MMA Fighting - HOAM | Is Jones vs. Gane the Most Compelling Fight Currently On the UFC Calendar?

Episode Date: February 28, 2023

The countdown is on to UFC 285 and the return of Jon Jones, as he makes his heavyweight debut against Ciryl Gane for the UFC heavyweight title, which was vacated by Francis Ngannou when he left the promotion. With so many storylines and unknowns with Jones' comeback fight following a three-year layoff, is Saturday's main event the most intriguing and compelling fight currently on the UFC's calendar? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck gives his thoughts on the matchup and how it stacks up to the rest of the announced bouts on the 2023 slate for the UFC. Additionally, listener topics include the current discussion about near wardrobe malfunctions for UFC women fighters and how it can be addressed, career trajectories of Jalin Turner and Cody Garbrandt ahead of UFC 285, where Tatiana Suarez goes from her UFC Vegas 70 submission win, Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler, Jake Paul losing to Tommy Fury, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Tuesday, February 28th, 2023, the final day of February. It is indeed. I mean, the show is heck of the morning, but depending on where you are, where I'm at is a heck of an afternoon. We're live on the M.A. Fighting podcast or fighting Twitter spaces. And you can hear the show in its entirety on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network as soon as this is done.

I am Mike Hack. Hope everyone's having a great week. It is UFC 285 Fight Week. And UFC 285 rules. I am jazzed for this card. I am incredibly fast. fascinated by this main event, the return of John Jones against Cyril Gahn.

It's one of those fights where I just have no idea what's going to happen. I don't know. I have no idea what to expect from John Jones. We kind of know what to expect from Cyril Gahn. And even then, you don't even fully know what to expect from Cyril Gond because he's fighting freaking John Jones, who hasn't fought in three years, who put on all this weight, this size, this mass, He's gotten so much stronger.

I've talked to people from both sides of the equation, the Jones side saying, this dude's going to surprise a lot of people. He basically moves and does everything exactly the same, but he's just much bigger and stronger now. And the Cyril Ghan side is, we're the better strikers. We're ready.

We've been ready for John for a while since after the tie to evasso fight. We've been putting our name out there. letting the UFC know, hey, something happens and Francis doesn't resign, we will be ready to go. So they've been preparing for this for a while. They get the shot, and it's all going to go down Saturday at the T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas, and I cannot wait. Of course, we'll be having the UFC 285 watch party, myself, GC, some special guests joining us on Zoom. It's just going to be ridiculous to watch, and I'm very excited about that.

excited for the watch party. We had a lot happen this past weekend in the world of mixed martial arts. One championship had a pretty fun event, Fabricio de Androge. Gets a TKO victory over John Linnaker. Corner stops the fight. You love to see it. I thought it was the right thing to do. John was in, I mean, John's the kind of guy who can land a big shot and change the tide

very quickly, but it just didn't seem to be his night. So kudos to his corner for stopping it. We had Bellator, 291 in Dublin. Very tough to watch early. Excuse me, I think I turned it on because I was excited for the prelims. I was excited for the crowd. I was excited for some of the names that were on there. And I missed the Magamad Sharapaw fight, which I regret, admittedly.

And from there, man, It was just tough. Decision after decision. Big favorites who were supposed to just run through their opponents, didn't. It just was tough. 18 fights is a lot. If the 18 fights and the prelims went the way we all thought they would, it would be a little more digestible, but it was tough.

But the card ended great. Great performance from Jeremy Kennedy. You'd have to say and think that he's probably going to get a title shot after that performance. and what a performance from Yaroslav Amosov. Holy cow. You don't just do that to Logan Storley. The man did it. Incredible performance,

especially with everything that man has been going through for the past year and to do that for his country and everything else, just unbelievable stuff. There's a lot of chatter with Bellator right now. And I saw some people talking about it. A lot of the folks who work for Bellator do PR for them. and some of the people that I saw feel like Bellator has at least a case to be made to have the best fighter in three divisions right now.

205 with Vadim Nemcoff, 185 with Johnny Epplin, and 170 for Yaroslav Amasov. I'm not ready to go there with either of those guys, but there is a conversation to be had for all three of those guys. That I will admit. I think Amosov's a little bit of a tougher one because Walterweight's a tough. a deep division. 185 is interesting because there are some tough

matches for Johnny Eblen, but to me, if Johnny Eblen fought Alex Pereira right now, I think that's a competitive fight and one that Johnny Ebblin could win. And I just don't know Vadine could beat Uri, but, man, he's, Bellator's in a good spot. They have a very top-heavy roster, some good prospects on the come-up.

They're in a good spot. They're in a good spot. A couple of years from now, might be looking at Bellator a little bit differently. They're back on March 10th, beginning of the lightweight Grand Prix, Usherna Maghamedov versus Benson Henderson. Excited to get that one rocking and rolling and see how this late weight Grand Prix goes. Then the UFC had a card.

They had UFC Vegas 70, a weird one, a wacky one, where we lost the main events, right when the main card started, found out that Alexander Volkov was out, he was hurt, and I'm sorry not Alexander Bulkoff what the hell am I talking about it's been a day people

right Nikita Krilov is what I'm trying to say Nikita Krilyov was ill Fight with Ryan Span was off tough hang for Ryan Span spoke to the media

afterwards tough to watch Brennan Allen Andre Munez get moved to the main event Brennan Allen looks incredible

submits Andre Munez gets it done huge win for him Tatea Swares came back gets the gilly taps up

Montana de la Rosa, very intrigued to see where she goes. If they just want to chuck her right up top, give her a title fight, give her a number contender fight, or if they want to maybe slow roll her a tad now that she's dropping back down to 115. Wasn't a terrible card to watch. Trevor Peek, wonderful. Mike Malak, great performance. The Sakai Mays fight was what we kind of all expected it to be.

Jordan Levitt going out there finishing people with strikes. Joe Selecki gets an easy. submission win. We had Nerulo Aliev in Bight Gates in the first fight of the card. It was a weird one, but we just needed to get through that, and now we're on the road to

UFC 285, and then on Sunday, Jake Paul loses his first fight to Tommy Fury. Wasn't the most spectacular fight of all time, but Tommy Fury goes out and gets it done. Jake Paul suffers a loss,

and I don't know where the hell we go, from here. So that's the weekend that was. There's other things that have gone on as well. A lot of clips that have gone viral, a lot of different things. So let's see what you guys want to talk about. And we'll go to you. Four-ounce sniper was first. What's up, man? Hey, heck of the morning. Yeah, even though we lost the main event this past weekend, I thought it was still a pretty solid card. Brendan Allen went out, showed out. You know, he put himself, I think he's top 12 now, so he's finally ranked. Jordan Levin came out with some pretty impressive Moy Thai.

I don't know if anybody noticed it, but he had a nice plumb clinch and got the nice finish with knees to the body and then to the face. And then again, like you said, Tatiana Suarez came back and got a second round finish. I kind of expected her to finish in the first round, but I'm not going to falter because this is her first fight in four years. But what do you think about throwing her in? in there, I would say just throw her in the top six with a Jan Jan Janan or McKinsey Dern somewhere around there just to get her closer to the strawway belt.

Thanks, Mike. Yeah, if you listen to On to the next one, that Janja and I was the opponent I suggested. And there's so many different ways you can go about it. You could go, you could throw in there at somebody in the top 10 or 12 just to get her feet wet. That's cool. If you want to chuck her right in there with Jessica Andrade, I don't think a lot of lot of people are going to complain about that.

So, yeah, I land on Jan Jonan. I'd like to see her get a win at Strawweight before a number one contender fight. Let's see if she can make the weight. Let's see if she can perform to the same abilities with a way cut. And Jan's tough. Jan will go right after her. Jan will offer her some challenges.

And you beat Jan Janan, you're pretty damn good fighter. So we already know Tatiana is really good, but again, that layoff, and the fight went pretty much exactly the way I thought it was going to go. I thought she was going to feel it out a little bit. Montana's down to scrap. She wasn't going to be shy about fighting Tatiana in any way, shape, or form. And that's kind of the fight we got. Tatiana needed a minute to get rolling. And then once she did, it was off to the races. She is just so strong. And she's a problem. She's a problem. There's really no wrong way to Booker. But if I have the matchmaking book, I'm going with Janjohn first, and then we go from there. Let's go to Four Corner Sports. Hey, heck of the afternoon. What's up, buddy? Hey, so I wanted to talk about Trevor Peek.

I mean, this man, I mean, he gained a lot of fans after his performance on Saturday. The man was throwing hammer fist from standing up. I mean, I have never seen that before. I feel like Trevor Peake is going to be, like what Fitzgerald said, must see television next time he comes on. It's a shame that he was on the apex, but I looked at the calendar, and there's no apex cards for at least two months. I think the next one is April 21st.

What is it, Pavlovich versus Blades? I want to get your opinion on not to fight, but what's your opinion on the U.S. staying away from apex cards for at least two months? and I know we have John Jones coming to fight this week, but with the three people of views that are coming on, if you had to pick one to watch, and then one to watch like partially,

and then one to throw away, which one would it be between 85, 86, and 87? All right, thanks, Mike. Which one to throw away? Wow. I like all those cards, honestly. Oh, man, that's so too. It's tough. I mean, the one I'm definitely watching is 285.

That's the one I'm watching for sure. Let me see what 286 looks like. I mean, they're both really interesting, and they both have storylines galore. They both have interesting main events. They both have interesting co-main events. man it's tough I hate to say

286 I would throw away but let me see what 287 looks like I think 286 is the better card like as a whole yeah I'll say I mean 280 I wouldn't throw any of them away but 286 is the one I'll pick if I have to choose between the three I love

the crowd obviously is great I just I mean 27 is just a better top to bottom lineup with bigger names across the board so And plus, I mean, Chris Barnett is always the tiebreaker. To me, if you get Chris Barnett on a card and it's close, Chris wins. Chris puts you over the top.

So Michael Kiesa versus Lee Jingleong might be like a early, early prelim. This card's ridiculous. 287 is stacked. 286 is good. I mean, Gae Fazeve is ridiculous. The main event's compelling. There's other good fights on there. the crowd is going to be on fire

but if we're just talking about because I'll be doing watch parties for all these so I don't get to really get that whole ambiance with the crowd so if it's just which fights am I going to watch without hearing the ambiance of the building 287 is a better card than 286 but 285 is definitely the one I'm picking

to watch over all of them just because of this main event and the fascination I have with what freaking John Jones is going to show up CV, hello. CV. I don't hear you. Try again.

Let's go to Wyatt. Wyatt do we have you. There we go. What if they, like, added pencils in? What's that? Like, pencils. For what? The MMA.

Pencils? For what? I don't know. All right. That was fun. Let's try CV you get CV do we have you Hello

What's up man What's up man I hope you're having a heck of an afternoon I'll make this quick I saw two rumored matchups floating around I just want to get your thoughts on if there's actual smoke Between them happening and yeah just your thoughts if they do happen So I saw Patty versus Drew Dober

And Ilya Tuporia versus the Korean zombie Thanks So I don't think there's any truth to the Dober Patty thing. Patty's still hurt. Patty just didn't interview with M.A. Junkie and said he's kind of eyeballing the Jared Gordon rematch. Jared's obviously fighting Bobby Green coming up. So if Jared wins, he wants to kind of run that one back. And Patty's kind of in that position where if Jared does win, he gets to kind of call the shot.

And that's probably the fight they'll make. But I've talked to some people about that news to them. Again, you just got to be careful because a lot of these like social media counsel just report fights as if they're done. And that's not always true. Much like the Iliates Borea Korean zombie fight, I've heard nothing about that at all. There's talks about maybe doing a card in South Korea on April 29th.

I've heard nothing about that at all. Reach out to multiple people and they all told me kind of the same thing. like, eh, that's news to me. So, and that kind of goes back to to four quarter sports about the lineup here. There is no apex card on the books at all for the next several, I mean, several weeks. They're on the road through April 15th. April 22nd does not have a location yet. So we don't know if it's apex or not.

April 29th, no location, 288. No location. I'm hearing Vegas for 288, but I don't know for sure. There's been different rumblings of stuff, but I'm told the favorite is Las Vegas. And I believe Charles Oliveira's, like, social media manager, also tease Las Vegas, but no idea where that one's taking place.

And May 13th is Anthony Smith, Johnny Walker. That might, I don't know. we're not going to have apex for a while. That makes me happy. That certainly makes me happy. So, but we'll see if the 20 seconds, I could see the 22nd being an apex card, but no announcement, no reveal yet.

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Viking, hello Viking you're muted Hello Mike How are you? Good, how are you? I'm fine I just have a small record If you could do that to my girlfriend, her birthday is tomorrow.

And she is your biggest friend. So if you can be sure, then it will be divine for. So I'm not forcing you for anything. And I just like this time of this space 10.30 p.m. just had dinner and now relaxing and listening to the great host and all the audience, just really like this time of the space. And my question to you, Mike, is you have been saying about Henry Suhudo all the time. If he wins the title, he's going to move up no matter what.

Or he might get retired after winning the title. so there is no point of giving this guy the title shot. So I'm quite concerned about the same thing. Same thing about the John Jones. So do you think that could happen? Do you think John Jones will put the division on hold after winning the title and continue to do negotiations with UFC Indian a white? Thanks a lot.

Hey, Viking. What's your girlfriend's name? Swab. Swab? Yes, Swap. She's a listener. Okay. Sometimes she speaks on the,

she speaks on the space. Oh, Swap. Okay. Yeah, all right. Oh, yeah. Swap. All right. Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it. Happy early birthday to Swap. Happy early birthday. Maybe you'll hear this on your actual

birthday, but I hope you're your birthday is incredible, and I hope you enjoy yourself, and I hope Viking takes you out to a fancy dinner and spends lots and lots of money on you, because you deserve it. So happy birthday to you. John, I'm not concerned about John. I'm not concerned about John. From all accounts, this new deal that he got is for really good money.

He seems very happy with that money. So I'm not concerned about him beating Cyril Gaugh and just being like, okay, I'm not fighting until I get $100 million. I don't think that's going to happen. I think he's happy with where he's at. Seems that way anyways. At least that's what he's saying. If he wins, like the steepe fights right there, I think they'll go right to that.

And if he loses, that's what things are interesting. But I still think they can go right to the steep fight. I still think they can go to that. because you could call it what it is. John was preparing for Francis, got CRL in seven weeks, totally different guy, first fight at heavyweight,

knocking the rust off, three-year layoff, all that. John Jones versus Stepe, even if John loses, is still a pay-per-view main event, and it's still a compelling fight. But I don't think there's going to be

any kind of like financial holdup or anything, if that should be concerned about that. So who knows a different story? Because he's done it before. and I just feel like he's going to say, I ain't fighting anybody unless it's Volcanowski. I can totally see him doing that. Totally see him doing that.

But if I'm him, I think he would be insane to do that because the biggest fight in the division for that title is wading in the wings by the name of Sean O'Malley. And you can feel however you want to feel about the man, but Sean draws eyeballs and he draws numbers. and I felt Al Jo fumbled the bag right after he beat T.J. He should have focused all his attention on Sean O'Malley right after he beat

Peyoteurion, not just made him an option, but the option. And I think that hurt him. Now he's got to fight Sehudo, which as a fight I'm fine with. I'm interested in the fight. It's just the political BS that Henry likes to put out there. that drives me crazy and is my concern. I just don't want to see him be like, well, no, I'm not defending the belt. I'm going up to fight Volcanovsky, and I will not accept anything else.

And if he doesn't get it, he could just walk away again. These are my concerns. But I think having Sean, I've lightened on it a little bit because I think having Sean in the position that he's in kind of almost forces his hand to have to fight Sean on that league. It kind of forces the hand, because how can you turn that down to go fight Volk? That's insane. You can beat Sean and then go fight Volk.

So, yeah. But he's got to beat Al Jemaine Sterling first, and that's a tough ask. That's going to be a tough ask. That's going to be a really interesting fight. Zeke, hello. Oh, Zeke. You do this to me like once a week now.

Try again. Brian, you are up. Brian, do we have you? I know you're there, because I can hear you in the background, kind of. Ryan? Yep, my bad.

Sorry about that. All good. What's up, ma'am? So I had two questions for two guys that are going on completely different paths. For Jalen Turner, one, where do you think he is put if he's beating Gamrock? Because Gamrot's definitely different than Hooker. Obviously, less of a name, but that is some serious, serious power to put on your resume. I mean, I think there's no way other than a top five shot there.

And then also Cody Garbrand from Cleveland. So a couple of people know Cody and we're all very very interested to see how he does. Do you think there's any chance he even makes it back into the ranking and any type of relevancy of any kind? Just curious on those two guys because they're going kind of different paths. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, both guys are fighting in very interesting fights on Saturday. Jalen Turner is interesting. I would, it's tough because this division is just so weird.

him and sirukia would just be a friggin banger but i don't think they're going to do that i think timing wise i think the fight that makes the most sense is probably the loser of gaichy fazeve that's probably what i would end up going with on onto the next one but it's a tough fight gamrod is gamrots really good gamrock's really really good and this is no offense to dan hooker this is the better fight. I mean, clearly it's a better fight. For Cody,

man, I don't know. I like to the Arce. I did like the Julio Arce fight a lot, but it looks like he's going to be out for a minute. You can try to go back to the Honda Yaya fight. Maybe a guy like Victor Henry would be fun. I don't know. That one's, Cody's definitely tougher to answer

because we just have no idea what guy is going to show up. And Trevin can crack, man. I mean, Trevin can go. You see the run that Mario Batista has been on? And Treven's, I mean, Trevin can go, man. Trevin's a good fighter. He's last three in a row, but he's a good fighter. Dude, knocked out Mario Batista.

Like, that's a great win. Loses to Citi Cup Hakoramanoff. That is a tough-ass fight. Then he loses the Javid Bajaraat. another tough-ass fight. And then Hione Barcelos, which is another tough-ass fight. So, I mean, this guy, he's on a three-fights skid, but he's losing to, like, really good guys.

So, yeah, I wonder what the betting line is on that fight. Like, this is, this, what is the betting line here? Garbrant minus 165. That's a bow right. That's where I would put it. I wouldn't make him a gigantic favorite, because Trevitt's pretty good. And it's a big opportunity for him.

So, yeah, I don't know where he goes. If he loses this fight, man, he's in no man's land. But if he wins, I don't know where he goes. Kind of have to see how he looks. All right, Zeke, do we have you? Zeke, we don't have you. Why VMZ? Hello?

Hi, good afternoon. Two questions for you. I wanted to get your thoughts on the recent wardrobe malfunctions. it seems like a lot of the female UFC fighters are having some issues with it. I just wanted to get your thoughts on that and what the UFC could do. And secondly, I wanted to ask,

should the winner of Fizia van Gaeci be the next title shot contender? Or do you think it should still be Benile? Thank you very much. I mean, if Benile beats Charles Olivera, he's got to be the guy. He's got to be the guy. I just don't know what else this man needs to do.

But as much as I, like, want that to happen if he does win because he deserves it, again, valuable lesson. It's the UFC. Deserves doesn't mean anything. It's about dollars and cents. And Dustin Porrier is right there, and they could slide him right in. It's very possible. So, no, I don't think that's the case. I don't think that's the case

I think they would be I think the best case scenario to me is the winner gets Dustin that's the best case scenario because Dustin Dustin will fight Gaichi again that first fight was great and if Fiziv beats Justin Gachi

that fight's going to get Porre fired up I think so that's probably the best case scenario unless Poria gets slot it into a title fight, but it's either

yeah, I don't think, because I don't think Oliver's got the title fight if he wins, so it's either, to me it's Porier or Olivera. And you beat either of those guys, then you get a title shot next. But man, poor, the fact that I even have to say this just makes my heart

hurt that Benny Derrish could beat Charles Olivera and still somehow might have to watch a title fight. Like, that's the world we're living in right now. And it stinks. but if he goes out there just smokes Charles, I don't think, I mean, I think it's undeniable.

But getting Porier or getting Chuckie Olives, not a bad consolation prize, but I don't think the winner that's getting the title shot. Zee, hello. All right, it's got to be third times a charm. We got it. We got you. Last time I was talking and it was blue,

but I heard nothing, whatever, we're here. Now, first things first, I want to know what that pencil guy really meant. Like, did you mean, like, bringing in, like, physical pencils and like, anyway, we'll get way past that and forget that comment. Let's address the elephant in the room, Mike. Francis Ming Gan, who laid on Cyril gone for two and a half, three rounds, the last time we saw Cyril, you know, had to face somebody with a little bit of takedown ability.

What's your thoughts here? Does John need to rush to the takedowns? Do you think John can stay up like Francis did for the first two rounds, kind of kickbox his way to take downs? What do you expect this weekend? I am beyond excited. Lastly, I'm sure you heard the Chal Sondon interview. What do you think about his comments about Valentina? You think Valentina really picked to be this comane,

try and get the biggest straw that she could? I think that's brilliant by her. I do think her cards have been, I don't want to say lackluster, but I don't think she'd been getting the attention that she deserves. And now with, you know, Aaron Blanchield rising up in the division, I think this is a perfect time for Valentina to get, you know, a little bit more stardom and a little bit more attention to her.

to her fight and her paper views. Mike, have a heck of a morning. I mean, I don't necessarily agree with that. Because, I mean, people who've been listening to this show ever since that fight was rumored for this card, we've been telling you that that fight was not done until probably like two or three hours before Dana screamed at the top of his lungs

and said that fight was happening. We confirmed it. But that was up in the air. It was either going to be that card it was going to be April 8th. I don't think she really had a say in it. The UFC was kind of like teetering on both. And I think it was probably because,

mostly because of the Sterling Sohudo stuff, because we had reported it was targeted for April 8th and it 1,000% was. But again, it was all about whether or not the UFC was going to wait for Al Jermaine Sterling to get his stem cells, recover all of that, and push it back one more time. And the UFC ultimately,

went with that. They ended up in Miami. They got Mazadol done with Burns pretty quickly, which made that the Co-Mane event, which dropped Valentina and Alexa Grasso to the co-main event of this car, which is a good place to be. It's a good place to be. So I don't think it was like, nah, I don't think it was Valentina and her team saying, no, we have to fight on this car or we're not fighting.

It just kind of what worked out. I don't know. And the other question with Jones, and gone. I don't know. I don't know. I talked to Fredan Lopez. That interview is dropping today 4 p.m. Eastern, I believe. That is going to drop. And

Cyril's been working on his wrestling, like, ever since the Ngano fight. People that have worked with Cyril Gahn that I've spoken to said that he's like a sponge. She's picking things up pretty quickly. He's more of a... He's picked up on a lot of the big moves. Some of the big submissions.

that are very low percentage, but it's just a matter of finding love for wrestling and grappling. And apparently he's found it. So after that Francis fight, that's probably the thing they've worked on the most. However, John Jones is a different animal. It's just how John is going to be able to get him there. That's my concern. And three years is a long time. But if you watch John Jones fights, it's not, John ain't shooting a lot of,

doubles and singles from across the cage. He's getting up to the fence. He's getting in clinched positions, getting in close, trips, throws, things like that. But if you do that with Cyril gone, it's a very dangerous game to play because Cyril is spectacular in the clinch. He makes you pay go in there. So I don't know. Of course, I think to me, John getting him down is going to be the biggest factor in him

winning this fight. It's just a matter of how he can do it. If he learned how to shoot in space and do so quickly and effectively, it could be a very long night for Cyril gone. But again, this is why I'm so interested because I just have so many questions. We haven't seen John fight in three years. Like we can't go by the Dominic Reyes fight. Can't go by the Tiago Santos fight and the Anthony Smith fight. Can't go by anything. We just have to see what he does. I have no, I mean, again, I'm just so compelled by it. And John is not my favorite person in the sport. Far from it.

He's done a lot of really shitty things. And it's, it's, nothing he can do will ever make me forget these things. But at the same token, John Jones, the fighter, when he is in that cage competing, I could feel any sort of personal way about the man and the shit that he's done. and the million chances he's had. But that man when he's locked in a cage with another person, it's just compelling stuff. And, yeah, I just, I'm fascinated by the actual fight.

That's for damn sure. Vishwajit, you are up. Hello. Yeah. My question is, when I join in this space, you were talking about Tatiana's forest. So let's start there. Do you really think she is a threat to Valentina when and if the time comes when she has to face the bullet?

And secondly, who you have winning the tough this season? Because I'm both like a McGregor fan and a Chandler fan at the same time. So it's really tough for me. You know, after the three last corner fights, mine says Chandler smokes him, Hart still wants McGregor. Because see, the way I see the fight going is Chandler is hitable. He gets hit a lot. and Connor still has that touch of death in his left hand.

I mean, what Gae and if a person like Charles can drop Chandler with like that and hey, even Tony dropped him if I remember in the first round. Correct me if I'm wrong here? Did Tony drop? Yeah, right? So if those guys can drop him, I sincerely and truly believe Fonda smokes him, if he connects and that's a big if. So who you have winning that and do you really believe in the Tatyana Suarez thing?

that's been going on because see valentina has been on our throne since a long time and we truly need moments like that like the leon edwards headkick we need moments like that in this sport to keep it fresh and entertaining so yeah i was really a good pleasure speaking to you man i've been following for a long time now and yeah that's it appreciate that man i definitely appreciate it um where do i want to start probably i mean i'm favoring chandler to win uh But it's, I mean, he's going to have to go through hell to do it. He's going to get hit. It all depends.

Like, is Bellator Chandler going to show up or he's just going to take Connor down and just sit on him and wear him out? It wouldn't be a bad strategy. I just don't know if Connor, Connor just has one speed. And, I mean, the second 8Ds fight, he was able to, like, come through and do some stuff while he was exhausted. but you watch the two the two Porre fights. And I know the second one ended with the leg thing, but I think we kind of all were realizing the direction that, excuse me, the third, the most recent Porier fight was going.

That was not going to get much better for Connor. He was probably going to get finished in the second round. And that's probably how I'm looking at this fight right now. If Chandler can just get out of the first round, it's his fight to lose, in my opinion. But it also depends on which Chandler shows up. which guy is going to show up? Is it going to be the guy that's going in there to get a win,

or is it going to be the guy that's going to go in there and put on a show for the fans? If it's the latter, I still think Chandler can win, but he's just going to have to go through hell to do it. And as far as Tatiana Suarez goes, I don't think we have to worry about her fighting Valentina because she's already said a million times,

and she said it after the fight. She's going back to 115. So I don't think we're going to have to really worry about that fight. Valentina's likely next challenger if she wins would be Aaron Blanchfield after her win over Jessica Androge So yeah

I don't think we're going to see the bullet Fighting Tatiana Suarez I think we'll see Tatiana Suarez fight John Wei or whoever the champion is When she's ready to fight for the belt So and then there's another question Speaking of the women about The wardrobe stuff

I mean The best way to fix it is just to fucking fix it Like we're seeing this too much. We're seeing this too much. A woman has enough to think about being in a cage, getting punched in the face, or the threat of a takedown, or the threat of just getting pumbled by someone who is a monster

like Tadio de Suarez. And now you have to worry about whether or not you end up exposing yourself to the world because you're trying to defend a takedown. And the wardrobe that you are provided, is not helpful at all. Like, come on. The UFC, this needs to be like one of the top priorities for the UFC right now

is to get with Venom and fix this problem. You have this big deal. They are, they're paying the UFC a lot of money. Yeah, sure, none of it's going to the fighters. But if it's not going to the fighters, we have to at least make this wardrobe comfortable and as useful as possible to the athletes that are wearing them. We can't be having every single card,

a woman complaining about a possible exposure, a possible Janet Jackson moment on a UFC card. We need to fix this. How? I'm not in the apparel game, but I think the UFC, I think it's probably something they're likely discussing, at least.

I'd be crazy if they didn't. It'd be nuts if they didn't, but hopefully during these, because you know what Dana's going to do. He's going to do the car wash with the people that he normally does. We saw the Robbie Fox interview and he'll probably talk to Kevin Ioli. Probably do Aaron Bronsetter, like the broadcast partners and stuff, the people that he trusts. I'm sure somebody's going to ask him about it.

My guess would be Aaron Bronsetter is going to ask about it because Aaron usually asks really good questions to Dana. It has no problem challenging Dana. A lot of others don't like to challenge Dana. but I think that's a question that Aaron would probably ask. So hopefully it's something that he responds to and that they're working on. And you know, since we brought up this thing, a lot of people have reached out,

oh, Dana's going to do another hip piece on the media with the power slap thing. Can I just say it's just stupid to even think about because he's targeting the MMA media when it comes to slap fighting, but it is not our job. job to cover slap fighting. It is our job to cover

MMA. This is not MMA. It's just two people slapping each other in the face. That's not MMA. So if you're going to do a hit piece on the media, I'm sure there's slap fight media out there somewhere. Do it on them.

What the fuck? Like, why would you do? We don't cover it. Like, we don't even cover it. We barely talk about it here. We don't cover it at all. We cover the ratings if it like comes off the air. I mean, dude getting suspended for Coke.

I mean, how can you not write that up? But we're not covering the events. We're not watching it. So like, who gives a shit? Who gives a shit what we think? We're not your target audience. We're not the ones that are going to promote these cards for you. Because we're not covering it.

And we don't have to because it's not MMA. It's not boxing. It's barely a sport. So friggin' stupid. I got to prove everybody wrong. Well, go prove them wrong. Don't worry about us. We don't give a shit.

We ain't covered it. Denai, hello. Hey, heck of a morning. What's up, ma'am? Well, heck of an afternoon. I just saw that you guys were doing this. Is this the new time? Nah, just today.

Oh, just today? Well, that was one of my main questions. The other one, do you know anything about Chris Mutino being on the Ultimate Fighter? That's about all I got. So from what I understand, Chris was in Vegas, and then he was not on the show anymore. I don't know, like we talked about before, when the rosters were kind of teased and put out there. I was told that not all those names are accurate. And there's obviously rumor and innuendo that Connor replaced guys because he wanted his own teammates out there,

but it doesn't seem like that's 100% the case. But yeah, I mean, I think he was slated to be on there. He was slated to be on there. But now he's not. But that doesn't mean, my guess is that Chris is probably going to fight on. And I don't know, I haven't looked at Chris's Instagram or anything like that. My guess would be Chris is probably going, if he was there and then got sent home, Dana has said that

Look, if they were there and they got sent home, it means we're going to do something else with them. So my guess would be that when Dana goes to Boston and they do that and he does look at for a fight with Calvin Cater's promotion, I would be kind of surprised if Chris is not on that card. So at least he gets out there and fights in front of Dana and still potentially gets some sort of opportunity to get back.

that'd be my guess. That'd be my guess. And we've seen some of the other names that were off. One of them is fighting on Saturday. So, yeah. And as far as the time, today is just weird. I ain't going to lie to America. I ain't going to lie to the world.

Your boy is from Massachusetts. Lives in South Carolina. I wouldn't call myself a crazy driver. but a little bit aggressive. I like to make moves. I don't drive like a million miles an hour, but do I take liberties at times with speed limits? Yes.

And because of that, in some of the roads on South Carolina, it's 55 speed limit, and then all of a sudden, before you could even know it, it drops to 35. And your boy got pulled over a couple weeks ago and got a ticket. 48 and a 3rd.

35. The cop is really cool. Said, hey, show up February 28th. I'll work with you on this. If you show up, I'll work with you on it. And I'm like, all right, I'll be there. And I showed up this morning, 10 a.m. First person in line.

And they knocked it down a notch, knocked about 50 bucks off the ticket. And I only got two, I only got dinged two points. So, yeah, I had to deal with that bullshit this morning. but appreciative to the cop who who helped me out a little bit but yeah that's why the show got bumped back because I didn't deal with that but hopefully that'll never happen again because now that I every time I drive down that street to go work out I drive much slower

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Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Apparently, we're going to go to Canada. Luke. Hello. Luke, are you there? You're muted.

Hey, Mike. Hey, Mike. Sorry, I joined a little bit late, so I apologize if this has already been asked. I'll have a question for you. Is that Brad Marchand on your jersey? That is absolutely Brad Marchand. That's amazing.

And that leads into my question. What are your thoughts on big penis, Lieness Ulmark, scoring the first ever goal, goaltender goal in Bruins history? That's all I got for you, Mike. I mean, it's par for the course. It's par for the course. I got to say, and like, as a Boston sports fan,

you know, I am nowhere near the guy was, and my wife talks about it all the time when I first met my wife. When I first met my wife in 2010, I mean, I was diehard. I went to bed late. The socks were in Anaheim. I was up all night watching the game.

Like, I didn't miss a second of anything. And if any of my teams lost, I mean, it ruined my day. And if they lost in the playoffs, it ruined my week, maybe my month. I'm not that way anymore. I don't take it as seriously. mostly, most of because I'm on the M.A side of things, so

most of my sports watching is combat. But I do watch the Bruins as much as possible. I watch the Celtics as much as possible. And it is a delight to watch both of those teams, especially the Bruins. Holy shit. This might be a hot take,

but I said this maybe a month ago. This Bruins team, this season, might be the greatest hockey team of all time in NHL history. This might be the greatest team of all time. Now, the last time I felt this way, they went up against the flyers. This was a long time ago. It was before they won their cup. Well, the cup season was different. That was a special year. But I felt pretty confident, like 2008 or 2009, they got three games

to none on the flyers, and then they lose the next four games, and that just sucked really bad. But, golly, the burn's so fun. They're just so damn good. I can't wait for the playoffs. Uh, Maddie, hello. Hi, Mike, can you hear me? Yep. Yeah, I just wanted to ask, you, speaking of day nine, all the tough questions and everything, why don't we send Jed over there and ask some questions?

Like, what would happen to, like, in all series, what would happen to, um, amiss fighting, press passes or whatever? Like, if he asked the tough questions and everything, would it affect anything, or is there a reason why he can't go? Or it doesn't want to go on much? So Jed is actually going to be, which card? I mean, the reason, I mean, Jose's our guy.

He's our boots in the ground. He is multifaceted. He could do it all. Better than all of us can. There's none about that. Like, I can do stuff, but not nearly as good as him. And I think most of us are in the same boat. So I've gotten the chance to cover a couple.

Like I did International Fight Week. It would be cool to do it again. I did the Jacksonville card last April. But now I were doing the watch parties, and I would much prefer doing that because it's tough with family. It's tough leaving for a day. Leave my wife and my son.

But luckily it's on a Saturday. But when you cover a fight week, you're gone for five or six days, and I get to put all that burden on my wife to get my kid ready for school and all that stuff. And it's just a pain in the ass. And I don't want to do that. But as far as Jed goes, since Jose's our guy and he could do everything,

which is easier to send him to do all the stuff. And Jed is actually going to be covering for us the April 15th event in Kansas City, the Max Holloway Arnold Allen card. I believe Jed is running in a marathon the next, like the following weekend. and he has family in Kansas City so I think he's going to go out a week earlier and he's going to go and cover that card I believe that's what's happening.

So if Dana's there, you might get what you want, you might get your wish. But, I mean, look, Dana gets asked tough stuff all the time. He gets put on the hot seat at these things, not as much as you probably should. But I don't think like they're going to revoke

press credentials. If Jedd asks Dana, tough questions, and is disrespectful and calls him names and stuff, that's one thing. But Jed's, I don't think Jed's going to do that.

Or anybody would do that from our staff. So, if he just asks questions, I don't think he's going to get, like, credentials are evoked. And even if he does, who gives a shit? Who cares?

I mean, if it affects the whole site, that's one thing. but if it just affects him, then who cares? But I think he'll be all right. I think he'd still ask tough questions and not be an asshole. Ani, hello. Good? For all the noise, I am walking back home.

And I just saw that you were going live, so I got up. I've been off of food for a while. How have you been? I've been good. What's on your mind? So I'm here to, you know, I'm going to make a really controversial statement over here that might, you know, raise a lot of eyebrows. You know what? Putting UFC events in the apex might not be a bad idea.

Do you want to hear why? Sure. So, you know, see, assume, you know, the fight that we just had, Aaron Blanchefield versus Tyler Santos or Jessica and Raj, no matter how stacked card is or you know knowing UFC they wouldn't really stack the cards it wouldn't have sold out or it wouldn't have done well if it was in front of a crowd but that doesn't mean you know these you know fighters like current Blanchefield and everyone who is on the come up they need the five-round experience so now I mean I mean I'm hearing that McKinsey Dern and Angela Hill has been booked.

Imagine if McKinsey Dern goes and finishes or just literally runs through Angela Hill, which I don't think it will happen. But if it happens, do you think McKinsey Dern versus Tatiana Suarez in the apex would be good? Because I don't think the crowd would be interested in a fight if it was happening in you know, an arena. I mean, I'm not talking about the fight itself. I'm talking about tickets. The tickets would not be sold. So in that case, when you want to give someone who is on the come-up a 25-minute experience or, you know, the five-round experience, the five-round main event experience, put them in the apex. And when they establish themselves, let's say that two lesser-known

fighters slug it out in the apex, and that generates buzz. And then that turns out to be something amazing, just like Figuero and Moreno did. But that was, you know, UFC was compelled to do it. But assume if there was no COVID, do you think Moreno and Figurado, assume it was not for the title, Moreno and Figaro would never be in front of a crowd. It would always be in the apex. So that's what I'm saying. Give these new stars, even if you're saving money, save money, do whatever you want, but at least do some good out of it. Give these new fighters an opportunity in the apex. But if you're, you know, these established stars,

just put them in front of the crowd. I've heard that Sergei Pavlovich versus Curtis Blades in the apex. That's disgusting. So this is my take on it. What do you think? Thanks, man. Look, I don't disagree with you. I don't disagree with you.

There is, there's use for the apex. To say that they should never do an apex card is silly. But there's a difference between having a card at the apex and just watering it down. And that's what happened last year and the start of this year. So going back just to October, Calvin Cater versus Arndallan. Now, in hindsight, that fight was kind of a letdown because of how it ended. But there is no way in God's Green Earth that that should have been an apex fight. that card should have been in front of a crowd

and it would have sold tickets because that fight was a friggin' banger. Now, Renita Rodriguez Amanda Lamos, different story. That could be an apex card. But look, we had one, from October 29,

one, two, three. So we had apex, apex, then it was 281, apex again. We had the Orlando card, pay-per-view, and then we had apex, Apex, Brazil, Apex, Australia, Apex, Apex.

I mean, that's just, it's just a lot. It's just a lot. I'm not saying there's no use for it, because I do agree with you. There are certain cards, like, these last two cards would not have done well for a ticket buying audience. It wouldn't have. But there's also a lot of venues in Vegas where you can host. cards that have better ambiance than the apex.

You can do smaller venues with 500 to 1,000 people. They're doing it March 11th. The reason for it is strange because of the slap fight pay-per-view, but at least like that card is going to be in Vegas and it's going to feel bigger even though there's not 15,000 people in there. So there is use for it. But they're going to do Marlon Vera, Corey Sanhagan. in the apex.

Remember that? And then they just couldn't get a main event for the San Antonio card and it got pushed to that. So hopefully, again, I don't mind the apex cards. Once in a while. But when we're doing it like every single fight night, holy smokes, it just waters it down, makes it completely unimportant. But you're right.

There is use for it. sometimes, just not all the time. And I, for one, am looking forward to out of the apex, one, two, three, four, five, six weeks in a row, maybe more. Again, no word on the 22nd and the 29th yet. I would guess the 20 seconds are going to be at the apex, but I don't know.

Pavlovich Blades is not a big ticket selling main event. We don't have a main event for the 29th yet. and then it's 288, which could be, it's obviously going to be on the road. And then we go to Smith Walker and then May 20th. We're booked as far as that at this point. So, yeah, it's not a super hot take. I mean, we talked about it before, but just a matter of spacing it out a little bit. Once every two months, I'm fine with that.

Let's go to Cal. Cal, do we have you? Just first off, I'm a big fan. I wanted to ask two things if I had time. Sure. One is I don't feel biased saying this, even though I'm an Englishman. I feel like Tommy school jerk. And I was just curious as to what people over the pond thought.

And the second one is, do you think the UFC are not really interested in a rematch between Islam and Vogue? Because it kind of takes that unstoppable Dagestani look if it's another close fight. That's my question. Thanks. Thanks, man. I thought Tommy clearly won. I didn't think there was any controversy whatsoever. I saw some people score for Jake

and my immediate reaction to all those people. And I will admit, I don't understand all the nuances to boxing and some people scored things differently. Some people were on the boxing beat that had scored for Jake. I just didn't see it. I mean, you could have made a six to two argument for Tommy Fury, for sure. Five three is fine.

But I mean, when that flight was over, I, if Jake had won, I would have been like, this is bullshit. That was my thought. I thought, Jake's manager in business partner,

Nekisa, did something on IG stories yesterday. And, like, he's not terribly wrong, but he said that Tommy landed more and Jake hurt Tommy more

than Tommy hurt Jake. And he's probably not wrong. But again, this is boxing. And the knockdown obviously was huge and it made things interesting. But there were very few rounds that I was like, oh, Jake got that. Maybe one besides that? I don't know. I thought it was a clear cut win for Tommy Fury.

I'd be curious to see if they do a rematch. I'm indifferent, honestly. Either way. So, yeah, I don't know. But yeah, I scored it pretty clearly for Tommy Fury. And as far as the Islam bulk stuff, I don't agree with Dana a lot, but I do agree with him on this. I don't want, like, will I, do I want to see it again?

Yes. Do I need to see it right now? No. I would rather see Islam Makachev, fight Vidil Daryush. if he beats Charles O'Olavera or fight some other guys who have earned their opportunities. And I want to see Volcanowski fight Jaya Rodriguez. I want to see that fight so badly. I'm not saying you can't ever book that fight again.

You can. But run off a couple of defenses in your division and then go back to it. Go back to it. Volk's going to be kind of the wild card in all of this, because this dude's going to be ready to go. Volk isn't going to sit around all year. He's going to want to come back in the next few months. So it's just a matter if Yair can get ready for that.

If Yaya is ready to go in like June or July, we're going to get that fight. The only way I could see the UFC going back to the Volk Islam fight is if international fight week's coming around and they don't have anything compelling to headline. If both of those guys are ready to go and the UFC wants to chuck a lot of money at both of those guys, I could see a world where that could happen.

Other than that, I don't need to see it right now. Go win two fights each, then we can revisit it if you want. But right now, there's no need for it. There's no need. We don't need it. We just saw it. Makachov won. There's no controversy.

Volk had a great accounting of himself, no doubt about it. But Mankachev won. Yair looked incredible. He deserves his chance to fight for the undisputed title. And Benny Darius should certainly deserve to fight for the undisputed lightweight title. And now he was going to fight. He should have fought for the belt a while ago. And he went and fought Matush Gamrod.

It probably should have still got the next shot. But he kind of killed himself. by that post-fight interviewer. He's like, I'll fight 10 more times. And then Volk should sit in Cajside when Makachev wins the belt, and Habib calls up Volk. And everything went down the drain for Benny. So now he's going to fight Charles Oliver.

So, yeah, a couple defenses. Then we can revisit, but I don't need to see it right now. I mean, if they book it, I'll watch the hell out of it, but I don't need to see it right now. I'm more interested in Volkanovsky versus Yair right now than I am the UFC running that one back. Now, if he just washes Yair and Islam gets a win, I'm going to give a little more excited for it. But then again, if Arnold Allen beats Max Holloway, then I'm going to want to see Arnallon fight for the belt. Vol could fight him.

There's plenty to keep both those guys busy. So that's what I would prefer. And then we can go back to that. Next year, end the next year, December pay-per-view, 2023. Do the rematch then. If both guys continue to win, which I would bet, based on who could be available, they probably will. All right, I think we are done.

So thank you very much. We'll be back on Thursday. Usual time, 10 a.m. Eastern, we'll do it again. And then Thursday's going to be a very busy day. There'll be BTL. Jed versus TBD, trying to figure that part out. We'll press conference on Thursday. Media Day tomorrow.

It's going to be a busy day. Media day for 285. And in May hour tomorrow as well. Thursday, we already ran that down. Friday. This is going to be wild. We'll have this show in the morning. Then the Way-in show at noon Eastern for the 285 way-ins.

We'll have a live preview show. there'll be ceremonial way-ins and then Saturday we're off to the races People's pre-fight show will have the watch party Jose will be there

lots of stuff post-fight show AK and I will be live on Sunday morning on no sleep for on to the next one and it's going to be a busy week everybody so buckle up enjoy the journey next stop

right back here Thursday, 10 a.m. Eastern, we'll do it again. So thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of your day. And as always, have a heck of a morning, everybody. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.