MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reaction To Bo Nickal On UFC 300 Main Card — and Why It's Not a Bad Choice

Episode Date: March 15, 2024

The UFC 300 lineup is, from start to finish, one of the best cards the promotion has ever put together. During Saturday's UFC 299 event, the main card was revealed and it included the middleweight matchup between Bo Nickal and Cody Brundage — which didn't sit well with a large number of MMA fans. But when you really look at the construction of the main card, it's not a bad choice for a few reasons. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses Nickal getting the main card bump for the historic card, and why it's actually a good call when you really look at it. Additionally, listener questions include UFC fighter pay, the ongoing lawsuit against the UFC, Saturday's UFC Vegas 88 event, what constitutes a star that has negotiating power in the UFC, matchmaking for Kevin Holland and Benoit Saint Denis following UFC 299, 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

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 reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cadulian 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. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. Friday, March 15th, 2024, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the MAA Fighting Twitter space.

You can hear the show in its entirety, shortly thereafter, on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. What's going on, everybody? I am Mike Tech. Hope you're all having a wonderful Friday. Hope you all have enjoyed the day thus far. It's been a busy one.

Woke up, got my kid to school. Did the CrossFit 24.3 open workout. My hands are like ripped to shreds now after doing about a billion pull-ups. but we got through it and now we're here to talk about this wonderful sport we love so much mixed martial arts and we do have a UFC event tomorrow Saturday if you're listening I mean I'm not going to say listening in the past but maybe you're listening on Saturday it is happening Saturday 4 p.m. Eastern prelim 7 p.m. main card the main event tie to i. Vasa looking to stave off a four-fight losing streak, and he will take on Marchine Tibera.

Look, I'm not going to lie to you. This card has no stakes. It's just, just none. I mean, really the big talking point is whether or not Ty Tuivasa can avoid a four-fight losing streak. But in terms of, like, divisional stakes and, like, championship relevancy, there is nothing here. However, I am not here to be a negative Nancy because some people like steaks, some people like storylines, but a lot of us, I mean, I like stakes and storylines, but I also understand that when we watch fights, we just want to like, we don't need to worry about that stuff.

We just want to sit down on a Saturday, put the television on, eat some good food, and watch some good fights. And I got to tell you, I think tomorrow is going to be a tremendously fun watch. I think the matchmaking is really solid. I think the fights that are sort of scheduled to be like squash matches are going to deliver as such. And I think there's going to be a lot of like really good fights on this card. Again, there's no like divisional stakes here. You know, there are some ranked fighters here mostly in the women's bankers.

band-of-weight division, but we already know how most of us feel about the women's band-and-weight division, at least right the second. There's not a lot going on there. We got a new champion. It took forever to get there. And even the names that are fighting on Saturday, it's going to take them a wicked long time to just get to a title fight or even close to it at this point. But I honestly think this is going to be a really fun watch. I think it's going to be a fun card to watch. So Hopefully you guys do that. Hopefully you guys enjoy it. We've had a lot of news this week.

We're still sort of feeling the hangover effects in a good way from UFC 299. We're digesting a lot of news. We are officially on the road to UFC 300. I feel like the road's a little bit longer because I think everyone's just kind of looking at April 13th at this point. I know there's going to be some other things happening before that. but I'm very excited for everything we're going to be doing for UFC 300. There's going to be some announcements coming up that I think you guys are going to dig from just content we're going to do and different things we're going to do

building up to UFC 300 to Fight Week to all sorts of fun stuff happening during Fight Week, to watch what's going to happen with the watch party. Will there be other watch parties? There's all sorts of fun things that I think you guys. are going to dig. So I think some of those announcements are going to drop next week. I know for sure I'm going to make a couple of announcements on BTL on Thursday live on the YouTube channel. So I think you guys are going to like what we're going to do. So the road of UFC 300 is on. And it's a free for all Friday. So we can talk about some of the talking points here. We can talk about whatever

the hell you want. And if I know what you're asking me, I will do my best to answer as honestly as possible. If I don't know where you're talking about, I'm just going to tell you, I don't know what you're talking about. So yeah, let's just get right into this. Let's begin with Trevor North. He will get us started on this Friday. Trevor, hello. Mike, my man, I hope you can hear me. First and foremost, happy Friday. Awesome. Awesome. I wanted to jump in here early because I got a little bit of do-do when it comes to Otno. No. I live in the foothills of Appalachia, okay, southeastern Kentucky. And my favorite, one of my favorite, MMA personalities is Chale P. Sunnin, the largest arms of Westland, Oregon. Love listening to all of his content.

But he started this show with D.C., good guy and bad guy. What I need to call out right now, I live in an area where some places don't even hardly get internet. And I keep up with the sport very well. He match made Benoit St. Denis with Jeff Neal without mentioning a change in weight class. Then he also match made Kevin Holland with Stephen Wonderboy Thompson. Now, I have a request for a haul of shame for the highest amounts of doo-doo for Otno. One, can we get that? And two, how is Chale one of the biggest voices in the sport and so out of the loop on recent fights and weight classes.

Have a happy weekend, everybody. Go can't. Oh, man, I didn't see that. But yes, sorry about that. I didn't see any of these matchmaking suggestions. Yeah, look, it's a new show. Chale's trying to get the wheels underneath them. You know how it is?

I don't see Chale doing like a ton of matchmaking even on his YouTube channel. So he'll get better. he'll get better and usually we're a little especially with like first timers we're a little more lenient when it comes to like first time do-do but yeah

two do-dos is pretty tough I think we already saw what happened with Kevin Holland and Wonderboy if you want to put a two on it fine but that fight happened like not that long ago I think it was December of 2022 that fight happened and I

just don't imagine that it's going to go any differently And then Benoit, Benoit Santadine versus Jeff Neal would be fun as hell. But, yeah, you got to clarify that we're going up a weight class, or you think Jeff Neal somehow is going to move down to 155, which I don't think is physically possible. So, yeah, not great. Hopefully our Otno community can do a lot better than that,

because that is not very good. Boy, I don't even know who Kevin Holland should fight at this point. I mean, it doesn't really, again, Kevin Holland is one of those guys that it really truly doesn't matter who he fights. just find a dude who he has like some beef with. You know what? Kevin Holland and Jeff Neal would be a good fight. These guys fought before.

Like those guys fought before on the regional scene. I think Jeff Neal beat them if memory serves me correctly. Let me just make sure I got this right because I don't want to get any do-do on myself here. But these guys fought on the regional scene in Texas. I don't know if Kevin Holland won that fight. January of 2017 at, The well-attended X-K-O-34.

And they fought for the X-K-O middleweight championship. Kevin Holland was the champion and successfully defended his title in Dallas, Texas, in the main event, with a third-round T-K-O. Look at this card. Holy smokes. Wow. There's a lot of names on this card. Chris Gutierrez in the Colmate event in a kickboxing match. Kennedy and Chuku was on this card.

Ramez Brahmaj was on this card. The legend, Mike the True Jackson on this card. There's some names here. It would have been a fun-ass event. Short-haired Kevin Holland just yelling in the poster. There you go. Let's run that one back. Let's run those two guys back.

I wouldn't have a problem with that. I'm in. And for Sontanee, who did I pick for Sontanee? I don't even remember. Oh, no. For Santini, I said, and this is like a crystal ball pick because I don't know what's really going on with this gentleman who I'm picking, but November this year, Madison Square Garden, first fight on the main card, Benoit Santini versus Raphael Fiziv. There you go. That's how we kick off the main card. Just throw those two dudes in there to just kind of bulrush each other.

It'll be a good time. But jail will get better. I'm not going to dog him here. next time I probably I might give him a little doo-do Henderson, hello. Hey Mike, heck of a morning to you, man. You too.

I just had a couple points. I was waiting for a free-for-all Friday for this one because it's definitely a free-for-all-Friday kind of thing. But over the last like couple years, this has been a big thing in UFC fighters talking about it. Dom Cruz and Cowboy Soroni, I think, was a recent one. Talking about their contract. and how even when they get like a big offer and people think, oh, they must have renegotiated around this.

A lot of them just don't because they feel like, oh, I think Cowboy said when he fought Connor, oh, I still had fights to go. Why would I renegotiate and get a bonus? And it's like, I understand why people think that because in a lot of ways in life, that's how contracts might work, you know, that's how jobs work. but I work in entertainment contracts and sports contracts. And one thing fighters should remember is that just because you're in a contract doesn't mean you can't hold out like people do in other sports or renegotiate. It just means you don't have as much leverage as you otherwise would.

And some fighters get this. Like for some reason, they just understand this. Either they have experience or they have a natural ability to do it. Like Sean O'Malley, after every couple of fights, fights, he's like, oh, I need a bigger deal. Like, then I'll fight bigger opponents. And it works. If you just do that little negotiation, it works.

And evidence of that was Matt Brown was talking on one of your guys' podcasts about how he only asked for a raise one time and Dana gave it to him. And it's like, that means you should have asked for raises more times, man. So that's just my point coming from that contract world. And I know some fighters listen to this show and just fans. need to think about that too. Like, think of Nate Diaz before the Conner fight. He made that such a bigger thing and then got a huge new contract off that and then eventually escaped the UFC, probably in part because of that renegotiation. So just wanted to hear what she thought about that.

And if maybe I'm thinking a lot of this comes from the lack of good managers in the sport and the lack of good attorneys in the sport and just it's such a new sport. So, it's going to take some time for that to come in. All right. Talk to you later, Mike. Keep up the great work. Yeah, look. I mean, I'm with you on that.

And I think there's a lot of fighters who are starting to realize that. But you said a big word, leverage. Leverage is a big word. And unfortunately, in like today's, in today's UFC, you're just not going to find a lot of fighters who have a lot of leverage. Now, you also have to be very good with your timing. Like, look what Dustin Porriere did. Dustin Porriere, we know, like,

I know there's a lot of UFC defenders out there, and I know a lot of people wanted to take a victory lap against the scumbag media because of the Dustin Porre thing and everything, even though we were completely right about all of it, even with Dana trying to, like, battle back against it and try to call our own gear, Cruz for doing absolutely nothing wrong because

Garamee never actually reported anything. He just posted a video and that led to like a big discussion about, you know, fights being announced before they were done, which has happened a lot of times and we were able to pinpoint some examples. But what Dustin Porre did is he realized that, one, he's taking a huge risk fighting a guy like Ben Wasatatadi. Two,

him fighting in a five-round fight is not part of his contract. He has a specific contract and then if it's a five-rounder, you're supposed to get a little bit more. If it's title fight, you get a little bit more on top of that. And Dussipori realized that they were in Miami,

that they're about to sell a shitload of tickets for a whole massive gate and he just put his balls right on the table and just said, hey man, sorry, no fight, not happening. And then what happened? Everyone picked up on it. Poria himself, by the way, put this all out there.

Poria himself gave statements to multiple members of the media, including our own Ariel Hawani, saying like, no, man, just couldn't get it done, never actually agreed to the fight. Then it got announced, and Poria played this absolutely perfectly. And then hours later, Pori comes out and says, my bad dude, miscommunication. Bullshit.

Bullshit. It was perfect. It was perfect. Clearly it wasn't a miscommunication. This is Porre just playing his game so beautifully. This was absolutely brilliant on his part. He got a whole bunch more money to fight Ben Wasson today. That was one of the biggest gates in UFC history.

And even though Sean O'Malley is a star, Dustin Porre is a big part of the success of that card because Porre is a big as star and you're seeing it more and more this week after that win and now he's probably going to get a frigid title fight on top of this so man Dustin Porreier Dustin Porre might just be the fighter of the year right now like he's the frontrunner for fighter of the year

not just for what he did in the Octagon but his business savvy outside of it but not everybody has that like Anglosa can't go on Twitter right now now and be like, nah, dude, I ain't fighting Brian Battle tomorrow. Can't do that. He's not going to be like, oh, shit. Here's $50,000 more. Please fight Brian Battle.

No, he doesn't have that kind of leverage. There aren't a lot of fighters that do. There's maybe 10 to 15, depending on the timing and what's going on. And just based on how popular they are. The other problems are, and this is, look, there are some people who have, like, DM me when I have this take and say like I'm anti-fighter, which is just absolutely not true, the UFC could pay more money, clearly.

Just look at the success they're having. But I honestly think, like, the blame does not go to them, as Henderson kind of pointed out. It is on the fighters and the managers to come together and be like, yo, we need to have a seat at the table, we need to have a say.

and there have been so many opportunities to put this together, but you can't just do it willy-nilly. You have to have everybody on board. You have to have everybody from Connor all the way down to the contender series guy who lost on the contender series but finally got a UFC shot because someone fell out 12 days before a fight. You need to get everybody on board and you need to get the managers on board. Guess what?

That ain't happening. that just is not happening. I mean, it's very clear that which managers have like a good, solid relationship with the UFC. There's proof, and you can just find it wherever you want that there's managers who just have like a solid business relationship with the UFC. And then there's the managers, and they're out there,

who care more about the approval and the positive reactions from the UFC brass, even more so than the clients themselves, because that relationship almost means more to them. And that is a no-no. It's for those reasons that, and a lot of those managers have a lot of fighters on the roster. And you think those managers are going to get up,

like if every fighter got on board and was like, this is what we're going to do, it's going to be a hard sell to get those managers. managers to approve their fighters going along with it. It's just going to be impossible to do. And again, there have been so many opportunities for this to happen. Valuations, sale the company back in 2016, the success, ESPN deal, the Reebok deal, the Venom deal,

all the sponsorship deals. Now a new TV deal coming up that's going to be worth so much money. like these are great opportunities to do this like the merger with wwe the valuation that that all got like so many opportunities to come and put this together and it's just not happening like it's just not happening in any attempt to happen got very little juice got juice for but a day and a half and then it was just over i just don't think it's going to happen joe lozahn my fellow new england uh taken a beating for his takes on this because we've talked about this a few times you can go back and like look at old interviews that i did when i had the what the heck show talking to joe loz on

about this and he just doesn't think it's going to happen because you're just not going to be able to get everybody together to do it so unfortunately this is just kind of the nature of the beast and yeah of course we'd love to see fighters make more money well hell every job we do we would like to we we all feel like we deserve to make more money but unless you like come together and say, hey, unless we get this, this, and this, we ain't coming to work. The company's not going to be like, yo, sure, just have this money, especially the UFC, which is on fire right now, just on fire. They're making so much money right now.

And we would love to just be like, yeah, just give it to the fighters. Who's forcing them to do it? Nobody. You think they give a shit what like any of us say? They don't care. And at this point, like, there's nothing we can see. say it's going to change anything. It's up to the fighters to do it as a collective. And even if there's like 150 fighters on the roster who are having a group chat right now

saying, hey, let's start this process. You should have to get 500 other guys and gals to do the same thing or else you ain't got shit. So I wish we were in a better spot. I wish we could get to a place where this does happen. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to be alive when these conversations do in fact happen. And it's a shame. But if they're okay with it, I guess I have to be too. And I guess we all have to be.

Even though it sucks. And we want these fighters to get more. And we want them to be compared to some of the other athletes who are getting just these incredible minimums and all that. And who knows? Maybe if this lawsuit like goes the full bore and it's proven that the UFC has like a monopsy or monopoly or whatever, fuck it it's called.

If it's proven that and they're almost forced to change their business practices, maybe that will change things. I have very little confidence that's going to be the case. But there's like a small sliver of hope depending on how this all goes, but

I don't think it's going to happen. So, yeah. But you're right, Henderson. If you got leverage, you can use it and you can use it to your advantage. But not all fighters have that. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time.

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With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Let's go to Abswalia. Mark Hakek of a morning. Is that buddy? So, you know, I just want to briefly touch on the convoy we just were speaking on about. One thing I do want to say is I genuinely think.

I think a lot of fighters just don't really like to be successful. I know this sounds really fucked up to say, but hear me out. I just think that some of them are kind of content and perfectly normal with just, you know, kind of living life on a, I guess, day-to-day basis. You know, not really aspiring to have a certain goal for themselves individually. At the same time, you also have fighters who want to make the biggest money and stuff. You know, they would love to be like the Conners and the Rondas of the world, but they hate to, you know, work hard or have that kind of same spotlight they have,

you know, which is just not possible, especially in a sport like MMA in the industry. You know, you need to be someone who is exciting because even Cherle, Chewlett, Chewson, Usman and Henry Sehudo spoke on this yesterday and they interviewed about as a fighter, especially in the modern day, even any sport athlete, you need to be marketable. you need to also have balance of being a great athlete so people can connect and enjoy you.

You know, I think union is just not going to happen. You know, I also don't think this whole antitrust lawsuit is really about fire the pay in general. I just think it's more for the older vets who got robbed

and, you know, shit out of their bank during the high debt career because I've actually looked into it briefly. I'm not going to claim I know everything, but for what I can say, see guys like John Fierch and some of the other guys, they're just looking for their own paycheck. They're not really bothered or caring about the general Alscope

or the UFC or every, you know, MMA fighter who fought for the organization to get a union or fair raise pay. So, you know, it sucks. And I also think that is partially why we kind of don't see the sport being popular or having, you know, the kind of athlete stars who can have mega endorsements. Now, when I say endorsements, I'm saying like, imagine Adasania having an endorsement with Nike, or imagine, you know, Hamza Chimayev

having his own perfume fragrance with fucking Ralph Lauren or, you know, Dojah. But I'm just saying an example. Like, we don't have that. You know, you compare to, like, athletes like Lamar Jackson, you know, he has probably some big endorsement deal. Anthony Joshua, you know, he's a combat sport guy. He has a fucking huge endorsement deal with under armor. So, you know, things like that.

I mean, it doesn't bother me or, you know, not that I care. But of course, as a fan, I like to see MMA fighters have that same opportunity. You know, I know we kind of had them in the past with Anderson, Silver, and Jones and stuff. But no one's really had that trajectory in a very long time. And the thing with endorsements and sponsorship, you actually make good money from it. Because the company sees value in you, and they want to hire you to be like their globe ambassador. You know, like celebrities get this stuff, fashion designer get this stuff. So I'm just thinking, why can't MMA guys get?

I mean, you know, we have reached the point where the UFC, at least the UFC alone, has become a worldwide brand that people know well enough. Certain fighters have a bit of mainstream here where they can get these opportunities. And I like it because it kind of shows, well, we're not just fighters. We are, you know, athletes, we're humans. We have very unique personalities. But I just think, you know, there's a lot of inside forces, outside forces, the fighters themselves, the managers, you know, corruption that really prevent these kinds of. things were happening and also just the negotiation factor that you know i genuinely think that the fact that we're still living on that 50k kind of thing with the whole fight night bonus and stuff is

pretty pathetic like you know at the very least we should have seen some increase in that you know format where all right maybe a fighter gets a hundred seventy five k check bonus you know there should be like i love the ufc system of the the pay structure i think jen has actually done a good job that but the problem is the actual money he's paying his fighters or like Ari Emanuel, it's pathetic. You know, even like they get taxed a lot, first of all, depending on where they live. And second of all, you know, it's like, in my opinion, if I had in my way, I would be saying the top guys or the champions, the stars, they should, like, if, like, let's say if you're like the superstar, superstar, whether you're a champion or not, you should be able to easily,

depending on your value and pay-per-view points, make anywhere from, you know, 7 to 10, maybe in 20 million. You know, other champions should be able to least make three to five million base pay, you know, and pay-per-view points accounting for that should even have a little bit of a slow increase because that don't make the pay-view points are actually to like $1. And then you have like the contender guys, maybe top five you can make anywhere between

$500 to $2 million, depending on their name and value. You know, just things like that. But, you know, it's probably never going to happen. And it just absolutely sucks, but it's something that I have to live with it. I think we'll always just have very good and tactical smart fighters who understand the business, like the Shawna Mali types or, like the Kamar Usman types who know how to negotiate well and also get in favor with Dana. That's all I have.

Have a great day. Yeah, look, there's obviously some things that I agree with. There's some things I disagree with as well. The take on the antitrust lawsuit, sure, these fighters kind of want to get what they deserve or feel that they deserve. but you know what? Here's the difference. They were able to get a whole bunch of people together

to be a part of this lawsuit. And on top of that, they are trying to prove, it's not just the back pay and all that stuff. They are trying to prove that the UFC has monopolized the industry, which will force them to change business practices if this goes all the way through.

Which you could do that. I'm not saying it's going to, but that's like the whole purpose of the suit is they want to prove that they have monopolized the industry. Now, obviously things have changed a little bit. We do have some sort of competition with PFL, which is why like, yeah, I shit on PFL and I shit on Don Davis, but it's out of like, come on man, like do the thing and do it right.

Don't act like you've already won the game. Because that's what pisses me off about PFL is they feel like they've already won. and they could say whatever they want, but like putting out graphics, like Don Davis put out one of the dumbest graphics I've ever seen last week. And that's just, that's saying something,

because Don has put out a whole bunch of them. That PFL Europe was trending more, actually, that was even PFL Europe. It was PFL. PFL was trending higher than Joshua and Ganoo and UFC 299. But if you really look at the graphic and you really go back and look at the numbers,

that was on Thursday, the day of the card. So, yeah, you're going to trend with your company. Like, if they put in PFL Europe, it ain't the same. And if you put UFC, UFC would have been higher. And if you put boxing, boxing would have been higher. Or if you just put like Anthony Joshua,

it would have been around the same. Like, and posting it on a Thursday, like taking Thursday's numbers and then posting it on like a Saturday was so stupid. Like these are the things that drive me insane about PFL. So when I like shit on them, it's just like, come on, man. Like, do better. Do better.

And I don't want to like harp on the whole thing, but I will say this. Look, at this point, I want, of course we want the fighters to be paid more. And people hate when I say that there's a grassroots link between the UFC specifically in the world of professional wrestling, more specifically, WWF. Because as we all know, this sport, the UFC in particular, compared to the pro-wrestling world, compared to other major sports and entertainment, it's a baby. It's a baby compared to all these other entities. And when WWF was booming in the 80s, with Hulk Hogan and Hulkamania a running wild and

putting 93,000 people in the Pontiac Silver Dome for WrestleMania and all that stuff. Like, the wrestlers weren't making a shitload of money. Hogan was. Piper was. The big stars were.

But like most of the other talent, most of the other guys that were wrestling weren't making that much money. They got a baseline salary. And basically what Vince McMahon's whole thing was back in the 80s. And it's kind of like where Dana White and the UFC is

now, even with the success they're having, was just like, yeah, man, this is the place to be. If you want to become a star in this sport, you've got to be here. And you have to earn that. You have to get over. We're not going to make you rich right now, but we're going to give you the opportunity to become a star. We're going to give you the platform to do it. What you do with it is up to you. And if you get over and you get a response and the fans like you, then we will pay you more.

We'll put you in better spots. We'll put you in main events. We'll put you on the marquee. We'll put you on the poster. But that's up to you to do that. And the UFC is basically doing the same thing now. They're making a shitload of money. They're doing good ratings, pay-per-view buys, et cetera.

The stars are making money. Stars are getting opportunities. And the low-level guys are given the chance. And what they do with it is up to them. and that that's what their business model essentially is right now. Now, obviously, over the years, things change. It comes in waves. Boom it in the 80s, early 90s, WVF was awful.

Their ratings were shit. Their ticket sales were shit. They were bad. And then the attitude error comes along with Austin and the Rock and all that. And then business is booming. It's the biggest time in the history of the business. I mean, just even like house shows. that weren't televised,

were selling out like crazy, merchandise, like crazy. Everyone started to make a little bit more. Stars are making a shitload. The other guys were getting a little bit more and a little bit more. The business was changing.

We had competition that was equal, if not greater at times, than what WWF was. So that kind of forced WWF to change their structure because they had to, because they were getting their own. ass is kicked by WCW.

And then they just buy out WCW. Business kind of tanks a little bit, goes up and down, and it waves, and now it's like hotter than ever. And wrestlers are all making good money now because it's just how the business was. So I guess, like, to make a long story short, the way to change this is for the competition to excel. We need PFL, especially without Bellator now. Bellator is absorbed into one thing,

and I don't think the Bellator brand is going to last. So we need PFL to, like, do really well. We need them to pop ratings. We need their paper abuse to do big numbers. We need them to take people away from the UFC. We need actual, legit competition in order for this to change. Because we're not going to get a union.

We're not going to get any sort of seat at the table, even pro wrestling for as long it's been around, even WWF, for as long as it's been around, they've never had a union, never had an association, they've never come together and had a seat at the table. Never. They're independent contractors just like the UFC fighters are. But the business model changed. They're making more money, but that's because they had competition nipping up their heels.

And even now, even though AW, I think is shit right now in a lot of respects, I think their booking is horrendous. I think their television show is just really tough to watch. WWF is kicking their ass, but at least there's some sort of competition. There's like, there's fans that will buy tickets to watch somebody else. So, you know, we want to live in a world where, like,

you know, there's some people who just think, like, the UFC is the end-all be-all. But that's, nothing changes unless someone is nipping at their heels to force change. and the UFC doesn't have to change for anybody right now because they are so far in a way ahead of everybody else in this space it's not even funny. So, yeah.

I know people hate the pro wrestling stuff, but I'm telling you, there's so many comparisons to it, it's ridiculous. 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. Lice? Yes, we deliver those.

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Good morning, Mike. First time in a while. So when I was listening to BTL yesterday, I really enjoyed it. But when I heard that you were the only one who had Sean O'Malley as the number one Bannamweight in the world, I'm all for you guys having your own independent rankings and everybody. To be clear, I'm not, I'm not the only, I wasn't the only person to do it. Okay. I was just like the only, I was like the only person like doing any shows at the time.

that could speak upon having Sean O'Malley is number one. So I wasn't the only one. Okay. Okay. So I didn't watch the ranking show, so maybe I'm speaking a little bit out of pocket here. But hearing that, it caught me off guard. I was like, what are we doing here? It makes me think that back in the day when, like, I know head-to-head match,

this guy just colded Al Jermaine Sterling. I mean, I get you guys saying, Umar's, but like, in your own personal rankings is above him. But what are we doing here? Fights matter. This guy hasn't even proven himself. What are we doing? Makes you think that back in the day when Connor starched Aldo, some of these guys like Jed would have still had Aldo number one,

being like, oh, I still think he's a better fighter. I would pick him in a rematch. It's like, I don't know, just because you would pick a guy in a fight, I don't know if that means he should be number one. I think the fights matter. But hearing you teasing stuff for 300 and the watch parties, et cetera, it's got me thinking, are we ever going to get a world? where you guys sit down, do a watch party,

and it's not really like a rogan watch party, like a fight companion, but are we ever going to get to see you, maybe you, G.C., someone else, Jed, over a couple cold ones watching some fights. Is that even remotely possible under MMA fighting? Would they allow you guys to drink and cover an event or something like that? I feel like that would be awesome,

and it would help you guys grow your platforms a little bit more. but yeah, what do you think about that? Look, I don't think, like, I think if that happened, I don't think, like, anyone will complain about it. Like, a couple, like, if we, like, had a couple, like, if we're acting, like, friggin buffoons and shotgunning beers, like, that's a whole different ballgame. I don't know.

Like, if we had, like, a beer sponsor or something and, like, had a couple, like, I don't think anyone's going to really care about that. just for me like this is just kind of like my own personal rule anyways and I've always been like this um even like DJing weddings and stuff like I DJed weddings forever um probably up until like right like after I started with them may fighting I already had like dates that I was already contractually obligated to fulfill in 2020 so I had to do them. And even some that, like, because of the pandemic carried over to 2021.

The reason I bring this up is because I was, like, I don't want to be that guy, but I was pretty damn good wedding DJ. Like, I was pretty good. And, you know, I'm a nice guy and, you know, not a negative dude. Like, I feel like I'm a kind of cool person to be around, pretty positive. uplifting, positive attitude, 95% of the weddings that I ever DJed, people are like, yeah, let me get you a beer,

let me get you this. And I always refused, always. Even if it was just one. I'm the kind of guy that doesn't like to partake in that until the job is done, essentially. That's just how I've always been. That's just sort of my rule of thumb. You know, the job requires something different.

Like I said, if we get like a beer sponsor and like they're like, yeah, I have a beer that I will. But if it's like, I don't know, that's just that's just me. And then if you want to have one after great, like that's cool. I don't, and personally, like, I don't need it. Like my energy levels don't really change all that much. So basically what you see is what you get. And I wouldn't get like sloppy on one of those anyways. That's just not my thing.

I think it's pretty chill. I think it's pretty like, hey, this is how we are in person. because that's literally it. Like when we're on camera, like when I'm on camera, like, I'm the same way like talking to people at the gym. I'm the same way on this show.

I'm the same way like hanging out my buddies, my brothers, etc. I'm the same guy. Talking to my dad, same dude. Like, I don't think they would really change much, if that makes sense.

But we do have some cool stuff for 300. For sure. The other thing is, Sean O'Malley is our number one band of mine. overall. I'm looking at it right now. Sean O'Malley is our number one ranked Bantamweight by a point. He beat Mara by a point. Patsy Mix is number three. Aljo is in there at number four, but the second his fight with Calvin Cater starts, he will be out of the Bannamweight rankings altogether. But yeah, Sean's our number one guy. So I'm certainly not the only one who

put him in number one because he is our number one Bannabweight. But I've had Sean, on higher than pretty much everybody because I've seen it. I know how good he is. A lot of people kind of like base their rankings on like, well, he didn't really beat Peuterion. But he did. So I'm going to give him credit for that. Just like I gave Marlon Vera a lot of credit for getting wins that he had too.

So, you know, I had Vera ranked higher than a lot of people as well. I've always had him Allie up there. Like I think I've had him higher than anybody else. But we have one, two, three. Yeah, three of us had a whole. O'Malley number one, two of us had Marab at number one, and three people had Patchy Mix at number one, which is really interesting because you either had Pitchie at number one, or if you didn't have

patchy at number one, you had to have a number three, which is where I have. So my Bandaumait rankings are as such. Sean O'Malley, and I've had Sean at number one since he won the belt. all O'Malley, Marab, patchy mix, Sterling, Sanhagen, Jan, Vera, Sehudo, Umar, Figgie Smalls,

Sergio Pettis, Song Yidong, Rob Font, Mario Batista, Jonathan Martinez. That's my top 15 right now. I wanted to put, I wish I had 16

because I put Kyler Phillips in there, but I just think what Jonathan Martinez has done lately and what Mario Batista has done lately, I just can't not have them in there, but Kyler's like knocking on the door of 15 in my eyes.

But I think he actually got, I think Kyler actually got into our overall rankings at number 15. So yeah, so that's how my rankings look. I've had Sean higher than most, and I've had him number one since he beat Dallas,

Maine Sterling. So there you go. There you have it. Let me see what the rest of our rankings look like. Were there any big surprises? Yeah, Ilya is obviously our unanimous. Number one featherweight. Raquel Pennington's are unanimous

in span of weight. Tom Aspinall is our number one heavyweight. Five first place votes to John Jones, who has three. Pereira is our number one light heavyweight. Ancolaev got a vote. Jamal Hill got a first place to vote. DDP, obviously our number one middleweight. Islam, obviously our number one lightweight.

Grasso, flyweight, John, straw weight. Pound for pound, it's Mockachev. unanimously. And Zhang Wei seven first place votes and Azawa got a

first place vote. If you've been following our rankings, I think you could probably guess who had the Ezawa first place vote.

Not that it's a bad pick, but it's kind of hard not picking Zhang Wei in that spot. So there you go. All right.

If we got any more questions or thoughts, let's go. Otherwise, we're going to wrap up. We do have a preview

show at 1 p.m. Eastern time. for UFC Vegas 88. So stay tuned for that. It's going to be me, Jed, and Jose Young's. And then we'll do the People's Pre-Fight Show tomorrow, 3.30 p.m. Eastern time, which will be a lot of fun. Post-fight show, onto the next one, et cetera.

Four-out Siper. Hello. Yo, what's up, Mike? Heck of morning. You too. I don't know if you already talked about this. I don't know if I'm late or anything, but I just saw it yesterday. So Boone Nichols on the main card. Just one of your thoughts on that.

You got some huge names over Boatnickle, like Al Jermaine Sterling, Calvin Cater, list goes on and on. But what do you think about that? Like, I get the UFC's trying to push this guy, but personally, I'm not, I don't see it. Maybe they see something that I don't see, but I don't want this man on the main card over Aljo and Cater and these other big names.

So, yeah, just your thoughts. Okay. So I obviously thought about this. first of all, if you've watched all these shows in the past, occasionally you'll hear me complain about placement and what should be the main event and what should not be the main event. The only times I really bring this up is, for instance, like the Bellator card where Pitbull was trying to win the third belt

and he fought Sergio Pettis. And I'm like, dude, guys are two-division champ, trying to be a three-division champ. Like, that has to be the main event. and it wasn't. So in that context, I'm like, come on, man. Like, that's the way more intriguing fight. The storylines are way bigger.

The bigger names. Like, what are we doing here? But most of all, I'm just like, eh, like, I don't care. Kayla Harrison being on the prelims is, like, the best place to actually introduce her to the UFC audience. Because more people are going to watch her fight on ESPN than are going to be watching UFC 300 and pay for you. It's just the nature. a beast. It just is. And I know it's a coveted spot, you know, to be on the main card of UFC 300. People pay 80 bucks to watch you. But what's more important? Being on a main card and having

a million people watch you or being on ESPN and ABC and have like two and a half, three million people watch you. This is a different ballgame. This is a different ballgame. And I would pick the ladder every time. I think we reacted to this a little bit on the watch party. I was like, yeah, Bo-Nickle being on here over these days is a choice. It's a choice and I don't think people are going to be happy about it. And there's a part of me that's just like, all right, this is kind of dumb. And then I listen to the ranking show and Damon Martin put it out there beautifully and I will never look at it the same.

And I will say that this is actually the correct choice of them doing this. So let me just pull up the card right now as it stands. I think they'll actually put it, hopefully it's in order. Okay, so the main card is going to kick off with Charles Oliver and Armand Sarukin. Then we're going to get Bo Nicol, Cody Brundage, and then we're going to get the three title fights. We're going to get Gaichi Holloway. We're going to get Zhang and Jan, and we're going to get Pereira and Jamal Hill. Oliverer-Sauruquean could end up being just a 15-minute war because this is an evenly match fight.

15-minute, good fight, awesome. But then you're going to get to the three title fights. I'm not saying this is going to happen. but I think it's less likely to happen in the main event. But there is a real world where we're going to get five rounds of Justin Gaichi and Max Holloway. Which, to me, sign me the fuck up for that. But then we're going to go to Zhang Wei and Jan Jonan. And that has a very good chance of going five rounds as well.

And what a Pereira and Jamal Hill goes five rounds. You need to sort of break up the monotony and try to find a finish. And Bo Neckle and Cody Brundage, no matter. how it goes, even if Beau slips on a banana peel, that fight ain't going long. That fight is probably not getting out of the first round. So you need to sort of break up the monotony and throw one fight that is guaranteed to be a quick, a quick transition to what we're looking forward to. Oliver Serukian is a great start. Once that fight ends, and even maybe even before that, we're all going to be looking at Gaichi Holloway. Like, all right, let's go. I want that fight.

you could do Yerry versus Rackich, which I think is going 15. Calvin Cater Al Jemaine Sterling's probably going 15. A lot of these fights have strong potential to go the full 15. So we need to find a spot that is going to get us right to those title fights. Get us right to Justin Gachey versus Max Holloway. Bo, Nicol, Cody Brundage is going to check that box off. Whether you feel like he deserves to be on that spot, it doesn't matter. but I think when we are watching this card

and as we've talked about when we do the watch party we're not just doing it for the main car we're doing it for every fight we're going live the second right before the first prelim starts between Davis and Figuera and Cody Garberat as someone is going to be watching all these fights and talking through all these fights

a lot of them are probably going the distance I'm going to be ready for Justin Gitchie versus Max Holloway and which fight is pretty much guaranteed to get us there as quickly as possible. To me, it's Bo Nickle versus Cody Bremich. So my first reaction was, eh, not great. But after Damny kind of walked me through that,

listening to the ranking show, I was like, you know what? I get it. I'm fine with it. Just get me to Gachey Holloway. Get me there as fast as you can. And then these two dudes are going to beat the shit out of each other

for however long that fight lasts. And you know what? I'm here for it. and I can't wait. So there have it. All right. I think we're going to wrap up here. Thank you all very much.

You are just the best. Hopefully there will be no illnesses that will take me away from this show on Tuesday. But we battled through. We got two shows in this week, so I'm very happy about that. So we will be back on Tuesday to discuss the fallout of UFC Vegas 88.

We'll be on the road to UFC Vegas 89. Golly, man. Let me pull this bad boy up. UFC, like, I, I think this card on Saturday, again, while there's, like, no stakes, is going to be a fun watch. Next Saturday,

whof, great main event. Mandahe-Hbos versus Rosembuy Unis. There's some decent other fights on here. Peyton Talbot, Cameron Simon, Billy Q, Yus of Salal. Good to see you. Joseph back in the UFC.

But boy, this is, this is a tough one. This is a tough one. But we'll see how it all goes. But we'll talk about that. We'll talk about much more. I think the rebirth of Bellator will be happening next week as well. I believe the timelines add up.

Then they're going to Atlantic City. Then they're back at the world's most famous apex for one more. We don't even, we don't know what the main event's going to be. Because we found out that Marvin Vittori is out of the fight with Brennan Allen. Will Brennan remain on the card? Will they have a new main event? All will be discussed on this program.

So thank you all very much. Back on Tuesday. Have a great rest of your Friday. Have a heck of a morning, everybody.