be back tomorrow, 10 a.m. Eastern. We'll be back Thursday, 10 a.m. Eastern. We'll be here Friday, 10 a.m. Eastern. And we'll be here Monday, 10 a.m. Eastern. So get ready. You're going to be here at my voice an awful lot. And that's it. So thank you very much. and Gagey interview drops tomorrow 9 a.m. Eastern in the M.A. Fighting YouTube channel.

He had a lot to say about a lot of things. So stay tuned for that. But until that, everybody, have a great rest of the day. And have a heck of a morning. You have a podcast network.