MMA Fighting - HOAM | Is Belal Muhammad Going To Get His Chance At UFC Gold Against Leon Edwards?

Episode Date: December 21, 2023

While Belal Muhammad seems like a pretty clear choice to get the next shot at Leon Edwards and the UFC welterweight title, things still appear to be up in the air in regards to how the 170-pound title picture plays out. Does Shavkat Rakhmonov jump over him? Is the UFC waiting to see what happens with the Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler fight? Muhammad certainly deserves the shot, but will he get it? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses that and states his case for Muhammad to get his day in court, while also reacting to Edwards no-selling Muhammad, the champ's tweet at the surging contender, and his head coach saying he would prefer Gilbert Burns being next over Muhammad. Additionally, listener questions include Colby Covington's appearance on Fox News, UFC 300, what Sean Strickland's title reign could look like if he beats Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297, 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

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

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

but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, ghosts in the machine, available now, only from Audible. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. It is Thursday, December 21st, 2023, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the M.A. Fighting Twitter Space, you hear the show in its entirety,

shortly thereafter on the M.A. podcasting network. What's going out, everybody? I am Mike Heck. Hope you're all having a great week. The countdown to Christmas is on. We are four days away. And there's a lot going on. We're still in the middle of the UFC 296 hangover, if you will. A lot going on as it reverts to the welterweight division. Leon Edwards versus Colby Covington, the follow from that. The what's next questions, all that. just continues to be a story. It's,

I don't even know what to say about some of this stuff. First, let's start with Colby. Let's start with Colby, everybody. Colby at the end of this fight with Leon Edwards, which he clearly lost, and no one thought he won that fight except for him, basically has come down with this thing saying, the only reason I lost because the judges hate Trump,

which is just ridiculous. And to say that he won rounds three, four, and five is absolutely insane. It's just absolutely insane. Again, I did what very few people have done since Saturday. And I trust you when I tell you this, I do not recommend this at all. I went back and rewatch the fight. The only round Colby clearly won was five. If you want to make a case he won round four, I'll listen to it, but I don't agree with it at all.

I thought Leon was clearly up four rounds to none heading into round five. But this notion that Colby won is ridiculous. And then he goes on Fox News of all places. And I don't even know who this guy is who is interviewing Colby who said he didn't even watch the fucking fight

is like, yeah, you won on paper, man. Do you think it's because of Trump? And Colby said, yeah, man. Essentially. It's so ridiculous, dude. It is so ridiculous. And like I said on Tuesday, I don't know if Colby can ever bounce back from this. I don't know.

He's going to have to start all over again. I understand the Wonderboy callout. I think it's on brand. And I actually think it's a pretty smart callout. Because Wonderboy is, you know, he's a pretty big name. I know a lot of people like, oh, he should fight Shofcott. The UFC is not going to make that fight. They're not going to make Shofcott versus Colby.

even if they are supremely confident that Shafcott will run over Colby Coveington. And let's be clear, the Colby Covington that showed up on Saturday and fought Leon Edwards is going to get dusted by Shafkaaugh-Rachmanoff. Dusted. Badly. But let's just say they booked that fight. And somehow Colby has the performance of his life and beat Shafcott. Or Shafcott throws like a head kick in round two. we have a Raphael Fiziv versus the Batush Gamrott moment,

and he hurts his knee, plants down hard on something, and he gets hurt. Then what does the UFC do? What do they do then? Now you have a guy who, it seems to be, they don't want fighting for a belt ever again, beating the guy who should be next, and then you're just in a weird position altogether.

So I don't know if the UFC is going to take that risk. To me, and I'll get into the other side of it in a moment. To me, this is pretty simple. This is all pretty simple to lay out. But we'll get to that in a second. On the same token, I've not been overly confident and thrilled with how Leon Edwards has presented himself as well.

Now, you can make a case after the fight when he was asked about Bilal. If he wants to no sell Bilal, I understand that. Like you can make a case for that, maybe a big, huge fight comes along. Who knows, maybe by the time Leon's ready to fight again, maybe they did Connor versus Chandler, maybe Connor beats Chandler, and he wants the big money fight

because, as everybody knows here, the window is not a long one. It's a very short window to capitalize and make money. So maybe he's waiting for that. You want to state that case, that's fine. Kind of no-sold Shofcott as well. Totally get it.

Again, you're waiting for a big opportunity. But then, Dave LaVelle goes on the MMA hour yesterday. Goes on the M.A. hour. He's the head coach of Leon Edwards, a super insightful guy, and he's asked about whether or not Bala Muhammad is next. And here's what he said. Well, let's put it real. Balaal's earned his place, hasn't he?

Even though he still hasn't done what Leon did, he didn't go through the tribulations Leon did. But you know what? He's earned himself his contendorship. To be honest, if I really had a choice, I don't think it'll happen. I would like Leon to fight Burns. But Burns had two bites of the cherry. I think they'd want Burns maybe to have a couple more wins, a couple more before if he was going to be a contender. But if I had a choice, who would be next?

I would prefer Burns over Bilal because I think Burns brings more to the table than Bilal. Because Leon's beaten, well, I shouldn't say that. He had the old contest against Bilal. It looked like you can't judge it by the first round totally, but it looked like Leon obviously had the first round. mocked down with the law, and he was going in for the kill the second it's of the eye poke occurred. But yeah, if I had a choice, overall, I would like Burns, but we'll take whoever they throw

at us. Now, let's break this thing down, okay? He said the right things in terms of, I don't think it'll happen. We'll take whoever they throw at us, yada, yada, yada. But to actually throw this out into the universe, to say that if you had a choice, you would pick Gilbert Burns over Leon Edwards, what? What are you talking? Not Leon, it's Gilbert's over Balah Muhammad.

Are you crazy? What the hell is that? That is one of the silliest things I've ever heard in my entire life. Are you kidding me with that? I love Gilbert Burns. Big fan of his, nice guy. I love Gilbert Birds. But let's be clear.

Two things. One, Gilbert's already got a fight booked. He's fighting Jack Delamadal-Madalana. Is he just planting a seed believing Gilbert is going to beat Jack Delamadal of Madelana, perhaps. But even then, but even then, Bala Muhammad, Binkabh Burns dominantly. That fight was not competitive at all. And yes, you could throw out there as an injury and all that stuff. None of that matters. There are no excuses. Short notice, injury, in a fight, et cetera. There are no excuses. There are

none. You lost. You lost the fight. The law won most of that fight, if not all of it. It was not all that competitive. So to even throw Burns his name out there is absolutely ridiculous. And I think even Gilbert would agree with that as well. It's just so silly. And here's the other thing that pissed me off about this whole situation, because Leon is not doing himself any favors at all. Obviously, Belal reacted, and Leon obviously reacted to Belaw. Here's what Leon Edwards tweeted not that long ago. LOL, Belal, calm down, son. You're the least intimidating person in the organization. I already told the UFC, I don't mind, I'll fight you next. That's easy work. You just have to figure out why they

hate you so much. The last sentence, I kind of was like, all right, that's pretty good. But the rest of this is so silly. It's so silly. You're the least intimidating person in the organization. I already told the UFC, I don't mind. I'll fight you next. That's easy work. What if after putting that out there into the universe, what if they booked this fight and Balal just creams you? that you look like a fucking moron. Because the guy who's easy work that is the least intimidating person in the organization just dusted you up after you said that.

I know a lot of MMA fans hate when we say that MMA has roots within the pro wrestling world. And you know what? Whether you hate it or not, it's true. It's true. Why do you think the UFC has been so successful? They take the W.W.E. Playbook and they use it to their advance.

but in the world of real fistfighting as opposed to choreographed athletic sports entertainment because that's somewhat what the UFC is. They are sports entertainment. They are sports and they are here to entertain. This isn't a meritocracy. This is about putting the biggest fights. Let's put the beefs out there. Look no further than when Connor McGregor threw the dolly at Habib Naramagamara made of his boss.

And Dana said it was worst thing that. ever happened and they used that in all the promos to build up to the fight. Look at what they did with Colby and Leon. Look at what they're doing with Sean Strickland and DDP. This is pro wrestling. This is pro wrestling. And one of the key factors about pro wrestling that you would learn from anybody that's been in the business for a long time, go study a guy like Bobby the Brain Heenan, the late

great Bobby the Brain Heenan, who was a heel manager who spoke for the back. bad guys, if you will. Would he run down? Would he run down the opposition? Sure. But would he say this guy sucks? Hey, Hulk Hogan, you're terrible at this. Andre the Giants going to squash you. No, he never said that. He never said anything like that because you look like a fucking idiot, if you say that, and then your guy loses. You've got to be smarter with this stuff. the microphone in your hand the keyboard in front of you is super important

and the way Leon Edwards has handled all this and I like Leon a lot and he has deserved everything that he has earned right now but man is he handling this bad people are shitting on Colby and rightfully so Colby delivered the worst one of the all-time worst performances from a challenger in a title fight I've ever seen in my life

and I will say that till the day I die but how Leon has handled the aftermath of this has been just utter trash. It has not been good. It has not been good. And that's the reason why Leon is not a superstar right now. You've got to be better with this stuff. And then to have his coach come out and say,

Gilbert Burns? Come on, man. Come on. This is tough. So that's my diatribe. We are going to talk a little bit more about this on BTL before we get into the year-end awards preview. We'll do a quick segment on all of this.

It's just so bad, man. Be better. Be better. Just go fight. This is so simple. Shafka Rakhbanoff is hurt. Dude has an ankle injury. May he needs surgery. He's going to be out for a hot minute. You do Leon versus below. And then Shafqqqad is next.

That's it. Shafkot gets the winner. He has done enough. I know a lot of people are like, oh, I was talking to somebody on Twitter today. I'll respect. He came at me very respectful. Shafka should be next.

The response was, well, he doesn't have a top five win. Yeah, but neither did Isl Makhachev. I don't even think Isl Makhachev had a top 10 win before he got the shot at Olivera last October. But I think we all knew that this guy is probably the best lightweight in the world. We just needed to see it. And then he went out and dusted up Charles Olivera. And it was like, all right, this guy's the real deal. This guy's the best lightweight in the world.

who makes sense for Shafka right now? You could do Colby, but I don't think they're going to risk that. The only other name you could do is Usman, but we don't even know what Usman's thinking right now. Is he going to stay at 185? Is he going to stay at middleweight and try to get a shot of the second belt? We don't know. Would Usman fight Shafka?

They know each other. They both train a Kilcliffe. I know Usen isn't there full time, but I'm sure these guys have rolled around together. I'm sure they have some kind of relationship. Is Usman going to take that fight? Is he going to drop back down to 170 to fight Shafkat? I don't know.

And then from there, like, what do you do? Do you just wait for a top five guy? Like, no. The time is now. The time is now. Gibbaal all his day in court, he deserves it. I don't care what anybody says. I know he's not the most popular fighter on the roster.

But the man has done enough. The man has done enough. He's unbeaten for so long. He's got. really good wins on the resume. He's got top five wins, which is apparently the big criteria in order to get a title shot. The man has done enough. Give him his day in court. Let's see what happens. And then you feed whoever it is, maybe not feed, but you throw whoever the winner is to Shafka Rakhmanoff. And let's see what this guy can do. Because Shafkot feels like he is ready to

win the belt right now. And I would pick him to beat either of those guys. It's so simple. We don't need to overthink this. Give Bilal a shot. Shopcott gets the winner. End of the year. Let him heal up. Let's go. Give this guy his opportunity. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Uh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won! Feel the fun. The morning will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly concerned by your gambling or that if someone close.

You call 18665331-260 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. All right, let's head to you guys. We're going to go for about 35 or so minutes. early release day for the kids so I get to get him at school a little bit earlier today

before BTL. So let's rock and roll and let's start with Barbarissa. By the way, let me just throw this out there. I've been in the middle of a 72 hour fast. I'm on like the final two and a half hours of it. So I might be a little crabby today. It might be a little foggy in the brain.

So just bear with me, all right? Barbarissa, go ahead. Hi, Mike. Good luck with that. I just want to ask you, When I see Leon Edwards and his story, it's the most inspiring story in the UFC for me and how he came from Jamaica and then how his dad unfortunately died, and he bounced back with that with the help of his mother to the he didn't get a fight of the corona situation.

And after that, he came back after losing a tighter fight for five rounds. and then having the most spectacular win. After that, I think it's even harder how he managed to be this. I'm sorry to see that he is a great fighter, but he's a boring character. I don't know with his story, he can be the biggest star in the UFC. I don't know what does, what is he doing wrong? Because if it's the fighting style, he managed to be a star, and he has a couple of boring fights he also,

but he's a star in the UFC. Leon is far, far away from that. What do you think he has to do? Even after that, he could have said, Bilal, like what D.C. said, you are the easiest fight in the division. I want you or anything called anyone out, but he's just, okay, no problem.

He can be, if you, you, you, give me the chance to choose a guy to make a movie about in the UFC, he is the one. I don't know what he's doing wrong. Thank you, Mike. Interesting point. You make a lot of sense. Here's the thing. You are absolutely right. Leon does have an incredible story. He's overcome a lot of adversity. He's dealt with a lot in his life. Absolutely has dealt with a lot in his life. No doubt about it. and they could use that to their advantage. The problem is, Leon is just not that interesting.

He's just not. He has moments where he's really interesting, but for the most part, he's not interesting. And I've said this about Benil Daryush before. And I've said this about Bilal Mohammed before. And I'll go back to the Belal thing. The reason Balal hasn't gotten a title shot yet was because he dropped the ball so many times

when the moments counted. And I'm not talking about in the cage. I'm talking about when he had a microphone in his face. bad callouts left and right unrealistic callouts left and right and he got penalized for it because everyone instead of being like yeah well all's next

it was eye rolls because of just awful callouts and then it's not only that it's that he would go on to do interviews and he would make the right call out Hamza Chamaif was always the guy he should have fought after beating Burns and Wonderboy like it should have always been Hamza

when they said, who do you want to fight next? Bilal should have cut promos on Hamzaa Tchamaya. Instead, Gilbert Burns got the fight. He lost, but Gilbert got over huge just because he was competitive. Bilal could have gotten that fight, and he'd be in a much different position right now. Even if he lost, he'd be in a much different position right now. And now even then, after every single domino has fallen for this guy, there are still a lot of people on social media

who are saying, no, give it to Shafkot. They're all saying it. I don't agree with it, but there's a lot of people saying it. That's what happens when you're not all that interesting. Benil Dharu, same thing. Instead of saying, hey, Islam, you promised me a title shot. If you win tonight, be a man of your word.

I know Habib's a man of his word. Are you? Boom. He probably would have gotten a title shot after Islam, won the belt after Benile beat Matush Kamara. What does Benil Derryyush say? I'll fight 10 more guys in a row. No.

No. You're not going to get a title shot that way. That's why he didn't. That's why he ended up fighting Oliver and then he fought Armit Zerukhi. And then Leon, Jesus Christ, man. Again, I get it. Post-fight press conference. Maybe you wait and see.

Maybe they do Connor Chandler. Maybe he can get that fight. If Connor beats Michael Chandler, if he goes out and knocks out Michael Chandler in the first round, that man is going to get anything he wants. If he wants to go fight for the Walterweight title, the UFC is going to make that fight. So I do somewhat get it from that perspective. But that fight is not made yet. And honestly, at this point when it comes to Connor, until he steps foot in that octagon,

until I see him step on a scale and make Wade, I don't see him. I don't believe he's coming back. saying he never will, but I just, it's one of those situations. So much time has passed. We've heard so many promises until I see it with my own eyes. It's one of those things. All Leon had to say when it comes to Bilal is like, look, man, we've been in the same position. We both had a scratch and claw. Even though it was a no contest, I beat you the first time. I was about to knock you out in round two. I had a great first round. The eye poke happened. Sorry about that, but you know it was about to happen in round two. I was going to finish you.

So now I'm going to finish this. Let's go. Let's fight for the title. Let's do it in the UK. And I'm going to put you behind me forever. Boom. That's all you need to say. That's all you needed to say.

And now the tweet is, least intimidating person in the organization, that's easy work. I'm here to tell you something. I don't, I think Leon would win. I would probably pick him to win, but I would not be surprised

in, In the slightest if Bilal Bahabat beat him, Bilal has looked really, really good. His style is annoying as shit, and he is really, really good at it. Leon could beat him. I mean, Balah could beat him. Something's going on in my neighborhood.

I don't know what it is. Belal could beat him. And let's not forget what happened in that first fight. Belal took that fight on like a week's notice. He stepped in on short notice to take that fight. So who knows? again, no excuse, but it was a no contest. It wasn't a loss for Bilal.

Leon had a great first round. Didn't get him out of there. Didn't get a win. Let's just do it now. Let's just get it done. And then the winner gets Shafcott. We can move on with our lives because I think Shafcott's going to beat either of those two guys. So it's just so silly.

All of this so silly. But you're right. Leon does have a great story. You just got to be better with that mic, man. That's what will make you a star. If he had just respectfully answered Bilal and said exactly what I said or something, something to that effect, I think it would have gone over much better. Even if you eye roll about Bala getting the shot or not, that's the kind of thing that puts

you over with the fans. Lee, how are you saying? Hey, I'm good, Mike. How you doing? Heck of a morning. Good. Man, just with all this Bala stuff, it's just like, it seems like neither Leon or the UFC wants to do it.

And if you take away deserve, it's like they just would rather just go with any other contender compared to Bala. And it does suck for Balao. but I mean I don't know what he really does at this point I mean other than just sit and wait and keep calling for it but I mean it does this it does seem like UFC or Leon doesn't want to go without route but yeah that's all I had to say Mike heck of him morning it's just super weird there's nobody else right now I mean look

shop cod is there and I'll be honest and I tweeted this out as well ball absolutely should be the guy he should be get it he should be the guy but I am far more interested in seeing what Leon versus Shafcott looks like. 1,000 percent. I am way more interested in that fight. But Val deserves his day in court. He deserves it. What else is this guy have to do?

What else does he have to do? I'll tell you what he shouldn't do. He shouldn't fight anybody. He should wait. In this division in particular, you can wait it out and get what you want. Look at what happened with Leon. Look at what happened with Colby.

look at what happened with Tyrone Woodley. These guys sat out and waited, it didn't fight anybody else, and they ended up in title fights. Just give the man his shot. Just give it to him. And if he loses, then you don't have to give him another one.

That's it. And if he wins, he gets a fight shot caught. It's all good. It's all good. Star Power, all that stuff, fine. But this division needs movement.

It needs movement. Nothing happens this year. Nothing. It was so ridiculous. Below beats Gilbert Burns in May, that win means nothing now. It means nothing. It was the stupidest fight booking of the year for the UFC.

Because that fight didn't save anything. It didn't save the card. It didn't sell one extra pay-per-view. It didn't sell one extra ticket. It did nothing. You could have waited. three months and booked that fight. You could have waited until December

and booked that fight. You could have put that on 296. It would have been fine. But you just rushed this fight out there. And then we had to wait, what, another seven months for Leon to fight Colby? That fight means nothing now.

And for Balala, he needed every domino to fall in his favor, and everyone has. Every single one has fallen for him. that's it just give him a shot Jesus and yes I know the UFC doesn't find him

very interesting either and he has not done himself any favors but at the same token it's time give the guy's freaking shot and let's move on let's get this division moving for God's sake because there's other guys coming Shafcott's coming

Ian Gary's coming they're all coming we need movement I don't want to see this belt defended once a year or twice a year I want to see this belt defended three times a year. If Leon fights in June or July, I want to see him defended again in December.

We got it. We need moving. I'm trying to get Carl the butcher in, but I'm getting the wheel of doom so it doesn't look good. Let's try Eric. Eric, go ahead. Yeah, I agree with you that the most great title needs to get defended. Like, like, like,

like twice year or like uh yeah twice year at least but i think i think i think ball mahomet's going to be the next fight for leon because can we see that leon throw below in the eye that was like a 10-tod and uh i think tony perkins can be done after the tautit peter fight i think you should retire now thanks guys well uh with the tony thing uh it doesn't seem like he's retiring he already put out on social media that he's not retiring And here's another word that has been added to the list of words that annoy the shit out of me that nobody seems to know the meaning of, but I keep seeing and hearing all the time. Casual. Casual.

Tony Ferguson is saying not retiring casuals. What? What does that even mean? It's the same thing of the word breaking is overly used and the word exclusive is overly used. When I see those words, they all annoy me. Now, casual is just about on that list of overused

words that aren't falling into what the definition actually means. But yeah, dude, this result, this fight, was probably the worst case scenario. It was probably the worst case scenario. Because if Patty

just dusted Tony, I think this decision would have been much easier. He just went out there. Like, if he finished Tony and that flurry in the first round, then it would have been like, all right, I think the writing is on the wall. But Tony survived it. Patty got a little tired and then just fought smart to win the rest of the fight. So Tony was at least still competitive.

So now he's going to come back and at least have one more. Now, what does the UFC do here? Did they just cut him? They could. When Dana goes to the press conference and says, yeah, man, I want to see him retire. and I've talked about this on the show before. This is the this is the Red Sox Terry Francona situation.

This is the New York Giants Tom Coughlin situation. This will probably be within the next year or two the New England Patriots Bill Belichick situation where they're not just going to outright release Tony. They're just going to give him the option to do it on his own or, you know, they could do it. but it's about putting it in a way that's respectful. Amicable parting of ways.

You know what I mean? Like that's what happened with Terry Francona got clearly fired from being the manager of the Boston Red Sox. He won titles for them. He was the head coach, the manager when they broke the curse, all of that. So they're not going to just outright be like, fuck this guy, he's gone. But at the same token, his time was out. It was done. It was over.

It was time to turn the page and do something else. this is obviously still kind of weird too because if they release Tony and they cut him he'll just go somewhere else and I don't want to see that now do you throw them in the PFL and just do like put him in the super fight division

and do like the Anthony Pettises you know the vet fights yeah you could do that well here's what I'm really concerned is that BKFC signs him and then he goes and fights Mike Perry if that happens, I will, I might shed a tear because I don't want to see that shit.

I don't want to see that shit. And I think the UFC hopefully has the wherewithal to book him appropriately if they're going to keep him around. I thought Patty was a good booking. The more I thought about it was about as good as it could get. But at this point, we're on the veteran tour. If he's going to stick around for one more, there's two ways you do it. One, you throw him in there with Joe Loz on or Jim. Miller or somebody of that, you know, veteran status.

Or you give him the worst guy in the division. You give him a guy who's like 0 and 4 with four stoppage losses, and you let him go out the way Robbie Lawler went out. Give him the promotional packages. You let this guy go out, like in a heroic way to some respect. So do that. But this dude should not be fighting Benoit Santanyi. He should not be fighting Dracar Close.

He should not be fighting these guys. He should not be fighting Terrence McKinney. No. He should be fighting either a veteran that's on the last lap or a guy who is just not very good at fighting. That's it. No other options. That's how we do it.

But yes, I would like to not see Tony fight anymore. But if he gets caught from the UFC, then he can go elsewhere and that scares the fuck out of me. Because he would probably go fight Mike Perry. They would probably make that fight. Does anybody want to see that? I certainly don't. Mike Perry might murder him.

He might kill him. I don't want to see that. He'll take years off his life. I don't want to see that. So I kind of hope he doesn't get cut. But as long as I just book him appropriately, maybe give him one more. Do it at 300.

That's fine. Let this guy go out in a good way. I'm trying to get you in Viking. Stop waving at me. Getting the wheel of doom. There we go. Yeah, I don't care about Israel Adisani's story behind his knockout because Alex Perrera beat him three times. And he acted like it was a redemption for him, but it was not a redemption.

And the other thing, I just can't listen to this place because I want to listen to it. listen to it by when I'm going to sleep and tell me who's going to be on the BTL panel. Please don't say it's Brian Campbell. I'll prefer Dead Mishu and Alciati or Alexander Kelly because I have to attend a meeting tomorrow and it's going to be a two hours drive. So I'll listen BTL at that time. So, yes. So what's your knockout of the year? And Israel is a lot, Mike?

Thanks, buddy. BTL, there will be no Brian Campbell, even though I love BC. And there will also be no Jed Mishu this week. No Jed either. Jed's got some time off. He'll be off for the rest of the week. So AK will be there. So get excited about that.

And then we're going to tag Casey in as the third panelist today because it's not going to be an actual competition. What this show is going to be is we'll let AK and Casey wax poetically on the fallout of UFC 296 real quick at the start. And then we're going to do our awards preview because the awards are going to start coming out for M-A fighting early next week. and we're going to preview them. So we're going to do like we've done the last couple of years.

Casey, AK, and I, we're all going to give our top five. So to answer your other question, you'll find out what my knockout of the year is. You'll find out what AK's knockout of the year is, and you'll find out what Casey's knockout of the year is during BTL today. So we will reveal our lists. We are open and honest. We are not here to fluff up anything. We're going to tell you how we voted,

and we're going to put it all out there for you. you all to see in here. I will say this. Both the Izzy knockout and the Josh Emmett knockout are on my list, as they should be on everybody's list. And there you go. You'll find out more later on today. Josh Emmett's knockout was insane.

It was a brutal knockout. One of the most brutal and clean, just the sound of it. Still, to this day, I can't get the sound of that knockout out of my head. I can't get the sound of that knockout out of my head. I really can't. So it's definitely on the list, and it should be.

There's a nasty ass knockout. Let's keep on going. We'll try to get Cole in, but I'm getting the Wheel of Doom with Cole. So we have to move on. For now, let's go to Abswalia, see if we can get him through the Wheel of Doom. I think we did.

Got me, Mike? Oh, Cole has got through the Wheel of Doom. Evzwalia, hang tight. Cole, go ahead. Oh, hi, Mike. Back of a morning. Yeah, I woke up this morning. I saw that Colby was on, like, Fox News.

And the first thing I think of is, like, how many boomer, like, grandma and grandpas are just, like, watching this, eating this up? The guy's, like, interviewing him going, it says here you're, you were even on significant stress. It's like, what? What's going on? But, yeah, I'm just dying at that.

But, I mean, Viking kind of took my question. So I guess I'll kind of twist it. but when it comes to your like favorites of the whole year knockouts, fights, et cetera, do you have any like foreseeable like hipster picks that you might have that might be like kind of out there and different from maybe AKs or Casey's picks? Yeah, that's all I got. I'm not really sure, honestly. I honestly don't know what anybody else picked.

Obviously there's a lot of UFC representation because they're the best organization in the world by a country mile, and they have delivered the highest stakes moments of the year. They just have. Do I have selections outside of the UFC? Yes. I have a few.

I have a few. I believe two of the... Maybe it's just one. Hold on. I'll pull it up. Let's see what I have. Fighter of the year, I have one fighter outside of the UFC. Knockout of the year,

I have one knockout outside of the UFC. Some of the year, I have one outside the UFC, fight of the year, all UFC, rookie of the year, one fighter outside the UFC. So, yeah, there's, I wouldn't call them hipster picks, but, yeah,

moments that deserve to be in there. I know the UFC's going to weigh heavily on a lot of these people's ballots, as it should. But, yeah, there are, there are some outsider picks as well. There are some outsider picks as well. And then the Colby thing. God, man.

The, um, the worst thing above that whole thing was the interviewer saying, hmm, look at all the strike numbers. Look at all the control time. But I didn't watch the fight. That was my favorite thing. It seems like you won on paper, Colby,

but I didn't watch the fight. I'm sorry. But you won, man. How the fuck would you know? Golly. So silly. Avzwalia, go ahead. Abswalia. Abzwalia.

All right. We will move on. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence. While Peloton IQ counts reps.

form and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton cross-draining tread plus at Onepeloton.ca. When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. It's just $39.99, how could I resist? This luxurious will throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss? Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at winners?

Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners find fabulous for less. Go ahead, four-course sports. Can you hear me? All right, yes. So I feel like Belong could have solved a lot of his issues. Remember when you had said that, I think it was the fight after Sean Brady? All he had to do was Kola Hamza and he would have got to fight.

Instead, he ended up for a title fight. I felt like he would have fast-tracked himself a lot quicker to getting a title shot if he would have just done the thing and called out Hamza. Instead of pivoting and calling him, what is it, the wolf or whatever, he had said. He wouldn't be in this issue, you know, almost two years later, trying to see if he can, you know, get a title shot. And whether there's a debate or not, because I know he deserves it, But, you know, he's in a weird predicament where Leon was.

The only difference is that Leon, in my opinion, is a little more exciting to watch as opposed to Belaw. But, you know, I feel like Belal is the rightful person to get it next. Why would that happen? I have a feeling that Leon and his camp might try to delay it as long as possible. You know, but what I wanted to ask is about the main event for January. between Strickland and Drickus. If Strickland does win, right, which I have a feeling that he might be able to, you know, overpressure Drickis, in my opinion. How far do you see this title rank going if he's successful?

And how many times do you see him trying to defend the belt and then within a year spans? All right. Thanks, Mike. The second question is tough. Like, I think the second question is probably easier to answer because Sean's going to try to want to fight as much as possible. as as i mentioned on this show you know before that ESPN article came out talking about all the shakeups at ufc 294 uh sean strickland was called to fight humz at shimai if on that card before they gave it to ushman john strickland got the call he was like fuck yeah let's go and then his team had to be like nah

dude what are you doing this is insanity slow down you're the champion you don't need to be doing these favors anymore. They need to come to you or at least come super duper correct with a whole bag of money. But he just won the belt. Like he had just won the belt a month prior. So there's no need for him to step in, even though Sean, knowing Sean would have done it in a heartbeat if it was his choice. So I could see Sean fighting three times, easy.

And we'll see. How long this rain will, if he beats DDP, this rain could go on for a while. It could go on for a while. Now, eventually, it's going to get to a point where he's going to have to fight, possibly Hamzaa Tchamayev or somebody of that nature. And I don't think that goes extremely well for him, but you never know. Like, honestly, Sean Stricken versus Hamsat Chamaif is the fight I want to see. Because after seeing what happened with Shamaif against Usman, like, that fight got way more interesting. That if Sean Strickon could just survive a round, he's got a chance to win that fight.

got a chance to win. So, yeah, it's going to be interesting. How long it's going to go? I don't know. If they set him up with Izzy again, did Izzy beat him? Sure. But eventually he's going to have to fight.

Dude, Iqramal-Scarraf's coming. That guy is coming, and he's going to be a problem. Bo Nichols coming. He's going to be a problem. I think his rise will be a lot shorter than Icramal-Scaravs or a lot longer than it from Al-Scaravs. because if Vikram beats Anthony Hernandez, they're going to give him a big fight.

They're going to give him a big fight. Bo, I think, is on a slower trajectory, and I think he's okay with that. He's got two wins, but against probably the two lowest-ranked guys in the division, if we're being honest, no disrespect, just the way that it is. So his rise will be a little bit longer,

but middleweight's super interesting right now. There's just, there's a lot of hitters. Robert Whitaker's in play. there's a lot of hitters right now. So I don't know. It's tough to say how long it will last. And the ball off thing, yes. After the Brady win, calling him the wolf was bad, super duper bad.

He should have called out his name. He should have called his name after the Wonderboy win. He called for a title shot after the Wonderboy win. Why? He wasn't going to get that. And then after the Lucke, I remember, I remember this so vividly. He goes out and dominates Facente Lucke. Clear win.

I tweet it out right after the final round. Do not call out Usman or Colby. Call out Hamzat. Go all in on Hamza. What does he do? Calls out both of them. I want Usen or Colby. And I'm just like, oh, God, dude.

And then what did he do after that? Did a whole bunch of interviews and he called out Hamzaa. Got to do it when it matters. And that's why he's in the position. That's a big reason why he's in the position he's in. I know a lot of people like to no-sell the importance of that post-fight call-out. It is very important. That's how you build shit up.

That's how you build shit up. But you've got to be realistic about it. Tio Barolio calling out Drickus duplice was terrible. That's a terrible call-out. You've got to walk before you run. You can't come sprinting out of the gates, not even a ranked fighter, and call out the guy's about to fight for the fucking title. Come on, man.

We got to be better with this. You've got to be realistic. Kaya should have called up. I mean, dude, if you wants to call it Bo Nickle, like, cool. That's fine. You want to call it, Iqram? Fine. You want to call Brendan Allen?

Dude, if you want to call Brendan Allen, I would have been okay with that. Jack Hermanson, somebody in the bottom half of the top 15, that's cool. But you call up the guy who's about to fight for the title? You got to be, it's so important to make those moments count. He called out Jackerbans and he probably would have gotten over Joe Pfeiffer. They like him.

They put him in good positions. He's being pretty good guys. But then you get on the mic and you call it Drikas duplice. It's just bad. Super duper bad. But hopefully this is a note, a learning lesson for a lot of these up-and-coming fighters right now. See Sean Brady? Sean Brady called out Ian Bichato Gary.

Realistic call it. He didn't call for a title shot after you beat Calvin Gassel. I don't think he's going to get the Gary fight. but at least its seeds are planted for it. But it's a realistic call. It makes sense from a rankings perspective. D.C. Betts, go ahead. Hey, what I was it, Mike?

You call me here at Chitfoil. I wanted to ask, so before the fights this weekend, I was telling my buddies, I was like, you know, I kind of feel like Leon Edwards is a better version of Shavkot with less offensive wrestling, you know? And they were kind of like, I don't know about that.

I don't know. And then after the Shofkot fight, I think we were all like agreements. We were like, yeah, you know what? Like Leon Edwards, I think, can definitely take Shofcott, which seems like the scary, the scary fight for him right now, you know. But I think he is a better striker, less offensive wrestling, but it's still at a similar level.

So I do think that's like one of the toughest fights, if not the law, but I do think Edwards could take that. And then I just wanted to, what was the other one I was going to say? I forget, but I just want to make some next year predictions. And I'm going to say that by the end of 2024, Leon Edwards will still be the champion. And then either by the end of 2024 or the first half of 2025, I think Alex Pereira might try to go up and get a third belt and heavyweight. Because there's a lot of things that are going around saying that he's sizing up, you know, Tom Aspinall and these other heavyweights. and I think if he did take the right time, he could build up big enough.

Oh, and then the last thing I was going to say real quick is that I know Dustin Poria was saying that he's like in a weird spot right now, but I really do think that the fight for him should be Armand Syruccian, especially the way he was talking about how he doesn't care if he's going to fight him. It doesn't make sense. He kind of came off a little disrespectful, especially since they go to the same gym, you know, and I just think that's the fight that makes sense for them. You know, if Armand beats him, then, you know, he deserves a title shot.

think, or at least, you know, that much closer. And then if Dustin wins, then he's right back in the mix. But thanks, Mike. Everybody have a Merry Christmas. Thanks, man. Dude, the fight for Armin is Charles Olivera. That's the fight. That's the fight for Syruca.

That's the one. You do Gaichi, Islam versus Gaichi. Let's get some fresh face in there. And let's do Sarukian versus Olivera. A legit number one contender fight. Oliver gets a second win because he got his chance I know it's not his fault

he got cut but he was putting that shot he had to pull out let's give Gagia's do let's give Gagia's shot he just knocked out Dustin Porre let's get a fresh matchup in there all we've seen from Makachev

is since he fought for the belt was Olivera Volkanovsky Volcanovsky now we're going to go back to Oliver which is rematch two rematches back to back? I don't want to see that. Give me Gaichi. And if Oliver goes out and beats Surrogate,

then give him the shot. That's it. Not say he didn't earn it. Again, kind of like the Blalz situation. For Olivera, everything broke in his favor to get him that shot. And he didn't even,

he couldn't make it. And Volk steps up. But Gagee getting the fight with Porre, and then having Machachev's next fight already lined up a month and a half later, there's no way Gachi was going to turn around and fight again in six weeks.

It just wasn't going to happen. So everything, again, worked out beautifully for Charles Olivera. But now, Gaci's ready. Gaci's ready. If they want to do it in March, Gachi's ready to fight. He's ready to go. Let's give it to him. Let's give it to him.

But Syrucian v. Oliver is the fight I want to see. And they could do Syruki and Porre takes... Like, it would be an interesting fight. I would pick Armand to win, but that's where I'm at right now. All right, so we got about nine minutes. I see a lot of you waiting. We got to keep this to like 20, 30 seconds on each of these, okay? I want to get to all five of you.

I do have to pick up my kid at school. So let's fire through all these as quickly as possible. Yeah. How you doing? Hope you've been having a good weekend, yeah. I just want to recap. First of all, I enjoyed the press conferences that we got a lot. week and overall the event we had at 296 amazing event now just my two questions

Leon Edwards championship and his whole way of gone about you know with his next potential match-up fights just remind me a lot like how Kamara Usman and Taran Woodley handled some of their title defenses because you know Taran Woodley did the same shit with RDA and some of the other contenders who were actually deserved the title back in 2017-18, you know, and that includes Kobe Compton because he actually deserved it. And I think Usman did the same with Wonderboy in 2021. You know, he gave it to Masverra.

He gave him to Kobe instead of, you know, Vicente Lucke, all those guys. I don't know why Leon is so adamant on denying Belal that title shot. It makes zero sense to me. And I think Bilal has actually become a very complete fighter. I watched the Burns fight yesterday. He actually has solid. you know, he has solid jabs. He can definitely give the hit.

You know, people may disagree me on that. My other question is, this was about Elia Tuporia. I like Elia Tuporia. He is probably the most complete fighter, who I have seen right now that is elite in every angle,

and I can see him beating Vokonovsky in February. However, are we possibly seeing a revisionist history and repeat of Francis and Garna 2.0 with Elia where he gets too super cocky and Volcanoes, absolutely humbles the

fuck out of him because I'm not to the UFC's disrespecting Vogue, but at least some of the fans since Islam chaos back in October, they are truly, truly they have betrayed Volk. They've literally switched up on him

and a lot of fans have probably forgotten how dominant Volk has been. up until now. I mean, he just came off probably ugly, the best performance of his career just prior to that knockout with his July performance and his fight gets Islam the first time. That's all I have. Have a great day.

Thanks, man. I don't know. I think I'llies the real deal. So I'm looking forward to that fight. Of all the fights that are on the books right now, that's the one I'm looking forward to the most from like an MMA fan's perspective. Will Sean Strick of DDP be super weird and fun?

Yes. But in terms of like actual like mixed martial arts competition, as Jose Young's would say high-level mixed martial arts competition. It's Volk versus Ilya. That's the fight. That's the fight. And the reason Leon's kind of no-selling ball is for the same reason,

Tyrone no-sold Wonder Boy, it's the same reason why other guys no-ssold others. There's opportunity to make money and the window is small. I wish Leon would have just come out and set it, but at least in my eyes, he's thinking, look, Connor's going to come back at UFC 3. 300. At least that's what I think he thinks. And if Connor goes out and beats Michael Chandler and knocks him on the first round and Connor calls for a welterway title shot, of course Leon's

going to jump all over that. Of course he is. But just a no sell ball altogether. Like, it's just don't agree with it. I just don't agree with it. All right. We got to go more rapid fire than that. I got six minutes. At 1115, I got to go. Cleave, go ahead. Hey, how you doing, man? You, you already answered my question i was going to ask about you have ufc 300 if you think michael chanler was going to uh headline with connor but i also wanted to ask um about coby do you think it's best for him to try to move down to 255 to try to get a go through a title run down there trying to get a title shot or what you think's next for coby after being o and three in title fights thank you i think it's going to be chandler connor but who knows the colby one's super interesting

nothing is off the table. If he said, I'm moving to 155 tomorrow, it wouldn't surprise me. If we never saw him fight again, it wouldn't surprise me. Here's what he should do. If he wants to get back, what he's done so far has been horrendous. It's been so bad. You know, I talk about some of the mishaps on the mic from Balala and Benil and even Leon, but Colby's way worse, in my opinion.

there's only one thing right now I think Colby could do to get back in the good graces in any way, shape, or form. And that is to call out Shafkaat Rukmanoff. You call out Shafcott, you say I want that fight. I don't care when, where, wherever. I want that guy. And I will beat him.

That I think would be like, all right, dude, like, cool. This is what you're supposed to be doing. I respect the Wonderboy call-up because it's just on brand. and he's not wrong when he says that Wonder Boy is the bigger name. He's completely right about that. Wonder Boy is still a very popular guy. And there is a part of me as a guy who's been talking and interviewing Wonderboy for the last seven years. I would like to see, it would be a cool story of Wonderboy got a title shot.

So that fight at least like if Wonderboy beats Colby, he might get one. He might get one last shot at it. And I'm sure, trust me, when I tell you, Wonderboy wants that fight. He would love that fight. And there's a very good stylistic chance he could win that fight. We just saw what happened when he fought a range kickboxer type of style. He had nothing for Leon. And I think Wonderboy could do the same thing.

Possibly. But who knows? Covington can get some takedowns and do all that. So we'll see what happens. All right. We have three minutes. I want to get Ani and CB in. Ani, keep this quick, my man.

Hello. Whether your stomach is full or not, you are definitely full of rants, Mike. I really like this snappy snap snap, snap, Mike. You know what I mean? You have to fast more often if we get these sorts of rats from you, Mike, I have to tell you. But all the very best, it needs a lot of mental fortitude in order to go through a 72-hour fast. All the very best. There is one thing that I disagree with you with.

Okay, what Leon Edwards coach said about, you know, Bilal Muhammad, I completely disagree with that. And definitely Bilal Gilbert Burns does not deserve it over Bilal Mohammed. But tell me, Mike, what can Leon Edwards say or do that can make things worse for him? He at least said something on Twitter saying, hey, Bilal, you're an easy fight. You're the least intimidating guy. And you would expect that he went off of his experience against him the very first time. And in case Leon Edwards lost or, you know, won in a very close or a controversial fight, it wouldn't change a damn thing about him, right?

He's at least saying something on Twitter. So I don't think what the issue is. And I don't think he ever said that I will not fight Bilal. I don't think he said that. He just knows sold him, and I don't see any issue with that. Because at the end of the day, it's just UFC. And the final question that I have for you is, what fight do you think with a decent amount of confidence would make it to UFC 300.

It doesn't have to be the main event, any fight. All the best for your fast again. And yes, regardless of who's on BTL or not, if AK's on it, he's winning it, boys. That's it. See you. Thanks, bud. I mean, UFC 300, I don't know.

It's craft shoot at this point. We'll see. I would expect Connor Chandler, but who knows at this point? Who the hell knows? You have seen this really close to the vest. I have heard nothing about UFC 300. Absolutely nothing.

Usually I get some sort of heads-ups about some things, but nothing, literally nothing that I've heard about 300. The Leon stuff, look, I agree with you. Leon's not like saying I'm not fighting Belaw. He's not saying that. He's no-selling the press conference. And as I said, multiple times, I don't have an issue with him no-selling Leon. I mean, no-selling Bel-Law. I get it.

I don't love it, but I get it for the same reason as I mentioned. Dude's 32, 33. He's the champion of the world. Eventually, Shopcott's coming, and he ain't going to be the champion forever. He's just not going to be the champion forever. So if he has the chance to cash in and make some money, I get it. And the only one that could do that for him right now is Connor. So he needs for that to happen.

Here's my issue with Leon. My issue was the tweet. My issue was the tweet. My issue was him saying, Belal's a bum, essentially. That's my issue. That's my problem.

You come out and you call him the least intimidating guy. Easy work. You just look like a moron if Bilal beat you. That's my problem. It's bad trash talk. It's not good. It's not good. Again, the Bobby the Brain Heenan thing.

That's what it's all about. Bobby the Brain Heenan never said that his client's opponents sucked and they were terrible. Ever! He said, we're going to win, but he didn't say like Hulk Hogan, you are the worst wrestler in the world and Andre's going to squash you. No. He said, Hulk, you've had a tremendous run. You've had the title forever heading into WrestleMania 3. But now it's my guy's time.

He never discounted Hogan. That's how you're supposed to do it. Ballal's really good at fighting. Dude's real good, but I think I'm going to dust him up. That's not no-selling the opponent. Because if he fights Belal and Belal beats him, he looks like a moron. He looks like an idiot. Plain and simple.

Just he's got, you got to be better. Be better. Do the thing and do it right. He's not doing it right. He's doing it terribly. Doing it terribly. Or at least be honest and say, hey, I'm going to wait and see if Connor beats Michael Chandler.

We know that's what he's trying to do. He wants to make money. I get it. Go make your money. But be honest about it. Say, look, I'm going to fight Connor. Hell, if Leon, and I swear to God I'd be okay with this, if Leon Edwards at the end of the fight said,

hey, Jorge, come out of retirement, let's settle this shit. I would have more respect for that. Even screwball wall, but at least he had something in mind. to no sell Balal and then have nothing, you look foolish. You look foolish. At least be honest about it. I want a big money fight. Give me Connor.

Realistic. It's a realistic fight of Connor beats Michael. But just be honest about it. Just be honest. C.B., go ahead, closes out. Yo, Mike, heck of a morning. It's been a minute. I'm still on vacation.

It's actually been a heck of a night. It's 12, 7, 12, 18. AM midnight Friday here in Manila. It's probably the only chance I get to call in for the show. I'm going to Hong Kong next week for New Year's Eve. Hope everybody got their Christmas shopping done. I'm pretty sure you got all the takes from 296. My only comment is, man, the year kind of ended off with a whimper.

The main event really sucked with Edwards and Covington. But apart from all the takes, I just want to say, you know, I think we've been all spoiled as MMA fans. And look, we got 2024 to look forward to. We got Strickland v. DDP. We got Volk versus Deporia in February. $2.99 is looking pretty stacked. Can't wait.

We also got $300. And yeah, Merry Christmas to all. To everybody here in the spaces, happy years in advance. And that's it. Thanks, man. Yeah, dude, that made a bit was not good. It was not good.

And again, I'm not, I will defend Leon on this. He needs to keep the belt. He needs to keep the belt. It's not quite like Pantosia could have fought Roy Vell like an absolute maniac, but especially a flyway dude, like you've got to keep that belt. You have to. It's going to be hot potato. Eventually someone's going to come along that runs off five, six title defenses.

It's going to happen. Mejahev or cop or Tyro when he gets there, like they're going to get there and they're going to have the bell for a while. So for Pantosia at this point in that division, you got to hold on to it. So I totally understand why he fought smart. And the same reason why I understand why Leon fought smart. He thought, Leon thought we're going to get different Colby, a very aggressive Colby who needs to get off to a good start.

What he got was Colby giving him a win. He just handed it to him. And that's why I kept saying, like, in the build of the fight, like, we are going to know exactly how this fight is going to play out in the first seven minutes. seven minutes into the fight we're going to know how it's going to play out and sure enough that's what happened Colby handed him the tight

just gave him the title back gave him a range kickboxing match what's Leon supposed to do say no this is boring no he's taking the fight that was given to him by his opponent which is the highest percentage

style he needed to win same way is he fought Jared Cannonier not fun not compelling but Izzy expected Canada Air to try to take his head off. And instead he got Cannonair staying at range

and having a kickboxing match with him. He's just going to take that fight every time because he's never going to lose that fight. You know, at least Strickland was way more aggressive in his pursuit. Candidare just, you know, threw a shot here and there, shot the occasional takedown, but did nothing to thwart Izzy in any way.

And that's what happened here. It was not fun. It was not a great win for, I mean, it was not a, memorable win from Leon, but you take what you can get. He dominated. The fight was not competitive at all. Even in

the fifth round, like Colby was on top of him, but he did nothing. Did nothing with it. Leon's just like, all right, I'll just sit here and cruise this out, win the fight. That's what he did. There you go. Kind of went out with the wimper, but still a pretty good

card. Crazy year. My hope is just that 2024 does not start off the way 20203 did because MMA was in a pretty dark place if you recall for the first month of 2023 with

all the crazy shit that was going on and hopefully we get off to a little bit better start and we just kind of ride that momentum. So all right, we are done. I am way over time here. Thank you very much. Much appreciated. BTL later on, 1230.

We'll do some awards show. We'll do awards preview all fun stuff. Tomorrow will be here. Next week is a crap shoot. I will not be here next week at all. Taking some time off, taking the rest of the year off, if we're being honest.

But we'll have some, all the award stuff, we'll have an award show, which is going to launch, I think, sometime next week. We'll have a BTL next week. Jedd and I's annual airing of grievances for promotions.

the promotional airing of grievances. We give our grades, the good, the bad, the ugly from all the major MMA promotions. A.K. and I will have our 2023 predictions recap episode of On to the next one next Sunday. I believe that drops on New Year's Eve. So that's something to be excited about. And then the following week we'll do the live prediction show. So get your buy yourself submissions in the way you would submit your matchmaking suggestions. And that's like my favorite show of the year.

AK and I recording the recap episode. AK, if you're listening, don't go back and watch or listen to the old one. Come in cold. Come in cold. Let's remember all of our terrible takes throughout the year, and it's going to be a lot of fun. So thank you all very much.

I'll see you guys tomorrow, 10.15 a.m. Eastern time. Have a great rest of your Thursday. And have a heck of a morning, everybody. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first? There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.