MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reaction To Another UFC Pay-Per-View Price Hike, Dillon Danis vs. Ariel Helwani

Episode Date: December 22, 2022

The UFC ended their 2022 calendar year this past Saturday with UFC Vegas 66, but on Wednesday, it was revealed that it will be a little bit more expensive to watch their pay-per-view events in 2023. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to the news that UFC pay-per-views will now cost $79.99 — a $5 increase from 2022 — beginning with UFC 283 on Jan. 21. Additionally, listener topics include Dillon Danis' recent interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Arman Tsarukyan's win over Damir Ismagulov at UFC Vegas 66, Bellator vs. RIZIN, Taila Santos vs. Erin Blanchfield at the UFC's Feb. 18 event, Alexander Volkanovski, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer,

but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible.

The Vox Media Podcast Network. It's Thursday, December 22nd, 2022, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. Live on the M.M.A. Fighting Twitter Spaces. You can hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter. on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. I am Mike Heck. Check it in with all of you while taking some time off. Just got back from Massachusetts last night where it was friggin' freezing. I should have known since I've lived there for over three decades that it was going to be freezing,

but after living the high life, so to speak, in South Carolina where it doesn't get cold all that often. It is kind of chilly here. It was a shocker. I may have seen the video of me tubing. It was freezing. Windy. It was everything that reminded me why I wanted to move away from there. But it was a lot of fun.

Got to have a nice family gathering on Saturday to celebrate the holidays. All my brothers were there. Cousins, aunts, uncles. My parents flew up from Florida. My oldest brother flew up from Dallas. I haven't seen him in over. two years. So it was nice to just get everybody together, got to meet up with some friends that I haven't seen a long time, went back to the old radio station where basically my broadcasting

career began and met up with those guys and gals. It was just, it was a fun five days, but back in South Carolina, doing some work today, wanted to do this show. My best friend, A.K. and I are going to reunite for a special BTL podcast. In a couple of hours, we're going to record that. Previewing the MFA Fighting 2022 year-end awards, we're going to sort of give our top fives of our nominees for the awards are going to be giving away. We'll react to some other stuff that's going on in the world of mixed martial arts.

So that will be fun. And then I will be doing some stuff for our award show, which will, I believe, be launched on YouTube and the podcast network on Tuesday, the 27th. So that should be a lot of fun. And this time, I don't know if you guys remember last year's award show.

I will not be in the shadows of a weird spot in South Carolina where you just see kind of the glare of me and nothing else. So it'll be better done on my end and because you all deserve that. But we're coming off the final UFC event of 2022.

I will admit, I did not watch a whole bunch of it. UFC Vegas 66 because there's a lot going on. I had that family party that I just mentioned. But Jared Canaaner

defeats Sean Strickland. I did watch that fight very close. I scored it for Canaan 4847, but it was a very, very close fight. Armand Sirukion sweeps the scorecards against Amir is Magulov. And that's one of those fights

where I felt like my prediction it was pretty spot on, but at the same token, Tamir Zabulov is a bad man. That guy is really, really good. Serukhan just out-wrestled him, just kind of out-strength them on the ground. But Isma-Gul-off is the real deal, man.

The guy is the real deal. And it's one of those fights where, if you look at the scorecards, and then you watch the fight, it's just so much closer than the score cards, give it credit for. a good finish for Amir al-Bazi kind of saw that one coming

got it done in the third round Alex Casaris incredible head kick knockout and finish of Julian Arosa I gotta say didn't see that one coming but if you're gonna beat Julian Arosa you gotta get it done in the first round because that guy is just a absolute maniac

and gets better as these fights go on Drew Dober what a finish of Bobby Green Bobby Green was looking really good in that fight and then Dober catches him with that left hook and boom Dober's going places these days.

People are starting to really recognize how good. He's not just a fun, entertaining fighter. Maybe this guy can make a little bit of a run. I don't know if we're going to see a world where Drew Dober fights for world titles, but he's got to be fighting some rank guys,

that's for sure. Michael Elixey Chalk, good finish. Corey McKenna, upset win over Chey and Velizmus. Matthew Semelsberger, beating Jake Matthews. I have to say, if there's one result, that I didn't expect. It was that one. Jake Matthews, I just thought this guy was on the road to becoming maybe a top five guy at 170.

And Matthew Semlesbury said, uh-uh, Mike, you're crazy. Sayy Dermagamadev, great comeback win choking out. Saeedy Cub Hakhrmanov, good win for Rafa Garcia. Mnell Kapp continues to get victories. Sergei Morizov. Nice win. And Renat, Fakradinov. I can never get that name right.

beating Brian Battle pretty convincingly. So not a bad card. The main card was certainly better than the prelims, but from all indication. But I did watch a few of the fights. I watched probably the last five fights, but saw some highlights, follow along with MAAfighting.com.

All in all, pretty solid end to the year. And then it's on to 2023 for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. And it's on to a more expensive year. for UFC fans, as we found out yesterday, the UFC raising their pay-per-view prices yet again in 2023, beginning with UFC 283, which goes down January 21st. I would love to say I'm stunned by this developments, but I'm not. I saw this coming from a mile away, but those of us here in North America, for those of us who have ESPN Plus, we ain't paying 7499 anymore.

we're paying $7,99.99 now, and they have, like, taxes and fees attached. We're going to be sniffing $85 a pop for these pay-per-views all in. It's tough, man. And I've been saying this for a long time. The fans of mixed martial arts are probably the most passionate fans because it is probably the most expensive sport to follow throughout the year. And it's not just the UFC, it's everybody else as well. It costs you money to watch pretty much every single promotion.

If you want to watch a lot of regional MMA, you got to pay the UFC fight pass $9.99 a month, which actually isn't that bad if we're being honest. If you want to watch the UFC, the fight nights, you want to watch PFL. That's $6.99. I would be stunned if that price doesn't go up either sometime in 2023. Bellator, it's anywhere for. from $7.99 to $10.99 a month if you want to get showtime. And yeah, man.

And the PFL's doing pay-per-views now. And now the UFC hiking up their pay-per-view prices again, another five bucks. I mean, for me, it's tough. I also work in the space. So it's not the worst news in the world for me. But for you guys, man, I feel for you. I feel for you. another five bucks it seems like

it doesn't seem like five bucks is a lot but five bucks is a lot man 7999 plus the fees and everything golly it's going to caution if you buy every pay per view in 2023 for the UFC it's like 1100 bucks like just under 1100 bucks for the year that's wild

it's crazy so I feel for the fans I feel for everyone who has to pay that money and hopefully maybe the fighters would get a couple of extra bucks. But we know that's not going to happen. So, all right, let's go to you guys. Let's get your reactions to whatever the hell you want.

Also, I wanted to throw out if there's a certain award that you feel should be given out from your end, if you have a fighter in the year, knock out of the year, you want to think outside the box, you want to do some high school superlatives, if you will, most likely to succeed, whatever. throw them out here. Let's have some fun on this Thursday.

So I don't even know who was first. So I'm just going to go with the first person that's lined up here. It is Mikey bats. Hi, Mikey. Oh, shit. I'm first swimming in line. I was like prepared to like wait a couple of minutes just to get my thoughts in order. But hey, good morning, everyone. How's it how's everyone doing? We're good, man. How are you?

All right. Doing all right. Okay. I just wanted to clarify what I'm about to say is mostly ingest because I do as an an MMA fan I do understand and it is sucky that, you know, corporations will gouge fans of whatever. But I will say this, I do find it funny that MMA fans who are complaining about the UFC pay-per-view prize heights are also probably still supporting the Cleveland Browns. So please don't act like you suddenly have standards. And two, for some of us, MMA fans who have basically been streaming fights for like 20 years, You guys know the paper review prices have never affected you. So don't pretend it affects you now.

So, you know, that's basically most of what I got to say. Can't wait for that Risen card, rising bellator card, just to get that off the bat. And yeah, that'll be it for just this point. I said, mostly in Jess. It's, it, Disney, that's what happens when the UFC signed with Disney. You just knew it was going to happen. You knew they were going to ask for all that freaking money. They were going to gouge you for hell.

I mean, hell, at this point, I want them to just do what the WWE did, just create, Just make FightPass a full-blown thing, have people pay like 15 bucks for this subscription and stream every pay-per-view on there. Just fucking do it. I don't know why they're not doing it. So anyways, that'll be all. Be kind to one other. See you guys around.

I mean, I'd love to live in that world myself, but it just ain't going to happen. It kind of sucks that it ain't going to happen. But, I mean, look, I don't blame the UFC for this. This is clearly an ESPN call. It's a supply and demand call. The UFC doesn't give it crap anyways because they're getting that. that ESPN money and all the pay-per-view revenue is just cherry on top of the Sunday for the UFC. And this is probably just a way for ESPN to recoup some of that money.

Now, I'm sure the relationship has been very good for ESPN as well. But look, if they can get an extra 200,000 people to pay an extra $5 plus dollars every single month, that's a tiny little sum right there. So, yeah, it's, it's. It's rough. I feel bad for you guys and gals for sure. Yes, the Rise of Bellator card is very awesome. I will be back to hopefully cover that one live for the website.

And I'm very excited for it. It should be a lot of fun. And I just want to say this real quick because I see some, I see some of the hipsters out there. I see you. I see some of the hipsters out there. If you're giving away awards now before the end of the year, you're giving away UFC awards,

you're not giving away anything else. It's just not true. In fact, look, I understand that the Belletto Rise of Card is going to be great. It's got to be fun. But it's the holiday season. We're taking time off. We've got like two weeks to go.

I'm not saying we're ignoring it for awards. It's just not going to be part of the 2022 awards. It will be the first events for 2023 for us. So if this card absolutely kicks ass, and we have the knockout, submission, fight of the year, all from this card. They could all win in 2023, but it's just not going to be a part of this year's award cycle.

That's all. That's all. It's okay. We're going to recognize it. We're just not going to recognize it this year. Because technically when it's over, it's going to be 20, 23 anyways, right? Depending on where you're at. Because it's a late night one.

It's New Year's Eve, but it's like super. late. So technically that event's going to be going on in 2023 anyways. So there you go. But we're not going to forget about it. If it's deemed worthy of awards, we will, they will be nominated for the 2023 awards. Don't you worry. We got your back. Let's go to Tom. Hi, Tom. Hey, what's up, Mike? Glad you had a good trip. I head back home to New England for the holidays later this week, so I'm already prepping for that cold weather, and I move south as well. So it's going to be quite the shot going back up there. But I just kind of wanted to ask your opinion.

Obviously, we had some awesome fights this year. What are your top three fights you're looking forward to in 2020, man? Top three fights in 2023. I mean, Mokachev, Volk has got to be one of them. I will say just because I'm a positive guy I'm going to I'm going to say

in Ghanu versus Jones I hope we get to see that I feel good about it not 100% convinced it's going to happen but if I had a bet like a small sum I'd feel confident betting

that that fight will happen at some point in 2023 and I'll probably go with Connor and Michael Chandler There's no way that fight sucks. Like, you might be sick of Chandler, you might be sick of Connor. But when those two dudes, if they book this fight and they put it all together and it happens, I mean, that fight is just ridiculous.

And it's got to be super fun and compelling and entertaining. What else do we have that's kind of on the books? I mean, I'm like Edwards Usman, if it happens, is going to be good. Yeah. there's a lot to like I mean I'm definitely interested in Bo Nichols debut in March when that happens

and I'll throw I know you said three but I'll add another one I'll watch Figurato and Moreno fight forever and that might be it could be the last one between those two guys I'm not convinced it is but it could be

so sign me up for that but there's a lot of good fights in the books and we'll see what March looks like We'll see what the rest of the pay-per-view calendar year looks like. We'll see where they end up going this year. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So, no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats.

But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice, yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no, but chicken 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.

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So I don't know if you touched on this already, but I just wanted to get your views on what, Dillon Danis and Aria, Hawaiian's situation from yesterday, and I've seen a lot of people saying that Dylan Dannis was disrespectful towards Ariel, but I kind of, you knew that was kind of coming because they've had a bit back and forth in the past.

And also, I just want to put it up. But my moment of 2022, it was Edwards win against Usman. It was so shocking. And I'm from the UK as well. So we felt that out of effect over here, like the biggest, like, sporting achievement this year in the UK. And just, it was just such a good comeback in as well. It was just perfect. But mainly I wanted to know your views on the Dylan Dallison aerial situation yesterday on Aerosha.

Thank you. Thanks, man. Yeah, I agree. If we're giving away an award for like the moment of the year, it's definitely Leon Edwards. It has to be. That's, that's, that's, that's going to be, that's a top five moment ever.

There's just everything that it just all came together perfectly. From the way the fight was playing out to when it happened in the fight, to the commentary, John Anick saying what he said, after Dean Thomas said what he said, and Rogan said what he said. it's just all and then the foot upside the head everything about it was just it was just a perfect moment in time

for the sport it was just incredible so yeah that's definitely the moment of the year there is no second place there should be no other nominees that that's it it's a runaway I did watch a large portion of Dylan and Ariel

I laughed a lot. I laughed a lot. It is kind of what we expected. Like the last time Dylan and Ariel talked it was pretty similar. Both were kind of going back and forth at each other. Ariel calling Dylan on a lot of the BS.

Dylan trying to one-up Ariel but failing miserably. And this is a lot of the same stuff. The best line throughout was Ariel's sunglasses line. That was freaking hilarious. I was on the airplane watching it. And I laughed. Where'd he said there's two types of people wear sunglasses indoors. You're either blind or you're a fucking asshole. Oh, God, that was glorious. But yeah, I mean, it was what I expected. It went a little

longer than I thought it was going to go, but it was pretty entertaining stuff. And even after watching all that, Like, I know Ariel said towards the ends that him showing up on the M.A. hour and talking about the fight with KSI makes him feel slightly better that he thinks the fight's going to happen. But I ain't convinced that that fight's going to happen. I will believe it when both guys are in the ring and a punch is thrown. Actually, you know what? What a punch is actually landed, then I will believe the fight's happening. Until then, I don't believe it's happening. But we'll see. I don't. Like, I don't. don't know if I feel bad for Dylan or not. Like there's a small part of me that just feels bad for him because I think he's just, he's just a lonely dude. And maybe that's just like how he acts. I don't know. But it's got to be tough for this, man.

Like I know a lot of it has to do with how he acts and things he said and things he's done. But it's got to be tough, man. Like you can't even, like, this guy can't even go out and like grab a couple of beers of his friends without someone trying to step to him. And like I said, a lot of that has to do with him. But there's a part of me that, like, as a human being, I just kind of feel for the guy. Because I do genuinely think, like Ariel said yesterday, that there is a good person inside of this guy. It's just not there.

It's just been kind of washed away by this persona and everything. I don't know. It's just weird. Because there's like a part of me, it's just like, this guy's a dick. and I just want to see him get knocked out by KSI, but then there's like the human side of me that's like, he can't be this bad. Like, he just can't.

No one's this much of an asshole. It's just not on purpose, but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I just look for the good in people a little too much. But that's kind of what I gather from all this, but it was entertaining. Ariel verbally whooped up on him, but Dylan is who he is.

I'm curious to see what this guy's the rest of this combat career is going to look like like will he fight in MMA again will he fight for Bellator again what happens if he actually beats KSI and that would just be probably the funniest thing that could ever happen but that's if that fight actually happens

and I just don't believe it's going to but we'll see maybe I'm wrong maybe I'm wrong but it was a lot of thought if you have watched it and if you go watch it because it's hilarious Let's go to double A. What's up, ma'am? Yep, we're good.

Good. That's good. First off, I just want to say, I'm disappointed that Paul Acosta and Rob Whitaker is no longer happening. I mean, I was actually surprised because, you know,

this was, I sort of expected to go the way that you see negotiations happen, you know, with the rematch. Issy agreed week of. So I just expected that the same thing to happen with follow. Actually, to give like an award for something for this year,

I took USC 279. Craziest fight we could be here. That just made no sense whatsoever. And it didn't, even though I had the stomach flu at the time, it just didn't feel real at all. And I think that's all I've got, man. Everyone, have a good day. Have a good day too, Mike.

And happy early holidays, everyone. Same to you, my man. Yeah, it kind of stinks. We're not getting Whitaker, Costa. But at the same token, let me play devil's advocate a little bit. I don't think, and maybe this is a hot take on my end,

and let me just preface this by saying, I completely support Paul Costa not taking this fight for the reasons that he's not taking this fight for. Do you deserve more money? He wants it. UFC ain't budget. he's just like, fine, I ain't going to give you a fight. Having said that, this fight, in my opinion, is not competitive at all.

I think Whitaker just whitewashes him. I think this is what the UFC wanted to do in the first place because it was the last fight on this deal, and they wanted to send this dude out on a loss. And if it was somewhat competitive, then they could try to up the ante a little bit. But I feel like the UFC knew that they're probably not getting this guy back. I think Paulo kind of sees the writing on the wall.

and I don't think Paulo does very well against Robert Whitaker. I just don't. I think Whitaker would have smoked him. I think he would have dominated. I don't think this fight would have been competitive at all. So all in all, I think this probably works out great for Paulo. He's got the support of a lot of people. I know some people are kind of bashing him and calling him names,

but those people just do that anyways. But the dude should be making more than 70 and 70. and for a fight like this that clearly favors Robert Whitaker if you want to put Paul in that position pay that man his money you didn't want to sign a long-term deal it's kind of an innate situation

but not as not as dire but yeah and you know Paul's talked about having like a ticking clock on his current contract if that's true you just wait and you get the PFL on speed dial baby because that's where you should be going You should be going to the PFL and trying to make that Millie.

Apparently, PFL will probably pay them a lot more than the UFC is. So, yeah, this is, these types of things are what the PFL needs to monitor for the next, like, three to four months. They need to monitor these types of situations. They can't cross any lines, but they need to at least somehow find out what they need to do to lock up guys like Paul Acosta and other potential free agents who have some name and have some value. But I think the, I don't know if the UFC Paul Costa relationship is over, but it's sir looking that way and we'll see where it goes from here. And I agree with you, UFC 279.

That Friday before that card was the craziest day of my entire career. And yeah, definitely the craziest fight week of all. time 100% well not of all time but at least of this year Aaron hello so Mike I got three things to get off my chest okay the first one is like how do you think Raul Roses is going to do in the USC

he's talking a big game he thinks he's going to be champ but how do you think that's going to like go for him and the second thing is oh yeah how do you think Thuring Till's going to do in his UFC career I know it's like he's young and stuff but like how do you think he's going to do going forward. And the last thing is,

you made fun to me last time for even mentioning this, but how do you think Nick Diaz is going to do on his comeback? He wants to be champ. I think he's going to be champ, but I don't know. Merry Christmas, farewell. Thanks, man.

I don't know if I made fun of you. I don't know. The Nick Diaz thing, again, I just, I don't really want to see him fight anymore. Like, we've seen it. We've seen it. Now, if you wants to come back and just do like a fun fight at 170 with, you know, a Tony Ferguson or Joe Lozahn or somebody of that nature, cool.

Like, I'll watch it. But I know I got sent some of the transcripts of an appearance he did. And he said he wants to fight Usman and some of these other names and stuff or Adasanya, whatever. And I'm just like, no, I don't want to see that. I don't want to see that. But if Nick wants to come back and do one more, if he wants to do it, it really is in on it. Throw him in there with another vet and just have some fun fights. Like, I'm cool with that.

Darren Till, man, what an interesting career this guy has had. I don't know what it is. Like, I honestly don't know what it is. You can see the skills are there. It's like so much mental with him. I just, if he's staying at middleweight, it's not going to go well. To me, the best thing he can do is heal up, spend a year just working on nutrition, working on getting into the best shape of his career, and focus on getting to Welterweight.

I don't know how well he does at 170, but if I'm Darren Till, if I'm the people that are in his ear, if I'm a mentor of Darren Till, I'm telling him, you got to try to go back to 170 because this 185 thing, it just ain't working. You're out match, you're outsized, you're out strength, your own athletic.

The athletes are just way better at 185 and all those are just, all those things are against him right now. There are very few, like, ranked 85ers. I would give Darren a chance to beat right now. And Drinkus 2 Plus C was probably, like I picked Drickus to win. I picked him to finish that fight in the third round.

Maybe I picked him in the second, but I felt stylistically, if there was any matchup in the top 15 at 185 for Darren Till that he could do well in, it was that one. And he still didn't win it. It was a fun fight. That second round was amazing. And like even the end of the first,

but he was just two out guns. Two out muscle, two out strengths. 170 is like the best place for him. He's one of those guys that's a tweener. If the UFC would add those extra weight classes, they did like 175, Darren Till would probably be perfect for that weight class. But I think he needs to find a way to get to 170. And Raul Roses Jr., it's just, it's so early to tell.

The foundation is there. I mean, this kid has skills. There's no doubt about it. He's a machine. But I just, I got to see more. I respect Jay Perrin a lot. I've been following that kid's career. The fact that he made it to the UFC.

is a huge victory for a kid like him. I like Jay. I have a ton of respect for Jay. The kid is so much hard. But Roll Roast has just kind of ragged all of them and beat him and tapped him. So it just depends. The UFC, for as much as

I applaud the matchmaking in a lot of cases, and once in a while, they develop storylines extremely, well, when it comes to developing actual prospects, they stink at it. They are not good at it. Now, once in a while, like a Hamzat Shamiyaf will come along. I mean, it's kind of a prospect, not really.

But Shamiyaf, like, did a lot of that in his own. The U.S.C. put him in a position to succeed. That's different. But when you have a kid like this who has a lot of promise, who got a big rub right off the bat, it's so important that the UFC match him correctly. You can't just chuck them in there with top 15 guys right now. I don't care what he wants. I don't care what he's looking for.

I don't care what he says. Whatever Jay Perrin is, you take like a half a step up. That's how you book him. You got to get this kid wins and you got to get this kid experience. Because if he loses any time soon, it's got to be bad. It's got to be bad. You have to book this kid to look good. You got to put him over.

You got to give him like the patty tree. agreement. Next couple of fights, you got to give him lower rank guys that he should be convincingly. You got to get him over. He's over now. But like, don't throw him in there with Jonathan Martinez next. Or even like a Chris Gutierre. Like, don't throw him in there with any of those guys. Don't throw him in there with like the Adrian Yonazazas of the world. None of them. whatever wherever you rank J. Parrott maybe like one fighter up, two fighters up.

Let this kid get experience and let this kid get wins. That's how you do it. But if they chuck them in with somebody too quickly, it's not going to go well and you don't want to stunt this kid's growth. And who knows? He might even be a band-em-weight. Like in three years, he might be a featherweight. I think his future

is probably at 1-45, but for the time being, if you're fully invested in this kid, you got to book him right. Don't do what you do with Chase Hooper and chuck him in there with Alex Kizaris in his third fight. Don't do any of that.

That's just terrible. Don't do that. But a lot of excitement with this kid, that's for sure. I'm excited to see what he does. We're going to go to Viking MMA. Hi, Viking. A friend, Mike. How are you?

I'm fine. I just want to tell you about before always wear a helmet before you go for the ski because we all know about Michael Schumacher and what happened with Michael Schumacher so that's that and I just want to know about the fight between Tyler Santos and Aaron Blanchfield so do you think you'd see they're fast that Aaron Blanchfield Erin Blenfield has been

fast track or it's a good matcher for thank you Mike that was kind of I don't know if I'm like shocked at that one and I'll just say yeah I don't ski very often

I haven't skied in probably 10 years the video you saw was me tubing so I was like snow tubing on a pretty safe track so no one no one really falls. My goal was just to hit the fence, the little bounce off fence, and I did it the first run,

but I couldn't get back up there again. But I appreciate the concern. If I did ski, I'd probably, I wouldn't wear a helmet, but I ain't hitting the black diamonds. That's for sure. Yeah, Tilos Santos, Aaron Blanchfield, kind of a stunner.

I mean, I guess my first reaction was, what do they have planned for Valentina? because I know Manon and Fioro's hurt. Are they just going to chuck her in there with Alexa Grasso? Like, what are we going to do? Are they going to give her the Nunes fight? I think that was like my first reaction to all of it. And then I kind of looked at the matchup and they are,

we were just talking about Ralph Lowe's slowly, but at the same token, Blanchefield's had experience. She's been in there with UFC level competition even before she got to the UFC. And let me just pull. pull up, let me just pull up her, uh, her UFC resume to this point, uh, because she's fought like, she's fought legit people. She's fought legit people, at least in my, she won seven in a row.

So in her UFC run, like she fought Sarah Alpar. That fight kind of went the way most expected it to. I mean, she beat her, the two eye-opening fights for me. One was the Miranda Maverick win because so people are. so high on her and people are still very high on her and she just dominated Miranda Maverick JJ Aldrich is a very solid hand like I don't think JJ gets enough credit for how solid of a hand she is and JJ looked pretty good against Aaron and Aaron was able to bounce back after a tough first round of kind of getting pieced up on the feet and ended up stopping JJ and then

she gets this big spot with Molly McCann and she just she just destroyed Molly McCann. and now she gets this opportunity with Talas Santos. This is the UFC saying, this girl's ready. Let's just give it to her. And I know, and I'll say this, Aaron is a great team behind her.

She's managed by the great Orrin Hodak, who is fantastic at what he does. Orrin's a realist. And if Orin believed that this was too much for her, he would probably just tell her. but I don't think he feels that way. And it's a compelling fight. And I don't think a loss hurts Aaron all that much here.

Like I think at 23 years of age, with the wins of the caliber of opponent that she's had, especially in her last three fights, I think she's ready. Like I think she's ready for a step up like this. This is a little sooner than I would have liked to have seen. I would have liked to have seen her. I like the Andrea Lee idea.

I know Andrew went a different direction but like somebody like that made a lot more sense to me but hey if this is what she's getting this is what she's getting and I can't be mad at it I'm intrigued by the matchup and if Aaron Blanchfield goes out there

and just ragd dolls Tyler Santos holy moly but I think she's ready for it and if she loses so what take step back she'll get back 24 years of age wins over Maverick Aldrich, those two in particular are really impressive wins.

The McCann fight, I totally understand why the UFC put that one together. I totally understand why Blanchfield was such a huge favorite in that fight. But that was a get-her-over moment, 100%. And if Molly won, Molly would be getting this fight. Or maybe even higher. Maybe Molly would have just got a freaking title shot. But I understood completely why they made that fight with Molly McCann. But February 18th, it's going down.

and I'm stoked. Very intrigued. That's that's one of the more intriguing fights on the on the docket. Tristan, hello. Hey, Mike. How's everything? Good. Yeah, in regards of Aaron Blanchield versus Talia Santos, I mean, again, I'm going to A.K.

I would have been, I would have been conservative with her still because she still hasn't even fought a five-round main event yet. I mean, the fight against Santos is going to be three rounds. So I mean, I get it. I understand if she loses, it doesn't really hurt her. But I'd rather her, I mean, I would want her to fight Vivian or Roja, but Rozier's fighting a man of Hebas. Or I just wanted her, I just wanted more, like two more fights, give me. Like, I would want her to fight Jennifer Meyer, because Maya is hard to finish.

I wanted to see her against that. Have her fight Jessica Andrade for crying out of that flight. way. I wanted to see that. Just a couple of, you know, just to build that resume of where, okay, I've been through the murderous, kind of a little bit of the murderous row, and now I'm ready for,

ready for Santos. But again, to counter that, which you're right, if she loses, it's not going to hurt her, and she could fight fighters like that later on down the road, possibly if she loses. Because those are the fights I want to see her in, where now it's getting, now it's getting

because once you get to the top five, It's no joke, man. It's just murderous rows. But we'll see. Other things I want to get towards I wanted to talk about as well. I don't know. Did you, I don't know, did you watch Ariel speak to

Hi, Hi, Pajshka? The question I have on that is, um, so he talked about, because Ariel pressed him on it twice. Was it his decision? to vacate the belt. And it sounded like through his mannerisms

and the way he was talking about it, I don't think it was his decision to vacate the belt. I think it was the UFC telling him, yeah, you might have to vacate the belt, which is kind of odd to me because you didn't, because I don't think you did that to, for instance, and Gano, you didn't ask him to vacate the belt.

Or if you did, he said, absolutely not, I'm keeping the belt. and they had to esqies to his decision to keeping the belt, especially coming off knee surgery. So he was able to keep the belt, but Yuri wasn't able to keep the belt. You suggested that he should vacate it? I don't know.

I'm possibly wrong. Maybe it was like, you're right. It was his decision. But, I mean, I don't know. I felt like the UFC put pressure on Yuri to vacate the belt because I don't think he should have. Now it makes clear. I kind of agree with you.

Rick that shouldn't have a vacate the belt. And I think he didn't want to. I think he wanted to keep the belt. Because look at what we have now. We have this mess now, you know, but it is what it is. But I just want to know your thoughts on that, that whole situation, that dynamic of what was going on there. Another thing that I wanted to talk about is your review on your thoughts on, because on Armis Surukian versus. Demir Isma Gullough, I had no problem.

Jednessy was kind of criticizing Armin of not doing more when they were having grapple exchanges. I didn't have a problem with that because I know how hard, how hard it is to get Demir on the ground and to try to, you know, put a lot of ground and pound and things like that. It's a hard fight, man. You got to let that slide with Amir, with Armin, man. Even the fact that Armin was able to get him down was, a success in itself for that to happen.

So I had no issues with it. He did what he had to do. That's a hard fight. It's just a hard fight. You know, so I just kind of want your thoughts on that. And another thing, I think my category I would like is 2020's most underrated fighter. I got to give it to Blah, Muhammad, for what he's done, beating Sean Brady and Vicente Lucke in the same year.

I think he's been, he's underrated for this year. So that's my 2022 underrated UFC fighter of the year. Thanks, Mike. And that's all I got to say. Thanks. Thanks, man. Hey, it's not a bad pick with Bilal Muhammad. I'll start with the Uri thing.

I mean, I was kind of like 50-50 on the whole thing anyways. I just didn't understand why he was just like, hey, for the sake of the division and it's fighters, I'm going to vacate the title. It just doesn't make a lot of sense. Now, you can't compare it to Francis. Francis is a different story because of Francis's contract situation

He's the champion He's got the champion's clause in this contract It's supposed to run out in January And if they stripped Francis of the title Or made him vacate Then he's just like all right, deuses, I'm out of here You know what I mean? It's different with Yeri.

What I think What I think this Yerry thing is like It reminded me of When the Red Sox and Terry Francona parted ways because Terry Francona was the head was the manager of the Red Sox and they won a couple of championships and they're not going to just even though the Red Sox signed Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez and all these guys

and they should have won the World Series that year and they just pissed it away with some bad managing and just some bad play the Red Sox weren't just going to fire Terry Francona they brought him into the office and they said hey why don't we just say that we're going to have an amical parting of the ways or that you have decided on your own to leave the team? So we're not going to just publicly fire you. We're just going to let it be known that like this is your decision. And if you don't want to do that, then we'll just fire your ass. And I think this is what kind of what that is.

I think this is the UFC being like, we're going to strip you the belt, but we don't, we want you to look good in the situation. why don't you just, we'll just present it like you're making this decision for the sake of the division. I think that's how this played out. I think this is a conversation in years just like fine. Like good pub, good PR.

But this is like a manager getting fired, but they've, it's like Tom Coughlin. Like Tom Coughlin when he was coached of the Giants, sucked. He sucked as a head coach after they won those two Super Bowls. He was horrible.

But even then it's just like, they let him go on and on for a while. And then eventually they're like, all right, we're just going to quote unquote amically part ways. When at the same token, it's just like, you, you're out of here. Not that's the same, but it's kind of like that. That's what the situation reminds me. I'm just like, you're stripping you up, but let's give you some good pub.

We'll make it seem like this is your decision to vacate the title. So that's what I think. And with the Surukian thing, I thought his performance is, great. You could also tell that the Gamrod fight was in his mind a little bit as well, because he didn't want to get sucked into like a ton of crazy scrambles and loose position and stuff. He learned a lot in that Gamrod fight. He learned a lot. Win or lose, no matter how you scored it, and his Magulov, it's hard to look good against that guy. It really is. So I heard about Jed's comments. I don't agree with him. I've seen, I know he says he's kind of

soured on Sarukyana a little bit. I don't agree with that. I think this guy's only going to get better. That's a tough-ass fight. And I'm curious to see what he gets next. I just, again, when you go from Gamrod and you feel like you won that fight, you headlined an event, and then you get a super tough fight with a guy who's ranked behind you because so many people ahead of you turned you down, where's the motivation?

Like, where's the motivation? There's got to be a part of you that's just like, oh, all right, I guess this is who I'm fighting. and it's a tough fight. The risk is high. The reward is little. Tough spot for Surukion. I thought he clearly won all three rounds. And it was a tough fight.

And his Magulov's stock rose as well with his toughness and his grit. But Serukion's the real deal, man. And Isma Gulof probably beats a lot of the guys in the top ten as well. So I'm not sowering on him at all. I was impressed with it. I was impressed with the performance. It wasn't, didn't blow the doors off anybody, but when you're fighting a guy like that, go out there and you just try to get the dub, and that's what he did.

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It has. How are you? Yes, it's nice. It's a bit cold and chilly over here in London. So, wait, what did I want to ask you? Yes. So, you know, when I look at this year of MMA in 2022 in general, we've had a lot of moments, but I feel like we've witnessed so many instances of certain fighters

who were at the cusp, who were at the cusp of becoming greatest of all time in their respective divisions, or maybe even in the sport, but then just when they're about to get it, they get knocked down. You know, things like Kamaru Usman, and I know, I'm not comparing him to GSP.

I'm just saying that when you just think about it, people were considering him to be one of the greats. You know, people are still considering him, to be that. And then he gets beat by Leon. And then you look at Izzy. He's nowhere near Anderson Silver, but we can agree that he's the second best middleweight of all time. And had he beaten Alex Pereira, he would have come, you know, at least a little one step closer to, you know, becoming greater than what he already is. But then as in when they are at that cusp, they get knocked down.

And Rose, I believe Rose has beaten each and every strawweight champion to ever exist in the UFC except for Carla. And she has beaten all of the champions twice. Had she beaten Carla and then some way, if Carla Sparser came back for a trilogy, she'll be the only person in the history of MMA to beat all the champions in the division twice.

Now, that is some greatest of all time stuff. but we didn't get to see many fighters achieve that greatest of all time status. It's like, you know, there are all the other MMA fans who were watching when GSP was active and John Jones was active. I can't believe I'm saying that. That, you know, here is the goat. We are witnessing the goat in action. But I believe we are in that era in terms of Alexander Wolkenovsky,

but it's not looking good against Islam, man. I mean, I just want to see a fighter ascend to the goat status. In featherweight, he absolutely is the greatest of all time, in my eyes at least. I mean, Jose Aldo respectfully, I think beating Max Holloway three times the way he did, two times the way he did. I think he deserves to be there. but yes, that's what I have in my mind. And also, can you please give us an update on Tatiana Suarez? And one last crazy question.

It's not crazy. UFC is crazy. If you remember, close to UFC 281, when someone asked Dana White what's going on with the Brazil card, and he said, we're working on it. And then, after UFC 282, he just advertised the exact same card without any work. So what were they working towards? So they must have been working towards something that did not materialize.

Do you have any inside information on that? Yes, this is what I had. These were the thoughts from, you know, 22. And I hope you enjoy wrestling a lot more. Thanks, man. Yeah, I try and, but not going well, honestly. 283. Honestly, I have no insight to this whatsoever.

I don't know what they were working on. My guess is that they were going to try to get Amanda Nunes on that card in some way. I don't know if they were going to try to get her versus Valentina. But I think trying to get Amanda on that card probably would have been a pretty damn good thing to get the Brazilian people hyped up for the UFC returning there for the first time since the pandemic started. But honestly, I don't know, like, I have no idea. Like, I don't know what else they could have done

to really improve this card. Even, like, who would doodew as fight? I don't think it would have been Schifchenko. Like, do you chuck her in there with the Rini-Al-Donna? Like, I don't know. Or, let me look at this real quick. There's another name that's slipping my mind. Norma Dumont, maybe?

Like, I don't know. somebody like that? I don't know. But that would have been my guess that we were trying to get her on that card somehow. The goat stuff, I can't give it to Volk yet.

I just can't. Like, he's, of all the fighters that you listed, I think Volk probably has the best chance of becoming the division's goat. But it's just tough, man, because he just hasn't fought enough guys. Like, even during this title run.

And this is why I have, I've had no issue with Volk saying, I want to go to 155 because this division just hasn't brought forth fresh competition for him. Holloway's been the dude. Like literally since he's won the title. Won the belt,

cleanly in the first fight. Then they run it back again because Max is a long-running champion. And that fight was super close. It's one of my favorite fights ever because it's just so good. I scored it for Vulcan Every time I've watched it, I've scored that second fight for Volkanowski.

And then they fought the third time, and it was just a complete whitewash. One-sided, one of the best title defenses I've ever seen, honestly, from start to finish. Volkanowski's had two fights this year, and he was perfect in both of them. He won't say that, but he was perfect in both of them. Against the Korean zombie and Max Holley. He's perfect in both. but there's just nobody else. And what the UFC has done, and while I applaud matchmaking a lot,

their featherweight matchmaking has been atrocious. It's been awful. Because you have these guys who are potentially next in line and they just chuck them in there with Max Holloway, and Holloway beats them, and it's just like, all right, well, I guess Holloway's still the number one guy. That's why I don't want Max Holloway

anyone near Arnold Allen. I don't want that. It's a cool fight on paper 100%. But with what you're trying to do with this division, throwing Arnold now and in there with Bax Holloway is a horrible idea. Because I'm not saying Arnold can't beat him, but what if he doesn't? Then you're just like, oh, we're back in the same position we were just in.

We just killed off another potential contender and another potential fresh, intriguing matchup for your champion. So that's why I'd rather see Iliot-Teporia fight, Arnold Allen, because no matter what happens, you get a fresh face, you get a fresh number one contender, and we get to move this division along. I know Volk's going to have to fight the winner of Emmett and Yaird, potentially. But I also believe this, too. If Volkanowski beats his Al-Machachev, him being the featherweight champion makes no sense. It literally makes no sense. Why would you try to defend that title still? Like, I understand you want to be

you want to be active and you want to be the dude. I want to defend both belts. I want to be the guy who could do it. I get it. But the biggest fights for Volk, if he beats Islam Makachchev, all the biggest fights are at 155 for him. All the biggest names are at 155 for him. And guess what?

If he beats Makachev, he's beaten all of those guys. He's beaten Chandler, Gachie, Connor, all of them. He's Porey. He's beating everybody. He's beating every single one of them. And he's going to make a big huge bag to do it. So, but I agree. Usman is probably the second best

Walter weight of all time. He was still a long ways to go to reach GSP. And Adasania, probably the second best middleweight of all time. Still at a long way to go to reach Anderson Silva. But here's the thing. Neither of those guys are out of the discussion just yet because they lost. I thought it was like, I thought for Usman, it was a little more dire

just because he talked about going up to 205. and fighting Canelo and doing all these different things. I felt like the loss is a little more dire for him than it was for Adisania. But just because Oosman got kicked in the face and he lost, it doesn't mean he can't get it back and win a few more fights. Because guess who else lost?

GSP lost. GSP lost to Matt Serra, one of the biggest upsets ever. And then came back and won the belt back and ended up winning the second title. Like the door isn't closed on either of those guys becoming the best of all time in their divisions. The road gets a little longer.

but just because they lost is the mean they can't still get there but yeah, the road gets certainly a little bit longer but yeah, we saw a lot of that this year. A lot of that talk and fans are very quick

to pull the trigger on those types of things because the fighters say it and the promotion promotes that as well. Kamar Usman, the greatest welterweight of all time like hear Ron Perlman say that it's just not true.

It just isn't. But yeah, there's a lot of that this year. Let's go to Max. Hey, Max. Hey, Max. it hanging for you today. Good, my man.

Quite well. I'm actually going to steal a term from you on vacation, Max. I'm on vacation right now. Nice. Good for you. I appreciate it, brother. So, yeah, out here in the Caribbean, nice. So I have a few questions for you today.

So one, 22 related, then a few for 2020. So just bear with me for a moment. For 2022, I would want to ask what your favorite finish of the year was. Maybe not from a media perspective, from a, maybe like, if you can reach into your fan part of you and be wow. Like the moment your jaw dropped, you said, holy shit, that was an insane. finish. That was your favorite finish of 2022. So I'd really be curious to hear about that.

As well, what are your thoughts on Kelvin? I mean, we talk so much about Darren Till, but man, it feels like Kelvin Gasselm is kind of on the same type of complete downward trajectory here. I mean, he was doing quite well for himself. I mean, flooring Bisbing, I mean, mind you three weeks after GSP, but flooring Bisping and beating all these, you know, Vitor and all these big names. And then now all of a sudden, he's just on this massive skid.

I mean, going against Imov. I think he's going to get smoked, dude. I mean, not to be a dickhead, but I think he's going to get smoked. So it's like, what's going to have to have to. happen. Are we going to have a loser-leaf town match between Darren Till and Kelvin again? I mean, I don't even know what to do with these guys anymore. It's tough. So, yeah, what do we think of Kelvin? And what do you think would

happen if in the scenario they do not resign France is what they do with John. So, yep, thank you for your time, Mike. Heck of a morning and I hope you enjoy your holiday season with your family. Cheers. Thanks, man. I mean, it's Leon Edwards. It's probably the correct answer for the holy shit finish of the year.

You're in Prahashka's in second place with the submission. I mean, there are a bunch of them, but those are the two where I was like, oh my God, where I actually like in a room by myself, watching the fights, covering it for the site, where I actually just jumped up and down

and screamed being the only one in the room. And then realizing my family's probably sleeping in another room and I don't want to wake them up, those are the two. 100%. For Gasolam, I mean, I'd like to see him go down to 170 as well, but I kind of feel like at this point in his career, what is he, 30, he's 31.

I mean, I guess he could do it, but boy, the EMUv matchup is really tough. It's a really awful matchup for him. Yeah, I don't know. He'll be, if it goes the way I think it will, he'll be one in six over seven fights. It's tough. I don't know where he goes from here, honestly. Yeah, it's a tough one. It's a tough one.

He's in a tough spot, too. Anthony, what's up? Good morning. I just, I had two kind of groups today. Some dark horse superlatives that won't win in, like, the public size, but, like, in your heart, it wins. Or, like, maybe you know the fighter, like, you're just, like, enrooted in their backstory, and you just, like, kind of, kind of, just, kind of, just, kind of, just. just root for him or something. Mine was a moment of the year, Nate Diaz,

his just walkout and his post fight. I think, yeah, obviously everybody's going to have Leon. Then, K.O. of the year, Molly McCann, and then Carter of the year was London in March. And rookie of the year, Jack Delamadena. And if you had a magic wand for 2023, what would you make? I would make McGregor and DS3,

and then I would add 65 and 90s. It's pretty crazy how there's not a 95 yet because I was looking back at all the old UFCs And in the first fight night ever It was like in the 50s. It was like in the numbered 50s. It was like the first fight night and Joe Rogan even says on the fucking podcast or on the broadcast. Oh yeah, you know, there's not a 195 now, but you know as the sport grows sooner or later there will be one and there still isn't one. So it's pretty crazy anyways that's it just the magic wine and some some superlatives some dark horse ones you got thank you bro have a heck of a morning

have a heck of a vacation thanks man I appreciate it uh yeah listen you can't go wrong with either of those picks you can make a case for all of them yeah Nate's a moment I feel like kind of doesn't get enough attention or enough credit

because the UFC tried to do them really dirty and the MMA gods smiled upon us. And this is a, I guess if there's this a perlative is that the MMA gods, for the most part, were pretty kind.

They were pretty kind. Because even with this whole, like, with the whole Nate thing, it all worked out, ends up fighting Tony Ferguson, and ends of getting a finish and going out. And like,

even on, it kind of goes out in good terms with the UFC, like where the door is open to come back, even though, they kind of screwed them over and they just, they just had to, like, wave the white flag around. It was just poetic justice. And then even with the whole 282 debacle,

with the light heavyweight title and Yuri having to vacate and, well, we're going to just crown a new champion here. And then it didn't happen. Like, that's awesome. Like, Glover Jamal Hill is just, Glover to Sherry got hose out of this whole situation. and now Glover's going to get a title shot against Jamal Hill. And Jamal Hill is really good.

He's super dangerous. But Glover's probably going to win that fight and be the champion. It's just insane. It's just insane. So I guess my superlative is that the M.A. gods were very positive when they're never positive. The M.A. gods are never positive. And they were positive a couple of times this year. But I like those other picks.

There's the other question I forgot to answer from Max was, you know, if Francis doesn't resign, what are they going to do? They'll probably just do John Jones versus Curtis Blades for the title. I know that's what I've been told is a possibility. But I don't know, but who the hell knows? This is before like Sergey Pavlovich almost killed Tai Tui Vasa and who knows what's going to happen there. But yeah. All right, let's go to Chase.

And then I got to get out of here. case alone. What's up, Mike? What's going on, man? So I don't have a question for you, but I really just wanted to come on and say thank you to you and everyone at MNA fighting. I found out about you guys this year,

and, I mean, you've just made every card so much better, getting to watch you guys build up to it. Yeah, that's all I really wanted to say is just thank you for all the hard work you guys put in. Well, I appreciate that, man. That's very nice. See, the MA gods are nice. People don't say nice things to us all the time,

and I appreciate that very much. Yeah, I feel like, maybe I'm biased, but I feel like I'm surrounded by the absolute best of this business. The fact that I, for a living, get to host this show and do the show with AK, my best friend, onto the next one. it's one of my favorite times of the year even when we're on like no sleep the fact that we get to do that show

Sunday mornings after an event and do matchmaking and so many of you guys become a part of it by putting out your suggestions is just so fun and then doing BTL and we have Jed Woody Page Bishu jumping in there and I just feel like the content's been great

it's very easy to be at my spot where I could just throw it to those guys for the most part just drive the train and then they're the actual party, if you will. It's just, I'm blessed. I'm blessed in a lot of ways. Yeah, but I appreciate that very much.

And I got some big ideas for 2023. Hopefully we can make them happen. But yeah, I'm very excited for, for 2023 and what we're going to be able to do with the squad. I appreciate the kind words. And with that, I'm going to bring in Hendo slice. Now you're all wanting to come in. I'm trying to get out of here and you're all jumping in. I'm just kidding. Henderson, what's up? Mike, heck of a morning. Thanks so much for doing the show this

year. That was so awesome. And it's been so nice to actually have a radio show for MMA people because that is something I've always wanted. And you know, I'm from the New York area. You're from the Boston area. I feel like MMA gets discussed on sports radio about one time a year, maybe. Yeah. So this has been awesome. And I called in two weeks ago. I said Wonder Boy was going to do it. And then I predicted Tuporia was going to beat Bryce Mitchell. And then I was about to call in and say Canaanier was going to beat Sean Strickland. And the MMA gods interfered. James Krause investigation interfered. They wouldn't let me spit that knowledge. So while I'm feeling hot, I just got to put one last prediction out before the end of the year. That's for the next UFC, I think UFC 300, Jim Miller versus Faber double retirement fight. Let's do it. All right. Well, Mike, had a great year.

Keep up the great work. Bye. Thanks, man. Thanks, man. Yeah. How about that? That'd be interesting. Yeah, Jim Miller's fighting UFC 300 people.

That's going to happen. I don't know if favor is going to be there, but Miller will definitely be there. But I'm down for that. Sign me up. all right four quarter sports mike heck of the morning good to see you back just wanted to chime in

for 2023 is can you just give me like a rundown of like three fights that either it's already booked or potentially in the books that you're really looking forward to and I know that

what's it called the Brazil card is going to be coming up I just want to know, like, what is it, you know, who do you have favored in the match between Figgy and, and Moreno in Part 4? And then who is a sleeper as a potential, you know, what's called Fighter of the Year in 2023?

All right, thanks, Mike. Hmm. First question I already answered earlier, so I'll leave that one along. I Figgie Moreno is interesting because if we weren't dealing with this whole James Krause situation

I would comfortably pick Moreno because I thought Moreno won the last fight too but I think I'm going to lead Figgy on this one I just not saying Moreno can't like get over it mentally

but he basically like uprooted his whole career to be able to work with James and work at Glory MMA and then a little over six, seven weeks and maybe this is before, a couple months before the biggest fight

of his career, you can't be coached by the guy that he changed his whole life to be able to work with? It's just, I don't know. It's got to affect you a lot. So I will lean Figgie for a lot of those reasons.

Figgie, I thought Figgie thought Figgie thought that fight doesn't get enough credit for like fight of the year contenders because it was so early in the year but that one i believe isn't my top five which you'll hear on btl but yeah it's probably figgy sleeper fighter of the year that's a good one i would say armand surukion i just don't know if he's going to get the fights to get him there i think he's going to have a really tough time getting matchups i'm going to say And this probably isn't a sleeper.

I'll say Shafkat Rokmanov. If he could fight three times this year, I think, and he's not really a sleeper, but I feel like he could be the dude. I feel like he could be the dude. I think Gregor Rodriguez could be a guy that could get there as well, because he's a super active guy.

He's got a big one with Brad Tavarish or at the bat. I don't know. I have to dig in that a little bit more, but, and if we're going to throw sleepers out there, And I know he's fighting for the belt, but I'll tell you what, if Jamal Hill beats Glover-Teshire, he's going to have a case to be made as well right off the bat because I don't know how they match them up moving forward, but you go out there and you beat Glover and you become the champion, the first paper of you the year, you're the frontrunner, that's for sure.

But we'll see, that's an interesting question. It might not even come from the UFC. It could come from Bellator. Could be Usman or Magam Adolf. He could just run through that whole Bellator lightweight Grand Prix and just, crush everybody. Very possible. There's a lot that could happen. But, all right, we're done.

This will be, I believe this will be the last show of the year for this particular program. So I appreciate you guys just jumping on. I'd love to be able to do something more with this. I don't know what we're going to do. I love to, like, I'm hoping with all of the trials and tribulations of Elon Musk's Twitter that maybe he can do Twitter spaces like through a desktop so we can have better audio quality.

I'd love that, so I don't have to do it through my headphones. But we'll see. AK and I will have BTL later on today. Podcast form. It'll be a lot of fun. We'll have our award show, December 27th.

So stay tuned for that. And I believe we'll start issuing our awards on Christmas, starting on Sunday. so stay tuned for that as well all right tom trying to skip my exit and here you are tom are you there yeah the sleeper for 2023 is santa's that's all i wanted to say she will talia santos she's my pick for next year yeah yeah 100% mate 100% i i like that pick could be Aaron blanchfield could be Aaron Blanchfield. Who the hell knows? That fight could determine it. It could determine it.

All right. But thank you very much. Like I said, you're the best. Without you guys, this show is impossible, whether it's here or on the podcast, we appreciate it very much. You're the best. So have a great, great rest of the holidays. And I'll see you guys back. I think New Year's Eve. I'm back for the Bellator Risen festivities. And we'll have some fun watching that. So thank you all very much. a heck of a morning and have a heck of a holiday season.