MMA Fighting - HOAM | Is It Do-Or-Die For Beneil Dariush's Title Hopes At UFC 289?

Episode Date: June 8, 2023

Beneil Dariush has done enough to earn a lightweight title shot in the minds of most MMA pundits, and this Saturday, he puts his spot on the line against the former champ in Charles Oliveira. A win for Dariush makes it a no-brainer to give him a title fight against Islam Makhachev, but if he loses, does that slam the door on Dariush ever getting a title shot in the promotion's marquis division? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses the stakes involved for Dariush in the co-main event of UFC 289, and where Oliveira could go depending on the result. Additionally, listener topics include the PFL's recent drug suspensions, the true No. 2 promotion right now behind the UFC, the UFC's rankings, Mike Malott's ceiling and star potential ahead of his main card matchup this Saturday in Vancouver against Adam Fugitt, Miranda Maverick vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius, 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

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 Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. It is Thursday, June 8th, 2023.

It is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the MAA Fighting Twitter Spaces. You can hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter on the MMA Fund. Fighting Podcasting Network. I am Mike Hock. Cooper wins having a great week. We are on the eve of the eve of UFC 289. Goes down this Saturday in Vancouver.

Amanda Nunes, defense her Banimate title against Arrini Aldana in the main event. I'm sure Crystal will love hearing this. I know she's all nervous and anxious about this fight, but the co-main event, Charles Olivera. versus Benile Darius. A lot on the line in that fight. To me, this is the moment of truth for Binaldaryush. Can he get past the former champion

and find his way into a title fight? Can he make that happen? That's a big question. Can Charles Olivera put a halt to the very impressive streak of Binele Darius? Of course, we get Danny Gay versus Nate Landwehr. That's a great fight. A lot of local talent in the area.

What I love about this card, 11 fights. Nice, tight 11 fights. Just what we like to see. And I think it's going to be an enjoyable experience being 11 fights. I think people can spend a little more time on their Saturdays doing things outside of watching fighting and then prepare for a nice tight 11 fights. A great co-main event, a main event for a world time.

title, a banger at Featherweight and some other good fights as well. The PFL is back today as well. Later on tonight in Atlanta, our own Jedmishu is actually going to be on site for that card. So PFL is back. Next set of regular season matchups. And we have BTL today, 12.30 p.m. Eastern, the returning champion. Alexander Kay Lee taking on New York Rick should be a fun show. We have a lot to obviously talk about.

I'm sure there's a lot on your mind. So let's get after it. Let's get into this thing. Let's go right to the calls. And Zach, kick us off. Hello. Mike. What's up, Zach?

How are you? So two questions for you today. So what about UFC 289, the other one, about some of us saw on social media. So first one with 289, quick one. Mike Belatz on there gets the, like, usually the people's fight spot with that third spot on the pay-per-view. this combination of maybe the UFC believing in him, but would you say that he's, you know, if he gets a nice impressive win by finish like he's got in the last two,

is he a guy that we think could be a top of a team fighter, kind of one of those guys that's next up and coming, or is he still a notch below those guys still might need another big win against a higher-ranked guy, maybe a veteran test moving forward? And then the other one is Consender Series coming up soon, and on Twitter series, I saw a lot of people talking about this guy, George Hardwick, who Cage Warrior Champion.

And it's not the first one we've seen on the show. We've seen some other champions from organizations come on the show before as big as Cage Warriors to do it. But it seemed like people were criticizing the fact that he would have to go on the show to compete in the first place. So what are your thoughts about? And what do you think the UFC thinks when they're trying to get a new guy in versus not? Is it usually based off just limited numbers in a weight class? Or is it, you know, too many people so they had to make some of these guys competed out for it? to seem like this guy was getting that this announcement,

despite people being excited, was getting some pushback because they felt like he should get a direct shot in the UFC instead of having to go through a contender series against another guy who might be a tough competition. So what are your thoughts, Mike? Have a great day. Some good questions. With Mike Malott, I like, there we go, trying to finish that.

I like Mike a lot. I think he has some upside for sure, especially if they're going to continue going back to Canada. I know it's been a long time since they've been back there. It's been over three years. And the UFC has been looking for, look, there's probably never going to be another GSP. So trying to compare a Mike Malat to a GSP is not fair at all.

But they're looking for something to get excited about, at least to put the promotional push behind in Canada. and Mike is good on the mic. He's an exciting fighter. He gets finishes. He looks good getting off the bus. And he's never in a boring fight. So could this be a guy they could push?

Sure. Do they necessarily have to push him really quickly? I don't think so. I think being able to put him on main cards and put him in these spots, knowing that he's probably going to deliver at worst, a fun fight. It's a pretty good place to be. So if he beats Adam Fuget, I don't, I think they'll give him a step up. I'm not, I don't think they're going to give him a rank guy.

But I think there's, there's a potential high ceiling on him, especially if they want to continuously go back to Canada and have cards. So I like Mike a lot. He's an open book. And he's just a fun fighter. So yeah, could there be something there? Sure. He's obviously going to take care of business.

I think that's going to be a super fun fight. So we'll see how it plays out. there yeah a report from alex bunin of mhm a mania a lot of the contender series competitors and the fights are coming out he reported yesterday that

george hardwick is going to fight abdul kareem el saudi on the august 15th edition of the contender series this matchup to me makes no sense and what i mean

by that is the fight's going to be really good, but neither of these guys should have to fight on the contenders. Neither of them. Both these guys probably deserve just automatic contracts. Like, they're that good. These guys are the real deal. George especially. George has done enough.

And with the UFC going to London, like a couple of weeks before that, you would think George being on that card makes a lot more sense. doing this fight on that card makes a lot more sense. But they're putting them on the contender series. I don't understand. They do this a lot. And I think it's maybe just to get an extra set of eyeballs on the product from different parts of the world.

But honestly, it's just such a strange thing. Like neither of these guys should have to go to the contention. I said this about Icramalaskaroff. Like, Ikramalaskaroff had no. right fighting on the contender series. That dude should have been an outright signing. And I feel the same way about both of these guys. So will we be excited August 15th when this card comes up and they're going to fight each other? Sure. But one of these guys are going to win and one of these guys are going to lose. The winner's going to get a contract more likely than not, no matter

how the fight goes. And I think the guy who loses will probably end up getting a short notice opportunity. But it's just, to me, it's just silly. This fight shouldn't even be happening. Both these guys should be in the UFC, Hardwick especially. There's just, I don't know, there's just certain guys that don't need to be on the contender series. And to me, these are two of them. Let's go to four-corner sports. So I see that what's the cool, Miranda Mavericks is in the prelims now. I know that she has suffered losses, that controversial loss to Macy Barber.

and Aaron Blanchfield. And ever since then, she fought Sabina Mazo, who was no longer with the promotion. And I believe it was Shanna Young, who was her most recent win. At one point, we were all in the media

and, you know, fans were, you know, considering that, you know, she was a future title challenger. How many more wins do you think that she needs to have underneath her belt in order to get back into that, that thresholds as, you know, somebody that the promotion can actually see her

as a future challenger for the belt just because I felt like she had a couple of hiccups in between and she should have won that makes a barber fight but it's unfortunate and I think that you know she's fighting Jasmine jazizius and I have a feeling that she's in the end of winning but do you feel like did she peek out at one point or did she just hit a bump in the road and um what's the quote for benile Darius versus Charles Oliverno now there is a possibility that Oliver can win. I'm picking Darius to win,

but what would be next for Darius if he does lose? I mean, would he need to move up and wait? I mean, is there a possibility that he never gets a title shot if he was to lose? It seems like Daryush is, you know, the person that has the most to lose on this card, especially in the case that, you know, he gets finished by Charles Oliver. But I want to get your thoughts.

Thanks, Mike. Yeah, I agree with you. Derrush has the most to lose on this entire card. Look, he's not a spring chicken. He's not getting any younger. And he's 34, still fighting at a very high level. But yeah, it's all on the line here. Like, when I say that this is the moment of truth, this is it.

I don't think he necessarily should have, at this point, he shouldn't even have to fight Charles Olivera. They should just put him in the title fight. But this fight is the biggest fight on the card. This is the fight that everybody cares about on the card, even above the main event. People are talking about this one. Just go look at the numbers on the UFC's YouTube channel when it comes to the countdown videos. The Oliver Derr-Darious video is just smashing the Nunes Aldana video.

People are intrigued by the fight. They are interested in the matchup. But it is all on the line for Bidio Darius. I don't think going up and weight is going to help him. I think it's do or die, man. He wins this fight. He gets a title shot.

He loses this fight. My guess is he probably doesn't get a title shot. So it's all on the line. He definitely has the most to lose. And if he loses this fight, he's going to have to fight a young hungry whippersnapper next. He's going to have to, he already fought Gamrod.

He's fighting the Sirukians. He's fighting the Dawson's. He's fighting the Jalen turners of the world. if Turner can beat Dan Hooker, like, this is his future if he doesn't win this fight. So it's all on the line for him. No doubt about it. Miranda Maverick, she certainly hasn't peaked.

She's 25. She's 25 years old. She's got to be 26 in a couple of weeks. She has a long career ahead of her. So I would define the losses as bumps in the road, for sure. she lost to Macy Barber most people feel like she won that fight and she lost to Aaron Blanchfield

who most people feel in my opinion when Aaron Blanchfield gets a title shot she's going to win the belt and she's going to be a champion for a long time I am that high on Aaron Blanchfield she's just she plays a different game right now than most of these other women especially at that age so

losses to those two women aren't bad most people thought she beat Macy losing to Aaron Blanchfield to me is going to age very very well I think not going out. I mean, she dominated Shanna Young and Shanna Young showed a lot of durability and toughness, but I think not going out and finishing Shana Young

kind of gave some people a little bit of pause, but she's got a pretty good matchup ahead of her. Jasmine Jazeae Zavizius is fun. She's going to go right after her. She's not going to fight timid or shy. Jasmine is like one of the unicorns of the sport. And what I mean by that is she's just a natural. She's a natural.

her story about finding MMA is just it's super interesting and fascinating like she had no business being an MMA fighter she had no interest in it she just happened to date a coach and she went to like a seminar

with her boyfriend and they're like oh you want to hit some pads and stuff and she's like okay and then she hit some pads and they're like whoa she's really good. And then they just kind of like taught her other things. And she has parlayed this into getting on the contender series

and getting a contract and fighting in the UFC. Like it's just a crazy story. And I feel like this is a good match for Miranda. She's fighting someone who's who's Uber aggressive, who's going to kind of play into her hands. I know Miranda's sort of the away team and Jasmine getting to fight in Canada is huge. She hasn't done that very much

despite fighting out of that. area, even during her early pro run, she didn't have a ton of fights in Canada. There just weren't enough cards. She was traveling to the United States, a lot of fights in Pennsylvania. She fought for Cage Titans ones. She just wanted to find fights and she was willing to travel and go anywhere to compete in those fights to get into the position she's in right now. I think it's a really good matcher for Miranda.

And Jasmine's fun. I think it's going to be a good fight. I think it's going to be a good fight. But to say Miranda Maverick has peaked, it's really. way too soon to say that. Especially at 25, both turned 26. She's good to go. She's going to get better.

I think she's going to get back into kind of where we had her after her first couple of UFC wins. 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.

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Hey, Mike. How you doing, good, buddy? Good. How are you? Doing fantastic. Doing fantastic. You said the lineup for BTL today. It sounds like the winner is going to be decided by who can out positive the other one. So I'm really looking forward to that.

But I got a question for you. One, I may say for tomorrow, we'll see. but so the gaggle of silly goose is that all got suspended from the PFL. Rob Wilkinson, Diago Santos, among others. Forgive my ignorance if you mentioned this last week, but do we know what their, like how long their suspension is going to be? Are they out until next year? And where does that put the PFL?

Where does that put fighters that they signed like Andrew L. Deer-Tay or, Sanchez. It kind of seemed like they needed to fill a void. And so they were like, Andrew, bam, here you go, get signed so you can fight in Atlanta. Just your thoughts on that. And if you already talked about this last week, like I said, forgive my ignorance. Thanks, buddy. Yeah. So most of the suspensions were like six months, had some nine months suspension. So I would say should the PFL keep them around, they will all be able to compete next year. Some of them might even compete later on this year,

whether it's a backup spot or like Alejandro Flores is a featherweight. He got a six-month suspension. He's back October 1st. Capuloses, I think, was nine months. Christopjocco's was six months. Those are most of the suspension. We don't know how long he's going to be suspended for. He's the latest one, but it's just a, he has to go in front of the commission,

and the commission will, we'll give the suspension. So I would assume he'll probably get around the same six to nine months or so. So I think all of them will be eligible to fight next year. But boy, it's just a bad look. It's just a bad look for the PFL. And there's, I mean, there's just all these conversations about, and I heard Ariel talk about this with, I believe it was with Brennan Locknard yesterday

from what I caught of the show, the clips that I saw on social media of the MAA hour. There's this debate on like who is the number two promotion. And like some people feel it's like clear cut for PFL because of the Inganu signing. And I just don't know if I agree with that. A lot of people think it's still Bellator. Some people want to make a case for one.

And you can make a case for all of them. But it's just a matter. Like a lot of the. them are, and I know Ariel's argument was, well, Belator is a big card next week, but there's no hype and there's no buzz around it. Well, guess what? PFL is a card tonight. Nobody's talking about it. Nobody. So, I mean, they're all in the same position. They're all in the same position. It's just who's going to separate from the pack. And all the news about PFL has been negative outside of the Francis and Ghanu signing. Like they're doing different things. They're not,

at least they're, they could differentiate themselves from other. their promotions. Like, Bellator's got a good product. They have great fighters, but Jed likes to say they're UFC light, and I don't think it's like a far-fetched statement because they're just basically doing what, outside of having the Grand Prix, they're basically doing, like, it's the same formula, a little more meritocratic, but it's almost the same formula. So, yeah, it's a bad look for the PFL, just a bad look.

And if I'm the PFL, I'm just not going to Vegas anymore. Stay away from Las Vegas. Fighting Florida, fighting Georgia, go to Jersey. Just don't go to Las Vegas. Stay away. And I think you'll be all right. Let's go to my man, Toke. What's up, Toke?

Firstly, I want to say the Miranda Maverick, Aaron Blanchfield's fight. from earlier in their careers. It's going to age for the division like Connor and Porreier, the first one. I feel like they are going to be on top of this division for so long and people riding Miranda Maverick off seems very odd to me. But what I actually wanted to talk about

is the hometown heroes or I should say the hometown heroes because this is some difficult matters. for the hometown Canadians on this card. It's not looking good. We only have one favorite of them, and that's Mark Andre Barrio,

and I don't know who's even going to watch that fight. I think I might pour myself a cocoa and just sit back and wait until it's over. But the other fights, the Canadians, are actually underdog. So I was wondering if there was who you saw out of those other three Canadians have the best shot at winning their fight.

So I'm talking about Jesbius. I'm talking about I'm in Sahabi. And I'm talking about Kyle Milson. If you could give me the most likely winner of those, thank you. Yeah. Mike Ballade is a pretty sizable favorite. He's minus 205. Probably I think Blake Bounder's going to win.

Probably Amin Sahabee. Probably Amin Sahabee. Right now, that's a pickup. Minus 110 on both sides. So, yeah, I feel probably, I would probably say, of those three names, Amin Zahavi. I think Marina Maverick's going to win. She's a very sizable favorite.

Bilder's a minus 245, but you never know. But I feel pretty confident in Blake getting a win, probably a finish. And Zahabi, you just got to weather a storm from Arici, If he could do that, I think he wins the fight. The longer that fight goes, the more favors Amin Sahabhi. So I do feel like, I do feel like Sahabia has the best chance of those three names. Let's go to Ani.

What's up, Bonnie? Hello. Yes. Hope you're doing well. So I have a few things. I just wrote it down on the palm of my hand so that I don't forget it because every time I keep forgetting something. So the first things first about the PFL and fighters popping left right and center in PFL. How much longer do you think, I mean, just assume that Francis and Gano has this amazing performance sometime down the line, right?

In PFL, he looks jacked, he goes and knocks the head off of some guy in PFL. And then, you know, when Dana White is next out on his press conference, some duphus will ask him, Hey, Dana, what did you think of Francis and Gano's performance? How likely do you think Dana White is going to, you know, like in his responses, how likely do you think is he going to accuse Francis and Gano of taking a couple of those BEDs or steroids that is going to happen? I'm telling you this will happen for sure. Just wait and watch. That's one thing.

The second thing, man, I seriously think, like everyone is giving Amanda Nunes and Irene Al-Dana a tough time, you know? I understand from promotional standpoint, as in when you look at the card on paper, you'll think, man, like this does not feel like a main event that will announce UFC's return to Canada, that's not what it's supposed to be. But, you know, I feel like we'll come out of the match

either amazed by Irene Al-Dana or we'll still be in awe of Amanda Nunes or we'll still, you know, we'll just lose any doubts that we had about Amanda Nunes. Because, like, everyone is making this out to be like Irene Al-Dana is going to,

to shock the world or something of the thought. No, this feels like a competitive title fight. And it is exciting. Amanda Nunes is a good striker. Irene Nieldaana is a good striker. We might have a good fight in our hands. So I think, yes, Charles Oliver and Benil Darius, I mean, it is the best fight on the card.

But I think we need to put some more respect on the Amanda Nunes and Irene Al-Dana match. If it was Juliana Pena then sure, like, I understand. But it's Irene Al-Dana and I think it's a nice match.

And what was the last one? Man, I can't understand the handwriting on my hands. What the fuck is that? I'm sorry, we were for swearing. Oh, yes. So this is a bit of a... I mean, I wouldn't say this is a question.

This is a request of sorts. You know, like sometimes once in a while you bring guests on your, you know, BTL or preview shows, like people like Calvin Keter or people you're really, you know, you have a good rapport with. Do you think, by any chance, you could bring a couple of, like, maybe one or two MMA fighters to heck of the morning, maybe if they could just spend about like 15 to 20 minutes over here? You know, people like Modestus Bukowskis or like David Grant, or Miranda Maverick.

I mean, fighters who are, as in, like, they are well known, but they're not, I wouldn't say like they're really, really famous, you know, like, who could actually, who would actually enjoy interacting with fans, interacting with people so that, you know, we can ask them questions. I mean, most of the people over here, I'd say all of the people over here are more or less respectful, but I know, like, you might have. concerns and it's your show, it's your responsibility. I just wanted to ask, is it possible to actually bring an MMA fighter on so that, like,

maybe we can talk to them, like, at least ask them a question, maybe? Thanks, Mike. Thanks, Ben. So the Dana thing with Francis, I don't know if he'll, I don't think he's going to accuse Francis to take it steroids or anything like that. I think if Francis, like, popped or something, I think Dana would have a lot to say about it, but until that happens, I don't think Dane is just going to flat out accuse him

of that. I think if Francis goes out and melts somebody and he's asked about it, he'll just say like he didn't watch it, he'll just downplay it or just say like, yeah, so what? He beat a guy that he should have beat. He didn't be John Jones, so I'm not impressed or something to that nature. So I think he will downplay it

in that way. The Nunezaldana fight, it's just a weird card and it's just it's not the most interesting fight. So it's kind of downplay. played. The most interesting fight by far is the Oliver Daryush fight. And it's not an issue, at least to me, of Nunes Aldana the fight. The issue to me is if Arrini Aldana doesn't win, like where does this division go? Because there is no division. There is no division. There's 12, 13

fighters in the women's bandamweight division. And then there's like a featherweight division, which Amanda Nudes holds a title for, that there's like four actual featherweights, if that in that division, like, it's a mess. It's just a matter of like, well, if Amanda wins and it's like the same old song and dance, like, okay, well, what are we going to get now? The Giuliana Pena trilogy fight?

Are we going to get a Raquel Pennington rematch? Like, none of those things really excite us when after Amanda beat Juliana and before Valentina lost to Alexa Grasso, we were all excited. Like, okay, now we have to do the Valentina fight. And now even that idea has kind of fizzled out. So it's just a weird spot.

It's just from a storyline perspective, there's Shiloh, nobody's here. There's just people outside. From a storyline perspective, it's like, okay, if Arena wins, are we just going to run this right back and do it again? Because if Amanda doesn't retire, they're going to do another fight.

And if Amanda wins, are we going to get Giuliana? Are we going to get Raquel? There's just nothing really to get excited about in this division as of right now. Now, maybe that'll change. Maybe someone can emerge. But right now, it's just, there's just not much to it. There's not a lot of meat on the bone at 135. So I think that's a huge problem.

It's just more of the where are we going to go from here. And then as far as getting guests on the show, we've had some fighters on. Like, Ally Quintas come on, I think a couple of times. we've had a couple of fighters going on Fabian Edwards was on a couple days before the Gagar Musassi fight we had I forget who it was we had someone who got a contract on the contender series after like a couple like maybe two days after he won so I mean once in a while we have fighters on it's just tough to lock them down it just depends on where they are in the world what time it's going to be like what time it works for them it's just sometimes it's

it's just not easy to do and sometimes I'll pre-record interviews and just throw them on the podcast feed so I mean I'd be down if fighters are interested in jumping on I'm certainly down to bring them in to talk about stuff absolutely but we have done it before it's just not something we just have been able to line up

logistically as much as I would probably like to chase hello what's that Mike heck of a morning to you so my question is about the contender series we are starting to see a few of the of the matchups for the first few weeks getting announced. Are there any matchups or prospects that really stick out to you this season? That is my question. I appreciate you a heck of a morning.

Yeah, so I have to admit, I haven't really been like super paying attention to the Contender Series stuff. Let me see if I can pull up some of the names. I mean, we talked about the George Hardwick fight. I feel like neither of those guys should have to actually fight on the Contender Series. Sender series. So that drives me a little insane. I saw some names.

Let me see. We get Junior Cortez back on the first week. I like him a lot. Joshua Van, I like a lot. Let me see some of the other names that are like that actually have matchups. Yeah, the Al Saladi, George Hardwick fight is going to be good.

Hey, Hyder Amil, I'm pretty high on. Talita Allen Carr, I think that's her name. I like her a lot. I might be a little too early for her, but we'll see. Edgar Chires, who was kind of on the wrong end of that highlight

for Fury FC in Texas against Johnny Vasquez, that whole thing we talked about. He's back on the contender series this season. I think what I'm hoping for the most is I want to, I want to end this season. feeling like I actually give a shit about the contender series again because there was a time where the contender series

was like my favorite thing in the sport. I loved it. I couldn't get enough of it. I could not get enough of the contenders series. I like the Shamil Ghazi of Greg Velasco fight as well, two undefeated heavyweights. So that should be good, just throwing out some more names.

But I just want to feel like I didn't waste my time watching the contender series. Like I don't want the can. It's like working out. You have to work out. Just like if you work at MMA, you have to at least somewhat pay attention to the fights that happened on the contender series. But working out only works if it doesn't feel like a chore. And for the first couple series of the contenders seasons of the contender series, I never felt like it was a chore. I was in.

Even before I got to M.A. fighting, AK my best friend, before we were best friends, we used to do like contender series recaps. like on my own personal YouTube channel, because I loved it so much. And then they watered it down. And then they made it just not interesting anymore. Like long gone are the days where you had to like really do something special to get a contract. Now all you have to do is show up and have a competitive fight. Everybody's getting a contract now.

And we know why. It's a dollar saving thing. It's so we can bring on 35. to 40 names at 10 and 10 or 12 and 12, whatever it is. Like, it's a business thing. It's a cost-saving thing. It's economics. Like, I get it.

But the first two seasons were so good, where you had to stand out. You had a win wasn't enough. A win was not enough to get you a contract. Like, Austin Vanderford just annihilated a dude and didn't get a contract. Now, like, all you have to do is just win. and you get one. And sometimes you don't even have to win to get one. So I just,

I just want to end the season feeling like, all right, we're a little more stringent now. We're a little more picky. And a lot of these, do we get a contender series fighter or two that have great career? Sure. You look at Sean O'Malley,

even like when the latter season's like Adrian Yonnas, I think there's some special guys there. But for the most part, most of these fighters who get contracts, like have two fights in. they're cut because they just weren't ready. So I'm intrigued to see how the season's going to go. I want to have high hopes.

I want to feel good about it. But, man, last season was tough. It was tough. It started off great. The B. Joe Pfeiffer first episode, Joe Piper goes out and annihilates a guy, Dana White, passionate, made a great speech. Listen, if you were scheduled to fight on a day, Tuesday night, you better show up or you ain't getting shit.

Be Joe Pfeiffer. Joe gets a contract. He's the only one. And that lasted all of one week. And then every, and then it was four contracts, five contracts, six contracts every week.

We're breaking records. That can't happen. That's not what the show is about. So hopefully we can find at least a middle ground here. Because I want to enjoy watching the contentious. I want to feel like there's actual stakes to these fights. Four on sniper. Hey,

heck, good morning, Mike. Just a quick question. Outside of the co-mainting event, I'm most excited for the Chris Curtis, Nassardine, Imabov fight. I just wanted your thoughts on how do you think that fight goes down and where do you see the winner going from there? Thank you.

It's a good fight. It's probably the... I could probably argue it's the third best fight on the card, maybe the fourth, depending on what you're looking for. I mean, to me, to me, the Dan Egan and Nate Landwehr fight is just going to be absolute mayhem. But I think, I guess, from a like really truly competitive standpoint,

this is probably the third best fight on the card. It could go either way. I see a lot of people just writing off Chris Curtis and I'm not really understanding that. Like I know Imovov's a good fighter. Imovov's last fight was Sean Strickland on short notice. And guess who Sean Strickland's main training partner is? Chris Curtis.

Extreme Couture versus, Eric Nixick versus Fernand Lopez has been a thing. And Eric Nixick has done very well preparing for Fernand's fighters. And I like both these guys a lot. Where does the winner go? No, no, no. Bottom half of the top 15 type of fights. Like, I don't look at either of these guys as,

it's not a disrespect thing. Like, neither of these guys are going to fight for belts. Neither of these guys are going to be world champions. I'll be stunned if either of these guys are top five at 185, but that's okay. I think both of these guys can be top 15 guys for a while. But someone brought this up earlier. Maybe it was on Tuesday about maybe Chris Curtis going down to 170. I don't see it happening anytime soon.

I think Chris is fine, just fighting at 185, let the chips fall where they may. Yeah, it should be a fun, competitive fight. I think there's value on Chris Curtis. I think if he can, if he can, Imov's best chance is getting this fight to the ground. And Chris is very hard to take down, like really tough. And Chris is very sound defensively on the feet. I think he's the overall better striker here,

especially, especially from a defensive end. and he picks his spots really, really well. So I think there's value of Chris Curtis a plus 135. I see a lot of people just overlooking him. That I'm just going to dump truck him on Saturday. And maybe that happens, but I don't feel the same. I think this is going to be a close competitive fight. So it's a good one.

Where do they go? They take a little bit of a step up, but nothing too crazy. Gil, hello. Gil, are you there? You're muted. 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. At just $39.99, how could I resist?

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better quality of price. On link on C4A.com or in magazine. Yeah. Sorry about that. There we go. Yeah.

What's up, ma'am? I'm just getting into the, well, this is the first time being on your channel. But I'm not really into all the fighters and everything. I'm just getting into

UFC and all that kind of stuff. So I have a very unlimited amount of information with me. So a lot of the stuff that everybody's talking about, I really don't, I can't comprehend, so to speak. So I was wondering with the people, all the people that got, they're from Vegas, their, the, the suspensions. The suspensions. Why were they suspended? So, thank you, Gil. Look, Gil, here's a, here's a nice piece of advice for you.

Being an MMA fan is like playing golf. It's fun, and it takes a lot of time to get the knowledge and actually figure it out. But the more you play and the more you watch, the more you'll figure out, and the more you'll feel confident with it. Sometimes you'll feel overconfident with it. And then you'll be humbled pretty quickly in this space. So just watch and enjoy, man. And eventually a fighter's going to come along that you're going to like.

and you can follow their career and there's interesting stories out there. So, yeah, I think you've picked a very interesting time to hop aboard. Why they were suspended is they failed drug tests. They failed drug tests. You have to be tested at certain times. Like the UFC, they have this deal with Usada. So Usada can actually, at any point, can just go and find a fighter and drug test them at any point.

So with the PFL, you have to take pre-fight drug tests heading into a fight. All the fighters who competed took pre-fight drug tests. Most of them passed. Ten of them did not. And if you fail a drug test, you get suspended. End of story. That's it. There's no warnings, no nothing.

If you fail a drug test, you're out. And there's plenty of places where you can look and see the guidelines, what's legal, what isn't. And yeah, 10 people popped, failed drug tests. And here we are. So Vegas, Nevada's tough. It's a tough commission. But that's why they got suspended.

Let's go to Dylan Hammer or Hamner. Hamner. What's up? Dylan, are you there? We're on mute right now. There we go. I'm sorry, Mike. Can you hear me?

Yeah, what's up, ma'am? Yeah, I know it's old news, but I just saw where, Demeerz Magulov is fighting Grant Dawson. I thought DeMez Magulov was like going to retire, and if he did take another fight, he was just going to take like one more. And I think it's crazy that he's coming back to Grant Dawson.

Like this guy is, I don't know if it's because, like he didn't like the way his last fight went against a wrestler, but I don't know. I just think that's a crazy fight to come back for one more to. The guy's like Triple H in the 2000s. he only takes like sledgehammer matches. But, yeah, how do you think that fight's going to play out? Thanks, Mike.

Boy, yeah, I mean, I've been very high on Grant Dawson since he turned pro. Dude's just a monster. I think he's a really good spot for him. I think he could do very well in this division. Demir is tough, man. And, yeah, he did after the Armand-Sarukian fight, which is, you know, he felt he didn't have his best performance. And he said he was done.

And then, which was kind of news to a lot of his team. Because I remember when he put out that post and I reached out to members of his team and they were like, yeah, that's, didn't see that coming. And then a few weeks back or a few weeks after that, he said, I have one, one fight left on my deal. I want to honor that commitment. He had initially called for a rematch with Surukia on, which there's just zero chance he was going to get.

So, I mean, if you're going to call for a rematch with Armand Sarukia, and Grant Dawson's a pretty comparable type of name and opponent. So I'm leaning Grant Dawson for multiple reasons. One, I just think he's very tough to deal with on the ground. And Armand Sarucyan had a lot of success being able to get him down. Like, not a ton, but once he was able to get him down, he was able to control him a bit. and Grant is just suffocating.

He's just suffocating so big. The fact that that dude used to fight at 145 is insanity to me. So I do like Grant. And then on top of that, you have a guy that's at least in the mindset that this is his last fight. And he's fighting a guy who believes he will be a lightweight champion at some point. So kind of two different points in the road.

traveling two different directions and I just think a lot of it kind of goes to Grant Dawson. But there are questions about Grant. There are definitely questions about Grant. Can he get his weight under control? Can he figure this all out? He's obviously has acclimated very well

after being at Glory MMA pretty much his entire career. Going to American Top Team seems like he's doing very well over there. Mixing it up with a lot of heavy hitters down in South Florida. but can he get his weight under control? Can you figure all that out?

Those are questions we still have about him, but skill set-wise, the man can go. The man can definitely go, and he's got a lot of promise in this division. Let's go to Omer or Amir. What's up? Hey, Mike, it's Omer.

Also, so I have two questions. The first one being, like regarding fighters that don't really stay, like, active. either because of injuries or just like flight cancellations and stuff, and them still being ranked really high. Like, for example, Brian Ortega's still ranked number three at only. When since, like, the beginning of 2019.

And then also Alex Perez only have, I don't think he has any wins, like, since the, let me see, since, like, late 2020. But they're still ranked, Brian and Ortega. is ranked three and Alpsaparize is ring seven. And I see other fighters that just get dropped in the rankings like out of nowhere. So I guess I like if you could comment on like how unfair the UFC is like either if it's regarding name or like their draw power and like them just keeping those fighters up while there's other fighters that are active.

And also my other question is I don't really see Charles Oliver getting a title shot after this fight unless you like, that's something crazy. and even then I think like there's not too much of a demand because of how the first fight went. So do you think it's more likely that he fights the loser, the BMF title, or I know they're targeting Fazeev and Gamrod. Do you think it's more likely he'll fight the winner of that? Those are only two questions I got and have a heck of a morning. Yeah, Alvair's in a tricky situation. I'm not going to rule him out of a title fight altogether.

I don't like his chances, but there is a world where they would just go to, that if there's nobody else. If Oliver goes in there and beats Darius and he's the only guy there that's available to fight Islam Makhachev, then there's a world where this could happen. If Darius wins, he's getting the title shot. 100%. But what if, for some reason,

these two just beat the shit out of each other and Darius ain't going to be able to turn around that quickly? Then we have an issue. Because Mokachev is going to fight on that card. What do you do? do you pull Chandler and just give him a title shot? Like you can definitely see a world where that happens. My other thought is what's going to happen July 8th?

Because if Oliver wins, that is not going to be the UFC's first choice. They could go there, but it's not going to be their first choice. What I think their first choice would end up being is if Alexander Volcanowski just runs over Jaire Rodriguez or wins that fight

and is able to turn around quickly, I think they would definitely look into rebooking that fight or running those two guys back if they had their choice over all of error. And we don't know what's going on with Connor. We don't know when he's getting back at the pool.

Look, folks, this is the UFC. There is a world where Michael Chan that could get a title shot. So, but maybe he's not available. I don't know. Maybe he's like, nah, I want the bag, I want Connor. I'll do that. Could happen.

I'm not really sure. But I would say Oliver's chances of getting a title shot if he wins is like 10%. So I'm not going to rule it out completely. If he loses, yeah. I mean, that's kind of the Fizzives, the Gamrots, the Syrucans, the Turner's. Dan Hooker is interesting. If he could be Jalen Turner. I mean, there's a world where we could have a Matt Frivolta,

Charles Olivera fight in the not too distant future. If things work out that way, like who's going to say no to that? There's options. I don't know if Oliver are necessarily loved those options, but there will be options. As far as the rankings go, Ortega suffered a pretty nasty injury, and that was a lot of, less than a year ago.

So I'm willing to give him a pass. When was Perez's last fight? Perez was July 30th last year. So it's been less than a year for Perez, too. So I give them a pass. Our global, like, M.A. fighting rankings, we keep them, we, I know AK has been one of the guys that's like one year and they're out. But because of certain things, like injuries and all sorts of things, some things you

control some things you can. We landed on 18 months. If you don't fight for 18 months, you're out. You're out of the ranking. So John Jones just got ranked in our rankings. Steepa, not ranked in our rankings. There's other fighters who are out of the rankings altogether. Like I remember, I think Yawani and Jacek was ranked for like a month and then we yanked

her the next month. It all depends. And we have to also remember that the UFC doesn't do the rankings. there isn't like a panel of UFC employees that put the rankings together. They have assembled media that they do the rankings. They're the ones that make this happen. Does the UFC have some input? Maybe not as much, but there was a time that we had proof of this that they were like,

if you would like to do it this way, we wouldn't be totally upset with you. but with Perez and Ortega, it hasn't even been a year yet. So I'm willing to give those guys a pass. Let me look at, like, Stepe's ranked third. Stepe hasn't fought in over two years. That's a little different. Steepa hasn't fought since March of 2021.

He probably shouldn't be in the rankings anymore. until he comes back and fights again. So that I have a little bit of an issue with. But when it comes to Perez and Ortega, not so much. Let me just look at the featherweight rankings real quick. Like, I would probably still put Ortega slightly above Arlenallon right now.

I would put Ortega above Josh Emmett, Calvin Cater. I think he's fine at three. Yair's one, Max Holloway's two, Ortega's three. I think that's about right. I don't think there's anything really wrong. If you want to throw Arnold at 3 or take it 4, I don't hate that.

But I think the most interesting part of this division is the bottom of it. And guys like on the lower half of the top 15 or the bottom end of the top 15 or guys that aren't even in the top 15 yet. We got Cater at 6, zombie at 7. I don't necessarily agree having zombie at 7. Giga Chikazes 8, I think that's too high. Ilya at 9, he's not going to be there very long. I think him and if he could be Josh M and he's going to be a top 5 guy. Mavzharov is going to be a top 5 guy.

Bryce Mitchell, jury's still kind of out on him. It'd be interesting to see what happens in his next fight. He fights of Loyev and wins. That's big. So did Yusuf is there. Dan Ige at 13. He's fighting this. week. Edson Barbosa,

they're 14, Alex Casares at 15. Featherweight is super fun. I talk about this all the time. A lot of people, it's always about Bannonweight and lightweight when it comes to like the best divisions in the sport. And those are probably one and two, no matter

how you put it, but featherweight's knock it on the door. Just look at this division. Nathaniel Wood, Lorone Murphy, Alex Casares, Billy Q, Jonathan Pierce, Jack Shore, Joannis and Brito, Andre Feeling, Julian Arosa, Landware,

Damon Jackson, Pat Sabatini, Hakeem Dawadu, Josh Kulabal, Daniel Paneda, how fun is that guy, Bill Algeo, Lucas Almeida. These guys are all like super fun. Steve Garcia's knocking dudes out left and right. David Onama, another fun guy. like just so many there's just a lot of

Jack Jenkins another guy who's going to be climbing this division at some point Francis Marshall there's just William Gomez like there's a ton of feather weights on the come up

a ton of them it's a great division and it's super deep and it's right up there it's right up there it's a bronze medalist in divisions and it's knocking on the door

of some of these other divisions. Some of the names I ran off who people are very high on, these are like the 40th ranked guys in this division. Like David O'Nam is probably like the 35th best featherweight in the world, and he's a damn good featherweight. It's a great division. I always love when I get to talk about featherweights. All right.

Last call on the callers. We have five more minutes. If we can get anybody else. If not, we'll be good to go. Obviously, we have a lot going on this week. We have BTL 1230, AK versus New York Rick. It's going to be a lot of fun. So stay tuned for that.

We'll be back here tomorrow, 10 a.m. Eastern. We'll have a way-in show tomorrow. I would assume it's going to be at noon Eastern since the cards in Vancouver. We'll have a preview show, 3 p.m. Eastern, live on the YouTube channel. And then Saturday, we'll have the People's Pre-Fight show. We'll have the watch party. Get very excited about that. and then on to the next one on Sunday.

I don't think it's going to be a live one. I think we're going to have to record it kind of early on Saturday. Sorry, AK, because usually the watch party trips, I fly out like super early in the morning. Usually my flights at like before 6 a.m. And then my flight homes usually super late at night.

This one, a little different. I fly out at like 10.30 in the morning. And I fly back at like 1.45 on Sunday. which actually will be pretty refreshing and nice. So it's a little bit different. So we're not going to be able to do, probably not could be able to do a live show because I don't want to miss my flight.

And that would suck if I did. And Siviram will have the last word on this Thursday show. Civerham, hello. Questions for this Saturday fight. Main event and go main event and the net the train versus Danny Gate. That's it.

So Dan Igay, I like to win. Would it shock me of Nate Landward did something absolutely insane and beat Dan? No, but these are the types of fights that Dan wins and Dan shines in. But we're going to learn a lot about Nate Landware either way. And I think it's going to be a fight where Nate, even if he gets knocked out in this fight, I still think it's a fight where we're going to be like, damn, still want to see Nate Landmark fight as often as possible. I think it's going to be a fight where both guys stocks rise a little bit. But I am picking Dan Egey.

I just think he's been in there with much better guys, much better competition. He's been in there with pretty much everybody. And when he's on the other end of the step-up fight, Dan usually does very well and usually caps it off with something spectacular. So give me Dan Ege. Co-main event, I'm torn on. I haven't decided yet, if we're being honest. right now my

my gut is saying and only because only because like this dude Benile Darius deserves to fight for the title at this point and it would just be poetic injustice at its highest level if Benile Darius doesn't get a shot and if he loses this fight

he's probably never getting a title shot so I think like in my heart of hearts I kind of want to see Darius win just because I want to see him fight for the belt And I think honestly, from a stylistic perspective, Mokachev versus Darius is a really interesting fight. Like, it's a fight I want to see. I just want to see how it plays out.

I would probably pick Mokachev, but I think Darius brings some things to the table that would be interesting against what Mokachev brings to the table. So I'll make an official prediction on the preview show. And then in the main event, like, I've been saying it since Jump Street. I've been saying it since they had that press conference before UFC 288. I got Arina Aldana vibes right now.

I'm feeling it. I don't know why. I can't really explain it from a technical standpoint. I just feel like Arena is going to win. I don't know why. This is a really good stylistic matchup for Amanda New does. Like it really is. Aldana can punch and she's powerful as hell.

And that's her best chance to win this fight. but if Amanda can take her down and just start beating her up, Amanda will win this fight and we'll do so running away. But it's just a matter of what Amanda Nune shows up. Is she going to show up and chuck them and throw Mitz with the Renei and just have a fun barn burner? Is she going to have a big first round and then fade? I don't know.

It's tough to say. It's tough to say. But I just got vibes. I get vibes that Arena is going to go out there and knock out Amanda Nunes. We'll see what happens. We will see what happens. But thank you all very much. You're the best.

Back tomorrow, 10 a.m. Easter, we'll do it again. We'll see you at 1230 for BTL. Lots to talk about. And it's going to be a fun week, everybody. UFC 289 coming, PFL tonight, BTL later on. So thank you all very much. Back tomorrow. Have a great rest of your Thursday.

And as always, have a heck of a morning, everybody. media podcast network.