MMA Fighting - HOAM | Is Khamzat Chimaev vs. Kamaru Usman the Fight To Make?

Episode Date: May 25, 2023

A lot of MMA fans seem to be excited about a potential matchup between Khamzat Chimaev and former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman. With Chimaev recently teasing the matchup himself, and saying it would take place at 170, is that the fight to make? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses the possibility of the fight, it being a potential welterweight fight, and why he isn't going to believe it until he sees it. Additionally, listener questions include the ongoing back-and-forth between UFC President Dana White and bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling, Belal Muhammad recently saying that Colby Covington is nervous he may lose his welterweight title shot against Leon Edwards, if Muhammad should be the one who should be nervous about his placement in the championship picture, a future TV deal to the UFC, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco 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 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. A heck of a morning, we are live on the MMA fighting Twitter spaces you hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter on the MMA Fighting Podcasting Network. Hi, everybody.

I am Mike Hack. joining us live or if you're listening after the fact. We appreciate that as well. No UFC this weekend. We do have some boxing. There's a lot going on in the MMA community. A lot of stories. Dana White seems to be targeting a lot of people

and saying some stuff about fighters who were once in the UFC, who were once champions in the UFC, our current champions in the UFC, a lot going on. But I thought it would be fitting to start with a little bit of a recap from PowerSlapp 2 last night. I'm only kidding. There's no frigging chance we're talking about that shit on this program.

But yeah, apparently it happened and I don't give a shit that it happened. So there you go. That's as much as we're going to talk about. So let's just go to you all and let's talk about some MMA and not power slap because that shit is ridiculous. Zach, kick us off. Zach, you're muted. I had you. Hello.

What's up, man? Hey, you know, I really thought you were going to start with that power slapping. I was about to be like, wow, that'd be first on here. But, you know, honestly, I saw a lot of the highlights on Twitter, which I can understand. and probably other people who followed the UFC did since they just floated all over the pages. But I'm not here to talk about that. We're not going to talk about that. The thing that I found interesting, you know, on Tuesday, great Reims Sterling.

Dana White, agree with a lot of what you had to say. I just found an interesting slight hypocrisy with it all in the sense of for Dana where it's like you have these champions who, you know, you got Jamal Hill who hasn't fallen in a while and you have Islam, Makhibra, haven't fallen in a while. you know, Dana's cool with Islam, wait until October and until Yuri gets healthy for Jamal. But then you have, you know, Sean Amalley ready to go. Al-Dermaine Sterling's, you know, got to fight him in August, even though Aljo said. You know, you could fight in September.

So, and you also even had the Leon Edward situation where it seemed like, you know, Colby was ready to go. Dana wants them to do July. And even Dana looked Leon, you know, go like, yeah, you know, we can let him wait. He doesn't need a fight in London, despite them probably wanted to do a pay-per-view there. So my question is, with this Alger situation, do he have the unfortunate benefit of the UFC almost having a hand-picked guy who they really like in O'Malley ready to go?

Let's say, you know, it was a cluster of Corey, Cheeto, and another fighter, let's say. Would they have maybe given Alger a little more time, or do you think it's just Sean O'Malley was there? They want to get Sean maybe as quick to the title as possible, maybe even have, you know, Sean headline Boston specifically, and that's the reason why. Because it seems like, it's not like, you know, anything with Jamal Hill or Islam or anything, but why hasn't Jamal, you know, fought somebody else in the meantime or Islam? And I think it's maybe because of, I would assume it has to be because there's no clear cut, you know,

contender or, you know, there's an injury in the way. But I also found that interesting with the whole Leon Colby thing similar to the Aljo thing. Because it seemed like, you know, they gave Leon that extension, even the, you know, they didn't force him, you know, after fighting in March to go fight now in July. But it's interesting to see. Mike, want your thoughts on that and have a great day. Yeah, this has been a pretty interesting story. And I wish this was like a new wrinkle, but it's not.

Because as Ariel brought up in the MA hour, this is incredibly reminiscent of when Tyrone Woodley was the Welterweight champion. Got a thrown under the bus, was put in sort of not nowhere. win situations, but tough to win situations. And anytime Woodley kind of stood his ground, he just got shit on by the promotion. And that's just not what promoters do. And I do, and I've been saying this from the beginning. Like, I feel for Al Joe. And I got what I posted, because I had to write up his response from the podcast. And we put a little graphic out on our Instagram page and I shared it on my story and I said, he's not wrong. And I got a bunch of

responses about this. And some of which were, yeah, he's not wrong. And some of which are, well, Al Joe's just kind of big wheeling this and all that. And then someone was like, well, of course he's wrong. He's comparing himself to Connor McGregor. And that's not what he was doing. Because at one point he was like, anytime Connor does anything, you say, wow, Connor is awesome. why can't I be awesome? That's not him comparing himself to Connor McGregor. That's just him putting out an example. It was an oddly specific example using the biggest star in the sport.

So I guess I get where that's coming from. But in context, it's just, what Aljo's meaning was, if Connor crossed the streets and use the crosswalk, Dana would be like, wow, this man follows the law to a T. We need to praise him. And Aljo goes out and beats Henry Sohudo and says he'll turn around. around in three months, but that's not enough to get credit. And of course, Dana responds back saying, well, Aljo's the one that put out that he's a little dinged up and the fight might be in jeopardy.

How am I not giving him credit? But then Aljo said, look, you book this fight as soon as my fight ended. The second my fight ended, I went to the back and by the time I could even jump in the shower, you had already said, we're going to do Al Jermaliyan v. Shaw in August. Aljo hadn't even like taken a victory drink, hadn't even changed his clothes yet, and you had already announced the next fight. And Alts was like, what the fuck, man? I literally just had a five-round battle with this guy. And now you're going to turn me around in three months without even asking me about it. You're just going to announce the fight.

And then Francis signs with the PFL, and then they come out and say, it's official. It's happening. And I know for a fact that it wasn't official when they announced the fight. Aljo said yes. but all he said was look I just got to get checked out and he literally was on the MMA hour the day before that and said look if I could start training next week if I go see the doctors about my nagging injuries

and they say you're good to go to start training next week then I'm in I will fight Sean O'Malley but at least let me get checked out like I don't understand the problem with that I don't understand the problem with that the Islam thing's different because Abu Dhabi pays them I mean, just an absurd amount of money.

And they have to put on sort of specific cards. They will stack the deck. They will put local fighters on there, or at least fighters that will have the people from that area buy tickets to want to see them. It's not worth risking Islam Makachev for that business sentence because if Islam goes in there and fights at Dustin Porre or something and they go to war and he can't fight in October,

then all the money. It's not thrown away, but they're going to be a little bit disappointed that is on Mokachev's on the main event. So I give them a pass on that. It's business. You got to do that. Jamal Hill,

I have no idea what's going on. There is no real number one guy right now. There is one, but it's Yuri Perashka. We don't know what the hell's going on. We had the Janboovich versus Magamette Ancalaia fight that no one seemed to love, Dana especially.

So I don't know what's going on there. The Leon Colby one is super weird. because I actually thought Leon versus Colby should have been the main event for Boston over Al Jermaine Sterling versus Sean O'Malley. You push Sterling O'Malley back a month or two. Like, who gives a shit? You think Al Jemaine Sterling,

Sean O'Malley is going to do better than Leon Edwards versus Colby Covington? And then Leon says he wants to do it in Abu Dhabi. That makes no sense. It makes no sense to have that fight there. None. None. And they're not going to main,

They're not going to headline over Islam Makachev versus whoever he fights. So, I don't know. It's just all so weird. It's all so strange. And O'Malley was the handpick guy. After he beat Pieter Jan, he was the dude. We all knew that. They had the face-to-face.

But to turn Aljo around in three months, this has to be the main event for Boston. I don't get it. But when is Leon versus Colby going to happen? that's my question because these cards are filling up man they're filling up and we're running out of spots

my guess is they're probably going to go November do John Jones versus Deepa if you can get that done that's the main event Colby challenging Leon the co-main event that's pretty damn good one two punch right there we could do that I don't know but this whole thing is bizarre

and all Aljo wants is just like what all promoters would do. You think Scott Coker or Ray Cepho or Eddie Hearn or even like an Oscar Delahoya type or even Dave Feldman? You think any of those guys are coming out and being like, hey, this guy can't get out of his own way because he wants to make sure that lingering injuries from his fight from less than two weeks ago are cleared up so he could compete three months later. You think any other promoter on planet Earth would give Aljo this much shit for this?

No. And I can already see it now. And we get these comments on the time. Oh, there we go. We're just hating on Dana. You're supposed to be the promoter. You're supposed to promote. Not just fights.

Not just events. You're supposed to promote the fighters. You're supposed to promote them as the best fighters in the world. And all Aljo wants is like, hey, look, Aljo's a man of his word. he said he would fight he's a little banged up he just wants to get cleared a hundred percent by the doctors to train once he does that this kid's this kid's about to break a record this kid's about to break a record if he beat sean o'malley he's the first ban of weight champion ever to defend his title four times so the precipice of being possibly the greatest middle

bannam weight of all time can't you just say that instead of oh this guy can't get out of his own way. I feel like we're just going back to my rant on Tuesday, but the whole thing is ridiculous. Dana's response to it all, to fan side, it was ridiculous. Just promote, man. Like, you can say shit. Like, if someone is like a clear issue and a problem, be Dana. Like, that's why people, you know, kind of fell in love with Dana to begin with. That's why he's the face of the company. He tells it like it is. But there's got to be levels to this. You can't just bury a guy because he fought two weeks ago and he might have an injury that he needs cleared a little bit

and may need to push the fight back a month. If that, I don't understand why this is such a problem. I can't believe we're talking about. I mean, I wish I could say I can't believe we're talking about this, but we've seen this story before. It's the same old song and dance. And you bet your ass they're trying to get Sean O'Malley over. They're trying to give Sean the best chance to win the title.

but even then I still don't know if he beats algerman and sterling and boy is that post-fight press conference going to be fun if alger goes out there and just wash his shot o'malley four-quarter sports hello i feel like that's obviously that's what they want to do but even if aljo was to be sean you believe that in the event of a loss for sean o'malley um aljo vacates the belt and then you didn't actually put sean back into a title shot just because it seems that they're desperate to get him over any means possible.

You made a good point. I was thinking that if they're not going to put what's the called Covington versus Edwards for the Boston card, I mean, it makes no sense to put it in Sydney. I mean, unless they really need a second title fight. I mean, the only viable option would be MSG just because Abu Dhabi makes sense. no sense whatsoever. None of them have any ties to over there. And obviously, whenever they go to MSG,

they always try to stack the deck. I was looking at some of the cards that are happening in the next couple weeks, and I noticed, I mean, it's not favorable towards you. I mean, we have, I think, a 10 o'clock, what's it called, a fight night, with Martin Vittori and Jerry Cannonier. And then next week, we got a,

a Kai Carl France versus Amir Abazi. I mean, how do you feel about the start times and how do you feel about the cards that are leading up up until International Fight Week? And yeah, that's it. Thanks, Mike.

Yeah. I mean, I think MSG makes all the sense in the world at this point to to do Leon versus Colby. Abu Dhab makes no sense. Sydney doesn't really make a lot of sense either. but we'll see what happens.

We didn't even know who Israel is Fassani is going to fight yet. Yeah, Kai Karfranz, Amira-Abazi, 9 p.m. main card. Obviously, the pay-per-view is 10 p.m. main card. We got Vittorri-Canon Air, 10 p.m. main card. That's just what you want to see at 1 a.m. Eastern is a middle-weighty, middle-weight fight, going probably five rounds. At least Emmett Toporia is we get that ABC schedule, where the main card starts at 3 p.m. Eastern.

So we make up for it the following week. Then it's a 7 p.m. main card for Strickland Maga Madoff. And then, yeah, well, man, I'm looking at it right now. 10 p.m. main card, obviously for International Flight Week. And then the Holly Holie Holm. Myra Bueno Silva card is also a 10 p.m. This is unbelievable. Unbelievable.

And then we make up for it the next week because they're London. It's a 3 p.m. main card. So, yeah, we're going to take a little bit of a lack of sleep over some of these cards, but it is what it is. At least we get sprinkles of some afternoon MMA. And I love some afternoon MMA. As far as the cards leading up to International Flight Week, I mean, they are what they are, man. I mean, Kikar, France versus Amir Abaz's a great fight. I'm, I like that fight a lot. It just doesn't seem like a main event kind of fight, but this is the world we live in right now, my friends.

They have all these spots they need to fill, and they got to get guys in there to take those spots. 289 is not great on paper. I think there's some interesting fights. I still have, I got vibes about the main events. I got vibes. Vittori Cannon Air is what it is. Emmett Toporia will be a fun fight.

And again, it's afternoon MMA. It's in Jacksonville. We'll have a crowd for that one. The Stricklamaga made-off fight is just so weird. And then we go right in an international fight week. So it's fights, I guess. But this is the fight night era, my friends. Just so many cards and not enough stars to fill them.

So this is kind of what we get. And I'm not saying these are going to be like bad watches. They're just not spectacular looking fight cards on paper. It's not what we expect from the UFC. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. What? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo. Great idea.

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I don't know what happened. Connection was really bad. I don't know what was going on. Anyway, I want to go back this past Saturday. Anthony Fluffy Hernandez's performance was just absolutely incredible. He's not technically sound as far as a grappler's concern, but it makes up with cardio and pace and transition. His fighting stuff reminds me a lot about,

Kobe Covington of putting that pace and just all over you and look at Kobe he's fighting for a championship. So not saying that you know, Floppy's going to be a title contender or he's going to win the title

the middleweight title anytime soon, but any fighter that is going to fight him and they see that contract, they're going to be like, man, it's going to be a rough night. Because, and one of the things, too, that was very interesting before that fight against Edmund Chabasian Fluffy was like, yo, dude, I'm going to test his cardio.

And, dude, if you don't have to get out in top condition, you're done. And it's so true, like, you've got to have the gas tank, because if you don't have the gas tank, you're done. You don't have the cardio, you're done. You know, and that's what it is. And he could get a long way with that.

I mean, because as the fight goes on, it's just wash, rinse, and repeat. And the good thing is, too, is like, even though he's not holding you down, he'll let you back up, and then he's throwing strikes. Then he level chains brings you back down again. It's going, it's watch, rinse and repeat.

It's just incredible. It's a joy to watch. I think we talked about when it comes to grappling. Those are the type of grapplers you love to see, not the ones that just lay and prey. And that just makes it amazing. Like, if this guy, I think somebody on, I don't know which one matched them up against Jack Kamanson.

I'm picking Fluffy in that fight because Jack Kamenston is starting to slow down. a little bit. We saw him, we saw Jack and Man to slow down against, he lost to Gerald Milshaw. Mircham was able to break that dude. So, you know, just your thoughts on Fluffy. And then my other question too is, because of the Indian Martin's article about the UFC endeavor trying to get multiple broadcast partners and then splitting up the broadcast rights. I don't even know how that's going to work and how you could do it in MMA, because this is not the NFL, this is not the NBA. I mean, I don't know how that would work. Do you probably have a theory of how it wouldn't work if they do go about that way?

Just let me down your thoughts. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, Fluffy, I mean, Fluffy's, Fluffy's really good. He's a guy that you have to just get him out of there early or he will just put it on you. And he doesn't stop. That's just so tough to deal with, especially in this division. So I'm excited to see what they do with him. I'd like to see them get a step up.

I didn't love the Shabazzian matchmaking for Edmund. And I feel like they've kind of just screwed the pooch on Edmund. Ever since the win at MSG at 244, they've just put him in, they've just kind of killed him with matchmaking. Trying to build this guy back up and you're just throwing him in there with just horrible matchups. And I know Shabazzian had his moments in the first round, but as soon as Edmund landed a big shot on Hernandez, and it seemed like maybe Hernandez was stung a little bit,

and he just looked back and smiled at Chabazian, the whole entire narrative of the fight changed. And then Fluffy just did fluffy things. So, yeah, I'm interested to see how high he can go in this division. That's for sure. And as far as the TV rights go, yeah, I mean, this could go a number of different ways. Like they could do They could still do pay-per-views on ESPN plus

and have that relationship as well. They could go to some streaming services. They could, there's a lot they could do with this. I mean, their TV rights are going to be massive by the time this thing comes up. The UFC is, look, you can say what you want about the UFC and the cards and all this stuff and whatever, but they have won.

They have won the game. They are printing money left and right. They're coming off of just an incredibly profitable year, just an unbelievable, like the most profitable year, probably in the history of combat sports. They're killing it. They're killing it. And they don't have to try very hard.

They've won the game. And they're just cruising along and money is printing everywhere. But it will be interesting to see how this broadcast deal works. I'm sure ESPN is very happy with the UFC. I'm sure they're very happy with the deal. I'm curious to see how this plays out. Will they go to multiple networks? I don't know.

Will like Turner take a shot out on them? Or will they just be mostly streaming? Will ESPN be a part of it? I don't know if ESPN will be a part of it. If it's part of a collective, unless maybe it's just the pay-per-views. I don't know. But that will be interesting.

That's a big part of this merger is the television rights. not only for the UFC, but for WWE as well. So I have zero inside. I have no idea how this is going to work. It's going to be one of those things where it could be an 11th hour deal, just like the Fox thing. Fox was going to be, Fox wasn't even really in play for the UFC until they became the player, just out of nowhere. 11th hour, boom, came in with a big, big offer and the UFC took it. but I'm sure there'll be a lot of entities bidding for the UFC when that time comes.

They're going to make a ton of money on this deal too. Barbarusa, hello. Hi, Mike. I just have a question. What do you think is the most messed up division in the UFC right now? Because you have the Walter Witt where do you have Kobe Covington fighting for the title, which is not the most deserving shot, but he is? and we don't know what to do with Bilal

and we just hear that comes at one to fight Usman at the Walterweight that makes him the number one contender and we just don't know what to do with it or is it the lightweight where you had a number one contender but you made him fight the champion and what if Charles O'Revira wins

Do you make a rematch in Abu Dhabi against Islam? Does it make sense? Or do you wait for the BMF title winner and make him fight Islam? And Charles has beaten a guy on a strike just for nothing? Or is it the heavyweight because you have a clear number one contender, which is he not going to fight for the title this year? What do you think, Mike? Thank you.

Boy, is that a loaded question. There's a lot of them right now. There's a lot of them right now. Flyweight seems fine looking at flyweight. We have Moreno fighting, Pantosia next. It's the fight that needs to happen. Burn Roy Vell is kind of in weight. Banim weight's a mess right now because of the Sean O'Malley situation.

We got Marab, who could be the best. Vanhamweight in the world. His teammate is the champion, so they're never going to fight each other. So Hootoh's in there. Corey Sanhagen's in there. We got some up-and-comers. That's kind of messy. Featherweight seems to be okay. We have an actual, for the first time, in a long time, we have like a legit, different number one guy in Yaya Rodriguez. But it's still kind of a mess because Max Hollowey's in there and he could thwart a lot of these plans. Lightweight's kind of messy because they went to that

Volk fight so quickly, but it could get messy again. If Charles Oliverer wins, it could get messy again. I don't think Poria, Gaetchi are going to fight,

are going to turn around that quickly and fight Mokachev, especially if Poria wins. I just don't see it happening. Those two are just going to beat the hell out of each other. I just don't see a whirl where those two guys

are going to be able to come back in like two months and fight, two and a half months. So if Darius wins, we have our main event, for Abu Dhabi. My thought is if Oliver wins,

I don't think he gets the shot, but he's kind of like the just in case. And if Volcanovsky goes out there and just rolls Yair, I could see them running that one back. I could see them be like, oh, let's just give them the biggest fight we can. Let's do the rematch.

Walter Wade is kind of messy, mostly because of Hamzat, but again, until I see Hamzat actually book a fight and it is announced that this wait and then he makes the weight and then makes the walk,

I don't believe he's fighting. I'll believe it when I see it. Middleweight's in a weird place right now with Izzy being the champion. We got Trichus DuPlesi, Robert Whitaker scheduled to fight. We got Vittorian Canaaner scheduled to fight. Neither of those guys are in play.

Paul Costa is supposed to fight Iqram Alaskaroff. I don't know what happens with that. Middleweight's not really a mess. Izzy's just beat most of these guys already. Light heavyweight's kind of messy because we don't know what's going on with Yuri Parashka and there's no clear-cut guy. Yombovich and Alex Pereira fighting in July, so that'll make sense of some things, at least in some way.

And then heavyweights just kind of what we expected as soon as John Jones came back. and Francis left wins the belt, he's going to fight Steepay, and then after he beats Depe, if he does, he's just going to be like, all right,

I'm out of here until something cool comes along. But at the same time, when that happens, or if that happens, it's going to be fun as hell. Because we got Pavlovich, we got Tommy Aspinall,

we got Jailton Almeda, we got guys coming up who are really interesting. Really interesting. But I think my, my actual answer to this question is women's bantam weight because one there are no women's bantam weights there's like 17 of them we have a champion who has beat pretty much everybody and we just don't have like a lot of big names right now like if there's a division that needs

like a complete overhaul right now it's probably women's bantam weight I mean, Holly Holmes, I mean, look at it. Just look at the UFC rankings. We have 12 ranked fighters that are actual bantam weights. And then we have three fighters in the rankings who are feather weights, are mostly feather weights. There are, there's nobody in this division. That is a mess.

Like if Amanda Nunes beats Arrini Aldana, like who the fuck is she going to fight? fight now. Are they just going to go right to Giuliana Pena? Are they going to do Raquel Pennington? We've seen both of those fights already. There's literally nobody. I don't know. But we talk about women's ban on outside. Like anytime there's a women's ban on weight

fight, we put it over because they never happened. We went like three or four months at the end of last year without an actual 135 pound fight for the ladies. That division is a hot mess right now.

it's bad. I mean, it's just bad. There's just nobody there. But it's messy all over the place. And that's what happens when you are a company like the UFC and you want to just put on the biggest fights regardless of merit. This is what you kind of get left with. Everything's a mess.

And then you try to put it back together. Eventually, it will get put back together. But just how and when. That's a great question. There's a lot of divisions that are, really messy right now for all sorts of different regions what's up um so um just to add on to the cover you were speaking with the previous um uh person just now you know regarding i think um the flyway division both the men's and women are quite interesting especially seeing how um the scenarios

could possibly change we have the obviously alexa grasso rematch with a bell and um if chefchenko loses obviously that is that's the end of an era for that father and obviously we have the iran blanchefield and a fewer of fight that could possibly happen in france and whoever wins that is the number one contender um you know so obviously those kind of is interesting um as for i guess something like walt away the middle way you know i reckon with humza what i can see happening is because he's he realistically he's the star he has all the money and hype you know like fans really want to watch him if he does end up find Kamara Usman in al-Badabia at USC 294

I can definitely see him being chosen over Balau Muhammad for the next towel shot after Kobe versus Leon and you know I think also with two or five there really does need to be a true champion in that division who can probably at least at the very least defend their title for four or five title defenses because we haven't really had a very good champion, realistically speaking,

outside of John Johnson, you know, maybe Tito Ortiz and Daniel Kormier. I also think the featherweight division is quite interesting just because we actually have a lot of legit contenders, you know,

Ilo Tuporia, there's Dan Igay, you know, there's the guy who just recently fought at 288, I think Mova or something, his name. So I'm really curious to see. Yeah. You know, those are,

I mean, I think the UFC's an, interesting spot. You know, the middle way is probably going to become a

great division in the next one or two years. Adesania probably has one or two fights left realistically as well.

So yeah, I mean, and also just another thing I want to touch on. How, with the,

I mentioned yesterday the Marvin Votori Kaniyeye asking who you think will win. Like,

if I guess what, Kanaeer wins, does it put him, I guess, into a possible title contention shot again down the line. That's all.

Have a good day, man. Yeah, I mean, I do agree. Like, women's flyweight is awesome. Like, that is a, that's a really fun division. Because we got Fioro, we got Aaron Blanchfield. Tyler Santos hasn't, we haven't seen her since the Schifchenko fight. And she gave Schenko everything she could handle. Amanda Hebas continues to win.

We have Macy Barber. Casey O'Neill's coming up. Tracy Cortez is coming up. I mean, that is a fun division. There's no shortage of potential at 125. And then you mix in 115 is always just pretty fun. Some of the names are, you know, sort of the same, but at the same token, there's a lot of fun, compelling matchups.

And I've been saying for a long time, I think featherweight is the most underrated division in the sport, especially in the UFC when you have still Brian Ortega there. We haven't seen him fight in a minute. You got Tuporia coming up. You get a lawyer coming up. Sudik Yusuf is going to hit his athletic prime pretty soon.

Bryce Mitchell. Nate Landwears on his way up. And there's just, there's a bunch of fun featherweights right now. Like a year or two from now, featherweight's going to be really, really fascinating. We got guys like Jonathan Pierce. We got Billy Hughes in for fun fights.

Lorone Murphy. Another guy, Nathaniel Woods looked great since he came to 1.45. Jack Shore is now a featherweight. And then you got Josh Kulabows look good. And Lucas Almeid is a fun fighter. Geranderson Brito is on his way up. I mean, 45 is a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun.

Steve Garcia is knocking dudes out. left and right. I mean, there's just a lot of fun guys at that division. A lot of fun guys in that division. Jamal Embers is out here, just hand in dudes first L's and he's probably like the 50th ranked featherweight.

Francis Marshall is a fun fight. I mean, there's so many. Featherweight's really fun. Featherweight's really fun. And middleweight's going to be really fun too. When you add Maga Madoff and you add Iqram Alaskin. off to the mix and Bo Nickel and some of these other guys coming up,

Fluffy Hernandez, that division is going to get a nice little overhaul as well, which I like a lot. And then as far as what Cannoneer gains with a win, probably not a tonneur, probably a Maga Madoff or a Nicaram al-Scaroff, honestly. I don't think they're going to be in any rush to put Canaaner in a fight with Israel to Sanya again.

or maybe they just feed him to Robert Whitaker again. I don't know. Because Whitaker already beat him. Adasania already beat him. There's really not a lot of room for growth, honestly, for Mr. Cannon Air. He's not really like over. Like Vittori's a little more over.

But even then, Vittori already lost to Adasani twice. So yeah, I think they're just kind of just fighting for position. And then the fights aren't going to get much easier for them. the risk-reward factor is going to get rough. Lone Wolf, hello. There are a lot of things that we can talk about,

but as we haven't had much time, so let's talk about the Venterweight Division. Currently, I think this division is really interesting right now. Like, there are a lot of contenders for a title, like Bilal Muhammad, Colby Covington, Shavkat Rahmanov is a very great prospect. In future, he can become a case for the title. And Kamar Usman again, he can get the title shot after Hamza Chimaev's fight.

That can happen in Abu Dhabi at UFC 294. So the point is that Colby Covington is the front runner for the title shot at the moment. But as Bilal said, like, he's going to get it. like Colby is kind of nervous at the moment and he thinks he will lose his title shot. And like, there is a lot of going on in this division. And the question is that what do you think, like, should not,

like, let Colby wait for some time, like he should fight someone, like he hasn't fought in like 1.5 years, and like 1.5 years. He didn't, he didn't fought anyone. And he fought the retired guy, Horam Mas Vidal. I mean, he can get it, but let him fight someone. Like he can fight Shavka of Rakhmerov,

and then he can get it. I think at the moment, Bilal should get it in Abu Dhabi. If it is, if the World of Witt Division Title shot is going to happen in Abu Dhabi, I think Bilal is the guy who have fan in there. And he's going to sell there. like people, there are people scored him, Bilal Mohammed, more than Colby.

There are very, there are a lot of sources saying that the title shot is going to happen in Abu Dhabi at USC 294. So I think Bilal Muhammad should fight Leon Edward and Colby should fight Shavkat Rachmanov and like Hamza Chimao is fighting Kamaru and he will surely get the title shot after it. What do you think? Should not let Bilal fight Leon Edwards said of Columbia, Covington, what do you think about it?

Thank you. So, look, I obviously am aware of the interview that Bilal did with our own Damon Martin. Belal saying that Colby's nervous, and he's saying things because he's nervous. I can assure you Colby is not nervous at all. He's going to lose that title shot. Dana has If there's one thing that Dana has done this year that he has put his feet in the sand about

more than anything that he is not going to budge it is Colby getting that title shot Colby's going to fight Leon Edwards next there's no other way around it Colby is fighting Leon Edwards next that is 100% going to happen the date up in the air Colby's ready for whenever

Colby was ready for August that was what he told me that's when he wanted it Leon said probably September, October, November. So do it at MSG. I'll tell you who should be nervous. It's Bilal Mohammed. He should be nervous.

He should be nervous. Especially, and hold on, let me just say this. Let us not act as if Hamzaa Shamiyaf Kamar Usman is like 100% going to happen. Because again, until I see a poster, until I see Dana screaming in the studio, that that fight is booked and it's happening and Hamzat makes weight and all that, I ain't buying it. I am not buying it, especially at Welterweight, not buying it at all. So let's keep our expectations at a certain point. Now adding to that, if that fight does get made and all goes well and Hamzat Shamiyaf wins,

boy, is Balah Muhammad in trouble. He is in trouble. not only that guess who else is supposed to fight this year the biggest star in the history of the sport Connor McGregor is supposed to fight this year supposed to fight Michael Chandler at 170 pounds looks like December is what they're looking at

if Conner McGregor beats Michael Chandler he's jumping everybody and Bilal all of a sudden becomes third on the list not he's not as good of a spot as he thinks he is or a lot of people thinks he is. Now, I feel bad saying that because Balal has done everything in his power to earn a title shot. But at the same

time, this is the exact reason why I hated the booking with Gilbert Burns at UFC 288. Why rush that fight out for no reason? Like literally no reason to put that fight together. That fight did nothing

for the bottom line. Zero. That fight didn't add any pay-per-view buys. That fight have added a little intrigue, but it did nothing for the bottom line. It did nothing but rushed two guys into the octagon for no reason when we knew the title fight wasn't coming up for another five, six, seven months. So that was my issue with the fight to begin with. Like, what are we doing?

Why rush that fight out there? Why not just do the Anbojovych Paulo Costa fight? Like, what the hell is the problem with that? There's some divisional stakes, but not a ton. it's just two dudes fighting that people like. Who cares? And that one have actually done a little more for the bottom line because Paul Koss is great at setting up selling fights.

And Belaw is now in a really tough spot. Because now he has to sit and wait and see how this all plays out. He's going to have to wait for the title fight. If they do Hamzaab versus Usman, he better pray that Kamar Usman wins that fight. And then he better pray that Michael Chandler beats Connor Greger. And even then, that's not a guarantee that Chandler doesn't get the title shot.

So timing is just not on Belal Mohammed's side. His win streak is impressive. The dude is really good. He deserves a title shot. No doubt about it. Is he going to get it? He needs a lot of things to fall into place for him. He needs a lot to happen.

He needs Connor McGregor to get injured or they need that, He needs that fight push back to like May of next year. And then he needs Hamzat Shamaiv to stay at 185. And even then, like, what if they booked like, what if Hamzat's like, like, now I can't do 170? And they book like Usman versus Shafkot instead. And Shafkot beats Kabar Usman. He might jump Bilal too. So I don't think, I don't think Colby's nervous about losing the title shot.

I think if anybody should be nervous, it's Bilal Mohammed. And that is just not fair to say. But that's the reality. That's the world we live in with the ultimate fighting championship. They want to put on the biggest fights with the biggest names, and there is no way in hell. Colby Covington is going to fight Shafkaoqqmanoff after being promised a title shot. You know what?

You know what, Dan Ashore? You were going to give me the title shot. You've been fighting this since March. But you know what? I'll go fight this Shafkat Rakhmanoff guy. I'll go fight him. No, he's not going to do that. Colby's a prize fighter.

You can love him or hate him. The dude is good at prize. fighting takes gets big fights takes the biggest name with the lowest risk that is prize fighting that's why john jones is a great prize fighter he could fight sergey paddlovitch right now

but why would he's going to go fight stepe who's the bigger name and the easier not the easier fight but a fight he's probably going to win and make a lot of money doing it it's prize fighting colby ain't fighting shopkod bala i'm not saying belal couldn't get a title like if Colby and the UFC have a spat about money or whatnot,

the UFC could pivot and just do fine. We'll just do Leon versus Bilal and Abu Dhabi. But I think we'll get Leon versus Colby probably in November. There you go. But that's why I just hated the Belal Burns fight. Not the fight. I love the fight. That was the fight to make.

It just didn't need to happen at UFC 288. You could have put that anywhere. You could have put that at 289. That would have been a nice little addition to 289. Could have put it on the International Fight Week card. You could have put it in Salt Lake City. Could have put it in Boston. There's so, you couldn't have done,

it could have been on the same card as Colby in Leon. But no, we rushed it out. And now Balala is going to have to sit and wait and hope that Connor or Shemayev don't fight anytime soon. And unfortunately, he's the one that needs to be. nervous. Not Colby. That sucks to say because he deserves it.

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Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton cross-training tread plus at Onepelton.ca. Tokello. I want to talk a bit. You know, I'm the, let's call me the Danish correspondent, yeah, because Marco Madsen, I'm not saying he's done in the UFC, but he has moved back home to Denmark because of his wife's ALS has gotten worse. So that's one thing.

He's no longer training at fight ready. he has declined a bunch of fights here early spring. He has told the Danish outlet because of that, because of that whole situation. So I'm not sure we're going to see him unless they do a like Frankfurt's Copenhagen-ish card. And other than that, I wanted to talk a bit about a conspiracy with you.

I don't know how well-versed you are and conspiracies, but the BMF belt, right? That is the timelines, I'm looking at timelines, I'm drawing up, you know, I have my whiteboard, I'm drawing all of the, all of the arrows, all sorts of different directions. This BMF title is situated in a way where it lines up with Nate Diaz's boxing fight. And I'm not, you know, I'm just, I'm not saying, but I'm just saying. Because this is, there could be kind of a ploy from UFC's side to try and lure Nate Diaz back in with the belt that he made, with the belt that he crafted with his words. And I'm just saying, not saying, just saying, because he might want to, he has told that he might want to go back in the UFC again.

I'm just saying if the BMF belt suddenly is on some person that didn't beat him that would be the match job that he would want to come back to

and I wouldn't want to see that fight I'm not saying I want it I do not I do not want to see Nate Diaz decapitated I am just saying that this might be the ploy from the UFC side

take of a morning maybe I don't know like I don't know how much interest there would be in a Nate Diaz Justin Gachy fight. I mean,

Justin Gachy versus anybody people would get excited about but I think some people would be a little cringy with that one. Considering Nate is not the best at checking leg kicks could be a really hard knife for him.

There is a history with Dustin Porrier and we know how much Dustin wants that fight and he kind of, there's a part of him that feels like it's the one that got away. But it seems like from where we were when Nate was a friend

free agents and getting iced to getting booked to fight Hamzat Shemayev to taking the Tony Ferguson fight the way he left they left on pretty good terms it seems like it seems like Nate is open to come back to the UFC after this Jake Paul fight I'm not saying it's not possible I think Dustin would have to win I think it would be maybe for a Dustin fight but I think if Connor if Nate's going to come back, it's probably for the Conner fight, right? Like, that's the biggest fight he can get right now. Outside, he's going to make a ton of money,

but boxing Jake Paul, win or lose, who gives a shit. Like, Nate's going to find a way to spin it in his favor, and Nate's really good at that. And I'll be there. I'm actually going to be there for that fight. I will not be in Vegas for a national fight week. That's a bummer, but I will be in Dallas for

Jake Paul versus Nate Diaz. So I'm pretty excited about that. Going back to Dallas, I haven't been to Dallas in a long-ass time. But that should be fun. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know if it's a conspiracy. But you got it. It's a built-in story, especially if Dustin Porre wins that fight

because those two guys have history and they're supposed to fight at MSG. They had that press conference and face off on the roof of a building in New York City. And then the fight just never happened. So possibly, I'll say no. I just think they, I just think the gimmick was put out there more because of Francis than because of Nate, if that makes sense. And I get the BMF thing. I don't like it. I wish you could be a little more original with it.

Unless we could make the BMF like a thing. Like you can't just be a one-time thing. Like whoever wins that fight, every fight they have from here and out, they have to put the title on the line. Like, I'm all for a gimmick. It just needs to be a gimmick that works. It needs to be a gimmick that works. You can't just put a title up,

say it's a one-time thing, and then just put it in a glass case and never gets defended again. If this title becomes a thing, cool. I'm in. but until I see that, not 100% on board. But I'm for a gimmick title. You could have done the violence weight title,

the all-violence title. There's so many ways we get a gone with this. But if the BMF title is going to be a thing and it's going to be continuously defended, then I'm cool with it. James, what's up? Hey, not much, Mike. Speaking of the BMF title,

who would fight for the interim BMF title in the lightweight division, not counting McGregor and Chandler, I feel like that's too obvious of a one. And then with the news coming out yesterday of UFC, I'm sure you guys probably already talked about this, but with the revenue that how much money of UFC is making that the fighters are only getting 13%.

I mean a lot like you, I don't think we're ever going to really see a strike or fighters stand up, but how much more is it going to take? I mean, this is getting to the point. It's just getting ridiculous. And then there's one last thing. just good luck again to your Celtics tonight. Hopefully, Miami isn't the only team going back to Florida.

And hopefully Celtics can pull her out and force the game seven. Have a heck of a morning, Mike, and talk to you later. Yeah, it's funny. We have meetings twice a week with our staff. And we were talking about it on Tuesday before the game. And I was like, I pulled out the old Kevin Malar line. Just don't let us win tonight. Just don't let us win tonight.

I don't have a ton of faith. But the Celtics, even in that win, did not play very well. They made shots, but they did not play great. And that was a game Miami probably could have, and probably should have won, if we're being honest, but the Celtics made shots, and that was enough to win the game. But I don't know.

I don't feel like they're done. I don't feel like they're completely cooked. My confidence is slowly getting back, heading into game 5 tonight in Boston. But they need to go out and just beat their ass. And then I'll feel a lot better about things. Interim BMF title fight. Well, the revenue thing, look, I've talked about this a million times.

I would love to sit here and just be like, oh, the fighters deserve more money. Because damn right they do. But I have been saying this from the beginning. Could the UFC come out and be like, like, look, we're going to change fighter pay. We're going to do this. Like, we made so much money.

We're going to do this and that. Sure. They could do that. But they don't have to do that. And the reason why is, because the fighters have had opportunities to come together and make something happen, and they haven't done it. They haven't done it.

They could have done it when they sold the company in 2016. They could have done it when they had the apparel deals. They could have done it when they signed the ESPN deals. deal. They could have done it when they just did the merger. And they could have done it when they see the financials from Endeavor and how much the UFC makes. And they're not doing it. And they're not doing it. There's no push for the UFC to do this. We can talk about it all we want. We want the fighters to make more money. Of course we do. But you have to invoke change yourself. You have to give them something to fear. And right now, the fighters are giving them nothing to fear.

nothing they tried there was a stretch where they remember i think it was 2016 there are a couple of groups that were going to come together and and try to enforce this change and what happened a week later all gone they're all gone they were gone they were gone so it's just not going to happen guys it's just not going to happen we're going to continue to have this debate over and over again until they come together and say, look, we deserve a bigger piece of the pie. We deserve a better revenue share. We deserve this, that, and the other. And they need everybody to come together and do it.

And this is a, well, it is a team sport at times because of your training and your coaches and your teammates, this is an individual sport. And the fighters that have made the money, what are they going to do? Are they going to support the guys making 10 and 10 and 12 and 12? Are they going to support the contender series guys? Are they going to support the fighters who just won an LFA title and then nine days later turning back around to make their UFC debuts? I don't think it's going to happen.

I don't think it's going to happen. I would love to see it happen, but that's how you invoke change. It's public knowledge, but a year ago, I obviously worked for M.A. fighting. We are owned by Vox Media. It was all over the news. I'm not saying anything out of place. We threatened to strike. We had a new deal that needed to be collectively bargained upon. And they weren't budging.

And we said, the group as a whole said, fine. You don't want to do that? Then we're just going to walk. If this isn't, if we don't have a deal in place by this time, we're done. We're walking out. And that could have been dangerous, but we were willing to do it. And then we came to terms on a deal before that could happen. But until that happens, none of this is going to change, guys. It's just not going to.

The fighters have to do this. If they're expecting Dana White to have a press conference and say, we're raising fighter revenue, we're giving them this and giving him that, it's not going to happen. Every other sport has done this at some point. They all have players association. They all have their own unions. They all have their own groups.

They all have their own ambassadors. They have a seat at the table. It happens in all these other sports. And they were willing to walk out and lock themselves out and do all these things in order to get that. The fighters haven't done this. They haven't done it. And until they do, the fighter pay thing just isn't going to change.

Sorry. So I don't blen, like a lot of people on a show. on the UFC because of this. They could just do the right thing, but why would they? Why would they? There's no threat to them. I don't know.

Maybe this, maybe this Francis deal could evoke some kind of change, at least when it's time to go back to the renegotiation table. But even then, like Dana ain't buying the Francis deal either. So, yeah, it's going to take the fighters to come together

and say, we ain't fighting until you give us this, and I just don't see a world where that happens. happens. And the managers need to support this and all of that. Interim BMF title fights, Charles Olivaire versus Raphael Fiziv. Here's your interim BMF title fight at 155. CV, take us home. Yo, Mike, can you hear me? All right. Speaking of taking us home, I was actually doing jury duty about a few hours ago.

Well, started at 830 and they just told us to go home now. you know perfect timing um yeah i dropped the question in the chat there but um if we do get the potential um chimeye of uh usman fight um like yeah what are your super early thoughts on that if that fight happens do you think do you think um do you think umaru is still kind of like a bit tentative on on on his feet since he got killed by uh like by leon or do you think um it's gonna be more of like a a wrestling, grappling match? Or, you know, does it just play out, like,

the previous Covington fights, and we get, like, a standoff more? Thanks. I don't know. I think Ushman's best bet would be to just go right after Shamiya and try to make it ugly. But, man, when Shami just gets you on the ground, man,

he is just such a problem. He's just so physical and so big and just malls people. and I just I mean he was getting out physical at times by Leon if he's getting out physical by Leon he's going to get out physical a lot by Hamzat

so my pick would be Hamzat Shemayev but I'd have to look into it a little bit more and I'm not ready to look into it a little bit more because I ain't believe in it's happening until it happens so Shamiyaf is the one who put this out there and I don't know I just don't again this is one of those things

where I got to see it to believe it. I need the poster. I need a way in. I need a walk to the cage. And then I'll be like, okay, this fight's actually happening. So I, and I'm not ready to travel down that road just yet. So my pick preliminarily would be, would be Homsup, but I just, I'm not buying it yet. Not buying it yet.

I would rather see the cost of fight, honestly, because that's more believable. It's at 185. Those two hate each other. It would be built up really well. I mean, Usma would be interesting, sure, but the cost of fights where it's at. That's the one. It was right there.

It's right there. Everybody wants it. Why are we not doing that fight? I don't get it. I don't get it. All right, we are done. 12.30, Eastern time. But an hour and a half from right now,

if you're listening live, BTL. It's going to be a very similar format to this. We have no UFC this week, so we decided being, are just going to jump on the old YouTube and we're just going to answer your questions about whatever the hell you want.

You heard my takes on some of this stuff. You'll get to hear Jeds. It will go for about an hour and we'll have some fun. And we'll get you ready, especially in the U.S. for a nice long weekend without the ultimate fighting championship. So stay tuned to M.A.Fighting.com. We'll be back here tomorrow, 10 a.m. Eastern.

We'll do this again. It's free for all Friday so we can talk about anything and everything. And then AK and I are also doing a Q&A on onto the next one. So submit those questions, like you would submit your matchmaking suggestions. And we're going to record that show sometime tomorrow. So get him in by tomorrow morning. And we'll address, we've got some really good ones already.

The list is piling up. So get those questions in by tomorrow morning. And we'll address them on onto the next one. But until tomorrow, everybody, or 1230 for BTL, thank you for joining us. Have a great rest of your day. And as always, have a heck of a morning, everybody.