MMA Fighting - HOAM | Jon Jones vs. Ciryl Gane, Jake Paul vs. Tommy Fury, More

Episode Date: February 24, 2023

Jon Jones' long-awaited return to the octagon is a little over a week away as he prepares to face Ciryl Gane for the vacant heavyweight title in the main event of UFC 285. While there are a lot of questions about the matchup, and where the overall game of the former light heavyweight champion is at, what's your biggest question about that fight? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses the massive main event for next weekend's UFC pay-per-view card and where Jones could go, win or lose. Additionally, topics include best ring announcers in combat sports, Jake Paul vs. Tommy Fury and the potential pressures for both fighters, Chris Curtis' reaction to the UFC 287 lineup and his bout with Kelvin Gastelum being on the prelims, Francis Ngannou in boxing, 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

Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won! Feel the fun!

The morning will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1-8665-3-3-2-60 or visit comex Ontario.ca. With Amex Platinum, you have access to over 1,400 airport lounges worldwide. So your experience before takeoff is a taste of what's to come. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. February 24th, 2023, and it is indeed a heck of a morning.

We are live on the M.A. Fighting Twitter Spaces. You can hear the show from start to finish, in its entirety. Shortly thereafter on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. work. I am Mike Heck. Hope everyone's having a great Friday. Great start to, I mean, I don't know if it's technically the weekend, but kind of is. So maybe I'll say a great start to the weekend. A lot going on in the combat sports world. We got one on Prime Video 7 later on tonight. We got the UFC tomorrow. We have Bellator tomorrow. If you're up for circus fights in the boxing ring, We got Floyd Mayweather and Aaron Chalmers tomorrow.

And then on Sunday we got Jake Paul versus Tommy Fury. And I have to say, before BTL yesterday, I had zero interest in Jake Paul versus Tommy Fury. I forgot it was even happening until someone you brought it up on the show last week. And then after hearing Jed kind of talk about it, I'm not going to say he sold me on it, but he got me more intrigued by it. Does that mean I'm going to go out of my way and watch it on Sunday?

I haven't decided yet, but I was a full-on no before 12, 30 p.m. Eastern time yesterday, but now I might actually watch it. I don't know. Sunday, of course, me and my best friend will do on to the next one for UFC Vegas 70. And I'm going to take my kid out on the golf course for a little while. And then we'll see where the day takes me. but yeah it's a free for all Friday we can talk about what you want to talk about we talk about we get a lot of pro wrestling questions on here i'll do my best uh we could talk about the mama media

landscape we can talk about whatever you want uh but we'll get to the cause of the second but i just want to get something off my chest a life lesson for all you youngsters who are getting excited about getting older in adulthood and making big purchases my advice, if you have a working appliance, just keep it. Don't buy new shit. Because when you buy new shit, you have problems, and then you get to fight with people, and then you got to get it on the phone with people,

and then you have to sit on hold with people, and then you fight some more, and it's a pain in the ass. We got a fridge, we bought a new refrigerator. My wife likes to match everything, and we replaced most of the other appliances. The one thing we didn't replace is the fridge. And the fridge worked fine. It was old.

But it was probably time to get a new one. So my wife goes and buys a new fridge. And I'm kind of cheap. I like to keep a tight knit on the finances. She controls them. She's better at the organizational stuff. But when it comes to like spending money, I just don't love spending money unless it's like to do cool things.

And fridges to me are just, I mean, pun intended, they're cool. But anyways, get the fridge dropped off a Wednesday. I'm like, oh, this looks pretty good. Get through a Wednesday. And then yesterday morning, I go downstairs and I open the freezer drawer. And there's just ice chips everywhere. And I'm like, what the hell is going on?

And then I look down and I'm like, oh, there's a – because if you buy a new appliance, one thing you have to realize, there's like styrofoam, there's tape everywhere. I mean, it's in every nook and cranny. And the people will drop it off, like, don't take it off, so you have to take it off. And I don't give a shit about that. But it's everywhere.

So there's one piece of tape, like just buried in the corner of the drawer, so we pull it off. And I shut it. Seems like it's sealed. Go and open it like four hours later. Ice and frost everywhere. I'm like, God, damn it. What is going on here?

And then we realized that it's just not closing all the way. It's just not sealing. The bottom is sealing, but the top is not. And I'm like, this is stupid. This is ridiculous. Like, we just bought this thing, just spent way more money that I would have liked for anything on this. So we call the company that we bought it from. And they're like, well, we can't send anybody out tomorrow.

And I'm like, but this motor, like the freezer is not closing. So the motor in this thing is just running like crazy. It's like an opera. It's like, ooh. and just over and over again, you can't miss it. And they're just like, no, there's nothing we could do. And they're like, well, you know what you should do? You should call the company who actually makes it.

And they'll send somebody out for like an emergency call. I'm like, all right. And then I had to spend an hour on the phone with them this morning. And they did nothing for me. Like literally nothing. Oh, we'll send somebody out on Tuesday. I'm like, the fridge will be dead by Tuesday. Are you kidding me?

But we have one company coming out tomorrow. I'm still going to make that other company come up. out on Tuesday. I feel like we're going to have to get a replaced, but a little life lesson. If your appliance works fine and it doesn't look atrocious, just keep it. Run it into the ground because then you don't have to deal with the stress. It's a pain in the ass. But hopefully by tomorrow it'll be all fixed.

I don't know. She wanted to get that off my chest because I've been dealing with that this morning. But that's my free for all Friday. Four Quarter Sports. what is your free for all Friday? Yep. All right. Yes, yes, yes.

So, Mike, so I just wanted to ask you, what are your thoughts on on the Curtis, Chris Curtis comments? I mean, I don't know. I just felt like when he reposted with Marcel ended up tweeting out the bout order. I just felt like he just came off as salty.

And I know that he was salty about it, but I just think that, you know, the U.S. season is going to try to push their biggest stars on the main event and I think he's in a pretty good position. I mean, not so many people, too many people know, what's it called, Raoulosa over Chris Curtis, just because of the fact that he's 18 years old. And I think that has a lot to do with it. And I think that, you know, him fighting Kelvin Gassum, I mean, he's in a tough spot.

I mean, he isn't it look pretty bad if he doesn't get the victory over Kelvin Gassum and he's, you know, barking of that he, why isn't he on the main card? I don't know, that's just my opinion right there. I personally, I think that he is in an excellent position being on the feature prelim, because a lot more eyeballs are going to be on him. But I don't know. What's your thoughts on that? Thanks, Mike.

Yeah, I saw this. For those who didn't see it, my man, Marcel, one of my favorites in the industry, tweets out the boat order like he typically does. This one's for UFC 287. And the main card is Pereira Adasana, Burns Mazadol, Thontianez, Holland Ponsonibio, and Raul Rojas Jr. versus Rodriguez. That is the main card. And the ESPN prelims opens with Chris Barnett, Chase Sherman, Michelle, it's

Waterson Pinheiro, Kiesa versus Lee Jing Leong. And then the featured prelim is Chris Curtis versus Kelvin Gasselham. And Chris Curtis tweets out, quote, not going to lie, the bout order is completely fucked. One of the best cards of the year and I get bounced from the main card for a child. I fought on short notice, have taken on whoever and gone four and one to get ranked, and I get bounced for a kid with one fight. Yeah, I'm salty. Well, I mean, if there's one thing you could say, at least he admits that he's salty in this equation.

Chris is a very emotional guy. I've been talking to Chris for a long time well before he got into the UFC. I've been talking to him since like 2015 or 2016 about getting to the UFC. So there's certain guys when they finally get signed that you're just so excited for. And Chris might be at the top of the list. Because this guy has just been through the ringer personally, professionally, been in big spots, PFL playoffs, loses a fight, retires, eating a meal, finds out that he can come back and try to win the million, comes back and gets beat again. And then it seems like his careers, he might just be done altogether. And then he just comes back and wins a million fights on the region.

regional scene and he gets a UFC call and he's four and one. He's done a lot. He's a great story. But I will say this. I agree with you, Four Corner Sports. I think this is a better spot than the Raoul Roses Jr. Rodriguez fight. I mean, look, you want to be on the main card. It's cool. But there's a reason you're in that spot. If you're not in the main event or the co-main event, to me, I would want to be in that spot. I would want to be in that exact spot because it's a very important role. One, you are essentially putting a spotlight on you and the promotion is going to promote the crap out of it because they have a partnership at the ESPN. ESPN's going to promote it as well. And that fight is there to entice people who are on the fence about whether or not they're

going to spend $80 on a pay-per-view to get them off the fence. That's why WWF used to do that all the time. I mean, I think they still kind of do it, but WWF back in the day used to go on, like, random networks. They used to go on like the TV guide channel, like before all these fancy remotes where you could just push a button and see what's on TV. You had to go to like the guide channel, the TV guide channel would tell you what was on. And WWF would have like a 30 minute pregame show with like one really solid match to get people to buy the pay-per-view. And that's what this spot is here for. So to me, this pay-per-view is going to do fine, but it's not going to be. going to be block it's not going to be a blockbuster i would say twice as many people are going to watch

chris curtis fight in this spot than they would on the pay per view so maybe he didn't realize that maybe thinks about differently some people some people think about they just want that main card spot that's what they want um but to me if you're talking about promotion and eyeballs and all that stuff because like hollandpon's an imbio is not going to get a ton of push as much as we love kevin holland it's not going to get a ton of push font yonnas is going to be kind of like the people's by the time he get to it. They'll push Rose's Jr. because of his age and to try to get him over because he's...

If you look at anything he's done on social media, on YouTube, his stuff just blows up. People are just fascinated by this kid. But Gassum, more people are going to watch Chris Curtis fight Kelvin Gasselham than are going to watch Raoul Roes Jr. fight on that main card. It's just the truth. Maybe he didn't realize that. Maybe he will realize that. I don't know.

but at least the humidity was salty. So that's good. But I mean, I have no issue with the bout order at all. That's exactly where I would put that fight. Zach, hello. Hey, Mike, how you doing football as well? Good. And I guess to go on that, Rose's point, you can say the same thing with the upcoming

card with Bo Nickel being on the main card. I know he has a lot of stardom, but, you know, you have guys like, you have fights like with Cody Borgarbrand in it and drinks Duprook-C, brought some of that probably think, hey, this guy hasn't even fought yet, he's on the main card. So interesting to see, you know, they're clearly trying to push some guys from the contender series

and potential big stars there. But the question out today is, you know, UFC is obviously going to go on a big run with a lot of good fights. But for other fight promotions like Bellator and PFL, I'm always interested to see

that I'm trying to figure out find new fights. The big one for me is with both Belator and PFL, do you think Bellator is not putting out enough fights where they can get maybe a more casual audience? It seems like they put maybe one,

maybe two. and then we criticize you guys at MMA fighting. It's criticized the OSC a little bit, not in a bad way, but just saying they put out so many events. It's so much content and all that stuff, which could be tiring. So maybe them putting out, Beltsport putting out more than they out would help. And then with PFL, it's a league I like. I like the format.

But then at the same time, you know, they're putting out this random challenger series on a platform no one can find and, you know, PFL Europe and all this stuff. Do you think they're doing too much too early where maybe it's just way too much content for people to find out? and it might hurt the main product, which would be just the, you know, the PFL regular season. Thanks, mine.

Hope you have a good day. With the Bellator thing, I think they're putting out like just enough. And you can make the case that it's maybe too much, honestly. Two cards in February. Obviously, Bellator 290 was big. They did over a million people watching, which is huge.

And they got this card. second card in three weeks. March 10th, we open up the lightweight Grand Prix. The March 31st card is awful. Boy, is that a bad card. Marcelo Gollm versus Daniel James is the main event. That's a tough one. That's going to be a tough one.

But, I mean, the other cards aren't bad. April, back to Hawaii. They do the back-to-back. We got Carmush, Deanna Bennett, too. on the Friday. We got Stotson Mix on the Saturday. And then we got Gaygard-Wissassi versus Fabian Edwards in Paris in May. And they might do a second event in May. I think they're probably doing the right thing.

The problem with Bellatory is like their roster is really good. The guys who are at the top are really, really good. It's just not very deep. And when you look at some of these pay-per-view or not paper-view, but some of these cards that they're putting on, like you get good cards and you get good made events. It's like, I like this Bellator 291 card. I like this card tomorrow. There's 18 fights, and that seems like a lot.

But they run through those prelims so quickly. It's just boom, boom, boom, boom. They might go to the desk for 30 seconds. But it's like, oh, let's go to the desk to Josh Thompson and Amanda Gera. And then they talk for like 30 seconds. And by the time they're done talking, we're already like, both fighters are already in the cage and getting introduced. So like a 13-fight UFC card is worse than an 18-fight Belator card. comes to pacing because most of those

fights are on the prelims and they just fly through them and then at certain points they do post limbs some people watch most are just kind of checked out after the main event but boy that March 30 first card is rough but I think they're off to a good start I think this card's really good

March 10th is pretty solid March 31st is going to be a tough one and the next three are pretty solid so yeah I think Belator's doing enough their roster is just a little thin, very top heavy. They get some exciting up-and-comers,

but you just got to fill out these spots. It's easier to do when you go to Dublin, because you can just take a lot of local fighters and put them on the card, and people are going to buy tickets and sell that thing out. But when you go back to the Temecula Californias and the San Jose's

and the Uncasville, Connecticut, it's a little tougher to fill out those spots. So I think Belator's doing fine. outside of the Bellator 293 main event, which is awful. It's just a rough, rough made event. No offense to those guys.

It's just not a main event. It's just not a great main event. PFL, like, I don't have an issue with the Challenger series. That's a hardcore thing. Like, if you really want fights and you want to watch it, you can. It's on Fubo, I think. And the problem with the Challenger series last year, when they introduced it was two things. One, you had to buy Fubo.

You had to buy the product and spend, I think it was like, I don't remember what it was, but it was, I remember to look at the price tag on getting Fubo per month. And I was like, I am not doing that. Absolutely not. I always, people spend enough money to watch MMA. I'm not doing it again, especially for the PFL Challenger series where only one fighter is going to get a contract. I might know two or three on a card at best. but the main draw is like the people they have who come in and judge and some of them are like m-ma fighters and some people you know and then others are just rando celebrities or people who play

other sports and it's just like what are we doing here not to mention sort of the gambling mistakes they made by pre-recording the shows and then putting up betting lines after which they got in trouble for not the case anymore but at least this year it's free you can find to search for it on Fubo, but at least you don't have to pay for it. So that's good. And the other thing about it is all the cool stuff is on social media. So you don't even have to watch the card. You're just going on PFL social media and all the big highlights, any of the big moments. You find out who wins the contract. It's all right there. So I don't have an issue with that. I don't have an issue with the Europe series. And then once the main

card rolls around, we're good to go. I'm just glad it's not like they're not all in the same network. I'm glad the Challenger series isn't on ESPN Plus, because it's not like the contender series. It's not like the ultimate fighter. No one's going to watch it. Some people do. Most people don't. But at least

if you want to watch it, there's the option. So I don't think it's going to get too, too watered down because if it was all on ESPN Plus, you might run into that issue, but it's almost like it's it's almost like it's separate, if that makes any sense.

When I got a great deal on a great gift at Winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. At just $39.99, how could I resist? This luxurious wool throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss? Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard?

At these prices, could I find something for everyone at winters? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners, find fabulous for less. It's the matchat or the three ensemble Cado Cicephora of the FACTS that I just niche who me energize so much. Mm, it's the ensemble. The form of standard and mini,

regrouped, hello, Ben. And the embellage, too beau, who is practically pre to donate. And I know that I'd have them but I'll give them the Summer Fridays and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. I'm just the most

ensemble, the Cadowdo of Fett is at Shephora. Summer Fridays, Rare Beauty, Way, Cifora Collection, and other, part of Vite. Procurry you, Corma Stendar and Mini, Regrouped for a better quality of price. On link on Ceyforat.com or in magazine.

Let's go to Tristan. What's up, ma'am? The question I have for you, I think, I remember we talked about, you know, UFC fighting at apex, and we don't want that anymore. We want them on the road. And I think your friend or your pal,

James Lynch had had this theory that he feels like when COVID hit, the UFC had lost a lot of money. So they're just making it up having fights at the apex so they don't want to keep going back to just having I mean they go on the road and that costs them money to Booker Arena and things like that so I think they use the apex as a way to save money in a way. I mean that that kind of made sense when he when you put it like that. um my my my second question too is um what where where are you at with joe select you right now um you know he's he's one you know he was on a run and then took it he had a setback lost like a fighter two but where are you at with him right now heading on uh saturday's card um

you know i just just want to know your thoughts on that thanks mike uh okay thank you sir uh the apeck look I love James. He's one of my favorite people in the industry, but he's far from the first person to come up with that. It's not a theory. It's fact. It's fact. And was the UFC like losing money?

No. No, because they have this crazy-ass deal with the SBN where you just got to put cars on and you're making a ton of money. Now, are you losing money because of the gates? Sure. but you have to do something and you can't go to arenas and book shows, but the show must go on. You have this deal with the SPN, so you have to put on cards, hence the apex.

And then the apex just became a regular thing. And long and the short of it, the cards, if you look at them, are not spectacular. March is good. That's why they're on the road. And April looks good. That's why they're going on the road. but most of these cards that they put together are Apex cards. The last couple have been pretty tough.

This one is not great either. Like, who is going to, who's going to shell out $150 to sit in a balcony? And I'm not dogging these guys. But who's going to go out and shell out $150 to sit in the balcony to watch Nikita Krilov fight Ryan Span? Not many. I'm not saying they can't get to that point. But right now, that's an apex card.

People aren't going to do that. Aaron Blanchfield, just gone drudge. That's not going to sell out aren't. Great fight. We love that fight. But it's not going to get people to drop $5,000 to $150 to $500 to $1,000 to go to some random city in Kansas City or some random. I'm not dog in Kansas City, but just where are they going to host that? Where are they going to host it?

I don't know. So I don't think the apex days are over. It'll be a nice refresher to get away for a while. We just got to get through this card. And then I think the next six cards are on the road, which is awesome. And even the March 11th card, which nobody's talking about right now, the Pejoriean Rob DeWaulich Raleigh card, it's in Vegas. But it's not at the apex.

it's a smaller venue and I just I kind of hope the UFC just does more of that remember the old tough finale you'd be in a smaller venue it was like I keep going back to like WWF but it's like Monday Night Raw

when they're at the Manhattan Center sometimes less is more but not like apex less I'm talking like a thousand people 1500 people at the apex you're getting like at most like 200

and that's for like a big big fight and or if Calvin Cater fights because he travels with like a hundred people it's crazy but Jed brings it up all the time when Joe Martinez like tries to fire up the apex crowd it's kind of hilarious make some noise if you are ready and then you hear like 11 golf claps but yeah clearly that it's a it's a money saver and then once the UFC could start going on the road they're like well we lost a much money on the gate so let's just hold a bunch cards of the apex and save that overhead. They were still kind of losing money because they weren't getting gates, but at least

they didn't have to travel. And with some of the cards they're putting together, like, why travel with it? You're not going to sell out. It doesn't even look like UFC 283 sold out. And that's a freaking pay-per-view in Brazil. And there was a Brazilian fighter on every single fight in every single fight. And every single fight. And they couldn't even sell that place out.

So I don't think it's going anywhere. I know there have been talks about expanding it, expanding that arena to put in a bunch of extra seats, which would be kind of cool, honestly. Which would be kind of cool. If you could put 1,500 to 2,000 people in the apex to watch those cards, like I think it would go over better. It's not necessarily the place.

It's just the ambiance of it. It's like watching a... It's like watching an episode of the ultimate fighter. where you hear a bunch of teammates yelling and screaming the whole time. That's what those apex cards feel like. So the big moments just don't come off as big moments because there's like 80 people there to watch it. But yeah, that's the long and the short of it.

It is a money saver, but you honestly can't take half these cards on the road anyways. J.D., hello. Hey, Mike. Can you hear you on? Yes. Awesome, awesome. So, I was wondering two things. First, Kevin Holland's my favorite fighter of all time,

even more so than Carlos Condit, and I loved watching him in Orlando. I was wondering if you could expand a little further on your thoughts on the Holland-Ponadivio fight. I know we got a lot of time before that, but I'm a little bit more for it. And then the second question I got for you, you have to listen to you may pitch the other media outlet. What are some other media outlets that you either recommend or that you listen to frequently? Thanks, bud.

JD, I don't know where you are, but I wish we could trade spots. Sounds like you're like ATVing or off-roading. So, or maybe you're playing golf and you hit a really terrible shot and you're trying to find your golf ball on top of a mountain, somewhere. So enjoy your day. I like the Holland Ponzi Biontabio fight.

It's good matchmaking. It makes sense. It's going to be a mostly stand-up fight. Ponzi likes to throw to Chuck Mitz. Holland likes Chuck Mitz. Should be a good fight. Holland's not going to probably get taken down over and over again. That's like the one thing you fear when Kevin Holland fights. I think Kevin Holland's going to win that fight.

Ponzi Bia is good. I think Kevin's a little bit better. I think he's more in his prime right now. And I just think he has more tools on the feet to win. Kevin's an exciting guy. And that fight with Wonderboy is really good. And we'll see it. I mean, that dude's healing ability is unbelievable.

The fact that he's coming back four months later after that Wonderboy fight with the damage he took, the break in his hands. I mean, it's just insane that he's coming back in only four months. It's nuts. He'll be back before Wonderboy. That's crazy. that's crazy other media outlets

or MMA I mean I like we talked about James Lynch Lynch is the man he does interviews of freaking everybody from main eventors to

regional fighters to even amateur fighters anything Lynch does I think is pretty damn good I am a fan of I like listening to Dan Levy, he does his best fight picks, hosts a show called Half the Battle.

When I have time, I like listening to his stuff. His breakdowns make you think about different things that you maybe hadn't thought of when you're breaking down certain matchups. I thought his Aaron Blanchfield breakdown was, I mean, it turned out to be almost spot on for the Jess Conrodge fight. And he told betters to bet on Blanchfield. and I picked Blanchfield, but he, like, he was spot on with everything.

So I like listening to him. When I, I don't listen to a ton of, like, MMA stuff. Once in a while, like, someone will send me some things, like certain rant, like, MMA guru, like, once in a while, listen to his rants. Some of them are absolutely hilarious.

But when I am, like, driving in the car and stuff, I like to listen to other things. I like to listen to like wrestling podcasts. I like so I was a big as probably a lot of us were who were my age.

I was a big boy meets world fan when I was a youngster like 12, 13 years old and it became this like iconic show for people my age and three of the characters that were on that show have their own podcast

where they do shows like twice a week. One they like interview somebody who was on the show and then the next one they like rewatch an episode and they talk about it in real time because a lot of them kind of like they're kind of like me when I do my content like I do it and then it's gone and I'll listen to it like a little bit when I like put the podcast stuff together

but once it's done I don't go back and listen to anything or watch anything occasionally I'll go back and like listen to something like the first time Brian Campbell is on BTL, I went back and listened to that. But for the most part, I don't listen to anything else that I do. And what's interesting about that Boy Meets World show, I think it's called Pod Meets World. They hadn't watched the show in like 30 years. So they're like reliving it, in some case, for like the very first time ever. And they talk about like what it was like, things they remembered and stuff like that.

So it's pretty interesting. But as far as that May stuff, like I might watch stuff that people send me real quick, but I don't watch a ton of it. I try to get some space from the sport when I don't have to cover it. Jimmy, hello. Hello. What's up, man? How are you doing today, Mike?

Good. How are you? Not bad, not bad. I must have been a little bit delayed there. I have two questions for you. One is regarding Francis and Ghanu. They show the screenshots that he wants $30 million to box. Do you think that's a fair price that he is wanting,

or do you think like that's like do you think he's worth $30 million to box? And my second question to you is if I gave you $100 to make a parlay between Curtis Blades and Sergey Pavlovich and the other one would be Henry Sehudo versus Aljo, what's the parlay you're going to make out of that? And that's all I have. Golly. Um, actually I address Tristan's other question real quick. Uh, Joe Selecky.

I like Joe. Joe's a good fighter, nice guy, uh, very smart. I feel like Joe could be used on the broadcasts because of his knowledge. Like if you ever, Joe was great on BTL. Came in, sharp, knew what he was talking about. Real good. Joe's not going to be as much as I like Joe. And I'm following him and interviewing him for a really, really long time.

he's not going to be a guy that's going to fight for a belt he's just in a division that is just so loaded he's probably you know top 25 top 30ish kind of guy and his one let me see his one UFC loss was to Jared Gordon

that's close fight too splitty he's probably just going to tackle Carl Deaton and submit him pretty quickly that would be my guess but I like Joe Joe's not going to be I don't know if Joe's going to be a rank guy. You know, maybe somehow he goes on another run and gets to the 15, but he's fine.

I don't know if he cares if he fights a world title or anything like that. Yeah, he's a good solid hand. I like Joe a lot. Francigano, 30 million? Sure. Yeah. I mean, the boxing fights he's going to get, he might only get one, but it's going to be with a big-ass name.

and it'll be with somebody who can promote it well and get people to care about it. And the smart way to promote it is to make people believe that Francis has a chance. And most people would believe, and I'm not taking any pot shots here, that he's going to lose to all of these guys. Wilder, Joshua, Fury,

he's probably going to lose to all of them. But if you can get one shot at him and just get in there and have the experience, experience, make a ton of money, good for him. But if he boxes either of those guys, he's probably going to make $30 million. And I don't think this is like a demand. I just think that's what he's going to end up getting after ticket sales and buys and all that stuff. I think that's probably in the neighborhood of what he will end up getting if he fights either of those individuals.

Or an Andy Ruiz or somebody like that. You know, if he just fights a rando for like a misfits boxing card, he's probably not going to get $30 million. Yeah, if you go and fight Deante Wilder, Tyson Fury, or Ruiz or Joshua, especially, yeah, even Ruiz that I would put in there. Yeah, I think 30 millions in the wheelhouse. Sure. Yeah, I think 30 millions in the wheelhouse. I'm trying to remember your other question. Maybe somebody can remind me.

Damn it. My brain's mush right now. I'll remember. Just like I did that. PJ, what's up? Mike what's going on. Sorry, it's a little windy over here. I had a question about Sugar Sean.

So Aljo and Henry's supposed to fight in May. I saw something about that. And I was wondering what your thoughts on that because it seemed like a lot of people were upset that Henry gets a, like, jumps Sugar Sean. So you want to know where Sean's going to go? Yeah, because I thought, honestly thought that he should

fight Cheeto Bearer. I mean, he still could fight him. He still could fight him. Aljo, look, I've talked about this a million times. Aljo had fumbled the bag at UFC 280. He should have just called out Sean. All the attention should have been on Sean and not the whole, I don't care who the UFC gives the all fight.

This dude, this dude or this dude. No, he should have been, Sean O'Malley beat Piotrion. Whether you scored it for him or not, He won the fight. Aljo should have went all in on the sugar shan callout because it's the biggest fight you could get, bigger than Sohudo.

It's going to do better on pay-per-view. There's going to be more interest for it. And it's a very good matchup stylistically for him. It's one that he's probably like a minus 300 favorite in. And then he can go up to 45 and be done with the division. That's prize fighting. That's how you win prize fighting. So I would guess Sean will probably be some kind of,

of a backup. I'm sure he's in the mix. I'm sure he's training to prepare because if something happens with either of those two guys, they're going to give him a phone call to step in. And if not, he's probably going to fight the winner. And if Aljo beats Zahuto, he says he's going to go up to 145. Sean's, you can do Sean, if Cheeto beats Corey Sanagan, vacant title, you can do Sean O'Malley versus Cheeto for the vacant title. So, I mean, there's ways you can go about this, but Aljo kind of planted his flag in the, I'll fight whoever the UFC wants me to fight place in the ground and

now he's going to fight Henry Sehudo. And now I remember the other question. So the parlay between there's Blades Pavlovich and Al Jermaine Sterling versus Henry Sehudo. I'm picking Curtis Blades very, pretty confidently against Sergei Pavlovich. and I'm

I'm picking out and Sterling against Henry Suito I think it's going to be one of those fights where like the betting line is just

I don't know what the betting line is going to look like for that fight the closer we get to it but I have a feeling Sterling's going to be the underdog

and I think that's going to be a pretty sharp bet I don't know like I've I'm not saying that Henry hasn't like Henry was always like an excellent fighter

really really good but he's been gone for a while while, man. He's been gone for a long time. How old is he now? How old is Henry Suhudo? I know

Aljo isn't the youngest man in the world either, but Aljo still seems to be in his athletic crime. Henry Suo is 36. Just turned 36. I think he will be the oldest UFC champion. I think he'll be one of the oldest

UFC champions of the later weight class. of all time if he wins this fight. And Aljo is 33. It'd be 34 in July. And Alja is still pretty much in his prime. So, yeah, I'm leaning Aljo in that one, but I wouldn't use that as a parley piece. And I don't bet anyways,

but if I did, that wouldn't be a parley piece. Probably neither of those fights would be, but I feel much more confident in Curtis Blades that I do Sterling, but I am picking Sterling to be too real. At least right now. Let's go to cryptocurrency. Hi, Mike.

Hey, buddy. How are you doing? Good, you? Good. Good, it's Friday. So, Mike, I have two questions for you. I don't know if you discussed this already, because unfortunately I joined a bit late,

but the first one is the Tommy Fury, Jake Paul, fight this weekend. And the narrative has always been like, oh, he hasn't fought a real box. yet. And the more I think about it, Mike, it is actually true. I mean, we haven't seen Tommy Fury fight a real boxer yet. And it's not a slip of the tongue. I truly do mean this. Tommy Fury is the guy that hasn't fought a real boxer. I mean, the record of this guy is just laughable, or maybe not the record, but the people he has been fighting. I know people have been saying that all he does

is these taxi drivers and so on. That's an insult to taxi drivers because taxi drivers would probably do better. But anyway, so, and I'm actually of the opinion that this is more of a test for Tommy Fury than for Jake Paul.

What's your take on that? And the second question, Mike, is what do we do with John Jones if he loses against Cyril Gunn? I mean, he has been preparing for this three years now. he has lost a big chunk of his career due to this preparation.

I mean, three years, it's a lot. And those are three years in his prime. So let's say that Cyril Gunn wins. And I'm not going to say that he's going to knock him out or anything, but let's say he wins decisively. Where do we go with John Jones? Is that basically it for John? Like, could he really get back there if he loses to Cyril Gahn

or will this end up being another tragic episode in John Jones' life where he just completely loses it? Thank you, Mike. Yeah, someone asked yesterday about John if he loses, and I think he's going to be fine. First fight, like, this is, and I'm not saying, like, John is ever going to use this an excuse or anything like that, but it's kind of built in.

First fight at heavyweight was kind of, preparing to fight Francis. Now he gets Cyril gone, less than two months to prepare. It's a tough match. It's a tough stylistic matchup when you're preparing for one guy and you're eyeballing one guy and preparing for a certain skill set and then you get

freaking Cyril gone. It's like going from a heavyweight to almost like fighting a quick-ass band-of-weight striker. It's crazy. So I think a loss would suck. It would sting. But I think John will end up fighting steepe no matter what. Even if he loses, I could see the steep A fight happening.

I don't think steep A has a ton of fights left in him. And I think if Stepe had the choice to fight John Jones in a non-title main event or fight zero gone for the title, I think you, I mean, it wouldn't stun me if you went with the John Jones fight because the John Jones fight's going to be bigger, even if John loses. Even if John loses. So, yeah, it'd be tough for him. I mean, I'm so interested in that fight. Like, I know John is John, and he's, I mean, he is, he has effed up so many times and done just really shitty things. And I don't think that could be ignored. But in terms of the actual fights itself, the competition of it all, that fight is so frigging interesting.

because Cyril is so good and I know John is one of the best of all time most people say he's the greatest ever I just have no idea what dude is going to show up anybody that I've talked to that has worked with John Jones and I know they're not going to say like he would look like shit

but they're just like dude like wait till you see this guy like you're not going to believe it you're not going to believe it Walt Harris is telling me that John Jones and he was like, I'm not bullshit in you. John Jones is better now than he was five years ago. He goes, he's better.

Wait till you see it. Because I can explain it to you, but you're not, it doesn't do it justice. Just wait till you see it. So I, God, man, I'm so interested in that fight. Jesus. And we'll be watching it live on the watch party. I'm actually going to cut those

cut and produce those cold opens today. I'm actually going to try out a different one for this fight. I'm going to cut the usual one, but I'm going to try something a little different that I wanted to play around with. But geez, man, that fight rules. And then the time theory thing, look, here's the thing. Jake Paul has taken a different route

to get to where he is because of the MMA tie and brilliantly, might I add, because he has generated just an incredible amount of interest in his fights. And now he's fighting Tommy Fury, the quote-unquote real boxer. And I'm not saying that disrespectfully. This is what everybody wanted. Go fight a real boxer. And I know people look at Tommy Fury's record and they say, in the guys that he's fought,

oh, he's fought. Shitheads, really. These fought guys with horrible records. But you have to understand something. This is what boxers do. go look at Floyd Bayweather's first like seven or eight fights. He ain't fighting a lot of guys with winning records. Go look at Tyson Fury's boxing records.

He ain't fighting a ton of guys with plus 500 records. This is what you do. This is how it works. You fight, especially if a promoter finds you and thinks you have potential, these are the types of fights that are made in order to build confidence and build resumes. And it's happened for most guys. You're not going to, it's very rare that you're going to see a 6-0 guy fight, a 9-0 guy or a 12-1 guy.

It doesn't happen all that often. The guy that the promoter signs on that is putting these cards together, that's trying to get you over, is going to book you with somebody who's going to say yes. And most of the time early on, you're going to fight dudes with shitty records. Like, it's, Tommy is not. not the first and he's far from the last and most notable names in the world of boxing have had guys like that on their early resumes that's just how you build up that's how you build

up your record and boxing is tough sometimes because we don't get the biggest fights and oftentimes and we deal with this at mma sometimes and because of what we've learned in boxing over the years it kind of has carried over how many times have we had the conversations or like oh you know it would be awesome. This dude fights this dude. And then we panic a little bit because we're like, oh, but we don't want to kill off a prospect. We don't want to kill off a prospect just quickly because if you book these two guys now, somebody's going to lose. And now you're killing off a prospect. It's almost like a boxing model. That's why you don't see a lot of these fights. It's why in the boxing world, you're not going to see Armand Sarukian fight

Batush Gamrod. Like you're not going to see those kinds of fights. You're just going to see you're going to see different kinds of things, especially the promoters fighter, give an opportunity to get over. Now, if you're going to get to a certain level where you can't go up any higher, you just have to fight the tippy top guys, but to get there, it takes a long time sometimes.

So I know a lot of people shit on Tommy Fury's record, but that's how it works a lot of times in boxing. But I do agree with you. There's a lot, there's a ton of pressure on both guys. There's a ton of pressure on both guys in this fight. Jake has to win. If he loses Tommy Fury, eish, that's rough.

That's tough. At the same token, even though I expect Jake to win, if Tommy loses, it's tough. Like, I agree with that he hurt. And I agree with other people that are like, he's probably going to lose to Jake, and he's going to come out looking awful. Like, how's Tyson going to react to this?

I mean, there's a lot to this. There is a lot of pressure on both guys. there's a lot of pressure on Tommy Fury too to go on deliver. But what I'm, I'm talking myself into it a little bit more, the more I talk about it.

But yeah, there's a lot of pressure on both guys to win this fight. It's on a Sunday afternoon, which doesn't really hurt either. But we'll see what happens. Jake wins. He fights Nate, and a fight he'll definitely win. Because I mean, I think Jake,

I love Nate Diaz. Nate's a star. That's going to do bananas numbers. But Jake Paul's going to beat Nate Diaz in a boxing match. Come on. He's going to win. He's going to beat him.

But they will be durable and take a bunch shots and talk a lot of shit. It'll be fun to watch. I just hope this is a good fight because there have not been – The problem with Tommy Fury more than anything is that most of his fights are just not entertaining. They're not entertaining. They're bad. And I guess I do understand what Cryptos say in a little bit. normally when you

when these big stars fight you know the nine and 27 guys they beat the hell out of them and knock them out of them and knock them out and finish him and Tommy's not doing that Tommy fought Anthony freaking Taylor and I like Anthony a lot Tommy Fury is like a middleweight

and Anthony Taylor's barely a lightweight and Anthony went the distance to Tommy Fury like that's not good that's not good and even in these other fights that he had the weight misses, fighting way lower level competition, just squeaking by, I don't know,

maybe this is the one that he needed, I don't know, we'll see. I think Jake's going to win. It'll be curious to see how Tommy actually approaches this fight. Will he be aggressive? Will he box? Will he fight? I think he, I think he's best chances to fight. Like get in there and just chuck them.

That's probably his best, it's probably his best strategy. But I don't know. I'm a little more intrigued today than I was yesterday, but I don't know. Zeke, hello. Zeke. Muted. All right.

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. Goaltenders, no. But chicken juice. Yes, because those are groceries, and we deliver those too, along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move.

Lift with confidence while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross-training Treadplus at OnePeloton.ca. How about Payne? Hello. Hi, Paige. Hey, I heard you say something about chuck it.

And my mom always taught me to say, chuck it in the fuck it bucket just let it go there you go some sound some sound advice uh oh if you had more come back in sorry

you got a rhyming is always great rhyming is always great I heard somebody say the other day uh I think I don't know what fight I was talking about with somebody oh yeah

I was it Wednesday it was either Wednesday or yeah, I think it was Wednesday. I went and played nine holes of golf, and I just wanted to get out and just rush through it. There was the day of the fridge came. So I was like, all right,

I'm going to go and play some golf. And I played with this 72-year-old guy, which was just a blast. What a nice guy. And he was like, oh, what do you do? I'm like, oh, I cover combat sports. He goes, oh, you know that? That Connor McGregor guy's coming back, right?

I said, yeah. And that's how you know that Connor's a big star because you have 72-year-old men on the golf course talking about him. And he goes, you know, that guy's such a big star. I bet everyone knows him

from Maine to Spain on a Chutu train. And I was like, that is the best thing I've ever heard. And I'm going to find an excuse at some point to use that on a show.

So thank you, sir. Zeke, do we have you? Oh, wow. It was a tough call to follow up, though. I couldn't get off mute before.

I was talking to myself, Mike. How am I going to follow up chucking it in the bucket, though? I have no idea. I love it. First thing first.

I agree with you. I mean, I think I don't need to give, you know, Jake Paul the Aljo media lesson. But if Nate Diaz isn't the first thing out of his mouth after Saturday, if he does get a W, I believe, at least for our sake, Jake Paul. And maybe even Logan Paul should be arrested. I mean, I'm not sure what he did, but just get him in jail, too. Secondly, for this heck of a morning, if you had to watch one card this year, the remainder of the year, only one UFC card,

what would it be? Would it be the Izzy matchup, rematch, would it be the John Jones matchup? Mike, have a heck of a morning. That's on the books. It's John Jones by a mile. I'm intrigued with all those fights in a certain way, but nothing is more intriguing to me right now

than John Jones versus Zero Khan. Nothing. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Very few fights, like, totally fascinate me and get my imagination running. Like, I get excited for a lot of the big fights, and there are storylines that I look at, and there are certain things that I look at, but everything with this Jones Gone fight is just, I mean, I just have so many questions.

There's so many unknowns, and most of it's on the John's side. like even just the bad shit right like will john make it through a friggin week in less Vegas without something stupid happening because he's had a hard time doing that and these are fair questions to ask will he make it to the fight on saturday will he make it there we could be living in a world ladies and gentlemen that within six days Tommy Fury and Jake Poll are going to box No one thought Tommy was going to box Jake After all these blunders

And now we're like a couple days away And then we could get a John Jones fight Two very two things we thought were Unlikely there's still people that I talk to Who are like I don't even believe John's coming back We'll see what happens next week He'll be there I hope

It's definitely John It's definitely Jones gone By a long shot William, do we have you? Hey, Mike, how you doing? Good, how are you? So I just had a question about, obviously, Oliveira and Derrush is either booked or targeted for the May 6th card.

And I'm a huge, huge Oliveira fan. But I guess part of me doesn't want to see the Islam fight again, just because that was such thorough domination, and I feel like it would kind of go the exact same way. So I guess what are your thoughts on who would you want to see when that fight? Because it kind of feels like that's the number one contender fight. And I feel like, honestly, I think Daryush, even if he's, you know, maybe doesn't promote himself, he's not the most, he's an entertaining fighter, but maybe not the most entertaining personality. I think he would probably give Islam the biggest test in the division.

But it's one of your thoughts on that. Thanks. Crystal, you might want to block your ears. the correct answer and the only answer is Benile Darius. That is the answer. I want to see Darius fight Islam. That's the fight I want to see. That's the fight we've wanted to see for a while.

And if Oliver wins, I don't think he's getting the title shot. I don't. I think we talked about this yesterday. We talked about it a lot. If Charles Olivera beats Binaill Darius, Dustin Porey is getting the title shot. Like that is almost a guarantee. like at least in my eyes

I feel very strongly that Dustin Poria will get the title shot if Oliver wins that fight. If Darius wins, he should 1,000 per se get the title shot, but I still believe because of how the UFC does stuff that Porre is right in the thick of it with him.

Now if Darius goes out there and just blows the doors off Oliver, there's nothing Dustin Porier can do. I don't care how big of a star he is. It is undeniable at that point. but if he wins a hard fought like splity, I don't know if it's going to be enough unless he just spits fire on the mic. But if he goes on that microphone

and doesn't call for that title fight, and I'm not saying you have to be an asshole about it, but at least just say it. Say the man's name and hope for the best. What do we say at MMA fighting all the time? What are the three words that we say all the time? Do the thing. And doing the thing is not,

just in the cage during the fight. Doing the thing is what you say during interviews, what you say after the fight. It is so important. And we've learned this over the last couple of years. And a lot of the newer fans who weren't around 2016, 2017, 2018, when all this stuff was happening anyways, they are now learning that the UFC is not a meritocratic promotion. It is about what draws eyeballs. It is about what is going to make. the most money, whether it's deserved or not. From a meritocratic standpoint, what can we use in promos to build fights? You want to know why Nate Diaz got that Conner-Begger fight after RDA came out?

Because he cut that promo after he beat Michael Johnson. And there was nobody else to ask. Nate was the guy because he set himself up for it. And what were we saying, fans back then, when Nate beat the hell out of Michael Johnson. And he called O'Connor McGregor. What do we say? We're like, oh, man, that's a

stretch. That's a stretch. And then he gets the fight and he wins. And then he cuts the promo after. I'm not surprised MFers. Boom. Instant superstar. That's why it's so important to have something in mind. It has to be

somewhat realistic. There's just more fighters in the roster and there's more cards and the sport is a little bit different. than it was back then. But that's just a prime example of why you need to say things. But you also have to be somewhat realistic. Nate, Nate has always been his own dude.

So him calling out Connor in that spot made sense. It's not a surprising call-out, but for a meritocratic standpoint, we're like, huh? You're not going to fight Connor. You crazy? And then because of that promo,

when a phone, when a bat phone needed to be dialed, Nate was the one in the other line. Benil is not Nate. Balala is not Nate. So you've got to be a little more careful with how you do things. You have to be realistic.

You have to call the right names. And you have to be ready for it. Benny would have got a title shot if he just called out Islam at UFC 280. I think he would have got the shot before. Maybe not. Maybe not the Volk fight. But Islam, like, there's nothing there. He beats Gamron.

He says, I'll fight 10 more guys. You're gone. You have no chance now. And then as soon as his Islam one, he handed the mic to Habib and Habib called the folk. Boom. There you go. Now, had Benil called out Islam at that moment,

or at least said, all right, Islam, let's go. If you win the belt, I'll fight you. You said it. You said you'd fight me in your first title defense. So if you're a man of your word, be a man of your word. I'll see you in February. See you in March. but he said I'll fight 10 other guys.

No. Nope. It's not going to get you anywhere. So just do the thing, Benny. I think Benny's going to win. I'm picking Benny to win. It's a good fight. Charles is a crazy man.

And you never know what can happen when that man fights. But I just feel, I feel Darius is going to take a lot away from what Islam did to him and do similar things. I think it's, I mean, we talk. talked about it, a lot heading into UFC 280. And my pick was Charles Olivera, but it was only because I thought, I was like, I'm just not going to pick against this man anymore because every time I think he's going to lose, he just does something insane and somehow finds ways to win. And you can't really teach that.

It's just who you are as a fighter. And there ain't many like it. But everything on paper told me that Islam was just going to run him over. And I mean, that's what happened. I think Charles is a little more competitive in this fight than he was against Islam, but Benny's got a tough style for that, man. I know Charles got a lot of submission wins, and his ground game's really good, but he's not great off his back.

And Benny's going to – Benny knows that. He's going to try to take Charles down. He's going to try to get on top of him and beat him up. That's how I think that fight's going to go. But again, Charles is a madman. He could land something crazy. Maybe Benny lands a big shot and stings them and tries to go in for the kill. And Charles comes out of nowhere and lands something crazy.

Wouldn't be the first time. All right, let's take a couple more. Let's get Theo in here. Hey, Theo. Hey, buddy. I'm French. Okay. My sport is MMI.

Nice. It's good. Are you going to watch? Are you excited for Cyril Gahn versus John Jones next week? Competition MMI. um um um

um um um um um nice how many fights have

yes yes um my uh uh I uh I uh

excuse me excuse me um 50 years 50, 000 yes 50 years

uh yes Oh, all right. Whatever. You're breaking up, man. Try again. I'm losing you. Your internet connection isn't great, so you keep breaking up on me.

But I hope your career continues to flourish, my man. Viking, hello. Viking. How are you? Good. How are you? I'm fine, a little basic, but that's okay. I just want to ask you about the comment Jada's made on the BTL.

I mean, I just actually I got a slip during the show because, you know, the show happened in between 1.30 or 2 a.m. So it was not a boring show at all. So I'm not saying that the show was boring, so I got asleep. But I just want to know about your opinion, about the comment JET has made that Joe Martinez is better than Bruce Buffer. So do you agree with that or not? Thanks a lot. I think Joe Martinez should have his props, but nobody is giving him a lot.

him props but still I just want to know your opinion anymore but thanks a lot it's tough man it's tough like Joe Joe Martinez is is

Joe Martinez is the standard right now he's the stand like I think he is the best ring announcer in MMA and this is not a knock on Bruce at all but Bruce is how could I put this the right way I think Joe Martinez is the best ring announcer in MMA,

but Bruce Buffer is better for the UFC than Joe Martinez. Bruce is the UFC, man. It's time, all that stuff. Like, Joe is great. But Joe is just not going to fire up a crowd like Bruce's at a pay-per-view. Like, you're not, Joe's, Joe will get people going, but not like Bruce. Bruce is just a, Bruce is a friggin legend, man. Like, he changed the game.

and to me and I don't want to sound like I'm taking shots of people but Belator should be they should be offering Joe Martinez like all the money to come over there and be their ring announcer he would be perfect for them perfect

he's good for the UFC fight nights great for the apex cards but Bruce is just he's the UFC like he's the guy but I think like all in all just as a like straight up ring announcer I think Joe's better in 2023

but it doesn't make him the guy Bruce is the guy so that's just me like that's how I view it Bruce is the man he's a legend and I'm not taking anything away from him I like Joe a lot it's just my broadcaster thing

coming out but Bruce but Bruce is better for the UFC than Joe is but Joe would be great in Bellator holy smokes he'd be great he'd be better than Michael C. Williams they should give him all the money all of it

but it's a tough one it's a tough one because I feel that like I love Bruce like I've talked to Bruce a bunch she's the man I just I think Joe does a fantastic job but Bruce is better for the UFC than Joe, especially in those big spots, no doubt about it.

James, hello. Hey, I have a morning, Mike. What's saying the BTL yesterday, but you and Jed did a fantastic job. If you were a fighter, would you rather be the most middleweight, middleweightiest champion or the light heavyweight, heavyweightiest champion?

And if Andrew Muniz, just kind of rolls through Arden Island without a problem, which I kind of think he will. What would you do with him next? Would you kind of shoot this man to the moon? I'm sure this guy probably has a hard time getting fights, but would you give him like a Sean Strickland, a Jericho, a Neer, or even a Jack Branson?

And I'm sorry for yesterday kind of getting a little emotional, but it was just kind of nice to finally leave the hospital with her newborn and yeah just i don't do things like that it was just kind of all the emotion coming out at once and if anyone else was struggling it was just it would be i don't know if my words helped but maybe they did maybe they didn't but uh thanks everyone have a heck of a morning a week and enjoy the fights thank you first of all james never apologized for that never i thought it was it was good stuff uh appreciate it very much uh and i I'm very happy that the family's home.

Very happy to hear that. And I'm sorry he went through that as a dad myself. There's nothing, there's scary moments as a parent, but nothing, at least to me, was scarier than when my son was actually born. Like the moment he was born, I'm just like looking at him. And I'm like, scream, cry, do something. Like, just waiting for it. And then he just screamed his ass off.

And I was like, oh, thank God. And that was just, those moments were just waiting for the sounds to make sure he's like breathing okay and all that. It was just, I mean, I'll never forget it. And then I, I mean, I bawled like a baby. Bald like a baby. Man, bringing me back. As far as Andreemones goes, he is fighting Brennan Allen for the middleweightiest middleweight title. A title that AK and I created.

strictly for Christoph Jocko because he was the middleweightest middleweight champion for a long time that spot is typically for the number 16th ranked middleweight and Brennan got the job done and beat Christoph Jocko so he is now the middleweightiest middleweight champion

but Andre Meney's the big topic is is Munez ranked too high to carry that title I say no puts more luster on the title If we're being honest, I have 100 muni is number six in my rankings already. Some people might look at that and think it's a little too high. That's just how I feel.

I think he's that good. I think he could beat a lot of these guys already. Where does the UFC have him? Is he top 10 for the UFC? Let me see. He's number 11 in the UFC ranking. So I would say if he beats Brennan Allen, and it's going to be a good fight.

This is going to be a good fight. I'm picking Meny's to win, but Brennan's going to give him problems. Brennan grapples ass off, his striking's gotten a lot better, and Brennan can wrestle, man. Hmm. If Munez wins, Strickland's not a bad one.

And Strickle would fight him, because Strickland's would fight anybody. Two plus he's a 10 in their rankings fighting Brunson. Maybe the loser of that. Hermanson's a good one. Roman DeLide's fighting Martin Vittori. Could do the loser or that one.

Ken Neer's not a bad, I mean? He's going to have a tough time getting fights, but if he goes out there and just dismantles Brendan Allen, I bet he fights Jack Hermanson next. That seems about right. Strickland would work. So I'll say Hermanson or Strickland. But I'll have more on Sunday when we talk about it.

If he does win, because Brennan could win, that would mess up everything. And it could happen because Brennan's a good fighter. Emilio, what do we have? Take us home. Yes, good, sir. Mike, heck of a morning to every single one of you. You guys are awesome.

Best community in the world. Okay, I'm going to keep it short because it's a free-for-all Friday. And my question is, for you, Mike, what is your preference toilet paper down or up appreciate you and every single one of you have a great weekend godly people like debate this all the time

and like I don't care I'll say down I don't really think about it at much from being honest but was not ready for that question was not ready for that question all right I think we're done I think we have we have exercised this

on this Friday. So we back at 3 o'clock Eastern. We'll have a UFC Vegas 70 slash Bellator 291 preview show 3 p.m. Eastern. And then like immediately after that,

oh, wait a minute. I'll get one more in there. Daniel's here. Let's get Daniel in here. We'll give him a shot, see if we can get through. Danny, do we have you? You're just muted.

If you can unmute, we'll see if we can get it. You hear me? Yes. Okay. What's up? Yeah. First thing, thanks for the opportunity to have a space,

MMA space. I think it's cool. It's, yeah, that people can talk and listen. Thanks for that. I have a question about the, sorry, my English, the John Jones coming up fight and the situation after John Jones, may win, maybe, and what you think is if he steps back and we will have seen him for a long time fighting then, or if what kind of contract he has now to continue fighting and what you think

who could be the next if he wins, who could be the next after also Francis left the UFC, could it be in Aspinel or what do you think what's this could be the situations or does he just one fight get champion like GSP against Michael and then leaving again what you think

thank you sir so John is a pretty long-term deal I believe it's eight fights I believe he had like seven or eight fights left on his prior deal but this one is just for a lot more money

at least this is what John's saying. So basically said that Dana has ponied up the bag for him. And at this junction, why not? I think if he wins, they'll probably try to do this deep A fight. That's a huge fight. The greatest in most people's eyes of all time against the greatest UFC heavyweight of all time in a lot of people's eyes.

So that's an idea. We do have Curtis Blades fighting Sergei Pavlovich. You would think the winner of that one would probably get there, but Steppe's probably going to get the first phone call for that. And if not, poor Curtis Blades and get a freaking title shot, man. That guy, I mean, what else is that guy to do to get a title fight? If he goes and mows down Sergei Patherovich, and I'm pretty confident he's going to beat Sergei Patherovich, and then he doesn't, and then he has to fight again?

Oh, my God, that's crazy. But I do feel like if you're in the Curtis Blades camp, you are rooting for Cyril, gone right now. You are the biggest Seral gone fan on the planet. Because I do think like, even if John loses, and I talked about this earlier, they could still do Jones versus Depe. They could

still do that. And that could headline a pay-per-view. You could still do that fight. But man, that fight, John Jones versus Cyril gone, I just, I'm so fascinated by it. Because I just have no idea, like, I literally have no idea what I'm going to see. And I've talked to, like, people from both sides of the coin.

I just don't, I just don't know. You can read it how you want. You can have theories, but we're dealing with John Jones, who hasn't fought in three years. A guy who clearly hasn't been sitting on his ass for three years, I just have so many questions. I interviewed Fernand Lopez. You'll hear that conversation over the next couple of days. And right when we were done, I was saying, by to him and he asked me for my prediction for the fight put me on the spot and i was just like

it's too soon man i just i don't have an answer for you and i was honest with them i was like if john wants to have a straight up kickboxing match with cyril it's gonna be a it's gonna be a rough night for him and a lot of things john does really well to get to those spots serial is really good in those spots like john is great and like john gets a lot of his takedowns in close up against the fence and the clinch a lot of trips and that's cyril's wheelhouse he loves the clinch he's a bad mamma jama in that clinch but if john somehow because john is like very good at trips he's very good on top but he's not like he's not a guy that's shot a lot of singles and doubles he isn't like it's not your catch-catchez catch-can wrestler

But if John has figured that part of his game out where he can shoot it like a beautifully timed double leg and gets on top, oh, man, it could be rough night for cereal gone. There's just so many factors. So many factors. I can't wait to see it. I honestly cannot wait to see it. Can I wait? Can I wait to wake up that morning and fly to New York and sit in that studio at G.C. and watch that fight.

I didn't even know if I'll be able to speak because I'll be so interested in that. Can't wait. All right, we're done. Now I have to go. Thank you very much. 3 p.m. Eastern Preview show. We're going to record a Jake Paul

Tommy Fury preview show right after that. That won't be live, but we're going to pre-record it. Probably launch it on Saturday. And then we got Bellator tomorrow. We got UFC tomorrow. If you're into weird boxing fights, You got Floyd Mayweather, Aaron Chalmers tomorrow. And then we get Jake Paul, Tommy Fury on Sunday.

So you get a lot to keep. We have KSW as well. We got one on Prime Video tonight. John Lineker, Fabricio de Androge, which I'm very excited about. So many fights. Just so many fights. So if you're an M.A. fan, you got plenty to look forward to. As far as this show goes, back on Tuesday, time's going to be a little weird.

Probably be more of a heck of an afternoon on Tuesday, but the rest of the week will be the way it's supposed to go. So thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of your Friday and have a heck of a morning. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.