MMA Fighting - HOAM | Israel Adesanya Not To Blame For UFC 276 Main Event, Is Alexander Volkanovski Pound-For-Pound Best?

Episode Date: July 5, 2022

Israel Adesanya is getting a lot of flack for his performance in the main event of UFC 276 this past Saturday, but is the middleweight champion of the world truly to blame for the fight not being as thrilling as some thought it might be? On an all-new Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck looks back on the main event of the UFC's International Fight Week card and makes the case for the blame to not be placed upon Adesanya following his unanimous decision win over Jared Cannonier. In addition, listener questions are brought up regarding Alexander Volkanovski's pound-for-pound status following his sensational performance against Max Holloway in the co-main event, the ending of the Sean O'Malley vs. Pedro Munhoz fight, up and comers such as Jalin Turner and Maycee Barber getting some shine on the same night Donald Cerrone and Jessica Eye retired, and much 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 reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-by 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. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. It is Tuesday, July 5th, 2022, and it is D. a heck of a morning, live on the M-May Fighting Twitter spaces shortly thereafter. You can find the show on the M-A-Fiting podcast network. I am Mike Heck.

Hope everyone had a great long weekend, especially in the U.S. with Fourth of July happening yesterday. Hope you all enjoyed UFC 276 on Saturday. The International Fight Week experience was just crazy. Got out there Tuesday. We had the Media Day Wednesday. we had press conference for the event on Thursday. We had the Hall of Fame on Thursday.

Then Friday, we had day one of Radio Row, which is a lot of fun at the UFC X Fan Expo. There was the UFC 278 press conference with Usman and Leon Edwards, ceremonial way-ins. And it was just a whole bunch of craziness, ladies gentlemen. And of course, Saturday, we had Radio Row day two at the Fight Week Expo

UFCX which is even crazier than the first day and then Saturday we had the fight card it was just wild it was just a wild event and I'm finally back

in South Carolina after two basically a two day travel I don't have much of voice I'm exhausted we survived the first trip to Vegas and UFC 276 had some storylines

some very good some not so good. Of course, the main events. We had Israel, Adasanya, defend his title successfully against Jared Canaaner. This was a one-sided fight. It was just dominated by Adasanya. You can use that term however you'd like. This wasn't a, Adasania did a whole bunch of exciting things. This was Adasani going out there and winning a fight, which is the job. That's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to go out and win the fight. and he's been taking a little bit of a beating for this. Now, I have been,

I'm not defending Adasanya per se, but I don't understand the backlash of all of this. Like I get from a promotional standpoint, you hear a guy who says, I'm going to do something spectacular, I'm going to go out there and do something the world has never seen. And when you hear that, you're like,

oh, what is this guy going to do? And what he did was he went out there and just, did what he does best. Out points, out strikes, and just out classes, Jared Cannonier for 25 minutes. This was a one-sided fight, and in the world of prize fighting, that is the game.

You go out there, you win, you don't take any damage, you get the winner's money, you keep the title, that's what it's all about. And he's just getting crushed for this. He's getting crushed for it. And I get where a lot of people have come from.

Sometimes it's, you know, if it happens once, sure, if it happens twice, fine. But if we do this on a regular basis, now he's being painted with the quote unquote boring brush. And I get where fans are coming from, but at the same time, this is fighting. It's about winning. You're not going to do anything outside of your comfort zone. And I also want to say, if you're going to blame Adasana, you have to give at least half the blame to Canaanier. Canineer went in there, and I thought he was going to be much more competitive. I thought he actually had a style, create some problems for Adasania,

especially the fact that when he wants to, he can make things real ugly and real dirty in there. He didn't do that. He tried to have a point kickboxing fight with Israel Adasania, which I'm sure even Izzy didn't expect. I'm sure Izzy expected Canaaner to just go after him full board. and try to make this an ugly fight, and he didn't. So, Izzy's sitting there watching this guy

come after him and have a mid-range kickboxing match. What's he supposed to do? Just be like, nah, I'll do what Canada were supposed to do, and I'll make this ugly. He's just like, okay, you're going to do this? That's like, that's like Steph Curry dribbling up the floor, and whoever's guarding him

just takes like 10 steps back. And he's like, you're just going to let me shoot this three? You're just going to let me have this? Okay. What do you expect Steph to do? Do a triple Lindy into a slam dunk when he has a wide open three? Steph's going to shoot that three all the time. And if you're going to give Izzy a mid-range kickboxing match,

he's going to take that every single time. So I don't blame Adasani for this. If he's taking what he is given, is it the most aesthetically pleasing thing in the world? No. But you have to give cannoneer the blame as well. You can't just sit there and be like, Adasania is a boring fighter.

No, he needs somebody who's actually going to like challenge him a little bit. And he's not getting that. Nobody's giving this guy anything. But he might have a challenge this next time around because Alex Paheda did his job, viciously knocks out Sean Strickland. And I think he's going to bring some fire to Adasadio. I think he's going to at least try. I don't think Pahedah is going to sit there and have just sort of a mid-rangee point kickboxing fight with Adasana.

And I know Pahedas won a couple of those in the past. But Pahedahed is going to make this thing a little more interesting. He's going to bring a little more sizzle to the steak. It's going to try to make Izzy uncomfortable, which none of his opponents have tried to do. A lot of the guys who are going in there and fighting out of Sanya are just happy to not get knocked out. Happy to go five rounds.

And I don't think Pahedahed is going to be happy to just get in there and go five rounds without Osatio. So the point of all this is you can be like, oh, another Adasani fight. That wasn't great. But to flat out just come out and say Adasani is boring, but not place any blame on Canaanir, I think that's wrong.

I think Canaan deserves, in my opinion, I think Canada deserves almost all of the blame for how that fight went. And I like Jared Kennedyar a lot. He's a nice guy. But if we're going to blame Adisani, I'd give like 80% of the blame to Canada. Because no one,

expected Jared to fight like that. Come on. Like there's no blueprint really to beat out of Sanya, but I mean, you have to, you have to make him all come. But Canaanair is just like, oh, yeah, I'm going to out kickbox you, Izzy. What a terrible game plan. Horrendous. Really, really bad. There's no chance, like, you're not going to get knocked out. You're not going to get hurt, but you're not going to win.

Like, that's the perfect game plan to just go 25 minutes without Asana. And just not get knocked out. That is not a, we're going to go in there and try to win the title performance. That's what happens to these fights. If you don't go in there and try to take that bell from Adasana, you're just going to get picked apart. And then Adasana, he gets blamed for it. It's just silly.

It's okay to call something boring, but it's also okay to, you can't just blame Adasani for that. That's really the point on my rant. Let's get into this thing. I know you guys have a lot to talk about. There's a lot of other things that happen at UFC 276. We had multiple retirements. The Shottomalley, Pedro, Muno,

I poke story continues to unfold. Let's go. James McDonald, you're up. Kick us off. Heck of a morning to you, Mike. What's up, buddy? Well, firstly, I just want to thank you for all the hard work you put in. I think I speak for everyone when I say that it was absolutely spectacular.

Everything you did out there in Vegas. The interviews, just well done. Thank you, my friend. I wanted to ask you, do you think that they gave Dana White the easy way out with this potential Volk-Olivares matchup because, you know, it seems like he doesn't want to put Makachev in that title fight yet?

Do you think he was giving an easy out for that by, you know, Volk stating that he wants to go up and fight? Because it seems like that, you know, he said, if Volk wants to go up, he can do whatever he wants. So basically, I don't see him. If Volk wants to do that, I don't see him giving Makachib the title fight before Volk, but am I wrong?

That is a great question. Listen, go back to, on to the next one, after UFC 273, the Jacksonville card. And I said that should be the fight, Okinawokovsky versus Oliver, because we weren't really sure about what was going on Makachev and all this stuff. And I honestly have no idea what the UFC is going to do with that situation. It seems like it's Oliverer versus Mockachev.

They want to do it in October at Abu Dhabi. But I've said this many times. If I'm Olivera, I'm not taking that fight at all. I am not fighting in Abu Dhabi. I'll fight Mokachev. That's fine. But we're doing it on my terms. I know he's not officially the champion,

but in a lot of people's eyes, he's being viewed as he's the champion. And what's the worst that can happen? What's the UFC going to do? If Oliver just says, no, I'm not going to Abu Dhabi to fight Mokachev. They're just going to be like, okay, we'll show you. We'll just put Mokachev in a vacant title fight with Benile Darius in Abu Dhabi. And what's Oliver are going to say? Okay, fine.

I'll just go fight the winner, not in Abu Dhabi. But the UFC could also just change course and be like, fine, we'll just do Olivera versus Volkanowski. because if I'm Volkanovsky, there's not much at 45 that excites me right now. And I know we spent the beginning of the show talking about Adasani and the reaction to that and some of the other things that happened. But I'll say it again. I said it right after the card. Alexander Volcanovsky is the best fighter on planet Earth right now.

It is not Kamara Usman. It's not Adasania. It's not Francis and Ganu. It is Alexander Volkinovsky. He is the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet. planet right now. Could UFC 278 come around and Ousman could maybe move forward and take that spot? Okay, maybe.

But Volcanovsky is the best fighter in the world. No one, nobody has ever done that to Max Holloway. Nobody, not 1405 pounds. He shut him out, a 50 to 45. Not for one millisecond. Was that fight in doubt for Volkadovsky? against a guy like Max Holloway. Nobody does that.

Nobody does that. That would be like Usen doing that to Covington. And guess what? He didn't do that to Covington in either fight. Both those fights were incredibly competitive. Who knows? Maybe they booked him a third time and it's not that much. But I thought Volkhovsky clearly won the first fight.

There's no controversy whatsoever. I thought he won at least four rounds of the first fight. Second fight was close. Again, I've scored it for Volkutovs. every single time. And then his story about Usada waking him up, knocking him,

knocking on his door the day before that fight while there was in Abu Dhabi is so ridiculous. And I believe him. I completely believe him. Why would he make that up? He won the fight. And he's been saying,

like, I wasn't there. I didn't show up. And then he goes up and shows out on Saturday. That was unbelievable. So if the UFC decides, that Mokachev takes a back seat here? Is anyone going to complain?

Is anyone going to, besides Mokachev and maybe Habib and Ali, is anyone going to complain if the UFC moves forward with Olivera versus Volkinovsky for the vacant lightweight title? The answer is no. No one's going to complain because that is a super interesting fight. I want to see it. And there's really not much for Volkatovsky right now. Look, you can fight Josh Emmett,

but I think after you're listening to what you're, Raya Faber had to say on Sunday after the grappling event, I think we know where the UFC sort of sees Josh Emmett in this conversation. And then on the same token, Yair Rodriguez is fighting Brian Ortega July 16th. If Yayae goes out there, it does his thing. Sure, you can do Volkanovsky, Yair. But if I'm the UFC, let's just take the chance and see what happens.

Let's throw Volkadovsky in there with Olivera, do the vacant title. Why not? Volcanovsky wants to defend both titles, and I think he can. but I love that fight. Volcanoxie's the best fighter in the world. Let's go to Manez-Flanigan. What's up, buddy? How you doing?

All right. You know, just missing meetings. I want to let you know that I could not escape your voice this weekend. I feel like everywhere I turned on, like you were talking, like the press conference, maybe not there, but all the media day, I just heard your voice everywhere. So congratulations on a big weekend. question. Thanks, man.

Of course, question for you. What was like the most interesting little side conversation, little celebrity spotting or something like that that happened this weekend that was kind of just like pretty cool for you personally, since I know you haven't been out since the Jacksonville card. Let me know, Mike. Thanks. Thanks, man. Yeah, a lot happened.

I talked to a lot of people. It was very cool. I feel like I literally am sick of my own voice. especially before the card where I did like the three plus hour stream of the Expo and the radio row

and everything, I was just like, I can't speak anymore. I literally have nothing left to say. I'm just tired of hearing myself talk and then obviously at the post-flight scrums and everything, I spoke a little bit more. What was the coolest moment? Like the one that always

that just stands out as the fact, they're like, oh, who did you interview? And I ran off a bunch of names. And like I had to read carrot top of all people, which that was kind of cool and kind of interesting. I think like the, and I hate like talking about myself in that way, in this way. But coolest things that happened was I'm taking, I leave Radio Row on Saturday. I realize, oh crap, like I got to get to the arena before this event starts. I put on my dapper suit, hop in an Uber, drive over to the arena. and I get out of the car and I'm walking up

and all of a sudden I hear, hey, Mike Heck. And it's Action Bronson, just like pointing me out. And I was like, you're saying me, my name? No,

no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. You're action freaking Bronson. I say your name, son. So that was kind of a cool moment. But yeah, it was just a whirlwind of a week. It seemed like I was there for 20 minutes, but it was there for almost an entire week.

And it was a great week. I enjoyed it. and I hope I get to go back to International Fight Week every year because we could do, especially the radio row stuff, we could do such big things with that. I'm so fired up to see what we can do with that next year. Brent, what's up? Make sure you unmute, my man.

There we go. Can you hear me, Mike? That's awesome. Just a great job in Vegas this week. This was your first trip to Vegas. That's awesome. Uh, my question today is about body types in MMA. We saw like a pretty huge contrast between like a Jalen Turner type body and then between

Volk, of course. Um, with his incredible fight IQ, do you think Volk would be even better if he were quote unquote longer or is his body type part of why he's so good? And that's my question. Thank you. Thanks, Brent. I actually, Volkanowski has, found this, I don't know what he's doing with the strength and conditioning, but whatever he's doing, it's working. Because go back and just look at Bolkinovsky's frame and just what he looked like before the first two max fights. And then just look at what he looked like body type wise

heading into Saturday. I mean, it's night and day. Just leaned out, just in tremendous shape. just whatever he's been doing from a strength and conditioning level has been spot on and I wouldn't change a thing now if he's going to go up to 50 because he's a big 45er I'm sure he cuts a good amount of weight to get to 45 he's a he's a big dude for a 45er I don't think he has to change very much to be successful at 55 now he could be a little bit longer at some point but I don't know I think that what's just what makes him so effective that just so stout and powerful for a guy that size, such an athlete.

The way he can move in and out, the thing about him is not even the body type. It's just his mind, the way he sees things coming. Like John Anick says it perfectly when Volkovsky's like, he's like, it's like what Tom Brady was in the mid to late 2000s. He just

sees the game so much slower than everybody else. Everyone's seeing this fast-paced thing where everyone's running around at a million miles an hour. And Brady's just like, to him, it's just all in slow motion. He sees everything coming a mile away. And that's how Volcanovsky is when he fights. Holloway, the pace he put out on Saturday would overwhelm a lot of people. Pretty much everybody. But Volcanovsky saw everything coming and just avoided all of it. Just sensational stuff.

That's why I think he's the best fighter in the world. This is not Resey bias. I said this the whole time coming into this fight. Volkinovsky beats Holloway. Any way in, in every way, in every single, he's, I think he's the best fighter of the world. And he's not Reese. I, he's not. I think he's, he's the best fight. I'm a any sort of conviction. If we ended Saturday night, he won 48, 47. Let's just say it was a 2-2 going into the fifth round. Volkadovsky-Clear wins the fifth round. And we're like, okay, Volkadovsky won. In my eyes, he's still the best fighter in the world.

He would be the number one pound-for-pound fighter on the world. But he did that on Saturday. He did that on Saturday against that guy. 50-45, just the best fighter in the world. Clear is value. You are up. How you doing, Mike Heck? Good.

How are you? I'm doing all right. Thank you for a great week of coverage. I had kind of an easier question for you. Is Alex Behara, like, as terrifying in person, like, seeing him up close as he looks? That is a huge person. And he looks menacing. Like, all these guys are obviously huge and massive.

But Alex Beherr, there's just something about, like, the size and the way that he carries him. himself that I think is he's going to have a problem. I'm worried. Yeah, he's a pretty terrifying human being. It seems like he doesn't show a lot of emotion. He's got that sort of

how can I compare this? This is like just a weird compare, just like the emotion of it all. He's got, he's like Drago from Rocky 4 in a lot of ways. That Ivan Drago just if he dies, he dies mentality. There's no

happiness, there's no sadness. It's just he's just him. Like he's the kind of guy that if he goes out to breakfast and he orders a coffee and you put like the wrong type of flavoring in there, he's not even going to say anything. He's just going to look at you. He's going to turn his head slowly and look at you with that look.

That menacing look. And you're just going to be like, oh, I made a mistake. I'll go get you what you want, sir. And then he'll just go and get him what he wants. I love the fight. I can't wait to see it. And the whole thing about the winning of the press conference thing, that's why I said pretty much most of the week. The winner of that press conference,

even though he got verbally posterized, if you will, people are saying got 10-7 by Sean Strickland. Is he might have gotten 10-7 in that moment, if you want to say that, maybe he didn't look all that great and Strickland out-verbalized him for a minute. But honestly, he was also smart enough to realize, sit back, buddy, sit back, Let these guys say what they want. Because you know what?

No matter what happens on Saturday, all I have to do is beat Jared Kenanier and my next fight is going to be ginormous. And I'm going to make a ton of money. Either I'm going to fight this Alex Paheta guy who I have history with and it's going to be a big fight or I'm going to fight this Sean Strickland guy who's just talking all this shit.

And I get to give him his comeuppance. Either way, Adasani was going to make a ton of money just beating Jared Canaaner. And that was another thing. when people said they're just dumping on this performance, like all he had to do was win on Saturday night. The story of Adisani was not about fighting Jared Canaanir.

It was about just beating Jared Canaanier, and the story is what's to come. Because either the Alex Paheda or the Sean Strickland fights coming, and those are massive fights for him. So to him, the long-term Israel-A-Dosdia business, Jared Canaaner was just a bus stop, really. We're not at the destination. Destination is the next fight.

And Adasadia, I'm sure is happy that cannoneer and his team, this is the game plan, this is the style they went with. Let's have a kickboxing match with Israel Adizania. I'm sure is he's like, okay, thank you. Appreciate that. Let's go to Tadjik Bay. What's up, buddy? Hello, Mike.

How are you? Good, how are you? Doing good, you know, it's a heck of a morning here. so good times yeah great coverage from ufc 326 you know just wanted to share some of my thoughts with regards to how cart has went um i think the key to take take away from me when i look into like alex pehara is kind of like the shift in the strategy in terms of matchmaking that ufc uh is doing right now where they take a fighter from the um from other markets uh other prominent markets outside of the UFC sphere and basically put them on the fast track to fast track to

the championship right Alex Pekera is one of them the other example that we've seen recently is Yeri prohaska right that you get two fights at the high level then you get the title shot and you win the title I think the trajectory for Alex Pekera is kind of similar and we're probably going to see in the future UFC kind of putting some chips into getting this high level guys prominent outside of the UFC and putting them on the fast track because that way it's also easier to control I think their narrative, their development and then you don't have to deal with the liabilities of having a very, you know, fighter who is well developed in the social media, who can dictate his terms like, let's say, like Conor McGregor or Sean O'Malley.

Overall, a great night of fights. I think you said it correctly that some of the of the great veterans have retired, but I think it was also a night where the young contenders have emerged, very promising guys in Macy Barber, Andre Munez, Drichos Duplessi, Ian Machado, Jalen Turner especially. So I think it was the night of the young, this young breed of UFC fighter emerging into the stardom, which I thought was great. So yeah, overall great night. And I one thing to end with, I think I agree with you on Alex Volcanozky getting a title shot. I think it makes a lot of sense at the moment. He's at the pinnacle of his career. The title is up for grasp, and I think it's normal that Mahachchev waits maybe for a little bit before he gets

the title shot. Why not? I mean, Mahachiev, if Volkanowski, if Volkanowski wins, I think, is a great matchup in itself. And yeah, and I'm still celebrating a great partner. that I have hit, where I predicted 10 fights correctly. So I'm going to put it in the jumbo throne there. But yeah, great follow. I hope to see you someday in our spaces as well, Mike. Thanks again. Thank you, Tadjik Bay.

Nice job. Wow. It's a hell of a parlay. Well done. Let me look at this real quick. Barber, Muniz, Duplice, Gary Miller, Munoz. Voided that one. Barbarina.

Peretta, Volkovsky, Israel. Damn, nicely done. It's a nice parlay. Well done. Yeah, there was definitely a changing of the guard at 276. Sorority retires. Just Guy retires. And then we see Macy Barber get her moment.

Ian Gary looked fantastic in his fight. Yeah, it was just a night of everything. So these international fight week cards should be. we should have multiple storylines to talk about the past, the present, and the future. That's what it's all about. Australian talk. Then we'll get rel, that we'll get fab,

try to get through as many as we can, or as long as my voice lasts. Are you there, Australian talk? Yeah, good-day, Mike. Thanks a lot, mate. I missed you on the last one, but caught you on this one, so quite happy, mate.

Alex Volcanowski, we'll talk about him for a minute, but I guess the first question I'll ask you, mate, what if he was 5'4 10? If he was 5'10, just think of the potential matchups. Now, I'd love to see him go up against Chandler, because Chandler is short as well, and Chandler looks massive at 155.

He's fully jacked. And I think Volk can look just as jacked as Chandler, and both of those guys bouncing around opposite each other. That looks like a real fight. Do you think Chandler has too much power for him at 155? Or is that the wrong question? Interesting. Thank you, Australian talk.

I'm picking Volcanovsky. I understand the question. But like Volkovsky looks bigger. Volkovsky is bigger than he looks. Like he looks a lot of these guys. Like even like Adrian Yanez is a Banim weight. He's a Bannamway. He looks like he's like he's like,

this little tiny person. And then you actually see him in person, you realize, like, he's not as tiny, he's not that tiny at all. And that's how a lot of these fighters are. And if they matched up Volkadovsky versus Michael Chandler, and I have all the respect to the world for Michael Chandler,

Volcanoxie is a minus three. I would comfortably pick him to beat Michael Chandler. Could he get hit? Could Chandler land one of those big shots? Sure. But Volkadovsky's proven that he's got a chin. He could take a big shot. I just don't see a world unless Chandler just catches them with something chaotic and out of nowhere.

I just don't see a world where Volcanowski loses around in that fight. And this is not me being disrespectful to Michael Chandler. This is me just pointing out how good Volcanowski actually is. I think he could do very well at 155. Maybe put out a little bit of size, but Volk's got the right idea right now. listen, I'll fight for the 55 title. And if I win, I will just go back and forth and defend both belts. And Volk's been pretty active.

And that's one of the things that if Volcanovsky has any complaints about his career at all, it's that he doesn't fight all the time. He's been active lately. And I think he's going to stay active. And I think that's really what he wants more than anything. He just wants to keep going, keep fighting, turn him around every three or four months. Now, he does have a hand injury right now. He broke his hand in the second round.

on Saturday. Who knows how long he'll be out for? I would say, you know, might miss two months before he's cleared again, but I think it's a safe bet. We'll see him by the end of the year at some point. It still, it's three fights. Three fights in a year for a champion. You don't see a lot of champions defending their title three times in a year. So heal up, heel up, Alexander. Very interested to see where you go from here. Rell, you're up. Good morning. My, how you do you? A heck of a morning. How you doing, Mike? It is a heck of a morning. How are you?

I'm good. I'm good. So I just want to, first, I just want to say, hey, thank you for the coverage at a weekend. You did a great job. It was, it was all, like, the lead-up. You, you add it to the, to the, you made the card even, like, that much more anticipating. Like, so thank you for that. I just want to, I just want to say, vote performance was great.

Vogue's performance was great. two things what are they doing with the 155 title because I heard that they there's a Machachev Daruse fight that they might make for it because Oliver is trying to fight Connor

and then if Vogue does move up is Vogue great yes I don't know if he like think about a fight with Porreate think about a fight with if he fight Oliver like I don't know if Vogue is great but I don't know if he

just beats these dudes. Like, this is, I think 155 a little different than 145, and I don't know if he beats them. Like, Vote versus Marketchap, I favor Mokachach. Or Oliver, like, I favor Oliver, even though I think he's great.

Have a good morning. Thanks, buddy. I would favor Olivera and Mockachev against Volcanovsky as well, because we don't know. He hasn't fought at 55 of the UFC, So we don't know what it would look like. We don't know how he'd match up. Like those two guys I would favor against Volcanovsky right now.

Mokachev, yes. Olivira, yes. Porre wouldn't favor over Volcanovsky right now in a fight. Why people would pick Poria to beat Volkowski, but I wouldn't pick Poria to beat Volk. The reason is Volk is just the pace that man can put on, the way he can make you work, I would assume he would probably try to mix him.

and some takedowns and stuff like that. We've seen Porre fade in fights. Volcanowski's not going to fade against any of these guys. Oliver doesn't really fade. We haven't seen Mokachev really fade at all. Porier can fade. Poria can fade.

That cut to 55 gets to him. There's no doubt about it. So I think Volkadovsky, I'd pick Volkadovsky against Dustin. And again, this is not me, this is not just saying Dustin's bad. This is just the greatness of Okadovsky. Olivera and Mockachev are just ridiculous.

Those two were ridiculous. But I don't know what's going to happen with this title. I have no idea. The UFC could certainly, they can do whatever they want here. They could do Mockachev Oliver, they could do Mockachev-Oliv, Daryouchev. They could do Oliverer-Connor. They could do Olivera Volcanovsky. They could do so many different things here.

And it's okay. It's going to turn into a debate. How could they have done? How should they have done this once it actually comes? out, but there's no wrong answer here because all of these guys are going to get chances. If they go, if they don't do Olivera Makachchev and they do Oliver of Okunovsky, is that the end of the world? No. I know Makachov's going to be pissed and Makachov fans are going to be pissed and Habib's going to be mad. I get it. But if they go that route, Makachep fights the winner.

He'll still get his chance. Or he... Mokachev fights Daryush, winner that fight gets the title shot. Because here's the thing. Mokachev could be the best lightweight in the world. He very well could be. But he hasn't fought a top five guy yet. He hasn't...

His best win is Dan Hooker. Mokachev's best win is Dan Hooker. And Dan's a good fighter. But when we're talking about title fights, and we have to get this guy in here, this guy needs a title shot. This guy has to have a title shot. Darius's resume is as good as Mokachev's, if not better.

So there's no wrong answer here. Connor being in there is kind of a wrong answer, but I understand why Connor would be in there because he's the biggest star in the history of the sport, and Connor fighting anybody is a million plus pay-per-view buys, like literally anybody, literally anybody. So we'll see what happens. And all these guys, like listen,

if Mokachev doesn't get it, he'll get his title shot. If Oliverer doesn't get it, like let's just say, we're doing an Abu Dhabi and nowhere else. Oliver should just say, okay, go to Abu Dhabi. I'm not going. Okay, I'm not going. I don't want to go there.

And then he just fights the winner. Like, it's fine. It's fine. Whatever happens with this, we can't get upset. We just can't. It'll all work out. Everyone who has earned rights to a title shot, we'll all get their chance.

They'll all get it. But if Volkadovsky gets it first, I don't think anyone's going to be too mad about it. Fab! Make sure you on mute, Fab. Hey, what's going on, Mike? Good morning to you. Good morning, sir.

Hey, we met at the Aero-Hawani three-pack meetup at the ARIA sportsbook, man. I just wanted to, you know, just say hello, man. And glad to see you made it back safe. Love the conversation going on now, man. And just taking a quick left turn. Oh, a quick shout out to Crystal. I saw energized show in here. My homies, mad love to them.

Quick question for you, taking the left turn from the Volcanovsky chat. Brian Barbarina, man, he puts on a great show, showcase, and not just showcase, just great performance against Robbie Lawler. What do you think is next for him, man? And I guess him coming training out of Gastonia, not far from Charlotte, you know. I'm definitely keen and then looking out for him. So, yeah, that's my question. Again, man, I know you're in South Carolina, too, man.

So maybe I'll see you around. I'll see you at that Maswood I'll show too man all the best thanks man yeah I will be I will probably be out there I think Jed I think Jed Mishu is going to join me out there uh Mazadal's icon FC is going to be in savannah Georgia August 5th and that's like 15 minutes from my house so I think we're going to go out and check that out support the regional circuits I feel like that I that's how I made my career and it's been a while since I've been able to come have a regional show or like a non-UFC non-Belitor type of show. So I'll be excited to go and check that out.

But yeah, Brian Barberina, great fight with Robbie Lawler. It's everything he expected it to be, everything we all expected it to be. Kind of fell for Robbie at the end. If there's one moment where I was just like, oh, man, I didn't need to see that. It was just Robbie just on the stool like that. It had to be helped down. There's just a crazy fight, crazy finish. Good win for Brian Barbarina.

I think Brian's pretty realistic with where he wants to go. He called up. He didn't really call anybody out. He's just like, I want just bangers. So give me Nico Price. Give me Ponziabio. Give me those types of guys. Ponsadibio seems like a fine fight.

I think that makes all the sense in the world. But yeah, just fun scraps. That's all the man's looking for. He's not calling for title fights. not getting too crazy. I just want to get in crazy brawls. And there are plenty of guys at 170 give them crazy brawls.

Let's go to Rips and picks. So we get Rips and Picks? What's up, man? How are you doing, Mike? Thanks for bringing me on. Of course. I just kind of want to throw it out

just because we just keep talking about Volk. Everyone just keeps talking about him going up to 55, seeing what's next for that title. I mean, Max Holloway. That guy is 30 years old. That guy is so young. I can't even believe the things he's accomplished at his age already. We'd just love to hear what you think his next plan is.

I mean, do you think he stays at 45? You think he goes to 55? What do you think his next move is? Thank you, Rips and Picks. There's lots of options for both those guys. Lots of options for Volcanovsky. We've laid all those out. And there's lots for Holloway as well.

Holloway could just, Holloway could do everything from fighting Justin Gaichie at 155 to just not fighting at all ever again and all of them are fine, all of them make sense and all of them would be lucrative. Max Holloway is a star outside of the UFC. Like if Max Hollowe retired in three years, he's still going to be a star. There'll be a star in the video gaming world.

It'll be a star in other sectors of the world in the entertainment industry. Max is just a very likable guy and he's a professional and he does things very well and people just love the guy and I get it. I mean, he just brings an energy to the table. Who did which fighter on the UFC 276 car did a better job promoting their fight in making things more interesting? Sean Stirk did a great job. But Max Holloway, in terms of the way people viewed fights and then people change their picks throughout the week, Nobody did that more than Max Holloway.

Most people coming in thought Volcanovsky's just going to win another decision. Max Holloway showed up at Media Day. Max Holloway showed up to the press conference. He had people changing their picks. He had people changing the way they viewed the fight. Max Holloway actually predicting going, he was going to go out there and finish Volcanovsky,

had people changing everything on how they viewed the fight. Max is a showman. Max can make you change. Max evokes emotion. And that's what makes him popular. That's what makes him a star. So Maxi do whatever he wants, really. He's 30, but he's like 50 in fighting years.

He's just been in some incredible wars. Look at the guys he's fought. Look at the guys he's been in that octagon with. He's been in there with everybody. And he's only 30. So it's just whatever, honestly, like this seems like such a fancy answer, but he literally could do whatever he wants. he could stay at 45 and just fight new blood

just fight people that would make him excited there's lots of up-and-coming guys at 45 that would probably get Holloway excited he could go fight Joshette like if the UFC offered Josh Emmett Max Holloway right now instead of the title shot you'd think he'd be that upset about that probably not I think he'd be okay with that there's lots of ways you can go with this

he can go to 55 fight Porre again he can fight Connor again I want to see him and Justin Gaichi at some point. Both guys, you could just tell Gaichi doesn't have a lot left in him. Holloway is just, I don't know. I don't know how much Holloway has left in him. It's just, for Holloway, it's just about challenging himself.

He just wants to fight the toughest guys and give himself a challenge. If he's going to keep going, it's going to be something where the juice is worth to squeeze. So just give me Holloway, Justin Gaichie. That's the fight I want to see. I have to see it before both guys right off into the sunset. Holloway, Gachy, let's go.

Let's go to... Hey, Mike, good morning. Good morning. It was cool to have met you at Beer House on Friday. So I just wanted to recognize that. So I have mixed emotions about this Adasanya thing going on because was it a dud? Yes. I fell asleep watching the fight.

but I mean what really can you can you blame him for only his what I think is his promotion of you know I'm going to show off I don't care about the record and whatnot like yeah I get that but I mean how many fighters you know that say that and I mean I'm pretty sure Mayweather at one point said he doesn't knock people out and did you really believe that but I think us as MMA fans are used to, you know, sloppy, non-technical striking. And Autosnia is an elite sophisticated striker. And sophistication is, you know, not risking being technical, seeing his shots, picking his shots, and not putting himself at risk, essentially.

And just like, you know, it reminds me of Valentina Shevchenko, you know, she knocked Jessica eye out, but then all of a sudden she was a knockout artist, and once she won by decision and just picked her opponents apart, and she was back to being boring, and it's just, I don't think we're used to having that sophistication in our sport that, that, you know, you start throwing, you know, hate on somebody who's that much better at a specific discipline. So it just makes me think of that, and even then if people are going to hate on Adisania, turn against them, it's not going to change anything, because, you're either going to watch him in saying that he's going to knock people out.

And so you tune in and then he doesn't start doing it. So now you're just going to watch him hopefully lose. And so it doesn't really change anything. You're still going to watch. And the people that say that they're not going to watch are liars. So I don't know. What do you think about that? Thanks, man.

I mean, that's it. Just you touched on something that's very important to remember here. All the greats, all of the greats, all of those. have had non-exciting fights. GSP had a lot of duds, but he won and won dominantly. Habib's, I mean, the stretch at the end, when he was out there finishing guys,

they were, had a lot of boring decisions, or at least they were viewed as boring decisions. They were dominant, but they reviewed as boring decisions. Everyone has had them. John Jones had some. Anderson Silva had some. Even Valentina Shavchenko's had some not all that thrilling

battles and you know what I mean? Like it happens. It happens. It is so hard. It is so difficult to be a UFC champion, especially a long-reining one because you have all these expectations you have to hit. You have to try to sell it.

You have to deal with an opponent who's probably been preparing for you in one way or another for the last several years. even though if they were fighting other people. And then on top of that, they have to bring a certain game plan that you think they're going to bring. And if they don't,

all the things that you promise or say you think are going to happen, like just kind of flies out the window. Now, in this case, I think Adasani expected Canada Air to bring a much different style to the table, a much more drawing style, try to make the fight a little more dirty. And Canaanair turned it into a kickbox.

boxing match, which Adasania is going to say to himself every time, okay, you want to play that game? I'm not going to say no to it. You're falling right into my, you're just giving me a win. So go ahead. Trying to get the dog. But yeah, I mean, you can't

like, like I said, you can't sit here and be like, oh, Adasania is a boring fighter. You can't do that. No. The correct answer is he needs a foil. He needs somebody who's just going to bring that out of him. And as a challenger, trying to fight a guy that got Asani, it's not easy to do. It's not easy to do. You get the lights on you. You could tell on Wednesday at the

media day, Canineer was not comfortable with any of it. He wasn't comfortable with any of it. He was a little nervous in there. The whole thing, having the bright lights on him, it's not for everybody. It's not for everybody. And you can't just say, nah, I'm not going to go to Media Day. Nah, I'm not going to go to the press conference. I don't feel like it. You have to do all that stuff. And if you're not comfortable, like you have to be able to feed into all of it in some way. and Canaanere hated it. You can tell Wednesday, media day, not happy to be there.

It's just not for everybody. And Adasania loves it. Loves all of it. Let's go to Terrence. I want to get a few more of these in before I got to get out of here. Terrence, what's up, buddy? Up back in, Terrence.

I don't know what happened there. Let's go to Motivated Andy. What's up, buddy? Yeah. So for me, the whole, Izzy thing. It was a boring fight. I mean, it is what it is.

You just said it. Everybody's going to have a boring fight. I think the thing that got solidified, though, is that, to me, at least, he's not pound for pound over Volkinovsky. After Saturday, the one thing that was solidified, at least from my viewing experience, was that Volkinovsky is pound for pound number one. I think the only critical thing that you can say of Izzy is he. is just that he's just not number one pound for pound.

I just find myself, because he's so cringe and he does oversell himself a little too much. It's kind of grating. But again, it happens to everybody. Yeah, it was a boring fight. Yeah, I did fall asleep during it. But it doesn't matter. He still won.

He still got the bank. He's still going to fight Alex Perjada for a giant bag. It's just in terms of I view it how everybody else views it and you're just not pound for pound number one. And I think Izzy is just, I don't know, I just don't like a lot of his rhetoric, especially like after the post-fight press conference

when he was like, oh, I can do this, you can never do this, I could be a reporter, you can never be able to. It's the easiest thing that everybody in America at any point, I'm going to be a fighter. I don't know. That just wrecked me the wrong way. Good morning, everybody else.

Later, Mike. Thanks. Thanks, buddy. Yeah. Listen, I think a lot of that stemmed from, like, one particular reporter who is in there. I won't name names. And I honestly have no idea, but Volkadovsky had pointed out this reporter. And I think Adasani was just sort of piggybacking on top of that.

The whole pound for pound thing, I think even Adasania would tell you that Volcanofski's is better pound for pound than he is. He took some time during his post-fight press conference to just sing Volcanowski's crazes and talk about how great of a performance that was. And out of the sudden, he is still, even with that performance, still top five pound for pounds.

I hate even talking about pound for pound, but like at certain points, you just have to, we get to points where these conversations need to happen. And I think Alexander Volkadovsky, what he did, that performance he had against that level of competition. I mean, he's, he's the guy right now. He's the guy. And sometimes it's just,

it's just timing that helps settle these arguments and put these questions out for all of us to answer, right? Because for a while, the big reason Usman jumped up to number one was, yeah, he was winning fights, but he was also active. He was fighting a lot. And he was getting finishes. He's doing things like, let's not, let's not forget. Usman beat, who's been won a bunch of rematches in this whole stretch two wins over Mazadol, two wins over Covington,

Gilbert Burns, that's where we're at right now. That's where we're at. And he struggled with Colby. There's still people I talked to who thought Colby won that second fight. Volk doesn't create, like,

it's just, it's just subjective. And we haven't seen Usen in a while. It's not like Usen's been out for two years, but at, like, During that stretch, Volkadovsky's already got two title defenses under his belt. So the activity really counts in these conversations, which is why even if, like, if Uspen goes out there and beats Leon August 20th

and does so just any way probably sneaks back up there. It's just, it's a game of inches. It's like going to the carnival and you're playing the game where you're rolling the ball into the holes of the numbers on them. And every time it goes in, the horse moves a little bit up. That's what, that's what this pound-for-pound conversation is like between these, It's a two-horse race. It's these two guys.

And then, of course, Adisani's in there. Francis Aganu's in there. And there's other fighters in there as well. But right now, it's a two-horse race. It's Volcanofskian, and it's Usman, and it's nobody else. It's those two guys. Terrence. Let's try us again.

All right. Gotcha. Perfect. How you doing this morning? Good. So, yeah, I wanted to talk about, I thought it was hilarious. Like, after you had love from, like, the post-fight show. Jet went on his, like, spew, I wish he was in here.

It was hilarious. He was wanting about, like, the fight and stuff like that, pretty much like everything. And A.K. Lee and everybody else was given pretty much the same points that you were given. Like, it takes two, and Jared didn't go for it. So I thought it was funny because he's, like, the betting person, and he had a ticket on Val. And he put all his money on Val, basically. And as a better, you want, like, the easy and for sure. win and he like praises vow but he was like shitting on izzie so i thought that was hilarious so if it was you would you rather have had izzie's ticket uh or would you have rather have had

um vows ticket the other thing i want to talk about is far as like a matchmaking i thought you guys were going to go live so i didn't like submit my picks but as far as like macy barbara um out of know if you can match me for Tatiana Suarez, but I think that would be like the matchup to make, one, because I think Tatiana will win. And then as well, I can see her fight in Santos, I believe is later, for last name. And then from there, the winner will get Valentina. And then I just want to see Izzy fight Chris Pat because of the fact that he was talking so much shit. And I think that Jared should complete his transformation and drop down the one. 170. I know it's not possible because he's older, but I think it would be hilarious of him going

from heavyweight to Walter weight and being successful and getting a knockout in all of those weight classes. That's all I got for today, Mike. Thank you very much. Thanks, buddy. So I'm trying to figure out the ticket question. I assume maybe from like a betting perspective, but I'll go, I mean, I would have definitely taken the Adasani ticket over the valetian ticket. Because that The Israel ticket, you didn't sweat at all. Like, it may not have been the most thrilling thing to watch, but you didn't sweat for a second.

There's not one point. There's not one point in that main event on Saturday where you're like, okay, Canada Air might actually win this fight. There's no point at that that I felt that Canada was going to win. There was just, wow. It was just a puzzling strategy. And there are certain points where Canada Air would try to push Adasani against the cage and maybe go for a takedown.

Adasani would just avoid This fight's done. The story's been written. We know it's going to happen. It's Dunzo. Adizani wins. Now with the Shepchenko one, we were like, oh my God, could she actually lose this fight?

Jed went all in. Jed bit every dollar he had on Chichenko. And that's a sweaty one. I'd be sweating bullets. Be freaking out the whole time. So yeah, it's Adasania. For Macy, I wouldn't throw in there at Tatsiana, that's for sure.

I'd say the loser of maybe Lauren Murphy, Misha Tate. Something to that effect. Yeah, that's probably where I would go. I'd give Macy Joanne Wood. I think that'd probably be the way to go, but Joanne's taking some time off. So, I mean, if Misha beats Laura Murphy, July 16th, I think that would, I think

B.C. Barbara Lauren Murphy would make sense. We'll see how these fights play out. All right, I'm going to take a few more. Viking M.MA, four-corner sports. Emilio, we're going to take as many as I can in the next 10 minutes. Viking. Hello. Hello, Mike. Hello. What's up?

I just want to ask two questions. One is that about weight, veins. So fighter makes weight for the veins to get it into the fight, and then at the day of fight, he weighs more than his actual weight class. If it's that true, then you see the circus and there is no discipline at all. And it's just business like WWA, in my opinion. And there is no discipline if that's true. And the other thing is I just want to know how Cyril Garn lost that fight with the new rules against Francis and Gano.

And one more thing. Whenever Alexander Volkonowski finds that elite-level grappler opponent, he's going to fall 100% thank you very much wow Viking Viking bringing the heat Viking what takes galore today I like it I like where you're coming from the way cut it like the the whole way in thing

I mean I don't know if I understand where the the lack of discipline comes from these are just guys who are cutting like an incredible amount of weight So when they show up on fight night, a lot of these guys are like 20 or 30 pounds over. And it's not because they're like undisciplined. It's just that's just how health and nutrition and body works.

When you cut all that weight and then you drink water. Like I guarantee you like Volcanowski cut made 145 or whatever it was. And I bet two hours later he was 157 because he actually had a meal and drank a bunch of water. So I mean, that's that's just what happens in these types of situations. Volcanovsky, he's been in there with with high-level grapplers and jiu-jitsu players. He's been in there with Brian Ortega, and Brian had him in about as much trouble as anybody could put you in. And he still found a way to win in one, four rounds of that fight. He's been in there with Chad Mendez who could wrestle his ass off, and he knocked Chad Mendez out in the second round.

Darren Elkins can wrestle. Beat him. Jeremy Kennedy could wrestle. Beat him. He's been in there with guys who could wrestle. Islam's a different story. I get that. He's been in there with guys who could wrestle and grapple,

and he's won all of these fights. He's won 21 fights in a row. 22 fights in a row, excuse me. He's 12 and 0 in the UFC. This is not Connor McGregor here. This is not, oh, wait until he fights a grappler. Wait until he fights this guy. No, he's fought a ball.

He's won 22 and or he's 12 and 0 in the UFC. Come on. Now, fighting Islam is a different story. If he beats Islam Akachaf, then what are you going to say? There's nothing left you can say. But, yeah, I mean, Islam is just, it's a different level of grappler. If he beats Islam, you're going to be like, oh, well, if you fought Habib, he wouldn't win that fight. I like where you're coming from Viking M.A.

But he has fought grapplers. He's fought high-level grapplers. Chad Mendez is a high-level grappler, and he bolted him in less than 10 minutes. At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak startup funding and comprehensive game plans. We've mastered made-to-measure growth and expansion advice, and we can talk your ear-off about transferring your business when the time comes. Because at Desjardin business, we speak the same language you do.

Business. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us. And contact Desjardin today. We'd love to talk. Business. Okay, four quarter sports. What's up, buddy? Mike, so I wanted to talk about the co-mean event and the main event.

So none of us are ever going to, you know, ridicule Max Holloway because he actually tried. And Volcanowski was just his speed, his timing, his accuracy was just next level. And I mean, we never seen somebody, you know, heard up Max in that type of way where Max couldn't really have any answers. the thing that we like we get we're kind of like pissed off about the main event is like yeah we can blame out of sanya but i agree with you can neer like when you're in a title shot like you got to want it and it just seemed like he was just standing around just trying to you know like you said stand in the kickboxing match with uh with izzie which isy which is a terrible matchup right there and it just seemed like he didn't want it i mean i think i gave him that one round but i mean you could even argue it could have been just 5045 for izzie And, yeah, I just think, Canaanir, that might be the last time that he gets a title shot, barring, you know, something crazy. But you guys are talking about Volcanowski. To be honest, I mean, I favor him against, like, guys like Justin Gingchi,

Dustin Porrier. But to be honest, like Olivero, Makachev, even, you know, somebody like a Matuch-Gamron. Like, I would actually favor them over. Volkanowski and that's not going to say anything about Volkanowski, but it'd be very interesting to see what he could do against the guys like Oliver and Mokachev. I would say he's not going to get 50-45, but I guess you'll give him a run for their money. But I also want to get your thoughts on the comments that Khabib says that they're willing to go to Brazil, Makhchap versus Olivero. And if Olivera wins, Oliver says he's going to call out Khabib. Will Khabib actually

come out of retirement, you think? Or you think he's in a just staking retirement? All right. Thanks, Mike, and have a good one. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I think Gameraat's probably a stretch for Volica for being honest, but I get where you're coming from. Oliver, the author, the Olivera fight really interests me because Oliver on this run that he's been on,

he's been fighting guys who will just inflict, who will just bring absolute chaos. his way. And we've seen Olivera. And what's, what I've enjoyed so much about this Olivera run was that there was this narrative surrounding him for years and he was a quitter that when McGulling got tough, he would fold and throw in the proverbial towel. And it turns out that everybody was wrong about that. And somehow, some way, even heading into the D'Suporier fight, heading into the Justin Gachie fight, it was still that narrative there. Oh, Gage's got a hurt of. and then he'll quit.

And it turns out like everybody was wrong. They still say that about Olivera. He fights these guys who just bring chaos to him and he thrives in the chaos. And he's done very well in the chaos. He hasn't had like a patient tactical fight in a long time. And that's why we've enjoyed these Olivera fights so much because he's answered those questions.

He's called, he's basically called bullshit on that quitting narrative. And with Volcanowski, it will be the least chaotic fight he's had in like years we'll have to see a tactical

side of Charles Olivera like a very intelligent smart tactical Olivera and we know that guy is in there somewhere but we just haven't seen it in so long because we haven't needed to because when he fights Chandler and Porre and Geichy

and all these guys it's just all in out chaos and Volcanowski's just not a chaotic fighter. He's a thinking man's fighter, still exciting in his own way, but turning it into a mental chess match. It's been so long since Oliver has been in a fight like that.

Everything is just like, oh, God, it's reaction, reaction, reaction, going through the fire. And Volcanovsky just brings a different kind of fire, which makes that fight really interesting. The Habib thing, I mean, I think we're all kind of in agreement. If there's anybody at this point that's going to get Habeb out of retirement, it's probably Olavera,

but Oliver is going to win probably like four or five more fights before that could happen. I don't think we're ever going to see Halbib again, but if there's anybody that might be able to get him out, it's Olivera, just if we're talking about records and things like that, like if he beats Mokachev and maybe wins another two more, maybe. But I just, I honestly think Halib's done. Like, I believe him when he's, he says he's done. There's nothing more he needs to do. He's done everything. He's got money.

He's got the big wins. He's, he fought Connor McGregor and finished him. Like, what else does this guy need to do? His legacy is set. I just don't know what else he needs to do. I don't know if anything can really entice him to come out of retirement, especially for the reason why he retired. But, yeah. And then again, with the out-asadio thing, takes two to tango. Everybody wants to be the champion, right? When you come into the sport, everybody wants to be. the champion. But then you have to realize what being the champion is all about. It's not just about, you don't just fight and put a belt around your ways. You have to deal with the lights. You have to deal with the glitz and glamour. You have to deal with the media. You have to deal with

all of that. You can't just fight and be a champion. You have to do everything that comes with being a champion. You become a face of the organization. You represent the company. You represent your weight class, you represent your sport. And on top of that, you have to get, you have to convince people to spend their hard earned money to watch you fight. It's not easy to do. That's why very few people have become massive stars in the sport. It's not easy. And everybody wants to be the champion until it's time to become the champion. And then you realize, damn, there's a lot more to this than I thought there's going to be. And you could tell on Wednesday at the Media Day that Canineer was like, wow, this is a lot more than I bargained for.

And Adasania loves it. Throw him in a media day. He's fine. He's fine. And I will say, someone mentioned this earlier and I will say this again. The last thing about that press conference, I understand why some people are mad. You can't do my job. None of you can do my job, but I can do yours tomorrow.

He probably could have done without that line. I think I understood where he was going with it. but again, Adasanya is just, he's just so good at what he does, but he's not going to take any risks. If you're not going to, if you're not going to put him in a risky situation,

he's not going to, he's not going to do anything he doesn't need to do. You want to have a kickboxing match with him? He's just going to have a kickboxing match. You want to turn to a brawl? He's ready for it. But you have to bring it to him. You have to bring him that.

But if you're going to fight his fight, he's not going to veer away from him. Why would you? That's why I don't understand why he's getting so much crap over the performance. Like, you can't take it all. It's not all on him. It's on Canaanere, too.

It's more on him. It's more on Jared than it is on Izzy. All right, those of you who were requested, we're going to get you all in real quick, but I can't take any more after these five. Amelia, what's up? Yo, it was good, Mike, heck of a morning to you. First of all, I want to thank you

for doing the Lord's work last week. It was, it's great. I'm personally really, really looking. forward to that Henry Sehudo interview. I hope that you... Oh, I know, man. That was like the biggest bummer of the week because I didn't get that opportunity.

No, don't do that to me. Oh, okay. It didn't happen, man. He was no show on Saturday at the radio row. He's on the list, but he wasn't there. Oh, my God. Well, you know what? Sometimes some things are just not meant to be.

I think that... I'm trying, though. I'm trying some behind-the-scenes stuff to try to make it happen. Well, I wish you all the best with that. You're an animal. You're a relentless animal, and I know that you will get it sooner or later. And I will definitely be there to tune in. Anyways, I've got three points that I want to talk about.

First and foremost, though, and I'm really, really, really upset. about this and that is just Joe Rogan's comments during the broadcast concerning what happened with Pedro and Sean and the eye poke. I mean, this is going to sound like a stretch, but I think that Joe Rogan is one of the things that is wrong in the modern UFC. as a commentator he is sometimes incredibly unprofessional especially you can't just go around implying that a fighter like Pedro Muñoz

who like everybody has already said everybody in the MMA fighting like pretty much everybody in MMA media or a lot of people who know what they're talking about know that there's no way in hell that he wanted out did the optics of the situation, no pun intended, look a little bit weird, you know, because Pedro basically, like,

he knew immediately that his eye was just absolutely effed up and that even if he got five minutes, that that wouldn't do anything. Sure, it definitely looks a little bit weird. But my God, I mean, the guy's so out of touch with just reality. Hey, I mean, to be fair to him, I would also be out of touch with reality

if I was just you know Scrooge McDuck dipping on a on a pool full of gold coins you know that's Spotify money but I think that he's very overrated yeah also you want to know a good idea

for a drinking game like to get absolutely smashed drink a sip not even a shot drink a sip of your drink every time like just watch a pay-per-view doesn't matter which one and drink a sip every time Joe says he's hurt or oh he rocked him or oh whatever Jesus yeah it's it's it's a highway straight straight to the straight to the hospital pretty much um second of all I think that I'm I'm surprised that

nobody brought it up so far because you know about the whole isy situation I think what's bothering what robbed people the wrong ways. Not so much that he just went out and won because at the end of the day, wins matter. And that's what builds a legacy. But I think what

rub people the wrong way, what rub myself the wrong way is that he went on this tour to force of like I am going to smash this guy. I'm going to clean the floor with him. I mean, I can't remember exactly what he said,

but, you know, he said, like, show, he was going to show up and show off and all these things, and you guys are getting a finish, blah, blah, blah. And then it didn't happen. So in a way, I would imagine, Mike, that if you got, like, some salesperson knocking on your door and was selling you something, whatever, you know, like, look at this. look at this pencil. It's going to write for you, you know? Like it's got that basic function.

You're like, oh, okay. So I'm expecting because the salesman told me that this is what's going to happen, and I want to trust him. Okay. And you also take a look at, is he's record? I mean, he's had highlight real finishes before. Therefore, there's evidence that he is capable of that. Therefore, your pencil is going to write.

It's going to work. And then you sit down And as Jed Mishu likes to say You decide to write a book Because you're not watching I don't know PFL or Bellator or whatever And

And then you want to try in writing with your pen And it turns out that it doesn't write You get understandably upset So I just wanted to put that argument out there It's not so much that he just did what he had to do It's the way that he went about it and that he promised that he was going to clean house. I am also going to admit,

cannoneer is definitely to blame. I mean, come on, like, that's probably your one and only shot that he has left in the tank for the rest of his career. Kind of sad that he couldn't really, you know, push himself to get knocked out. I mean, get knocked out or knock, is he out? You know what I mean?

And finally, and this is a proper question. What was for you the most cringe-inducing moment of the week? So I got two options. It's either Izzy saying the Frozen Line twice, not once, twice, or Leon trying to grab Camaro's belt at the press conference and then just kind of grabbing his hand. Yeah, that's it, Mike. Thank you so much for everything.

that you do and that you did last week. Looking forward to the other interviews that will hopefully be released soon. Also, don't, trying to get too disappointed about the Henry thing. We live to fight another day. You're going to get that little guy at some point. And that's it.

I wish you a heck of a morning. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I mean, I, Listen, I understand where a lot of you are coming from. The Izzy thing, here's it I'll say. One, buyer beware. I think that's like a rule in life, buyer beware. Two, if it's a pencil you're looking for and Adasani is selling you this pencil,

like you still have to sharpen the pencil before I can write. And the sharpening of the pencil is Jared Kaded Air. Someone has to go to the pencil sharpener and actually put the pencil in the sharpener. And then it has to work. otherwise, like if you don't plug in the pencil sharpen the pencil, I mean, there's manual ones, but who wants to do that? You want to hear the sound, you want to hear the electricity. So

everything has to work in sync for all of it to work. You have to sharpen the pencil for it could write. So if you buy a pencil, it's supposed to write by itself, you don't sharpen it, then it ain't going to do anything. And that's the problem. And that's the whole like, honestly, I've said this before. I don't blame Canon Air for this because it's hard. It's not easy. Everybody wants to be the champion until it's time to become the champion. And then

you realize what it is like to be a champion and some people love that some people are just like this sucks this is not what i thought it was going to be it's like when you go on it it's it's just it's it's it's just not for everybody that's why there's so few champions in the sport it's not for everyone and there's a lot that comes with it some people are great at it and want to be it and some just realize on fight week this sucks and i don't want to be the champion most cringeworthy thing of the week. I mean, it probably is the El Saline, but I'm not,

I did, the doubling down the Lassal line was probably bad. I will, let me just say this, okay? Let me just say this about Henry Sehudo. I actually think he did something right this week. And I don't say that very often.

Because, and I'm not talking about the whole Aljo thing, because we all know how phony baloney, all that stuff is. Because Aljo's in on it as well. And I think Aljo's kind of brainwashed by the whole situation. But Henry Suhudo calling out Sean O'Malley and doing it the way that he did

and actually calling for a fight with somebody, like to actually fight, that was great. That was great. I like that idea. And if I'm Sean O'Malley, I am going, I'm not doing the rematch with Pedro. I'm fighting Henry Sehudo.

That's exactly what you should be doing. Because if you fight Henry Sehudo and you win, that's massive. It's gigantic, and you're win at worst. You're one win away from fighting for the title. And if you lose to Henry Suhudo, it's fine. This is a two-division champion. This is an Olympic gold medalist.

This is one of the best combat sports athletes ever. And I'm still kind of relatively new in this sport. I'm a young man. It's a win-win for O'Malley. If I'm O'Malley, I am campaigning for that fight. 100%. But actually that Suhuda did something right there. Maybe the timing wasn't great.

But I prefer that way more than the Volcanovsky thing at the end. 100%. So good on Henry Sehudo. And if I'm Sean O'Malley, I'm taking that fight. All right. Semi-Casual M.A. You are up. I'm going to take you, Kalecki, Kfe, and J.

Okay? Because you guys are waiting. And then I got to get out of here. All right, semi-casual. It's not working for some reason. Try again. Kalecki, let's get you in here. Kolecki are you there.

Make sure you're on mute. There we go. All right. Yeah, I got you. All right. Good morning, everybody. Hope everybody's doing well. Mike, God bless you for the work you do.

I just want to be clear on something. You've been touched on, but let's be honest. If somebody has the belt and you're challenging, you need to go for it. You don't stand in the ring waiting for something that happened. That's literally what Jared did. I was a fan of Jared all the way up to this fight. As far as I'm concerned, most disappointing fight ever for Jared because he had ice in his knees and ice in his ankles. He could not move for whatever reason, whatever it was, he couldn't shake it off.

So for those who are angry at Izzy, I'll tell you, go watch a whole bunch of video on GSP and see how you feel after that. Sean and Pedro, I do get what you're talking about with him fighting Henry, but I think they should run it back. this nobody wants their fight to end that way so whether he does it after fighting henry or before henry they really deem to get a fight back i was really excited to see how that would um pan out um wokenowski pound for pound conversation is kind of weird um not exactly sure where to put that let's be honest his last fight against um against max was razor thin it doesn't matter who you believe won. It wasn't like he just completely smashed Max in that fight.

Now, this weekend, he did, but the one before that, not quite. So I think the bigger question would be really what, who would Max fight that would be worth his time? No matter how many up-and-comers that we have in 145, would it be worth Max's time, though? I don't know. I have a request. if we could stop Uriah Hall from ever entering the octagon, I'll be one of the happiest

fight fans in the world. Nobody wants to talk about it, but I'm going to call it out. He needs to stay out of the dog on the octagon. And yeah, just there. He needs to stop fighting. He's the biggest waste of potential I've seen in combat sports. I know we're short in time, so I'm going to kind of pin things right there. God bless you and hope everybody has a great week.

Yeah, I'm with you on the Canaan Air thing. He deserves the lion's share of the blame here. But I also understand why people are like, I have to spend 75 bucks to watch Is your Auditza on your fight. This is the fight we got. Listen, I get it. It's not cheap to be an MMA fan. It's tough, especially this stretch right now,

because you're asking fans who want to watch everything to spend $225 to watch three pay-per-views in a two-month span. So I get it. And then you're looking at these next two pay-per-views. They're not tremendous. Like, this is the one. Like, if you looked at this card 277 and 278,

and you're like, I have budgeted my money a certain way where I can buy one of these cards and you chose Saturday's card. And that's how it ended. Listen, I get it. I get it. But to come out and blame Adasanya solely for that is just wrong. And it's just not true. true. And I'll say this again. I don't blame

Canineer. Everybody wants to be the champion until it's time to become the champion. And you realize what being a champion is all about. If it was as easy as just getting in there fighting and then maybe the belts around your waist, maybe it's not. That's one thing. And I think Canineer, if he just showed up Saturday and fought without doing any of the other stuff, maybe we're looking at a different fight on Saturday. But I think Canaaner got thrown into the fire, media day, press conference, all that stuff, being in the spotlight. And I don't think he liked it. I don't think he liked it at all.

I'm not saying that the fight's totally different if that doesn't happen. But I think when you get a glimpse of what being a champion's all about, it can mess with you a little bit. So while I will say this, we're going to, you don't blame just out of sign yet. The Canada undershires the lion's share of the blame. But I also understand that as non-fighters, it's high. to do that, but it is sports. So, I mean, listen, I'm all over the place here, but that's what I mean by that.

The Pedro thing with O'Malley, I mean, sure, if you're Pedro, you want that one back. But if they don't do that, fine as well. There's other fights for Pedro. There's other fun up-and-coming 135ers that he could fight. There's other matchups. You can do a rematch with Rob Fonts. You can still fight.

You can fight Adrienneas. It's just a fun fights you could do at 135. You want to get that one back if you can get it, great, but if the UFC just moves away from this altogether, I could see them just moving away from it. And if you're Sean O'Malley, if you're shot O'Malley, if you fight Pedro, cool, but if I'm him, I'm pushing for the Suhudo fight. For sure.

All right, let's get these last three in real quick. Semicasual, K-Fay-J. Semic casual, go. Hey, Mike, real quick, Ricky Terseo's fighting this week. Where do you see you ceiling in the sport? Thank you. Ricky's a good fighter, man. and he's got he's one hell of a personality ceiling wise i don't know i think it's too soon too early

to answer that question but i'm excited to see him fighting kfei kfei 4-7 there you go a morning heck of a week thank you for all you did yo uh my question is more of a pick uh i think it's going to be Connor olivaara and i think that if volkinovsky moves up he's going to have to fight mokachev happy birthday okay Yeah, it just depends on what we're going to do this title fight. It's all, it's all, it's all, it's all timing here. For all there to get the Connor fight, I think he's going to have to fight. I think he's going to have to fight Machinchev at October.

I think that's how the UFC is going to really try to sell this fight to him. He's going to be like, no, I want Connor. And the UFC's going to say, no. And then their compromise will be, listen. If you fight Mockachev and win, I guarantee your next fight is Connor. They put that in running somehow. I think that's the best chance we get that fight in October. But again, if I'm Alvara, I'm not going to Abu Dhabi.

Not the fight is on Mokachev. That's for damn sure. I'll wait. I'll wait and fight for the title. All right, Jay, take us home. Good morning, man. Yep. Two quick things.

First, I'm pretty sure. you know, but Josh Emmett had like a really bad experience at UFC 276 and he was like really disappointed and frustrated by it. And Yuri Faber came out and saying that he was also disappointed that he's going to talk to Dana White and Hunter Campbell about it. But do you think the UFC honestly really cares if they complain about it because every fighter wants special treatment when they go to an event. And so I think doing this is probably going to make them less likely to give Emmett that title shot by just knowing them about this. And the second thing is kind, maybe, might be a hot take, but I honestly think Cater versus Emmett,

top to bottom was a better card in 276. If I knew like the outcomes between both the cards, I would definitely rather spend my $75 on Cater versus Emmett. So thanks, Mike. And thanks for all the coverage you were doing this week. And have back from morning, man. Thanks, Jay. Yeah, the Emmett thing was interesting.

I just feel like, I don't know. Like, I kind of get where Faber's, like, this is what Faber should be saying in this. position being the coach slash co-manager slash friends, teammate, et cetera. Like if you're your eye favor and you don't tell the story and say what you're saying, you're not doing your job correctly. So I get it. Listening to the story and how this all plays out, I think, I don't know.

I don't even know if I want to comment, but I'll just say like my initial thoughts were. And I don't know if this is how I'm going to land. but my initial thoughts are, I think expectations were a little too high, a little too high. You know what I mean? Like Paheda, main event, right? Main event, we see Alex Paheda sitting cage side watching the main event between Israel-A-Sahnia and Jared Kennedy. We know why, right? 100%.

After Alex Pahedda knocked out Sean Strickland, there were no other options. This is the guy. This guy's fighting for the title unequivocally. There's nothing that's going to get in the way of this fight happening. Barring injury or something crazy, there is nothing that is going to stop this fight from happening. The Josh Emmett situation, Josh is in the conversation, but no one is going to come out and say, I'm going to bet $1,000 that Josh Emmett's going to fight for the title next. No one's saying that because no one is convinced outside of Emmett and his,

team that he's getting the title fight. Now, did they invite Josh Emmett out to Las Vegas to take part of an international fight week and go watch the fights? Sure. But I just, I don't see a world where the UFC is like, Josh, hey, welcome to Las Vegas. You're going to sit cage side for this featherway title fight. Why would they do that? Why would they do that?

Now, sending Josh Emmett up to the balcony to watch the card, is a little strange. I don't know. But I just, Emmett, very few people came into Saturday saying, like, the winner that fights definitely fighting Josh Abbott for the title.

Like, Josh Emmett is definitely next in line. No one's saying that. Like, it's, I'm curious, like, how the conversations went,

but I'm not like, I don't know. To me, it just sounded like, the UFC told Josh, like, and I'd love to talk to Josh about this. But it just seems to me like, they were like, yeah, Josh, come out, come out, watch the fights.

And in his mind, it's, oh, yeah, I'm sitting Caged side to watch the main event. And I'm going to be on the broadcast. Maybe I'll do commentary with Joe Rogan and D.C. When in reality, it's just like, hey, come watch the fights. I don't know. I have to learn more about it, but to me, it just seems like expectations were a little unrealistic. At least this is just initial that. And I'm going to say, I don't know what the conversations were like.

I don't know what happened. But there's a difference to eat Alex Paheda sitting cage side for the made event. And Josh Emmett not sitting cage side for the featherweight title play. Because Josh may have beat Calvin Cater, but at the same token, no one, there are some people who think that Josh should get the title shot. But it's not overwhelmingly unanimous that he should be the guy. So I don't know. I'd have to talk to both sides to get the actual answer. But to me, it just sounds like expectations were a little bit unrealistic for that whole thing.

but either way, it seems like Josh has done a little bit dirty, and I feel bad for the band, but it just seems like, I don't know, it just seems like him sitting caged side watching that fight when that puzzle still has pieces to be put in there, especially when there's a big fight coming up

in less than two weeks from right now. And I'm still convinced that if Yaya Rodriguez beats Brian Ortega, Yair is getting the title fight. If Volcanowski doesn't go to 155. Yayaeer jumps to the front of the line. Because we haven't seen that fight. People love Yai Yir.

I'm not saying people don't love Josh, but Yai'er's like must watch TV at a lot of people's eyes. You know what I'm saying? And I don't feel like Josh has that same sort of feel to him that Yaiir does. I think Yaiir, if Yair wins, he's getting the title shot and it won't be Josh.

But I could be wrong. We'll see what happens. But all right, I got to get out of here. I went, golly, like 45 minutes longer. I thought I was going to go. I'll be back on Thursday, everybody. We'll do this again. We'll have some fun.

BTL will be back on Thursday as well. I'm going to take the rest of the day off. I'm going to take tomorrow off as well and just kind of like relax and get my mind right again after such a crazy week in Las Vegas. I see my man CC Lagaspi in here. Great meeting you in person, my man. It's a good time.

Just catch it up with other media members and just try. chopping it up. A lot of people I've never met in person, which is really cool. But all right, folks, I'm getting out of here. Enjoy the rest of your day. Back on Thursday, 10 a.m. Eastern right here on the NBA fighting Twitter spaces. Until then, have a great rest of the day. And have a heck of a morning, everybody. Media Podcast Network.