MMA Fighting - HOAM | Is Jon Jones In Play For Alex Pereira With UFC 303 Win?

Episode Date: June 25, 2024

Alex Pereira came through big for the UFC once again heading into Saturday's UFC 303 pay-per-view event. With the star power, the accolades, having a potential golden ticket with the UFC — along with the promotion owing him a couple of favors — if Pereira beats Jiri Prochazka for a second time on Satuday, could a fight with heavyweight champ Jon Jones be on the table? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses the rarified air Pereira is in right now with the UFC, his options with a win on Saturday, and even being in a great position if he loses to Prochazka. Additionally, listener questions include Kelvin Gastelum's latest weight snafu ahead of UFC Saudi Arabia, Conor McGregor's fighting future, Brian Ortega teasing a lightweight move ahead of his UFC 303 bout with Diego Lopes, Paige VanZant going to Power Slap, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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What's going on, everybody? I am Mike Katk. I hope you're all having a wonderful start to the week. We are coming off of UFC Saudi Arabia this past Saturday. Big win for good old Bobby Knuckles, Robert Whitaker, knocks out Icram Alaskaroff in just under two minutes.

What a performance from the Reaper. Icramal Scariff will be back. I saw a lot of, I mean, typical things you see on, especially on Twitter. It's just ridiculous.

Oh, he sucks. He was never good. Fraud check, blah, blah, blah. Don't feel that way at all. Ickram will be back.

climb's going to take a little bit longer, but I still feel he is a guy who probably will fight for a world title. I am that much of a believer in his skill set and how good of a fighter he is. He just fought a really good dude, and there's a whole bunch of circumstances surrounding that fight

and multiple weight cuts and all that, and it's certainly not an excuse because you signed the dotted line, you said yes, but it's certainly something we have to keep in mind when it comes to Icram Alaskaroff and his future. Goodwin for Alexander Volkov.

Kelvin Gassum situation is pretty tough. I honestly, I have no idea what the UFC's going to do with Calvin Gasselm. Like, nothing is off the table. Nothing would surprise me. Sharma Agam Adoff gets a win, but a performance that left a lot of people, I would say, with more questions than answers. Volcan Ozimir, AK, couldn't quit him. and it's a good thing you couldn't.

Knocks out Johnny Walker viciously. And then the rest of the card, not too shabby, Nazar, Hackpress, Jared Gordon, good fight. I thought Jared Gordon won. Hackpres gets a sputty. Certainly not a robbery. What a debut for Felipe Lima.

Up a weight class, less than a week's notice. Dude, it's fun as hell. Told you about him a little bit on our programming heading in. And he submits Muhammad Naimov in round three. Just nasty stuff. Can't wait to see him.

back at 135. We're not Fokritinov wins a hard-fought split decision against Nicholas Dalby. Really close fight could have gone either way. Mouin Gafferov gets his first UFC win. Magamad. Gadsia Sulov gets a win. Majority decision over Brinson-Rabero.

And Changholy is now a member of the UFC roster after winning the bantam Wates Road to UFC. And that's UFC Saudi Arabia. Bellator had a card. very forgettable for being honest there were some obvious certain moments Paul Hughes gets a debut win big win for Dalton Rasta

main event was awful really really bad just one you'll never want to go back back and watch again Ramazahn Karamaga Madoff is a new welterweight champion so that happened PFL had a card that was pretty

awful as well last two fights were pretty fun Good one from impicus agonai. But man, that whole promotion just, there we go. Sorry about that. I thought I lost the entire, lost the entire space for a second. But yeah, PFL needs a lot of help, man.

They need a lot of help. It's tough that the biggest thing they have going on is them promoting a UFC fighter. It's never a good thing when that's the biggest story coming out of your event. But hopefully they could turn it around because we need them. We need them to be good. We need them to be fun. We need them to be entertaining. We need them to be a legitimate number two.

And when you have Don Davis coming out, just making ridiculous statements that we are with the UFC in terms of global brands and MMA that are very, very successful. I even saw them, I even saw Don Davis tweet out that we are the biggest promotion in Europe. PFL is the biggest promotion in Europe. that is just absolutely ridiculous. It's just absolutely ridiculous, but that's not a hearing or there. Because it's International Fight Week, UFC 303 coming up on Saturday.

Looking forward to it. Alex Pereira versus Yuri for Hachka, the main event. Brian Ortega, Diego Lopez, Anthony Smith, Roman DeLeedze. Yes, that's how we ended up with Anthony Smith, a fight that has changed multiple times. Myra Bueno Silla versus Mason-ChiS on IMA Chado Gary versus Michael Page. That is the main card. It's a pretty darn good one.

I also got Joe Pfeiffer back against Mark Andre Barrio, Cub Swanson, Andre Feely, great fight. Charles Jordeni and Gianz Silva should be fun. Peyton Tablet is back as a gigantic favorite. Let me see where he's at right now. I think he's going to get up to

probably minus 1900 or minus 2,000. Still at minus 1600. So that fight is happening and we'll see if Janis Skamori could pull off a massive upset. Michelle Waterson, Gomez, Gillian Robertson, Andrei Alofsky competing at UFC 303

against Martin Boudai, Carlos Hernandez versus Ray Suruya and Ricky Simone versus Venetius Oliver. Should be a fun watch. Of course, we get the watch party on Saturday. A little bit of a different sort of

watch party set up this time around. More on that later on this week, unless you guys want to know about today, but it will not be in New York City this week, but we're still going to do it. It's going to be fun as hell, so stay tuned for that. All right, let's go and let's hear from CV.

C.V., how's it going in Canada, my man, after the Oilers lost game seven? Hey, Mike. Can you hear me? Yes. I'm from Toronto, so I have no feelings towards the Oilers, unfortunately. And I'm not much of a hockey fan, so. But yeah, congratulations. Florida. But anyways, the main event for Saturday, I'm going to be rooting for Yuri personally,

just so we can get like a trilogy fight and like we can get like an actual like training camp for like an actual rematch under normal circumstances. But I feel like Alex is going to win. So if Alex does win on Saturday, do you think Alex is the type of guy to, you know, have like a long rain and light heavyweight? but I feel like they might be pushing them to heavyweight. So, yeah, what do you think happens next? And, like, man, light heavyweight's kind of a mess, right? In terms of, like, contenders, like, actually getting title shots, cough, cough, Maguette Ancolaia. And, yeah, just your thoughts on the overall title picture of Alex does win.

And I'm also, Mike, side note, I'm kind of disappointed in the Celtics parade, man. like I was watching highlights. Like the players are having like the, their speeches in the TD Garden in front of like families and friends, but not in front of the crowd. Like, come on, man. Like, doesn't Boston have like a city hall or something where like, you know, all the players, you know, like address the fans and all that?

But yeah, just your thoughts on that. Yeah, I mean, it didn't bother me at all, honestly. It's tough to do on a Friday, man. Like, it's tough to do on a Friday in Boston. I mean, it's a nightmare to get out there anyways, but now you're having a million people out there for a parade, trying to do it in front of City Hall on a Friday. It's very, very difficult.

So I thought it was fine. I thought it was fine. The fans at attendance had a great time. Players had a great time. The celebration continues. We had the best one-two punch in the NBA throughout the first pitch at Fenway yesterday. It was just been a great celebration. It's been a great time.

It's been a great, just been a great several days, to be perfectly honest with you. So let's, it's, all those questions are super tough to answer. I mean, I could tell you one thing about the light heavyweight division. It is poop. It's terrible division. It's very, very bad. There's like five decent fighters. It's just, I mean, it's just a flippity, flat.

of just the same dudes, but Pereira is really fun. Prahaska really fun. Those are the two guys that everybody just universally loves and praises. Then there's Magamette Angola who could be the best band and weight in the world, or best light heavyweight in the world. But it's going to take forever for him to get an actual title shot because Dana's already absolutely buried him after the Janbovovich fight.

But he probably is the best two-o-fiber, but I just feel like him getting a title shot's going to, he needs, I think he needs Jerry Brasch going to win if he wants to get a title fight. As far as the rest of the division, it's just tough, man, like Jamal Hill's hurt, Janbo Hoveitch is hurt, Rackett just got knocked out, the key to Krylov, he's coming off of a decent win, Khalil Roundtree suspended, but should be able to fight in July. Johnny Walker just got brutally knocked out.

Anthony Spitz fighting on Saturday, more on him in a moment, Volcan Ozabir. Two wins in a row, two finishes in a row. But then you have some fun guy. You have Asimat Mersikonov, who I think is really, really good. Carlos Oldberg's really, really good. Vitor Petrino kind of showed who he truly was in the Anthony Smith fight. Like good, decent, solid hand, but not going to be a title challenger.

Bogdan Goosekopf is fun, but probably not a threat to win the belt. Like, it's just a division of, like, solid guys. And some are fun, and most aren't. And that's just kind of where this division is right now. It's been a mess for years. It's been a mess for a really, really long time. It's been a mess for almost four years. Since John Jones left the division, it's been just a disaster.

As far as where Alex Pereira goes, the answer is wherever the hell he wants if he wins on Saturday. And if Anthony Smith beats Roman DeLise, yes, I am going to say this. if Alex Perey wants to fight Anthony Smith, he's going to fight Anthony Smith. Whatever he wants to do, he's going to get. If he wants to have Israel out of Sani, you go up to 205 and fight him, then that's what's going to happen. If he wants to go fight John Jones, that's what's going to happen. He's in a tremendous position right now. He's about as good of a position as you can be in the UFC because they owe you tons of favors.

You're a star. You're a champion. and they need you. They need you a lot. He is a very valuable piece to the puzzle. And we dropped a little thing on Sunday. Is Alex Ferrer the MVP of the UFC? Yes.

And it's not even a conversation right now, in my opinion. So, yeah, it's a tough division, man. It really is. But how long will this rain be? However long he wants. Really? Because he's, I mean, I don't think he's going to, like, get to beat Josh Johnson.

numbers, but I think he's going to win on Saturday and maybe he fights Anthony Smith and then maybe he goes fights John Jones. Who the hell knows? He's getting up there in age. She's not a young buck. So who knows how long we even have this man. So let's enjoy him while we have him, shall we? Four on sniper. Go ahead. What's up, man? Hey, can you hear me? Yep. Okay. Sorry, heck of a morning. I just wanted to ask you your thoughts on. So the original fight was supposed to be Khalil, Roundtree versus Jamal Hill, and I want to know which of these four matchups you were most interested in. Would it have been Roundtree versus Hill, the Oldberg Hill, Oldberg Smith, or Smith and Deli-J?

Which one were you most excited to see? And can you see any of those being rebooked in the future? Thanks, Mike. I mean, it was probably Hill and Roundtree. That was a really intriguing fight for a number of reasons. One, because Jamal Hill just got brutally knocked out by Alex Barrera. And he was getting in his second fist fight in less than a year after tearing his Achilles, which is absolutely insane.

It's so ridiculous to even think that, let alone say it, let alone it being a thing. And he was about to go fight freaking Kaleel Roundtree, and that was a really interesting matchup. Because a lot of people who are just fans of crazy striking battles and just wanting to see weird. things. New York Rick, others, and I would be it on this too. We want to see Kaleo Roundtree fight Alex Pereira at some point. Like that fight's ridiculous. And if he goes out there and beats Jamal Hill, he's got a really good chance of getting in that fight. So that was kind of a bummer. Uh, Oldberg, I think he still has time. I think he's, I think he's a good fighter. I think he's fun. I think there's holes. I think he's limited in a lot of ways. And

the Smith fight actually would have been really interesting honestly I think that's a more interesting fight than Jamal Hill because I just don't know if Jamal Hill is going to would have like fought him in a very smart tactical way

go for takedowns etc because I think that's kind of how you have to beat Carlos Oldberg but Carl Solberg for some reason is really good at getting people to buy into hey if you just charge in on this dude and swing as hard as you can good things are going to happen.

Yet everyone keeps trying to do that and he knocks dudes out in like a minute or less. And I kind of think Jamal Hill would kind of go hammer and tongs with him at some point. Well, I think Anthony Smith would have taken him down and made this kind of ugly. So curious to see what Oldberg does. I think maybe they just do Ulberg and Cleo Roundtree. Like, I'm down for that. Do that in Perth.

It's a good-ass fight. Jamal Hill's going to be out for a while. It appears. knee injuries are not fun, especially coming off in Achilles injury. Anthony Smith is about to fight on Saturday. So depending on how serious Ulberg's injury is, I think we do him and Kulilohrown Street. It's a good fight.

That is a good one. All right, four-corner sports. Go ahead. Hey, Mike. So it didn't seem like Dana was too pleased with everything that's been going on with Kelvin Gasselm. And I actually got to watch this video. that he had on his YouTube channel. I mean, it was pretty, you know, surprising that, you know, that was his header.

It was, you know, missing weight with KG and he actually didn't miss weight by a full weight class. I can only imagine if he sticks around to the UFC, he has a very, very short leash. They're probably going to give him some type of an up-and-coming killer, whether it's at 170. I doubt they make him go up to 1-85. but do you think, you know, like on a coin sauce, you think it's really going to just be him sticking around facing that, you know, like a hungry, you know, prospect? And how long is this hype for Sharra Bullet is going to last?

Just because it doesn't seem like it's going to be a very long lifespan, especially if he can only fight, you know, in the Middle East or outside of the U.S. was because of the eye condition. If he's only going to be fighting about maybe twice a year, I don't really see how he's going to be able to build some type of momentum, especially if there are very large gaps. I don't know.

What's your opinion? Thanks. The Shara thing is, I don't know, he's just kind of kind of be an attraction, I guess. I still stand by the matchup I made on onto the next one. Just give him Chris Wydenman, man. Like, let's just do that. Like, it's a win-win for the UFC.

Widman wins. The fairy tale story continues on after the injury. can you get back into contention, goes and beats a guy with a lot of hype, doesn't hurt you at all? Or we could just trot him out there and have a bunch of bangers. Like, I'm not, like, I think him and Wyman

would actually be kind of fun, but you want to throw him in there with like Bruno Ferreira? Cool. Like, we can do that. There's options. It's just he can't fight in the U.S., which means there's no way they could put him at a title fight.

There's no way he could fight for a belt or get anywhere near it. Because if you can't get, You can't fight in the United States. Then, like, what's the point? It's the same thing that's hampering Hamza at Shamiya for right now and others. It's just a tough spot to be in. The gasoline thing, I mean, there's not much more I could say about the gasoline thing.

He's taken a beating about the whole weight thing, and he deserves every bit of it. It's not even the weight issues. It's the way he acted about him. Like, he did not care. It was very wink wink nod, nod. Like, hey, I got one over on this guy because he flew all the way to Saudi Arabia. And he's not going to turn around and go home,

so he has to fight me. And I think that's kind of like that's how he played it off. That's how he played it off. And it was just a horrible look. Dana's pissed. He should be. I'm pissed. I'm dred. I'm pissed.

I'm definitely pissed. if I'm him, but at the same token, this worked out pretty well for DROD. I had a fun fight. I think he won in the court of public opinion in terms of like who got some shine out of that, even though he lost the fight. He got a new deal with the UFC,

got a nice bump in pay. He got 30% of Kelvin Gasolm's purse. And I don't know exactly the amount of money that is, but I bet he got an extra like 50 or 60,000 bucks or something like that. I bet he got a pretty good chunk of change there. So all in all, even though he lost, it's not a terrible night at the office for D-Rod.

Gasolm gets the win, but, man, he's just getting eviscerated by everybody. I said he should fight Ikram Alaskarraf next. I stand by that. I think Alaskarraf absolutely annihilates him. So if he's going to fight 85, like that's the kind of guy he's going to have to fight. but I could see them forcing him down to 170

and who he's going to fight, I don't know. Because it's tough because AK made some good points on onto the next one. Like, you got to be smart about it. You got to be smart because even though they would sort of treat Calvin like, we're just going to throw him in here and sink or swim, Calvin's pretty good.

Like he can play spoiler a whole bunch against a lot of these guys. Like if you throw him in there against like Fokkerty, off or something like gasolm could win that fight it's a very real world he wins that fight throw him in there with like walking buckley like i don't think he beats walking buckley but he could do you throw him in there with like neil magni like neil magni has a good chance of winning that fight and then if you throw him in there with like michael morales or something like if things get a little dicey like all these fights are like fights he could win so you have to be smart about it so i don't know what they do with him

But like I said earlier, nothing really surprised to be. If they boot him tomorrow, if we get the UFC roster bot saying Calvin Gassum with the Red X next to his name, would any of us be surprised? I wouldn't be. He's just got to do better. This is just, it's, we deal. Newer, like, if you're a newer fan, that you don't, you don't even understand how long we've been dealing with this with Calvin Gassum. A decade.

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deposit and credit card products provided by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. member FDIC. Terms, conditions, restrictions, and limitations apply. Kalun City, go. Mike, what's going on, man? First off, the placement of Buenos Aires on this card, that's like they're out of touch with their fan base, very odd placement in the middle of that card, in my opinion. I got a quick one for you, though.

What happens with Makayev and Manel? How do you see that one going down? I think Makayev gets a boring decision, and does the winner of that fight get the title shot? Appreciate it, man. How's that fight go? It's a good one, man. It's a really good fight.

Like, right now, right now I'm leaning Maqayev. But, Manel's the favorite. Minna's 1.30. I think I'm leaning Mahamahev right now, but because he can grapple. But Manel's pretty dangerous. I mean, that was pretty dangerous everywhere, man. And you have to think at this point, like I'm not saying that he'll never fight for a belt.

But if he doesn't go in there, make weight and do everything right and win this fight, the road getting back is going to be a long one. Like they're giving him, they are giving him an opportunity that, let's be honest, he probably doesn't deserve after missing weight in that last fight. with Nicolao, but he's getting it. And to me, it's a number one contender fight. Winner of this fight gets, gets the shot.

I know we get Tetsu or Tira there, but unless like no one else is available, I don't think you can give Tira the title shot. Either Tira in there, give him one more against a Brandon Royval or somebody, somebody like that, and then he can get in there. But if I'm Tira, I'm waiting for that phone to ring. Something happens with either or,

those two dudes, Mikhail F or Middell Cop, you'd best be ready to book some travel to Perth and go fight the other guy because you might just find yourself at a title fight. But yes, I do think if all goes according to plan,

winner, that's getting alley pants at the end of the year. Let's go to Joey T. What up, Joey T. What's up, brother? How you doing? Good. How are you, ma'am? Good. So, I want to bring up the 205 conversation, which I do agree with you on. But if I had to be honest, I think Ankleyev as a whole is pretty much screwed.

Because think about it this way, let's say if Yuri does go in and beat Ferreira, we've seen how the UFC does love trilogy fights. So I think that's probably the third fight, the NDA, see who wins it all. And then that leaves Anklav in the backseat. And then knowing how active some of the other mid-tier guys are coming up, like if you look at Roundtree, if you look at Oldberg, depending on how Anthony Smith looks this weekend, there's guys that are going to be climbing up,

Enka Lylea was pretty much sitting on the back burner. And I actually had a conversation with somebody about this was I kind of compare Enkolive's waiting situation to Joanne Wood when she was actually in her prime and she was ranked in the top four to five where everyone thought, oh, Wood could get a title, but she was either being too patient or she actually tried to take another fight to help an organization, which I hate to say, I think Ankalav might have to do because him sitting ain't really going to do much, especially after the Blombovich. He's like, why do you deserve another title at the shot at that kind of fight?

So, as you said, I think 205 is wide open. I kind of wish they kind of did this ultimate fighter season with adding more 205ers or hopefully we see more 205ers in the contender series because we definitely need some more overall talent at that weight class. But as a whole, who knows how this fight goes? I do think Pereira does win. I think within the first three rounds, I think he's going to catch him again. And as he who he wants to fight, I do agree how you some.

said he could choose Anthony Smith if Andy Smith takes care of business. Maybe he wants to Cleo a Roundtree. Or maybe it wouldn't shock me if Aspinall takes care of business. Maybe they'd do a main event at heavyweight to see if he can capture a third title. It wouldn't be a title. It'll be like the interim, I guess. But yeah, another title as a sort. But as a whole, I just want to say that your content's really good.

I try to tune in as much as I can. And I appreciate all the hard work you do, bro. Thanks, Joey T. Appreciate the kind words. Yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right. If Pereira loses, he's getting a rematch. They're going to do the trilogy fight. That's, again, another example why Pereira is in just the best possible position he could be in.

It's not lose, it's not win-win, but it's as close to a win-win as it gets for Alex Pereira. Like, not a ton of risk here. Like, if he wins, he's, I mean, he's just off to the races. And if he loses, we just saw what happened when he lost. year ago and now he's an even bigger star after being the recipient of the knockout of the year by the fist of Israel Adasania. This dude can do no wrong right now. And if he loses, he's just going to get another title shot. He's just going to get it right back with Yuri. That rivalry will continue. It's going to be awesome. And it's just crazy to see where 205 is right now.

This was, 205 was like the star division for the UFC in the early days. Chuck Ladell and Tito and Randy and all these guys, like, this is the division that sort of helped build the sport to where it is right now. Like all their big name main events, all their big stars were a 205. Rampage. And then we kind of got to the Shogun Liotto era and some of these other guys. And then we got to John Jones era. And it was like still the Star Division. And then John's just like, all right, moving up.

We're done. going to heavyweight. I'm not the champion anymore, and it's just been a mess. It's just been a mess. We've had like 18,000 vacant title fights. It's really been wild. It's really been wild.

And the Angolaev is just in such a strange spot, man. And here's the weird thing about the Ankylaev thing. Was his fight with Janbovich not, like, was it a fight of the year contender? No. Was it the worst fight of all time? Nowhere near it. nowhere near it.

It was actually kind of compelling theater to watch that fight because Behovic got off to a nice lead. He was leg kicking the shit out of Ankleief. He had him hobbling around a little bit, and then Ankelaef had to dig deep and find a way to win. Sometimes, like, those are compelling in their own right. And then Dana just going in and just dumping on him,

I'm like, just a tough spot for him to be in. I liked the Ullberg. I liked Ullberg, B. being on 303 for the big reason of if he beats Anthony Smith or Jamal Hill, he's going to fight up Magamon Angolaiv. So Anka Life's going to get a fight with a, essentially, number one contender fight with somebody. But right now, who's the number one contender fight with? Like, who is it?

Does it give him Khalil Roundtree now? And they just say, dude, this is the number one contend to fight? Like, what do we do here? Anthony Smith's already fought this dude. He's not going to fight him again. do you give him Vulcan Ozedemir? Was that knockout the one? I don't know.

This is the problem with the division right now. This is the problem with the division right now. And previous caller, AK, I can already can already feel what he was thinking with the Myra Buono Silva slander. Yeah, that's a fight that's going to happen on Saturday. I mean, I don't know what to say.

I don't know. The fight is going to happen. somebody's going to win and somebody's going to lose and then we're going to move on to Anthony Smith versus Roman Delizzee. Hopefully it's a scrap, which, you know, these two ladies can scrap it.

Meyer-Bronosil was very fun to watch for a while. The Raquel Pennington fight was not all that thrilling. It makes J.A. sounds look real good. So, yeah, they might just get after it and have themselves a surprising little scrap, maybe a little Carol hostess style. We just get in there and, like her fighting Arrini Aldana, just out of nowhere. They just get in there and start slugging it out. Let's hope for the best, shall we?

Mystic Mac. Mystic Back, are you there? Yeah, yeah, I'm here. What's up, ma'am? Yeah, I'm good. Hey, Mike. So just wondering, what's your thoughts on this new version of Brian Ortega with that full eagle story that he used to tell? Brian Ortega. Yeah, he's been kind of a story throughout this. A lot of real interesting things that he's had to say. One of which is that he's planning to move to lightweight, which is, didn't really see that coming.

So he's going to move to lightweight. He was planning on moving to lightweight at the spear. I know for a fact that they were trying to get him and Diego Lopez on the spear card. I didn't know where that was. I know that was a fight that was being targeted for the spear card until they moved it up here. but Ortega's done some interviews and said that I took a fight of lightweight, can't name the opponent, but after this I'm probably going to move to lightweight.

And then, I don't know if this is unembedded or whatnot, but Brian Ortega is showing people that he trains with his mouth taped shut. Okay? But honestly, if like someone came on this show and said, because I don't watch embedded, unless I have to like watch it for work purposes, but if somebody jumped on here, me having no knowledge of embedded and said, hey, Mike, here's a trivia question for you. Name one fighter on the roster who tapes his mouth shut while he tapes while he trains.

I would have said Brian Ortega in like five seconds. Like he would have been one of my first three guesses at worst because that just strikes me to be the kind of dude that he is. So yeah, he's a really interesting story. I will be betting on him on Saturday. is a plus 120 underdog. I think I got him at plus 130. Yes, I did. I think that's a great line for Brian Ortega.

And this is not me coming out here and saying that Diego Lopez is going to lose Brian Ortega. Because I honestly have no idea how that fight's going to play out. But, you know, when we have matchups that I feel are very evenly matched, Brian Ortega is one of those dudes that you have to literally murder to get out of there. It's not easy to do. Vol couldn't get him out. Holloway did, but that's Max Holloway fighting one of his perfect fights. Diego Lopez is a madman, and boy, what a moment it would be for him if he can go out there and starched Brian Ortega.

But Ortega is live to win at any second of that fight. You just never know when it's going to come. Dude is a dog, seems to have his head on straight, seems to be in a really good place mentally, much better than he's been in quite some time. So I love the matchmaking here. I think the short notice nature probably favors Lopez a little bit more, but I think this is a good thing for Brian Ortega as well. He doesn't have to overthink anything.

You just go in there and fight. So I do have a better on Otega on Saturday, and I don't know if I'm just lighten money on fire, but yeah, going to take the dog shot on a guy that I feel should be at worst 50-50. This could be a big opportunity for him. You can come out smelling like roses at the end of this card. So, yeah, looking forward to that one. Fight frigging rules. Jay Stack, go ahead, my man.

One, who is the dog of the week on this card? And two, where the hell is Nikita Krollov? I know he's not on this card. I'm just wondering, where is he at? That'd be all. Nikita Krilov? Where is Nikita Krilov, huh? Uh, I mean, he just didn't.

I suck at like dates and shit. Oh, man, it's been over a year since he submitted Ryan's band. Damn. I don't know, man. No clue. Great question. That's a guy they would, it's not a bad guy to have back in the mix. That's for sure.

He's also kind of at a tough spot too because he's lost to Yombojovich. He's lost to Ankylaif already. But at least it's another name in the mix. Yeah, I have no idea. No clue where he has been. Dog of the week. Let me take a gander.

I do have some dog action on Saturday. I have Cub Swans at a plus 200. I don't understand why this line is like this. It really sticks out to me. Like Andre Feeley is a solid fighter. But you're telling me, Cub Swanson is a plus 200 against Andre Fili. I don't buy it. I don't buy it at all.

I think Anthony Smith as an underdog is kind of wild, too. So I do have a dog bet on Anthony Smith. I have a dog bet on Brian Ortega. The Cub Swanson bet, like I said. I think Gian Silva as an underdog is pretty live. I mean, it's plus 100, but still. And then, I mean, Venetius Solvarez is kind of, kind of. kind of eyeballing that one a little bit.

But Andre Arlowski at plus 210. This is heavyweight, slaggy MMA, and they're very few better at heavyweight slaggy MMA in 2024 than Andre Arloffsky is. He's sitting at plus 210 right now, so it could be a lot of dogs on this card.

But Cubs Swanson, I think right now probably has the most value as an underdog. But there's a few who are very live. I got a bunch of action. in that sense. Support for this show comes from the Audible Original,

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Conditions apply. Bull, go ahead. Well, first of all, I'm with you on Ortega. Team Ortega all day. I'll be taking him as well. One thing I wanted to ask you, and I'm sorry somebody asked you already, but hasn't been confirmed at Hamza

can't fight in the U.S.? Is it official? That's it for me, brother. Thanks, man. No? but I mean Dana kind of

said as such at the post-fight press conference like he can't for some reason he can't come here I don't know what it is we can all sort of wager guesses

and we can speculate and we I don't know nothing is like actually confirmed. Like, we know that something is up. We just don't know exactly what it is. But something's definitely up. And we don't know if it's a visa issue. We don't know what it is. But something's going on and it's hindering him from coming to the U.S. and fighting.

He was able to do it for 279. Hasn't been able to do it since. And that's why it's like really tough to book him in a title fight. Like if he can't go anywhere, especially as a guy, he's a who is one of your more intriguing figures, like, how can you give him a title fight? Like, if he can't fight in Las Vegas, like, how can you book him in a title fight? It's crazy.

But no one has, like, flat out said and no one has done, like, the investigative reporting as to what. I know Ariel's asked Humzad about travel issues in the past when he was on the MMA hour, and I'm just like, yeah, I got no travel issues. but I think you might.

But we don't know for sure. We don't know for sure. But maybe that gets squared away. But man, we got to get this dude back in the cage. I mean, maybe we get it in October. Can we just book the Polo Costa fight and just call it today? Like, what are we doing here? Just throw them in there with Paul Costa.

I know we tried to book this once before in the same place. But I think you've got to try. I think you got to try dude needs to fight dude needs to fight right now let's see we got here people are excited for 303 that's what we like to hear

uh zardomirch says kahliel versus oldberg fight to make i agree but again we don't know the extent of oldberg's injury right now so if it's something that he's out for a couple months or something he can come back and fight in perth like if he could fight in perth that you booked the Cleo Roundtree fight.

100%. That's where you booked that one. But either way, I think you have to do that. I think that's the one to me. Because somebody who else is going to fight? Or you just throw Cleoio Roundtree in there with ankle life. I mean, I like the Oldberg fight better from a stylistic standpoint. It's more fun.

But, dude, no one else is available. So throw them in there. God, 205 is rough. Just a rough division. Yowser. What else is going on in the wonderful world of M.M.A. Dustin Porre is going to be doing some broadcasting on Saturday. Very excited about that.

Confirm that yesterday. Porre, Teddy Atlas, Chale Sunnan, and Brennan Fitzgerald, the desk. Good stuff. Borey's great at that. He's great at that. So maybe this is a little tryout. Maybe we get more Porya in the desk. I mean, he hasn't officially retired.

But you kind of have a feeling that his career goes in this direction because he's so good at breaking down fights. He's excellent at him. And then, of course, we get Annick, D.C., Rogan, Megan O'Levy, Dean Thomas. We get the way-in show folk. It should be fun. We got Paige Van Zant doing some power slapping on Friday, which I can't believe I'm saying this, and I said it on Saturday.

I'll say it here again. This is brilliant. It's an absolutely brilliant move from Dana White and the power slappers. This is a brilliant move. It truly is because the M&B is going to cover it. We're going to cover Paige. Whether she gets God or gets somebody else. But, I mean, this is honestly, like, this is the shit they should be doing.

Like, no one cares. Nobody cares about these other slappers. Nobody. But you throw a page in there, it's a good one. People will pay attention. Wonder why. They'll ask questions. We'll discuss it.

So this is a brilliant move on their part. we'll see how it pays off it could just be like a one-time thing but this is very this is very BKFC of them and it's very again it's very wise this is a BKFC

is one or two kind of move where you know BKFC thought they come out and they say things that just kind of aren't all that true early on just like Dana says about power slap We're bigger than every sport in the world.

We get better viewership than any of the major sports. Somebody called them out on that, and then he backed off on that and said social media-wise, which I still don't think that's true. But that's what Power's Lap is for, is a social media juggernaut. There are very few people who are going to be like, wow, you know what I'm going to do on my Friday night?

For the next four hours, I'm going to watch Rumble and watch these people's slap each other defenseless for four straight hours. No, that does not happen. There are a couple people out there that will do that. Some people might just go in there and whatnot and just see a slap or two and get the fuck out of there, but it is a social media thing. It is a short attention span sport.

They want 30 second clips. Dudes getting waffled and out. That's it. But you throw a page in there and people are going to talk about it. So this is, even Scott McCrae agrees. Mike, I've been an M.A. fan morning since the gate you lost 300, but PVZ doing power slap is just a type of spectacle that can light my spirits. It's smart.

It's smart. We had a great time talking about this on the post-fight show Saturday. Apparently they named her opponent. I have no idea who it is. But we're out of the blast being like, oh, Paige Van Zandt v. Susan from accounting. Just like all just fun stuff. And then we were like fantasy matchmaking, like other things they could do. Like maybe this is where we get Connor versus Michael Chan there in a slap fight.

Because you don't need to have two working feet and 10 working toes to do power slap. You don't need full athletic prowess to compete in power slap. Maybe we get the long-awaited Dana White versus Tito Ortiz matchup on the power slap podium. That would be amazing. That would be incredible. Can you imagine the attention that that would get? It would be huge. That would probably be the biggest slap fight they could realistically do is Dana versus Tito.

I don't know why they don't do that. It'd be great. But yeah, that's happening. What else is going on? Lorenzo Hunt. Speaking of BKFC, suspended for 18 months. I don't know if you guys saw the article on M.A. great website but uh the testosterone numbers for lorenzo hunts are like superhero levels crazy

absolutely crazy uh mandolemos versus virna jangoroba is a main event in 2024 uh we're back at the world's most famous apex on july 20th and that will be your main event for nevagus 94 so a big opportunity for Vierna Gensro, but she might get herself a title fight if she wins that one. And then Connor showing up at Bellator. I mean, it's kind of, so far, kind of a slowish week in the

wonderful world of MMA and combat sports, but shit's going to ramp up pretty quick. Media day tomorrow, press conference on Thursday, weigh in to Friday, fight Saturday, Paige doing her thing.

Oh yeah, PFL is in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. All I needed to see was where they were, and I knew that Logan Storley would be on the card, and sure enough, he is. How about that? How about that? Brennan Lockmane on the card.

10 p.m. Eastern main card for PFL. Yeah, that's the thing that's happening. We're about to get out of here, but let's get Cahan or Cahan. I hope I didn't screw that up too much there. How are you? Are you there? Oh, no. Not connecting.

Bounce out, bounce back in. We'll try. Matt, do we have you? Hey, you hear me? Yep, got you, ma'am. Hey, what's up, Mike? Heck of a morning. First time caller.

I just wanted to know, like, your personal opinion on Connor, like, as a fan. And also, shout out Jed's the man. What do you mean, my opinion on Connor? Like, what specific, just him in general? general? Yeah, like overall, like his whole career, like, just like as a fan. Okay. Connor McGregor is the most important fighter that has ever competed in the UFC. Like, plain and simple.

Pound for pound, he is the most important fighter that has ever competed for them. Company is not self-for-4.2 billion dollars in 2016 without Connor McGregor. It does not happen. It does not happen. If he is not on the roster, if he is not doing what he does, the UFC is not in the position they're in right now. plain and simple it's just it and his rise everything from the marcus brimbage fight

all the way to the habibre magamada fight is some of the most fascinating shit you'll ever see i mean it just really is all the questions that surrounded cona mcgregor every single fight you'd go out there and just dust everybody up oh well you never beat a wrestler and then he goes out and beat chad mendes oh but that still isn't enough for me. And then he goes out and sparks O. Josie Aldo in 13 seconds.

Oh, but that's still not good enough for me. And then he goes and fights with 155 pounds. And then he goes and fights Nate, loses to Nate. Oh, see, he sucks. I told you the whole time. He's terrible. And then he beats Nate at 202. And then he delivers, in my opinion,

the greatest performance from a challenger that there ever was in a UFC title fight. He beat the soul out of Eddie Alvarez. That is about as perfect of a performance as you will ever see in that cage. He showed up at Madison Square Garden and delivered, not the goods. He delivered the greats. This, I remember because we were doing like, I was like hosting an event at a local restaurant in Western Mass watching 205. And my father was in town and he came and sat with us. And he obviously knew about Cona McGregor and paid attention to it.

He was blown away by Conner McGregor. Not just the trash talk. Not just what he did at the press conference. But he went in there and beat the shit out of Eddie Alvarez. Like it was unbelievable. Every time he touched Eddie, he fell. Just the timing, the accuracy. Everything about that performance was incredible.

It's one to me like when I think about the UFC If I close my eyes and think UFC One of the first things that pops into my mind Is what Connor McGregor did to Eddie Alvarez That night in Madison Square Garden It's unreal Unreal And then he gets the Floyd Mayweather fight

Which is still ridiculous And while he made a floppy A trillion dollars to Box Floyd And the fight went the way most smart people Would have expected it to Connor made a lot of money. That helped the UFC a lot as well. That gave them so much, like, extra marketing.

Because even if, like, you weren't a fan of Floyd or a boxing fan or even a UFC fan or a Connor fan, it didn't matter. You could not ignore what was happening with those two. But they started doing those World Tour press conferences, and Connor started yapping away. He's calling Stephen Espinoza a weasel. And all this stuff, like, you could not ignore it. You could not get away from it.

But unfortunately, that whole situation in a lot of people's minds ruined his career. Because we didn't see him again for a while. He had all this money. And when Dana says these things, like, dude, like, when you're so rich that, like, it's hard to motivate somebody. Like, there is some truth to that. There is some truth to that. And then he went in there and fought Habib and Habib just in a,

annihilated him. And then he comes back and fights Donald Serroney and did what he was supposed to do against Donald Seroni. Just annihilated him as perfect matchmaking. And then he gets the Dustin Porre fight and it's all respect. Connor kind of like negotiated his own way into that fight, which I thought was brilliant. She shows the power he has.

And then he came back as like mean Connor in the second one and just didn't come off great. Leg injury, all that. And now it's just seeing sort of the goodwill that he has lost over the years is pretty fascinating to the point where people are just like, he ain't fighting anymore. Like he's just done. The amount of people who have messaged me or have jumped in the live chats or have come on this show or even just members of our staff who are like, the dude's never fighting again.

crazy to think about when you look at where he was in 2015 and 2016 and you hear the things Dana White says about him. I think he's going to fight Michael Chandler this year. I think that fight's going to happen. I was one of the positive people who said that that fight will be on a poster that this fight would be booked. And I'm standing with the positivity. It's not easy being positive right now when it comes to Connor.

But I kind of feel like we're in a position where it has to happened this year, right? The Michael Chandler saw, like, someone better be filming everything going on with Michael Chandler right now. Like, that's what I want to see. Three years from now, I don't want to see another

Connor McGregor documentary on Netflix. I want to see the Michael Chandler. What happened between November 2020 and whenever, in December 2024? All of it. That's what I want to see. All the conversations.

behind the scenes, the meetings, him finding out, don't go to the airport, press conference is going to be canceled, to fights off, to, I'm still going to 303, I'm a man of conviction.

I'm a man of my word, so I'm going to be in the building for 303. Like all, like I, I want to see it all. Like that's the stuff right there. So, yeah,

I mean, Connor's so imperative. He's still the biggest are in the sports. He's still the most recognizable name in the sport. It's not even close. He will pass the Publix in the Kroger test, bar none. I can go to Kroger right now and be like, hey, you know what Kahnem, McGregor is?

And pretty much anybody that I ask that question to is going to know who Connor McGregor is. Alex Pereira's as popular as he is, doesn't pass the Kroger text. I can go to Kroger and be like, hey, you know what Alex Ferrer is? I would say two out of every 10 people I ask will be like, yeah, I heard of him. But everyone knows who Kahnem Gregory is. And in this sport, that's very hard to come by. Derek Lewis's cookout. Go ahead.

Come on. Do we have you? No, it's not connecting. Nope, it's not connecting. All right, I'll do the little closed monologue, and we'll see if we can get you back in here, Derek Lewis's cookout. You bounce out, bounce back in sometimes that works. But all right, we're pretty much done here.

Busy week, of course. We have our Road Warrior. Jose Young's on his way to Vegas. If you follow him on social media, you've probably seen that he's had multiple flight delays already. And it would not be a Jose Young's trip across the United States of America or around the world without at least one or two, three, four, five delays. So hopefully, let's send some positive vibes to the great Jose Youngs to get to Las Vegas on time.

He'll have media day coverage for you all tomorrow. of course the MA hour back tomorrow as well. Thursday, BTL, press conference for UFC 303. Friday, weigh-ins, AK, back in your life with some weigh-in funsies. We'll have a preview show on Friday.

We'll have ceremonial weigh-ins on Friday. We'll have PFL coverage on Friday. I'm sure we'll have Paige Van Zandt, power slapping on Friday as well. and then Saturday it's going to be a busy day People's Pre-Fight Show probably 45 minutes before the first

preliminary fight begins Watch party going down Saturday night as well Not going to be in New York Yeah, might as well just break the news We're going to do it in Atlanta We're going to Atlanta for the watch party for UFC 303 So stay tuned for that

It's going to be a lot of fun Watching 303 Live in the AT And it's like a billion degrees down here. So it should be tremendous time. And then AK and I will do some matchmaking live on the M-A-fighting YouTube channel on Sunday. Special edition of on to the next one. So lots going on this week.

Stick with us at M-Afighting.com. And then we'll back here on Friday as well, 10 a.m. Eastern time to lead you right into the UFC 303 way in, way in fun and exciting stuff. So thank you all very much. Have a great rest of your Tuesday. Have a heck of a morning.