MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reacting To Jose Aldo's Retirement, Legendary Career

Episode Date: September 20, 2022

José Aldo has retired from mixed martial arts, ending a long, and legendary career. Where does the former UFC and WEC featherweight rank amongst the all-time greats? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to Aldo's decision to turn the page to the next chapter of his life, reflect on his incredible career, and why he's one of the top-five best fighters of all-time. Additionally, listener questions include Aldo's final UFC fight against Merab Dvalishvili, Khamzat Chimaev's next opponent options, Paulo Costa's babyface turn over the past 10 months, what's next for Cory Sandhagen and Gregory Rodrigues following their big wins at UFC Vegas 60, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, ghosts in the machine,

available now, only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Tuesday, September 20th, 2020, and it is indeed a heck of a morning live on the enemy fighting Twitter spaces. You will hear the show, and it's entirely shortly thereafter. on the M.A Fighting Podcasting Network. Thanks for jumping on, everybody.

I am Mike Heck. Hope everyone's having a wonderful start to the week. There's a lot to discuss. I am actually technically on vacation. My presence on social media will be very minimal this week, trying to just recharge the old batteries, take a step back, if you will. But I didn't want to leave you guys hanging with this show.

Definitely want to do BTL, but as far as like the day-to-day writing and the grind and the news chasing and all that, not happening this week. We're just going to, we're just going to chill out a little bit and do some things that I would like to do. So this might actually be kind of a crazy show because for those who have been watching like all the video content on MMA fighting for the last year, or probably like, like six months or so. The command center has continued to change places. We've been in so many different spots since I got to have May fighting.

We've been in two different states. We've been in multiple different floors, different rooms. And finally, I feel like I have the perfect space. Command Center 4.0, which we converted our garage

into the new studio. So we have like all sorts of fun stuff. The problem with command Center 4.0 and living in South Carolina is that command center 4.0 is like a thousand degrees. It's hotter in Command Center 4.0 that it is outside. If it's 100 degrees outside, it's like 110 degrees in my little space there. And you've probably seen me turn red and sweat bullets, probably on every single show. But today, that is going to be a thing of the past. Because Finally, we have somebody out.

He's venting the new air conditioner we're putting in a little standing unit, but at least it's not going to be 5,000 degrees in that room anymore. So very excited by the time I come back, probably by the time we do BTL this week, the room will be much cooler. I won't be a glistening mess doing all these shows, and I won't be sweating bullets. So that's all, that's very exciting stuff. So if I have to sort of pause the show, not really pause the show,

but if you don't hear anything for a couple of minutes, that's because I'm talking to the guy who's here literally right now drilling holes in the command center and getting anything situated with that. So if I have to take a breather and talk to him, that's where I've gone. So don't fret. Don't worry about it. It'll be very minimum and then we'll continue on. But we were coming off the heels of UFC Vegas 60. Big win for Corey Sanhagen.

It was a night of gnarly gashes. I thought he looked fantastic. I thought Song Yudong proved a lot in that fight. I think he answered a lot of questions despite losing that fight. Corey Sanhagen's in a very interesting position in this kind of Banimweight little Grand Prix tournament sort of number one contender battle amongst three or four different dudes. He looked good. He looked real good.

And like I said, Song is going to be a player in this division for years to come. 24 is going to turn 25 in December. Very impressed with what he did. Very impressed with what Corey Sanhagan did. Very impressed with what Robocop Gregory Rodriguez did. The guy basically his nose was about to freaking fall off his face. And he still came back, still knocked out a very tough dude. And Cheedy and Jokawani.

Big win for him. Stock rose quite a bit. I was very impressed with him as well. And Cheaty. She looked good in that first round. And Gregory Rodriguez able to sort of overcome the storm and battle back. back and just get a crazy win. I thought David Jackson's win was incredible.

I thought Andre Feeley's win was incredible. Joe Pfeiffer was being Joe Pfeiffer and Anthony Hernandez looks spectacular. Rodrigo not Cemento. It was a win, not anything we're going to write home about. But all in all, it was probably as good as that card could have been. I set it on to the next one. The best way to describe it, it was memorable and not memorable all at the same time. But we get a rare week off from the UFC.

We got Bellator back this week. They're in Dublin. Benson Henderson versus Peter Queerley, the main events. We got the return of Yol Romero against Melvin Manhuff. So a lot of coverage on that coming up throughout the week on M.A.fighting.com. But the big news of this week is not New York Rick getting a just an unbelievable haircut, the second best haircut given in the MMA media space in the history of MMA media. Not MJF showing up on Ariel Hawani show,

not Action Bronson showing up on the show as cool as that was. But the big news, Jose Aldo has announced his retirement from mixed martial arts competition, and the UFC has agreed to release him from his contract. Now, a lot of people kind of curious with what's going on there, A lot of people are saying, well, he's going to go to the PFL. He's going to go to Bellator. I would be stunned if that happened from all accounts. His release was basically with the principle that he's not fighting an MAA anymore.

He can go fight. He can go box, which is something he's wanted to do. But I don't think we're going to see Jose Aldo compete in mixed martial arts anymore. And that's fine. I don't think he has anything more to prove. in the sport of mixed martial arts. And I don't think him going to the PFL or Bellator or won or any of those other promotions and trying to vie for those titles,

it would be a cool moment for him if you could add those things to his resume. But what he wanted most was to have a chance to fight for a UFC title one last time. He knew his career was winding down. He had told people in multiple interviews, I'm going to win the belt and then I'm going to retire once I win the belt. And what does the UFC do?

They book him in just the most egregious way possible. They book them in altitude against freaking Marabda Walsh Willie when he probably should have got the title fight to begin with. I just thought, like, and I said it from the get-go. The matchmaking was atrocious. It was terrible matchmaking.

And I had people sort of like bark back at me say, well, this guy's going to get to a title. He had to fight Marab. What are you talking? about. He did not have to fight Marab. In fact, that win over Cheeto Vera has aged about as well as any win in that division right now. It's incredible with how well that that victory over Marlon Vera's age. And the performances he had, winding down his career, you should have, if you weren't going to book him for a title fight, you should have booked him against Dominic Cruz. You should have

booked him against Frankie Edgar. If you're going to give, if you're going to make him fight one more time before fighting for the belt. Those are the fights. Scratch off those bucket list fights. But instead, you put him against Marab de Wallis-Willi in altitude in a fight that no one's ever going to talk about again. I mean, now we're going to have to talk about it because it's the final fight of his career. But that's the last taste we get from Joseo Alto as a competitor in mixed martial arts. And it stinks. Now, it's a different situation had you booked him against a young hungry whippersnapper that could get over beating Josealdo. Marab, while getting a win, and it's an important win, it didn't get him over all that much.

It didn't advance him in this little tournament at all. It just puts him at a position where he's going to have to win at least one, maybe two more fights, depending on what happens when shot O'Malley fights Peter Yan. But be that as it may, I thought the last fight, the last booking of his career was dog shit. But it is what it is. All those not a guy that's going to say, no. He went in there, fought his ass off. and lost. And now that's it. So there's a lot of talk about the legacy of Joseo. At worst,

no matter who you are, he is a top 10 fighter of all time. If he's not one of your top 10 fighters in the history of the sport, you got to go back. I know there's a lot of newer fans that didn't get to see the WEC Josealdo or the Josealdo that first got into the UFC pre the Conn McGregor knockout. Nobody got to, not a lot of people. from the newer fans went back and looked at the history of Joseo and some of the performances he had and some of the big wins that he had and some of the moments that he had.

And then he gets knocked up by Connemar Greger and everyone feels like this dude is done. And then he goes out and gets more wins. And he fights out of General Volcanowski and gets kind of run over in that fight. Everybody thinks he's done again. And then he goes to 135 and everybody thinks he's, what are you doing, Jose?

You couldn't even make 1.45. You're going to try to make 1.35. And he makes the weight to fight Marl Marius. Most people felt he beat Maraeris. Didn't get the rub. Didn't get the win. I thought he got hosed a little bit, not a robbery. But I thought he got hosed.

But they give him a title shot anyways. And he goes in there and fights the killer, Peotor Yan. And that is a fight that I don't think Josie Aldo gets a lot. lot of credit for. I went back and watched that fight the other day just because I wanted to watch it because I remembered it being a lot better than the annals of history suggests and how fans suggest. And I went back and watched that fight. It is an incredibly competitive fight. Now down the stretch, Jan started getting cooking. Fourth round, that's when the ties started to really turn. And then Jan just put a halacious beating on him in the fifth round. And the big storyline coming

out of that fight was the referee allowed Josea to take way too much punishment. And while that was true, you got to go back and watch the first three rounds of that fight because they were super close, super competitive rounds. And at that point, we're just like, this guy's done. We've given him so many chances. We've tried so hard to believe that this guy has one more run left at him. And then he goes out, gets a title shot coming off of a loss.

There's no way this guy can make his way back. He's done. He's done. He's done. Stick a fork at him. And then what does he do? He comes back less, a little over five months later and beats Marlon Vera

in a win that is aged spectacularly. This was not one of those types of fights where it was like, oh, I was real close. I mean, Vera had his moments, but Jose Aldo won. There was no doubt he won that fight. And then he comes back eight months later and fights Pedro Munoz.

And it was a technical masterpiece from Joseo a technical masterpiece at UFC 265. And Munoz had his moments in that fight too, but Aldo was just two steps ahead of him.

Munoz was playing checkers, and I mean like World Championship level checkers. And Joseo Alto was like, you know what beats checkers? Chess, baby. Chess.

He was like Bobby freaking Fisher out there playing against a world champion checkers player. And it was spectacular. An incredible performance. And then he fights Rob Fon's in a fight that if Rob Fon had won that fight, it's probably fighting for the title next. And Jose Aaldo goes out there and just puts it on Rob Fon.

Heard him multiple times, took Rob Fon down when things got a little hairy. This was an incredible performance when Josea Lado gets Rob Fon. And to me, wins over Vera, especially with what Vera had did after, you know, has done since, beating Pedro Munoz the way he beat Pedro Munoz, and then beating Rob Font the way he beat Rob Font, considering what Rob was at at the time, he deserved a title fight, in my opinion. He deserved a title fight.

Unfortunately, he was just in a bad timed scenario. Timing was not on his side because we were still dealing with the aftermath of the Aljibade Sterling title win over Jan with the illegal knee. We're still waiting to rebook that fight. We just had an interim title win for Piotr Yan. He had to wait.

He had to wait. And then we got the title fight. Then we got the title fight. Sterling wins the belts. It's April. T.J. Dilleshaw is saying, I deserve the shot. Some people agreed with that. I didn't.

A lot of other people that I speak to and I have a lot of respect for in this industry, didn't believe that. I felt Aldo should have got the title shot. I felt Aldo should have been the guy fighting for the belt. Ignore the Morav fight. Tell T.J. to wait in line. Let's give Jose,

though his opportunity to fight for the title one last time. He's already told you his career's winding down. Give him his shot. He has earned that right. He has earned that right. And they didn't give it to him. They gave Marab. Fine.

If that's what you want to do, that's cool. Maraub didn't gain much from it. Jose announces his retirement. And he's done with MMA. He's done in the UFC. And the UFC lets him go. And they've sung his. as praises as they should, they will probably continue to do so. And I hope that come January when the

UFC goes back to Rio, at some point during that main card, they just take 15 minutes instead of showing a promo or going back to the desk or doing something like that, you take that time and you let Jose Alo come out to run this town, you let him walk in front of that Rio crowd, stand inside that octagon, Let him soak up the appreciation, the praise, and the applause that that man deserves, and you let him have his moment. Because Michael Bisbing didn't get that moment after he retired when the UFC went back to London. Jose Alder deserves that moment.

And to me, he's at worst top 10 of all time. In my eyes, he is a top five fighter in the history of the sport. And he honestly deserved better on the way out. The UFC releasing him and letting him go pursue. other opportunities was very cool but I think this is probably a little bit of the UFC being like damn we screwed that booking up we screwed that one up

putting him in there with Maram but it is what it is what a career this guy had unbelievable I would have loved to have seen him fight Connor McGregor again but there's a lot of people in the in the annals of MMA who feel like that's how he's

going to be remembered to me that's not even close it was a crazy build a crazy moment but I mean, the one I can't forget, this is one of the first times I've watched, I believe it was, I think one of the first times that I watched MMA outside of the UFC. This was 2009, WEC 41, June of 2009. The main event was Mike Brown versus Uriah Faber 2 for the WEC featherweight title. Mike Brown won that fight, but the Coal Main event was a big one. that they had hyped up in such a big way, Joseoaldo, who was pretty much next in line to fight for that title,

fighting Cub Swanson. And Joseo Aldo, eight seconds. Flying me, boom, finished Cub Swanson in eight seconds. I was just like, holy shit. This guy is a monster. And he certainly was. Certainly was as a fighter. That knocko was absolutely insane.

And then the next fight goes in, beats Mike Brown, finishes him in the second round, wins the belt, then goes on to fight Yerai Fabor, dominant decision win, leg kick Aldo. It was a crazy fight, but like kick Aldo reigns supreme, fights Manny Gamberian, finishes him in the second round,

and then he goes off to the UFC, he's the UFC featherweight champion, beats Mark Hobanick, mangles his face, beats Kenny Florian, finishes Chad Men, Bets Frankie Edgar, beats Korean zombie, finishes him, beats Ricardo Llamas, goes out against Chad Mendez and just an all-time classic at UFC 179, one of the best title fights you'll ever see. Aldo comes through, wins the belt, and then we don't see him again for another

14 months. That was the build to Connor McGregor, the injury in July that took Aldo out of the fight. People are starting to question his heart, starting to question him. He's afraid of Connor McGregor were things that I was hearing in 2015. He's afraid of Cona McGregor. He faked this rib injury. And it was just amazing to me that that's how people felt. And to Connor McGregor's credit, that guy did a spectacular job of rattling Jose Aldo because that's exactly what he did. Aldo was beat before that fight even started because of that. He was beat before that fight even started because of all that build and everything that happened. And everybody thought he was done.

13 seconds. Boom. Next fight. Frankie Edgar dominates him at UFC 200. Wins the interim featherweight title. Right in front of Connor. Then the two losses to Max Holloway. We're thinking he's done. Boom.

Knocks out Jeremy Stevens. Nasty body shot. Ground and pound. Knocks out to Moikano. This guy's career is incredible. I can talk about Aldo's career for another hour. This dude is the man. Absolute man.

Top five of all time. And you can go to M.Afighting.com right now. Our own Girmai Cruz put together a great collection of stories and praise and tributes from well-known fighters' names in Brazil talking about Josealdo, talking about the legacy. this guy is going to leave behind as a mixed martial arts fighter. And I can't wait to see what this guy does. I hope he goes into boxing. I hope he gets these same opportunities that the Anderson Silvers of the world are getting, that the tired woodlies of the world were getting,

that even the Ben Ascrens of the world were getting. I hope Josealdo gets that opportunity as well. I hope there's a 145, 150 pound Jake Paul that comes along that starts running his mouth and starts talking about MMA. And then he fights Josealdo. Josealdo gets paid, gets that big payday to fight in the boxing ring or whatever this guy wants to do. And whatever it is, you damn best believe that I will be watching and I will pay however

much it costs to watch Josealdo do it again. So that's my little diatribe on the great Josealdo. Run this town, baby. Run this town. So let's get your thoughts on that or UFC Vegas. You or whatever the hell you want to talk about. I don't care. This is your show.

Viking MMA was first in line, so we will go to him, and then we'll just get after this thing for a little while, as the drilling has already commenced for the new air conditioner. Viking, hello. Hello, Mike. Hi, buddy. So the BTL and heck of a morning is not going to happen this week? Is it right? Nope, it's up.

Nope, that's both happening. I'm doing a heck of a morning right now. We're doing it. We're going to do that this week and BTL, but that's it. All right. I just miss that part. So thank you for the update. Oh, good.

Actually, my question is about Paulo Costa, that Paulo Costa has been chirping lately a lot about Chimair, but at the same time, he has nothing to lose. He won't that sort of money fights, but I don't know if Hamza had. that status are not in the money fight. And the Paulo Costa was a little angry on UFC when they find him, what, 30% in that victory fight.

And this is his last fight in UFC contract. And after that, he might go to PFL and make more money than he has ever made. According to all of your BTL panel. So do you think UFC will give Costa that Hamzat fight or they will just think that there are other fights at the middleweds, maybe a striker who has less ground game to keep Hamzad out of trouble, maybe the winner of Strickland and Jared Cannonier fight? And how this win over Paulo Costa would get him a title shot, Hamza Chimer, a title shot. Thank you, Mike. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

If I'm the UFC, we talked about this a lot last week. If I'm the UFC, you're focusing all your attention on making sure that Hamzaa Tcha Maif can fight at 170. You're getting him the best nutrition as possible. You're doing everything you can because the fight to make is him versus Colby. That is the one. And I think Colby would take it. I think Colby sees paths to victory there. and Colby understands that this is the biggest fight he can get.

This fight with Hamzat would be bigger than him fighting Usman a third time, right the second. Now, if he goes out and beat Shamaath and Usen beats Edwards, that third fight is massive. It's gigantic. But Colby is a guy who wants the biggest fights. Whether they make sense, whether they're a couple of years overdue, he wants the biggest fights he can get that are realistic. such as Woodley,

that, what of that, that fight night car was like two years ago at this point. I still believe it's the most viewed fight night card in UFC history. And then he got the Mazadol fight, which was very smart on his part. It was gigantic, got to headline a freaking pay-per-view,

and he got paid to do it. So it was a big fight. It was worth the, you know, the less amount of time to prepare. But for Colby, I mean, that is the biggest fight you can make for either guy right now. That's realistic. They're not giving Homs out a title shot.

But if for some reason they can't get Colby on board, you got a pretty darn good backup plan with Paul O'Costa. So I think if I'm the UFC, this is probably what they're thinking. They're probably thinking, let's do everything we can to try to make this Colby fight happen. I'm sure Colby is like, I'm not going to sit here and train for this dude for all this time for him to come in at 176 or 177 or 178 and a half. So if I'm Colby, if I'm any welterweight at this point, I'm a little concerned about that. But if they see that Hamzat's doing the right stuff and all that,

if Hamzaa can make it to the octagon, if he can make it to the scale and make weight, that's the biggest fight they could do. But if Colby's just like, nah, dude, I get to see it make 171 first before I put my body out there like that, which I wouldn't believe. blame him for doing, you got Paul Costa.

And what a difference a year makes, huh? Holy smokes. October of last year, this dude was like public enemy number one. Going into the Marvin Vittori fight, everything that happened there, that fight car was garbage, but he made it more interesting. But people were just hating on Paul Costa, just hating on him. He's like, I ain't fighting at 185. I'm going to fight 195.

You know what? I'm not fighting at 195. I'm going to fight 205. It was just crazy. People were killing this man. And now all of a sudden, Paul O'Cas is one of the biggest baby faces in the UFC. People love this guy.

People love this guy. He's cutting New York, Rick's hair, looking like one of the founding fathers. It's just, Paul's just a, he's, people think he's a delight. Less than a year ago, we were not thinking of Paul O'Costa that way. 11 months ago, we were like, this guy sucks. This guy's terrible.

He's unprofessional. The UFC should just cut him. We were talking about the UFC cut him. We were talking about the UFC cutting him heading into that Marvin Vittori fight. And then him and Marvin went out there and had a battle. They beat the hell out of each other. It was a great fight.

He lost it. And he comes back and has this fight with Luke Rockhold. And everything he's done since then, the fans have loved. They've loved everything. So it's just, the same thing could happen to Hamzot, too. Although with what happened at UFC 279,

Hamzat stock actually rose, he might have gotten a lot of fans against him, but that doesn't mean, there's like Sohudo heat right now where it's like, we didn't want to hear what this dude has to say right now. Like, I don't believe you're going to fight. And then there's Hamzot heat where it's like,

we want to see this dude lose, but we're going to spend 75 bucks to watch this guy fight. That's what Hamzat's got right now. Lumber hate him. You're going to watch him. He was still the biggest story. at UFC 279. And he will be the biggest story

for whatever fight card he's on next. That's just what this guy has done. He's a murderer. He's a killer. And winning changes everything. Winning solves most problems. So whatever Hamzaa does next, people are going to be watching. That is for sure. But if I'm the UFC, they're looking at the Colby fight first

if they can't get that done. Pretty damn good backup plan with Paul Costa. I assume Paulo, I mean, it's a win-win for Paulo, because either he's going to get a damn good deal to extend or sign a new contract, or he's going to go into a fight with Hamzat with all eyeballs upon him for the last fight of his deal. And win or lose, he's going to be fine. So that's the kind of fight you want on the way out. And if he wins it, oh boy, I don't think he would, but.

Good spot to be in, if you're Paula Costa right now, especially at the way people are viewing him. He's got the little baby face turn going on. Let's go to James. James, hello. How you doing, Mike? I'm good, thank you. Hey, firstly, I want to give you a shameless plug here. 17-year-old Raoul Rosas Jr. fights tonight.

And I liked your article and interview with him last week. So everybody should go check that out before his fight tonight. Thanks, buddy. Uh, here's my little hypothetical for it. Well, firstly, I agreed with like every single thing you said about Jose, or Jose Aldo. He's the absolute man and, uh, we're going to miss him. Wish he would have got that last title shot.

But what I wanted to ask you is, the hypothetical is city kickboxing has hired Mike Hack. They want you to develop the game plan for Izzy in his upcoming fight. What do you do? Wow. first of all, none of those guys would hire me for anything, nor should they, because I'm terrible for them. If I'm, I mean, I'm not great at like the technical breakdowns.

Like there's certain tendencies that I can spot, but I would just, I mean, if you're Izzy, just do what you do. Just keep doing what you're, what you've been doing. And I think, I'm still picking Izzy to, I'm picking Izzy to beat Alex Pereira. I don't think he's going to do anything all that different. I just think he's going to be a little more elusive defensively than, and he's been pretty damn elusive defensively. So what I would kind of recommend to people is,

if you haven't done this already, go back and watch those two kickboxing fights because they're glaring. They're glaring. I mean, you can look at it on topology, you can look at it on a page and be like, oh, well, Alex Perea beat this dude twice and he knocked him dead in the second fight.

The record, sure, if you look at it from that lens, yeah. But if you go and actually watch the fights, I actually thought Adasani won the first fight. I'm not going to come out and scream robbery or anything, but I thought Adasani won the first fight. And the second fight, I thought he was winning the second fight until he got knocked out.

So he's just got to be smart. He's just got to be smart. He cannot do what Sean Strickland did and just get in his face and try to like bolt him out of there. I feel like if I'm going in there, city kickboxing, like, hey, what do you going to tell Adasani right now? I'm going to be like, just do what you've been doing and you'll win.

Like, you're a very good chance to win. If he just stays, uses his length very well, and just stays away, picks his shots, uses his quickness, to get in and out, stays elusive defensively, he's got a very good chance to win. Now, Pereira is just a monster

and he can absolutely crack. But Adasani's been in there with lots of guys who could absolutely crack, and he's been able to stifle most of them. So I'm taking out of Saudi to win that fight. I think it's going to be a very similar fight to a lot, his last couple of title defenses. Or are we going to be screaming that this is the most exciting fight of all time?

I don't think so, but who cares? Adasadhi is going in there and he's going to win. He's just going to go in there and try to win. And if you don't like it, fix it. Go in there and knock about. But I feel like, got a sign he's going to win. I don't feel like I have to change anything with him. I feel like if

he just fights the way he's been fighting, he has a very good chance to win. Just don't get knocked out. Don't get knocked out and you'll win. But that's why I'm not a coach. Four quarter sports. Hey, how's it going, Mike? Hey, good. So, I was talking to a couple buddies of mine after

the Jose Aldo news broke out and it's unfortunate. I just feel like the casual audience is always going to remember Jose for losing to Connor. I was speaking. to some of my friends who watch MMA and then some of them watch MMA casually and they're all

saying that you know even though he had like a good run in his WEC days and early UFC career they mainly remember him as for him losing to Connor I mean it just sucks that's what some of the people that I've been speaking to refer

you know about Jose's career I mean obviously people that watch the sport you know immensely that's not how they view him but yeah I wanted to point that out. I also wanted to talk about the, um, Corey Sanhagan and Song Yidong. Now, how did, I, I don't remember exactly if you pointed out, like, how'd you have the, um, both fighters going into the fifth round, like, what was your score card?

I mean, I had a Corey three to one, but I hear that Marlon Vera wants to fight Corey Sanhagan. I know I, I told, AK, AK lead that, uh, Cheeto Vera to me is leading the way in this, uh, many Grand Prix. But should Cheeto take this fight or should he just sit it out just because of the fact that I mean, he's the only one that has had the knockout in these recent Bandoahey fights.

And who would you favor in the matchup between San Hagen and Marlon Verro? Just because Sanhagen, I mean, the way that he looked on on Saturday looked pretty impressive and that up elbow. I mean, man, instantaneously, he ended a cutting up song with that. So I don't know. To me,

I would love to see the matchup, but I mean, what would you prefer? Would you prefer Marlins to sit it out or take the fight? All right, thanks, Mike. Thanks, buddy. Marlon's not going to be a picky guy. He's not the kind of guy. It's going to say no to any kind of a fight. So if the UFC presents him with this one, he's going to say yes to it.

I completely agree with you that he is the guy right now. So it's tough to matchmake this division, especially at the top of it because we don't have, we have to figure out what happens at UFC 280 first. We get to see who wins the title fight between Sterling and Dillishaw, but the main thing is we need to see what happens in the Sean O'Malley, Peodor-Yon fight.

Because if Sean O'Malley wins, it beats Piotr-Yon, he's fighting for the belts. He's getting the next title shot. Whether it's quote-unquote deserved or not, he is fighting for the title. So then it kind of changes things. but if Peoriaean does what he is favored to do, which is go in there and beat shot O'Malley,

then I think Vera gets the next title shot. I think Vera's the frontrunner right now. I think he's the guy. And if O'Malley does a win, I think Varrer should get the next shot. And then you do Sandhagen versus Marab. And I'm cool with that. I'm totally fine with that.

But Vera is going to fight whoever the UFC tells them to fight. He's not going to say no. He's not going to be like, well, let me think about this strategically. because if this happens and this happens and I sit this one out, maybe I'll get the title fight. That's not how Vera is.

That's not the type of fighter he is. He's just going to be like, all right, I'm going to fight this guy. I'm going to fight two guys in the same night. I will. Okay, sure. Just line them up and I'll fight him. I would favor, I mean, it's a tough one.

Because Sanhagen from a like high level mixed martial arts perspective is probably the better fighter and probably has more tools, but Verra is just on a roll right now. And everything he touches just goes down. We saw it in the font fight. We saw it in the cruise fight.

Every time he touched both of those guys, they fell to the ground. He is just bringing in some incredible power to this division right now. So I would look at it from a betting perspective and get my, I would say Sanhagen's probably going to be the favorite. So I would, I mean, If someone's like, I always play this hypothetical game,

someone hands you $20, but the only thing you could do with it is bet on that fight or it dissolves and you don't get to do anything with it, I'm probably taking Maro and Vera at Dog Buddy there because I think there's value there with Vera against anybody, but it's a great fight. Love to see it. I just don't know if we're going to see it next.

We kind of have to wait and see what happens October 22nd, which is early afternoon MMA. UFC 280, I'm very excited about that. Let's go to Korea. Kareem, are you there? Do you hear me, Mike? Yes, I got you. How are you, sir? Everything good?

Everything's good, man. I would like to talk about this, well, obviously, the big news, the Jose Alder news. I don't know if you remember me. We talked on another edition of Heck of a Morning a bit before Joseph's fight against Marab. And I laid down this scenario in which if Joseph's... Jose loses against tomorrow, could it be his last fight? And could we imagine Jose laying down the gloves on that night? And rightfully so, I think echoing everything that we felt about this,

you said, I remember you said, I don't even want to think about it. I don't even want to think about the perspective of all those retirements. Unfortunately, it seemed this is what happened. And, you know, I'm a huge Jose Aldo fan. And I'm heartbroken about the news, although, you know, every career must eventually reach its end. My question is about UFC's booking of that match between Jose and Morab.

And your opinion on the fact that, how do you think the UFC feels, knowing that they booked this match, Marab against Jose, given that it's, honestly, it's a lose-lose for everyone. It's a lose-lose for Marab because he was overwhelming, Dana didn't like the match

and didn't like Morab's performance and most likely that they did not up his stock as much as Morab would have wanted it's also a lose because well, Joe's not going for the belt and fast forward is retiring and third, why it's a lose-lose situation is because, well, Morab said he will not

fight Al Jermaine Sterling if Aljo retains against Delishol. So what do you think the UFC feels about this entire deal, you know, in retrospect with Joseph's retirement. Thank you, Mike. Thanks, buddy.

I would say they have buyers remorse right now. And I think they had, I think they realized probably after the second round of that fight that they had buyers remorse. They were like, ah, probably shouldn't have done that, especially on that card. Because here's the thing,

like, I knew Altitude would play a factor at that card, I didn't think it would play as much of a factor as it played. I didn't think Salt Lake City was Mexico City or Denver or anything like that. And it turned out it was pretty bad. So I think in hindsight, if you were going to book that fight, you should have done it literally anywhere else and maybe we would have got something different. Now, I thought Aldo was still going to win.

I hated the matchmaking from Jump Street because, like you said, it did nothing. Like if Aldo beats Marab, all it does is be like, okay, he should have got the title shot anyways. Now he should just still get the title shot. And then for Marab, like the only thing that helps that case is if he just goes out there and just crushes Aldo. He just mows him down and like 30-26s him. But that wasn't going to happen. That wasn't going to happen. So I don't know.

It's just kind of crazy to think about it. So hang on one second, everybody. 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! Boating 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 18665-3-1-2-600 or visit Comex on With Amex platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex.

Conditions apply. All right. Sorry about that, like I said, at the beginning, get the AC going in, and it's going to be more work than we thought. Yeah, but I think the UFC just inspires remorse. because, I mean, they gain nothing from this fight. They gain nothing. They gain... They put...

Barab's in literally the same situation he's in right now. That he... Like, he's in the same situation. Like, if Dillishaw wins the belt, he's not fighting for the belt next. He's not. So, it did nothing for either guy.

And that stinks, but... It is what it is. And listen, I have been very... I've been very... I've been less, I've been pretty, I praise the matchmakers for a lot of this stuff. I think they've booked some good, Matt, I think they've done a good job for the most part. This one was a head scratcher. And we can't all be perfect.

And we can't all get everything right. That was a bad one. I knew it was a bad one from the beginning. Turned out it was actually worse than I thought it was going to be. But here we are. We can't take it back. And now although can enjoy a new chapter in his life. average avenues. Hello.

What's up, buddy? I'm okay. I'm okay. I don't know. I don't really got much, you know. I'm just, you know, upset about, you know, I don't know if even upset's the right word about how they're retiring.

Okay, I think it's quite something. It's a bit random. If, if, you need, you sell to us why he deserved to be in the Hall of Fame. Like, you're the one pitching it. If you had to pitch it to ask, like, in a sentence or something, why Jose Aaldo deserve

a slot spot in the Hall of Fame. Okay, have a good day, man. Cheers. I mean, I'm going to need more than a sentence, but I think the easiest way to say it is there might be a comment here, but I'm going to go ahead and say it. I don't care what Joe Rogan says. Joseo Aldo is the greatest featherweight of all time. There's your answer. and anybody out there who doesn't agree with that sediment, and anybody else who feels like Max Holloway is the greatest featherweight of all time,

anyone who says right now that Alexander Volcanovsky is the greatest featherweight of all time, you are wrong. Now, could in two or three years, Volcanovsky be the greatest featherweight of all time? Sure. He's on the path. There's no doubt about it. But anybody who says that either of those two guys

are greater in history at 145 pounds than Joseo. You are insane. And you're wrong. Joseoaldo is the greatest featherweight of all time. He is far and away the greatest featherweight of all time. Volcanowski can close the gap. Holloway cannot. It's a two-horse race.

And Aldo is a thoroughbred right now in that conversation. Volcanowski is a very good guy and he just needs to get some more wins. needs to get some more wins against some ranked relevant guys. But he's close. Skill for skill-wise, he's damn close. But he just doesn't have the resume that Jose Aldo has. Joseo is the greatest 145 of all time. Look at this division.

Look at how deep it has been over the years. That is the dude. He is the dude. The greatest. And there's a lot of other accolades that I could run off. But if you are the best of all time at something, you are a hallfamer. and he is the best 145 pound fighter of all time. Beyond the shadow of a doubt.

I don't care of the Hallway beat all, though. Doesn't matter. Hey, Mike. Hey, Mike. How are you? I enjoyed that opening that you have to say about Jose. Although I'm pretty sad for myself that I didn't get to watch him in the WEC. And also, it's going to be also sad because the Korean zombie may retire at some point.

Frankie Eckert, these guys were all in the WEC. I didn't get to watch the WEC, probably to maybe the last fight. I think that was against anti-Petters for. is Ben Henderson. That was like the only fight I watched at WEC. I'm pretty sad that, you know, I didn't get to watch Aldo in his prime, but, you know, I got to watch him at least, and kudos to Jose Aldo and what he's done.

Those like, I mean, he will be known as probably the best leg kicker, calf kicker in the UFC. His leg kicks are memorable. And I just, and I always wish he could, just later in his career, I wish he was still was able to do it. Maybe he would have won against Peoria. know, but maybe there was, he couldn't do it anymore, but still just kudos to Jose Alton is everything what he's done. He's great. He's wonderful. And you're right, he is the

greatest featherweight right now. I mean, by all time, the greatest featherweight that ever lived for the UFC until someone else can pass him up. But right now, I'm sticking to that. You're absolutely right. I also want to look towards what happened at USC Vegas 60. I want to look at a fighter spotlight on Anthony Fluffy Hernandez. I think at the post-fight after I said, I commented, I said he looked like a middleweight version of Kane Velasquez, but I think you've been put it even better. You said, you know, kind of resemblance of Kobe Covington,

and you're spot on on that. I mean, the pace is tremendous. His takedowns were just unbelievable. I mean, you went in there and fought Burriott, a tough Canadian, tough guy and I watched the fight over again yesterday. Burriott was done after that first round. Like, he got tired.

And it looked like Anthony Hernandez was not even breathing hard. He was just like, he was the same throughout the whole three rounds, and he was just putting so much pressure, dropped this guy on his head. It was like, oh my goodness. and he just kept on him ground and pound and then submission and ground and pound, just beating him up and then was able to choke him out in the third round.

This guy, Fluffy has just been really impressed me tremendously. I mean, I think he had come off that loss against Kevin Holland in the first round, and I think Fluffy was pretty much an afterthought at that point. But what really, I think, gained a lot of people's attention. Now, I know Jose Young's had said, yeah, that fight doesn't age well. But when I watched that fight against Rodolfo Vieira. And Vieira was coming in with a lot of hype. This guy is a champion Brazilian jiu-jitsu, known throughout the whole Brazilian jiu-tizu world.

And for what Anthony was able to do in that fight, that made me pay attention to him a little bit more. Like, holy smokes, this guy's able to do that. Hold on, let me look at him a little bit more closely. and then, you know, he had the job, I think he beat Josh Fram, I believe, and, you know, unanimous decision. And then just to put on the pace on Burriott was just incredible. And I like, I like your idea, but I had, I know I had him against walking Buckley, but I like your idea better, have him fight Chris Curtis.

And, you know, that's, that's the fight to make because Chris Curtis probably has a hundred percent defense, take down defense. And if, you know, and mind you, I didn't even know, I went to look at the UFC, not the MMA global rankings, which matters. I don't think he's, I don't think Chris Curtis is even ranked. But in the UFC official rankings, he's ranked number 15. I think him and then Gregory Robocococke's, both of them need one more fight and those two need to get in the top 15.

I don't care. They just need one fight and those two should be like knocking, be in the, rankings after that, like at that at some point, because if you have Anthony Fluffy Hernandez fight Chris Curtis and he's able to be Chris Curtis, my goodness, watch out, watch out for that guy. And then Gregory Rodriguez, I'll have him fight, Walking Buckley. Man, that would be a slug fest right then and there. And I think, I think, I'm picking, I'll pick Gregory Robocop over Joaquin Buckley in that

fight. But, you know, listen, people need to. just start paying attention to Fluffy because, again, this guy looks like Kobe Covington in there, and he could be a problem. Your thoughts, Mike. Thanks for everything. Have a heck for the morning. Thanks, man.

And here's the thing about Anthony Hernandez. This dude is just, he's just a, like, he is, a lot of times, like, fighters don't make that, like, there are guys in our sport that we love so much that just go in there and friggin' fight. like they fight and they're fighters and you could tell like if we ran into this dude on the street before he was in MMA or in the UFC or whatever he just fought people and you can tell like Anthony Hernandez is a dude who probably has like

a hundred street fights but and sometimes that that stays with you and sometimes that's just who you are you're just a very good a very good fighter that has a ton of heart and that can take you over certain places and you could, but you have a ceiling.

What Anthony Hernandez is doing is he's still that dude, but now he's becoming a mixed martial artist as well. It's not just about punching dudes in the face and knocking them out. It's about winning fights. And that Kevin Holland fight was an eye-opener. It was an eye-opener. Because you saw it in the Hadoffel-Vierra fight where the dude, like, he had the tremendous heart.

Like, he was still a fighter in that fight. and you can tell watching it from his coach's corners, watching him put in that arm in guillotine, when Hernandez has Vera badly, badly hurt, he's lighting him up on the feet. And then he goes in for the gilly. And everyone's like, no, what are you doing? This fight IQ is horrible.

And then he taps him and everyone's like, yeah. It was like, it was just crazy. And he's becoming a high level mixed martial. artist, but still sort of that same street fighting mentality. That's a problem. The Josh Fremfite was great at UFC 273 because Josh is a great grappler. And those two were just scrambling all over the place. But Hernandez just had a little bit more.

And then he just put the boots to Mark Andre Barrio. There's nothing he could do to stop it. And Mark's tough dude. And he got spiked on his damn head before he got submitted. That was some performance. They got something with this guy. They definitely have something with this guy. And I am curious to see what they do with him next.

Now the one knock on Anthony Hernandez, and hopefully this is something that can change over time, he's not the most durable guy. He gets injured quite a bit, either in lead-ins to fights or just after fights. He's got a little more of that, a little bit of that Wonderboy. stigma behind him where

like he'll just go in there and give you everything he got and then he just kind of gets dinged up along the way but seeing him fight twice this year is a really good sign it's a really good sign because we haven't seen that from him at a while

2019 we got two fights out of him we got the Kevin Holland fight that was it in 2020 we got the Vieira fight and that was it in 2021 and so far he's got two fights in 2022 so if he can stay healthy and stay active and keep getting in there, I think the UFC has something with this guy.

So super impressed with him, super impressed. One of the, like in the NHL after hockey games, they always give like a three stars of the game. Hernandez is one of the three stars of USC Vegas 60. No doubt about it. Let's keep this going. Kenichi, you're up. Hello, are you there?

Hey, sorry, Mike. Can you hear me? I got you, man. How are you? How are you doing? Thanks. I'm good. Yeah, you know, I appreciate what you said about Jose at the beginning. You know, I am like a, I guess I would say I'm a relatively, like, newer fan to UFC and MMA.

Like, I started watching probably like eight or nine years ago kind of right after Jose lost to McGregor, you know. So I was definitely, like, guilty of being, you know, a guy that kind of thought, oh, you know, my first few fights I saw him fight were like, you know, two losses to Max and then, like, Volcanovsky after I, but I was able to go back, watch some old fights, like, really kind of, you know, develop my own, like, respect for him, you know? And so, and actually someone mentioned a little earlier about the Korean zombie, too,

you know, when Jose lost that last fight against Marab, and he kind of went on his knees, you know, I kind of felt like similar emotions when I watched Korean zombie lose to Volcanowski because he kind of, like, you know, collapsed and fell on his knees, too, because, you know, there's guys that kind of stick around, and, you know, maybe they know their run to the title is not there anymore, but, you know, they want to get paid. They want to have some fun fights and, you know, stick around, you know, just keep going.

But I feel like with those two guys, it's like, you know, they're fighting because they want to be number one, right? Or, like, you know, like the money is great, but it's like they want to be the greatest. And so I feel like in those two moments you kind of saw that, like, realization maybe or that moment of just like, man, this might not happen. But I guess my question is, you know, because I do consider myself like, I would consider myself a hardcore casual fan, I guess, you know, where I'm like, I don't know, like, everyone on the regional scene coming up.

Like, I still primarily only watch UFC, but I guess for the newer fans, especially in this like COVID era and the ESPN kind of deal where UFC's just blown up a lot and gotten a lot more fan base, you know, casual fan base. Like, this is a hard question to answer maybe on the spot, but, like, what would you recommend to, like, really maybe new fans to develop, like, more respect or to develop, like, more of a rich history of the UFC, you know? At first I was going to ask, like, what are, like, five fights we could watch from the beginning to the, you know, maybe the first 20 years? But then I don't think you can probably sum it up in, like, five fights. But I guess, yeah, just, I don't know if my question makes sense, but just, like, how can. people go back and really just learn and see how where the sports developed you know it's a lot different now there's like kids that have been doing m m m mary like their whole life coming up now rather than kind of one discipline but yeah you know it's just such a wonderful wonderful

sport and thing to watch and i just respect all fighters but you know there's a lot of history in the ufc too that i'm missing out on as well so yeah i just kind of wanted to pick your brain on that thank you thanks man yeah and you know i've talked about this a lot i know ariel's talked about it a lot on the MBA hour. And, you know, I've been kind of tooting this horn for a few years now, especially since the pandemic, because we got so many new fans.

As much as I love this sport, as much as I love the UFC, and I know the UFC has their quote-unquote Hall of Fame, but they do not do a good job of sort of honoring the past, talking about where this sport has come from, reliving history. Now, they provide platforms to do that.

So you could go the extra mile and do different things. But hopefully seeing guys like Aldo, seeing guys like Edgar who's about to retire, I know there's others as well, hopefully they could set things up, maybe outline the ESPN Plus app or UFC FightPass and just have like put the greatest of Aldo catalogs together. or just help find the way to introduce this guy because, I mean, some of his earlier fights are very difficult to find, but once he gets to the WEC,

you can find all of those fights on Fight Pass or, for the most part. You can go back and watch it. And the beautiful thing about his WEC run, especially the first five or six fights, is that you just go watch him, and it doesn't take you a lot, like a lot of time. Eight minutes and 22 seconds, his first. first fight, 10 minutes, 45 seconds, a second fight, four minutes of 15 seconds, the third fight,

minute 39, the fourth, eight seconds the fifth, 620 to six, that's when he won the belt, favors a decision, but it's a great fight, then he starches manny, and then he goes on the UFC run, and so I guess, like, what I'll tell new fans, if you want to watch, like, the best of Josealdo, I'd watch both Chad Mendez fights because you got to see sort of both sides of Aldo, the absolute murderer. Josealdo, but then you got to see

the Josealdo who had to bite down to his mouthpiece and overcome adversity. The Chad Mendez, just go watch that. If you have never watched Josaldo versus Chad Mendez 2 at UFC 179, Do yourself a favor. The second this is over, the second you have a half an hour to spare, like if you have a treadmill in your house and you can log into fight pass or something,

and you want to go on like a nice little jog or a nice little walk on your treadmill and you want to have something that's going to pass the time, go watch Jose Aldo versus Chad Mendez too because the fight is amazing. In my opinion, at worst, it's the second greatest 145 pound full. fight of all time. And in my opinion, this is a top 10, is one of the top 10 greatest title.

Not title fights. This is one of the top 10 best fights of all time. My opinion. So go watch that. It's tremendous. It's amazing. And if you want to, and I guarantee you have to watch that fight, you're going to be like,

holy shit, I have to go back and watch more of this guy. That fight is, it's unbelievable. And it doesn't get enough credit for being as great as it is. But yeah, you're going to have to kind of do that thing on your own because the UFC and Bellator and those promotions, they're not going to guide you through history at all. Troy, hello. What's going on, Mike?

What's going on? Just wondering if you heard anything lately on Covington's from eye of what's going on with that. Really, really want to see that fight. I think it's the only fight that makes sense regardless of what Uncle Chale says. Thank you, Troy. Nothing.

Honestly, nothing. We'll see. That's going to be a tough one. This will be, yeah, this is going to be one of those things that, like, Akamoto's going to tweet it because Hunter Campbell texted him something. And then it's just going to be a weird build to whatever that happens. But I already laid out how I would do it. If Colby's in and Tom Zod is in and they both want to do it, just get rid of Derek Brunson, Jackermanson, get that fight off that Orlando card, put it on the pay-per-view, and headline that card in Orlando. with Colby and Hamzot.

You have time. You got more time than you have with the Diaz build. So do that. Book those guys five rounds. Make it a big deal. It's in Florida. You're in Colby country, so to speak. Colby's the baby face in that type of scenario.

That's when you do it. But I've heard nothing. I've heard absolutely nothing about it. 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.

Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to Lux Beauty and Fragrant Suts. Our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holtz holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com. Let's go to Beal. Now we'll go to Crypto. That will go to Mosa. and then we'll get to our regs.

Beal, what's up? Beo. Hello. Hello. There we go. How are you? All good. Just to add to...

Oh, snap. A little luda? Some old-school luda. Nice. You know, got to keep my morning drive going. What's it called? I just wanted to join in on this commiseration for our boy, Jose Aldo. I started watching MMA.

Oh, man. Started really picking up for the UFC and the WEC. And, man, Joe Delo felt like this. It felt like the second coming of Anderson Silva with just his dominance and his mind-blowing athleticism and everything. And then around 2013, I kind of fell off following MMA closely. And then 2017 comes around. And I started getting back into it. And I'm like, who the fuck is this Connor McGregor guy?

and why is why is why did he knock out fucking jos a aldo in five seconds and uh man just the way he got done in his the end of his career really is upsetting i'm kind of beside myself with this t j dillishaw title fight i mean they let korean zombie have a crack at the title you know at the end of his career i don't know why they couldn't do josea aldo the same uh so yeah i don't know not much else to say about that. Love Jose, hope everything works how well for him. But the question I do have is kind of silly, what, do you think you would ever have a fan or guest be a contestant on BTL? I know I personally would love to get roasted by Jed Mishu just once in my life. Thanks, Mike. Have a heck of a morning.

Probably not, but I can't, I can't get into all of it, but we have been working on, I personally, behind the scenes, I've been working on something for about a year now. We haven't really, because I'm not just going to like do it unless it's perfect and it's right, but I have ideas to do shows that would get the fans involved. So it might be something we do in 2023, but I would love to do a sort of MMA game show with the peeps and maybe some folks with M.A fighting as well. I got some ideas because if you have followed me enough, I've told you this a million times, while other kids in my class in elementary school

wanted to be firefighters and professional athletes and things like that. I mean, if I was a professional baseball player, I would have loved that. But I always wanted to be a game show host. So I have been trying to find a way to do this the correct way. So stay tuned. Stay tuned. We will figure it out. We will do something, game show related, sometime in the next six to eight months.

So it'll be a fan show. BTL is just a lot. I mean, it's a lot. So I wouldn't probably put a fan on that, but I have ideas to get the fans involved for shows, if that makes sense. So stay tuned. Let's go to Crypto.

What's up, buddy? You can hear me. Yeah, I can. Just to continue the discussion, I mean, for anyone that is new to MMA, I just want to put things in perspective. because Mike, what is the toughest thing to do with MMA? It is to get the title

and to defend it. And if we look at Jose Aldo, I mean, he had a run with 18 fights in a row that he won, and nine of those were title defenses. If we include the WEC. There's almost a decade,

Mike, almost 10 years that no one could beat Aldo. He's an absolute legend, and I mean, like Volcanovsky, I think he has four title defenses, if I'm not, four or five, something like that. So, I mean, it's a shame, and I agree with you about the things you said regarding Marab. But we kind of saw this coming, right?

I mean, Marab told us that Jose declared this to him inside the octagon after the fight. So, yeah, it wasn't a huge surprise, to be honest with you, but an absolute legend. And once again, 18 fights, nine title defenses. That run was just crazy. And a good transition, Mike, here is to my actual question. So when he eventually lost, he did this to Connor McGregor. And what the hell is happening with Connor McGregor? Mike, have you seen the recent clip on Twitter and also, I think it was like a voice

voice clip? I mean, honestly, Mike, I'm at a stage now and I don't want to jinx it, But I'm not even sure if we will ever see Connor again. I'm truly worried about his mental state. I mean, he seems more and more isolated from reality, posts very strange things. And I'm not talking about this whole steroid discussion. It's not about that, just his mental state. It's just so weird.

He's become this really cringy guy. I mean, it's just so uncomfortable to watch and see. So yeah, Mike, I actually, yeah, I'm going to finish off here. I want your take on that. Is there a risk that we will not see Connor McGregor again in the UFC? Because, I mean, he's just completely crazy. Thank you, Mike. Thanks, man.

Yeah, I mean, I have no idea. I have no clue. I would assume, yes, we will see him again because I think Connor still wants to box and do all those things. and he won't be able to unless he fights in the UFC. He's under contract. From what I understand, he's got two fights left at his deal. I don't know that for sure,

but that seems to be the consistent number. So if he wants to go box or go fight Nate Diaz a third time and make more money for that fight than he would in the UFC, he's got to have these two fights first. So I do think he will come back. I don't think much of this kind of strange road he's on, but I don't know.

I didn't even, I got to be honest, I didn't even listen to the recording because every time I get sucked into that, I regret doing it. So once I hit stop on the recording of On to the next one, I was like, nope, I am off Twitter, unless I have to be, which is basically just here,

and to promote BTL, it happens but yeah i i have no idea what happened but yeah i think he'll fight i think we'll see him sometime next year against who i don't know when i don't know but yeah i mean i get why you're asking the question but i have no insight on it i just i i i kind of stopped following that saga for a while let's go to mosa hello good um i have a theory about uh the hosea aldo didn't they give him maybe a title fight because he had only two fights in his contract and Al-Jamin fight was a very winnable fight for a guy like Jose Aldo and he could have defended it against Dela Shoe and they didn't want to risk another case

like in Ghana, where the champion threatened to leave the UFC. And in case of Aldo, he could leave and he basically doesn't have to fight anymore because he proven everything he has to in the UFC. And my second take is about Kamza Chimae. Everybody says that he should go, not everybody, but a lot of people say that he should go up in the middleweight, because. because Izzy basically has no one to fight, especially if he wins his next fight. But do we really want to see Kamzat fight Izzy because as much as a lot of people don't like it?

But Izzy is really hard to take down. And if Hamza doesn't take him down, you have a fighter who has all the hype, and then you lose him against Izzy. Thank you, Mike. Yeah, I mean, I guess I understand the Aldo theory, but this is different than Francis, in my opinion. This is, Aldo wasn't making things public. I mean, he was saying, like, if I win the title and retiring, you didn't say that, but he wasn't, like, demanding more money. He wasn't demanding to go box Tyson Fury.

Not that, and by the way, nothing Francis has been saying is wrong at all. So I just want to throw that out there. But you also have to consider the division that we're in right now. Bannamweight is ridiculous. And even if Josealdo wins the belt and leaves the company, so what? You have six, you have like six dudes ready to fight for the belt. And now we're doing a little mini Bannamake Grand Prix anyways. Why don't we just make some stakes?

Let's put some freaking stakes on it. The UFC doesn't want to have fun. They don't want to do fun things. They feel like all those just got to be like a Lundra Blaze and just go to Bellator and drop the UFC title in the trash. This wasn't going to happen. This is a dude that would have won the belt. He would have laid it down in the ring.

He would have said, thank you. I'm out of here. And that's it. And then they would just crown a new champion like three months later. So I don't necessarily buy into that there. I get where you're coming from. But I don't think it's the same as the Ingano situation at all. And then with the Hamzaad thing, yeah, I think, like I said,

they're going to go, they're going to try to do Covington. If they can't get Covington done, they'll do Costa. And if he goes and fights Costa, it doesn't mean he's a middleweight. Doesn't mean he's staying there. It just means that this is the biggest fight they could do right now because he's not getting a title fight. They're not going to do anything that's going to risk anything else. That's it. Those are the two fights that he could possibly get right now. So, yeah, I don't think he's fighting Izzy anytime soon. And I don't think Izzy at middleweight is going to last much longer either. because again, what else does he need to do?

He's beaten everybody. He's beaten everybody. The only guy he hasn't beaten is Sean Strickland, who got knocked out by the dude he's fighting November 12th. And he hasn't beaten Alex Pereira yet. There's a story there. But if he goes out there and beats Pereira, like there's literally nothing else this man needs to do.

He can just go right up to 205. And take it seriously, not just go up for a one-off, but take a year off and bulk up. up and get that frame sized out and then go fight a 205. I think those, I think that time is coming pretty soon. Let's go and tag in ahead. All right.

Whoever is in line now that hasn't spoken yet, we will get to you and then we have to go. Ahead, hello. Me. Yes. All right, Mike. So first I have to put my hands up and just say, you were right and I was wrong, okay, about the album.

getting a title shot. Not about the Humza in the Power of Palo top 20. That's still ludicrous, but Aldo getting the title shot, you were right. You were right. Congrats. Like, hindsight is a beautiful thing. I was the one challenging you saying Dillashore and Zahudo should have got it. You were right. He, like, Aldo was the most deserving and made sense. You should have done Marab and Suhudo and T.J. and Yarn. If T.J. looked like the 2017 Dillashore against Sanhagen, then I would have still, I would have challenged you. I would have said, stick TJ in a title shot no matter what, because that TJ was a lot of fun. But I want to ask you, Mike, Jose's gone.

Do you feel like we're nearing the end of an era, Mike, an end of the best era of MMA and what will happen afterwards? Because look at this, because Ariel tweeted something, and then there were three. Jose's gone. Cormier's gone. GSP, gone. Anderson, gone. Connor's getting older.

John Jones is getting older. Are we nearing the end of like the best era in? in MMA and then what's going to happen after. I know people say it's going to be new stars and everything, but this feels like how can something get better than this? And also ADCC happened this past weekend. I don't usually follow submission grappling because it's really tedious to watch. But Gordon Ryan has just destroyed everybody.

Like in no sport, let alone combat sports, have we ever seen this before? And he should he go to MMA and should he just like dominate MMA? And lastly, Mike, Chidi lost, but Chidi is still my guy the same way Armand Siruquian lost and Armand still your guy. So the lines have been drawn, Mike. Like, Chidi is my guy. Drop the mic, Mike. Thanks, buddy. Good stuff.

Yeah, listen, Cheney is going to have a very successful career in the UFC. He's not going to fight for a title. He's not going to be a champion. But he's going to be a very well-liked must-watch guy. The fight with Gregory was exactly we expected, pure chaos. And if Chidi lands that knee up the middle against literally anybody else of this division, we're not talking about Gregor Rodriguez coming back to winning. We're talking about Chidi landing a beautifully timed knee up the middle that almost killed a man.

But Gregory Rodriguez is not just a man. He's half machine too, apparently, because somehow he withstood that and his nose almost falling off his face and still won the damn fight. Incredible stuff. Gordon Ryan's a freak. It's the best no-gee grappler in the history of no-gee grappling.

I don't care if he's on the sauce. I don't care what he's on. It doesn't matter. I don't care. He is leaps and bounds ahead of anybody. And there is an amount of performance-enhancing drugs if you want to say that about him because I've seen it everywhere.

and maybe it is who cares. But Gordon Ryan would have done the same thing to all of those dudes, no matter what. So he's that good. Should he go to MMA? I don't know. I mean, he could. He's signed with one. So if he's going to fight, he'll fight under the one banner.

And I can assure you that one will not put him in there with, like, just put him in there with a dude with like no takedown, with like no takedown. with like no take down ability Gore will take dude down smush him tap him he'll hook him and he'll win but I talked to Gordon

like right after he signed with one and I don't know if he fights I just don't know if he does I think he's got a lot left in grappling he's accomplished almost everything you need to but I just think he wants to set himself so far apart from

everybody else that's ever done it that I don't know if he fights and he's He told me that if he does MMA, you're not going to see him do anything for a while. For like a long time. He's going to spend all this time just getting ready for MMA. So he won't be doing grappling tournaments. You won't see him anywhere else. He will just be preparing for MMA.

And then he will just be an M.A fighter. So it's just a matter of like, does he want to get rid of the competitive grappling side and just focus on MMA? because if he does it, he's going to be all in on it. So I don't think, I think he will fight at some point. I don't think he's going to fight any time soon. But I'm interested. I'm definitely interested.

We'll move on here because we're running short on time. Toke, let's go to you, and then we'll go to Zique. Toke, what's up, buddy? I'm sorry from trolling you for content the other day with the off-note. And I did that to bring out the Boston mic in you. That was the only reason. Just to know that I'm a, I was a country interpreter myself. So that's why I knew it would be good content.

So what I'm wondering is two things. I have one with Dana White because he keeps talking about how he's not going into boxing. And then he fans of all this. time with Callum Walsh. And I don't know what his relation is to Callum Wals. So I'm wondering about that. And then, also, we're talking although, such a shame that he's been tired, such a way to go. But it sounded like he wants to do, he just doesn't want to do MRA in India. So what I want to know is, is he actually fully released, so if he could go to, let's say a one to do We tie world championships and stuff like that, or is he tied to you in any way?

Well, thanks. So, I mean, Toke, I appreciate you just jumping out of your car in the middle of the highway to chime in here. It's amazing. Yeah, I mean, from all indications, he, I don't think he can fight for one. I don't think he can fight. Like, I know it's not technically MMA, but I think that would kind of go against, the terms of his release in a way. So I honestly don't know, like, the whole ins and outs of it.

But from all accounts, he is free to box. He's free to compete. Otherwise, like, he'd go do, you know, ADCC and all that stuff. If he wants to, he can go, I don't know. Like, I don't know if he can go to glory or anything like that. I mean, I don't think that should be a problem. I don't think he'll go to one. I don't think that would work.

So I think he just wants to buy, like, I think if he's going to compete again, he's going to box. I think he's wanted a box for a long time, and I think that's what he'll end up doing. But I don't think he can go to one, or he would go to one. But I haven't talked to his team or anything like that, but from all indications, terms of his releases, it's kind of a gentleman's agreement. We'll let you out, but like, you can't fight him in me anymore, dude. And he was probably like, no, no, no, all right, I'll just go box. So I think if we see him compete, he'll box.

But I honestly don't know. We'll see what happens. Let's go to Zeke. My man, Mike, how are you? Good. I'm going to be as short as sweet as possible. Let's try and, yeah, let's get into this week. I'm kind of, you know, distraught that we don't have an event coming up.

But it's okay, you know, good little break from M&A. I hope you enjoy your vacation. Yeah, you just got into it about two, three calls ago. Greg Rodriguez, not Gregory, as Dana Whitewood. referred to him. Mr. Greg is quite the spectacle. I mean, if it was me, I would have saw my face if I could even have like a mirror in the ring. Obviously, you can't. I would have just

cried. I would have crumbled up into a ball and died. I literally saw my brain. Tidia and Dequanty threw up. Perfectly timed knee. I would have killed legitimately anyone. He would, I don't know. Legitimate, legitimate immediate CTE. Greg stood in there and just legitimately turned robocod mode. That guy is a freak. I don't know if the Barack Obama look alike.

I don't know if it's just the way he fights. That guy, I think, needs to be pushed a little bit. He has everything. You can grapple a little bit and strike moving forward. I want to say Corey Sanhagen fumble the bag a little bit by not calling anyone out. But this is the funkiest thing in the world where I'm like, you know what? I think there's like two or three matchups for him that suit well. He's clearly in the back of the line.

Okay, I think he has. Obviously, I think you mentioned it on onto the next one. I have to wait for the end of Yon O'Malley and like, you know, wait to see what that decision brings. However, if he gets Yon after the O'Malley win, which I don't think that would happen. I think O'Malley, if he does get put down by Yon, O'Malley will end up getting pushed to Barra or somebody else lower in the line and Yon to get the title. I think best case scenario for San Hagan, T.J. versus Aljo loser. I don't know. I think that just propels him higher in the division afterwards.

Talk to me about that. And then lastly, totally not a UFC question. Talk to me about the Patriots. One in one, a little funky. Mack Jones is kind of scaring me a little bit outside the pocket, but I think you guys are going to be okay because you got that guy named Bill Belichick on your sideline. Mike, be good.

Thank you, sir. I mean, listen, I don't expect a bunch of the Patriots this year. If they make the playoffs, that's going to be way beyond my expectations. But good win. I'll take it. And I mean, I hate to say it because I just despise the Buffalo Bills, but they look like the real real for sure. So it should be real interesting.

It's going to be rough when those two teams beat up. Yikes. Rodriguez, I mean, we'll see what happens. I think his stock roast tremendously and he just goes out and wins his next fight. I think he's heading in the right direction. I think he's, they don't have the rocket strapped to him,

but I think he's on rollerblades and he's strapped to the back of a dirt bike. So that's good for him. And if he could stay on his feet and go pretty quickly, then he's in good shape. And then he can upgrade to a Lamborghini and then maybe get to the rockets. But on, yeah, the Sanhagan one, kind of tough.

I don't think he's going to get the loser of Aljo Dillashaw because he fought both those dudes pretty recently. Just fought T.J. If T.J. wins the belts and Sanhagen wins another one, I guess you have a little bit of a story there. Because everybody, for the most part, felt that Sanhagen won that fight. Although you can make a compelling case for Dillishaw. to. I went back and watched that fight recently. It's closer than people think it is.

And Sterling choked Shanhagen out in a matter of minute. So I don't know. It's going to be a tough road for Corey. I think he needs TJ to win the belt. But I mean, I get why people say he should have called somebody out, but you didn't really need to at this point. There's only two guys you really have a chance of fighting at this point. And it's Marlon and Marab. you just fought Jan I don't think they're going to throw them in there with O'Malley

if O'Malley loses to Jan I think O'Malley will take a pretty good step back bottom end of the top 10 so I think you did what he needed to do I mean there's not much else he could do he's not going to cut a fiery promo doesn't need to because he doesn't have a ton of control in the situation

all right we'll take two more Ab's Wally that we'll go to Moss 2K and then we are getting out of here. Azualia, hello. All right, so up, man, can you hear me? Yeah, hi. I'm just going to keep it very brief and short, but I just got two things to ask you.

The first one is if Sean O'Malley wins against Peter Young, does he get the title shot, or does he have to fight maybe the winner of Corey versus Chiro? And my second question is, where do we go with Kelvin Gassel? I mean, we have not heard anything about him since, I think he's lost to Robert Wittaker, or whoever he fought last.

I mean, this guy has lost five fights, only barely one-one. He's becoming relevant. He never really had a title shot ever. He was in the top 10 for about three, four years. He just went downhill, and he's only 30, 31. He's very young. I heard a rumor that he might go back down to 170, give him a shot there. What's going on with him?

What's your thoughts on there? And that's it. Thank you, man. I'll start with the O'Malley question. the answer is yes. I don't care if he wins a controversial split decision. If Sean O'Malley beats Peter Yan in any way, form or fashion, he's fighting for the title.

They're striking while the iron's hot. That's why he has this fight to begin with. It's a win-win for the UFC. I know you could potentially be stunting the growth of O'Malley in a weird way, but he's also a massive underdog, and there are very few people who feel that he could win that fight to begin with. So it's either going to get chocked up as a, he'll learn a lot from this fight, quote on quote,

or he gets a freaking title shot. So the stakes are there. The juice is worth to squeeze. 100% if he wins, he's fighting to the title. Gasol, no clue. He was supposed to fight at UFC 273 in April, that card in Jacksonville, because they kept like mixing fights around.

And Gasol was supposed to fight, Drick's Duplice. Gasolm got hurt, like a week out from the fight. Yeah, had an injury that took him out for a little while. I don't know, maybe goes to 170, maybe he stays to 185. I mean, there's no reason for him to cut all that extra weight. Like, why would you put yourself through that? So, yeah, I think he sticks at 185 and he's just going to kind of be,

he's going to be a litmus test for the GDPs, for the Gregory Rodriguez's, for the Fluffy Hernandez's. Those are the guys he's going to be fighting. But Gasselm still has a name. he's still part of one of the coolest and best title fights of all time with Izzy, that interim title fight in Atlanta. I mean, he's got, he's okay.

He's just, this is where he is right now. And I think a lot of fighters end up there at some point and you win some of those fights and you lose some of those fights. So that's where he's at. He's a litmus test. He's in gatekeeper mode right now. Middleweight's got some guys coming up. and if they're ready for a top 15 test,

it's the Calvin Gasselms, it's the Brad Taviruses. These are the guys that they fight. And you can have a pretty damn lucrative career being a litmus test. And who knows? You know, look at Tisha Torres. She was the litmus test for a long time.

And then she went out and got some wins. And a lot of people felt that she beat McKenzie Dernan. April. You could do very well in that position. But we'll see what happens. All right, Masu K. Take us home, my man. Hey, what's up? Mike? You hear me? Yes, sir. How are you? I got three questions. What's next for Connor McGregor? And what do you think about, what's his name, comshot versus Apollo? And also, what do you think we see Marvin Vittori. next.

Done or you think he'll keep fighting somebody in his division? Okay. Marvin's tough. Let me look. I mean, Marvin's tough because he's the third best middleweight in the world, in my opinion. He just ran into the second best middle weight in the world, who is just far in a way the second best middle way in the world. I could see Marvin fighting the win.

or the loser of the Canada Strickland fight, that's possible. Maybe Andre Monez, if they want to give him a step up in competition, somebody like that. Maybe Marvin goes up to 205. I think Marvin could do pretty well at 205, if we're being honest. I think he could beat a lot of guys up there. So I don't know. He's not in a horrible spot.

It's just he's kind of in the spot we all thought he was in to begin with, that he was the third best middleweight in the world, which is damn good. Being the third best middleweight in the world is pretty good. And I think he's the third best middleweight in the world. Like it's Adasania, then it's a drop off to Whitaker. Then there's a significant drop to Vittori.

And then there's like a pretty steady drop down from there to Costa, Pereira, cannoneer, and the rest. Yeah, Votori's probably going to fight. He'll get to fight like a Pereira, maybe one of the Strickland-Canon-eer guys. Still a okay spot. Or maybe he goes up. Who the hell knows?

Shamiyev Costa, I don't know. I mean, it makes sense. It'd be a big fight. I think the UFC will look to do Shamiath Covington first. They can't get that done. Like I said earlier, it's a good plan B. What's next for Connor? Hell if I know.

I have no clue I honestly have no idea what they're going to do with him. We could play we could play some sort of game on that where it's like try to pick a date on the calendar or we try to pick an opponent

because you could literally throw Connor and Connor could be matched up with about 10 different guys right now and all of them would make sense. You want to do Connor versus Ferguson you could definitely do that. You want to do Connor versus Holloway. You could do that.

You want to do Connor versus Justin Gaichi, you could do that. You want to do Connor versus Chandler. You could do that. I mean, look, I know some of these guys are booked right now. You got the Connor Porre fight that's there. If Olivera beats Makachev, like, Connor could, there's a world we live in that Connor could come back and fight for the lightweight title. So there's just so many options.

It's almost impossible to, to nail. down an opponent right now. So it could be anything. It could be absolutely anything at this point. And most of these things make sense. And you can make an argument for all of them. So I do think he'll fight next year. Who?

I have no clue. But if Oliver beats Makachov, I would put that one in the top three. That's for damn sure. But all right. Well, you guys are great. You guys are the best. Some really good questions today.

I went a little bit longer and I thought we were going to go. And that's because of the great questions. But back again on Thursday, we'll do it again, 10 a.m. Eastern right here in the spaces. If you missed it, came in a little bit late, whole show is going up on the podcast network at a matter of moments where you can listen to this. And also a brand new show on the MA Fighting Podcasting Network. My man, Jose Youngs, has been talking about doing a show like this for a while. but the debut episode of anything but fighting is live on the podcast network.

And this week, Jose speaks with Joseph Benavitas about anything but fighting, mostly movies. So check that out, Jose talking to fighters about all things not fighting related, which is a tremendous idea. It's out of the box. It's unique. And this is a great episode. So go check that out. And we'll see you guys Thursday, 10 a.m. Eastern.

It's going to be a busy day, everybody. Thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of your day. And as always, have a heck of a more. A podcast network.