MMA Fighting - HOAM | Is Conor McGregor vs. Tony Ferguson the Fight To Make?

Episode Date: January 27, 2023

The MMA community is giving their opinions on a potential matchup between Conor McGregor and Tony Ferguson for McGregor's return fight, as well as the possibility of them coaching against one another on the next season of The Ultimate Fighter. Is that the fight to make? On an all-new episode of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck takes listener questions about that piece of business should it come to fruition, and if there are better options in play for the former two-division champion. Additionally, listener topics include UFC light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill and the hopes for a fight with Jiri Prochazka in his first defense, Arman Tsarukyan calling out Michael Chandler, fighters claiming to be overlooked when they're really not, Bella Mir signing the UFC's first NIL deal, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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We are live on the M.A. fighting Twitter spaces. You can hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter on the MMA fighting podcast. podcasting network. I am Mike Hack. Hope everybody is having a fantastic week, a fantastic Friday. And you know me. I love doing the show on Fridays. I love doing the show all the time. But Fridays are fun because we get to open up the floodgates a little bit. We can talk about MMA. We can talk about not MMA. We get a lot of pro wrestling questions. We get a lot of questions about the MMA media space and

yeah, we can talk about any of those things or whatever else is on your mind. That's what the show is all about. I assume most of the questions will be MMA related or something in the family of mixed martial arts. Either way is cool with me. So let's get right into this thing

and we'll start with Edward. I don't remember if Edward is called in before, so exciting stuff. Edward, hello. You just got to unmute yourself. Hey, how are you? How are you doing, sir? I'm great, I'm great.

I get to ask you a question, right? You sure do. All right, so there's a matchup, Benio Daruse versus Charles Alivaura. Who do you favor in that matchup and why? Man, that's a great fight. By the way, it's not done yet. I saw a lot of people on social media

jump in and say that Darius said the UFC's targeting a fight for May against Charles O'Levara. And it appears that discussions are ongoing, but if you actually watch that interview, it didn't seem like, I don't know, Darius didn't seem confident that it would happen, but maybe it's just because of the place he's in

and he's been promised a lot of things and just doesn't seem to happen. In that interview, Derrier said he was offered that fight in January. Then they were going to try to do it in February and then March and then April and now it might be May. And I think with this particular fight, there is a little bit of smoke to it. There are discussions going on. Nothing is signs.

There's no like official agreements in place. Like Sterling Sohudo is closer to being done for April 8th than Allver versus Darius. if that makes sense. But the fight is being discussed. That I can tell you, based on that interview and just conversations we have had behind the scenes. But that is the fight to make.

There is no other fight that makes sense to me. I know there was talks about a lot of people were like, well, let's just do Darius versus Porei. I just didn't think the timelines are going to line up. I don't think at this point Darius wants to wait to like July or August. And although if you're Darius, you would probably would,

prefer fighting Dustin Porre, even though it's still a tough-ass fight. But if that's a fight they make, I mean, God, it's a real close one. It's a real close one. I would probably favor Charles Olivera because the things that Darius is very good at, Olivera is slightly better, although Darius, his offensive and opportunistic grappling could be a problem for Oliver. Like, I know Alvara is a great grappler, and he has a lot of submissions, and he has records and all that stuff. But he's not great off of his back.

Like, I know he gets, he got a lot of extra credit heading into the Islam-Makachev fight. And I just didn't really understand that. Like, he's against a competence grappler on top position. He's not spectacular. He's a little overrated. So I think, I mean, I, I. It's the fight. It's definitely the fight. I would pick Oliver right now, but would it shock me if Darius went in there and beat him? No. That dude is on a tear right now, and he needs this fight.

Whatever he has to do to get Charles Olivera in that octagon in May or June or whatever this fight happens, he needs to do it. Because if he wants to get a title shot in this division, anytime soon, he's got to get that fight. That's the fight. I hope they make it. I really hope they make it because nothing else really makes sense right now. But we'll see what happens. I mean,

but golly, I really hope they make that fight. That fight friggin rules. D-Rox, what's up? Hey, man, I can't wait for that fight. But what about the fight that seems to be rumoring around about McGregor and Tony Ferguson?

It's funny because on BTL, Jed Michoud always brings up the quote-unquote mom test, where if there's certain things in the news and you know they're a big deal, people who you don't normally talk to will reach out to you about this potential news. And oddly enough, this morning I've gotten five or six texts from family members, from friends I went to high school with, other people who cover other sports asking me if this fight's happening. And I will tell you the same thing. No. Not right now. So here's what we've learned. We have seen Conner's tweet or

Instagram post that he was asked to, he was approached to coach the next season of the ultimate fighter. And then last night, we saw Tony Ferguson essentially post on social media, something very similar and kind of leaning towards, all right, I accept Connor, let's coach this together. From what we understand, Tony has been approached about coaching the ultimate fighter. There were perhaps other plans in place, but he was approached and that I'm sure of. He was approached about coaching. Is he locked and loaded? I don't think so.

and do we at this point in 23 can we take Connor McGregor at his word about anything? I'm not that confident. So it would be a season that would get people to watch

if those two guys coach and you would assume if they coached that they would end up fighting each other and if I'm Connor McGregor and if I'm the UFC trying to bring Connor back and try to get him a win

that's a really good fight to come back to because Connor would be favored in that fight. Tony would present some problems, especially in the ground game. But as we've seen against Nate Diaz in the second fight, we saw it in the Habib fight, even though Habib sort of washed Connor.

Connor, his defense was pretty damn good on the mat. He was able to not give Habib fits, but he made Habib work a little bit harder than most expected him to. But I would pick Connor to win that fight. Tony's obviously a very big name in the sports still, despite being on the losing streak he's on. I mean, my best friend Alexander Kay Lee is here,

and he has Tony Ferguson ranked in his top 10 in the NBA fighting global rankings, which if you listen to the airing of grievances, you know we've already addressed this, but Tony's a huge name. It's probably, if you're looking to get him the Soroni-esque kind of win, Ferguson's probably the best opponent to get him back there. I love the Chandler idea.

That makes sense. That'd be fun as hell. Mazadol would be interesting. But I don't know if Mazadol would coach the season. I don't know if that's with every. I mean, the guy runs like 87 promotions. I just don't know if he's going to have the time to do it. So, yeah, I mean, that's probably the best case scenario.

but to say that fight is booked or anything like that or those who are locked in as coaches at this point in time would be inaccurate. We'd be probably way too early in those discussions at this point. But developing, we'll see. I might actually watch an episode if those two guys coach. I probably won't watch the whole season, but I would probably watch an episode,

probably the first one to see how those two interact with each other. but I would say probably like two or three episodes in, I'll be like, oh, this show still stinks. Let's go to Tristan. What's up, Tristan? Hey, Mike. Can you hear me? Yes.

Hi, Mike. I have my questions here. My first question is your thoughts about Sage Northcutt coming back. He's coming back after a four-year layoff after that loss, where I guess his face was half. broken. You know, what's your thoughts about him coming back? And, you know, to be honest, I don't think he should have, I don't know, been released

from the UFC. You know, he had a pretty good record and just, you know, I have a feeling like Dana didn't like him for whatever reason. Because if you think about it, look at Chase Hooper. He's still in the UFC and we think, you know, you mentioned plenty of times. He should go back down to the regional scene. So just your thoughts on that. And then my second question is.

about Umar and the Megamato. Is he going to be another fighter that a lot of Bannerweights are just going to try to avoid, in your opinion, because I don't think anybody wants to fight that do it at all. I mean, probably the only person that would probably want to fight him, that will fight him would be, um, um, oh my goodness, he's, uh, fighting, um, Peter Yon, uh, but I think he was the only Mariah, there we go, Mara, uh, Devalis Philly. Is he going to, because I think he's going to be kind of in the same position as

Shafkao Romanov. I mean, if Rachmanov beats Jeff Neal, he's going to be avoided a lot. So just your thoughts on those two questions that I have. Thanks, Mike. So Sage was not released by the UFC. He just wasn't offered, like he fought out his deal and the UFC just didn't resign him. That's how that worked. It wasn't like he was outright released.

or anything. I mean, he was coming off of a win, but at that point, the UFC had a decision to make. Is the juice worth the squeeze? Do they want to keep investing in this guy? Because I'm sure he was making, compared to the rest of the roster, pretty damn good money. And did they feel like he had reached a ceiling? Was it worth making the extra investment in him? Dana felt like he didn't. I know he did an interview with the unfiltered show shortly thereafter and felt like he still had some improvements to make and wanted to see if he could go ahead and make those. And then maybe there was a chance to bring him back. But one picked him up, probably paid him a lot of money to go over there and fight. And as a young kid with dreams and aspirations and the whole world of head of view, Sage took the money and got the opportunity to travel.

the booking of his first fight was atrocious, obviously, throwing him in there with Cosmo, Alexandria, and anybody who was familiar with Cosmo understood that. When the fight was first made, people were like, what the hell? Like, why would you do that? And then we saw the result, and it was one of the most brutal knockouts I've ever seen, and it was just bad, and you knew Sage was in a really bad way after that. So he took his time, he's coming back.

He's got a tough opponent ahead of him, but it's a guy that I think Sage, even at that UFC level, the guy who fought Zach Otto has a good chance of beating. But it was important that if Sage is going to come back, you had to bring him up, put him on that US card.

That thing needs a boost. I love the DJ Adriana Mariah's trilogy fight. It's great. But if you're going to try to cement your place in this new market, you got to get names on there, especially from the United States. And Sage is one of the bigger stars they have,

even though he hasn't fought. And by the time he gets in there, it'll be just under four years. So, yeah, I think he's taking enough time off. And I'm curious to see how he looks in this fight. You can do a lot of evolution in four years. And he's older and wiser and more mature. He's probably more in his athletic prime.

If you follow him on social media, doesn't look like he's been sitting on his ass over these four years. he looks in ridiculous shape. So I'm very curious to see how that fight plays out. As far as Umar goes, I don't know who the hell is going to fight this guy. He's going to have a really tough time. He's going to have to fight somebody coming off of a loss. Man, like, I don't know.

I don't know. I thought the Marov fight was the one. But they ended up going with Piotr Yan. Let me look at the Banimate rankings right now and just kind of see where we're at, if anything really even makes sense here. because most of these guys are booked already. I don't know. I mean, trying to think about March,

a lot of people are throwing out Dominic Cruz, and I just don't think Dominic Cruz would be all that thrilled to take that fight. Yeah, there's not a ton there. I don't know what they're going to do. If he's going to fight in March... But, again, if he wants to fight in March, I don't care who he fights. Just get him in there.

This is how you build up stars. You just chuck them in and let them do their thing. I know, like, guys like Sayyadok Haqqqqa Romanov, having to fight back to back to Magamadoff's, kind of a tough hang, but he would take that fight. I know he's not ranked, but he would take that fight. I just don't think he's going to get what he wants here in terms of getting a ranked guy if he wants to fight in March.

Because everybody else is booked right now. like umar's not even ranked in the top 15 oh no he's 11 excuse me o'malley's just kind of waiting to see what happens with the division so hoodo and sterling are targeted for 287 yon's fighting marab vera's fighting san hagan font's fighting adrian yanez songy dong's fighting rickie simone pedro munoz is fighting chris gutierrez jack shore's not abandon weight anymore and the only other rank guy that's not booked is Sayyid Narbaghamedov who just fought. So, yeah, I don't know what they're going to do. Maybe chuck him in there with like a Montel Jackson.

I'd watch the hell out of that. But maybe they throw him in there with like Sayyidukh Khanov who would fight anybody. Yeah, we'll see. He's in a tough spot. He's in the Marab spot. He's probably in the Shafkot spot where it's just going to be. be really tough to find him opponents to fight. But eventually he's just, eventually he's just going to get to a point where this division,

once these fights play out, I think we'll have a little bit of a clearer path for Umar, but I just, I don't know, I just don't know what they're going to do with everybody in the division booked. Maybe he's a standby guy. I don't know. Viking, hello. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice, yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes, because those are groceries, and we deliver those too.

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why he's a one-dimensional fightans well i'm not talking about hold on Viking i'm not talking about skill set i'm not talking about skill set i'm not talking about the risk reward the risk reward factor of fighting a guy like that because he's out there just killing everybody it's it's gonna be hard for a top 15 guy to be like oh sweet umar and amalgam adaf yeah i'll fight that guy

That's what I mean by that. All right. Apologies. All good. I just want to talk about the disrespect thing about Jamalil. And everyone is talking about Jamalil being disrespected by the M.M.A. community. But what about Alex Pahara when he won't. the title, everyone was saying that, you know, he is very easily beatable and

Vittori will get him. Wittaker beats him handedly. Man, he just has beaten the undefeited Adestani against him. Everyone fell short and Alex Pereira just got him T-KO. So saying Pereira isn't easy to, easy to beat is very disdise. respectful either. And Jamalil having same criticism. But in reality, people were right about Pahira and Hill.

But we should let the champion enjoy his victory instead of pissing them off after such a big achievement of their life. So actually my question is about, is that The real, is that the exact time to criticize them or you can criticize them after, you know, two or three months? What's your opinion? It's a good question. Thank you, Viking. I appreciate that.

You make a really good point about Alex Pereira because once he beat Adasania and won the belt, you I mean the first assumption was he's going to just rematch Israel but then if you line up the rest of the vision a lot of people feel like robert woodaker would be favored against Alex Pereira and guys like marm vittori guys with really good wrestling who mix the martial arts are going to have a better shot so you actually make a really good point what's been interesting about Pereira is that throughout this whole thing there's talks about him fighting hamzaa shama if he goes on the m a mayor and calls out brendi and Shab and Kozla Shemaya for a fight at 205 in Brazil. And now that Jamal Hill is the champion, people want to see Pereira potentially move up and fight him. So I feel like the Pereira respect has grown a little bit more, but Pereer is also kind of a unicorn in this sport. The fact that he has done what he has done so quickly in his MMA career is just ridiculous.

This doesn't happen all that often. The Jamal Hill thing, I don't think he's being disrespected. Like, if he wants to use that as like a chip on his shoulder, I get it. I get it. But again, like Pereira, who's just in a different kind of unique situation, with Yuri Pajshka still there, I don't think there's anything wrong with, like, I don't think Jamal Hill's being disrespected. I really don't.

People are putting him over for that performance because it was incredible. He leveled up. He is a problem for. everybody in this division. He could beat Yuri Prahashka. I wouldn't pick him to be Yuri Prahashka, but he could beat him. He could beat Maghamed Ankhalyaf.

Again, I probably wouldn't pick him to beat Magamadankalayaf, but he could beat him. He could beat Blyovych. He could be Veneemkov. He could be a lot of guys. The problem is it's, and it's not his fault. He got put in kind of a lose-lose situation.

Because if he loses to Glover, I actually didn't think maybe not a lose-lose situation. It was kind of like damned if you do and damned if you don't. Because if he loses to Glover, I don't think it set him back all that much. But winning the belt

in the way of which he did it, it poses questions. I know Jed Mishu got a lot of flak for saying that this is a paper championship and maybe that's a little harsh. But Jamal Hill was not the first choice. He was not the second choice. He was not the third.

choice he was the fourth choice and he went in there and delivered a masterpiece no doubt about it that was an incredible performance i don't blame jemal hill for feeling the way he does and i don't blame jemal hill for being in the position he's in he got an opportunity and boy did that man deliver the problem is the onus to me goes on the ufc for this they screwed this up if they just I know it was we've talked about this before I know it was presented that Yuri Prahashka

vacated the belt to that division would move on without him. I don't think that's true and he didn't fully say that talking to Ariel but it seemed pretty clear that it wasn't just his decision

because they wanted to put a title on the line if they just did what they always do and did an interim title at UFC 282 and then did an interim title again at UFC 283 we wouldn't even be having this conversation right now. Hill would be getting his flowers. We'd be pumping up a fight between Hill and Yuri Prakashka to unify the belts. But instead, Yuri said it's presented that he vacated for the sake of the division. I don't think that's wholly accurate.

I think it was like, hey, we're probably just going to take the belt off of you, but we'll present it in this way. And that's kind of what Yerry laid out as well. If they just let Yerry keep the belt and then just did interim titles, we're not having this discussion right now. And a lot of people gave me some grief because I, and I'll say it again. In my rankings for the NBA Fighting Global Rankings, the only rankings that matter, I have Jamal Hill at number four. He's the UFC champion right now. I have been number four. and people think that's a slap in the face.

It's just, it's not. It's not. Because to me, in my eyes, Jamal Hill is, if I could invest in a fighter right now, for his skills, I'm investing in Jamal Hill. And I would have said that a year ago.

I would also say that had Magamette Ankylaif beaten Janbollahovic or Janbovovich beat Magamette Ankelaif, I wouldn't have ranked them number one either. I would have still had Yerie number one. If Glover Tashira won the belt and didn't retire, I would have still ranked Glover Tashira two or three or four. It didn't matter who is the champion.

They would have gotten the same, pretty much around the same ranking. So it's not Jamal Hill. It's just the way the UFC put this all together is just, it's just dumb. Like it just makes no sense. Normally they are smart with this stuff. And I give them a lot of credit and the matchmaker's credit and some of the decisions they make. in these areas, I usually give them some kudos for. But we have seen interim titles on the line in way worse situations than this.

That made no sense. This makes perfect sense to do an interim title. But instead, Yuri's not the champion. The dude says he thinks he's going to be back in July or August. And I know maybe that's a little optimistic, but Yuri says, Yuri's been saying it from day one. Six months, I can start fully training again. and I'll be back.

If he says he's going to be back in July or August, let him keep the belt. You let Francis keep the belt the whole time. And he wasn't going to fight the entire year. And you knew that. I understood you're in contract negotiations or there's a chance to be stripped Francis in the belt. He could just go off and be a free agent.

I understand that. But we have seen interim titles on the line for way worse. We just watched Peter Jan and Corey, we watched Peter Jan and Corey Sanhagen fight for the interim Bantamway title because Aljo needed some more. time after a serious neck injury. They didn't strip Aljo with the belt.

They did an interim title. And then Alja didn't fight again for six months. The whole thing is just weird. If they just did it the way they normally did it, there is no disrespect. There is no conversation. Uri's the dude. Jamal Hill's the next man up. He's the number one guy.

He made a huge leap. People would be talking about the performance, not the title. And we could just build ourselves up to this fight. And if Jamal Hill wanted to fight again, he could just defend the interim title against somebody else. Then we're still good. We're in the same position. But the UFC,

him, Yuri not being the champion is the problem here. That's the big issue. If they just did this the way they always did it, we're not having a disrespect conversation. We're getting excited about

Jamal Hill fighting Yuri Prashka for the unified title. But that's, not what happened here. So now it's a different conversation. And it's stupid. It's stupid. This is not a good, this is not a, this is not a, this is not well thought out by the UFC. QP Prime. What's up? What's good, Mike? What's up? Let me, um, damn, all right. First, first, first and foremost, I understand that Jamal Hill

Slander, but we can't, we just got to let him, we just got to let them do a thing, man. He went out there, he went to the former champion's backyard. He beat him five rounds of nothing. He pitched a shutout. He wrapped the flag. He wrapped the flag around the belt. He flew home first class. Like, we just got to respect that.

But I feel like, like, going forward in situations like that, I feel like the fighters should be more transparent. Like instead of the year he's saying, oh, I release the belt for the sake of the division and trying to make it look like an honor thing. And then coming out and saying he's a paper tour, he's saying he's the real champion. So it's like it kind of defeats the purpose of you saying that you gave the belt up for the sake of the division. It's like, did you, you know, did the UFC make you get a belt up or did they give you a nudge or did you really give the belt up for honor? Because if that's the case, you would say you're the champion.

Now I'm coming to take the belt back from you. Like, I just don't really, I don't know. I feel like it should be more transparency. So it's less debate and criticism on the champion when he, like, I forgot the guy's name from earlier. Like when he has an achievement of his life that's this big, you know, having six kids coming from Grand Rapids. you can't. It's like that's an achievement that you can't try to take away from somebody just because somebody else had an injury or some misfortune in their situation. It's like, come on, we got to stop doing that.

Let me ask you a question. Do you think deep down that Yuri Prakashka vacated the belt on his own for the honor of the division? Or do you think he was not? No. It just sounds cool for his whole shtick and his whole personality for honor of the division. I'm going to give the belt up so that I won't hold up the division, but then he's coming out with video sandpaper. It's just, I don't know. It's like a contradiction.

But. Right. And I get what you're saying. And to rebut a little bit, I don't think there's any Jamal Hill slander. No one is taking anything away from this guy. That performance was incredible. No one is saying he was lucky. No one's saying anything bad about the performance.

everyone is is shining light on Jamal Hill because of what he did. And he was in a position short notice to jump in as the fourth option essentially. He got an opportunity. He said yes. And he went in there and he did the damn thing. And he looked incredible. He looked incredible. Him going out there and just holding Glover to Shera in 90 seconds would not have had the same impact on my eyes

than that performance he had this past Saturday. It was incredible. And I have more belief in Jamal Hill as a future champion or a long-reigning champion at this point than I did six months ago. The dude, I mean, he got his arm snapped by Paul Craig not long ago. He got taken down six times by Tiago Santos and had that up in a three-round fight, he would have lost it. And the man leveled up.

The man leveled up. I don't, I feel for Jamal Hill. I feel for the man. But he was put in the situation where he just couldn't win. Like if he loses, he loses. And it would have been hilarious if Glover won the belt and just retired. And just, we'd be back at the same boat. Like, that would be hilarious.

The problem is he was put in a position where him winning this belt, the way that he did it, I mean, it was an incredible performance, but everyone feels like Yuri's the dude, and he shouldn't have lost the belt. That's how I feel. If you just did this the right way, and you didn't do the whole bullshit with Yuri not being the champion,

which I agree with you, I don't think, I don't think this is a Yuri honor decision. I think this is the UFC saying, hey, dude, we're going to take the belt off of you, but we'll present it in this light. I use the Terry Francona Red Sox example. Terry Francona won two championships at the Red Sox.

And then the one year they spent a floppy trillion dollars to bring in all these free agents when they were starting to not get out of the first run of the playoffs. They didn't even make the playoffs. And we knew Terry Francona was going to get fired. But the way the Red Sox presented it was we parted ways amicably instead of we fired his ass. It's the same thing here. The UFC stripped, in my eyes, they, they, took the belt off of him. And they were like, look, Jerry, we'll present it in this way that

you're the honorable champion. Because even Dana said, this is the worst shoulder injury I've ever seen. This dude is going to be out for a wrong, long, long, long, long time. And then Yeri the entire time is like, no, dude, I'll be back in six months. Yeah, the shoulder injury is bad, but I'll be back in July or August. The stories don't mesh. So if they just did the interim title to begin with, again, we're not having this conversation. We're giving Jamal his flowers, and we're saying to ourselves, holy shit, Jamal Hill versus Yuri Perashka for the unified belt is going to be sick. And we're shining, we're giving him his flowers.

But instead, they screwed this whole thing up and they put him in a lose-lose situation. Where with Yeri's still there and him saying he's going to fight this summer, until he beats Yuri, no one's going to, like most people aren't going to buy him as the champion. And it's not his fault. it's not his fault but it's the way he is now positioned because of the promotion the promotion's decision here and it's dumb and i thought it was dumb in december when they made this decision interim title interim title we're not even having this conversation there's no disrespect we're giving jemal everything and we can't wait to see this dude fight yuri prohashka

and i hope that's the fight if i'm jemal hill i ain't fighting anybody until Yuri Perashka is ready. If Yuri can fight in July or August, that's when we see Jamal Hill again. Him fighting Maghaman Ancolaev makes no sense. Makes no sense. If you want to stay busy, they want to do the Anthony Smith fight,

sure, because I think Jamal Hill wins that fight. And Jamal's probably pretty confident he wins that fight. If that version of Jamal Hill on Saturday fights Anthony Smith, he is going to wreck Anthony Smith. And I think Anthony's a solid hand, intelligent guy. But if that version fights Anthony Smith, he runs him over, in my opinion. But it makes no sense for him to fight Ancolaev or Behovich or Rackich or anybody else.

Just wait for Yeri. And if people have an issue with you, you go out there and you whoop Yeri's ass. No one's questioning you anymore. Nobody. This next fight is going to determine everything for this guy. And again, it's not his fault and it's not fair to him. But that's the position he's just unfortunately in right now. And it's kind of sucks.

It sucks for him. I feel for him. But that's the position he's in. He could use this to his advantage. Four-ounce sniper. Yes, I do. How are you? I'm good.

How are you? Good. Hey, so I heard Jamal Hill on Ariel Helani show yesterday. I heard him addressing basically his comments on the whole Dana White situation. I'm real glad he cleared that up because I saw his tweet after I asked you about what he said was wrong. Like what did he say that got him all this hate?

I saw the tweet. I'm still, I don't understand why he got the hate to begin with, but I'm glad he cleared it up on Ariel's show because basically he said just everybody should keep their hands to themselves and nobody has to worry about getting hit or slapped or whatever. But I just want to know, do you think, based off of everybody's views on Jamal Hill, do you think that he can bounce back

from all the hatred he's getting right now? Do I, yeah, I do. I do. And the fact that Ariel asked him, I mean, I told you he was going to ask him about it because I know he did other interviews and he probably wasn't asked about it, but I knew Ariel was going to ask him about it.

And that's how he feels like, cool. It's just the timing was bad. You just, sometimes it's better to, just not say anything. You know what I mean? It was just, there's just bad timing. It didn't go over well.

If he feels like he was misinterpreted, fine. But he was asked, he addressed it, answered the question. There was no real hesitation in his voice. And honestly, like I said, I have talked to Jamal Hill many times over the years. Before he was in the UFC, I've talked to him.

I talked to him in July, face to face. he seems like a very good dude. Anybody who's been around him says he's a great guy. I know John Anick took a lot of shit for him saying what he said about Jamal Hill in the broadcast. I thought John Anick took a little bit of an unnecessary beating

if we're being honest. But anybody I've ever talked about Jamal Hill says he's a great guy. So did he make a mistake? Yes. He made a mistake. If he just didn't say anything, he'd be in a much better spot. But yeah, I think just him jumping in the way that he did and responding the way that he did.

If that's what he meant, cool. But it didn't seem like that's what he meant when he first put it out there. It seemed like in the overall consensus of it was, if she hit him first, you should hit him back. You should hit her back. That's what it looked like. in people's eyes, especially with the timing of it all. And when Dana White comes out and says, do not defend me, he was talking to Jamal Hill. I mean, that's who he was talking to.

But again, like I said, anybody that I've talked to about Jamal Hill says he's a great dude. And I've, in all my encounters with him, he was very nice to me, great guy. He is an intense individual. But he's been nothing but great to me. So can he bounce back? Of course. he can. Hell, even Dana can bounce back from

this horse shit if he can do the right things. The road he's taking right now, he's not going to be able to bounce back from it, but if he takes the necessary steps, he can. I mean, Jedmishu made a great put out a great example on BTL.

Mike Tyson did some heinous shit. I mean, heinous shit. And it took him a long time, but Mike Tyson has bounced back. He has bounced back from just awfulness. He got his stuff together. He did the right things. It took him decades to do it, but he did it. It can't be done. And I think Jamal can bounce back from this as well. One thing about competitive sports is that winning can change everything. Look at Tiger Woods. Remember all the

shit he got into with his now ex-wife, remember all that? And then Tiger goes out and wins a couple tournaments. Tiger's right back to being Tiger. So he's in a little bit of a different spot than Dan is. But I'll tell you right now, Jamal Hill goes out

and fights Yuri Parashka and does that to Yuri. People are not going to be talking about that anymore, I can assure you. Let's go to Cole. Hey, Cole. You're muted. Cole? Oh, I'm here. Oh, I got you.

Sorry. What's up, ma'am? I hope you're having a heck of a morning this morning. Just want your thoughts on these super intense power slap match. No, I'm just kidding. Just something that no one seems to be talking about after this Jessica Androge bludgeoning. Where does Jessica Androge fit into the flyweight division, if that's her thing? I was kind of thinking, like, since Aaron Blanchfield's fighting Talia Santos in a big fight,

Is she a step below them? Are they next for the title after Valentina Defends one more time here? I just want your quick thoughts on that, thanks. Yeah, she's in an interesting spot right now Because she could go fight Zhang Wei Li right now And that would make all the sense in the world Because that fight, like, Zhang just dumped trucked her

And that fight never really got going. John just got all over and just capped her. So I would love to see that fight again. My pick on onto the next one, which by the way, AK and I are going to be recording a little bonus edition on Sunday morning. So we're going to basically do what we're doing here, but we're just going to read your questions off DMs and stuff like that. It could be about MA, could be about other stuff.

So however you submit your on to the next one picks, submit your questions for AK and I will answer them on Sunday. So I just want to get that plug out of the way. But my pick for On to the next one was Rosemonton, me unis either way if it happens at one 15 cool if rose wants to bulk up like she told me she wanted to do she wanted to put on some muscle teased and move to 125 if rose wants to go to 125 do the trilogy fight there they both have a win over one another and that second fight was really competitive that's the i think that's the fight to make i think that's the fight to make now couldn't rose just

slide into a title fight with jang we lee after the carla fight Yes, the UFC likes to give her title fights and Rose is popular. She's a star. 100%. I would not be surprised if that's the direction they go.

But if I had the book right now, that's the fight I'm making. And I would go to Rose and I would say, hey, we want you to fight Jess Gondrage next. And if you beat her, you can fight for either belt. You could fight Valentina

or you can fight John, whatever you want. I would give Veros the option. You want to do it at 125, you want to do it 115. It's just going to, if you pick 125, it's just going to be a fight at 125, but it has stakes in both divisions. And same for Andradege.

But I think that fight makes all the sense in the world. Just do that. Let's settle that rivalry, be a big deal, and then we'll go from there. I don't know. I feel like Jessica's next title shot would be at 115 because we all remember what happened when she popped Valentina. We all thought,

oh man just gunnjj she's a monster she's going to give valentina her toughest test and valentina heard those words and she showed up with a chip on her shoulder and she pitched a perfect game against jeska and drudge that was one of the best title defenses i've ever seen i mean she beat her up but rose is the fight for me that's how i would do it may not end up that way but that's how i would do it whether it's at 115 or 125 i don't care

but that's the fight to make. Let's go to MJ. What's up, MJ? Hey, Mike. So Armand Suruki, and I don't know if you guys talked about this already, but he's been looking for a fight, and I'm guessing UFC isn't putting anything together for him,

but his recent call was Chandler being a low-fight IQ fighter and should step up to the challenger. Step aside. Just your thoughts on him being vocal on Twitter since it doesn't look like matchmakers are giving him anything. And what you think his next step should be since it looks like he wants to get active sooner than later. Thanks.

I saw the call out. I think most people that are here in this space right now or listening on the podcast network, at this point, you probably know how I feel about Armand Sarukyan, how high I am on that guy, how high I've been on that guy for years and years. even before he got to the UFC. This guy is going to fight for a world title. And I'll take it a step further. I think at some point, Armand Sarukyan will have a UFC title wrapped around his waist.

I am that high on this guy. I love the callout. It's not a fight he's going to get, but I love the call out. I love the call out. I don't know who the hell this guy's going to fight. I honestly don't know. Let me pull up the race. rank he's not going to get any of the big names right now i i just don't see it happening now if

phizib goes out there and just rolls just in gaichi could we see a world where surukion fights geish sure but that's that fights happening in march if that does happen gaichi probably wouldn't fight to like the end of the year rda's going sticking at 170 i mean if they want to chuck them back in there with gamrott you're going to get no complaints from me he just beat demers mcula Moikano's kind of a step back, although I would watch that fight. Dober is far back. Dawson, I wouldn't do. He's in a tough spot, man.

Like he's kind of, he's just like Umar. There's no reward in fighting Surukyon right now. Because even if, even if you fight this guy and beat him, it doesn't get you a title shot, especially with this division being what it is. Porre would be a good one. I'd watch the hell out of that fight. Him and Porre would be really fun.

If Surruchion's willing to wait until the summer in Porre's game, I would love to see that fight. But my guess would be if he's going to fight somebody, he's probably going to fight like a Moikano or something, would be my guess, although I don't think,

I don't know why Moikano would jump at that opportunity, but who knows? Maybe he fights a Drew Dober. That's a good name right now. Drew's got some buzz. But if it's about moving up the ranks, I think he's going to be waiting a while. And if they do book the Benile Darius-Charoulavera fight,

I think the loser of that one would make good sense because Oliver would have lost two straight. Benile's winning streak would end. Benile just fought Matush Gamrott. Yeah. So it all depends on what he wants. If he just wants to get in there and scrap, get him in there. But if he wants to wait to fight a guy that's ranked higher than him,

he's going to have to wait a while. He's in a weird position. But I hope he gets his opportunity because I want to see him against those guys and see how he does. We already saw him against Islam and he was pretty damn competitive against Islam in his UFC debut.

Barbarossa, hello. I hope you are having a good day. I want to ask you about the same question. It's about the lightweight division. I like the Tarukyan call-out. We talked about this division a lot that the people at the top

they don't want to fight the upcoming talent. And I think Justin Gagie right now, he paid his dues and he's fighting an upcoming fighter. Is he very interesting? And he did it before, even when he came to the UFC, after he lost twice to Gage, to Alvarez and then to Porre. They gave him James Wick.

I know right now didn't age very well, but at the time, James Vic was having his own run. And Dustin Porre is in the division for a long time, and he paid his dues. Even after he lost to Kabib, he directly fought. Dan Hooker and Dan was having his run. And the only guy, I don't feel like he paid his dues for being at the top five is Michael Chandler. And he has to fight an upcoming fight, I think.

I don't know why. The UFC doesn't want to give him anyone. And Sarukian is going to be a really, really interesting fight. and yeah that's it for me Mike thank you have a nice day thanks man look if they booked Tim and Chandler I would be jacked to the gills for that fight because that fight would be awesome it'd be super interesting it'd be a super interesting fight

I would love to see it I just don't know Chandler Chandler wants that Connor fight and I think he's going to get after I think he's going to do everything in his power to get it and if he can't get it, I just don't know what other direction they can really go here because he's already fought Gagee, he's already fought Pori, he's already fought Olivera.

I kind of feel like he'd be, it's like, Surukiana, you don't fight? I don't know. I mean, he's already fought Dan Hooker. Like, who else is going to fight? Because if he doesn't get the Conner fight and he wants to get back in there, I just don't know, like, who else is there?

Like, the Drew Dober fight would be fun, but I don't think, But I think Dover's probably a little too far back. I don't know. I would love to see that fight. But this has been a problem in this division for a long time now. We talk about the squatting on the rankings, and there's been no bigger squatters than 55.

Like Gage is fighting for Zeev. That fight rules. Stylistically, it makes a ton of sense. Darius deserves this all of Avera fight. Hope he gets it. Darius has paid his dues too. And Darius just kind of has to keep winning at this point because the second he loses,

he's going to get thrown to the wolves. He's going to have to fight the Surukia. It's going to have to fight the Turners, the Dossons, all those guys. But I think at this point, we've got to give Darius that opportunity to fight somebody. So, yeah, I mean, it's going to be interesting. This is going to be a very interesting year for this division.

And I'm very intrigued about the kind of boobins that we're going to get. I don't know why RDA is still ranked it at 155. considering it doesn't seem like he has any plans to fight there. And if he's there and he's going to take fights at 55, then, I mean, RDA is not a bad matcher for Surukia on either, but it doesn't seem like he's going to be a lightweight moving forward. Marshall's buyers travel far and wide, hustling for great deals on amazing gifts.

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Cepara. or in Magazen. Let's go to Jastin. What's up Justin? You're muted.

Hi, me and my friends have been arguing about this for a few days now. Can I get

your thoughts on this Edwards and Usman fight? Because they don't believe Usman can pull it off. They don't believe Usman can pull it off? I mean, Usman was pulling it off

until he got kicked in the face. He was a minute away from winning that fight. He could definitely pull it off. If he just does what he did in the first fight, he'll win. He just can't get kicked in the face down the stretch. And I think Usman probably learned some lessons

along the way. but from a stylistic perspective, most people were picking Gooseman to win that fight. And the fight was pretty much going the way most expected it to until we got that shocking moments that came out of nowhere. The Doug Flutie Boston College moment against the Miami Hurricanes where Flutty just chucked the ball 65 yards and someone came down with it. That's what that moment was like.

I'm pretty, like in my eye, like, because I'm going to have to make a pick when that fight happens. And I'm going to pick Usman to win. But who knows? Maybe Leon's just, that that kick just changed everything for the man. It's a great fight.

It's a 50-50 fight. It wasn't 50-50 for me the first time around. But I think Usen can get it done. But we're talking about a guy. There are questions, though. There are questions that I have. We're talking about a guy who hasn't lost in a long, long time. a guy whose athleticism has carried him through

just nagging injury after nagging injury and on top of that he got he didn't just get knocked out and TKOed he got colded by Leon Edwards like a bad that was a bad knockout there's a lot of what ifs a lot of how do you bounce back from that that I do have questions about but Usman is a competitor

that guy is an animal and he's built differently than a lot of others. So do I think Leon can beat him again? Sure. He's the hometown dude. And Ousman's going to have some peeps there too. There's a lot of, he's going to have his people there too. It's going to be a pro-Leon crowd for the most part.

But it's not like Oussman's going to Brazil to fight somebody. He's going to a place where he's going to have fans as well. So, yeah, my pick is. Usman right now. But yeah, I don't think, I think the sentence, I don't think Usman has any chance of doing it. This dude was the number one pound for pound fighter in the world for like two years.

And he was winning the fight until the last minute. I can't, you can't count a guy like that. I cannot count a guy like that out. But there are questions. So I get where your buddies are coming from. I have questions too. But if anybody can bounce back from something like that,

it's that guy but can't wait for that fight it's super interesting Skyler what's up hey my kick of morning can you hear me yes I can all right I just have a couple points this is my first time calling in but I think you kind of beat

this to a dead horse but I want to make this point because I haven't heard it from between the links or anyone here on Jamal Hill is the fact that his resume compared to Yaris isn't like the gap isn't that high I mean Yeri beat O's Demirie

and he did kind of yury things. He's losing the first round, then he did yury things. He sends Reyes to the shadow realm. But, I mean, that win hasn't aged that well. And then he's in this fight of the year, maybe the best we've ever seen. And he is about a minute away from losing

and then pulls it out. If I'm Jamal, I see my knockouts against OSP, crude, Walker. I got caught by Craig, but so did on Kalev. Tiago Santos knocked him out and then I beat the hell out of Glover for five rounds and everyone's like well I got to wait to see what Yeri

looks like I'd be like well I just beat that dude up that he almost lost to for five rounds so I think I get that point and then the second one I didn't get to make this since I said first time calling in on John Jones I know we're kind of past that talking point but i think the ufc knowing they're going to lose ingani might have fell into the perfect

situation with jones because they signed it for eight years or eight fights he's the goat by most respects if he wins then you could just say yeah he didn't beat ingano but he's the goat you know he probably would have um and if cyril beats him then you could just make the argument hey cyril was styling on Inganu for two rounds, and then he realized Inganu did that he could just tackle him with his bum leg and sit on him. But if he beats Jones, he likely improves his takedown defense. And it's a harder sell, I know, but you could say, hey, you know, he used his takedown defense. He's improved there. He could beat Inganu now. Like I said, harder sell, but I think they worked, they could really manipulate this in their favor if they really wanted to.

And that's all I got for you. They can and they absolutely will as well because that's what they do. As soon as that fights over, Dana White will go to the press conference and say that this guy is the best heavyweight in the world, even though that's not true. Even though it isn't true. Because we all know that France is the best heavyweight in the world. He will be the number one heavyweight in the NBA fighting global rankings for a long time. until he loses. I mean, eventually it's going to catch up to him

because I think from a, like, a rankings perspective and just garnering points for rankings, eventually it's going to get to a point where he's going to get into like a Demetrius Johnson-like position where, yeah, he's got a foil on Adrian and Marias, but eventually he'll catch up to that. And just the level and quality of opponent is just not going to be what it was in the UFC's.

But I think that's a long time away. that's a year plus away from happening. But you know full well that as soon as that event ends, Dana's going to the press conference and he's going to say that whoever won that fight is the best in the world unequivocally, without hesitation. And which is interesting because

if John, like here's the thing, if John beats gone and then beats Steepay, and John gets on the mic and calls out Francis, I really like I don't I'm not fully convinced we've seen the last of France and Gano in the UFC I'm not fully convinced I think he's going to go out there and do his things and get a couple boxing matches maybe he signs with an MMA promotion who knows but I don't think Francis is going to be signing any multi-year eight fight deals with anybody it's going to be like two or three fights and then he'll explore his other options I mean

there's what better way to answer that question than to actually have those guys fight. Now, is it going to take a lot to get Francis back? Of course. Are they going to have to make some concessions on both sides? Yes. But as far as, I don't know what's going to happen. But you know the UFC is going to come out and say, whoever wins that fight is the best heavyweight in the world.

I'm intrigued by the fight, obviously. But everything in my being is telling me right now that John, Jones is just going to run over Cyril gone. And this is just what my gut is telling me. And Cyril's the man. Like, he's great. He's a super athlete. He's still developing his game.

So he's only going to get better in this sport. But if Francis was able to take him down and sit on him on one leg, John Jones is going to just, John Jones could do that the entire time. And John's a great take. down artists, it's great wrestler. When he gets on top of you, it is just a nightmare. But who knows if maybe Searles' take down defense has improved just incredibly. I don't know.

And then, yeah, the Jamal Hill stuff is just, again, I don't think the resumes are that far apart, honestly. Like, I know that's been a point of contention on people. Well, Yuri's recipe is way better than Jamal Hills. I don't think that's necessarily true. I think the wins are kind of evenly. matched. But there are some fights that in picking that fight, there are fights

that Chabal had that maybe questioned his chances of beating Glover. The Tiago Santos fight was one of them because he was losing two of the three rounds before he got the knockout. And in the Paul Craig fight is another example of well, if Paul Craig can do that and Glover could certainly do it. And again,

this man leveled up and did the damn thing. But my issue with this entire situation is that the UFC screwed it up and they they pin jemal into a corner where he has to defend himself because he's the actual champion when in reality he should just be the interim champion because yuri shouldn't have lost the belt to begin with the whole thing is just dumb and if they just did it that way like we're not even we're all we're talking about is what's who do you favor in that fight can jamaal he'll beat yri

per hash no that fight's going to rule what a performance if that guy shows up and fights yri who wins. Like that's what we're talking about. We're not talking about oh, is Jamal Hill the real champion or not? And it's an unfair conversation. I get it, but it is the way that it is, man.

Like that, that's sports. That's what happens in sports. Let's go to Emilio and then we'll go to Brian. Amelia, what's up? What up, Mike? How are you doing? How are you doing? I'm doing great too.

All right, I'm going to keep it short. First and foremost, about the whole, Jamal Hill thing. God, I just think it's always so annoying. It's annoying to me that people are still kind of upset about the fact that we're not

giving him as props or the whole MMA hour situation, you know, the interview with Ariel, I honestly thought that it's like the argument that he made

is like basically, oh, if I go, and I'm sorry, I'm going to get a little bit political, but I try it. I thought this for, it's like going to a George Floyd protest, like related protests and saying, yeah, first responders are, you know, great. Or, you know, we love our first responders. Nobody's saying the opposite of that. It's just, just read the room. whatever um so that's that and then i got two other questions for you or other two questions

for you number one who is your fighter to watch not necessarily in terms of like oh you know are they going to be a champion at the end of the year um but just sort of this guy is fun or this gal or guy is fun and i'm just really curious to see how their career career progresses throughout the year, who isn't from the Caucasus region. My pick is Drew Dober. That guy is just fun. And I generally think that he's got like a good shot at making a run of lightweight. So that's that.

And lastly, on a scale of Dylan Dennis actually fighting to John Morgan getting the first question at the press conference post-fire press conference how likely do you think that the february 23rd cape paul versus the time your fury fight is going to happen all right bro thanks again have a heck of a weekend peace thanks man yeah so that fight is february 26th uh we just found i was supposed to be february 25 got pushed back a day in saudi arabia i'll say i'll give it i'm i'm more confident this fight happens this time around but i'm still not fully confident, I'll put it like a notch below John Jones fighting Cyril Gahn.

Like I, until John gets into the Octagon and actually fights, I'm at a seven that that fight actually happens. And it's all because of John, for various reasons that I need to go into. I'll put that like a six and a half. Six and a half it happens. Fighter to watch this year,

honestly, like Jamal Hill has put himself in that spot. that's a guy but the correct answer is Gilton Almeida because I don't know what this dude is going to do he is going to

he's just going to run rough shot at heavyweight but where is his ceiling where does it end is he too small for the division does he need to bulk up is he going to stay there is he going to go to 205

if he goes to 205 how quickly will he get up there to those dudes that are there right now the smits the Angolaus the Yons So to me, it's Jelton O'Meda. Jelton Omeida is my pick for fighter to watch this year. He just steamrolled Shemiel Dura Himov.

And just pick that dude up like you weighed eight pounds. But I have to see more from this guy. Like, I just have to see. I still, as excited as I am about him, I still have questions. I need to see him challenged in some way. I need to see somebody go after him. I need to see somebody be the hammer. On onto the next one, I picked the fight they should make is him versus Tai Tui Vasa.

I know Taitoivasa fans are going to hate hearing that, but Ty will help us at least answer some questions because Ty is just going to get in his face and try to take his head off. And most guys that Jailtana made is fought in his career have not approached this man in the same way. So I need to see somebody try to be the hammer against him and see how he had. justice to it. Now, is there a whirlwind just runs across the cage and tackles Ty to the ground and beats the shit out of him? Sure. But Ty's going to sit there and try to knock his head into the third row.

And I want to see how Jailton responds to that. I want to see if he could take a shot. He hasn't been hits. No one hits this guy. I got to see how he can take a punch. Like, these are things I need to see. These are questions that I have about whether or not he's a heavyweight or just a light heavyweight. And I want to see how active he's going to be. I want him fighting three, four times this year.

See if we can answer those questions. As far as the Jamal Hill thing goes, there's one other point that I want to make about this that kind of hurt him in the long run. And it's not, partly it's the Dana stuff. But I think we've talked about that enough at this point. Part of it is just him being in the position he's in because of the UFC putting in there

with Yuri getting the belt taken off of him. being the second fight for the vacant belt. I thought the post-fight interview could have been handled a little bit better. It was a very emotional moment. He broke down after the fight was over and he starts off the post-fight interview in just such an inspirational way.

You know what I mean? We're all like people who like had his back. Like this is going great. And then all of a sudden he just turned on a dime. It was like, I try to tell him. all motherfuckers. Like, none of you all believed in me. All this.

And we're like, what are you talking about, man? What do you mean? You winning was not a shock to anybody. So probably could have done without that. That kind of hurt. That kind of hurt him a little bit. If he just kind of kept on the trajectory of the inspirational side and ended it like that,

I think he'd be looked at a little bit differently. But that was probably a misstep. But again, I'm not going to blame him totally for that. The dude just won the title. Big moment in his career. But, yeah, I think that was kind of a miss. But the other stuff, I don't really blame him for it. It's just the UFC put him in this position.

And now it comes down to what happens next. He fights Uri and wins. There ain't going to be no more questions. There's not going to be any more conversations about whether or not he's the best light heavyweight in the world because if he beats Yuri Barashka, he is the best light heavyweight in the world. And there will be no questions.

That's why his next fight is more important than the Glover fight by a long shot. And I can't wait to see Jamal versus Yuri. I don't even know who I'm picking on that one. I think I'm leaning Yuri, but Jamal Hill could definitely beat him. That fights a lot closer now than I thought it was six months ago. That's for damn sure.

But for the most part, we are praising Jamal Hill for this performance. So there was no luck involved. There's no tomfoolery involved. He went in there and he beat the hell out of Glover to Chera and retired the man. The performance is incredible. And the excitement people have about Hill-fetting Yuri Perashka now is through the roof. So I don't think he's been totally, I honestly don't think he's been disrespected as much as he thinks he is or others may think he is.

I really don't. I think he's been getting his praise and his flowers. But it's the position he's in is not his fault. It's the UFC's fault. Brian, hello. Are you there? Yep, sorry about that, Mike. I hope you have any good week.

What's up, man? I wanted to touch on two things. One thing you kind of mentioned, I want to touch on the Jamal Hill after. I didn't even think of that. And it is like the most, and I hate to say this with MMA fighters, but the most corny, cheesy thing I always hear is, everyone doubts me, no one believes in me. And it's like most of it's because, like, your MMA fighters,

not a lot of people really know you besides, like, mainly the MMA fans. But I just really hate that overplayed point of like, you could just act appreciative and love your team. And you don't have to create this whole narrative every time that the whole world was against you. You don't have to win titles when people are against you. You can win people. Like, look at Moreno. Like, nobody's against Moreno besides, like, maybe Brazil.

Even some of Brazil I don't even think was rooting for Davis to be honest. Like, Moreno wins with just positivity. And I know everyone's journey is different, but I just really hate that overplayed, like, rocky type. Oh, yeah, everyone doubts me. I'm an underdog. And it's like, no, dude, you are a favorite over Glover. You're 12 years younger and you're way more athletic. So that's the first thing I want to touch on.

And then second, I am annoyed again with the UFC, of course. Why are they making Aldana Pennington, the San Antonio main event? Makes no sense. Completely should have been Charles and B'Neil. Even you should have moved Cheeto Sanhagen. Don't even get me sorry about that. I love that fight, but it's an absolute shame. That's not even happening on the Vegas fight night card.

So I just wanted to get your opinions on those couple of fight nights coming up because those really seem to be a lot of fun for us, UFC fans, MMA fans. Thanks, Mike. Well, I'll address the second question first. And I'll address it with a question of my own because this is a very important rule in the MMA media landscape and your MMA fanmanship. Do you see that fight on MMAfighting.com?

Is that up there? Do we write an article about that? Because if we didn't, that means it ain't happening. At least as if right now, I know there have been reports about it, But the conversations I've had, we are, to say that fight is happening, March 25th, is far, far away, if even happening. That's where we're at right now, okay? It's not on the site, just like Valentina Shepchenko versus Alexa Grasso is not on our website.

Because it's not done. It's not done yet. Fights happening, there's no date. Might be March 4th, might be April 8th. We don't know. we don't know there's no date to that fight

and we don't know if this fight's happening then I don't like honestly I have no idea have there have there been like preliminary discussions about possibly

that fight happening yeah but that's it that's where we're at right now so no worry don't get too down because that's not

there just yet the other thing with the post fight stuff And I'm not just so you know that I'm a fair man and I call right down the middle for the most part. I have the same issue with Alexander Volcanovsky that I did with Jamal Hill.

Alexander Volcanovsky is the best fighter in the world. He is the pound-for-pound best fighter on planet Earth. And he has been my number one pound-for-pound guy for a long time. But every single chance that that man has to say that people are doubting him and underestimating him

and he's the underdog and all this, he takes that chance that he runs with it all the time. And he's always the favorite. I think there's only like two fights he wasn't the favorite. Joseo Alto and Chad Mendez. Other than that, he's been the favorite

in every fight. And most people pick him in all of those fights. But every single time he has a microphone in front of him, oh you doubted me you all doubted me you all think i'm the underdog no we don't think that we don't think that you're the best fighter in the world no one thinks that do you have some kind of a point for this mokachev fight because you're going up and fighting a murderer yeah maybe but no one's like no one's at least me i have not once like i'm picking mokachev to win but boy i think volk's

going to be very competitive. And if he beats Mokachev, like, there'll be a small piece of surprise, but I won't be stunned if that happens. But, yeah, that narrative is just, it gets a little played out. I kind of get where Jamal's coming from. I think he could have maybe approached it in a different way, but doing it then after the whole emotional reaction to knowing you won the belt and then the beginning of that post-fight thing.

and then, oh, you all doubted out of me. No. You were the favorites. You were the betting favorites. The whole time. Like, almost the entire bill to the fight, you were the betting favorite. And you close as the betting favorite. So clearly, people weren't against you.

But, yeah, that... Volk's, like, the biggest, the biggest offender of that. And I still don't understand it. I love Volk. Best fighter in the world. and look, I'm not a fighter. If that's what you need to get you over that hump and get you from fight to fight and get you to continue to improve, sure,

then do it. But, yeah, I'm with you. All right, yeah, yeah, take us home. What's going on, Big Mike? Good, how are you? Okay, so a question. So in the post-fight interview for Johnny Walker, he mentioned that he wanted to fight,

I mean, he wanted to fall in the footsteps of D.C., and be a double champ. And he talked about having a possible rematch with Jamal Hill. Do you think that if Jamal Hill doesn't fight Yuri, and I think in the summer, that at some point, you know, they'll have that rematch and then he'll move up? Or what do you think will happen if Jamal Hill doesn't fight Yuri?

Thanks, Brian. Hold on seconds. Obviously, there are things happening, which is why I'm all over the place. Okay, so first reported by our good friend over at ESPN, Mark Romandie, Bellamere, the daughter of the former UFC heavyweight champion, Frank Meir, has signed with the UFC under a NIL deal. So we've seen WWE do these NIL deals with guys.

guys with wrestlers like Gables Gables Steeveson and others like that. But Bellamere will be the first ever signee to an NIL deal in UFC history. So I'm trying to get the exact terminology for you if you're not aware. So basically it's a name image and likeness kind of a thing. They can earn money from the deal. Like Bellamere is signed with the UFC. She can earn money from the UFC while wrestling in college

from the University of Iowa. And she's basically kind of like locked into a deal that when she's ready to fight, she's going to fight for the UFC. So there you go. Some breaking news. How about that? I just confirmed it with her team.

That is happening. Good for her. So yeah. Cool news. I think the question was, if Jamal Hill is to fight Yuri, who does he fight? probably Ankleif.

Probably Ankleif. Anthony Smith said he's been teasing a fight. Plans to fight soon. My guess is Janbovovich, but it could, I don't know. That'd be kind of my guess. And then Magamad's just kind of like waiting to see what happens. But I would say that if Uri is unable to fight this summer and Jamal can fight this summer, probably Anka-Lyaf.

That'd be my guess. But I want to see the Uri fight and we'll see what happens. So, all right. I'm going to go. A lot happening in the world of MMA. I wish I could tell you there's a preview show or something today, but that is just not the case. Next week we'll have lots of stuff to talk about

because we have the UFC back at the wonderful apex for the Derek Lewis, Sergei Spivak card. And Bellator's get a big event on Saturday as well. Bellator 290, their debut on CBS. So that is a very big deal. the final fight of Fador Amelianenko's career, challenging Ryan Bader for the heavyweight title, Johnny Eblen and Atoli Tokoff for the middleweight title,

and then Saba Hamasi, Brennan Ward, will be the first fight, first Bellator fight ever on CBS, and that's just going to be a freaking banger. So a bunch of interviews coming from fighters from that card, including Sabahamasi, uh, Steve Maury, who's fighting on that card.

and Daryne Caldwell, who I have to say was a super fascinating conversation. Considering where he's at in his career and the changes he's made, pretty wild stuff. Pretty humbling stuff, if we're being honest. So look for those coming up soon, but we are done. Thank you very much. You are the best. Back on Tuesday, 10 a.m. Easter will do it again. Have a great rest of the day.

Have a great weekend. And as always, have a heck of a morning, everybody.