MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reaction To Alexandre Pantoja vs. Steve Erceg, Jose Aldo's Return At UFC 301

Episode Date: March 19, 2024

With UFC 299 and UFC 300 being absolutely stacked fight cards on paper, many were wondering what would take place at UFC 301 in May, which will serve as the promotion's return to Brazil. Over this past weekend, it was announced that Alexandre Pantoja will defend his flyweight title against Steve Erceg, while it was also revealed that Jose Aldo would end his MMA retirement to face Jonathan Martinez — and both fights certainly got the MMA community talking. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to the bookings, the reactions from fans, and the giant opportunities for Erceg and Martinez. Additionally, listener topics include whether or not the UFC should move Charles Oliveira vs. Arman Tsarukyan from UFC 300 to UFC 301, Alex Pereira potentially making a quick turnaround for the May pay-per-view if he gets out of his fight with Jamahal Hill unscathed, the UFC's next three events as lead-ins to the April 13 mega event, what UFC 302 could look like, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. Tuesday, March 19th, 2024, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the MMA Fighting. Twitter space. You can hear the show

and it's a entirety shortly thereafter on the MMA Fighting. podcasting network. What's going on everybody? I am Mike Kat Koppurall having a fantastic start to the week and folks, we got some stuff to discuss and I'm not even really talking about what we saw inside the octagon on Saturday. UFC Vegas 88. It happened. It's over, but it happened. But there's a lot of other stuff that has gone on since then. Some news broken. Actually, even happened before that. We've been trying to figure out. what is going to happen at UFC 301 when the UFC returns to Brazil?

Because 299 absolutely stacked, 300 coming up April 13th, absolutely stacked, including just a perfect main event for UFC 301, headlining UFC 300, which is Alex Pereira defending his light heavyweight title against Jamal Hill. Would have been a perfect main event for 301. It's a fine main event for 300, but it would have been perfect for 301. And then we saw a whole bunch of fights announced

featuring Brazilian fighters on different cards heading into and coming out of UFC 301, including the Hanata Moikano Jalen Turner fight, which would have been perfect for 301, but somehow it's on UFC 300. We knew Alexander Pantoja would probably be a part of it, and he is. He's not fighting Muhammad Mikhail.

He's not fighting Middall cop. He's not fighting Brandon Royval. He is fighting Steve Erseg for his second title defense of the 125 pound title. And boy, oh boy, did MMA fans and Twitter lose their friggin minds when this fight was announced. Hands in the air, complaints, all sorts of stuff. I saw all sorts of reactions. DMs across the board of people like, what the fuck is the UFC doing here? yada, yada, yada.

Guys, what did we expect here? Like, seriously, what did we expect here? Sometimes you got to, you have to sacrifice certain cards for the growth of others. And Ariel talked about this yesterday, and I could not agree with him more. This is what the people wanted. The people wanted $299 stack. The people wanted $300 stacks. I even wanted all these title fights.

And the biggest fights the UFC could put together. So if we have to rob Peter to pay Paul, now it's a problem. It's crazy. But Steve Ersseg is getting this title shot. I think it's kind of funny for a number of reasons. One, because Steve is not a trash talker at all. He has not said word one about Alexander Pantosha.

Even after he got the knockout of Matt Chanel, he called out, I'm pretty sure he called up Brandon Moreno. He wasn't even thinking. about a title fight and he gets into this title shot and i got to tell you if steve ursig's takedown defense is is good he's got a real chance to win this fight he's got a real chance to win this fight so it is what it is guys it is what it is now is to the main event not 100% sure is there a good chance it's the main event sure perhaps the ufc is looking at at UFC 300, maybe Alex Pereira

wins rapidly against Jamal Hill and takes zero damage and he can turn right back around, which I don't think you really need to do here. But if you think it's going to help boost the card, you could do that. But who would he fight? Who would he fight? Is he going to fight the

Yeri Rackich winner who are fighting on the same card? Are those guys going to be able to turn around real quick? Are we just going to rush a fight together to get Pereira on that card? So there's a lot of lot going on here. I also think it's funny that one of the things that I thought of was you've got guys like Roy Val is yelling for a title shot. Marab is yelling for a title shot. Belaw Muhammad is

yelling for a title shot. Not always Belal Muhammad yelling for a title shot, but like everybody associated with Bilal Mohammed all yelling for Bilal Muhammad to get a title shot. Everyone associated with Marab all yelling for Marab to get a title shot. And nobody on Steve Ersig's team or Steve Ersig himself asked for a title fight and he walks into a title fight. Boy, what a world we all live in. And that is UFC 301. That's the title fight.

That is not the only thing happening at UFC 301 because we also confirmed that Jose Aldo is coming back. He's coming out of retirement already in the Hall of Fame. He's coming back at UFC 301. And he's fighting Jonathan Martinez, the silence behind the violence. That fight going down May 4th in Brazil. We're going to hear run this town tonight.

People are going to lose their freaking minds. The King of Rio fighting in Rio against Jonathan Martinez. Great to have Aldo back. A lot of people were puzzled by the matchmaking here. I saw some rumors. A lot of people going crazy in regards to maybe Dominic Cruz taking this fight. We talked about this a little bit over the weekend. From people I spoke to, it just seemed like it was kind of like an idea on Twitter.

Twitter that just kind of got ramped up. And then there were some other, you know, quasi reports or whatever that, you know, it was Brazil and Cruz didn't want to take it. And who knows that that's actually true? These are just going by the conversations I had. We didn't, like, officially report this stuff. Even Damon said he talked to Jonathan Martinez and he said Jonathan found out last Friday about this fight.

I had been told it was actually a little bit after that, but it doesn't matter, really, because we're getting this fight at UFC 301. And what an opportunity is for the silence behind the violence, again, a guy who didn't ask for Jose Aldo. Damon also said during that tweet when he got called last Friday about this fight, he didn't know, he said who? Because he didn't think it was the Joseoaldo. So he was thrown off by this as much as everybody else was.

But that is happening. That is happening. We are coming off UFC Vegas 88 as well. If you guys hear some noise, we're getting a new HVAC system installed in the new house, so it could get a little noisy, so bear with us. But we're coming off UFC Vegas 88. Tai Tuvasa suffers another stoppage loss, this time to Marching Taibora. We'll see where he goes from here.

Some things happen. Some fights occurred inside the world's most famous apex. And guess what? More fights are going to occur inside the world's most famous apex this Saturday. A little bit later than the start time of UFC Vegas. Vegas 88. We got the main event of Ande Hebas against Rosenama Eunice, the former Strawway champion. Co-main event, boy, shout out AK. This is a penultimate fight. I don't even know what we're calling this, but Carl Williams has found himself in a penultimate fight at the world's most famous

apex. He will take on Justin Taffa. Edmund Shabazi in his back against A.J. Dobson, Peyton Talbot, Cameron Simon. Fun one between some of the surging up and coming Bannonweight prospects. We got Billy Q. Back. He's welcoming back. Yusuf Salal to the UFC and some other fun fights as well. 7 p.m. prelims, Eastern Standard Time. And 10 p.m. main cards. Six fights.

It's going to be a long night. So let's hear what you all have to say about all the stuff going on in the wonderful world of mixed martial arts. We will start with Moran. Go ahead, Maron. Oh, do we have you now? Unmute yourself.

I think we might have you. Iran, are you there? You would be muted. How about now? Yes, can you hear me now? Yes. How are you, sir? I'm good.

How are you, okay? Good, I'm good. So I have a question regarding Pody. So if he just goes there and knock out, maybe figuratively in the first or second, where do you see him in a title picture in this future? Who is this? I'm sorry.

Sorry? Who is this? Cody. Cody. Cody Garbrand. Cody Garbrant. Okay. Yeah. All right. Thank you. He just goes there knockout for a second round. Where do you see him?

Based on his star. Yeah. Thank you, man. Yeah, there's, look, this is, uh, I had an answer up until yesterday. I felt pretty good about the answer up until yesterday. Because I thought the winner of that fight would probably go on to fights, Peodor Yan, but as we found out yesterday, Peodor Yan probably ain't making a fight anytime soon. Let me pull up the tweet,

just so I know we wrote it up on NBA fighting as well. Pejorian tweets out yesterday morning, literally just about 24 hours from now, like previously, Piaraan tweets, and I quote, so MRI confirmed ACL rupture, meniscus tear, and groin injury. Surgery is scheduled for tomorrow, which will be today.

Nothing will break me. I'm determined to come back stronger than ever in no time. That's a tough loss right there. And first of all, let me just say this. Shout out to Pejor Yan for fighting the way he did, especially in that third round, with all of those injuries against Song Yidong. And then winning the fight, clearly winning the fight.

craziness, absolute craziness. So now it kind of leaves the hole right now. So I would say, man, it's tough to say. It really is. Just kind of like looking at what's available in the rankings. Maybe Henry Sehudo, maybe Marlon Vera, Cheeto, maybe the winner gets Cheeto. I don't hate either of those fights, if we're being honest. So I think, yeah, that's probably the answer.

I think the winner would yawn out of the picture probably for the next year or so. It's either Sehudo or Vera. It all depends on what they're going to do with Sehudo. Is Sehudo going to fight Brandon Moreno next? Is he just going to fight whoever they offer him? You can do Vera Suhudo. So it's kind of a mess right now without Yon in there. But if Cody Garbray goes out there and knocks out Davis and Figurato, he is in the conversation.

That's for sure. So he's in the mix right now. He somehow found his way in the mix by getting victories over guys who aren't even ranked right now. Well, got the knockout victory over Brian Kelleher and then the kind of tepid decision against Trevin Jones. Oh, boy, what a big step up from Brian Kelleher. And I love me some Brian Kelleher, but it's a big step up to go from Brian Kelleher to Trevin Jones to Brian Kelleher to Davis and Figurato. And Figgi looked incredible against Rob Font in his Banimoy debut. So we'll see how it all plays out.

But if Cody wins, he's certainly in a great. position. CV. Good morning. CV. All right. Yeah, we lost you. Defenders in cybersecurity are always there when we need them. They should get a parade every time they block a novel threat and have streets, sandwiches, and babies named in their honor.

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Trevor, are you there? Hope everything is going well. Good morning, sir. I got a real quick question about Joseo's return. I have a love-hate relationship with these legends returning. Part of me is excited about them returning than the other half is I'm wondering if it's a cash grab, if they're still in the mental or physical capacity that they used to be. We know the success of lighter weight, older contenders.

I feel like Joseo Alto is mid-40s, but he's 37. is this in your mind just a quick cash grab does he need to do this or is this something that we're going to see is jos a alto back does he have fights playing going forward i know he's towards the end of his contract is he wanting to fight this out and maybe go into boxing what's your thoughts on that and i also see that ak's in here happy birthday aka go cats yeah i think you kind of nailed it honestly um i don't know know if Alda is, I think from like what I understand and don't quote me on this, and I think Ariel sort of touched on this yesterday, I believe Aldo only has one fight left on his deal. So if he wants to pursue boxing, continue to pursue boxing or, you know, pursue other opportunities, whether it be an MMA or, you know, other disciplines or what have you, he has to get permission from the UFC in order to do that.

So if he fights out this last deal, this last fight on its deal, I mean, then he's like an official free agent. So if he wants to do big things, if he wants to go to another organization, if he wants to do all sorts of different things, he doesn't need the UFC's permission anymore because he will be out of contract. Now, who knows? Maybe he sees what Banimait looks like. Maybe he sees Shot O'Malley is the Bannamweight champion,

and maybe he feels like he could beat Sean O'Malley. I don't know. We haven't really heard from Jose Aldo yet. But that would be my guess is that he just wants to forego that middleman that is the UFC. Like if, I don't know, Misfits is doing a card or, you know, Gamebred does the boxing events and he's asked to do it. Or maybe he's asked to be on like a different card or something rather than have to go through the UFC and all that, he can just go do it. And that would be my guess as to why he's just doing this fight.

Let's just get this last fight done. Let's fulfill the obligation. And then we'll just be free. And we can do whatever we want. But that would be my hunch. But again, without hearing from Jose, we don't really know for sure. But hopefully we get to hear from him soon.

King Cat, hello. I'm not hearing you. King Cat, maybe bounce out and bounce back in. see if that works. How about MMA and Field Road 305? Do we have you? Can you hear me? Yes. All right, heck of a morning, Mike. Two questions for you. One, I think it would be pretty controversial at this point, but do you think the UFC would consider in order to save 301 to actually push back Olivera Armand just because 300 already is getting criticized

and they need something to boost 301? Again, I know it's controversial, but it just seems like the winner of that fight's not going to fight Islam until the end of the year anyway, given how Porriy did anyway. And the second question, Cyril Gaon, we haven't heard from in quite a while. I think you've already mentioned it makes sense. Aspinol, if he fights Blades again, we already talked about kind of Jayalton fighting Tibera. Does it make sense that Gaon fights Pavlovich? Obviously, both guys like stand-up.

Could be a nice headliner for the UFC's planning on going back to France. I don't know if you've heard anything about that or even a comane if they go to Spain later in the years. Just want to get your thoughts on that. Thank you, sir. To answer your first question, no. I think it's too late now. 300 is like three weeks away.

So I don't think they're going to move it. Fights way too important to just bump it unless like, I don't know. We saw Charles and Benile get bumped, but that's because Charles or somebody got injured. I forget who it was. It was one of the two. and they just bumped it back because the injury was,

I think it was Charles who got hurt, but it wasn't like a long-term injury that he needed a lot of recovery from. So that would probably be the only way, but other than that, like, I don't think he can move it. That fight to me, at least, this is just my point of view. That fight is too important to UFC 300.

That is, that might be, I mean, I know we have title fights and all that, but in terms of, like, fights, I am personally interested in. I love me some Alex Pereira versus Jamal Hill. I do have some problems with it, only because I kind of feel, I just don't know how healthy Jamal Hill is.

I don't know if we're getting Jamal Hill at 100%. Hell, if they were doing it 301, I still don't know if we're getting Jamal Hill at 100%. And I know most fighters aren't 100%. But when we're talking about the injury that he had, It takes most people a year just to recover to get back into the gym to start preparing for a fight. This dude is going to be walking in the cage like nine months after rupturing his Achilles. That's a painful ass injury.

It takes a long time. So I do have questions about that. Who knows? Maybe it ends up being a barn burner and it all works out and all the questions are answered. But in terms of like fights that I am personally interested in, I love Gachi Holloway. I just think it's going to be a banger. But man, Sarukin versus Olivera,

I am so interested in. That is a huge selling point for this card for me. Gigantic. And I think if you move it to 301, I get why you would do it, but you don't need to do it. You don't need to. This card is what it is, guys.

It is. You're getting Joseo back. Yes, it's against Jonathan Martinez. I think it's going to be a pretty fun fight. We're getting a title. fight, they can't all be winners, guys. They just can't. There's going to have to be a kind of poo-poo pay-per-view mixed in somewhere after you stack the deck so big. And plus, you got two paper views coming up in June. They're going to be doing international fight week in June. I don't

think they need to move anything. It's certainly not that fight. The only way I would be okay with it and I wouldn't be but if there was any way you could do it where I could be like okay this is like I still hate it but I'm still somewhat intrigued by it is if they move it to 301 it's a five round co-made event other than that I hate 100 so just keep it at 300 just keep it a 300 and and we'll be good and then Cyril gone yeah it was serial gone yeah I think it's Pavlovich. I think he's going to have to fight Pavlovich. Boy, has Cyril God just dropped the ball, man. He dropped the ball right after that win over Sergei Speedback. This whole, I shouldn't have to fight Pavlovich. I shouldn't have to fight Aspinol. I should just get a title fight. Oh, he bungled that so bad.

And now he's, rather than just calling out Serge, just think about what he could have accomplished. If he had gone out of that fight, gotten in the cage, and just called him. although Sergey Pavlovich, and like just a fun way, like not like a Sergey or a piece of shit, but more like, yeah, Sergey, everyone thinks you're the big, bad dude.

You got to fight me to prove that. Sergei, Cyril Gan could have gotten himself in that interim title fight at Madison Square Garden. If he just did that, Cyril Gan might have gotten the title shot. Cyril Gan might be the interim heavyweight champion right now. Just think about that, but he didn't do that.

And then he became an afterthought, and Tom Asmodal got to, spotted in that opportunity. And now he's the freaking interim champion. So he has bungled this badly, just not good. And now he's going to end up fighting Sergei anyways. Will it be in Paris? Maybe.

But that's the fight he's going to get. That's the offer he's going to get. That's the best he can do right now. So we'll see how it plays out. But yeah, don't do what Cyril Gond did, aspiring fighters. Don't do that. CV, are you there? Yo, Mike, can hear me?

Yes. Yo, heck of a morning. Just two quick questions for me. Just to add on to the Alex Pereira discussion there, I read an article from somewhere saying that he signed like a clause where like if he's able to come out to fight against Jamal Hill pretty healthy, which I highly doubt, that he's guaranteed to fight in 301 in Rio. What do you think about that and who do you think he'll fight? like, do you think he'll fight Ankleyev?

And one more thing. What are your thoughts on Anthony Smith firing shots at the great Neil Magni? Thanks. We'll get to the, we'll start the Pereira thing. I don't know, man. Like, I just don't know. Could it be Ankelaif? Are they, has the UFC, like, reached out to Ankylaif and said, like, hey, dude, be ready for May 4th?

is he already planning to fight on that card against somebody else? Maybe they do like, I was going to say, like, the only one that would make sense is him and Johnny Walker, but they freaking fought twice already. Are they going to be like, hey, you fight Philippe Linz? But if not, you fight for the belt. Like, how are they approaching this with Ancolaev or anybody else for that matter? Because whoever that is, you have to already have reached out to them and said, hey, if Pereira gets out of there unscathed,

we're going to rebook him for 301, and he's going to fight you and defend the title against you. I don't know. Again, I don't think you need it. I don't think you need it. I would rather, unless Pereira just annihilates Jamal Hill in like 30 seconds. He lands one leg kick and Hill goes down in a heap.

Other than that, like it doesn't need to happen. It's just, the card is what it is. Maybe do, I don't know, Cleo Roundtree? That would be fun as hell. But long story short, I'll say maybe, but he's going to have to just wreck Jamal Hill in seconds for that to even be possible. Do you want to see Alex Pereira, like, turn around on three weeks notice after a bloody battle with Jamal Hill? I sure as hell, though. I want to see Alex Pereira fight when he's, like, at his, at his peak,

or the closest to that peak that he could possibly be. So I'm not really sure. And then the Anthony Smith thing, like, Anthony Smith thing, like, Anthony was just fired up. I don't think he meant it as, like, I don't think he meant it as, like, an insult. Like, we all view Neil, like, let's be honest here, guys. We all view Neil Magny the same way. Neil Magny is a, he is a litmus test into the top 15 at, well, alterway. We will know if you are going to rise up the ranks. We will know if you're going to be a guy

that could possibly contend for a title if you beat Neil Magna. If you beat Neil Magne, you are good and you are going to get some big fights. If you can't beat Neil Magne, then it ain't for you. So I don't think Anthony Smith was, because Anthony kind of views himself higher than that. Like he's more of a, you know, you don't fight me and beat me in order to prove you're a top 15 guy. Anthony looks at himself like, no, no, no, if you beat me, like you're going off to fight for a title. Like it's a top five litmus test as opposed to a top 15. But I don't think Anthony's saying anything that any of us would say.

He didn't say Neil Magny sucks. But Neil Matt, like when we think of litmus tests, we think of quote unquote gatekeepers in MMA, the first name that pops into your mind is Neil Magny. He's been that guy forever. So, I don't know. He's getting a lot of shit for that, but I think it's a little wild that he is getting so much shift for that. King Cat, do we have you now? Okay.

Can you hear me, Mike? Yes, I can. All right. Did you hear anything I said before? I did not. It didn't even connect. Okay. I don't know what's going on, but glad it's working now.

So, you know, we're looking out to 300. which everybody's looking forward to. My question to you is looking at the next three events. So we got the one this weekend with Amanda and Rose. We got the one coming up with Furo and Blanchfield. And then Chris Curtis is replacing. I forgot who it was. But anyway, Alan, what do you think about this lead up to 300?

Just looking at the fight cars, like not necessarily even saying, you know, obviously Atlantic City is better because it's not in the apex, but just looking at the fights, which one do you think is the best fight card? And then what do you just think about the events that we have leading up to, like, you know, one of the biggest fight cards ever.

Thanks, Mike. All right. So, let's look, I mean, Saturday's card is not good. Like, there's fun,

again, I kind of look at it almost in the same lens as, as Vegas 88, where there's potential for some fun scraps, but outside of the main event, there are no stakes at all, like zero. Zero stakes. There's fun fights, but none of the outside of a second paycheck,

these guys aren't fighting for, these guys and gals really aren't fighting for anything outside of the main event. And you know, you know me, I like stakes, I like storylines. I like good fights too, but you need more. You need more to round this out. So that's world's most famous apex card one. Then we'll go, actually this isn't. All right, well, then we'll go to Atlantic City.

I don't know if you guys saw tickets are not flying for Atlantic City right now because let's be honest, this is kind of a tough one for a, spend all this money to come to our event card. Main event's good. Aaron Blanchfield, Manorio, should be a number one contender fight. But even then, like, the life kind of got sucked out of that flight in some regard when they announced that Alexa Grasso and Valencia Shepchenko are coaching tough. Because that means we have to go through the whole season of tough before these two fight again. And most people seem to think, and I have no insight to this whatsoever, but most people are predicting that that flight's going to happen when they do the spear.

That's September. So whatever happens here, both of these women potentially could be. on ice for the rest of the year. Because whoever wins this fight ain't fighting anybody else unless it's for the belt. Unless it's Aaron Blanchfield and somehow Giuliana Pena wins the Bannock White

title and Kayla Harrison isn't like ready to go. Aaron might feel like she wants to just go up to 35 and fight for that belt, which why the hell not? We could go ahead and do something like that. But that announcement of the tough coach just kind of suck the life out of the fight to some degree.

But it is still a very good main event. And there's a lot there. Vicente Luque, no longer fighting Sean Brady, he's fighting Joaquin Buckley. Not a lot there. Like, there's not a lot of stakes to that fight. It's, I mean, obviously, it's a low-risk, high-reward fight for Joaquin-Bucle. And it's a high-risk, low-reward fight for Vicente-Luke.

Verna Janda-Roba, Lupi Godinez, fine fight. Fine fight. Bruno Silva, Chris Wydman. Obviously, a lot of questions about Chris Wideman. on this comeback from that horrendous injury, had the fight with Brad Tavares, didn't go his way. Bruno Silva is an animal.

So we'll see how that plays out. We got Rudesaboff against Dumas. We've seen Dumas kind of getting some issue, have some trouble. We didn't even know what's going to happen there. And then it's just like, not great fights. I mean, just local flair, I guess. Like, Andre Patroski, Jacob Malcun.

Fine. Connor Matthews, who I like a lot, versus Dennis Bazooka, local guy, Angel Pacheco, Colin Lockren, Chidi and Jokawani, Reese McKee, Julio R.S.A. Herbert Burns, that's fun. We got Nate Landward, Jamal Emmer's. Like, that's fun. Like, it's just, it's a, this is a, this is a, if we're going to bring out the Fart Scale that we're trying to build here, at least Jeddin and Shahin are, it's not a high one. for like an apex card. Like it's, it's a fine apex card. It's a decent apex card. It's not a great roadshow card.

But, and I know A.K., the pleasure man's fighting on the card too. That is also happening. And then we go to Apex 90. Brennan Allen was supposed to fight Marvin Vittory. He gets the rematch with Chris Curtis. So Brennan Gaines,

outside of just exercising some demons, he gains nothing from beating Chris Curtis. And Chris Curtis could take everything away from Brendan Allen. So it's another one of those fights kind of like Vicente, Lucay, Joaquin, Buckley, but a little bit higher scare. Norma Dumont, welcoming back Germain Durandami. I am intrigued by that.

And then we got Alexander Hernandez versus Damon Jackson, Aletang A. Lee versus Victor Hugo. Charlie Campbell's back against Trevor Peak. Jesus Christ. That fight's going to be insane. Lucas Breske versus Johnny. Walker's brother, Walter, Ignacio Baja Baja Mondays, Christos, Melissa Mullins is back against Nora

Cornole, Cynthia Calvillo, fighting probably for her career against Pierre Rodriguez. What else we got here? Morgan Chariere, Cheppe Mariscott's a good fight. It's a pretty, I wish you could like make some trades. Trade some of these fights to the AC card and then trade some of the fights from the AC card over to this one. one. This one isn't bad. This one isn't bad. Top to bottom, this might be the best card of the three just from like start to finish. But I don't know. We're just going to be the unfortunate part,

especially with that Alan Curtis card is that no one's going to care. We're all, even if it is a pretty solid lineup, we're just, we're looking so, we're looking so past that card and just looking at 300. We're just like, get us over this card so we can start 300 fight week. But this one's actually not bad. AC's okay. Saturdays outside of the main event. Some fun fights, but very little, very little on the line. But by the time we get to April 7th, we're not even going to care anyways. It's on to 300. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Oh, what?

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That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. And so why you go ahead? What's up Mark Heck of the morning? I just want to discuss about the cards that are upcoming, you know, in May and June. I'm speaking in the pay-per-view particularly. You know, firstly with the Brazil card, I really think they absolutely fumbled, you know,

building this card up in terms of, you know, just getting guys like Barbosa, Johnny Walker and Costa. I mean, that was really all they needed. You know, like Costa, they could have done like Costa versus, you know, Imavov or, you know, Delute, you know, Edson Babursa versus like Gigate your kids, you know, one of those guys in the top 10. And, you know, for Johnny Walker, I guess just anyone who's like ranked in the top 10 and available, you know, even the unranked fighter. But it is what it is, you know, I think this just, we just have to live with it as fans.

definitely excited for the outdoor fire. I can't wait to see how he still fares up after that, you know, two year retirement he's had since 278. You know, concerning the fact that he actually did perform well, contrary to what, you know, many fans believe, like, he stuffed every takedown that Marap threw at him. And I think he even won the first round, if I'm not mistaken. He was doing well in the second round until he gassed out. So I'm looking forward to that fight. But also just to add on to the combo with the UFC making these cards, do you expect UFC 302 and 303 to be super stacked up?

Or they'll kind of just bounce it out with maybe say one, two big fights and the rest are just kind of, you know, hardcore fights that only the hardcore fans will know about. That's why I have a great day. So, yeah, Aldo coming back is. fun, but I'm just curious what it all means. Is it just him fighting out his deal so he can move on and never fight the UFC again? Okay. Or is he coming back to like make a run? Because he sees Sean O'Malley's champion and thinks he can get there. These are questions we just don't have answers to. And yes,

he was fine in the Marab fight. I hated the booking anyways because they should have just given Jose out of the freaking title fight to begin with. At that point in his career, there was all these rumors that he was going to retire after that fight if he lost anyways. They should have just given him the freaking title fight. But I digress. And on top of that, you give him a rob, which is fine, but you do it in altitude? Of course he's going to gas. I don't care who you are.

You're going to gas in that altitude unless you're Marab who's an absolute frigging animal. So just one of the poorest pieces of booking, I can remember. I was very upset about that matchmaking, mostly because it was in freaking Utah. And Aldo should have just gotten the freaking title shot to begin with. But I digress. And then with 302 and 303, 303 is going to be stacked because it's International Fight Week. So they're going to stack the shit out of that one. Which means if that card's going to get stacked up,

someone has to lose and I kind of feel like 301's going to lose. I don't think it's going to be like a terrible card, but guys, the same thing happened last year. Same thing, right? 280. Just think about what we got last year. January pay-per-view was awful. It was awful. We got a damn good fight.

Moreno and Figy was a good fight. Jamal Hill had a great performance, but the rest of the card, forgettable. super forgettable this year 297 pretty awful card we did get a good a really good main event

one of the closest fights you'll ever see but the rest of the card is pretty awful February Volkanowski told you was going to get a little noisy we got Volk Toporia this year we got Volk Islam last year significant moments that we're still talking about

March last year we got John Jones coming back. We got two pay-per-views-a-Marche Mar-Uzman. We got Justin Gaichy versus Raphael Fiziv. Fun-ass cards. April stacked Miami. We got Izzy Pereira. That whole card was great.

This year, April was great as well, back in Miami. March, excuse me. April is obviously 300, so it's a little different on the timeline. But then we get to May and June, and they were like kind of throwaway cards. Sterling Sehudo, fight nobody asked for. But we got it.

We had Charles and Benile. They moved that and we get the ridiculous, let's throw Gilbert Burns and Belaw Muhammad in there for five rounds on 10 days notice because, boy, that's a great idea. Which is a terrible idea. That was a throwaway card. And then June they went to Canada,

and it was, yeah, we got Oliver and Darje rebooked for that card. but Amanda Nunes, Errini Aldana, like kind of a throwaway card. Fun, but there weren't like a lot of big names on that. There's going to be stretches of time where we're going to get these cards. So I think 301 is going to be what it is.

302 is going to kind of be what it is. Not sure what the main event's going to be. Could they do Boll again in Newark getting booed out of the building? Sure. Could they do him and Leon? possible? I don't know. I don't know.

But if that's the main event, I don't expect that card to be, like, spectacular. But we'll see. So long-star short, 302 will be okay. 303 will be great. Because I do think Connor and Chandler's going to fight on that card. But we'll see how it all rolls. Let's go to Yusuf. Yusuf, do we have you?

You're muted, so you just got to unmute yourself. Yusuf, do we have you? three two one do we have you try again try again we'll get you in

make sure you unmute yourself once I call upon you Cole do we have you you got me Mike good morning I'll kind of give you the hot tag to talk about the Aspinall Jones interaction but God if you like Kail Sunning with my point here

what like i get what tom's trying to do with this the shoulder thing that he did to pavlovitch but what are we doing here like if john wouldn't have wouldn't have batted his arm off of his shoulder how long is that arm on his shoulder and like when does he take it up that's just the most awkward i don't even know what's going on there i mean i get he's trying to like alpha him or something to that maybe it's some UK thing what the hell and is that his injured shoulder too that's all I got um I just didn't think anything of it I could honestly I could care less those two guys went face to face I don't care I truly do not care because it means nothing right now it means absolutely nothing there was no pushing no shoving they seemed very respectful

they took a freaking photo together. Yeah, there's the moment with the shoulder. But who gives a fuck? Honestly. I honestly don't care. About any of it. Tom, I mean, he ends up in the same place as John.

Cool. Like, you have your moment. Fine. But who cares? There's two dudes aren't fighting each other anytime soon. They may never fight each other. I don't know. There's just a weird moment.

And I kind of hated it for Tom. Because he needs to forget about John. Like all together. I know they're in like the same place at the same time. So you just have that like kind of moment. You hope it catches fire. And I think, you know, some people are talking about it. But I don't think he got like the viral moment he had hoped for.

Tom needs to forget about John right now. Until John comes a call. And for him, he needs to act like John Jones doesn't exist. And he needs to act like John Jones. Jones's title means nothing. He needs to act like John Jones's title is the interim belt. He is the heavyweight champion of the world. That's what he needs to do.

Forget about John. Forget about Stepe. Go fight Curtis Blades. Defend your title. And just defend that belt like it's the real thing. That's what he needs to do. So I was kind of disheartened by it to some extent, but I get where he's coming from. I also don't think he got what he wanted out of it.

Because I think once you saw it. like the full video and everything and saw the full context of it. It was just like, okay, two guys saw each other. They exchanged pleasantries. They took a photo together. And then they went and did their own thing. It was nothing. It was absolutely nothing. So there you go. Focus on Curtis Blaine's Tommy Aspinall. Go defend that belt. Run off some defenses. Treat it like it's the belt. And that if you do that, you run off some defenses, you make the fan base as a whole believe you are the heavyweight champion of the world, you're not the interim champion.

John will come calling then. But you can't call him. He's got to call you and you got to let it happen. And if it happens, great. If it doesn't, who gives a shit? You're going to end up being the champion anyways. So just let it go. Let it go.

And that's it. All right, I think we're done here. We will be back on Thursday. We'll do it again. We'll hopefully have things to discuss. We'll have BTL as well. I haven't decided yet, because I have announcements to make on Thursday.

I have some announcements to make on Thursday that I think you guys are going to like. So I'm deciding whether or not to do it here or on BTL. But it's going to happen on one of the shows. That's for sure. some big announcements in terms of some cool things we're going to be doing for UFC 300, the buildup to that card. I think you guys are going to like it.

But I'm going to announce some of that stuff on Thursday. So stay tuned. But I just don't know when I'm going to do it yet. So it'll be fun, a lot going on with 300. More announcements to come. And also be on the lookout for the swing round. debut on the M&A Fighting YouTube channel playing golf with one platinum Mike Perry. We're putting it all together.

The plan is it's either going to drop Thursday or it's going to drop a week from today. So within the next seven days, that is going to drop. We just want to make sure it is perfect. It is the way we want it. I have a specific vision for this, as is the rest of the team. and the editing process, we want to make sure we get it right. So moving forward,

once we start filming these, I think we'll be able to pump them out a little bit quicker, but this is the first one. We want to make sure it's like the best it can possibly be before we show it to the world. And it is fun as hell.

Like I watched the latest draft that got put together. Some tweaks needed to be put on it. Just little ones, but it is a fun-ass watch. And I think you guys are going to enjoy at once that drops sometime within the next week. And I think you're going to love it.

So back on Thursday, right around the same time. Hope you guys have a great rest of your Tuesday. And as always, have a heck of a morning, everybody. Listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.