MMA Fighting - HOAM | Is Sean O'Malley Title Shot Guaranteed With UFC 280 Win Over Petr Yan?

Episode Date: October 18, 2022

Sean O'Malley is preparing for his biggest test to date this Saturday at UFC 280 against former bantamweight champion Petr Yan. Will an O'Malley upset victory guarantee him a title shot against the winner of the co-main event? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses the high stakes in the featured bout of this weekend's massive pay-per-view card in Abu Dhabi between Yan and O'Malley, and what direction each fighter could go based on the result. Additionally, listener topics include Jorge Masvidal's recent interview with MMA Fighting and his callout of welterweight champion Leon Edwards, Jon Jones' potential involvement at UFC 282, the chaos of the featherweight division, T.J. Dillashaw's bantamweight GOAT status should he defeat Aljamain Sterling on Saturday, Charles Oliveira vs. Islam Makhachev, APEX cards vs. arena shows for the UFC, the UFC's latest rules on fighters and coaches betting on promotional bouts, 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,

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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,

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shortly upon its conclusion on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. Hello, I am Mike Eck. Thank you for joining us. Hope everyone's having a great week. And it is a big week because we are finally here. After months and months of discussion, after months and months of anticipation, it is UFC 280 fight week. This card goes without saying it friggin rules. The main card is amazing.

The final six to eight fights are spectacular. They all have stakes. They all have meaning. The title fights are excellent. Al J. Stirling versus T.J. Dillishaw for the Bannamweight title. Of course, the main event. Everybody's talking about it. Charles Olivera versus Islam Makachev for the vacant UFC lightweight title.

We have the highly anticipated. three-round Bannamweight clash between former champion, former interim champion, Piotr Yon, and Shano Mali. We have just a whole bunch of great stuff, including another big lightweight fight, Benil Daryush versus Batush-Gamrott. And the main card's going to open with Manon Fioro looking to potentially lock down a title shot against Valencia Shepchenko.

She takes on Caitlin Chukagin, who is very, very good. at thwarting contenders from getting to that place of fighting Valentina Shepchenko. And then, of course, the featured prelim, another one with high stakes in the Walterweight division. Sean Brady looks to remain undefeated. Bilal Mohammed looks to continue his incredible under-the-radar winning streak. There's just a lot to like about this card.

I am very excited about this. We will have some special programming going on throughout the week. Jose Young's, as you may have seen, has had travel struggles to say the least, but he is en route to Abu Dhabi. I'm not sure where he is and when he's getting there, but he's going to get there soon. Hopefully he has all his equipment intact.

It's been a nightmare for that, man. He should write a book about just horrible travel stories because he could fill up multiple pages of that bad boy. And then, you know, we'll have this show a couple more times this week. a way-in show this week. We'll have a preview show this week. Saturday's going to be incredible. I'm still not going to tell you what's happening on Saturday. But from what I understand, all will be revealed tomorrow on the MMA hour. So stay tuned for that. Big, big announcement

in regards to Saturday and perhaps the foreseeable future for MMA fighting and pay-per-view events. and all I know is that I am excited. I am jacked up to talk about this card or whatever else is on your mind. So if you got questions, let's do this thing. Viking MMA was first in line. The dude was ready to go. He's got thoughts. He's always got takes.

So let's see what is on his mind just four days away from UFC 280. Viking, hello. How are you, Mike? Good. How are you? I'm really sorry about the background noise. I'm outside home and there's a lot of people and actually I'm at the highway so I just beg your pardon and then I was listening to your interview and then Massvedere interview and

Massvedere wants a title shot against Leon but what if Leon loses to Usma in his upcoming title defense and what are the chances to what are the chances to the fight between Osman and sorry Leon and Masrida what are the chances of the particular fight thank you Mike

okay thanks buddy yes so if you haven't seen it it is on the MBE fighting YouTube channel I got to speak with one Jorge Mazadol in Savannah Georgia following his icon FC5 events fun card a lot of good prospects

and we talked about that for a while and then I had time for a couple questions and a couple other questions so I asked him about Nate Diaz his response was kind of surprising if we're being honest but he talked about that and then I asked him about Leon Edwards how did he react to Leon Edwards

winning the title against Kamara Usman he gave his thoughts on it and then he planted seeds to fight Leon for the title Now, I will say this. It is amazing how quickly people turn on these fighters because I noticed it following the interview with Justin Gachie. I noticed it following the interview with Jorge Mazadol. People have just turned on both of those guys.

It's kind of surprising how much people have turned on these guys. Now, as far as Mazadol wanting a title shot with Leon Edwards in London, like why is he so out of line for asking for that? I understand this is a, we all want the meritocratic way more oftentimes than not. We want the guy who deserves the title shot to get the title shot, right? We want the guys on winning streets to get these fights. We want guys like Ball-Mohamed and Sean Brady

who are on these big winning streets to finally get their opportunity. But there's a story here. There is a story here. And Mazdaal actually laid out a nice example as to why this is not completely out of whack. He mentioned Dan Henderson fighting Michael Bisbing for the belt. I get it. I get where he's coming from.

Now, what is that the fair thing to do? No, it's not the fair thing to do when you have guys who are winning fights. But it is not out of line for Mazadol to say, hey, we got a rivalry here. We have a story. We got a friggin movie, so to speak. Let's do it. Let's settle the score. It's a big fight.

and you can complain about it all you want, but your ass is watching it. So it's not going to happen. I think Leon Edwards is playing this spectacularly. I heard Chale Sondon sort of react to the interview and react to Leon's response and everything. And I actually think that Chale makes a pretty good point because Chale said, if I'm Leon, just accept the fight and say, I'll whip your ass and whatever. Because you know that the UFC's not going to go in that direction. They're going to go with the Kamar Ustman fight. but you're still waving the meat in front of Mazadol saying,

hey, I accept, let's go, but then you're still taking it away for him because the UFC is just not going to book that fight. But I get where Mazdaal is coming from, and I understand why he's going to ask for the fight. And to answer your question, Viking, I think from Mazadol at this point, the best thing that could happen to him

in regards to getting this fight is for Kamar Usman to get the rematch and beat him. and then there's no doubt that the UFC is going to go that route. They're got to go to that fight. That fight has to happen at some point. And if Usman wins the title, that's very easy to make. And guess what? If Leon Edwards beats Usman and Leon wants the fight with Mazadol,

it would not stun me in the slightest if the UFC made that fight. Now, of course, we would love to see Mazadol go and fight somebody and get a victory. It makes a little more sense that way, as opposed to giving a guy who has lost three straight fights, a title shot. But to play devil's advocate, look at the guys he's lost to. He lost to Usman twice. One wasn't the most compelling fight, but Mazadol won the first round. And go back and watch the second fight. Mazdaal look good in that first round.

He got colded in the second, but he looked good in the first. He just got knocked dead. So he's losing to the The three losses of the two best guys in the division The two best dudes in the division At least they were at the time Obviously Leon is the champion now But he's planting seeds

Because that's a massive fight whenever it happens So I don't People are against it I understand why people are against it But So what? He's doing any other fight What's he supposed to say?

Hey listen I would call it Leon right now but I've lost three straight, so who am I to call out him? No, he's not going to say that. No one would say that. Nobody would say it. And to a lot of us, yeah, it's kind of silly. But there is a story there. And it's not like he has a zero percent chance of getting the fight.

What's he supposed to say? What's crazy is all I asked him was like, how are you reacted to it? And it turned into something completely different. But yeah, I think for that fight to happen, as quickly as possible, Usman's going to have to win. Or Mazdaal is going to have to win. He's going to have to beat somebody.

If he fights Gilbert and wins, or he fights somebody else and wins, you can sell that a little bit more, but he's got to go in there and fight. And a lot needs to happen, but they're not going to book that now. They're just not going to. They're going to go with the trilogy fight.

That's a massive fight. And then if Leon wants it, if Leon beats Usman twice, if Leon beats Usman twice, if Leon beats Usman a second time and he wants mazadol especially with the ufc wanting to go back there multiple times a year it would not shock me but it's not happening now we know that we know that let's go to four-corner sports i'm happy happy uh usc two 80 week by the way no one is clamoring for bala mahomet to ever get a title shot absolutely no one i mean some people are balala is well well well his friends well yeah bala is

but I don't think anybody in the chat room wants to see Bilal fight for a title. But anyways, I wanted to ask you, I know Ariel, I think said yesterday about his take about the apex cards. How long do you think these things are going to last? Just because I didn't watch it live. I had to watch it on replay because I was doing a couple other things. But I kind of agree with him. I think it's starting to take a toll. Like, these apex cards aren't really that great anymore.

I mean, unless you're really betting on them. I don't really see the whole point as for like being all hype for these things. And then last and then also, what's it called? I really do believe that this main event is in a little of the hype. But I was watching tape and, you know, Oliver does get cracked a lot. But I can't remember the last time that Islam dropped somebody just on his brute strength. And I do believe that if. what Justin Gathe is saying is true because that man has like the most iron chin that I've seen in quite some time.

If Oliver's power is that strong that the way that Gaiti describes it as, then I really do believe that Islam's going to get dropped and it's just going to be a matter of when Olivera is going to submit Islam. Now, I do believe that this fight lasts maybe no more than three rounds, but how do you see this turning out and then, yeah, your take on how long these apex cards are going to last? and is it going to affect the company long term like Ariel says thanks Mike thanks man is it going to affect the company long term probably not I mean every time they run one of these apex cards they're making crazy money I mean they're making they're they're making so much money off these cards it's ridiculous because

they're getting all that ESPN money they don't have to pay for travel they have basically a deal with the hotel they're building their own freaking hotel in the area for for this very reason. I just no. It's not going to affect them long term. However, I understand exactly where Ariel's coming from. Sure,

it's fights and we like to watch fights. But when things get blended together so much, it's just really tough, man. Like those cars are just tough hangs. It's not necessarily the lineup and the fights themselves. It's just

so vanilla. You want cookies and cream. You want mint chocolate chip. You want a banana split. And then you order these things and then you get one scoop of vanilla ice cream, which you've had every Saturday for the last two years. And eventually you get sick of it. Even when you're in like a health kick,

there's only so many ways you can eat ground turkey, ground beef. You can season it, but it's still, it's, you get sick of it. And that's kind of how I feel watching these cards. And going back and watching this, I actually went back and watched it again. I went back and watched the card again. It was more in the background, but I went back and watched it again. The fights themselves in a vacuum as a card was pretty good. It wasn't a bad card.

It's just in that apex, it's just, it just takes so much away from it. Now, I also agree with Ariel's take that after getting a couple of those, so basically how it's played out is we got an apex card, which wasn't great, we got a week off. Actually, we got a week off, then the apex card that wasn't great. Then we got another week off and then we got another apex card, which was fine, but still, it's in the freaking apex. And one of those apex cards didn't have any fans in there except for the Zuckman and his family and friends. friends. That's it. That's it. It's just, it's just not the same. It's like regional. There are more people at Mazadol's card than at the freaking UFC card. It just shouldn't be that way. Not back-to-back cards. But again, the thing of the nature is because of what, because last weekend's

card was in the apex, it just builds the excitement and anticipation even more for Saturday. Big crowd, Abu Dhabi, massive card. It just makes 280 seem five times bigger than it actually is. And it's a great card. It's the best card on paper of the year, especially those last six or seven fights. It's spectacular. This main card is incredible. But in following an apex card, it just makes it bigger.

So I get it. My hope is that I don't think it's going away. I don't think it's going away. I hope it's less frequent. I still think like once a month we're going to see cards of the apex moving forward because why wouldn't you? As a business makes sense. You make a bunch of money. You're going to make a bunch of money on the road too, but not as much as an apex card.

It's just not. So I think we're going to see him still. I don't think it's over and done with. But I think they'll hopefully they're just less frequent moving forward. Hopefully they're less frequent moving forward. As far as the main event of Saturday goes, I'm still back and forth on it. but I keep landing on my opening gut instinct. Until Charles Oliver loses, I'm picking him.

I'm picking him every time. Until somebody shows me that he can lose a fight during this streak, I'm picking him. There are ways for him to win. There's definitely ways for him to win. I understand why Makachep is the favorite. There's probably more ways for Makachep to win this fight. Skill for skill,

Makachev could take him down and just get on top of him and just grind out a decision if he wants to. He could submit him. There's a lot of ways Mokachev can win this fight. But we've said that about every Charles Oliver opponent during this run, and Charles finds a way to get it done. Obviously, he needs to turn this into a brawl. He needs to give Mokachev some confidence on the feet,

needs this thing staying on the feet. That's the best chance he has to win the fight. But it's not saying that if Islam takes him down, he can't, still can't win, he can. But if Makachev mines his peas and cues for 25 minutes, takes him down, goes for the body instead of the legs, gets him down and gets on top of him, it's going to be a long knife for Oliver.

This notion that Oliver is just going to throw up a triangle and submit him, I just, it'd be shocking to me. But if things get a little hectic down there, there's a lot of scrambles on the ground, that's where Olivera, could catch him on the ground. But to me, Oliver's best chance to win this fight is on the feet. And he can crack.

I mean, you don't hear, like you said, you don't hear Justin Gaetchi all that often coming out and saying, this dude can crack. And he said it a lot about Charles Oliver and continues to say it about Charles Oliver. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo.

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Good. How are you? All right. So I have two questions here. The first question is, if Jorge, I'm wondering if he's just going to sit and wait until that fight is over between, Leon Edwards versus Kamaro Oussman, is he just going to sit there and wait? Because sitting on the sidelines is Gilbert Burns,

who really wants him, who really wants to fight game bread. And, you know, he said in an interview, he's like, on my side, I'm ready to go, I'm signed off. I'm just waiting on Jorge to see what his people say, what they want to do, you know? Because then you also got to think about two,

the Brazil card's coming soon. So, I mean, he would, I think, you know, I would think Gilbert would love that fight in, because in January to fight Game Brett and the Brazil card, but I don't know, I don't think it's going to happen. So I wonder, because I guess Jorge may just sit and wait and see who wins that fight between Leon and Usman. If Usman wins, I guess, then Gamebrose,

I'd be like, okay, I'll fight, I'll fight Gilbert if, if Usman wins. But if Leon wins, then he probably like, okay, let's go, let's get this rematch going. So it's wonder, it's funny because it leaves Gilbert in a funny space here of who's his next opponent going to be. So I just want your take on Gilbert's side of how he's looking at this. Or how do you think it may play out between Jorge, Leon, Gilbert, Yusman. that whole situation there. My second question is between Peodor Yan and Sean O'Malley,

I'm still concerned for the leg kicks going against sugar shame, sugar, because, you know, it's still a concern for me. I think Pedro Munoz was starting to start going at those legs a little bit, and he didn't do enough

because obviously the fight got stopped, because of the eye poke, but that's still a high concern for me. I remember you brought it up a couple of times. Now, Sean Amali has said it's no longer concerned. People saying, oh, leg kicks, they're going to get me with the leg kicks, but I'm checking them. I'm good for it. But I'm still worried about those ankles.

I mean, listen, when Cheeto fought Sean O'Malley and he was, and he, listen, he kept kicking those legs, it really bothered Sean O'Malley. So is that still a concern for you? moving forward because priori on that might be a sticking point in his game play way I'm going to throw a little bit more kicks and then see how he's going to react to it so heading into the fight

is that still a concern for you? Thanks Mike have a heck good morning all right? Thanks man so the Mazadol thing I don't think he's going to wait I mean it all depends now he told me when we spoke like two months ago before UFC 278 happens

that he ain't fighting until all this court stuff is is cleared up from the alleged incident with Colby and everything. But I saw ESPN is saying that that's not fully accurate, that maybe there's some lingering injuries that he's trying to take care of, but I know he's training and stuff like that. So I don't know. But I think if Mazdal can fight if he is able to fight before then,

I think he will. And I think Gilbert makes a lot of sense. But for Gilbert, too, like this is very rare that Gilbert fought once in 2022. fought in April, I haven't seen him since. Now, I know he wants the Mazadal fight, but Gilbert's got options. He's going to probably fight either Mazadal or he's going to get the winner of the Blah Muhammad

Sean Brady fight. That's sort of what makes the most sense to me, but we'll see what happens. But I don't think Mazdaal, if Mazadol is able to fight, then I think he will fight before the trilogy fight. Because as of right now, the way it's shaping up, January in Brazil, February and Perth, I don't think they're going to go three straight international spots for pay-per-views.

So they'll probably, I don't know what they're going to do in March. I would guess Vegas. And then maybe do London in April. That's what, six months? I think Mazdaal probably have something on the books if he can fight before then. And yeah. So that's what I think there. And then if Burns needs to fight before that and Brady or Bala ready to go,

then he's got something cooking right there. As far as the O'Malley, yeah, I think anybody who fights O'Malley is going to try to throw light kicks at the guy because there's precedent set for it. And Yon is a pretty damn good light kicker. The thing about this fight what makes it so interesting is that it's a three-round fight, not a five-round fight. Because we've seen Peter Yon need that round, round and a half to get cook in and get his reads, the calculator, all those things are going off of his brain about the numbers and statistics and all that.

All that adds up and then he starts to get cooking as the fight moves on. But he can't let O'Malley just win that first round and pick him apart and then give Sean just 10 minutes to win one. That's what makes his fight so interesting to me. Because I think Sean is going to come out super aggressive, as most do fighting Piotr Yan, knowing that you can probably get that first round from him. But how is Piotr going to react? Is he going to be coming out aggressive? Is he going to try to get his aggression going?

Is he going to try to be the man in this situation? And if Yon wins the first round, we'll know in the first five minutes how this fight's going to go in a lot of ways. If Yon wins the first round, I think it's all kind of academic at this point, that he's just going to win the fight. But if O'Malley comes out and cracks him

and stuns him a little bit, takes that first, then we got something going here. This is a really interesting fight. I am not caught and shot O'Malley out at all. Yon's skill for skill is the better fighter, but we've seen enough from both guys to know that O'Malley's a pretty good starter. Wasn't really that quick of a start against Pedro.

But who knows? Maybe O'Malley just comes out and just goes balls to the wall, which is kind of what I think he should do. But again, I'm not a fighter. I'm not a coach. I don't know what he's seeing. And I don't know how Yon's going to react to it. But love the fight.

I can't wait to see it all go down. It's got to be fun. Let's go to Mikey. What's up, Mikey? Blind on going into this tangent, but since you touched on it, it's so silly for Ariel to go on that weird little tangent about the apex. Because at the end of the day, man, apex cards are not pay-per-view cards. So I feel there's a false equivalency there.

Two, most of the time, if you guys don't want to watch the apex cards, don't watch them. Just watch the pay-per-views. you know like equating all these cards oh this is lame it's going to hurt the product that's the dumbest thing i've ever heard because you know something the NFL keeps putting up shitty Thursday at football games and people are still watching them you know crowds are not like at the end of the day i'm watching i want to watch fights and you know the funny thing is half the time when we watch those regional fight cards with crowds people are complaining about the crowds booing or being unruly or being dumb

and uh one last thing isn't it kind of funny mike you were like hey no one's talk about the Alchrain Sterling fight. He's going to get something going this week. Boy, did he ever. All right, guys, we got on another. See you later. Yeah, I mean, look, I watch all the fights, but again, as someone who watches all the fights, it just does get stagnant. It really does. It really gets stagnant, watching the apex cards. Because honestly, a lot of these fighters just deserve to fight in front of a lot of people. Like, that's what makes the sport so great and listen the thursday night football games suck but imagine the thursday night football games in front of a hundred people it sucks even more at least like the fan like you hear

the fans they try to get into it they try to jolt some life into it it's really it's just really tough sometimes with these apex cards because this is all run together and then we have we're gonna have 280 right we're gonna have 280 and it's gonna be a on paper it's a magnificent card. And then what do we get next Saturday? We're getting a phenomenal main event in the featherweight division between Calvin Cater and Arnold Allen. And guess where that card's taking place at the apex? And then the next week, I don't know what the hell the main event's going to be because Bob Zare of Loewov is out of the fight with Bryce Mitchell. Who knows what's going on with that? So again, we're going back-to-back apex cards after 280.

luckily we go to MSG right after that. But still, like, we don't, we're not out of the apex unless it's a pay-per-view until we get to December, until we go to Orlando. And then we're back in front of fans. And then we get Vegas for December 10th. And then we close the year at the frigging apex again. All I'm saying is, like, I understand why there's, like,

there is room. There's room. in some ways for these apex cards i get why it's still happening for the business aspect of it it took a while the ufc gets their schedules out ahead of time that it's hard to have plans and they're just like you know what let's just leave the apex and go to jacksonville or go to sacramento or go wherever like it's it's very tough to do so i get it from that sense but now you you're planning out 2023 and if your plan for 2023 is to host two to three apex cards a month,

you've got to change pace here. You got to change pace. It just makes the overall viewing experience better in my eyes, having the fans. And sometimes fans can be booing and it's annoying, and they do the woo's and we comment on it. But I'd rather hear that than nothing. Like when it first started, when you watch Gagey Ferguson,

when you watch UFC 249, like it's freaking cool. You're like, oh, my God, you can hear everything. If you hear all the coaches, it's cool. But just after all these cards, man, like I get where he's coming from. I get where you're coming from, too. Like, it's fights, and sometimes you don't care where they're at. There's just dudes fighting. And I get it.

I like watching people fight. But I also like watching people fight in front of 15,000 people. It's just a different experience. Let's go to my man, mayonnaise face, McFlanigan. What up, Mike? How you doing? Yeah, I'm all right. I'm getting super excited for this weekend.

And talking about the main event, I was listening to the DCRC thing in the car because that was the only thing to listen to. And it seems like DC is aware that his commentary is often flawed because he's friends with Islam. You think that's going to be a problem this weekend or you think he's going to shape up and talk about it as it plays out? Secondly, who has ever come out super hot against Peter Yan like that? You know, like you were saying, Sean O'Malley might be his best bet. You know, is there any evidence that that even works against him?

I think he's going to wipe the floor. That's it, Mike. Thanks for all you do. Thanks, man. I mean, it wasn't the same, but Al Javane Sterling came out and had a big first round against Peyodor, and then he came back and had a big second round against Peyodor. And those two rounds won him the damn fight. So if you can get off on them early and maybe hurt him, yeah.

I mean, it's not the same because Aljo grappled and took him down and took his back for most of the round and dominated it. And then he did the same thing in the second. So, and this is not a five-round fight, it's a three-round fight. So if O'Malley gets two big rounds like that, then you're putting Yan in a must-finished position. So that's what makes this fight a little more interesting in my eyes. So I get 100% where you're coming from on that aspect. So the DC thing, it's kind of, I'm going to choose my words carefully here. At this moment, I kind of feel for him because no matter what he does on Saturday,

people are going to say that he's biased. It's just the way that it is. Now he's calling attention to it, putting it out there in the universe. but I think either way anything DC says positive about Machachev even if it's just in the action of calling the fight is going to be portrayed as bias so he's in a tough spot

he's screwed either way he's screwed either way it'll be interesting to see if he just kind of over sells Olivera at all but I just think he's kind of screwed I think the Twitter sphere is going to annihilate him either way and

let's just hope that if we're looking at it from a middle of the pack sort of view set that when we go back and listen to his commentary, it's the same as the rest of the card. But I think he's screwed either way, which is because people already have it in their minds. He's going to be biased towards Maka Chaps. So if he says anything positive about it, Twitter is going to blow up.

Oh, look at D.C. Favoring his boy. He's favoring his guy. It's going to happen. He's in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation, but that's just what it is. He's probably prepared for that. A lot of people are worried to everybody.

Don't you worry. Octagon blog, hello. Octagon blog. Are you there? Hello, Mike? There we go. I got you. I got you.

What's up? Mike, how are you doing? I'm leaving for a will be tomorrow. Yes, there you go. Yes, so your show will be also on Thursday? We will have a show on Thursday. So I will be at the hotel Thursday. Maybe I can bring, it's just maybe I can bring an athlete, a fighter.

Sure. Maybe Manon Fioro or maybe even Charles Olivera. I will try. All right. Well, that would be wonderful. Yes, I have one question. If it comes to the card this upcoming Saturday, how do you think about the judges with the whole environment in Abu Dhabi?

Is it like a little bit favoring Islam? How do you think about it? Thank you and talk to you Thursday from Abu Dhabi. Thank you and good luck. Thanks, man. Safe travels to you. Hopefully you have better luck than my man Jose has had in getting to Abu Dhabi. I don't, we talked about this a little bit on Friday.

I'm not concerned about the judging. I know some of the earlier cards we had some locals and some of the fights are scored a little strangely. but the last time they were there, the last couple times they were there, it's mostly the judges that guys you've heard of, the Ben Cartlages of the world,

some of those other folk, I don't think it's going to play a factor, honestly. I don't think we're going to have three local UAE judges judging the card in judging, especially that fight in particular. They'll assign the judges accordingly.

It'll be the, it'll be three names that you recognize, would be my guess. I'd be stunned. if it's anything else. So I'm not, I'm not too concerned about any home cooking or or judging or anything like that. So I don't think we're going to, now, if there's a weird decision, it's not going to be because it's home cooking. It's going to be because judging an MMA in 2022 is mostly okay, but sometimes really awful. And it's just the same old song

and dance. It just happens to be in a different part of the world. And I think that's what it is. I don't think it's going to be a home cooking type of situation. I just think if it's, if we all think Oliver won and Islam one, it's just bad judging overall, but not because it's an Abu Dhabi, if that makes sense. I don't think we're going to run into that at all. Fingers crossed. Let's go to Michelle.

Hello, Michelle. I just wanted your force. I definitely know what we've really talked about it, but the flyweight women match on the main card between killing Chicaguan and Maran. I really say, I'm not going to butcher it. But I just wanted your thoughts on that. And, like, if Maron does win, like, do you think she might be next for Valentino? If what I think the UFC might do, if she doesn't fight Nunes for the title, whenever Nunes comes back, if she comes back.

Thank you. Thanks, man. Yeah, I think Mannon's kind of in the driver's seat. I think it's her title shot to lose at this point. But we do have some hurdles. What are they going to do with Valentina's? Chifchenko. Is she going to fight Amanda Nunes, maybe in Brazil, on that UFC 283 card? They're all just bundled together. UFC 283. That'd be a damn fine main event. That'd be a damn fine main event.

So if they booked that one, then Alexa Grasso is probably waiting for the winner or who knows at this point. But let's just say that that's not going to happen. And Valentin is going to stay at 125. She said she's going to say a 125, but money talks, and it's a fight that the clock is ticking on making that fight happen, making a third fight happen between those two women. So let's just say that's not happening. If Manon wins, I think she gets the next title shot. I think for Alexa Grasso, and she's already said like she wants one more main event, but she also, she also said, like, look, if they give me a title fight, I'm going to say, yes. She's not going to say, oh, no, I'm not going to fight for the belts. I'm going to take this other main event.

No, she's not got to do that. She's got to take the damn title fight. So if Alexa Grasso, if she has changed her tunes since Saturday, and she's like, I'm all in on a title shot. What she needs is Caitlin Chukagan to have a very boring decision win, one that is somewhat controversial that people are going to be screaming robbery with. Other than that, if Marinan wins, she's probably getting the next title shot. if Valentina doesn't fight Amanda Nunes.

And that's probably how it plays out. Now, the big question is, what if Chukagin goes out there and just Molly Waps, Manon Fioro? Does she get a title shot? Because I understand the argument against it. We just saw them fight not that long ago, and Valentina beat the hell out of her. But to be fair, as much as some people just poo-poo on Caitlin Chukagin's fighting style and what have you.

She's going out there and winning fights. She has done everything you could possibly ask of her to get back to a title fight. So let's take a look at her resume sentence. Since the Schifchenko fight, she beat Antonino, which she treated her accordingly. She was a massive favorite, and she whooped her. She fought Jessica Andrade, she got finished.

But since then, beat Calvio, beat Aroozhou, beats Jennifer Maya, beats Amanda Hebas. And if she beats Manifioro, that's five wins in a row, six out of seven. The Andragloss is the only blemish. She has done enough in my eyes if they want to give her another title shot. I don't know if that's the direction they would go. But to me, she's done enough. And I don't think a rematch goes any differently than the first one, but she has statistically,

done everything you could possibly ask her to do to get her way back. She's knocked off all these contenders. She's knocked off former title challengers. She had a tough fight with Manna Hebas. You know, some of these were interesting. I thought Araujo beat her at 262. I haven't gone back and watched it, but I remember watching that one live and I thought Viviani won,

but she didn't. That's why we always joke around. Death taxes Chukagin by decision. So it's interesting. Be interested to see what happens at If Chukagan goes out there and just chooks up on Fioro and wins at 3027, what are they going to do? Are they going to give her another title shot?

I don't know. This division is really, really interesting right now. What's up, Epswalia? How are you doing? Good. It's been a while. How are you doing? Good, man.

Good. So I'm here to talk about the upcoming event this Saturday. Firstly, I just want to say, who do you, what are your predictions in terms of, like, the main event with you know from top to bottom from top to bottom yeah like obviously like you know who do you see winning between islam and charles you know uh young and shone and tj and um watching eljo then you have gamorov versus benil and uh what i forgot the two female fighters that fighting the who do you see winning from old boys roster cool man i appreciate that uh again i i I'm going to preface this by saying that things may change.

Come Saturday or come Friday we make our predictions. But I lean Fioro. Darius Gamrod is tough. That is a tough fight to call. I lean Gamrod because I just feel like Darius just can't catch a break. It's just, but I mean, that fight, I'm torn completely. I favor Yon over O'Malley, but I think that fight is closer than,

people think. I said earlier, I'm picking Olivera until I'm proven otherwise. This is not like a, I think he's better than Islam or Islam can't win. This is just me saying, I'm not doubting this man ever again. I'm not picking against him again until I see somebody beat him. And every fight he's in, oh man, this is the one, this is the one. And then he goes out there and beats him and goes out there and finishes. So until I see otherwise, I'm going with Oliver. The Bannamweight title fight is so good and so interesting. I will say this. On Sunday, and even when I woke up yesterday morning,

I was picking Al Jermaine Sterling to win. I wasn't confident, but I was picking Al Jemaine Sterling to win. Now, there are times where you speak with fighters on Fight Week, and it's just kind of the same old interview, and sometimes you get vibes, and sometimes you get feelings based on talking about them. Sometimes your opinion doesn't change. Well, I spoke to T.J. Dillashaw yesterday.

You can watch an interview on the MA Fighting YouTube channel. And when I got out of that, when I got done with that interview, I immediately went to our Slack channel and message Jedmishu. And I said, I don't know, man. I don't get vibes from interviews all that often, but my vibes are telling me that T.J. Dillishaw is going to beat Al J. Stirling. just the way he's approaching it,

just the body language, everything he said. This wasn't trash talk. This wasn't him trying to sell a fight. This was him just being honest and just telling it like he feels. And if I'm basing it on just how this, both guys have approached the closing moments heading into this fight, T.J's doing everything right. It seems like Aljo's doing everything wrong.

So right now I'm picking TJ to beat Aljo. I don't know how, but I'm picking them. I'm picking them to get it done. But again, all those answers could change. The only one that will not change by Friday is the Charles Oliver one. Because again, I'm not changing my mind on that. Just beat him. And then we could talk about it again down the road.

But right now, until this man loses, I'm not picking against them. And this is no disrespect to Islam because there is a world, clearly that he can beat Charles Olivera. I'm just not willing to put on the blinker and take that exit until I know there's no detour there until I see it. Anthony, hello.

Yo, yo, how are you doing? Yo, good, how are you, bro? My question today was, I don't know if you answered this too early. I joined this too early, so my bad if you did. Do you think the title fight has goat implications? Like, do you think if Charles wins, like people are going to be talking about, oh, yeah, he's the greatest light weight of all time? Or do you think if Islam wins, people can make the argument, like, oh, yeah, well, if Khabib would have fought Charles, he probably would have won two.

Also, I heard somebody make a good case for the bantam weight title, also having goat implications saying that if T.J. Dillashaw wins, maybe he is the best Bamboyed of all time over Dominic Cruz. however his you know the tainted uh records so yeah that's all i got for you man have that good morning yeah i mean if you take steroids out of the equation and take peds and all that stuff out if you don't if that doesn't weigh heavily on your goat on your goat statuses dill shaw's in the mix there's no doubt about that i still lean cruise but dillishaw has done a lot and he's definitely in the discussion if you can take away the tainted stuff. The lightweight one,

I don't think Machachev, I don't think you could say he's the best lightweight ever, even if he wins. He needs to run off some title defenses first. Olivera, I think he's in the conversation now. But if he beats Islam,

he's definitely in the conversation. I still don't know if he's done enough to overtake Habib in that discussion. But he is definitely at worst, like 1B if he beats Islam. Because Habib, like, Habib's got the O in his record,

and a lot of people feel that that weight, it means a lot. But just seeing what this man has done, this guy was a 500 fighter in the UFC for a long time. Then he got brutally finished by Paul Felder, which, by the way, was on top in Oliver's guard,

he beat the soul out of that, man. But since then, finished Clay Gwita, finished Christos Gagos, finished Jim Miller, finished David Tamer, finish Nick Lentz, knocked out,

finished Jared Gordon, finish Kevin Lee, dominated Tony Ferguson, finished Chandler, finished Porier, finished Gagee. I mean, that is a serious resume. That is a serious resume.

And you can weigh a lot into this conversation, Because for a long time, I want to pull up Habib's resume as well. For a long time, well before Habib got a title shot. A lot of hardcore M.A fans believe that Habib was already the number one guy in the world. He just didn't get his chance to fight for the belt. After the RDA win, that opened up everybody's eyes. That wind opened up everybody's eyes. So basically, in most people's eyes, from the middle of 2014, this dude was the best lightweight in the world.

And then he missed two years of his career, was supposed to fight Saroni twice, then Tony Ferguson ends up fighting Daryl Hortcher, finishes him. And then the last six fights of his career was that insanely dominant winner of Michael Johnson, which at the time was just crazy to watch. He's talking to Dana White and all the stuff. then he dominates as a barboza dominates ally quinta to win the title in one of the craziest fight weeks ever again that was supposed to be ferguson that it was supposed to be max holloway then he gets the conner fight finishes connor finishes porre finishes just engaging so in the mix for sure but if olivera gets the win and gets a finish year the resume is champion in my eyes is better than hubibs I equinta Connor, Pori, Gagetchi, and I know two of those names are going to be on Charles as well, but you're adding Chandler, now you're adding Islam to the mix.

There's a lot there. But that's a question we're going to be talking about a lot, I'm sure. Let's go to Julio. Hey, good morning. How are you? Good. So you jumped on to my question right before you called me, but taking the resume out, just looking at the, I guess, the story, if Charles wins on Saturday, what should people

appreciate more, like, comparing to Habib, somebody who was undefeated, dominated, hardly even lost around, or somebody who clearly lost many times, you know, was questioned to quit and had this resurgence and, you know, dominant winning streak? What should people appreciate more when talking about like greatest lightweight of all time. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot to unpack there. I mean, for a long time, I mean, I, it's tough to see like an end of somebody's career just really take a toll on a legacy. But for a long time, BJ Penn was not just the best lightweight in the world.

He was the best fighter in the world. He was the best fighter on the planet when he was on that run as lightweight champion. And people forget about him in the go-kart. conversation. But unfortunately, the way his UFC career wrapped up and how sort of

the rest of things played out since, it just kind of puts a damper on that thing. But, and that's the big thing. Halib has the zero. 29 and 0. He was never really in jeopardy

and really any fight he's ever been in. He's lost like two total rounds in his career, lost one to Connor, lost one to Gachey. And the rest, he was just so dominant.

So it just depends on what you weigh. Do you just weigh out the complete and utter dominance that this man put together over the entirety of his career? Is it some of the names he wasn't able to fight? I mean, is it the injuries? All those things sort of weigh in. And then at certain points, too, like, Habib didn't really get all that. Habib wasn't always the most aesthetically pleasing fighter in the world.

He was, I'll just take you down and I'll just grind you ass up for the entirety of the fight, and I'll win 3027. that's what he does. But it was down the stretch where he started to get excited. The Johnson fight was exciting. Barbosa, I, Quinta, you know, maybe not the most steadily pleasing fight. The Connor fight was just so massive.

And then the Porre fight was good and the Gaetchi fight was good. So there's a lot to weigh in here. But one thing I will say about Charles Olivera, his ability to overcome, his ability to bounce back, not just with his career, but within each and every fight that he's in. And just the fact that Charles Oliver has never been in a boring fight. Every fight this dude is in is just mayhem and chaos.

And he thrives on that. Now, for a while, maybe he didn't. Maybe he was weight cuts. Maybe he was just the toll that his career was taking on him as a whole, win some lose a lot. And then to see what he's done since, it's just been incredible.

So I think, I don't think, he overtakes he'll be able to win here, but he's definitely at worst. Number two or one B. He's in the mix for sure. Let's go to Vinny. Hello, Vinny.

All right. Try again, Vinny. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice, yes, we deliver those.

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Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton cross-draining tread plus at OnePeloton.ca. Let's go to Kirkland, perhaps. Kirkland, do we have you? Hey, how's it going, Mike? What's that, man? Not much. I was reading the world's greatest website, M.M.A.fighting.com. Came across this article by this great man, Mike Heck, about T.J. Dilleshaw. And my question is about the headline. It says that, quote, he's already building up excuses for a 280 loss. And I respect the intensity of the interview, but by the same token,

and this might just be devil's advocacy, but don't you think that Sterling is more so just trying to build up a fight, not necessarily trying to build up excuse? or do you think that they're mutually exclusive at all? That's really the only question I had. But anyways, have a great day. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, so I asked TJ that question just to see if you wanted to respond to it. I didn't know if he had seen it.

He's not a big social media dude, as you would also see in the interview, because we talked about how he's become sort of an advocate for protecting yourself online. It's something that he's learned. He's had some sort of weird phone calls at his house from fans. He's had weird packages sent to his house from fans. And he even said, like, wasn't like, no one, like, sent him body parts or anything like that. But it was just like, how did these people get that?

And then he did some digging and realized that some of his stuff was on the web. And his phone number was easily findable now. And it's just really interesting stuff. And it's something he now takes very, very seriously. So I asked him because Al Jermaine did an interview with our own Damon Martin. and he said, Al Jemaine basically said, I've come to peace with the fact that T.J.'s going to be on some sauce when we fight. Like, I've accepted that.

So I gave him a chance to respond, and that was basically his response. He's already building up excuses for the loss, trying to say that I'm on the sauce. And that was pretty much it. The rest of the fight, like the way he broke it down was pretty interesting. Thought Al Jermaine was kind of a boring fighter. and a boring champion. And I actually, I was like, were you impressed with Sterling? I mean, you were there at UFC 273.

You were cage-eye, were you at least impressed with him. And he said he was because he thought Jan was going to whoop him. And Al Jamein was able to get his game plan going and did the damn thing. So he was impressed with that. He just feels like Al Jemaine is just a boring dude. And when I asked him why he felt the fight was flying under the radar, he's kind of blamed himself for it. He goes, listen, Al Jermaine's going to come out and do a bunch of interviews.

I'm not going to do a bunch of interviews. I'm not going to go on social media and comment on everybody's stuff. I'm just going to go in there and fight. That's my job. And like I said, I came out of that interview feeling like T.J's going to win. Like, I know it's weird to like hear somebody speak and just your gut tells you something. But to me, I just don't.

I mean, Aljo's a great athlete, but so is T.J. And I know he's got some of those things attached him. He's got the PD stuff, attached him and all that stuff, and he's kind of public enemy number one in that sense. But at the same time,

this dude can wrestle his ass off. He's got really good Jiu-Jitsu. And he can punch like a mofo and he can kick. He's definitely a better striker than Aljo. It's just can Aljo get to his back? And if he does, how will T.J.? respond to that. That's the biggest question

I have in this fight. But the more I look at it, I think T.J. is better than him everywhere, but it's the back. Aljo's so good at getting your back. And once he gets, it's so hard to get him off yet. And we'll see how T.J. deals

with that. Because I think at some point, over 25 minutes, Aljo's going to get his back. And we'll see how he responds to that. Let's go to Stephen. Hey, Stephen. How are you? Good, good. So, It's just a bunch of things we can go on and on about, but one of the things

that I just want to discuss was people tend to forget, and you know this, everybody mentioned this, U.S.C. is a business. The game is a business, right? We talk about Benil, Derruch. He's on the card, and he's not officially the back-off fighter.

You have Volcanowski. You have number 11, Sugar Sean, finding number one, Peter Young. First of all, promoting yourself. One thing Chelsea Sunnan mentioned before is the U.C. gives you a platform. You have to run and run with it. From there, you start being exposed and giving a lot of opportunities.

This all goes back to Jorge. Jorge, most of all, he cannot hate the man. He says it, says how it is. And he's doing what he needs to do. And he says it clearly in the tweet, let's get this money. clearly he's doing everything right is well deserved and again but lastly nothing in this game is fair it's about who wants and more who's going to go out and get it um and lastly one last thing i wanted to get your opinion on the biggest news that nobody's really talking about is

hashbullah who will hasbula fight i think he should give him a top five fighter what do you think So I'll start the Mazadol thing. I don't disagree with you. Again, what is this man supposed to say? You know, Leon's great. I don't want to fight him. Three pieces of the soda. I mean, yeah, there's a story, but I've lost three in a row.

I don't deserve to fight this man. So I'm just going to sit in the back. I'm going to earn my opportunity. No, who's a freak? No one says that. Nobody says that. And then when Mazel says that, everyone gets bad out of shape about it. It's crazy.

It's crazy. He's planting seeds. Because of this story and this history, he has to Leon, people were coming on this show. The Tuesday after Leon won the title and we're saying they could make him and Mazadol right now and people would watch it. And now of a sudden, two months later, it doesn't make sense? Come on.

What's he supposed to say? I have no issue with it, but it's amazing how people have turned on this, man. It's crazy. And they've done the same thing with Justin Gachie. Wild. just wild. But yes, that's what you're supposed to do when you're given the opportunity.

Now, will he get it? Does he meritocratically deserve a title shot? No, of course not. Even he will, like, so what? But to me, all he has to do is go win a fight and if Leon beats Usman, he has a very good chance of getting a title shot. That's that.

The Hezbollah thing, I'm just going to say this once. I do not care one bit. about this Hasbulu stuff. I don't care. I know a lot of people do, and it creates waves. I literally couldn't care less. I don't care if he's at the event.

I don't care if he's not at the event. I don't care if he's signed to the UFC, not signed to the UFC. I don't give a shit. I don't give a shit at all. Not one shit about this guy. I don't care. I don't care.

If he fights in the UFC, we're going to have some problems. We're going to have some problems. I am not going to be happy. Let's go to Yaya. Hello, Yaya. Big Mike, what's going on, man? Happy Tuesday, bro.

You too. So I know you were just talking about Al Joe and, you know, the fight between him and Dillishal. So my question is about Marab. So what do you think the scenario is if Al Joe wins, I guess, and, you know, I know they don't want to fight each other and they've been talking about, you know, whether he's going to move up

and then he's going to allow Marab to kind of, you know, make his way to the title of fight in the Bantam way. Or if he loses, you know, Marab's going to move down. Like, what do you think is the best option for him to kind of get a title fight? Appreciate you, Mike. Marab, I mean, the problem with Marab is he's, I mean, it doesn't matter who the champion is. He's going to need two to three more wins anyways before he gets it.

He's just not that, like, he's a good. fighter, no doubt about it. He's a guy, he's the boogeyman in this division in a lot of ways. But he got his opportunity. He got his big fight with Jose Aldo. His chance to really make a statement. And yes, he won the fight. But did he make that statement? No, he didn't. No, he did not. And now the road gets a little bit longer for him. It's unfortunate, but that's just the way that it is. To me, there's at least three guys ahead of Marab, maybe four. Because you got Jan, you got O'Malley. And if O'Malley wins, he's fighting for the belts. It doesn't matter who it is. Doesn't matter who wins. If Sean O'Malley beats Peter Yan, his next fight will be for

the title. And you can hate that all you want, but that's the way that it is. And if Peodor Yon beats Sean O'Malley and T.J. Dillashah beats Al Jemaine Sterling. Piotr Yan's fighting T.J. Dillashaw. That's how I feel about it. And there's a very strong case to be made that Pejorie Yon could fight Al Jermaine Sterling

a third time because they got the story. But to me, Yon and O'Malley, everything comes down to what happens. Like this whole Bannamweight setup, we've all been waiting for that Yon-O-Malley fight to happen. That answers many, many questions. and it opens up some doors, we can kind of play Tetris and make the pieces fall where they're

supposed to fall. But to me, it's whatever comes out of that fight is going to have massive implications. Cheeto Vera is at the head of the pack right now, in my opinion. And then it's Marab and Sanhagen are kind of like neck and neck right now. So it's just a matter of what they're going to do. Are they going to do Cheeto versus Sanhagen? I don't know. Are they going to do Sanhagen versus Marab?

I don't know. Cheeto versus Marab. maybe. But it's kind of hard to answer those questions because I just think Marabs, if we're ranking them, like one, two, three, four five, Marab's number five, in my opinion. So he's going to need two, at least two wins, if not three, before he gets a title shot. He needed that. That Aldo fight was huge for him.

And it was great to get a win. It keeps him in the mix, but it didn't advance him at all. And just the nature of the beast. Vinny, do we have you? We do not have any. All right, let's go to CV. CV you're there. Unmute.

There we go. Hey, Mike. Can you hear me? I got you. Hey, man. Before I asked my question, I just want to say, I started listening to this podcast maybe, I don't know, earlier this year. And I just want to say, you helped me get through my boring-ass job because I work from home answering stupid-ass emails every day. But I just want to say, thanks again.

for all you do. Just one quick question. I know the prelim start at 10 in the morning, Eastern Time. Is there any fight you're looking forward to, like something under radar? That's just it, man. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Let me just pull it up real quick. Yes, it does start at 10, huh? Shit. I thought it started later. All right, so let's take a look at this. I mean, obviously, I'd be crazy to not name the featured prelim, him, which is Bala Muhammad, Sean Brady. That's a huge one.

I mean, they're all interesting in their own way. Obviously, Ozymir, Krylov, you get two top 10 dudes. But to me, it's going to be Muhammad Baha'iath, Malcolm Gordon, for sure. I just am so high on Muhammad, and Malcolm's on a nice little run right now. And people weren't pleased with Mahayev's performance

in his last fight, which I still don't understand why. I know he flatline coached. Woody Durdin and tapped him in under a minute in his debut, but that fight with Charles Johnson, I mean, he took him down a thousand times. Like, if there's any fight that top 10 fly weights

watched between his two UFC fights that would worry you the most, it's the second one. It's not the first one. It's the second one. The first one was great, but the second one was like, okay, even if this guy has a quote, unquote,

bad night in a lot of people's eyes, he will just take you down forever and there's nothing you can do about it even if you get up you're going back down and he dominated Charles Johnson's a good fighter he's a good fighter and he crushed him and if he could do the same to Malcolm Gordon

man like I mean I'm super high in this guy anyways I think he's definitely going to fight for a title I don't know if it'll be in 2023 but if you fought for a title in 20223 it wouldn't stun me i just think he's that good so it's probably that one just because i just want to see this dude fight all right let's go

to milo then we'll go to andy double a zique we'll get to everybody i promise milo what's up hey mike uh it's a heck of a morning it is it is yeah i mean the weight is nearly over you know you C280, you know, and, you know, I'm excited for this, for this card. It's probably the best card of all time. You know, in terms of the fight between Machachev and Charles Oliver, I know, you know, we tend to make a lot of comparisons between, you know, Mahachov's career and, you know, and the legacy of Khabi that he carries and stuff like that. But, you know, now I'm working on an article like for Kajside Press, and it got me thinking that, I think, this comparison is not, it does not, it's not relevant.

Because as a fighter, I think Islam Machachev is, is, is a Hoys Gracie 2.0. He's the better version of Hoise Gracie. Because, you know, both fighters have, are elusive. They've brought their careers. They have barely been hit, right? And they would just prefer to take the fight to the ground and submit. And I think, you know, Islam's, Machch's, uh, much of the, grappling guy I got some backlash like on Twitter I don't understand why because I felt like

his grappling is actually better than Gordon Ryan's and his wrestling is better than Bo Nichols because it's like if you look into the Gordon Ryan right like throughout his like he fights in the BJJ circuit right like and ball fought like in Denna white contender series like and it's very hard to truly measure like how good or bad they really are just because they never fought in the UFC. So when we talk about Machachev instead, you know, he's very superior. And I think his grappling is going to be the difference in his fight against Charles Olivera.

I think he's going to end up like submitting him by a rear naked choke in like round three. And if he does, here's my question to you. Would you agree with me that with a submission win over Charles Olivera that will make Islam Machachev the best the best grappler of all time? Thanks. interesting interesting question i mean again much like olivera in the lightweight go conversation he's in the mix and he's in the mix with habib so it's their styles of grappling are similar

yet a little bit different too it's just it's it's hard to pinpoint but yeah he's he's in the mix he's in the mix like they they have similar tendencies but mock is just taking, taking all of that and it's just added elements to it that Habib didn't really need to show in his fights. But I just think, yeah, I mean, skill for skill, you might have a really strong case for that, honestly. I just think Habib is just, Habib is bigger and stronger.

So he's got, like, I think more physical attributes when you line these two guys up against one another. but just skill for skill, grappler for grappler, it's a really good question. And it's not out of the realm. It's not egregious at all. Not egregious at all. I like the question.

Let's go to Motivated Andy. Hello, Andy. It's been a minute. Let's see. So how shocked are you that the UFC just implemented severe restrictions for fighters and coaches to bet on their own shit? I think it's unfortunate that they waited right before 280 to announce it. But also, after seeing Justin Jaynes bet his show money and me just realizing, like, that was taxable income,

why do you think the UFC decided to do it now? Like, what caused it? Because I'm shocked it kept on going as long as it did, but I don't know. I'm just curious to see if you knew why it might have. have happened now. But yeah, that's pretty much it. Hope you have a great rest of your week. Yeah.

So I got this information yesterday, and it's, I guess I see both sides of it. There's no particular reason why. I just think the UFC is just trying to play it as safe as possible, if that makes sense. Like, I don't think there's,

any specific incidents that led to this decision being made, I just think they want to just make sure no Tom Fulery can happen. And I think, honestly, the PFL kind of screwed the pooch on this because I think their Challenger series really opened up a lot of eyes of some of the mistakes that could be made here because they were putting out betting lines for cards that already happened. So it's not like the UFC does that. They don't like pre, they don't pre-tape events and then play them, they do them all live. The Challenger series were from all accounts, I mean, they were taped, and they still had betting lines for the watchbacks.

And that created a huge issue, and now those betting lines can't be found anymore. So I think the UFC is just trying to just play it safe, as safe as possible, make sure there's no way you could screw the pooch here. I think the biggest revelation in all this was that apparently there's still of code of conduct. I mean, I haven't heard the UFC used the word code of conduct in years. Like, I didn't even think one actually, I don't think a code of conduct actually existed at this point

the way that they handle certain situations. And now this is added to it. Like, that was the whole word, that was the whole thing to me. I was like, wow, there's actually still a code of conduct. they made such a big deal out of this code of conduct. And then we heard nothing from it. And any time a UFC officials asked about the quote-unquote code of conduct, it was no sold.

And now we have this gambling thing added to it. It's very strange because I don't really see a huge issue with it. I don't know. It's very strange. I don't understand why. I don't understand why. Maybe like the, I know like some people are, The memes that I keep seeing are James Krause,

because this was brought up where Kraus was giving out some information about, well, I heard this guy's hurt, so change your bets and stuff like that. So maybe that's something to do with it. Again, I have no idea. So don't be write an article saying, Mike Heck said this because I have no freaking clue.

But maybe that's part of it. It just seems strange. It seems strange. The fighters could still get betting sponsors, but I don't know. I don't understand it. I don't get it. I think it's dumb, but

maybe there's reasons behind it, but I have no idea as to why this all started. What up, AA? Good. Where to start, man. I mean, I can't believe we're finally here. It's 285 week. I mean, it's insane.

I've been on this show since I think before 278, I think. And we were talking about it back then. It's insane. I've got two questions. One, more simple, I think, than the other. The first one is, what do you think they do with Roval after the whole mess that just happened? And the second one is, it's a bit more complicated,

well, I think anyway, Sean O'Malley, if he loses to Yarn, what do they do with him, ranking-wise, with his next opponent? Because he's number 12, fighting number one. And if he loses, is he going to even want to fight someone? Like, where's he going to want to fight, you know, because that would be two unsuccessful attempts

that against top 10 opponents. Like, where would he fight? All right, you have a heck of a morning. Everyone else in this chat have a heck of a morning. One week is still too long for me. I just want this fight to finally be here. Yeah, man. I don't think it's a huge issue for Sean, honestly.

I don't. I think if he loses, yeah, it sucks and he doesn't get a title shot, but he's still fine. There's still plenty of guys he could fight, and he's still going to be a big name, he's still going to be a big piece of the puzzle. So the risk reward here is a plenty for Sean O'Malley. And I don't like to say that he's,

I don't like to throw out the quote-unquote playing with house money stuff all that often, but in a weird way, it's not wholly true, but in a weird way, he is playing with house money because no one expects him to win this fight. I think he's got a chance,

I think he's got a chance to win. I think he's got a much better chance to win than a lot of people are giving it credit for. I don't think he's going to win. But all he needs, all he needs is to be competitive. The worst thing that could happen to him is that he gets blown out of the water.

Then it's kind of bad. But as far as the risk we're, ward with all of this, it's perfect. This is perfect for Shotomalley. Perfect. And even if he's competitive and loses, all these big fights are still there for him. You got the page or rematch. You can go back to Cheetos there whenever you want it.

All these things are there and there's still big deals and people will give a shit and pay attention to it. So a loss, a competitive loss only raises his stock. the one thing that just can't happen is that he gets the doors blown off of him that's the big thing that cannot happen but i think he's going to be fine let's go to mohaman oh mahomet oh my loo have a do you hear me yes how are you good how are you i have one question i've been arguing with this with myself for like a month now what does easy have to do to be the midway goal so i feel like if he beats alex perrero

i feel like he's the middleweight goal for me that's a middleweight goal for that that's a little bit of That's it. Man, to be the middleweight go, he's probably going to have to beat Anderson's record. I mean, just those title defenses, I mean, they mean so much. They mean so much. And I just don't know if, I just don't know if at this point anyone can break those records. I don't know. Like, Sylva 10.

I mean, he's got to get, he gets to 10. I think there's a conversation to be had. But I also know if he's going to be around that long. I don't know if he's going to be around that long at 185. Where does he at right now? He has five title defenses. He has five title defenses. Anderson is 10.

So he's got, he's got to get five more. So I think he needs, I think he's got to get to 10 at least to be the middleweight goat. that number means a lot. That's why anytime someone said, Kamar Usman is in the discussion to be the best Walter weight of all time, I say no, because George St. Pierre had nine title defenses.

Until you beat that, no. Yeah, that's it. He's got to get to 10. He's got to get to 10. All right, we've got a few more. Sorry, there's a lot going on right now. Let's go to Zeke. What's up, Zeke?

Hey, Mike. How already? Can you hear me? in the store, so I'll be shorter and two than usual. First things first, we got the horrible news about Mozart, Eloyev, and Vice Mitchell. First, it was Iletiporia. Now it's not Ilya to Porea. Then it's Elit Teporia is ready to die on the scale. Then it's no Edson Barbosa ready.

Can you try and figure out what's next for this Price Mitchell, you know, November 5th card? And then, yeah, the champion has a name. His name is Charles Oliveira, and we will see that on Saturday. Have yourself a heck of a week, my name. thank you for having me. Man, this 45, this 145 discussion is nuts. Now, I can't, I can't get into all of it because I was told some stuff, some of the stuff was like off the record and some of it was, I don't know.

But a lot of, all I could say is that a lot of the names that have been mentioned by a lot of these guys, at some point or another, they have all been paired together potentially to fight one another. I'm talking about Tuporia, I'm talking about Bryce, I'm talking about Dan Ige, I'm talking about Sudik Yusiv, and some of these other guys as well. A lot of them have been sort of paired together to try to make this thing happen. And it all started with obviously Edson Barbosa being out of the Iliate Teporia flight. What are we going to do? What are we going to do now?

Are we just going to keep them on the card and kind of do it? they did with Sardik Yusiv and just give him a newcomer or are we going to try to do something else? And then there were plans in place to do some things and then have Loya got hurt and now it's kind of like a whole other thing. And there's been multiple dates discussed for a lot of these fights anywhere between now and December 17th. So basically a lot of these different cards have been talked about or anywhere between now Orlando has been mentioned, December 17th's been mentioned, December 10th's been mentioned.

a lot of things happening, but it's been a circus. It's been a circus. It's been a merry-go-round. And like all these guys at one point or another have been sort of linked and paired together, but then nothing has been done. So what was it on Saturday? I think it was. So Saturday, Friday was like a whole different direction.

So what I was told on Friday was that the plan, or at least it was being. discussed. Like nothing was done. This was like kind of just put out there. The thought was Iliate Tuporia versus Dan Ege on December 17th. That was like earlier in the weekend, that was one direction the UFC wanted to go. And then it turned out that it might not happen because there's all these things that are being moved around because of, of Loia being out and everything. So then we saw Bryce Mitchell. We saw Iliotip you come out and say we're going to fight each other.

We were told on Saturday that one source said one word to me, fluid. And another source said, told us that nowhere near done. And then we heard now we're seeing what's going on here. So long story short, to answer your question, I don't have no idea what's going to happen November 5th. I don't know who Bryce is fighting. I don't know who really is fighting. I don't know what's going to happen. because at some point or another,

all of these guys have been paired together and none of it's happened. So that's where we're at right now. It's just crazy. It's not, it's been kind of all over the place. But don't be going to report anything or writing up articles about any of their shit

because none of it was done. These are all like things that were possibly being discussed. But again, there's been so much turmoil, movement, all these different things, then nothing is worth the right up anyways. So no worries. But yeah, it's all up in the air.

It's crazy. But I expect all of these guys that are in this conversation probably will all be matched up. It will probably all fight before the year is over. Just who is fighting who and when? Totally up in the air right now. What's up, Crypto? Good, Mike. How are you?

I'm wonderful. So, Mike, first thing, of all personally, I like the Apex events because those weekends I can actually spend some time with my wife. And otherwise, I mean, these big events, they take up all your time, like just the preparation for them and all the hype and the different material coming out and so on. So it's nice to get a break certain weeks. Secondly, this whole thing about Masvidal, I think it's great.

First of all, I love the interview. And you probably don't remember this, but I actually said that that is like the fight to make, to be honest with you. I know people are talking about the merits and so on. But, I mean, let's not forget that Leon, I think he won against, I think it was like the Vincente Luque in the top 15

before getting the title fight. And I know that he accepted fights against Hamzat and so on. But let's be real. He had one fight in the top 15. I think it was Ventiluki. I might be wrong on that. And then he got the title fight. So, I mean, let's not talk about merits here.

Let's make the fun fights. It's the same thing, Mike, as with cheating. Let's not just call it cheating anymore. Let's just, you know, basically go with the flow, so to say. I think that would be a very interesting fight to see Leon and Masvidal given the history. So, okay, Mike, to my question, actually, something completely different. We are approaching now, like a three-year anniversary, almost, if you can call it that, for John Jones, with regards to the preparation of going to the heavyweight division.

And currently he has no fight booked. We don't fully know what's happening with steep and so on. So having the benefit of hindsight, was this? bad call. I mean, if we look at the light heavyweight division right now, there are some very interesting fights that would have been available for John. For example, I mean,

Yuri Pohaska, for example. That fight would be fire. I mean, John Jones against Yuri with those unconventional fighting styles and so on. You can even make a case for like Ankalayaev. And currently, I mean, in the heavyweight division, John is

in a strange situation. I actually feel kind of bad for him. Because let's assume that Francis doesn't resign. I think he will resign, but let's say he leaves the organization. Then to me, there are maybe two or three fights that are interesting. I would love to see him against Cyril Gahn. I would personally love to see him against Tom Askenal when he recovers from his injury. And maybe the steep fight as well, but there's, I mean, something is wrong there.

We don't know what. and we don't know why that fact isn't made. But yeah, so yeah, my question is, Mike, was it a bad move from John Jones's side to move up to heavyweight now that we have the facts, of course? I understand why he did it back then, but if he could rewind time and stay at light heavyweight, do you think that he would have done that?

So, yeah, thanks, Mike. So to address the Edwards-Boszadol thing, Edwards beat Nate Diaz to get the title shot. That was his last fight. He beat RDA, then he was out for almost two years. He had the no contest with Bilal Muhammad, and then he beat Nate Diaz, and then he got the title fight.

The Luque fight happened in like 2016 or 2017, but that was part of this winning streak that he's on. But I'm with you. It's not, I don't think Mazadal is insane. I think he's actually playing this perfectly, and I think Leon, to his credit, is also playing it perfectly. he's got something that Mazadol has and he's kind of like, okay,

then he pulls it away. And now he's using that power. But like Chale Sondon said, he should just be like, all right, I'll fight you. Sure. I'll fight you tomorrow. Meet me here. Give him an address like a random parking lot in London or somewhere in the UK.

Because the UFC's not going to make that fight. They're not going to make it. They're not going to do it. So I'm not really worried about it. John Jones, like, no, I don't think it's a mistake. Listen, this is a cliche that you hear in the pro wrestling world a lot, but I think it actually rings true in this situation. We can't miss you unless you leave.

Because John Jones' last few title offenses were not good. Anthony Smith won. It was a weird one, right? A lot of people thought he lost to Dominic Reyes. There are people who thought he lost to Tiago Santos. at that point, like, there weren't a ton of people like clamoring for John Jones fights, right? And the one John Jones fight that got people clambering was Francis and Ghana. We're in the height of the pandemic, trying to make the biggest fights possible.

These two guys are both in. Let's just make it right financially. And they couldn't get it done. So John's like, all right, I'm just going to bulk up and get bigger. Now everybody's talking about John, waiting for this return. And it's going to be massive when it happened. And I've been telling you for a while, at least last week, because this is when we found out about it, the UFC wants them on this December 10th card.

They want them. Now, here's what Ariel said yesterday is 100% true. We talked about it a lot on this show. They're making one last push. John wants to fight December 10th. He wants to fight on that card. The original player is Francie Gano. There's just no chance.

Now, I talked to somebody close to Inganu. This is what I was told. the UFC approached in Gano's team with one question. The question was, realistically, when is he going to be ready? When do you think he can do this? When do you think he can fight? And what they told the UFC was March. March, that's what we want.

And from all accounts, everybody's on board. March in Gano v. Jones. but they still want John on this card. They still want to spice it up a little bit. Do they need John? Not particularly. Does it hurt? Of course not.

It makes the card much bigger if John's on it. But he's not fighting. There's no chance he fights France and Gano in December. And even if they do do that, like is that, like are you really compelled by John Jones fighting like a 70% recovered Francis and Ghanu? No. why not wait until March when they're both 100% or at least as close to 100% as you can be heading into a fight?

I'm going to say something that a lot of you might not agree with. I hate the idea of John Jones versus Depe Mietichich right now. I hate it. Because why? Why? Does it make this card bigger? Sure. Is John being on December 10th like a cool thing?

Yeah. but you can wait three months and be guaranteed the fight we've all been wanting. Inganu Jones, three months later. Now, could John Jones fight Steepay December 10th, go in there, finish Steepa real quick, bounce back in March and fight again? Sure, he can. But what if he loses? What if he loses to Stepe?

what if they get into a five-round slobber knocker and they just beat the shit out of each other and Jones is a bloody mess even if he wins and he's out for six months. Are we going to wait? Like what are we doing here? Like what's the point of booking this fight? If by all accounts, it seems like Francis is going to resign,

not done. Don't be going out writing articles. Don't be tweeting. It seems like Francis has got to resign. But you're also taking a big risk in that, in the respect that, the big thing that's going to get Francis back is fighting John Jones and fighting him immediately. So let's just say it's December 10th. Francis has verbally agreed to re-sign because all signs are pointing to this John Jones fight.

And then what if he loses? And Francis has three weeks to decide whether or not he wants to stay. And John loses to Stipe. Is Francis going to be like, all right, I'll resign and fight Stipe again? Again? Maybe. I don't know. I just think it's super risky. I think it's super duper risky.

Now you can have your cake and eat it too. Maybe good things happen. Maybe the M.A. gods. They don't smile and shine a light upon us that often. They did it for UFC 279. But now we're playing a dangerous game. Do we risk the M.A. gods striking down and putting carmic energy upon us. We already gave you one thing that was right.

Do you want to risk that again? I don't know. I don't know if it's worth the risk when you could just wait three months and Francis will just fight John three months. I just don't understand. I don't understand. But we'll see. We'll see what happens. I mean, if they book it, am I going to complain?

No. But I just don't, I don't love the idea. I don't love the idea. I think it's so risky. It's so risky when you're right there. You're just going to wait three months. I don't know. Maybe I'm on an island.

but I just think it's super risky. Ani, hello. What's up, buddy? Yes, I can. Because, you know, the university internet, excuse me, the university internet sucks. Anyway, so I agree with what you said in terms of John Jones versus Francis and Gano. But I feel like we've been robbed off of many legacy fights.

You know what I mean? We've been robbed out of Joseo Alto versus Dominic Cruz. No, we are not even going to get Dominic Cruz versus Frankie Edgar. Then I think, you know, having John Jones versus Stipe Mirchich would at least help to give us one of those legacy fights. But timeline-wise, yes, it does not make sense. Otherwise, I don't see why does it not make sense? And the second point is about, you know, the whole lightweight goat debate. I think after Charles Olivera's fight, I mean, if he wins,

we compare the last 13 fights of both fighters, Khadib and Olivera. And I think if we do that, Olivera's resume will stand out above Khabib. So I think Olivera will be the greatest lightweight of all time. I also think he'll tie it be Jepen, isn't that right? And the third point, do you think Al Jermaine Sterling versus T.J. Dilloshaw is a high-level match-up.

Because I've seen, as in, whenever people start talking about, man, Bantamweight Division is so damn stacked, they only mention names like Marlon Vera, Sean O'Malley, Piotr, and Corey Sanhagen. But I've never actually seen anyone mention the poor guy our champion Al Jemaine Sterling. You know what I mean? Yes, these are the three points I just wanted to ask you. Anyway, have a nice day, I guess. Heck of a morning, sorry. Thanks, buddy.

So, yeah, I mean, listen, the Olivera thing, I think we're all sort of an agreement that the resume stacks up well for Oliver. The problem is it's just how you weigh it out. It's how you weigh it out. Do you weigh out wins and losses or do you weigh out how wins are happening? Okay, it's not just finishes, but it's dominance. And Habib dominated, like literally dominated. He lost like three rounds his entire UFC career.

It's friggin insane. It's frigging insane. He wasn't in like jeopardy really at all at any point in any of his fights. It's just, it's insane. So it just depends on what you weigh. And it all depends on your taste buds. You can, it's just however you like it. You can make cases for both guys if he beats Islammachchev.

100%. the Jones steep thing here's here's my issue this fight has been teased upon us all year all year we're talking about July

talking summer then we were talking September John Jones was showing up to CES events saying I'm ready for September 10th and then it just never happened so if it happened in the summer

with everything so up in the air and Francis is like just coming off surgery like three months removed yeah makes more sense but to do it in December when Francis is like getting ready to get cleared to return and then have him be ready for March

it's just yeah the timeline's dumb if they make it cool like it's a shot in the arm of course but I just think it's so frigging risky I just think it's so frigging risky I just think it's so friggin risky. And the thing about the Bannamoyte stuff,

without mentioning Aljo and even T.J. in a lot of ways, people just don't like them. They don't like either guy. They don't like them. They don't like Aljo. They don't like Dillishaw. I feel like Aljo was going to be the baby face in a lot of ways.

And then, you know, we went on a little Twitter thing that got people all pissed off. and, you know, Aljo probably should have watched football on Sunday instead of staying on Twitter because he got himself into trouble. And there you go. I mean, that's most of the reason. Alger doesn't get credited as a fighter.

People just don't like the dude. And T.J. doesn't get credited as a fighter because people think he cheats. And he did. And he got caught and he's admitted it. And that's that. So I just think that's the biggest reason. why.

All right, Vinnie, please tell me we have you. Can't do this anymore. Last chance. You can close the show or we got to go. I feel like your emoji is, I feel like your profile picture is like literally perfect. You're just pointing and laughing at me.

All right. We tried. We got us to go. We have a very busy week ahead of us, ladies and gentlemen. We'll be back on Thursday. We'll do it again. By the way,

got some breaking news for you. And it's not what you think. I'm still not telling you what's going to happen on Saturday. You'll find that out tomorrow. BTL. No Jedmishu is not coming out of retirement. But we're going to get a little initial battle because AK is feeling himself right now. AK is feeling himself on BTL.

And he's got himself quite the opponent on Thursday as it stands right now. We're going to have a little AK versus BC action. the return of Brian Campbell looks to be happening on Thursday, 1 p.m. Eastern, taken on A.K. Lee. I can't wait. What a clash of styles.

It should be a lot of fun. So Thursday's going to be great. I don't know what's going to happen with this show. We might push it back a little bit because there's, I think the 2080 press conference is Thursday, like in the morning. So, I don't know.

Stay tuned. We'll be here Thursday. We'll be here Friday. Saturday's going to be crazy. Sunday's going to be crazy. It's all going to be crazy. So thank you for joining us. Back Thursday, noon Eastern. Big announcement coming tomorrow on the MMA hour. Don't miss it. Have a heck of a Tuesday. And have a heck of a morning, everybody. Fox Media Podcast Network. Okay. Only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.