MMA Fighting - HOAM | If UFC 300 the Greatest Card On Paper In UFC History?

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

UFC 300 is less than 10 days away, and it is absolutely stacked from top-to-bottom — from the opening prelim between Deiveson Figueiredo and Cody Garbrandt, all the way to the main event for the light heavyweight title between Alex Pereira and Jamahal Hill. On paper, is UFC 300 the greatest card in UFC history? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck weighs in on that question, and states his case for why the answer is yes. Additionally, listener questions include the Pereira vs. Hill title fight, where Garbrandt would go in the bantamweight division if he defeats Figueiredo, Thursday's PFL San Antonio fight card, Dustin Poirier possibly getting a title shot at 155 pounds against Islam Makhachev, Frank Mir discussing his UFC 100 fighter pay, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I am Mike Kat. I hope you're all having a wonderful week. We are on the road, everybody, to UFC 300. We're nine days away from UFC 300. We have one more stop at the world's most famous apex coming up on Saturday. Pretty decent offering for a world's most famous apex card. Of course, the main event, the rematch between Brennan Allen and Chris Kruy. Curtis, but look, we're all focused on 300. That's what we're ready for. That's what we're excited for. It's all about 300. And I am excited for 300. It's been a really interesting week.

Not a ton of big news to talk about. Last week was way cooler because we got the Saudi Arabia announcements. We got the Hamzaa Chbayyaf, Robert Whitaker announcement. So we had some things to react to. Today, not so much, but that's why you guys are here. You're You're going to let us know what the hell we're going to talk about. And Riley is going to set that table right now. Riley, good morning. We're to UFC 300, but to pass the time, we got PFL today. I was just looking at the card in.

Honestly, I mean, we got a lot of UFC vets. We got Talia Santos, Blagoet, Ivanov. It just looks like a solid card overall. I feel like a lot of the time, PFL is putting together iffy cards, at least if it's PFL Europe, but this isn't. But I wanted to ask you, what do you think of the PFL card today? And what would you rate higher the UFC Apex card this Saturday or the PFL card today? Thanks, Mike.

Have a heck of a morning. Let's look at it. It's heavyweights and women's fly weights. There's a couple like featured bouts, Bryce Meredith, Ty Johnson, Lucas Brennan, is fighting Dimitri Ivy. Like, look, this is very bellatory. We know exactly what's going to happen here. These are two guys who are going to cruise and get some easy victories.

That's just the way the cookie crumbles. Yeah, I mean, there are some names. Kana Watanabe, Shanna Young, Steve Maori, Oleg Popoff, Tyler Santos making her debut on the prelims, by the way. Why, I don't know. She's one of the five best fly weights in the world. Why is she on the prelims? I don't understand.

Yes, Blagoi Ivanov is in there. Marcelo Golm, Daniel James. Didn't we... Wait. Didn't we see this fight already? Didn't we just see this? We literally just saw this. Less than a year...

Like a little over a year ago. Okay. I didn't even know this fight was on the card. Dakota Ditch... Ditch... versus Lisa Maldon. I actually think that's going to be a pretty good fight. Lisa Malden is pretty good.

Very solid. Tough as hell. We're getting anti-Delijah versus Valentin Moldovsky, sure. Dennis Goldsov versus Linton Vassel. And then we're getting Liz Karmouche versus Juliana Velasquez for no reason at all. Like, why are we getting this fight right now?

I don't understand. Why is it being positioned as this trilogy fight that the world has been clamoring for, because that's how they're promoting it. I just, I don't understand it. Some of the matchmaking here. I understand what this event is about.

I think getting Dakota over is going to be a very big thing, make her seem like a threat. But if we're going to throw Liz Carmouch in there with a Giuliana of Alaska's, why not just throw Liz Carmuchin there were Tyler Santos right now? What are we waiting for? If we're going to book this fight,

why not just throw Tyler Santos in there? I don't know. Which card do I prefer? Like if I had to sit down and watch one of these cards, it's the UFC's by a mile. It's not even close. The UFC is just going to be way more action. Yeah, there's some interesting fights on the card.

There's a lot of heavyweight fights on this card. And yes, they could go very quickly, but they could also go, like this could also this could be a very sloggy card here's another big reason why i'm picking the ufc card the ufc card is going to be full of action uh almost guaranteed and the other thing it's a 3 p m prelim and a 6 p m main card this card is a 10 p m main card and you know what that means when you have the pfl involved doing an esPN plus event it's going to be a long one.

This card will probably doesn't end until 1.30 a.m. Eastern time. That's tough. That's super tough at a Thursday. Hopefully hopefully the pacing issues are fixed. I know it was paced very well

on the PFL versus Bellator card. That was also on pay-per-view. The Bellator Dublin or excuse me, the Bellator Belfast card had pacing issues early, they were able to sort of fix it a little bit as the card progressed. Let's see how PFL handles the pacing for this upcoming season.

This is so important. This is one of the more important things for the PFL this year is they have to fix the pacing. They don't have a lot of star power. They got obviously the broadcast rights. They got some interesting names. Now they get a lot of the Bellator fighters. are all like good things. But if people turn this on

and they're like, all right, let's see what they have, let's see what this looks like. And this is a three-hour main card that's for four fights that are all three-rounders. If this thing ends at 1 a.m. Eastern, it's bad.

If I wait, because I'm probably not going to watch this one live. I got to be honest with America here. I am not going to be watching this live. I'll probably watch some of the prelims. I'll probably catch up a little bit in the morning. I just don't know if I can do this to 1.30 in the morning on a Thursday. Now, this is Friday, a little bit of a different story. But hopefully I wake up and everyone's like, yes, the pacing was great.

Pacing much better. We didn't have to go 30 minutes between fights to get to the next one. So this is a big one for PFL. They need to come out and just cruise this thing along. year. And if they can do that, I think, I think it's a good start. And again, I come from a place of hope. We, we, honestly, we, we, we, we come from a place of need. We need a PFL to be good. We need this to happen. This has to happen. We're rooting for you. Just do the thing. Do the thing. Listen to the fans. They're telling you what they want. They want cards that are.

or paced quick that seems like it's a breeze to watch. That's what we're hoping for. The UFC can get away with poorly paced cards. Look at the Atlantic City card. The pacing on that was awful. It was tough at times. PFL can make a little bit of a move here. PACE it well.

Let's make some moves. Let's get this moving. And I think you got something. We're off to a good start. But it starts with that. It definitely starts to. that it's a fine card if you're watching it i it's fine but uh i will probably watch the main card tomorrow uh four on sniper go ahead right can you hear me yeah i don't know if my audio is good okay

you can hear me right i got you all right okay uh first thing shout out to riley for uh actually informing me that the pfl card was today that's another problem that's another problem yeah i had no clue uh i know i haven't really been paying attention like that but i feel like As closely as I follow the sport, I should have known, but yeah, I mean, even better news is Talia Santos is fighting today. She's one of my favorite fighters. I love watching all her fights, so I'm definitely tuning in for that. Not sure if I'm staying up for the whole thing. Like you said, the pacing is just disgusting.

So I'm probably going to head to bed maybe after like the first fight on the main card or so. But I wanted to ask you real quick, what are your thoughts on this weekend's card? It's a lot of low-key bangers, in my opinion. I think there are a few fights up for fight of the night. If I had to make a prediction now, it's probably going to be Trevor Peak and Charlie Campbell. Those guys are going to go at it. I can't wait for that fight.

And I just wanted your thoughts, Mike. Yeah, it's not bad. It's not bad. Compared to the rest of the apex cards that we've gotten this year, this is one of the better ones. We got a main event with a little bit of a story here. It's a tough fight for Brendan Allen. because he gains literally nothing from this.

He gains another win on the win streak. He gets to exact a little revenge. But in terms of his run to a title shot, this does nothing for him. Absolutely nothing. I don't even think Chris is in the rankings right now. I could be wrong. Maybe he's snuck in at like 14 or 15.

Let me just check real quick. He's 14. Okay. He is ranked. But Brandon Allen's number six right now. So this literally gets him nothing. And like from a matchup and a stylistic perspective, this is a tough fight.

This is a tough fight for Brennan Allen. He is the bigger fighter. But Chris already knows he could finish Brennan. There's some mental warfare to that. And Brennan's bread and butter is grappling. And Chris Curtis has unbelievable take. down defense. Unbelievable defensive wrestling. And Chris has been in there with some of the best grapplers in the sport, some of the best jujitsu players in the sport and didn't get taken down

by any of them. It's very, very difficult to put that man on his back. And if this is a striking battle, if we're going to have a kickboxing match for 25 minutes, I favor Chris Curtis in that fight. So I'm very interested to see how Brennan approaches this. Will Brendan kind of play? I think if you're Brendan Allen, you have to play this a little safer, try to make this a boring fight. I think you try to maybe push Chris Curtis up against the fence and just work there and just use your size advantage there and maybe try to wear on Chris a little bit, but Chris is a really good gas tank and he's really tough to take down. So it is an interesting matchup.

Let me see what the betting odds are in this. I'm very curious. I assume Brennan's the favorite, but I would guess this line's pretty close. and it's actually not as close as I thought it was. Brennan Allen almost minus 200, Chris Curtis plus 164, according to Draft Kings. Yeah,

it's a good fight. I like the Alexander Hernandez, Damon Jackson fight. This one's going one or two ways, my friends, and I think you all know this. Either Alex Hernandez is going to absolutely melt Damon Jackson in the first round,

or Hernandez is going to he's going to gas himself out, and Damon Jackson is going to do Damon Jackson things down the stretch. Morgan Cherry, Chepé Mariscal rules. That fight's going to be incredible. Ignacio Bahamaandes is fighting a guy who's going to be willing to play the game with him,

so that should be fun in Christos Gagos. Walter Walker making his debut, but there is a real chance this fight is going to be a tough one to watch. Walter Walker is not, Johnny, he's gone to a lot of decisions and has not fought, let's be honest, great competition. Trevor Peak, Charlie Campbell is going to be great. Jermaine de Randemey coming back for the first time in a long time against Norma Dumont. The way in tomorrow is going to be real interesting for Norma.

Marona Cort McGee. Cynthia Calvio fighting for her job, maybe her whole career, to some degree against Pierre Rodriguez. I don't know if you guys have followed Cynthia Calvio on Instagram. She is in tremendous shape. She has worked very hard. So I'm really looking forward to that. Cynthia Calvia at underdog odds right.

now plus 110. I know you're going to ask me tomorrow. That's something I would probably look at. Then we got Argeta and Matsumoto. We got Caesar Al-Meda making his debut against Dylan Budka. And then women's band-em-weights, ranked women's band-em-weight fight. Nora Konoli versus Melissa Mullins. So, yeah, I think this is going to be a fun watch.

And like I said earlier, 3 p.m. prelims, 6 p.m. main card. this is what every apex card should be. Every single apex card should be at these times. Every single one. Let's go to Lefley. Viking, I see you. We're going in order, my friend. We'll get to you.

We'll get to you. Left lane, go ahead. Can you hear me, Mike? Yes, sir. I actually straight up didn't even know what I was going to talk about, but I always just jump on the thing. So I guess I'll just go on the fly. UFC 302,

think the kind of general consensus is that it's going to be probably Porreya versus Makachev, but I assume they'll probably wait until 300 is over, or maybe even until, like, Gaichi Holloway is over or something like that, and then, like, we, like, imagine Gaichi Holloway, like, actually, that's kind of dog, if Gaichi Holloway just finishes, and they have a war, and then they'd be like, and then we all kind of know that they can't turn around, so then they just go immediately. And so guys, here you go. Porre of Smokicchiev's on 302. But I think they're probably going to wait until that's over just to, like, just in case, because if Oliver or Armand just ice the other one in like a round, which I think is possible for either guy, so that

could be something. But I do think that even if we see that, we just get Porre, do you think he's like over enough to jump in that spot? Or do you think that he could get that get his sort of lucky break taken away if one of the 300 guys comes away unscathed. Another thing I realized is 300 has four or like three and a half I guess, but four fighters or four fights, sorry, featuring top 15 lightweights. So it's good to see the lightweight division moving again. Hopefully we can get some like clarity posts like that post 300 because obviously Miller versus Green,

Oricano versus Turner, Gachi Holloway and Oliver Armond. So hopefully we can get some good, clear outcomes with no flukiness and no like messy stuff going on to muddy the waters, I guess, and that would be pretty cool. Because I want to see another brief thing is like,

I think he'll be so sick of Jim Miller wins. And I actually think he has a pretty good chance just because Bobby Green, I'm not sure how good the chin's going to be coming back. But I'll save the in-depth 300 talk for next week. overall if Jim Miller wins how crazy is it to think he's a ranked lightweight if Jim Miller wins at 39 or 40 years old however old he is after being around for so long he was in the rankings obviously earlier in his career and then to go back

out and to come back into the rankings that'd be a pretty cool look so hope he gets it done and also what do you think about 302 pourier chances of a title shot and all that stuff see him like yeah it'd be pretty cool to see Jim Miller ranked unfortunately when that happens, the road from there is going to be a tough one because this is the best division in the sport. And once you get into those rankings, it's just nothing but killers, man.

I mean, just the Bobby, Bobby Green is still a good fighter, but he ain't fighting Bobby Green anymore. Like he's fighting Benoit Santanyi and Raphael Fiziv and all these just up-and-coming savages. He's fighting Jalen Turner or Hanata Wicano. Like the road gets much more difficult, but Jim doesn't care. And that's why everybody

likes him so much. Porre, I think he's going to get it. Honestly, I think he's got to get it. I think Dustin Porriere through the first four months of 2024 is the fighter of the year. And not just because of what he did against Ben Lozantanee, but everything he has done this year, just everything he's done from essentially the public negotiation to get the Sontani fight, getting more money, and putting himself in this position the way that he has. Everything he has done this year has been fantastic. What Joaquin Buckley has done, Dustin Porey has done the exact opposite of what Joaquin Buckley is done.

And look at him. He's about to fight freaking Islam Makachov. I don't think they're going to wait to see out 300 plays. out. I just think they're going to book this fight. Because you're playing a very risky game. Because 302 is going to be, what, six weeks, seven weeks after, it's June 1st. So six weeks after 300. You're talking long training camps. Gachie Holloway, they're just going to beat the shit out of each other for probably three or four or five rounds. Seruki and Olivaire, I think, is going to end quickly,

but it's going to end viciously, and hard camps for both guys, asking them to turn around that quick. I think this actually works out pretty good if we can pull it off. Just think about it this way. You get, it's a little mini tournament. Poria gets the shot.

He jumped out, got the head start, just gave it to him. That's a big fight for Newark. just make sure it's a good co-main event behind it. Like I said earlier, Sean Strickland versus Paul Acosta would be a damn good co-main event for that card. You can make it a five-rounder. Sets the tone for Robert Whitaker and Hamzaa Chameyv

a few weeks after that. And then regardless of what happens with Holloway and Gachi in Sarukian and Olivera, just run the winners together, depending on how it all pans out. But we'll see. We'll see. but I kind of think Pori is going to get it.

Mokachev's kind of controls this right now. He wants to fight in June. If Connor's fighting Chandler, his own main fighting at International Fight Week should not happen. She's not fighting on the same card as Connor McGregor.

So, yeah, if I had a bet, and I have no insight to this at all, I have no insider information. I think Pori is going to get his shot. And what a story would be. It's his last,

It's literally his last chance to fight for the belt. And what if he goes out there and beats freaking Islam Makachov? Holy shit. I don't, I would not pick him to do so. But yeah, I think Pori is going to get it. Defenders and cybersecurity are always there when we need them. They should get a parade every time they block a novel threat and have streets, sandwiches, and babies named in their honor.

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Go ahead, I'm Zalaya. So, Mike, here good morning. It's been a week. I just have three questions. Firstly, with everything that surrounded Manil Cups, you know, situation yet again, not fighting near Nicolao for, you know, a second time at our schedule, where do you see him and his entire career going on from here? Because, in my opinion, he's in a bit of a bad spot,

but I also think he could still get some good opportunities. so I'm really curious to know what your thoughts are. Another question I have is, I'm not sure you play the UFC 5 game or you never checked it out, but recently, you know, I'm sure you saw the news. They just revealed 30 plus new fighters

that come to the game. I'm really excited. I mean, Dengal, we finally have guys like Jeff Neal, Tracy Cortez, you know, Mario Bautista, plenty of other, you know, phenomenal fighters. You know, I, if as much as, I think it's fun to play those games.

I wish the striking was better because God damn, Michelle Pahara, he would be the most exciting guy to play in that entire game. You know, he's like a mortal combat, second level kind of, you know, specialty to use in my opinion. And one more question is about Cody Garberon. If he was to beat Figy next week in very spectacular fashion, maybe say a first-round knockout, what should be next for him? Should he fight down the ranks like someone may be?

Maybe rank number 10, 11, or should he look to try and fight up, like maybe Peoria Yan, you know, Chirovira, maybe Corey Sintaghan. What do you have thoughts on that? That's all I have. Have a great day. I don't think it's going to be Corey because I think Corey's going to fight Omar. Maybe. Jan is tough because he's going to be out for a while with the injuries he has. So unfortunately, Jan is out of the picture.

Because I would say Figgie Garbrandt winner should be fighting Peoria. Like I think that's coming out of $2.99, that's the way I kind of viewed it. But unfortunately, that is not the case here. So, yeah, maybe they're fighting for the Cheeto fight. I think Cheeto is a big name, and both of those are fun. Both of those are fun. Video game stuff, not really my jam. The only time I ever play the video games is when we're,

doing the watch parties and GC brings the Xbox in, that's literally the only time you will see me playing a video game of any kind, unless it's like at an arcade with my kid playing a game with them. But yeah, that's pretty much the extent of it.

If the fighters are happy to be in the game, then good for them. I assume they're not getting a piece of any of it. But, you know what? If they're happy, I'm happy. What can I say? And I'll cop

Yeah, it's tough This is an injury I'm told it was a kind of It was a rough one One Viking stop, dude I got you, I got you Relax, relax buddy

Let me answer the questions And I'll get you in here Now you threw me off Viking You threw me off My train of thought with all of your emojis. It's going to be a new rule. No more emojis while you're waiting in line trying to jump everybody.

But on a serious note, yeah, this is a nasty rib injury, one that they tried to fight through. And I was told by somebody, I kind of broke this during the UFC 200 watch party we did on Tuesday. But yeah, it was a rib injury. And it was something that actually, from what I was told, from somebody who would absolutely know, the injury was bad enough that Cop had to be hospitalized for a couple of days. So this is a tough one. And I think Cop probably learned from what happens the last time that he tried to fight Nicolao,

what he's hurt, rather than battle through the injury. and miss weight and then risk the fight falling apart and him just getting destroyed for it, just pull out of the fight, man. Like, just don't fight. Don't put yourself in that position. So, yeah, this probably slows his title hopes down a little bit. Probably has to get another extra win.

He's probably going to have to fight, man. Tattoo Retire is fighting Tim Elliott next. He's probably going to get the winner of that. Tatur and Tyver Spinelle Capp is fun as hell. And even Tim Elliott is fun as hell. So he's going to have to take a step back. And then he's probably going to have to fight a Brandon Royval or something like that. He's going to have to win two fights before he's back in the title conversation.

So not great, but yeah, he was, he's hurt. He's hurting for certain. All right, Viking. Bring the thunder, my man. You've been going crazy here. Bring the thunder. What are you got? Me?

I do this stuff all the time, but you never complain. I told you to just chill out. I kept doing it. And let me tell you, I have noticed that I have noticed in the last page as well that you are being annoyed for no reason. What's wrong with you, might? What's wrong? What happened? Nothing.

You think you could just jump off everybody. I have never seen you like this. So if you are in trouble, just tell me right now. because you are a good man. I'm not in trouble, man. Just stop trying to jump the line. That's all I'm saying. I said, just chill out.

I was going to get to you. That's it. I were not doing that for to jump the line, okay? So my brother just sent me a picture of M.A. fighting in which Frank Meir was saying about Tyson Fury and Deonti Wilder that they have made $40 million in one fight and they couldn't, Frank Meade and Brocklevener,

they couldn't make that kind of that much money. Brock, maybe, he said that Brock made maybe $2 million. So what's the problem with the boxing and M.A? I'm 100% sure that Brock Lesnar and Frank Mears, they have sold more paper than Tyson Fury and Deontewilder. So how they made $40 million and Frank Me and Brock listener couldn't. Is that UFC's fault or sponsors? Thanks a lot.

And be happy always. I'm struggling but fighting. Thanks a lot, Mike. You are the man. Thanks, buddy. No struggles here. But come on. You know, I'm going to get to you, my man.

You're a fixture. I'll get to you. I'm trying to get some numbers here. It did about a million. Actually, there's a bunch of fights. Hold on. The third fight did a million. I'm talking Fury Deante.

Second fight did $1.2 million. And let's see what the first one did. Just to put it in a context. If I was watching illegally online by nearly 10, billion viewers. Let's see. It did about 800,000 in the first fight. But look, guys, this is the thing. Boxing has their own model. There's a different way of looking at things. They have the Ali Act where they're not tied to, I mean, they're tied to certain promoters contractually. But promoters can work together to put on the fights the people want. And Tyson Fury versus Deonté, Y, Wilder is just doing incredible gates, big numbers.

If you did that fight in a stadium in the UK, it would sell out. And people want to see it. Like people want to see it. Boxing is just huge right now. Those big fights, there's just something about them. And they had the, at least those fighters have the ability to say like no to fights. They have the ability to do these certain things to put themselves. subs of these positions. They have the ability

to go fight people and other promotions, more or less, which the UFC doesn't. And the UFC is its own thing. There's 700 freaking fighters in the roster. And at UFC 100, I mean, it was still a baby. It was a huge event,

but they were a baby. And on top of that, as much as I like Frank Meir, and as much as Frank Meir deserved more than what he got, that event, UFC 100 did 1.6 million pay-per-view buys. 1.6 million.

They weren't buying it for Frank Mears. I mean, let's just be honest here. This was all about Brock Lesnar. So Brock making way more money than Frank Meier is no surprise. I think he got the numbers mixed up a little bit. Again, as we've talked about on this program many times, the disclosed payouts that these commissions give, it's just a piece of the puzzle.

It's not the full thing. And these were, that event happened, as did UFC 200, happened when Navadi would disclose pay. And UFC 100, Brock Lesder's disclosed pay was 400,000. But Frank Mears was 45,000. That's a huge difference. Brock Lesner for UFC 200 made 2.5 million.

for UFC 200. That was his disclosed pay. Brock probably made Brock may have made around $2.5 million, probably more for being honest due to the pay-per-view numbers. But yeah, man, I mean, Brock was a star. Brock's the one that sold $1.6 million pay-per-views

on top of George St. Pierre, who was a big, who was a rising star at the time. Frank just wasn't a huge draw. And the sport was just in a much different place back then. And guess what? Things have not changed since. This is where we're at. The stars make the money. The ones who are not stars just

don't make it. It's just the nature of the beast. There's no association. There's no union. The lawsuit is dead. The only thing that is going to change this pay structure, because again, I'm not going to harp on the union association thing because it's never going to happen. So we're not going to play that game. The only chance this changes is if there is a competitor who can challenge the UFC in any way, shape, or form. There will probably in my lifetime be nobody that catches them, but there needs to be somebody who can match them. And I'm not just talking about financially.

It needs to be more about, like, money's great, but if you're making all this money and, like, nobody knows who you are and nobody cares, that's a whole thing. You can become a bigger star in the sport competing for the UFC than you can anywhere else. It's just the way that it is. But we need somebody with some buzz that has ratings, pay-per-view, all of this where we are on the show leading with them. When that happens, and some of these bigger names decide to go because all the other boxes that the UFC has are checked off by PFL or one,

I'll say PFL, because honestly, they probably have the best chance at this point. if PFL can do pay-per-views that do 1.4, that do 700, 800, 900 million buys, plus the distribution, plus everything else, plus top fighters in every single division, not the fight matrix ones, but the top of the world, like the people want to see,

that's how you do it. Again, I equate this to what WWR, was in the 1980s. Yes, they had big stars. Yes, they had Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage and Andre and Roddy Piper and some of these massive names. But and those guys were making all the big money, just like it is now. Just like it has always been in the UFC. But it didn't, that didn't change until WCW came along and started beating WWF's ass everywhere.

And then we saw some of the big names leave for guaranteed money because they changed the business and they were getting ratings and they were getting buzz and they became the number one organization. WWF was forced to change how they handled business. They were doing guaranteed contracts. They were paying out more money. They were making sure that all the talent was featured on the big shows. WCW doesn't come along and do the NWO thing and change the wrestling business.

who knows where it would be right now. Who knows? And at least what WWF has now is they have AEW, even though their product is Garbo compared to what WW is doing, they at least have a little bit of a threat. People, there are wrestling fans who talk about them. There's a cult-like following for AEW, and people still compare the two.

So now it creates this interesting dynamic of, you know, this reagent from AEW, EW is coming up, WWE can go snag him, a la C.M. Pong, Cody Rhodes, et cetera. And then on the AEW side, when a WWF talent contract comes up,

they can come in and snag them. Forces change. Forces business change. UFC doesn't have that. There is nobody near them. Like, they're on a tropical island all by themselves, and everybody else is trying to catch them.

And just when they think they could see the island, it turns out it turns out it's a mirage and once they realize it's a mirage they just stand there totally still and the current drags them right back that's what this business is right now and no one's touching them no one's touching the UFC and the lawsuit falling apart that's the biggest takeaway of all is that there will be no change to the UFC's business practices which means PFL won, all the other promotions. They're not going to be able to legally catch up.

The only thing that can happen is that they pass the Ali Act, which we've talked about on this show before, isn't a great thing for MMA? It's great for boxing, not the best thing for MMA, if you really dive deep into it and we're certainly not going to do that here. But I just don't see a world where that passes,

especially, and I know Aeros talked about this, if Donald Trump becomes the president of the United States, there's no freaking way Ali Act is going to get anywhere. This is no chance. None. So, yeah, that's just what it is. Stars make the money. The other fighters get what they get.

And it's just, it is what it is, guys. But yeah, I think Frank was a little misinformed. And again, maybe backroom pay-per-view, all that stuff. Brock made $2.5 million. but the disclosures pay, Brock made 400,000 for UFC 100. Frank Mayer made 45,000. But for 200, Brock made 2.5 million, if that makes sense. But yeah, that's just where it is.

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to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. Thomas, go ahead. Hi, Mike, can you hear me? Yes, sir. Good man.

Just wanted to find out any Golden Nuggets for UFC 300 watch party, any guests or anything you can let us know of, anything to look forward to, to get his hyped. And then secondly, do you know the time,

what time and for me, obviously in Belfast, what time will I be staying up to? Is it going to be a 6 o'clock in the morning job? And yeah, didn't come on and say, but I went to PFL Belfast. What did you think of the crowd in Belfast

that had come across, Bill, on TV? Yeah, I thought they came across. Like when James Galaher came out, that was a big deal. So, and then James losing, obviously, sucked the life out of the crowd, a little bit. You know, they were hyped for Carl Moore.

I think Carl Moore came out to zombie, but like they just rushed his entrance, I thought. He didn't get to milk it. We didn't even get to the chorus of Carl Moore's entrance, which kind of like took the, like, wind out of the sails, which, I mean, I guess they're working on the pacing. So that's, that's one thing. But I heard, I've heard P.C. Carroll talk about this.

And the way he sort of talked about the Belfast card outside of maybe Carl, but I know he's, you know, kind of changed allegiance as well. There was not a lot of actual Belfast talents on the card. There's a lot of Irish talent on the card. But the way Pizzi kind of painted the picture was, it was just like a typical Bellator Ireland show where it was just all SBG fighters and nobody else. when what Pizzi was suggesting, you've got to get different gyms in there. You got to get some of the big gyms from Belfast. Like you've got to get other camps involved in these events.

And then the crowd will have like a little more oom to it. Like they're still going to chair for their own. But if you bring in like local Belfast talent who like trains and eats and sleeps and does it all in Belfast 24-7, 365, what a difference that can make in terms of. the ambiance of it all. And Pizzi is going to know much better than I when it comes to that kind of thing. So I will take that man at his word because he's never really stirred me wrong.

But I think that's kind of an interesting way to look at it. But yeah, I mean, it came across well, but that was just one note that people kept bringing up. For the UFC 300 watch party. let me see so I think I have this right I had to Google it so the opening prelims for UFC 300 starts at

6 p.m. Eastern which according to what I just Googled would be 11 p.m. 11 p.m. Belfast time so I think that's I think that's right 10. Am I crazy?

What is it? One, two. Yeah, it's five hours. Five hour difference. So 11 p.m. UK, Belfast time. And that's when we're starting the watch party.

We're going start to finish. We're going, maybe I'm wrong about this, Thomas. Am I crazy? Do I get that right? That's 100%. That will be about what we would normally, I would normally sit up would be

five past prelims would usually be about between 11 and 12 for most cards. So yeah, probably talking about like walks at 5 a.m. Okay. All right. Sweet. Thank you for, uh,

confirming. Yeah, so the watch party is starting at 11 p.m. your time. We're going from Fight 1, from Davis and Figurato versus Cody Garbrandt, all the way to Alex Pereira versus Jabal Hill. We're going every single fight. We're starting right away, and we're staying on until it's over. And it's going to be fun as hell. I'm very excited. As far as guests go, I have no idea what we're going to do. We're going to try to work some things out, because obviously, there's going to be a giant chunk of the roster that is going to be there.

So if we can somehow work it out to get some fighters to come up and join us to watch a fight before they go to the arena to watch whatever they want to watch, like that'd be sick. I'd love for that to happen. So we will work on that.

The way I would see it is like, yo, we're going to be doing this thing. Come on down. If you want to be on, come in and like, we'll just do it. Like, you know what I mean? So it's, yeah, as far as guests go, I'm not really sure. But I'm super excited.

Head out to Vegas next Friday, late morning. So just to obviously let you guys know and pull back the curtain. We'll have a show tomorrow. We'll have a show Tuesday. We'll have a show Thursday. There will be no show on Friday. I might do something Friday because I think I have a layover. So I don't know if we're doing it on Twitter. I might just do something on

Instagram, like my own Instagram, just because I want to get better with that. And I haven't, I've never done Instagram live before. So I might just like send you guys there and we'll just do like a little Q&A there just so I can try it. But yeah, I won't be really around Friday at all. I won't be doing like the preview show or anything like that because it's a full day of travel. and then I get PM local time on Friday. And if there's going to be some sort of aerial in the crew, I will join them for that. And if not, like maybe Connor and I will get together

and let people know we're at. Maybe we can do like a PFL watch viewing, gathering or something because I know their card is the day before. So, yeah, super excited. And then we're just going to be watching a whole bunch of fights on Saturday. And I mean, I don't know how much more I could put this card over right now. To me, this is the best card the UFC's ever put together. Start to finish, there is no better card than this one.

It just isn't. I know the expectations were unfairly high anyways. in regards to the main event. So unless it was like Connor or they were able to pull up the Hamzat, Leon Edwards thing that was being discussed, or just something out of complete left field or like Islam Makachaf fighting for the Walter White title or something, nothing was going to please everybody. But in terms of like an actual fight, Alex Prayer versus Jamal Hill is awesome. It's awesome.

And I truly hope, I truly, truly hope that Jamal Hill is. like 100% or as close to it as possible. I hope he's not just coming back, because I know he's supposed to fight in May anyways, so I hope that he's like ready to go. And I hope that if Pereira doesn't kick him, like kicks him in the leg, like he's fine and can eat it and he's good to go.

Like, this fight's great. It's a great fight. It was on my top five fights I need to see in 2024 anyways. We're just getting a little bit earlier. I truly wish it was in Rio. because it just makes more sense there. And 300 didn't... I'm glad it's happening,

but this card didn't need it. They could have went just a Gaci Max Holloway as the main events, and it would have been fine. It would have been just fine. It would still be the best card ever in UFC history, even without this fight. But I'm glad it's there.

I really am. Zhang Wei Yanjonan, there you go, Gaichi Holloway rules. Bo Nichols is going to do Bo-Nickle things. More than likely. But Cody Brundage is a dog. We'll see.

Oliver Serukian is tremendous. Urien Rackich is intriguing. Calvin Tater Al Jermaine Sterling is not getting enough talk. I love that fight so much. That is a top that's a top five fight for me in terms of what I want to see happen.

I think this is tremendous matchmaking. I think we're going to learn a ton about Walter about featherweight Al Jermaine Sterling in this one. Because Calvin can wrestle and Calvin can hit like a truck.

And he's super athletic. It's a really interesting fight. We got Kayla Harrison. Like, just think about what Friday is going to be like with Kayla. Step it on the scale. Trying to make $1.35. Her winning is like one of the best things that can happen for this division.

This division is not good. Sody Hughes of Diego Lopez, good fight. Probably the most random fight on this card, but I love it so much. Diego Lopez is a rising star. Jalen Turner, Hanata, Moikato, again. Probably could have used this in Rio, but still going to be fun as hell. Andrage, Marina Rodriguez, good fight. Bobby Green, Jim Miller, good fight.

And then Figgie Smalls, Cody Garbrant, great fight. It's the best card the UFC's ever done. This is the best card ever on paper for the UFC. And tomorrow, right after I do this show, we didn't get to do one for $2.99. But people were asking, where is the John Anick interview for $2.99? Where's the $2.99 preview of the Anik? We couldn't make it happen because John was calling the card of the apex the week before. But I'm here to tell you, my friends, I'm speaking to John Anick tomorrow.

And I'm very excited. we're going to get you all sorts of fired up for this card. It's got to be great. So that will happen before the preview show tomorrow. And then you'll probably see that early next week. Thomas, one last thing? Sorry, yeah, I was just going to ask. On an average card, like an average pay-per-view,

what would the numbers normally be in terms of like TV? Do ESPN announce that? And what do you think, like, pay-per-view sales will be like for USC-300? like TV views and pay-per-views. Sorry to ball glass space. No, you're good, man. Let's see. Let me see what $2.99 did for ratings.

Let's see what $2.99 did. Let me see. Does it have it up? $2.99 did, on average, $1.485 million. viewers for the feature prelims for UFC 299. According to reports, that was the most watched prelim card on ESPN since March of 2022, which was two years. That was the most in two years since UFC 272, which was the card headline by

Colby Covington versus Jorge Mazadol. That did 1.5-26 million viewers on. average. So pretty strong. I don't think they'll have like, um, they're not going to really have any competition because the final four is going to be over NCAA champion will be crowned. Um, I think this is going to do two million. I think I, this is do two million. No. I'll say, on average, they'll get like 1.7 million. This will do better than 272. 1.75, 1.8 million, which is a fucking great number in 2024. Pay-per-view-wise, this is doing a milly. This is doing a million. I'll be, if this, we're

never going to know because they don't release those numbers because of how it's, it's streaming and they got to control the narrative. I would assume somebody's going to post a number that probably isn't true. But this, this is got to do a million. This is going to do a million. Because what you're going to see guys this is what you're going to see you're going to see the ufc promote the shit out of this card you're going to see the ufc at their absolute best here they're going to do all sorts of crazy shit all week long next week and i don't we don't know what the schedule is just yet but they're going to do it right they're going to put fans in a place where it's like see they're great look at what they just did this week they did a million pay for you buys

look at the effort they put into it and we will all celebrate their effort as well. And then we will see when it comes to like 301 that that effort will not be there. 302, that effort probably won't be there. International Fight Week, sure, because that's a whole different ballgame. But they're going to pull out all the stops for this one, I think. I think they kind of have to. But I'm super excited.

I'm super excited for it. Jay, go ahead. Hey, Mike. So you actually brought up an interesting point that I wanted to request to speak about. So we're right, we probably won't ever know the true pay-per-view numbers, but let's just say we get a hint, and it turns out they didn't surpass one million views, even for 300. Do you think that at this point, the U.S.C. should just change their paper-view format structure, and maybe, like, when their ESPN contract is over, just go over

your streaming, like how everyone else is knew. And also, just a quick question to it, I don't know if you've been aware, but a lot of fighters, MMA fighters from one recently, have been constantly complaining about the lack of fights being offered. The IRS, even one of their fighters, like, ripped up their shirt and threw it in the trash. And Adriano Morais re tweeted that, also showing the same resentment towards one. So do you guys that in fighting know anything about this? And thanks, have a heck of a more. I mean, we know that they're frustrated.

I mean, we've done, I know Guillaume has talked to a few fighters who have not had kind things to say. we see Adriana Marias we're oddly enough like we were just talking about this because we were like going back through like covering one events and they don't do MMA like they do sometimes

but for the most part it's not their cards aren't MMA cards we're not kickboxing.com like we'll cover if there's like a crazy ass highlight or something like we'll cover it but for the most part, like, DJ's not fighting on it.

Like, there's just not a lot of MMA. So, I mean, that's the thing. That's the frustration of the fighters. They're putting on all these events, but it's all, like, mixed disciplines, and there's, like, no MMA. MMA was always, like, the focal point,

the focus of the promotion. Now it's like, it's not there. It's just, it's barely visible. And much like sort of the PFL thing, nobody knows at all when their cards are happening. It's wild. I mean, they're just doing a terrible job. And we had talked about how great of a 2022 and 2022 they had

because of this Amazon deal that they signed. What are they doing? You have this great deal with this great platform that's going to get a whole bunch of eyeballs on you and you're not using it. It's crazy. So I don't know what's going on there. Bloody Albo's been reporting about how poorly

they've been doing financially forever. And yeah, I don't know. I don't really know. It's crazy. That is not a problem the UFC has. The UFC is just, they've won the game at this point. And your question is like, if they don't hit a million is a loss? No.

No. Here's the thing. The UFC is going to make eight figures, whether this sells a million or it sells none. If nobody bought a single pay-per-view, they're still getting eight figures for this from the ESPN deal. And they're streaming, like

all the pay-p reviews at least in the United States, they're streamed anyways. ESPN Plus is a streaming platform. So yeah, it doesn't matter what they do. It doesn't matter. All the pay-view stuff, like it's great. It's just

cherry on top of the Sunday. But that's why like most of their like i would say most of their pay-per-views probably do like between five and six hundred thousand some more i bet two ninety nine probably popped like a good number i don't think too as good as two ninety nine was i don't even think that hit a million but i still even like 301 which looks real bad because of like the amount of fans that they have gotten that are just going to watch everything i still think that's going to do like 200,000 because that's just the audience.

There is that many people who will buy everything the UFC puts out. They just will. But getting the... And that's fine. Like, the UFC will be fine with that. They'll do a million for 300, and they'll do like 200,000 for 301

and it makes no difference to them. As long as they pop a number, as long as they sell tickets at the gate, Jose Albao coming back is going to be a big deal. They'll be fine. They're still making money. Like, they make money. so much money. It's not even funny.

It's insane. So no, they won't change the structure. The TV deal is going to be a huge story, though. I'm very curious to see where that ends up, but I think ESPN's got to make a big push for it because they should. Blundell, are you there?

Shit, am I hearing you? I don't know if it's a connection thing. Blondell, try again. Hop back in. Maybe it's on my end. Maybe it's just a connection thing. Yeah. do we have you do thank you morning to you um i got two i got two random questions here

um the key to cry love the light heavyweight division could use all it could get this guy i haven't heard anything from for 13 months i think span was his last fight in early march i'm wondering what's going on with this guy and second just a fun question if you had to make a match up for a bmf title for women what would it be obviously it's got to include laymos who already should be the BMS. That's my question, heck of a morning to you. Hmm. I had think about the other one.

I had think about the other one. Damn, your BMF question, like, threw me off. I forgot what your first question was. Oh, my God. Oh, Nikita Krilylov. Got it. Nikitkrilyov. No idea.

No idea where Nikita Kralov is. Women's BMF fight. I know she's retired and she's happy with it now, but I think you got to put you on Ian Jacek in there. who she fights does not matter. Yawani and Jacek needs to be in there. I remember when I talked to her when I covered International Fight Week, when I covered UFC 276,

I got like 10 minutes with her. She had already retired. I think it was maybe like a month and a half after she had retired. And she said she would come back and fight for a women's BMF title. And I kind of think she still would. you would fight Amanda Lemosch sure if that's

you get a pick and I get a pick I'll give you your Lemosch pick but I'm picking Yohanna I know they're in two different weight classes but Yowana has gone up to 125 before and I think if she just hit the weights a little bit they should be all right so yeah

Yona is such a badass it's it's freaking wild man people need to go back and just watch the Yawanna catalog because it's incredible it's incredible let's see if we can get Blondell in here do we have you now hello sir how are you yes I'm doing all right you're stuck at work here but I was just calling in just to ask you about the

Alex Pereira Jamal Hill fight I'm looking at the line and it's it's kind of jumping out of me I thought it would have been maybe a bit heavier one way than it is. Pereira, I believe, is a minus 140 favorite or so. I thought it maybe would have been a little bit closer to minus 200, minus 250, somewhere in that range. Just wondering if you know or how you feel about the fight and if you know if maybe Pereira is battling any injuries or anything like that. I don't think so. I don't think so because this, again, this is the way people like had the revisionist history is that like oh this fight saved the card this fight was going to happen three weeks later anyways this was the main event for 301 this was pretty much signed sealed and delivered if you go back and listen to old shows before they announce this as the main event um there was no plans for alice perera or jamael to fight at ufc 300 none until the day before and even both fighters have basically said the same thing So I don't think so.

I just think there's a couple of things. One, Jamal Hill looked incredible against Glover-Teshirea. He looked so good. And we just, like, it's such a mystery right now. I don't know what to think about the fight. Because there's a part of me that's just like, I feel like Jamal's coming back too soon, but maybe he just is a freak of nature.

Because the injury he suffered, nobody comes back this quickly. It's unheard of. it is unheard of. It's usually like a year before you could even like really start ramping up and he's going to be back fighting in nine months. That's crazy.

That is crazy. So like every time I think about this fight, that's the thing that sticks out the most is that are we getting look, we're not getting a 100% Jamal Hiller here. We're not even going to get 100% Alex Pereira.

we're not going to get 100% of any of these fighters fighting. It's just the nature of going through a training camp. But I, in the back of my mind, I am concerned about the Achilles. How can you not be? How can you not be? I am surprised the line is as close. But maybe people just see value in Jamal. They're going off this performance against Glover.

And they're remembering that guy. Well, let's think about this too. Let me pull this up real quick. I'm curious to see if Jamal has ever had. Let me just take a gander. Let's take a look here. Let's look at Jamal Hill's fight history, if we can. Because I'm curious to see what it looks like.

All right, so Jamal Hill, 2017 as a pro, fought twice. 2018 fought twice. 2019 fought twice 2020 1, 2, 3 fights 2021, 2, 2 fights, 2nd 2 fights, 2 fights, 2023, 1 fight This is by far The longest layoff of Jamal Hill's career

It will be 15 months He's never had a layoff like this before I don't think Let me just go back and look at the math here three months, four months, two months. I think the longest layoff before that was like seven months. Then it was five months, six months, four months, less than seven, six months, six months, two months, six months, seven months.

Yeah, by a lot, by like double. this is the longest layoff of Jamal Hill's career. How is that going to work? How is he, will there be rust? I don't know. There's just a lot of questions here. Jamal Hill feels incredibly disrespected. And at the same token,

Jamal Hill, his confidence has been incredible. Like, everything Iliate Teporia did heading into the Volk fight, Jamal Hill is doing heading into this fight. He's saying Alex Pereer is an easy fight. He's already changed the Instagram bio. Like he, it's almost like when he does media, you know he's taking it seriously.

But the way he, like, is portraying it. It's like he already knows that he's just going to kill this dude. And it's kind of a dangerous game to play. I love this fight so much because I just have so many questions about it. I just don't know. If we're getting the absolute best Jamal Hill, he has a real chance to win this fight. And I think that's kind of how people are viewing it.

I'm probably going to have a, obviously it's the watch party, so I'm going to have I'm probably going to have some sort of sprinkle on every single fight on this card, every single one of them, just to have fun with it. I mean, I'm in fucking Las Vegas. Like, let's go. But like, just looking at certain things here, I, the disrespect Jamal is feeling, and he's telling the world about it from everything. Like, he is shot on our ranking.

since he won the belt and not realizing where we were coming from and we've done ranking shows just kind of blasting Jamal on that because it's, first of all, it's dumb to get mad about that stuff

and to just understand why we are going this way. If Jamal Hill goes out there and beats Alex Pereira, he's the number one light heavyweight in the world with a bullet and it's not close. but him beat

him I mean I guess we're just going to go ahead and rehash this him beating Glover to Shera who was going to retire anyways with a foot out the door probably at the time like the sixth best

light heavy weight in the world even though a lot of people felt Glover was going to just tackle him and kill him um Jamal showed a lot in that fight he showed a lot but the way we viewed it was because of how, and it's not even his fault.

It's just the state of the division. And I blame the UFC for this. If they just didn't strip Yuri for Hashgar of the fucking belt to begin with, which is so incredibly dumb. And I know, like, they presented it as, you know, I'm giving the belt back to not hold it up. Uri's basically talked about this already. And I had my theory from Jump Street. Like, this is like the Red Sox not firing Terry Francona. this is them presenting it as we're parting ways even though they fired him.

You know what I mean? That's the way I looked at it. If they just didn't strip Yuri Prahashka of the fucking belt, we wouldn't even be having this conversation right now. But yet again, here we go. And then because they stripped Yeri, they have to strip Jamal. They have to strip Jamal. And they didn't even have to strip Jamal.

Jamal getting stripped in him vacating the belt is fucking stupid too. It's all dumb. It is all dumb. just think about it this way like Jamal Hill gets hurt in July is the champion he comes back and fights at UFC 300 against Alex Pereira

who is fighting for the second belt like if they just done it that way like how much bigger is this fight it's so much bigger but sometimes they just overthink and overplay the hand like John Jones isn't stripped of the belt

it's the same goddamn thing it's the same thing and he still got the belt they did interim belt there. Tom Aspinall is the interim champion and most people view him as the best heavy weight in the world anyway. So that worked out great. I just

the decision making with that whole thing just it ruined this whole division. So hopefully after this fight, hopefully after this fight, we get a bit of clarity on this division moving forward and hopefully get some questions answered. But yeah,

I understand where you're coming from here. I'm not sure exactly where I'm going. with this, but I'm leaning probably Alex Pere right now because I have so many questions on the Jamal Hill side, but we'll watch some tape and we'll come up with something. There'll be something on that fight, that's for sure. All right,

we got to go. BTL coming up 1230. It's going to be another Q&A because, well, we got some guys covering PFL tonight. So we'll let them rest it out. Jose Youngs will join me. Of course, he had the A-side live chat back in the day and

it's going to be like coming back home. It'll be a lot of fun. Join us at 1230. It'll be a ton of fun. And we will see you guys tomorrow. Right back here, 10.15 a.m. Eastern time. It's going to be a good day, everybody. Then we'll be eight days away from UFC 300.

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