MMA Fighting - HOAM | Is Kamaru Usman vs. Khamzat Chimaev More Intriguing Than Paulo Costa Fight?

Episode Date: October 12, 2023

Khamzat Chimaev will still compete at UFC 294 despite Paulo Costa being forced to withdraw following elbow surgery, but now Chimaev faces former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman on short notice. Is this new co-main event more intriguing than the original? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to the Chimaev vs. Usman booking, if it's the more interesting matchup, and what is at stake for both fighters ahead of next Saturday's UFC pay-per-view event. Additionally, listener topics include Islam Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski 2, UFC and USADA parting ways at the end of the year, where Belal Muhammad now goes with Usman taking the Chimaev fight, Saturday's Sodiq Yusuff vs. Edson Barboza main event, 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 to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original blockbuster,

the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two,

Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. And it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the MMA fighting Twitter space. As you can hear the show in its entirety, shortly thereafter on the NBA Fighting Podcasting Network. What is going on, everybody?

Mike Heck, back again for the third day in a row. We popped in yesterday, had an emergency edition of Heck of a Morning, because we had some changes to UFC 294, brand new main event. Islam Makachev no longer defending the lightweight title against Charles Olivera. He will now defend the title against Alexander Volcanowski. They're going to run it back again. rematch of one of the fights of the year, if not the fight of the year, from February. And one of the big topics was on yesterday's show, what's going on with Hamzat Shemayev versus

Paulo Costa? Is it going to happen? Is it not going to happen? Dana White had teased after Dana White's contender series on Tuesday. The fight was in jeopardy. They would know something in a few hours. it was a lot more than a few, but we got our answer yesterday afternoon. Paulo Costa announced on Twitter. He would not be fighting. Gilbert Burns jumped on Twitter earlier in the day,

posted a video of Kamara Usman training. Burns teasing it saying someone's getting ready. And he was right. Kamara Usman will step in on a week and a half's notice to fight Hamzaa Shemayev at middleweight in the co-made event. of UFC 294. Now this

is a pretty big deal, ladies and gentlemen. And when we talked about it yesterday, I didn't even really think about Uspin being an option. Honestly, but after Burns post that video,

I'm like, huh, that actually makes a lot of sense. But kudos to Uspin for stepping in. Kudos to Hamzat Shemayev for taking this fight. I think it was imperative that he competes on this card. Dana White told Kevin Ioli, at least this is what Kevin reported, that the winner will go on to fight for the middleweight title against Sean Strickland.

I'm sure people have some feelings about that one. I think it's kind of caca, but I understand the business at this point. I understand what the UFC is trying to do. And it is an interesting fight. Now, a lot of people have been asking me, is the card better with these two fights, with the changes? I don't know. I honestly don't know the answer to that. I do feel like the main event is better.

I feel like it's a more intriguing fight because I feel like if I'ma Makachchev and Charles Olivera fought 100 times, I think Machachev would win like 95 of them. Honestly, I just think it's a horrific matchup for Charles Oliver. Even before their first fight, like I picked Charles Oliver because it was just a vibes thing. And it was just, I'm done picking against Charles. and until he loses, I'm just going to keep picking him. But I even said heading into that fight,

everything on paper tells you that Islam Machchchev's just going to run him over. And after seeing the first fight, I think Charles Alibair on his best day doesn't beat Islam Makachchev very often, even on Mokachev's worst day. It's just a terrible matchup for him. Volk, we've seen he can be competitive. And we've seen that he's got a style

that can give Mokachev fits. Now, what kind of physical shape is Volcanowski in after the injury in the Iyer Rodriguez fight, the surgery, all of that? That remains to be seen. But I understand that Volk's taking this fight on short notice. But knowing Volk for as long as I have, been interviewing him since his first UFC fight, there is not a day that has gone by where he is probably not, whether he's watched the fight or not, or at least thought about the fight and changes he could make if he's. ever gets that rematch, it's very interesting. At the same time, I don't know if Shemayef Usman is better than Shemayef Costa. I don't know.

It's not worse, but I don't know if it's better. I was super intrigued about the Costa fight. I thought Costa was being vastly underrated. I thought if Shemayev is going to be a contender for the middle. middleweight title. Like, if he's going to be a real deal contender, beating Paul Costa would be a great step because he's an actual, like, big, huge middleweight.

Not saying Usman's not a big guy, but he's not as big as Paulo. And Paulo brings some interesting tactics to the game that Usman doesn't. But look, on 11 days notice, if you can't get Paul Costa in there, you could do far worse than Kamar Usman. So I think everyone should be happy.

with the results of this, especially a week and a half before this fight and this event takes place. So a lot going on. Obviously, the UFC and Usada is a big story right now. They're going to be parting ways on December 31st. So that's a big deal. There's just a ton of shit going on right now. And there's a lot of you waiting in line. So let us not waste any time.

Toke was immediately in. So we will begin with him. Toke, hello. Yeah. Yeah, so, okay, so I'll set the scene, I guess. So let me start here. I think this matchup is more more new Coke than new and improved. What I mean by that is, of course, New Coke was the thing that famed out in 90s.

No one cares about that, but I think this matchup kind of if, I know we want Hamzaa Chimae for numbers and name, we want him to fight for the title. but if everybody had their senses, the winner of this fight would get Polo Costa. What do you mean? Camaro Ousman can't just win one fight and get to the title.

And the same goes for me, for Hamza. I know he's fought in the middleweight division before, but I just don't see how a fight against a welterweight on 11 days notice coming in gives him a title shot. other than name. So I think this is more new Coke than new and improved. And the other thing, I just want to say,

I watched a certain MMA personalities live stream yesterday where he talked about the deal falling through with the Asada between the USADA and the UFC. Luke Thomas was very, very on one side on this. So I'm kind of curious how you see this USADA and UFC, being together anymore how that impacts everything so that that's kind of the two things that i want to hear your two cents on thank you so the the whole usada thing like i'm excited for btel because i know jedd is more like in tap with all that stuff that i am i don't think that's going to

change much like a lot of people are saying that well now we can go back to like the old we could go back to like the old days of pride where like it's contractually almost a contractually obligated to like gas up and get in there. So I don't think we're going to get to that level. Like I still think there's going to be testing. It's just going to be done in a different way. Honestly, I think this is good for the fighters. Honestly, only because if there is some kind of a new deal that gets put in place,

and I'm not saying this is going to happen, but at least maybe there's a chance that the fighters will actually have a say in what happens. I'm not holding my breath on that at all. But it just seems like the relationship was never really strong to begin with. Like I think at first it was sort of an interesting thing. And, you know, let's try to get a cleaner sport. But I think as the years had gone by, there's just been some issues between the two. And then Connor coming back.

And I mean, I think the craziest part of that whole release was Usada basically just Chuck and Connor under the bus, man. Basically insinuating that he's on stuff and putting it in a press release, which is nuts. The whole thing is crazy. So I'm not really sure what it's going to mean. I don't know what it's going to entail. I have a feeling maybe by, I don't know if we'll hear from Dana this weekend after Vegas 81. I mean, look, just go back to some of the things Dana was talking about in regards to Usada,

just at any point this year where he's like, I don't give a shit. I'm not even thinking about that. I don't even answer questions about Usada. You got questions. Don't ask me. Ask Jeff Novitsky because that's Jeff's job. He's kind of a liaison from the UFC side

in regards to Usada. I've had conversations with Jeff DeVitsky about certain things. I remember when the whole Rob Font situation happened. And Jeff DeVitsky was actually very helpful in that situation because of Tyson Chartier and because how the New England cartel does everything, they are by the book.

They take pictures and receipts and all that stuff. They have everything ready to go. So when that negative test popped up, they were ready. They had it all ready to go. It's from some sort of moisturizer cream or whatever it was. And they were cleared. And Jeff was very helpful in assisting with that situation.

And Jeff's been very helpful in a lot of those things. So hopefully it's a better, more open, type of situation. But as far as where it's going to go, I'm sure it'll go somewhere. I just don't know what. I need to hear from the UFC. Most notably, I need to hear from Jeff Tivitsky,

because I'm sure he's going to be working on putting this all together. So, yeah, it's kind of crazy. And McGregor being the catalyst is just so 20, 23 at this point, which is kind of funny. As far as, I mean, I'm kind of with you on the who's going to think, look, DDP is kind of screwed in this situation. And it sucks. It's not really fair.

The dude didn't just beat Robert Whitaker. He blew the doors off of Robert Whitaker. So I don't know what else the guy has to do. And then you expected him to turn around in two months and fight Israel to Sanya. That just didn't seem fair. And we saw how Dana reacted to that saying, well, you know how I feel about people turning down fights. John Strickland comes in, has kind of an easy night of the office against an unranked guy. wins the middle-aid title.

So DDP's kind of effed in this situation. Does the winner of this fight deserve a middle-way title shot? No. No. They don't. Even if Hamzat wins. My desktop just turned on. Even if Hamzat wins, he doesn't deserve it, but he's going to get it.

He's going to get it. The winner's going to get it. Now, my whole, here's my other question about this. What if Kamar Usman wins? what if uspan wins is he going to scream from the mountain tops i want the middleweight title or is he going to pull like a marab aljo situation because we all know how tight him and is he are will he step aside and say no israel deserves the rematch he's my boy he gets it first that's a question we have to ask ourselves because they're i'm not

ruling that out. I'm not ruling that out at all. So we shall see how it all plays out. But, yeah, it's not, I don't know if it's better, but it's, it's a damn good option. It's a damn good secondary fight if we can't get Paul Costa. So the UFC did a damn good job here and kudos to everybody involved. Viking, hello. What's up? advantage of the free speech in this space here but I have one question for you how are you living around the pathetic human being and his name is Jed Mishu how are you even even be friends with him because he is just Dagestani bootleaker and nothing the fighter means nothing to him no one

means nothing to him the same guy who who just just bailed on Valentina Shenzhenko, when she needs his support, and now he's bailing on Hamdad. So, fuck Jed, Mishu! It's,

Viking, you flip-flop on Jed a lot. Sometimes you're, like, his biggest fan, and sometimes you're just not. And, uh,

I guess Jed's kind of doing his job, right? There's no, he's Mr. No Gray area. You either love him or you hate him. There's no, there's no,

there's no middle crowd. Uh, that's for sure. That's why I've aptly nicknamed him. him, Mr. No Greyer. But I love Jed. Jed is who he is. And I respect the hell out of that.

So, look, not everyone's going to agree with Jed. You look at the comments for like every BTL episode. It's either, oh, Jed's the best or if Jed's not on, it's like, oh, I'm not watching Jed's not here. And then if Jed's on, like, the other half of the comments are like, oh, this dude is full of himself. He's crazy. His takes are way too ridiculous.

That's who Jed is. Perfect BTL panelists. I love the guy. I love the guy. It was fun to do the Habib. Damn, they were good with him for almost three hours with him and my best friend, AK. I actually subbed in for No Betz Barred this week for GC. This is in Manchester.

I would probably fade everything that I'm doing. But I don't know. I kind of feel good about my bets this week. Kind of feel good about them. I think I'm going to make some money. Have a little momentum heading into when I have to bet again next. week for UFC 294 because of the watch party. But yeah,

I love Jed. I don't agree with you on that, but not everybody likes him. And Jed, I could tell you, beyond a shadow of a doubt, he does not care whether you like him or not. I love that guy. Daniel, what's up, man?

Hey, Mike, I come up a morning to you. Just wanted to just briefly talk about Volcanowski taking this fight. I'm just curious if you think this is kind of like a disservice possibly to him. I mean, he might just, it's only getting 11 days notice, you know, going up again in weight class. I mean, obviously he's going for two belts.

So this isn't just like, you know, like a willy-nilly fight. Obviously, none of them are. But this has to feel like the stakes are the highest for him that it could ever be. And I don't know, I'm just curious, you know, what your thoughts are on his team taking this fight. You know, obviously there's talks about him fighting Ilya to pour you. I mean, so, I mean, he had still something lined up. I mean, obviously the talk.

behind the scenes was that in Toronto at the start of the year. So, yeah, I'm just, I'm just curious on your thoughts if you think, Volcanozky might be biting off more than he can shoot for this. Thanks, Mike. Maybe, but like I said earlier, I think Volk has been ready for this phone call since February. I think there's a part of him that kind of, I honestly think there's a part of him that kind of felt like it could come anyways, because you never know what Charles Olivera. you just never know.

Like, just got to be ready just in case. Even Volk after the fight in July with Yair was like, listen, I was banged up after the five-round fight with Max Holloway and I was ready to go for October if I was needed to fight Islam because we weren't sure what was going on with Charles. And same with this fight. At first, we didn't know what was going on. By the time Volk had fought, we didn't know if Charles was going to be in there

to fight after the Darius fight, we had no idea. Remember there were reports and kind of rumor and innuendo? Like, not even reports. He was at International Fight Week and said it might be too soon. Remember that?

And I think Volk was kind of preparing himself to at least be ready if he does get the call and he gets it. So at the end of the day, is it a disservice? No, I don't think it is because if Volk didn't want it, he would just say no.

or if he was still banged up or he wasn't going to be ready, he would just say, no, I got a fight with Tuporia. And as his as Amokachev had said in certain interviews, they didn't call Volk first. They called Justin Gaichi first. And Gaichi was like, hell no. I'm not taking that fight on 11 days, though. This could be my last chance to fight for the belt.

And I don't blame him at all for that. But they called Volk. Dana White even said it. One phone call, boom. I talked to Volk's manager yesterday morning, told me essentially the same thing. So it's his choice. So I don't think it's a disservice.

He made the choice to say yes. So that's got to tell you something. And I think he's ready. Like I don't think, like I understand that it's short notice, but I'm telling, like I have a feeling that Volk was somewhat prepared for this. He was ready in case that phone rang. And it did. And now he's going to go to Abu Dhabi with a chance to win a second belt.

Now what's going to happen with featherweight? he's even said look if I win the lightweight title or even if I don't like I want to turn around fight in January if I can I know Ariel said something on the MMA hour about possibly doing an interim

title fight for that card if Volk can't make it doing Tuporia versus Max Holloway which I'm fine with in that as I said back in June I'm fine with that fight as long as the title's on the line

now it could obviously lead to holloway volk for when it's all said and done which i don't really want to see because i don't think max could beat volk if they fought a million times at this point but that's just volk just kind of got his number at this point but who knows maybe volk just wins the belts and he's like i'm just going to stay at layway i'll go fight just like volk versus justin gait she's ridiculous so i don't know I don't think it's a disservice. I think if Volk was kind of like had his hand forced into this matter, I think it's more of a disservice.

But no, I don't think it's a disservice. I really don't. He made the choice to do it. And bless his heart, he's doing it. And props to Islam as well. King Kat, hello. How's it going? Good.

So two questions. One, I feel like a couple months ago maybe there was a rumor going around that this was the last fight on Costa's deal. Do you think with this, that they release him, whether it's his last fight on his deal or not? And then the other question is at the Tuesday night press conference, someone asked Dana about the women's Bantamway, and he said that they hadn't even like started that yet, which is kind of weird to me. So do you think that maybe they're trying to wait for whatever's going on with my

Mara Bueno Silva, because, you know, you would think that it would just be Raquel versus Juliana, but because she said that they haven't worked on it yet, do you think there's a possibility that she's in the mix? Thanks, Mike. Maybe. Maybe. I'm, like, I'm going to say no. I think Raquel and Juliana is the fight to make, but there's no really, there's no, like, real

spot for it yet. You know what I mean? like if you were going to do it at all this year, I mean, you could, obviously you could chuck it as a third title fight somewhere else, but 295 and 296 don't need a third title fight right now. I would have liked to have seen it December 2nd, headlined that fight night card. Like, I'd have been fine with that.

But maybe you just kind of wait. Maybe you just do February. There's no rush at this point because even, because even if you book this fight, We still know what's going on, Meyer Buena Silva. We still don't know what's going on with the rest of this division. I mean, you're literally only booking for like a fight or two. And then we still don't really have a division anyways.

We got Misha Tej, Julia Avilaa fighting. We got some Bannonweight fights coming up this weekend. But none of those fights really have title implications right now because a lot of them are debuting or having their second fight for the promotion. It's just a weird division right now. We don't know what Valenzheny and Schochenko is going to do with this. point. Maybe Schochenko wants to step up and fight at 135.

Maybe they're waiting for her. Maybe they're waiting for her. Schifchenko even said it with Ariel. Whatever the fans want, that's what I'm going to do. If they want me to fight Grasso again, I'll fight Grasso again. If they want me to go up to 135, fight for the women's Bannibal title, I'll go up to 135. There's just no big rush to crown a new champion at this point.

But I think if push comes to shove and they need a title fight to cement a card, then they'll try to put it together. So, yeah, it's just of the three women's divisions in the UFC, that's the one that doesn't need a rush. Like straw weight is loaded, flyweight's loaded, Bannonweight's not right now. So, yeah, I kind of think that's where they're at right now at this point. So, yeah, that's where at.

As far as Paul Costa goes, I don't know if you can cut them, man. Like, I don't know if he can cut him. Dude, I mean, there's a gnarly stuff that was going on. That picture of his elbow was disgusting. So you can't blame him. Like, the whole thing with Icaroff, like, he was just like, no, I'm not fighting him. What are you talking about? The whole Robert Whitaker thing, that was different.

This is a different situation. It seems there wasn't a time where Paul was like, nah, I'm not fighting him. Everything he has said is like, no, I will take this fight. I will still beat him, even after having surgery three weeks ago. So I think the UFC will have some leniency with this whole situation. I don't think they'll cut him. And I don't even, like, I have no idea what's going on this contract. I have no clue.

I don't know if he said, there was all these reports that he signed like a million dollar fight deal, which I think we all kind of realized there's no real truth to that. So I don't know. I don't know. I thought they were going to cut bait after the Whitaker fight and they kept him around. They booked it with Alaskaroff. And as I said, the day after that fight was announced, there's no friggin' chance that fight's going to happen.

So it'll be very interesting to see. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber E. Well, almost, almost anything.

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For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Let's go to Ani. As I said yesterday, he was waiting, so we bump him to the front. Hello, sir. Thank you, Mike.

Oh, my God. Don't call me, sir. I haven't done it. No, do I deserve it? You can just call me, Ani. So, just a minute. It's a bit nice of you. Right.

So, yesterday you were talking about Charles Olivera. and, you know, the matches that changed. So here's my take on the matches, right? So if Volkovsky were to beat Islam Makachav, it will definitely not be because of the skill. I think it'll be because of the fight IQ. I think Islam Makachev is incredibly skilled, and I just feel like Combat Sambo is just one of the more superior martial arts.

but I think if Volkinovsky can win it has to be through fight IQ you know and I think he has that so I wouldn't count him out and at the same time I think you also mentioned about you know Charles Olivera

that he wouldn't win if he beat Mark Achev but I feel like Oliver having to pull out of this fight is actually a blessing in disguise if he learned anything from Drika's Duplice, he was like he was taking notes from Jariqqqqq. I'm pretty sure people from Shota Box would do a lot of film study as well. And this is something I think is going to happen when fighters learn from each other.

I feel Charles Olivera can learn from Wolkenovsky. And I'd be willing to bet that Olivera is a much harder puncher than Wolkenovsky. So I think he's going to watch both the fights And when he eventually fights Islam Hopefully they give him the title shot I think he has a better chance than what Everyone is giving him Olivera is what I mean

So what do you think And even so in an actual my question is When it comes to all these great fighters Like you know John Jones or Valentina Shepchenko I mean Valentina Shepchenko I mean Valetina Shepchenko But if someone were to beat John Jones, I don't think it'll be because of skill.

It will be because of fight IQ. It will be because of the mental side of the things. And that's the case with Islam as well. What do you think? How can someone beat Islam Marketsab? Would that be adjustments made to the martial art side or has it got something to do with the mental side? It's a lot to digest.

Sorry, Mike. Looking forward to the free for all Friday. Thanks, man. Yeah, Paui IQ is going to have a lot to do with it. And I think Volk just being nonstop with press, pressure was very helpful to down the stretch. I mean, Volk was in his face a lot of that fight. And Mokachev was holding his own quite a bit,

but there were certain points where Volk was pushing him backwards. And I think Volk's cardio kind of played out. I think his will played out a little bit. And look, you have two guys, like, of these might be the two best fight IQs in the sport. between both of those guys. And I think Volk was just ready. And I don't think, I'm not going to say Machachev took him lightly,

because I think Machachev took the fight very seriously. But I think a lot of things Volk did surprise him. He was ready. Working with Craig Jones was incredibly helpful. And I think Volk was a little surprised too by the striking of Islam Makachep. Islam Makachov was very good on the feet in that fight. You can argue that he outshed,

struck Volk throughout the entirety of the fight. So you're dealing with two incredible fight IQs. I don't know, man. I mean, it's a combination of the two. Because to say Volk only could be, like if Volk got the decision in February to say that he only won because of Fight IQ isn't really fair to Volk, because I thought his game plan was great.

And I thought his skill set was wonderful. And yeah, the fight IQ had something to do with it, but you still have to implement it in the fight. So I'm intrigued by it. And with the Olivera thing, I just, look, do I think Oliver would have just got run decisively again? Maybe not. But I just didn't, I don't see a world where Olivera wins. I don't think all, like, Olivera hits really hard.

And he hit Machaachev a couple of times. And Machauchev just ate it. Just ate it. The whole thing heading into that fight was there was this narrative and there continues to be that, like, because Olivera is, you know, has the submission record and all that, that he's this incredible guy off of his back. When I just didn't see that, like he is opportunistic and he's slick against a guy

who's not like a super strong top position grappler. But when he fights guys who are super strong top division grappler or top position grapplers, he struggles. He struggles. And there might not be a better top position grappler that he will ever fight than Islam Akachev. So it's just a top. fight for, man.

Just a tough fight. Sometimes, like, they say, it's cliche as hell. Styles make fights. It's not a good style matchup for Charles. It just isn't. And that's okay. That's okay.

I picked Charles in the first fight, even though I knew all of this stuff. I still pick Charles to win because he's so chaotic. And he was just on such an epic run at the time. I still picked Charles. Even though everything was telling me that he's not going to win.

But I, so I understand the belief people have in Charles Albert. Guys, incredible. One of the most prolific, maybe the most prolific finisher in UFC history. But everybody's got a match. That ain't good. And that might be one of them. But I don't know where Charles is going to go from here, which is going to be super interesting. New York, Rick, welcome to the program.

Heck of a morning, Mike. I'm on the elliptical, so forgive any noise or me being out of breath. And also, forgive me for being late. So if this was already asked, feel free to boot me. Now that we're certainly getting Max Holloway versus Ilya to Poria, how excited are you for that fight? Because I'm a 10 out of 10, but I'm kind of interested in gauging your interest level. And don't tell me that it still needs to play out and we need to see what happens with Bull,

because none of that's going to happen. And those two are going to fight. So tell me where you're at. As I have said from Jump Street, and as I said about the Arnold Allen fight, the matchup's great. Like, I love the fight. I just don't want them to fight for the sake of fighting. And here's best case in error for this fight and how it plays out and how it could play out.

Volk wins on Saturday, next Saturday. Okay, and I'm not like rooting for Volt to win. But this is like, if, to make Holloway-Tiporia shine as best. can, at least for me as a fan. Volk wins on next Saturday and says, look, I know I've been saying I'm going to bounce around, but I am a lightweight

now. I am the lightweight champion, therefore I'm relinquishing the featherweight title and Max and Ilya can fight for the undisputed title. If that happens, that might be the fight I'm most excited about in the sport right now.

Because I honestly, I'm more intrigued about Volkadovsky to pourier than I am Halloway's for you. I really am. And we may and we're probably not going to get it at this point. I know Volk's a freak of nature, but I don't think we're going to get it. I think we will probably see Max Holloway. If it's for an interim title, like cool, like we're still going to get it, but if Max wins, then we're going to get it fourth fight and like, come on, man, like I just don't want to see it again. After the third fight, I don't want to see it again.

And I know you, New York Rick, the two best guys, let's have them fight. a billion times over. I get it. But I just, if Volk's out of the question, if it's just those two fighting and then the division's just going to move on without Volkovsky, sign me the fuck up,

and I will watch that fight. And I'll be so into it. But if it's an interim title or Volk's still in the division or Volk loses next Saturday, and it leads to like, I mean, if Teporia wins,

then none of it matters. But if Max wins, you're just like, oh, no, we're going to see this. again. I'm just not ready to see it again. I'm not ready. I'm not ready. That's where I'm at.

The match is great. But if it's for the undisputed title, then golly, man. It's excellent. It's excellent. It's excellent anyways, but, yeah, four outstime. Hey, good morning.

I just wanted to ask you, if Vogue were to go in there and pull off the upset. Who do you think would be more likely to fight for the belt next? I know it should be Justin Gachie, you know, challenging vote for that

belt, but do you think Charles Oliver could get that opportunity over him? That's all I got for you, Mike. Maybe, but I think Gage is going to get it, man. I think Gage is going to get it next no matter what. And maybe that's not fair to Charles Olivera, but

look, Dana can be petty, man. He can be petty. And I understand, and I don't think Dana, Dana's not blaming Olivera for cutting his eye and all that stuff. Like, he understands this part of the territory. But if you listen closely to that, to that scrum and him confirming the fight, he was pretty pissed at Oliver's team for leaking that information

before Dana got to at least let the officials in Abu Dhabi know it was happening. He wasn't happy about that. And Dana can be petty. He can hold that grudge. So he could, there's a, There's definitely a chance where you'd be like, nah, man, you guys leak this info. You have to sit one out.

And then you have to fight one more time and then if you win, you get it. Like, that could definitely happen. But I think, I think Gagey's going to get it, man. I really do. But who knows? Could be Olivera. But you're telling me to place a wager on it,

place it on Gachie getting it. They could go back to Islam too, because Islam is doing them a favor by saying, yeah, man, it doesn't matter who it is. And by the way, it's not the first time he's done that. He's done that a lot where opponent falls through less than two weeks before a fight. He stays on the card against whoever says yes. And he comes through and saves main events and saves cards.

Like he's done this a lot. So, well, I would like to see Gaichi Volk. there is a very real world where Islam I'm going to get the rematch unless Volk just ices him on next Saturday unless Volk puts on a Sean Strickland Izzy type performance and it's just one-way traffic and it's not close

but if it's a close competitive fight and Volk wins the decision they could probably go back to Islam so it's such a fancy answer but again we just have to wait and see how the fight plays out before we can really go there. But yeah, I think Olivera's probably going to have to wait either way.

CV, go ahead. Hey, Mike, I'm going to have a morning. I think you pretty much covered mostly everything from the headlines and the callers too. So I'm just going to basically build on what everybody's been talking about. I think next week, the new main event and the new co-main event, like, I don't know if it's better, but I feel like it's going to be a bit more competitive, I think. I'm more intrigued, especially for the co-main event. I want to see how Usman's wrestling holds up against Hamzat and men.

Imagine a world when we get a Strickland-Uzman rematch. That'd be crazy. And yeah, I want to talk about 297, the Toronto card, you know, just because I'm a homer, and we're probably going to get like Tupuria and Holloway, which I don't mind, but like you said, we're killing off another contender in Tepuria. Like, I really want to see Volk and Tapuria. Like, it's kind of like a DDP situation again. Like, like, like, how does the Volk based on rematch play out?

Like, like, I'm hoping, like, Volk doesn't get hurt too much. Like, he doesn't get dominated because I do want to see Volk Taporia. And as for Charles, I mean, why not put him on a Toronto card? Like, I honestly wouldn't mind seeing a Gay-Tree rematch. But, yeah, that's pretty much all it. Thanks. Yeah, cool. I just don't know

if Gachy's going to be all into that fight. He's talked about how hard Charles hits and the respect he has that he would do it. I think he would fight Oliver again

if he was like if he was putting the belt on the line against him. I don't know if he would just risk his title shot to fight Charles. I don't know. Maybe they do all of their gamrod

when it's all said and done. I don't know. I don't know. But having Holloway main event in Toronto is not a bad thing. Hollow is like an honorary Canadian when he goes up there. Even when they were saying like

GSP being gone, like who's the new face of Canadian MMA? For like a year and a half, everyone's like, it's Max Holloway. He's not even from Canada. So having him on the card is not a bad thing, especially in a made event spot. It's not a bad thing. It's going to sell tickets. People love Max. He's a star. Max is a star. How we build out the rest of the card?

We'll see. But listen, I'm into that main event. I'm into those guys for five rounds. Put a title in the line. Undisputed is what I would prefer, but if it isn't, so be it. And if Teporea wins,

like none of that stuff matters anyways. And maybe it's, you know, it could actually play out better. If Teporea somehow wins, the Volk Vipe becomes even bigger. But that's a risk. We've seen this play out a million times.

And for the most part, it never really works out of, I mean, at least recently, it has not worked out in the UFC's favor at all. So there you go. Let's go to Eric. Is it not versus Volk for the lightweight championship or is just a five-round fight? It's Philairenda. Oh, okay. So if both, if bullets, I think Yism might win, but it's going to be a close fight.

I think it's going to play fourth or fifth round. and uh, Kamar, but his, uh, Megathev for the, no, uh,

yeah, for the mid, for the chance at Stratel. I think, Eisman or, or, uh,

Mag. Um, I think Shamaa, I think Shamaa, you know, might win that. Thanks, guys.

Yeah, so, like, like I said the beginning, like, I'm more intrigued with the main event, as is,

I'm kind of less intrigued about the co-man. Like, I'm, I'm, I'm thrilled with it. Thrill with it. Like,

if Costa can't go, you could have done way worse than this. Could have done way worse. I kind of feel like Hamzat's going to kill Usman. I don't know why. Like if this happened like two years ago, when Usen was still the champion, it was on that really good run.

Coming off like the Burns fight, I may feel a little bit differently. But Usman is an athletic freak. The guy is incredible. His prime lasted a long time. And he's still very, very, very, very good. He's still one of the five best wealth weights of the world right now. No doubt about it.

He is. Just he's on the back nine, man. And even for a guy like Ousman, who is so athletically gifted and so skilled, that can win you a lot of fights. I just don't know if it wins you a Hamza Tchamaya fight. I don't know if it wins you a Hamza Chamaia fight.

I could be wrong. Maybe O'SFed just kills him. I would be shocked if that happens. Chimae of Costa to me was far more competitively intriguing, at least to me, than the Suzman fight. I'm happy we're seeing it, but I feel like Hamzat's going to win, and I think he does it pretty impressively too. But again, this is what happens. You go in there and you fight, and anything can happen. But I feel like Hamzat's going to get him. but maybe you

so you could bring me wrong we'll see four corner sports so I wanted to about three things so Volcanowski the coal main event and then I have a question about the fight for this Saturday so I'll start up with the main event

Volcanowski I feel like this could work into his favor Islam was preparing for Charles for quite some time since the announcement happened and their styles are very very different I understand that he, you know, fought Volcanowski back in February, and it was a very close fight, and what's it called, Volcanowski trains, you know, year-round, which kept him in shape and allowed him to take the opportunity.

And I believe that Volcanowski's footwork has actually improved since he fought in February, because the way that he was able to frustrate Yaya Rodriguez, who is a very chaotic fighter, I felt like, you know, the way that he was able to frustrate Yaya Rodriguez, who is a very chaotic fighter, I felt like, you know, the way that he was able to. able to, you know, pick apart, go go to the inside, come back out, and maneuver. I felt like that can work in the favor of him being very quick and shifty going up to lightweight. And it's just, you know, it's just an extra possibility of him winning. I don't know if there is word that Khabib is going to be in the corner of Islam. I know that was a concern last time and Islam had FaceTime Kavib saying that, why couldn't you comes to my fight, you know, I could have used your hope. So I believe that

if Haviv is not in the corner, which that man has a wizard of knowledge, I feel like that can favor Volcanowski. Now, as for the Kohlmeat event, I wouldn't be surprised on waiting for the props to come out, but Ustman

by knockout, I could see that definitely happening. I mean, we've seen what's the Gauvza Shemaya, and I understand at a depleted weight at 170 pounds, him get rocked by Gilbert Burns. and Usman is a hard hitter at 170. Now, hydrate him to 185. It's only going to get worse, you know, for opponents.

But there's also the fact that, you know, Shamaa is not going to be so dehydrated. So I wonder, do you feel that's an avenue for Kamara Usman? Because his jab could give some problems to Hamzaa Shamaia. And I think last time I had seen it, Usman was like a plus 205 favorite, and Hamza was like a minus 290. I feel like those odds are,

little bit overinflated. I feel like the fight is a little bit closer, but I understand it's like a 10 days difference. And then lastly, what do you think Edson Barbosa goes after this main event? I feel like Sadiq Yusuf has been out of the fight game for about a little bit over a year since he fought the kid from New England. But do you feel like Barbosa has, you know, a limited amount of fights left in him? Because I feel like he looked fantastic when he fought in the Kansas City court. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, man.

So, I mean, I know Islam did a couple of interviews that they can deal with Aaron Bronsetter saying Habib's not going to be in the corner. I'm pretty sure that's what I saw. So, yeah, that's that. It is going to be an interesting flight. Makhv minus 2.25, plus 185. The lines on the co-main event,

Shami if minus 270, the comeback on Uson plus 220. I think it's lined right. I think it's lined right. Again, this is not Ushman from two years ago. This is Uspin coming off of two losses to Leon Edwards. And I know MMA math is a fickle beast, and it doesn't always tell the story.

But I would pick Hamzaa Chamaif over Leon Edwards every time, every single time. So I just don't know. I kind of feel like if you were going to get you, like that Gilbert-Berns fight is still one of my, it's one of the most memorable fights that I've ever seen, mostly because I was in the arena. I mean, I wasn't in the arena, but I was in the media room and just the building was shaking in the media room as that fight was happening in Jacksonville.

And I kind of feel like if you were going to catch Shamiyaf being sloppy, like that was the night to do it. And I think if Uspin fought Shamiath that night and got that version of Shemayev, I think Ushman probably could have beat him. Like, I think you could have beat him. I just don't know if it happens here, man. You have Shemayev who's been off for a year and I understand Ringrust. I don't think it matters with Shamiya. though. He's just spent that time getting bigger and stronger

and more freakishly athletic. By the time Hamza, and I've told you, I've told you guys before, I've stood next to Hamza Chamaif. He is a fucking monster. I don't know how he made 170. I honestly

looked at him and I was like, I don't think it, like, I didn't think it was physically possible for him to do it. He is going to be way bigger than Usman. By the time that fight happens. He's got to be like 2.10, 215. Like, he's going to be giant, he's going to be humongous in there. So if I'm Usman, I think that's probably your best chance is go in there and try to get him with big shot. I don't know if he's going to be able to jab away at Shamiya

and he's going to be able to play the footwork game unless he weather's just an incredible storm before that. And Shamiyaf somehow gets tired. So I think it's just going to be a crazy pace fight. Like it's got to be a, I don't think it's going to the cards. I think it's just going to be an all-out sprint until it's over. And I think that's honestly Ushman's best chance to win. Try to lure Shamiyaf into a crazy war and maybe you catch him. I'm intrigued by it.

But as far as where Shamiath goes as a middleweight and a guy who could potentially fight for a world title at 185, I wanted to see the Costa fight. I want to see if you could physically manhandle a guy like Costa. I think we would get a lot more answers. But still, like I said, not mad at the fight at all. This is pretty damn good. Pretty, pretty damn good. Let's go to Willie.

What's up, Willie? Just got to unmute yourself. Actually, it's not going through. So try again, Willie. We'll get you in. Let's go to Max. Hello, Mike. I just had two questions for you regarding

not, or like one up, let me get my brain together, one regarding this upcoming card and then one regarding a card in the future. So I'll start with the first one. So I see that Mr. Adrian Yannes is fighting Jonathan Martinez. If he loses this fight,

is he like majorly effed? Like, is he not going to get a spot like in the top 15? Are we going to strike him from the prospect list? Or is this just a case of someone who needs to get their piece and cues together. Personally, I think that he really needs to get his defense back in shape after Rob just pieced them up like no tomorrow. And I think that Martinez is a guy who is very quiet and people underage.

So he might be able to go in there and starch him. But who's to say? So I want to get your opinion on that. And then I also had a question about this upcoming 294 card, but not one of the major fights on the, I wanted to ask about Tim Elliott versus Muhammad Mikhail. I had asked a question about Mikhail of earlier. and it's a later, a previous episode. I was curious how you think that fight's going to go

because Elliot is a guy who's played spoiler before. He almost beat DJ. I think there's a real chance he could beat Mackayev here. If Mackayev just goes in very arrogantly and brash, which, you know, he is, however he, you know, very skilled. But, yeah, so let me know your thoughts on that as well. Thanks for your time. Peace.

Thanks, man. Yeah, so I'll touch on Saturday because I know Four Corner Sports asks about Edson Barbosa where he goes as well. I think he's just kind of where he's at. he'll fight kind of like he's kind of in the Danny Gay rule at this point

so maybe he fights like you know if JSP wins his next fight like he'll fight a JSP or something like that next if he wins it's kind of where he's at at this point

I do have a bet on Edson Barbosa by knockout in this fight just because like Yusuf's a good fighter but Barbosa usually wins these fights you know what I mean

and I think right now they have used to a minus 170 Barbosa plus 142 um actually I think I went with Barbosa straight because I didn't think

I didn't think the uh the knockout prop was actually that that good let me just look at it real quick um I think there's any extra value that's plus 215 uh

yeah I did go with that yeah now I look at it I'm very rookie-ish to this gambling thing, so I have to go and find, like, where my bets are. Yes, plus two, I think I got a, nope, I got a plus two-10. So I did go with the extra juice because if he's going to win, that's how he's going to win. He's not going to go out and grind out a five-round decision against Sudik Yusuf.

So I do have a bet on it to Barbosa. I'm not very confident in that, but I'll take a shot on a guy who is a, just a nasty finisher. Now when he fights, and plus here's the thing, too, Sunique's fought some decent guys, the Arnold Allen fight and all of that. Like, he's fought some decent guys. There is no human being in the history of fighting that has had a harder strength of schedule, in my opinion, than Edson Barboza. I mean, it is just insane.

I'm not going to run them all down. Homework assignment, if you don't know, go to Edson Barbosa's Tapology page from 2014 on, and you will see just the murderer's row of guys that he has had to fight over the last nine years. It's insane. It is absolutely ridiculous. So, Sudik Yusuf, compared to a lot of those guys, as good as he is, is kind of a step back compared to the dudes he's fought. So it's a good fight. I like it.

I'm intrigued by it. The longer it goes, I think the more it favors Yusuf. But you could get a quick finish out of Edson Barbosa. And that's what I'm kind of banking on with my small wager on this fight. I love the Yannias, Jonathan Martinez fight. I've aptly nicknamed Jonathan Martinez, the silence behind the violence. I've given him that nickname since like 2018.

It's a really good fight. If Yanaz loses, or Yanyes, excuse me, if he loses, I don't think it like kills him. I mean, he could still be a top 15 guy. The UFC really likes them. I think everybody likes them. And Jonathan just could be a really good, just could be really good.

He just could be really good. five in a row. I mean, they just beats Ayy and Rogamatov, which is a good win. So yeah, he's, dude's real solid. I do have a bet on Adrian Yonnas, though. I do have a bet on Adrian Yonnas by,

where are you? I will figure this draft king's thing out at some point. I have a bet on Adrian Yadz by knockout of plus 200. Because Jonathan's really good, but he can get caught. We saw Davy Grant catch him. And I think if Yonis is going to win, that's how he's going to win. So yeah, great fight.

Love it. And McIuff, Elliot, perfect matchmaking. This is perfect. Because we are looking, I think fans are looking for fun Muhammad Makayev. They're looking for chaotic Muhammad Makayev. They're looking for the guy who went in there just eviscerated Cody Durd and his UFC debut.

We haven't really seen that killer since. Now he's going out and getting finishes, sure. but they're more like workman-like finishes. Tim Elliott isn't going to just lay on his back for 15 minutes. It's not going to happen. Elliott is going to be moving around. He's going to bring the chaos and look high off. He's going to force Muhammad to be chaotic.

And we'll see how he handles it with a wily veteran. This is the toughest fight of his career by far, in my opinion, because Elliot is competitive with everybody he fights. So we're going to see Muhammad get excited. we're going to see Muhammad in some, some interesting spots, and we'll see how he comes through, but this is excellent matchmaking.

This is excellent matchmaking. This is how you progress him, and we'll see how he handles it. I'm really interested to see if he goes out there and just icees Elliot in the first round. Like, if he just goes out and just runs him, what will the conversation on Muhammad with high FB now?

I think Muhammad's got, he's going to talk his trash, do what he usually does, but Elliot and his style, he's going to force Mohan Wahyaf to get a little reckless and I love I love that about this fight it's going to be a good one I'm picking Mahayev but it's a good fight we'll learn a lot about him in this one j-stat i can't see you what's up now that uh well you saw that appears to be gone will we see the return of brock lesnar maybe we get uh brock lesnar versus parker porter at usc

300 i mean i thought people liked brock lesnar you want to just have him to lose in his comeback fight? How dare you? How dare you? No, we're not going to see Brock Leicester again. Look, just because the USADA thing's over, it doesn't mean they're not going to drug test anymore. It doesn't mean they're not going to do some sort of drug testing.

Why would Brock come back and fight? Why would he fight? Dude is working like a part-time schedule and making a floppy trillion dollars doing it with WWE. wrestles like 10 matches a year and has to appear on TV like 20 times a year and he's making more money than probably

the entire roster. There is no need for him to come back and fight. None. I mean, if he does, I mean, I'll watch it, but yeah, I don't see it happening. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes.

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All right, I'll try to get Willie back in here. Do we have you, really? Yeah, sorry, man, my internet today. I've got two questions. So first of all is, if 297 ends up being headlines by an interim belt, we've heard rumors that Henry Suhudo and Barab could be something going on in January. could a Georgian themed card have that kind of co-made event

and if not what else would the other co-made event be for 297? Interesting. I'm not really sure. I don't know if they'll go full out Georgian. You would think there's just going to be a lot of Canadians on that card. I would guess like Mike Malott's going to be back on that card.

Wouldn't be shocked to see Jass and Chastavizius on that card. There'll be a lot of Canadians. Kyle Nelson. Brad Catona, I think, is already on that card. So I think you'll see a lot of Canadians. Marab, Henry, I would not be shocked if that is on that card at this point. I think Marab understands that this is probably the best he's going to get right now, unless he wants to fight like Umar.

So I think this is probably the best case of error for him. So if I'm him, I'm jumping all over this fight. So I wouldn't, wouldn't shock me to see it on there. There are discussions going on from what I understand, but it's not like we don't have like agreements or anything like that. It is being talked about, but we're not really beyond that point. And the other Komen events option would probably be the women's band-in-white title fight, but I don't think we're going to get it on this card.

I really don't. So TBD. TBD on all of that. Let's keep going. We'll go for like another 10 or so minutes. Henderson, go ahead. You too. I know you're newer to this UFC betting stuff.

Even though you've been, your first bat landed on my boy, Frankie Edgar years ago. You're getting back into it. And one thing that I've learned betting on on MMA over the years is whenever you, whenever I'm going to bet on somebody to win by KHO, I always check out the odds for them, just to win finish. And a lot of these guys, because they've barely had any subs in their career, the odds for them to win by finish is only like slightly worse, you know? So I always go for just win by finish because there's just so many random times

when I was first betting on MMA where I would bet KO and then somebody gets that club and sub, you know, like first career submission. And then their BJJ coach comes out to give them like their, purple bell and you're like, Jesus Christ, I hate this. So that's just my one thing that I've found over the years. I call it club and sub-insurance. So wanted to hear what you thought about that and see if it may help you out in the future. I appreciate that.

I will probably do a little bit more of that and play it safe depending on how this one plays out. Because I do have like some... Where are we? Yeah, I got Barbosa by K. I got Yonnas by K.O. I got a sub-prop with Chiraez. I got Gutierrez by K.O. Yeah, so I should probably look at ITDs a little bit more,

but I like to live dangerously. I even have a bet on a women's bantamweight fight. It's not on a fighter, but, I mean, Tyno Erlisbo is a parley piece, but I have Melissa Dixon Arena, Alex Eva, under two and a half. I got it at plus 140. It's down to plus 114 right now. Maybe the folks listened to No Betts Bard and heard my analysis and it caused the line to drop because of the worst MMA gambler in the world.

But there you go. Panda, you're on deck. Panda, go ahead. My man, Mike, I don't know what happened, but the ripping I gave to cricket wireless seems to have paid off. So let's keep this going. Don't jinx it, Panda. You're right. You're right.

It's Friday. It's not even Friday. You're right. You're right. I got two for you. One, I'm not sure if it was asked. I did hop in maybe 10 or 15 minutes early. Can you translate this?

You've sounded nonsense for me. Is everybody just going to be juicing? Like, what in the world is about to happen? Okay, so we're just getting a different drug doping agency involved now. Yeah, I mean, the commissions do it too. So I don't know how it's going to work, but look, this isn't going to be pride. This isn't going to be pride in the 2000s, okay? it's not going to be like that.

All right, very nice, very nice. I was a little scared and I was also, you know, kind of interested. That would have made a, you know, very, very interesting sport, I guess you could say, for however long it would last. And secondly, I feel horrible for Charles, but at the same time, like, if he doesn't fight Justin, I don't know if he's ever going to get this fight back. You know what I mean? Like, you mentioned Gamrod earlier.

I don't know. Like I think maybe would he wait around and see what a Connor McGregor does? He just entered the Ysada pool, but Charles pulling out of this fight in Abu Dhabi is bad newsbears for Charles, in my opinion. What do you think is on deck for Charles Oliveira, obviously as his eye heals? Thanks, Mike. Yeah, I don't look, if they make him engage you, I'll watch it. Like, that was one of my, that was one of the craziest one round fight you will ever watch in your life. But why would Justin Gaetie take that fight?

Makes no sense. Justin Gaichi is the guy. Like, he's next in line for a title shot. Why would he fight Charles Olivera? Makes no sense. He could fight him. Like, if Gaichi wins the belt and Olivera wants a shot, like I'm sure Gaethe would love to have that one back. But he's not just going to fight him in a co-main event of a pay-per-view.

There's got to be actual stakes. It's got to matter. And Gagetchi at this point in his career, while he's such a gamer and a friggin dog, he's also very smart. He's maybe got one more chance to win that belt, and he's there. He ain't going to risk it to fight Charles Olivera in just a three-round fight. No, he's not going to do it. So, well, Oliver have to fight again remains to be seen.

But I think all, like, the best thing Oliver could kind of hope for is that, one, Islam just wrecks Volkanowski and wants to turn around fast or two, Volkanowski, one-way traffics Islam so they don't run the trilogy. Because if we get another fight like we had in February and Volk squeaks it out, they're probably going to do it again. So it's tough to answer without seeing how this all goes. It's tough. next like two weeks from this past Tuesday

I think we'll have a better gauge on things so right yeah well so I just want to to discuss a few things with you you know regarding the Hamza and Kamara situation being that this fight's not a walk away and it's at midway I'm just really curious to see the pathway if Hamza Chimaif wins

you know assuming he does get the title shot right after this fight and if he does in a spectacular performance And if he does be Sean Strickland for the title fight, do you think it's really possible that rather than he may be fighting at Ardissania, unless he really wants that fight, he could maybe skip the line and ask Paula Costa for a title defense. Like how Sean Amali is doing with him chita Verra, because I'm sure Hamza really does want to, you know, beat the shit out of Costa at some point. And I'm hoping as a fan we can get that fight someday, maybe next year when it's still, you know, brimming with a lot of tension and hype around it. And, you know, I also want to just discuss regarding the division these fighters were in, which of the Walterway, because for what I've seen, obviously, most of the fights have been laid out.

There's, I think outside Jack and Jeff Neal, pretty much everyone, the top 15 is, you know, like, stacked out. But I'm curious, would you be interesting seeing a fight, JDM versus Jeff Neal at some point for pay-per-view as a headlining fight night? and what happens to Bilal Muhammad now because I could see him fighting for a title if Leon Edwards successfully defends his title in December because I'm sure as much as Leon

probably doesn't want to fight Bilal he much rather fight Bilal than someone else who hasn't roughly earned the title shop because at the end day they have a score to settle and I would definitely be interested in that fight somehow yeah I mean that's all I have have a great day man

thanks man yeah I think Hamza it's going to have some power. But again, the big question about Hamzaa Chamaif is how active can he be? Is this going to be, is he in a situation? And look, I know some things have been cleared up and, you know, he's got a UAE passport now and all that. So maybe some of the travel issues that maybe have held him back may have gone away. But we don't know.

Like, we don't actually know this. So let's just say if Hamzat wins and then him in Strickland fight on pay-per-view in like February and March and they do. it in Vegas and Hamzaa can get right over and do that fight. Like I'll feel a little bit better about things. But yeah, if he wins the belt and he's able to move around and maneuver and fight like more actively, then yeah, I think he will have some say on what he wants. Him and Iqram Alaskarraf had fought.

He continues to this day saying Iqram is the toughest fight of his career. So I think he may call for that at some point. Whitaker's there. I mean, Hamzot winning just opens things up in a whole different way. It really does. Izzy's there. If Homicide has a name and says Izzy, I'll welcome you back. You want your title shot.

Come on, let's go. Sure, the UFC would make that fight. It would be massive. It'd be a massive fight. It'd be huge. No doubt about it. As far as the welterweight stuff goes, yeah, Jdeme Jeff Neal's fun. I think that was my ot-no pick.

And what about Bilal? I don't know, ma'am. This is tough for Bilal. This is tough. the man just cannot catch a break he can't catch a break and some people will say like oh he did catch a break now he doesn't have to fight oosman but he could like he would have a chance to beat oosman and then he's like undeniable i don't know man like maybe he hopes like colby gets hurt and he can slide in there and fight leon like i don't know what he's going to do i really don't i don't know

290. Look, this is look what you've done for me lately sport. If Shafcock runs Wonderboy, like he can certainly get a title shot. So if you're in Bal, you're hitting up Leon, you guys are having conversations, you're saying, yo, I'll help you be Colby. But if you do, you call for me.

Like, get the politics going on, Bilal. Do it. But he's in a really tough spot right now, in my opinion. That's why I hated the Gilbert Burns fight on 288. It made no sense to do it. Zimb, go ahead. I have a few things to spill out here. Some controversy theories that I have based on the random tweets that I have seen in Twitter.

First of all, I do think about the Chalas Alwara feature. So I have that question, but I had your answers to other speakers. So I have this conspiracy theory about the Charles Allerra. Josh Thompson said on his podcast about two months ago that Charles is not going to fight on Abu Dhabika. Because he is going to pull out from that fight two weeks before that fight. He's done that.

Charles Silver really done what the job just Thompson said and Chale Sunan said. The thing that I came to the country, conclusion about that conspiracy theory is that, did he willingly or willingly made that high brok cut that deep, so he can escape, he can pull out from that fight? This is coming from a Chála Solvara fan, so I'm not a head of Charles Salvera. But I do think he thought about all the advantage that that, that, that, that, the, that, that, the, Shihani fighters have on Abu Dhabi, when you, because they have 36 hours,

to the hydrate, their weight to the weight advantage, and like that. The Kabib said that bring me the king Kong if he can make a weight. Come on, he's joking. Really, he's an idiot, I think. Because why don't Islam going to bulk up to the king king king, wait and fight the king king. So it is about going to the welterweight and middleweight weight to fighting the best fighter on the upper weight division.

Kabib never done that. Islam never going to do that. That's why he said, if King Kong can make weight, bring it in. So, it tells about their mindset. They're weight bullies. I mean, everyone is a weight bullies. But these guys are good at that. That's why Charles wasa pulled out from the Abu Dhabi.

He never wanted to fight on that card from the day one. What do you think about this? And last one about the U-Sda. Is every fighter going to be juiced up and going to fight in the UFC or turn this UFC into the WWU. that's in my no they're still drug testing they're still commissions who drug tests

so no it's not going to be like that would I care if it was no I would not care at all but they're going they're still going to be testing now are they going to go the water route

are they going to have a different third party possibly but it's not going to be like everyone can be just be juiced to the gills and fight it's not going to be like that with the Oliver point I don't agree with that at all you think Charles just took a hatchet to his head

it was like nah I can't fight so I'm just gonna cut my eye open that cut was nasty there's no way he was gonna be able to fight next Saturday that thing was bad so no I think he wanted he would have wanted to fight

if it was like a pull like if we found out that he was out for like undisclosed reasons then yeah that's different but this just seems yikes. No, I don't think so. But look, as I've said, Volk gets a lot of credit. He's going to get the lion's share of it from most people,

but Islam Makachchev deserves a ton of credit for taking this fight. And he has done this a lot. And I don't necessarily agree with the weight bullying thing. Like, Islam has said many times that he is willing to go up to 170 and fight Colby for the welterweight title. Am I for that right now? No, because I'm for that when he runs off like four or five title defenses against lightweights. Then go to 170.

I'm cool with that. I was cool with Volk moving up, even though I was cool with Volk moving up mostly because there was nothing else for him at the time. There was no contender. Lightweight was kind of a mess at the time. It made sense to do it at that particular time. If I had my druthers, I wouldn't have made it, but we had no choice. The timing, everything worked out for it. But Jed and I talk about this all the time.

It is way more impressive to me, and to him as well, probably more so than me, to just continuously rattle off defenses in your division against the next dude or gal up. That means more to me than winning two titles. It does. It is so difficult. Like I want to see guys run off 10. I want to see if someone could do. 10 at this point.

We've seen DJ do it. I've seen Anderson Silva do it. I want to see if someone can run off 10 in a row in this new era of the UFC. I want to, that's what I want to see. That will be the most impressive thing that you can do in this sport right now. If you can win a belt and defend it 10 straight times, you do that, you are on the goat list in my opinion. You're on the list.

You're in the conversation if you could do that. You're not necessarily in the conversation if you win two titles. So, yeah, to me, I'd rather see Islam, you know, if he beats Volk, if you go to the Charles route, fight Charles again, fine. I'd rather see him fight Gaichi. And then look, we have a hungry crop of 55ers on the way up. Young guys, we have the Bobby Greens of the world who could be on a legendary run right now. We don't know.

Like, there's fights for him. he's not cleaned out the division Volk has not even cleaned out his division yet so yeah that's where I'm at with that whole thing Eric go ahead Hey Mike can hear me yep I got you

so I know and I apologize I joined Lays so I apologize if it was already brought it up but obviously there's a lot of praise for Volk and Islam stepping up to ultimately save the main event and I think that's fair but is there a bit and I know I discussed this is some of my friends is there a bit of disappointment in the sense that

obviously if Voke wins they likely it's the UFC so they'll do the trilogy and then I know he's mentioned he could still fight Ilya but we don't know obviously if that's possible and then it's Islam fighting Volk three straight times and then there's that narrative of he doesn't fight actual lightweights but then a Volk loses it's not even if it's a pretty close fight I doubt they let him go a third shot at it and then the narrative shifts to oh was on 10 days notice off the couch kind of etc so even though it should be a great fight given how great their first fight is, is there still just a bit of disappointment that even though it's from a card

perspective, it makes sense, but you're kind of losing out on what could have been a great possible kind of number, a second fight between the two of them? That's, that's a good question. I guess somewhat, but kind of like I said earlier on the show, knowing Volk and talking to Volk as long as I have over the years. since that first fight happened, Volk has either, I guarantee you, Volk has either watched the fight back or has been thinking about it or has been working in the gym on ways to improve himself in case he fights his Al-Machachev again. I also believe deep down, and I don't know this for a fact, but this is what I believe. I believe that once Volkanowski had that surgery after the Ayyir fight, he was mentally preparing himself to fight his al-Makachev on this card.

he was ready for that phone call. If the call came, he was going to be ready. And I think there's a part of him that almost wielded into existence because he wanted it to happen. I think he's ready, man. Like I understand there's going to be, you know, the built-in quote-unquote excuse, took the fight on 11 days notice, yada, yada, yada,

it's a quintessential win-win for Volcanowski. But he said yes, man. I almost don't even feel like it's fair to throw that narrative in there. But that's what's going to happen. If Islam Makachep just goes out in 50, 45s Volkinovsky, it's not going to be, wow, what a performance of Islam. It's going to be like, wow, Volkadovsky, what a gutsy performance on 11 days notice. And that, to me, is not really fair.

It's not really fair. He said yes. He took the fight. None of that should even play a factor. Like, I understand it's part of the storyline because if Volcanovsky wins, it's going to be this whole, holy shit, 11 days notice. he got it done and it's like he gets the praise heaped upon him and it should but if he loses then it's like well good try buddy 11 days notice i don't know i just feel like i don't know i feel like i don't know i feel like islam kind of gets the short end of the stick more than volk does

in a lot of respects on this thing but listen to me this is the more compelling fight than the olivera fight i'm with you i'd like to see like both guys prepare for each other but i think volk's been ready for this since February. I really do. I really do. And I hope at some point we do get to see Volk versus Ily Teporia because I would really like to watch that fight. And if we get the hallway fight, like, that's fine. But yeah, I get where you come from. It's a good question, but I don't really feel that way. Go ahead, MMA ground. Good. What's up? I have like three points I want to talk about. You already mentioned talked about Bilal, but don't you think now that Camaro is facing Hamzat, don't you think that will clear the path for

Belal to be the clear number one contender for the Walter White title? My other one is now that UFC will be holding events in Saudi Arabia. Do you think the UFT will be doing two events a year in that region? The other one, I'm thinking. uh, Machachev and, and Olivera might not face each other again because I don't think, I don't think Islam will be able to be, uh,

will be able to make the, uh, 155 weight for a long time. So I think that he might have another, another fight in the lightweight and then he, he will be forced to move up to the welterweight if he's still the champion. What do you think? Uh,

maybe. I mean, that's something to think about. I also don't think we're going to have Machachev for like that much longer anyways. I think he's just going to come in, accomplish what he wants to accomplish, and then he's just going to be done.

So I think we got to kind of have to enjoy Makachachov while we have him at this point. I'll address the Bilal thing again. No, I don't. It should. It should clear a path for Bilal. But here's the thing, man. Like this is a business.

This is about putting butts in seats. And I love, I like Bilal Muhammad a lot. again you know i hate to be like well i talked to this person before they're in the ufc but i did talk to bala mahama before he's in the ufc and i've always loved the way he fought uh even his ufc debut was super fun took it on short notice and had a banger i just feel like after two ninety six man like i feel like unless those fights are bad like just really stinky and i don't think it's gonna be i i don't know if he gets it man like i think he needs it man like i think he needs Leon to just call for it.

Because if Shafcott just destroys Wonderboy, or even better, like on the other end, if Wonderboy goes out and starches shot, like, what if he's spinning wheel kick Shafcott Rockbonne off unconscious? You don't think the world will be clamoring for Wonderboy to get one last shot at the title at 40, almost 41 years. By the time

he fought for the belt, be 41 years of age. If he slays the beast, people are going to be calling for that man to fight for the belt. And the UFC will hear that. And if Shafcott runs Wonderboy, there's a very real world where he gets the shot. So I don't think it's as clear. It should be clear. It should be a no-brainer at this point.

But this isn't Bellator. This isn't PFL. This is the UFC. It's not just about wins and losses. It's about what fans want to see overall. So I don't think it's clear. I really don't. It should be, but it isn't.

It is freaking pouring outside. Golly, the sun was just like 30 seconds ago. Bray, go ahead. Bray, you there. You're muted. Unmute. Oh, can you hear me? Yeah, I got you. Okay, guys.

No, I'm going to drop the hot stuff, behind the scene stuff, you know? Islamachchev is going to defend the title one more time and then he's going to move up. And what you think about this, they're going to take, they're going to take Usman Romagomed off from Berato and he will rain. like in the lightweight division. No, I think that's the plan. I'd love to see it. I mean, I would love to see Usman in the UFC,

Usen-Narag-Madav on the UFC. Because I feel like he'll never, I feel like Usen-R-Mogg-Madav, and I saw it on Saturday during Bellator 300, I feel like Guzman-Magam-A-F will never get the credit for being as good as I think he is without actually being in the UFC, whether it's fair or not.

But, And look, look, if Islam wants to move up, I'm fine with it. But vacate the title. Vacate the belt. I have no issues of guys moving up and wanting to accomplish other things. And in history books, you'll still be a guy who won a title in two different divisions. Okay? But this whole thing of like, oh, I have to have two belts at the same time.

No, we don't need it. All right. I got to take two more. I'm going to take Jorgon and Rada. They've been waiting. But I got to go. BTL's starting in a few minutes and I got to get ready. So, uh, Jorgon, go ahead.

Do we have you? No, we don't. Radha, take us home. Rada, you there. Not going through. All right. Maybe, maybe you get through YMVZ. Hey, Mike.

Can you hear me? Yep. Hey, Mike. Hey, good morning. Uh, quick question for you. Uh, I don't know if you touched on this earlier, but, um, uh, what is the UFC going to do without the USADA testing? Like, what do you think?

think they, what made the decision for them to get rid of that? Thanks so much. It's the Connor situation. Plus, it doesn't seem like that relation has been great. Over the last couple of years, Dana has not been all that into it. He's even been like, don't ask me about you Sadd anymore. I don't give a shit. So I just think the time has come.

That's all. Jorgon, do we have you? You got to unmute, and I think we'll have you. Okay. Raida, do we have you? Yeah, I don't think your connection's good because I'm not getting a reading. It's not coming through.

All right, we tried. Let me look at the comment, see if anybody went through. Yeah, Radha, it's not going through, ma'am. It's not going through. All right, bull. Last one. Go. Oh, I locked up.

All right. I'm going to keep a fun. This is the last one. You set 10 title defenses more impressive than two belts. How about I raise you three belts? Which one's more impressive then? I'm out. Thanks, Mike. I'm still going to go with 10, but there's a conversation to be had.

Because it's never been done before. Two division belts, we've seen a lot of them. In fact, we have more two division champions that we have people who have double-digit consecutive title defenses. So that's why that's more impressive to me. But we haven't not had a three-division champion yet. So that could be something once we get there. But again, I would rather see the double-digit title defenses. I like these divisions to continue to move forward.

That's what I like. So, all right. I'm going to try one more time, Rada. Do we have you? Let's try this time. Can you hear me? Yes, yes. Fantastic.

Okay. A few points that I want to make. And I've got to say, I agree with what you've mentioned before. In my opinion, the first point, the card now is way better than what it was before. I think just the statistically, the match up, you know, Volko versus Islam. We're talking about Kumaruisman versus Kamsas, both of the moving up division. you know, I think it's a bigger, bigger card than what it was initially planned out to be. You've mentioned earlier, you know, kind of the built-in excuse that Volkovsky's got.

I think actually Islam is the one that's coming off, because statistically, it's a complete different change to what he would have prepared for Charles Olivera. He didn't struggle to take down Charles Olivera. He didn't, you know, finished him in the second round. Now, suddenly, at 11 days' notice, he's got much. tough opponents that you really went to the whole time with him, five rounds. So whilst Volkonowski is coming in with a built-in excuse, I mean, the guy fights that lower division, so he's not going to have issues with weight.

Yes, he's going to have to cut some weight. But generally speaking, the only thing that I've got, you know, going for him is that the hen surgery that, you know, took place probably about three months ago, maybe less than that. But otherwise, it's a more difficult fight for Islam that he's only got 11 weeks, 11 days to actually prepare for. The other points that, you know, people keep on mentioning, which is the Bilal versus Usman, you know,

and I can't really decide on which one is better for this fight. Should have they called Bilal instead of Usman, the other way around? I don't know. Probably unfair a little bit calling Bilal and giving him a big shot on 11 days notice because the guy proves that he's a good fighter, right? Prove that he deserves a title shot at some point.

So probably they should have given him proper camp and give him a proper fight or at least maybe an interim championship fight to go for the title, whoever holds the title at that stage. And the final points that I want to make, I think somebody mentioned about Islam and how many fights he's got left,

I really see feel, he hasn't got many fights left in the lightweight division. Having said that, he's going to try to app what Habib did at one point. So probably he's going to go for the two titles at some points. Once he gains the second title, he will vacate it, and then that would be a good time for Usman

to come in from Belittal. and to take it over. And that's me. Thank you. I like it, man. I like it. Love the passion. Love the passion. All right, I got to go, everybody.

Thank you all so much. We will do it again tomorrow. 10 a.m. Eastern. We'll do the free-for-all Friday stuff. I'm sure there's other things that people want to discuss. I will get to that when we get to that. BTL, 25 minutes or so from right now. So I've got to get on the editing production side of things

so I can get this done and up and launched on the podcast. before BTL starts. So we'll see you at 12.30 p.m. Eastern. Until then, everybody, have a great rest of your Thursday. Have a heck of a morning. The Vox Media Podcast Network.