MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reaction To Alexander Volkanovski's Reveal As UFC 280 Main Event Backup

Episode Date: October 11, 2022

UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski revealed on Monday that he will be the backup for the vacant lightweight title fight between Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev in the main event of UFC 280. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to Volkanovski's involvement in the 155-pound title situation for the UFC's highly anticipated pay-per-view event, and where that puts him in the overall landscape should his services not be needed. Additionally, listener questions include refereeing in MMA and what needs to change in regards to fence grabs, and penalizing fighters in general for clear fouls, rising talent, the UFC rankings structure, if Khabib Nurmagomedov could come back to competition, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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available now, only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. All right, it is Tuesday, October 11, 2022. It is indeed a heck of a morning live on the MMA-fighting. Twitter spaces. You can hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter on the MMA Fighting Podcasting Network. Hope everyone's having a great Tuesday.

I am Mike Keck. Thanks for joining us live. Thanks for joining us after the fact. Truly appreciate it. A lot going on. We found out yesterday that the current UFC featherweight champion of the world, Alexander Volcanowski, has been cleared from his post-UFC 276 injuries. and he is now the backup for the main event of UFC 280

for the vacant lightweight title between Charles Olivera and Islam Makachev. Pretty cool. I like it. Poor Benil Daryush is like, what the hell, man? What else do I need to do? Again, he's sort of the odd man out,

but I feel like both guys will be able to compete. I feel like both will make weight. I don't think we're going to have any issues. But just in case, Volcanovsky is primed and ready to step in and what a story that would be if he did step in and somehow become the lightweight champion that would just be wild.

But the way this year has been going, nothing is out of the question. That is for sure. Other thing we just found out about UFC Orlando story will be coming in a moment to M.AFlighting.com, first reported by Farah Hanoon, UFC Orlando has a co-main event.

It is Tye Tui Vasa versus Sergei Padlovich. Going down December 3rd, it is the co-main event to the main event between Stephen Wonderboy Thompson and Kevin Holland. Interesting fight. It's a fine matchup. I feel like this is not going to go particularly well for Taito Ivasa, but you never know. And I'm a little stunned by the timing of this.

considering the UFC is going back to Australia in February, and they're not just going to hold this one out two months and just have it in February in front of a pro-Tweevasa crowd. Instead, they're going to do it in Orlando, Florida. And apparently they like to do shooies in Orlando, so maybe it is the right fit. But that card is looking pretty tasty. This is a good co-made event to add to this card,

and there's just a little stunning on the timing, but the fight is definitely an interesting one. And then one other thing that I wanted to bring up because it was kind of irking me a little bit yesterday. So when we finish these shows, we write them up on the website and we put like a little headline to it. And then you can listen to the show on the website if you want to or you can just download it wherever you find your favorite podcast. Either way it works. But the question I asked was, has Islam Makachev put himself in a must-win situation versus Charles Oliver at UFC 280? Now, obviously, in a fist fight at a professional level, every fight is a must win.

I'm not an idiot. I understand that. No shit Sherlock. We get that. And when it's a title fight, sure, the stakes are very high. And of course, you want to go in there and win. But what I mean by that is, is Islam Makachev in sort of Leon Edwards' territory? And what I mean by that is, if Leon Edwards had lost to Kamar U.S.

at UFC 278, if that fight played out the conclusion, the way we sort of thought it would before Leon landed that head kick, in my eyes, there is no way, even though it's a little bit unfair, even though the meritocratic way would say that what I'm both say is incorrect, but it's not, Leon Edwards wouldn't have gotten another chance to fight for the belt. So for Leon, that was as must win as it can get. Because had he lost to Usman, he's probably not fighting for the belt again. It took him that long to get to a title fight to begin with when many people are saying, this guy deserves it, but we don't use the word deserves an M.A. because it never pans out. So the question was basically like, does he just fall into lightweight obscurity if he loses?

That was the base of the question. You got to look a little bit deeper beyond the headlines. of course it's a must-win fight. Every fight's a friggin must-win fight. But in this case, is this the sort of situation that if Islam just goes out and gets finished by Charles Olivera, is his road back to a title fight

just super duper long? Will it take forever for him to get back to it? Will he be able to get back to it? That's really what the question is, and he's been talking a lot. He's exuding confidence in a huge way. He feels like he's just going to go in there and truck Charles,

Olivera. He's put a lot out there for people to read. Bulletin board material is prevalent for Charles Olivera, but will it be a long road back if he loses the fight? We'll see. That's what that meant. But let's get to you guys. We're going to go till about 10.50 Eastern because I have a day of meetings and craziness, and we have a meeting at the top of the hour for the event for UFC 280, of which I cannot speak about just. yet. So, AA was first in line. So we'll begin with him on this Tuesday morning.

AA, what's up? I'm good. How are you, mate? I'm good. So I've got a fun one for you, I guess. It's a USC 281. You've got the Yarn O'Malley, Sterling, T.J. and the main event, which one is the most likely to have a fin, if there was only if there's only one and which one is the least likely to have a finish out of those three

hmm that's an interesting question because frankly i don't think either is going to get finished i think both those fights are going to go the distance i will say omal yon has a better probability of a finish and al jo tj is probably going all five knows. T.J. could just come out like a bad out of hell and just truck Aljo. And we've seen Aljo finished fights as well. Corey Sanhagen flight in particular. Maybe Aljo gets shot out of a cannon. I don't know. But I just feel like, I feel like O'Malley, if he's going to win, he's going to win via first round finish. I think he's going to be sort of, he's just going to come out. He's not going to be real patience. He's just going to go in and try to blow the doors off, Piotrion, which is not a

bad strategy at all. In fact, I think that's the best strategy. Just go in there and try to overwhelm him and try to surprise him and see what happens. So I think, I think O'Malley, if he wins, he's going to finish. I don't think he's going to win a decision over Peodor Yan. And if he doesn't finish in the first round, there's a chance that Peirotrion just rips his legs apart and maybe gets a late finish in the third. But again, I mean, this is an interesting fight. It's three-round Piotrion. We haven't seen three-round Peter Yan since the Uriah Fabor fight, and he was able to finish Uriah. Now, obviously, Sean O'Malley and Uriah Faber are not the same, but that's sort of how I see it.

So there's, yeah, so I'll go with that fight the more likely you get to finish. But who knows, I could be totally wrong about that. Both fights I'm looking forward to in a big way, and I can't wait to watch them. Let's go to Viking. What's that Viking? How are you? I'm good. I have a question about the promising prospects like Mom and Mokav and Bonicles.

I mean, how they will get their top 15 fight by winning convincingly or by calling out people or this is the UFC matchmaking matter. Thank you, Mike. Thanks, and yeah. There's a lot of people, so I didn't get to hear the full question, but I think, you know, it's just kind of how we're going to progress these guys. Is it based on performance, based on callouts, based on Mike skills? I just, I mean, Bo is ahead of where Mahayev was. There's no doubt about it.

He was definitely ahead just because of the pedigree. The UFC pushed him to the moon right away. but the hardcore fans definitely understood how good Mohammed Mahayev was, young man coming into the UFC, and he made a statement in his debut, which got a lot of people excited. And then his second fight rolls around,

and people, for some reason, weren't as excited. I get it. Like, you want to see quick finishes. He lands the big flying knee and then taps Cody Durdon in a matter of seconds, and you're like, damn, I want to see him do this every fight. Sometimes you're just not going to be able to do that and what Muhammad did in that fight was against Charles Johnson was ridiculous. He had like 700

takedowns. Johnson couldn't breathe, couldn't get anything going. And that was a scary performance if you're members of the lightweight division. You're like, damn, if this dude doesn't fly knee me into an oblivion, he could still take me down 5,000 times. And that doesn't seem like a fun night at the office. So I think Muhammad will get there. Flyway is a division. Is a division. where you pick up some wins and you could shoot up the ladder very quickly. But I think Bo is just a little bit ahead of the game. Because more people just know who he is. From the way the UFC pushed him right out the gate with the contender series stuff,

when you got a guy like Mazadol on your side who's promoting the hell out of you, that doesn't hurt either. So I think both are in really good positions right now. I don't think, I think Bo will be more, both are trying to like call people out. Beau called out Shemayef and Mohammed's calling out Brandon Royval and guys like that. So I think they're both sort of calling out the same dudes,

but I feel like Bo has a, it's just a little bit ahead of the game just because more people know who he is. But I think both are in really good spots right now. And Muhammad's got a tough one coming up at UFC 280 against Malcolm Gordon. I can't wait for that fight. And let's see if he can go out and

have the type of performance that gets people excited about him again. I'm super excited about that guy. Let's go to Anthony There you go You know Dude this fucking I'm looking at this Orlando card

And it is stacked I thought it was stacked Before they added Taito Ivasa right now What is the most stacked UFC fight night card You've seen or been to I went to the UFC London back in March

That shit was wild But yeah What's your thoughts Yeah this This Orlando card's looking Very strong let me pull up let me pull up

there's one card that was super stacked that I remember like in this sort of era because of the pandemic and everything let's pull up Orlando real quick Thompson Holland Tuvasa Pavlovich Cortez

Amandaa Hibas Mateus Nicola Matt Chanel is a banger Derek Brunson Jackermanson Clay Gwita Scott Holtzman RDA Brian Barbarina, Eric Anders, Kyle Dawkes, Francis Marshall, Marcelo Rojo, Natan Levy, Janaro Valdez, Michael Johnson, Marcia Casey, Angela Hill, Emily Dakota, Darren Elkins, JSP, Yasmind JSP, Yasvin Yergi versus Estella Nunes.

This card is ridiculous. And I believe, how many fights is that? 14. That's 14. I believe a 15th is going to be added. Phil Roe said he signed a contract to fight on this card. know who he is. I've been trying to get that information, but I was told it's kind of too soon to put that information out there. But Phil Rose says he's fighting on this card too. So that's 15

fights. And who knows of all these are going to make it to Orlando. But I've been to fight nights personally, like not covering them, but I've been to fight nights with title fights. I was at the T, I was at the card. There were three Boston cards that I went to. One was Chale Sondon was in the main event, and he got to finish. One had the T.J. Dilloshat, Dominic Cruz, title fight, and then the other one I went to was the Connor McGregor.

Who the hell of the fight? Brain fog, brain fog. It was the one right before he fought for the belt. But I was there. And I hit that card, that card was like one of the cards. I was just like, oh, Tennessee. It was. You have to see Fight Night 59.

I was there for that one. That was McGregor-Seever, Seroni Henderson, Uriah Hall was on that card, Lorenz Larkin. I mean, not the most stacked card in the world, but I was there for that one. But I was there for the Domit Cruz, T.J. Dillishat title fight where Cruz won the belt.

That was a great fight. That was cool to be there for that. Now, Gregor-Sever won. All of Ireland came out, and they were all acting a fool, and they were driving me crazy. And there was nearly a bit of fist of cuffs in the crowd that night. But I was able to talk people down.

And I was like, dude, you really want to get chucked out of here? Because I, it wasn't. I mean, I just, I didn't feel like getting in fights at the TD Garden. And the problem is with that whole situation is I have family members who work security at the garden. So they're already, like, pissed off that they're working already. They already know they're going to be chucking out people left and right. and that night in particular, I believe they threw out more people

for acts of a fool than any event they've ever worked in like 20 plus years because of that night. But the energy that night was ridiculous. But the one that stands out to me, just out of recent memory, was the one September 19th, 2020. I believe this is the most viewed fight night card of all time.

It was the one headline by Colby Covington and Tired Woodley. That was the car. Donald Soroni and Nico Price Hamzaa Chimayef, Gerald Mirchart was on that one, Johnny Walker, Ryan Span, McKenzie Dern,

random Marcos, Kevin Holland, Darren Stewart, David Devorak, Jordan Espinoza, Damon Jackson, Mer sod Bechtich, MBS,

Mara Borella, Jessica Rose Clark, Sauer, Alpar, Derek Minner. That was his crazy debut against T.J. Laramie. Randy Costa had a nasty finish. That card was a dunk.

and still to this day it was the most watched fight night card in UFC history but that's the one that stands out at the top of my head as one that I was like damn this card is ridiculous boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes 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

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Let's talk about Falkanovsky, his brand. It looks like the UFC tried to continue building his brand. And, you know, Charles Olifera, what can you do with him? My question to you is, how do you look at this situation? It seems that the U.S.C. is more investing time and money in Falkanovsky and Islam than in Charles Olifier. That's what I'm trying to talk to you about, and I wish you the best,

and I will be at that event, and I'm looking forward for a real fight and not like building a brand for Volcanovsky. Thank you, and good luck. Thanks, man. I don't know if I necessarily... Maybe. Volcano, I mean, you can say this about Volcanovsky.

He is a guy who has sort of created his own luck. He basically talked himself into this. He did the same thing for the 145 pound title where he was just like, I'm going to be the backup. I don't care what you say. And then he ended up being the backup. And then his next fight, he fought for the featherweight title

and beat Max Holloway the first time and became the champion. And he's just trying to make lightning strike twice. So, I mean, why not? Doesn't certainly hurt to have the number one fighter on the planet step in and have his name attached to this event that is already massive. So not a bad call.

I don't think this is necessarily the UFC promoting his brand. I think this is Volcanovsky creating his own luck. And the UFC just being like, all right, go for it. You might have a little bit of a point with the Islam thing. I don't think they're just, I don't think it's like they're not building Charles. I just think Islam is just out there more. Islam's doing a bunch of interviews.

Islam's saying a bunch of stuff. Charles is just like, all right, dude, keep saying what you got to say, and we'll settle it in the octagon. And Charles is a little bit fired up too. But the thing about Islam is he's a package deal, and he has an attachment to one of the biggest stars in the sport, or at least over the last couple of years, and Habib. So you can get the Habib factor latched on to Islam and get the fans to tune into Islam because of Habib. the UFC's going to do that. It's not bad business. It's pretty smart.

But, I mean, I just don't know what Olivera needs to do. And I don't think it's really like the UFC pushing or not pushing Olivera. People still have doubts about this man. They still have doubts. That's why he's a pretty sizable underdog. He didn't miss weight for his last fight with Justin Gaich. He was stripped of the title. so because a lot of people feel like a lot of people forget that a lot of people feel like

oliver is the champion and he's defending against his al-machachev next Saturday no there is no champion there is no champion the title is vacant right now after october 22nd hopefully both guys make wait and we have a new champion crown but right now we don't have a lightweight champion so this is not a title defense for charles olivera this is i mean you can think in your heart of hearts that it is. And in some people's minds, like, he shouldn't have been shipped to the belt to begin with. And I mean, the whole thing was weird, but if rules truly rule, then he shouldn't be the champion right now. And that left bad taste in people's mouths, I guess. I don't know. People still doubting this man. And if he goes out there and beats his Lamakachev, I hope the

reaction is, all right, this guy is, we need to stop doubting him. But what I think's going to happen is, And I saw it on the comments of the post yesterday. What I think's going to happen is it should be, see, Islam, never beat a top five guy. Shouldn't have been in the fight in the first place. Mark my words. That's what we're going to hear. And not, wow, Charles Oliver is the man. Because that's just the way this whole thing works.

It's crazy. Let's go to Brian. What's up, Brian? I hear nothing. All right, Brian, try again. We'll try to get you back in here. Let's go to crypto. Crypto, what's up, man?

Hi, Mike. Can you hear me? I got you. How are you? Good. How are you? I'm good. Yeah.

So, Mike, I actually want to bring up a thing because I did some investigative research here. Also talked to AK about this. I'm absolutely shocked, Mike, how the UFC rankings work and organizations and people behind. those lists. I mean, Mike, did you know that actually, at least from what I've seen so far, approximately 25% of the entire panel are media outlets that don't exist or have not existed

for several years. And these are official statements from the UFC website. So every fourth so-called member of this panel does not even have a website anymore. It's actually, Absolutely crazy. And there are also some media outlets that have not posted a single article that is MMA related. And we don't even know who those people are. So when I looked at this, kind of if you add all these different categories into one, and I can tell you that I do know that, for example, there is one Swedish outlet that has not existed for like seven years. as I am from Sweden, I truly do know this.

It is almost, I think it's more than a third in total, more than a third of these media outlets do not exist anymore. And this is, I mean, this is not just me making things up. Anyone can go to the UFC website and see which organizations that this panel consists of. So I was just absolutely shocked. So once again, the only ranking that matters, Mike, is the official ranking that you put out. The UFC ranking is a complete joke.

It's just so embarrassing to when you try to visit these sites and their domains are up for sale. There's no one behind them. One of these organizations had like 15 followers on Twitter, like 15 mics. It's basically the guy that registered the accountant, his closest family. I don't know.

So just a big joke. it is a bit funny but at the same time as AK told me quite serious because these people affect the matchmaking and the livelihood of the fighters so that's all for me Mike thanks man yeah I mean go look at it fighters talk about it all the time we've seen fighters at media scrums talking about

the people who cast votes and no one knows who any of them are It's a joke Rankings don't mean shit In the UFC They don't mean anything They don't It doesn't matter

It's putting on the biggest fights possible When they have to matter They will use that as a storyline But they don't matter So before I came to M.A fighting I worked I was a freelancer I'm not what James Lynch is

Who works for like 8,000 companies that dude is a monster. But I did very similar to what he was doing because at the time Lynch was working for one spot, he was working at the score, and there was a whole kind of doing what he was doing. So that's kind of what I was doing. And one of the sites I worked for was myamaynews.com.

Eric Kowal, who is a great friend of mine in this industry, is one of the first people to take a chance in this dude right here. and I love that guy. That guy's the man. And what I love so much about him is he doesn't care what anybody thinks of him. That's what I love so much about him. And for a time, Eric was on the UFC rankings panel.

And Eric was the guy that busted the door down when it comes to how the UFC does their rankings. If you can go back into his Twitter timeline, you have to go back a couple of years. But he was putting out stuff about, the rankings that no one was talking about, that there's no way that UFC was happy about it. Let me see if,

let me see if I can pull this up. Let me see if I can pull this up. All right, this was a tweet from October of 2020. He was posting all these updates. UFC rankings panelists have been notified that due to inactivity and expected future inactivity, Tatiana Suarez will no longer be eligible for rankings, neither in her division or the pound-for-pound rankings.

And then he said, update, after notification completion of UFC Fight Island 5, a notification ranks being open. Tatiana Suarez is still listed as an option. So Eric, Eric was busting the doors down when it came to how this all works. And he would say, I mean,

basically the UFC, based on what he was telling people, is that, let me see if I can pull this up. He was basically telling people, like, this is how the UFC wants you to vote. This is what they want you to do.

And that's what makes it kind of a joke because the rankings don't matter anyways. And then the UFC is trying to convince people how to vote in the way they want to. And it's because of all this that I chose never to be involved in anybody's rankings. And I've been asked by almost everybody. I was asked to be a part of the UFC rankings.

I said no. we were asked as a website to be a part, we've talked about this before, to be a part of the Bellator rankings, we absolutely said absolutely not. I've been asked to be a part of the BKFC rankings. I said no, even in New England. There's a local New England MMA website.

I said, hey, we need like somebody to help us out with our rankings. Do you want to do it? And I said, no. No, I don't want to be a part of anybody's rankings. Now the MA fighting rankings, I will be a part of. That's fine. That's our group. That's our collective. It's created great debate. I love our rankings. I think our rankings are the most legit out there more than better than anybody else's. No one else does the research. No one else goes through the process that we go through. Nobody does. Nobody. So I'm happy to be a part of that. But the other ones where it's clear that the promotion is trying to needle and lean people. Like the Bellator rankings are such a joke. They're such a. a joke. And those are all media members. And the way some of these fighters are ranked in those

divisions, it's just infuriated. Like, I'm not trying to be, like, I'm not trying to be a hater at all. I'm not. Valerie Laredo was a very big deal for Bellator. She was a star for them. She created interest. There's no doubt about it. But come on. She should have never been a ranked fighter in Bellator. She lost to Hannah Guy and Hannah Guy was ranked below her. Like it just makes no sense. Like none of it makes any sense.

So yeah. That's why our rankings are different than the UFC's rankings. And it's a joke. And the rankings don't mean shit anyways. We've had plenty of examples of that. Michael Bisbing won the UFC middleweight title. And we had Yo-O. Romero and Robert Whitaker and

other guys at 185 who deserve title shots and who did he fight you five freaking Dan Henderson. I understand there's a story there. It's Bisbing fighting in England. I get it. But it's, I mean, that makes no sense. That makes no sense that Bisbing should have fought Dan Henderson. But the rankings don't mean shit. They don't mean anything unless the UFC tells you they do.

And they don't mean anything. It's so dumb. But I get where you're coming from, and I love our rankings. I think we're doing something very cool here. But you know what? I'd like to see our rankings become like the coaches' rankings. Like in college football, they have like the AP 1 through 25, and then they have like sort of the backup rankings.

I would like to be one of those. And I know a lot of the fighters that have YouTube channels, they talk about our rankings. They talk about our rankings even more than the UFC's. And there's a reason for that. Let's go to Jay. Hey, Mike, what's up? You know?

Yep. All right, so I got two quick things. One is I wanted to ask you about cheating and what referees should do with the UFC because with the last fight card and how we saw with Randy Brown with the fence grab, there were a lot of people on Twitter. I think I saw like Jamal Hill

and maybe Terrence McKinney saying how they actually don't want a referee to give one warning before every cheating that they do, whether it be eye poke, fence grab, or not shy or anything like that. But I actually kind of agree with the idea just to enforce some type of policy because I think if fighters realize

oh, they only have one chance to make a mistake that would have sensuous to them less and less. But a lot of the fighters don't agree with that. So I want to guess your opinion on that. And another thing was I saw online about a one MMA heavyweight fighter. I forgot who his name was. I think it was Dustin something.

But he went on a rant on Instagram talking about how one is barely offering him any matchups over like the last six months, I think. And I wanted to ask, do you know anything about that, about how one is offering barely any flights to their roster, like the ones probably below on the list who aren't that popular? So, thanks, Mike, and have a heck of a morning, man. Thank you, sir. Hold on one second. Just trying to see, this is what you do when you're on the desk and you're hosting a show. You have to do multiple things at once, trying to confirm news, and do this all the time.

same time. So the one stuff I'm not all that familiar with. I haven't talked to enough people to be able to weigh in the right way. I have heard many people talk about that. So I get where you're coming from. The cheating thing, look, I mean, I don't know how much, how much more I can say about the cheating stuff. All I will say is just continue to cheat because no one's going to call anything. Now, here's the thing. What a lot of people don't realize is that if you have a fight, let's just say you're fighting today. Okay? Let's say me and Tok are fighting later on today. And maybe verbally we will fight on this show because we have in the past.

Let's just say I'm fighting Toke later on today. We're going to show up at the arena. I'm going to be in my locker room and Tocke's going to be in his locker room. And guess what's going to happen before we walk out? The referee who is reffing our fights is going to come back and talk to each of us and tell us the rules, which is essentially the first warning. So before you even get into the octagon to fight, you already have a warning.

You already have a warning. They've already given it to you. And then you go out and if you go out there and you grab a fence or anything like that, they say that's the first warning when in fact it's the second warning. It's the second warning. So the fence grab thing, I get it. I get it. And I know referees have gone on the record and talked about, well, because of the 10-9 must system, the 10-point must system, if somebody grabs a fence and I take a point away, then I'm costing this athlete to fight. Okay. But in the NFL, if there's a pass-interference down at the one-yard line and they accidentally interfered, what are they going to say? Well, I don't want to cost the Patriots the game. They're going to throw the goddamn flag. They're going to throw it. Because, it's a rule.

It's a rule. So what I've been saying with the fence grab thing, I think I poke's, I think if you want to give a warning for eye pokes and the kicks to the ding ding, thing, fine. But one and that's it. No more. Okay, I'm going to give you another warning.

And then the next one is, oh, this is the final, final warning. Like, you want to give them one because it's actually, I know that's cool. But if you do the same thing again, it should be a point. The fence scrap thing, to me,

is if somebody's going for a takedown, and for instance, Francisco Trinado is trying to take Randy Brown down. Randy Brown grabs the fence. The referee just slaps the hand away. The takedown is already negated. It's not happening. And now we're refighting. We've already taken some gas away from Francisco Trinaldo.

You don't need to fire a warrant. You just say, uh, uh, uh, nope, automatic takedown. You stop the fight. You put Randy Brown on his back, and you put Francisco Trinaldo on top of him, and then you fight. And if it happens again, you put him in the middle of the cage this time. You stop the action, put him in the middle of the octagon. Randy's on his back, Francisco on top. And then if it happens a third time, I don't care how natural progression it is to grab the fence.

After two warnings and were forced to stop the action and change position in the fight, you should know not to grab the fence. If you grab it a third time, you'll lose a point. There has to be some sort of penalty. You can't just slap a hand away and say, no, no problem. I don't want to take a point away because it's going to cost this guy the fight. Any other sport, you are penalized. It doesn't matter if it's accidentally or you do it on purpose.

You are penalized. There has to be some sort of repercussion. Now, if you don't want to take a point, fine. but we have to explore other avenues where there are least repercussions. Because at this point, if I get into a year, if someone from the UFC called me and said, Mike, we're going to pay a million dollars to get into a fight with the dude who can wrestle. I'm going to grab the fence every time because no one's going to stop me from doing it. There are no repercussions.

I'm just going to keep grabbing the fence. I'm still going to lose the fight, but I'm going to grab the damn fence because no one's going to stop me from doing it. So, yeah, I've talked about cheating so much. there should be 10 minutes at every MMA class, major gyms with UFC fighters, finding ways to grab the fence because no one's calling anything. It's not cheating.

It's not cheating at that point. It's not called. It's just a thing. It's just a thing that happened or just legalized fence grabs at this point. Either one, fine with me. But we have to be a little more aggressive with some of this stuff.

Otherwise, I'm just going to keep saying cheat your ass off. there's no repercussions, right? Toke? Yeah. So apparently we're fighting. That's good. So my fighting words are, hey, I have a head in my

corner, who do you have? That's my question. It doesn't seem like you don't have Alex at this point, at least on the thing we're actually fighting about. But that's not my question. My question is about Gregor Gillespie. I'm wondering, Because, you know, he said he wants to fight someone above him.

What does that mean at this point? Because he's not ranked anymore because, you know, UFC does what the UFC does with its rankings. So, you know, how does he even say, I don't know, how does he even say no? Because he doesn't have, because UFC just decided, okay, whatever terms you had, which is fight a guy in front of me,

they've taken that away by taking them out. It's taking him out of the rankings that don't matter, but it matters to them in this scenario. So I'm just wondering what does Greg Gillespie even have of leverage here, if any? Does he just go off and do a fishing podcast instead and just say goodbye to the UFC until he gets his wish? That's actually my question. Yeah, man.

Like, I get where you're coming from. And look, if Greg Gillespie has fishing sponsors and he's living his life and he's making money and he doesn't need to fight, then sure, he can be as patient as he wants to be. He could just wait for a fight with a Tony Ferguson or something like that because that's what he's wanted. He's wanted a fight with a name. He feels like he deserves that. The problem is he's just not going to get it because anytime he gets any sort of buzz going,

he gets hurt or he's out for a while and by the time he's ready to come back, the division has moved on. A lot of guys have jumped him and now we have guys on the come-up. We're looking at Armand Sarukia and we're looking at the Matush Gamrots of the world. And Gregor Gillespie is the reason

from all indications he said it himself. The reason we got one of the best fights of the year between Sirukian and Gamrott was because of Gregor Gleggisbee. The UFC wanted Sarukian versus Gillespie. That's the fight. And Gillespie said, no. He's ranked too far behind me.

I'm not fighting anybody that's ranked behind me. And what does the UFC do at that point? They can only take so much. They can only offer him so many fights. And then they're like, all right, well, if we're just talking about rankings and you haven't fought in so long, we're just going to pull you out of it. Like they've offered him fights. He's even said it publicly.

They've offered me a bunch of fights, but nothing that makes me happy. So I'm just not going to take these fights. And then they just pull them out of the rankings. And that's fine. Because again, they pulled Leon Edwards out of the rankings. Remember that? They took Leon out of the rankings. They put him back in like two days later, but they took him out of the rankings.

And then he was like, all right, I'll fight Hamza At Chimaif. And all of a sudden, guess who's back in the rankings? Once Gregor puts pen to paper, they're going to put him back in the rankings. the UFC thinks these rankings have a ton of power, but your star power, the interest fans having you, outweigh rankings. Hamzot Shemayf doesn't need a ranking.

Nobody cares about what Hamzat is ranked. They just want to see the guy fight, and they think he's really, really good at it. So that's why what he went from fighting Gerald Mearshard to Lee Jingleong all the way up to Gilbert Burns, no one was like, But Gilbert Burns is ranked third.

You can't do that. That's egregious. No, they're like, all right. Let's see if Hamza can run this guy over. Sometimes the number next to your name means nothing. The UFC wants to make you think that it means something, but it doesn't. It doesn't.

It's all silly. It's all silly. It's all silly. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So, no, you can't get a nice rank. on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Gold tenders, no, but chicken tenders, yes, because those are groceries, and we deliver those too, along with

your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, Power, by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps,

corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross-Training Treadplus at OnePeloton.ca. All right, we're going to go rapid fire here, because I got about 10 minutes. So we'll go to Siverham, we'll go to Mitchell, we get to as many people as we can here, all right?

Civerram, what's up? Good. Is any Indian guy helping you, mate? I don't know. I just, you haven't corrected me, so I feel like I'm doing the right, do it at the right one. Yeah, you're 90% absolutely right of pronouncing money. It's Shuron Kumar. So you're saying Shuram, speedily.

It's okay. You are 90% absolutely right, pronouncing my name. All right. coming to the EOFC280. What do you think Volkanowski and a slam match? I mean, if Charles is going, let's assume that Charles is going to win the match. So is he going to call out the Khabib or Volknovsky or Connor? There is an intention that Charles wants to fight the Connor for the red pant night.

But let's imagine he's going to winning the championship. ship on that night and calling out the Kabib or Volknozky. Then there is a second point. If you assume Islam going to win that fight, is he going to call the corner or is he going to challenge the Volknozky? Because Volknozky is going to sit out the fight and maybe he could be watching from the front row. If Charles is going to make the wait, I hope he does. So that's one thing.

And another one is why Aljima Stelling is accusing the DJF is already sued up and judged up. I mean, yeah, he got some history back then. I see, Al J. Staling seems to me that he's already coping with the forthcoming loss by the DJ Shah. I don't know why he's saying like that, stuff like that. And that's it, Mike. Thanks, man. I mean, he's just trying to sell the fight. That's what I think.

He's just trying to sell the fight. Al Jemate is a very good fight week seller. He's great at it. He drove a lot of interest. Not a ton, because the interest was mostly on Shemaya Burns for UFC 273. But Al Jemaine did a fantastic job of getting that fight over with Piotrion, the rematch, as the co-main event. It became the number two fight for me. And then the main event became the number three fight for me.

So Alja's really good at selling that. It's the build before that. He's not spectacular at. But by the time we get to Abu Dhabi, we start getting into the fight week festivities, I think Aljo will be ready to go. So I think it's just, I think it's just trying to,

because you have to remember where we're at right now. We're going to Abu Dhabi. It seems like kind of a random fight. we talked about this earlier this week or last week why is this fight on this card and not happening at MSG? It's a good fight. This is a title fight.

We got to give Abu Dhabi this many title fights and this one is just kind of, it's some people just randomly chucked in. So Aljo's trying to get more people invested. As far as the call-outs go for the main event, I think Charles is going to call out Connor. He's been doing that non-stop.

So I think he'll stick in that direction. I don't, maybe he'll call on Habib, but I don't think he should because I don't think Habib's coming back. Sorry, A.K. I just don't, I don't think anything gets him back. Honestly, I think he's a man of principal. And he says he's done. I believe that he's done. This is not your typical MMA retirement. And I think if Habib did come back, he ain't coming back at 155. He's coming back somewhere else. So I don't think Charles will call him out. I think he'll call Connor. I think Volk will be number two. Islam, I don't think we'll call Connor because that's just stupid.

Nobody cares to see that. Not that anyone truly cares to Oliver versus Connor, but Olivera has done everything. He's beaten a murderer's row and finished all of them. So if he wants Connor, just give it to him at this point.

And I feel like there are people out there who feel like Connor with his style might have a chance. I don't think he has any chance at all against Islam. Because I think Islam will just take him down and smush him just like Habib did. And I just don't know if anybody is interested in seeing that fight. So if I'm Islam, I think if B'Neal D'Ryush beat Scamrott,

he's going to do everything in his power to try to give B'Neal a title shot. Because let's not forget who manages both gentlemen. Okay? That's the direction they're probably going to try to go. But Islam versus Volk sounds like a good time as well. So if that's the way they go, sign me up for that. All right. We'll take a few more.

Hello. I got you. What's up what I said? I've kind of picked up my question. What do you think could be next for Al Jermaine Sterling if he does get a win? Because obviously I think Chio Vero might be fighting Sanhagen

sometime near the end of the year. And obviously Alad is retired and obviously him and Marab's obviously best friends. So I don't know if they would fight. And also, what do you think could be next for Paddy Pimler as he'd been saying that no one really wants to fight him, even though that 10.

Terrence McKinney has been calling him out, and obviously the Ilya-Tor-Fi is there to be made because of the confrontation in London back in March. Thank you. Thanks, man. So the Patty thing, I mean, I feel like we've been talking about Patty nonstop. Yeah, him saying that nobody wants to fight him is just not true because everybody wants to fight that guy.

He's not going to fight Ilya because Ilya Teporia will run him over, and that is just not what you want to see. Maybe they do, Terence. I don't know. I don't think they're going to go that route. I think they're going to go a different route. Give him a win like they've been doing. Or maybe they do Mike Davis, the fight of all fights.

As far as Aljo goes, if Sean O'Malley beats Piotr-Yan, he's fighting Sean O'Malley. If he beats T.J. And O'Malley beats Yon, O'Malley's getting the title fight, regardless of who wins. O'Malley's fighting for the belt if he beats Piero Yon, 100%. If Yon, if Yon wins, And if TJ wins and Jan wins, I wouldn't be stunned to see those two guys fight, especially if they go the direction of Sanhagen versus Cheeto.

But to me, I don't think they should book any fight at this point for Cheeto until we figure all this out. Because how I would book it is if Sterling wins and Peter Yan wins, then Cheeto gets the title shot. We do Sterling versus Cheeto. that to me is the fight to me but if O'Malley wins that changes everything and then we can book some of these other cool fights that we want to see so to me it's just we kind of kind of have to wait

and see but the one thing I do know for sure is that if Sean O'Malley wins his next fight will be for the belt let's go to the AM hello the AM hello sir how are you I'm good how are you I'm good thank you I have a few things so Alexander Gustafson

against OSP was just announced for UFC 282, I think yes, UFC 282. What do you make

of that one? Also, if Darren Thiel pulls out or loses against the pluses, do you think this is his last fight in the UFC?

And the last thing I want to ask you about Mahachev said a few months ago that when he was the lightweight title he is going to defend it a few times and then he will move up to the walterweight

how do you see his chances in the water right thank you so much and have good day thanks man last question first i think he'll do fine he's got the base to be very to do very well just got to put a little more size and i think he's competitive with a lot of those guys i think he's competitive with anybody he fights if we're being honest he's that good let's see the gus OSP flights. We haven't fully confirmed it. We have half confirmed it. That's probably the fight to make. That's probably

perfect, if we're being honest. Where both guys are at in their career, I think that's perfect. I like that fight. And then I actually forget the first question because I have 500 things going on in my mind right now. Let's go to Mosa. Mosa. How are you doing?

Good. I have a question about they say that Charles is getting disrespected, but what I see from the MMA media and the fighters, they give him the respect of all time. There is a channel on the YouTube with James Lange, I think his name is. And the prediction for the fight is something crazy, 60 for Olivier. and eight for Islam or something like that.

This is my first take and the second one is about what do you think about Umali road he taken? I think it's pretty cool to take at first not a big name and then you pick a very big name with a with a possibility to win because let's be honest it's not a rassler. never fought a wrestler. We don't know if he can or cannot. And we have seen something alike with Alex Pereira, but in that division, Israel, Adisania has cleared it out. Do you think the fighters with popularity like

Baddy Pimplet in the moment should do the same fight, so many fights and then pick a fight at the top, which they could possibly win, and this should be the road to the title. We can see it also with the slam, but slam may be different. His fights were canceled, and that's my question, Mike. Thank you. Yeah, O'Malley has wrote a blueprint on how to do it. They could have thrown O'Malley with some of the top guys earlier, but he was just like, I ain't making that kind of money, so pay me, and then I'll fight those guys. And I think Patty's taking the same route. Like the opportunity to fight Tony is there. And if the UFC offered him that fight, he's going to be like, cool, I like the idea of fighting Tony Ferguson, but you got to pay me

what it would cost for a normal guy to fight Tony Ferguson. And I get that. And Sean O'Malley is the guy who has sort of changed the way some of these fighters viewed. Now, other fighters are just like, okay, I'm in the UFC. I'm very happy to be here. So just pay me whatever. And Sean's just like, no, this is a freaking business. And if you want me to fight these guys, then you have to pay me what I'm worth to fight these guys. Which is why I took him so long to get

the Pedro Munoz's of the world. He got what he wanted. That's why he fought Pedro. Fight went the way that it did. It was an unfortunate ending. And now he gets the opportunity to fight Peodor Yan. This is brilliant. This is brilliant on his end. Because he knows that if he

beats Peter Yan, he's getting a title fight. And if he loses, I don't think it's going to hurt his stock all that much. Unless he just gets the doors blown off him, then that's pretty bad. But I don't know. I think this fight's really competitive. And I think if he just has moments, I think this fight is competitive. O'Malley's stock is only going to rise. So outside of him just getting blasted out of there, I feel like O'Malley's in a win-win situation.

I don't think he has a ton to lose here. I really don't. but again he could get just destroyed in 45 seconds and that would be really bad but outside of that I think it's I think it's a win-win situation for O'Malley and if he wins the title I mean if he wins the fight he's fighting for the belt so yeah the risk is worth the reward for sure all right we'll take a couple more real quick in and out Tristan what's up man real quick um from what you said about Islam if he lose, if he's in Leon

territory, my opinion on that is it depends how the UFC looked at him. If he's look at UFC, how they look at Michael Chandler, if he beats Dustin Poirier, who says this is not crazy, he's going to get another title short. So I think it just depends on how they look on Islam. I'm not too sure about that. And then the second one, just the clarity here,

is it confirmed that Jailton Alameda is going to be rescheduled to fight Maxim Grisham for U.S. 64 in November 5th? for a 220 pound catch rate. Just want to know some clarity on that. Thanks, Mike. I believe we confirm that.

I don't think we roll like a separate article on it, but I know we do these like roundups and I think that one's going to be a part of it, but yes, we did confirm that that is the case. What a weird career for Jilton I'm Aida so far in the UFC, right? A weird one. And then with the Islam thing, it's kind of like, I just remember what the M's other question was,

was the respect Charles is getting. The question, what we were talking about earlier, had nothing to do with how the media and the fans are reacting to Charles Alvair, because we all know he's kind of a bad dude, but it's just a matter of the question we got earlier is, is the UFC giving him the same amount of love and push that Islam is getting and then some of the other guys you're getting? And again, I think Islam is just kind of in that Habib, you know,

when you have Habib attached to you, it's, you're going to put him out there because where Islam is on Fight Week, I'll be able to be not far behind. So that's the big reason behind that. So, yeah. All right, let's take two more real quick. In and off, Mikey, what do you got? Real quick.

So basically, the announcement of UFC Perth almost, I don't want to say almost all would guarantee it, but it feels like that that will be Rob Withaker versus the winner of Israel, Assyria and Alps-Pera, doesn't it? Also, if Okunovsky doesn't, Obviously, we don't want anything to happen to the main event, but it feels like Perth would be a good card to have Volcanowski

Challenge for the lightweight title, don't you think? All right. Thanks, guys. Have a good morning. Would not be a bad card for that. It would not be a bad card for him to defend the featherweight title either. Whitaker, maybe. I mean, you would think that Whitaker's going to fight on that card,

but from what I understand, no immediate plans as of now, but we also haven't had that title fight yet. Yeah, the card's kind of up in the air. I mean, it's definitely happening in Perth. I confirm multiple sources. We put it out on Sunday before the announcement that was the case. But it's a good time to go back. So hopefully we see all of those,

all of those guys and gals from that area. And by the way, we have officially now 100% confirmed OSP versus Gus. There you go. So that is happening December time. All right, Alamo, real quick. quick and then I got to go. What's up, buddy? Yeah. What I'm trying to say is like Conan Magrigo. Yeah. So I'm asking if Konama Grigo is going to fight the next day, the UFC players, is they going to text before

fighting? That's what a question I want to ask. Is there the U.S.D.A is going to text Maggiore before fighting the UFC at the first coming back? That's what I have to ask. Thank you. I got to be honest. I didn't hear. a lot of that, I don't know I don't know where you are but I couldn't hear it because there's a ton of people back there. But I got to go everybody. I got to get into a meeting

for something that I can't tell you about. So how about that for a tease? But we'll be no show tomorrow. And I may now are back tomorrow. So that's exciting. Stay tuned for the lineup, which will drop tomorrow morning. We'll be back on Thursday for a very busy day

because we'll have the return of normal BTL. We'll have the return of this show. And then Friday, and also Thursday, I plan on heading out to beautiful Savannah, Georgia. Hopefully I get to catch up with one Jorge Maz Vidal, one-on-one, to see what's going on with him, how he has viewed the last few months since we've last spoke. And Friday, we'll have preview show and all that stuff for UFC Vegas 62. And then we're onwards to UFC 280. So thank you very much, everybody.

Have a great rest of the day. Show going up in the podcast network within the hour. Have a heck of a morning, you crazy animals. Thank you so much.