MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reaction To Brandon Moreno Stepping Back From MMA, Dana White's Plans For U.K. Return

Episode Date: March 26, 2024

Former two-time UFC flyweight champion Brandon Moreno is not retiring from MMA, but he's taking a bit of a break after suffering his second straight split decision loss. What does this mean for Moreno moving forward? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to Moreno's decision to take some time away from the sport, runs down the timeline from Moreno's win over Brandon Royval at UFC 255 in November 2020 to now, and becoming one of the division's biggest stars. Additionally, listener questions include UFC CEO Dana White planning to make a big announcement for the promotion's return to the United Kingdom, and it likely becoming a pay-per-view event, Rose Namajunas' flyweight future following her UFC Vegas 89 main event win over Amanda Ribas, how UFC Atlantic City stacks up compared to other on-the-road Fight Night events, 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-by 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. Why do you save and invest? Is it so you can spend hours every day glued to the stock ticker, worrying about every movement up or down? Or is it so that you can live a better, happier, more fulfilling life? Betterman wants to help people invest to live, not live to invest. With features like automated saving, global diversification, and tax smart tools,

Betterment is full of ideas to help you reach your goals without having to babysit your investments. They help their customers invest so that they can go live their lives. Go to Betterment.com to learn more. Investing involves risk, performance not guaranteed. Podcast Network. It is Tuesday, March 26th, 2024, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the NBA Fighting Twitter Space. You hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter on the NBA Fighting Podcasting Network.

What's up, everybody? I am Mike Heck. I hope you're all having a great start to the week. We are coming off of, I was going to say a memorable weekend of fights, but a weekend of fights. And there were some things that certainly happened. There was fighting. There was biting. There was other things that happened. New champions were crowned. Losing streaks were snapped. And I guess that's really it. Started on Friday with Bellator Belfast. That went down. That was certainly an event. Manuel Soza with an incredible knockout to kick off the main card.

Leandro Ego defeats James Galaher in a fight that happened. Speaking of fights that happened, Fabian Edwards defeated Aaron Jeffrey. And then we saw the old dog, Patricio Pitbull, get in there. Jeremy Kennedy looked like he was gaining some momentum late in that fight. First round was a Patricia round. Kennedy turned it on around two. Just turned it on even more in round three. And then Pitbull landed a big shot.

malls him gets the finish retains his bellator featherway title and then Corey Anderson became a world champion Cory Anderson all over Carl Moore carl more obviously had some moments when the fight was standing it was all Carl Moore but Corey Anderson's ground game was just too much

the pace is too much and Cory Anderson is a champion so that was the first Bellator event under the new PFL banner It was on Max, which is kind of cool. But still, it felt for a reimagining a Bellator. I came out of that event feeling like we didn't really reimagine anything. That was a very bellatory card. Wasn't horrible.

Wasn't tremendous. It was fine. And then the next day we have the UFC card, and it was kind of more of the same. We did see some good performances. We had a bite. a biting DQ from Igor Severino he's no longer with the promotion

Andre Lima gets a bite of the night bonus which is just the cheesiest thing I've ever heard but pretty cool nonetheless other notable things Julian Arosa gets the first round submission over Raqara Hamas we had Fernando Padilla

submit Luis Paolo Zuse of Salal finishing Billy Q not a lot of people had that on their bingo cards, but nice to see Yusuf Swal back in the UFC, making things happen. Peyton Talbot, man, this guy's super good. Goes out there and finishes Cameron Simon. That fight was not really all that competitive. Edmund Shabazian finishes A.J. Dobson had a little bit of trouble early, but comes

through and gets first round finish. Co-main event, penultimate fights. Carl Williams. Doing Carl Williams things. Defeats Justin Tapa, and then Rosenami Unis gets a decision. went over a man to heat bus. So we can talk about those things. We can talk about whatever the hell you want.

So let's go. Four ounce sniper will lead us off today. Go ahead, for on sniper. And Mike, can you hear me? Yes, sir. I apologize. My phone connected to the truck. Can you hear me now?

I got you. I had you before. Okay. Appreciate you. A heck of a morning, first of all. And just real quick, I want to talk about two things. First off, shout out. Yousup's Zala.

I believe that was. his first, I don't know if that was his first win, but I know that was his first finish in the UFC. He struggled, I believe, some years back whenever he first got to UFC. He's still fairly young, and it seems like he finally, you know, put it together after getting a couple wins outside the UFC, then coming back. I can't wait to see him back in the octagon. And my question for you is about Igor De Silva. I heard that the UFC, which they withheld his purse from him after obviously biting his opponent. I wanted to know your thoughts on that.

Do you think that was deserved? Do you think they should have just fined them instead? Or how do you feel about that? And if that was true, obviously. But that's how I got for you, Mike. Hey, good morning. Yeah. So let me, let me pull up that article since we broke that story.

We'll start with Yusuf Salah. Yousuf is fun, man. Like, he's always been fun. And when he first signed with the UFC, I was pretty excited about that. Him and Bryn Royval were, like, fighting on LFA cards together and kind of battling out, like, who got the crazier finish as teammates. So that was kind of like a cool little storyline developing through the regional scene

before they both got to the UFC. But good on Yusuf. That was his fourth UFC win. But it was his first UFC finish. And he gets it done. And I saw a lot of people just, I saw the betting lines kind of make it really even. So I understood there's some betting value on Billy Q to some extent.

But the amount of people who were just kind of going through and just being like, yeah, man, Billy Q is going to kill Yusufus a lot. I didn't really buy into that. Yusuf at a good start to his UFC run the first time around, won his first three fights. And then after his three-fight win streak, he has to fight Ilya, short notice, Iliate Tupori subbed in for Sungwu Choi on Fight Island back in 2020,

and we all know how good Iliate Tepori is. Not an easy guy to fight as a short notice replacement. And he does fight Sung Wuchoy loses and then loses a split decision to Sean Woodson. Fight a lot of people thought he won and then fights him on Blackshare to a draw. And I think the big thing is you were, you're correct. he was just kind of young. Maybe, you know, mentally he wasn't ready for the UFC. But he seems ready now.

That was a pretty solid outing against a top 25 guy, top 30 featherweight. So that was very impressive. So it looks like he's coming into his own. And that's just a more, it's just a nice exciting addition to this featherweight division. So Igor Severino obviously was the big story of the weekend. He is disqualified. in his fight with Andre Lima. He bites him.

It was quite the bite. I will admit, I did not watch any, I didn't watch a second of that card live. I went back and rewatch some stuff after on to the next one. I did watch this. A lot of people were giving Brennan Fitzgerald some crap because he was like, yeah, just give him a warning and you just can't do that.

Because this is like, this is a chump. This is not an accidental bite. This is not a, you know, let's I accidentally mouthpiece got shifted just an accident

no this was not an accident uh and as our own C Morocco reported and just to be clear the UFC did not withhold his purse this is not a UFC decision

this is a Nevada athletic commission decision so just just to make that perfectly clear so don't blame we can't we don't blame the UFC for this we blame the commission for this according to our own Steve

Morocco did not get paid at all. Quote, Severino's person was withheld by the Nevada Athletic Commission after he was disqualified for biting Lima in the second round at the apex. According to a person would acknowledge the situation, the person asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The exact amount of Severino's purse is unknown because they don't publicly disclose. Severino faced a potential suspension and fine for his behavior at next month's meeting. Since his bite is without precedent in M.MA, it is unclear what the potential punishment could

Mike Tyson was fined $3 million in his boxing license revoked after his infamous bite fight where he repeatedly bit then champion of Vanderholyfield's ear tearing off a part of it. I mean, kind of the right call, honestly. So, I mean, I would like to hear from him several years ago. I would assume that we will be the first people he talks to because we have the Brazilian beast on the team and he has a relationship with everybody. So yeah, it sucks, man, and he's young. And hopefully this doesn't completely define him. I mean, he's what?

Is he 20? I think he's like 20. He's 20. It'll be 21 in like a month. So with the UFC, there's certain lines that, because much like WWE, there's a, WVE is like as close to. a never say never sort of entertainment promotion i know it's not the same as mMA in the ufc uh they're under the same umbrella so never say never equates much more in wwe than it does in

ufc but um the way dana sort of handled it and gave him a 25 000 bonus and then game a $50,000 bonus andre leima that is after getting the tattoo doesn't seem like there's much of a future for him but we'll see what the next few years looks like uh let's see what he has to say about it let's see if he can show contrition about it in some way but yeah man for a 20 year old kid he finally makes to the UFC gets in there gets his contract and then to have it end like that this some extent but you can't be biting people in fights man you just can't um it doesn't matter how old you are how inexperienced you are there's just certain things you don't do and this is one of them because it's never happened before in the UFC.

I mean, there's other biting sort of incidents, but not to the point where somebody got disqualified and it was like, especially in Nevada, like something like this. It's going to be real interesting to see what next week looks like and what his suspension is. And then we'll kind of go from there and I'm sure we'll talk about it next week when it happens. But pretty wild shit. Don't be biting people, especially in sanctioned cage fights. Uh, left lane MMA.

Are you there? Yep. Can you hear me? Yes. Uh, couple, couple things I wanted to talk about. First of all, obviously, I know you say the motto, if it's not reported by MMA fighting, don't believe it. I'm not sure if you guys have reported this, but a couple of fights that I saw.

Barboza versus Lorone Murphy, May 18th in the apex, Volkov versus Elmada, UFC 302, uh, and then also Fluffy Hernandez versus the Lidzie 302. So if you could confirm those, that would be good. But also wanted to talk about, I assume you would have seen, or if you haven't seen Dana's recent interview with TNT Sports. I forget who the interviewer's name was. But talking with TNT Sports saying that a couple of things I picked up, saying that they're going to be announcing some like the details for the England card soon

and that it will be a numbered card as well. so we're looking at a pay-per-view in July is what it seems to be. And then also saying that he's going to be announcing stuff for the Saudi Arabia card as well. And I guess I just wanted to maybe chuck out a couple ideas or get what you think is going to be, or what you think we could see with, I assume, obviously, a fight night in Saudi Arabia and a pay-per-view in England. I'm thinking, like, Saudi do we get, you've got to expect Hamsat, surely, or if they want to go crazy with it, you could do Islam. Like, you want to see maybe Umana Magamatov on there too,

like Sharah Magamatov, those kind of guys. That's what I'm expecting there. Maybe Makayev versus like a Royval could be on there. And then for England, I guess, I assume we've got to be seeing Aspinall. Maybe we go, maybe we get really cool with it and we go double title fight. We get Aspinall in the main and then Leon versus Bilal in the Co-Main. I know no one's going to be hyped about Leon versus Balal, But, and obviously everyone was talking about how there's no way that can be the 300 co-main.

I think if you're putting that, if you're putting a welterweight title fight as to co-main to any other card, then 300, I don't think anyone's going to complain. So if they did Aspinall versus Belal as a main and co-main, then Chuck, you know, like Arnold Allen versus like Gigacuzzi. I'm hearing some rumors about that too. and then like patty on there get maybe MVP on there stuff like that i can we could be cooking with gas so what do you reckon about that what are you reckon about dana's interview and also the other fight announcements that i mentioned before if they are confirmed thanks mike all right so the fights i'm going to try to remember everything you just talked about um laurone murphy edson barboza main event may 18th we have confirmed that um

It's not done done. Both sides are in. Both sides have agreed. Penn has not gone to paper on that fight yet, but that's pretty much penciled into headline May 18th. Location TBD, I assume it would be the world's most famous apex, but that's where we are at right now. Jailton Almeida, Alexander Volkov for 301. I would say if we're going to play likely

unlikely, I would say likely. I'll say likely. We haven't like a thousand percent confirmed that but it seems like that is what's going to happen. And I got to be honest with you, my friends, I don't love it. I don't love it. Like I like the fight and I understand the need to put

some names on that card because it's pretty not great, now but jailsen just got knocked out pretty brutally by curtis blades it's not like he you know it was like a tk o or he was defending himself he was like knocked out almost unconscious with like one shot and then curtis hit him like a thousand times after so maybe it's too soon maybe it's not i don't know but we'll get our certainly get our answers uh about jelton al made his heavyweight future if he can get that, if you can get a win there. But I will say likely, but we haven't like fully confirmed that one yet.

What was the other one? Fluffy versus Roman Delisa. Yeah, we reported that one. So that is a go. That is a go. I found out that was a thing at about 10 o'clock last night. Damon, Aaron Damon confirmed the other side shortly thereafter that. But yeah, that's a go for UFC 301.

I believe Penn has gone to paper on that fight. That fight is signed, sealed, and delivered. So that's a good one. That's a good one for June 1st. I didn't watch the Dana interview with Adam Catterall. That is the reporter's name. I had heard rumblings as well that they were going to be turning that UK card into a pay-per-view. I found out yesterday that that was kind of the plan,

because there are reports, as you mentioned, that Arnold Allen was fighting Gigacchkaze on that card. If we're playing likely, unlikely, I will say, like if we're metering, I would say the meter is more towards likely on that one. But it's not done. I think it's premature. I think the report is,

I'm not going to say it's like an inaccurate report, but I think it's a premature report from the discussions I've had. It's a little early on that. Is that fight being talked about for that card? Yes. Am I one to say, yeah, lock it up? No, I'm not going to say that just yet.

Again, I'm not saying the report is totally wrong. I just think it's a little early on that. As far as dates, I'm hearing late, July. Again, it's a little bit fluid right now. July 27th was a date that was sort of being discussed as of right now. But again, not 100% done yet. Everything's still sort of fluid. Paper view. I think you got to do it now. And I think it's pretty clear how you do it. I think the main event will be Leon Edwards versus Bilal Muhammad. Again, I have no insight to this. But it just, seems like the undisputed title will probably get full bore, get the headline spot. Leon is kind of the face of UK MMA right now. So I'd be shocked if he's not in the main event. And then he could throw Tom Aspinall, Curtis Blades, as the co-main event.

I think that makes a ton of sense. So, you know, Alan Chikadez, we'll see how Hanata Moikano does at UFC 300 against Jalen Turner. I think Patty Pimbolet versus Hanato Moikano is Bill. building a little bit of steam. Patty seems to want that fight as well. Obviously, if you're heard Moikano on the MMA hour, he wants that fight as well. So that's where we're at there. So we'll see. We'll see how it plays out. I think we're going to get a ton of announcements heading into UFC 300 and should be fun. So, Adi, again, no insight. I would say, I mean, I think Mikhail Roy Val makes a ton of sense.

I would also say Hamzaa Chimaa versus Paul Acosta makes a ton of sense. That'd be a damn good main event. We'll see what happens with Islam. I mean, just looking at, if they're going to do Leon versus Bilal in the UK, do they do Islam versus Dustin in June 1st on that newer card? or what it appears to be the newer card, which would be 302. We'll see how it all plays out. But yeah, things are about to start cooking.

So get ready for some announcements, my friends. It's going to be a lot of fun. Let's try to get Nicholas in here. We don't really have a lot of luck because connection is not, it never really agrees with us for some reason, but maybe we have them today. Nicholas, do we have you? Support for this show comes from the,

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-by 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. Defenders in cybersecurity are always there when we need them. They should get a parade every time they block a novel threat and have streets, sandwiches, and babies named in their honor. But most of all, they deserve AI cybersecurity that can stop novel threats before they become breaches across email, clouds,

networks, and more. DarkTrace is the cybersecurity defenders deserve and the one they need to defend beyond. Visit darktrace.com forward slash defenders for more information. Can you hear me? Yes. Yeah, appreciate it.

I'm just a quick thought about Rose performances on Saturday. I know she said on the MMA with Ariel that she has no intention going back down to 115. I just think she's too small for the flyweight division. So I don't quite see what's next for her. So I was just wondering your thoughts about it. Yeah, I mean, look, the idea of Rose going to 125

that came to light when I spoke with her. She was doing, this is a couple of years back, she was doing something with Polaris, I think it was. And we discussed this. This is after the Carlos Sparza fight. And she said that she wanted to go to 125. She basically did the math. She wanted to compete in some jiu-jitsu or some grappling matches. But one of the things she wanted to do at this point in her life, in her career, she wanted to hit the weights.

She wanted to do some weightlifting. She wanted to put on some size and muscle. And that takes time. time. That takes time, especially someone with the frame of a Rosemite Unis. So I'm not sure where her strength and conditioning program looks like. I'm not sure the kind of number she's putting up in the gym. But she definitely looked bigger this time around. She definitely looked, I'm not going to say she looked like a flyweight, but she didn't look like a straw weight against Amanda Heba. She definitely put on a little bit of size. She's definitely the frame filled

out a little bit more. So she's getting there. I understand I understand why people feel like she is too small. Yes, she beat Amanda Hebas, who was also technically a straw weight. So it's pretty much like, you know, two

straw weights fighting at 125. We saw how she fared against Manon Fioro. I know she got dinged up real quick in that fight. And you could definitely see, like, the difference. Like when Rose is hitting Manon, Manon wasn't budging. And when Manna was hitting Rose, you could definitely see, like, an impact to it.

Almost like when Max Holloway fought Dustin Porier, you could see the difference. Like, Max was hitting Dustin. And he was landing some good shots. But when Dustin hit Max, yeah, I didn't drop him, didn't, like, hurt him badly. But you could definitely see the difference. And that's something Rose is going to have to figure out. She's going to have to put on a little bit more size. I don't know how she's going to do it.

But I thought it was a fine performance. She dug deep. I like the Macy Barber fight. I think that makes a ton of sense. The other option, if they're not going to do Macy, I know Macy spent a lot of time in the hospital. If you go to her Instagram, pretty rough stuff. But if this is something like they want to get Rose right back in there,

I know Jessica Androge is fighting a UFC 300. Win or lose against Marina Rodriguez. Androge don't care. She'll just go fight it any weight class you ask her to. Let's do the trilogy there. either of those two fights at 125 makes sense to me. If Rose can beat Macy Barber and I think that's a winnable fight for her, then she's probably going to get a title shot.

So we'll see how that plays out. I thought it was fine. I definitely thought she looked a little more flyweight-ish, not quite there, but the frame filled out a little bit. And she looked fine. She looked fine. Let's go to Lee. Hello, Lee.

And Mike, I have a good morning. Just two quick ones. I was wondering if you had seen Nick Diaz post his potential, you know, teasing of a comeback. And I was just wondering if you think that was more likely for him to come back in a boxing ring or an octagon. And I think, I can't remember what the other question I had. But yeah, just wanted to give a touch on that. Yeah, I saw the video of him sort of hitting the bad.

and saying that he's coming back and all that stuff. I don't know. I don't know. If it's the same dude that showed up and fought Robbie Lawler, not that long ago, I kind of don't want to see it. I kind of don't want to see it. This dude, I mean, if you follow his Instagram and stuff, like he seems in tremendous physical condition,

but we saw some of that as well. Like he was cutting down to 170. I think he even made a test cut to 55. if memory serves you correctly. I don't know, but he got real good shape. And then when he fought Robbie Lawler was moved up to a middle-weight fight, and he didn't look good.

He didn't look good. So could we see him fight maybe on the card with his brother? I don't think that's a bad idea. I mean, that's obviously some star power. You have both, both Diaz is fighting together, but you would definitely need the UFC's permission to do that. And if the UFC is hosting a pay-per-view

on June 1st, are they going to sort of sacrifice any potential buys by having a big name like Nick fight on that same card? I don't know. But if he fights in the UFC, if you do it at 170, I don't know. You got to throw them in there with the bet. Like I don't want to see Nick fight

like Shafka-Rakwatra for anybody like that or anybody like good. I'm not saying like the guy who put him in there is not good, but someone with like-minded veteran values, a Matt Brown or, you know, a Joe Lozahn going up to 70 or some maybe Jim Miller going to 170, like something like that I'd be okay with. Paul Felder, that's not bad.

We do him and Paul Felder at 170. I don't hate that idea. but that would be about it. And hopefully Nick is happy and he wants to fight. See, that's the thing. Seems like he wants to fight. And as long as he wants to fight, there you go. Or you do Nick versus Tony Ferguson.

That's not horrible either. So we'll see how that all plays out. I think Lee figured out his second question. Do you have that, Lee? Yeah, I was going to ask about the, Well, your thoughts on Brandon Moreno taking the period of the time off? Yes. Good question.

I knew I was something I was going to mention. Let's pull it up from M.AFunding.com great website. So he went, Marino goes on Instagram, kind of frees his mind on an Instagram post. does it in Spanish. And shout out to Mbejunkies Danny Seguura for the translation. Moreno says, I think I've, I just think I've reached a limit in my mind and I'm tired. It's not goodbye or anything like that. It's just wait for me, be patient with me, let my body, but more than anything in my mind,

my head composed itself and recover. Recover, we're going to get back to doing things right. The last time that happened, I came back, I became a world champion. I like to think I can do the same. And when I return, I'm going to go on a tear. I still think I'm an incredible fighter, and I have all the qualities and abilities to be championed again. What else does he say? Shout to Jose Young's as well for some translation.

What else did he say? Let's see. I think with all the technical aspect, things aside, I think I'm just tired. I'm tired of the media. The same questions, the vibe, the constant pressure. I don't even think it's a single moment anymore. I think it's everything I've piled on my shoulders in the last few years. I've reached a point where my mind is stressed, and I just want to rest a bit.

I'm not saying I'm 100% stepping away from MMA, but I do want to take a break to rest be with my family and just be a normal person, be with my daughters, and just do new things. Yeah, good for him, man. I mean, you got to look up for number one. Brandon Moreno. Jesus Christ, man. The last four years of his life has been a frigging whirlwind. Just like look at what this dude has, you know, sort of gone through and accomplished, et cetera.

I mean, this guy has experienced all of the ups and downs of the sport in a four-year stretch. It's pretty wild. So he gets cut from the UFC after losing to Pantosia, goes to LFA, wins the title, the flyway title, re-signs to the UFC in 2019, fights Asker-R-A-R-F, a guy nobody in that division wanted to fight. It's a split draw.

I thought Moreno clearly won that fight. I thought he got a big, a little bit of a hojob on that night in September of 2019, but I digress. Then he beats Kikara, France, beats Juicier Formiga. And then from there he gets Brin-Royval. This is November of 2020, UFC 255, finishes Brandon Royval in the first round. And then less than a month later, three weeks later,

he comes back to fight for the belt against Davis and Figurato. And these two guys had a fight of the year. year contender, goes to a majority draw, tremendous fight, and Brandon Moreno's star power begins to rise. Now, this was a time when, and then Moreno wins the belt against Figurato six months later, and then loses the belt, Figurato a little while after that. And this is a time in my career where I was like Brandon Moreno's, like, number one guy to talk to. I was getting Moreno interviews left and right. I was getting the first reactions after his fights.

It was a good time. I honestly, and I've said this on the show before, if the UFC came to me right now and they said, give me one person on the roster that you would want to talk to right now. Like I'll set it up anything. Five minutes from now, who would you want to talk to? And yes, like everybody would say Connor McGregor for the clicks and the views and all that stuff. But I'm talking about for me personally,

from Mike Huck, who would I want to talk to? It's Brandon Moreno. It's Brandon Freaking Moreno. He is a delight. Him and I are always on the same page. We have like like-minded, you know, thoughts in our heads where, you know, we'd rather talk about nostalgic shit than just talk about the ins and outs of the fight game. I always enjoy those conversations.

These are memorable. And Brandon and I always had, like, a great time chatting. And then I don't think I've talked to Brandon Moreno in an interview capacity in like well over two years. Obviously there's reasons for that. Nothing bad. But, you know, Moreno, a lot of it is one. Moreno does a lot of interviews. He feels like he's getting a lot of the same questions.

He's had media members kind of screw him over when there's certain things he didn't want to get asked about, still being asked about them, which is fucked up. interviews for me. I won't get into who and when and why, but that is fucked up interviews for me. You know, I'd have him on the schedule. I was told like, hey, please don't bring this up. He doesn't want to talk about it. And then he would do an interview with another website and they would bring it up even though they were told not to. And Brandon would be pissed. And he was like, no, I'm not doing any more interviews. And that sucks. And then obviously, Ariel's back on the site and doing in the MAA hour, and clearly you get much more

going on Ariel's show than you would be chatting with me. I mean, I understand that. So it's been a hot minute since I've talked to him, and Brandon's kind of gone through the car wash at this point. Like, all his interviews are through the car wash, just the same shit over and over again.

And if it's not the same shit, it's just like not fun stuff that I know he'd never really like to do. And I just think the whole sport in general just kind of got to him. I mean, just look at what this dude is done since November of 2020. Three weeks later, fights with the belt.

Then he wins the belt, then he loses the belt, then he wins an interim belt, then he wins back the other belt, then he loses the belt again, and then he loses again in split decisions. This guy has just gone through the bringer. So good on him. He needs, I would rather, honestly,

I think it's a good idea for him to take a break. Get some separation from the sport. And I shout out to Moreno for having the wherewithal thought to think that way. And when he's ready to come back, I'll be excited for it. See what the division looks like when he does,

because it could be a vastly different place. Could be Steve, he could be living in a, he could be returning to a world where Steve Erseg is the freaking flyweight champion of the world. How about that? Jay Stack, go ahead.

Hello, Mike Hecker for morning, see you. What up, buddy? In your opinion, is Paul Costa hinting at fighting Jared Cannon Neer next? And if so, is it possible we could get that at USC 301 in Brazil? Yeah, that would be all for me. Maybe. I don't know.

I haven't seen like, I haven't seen any clues from Paulo. I would say if I'm the UFC, if I'm looking at this from a UFC promotional perspective, I would think they would want to make the Hamzaa Chamaia fight. I think that makes the most sense. Because otherwise, like who, it. Hamsat fighting can in the air or, or, Costa both make tremendous amounts of sense. But Costa fighting Canaanir and then Shemayev left without like anybody to fight.

Like who's he going to fight? You know what I mean? So we'll see how it all plays out. I don't know if they do Costa versus Canada. There. Do they do Costa versus like Kamara Usman? Maybe you could see that happening. And then you do Humzaat versus Canaaner.

I'm not really sure. I'm sure we'll have an announcement forthcoming sooner rather than later. But yeah, I mean, I'm just happy causes to get a fight, like turn back around at some point this year. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements.

What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won! Feel the fun. when passenger fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 18665331-260 or visit Comexonterio.ca.

Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. Abs while you got ahead? Start my cake of morning. Just got a few questions I want to ask. Firstly, with everything hitting up in the UFC

or the next few months with locations and fights and whatnot, when do you see guys like John Jones, Elia Tuporia, returning possibly, or even Adasania, because, you know, we know they still have fights their schedule being made. And obviously, depending on when and where that happens, I'm curious to know what, you know, the UFC plans to do with those fights. And also, I just want to ask another question.

I'm not sure if you saw the Dana White interview with Lex Freeman, but it was actually quite interesting. But I have to say, this guy, look, I like Dana. He is absolutely fucking hilarious, but delusional at the same time. Because, you know, I mean, look, we all like what he does for the sport. We all like, you know, his ambition and stuff. But he was asked a question about, you know, what's his thoughts in retirement? And he just came with the most, like, out of the most funniest but odd quote ever.

And it just made me laugh for a second because the way he said it, you know, he comes on acting like as if he's been in that same position, some of his own fighters have been. And, you know, I can understand when he may be talking from a business fan perspective. I'll read the quote. Basically, he says something like, you know, everybody talks about retiring. Fuck that shit. What am I going to do when I retire? What would I do? I like to go to war.

I like to battle. I like to win. sometimes I lose, but then I have to come back from the loss. So I would assume he's talking about this power slap and, you know, they know what I can turn this up in Apex. Which is fine. I mean, you know, it's a good, fair business deal for him. But, you know, if you look on the other hand, he's never been like in the fight,

like the people he signed in have done so. And he's kind of not really, I guess, cared enough to do when I thought his fighters, in my humble opinion, until he has helped the sport grow a lot. but yeah i just want to i was just curious on your thoughts on that that's really all i have men have great day no i didn't watch a single second of that i can't put myself through that um just can't can't do it but if if that's something you want to watch go right ahead um look i've been saying forever dana like out of and this is moat like you reading that quote just signified everything i've been saying for like the last three years.

No matter what you say about Dana, regardless, out of spite, he will continue to do his job. I think it's pretty obvious at this point. Like Dana's still the face of the company and all that stuff. But I think it's pretty obvious that, I don't want to phrase this, he's not all in on the UFC anymore. Like he's already won the game. That place runs itself at this point.

if Dana was like, you know, if Dana came out tomorrow and was like, I'm stepping back as my role of CEO of the UFC and I'm going to focus on other things, people would react to it and we create headlines and we talk about it on this show. But a month later, we wouldn't even notice it. We would not even notice it.

We went through a fight week and like John Anick is hosting the press conference and you just have somebody else in there sort of answering the questions or whatnot. Like, that's the only thing we'd really, like, that's the only thing that I think that would really be something we missed. Or it'd be like, okay, it's just not the same, not having Dana at the Post-Fight press conference or something.

And I'm not saying this is like, I'm not saying this in a bad way because Dana deserves a ton of credit for putting the promotion in the position that it's in right now. He's the one when he gave a, when he truly gave a shit, and he was 100% all in on the sport, and they were scratching and clawing and all that stuff. Like, that's what he was at his best.

That's what you saw him at a press conference, just lighten shit up at a pre-fight press conference. Like, he was the guy getting everybody fired up. He was the guy selling the extra pay-per-views. That guy's gone. That guy's gone now. And it's okay. He takes that energy and puts it into other things.

Power slap. And Dana is so passionate about PowerSlapp right now because the MMA media thinks like we don't give a shit about it. As I've said on this show a million times, it ain't for me. I will never watch second one of it. I will scroll through all the slaps on social media. It's just not for me. There are a lot of people that it is for. It is a social media, young group sort of thing that will find success on social media,

but there is not a single television network that will. ever invest in power slap. It's just not going to happen. Like the TBS thing was a was a time buy. TBS was like, oh, data, I got to tell you, I got to have power slap on my network. No, it was seen by all indications, it was clearly a time buy. They wanted to give it a shot. The ratings were horrendous, no matter what they want to tell you. Going on television with that product was a horrible business decision. Made no sense. going on Rumble is brilliant. Being a social media gangbuster, brilliant.

That's where this goes. That's where all the financials. That's where all the money is made on power slap is on social media. And people just scrolling through, oh, what is this? Oh, some rando is getting slapped in the face, defense, like defenseless. There is a majority of people who watch that and be like, oh, this is interesting. But that's where his power lies. And it's because he wants to stick it to the scumbag media who thinks it's like kind of a dumb idea and thought it was in poor taste after everything that happened to Year's Eve that three weeks later they're going to start broadcasting power slap on a network.

I don't think that's like a bad take on it. But as I've said and I'll continue to say, ain't for me, but if it's for you, have fun. Have fun with it. Enjoy it. And I think a lot of those events are going to be more about the experience. You never know which celebrity is going to show up that are clearly being paid to show up and take part in an event. You know what I'm saying? So good on that.

That's where everything is. He wants to sort of hang out with the Nelk boys and, you know, play Blackjack. And he's earned that shit. Have it. Have at it, man. Have at it. But clearly he's not the same guy with the UFC than he was. And we're going to talk like, like later on today, we're going to.

we're going to do the UFC 100 watch party. The Dana White back then compared to the Dana White right now, two totally different cats. Two totally different dudes. The passion for the UFC much different than it is now. Because when you win the race,

you still want it to be successful. You're not going to let it fall. But at the same token, you don't need to do much more. You're getting so much. Like, look at UFC 301 right now. They don't need to, they don't need to do these

like every pay-per-view they put on does not have to be $2.99 or $300 anymore. They can squeeze right through with 301 and it does nothing to their bottom line. They will still profit off of 301 even if nobody buys the pay-per-view. They will still profit

off of it. They are killing it. And it does, you know, the motivations change a little bit when you do with that. And that's kind of where Dana is right now. Do I think he's going to be a guy that's going to sit in that office until he can't do it anymore? Yeah, for sure. No doubt about it.

The other question was just, you know, some of the names, Ilya, Izzy, John. John, I would guess, would be like they'll probably save him for MSG. Could be sooner. Could be sooner. But I think John will fight this year. I certainly think Izzy's going to fight this year. there are rumors that and i haven't confirmed any of this uh there are rumors potentially going back to sydney in august or somewhere in australia in august so that wouldn't be a bad place to do

ddp izzie uh you could do toporia volkadovsky two on that card um yeah i think all those guys are going to fight this year when summer and borgadowski two on that card um yeah i think all those guys are going to fight this year when Beyond would be my guess. We'll see how it plays up. Four-core sports, go ahead. Hey, Mike. Are you being here? Yeah.

All right. So I felt like I agree with you what we said earlier about Rose. I feel like she doesn't look like a complete flyweight, but she filled in. And I feel like she can have some success in this flyweight division. I don't know if she's going to be able to contend with like the, I would say maybe like the top three. I mean, I know she struggled with Manning. I know she was a little bit undersized.

I think if she fights Manning at this, you know, frame that she's in now that she's gone on Saturday, I feel like, you know, it'll be a little bit more close to even, but I would still favor Manning. I would still favor Macy over her. Just because I feel like the way that Macy fights, she fights like a horse. I feel like she fights, you know, like more of like a boss. Bullies have a mentality. And obviously, Shachango and Grasso, you know, they're the top tier. Shachango, Grasso, and Blanchfield are the three top tier fly weights in the women's division.

And I feel like if she's going to have any success, I would feel like she might be able to catch Shepchenko. Just because I feel like she's towards the back end of her career, even though I know she has tied with Alexa in her last fight, I just feel like Rose, you know, there's a limit, and I don't think she's going to be able to capture that flyway title, just because I think that Aaron Blanchfield is going to be the person that's going to be ruling this division for years to come. Another thing I wanted to say was debating on going to this AC card. This AC card is dog shit.

One of the reason I'm debating on going is just because I have a huge bet on Aaron Blanchfield. but I mean outside of Aaron Blanchfield I mean like this is a very apexy type of a card I don't know what's your thoughts on on this AC card and then lastly shout out to Markramanti

I know he put out of a tweet out there that he's going to be leaving the MMA media space and covering the Falcons I know he I think he used to work for for MMA fighting back in the day and the man has put out some tremendous work out there for years covering the sport.

And Sena sucks seeing him not covered the sport anymore, but I'm pretty sure he's going to kill it covering the Falcons in the NFL. All right, thanks, Mike. Thanks, man. Yeah, look, I think Rose could be Macy. I think Rose could be to Grasso. I think Rose could be Chef Chanko, too. We'll see.

You know, it's those types of moments where everyone's like, yeah, I don't think she can do it. That's when she shows up and does it. So, yeah, let's see her fill into that frame a little bit more. I definitely think she can be Macy Barber. Depending on what the betting line was, if Macy is a favorite, I definitely, no matter when that card happens, I'm definitely got to get a dog shot on Rosed Numbi Eunice.

And I know Macy is a hoss, and, you know, she kind of bull rushes a little bit, but you can't do that against somebody like Valentina, like Rosenobie Unis. She'll get kicked right in the face. I know Macy's pretty durable and stuff, but I just think Rose has just seen it all, done it all at this point. And there you go. Yeah, this AC card is a tough one, guys.

I can't lie to you. This is a, this would be a passable apex card. This would be like a, like not a good apex card. This would be a decent apex card. We'd be like, yeah, I think this would be fun. good main event there's stakes there but like that's it like luke's fighting wakim buckley yeah there's some stakes for buckley it's high risk low reward for luke bruno silver chris wyden is interesting because more so on the widenman side

can he get a can he get a win can he get it back if he gets thumped up by bruno sylva is that it something to think about there rudesaboff is uh it's uh it's a It looked real good. We'll see how he does. Bill Algeo, Kyle Nelson, fine fight. Cheaty versus Reese McKee, okay. Nate Landware, Jamal Embers.

That could be fun. John Jaroba, Lupi Godinez could be fun. It's just a lot, man. Like, there's just, it's an apex card in front of people. Even if they had, like, Luke A versus Sean Brady would have definitely bumped this up a little bit. If you had Dominic Reyes versus Carlos Ulberg on there, bumps it up a little bit.

If Landl where Pat Sabatini was the fight, definitely bumps it up a little bit. But yeah, this is about as okay of a fight night as you'll get top to bottom. I don't want to be a negative, Nancy, but like it's just the way it is. Like, look at the fights. The fact that you're even on here debating

whether or not you should go to this event tells me a lot. Let me see. I have to see what this looks. I have to see what the tickets look like right now. I've got to see what this all looks like. Atlantic City. Let's take a gander, shall we?

Let's see what we're looking at here. Eesh. There's a lot of tickets left for this card. A lot. There's like full sections that are still available. Yeah, this is not going to be a sellout. There's no frigging way. This is going to sell out.

but it's okay you obviously still get a profit still gonna make a bunch of money tickets are I think it's like the cheapest seat right now is 135 bucks just don't know if you're gonna get that but you go see

the great G.C. He'll be there I think New York Rick's going to be there as well so yeah, there you have it do I think you'll have like a terrible time watching this card? No but it's just not good. 14 fights

10 p.m. Eastern main card. Is that what this is? Can't be. Let me see. It can't be. Oh, it sure is. 10 p.m. Eastern main card. Holy shitballs.

One, two, three, four, five, six fights in the main card. Golly. We're going to be hanging out until the, after the post show, it's like 3 a.m. guys. So buckle up. This is a 4 p.m. This is a 1 p.m. Eastern prelim 4 p.m. main card card.

This would bump it up a notch if this was at a normal time for what fight night should be. But yeah, I'm with you on that. It's very okay. Well, we're done here. Hate to end it on like that note, but we'll talk more about this card throughout the week. But if you're thinking about that and you're like, man, let's talk about like a stats car. Let's go back in time to when things were in a different place

where everybody was hungry and ready to go. We go back to July of 2009. UFC 100. We're on the road to UFC 300. Tonight, 8 p.m. Eastern on the M.MA fighting YouTube channel, we are going to go back into the time machine. We're going to go back 15 or so years. to UFC 100.

We're going to have a little bit of a watch party. We're going to do it all together. We're going to have some fun. We're going to answer some questions. We're going to have some people on that were in attendance for UFC 100. Some people who are fans watching you who watch UFC 100 live as it happened. I was a person to watch UFC 100 live as it happened. We'll go back in time.

We'll all watch it at the same time. So get your ESPN Plus or your fight pass or wherever you would go back and watch these events ready and at the beginning of the show we'll line things up together we'll go through a brief history we'll watch the fights just the main card

four fights four fight main card that's what it was back then Sexyama Sexyama versus Alan Belcher and we got Dan Henderson versus Michael Bisbing George Sapierre versus Tiago Alves for the UFC Walterway title

and then Brock Lesnar versus Frank Mere 2, the main event of UFC 100. So 8 p.m. Eastern, we're going to have a good time. Next week we'll do UFC 200, and we will get you ready for UFC 300. So a lot of fun going down. A lot of people asking when the Mike Perry golf video is coming out. As of now, the plan is Thursday morning. We are pretty much in the finalizing stages of that video.

wanted to make sure is like absolutely perfect everything we wanted it to be before we we put it out there appreciate the patience and a lot of people when they saw like the teases for it they're like we want it now we want it now totally get it i'm getting nancy about it myself but looks like thursday we're going to be a go for that coming out it's going to be super fun fast-paced a lot of a lot of moving parts it's going to be really cool uh and we want to be able to be like to do more of those. So the way we can do more of those is if you just watch it, it's going to be like 20 minutes. You're going to get nine holes of golf with some chit chat and some fun moments in 20 minutes.

Doesn't get much better than that. So Thursday, get excited. And speaking of Thursday, we will see you back on this show Thursday, 10.15-ish a.m. Eastern Time right here on the NBA fighting Twitter space. Have a great rest of your day. And have a heck of a morning, everybody. You know, Thank you.