MMA Fighting - HOAM | Managing Expectations For UFC 300, Nate Diaz's Star Power, and More

Episode Date: January 12, 2024

Despite the event being three months away, UFC 300 is the talk of the MMA world right now. With lofty expectations, every fight announcement seems to be met with criticism. But is that actually fair with only five fights made official, and still upwards of 10 more to be announced? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses the reactions to UFC 300 thus far, and why managing expectations is the most important thing fans can do right now. Additionally, listener questions include Nate Diaz's tweet teasing a return at UFC 300, why that likely won't happen, the current pay-per-view slate for the UFC, Brandon Moreno vs. Brandon Royval 2 now set for UFC Mexico City, what could headline the UFC's debut in Saudi Arabia, Aljamain Sterling's featherweight outlook, 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 to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It is Friday, January 12th, 2024, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the M.A. Fighting Twitter Space, you hear the show, it's a entirety shortly thereafter, on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. What's going on, everybody? I am Mike Heck. Hope you're all having a fantastic week. Guess what's happening tomorrow, everybody. All of you, UFC starved fans out there, well, you're going to get fed tomorrow.

The UFC returns to the world's most famous apex for UFC Vegas 84. The main events, the rematch, maybe some closure, if you will, between Magameneiath and Johnny Walker. Big fight at 205 pounds. We will preview that fight, and we will preview the entire card on the YouTube channel at 1 p.m. Eastern, it'll be myself. Mr. No Gray area, Jed Bichu, and the man with the greatest theme song

and the history of MMA, Mr. New York, Rick, will have a good time, 1 p.m. Eastern. And I have to say, UFC Vegas 84, not bad. Not a bad card. Are there some squash matches in store? for us. Very good chance of that. But the main card is pretty good. We get Phil Haas, Bruno Ferreira. I'm not going to mince words. That fight probably isn't getting out of the first round.

If it does, I would be stunned if it gets out of round two. Ricky Simone, Mario Batista, really interesting fight 135 pounds. We're going to find out if Mario Batista is the real deal. We're going to find out of this guy's for real, for real. And because Ricky Simone's a pretty damn good fistfighter. I know he didn't perform great against Song Yudong. Kind of got battered around. Song Yidong's a very good fistfighter. So we're going to see what Mario Batista is made of and we'll see if Ricky Samo can bounce back. The road to UFC 300 continues for one Jim Miller. He will take on Gabriel Benitez. Hopefully he can get in and get out and not take a lot of significant damage so that he can turn around and fight at UFC 300. I'm just not going to

mass around here. I'm already going to give you my answer to the next one pick. I'm picking Jim Miller to beat Gabriel Bonitez. And even if he doesn't, I'm still going to make the same pick. It's Jim Miller versus Paul Felder at UFC 300. That is the fight to make. I don't care where you put it on the card. It's a UFC 300-ish kind of a fight. The co-made event really good. The rematch between Mateus Nicolao and Manel Kopp. Really good fight. And then we have the Ankylai of Johnny Walker main event, which could be really good and could be sort of one-way traffic or could just be a slog. And both of those options are absolutely in play here.

So we'll see how that all plays out. So a couple things I want to get off my chest before we go to the callers. This is also a free for all Friday. MMA fans seem really mad over these last couple of days. and they seem to be kind of mad at me for a couple of different reasons. One is, I have somehow been anointed the defender of UFC 300, that I am the president of the UFC 300 fan club, which is just not true. Oh, you're defending Jean-Weilly versus John Chow Nan. How dare you?

Oh, you're defending this card. This card sucks. How dare you defend this card? guys all I'm trying to say here is slow your damn roll a little bit we only know five fights right now we only know five and if the reports are true and from what we understand there's still some things to be decided upon some things that need to happen in order for this to go down six and if it is true we're going to get davis and figurator versus cody garbrent which i like that's a good ufc300 fight That's six fights. You know what that means? We still have nine more fights to go. We still have nine more fights to go. And as I said on BTL yesterday, we could get this entire lineup

and just be like, maybe this isn't what we expected UFC 300 to be. Or maybe when the next nine fights come out, we say, oh, this is fucking good. This is really good. All I'm trying to say, my friends, and this is a very important topic yesterday, and it continued on a BTL.

day. Just chill. Wait to see what the rest of the card looks like. And look, at the end of the day, we're getting 297, which is solid, good main event. We get two title fights. 298, really good. 299 is excellent. And I can assure you that by the time we get the entire UFC 300 lineup, it is going to be close to comparable to UFC 299. Are we going to get UFC 200? Probably not, guys. Probably not. And you know why? And this is something I kind of thought about a little more as well. Like, why aren't we getting a UFC 200 kind of a card? Why aren't we getting star after star after star after star after star? You want to know why? Because there aren't any. This ain't 2016. They're not all there. And I will say up until the June fight, if it actually happens,

Connor McGregor, Michael Chandler, should be the main events of UFC 300. It's a no-brainer. It's right there. The return of Connor McGregor? This should be the main events. Connor wants to fight on the card. Michael Chandler, God love him,

has no say in the matter. It's either you fight on this date or you don't fight at all. Chandler's not going to say no to that. So, yes, is there a part of me that's just like, ah, you kind of drop the ball here? Yes. But at the same token, is UFC 300 going to be a bad card? No, it's going to be.

really good. It's going to be compelling fights from start to finish. But I just think our expectations need to be lowered a little bit. Is Dana White a little bit to blame for some of this talk? Yes, he is. Because

we could do this a whole different way. It doesn't have to be blockbuster announcement after blockbuster announcement on Instagram. You could drop a poster. If the UFC dropped a poster, just Tuesday night, that Janjan on or Monday night, or Wednesday night, that Janjan

was challenging Zhang Wei Lee for the strawweight title, would have been like, all right, cool. Did Dana kind of higher the expectation a little bit by saying, hey, I got a major announcement coming up for UFC 300. It's a title fight. You get that. Maybe the expectations were a little too high. But look, I'm trying to tell you here that at the end of the day, everybody just relax.

This is going to be a good card. It's going to be a good one. By the time we get there, we're going to be like, yeah, this is going to be really good. It's going to be stacked. There's just not a lot of stars, guys. Look at the cupboard. Who's there? Connor's already booked.

John Jones is hurt. Is he, maybe he could still fight on the card. But there just aren't a lot of megastars, guys. They just aren't. Brock Lesnar is not in the UFC. He wasn't heading into 200, but then they locked that down a month before. Ronda Rousey's not there anymore Daniel Cormier is not there anymore

all the big stars that you remember from 2016 the stars that led the company to being sold for $4 billion they are not there they're just not it's a different world guys we have to fill 42 43 fight cards a year and again I'm not like fully defending the UFC here

all I'm saying here is let's wait to see what the rest of the lineup looks like before we react to it. That's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying. We're early in the process. We're a third of the way there. We still get two thirds of the way to go.

So let's see what happens. And I have a feeling that the main event at next week's pay-per-view is going to have a lot potentially to say about what could headline UFC 300. If Israel-A-Sania shows up in Toronto, I think we have an idea of what's going to be happening at UFC 300. Maybe we get Drickus Duplice as the new champion. against Israel out of Sonia. You're telling me that's not cool as hell. This whole build last year was to get to Izzy versus DDP.

DDP has to chase Izzy. And now DDP could be the champion. And now Izzy has to chase him. That's not a compelling storyline. That's pretty fun to me. Or maybe Sean Strickland goes in there and wins. And then we can put Sean Strickland to that. Because I'm telling you right now, if Sean Strickland goes out there and dusts up

DDP, he is going to be so. So over. So over. Whether you love him or hate him, he is going to be more over than ever if he goes out there beats DDP. And that's a guy who will turn around to fight a UFC 300. I can assure you of that. I guess anybody they want him to fight. He will just say, okay, I'm in.

So let's just all relax. Number two. Number two. And I've been getting this for like a month now. And it really filled up the DMs yesterday. got some Twitter mentions. So I'll just mention this right now. As we're doing BTL yesterday,

we're talking about UFC 300 and we're throwing out the tampering of expectations conversation. BC is one of those guys that's like, look, this should be the greatest card, one of the greatest cards of all time. This shouldn't be very good. This should be excellent. And all I'm trying to tell him was like, relax a little bit.

What does Nate Diaz do? Nate Diaz just comes out with a very basic tweet that says, I was supposed to headline UFC 200, UFC 300 would be better, something to that effect. And I quote tweeted it, and as I mentioned this on BTL as well,

and I was like, here's just a reminder that Nate is very, very good at this. Very, very good at this. And holy shitballs, the amount of DMs and negative comments that I got was unreal. All you guys care about is storylines. All you guys care about are tweets.

No one cares that Nate can't fight anymore. Nate Diaz sucks. Nate Diaz was never any good and now he's worse now. Did you see Nate Diaz fight Tony Ferguson? He looked like shit. Who gives a fuck? Who gives a fuck? Because you want to know something?

You want to know what I just mentioned about UFC 300 and the lineup? Not having stars? Guess what? Nate Diaz is a fucking star. And he ate in the UFC and it doesn't matter what his skill set is anymore. It does not matter. The dude just made a floppy trillion dollars to fight Jake Paul. in a boxing match.

He lost the boxing match. And guess what? Nate Diaz's stock still went up. Still went up. And now Nate is probably going to bite to box Jorge Mazadol and make another floppy-dity-jillion dollars. He might lose that fight. And guess what?

He will find a way to have his stock rise. Nate is just so good at this. Because you want to know what that tweet did? Guess what? You guys saw the reports. We talked about this on Tuesday. We are all preparing ourselves for a world where Nate Diaz is probably going to box Jorge Mazadol and make way more money. And I mean infinitely more money than anybody that's going to fight at UFC 300.

And his stock's still going to rise. And he got people talking. He got people talking. Speculation runs rampant. Oh, maybe Nate Diaz will be fighting at UFC 300. No, he won't be. And I've been telling you this for a while. Nate ain't fighting at 300 unless they pull.

just the move of all moves, but I still don't think that Nate's going to do that, because why would he? He's a superstar. And he ain't going to get paid like what if he fights a UFC 300? He's got to get paid like a superstar when he boxes or he boss at all whenever that happens, if that gets all

signed, sealed, and delivered. They don't need the UFC guys. He doesn't need them. He doesn't need them. Could the UFC have come together and done Connor McGregor versus Nate Diaz at UFC 300, that'd be like the perfect meta-van for UFC 300. But guess what? Nate ain't going to do it because he already

knows Nate is so far ahead of this game right now. So far ahead of this game. You want to know why? Because Connor McGregor only has two fights left on his contract. Connor McGregor's going to go fight Michael Chandler on June 29th. God help us if he doesn't,

but I really hope he does. And then things are going to get super weird because what's the UFC going to do? Are they going to do exactly what they did with Nate Diaz with the biggest star in the history of the sport? Are they going to bench him and do this contract negotiation thing where we're just not going to, we're just not going to have you fight. We're just going to keep offering you weirdness and you can say no and they'll keep extending your contract and then we'll just ride this out for as long as it takes. Or is Connor just going to be like, hey, why don't you let me fight now if you want the chance to resign me?

Like, let me just fight. And Connor could go and fight that last fight on his deal. and the amount of money that he's going to be offered to fight anybody outside of the UFC, including doing the trilogy with Nate Diaz where he can make all the money, and I mean all the money, that is going to be there, folks. That is going to be there. This whole notion that Nate needs the UFC,

and I got that a lot yesterday in my DMs, and I was crying laughing, crying laughing, so hard. I couldn't breathe for a second. There are multiple DMs that I got you. yesterday that said Nate Diaz needs the UFC. No, he doesn't. It's clear he doesn't. He's been trying to get out of the UFC for years.

For years. Could he come back under the right circumstances? Sure. The bridge isn't burnt. It's not burnt all the way to the ground. But this notion that he needs the UFC is fucking ridiculous. Ridiculous. Nate just knows how to do this.

He's very smart. He knows how to drum up any sort of speculation. He's so good at it. Case in point when he did it before, a couple weeks ago. But he said, man, UFC 300 would be great, but I got nobody to fight. Like, that is great. He's got everybody calling him up for UFC 300. He's like, yeah, fuck them all.

I got nobody to fight. I would love the headline, but there's nobody to fight. Nobody wants to fight me. Come on now. And the amount of people that were like, oh, Nate's coming back. No, he ain't. And I tried telling everybody, if Nate actually fights UFC 300, that would shock me. And everyone was like, oh, no, that wouldn't shock me.

Trust me what I tell you, it would be shocking if he fights a UFC 300. Nate's just good at it. That's all I'm trying to say. Am I saying Nate D.S. is the best pound for pound fighter in the world? No. Does he know how to be a star? Does he know how to drum up speculation? Is he so good at this?

Yes, he is. He is very good at this. Nate knows how to make you miss him. He jumps in at the right times. He knows how to do this. He knows how to do it. That's all I'm trying to say. But man, I got crushed for that take.

I was like, why is everyone so mad? It was hilarious. But that was the one that got me. Nick Diaz needs the UFC. What the fuck are you talking about? Good Lord. Boating for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what?

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It's the beauty of the show. Now let's go to you guys and see what you guys have to say about this or anything else you want to talk about. MMA and beyond. Left Lane, MMA will kick us off on this Friday if the Wheel of Doom ends. Hello. Hello. Yes. Hello, we have you.

All right. So, I was in the other day and I was talking about how everyone was, of course, I've heard a lot of the shitting on UFT 300. and all of that. And since then, I have, I've got my own YouTube channel, but I've been getting a lot of comments in my YouTube channel of people telling me I'm wrong, but then I've also got some people in my comment section telling me I'm right, and then I've got a few people asking what I would actually do for UFC 300. So I'm going to set the stage here. I'm doing my own sort of BTL tiebreaker of sorts, and I'm going to imagine this takes place. I know they're going to announce some fights before then, but I'm imagining we're getting the full UFC 300.

lineup post UFC 297 and Dana White's jumping on. Let's call it a Tuesday after matchmaking and he's announcing the rest of UFC 300 cards. So I'm going to do my impromptu Dana White announcement. So guys, five fans. You already know

we've got some badass fights for UFC 300. Zhang Wei Li versus Yan Jan Janan, Charles Oliver versus Aram and Sir Yucyan. We've got Cody Brundage versus Boe Nicol, Al Jermaine Sterling versus Kelvin Kater and Alexander Rackich versus Yuri Prohasker, but fire fans, I've got some more badass fights for you guys.

We're going to start off with the main event. You already know after last weekend's fight, the middleweight champion of the world is an absolute savage, just coming off a dominant win. I don't really care who it is. And they will be facing Israel Adasanya in the main event of U.S. 3100. This is a bad blood matchup for the Battle of Africa, if it's trick of stuplecy, or a bad blood rematch with Sean Strickland. And next, we move to the Coal Main Event.

We've got Leon Edwards versus Balal Muhammad, the highly anticipated well-to-weight matchup. Moving down the card, we've got two former well-to-weight title challenges to open up the main card. Stephen Thompson versus Colby Covington. This matchups got heat on it. It's an incredible stylistic fight,

striker versus grappler at the highest of levels. That's a badass fight. Next, we move to the prelims, and we've got two former champions. Champions, Cody Garbrandt versus Davidson Figurato, another incredible fight. Now, we go to the early prelims. And coming off a dominant finish over Mateo's Nicolae last weekend, we've got Manel Cap. He's looking to cement his title shot with one more win, and he's going to look to do it against

Kai Kara France. These two do not like each other at UFC 293. Kai Kara France. So Manel Cap said some questionable things to Kai Karah France in the crowd. Next, we move to the featherweight division and we've got a banger of a fight between former lightweight and veteran of the sport, Edson Barboza and an explosive matchup against Josh Emmett. This is an incredible fight. Someone's gone asleep in this one.

Next, we've got a few more. Khalil Ranshee is going to be taking on Jan Blahovic. Hopefully, yarn's not injured. But that's another incredible fight. The Muay on display in this one, two of the best kickboxes in the light heavyweight. division. And finally, you guys know, he's a legend of the sport. He was on UFC 100. He was on UFC 200. And we've got him on UFC 300. Jim Effin Miller, and he's going to be facing off against the Irish dragon, Paul Felder, in his long-awaited return since his semi-retirement against

RDA. That is a badass lineup of fights, guys. UFC 300 is a done deal. Hope you enjoy. Don't complain. That's my UFC 300 card, Mike. Hope you enjoyed. not bad uh i i could see the main event being a thing uh i could certainly see that um barboza versus josh emma it would be fun i don't know if they would put that on 300 but it'd be fun uh i jambolovich is dinged up so he ain't fighting and after going from rackage to and then going to cleo roundtree i don't know how much interest is going to have in that wonder boy i believe is dinged up as well. So I don't think that happens.

And I certainly don't think Colby is going to be doing the opening the main card slot. I don't think he's going to be the pay-per-view curtain-jurker for anybody, even if he gets the Wonderboy fight, which I don't think he's going to, if we're being honest. I mean, I understood the call-out.

I don't think he's going to get it. Yeah, I like the Miller-Felder idea. I think that's probably what could and what I would do. Oh, well just, I mean, look, if that's the card, like, that's not, that's pretty good, right? Like, that's pretty good card. All those fights have significance and meaning, but I don't think we're going to get Boehovic on there.

I don't think we're getting Colby. I don't think we're getting Wonderboy. I don't think they'll throw Collielea Roundtree on 300. I'd rather, honestly, I would rather see, I would rather see Kalil Roundtree, like, headline an apex card at this point. Like, give the, to give the dude a shot. Like, that's all he wants. He hasn't said like UFC 300.

He just said, hey, in the past, like, let me get a main event. So let's chuck him in a main event. Why not? But not bad. Pretty good. Pretty good. I think Colby, if Ian Gary goes out and just busts up Jeff Neal in February, I honestly, I think the UFC's going to try to Ian Gary versus Colby Covington

on that Connemer Greg card. That would be my guess. That's how I would book it. We'll see. Let's go to Eric. Eric, go ahead. Okay. Hey, Mike.

Everybody is here. But what you said about that Nate Diaz and my stuff, but that's going to be good. And I don't think Nate Diaz needs UFC, bro. I just don't. And I think the Walker and the Oglaya fight is going to be good. But I hope it doesn't end up and like happy lifestyle.

I think somebody else to win and move up to the rankings. Thanks, guys. Yeah, that whole notion that NADC is ridiculous. It's absolutely ridiculous. Trust me what I tell you. I don't get on the road too often. But when I, the last, like, I would say three out of the last, like, five times I've been asked to cover an event or have gone to cover an event. It was Jake Paul fight.

Jake Paul, Tyron Woodley, too. I did the Andre Agus thing, which is kind of refreshing, honestly, compared to the other ones because there wasn't a ton of media there. It was just like, okay, this is kind of cool. But I was in Dallas for the Nate Diaz fight. There was not an empty seat in the entire building,

not one, and that place was electric. You want to know who they were all electric for? They were all electric for Nate Diaz. They were all there to see Nate. All there to see Nate. And I'll tell you another story. When I covered Jake Paul, Tired Woodley, 2 in Tampa, Nate Diaz was there because Chris Avila was on the card.

And I think he boxed Anthony Taylor that night. And Nate was there with his team. I mean, it was just, it was like stunning to see how over he was. How many people stopped that man to take pictures? How many people wanted to be around that guy? I mean, lines and lines of people all wanted to be. around Nate Diaz. It was crazy. They had to shut down areas so that him and his team could get, just get a beer because

like the dude could not walk around. He could not go anywhere without a mob of people being around him. It was friggin insane. And that's a crowd where like, it's more of like, more of a casual fight fan crowd where I felt a thousand because I would see people lining up to take photos with people and I was like, who the fuck is that? It would just be like a young influencer on social media or a TikTok star or a kick streamer or something. I'm like,

I don't know who any of these people are. Like literally none. And then like the island boys showed up and got booed out of the building which I thought was hilarious. But none of the people got anywhere near the attention that Nate got.

And it was like that moment, like I always knew Nate was a star, but it was that night where I really got to see it. Like literally every single person in that building knew who Nate was. And there aren't a lot of people who have competed in the sport who can say that. They really can't. They really can't. There's a few, but there aren't a lot that could just go to a Jake Paul boxing match and just walk around and every 15,000 people all know who you are and all are lining up to get a picture with you. It's crazy, dude. It's friggin' nuts. It's friggin' nuts. nuts. Ankleyev Walker God, I hope it's a good fight. I really do. I really, really do. This fight

cannot go to the cards. I can't take it. I can't take it. This fight needs to be explosive. We need to get somebody out of there within two or three rounds. That's what we need to see. I'll tell you what. Mockamed Ankelyiv wants a title shot anytime soon. If he wins, he better finish Johnny Walker or I don't think he's getting him. If he does what he did against Tiago Boys is even though it was a dominant performance, the UFC is not going to give him a title shot. And Johnny Walker hasn't been on their, on their nice list either after the Anthony Smith fight.

So if he's going to win, he needs to go out there and finish Maga Med Angola Live as well. So it is very imperative that the winner of that fight gets a finish and does it in exciting fashion if they want to get a title shot. And guess what? The timing is there. The timing is there. Because we don't know when Jamal Hill is coming back. All indications, conversations I've had. Looks like Jamal will be ready to start training probably in like Mayish, maybe late April. But then he's going to like kind of get his shit together, make sure that Achilles is holding up. He's got to go through a camp, all that. So you probably won't see Jamal until like the summer. Best case scenario. And I don't think you want to wait that long for Alex Pereira. So maybe a good performance gets a shot before then. Who knows? So a lot on line that fight.

A lot on the line. Four quarter sports. Go ahead. Hey, Mike. So a couple things. One, I think it was pretty quick that they ended up hiring Gerard Mayo as your New England head coach. I'm interested to see how that's going to go about for your Patriots next year. I feel like people, they're very impatient for USC 300.

I feel like it's being talked at nauseam. And, I mean, I have a feeling that we're probably going to get, you know, major announcements by the ending of next week. Like, I'm sorry, after what's it called USC 297. And I know some people were shitting on USC 297, this is what happens when you try to stack up multiple cards back to back to back you know you're you know i feel like uc 297 in my opinion is actually pretty decent of a card um they you're going to be able to provide for toronto um what i did wanted to talk about was um the the fact of uh marino versus of roivolt too i'm actually more intrigued in that main event as

opposed to what they were going to provide um for um marino versus uh albazzo but like this is going to be more fan-friendly of a fight as opposed to Obazi because I feel like Obasi would just try to make it a little bit more technical as opposed to having Royvo because now we might actually see Royvo go back to, you know, what got him to getting a title shot as opposed to what we saw against him fighting Alexandria by Pantoja just because I feel like that wasn't the real Royvo that we ended up seeing. And if he fights like that against Marino, again, then I'm in a favor of Moreno, but, you know, whenever Royvo goes into, you know, his spurts of, you know, chaoticness, I feel like, you know, it's always a 50-50 fight and, you know, usually Royvo lands in the favoritism when it comes to these 50-50 type of a fight. So who do you favor in the New Mexico main event? And lastly, what card not naming a pay-per-view, right? So that has already been announced for the first quarter.

are you looking forward to the most? All right. Thanks, Mike. Not pay-per-view. Let's see. I do think, like, Mexico City looks pretty good right now. I mean, that's pretty good one-two punch right there from Mexico City. You got Marina Royval too, which I'll get into in a minute. We got Yaira versus Ortega, too.

I think Saudi Arabia is going to get, is going to get things are, as Jim Ross, like to say, business is going to pay. up for Saudi Arabia, they're going to load that thing up. They're going to load that thing up. Atlantic City is looking pretty good. We don't have a main event just yet. I know there's things being discussed that I'm told. I can't really reveal because it's far away.

And I don't want to break any trust. But there is a main event being discussed right now. So we'll see if that comes to fruition. But yeah, Mexico City looks pretty good. Right now. I'm intrigued to see what Saudi looks like. And then we'll just kind of go from there. The Marino-Royval fight, like, look, I like the fight.

I do agree with you, like, the chance for a car wreck is probably there, more so than the Elbaughzi fight. But, man, I want to see Moreno fight somebody that I haven't seen him fight before. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not, trust me what I tell you. I'm not complaining about this fight. If fight is going to be insane. And to answer the other part of the question, we saw crazy Brandon Royval against Brandon Moreno,

and Moreno won that fight. Did Royval get injured in the shoulder and all that stuff? Yes, but that was crazy Brandon Royval, and Moreno was looking pretty good even up until the injury. So I do favor Brandon Moreno. I think Royval going from Pantosia, getting ready for his first title fight, to then going to Mexico City

to fight the hometown hero in a place that is pretty wild as we saw the last time they were there, it's going to be pretty crazy. So I like the fight. I kind of want to see the Al-Bazi I kind of want to see the Al-Bazi one just because it's different.

And I kind of want to know how good Amir Al-Bazi is. I want to know if he's the real real. Because unfortunately, and look, I know we can't control injury. and things, shit happens. It's M.A. injuries happen. You're in the gym and you punching each other in the face and like shit happens.

And hopefully, hopefully, you know, he's okay and he can bounce back. But man, I think this hurts him big time. And it's not really fair, but I think it hurts him. I think he, he's not going to be the kind of, he's going to end up being sort of, at least in the interim, almost an afterthought in this title picture. because a Benal Cop goes out there and beats Viteus Nicol out. He jumps over Amir Al-Bazi for sure. And if the reports are true that you're seeing out of Japan

and they bring Kiyoji Horaguchi back, that's another guy that probably jumps over Al-Bazi as well, not to mention the other killers we have coming up, the Muhammad Baha'iavs, the Tetsuro Tairis, et cetera. So the timing of this injury could not be worse for Amir al-Bazi. uh hopefully he could turn around and get better but i have a feeling this division and what it is right now it's got to kind of pass them by a little bit and could be tough scenes for him could be tough scenes but i like the marino roi ball flight and then looking at 297 let's pull up 297

look you get a main event with so much heat on it that that's gonna that's gonna that's gonna do the heavy lifting. John Strickland and Drinkistuplecy, especially when they start doing media days and press conferences, they're probably both going to say some pretty ridiculous shit. And that's where it is what it is. And that is going to build like crazy. You have a second title fight, which is just kind of there at this point. Neil Magny, Mike Malott has star potential for sure. He's fighting Neil Magny. Chris Curtis, Mark Andre Barrio, very middleweighty, but kind of exciting.

Mark Andreabarro has been really fun as of late. We're getting Arnold Allen versus Bob Zarblyov, guys. That fight fucking rules. That rules. I am, like, honestly, like, DDP and Strickland is just going to be fun to watch. But honestly, I am so intrigued by Arnold Allen versus Mobsar of Loyoff.

Cannot wait for that fight. That's a pretty solid main car. We got Brad Cotonin, Garrett Armfield. which I think was an Otno pick of mine. Love that. Charles Jordine, Sean Woodson should be fun. Sergei Sadiah versus Ramon Tavares.

Gillian Robertson, Pollyanna, Viana. Look, there's a lot of Canadian representation on this card. And let's not forget, the last time they were there was a two, which card was that? 286. This June 289? 289. Not the best looking card on paper,

but I got to tell you, it was a lot of fun, watching that card. That was a fun watch. And I think this will be similar. So this is like, this is the table setter. And then something else we talked about on BTL yesterday.

I have a feeling outside of like injuries and like things they can't control. This is going to be a year where we go on preview shows heading into pay-per-views and big events where we're going to be saying

far less than we did in 2023. Yeah, this one's not very good. This one's not very good. I don't think we're going to get a lot of that this year. Are we going to get a lot of that with the apex cards? Yes, but that's just the world we live in. But when it comes to pay-per-views and big events and the road show, I don't think we're going to have a lot of preview shows that are like,

yeah, this one's not that good. It's a big year for the UFC. It's a big year. This is their contract year. This is their TV deal year. This is the year. This is the year where they have to put their best foot forward when they start shopping this TV deal. They're going to bring out the best they could possibly bring out.

So it's start 297. Like this is the, hey, we miss you. Like we don't give a shit what you put on there, but they have a main event that's going to carry it so far. But then look at 298. Super good card. $2.99 is awesome. $300. If we could reel in our expectations a little bit, I think we're going to like $300.

And then on and on we go. So, yeah, it's going to be a big year for the UFC. A very, very big year. And then Gerard Mayo, we'll see what happens. Mike Vrable's there. I can't believe they didn't hire Mike Vrable, but we'll see what happens with Gerard Mayo. I like him. I like him as a player.

He's been a very good linebacker coach. Like, dude, Patriots, you could say what you want about how bad they were. Patriot defense is pretty good. Their lineback, of course, pretty good. And Geron Mayo is a big part of that. happening. So, players seem to respond to them. They seem to like him. Bob Kraft has a lot of trust in him. He sees a lot in him, always has. So we'll see how they draft and we'll see how they look next year. But I think we're going to be rebuilding. I saw somebody say, oh man,

for the first time the Patriots are going to understand what it's like to be in the mud. We've been in the mud. Trust me what I tell you. Before this, before we had Tom Brady and Bill Belichick and Bill Parcells, we were in the... the mud. We were like deep in the mud. We were in a worse position than we're in now in the mid-90s. And I was there for all of it. And it wasn't fun. It wasn't fun. But we're not as bad as we were back then, I can assure you. 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.

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Good day, good day, good day, how you doing? Good. So Michael Vennon Page was talking about his aspirations after, should he beat Kevin Holland, he was already talking title shot. Realistically, how far do you think he is away from that? Because I think he would have to win, obviously, more than just a one. And I think that this card, this upcoming card, is sort of being overlooked with all the news of 300. I just want to hear your opinion on a fight or two.

Thanks. Have a good day. For tomorrow? This upcoming USA card, yeah. Okay. Let's see. Honestly, I think this card's pretty good. Like, we have seen far worse apex cards than this.

But I like the main card a lot. I like Phil Hosbrino-Ferereer. Someone's going to sleep. Ricky Simone, Mario Batista is good stuff. I have questions. I've had questions about Mario Batista. I think he's good. I think he's looked good, but he hasn't fought

he fought Daman Blackshare who was good and Daman had success but also DeMond fought twice at a week after the twister he turned right back around after Cody Garbrand got digged up and we haven't seen Mario fight like legit dudes yet I mean he fought Corey Sanhagen in his debut but that was also like on a week's notice or less of a week's notice but he's on a good run right now. Jay Perrin Brian Keller, Benito Lopez, Guido Kennedy, DeMond Blackshare. Like, Bannerweight's a good division. It's very deep.

But this is his first, like, true test. Like, full camp, preparations, super athletic guy. Ricky Simone has, Ricky Simone has a style that can really, really frustrate Mario Batista. If he can get takedowns early and often, it's going to be a long night for Mario.

If he gets out athletic, and Ricky's the far better athlete, no disrespect, but Ricky is going to be the far better athlete against most Bantamites. But if this turns into like a battle of who's more athletic, Ricky's going to win that every time.

So Mario has to be almost perfect to win this fight. So I am looking forward to it. Jim Miller is always must-see TV, dude just trying to get in and out of there, which I appreciate. Nicolao Cop is a great fight. and then the main events got high stakes.

Like there's high stakes and storylines to a bunch of these fights, or we're going to see someone get knocked out. We're going to see a lot of finishes on this card, I think. I'm very excited about Tom Nolan making his debut, very, very high on him. Fareed Basharat, Taylor Lapilus is flying super duper under the radar. This is a really good fight. I know Basharad has been kind of ballooning as a favorite throughout the week,

and maybe that's changed. I haven't looked at the lines that much. much, but that's a really, like, fun and interesting fight at 135 pounds. Marcus McGee's look great. It's not bad. Like, like I said, there have been far worse apex cards than this one. So I do like, I do like it. Right there.

Hello. Yes, Evzolia. How are you? I'm doing good. So I want to discuss a little bit about Al Jemite Sterling. You know, I'm just curious on your thoughts. How far do you see him going through the Federalweight Division in general? And do you think he can definitely win some fights in convincing fashion?

Because for me, in my opinion, the way I look at it, I think Al Jermain certainly has a lot of potential to do quite well, 145. But however, based off some of his words from his recent interview where he said he's done with 135, I kind of have my doubts a little bit just because I feel this fight with Kada could Loki be a dual bust in terms of him when you get still being that title picture. However, if he does do

successfully well against Kada and let's say he gets in a match up with the winner of Yaya or Ortega or maybe he fights, you know, I guess the loser Volk and Elia and he can win those fights as well. I would definitely love to see him fight for a title one last time because we've seen

in the past, you know, people like Jose Aaldo do very well at 135 or you know, Rafael de Sondros he did very good at when he had that beautiful run at 170, 2019. So I'm really curious to know what your thoughts on that. If you agree, anything I said, that's all I have. Have a great day.

Thank you, sir. Of course, the landscapes are coming right now, as they typically do. Sterling, it's hard to say. Like, I think this excellent matchmaking. This is excellent matchmaking. I think Sterling is going to kick himself a little bit

because I think he should have called for Max, like for Max Holley from Jump Street. Like this whole thing, like I should get a rematch with Sean O'Malley was ridiculous. There's not one person on this planet who thought Al Jermain was going to get a rematch with Sean O'Malley, except from Al Jermaine and Stirling and maybe some of his teammates.

And I bet even some of his teammates are like, dude, what are you doing? You know you're not going to, to get this fight. And if he really wants this fight, which Sean, he needs to win the featherweight title. It's the only chance he has in fighting Sean O'Malley again. So that's why I said, like, right after he lost the belt, like go all in on max. Like, this is the fight. And he eventually got there, but it just took him too long. And now he's fighting Calvin Cater, which if he's not getting max, this is the, this is the fight. This to me is the fight. We're going to see how good Al Jermaine

Sterling can be at 145 pounds. Because, look, Calvin Cater is very, very good. He's very underrated, I think. He's a big ass featherweight, too. So he's going to be the bigger dude.

Honestly, like Aljo is usually the bigger guy or the more, you know, felt and built guy, but he's going to be the small guy in this fight. Calvin Cater is very underrated wrestling. And Calvin can crack, man. He can.

crack. I like this from a stylistic perspective, and I think we're going to get a ton of answers about Sterling's featherweight future with this fight. So if Aljo wins, go all in on Holloway again, see if you can get it, and then try to find your way into a title fight. But as we know, the relationship between the UFC and Al Jermaine Sterling has not been a great one. So, as I said, when this whole Featherway thing started, if he lost a Sean O'Malley, like this could be a very long road for Al Jermaine Sterling. They might make him work really hard

to get to a title fight. So I think this fight with Cater and the performance, et cetera, like if he goes out there and just finish this Calvin Cater, like that's the best thing he can do. He goes out and grinds out a 29, 28 decision in a fight that we're not going to go back and watch

again. He's probably going to have to fight like Arnold Allen, like the Allen of Loyal loser and then kind of make his way up to some of the bigger name. So, yeah, this fight's going to be really interesting. And I think we're going to get a, I think we're going to have a lot of answers about Algeman Sterling at 145 after this one. We got three people waiting.

We'll get to all three of you. And then we're going to get out of here. So Barbarusa, then we'll go to Huncho. Then we'll go to Ani. Barbarusa, go ahead. Hi, Mike. I just want to ask you about the UFC 300. They announced Zhang Wili against Yan, and there is a lot of talking about Bilal against Edwards,

and the main event, like Jedmishu said, it could very much be Adisania against either Pereira or the winner of the next paper view. Don't you see that the UFC are doing the risk with three title fights, that all of them could go the distance, especially that Leon Edwards and Bilal are not knowing for finishing the fight. And Izzy, as of late, maybe he had exciting fights, but it's not a guarantee. And even Yan against Zhang Wili, they finish fights, but they have gone through the decisions more than finishes as of late. And especially it's the 300, it should be that a night that shucks the world and bring new fans.

I think it's a risk. I don't know if the UFC is really ready to take it. And I want to ask you about John Jones. Do you think in the negotiation with the UFC, he said, I just want to take out the people who Francis took as a champ in the title fight, and I don't care about the division. I don't know because he's fighting the same guys who Francis fought, and after that you say I didn't run away from France because I beat the same guys he beat,

and I beat them faster, and that's it. Thank you, Mike. So 300, yeah, I mean, look, it is risky putting three title fights off. But I mean, what do people want? Do you want a card that breezes through and there's a whole bunch of finishes? Or do you want a card that's stacked on paper? That's what, like, fans need to figure out for themselves. Do you want a stack card on paper with a million title fights with all the big names?

Or do you want, like, a card that's fun to watch but still has, like, that are like really fun and entertaining matchups? You can't have it both ways. Sometimes you can. But oftentimes you run into the risk of having three titles. fights and they all go the distance. If it's DDP Izzy, I have a hard time believing that one's going the distance.

Strickland, maybe. But I don't, honestly, I think Zhang Wei Li, Janjan is a good fighter. She's looked good. I think Zhang Wei is going to finish John Jan Janhan. I really do. I really do. Leon Bilal

may not get a finish there. But I don't know. Yeah, you're playing with fire, but I mean, this is what people want. They want all the title fights and all the glamour and glitz of all of it. And then if it happens and we get three decisions, people are like, oh, this card sucks. Like, make up your mind. Do you want just like a bunch of fun fights? You want Brock Lesnar? Or do you want this? So you have to kind of figure out what you want. And if it doesn't deliver in the way you were hoping, like, what are we going to do here?

You know? That's why I'm saying, like, we have to manage our expectations across the board. We're five fights in, maybe five and a half if the Gar-Brant figgy fight goes through. Let's see what the rest of it looks like. And then we can judge it and pick it apart if we want or praise it or shit on it, whatever you want to do. But let's get the next nine or ten fights on the books, and then we could start having those conversations. Then we could start having those conversations. And then the John Jones thing, look, John's been pretty, guys, John has been pretty clear about what his roadmap is from Jump Street.

Go fight Sierra. Go fight Steepa and then I'm going to ride off into the sunset. Maybe he retires. I've always said if you fought Stepe in one, he's at least taking a break to see if somebody comes along that can entice him with a big money fight. And I do think Tom Asimel could be that guy. Problem is Tom is not that guy right now. he's on the way to becoming that guy he's just not that dude yet

so and here's the other thing about John guys he's hurt said two surgeries he's gonna be out for a hot minute like I know Jed is spearheading this gaslight John Jones campaign and it's got

it's got legs on it right now but let's see what happens maybe John like during his recovery is like fuck Steepa I'm going to fight Tom Aspen instead I don't know if that happens. I think he's going to be the prize fighter and fight Steve A first,

but maybe he does fight Tom. And if you're Tom Asmodal, like, dude, stop talking on Twitter and fight. Like, go fight. Tom needs to fight. He needs to fight multiple times this year. Whether John is around or not, Tom Aspinon needs to stay busy, and he needs to act as if his title is the real belt. That's what he needs to do.

Fight Cyril gone. Fight the Jailton Almeda Curtis Blades winner. Hell, fight Derek Lewis, UFC 300. Who cares? Just get out there and fight and just say, this is the real belt. John, you got the fake belt. I'm the one out here fighting. He ain't.

I'm the one defending titles in this division. He ain't. That's how you get John. What he's doing now is not going to get a hit John. But no, I don't think he's like, well, I'm going to do what Francis did better. I just think he's going to try to make money and do stuff. Hancho, go ahead. Hey, Mike, I was just looking at UFC 299.

on Tapology. And honestly, it's one of the most stacked cards I've seen in a long time. And I just wanted your opinion on what do you think the main card, like the final main card lineup will be? They could easily do like a six-fight main card, but I mean, I highly doubt they would ever do that. But what's your opinion? Thanks for everything you guys do.

Thanks for pushing out the content. All right, bye. Thanks, man. Let me take a gander. I mean, we know what the first two fights are going to be, or the last two fights, that is. We're going to get Cheeto, Malley, and we're going to get Poyer, BSD. I think we'll get, I think we'll get Kevin Hall and MVP on the main card. We'll probably get, we know how the UFC loves heavyweights.

I bet the first main card fight is going to be Curtis played Jailton-Lamana. Then I think we will get, do we do, the Giliburton's J. fight is the one I'm torn on. I think they'll go Gilbert Burns J.D.M. Then we'll do Holland Page. Then we'll do Porre, Santanyi, and then O'Malley Vera. I think, I mean, there's a lot of options here. Piero Yian Song Yidong could be the feature prelim.

I think Caitlin Chulkega and Macy Barber is a very good prelim fight. Tush Gamarad is a very good prelim fight. They would probably put the Spain in Parisian. on that ESPN prelim as well because I think they really want to push him. They think they have something with him and Despine or however you pronounce his name is he's 35 already. So if they're going to make a move with him, they kind of have to do it now. But yeah, I mean, look, they are they're pretty, the Miami faithful and fight fans, pretty spoiled with this one.

This thing is loaded. This could go a number of ways, but that's my guess. That's a good question. We'll see how this all plays out. All right. Let's continue on. We've got about five more minutes. We've got three people waiting. I'll try to get you as many as I can. Any, go ahead. Thank you again. Hope you well. So this is a free-for-all Friday. So I just wanted to go back to the question I asked you a couple of weeks ago about fasting. So if I were to give it a go, do you think it's good if I start off with a 24-hour fast and then see? what happens. Do you want me to ask the other questions, or do you want to answer this first?

Go ahead. You can ask the other question. And the other one is not a question per se. I think it's, I'm just trying to figure out who can headline the UFC Saudi Arabia fight night card. Because they said it's a fight night. Of course, there will be fighters from Dagestan and Russia and from Saudi Arabia if they have any. But one thing that I've often observed is whenever it's time for UFC to, you know, dip their toes into new waters, just like their first ABC card or the, you know,

you know what I mean. So whenever there is this really, you know, event with a spotlight, but it's not as big as a pay-per-view. I think the person they usually look at is Max Holloway. and I think they might have Max Holloway headline that maybe against the winner of, not the winner of Sterling and Cater. I honestly, this might be a hot take, but I do not want to see Al Jemaine Sterling versus Max Holloway. I don't know, it just doesn't excite me very much. Maybe I'm wrong, but it's not an exciting fight. I'd rather see Max Holloway versus Josh Emmett, you know what I mean?

Or Max Holloway versus the winner of Mofsarev-Lov and Arn-Lallen. I mean, better if Mofsard-Ev-Lov wins. So I think they usually rely on Max Holloway because he brings it every single time. So I think we might see Max Holloway in Saudi Arabia. And about the Atlantic City, I know you're not supposed to reveal anything, but can Can you just mention what weight class it is? Yes, that will be all from me. No, I will not mention what weight class it is.

I will give no more. It's too early. It's too early in the process. And look, we've run into this before. It's very important to get everybody confirming before you report things and everybody on the same page. We've run into this a lot lately. We've run into this a lot lately.

We saw Mandi Hebas v. Rosenomi Unis reported. It's not done. Like it's too, it was too, it's too early to report that fight. Could it happen? Sure. Is it done? No. Are we even at the stage where both fighters have said, yes, I'll do this.

No, we're not there yet. That's why it's not on the website. We ran into this as well with, uh, Norma Dumont and Arrini Aldana. That fight was reported as done. done was not done, which is why now Arrani Aldana is saying, not Arrani Aldana is saying she's fighting Jermaine Durandemey now because that fight wasn't done. It is important to have everything in place before you report things. And I don't even want to tease it at this point

because we're not quite there yet. So if that fight comes to fruition, if I get more information, I get the go ahead, then I will tell you guys, honestly. Maybe we do Max in Saudi Arabia. I don't he's going to fight. Look, I completely disagree with the Mobs-Zerav-Vloy of Arnold Allen pick because we just did Arnold Allen versus Max Holloway. I told you why I didn't like that fight.

And now Arnold Allen is not fighting for the bounce. Now he has to fight Mobs Zeravloyaf. And if Bob Zor of Lov-Oyaf goes out there beats Arnold Allen next weekend and he is his favor to do so, and I'm picking him to do so. And now he has to fight Max Holloway? Why?

He dude should be fighting for the title. if he goes out there beats Arnold Allen, he should be fighting for the belt. If Alexander Volcanovsky beats Ilya then the next fight for Volcanovsky should be Mavsoor of Vloyaf. That is the fight to make. I don't want to see Vloyaf

go from Arnold Allen to Max Holloway at all. Give him the title fight. 1,000%. Now, if Lillia Tuporia wins, different story, because you're probably going to get a remat, things could get a little hairy in that sense so if um are observed life step one you beat iron allen and step two you better kind of hope that alexander bolkinowski wins uh and then that's probably

his shortest path to the belt fasting look i just went right into the 72 hour fast that's kind of high roll i just dive right in uh i don't dip my toe in the pool i just do a cannonball so that's that's how i do it um all i'll say is no matter how long you do it. It is important to do two things. One is exercise and two, be super busy, super duper busy. Don't even think about it. Just pick a stretch of time where you know you are going to be running around like a madman. And that stretch of time, I promise you, it'll be super easy. But if like there's a lot of downtime, you're sitting around, you're not doing anything, you're going to be thinking about Wandae. So stay busy and go to the gym. The two best pieces of advice I can give

you. Parko. What's going on, Mike? So, you know, the majority of the top 10 of Bandaweight is booked, you know, excluding Corey Sane. And so I'm really curious to see, you know, at least tell me, who would you like to see him fight next? Because, I mean, the Umar matchup is awesome. I mean, I would love that, but, you know, that already, we already went through that process. It didn't work out. And I think it'd be kind of, you know, shitty if he didn't get, you know, a higher-ranked opponent after, you know, everything he's done for the company recently. So first question will be, who would you like to see Corey fight? And then second question, kind of a bonus. Which unranked fighter do you see making a big splash in 2024 that could become champion within the next couple of years?

Thank you, sir. It's Umar for Corey. That's the fight. I think that's the best fight for both guys right now. Honestly, and I think honestly, if Corey goes out there and beats Umar, he has a very good chance getting a title shot. Because I think that would entice Sean O'Malley to be like, all right, like, now I can fight this dude. And I think Corey's kind of been played for him anyways, because I think Sean would kind of like that test more so than Umar or more so than a Marab. But we'll see how it plays out.

But I want to see them try the Umar fight again. We'll go from there. because Corey went out there. Corey was banged up. Corey was already dinged up anyways and he ended up fighting Rob and still won wasn't a memorable performance

but the dude was super injured. So I would rather see them both like ready to go, fully healthy. That's the one I want to see. That's the one I want to see. Let me just make sure let me just look at the rankings

real quick. I'll go off the UFC ranking stance to this question. I think I already have my answer already. I just want to make sure he's not already ranked. It is Icram Al-Scaroff with a bullet. This is going to be a big year for him.

I think he's going to beat Anthony Hernandez. And I think that man is going to be a problem. I think he's going to be fighting for the middleweight title. I don't know. God. I think by the end of 2025, he gets title shot. Like, I think that's the kind of year he's going to have. I don't think he's going to get, like, Hums out of attention.

But I think he's going to be. going to be pretty close. I think he's, I think people are going to look at him like they look at Shafcott right now. So I'll go with Ikechermal Scaroff. All right, we'll go rapid fire. I got two more people waiting, Heretic and Serb, and that is it. Then I got to go. Heretic, do we have you? Hello, can you hear me? Yes. Hi, Mike. How are you? Hi, Mike. It's a quick one. What can we expect from Henry versus Mirab? Keep in mind, it's a three-round fight. It will be quick. Thank you. I am I am I'm oddly fascinated

not oddly I'm I'm very intrigued by that matchup because there's a lot of people who feel like Barab is just going to kill Henry Suhudo and I don't know if that's true like I would probably pick Barab but there's a lot of people who have had the take that Marab is just going to run this dude over and run him out of the building and run him out of the sports

and I just don't know if that's true I think Marab wins a I think Marab wins a tight decision in a fight that is probably not great but I don't know it's one of those fights

where I'm just kind of like I have no idea what's going to happen but yeah I like it I think it's going to be competitive a lot more competitive than people think it's going to be but I will pick Marab

to win a tight decision eke it out if you will Serb take us home Hey Mike happy Friday loved all the year-end content. I just checked in. Sorry if someone already asked, but your thoughts on the Gerard Mayo hiring, and if not, I've been seeing all over Twitter for Mike Vrable is a landing spot, Atlanta. You got Bejohn Robinson there, big playmakers in London and Pitts, but thank you for

all the content. Hope the new year went well for you. And yeah, excited to get back to it. Thank you, sir. Yeah, look, we'll see. It's hard to tell. I thought when Vrable, I I thought Brable was going to be the guy. I thought for sure he was going to be the guy. And we get John Mayo. And like I said earlier, he's got a great reputation, not just as a player, but as a coach as well. He's done some really good things to that defense. And the player seemed to have a really strong connection with him.

He seems, especially with this newer generation of athlete, it's always, they seem to gravitate more towards people who have been there and done that. And Gerard Mayo has been there and done that. So he's not the youngest coach in NFL history. And we'll see how it works. I mean, I don't really know. Atlanta could be a spot for Bill Belichick, too. It's got to be really interesting to see where he ends up because he's,

someone's going to lock up Big Bill for sure. And I talked to somebody at the CrossFit gym I work out at who was also a former Massachusetts native and we talked about this. I was like, look, we already know what's going to happen. Like, this is what happens to us all the time. Bill Belichick is going to go sign with somebody else, and then that team's going to go win the friggin Super Bowl next year. And we're going to be like, oh, you suck.

I can't believe you let this guy go, because that's what Boston Sports is all about. We sit there, we think we're so smart, we throw out all these things. We are the most to be careful what you wish for, sports city in the world. Because then when it happened, I remember when everyone's like,

get Tom Brady out of here. This guy's, he's cooked, he's done. And then he goes to Tampa, wins the Super Bowl. And I'm just like, yeah, I guess he wasn't done. That's just what always seems to happen. So, yeah, we'll see what happens. Good hire.

I think people, especially New England, fans need to be patience with this hire. I don't think this is the thing he's going to turn around in the season. They got to get some offensive weapons and fast. I'm happy with the defense. There's obviously things they can improve on. I think Gerard will help that defense get better and stronger.

He will have a big voice within that defense. But boy, do they need offense playmakers badly? Abs of freaking loosely. But all right, everybody, thank you all very much. Reminder, 1 p.m. Eastern preview show for UFC Vegas 84. We will see you then. Thank you all for the very thoughtful calls. And we'll be back here on this program on Tuesday.

And we'll start the road to UFC. 297, which should be a lot of fun. So thank you all very much. Back on Tuesday, have a great rest of your Friday, and have a heck of a morning. To the Vox Media Podcast Network.