MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reaction To Conor McGregor Interview, Wanting 170-Pound Title Shot With Win Over Michael Chandler

Episode Date: March 16, 2023

Conor McGregor made a surprise appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani on Wednesday evening and had a lot to say — including wanting a welterweight title shot against the winner of Saturday's UFC 286 main event between Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman should he defeat Michael Chandler in his return bout. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to McGregor's interview and if he factors into the 170-pound title picture should he defeat Chandler later on this year. Additionally, listener questions include the overall welterweight landscape following UFC 286, where Belal Muhammad sits in the picture, the lightweight vs. bantamweight debate, Islam Makhachev potentially fighting at the UFC's return to Abu Dhabi in October, Aljamain Sterling's bantamweight future and where that puts Merab Dvalishvili, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Thursday, March 16th, 2023. It is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the M.M.A. fighting Twitter spaces. You can hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter on the M.M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. I am IAC. Hope you're all having a wonderful day. We are on the eve of the eve

of UFC 286. We are coming off of a very busy day at the Vox Studios in beautiful New York City. We had our normal edition of the MMA hour with Area Hawani Stack Show, which included names like Francis and Ghanu. And if that wasn't enough, about four or five hours later

freaking Connor McGregor showed up and walked into the studio and did a surprise sit down with Ariel Hawani. It was amazing. Unexpected, it was a surprise. And Connor was on one. In good spirits, had some interesting things to say.

Him and Chandler are going to fight at 170. He wants to get a welterweight title shot with a win. Nate Diaz was report, at least to him, was supposed to be the other coach of the Ultimate Fighter. A lot of interesting nuggets from that conversation. But it was just really cool to just kind of chill out. And all of a sudden, boom, Connor McGregor is going to be in the studio in a few minutes.

So watch the show. And it was awesome. It was amazing. So if you haven't checked it out, go on our YouTube channel, check it out lots of cool nuggets from the notorious Connor McGregor. I'm talking about tough and his future and reflecting from the, the injury that he suffered in the Dustin Porre fight, lots of good stuff. Highly recommend you go check out that conversation. And of course, like I said, UFC 286 going down on Saturday.

There will be a press conference later on this afternoon. My suggestion to you, because those press conferences are really tough hangs, watch BTL. Watch BTL at 1230 p.m. Eastern Time. I think the presser starts at 1. They never start on time. It'll start at like 110 or 115. and we're going to be taping it.

We're going to be recording it. So you can watch BTL, watch the banter and debate, and then you can go watch the press conference after on the NBA Fighting YouTube channel. So we get your covered there. You don't need to watch it live. Just watch it after the fact. All the highlights you can just read on Twitter. Enjoy BTL.

It'll be Jedmishu versus Brian Petrie from the Anakin Florian podcast, the MMA Takes podcast. he has some pretty hot takes himself so him and jet are going to get after it and it's going to be a lot of fun a lot of UFC 286 chatter and stuff like that so I see people lined up for calls I want to address a couple of things um there have been some fights that have been rumored and circulated that I wanted to touch on there were two in particular that I have a little bit of an idea of what's going on if there's others that you can think of feel free to ask me and I'll let you know what I know if I know anything. think. But there's two in particular I wanted to bring up. One, there's talks about there have been reports servicing that a fight between Al Jena Volkanowski and Yaya Rodriguez is in the works for the International Fight Week card in July. The way that the report initially came out is exactly where we're at right now. Because normally when you see an initial report come out, it gets taken into a whole different way,

where the initial report said they're targeting, or at least there's discussions happening about having this fight on this date. And then you start there, and then you kind of graduate to, it's in the works or targeted. In the works or targeted means it's been agreed upon, but it's going to happen.

The only thing left to do is sign the contract. And then from there, the fight is done. it's announced, it's signed everything. We are at step one with that fight from what I have been told. It is exactly as the initial report from Fox Sports Australia says. It is in discussions. That is where it is at. It is not agreed upon.

It's just being talked about. It's being talked about, hey, what do you think of this date? Okay, let's talk about it. That's where we're at right now at that fight. I would venture to guess that's probably the direction we're going to end up going, but as of now to say that fight is targeted or in the works or it's happening premature, but it is being discussed from what I have been told from multiple people for that card, but it is not agreed upon.

It is not, we're not at step two yet. And that kind of leads me to the other one, which made the rounds, has been making the rounds, made the rounds a lot yesterday. reports have come out that April 29th, the main event for that fight night card will be Armand Sarukyan versus Hanata Moikano. I will say, much like the Volcanowski-Ir-Radriguez fight, we're at the same place with that fight. It is being discussed. There are no agreements officially for a date or anything like that. it is being discussed.

That is where that fight is at. So if you see something that says Serukian versus Moikano is going to headline April 29th, that's not true. It's not done yet. We're not past the discussion phase of that fight just yet.

It has been talked about for a while now. From what I understand, Anato Moikano was an option for Jalen Turner. when Jalen Turner ended up fighting Matush Gamrod. And Atta Moikana was an option. I was told that pretty much from Jump Street once I found out Dan Hooker was out of the fight. But there were other things in play. One of those things that was in play was a potential fight with Armand Sarukian for a fight-night main event.

But that's kind of as far as it went. And now we're seeing all these other reports and such. again, it is not done. We haven't gone past step one. It's being talked about, but to say that that fight is done for April 29th, it's not accurate at this moment. So not saying it won't happen. I tend to feel like it's going to, but to say that it's done or we can mark that on

our calendars right now on Thursday, March 16, 2023, we cannot do that. So that's who we're at with those. if there's others that come to mind, bring them up, and we'll go from there. But there's a lot of other things to talk about. So let's talk about him. Tristan, you were first. Let's do this. Yo.

Can you hear me? Yes. All right. So here's the thing. This is going to get crazy here now. So Connor has said he wants to fight the winner of Leon versus Kamara Usman. so if he beats Chandler at 170 that's the fight that he wants

now I think if Kumar Oswald wins I think he's going to take the fight against Connor he's going to wait around for that the issue is if Leon wins and then you have Jorge Massedo wins his fight against Gilbert Burns

Leon's going to have to make a decision either he's going to take the Jorge fight or he's going to take the counter fight. So that's going to like jam up that wealth away division like crazy. So that's the conundure

there. Then so you know, we'll see what happens there. As far as the lightweight division is concerned, what was also announced was October 21st would be a paper you event in Abu Dhabi.

Now, what I've heard, what I was hearing was the UFC had told Islam Makachev we're not going to book you until the Abu Dhabi card rest up we'll see you in Abu Dhabi so if that's the case here's another conundrum here they're going to want to get all these guys

on that Abu Dhabi card that's Islam I think Shafkat Rockbano wants to be on that card Sir Rukin probably wants to be on that card as well so here's the thing about this is you know this again this is hypothetically and nothing's confirmed or whatever, but there's a thought process there. If, um, so if the fact that Bokonowski is targeted or hypothetically, if it's in the words,

fight Jaya, if Bokinowski wins and beats Yair, you could have the possibility of Islam versus Vogue, Abu Dhabi, October 21st. Now, that'll be a quick turnaround for Volka, but I don't think Volker is going to care because he wants to be active. He wants to be that, he's taking that fight. But then you also have Vanilla Darioch versus Charles Olivera.

If the Neo wins, then you most likely, hopefully, who knows, the Neo versus Islam for the lightweight title on Al-Badami. So I just want your thought process. What do you think is going to happen? happen. How do you think this is going to lay out? Obviously, we are talking hypothetical. Nothing is confirmed. Nothing's done. But what's your thought process about this whole situation for the lightweight division as well as for the wealth weight division? Thanks, Mike.

So with welterweight, I don't know. Like, I don't know. With Connor, to me, we're walking before we're running with Connor. Like, I need to see him get cleared. I need to see his name on a poster. I need to see a date. I need to see a location. And I need to see him walk into the octagon and actually fistfight somebody. And then I need to see him win that fist fight before I am putting Connor in any sort of hypothetical about matchup right now. I would say if there's one person who is probably incredibly excited to find out what happened with that Connor interview in the M.A.R. It probably is Kamar Usman. Because if I'm completely, Omar Usman, and I beat Leon Edwards, I am pushing all my chips into the Connor basket.

I'm going bananas for it. Not sure if he gets it. Connor has to do his job. But if I'm Kumar Usman, I'm going all in on that fight, going all in on it. Because his other option is you fight Belal Muhammad, which is probably, if he doesn't go that route, would probably be the fight he gets. And that fight just kind of is what it is. Hamza Chimayev is there. I don't think Rock Banoff gets a title fight right now.

So it's something Uspen can get excited about, I guess. If he wants one last massive payday before he rides off into the sunset, if he wants to get that bag, that red panty night, then he should go all in on Connor. And I would not blame him for it. And people will moan and groan about it, but they shouldn't. That's exactly what he should be doing, because that fight is a thousand million times bigger

than a Belaw-Mohamed fight would be. And if it keeps him away from fighting Hamzaa Tchamayev, that ain't a bad thing either. So he could go that route. I don't think that happens, but again, we have to see Connor actually fight, and he has to win. And he has to do it impressively.

If he goes out there and just like eeks a decision against Chandler, he ain't getting a welterweight title shot. I know he's Connor. But I don't know. Connor is very good at planting seeds and creating headlines and saying the right things. And he said the right things about the UFC in that interview as well.

He wants to end his career there. He has two fights left on his deal if he beats Chandler, if they can guarantee him a Welterweight title shot and a nice big fat extension with a lot of extra dollars signs on there. Maybe that's something that keeps Connor in play for the UFC because he can make a bunch of money outside of it. He can go fight Nate Diaz outside of the UFC

and make all the money. So that's something you can kind of keep in mind there. for Leon I mean he's got if Leon wins he has so many options I mean just so many he could fight the Burns Mazadol winner

easily he could fight Colby and that's a big fight and then he could go for Connor too so he has a lot more options than Kamar Usman has that is for damn sure and I would say if Leon wins the chances of Bilal Muhammad getting a title shot next are gone there's a 0% chance that happens

but we'll see as far as lightweight goes it's probably again Daryush has to win I would expect Islam to fight on that Abu Dhabi card I think you talked to weighing in about it and the UFC said they're going to kind of keep them on ice

we'll see you in October and Abu Dhabi him versus Darius would be fine I don't think it's going to be Vulk I don't think they'll do the Volk one that quickly they could if Darius loses and Max Holloway beats Arnold Allen, they could go back to that web.

They could go back there. They could do Fiziv. They could do Justin Gachey. They could do Dustin Poirier. So, Maka Chiv has options. I would prefer, I would prefer Volk to defend the featherweight title at least one more time.

Like if you beat Jair and Arnold Allen beats Holloway, go fight Arnold Allen. You beat Arnold Allen. It's two wins. Then you can go fight his last year. again if you want. If that's what you really want to do, go do it. But that card, that card is going to be stacked. That's the deal they have in place. They ain't bringing Islam versus B'Neil and then no other title fights. They're bringing two, maybe three title fights. It's going to be

another stack card like 280 was. It's going to be gigantic. So it's not like they need that card to sell a bunch of pay-per-views and just load it up with Star Power. You don't need to. They're just going to stack it anyways. So I don't know. Again, I mean, like you said, a lot of this is hypothetical. A lot of things have to play out. A lot of wins need to happen. A lot of walks to the cage need to happen. A lot of dominoes need to fall. But yeah, it's kind of a wait and see. But I feel like, I feel like poor Bala Muhammad is just going to be waiting forever for a title shot at 170. and 155, Islam's going to have a bunch of options ahead of him. So we shall see how it plays out.

A lot to think about between now in October. Let's see if we can get Mikey in here. I don't know. Mikey's connection has been kind of cursed. I don't know if it's like you need to get off Wi-Fi. Maybe that's the case. I don't know. But that wheel is spinning again.

And it's, I don't know, man. Maybe turn the Wi-Fi off. and go data, see if that works. I don't know. You're the only one this happens to you, Mikey. Four Corner Sports. Hello. Hey, Mike. So I was actually in the city Tuesday night,

meeting up with friends after the Ranger game, and they had hit me out saying that Connor was in attendance. So I was actually going to be heading home, and I ended up with them. And I actually saw Connor at Mustang Harry's near the garden. And I got to tell you this. there's no way that man's ever making 155. The man is huge.

I mean, I'm 200 right now, and this guy looks bigger than me. And I'm like, the chances of him fighting at 155, and when Arrow was asking him, I mean, I understood why he scoffed at it. He said 170, because, I mean, for him to make 155, I mean, he's going to have to give up a lot of, you know, the eating and giving up a lot of the heavy lifting and stuff like that. but yeah i see him fighting realistically maybe september and the fact that he said he wants to fight multiple times don't be surprised if he fights that in december i mean december is usually like a major pay-per-view or even november at the madison square garden card i do believe that we're going to be in a week in a very weird situation if you know this all has to play out this way leon defends the belt against um oosman

Masado wins. Obviously, you know, they're going to book if that happens, Masado and Leon. And what kind of a world do you think this would be if Maslow finds a way of capturing the title and then we get the fight that we wanted to see years ago, Mazala versus Conrader for the belt? And last question I wanted to ask you is what is your favorite moment? They've you seen when the UFC has gone to London. Like, what's the moment in a fight that stuck out with you most? All right, thanks, Mike. Oh, man.

Sheesh. I don't know. I guess, like, top of my head for a moment, Molly's spinning back elbow is pretty sick. The reaction to that, just all around, was pretty cool. That whole event was incredible. So, I mean, I'll just go with that. I can think a little bit more. Michael Bisbing's walkout before he fought Dan Henderson was really cool.

That was really cool. The London crowd always shows up. They always show up and they always bring it. So yeah, that'd be it right now. I'll dig a little deeper and try to think about it. I'm sure. Like Jose would have like five moments right off the top of his head. Could we get like a Connor Mazdal title flip?

I mean, why the hell not? I mean, sure. I mean, if that's how it plays out, then there's a very good chance that happens. So, but again, just so many dominoes have to fall. I have to see Connor actually fight and he has to win. And I'm not surprised this one's at 170. I'm not ruling out him going back to 55 ever. Wonderboy was with him and he said Connor's about 180 right now, 185.

And Wonderboy said he's bigger than Connor, even though the picture didn't really look that way because Connor knows how to like bulk himself up from pictures according to Wonderboy. and if Wonderboy says it, I believe it, damn it. So we'll see. But despite him fighting Chandler at 170, that's not a surprise. I mean, Chandler even said it himself, let's do it at 170. What's Connor going to say, no? No, Michael, we're going to cut an extra 15 pounds.

And Chandler's like right around, Chandler's a pretty big dude too. Like, he's not the tallest guy, but he's built like a brick shithouse. So he's probably right around the same weight as Connor right now. now. He's just a big dude. He cuts a ton of weight to get to 155. So yeah, if you don't have to cut those extra pounds and it doesn't really matter, just do it at 170. But Connor coming back is just going to be gigantic for the promotion this year. They need him. They're doing well, but Connor's a big boost. Stockholders will be happy when, when Connor comes back.

Carcacks. What's up, buddy? So I just wanted to know So let's just say Benil and Fiziev both win their next fight Because of how long In terms of dates The next tell show is for Islam I mean the next title fight is for Islam

I would say Binald deserves it more Who would you want Fiziev to fight Hmm Porre? That'd be the one I would make Him and Porre would just be Absolute insanity If Bineal wins you have to give him the shot. Like, you just have to. And I hope, I hope,

B'Neil has the wherewithal to just not fumble it when, if he beats Olivera and there's a mic in front of him, just do not say what you said last time, I'll fight 10 more guys. Just say, hey, Islam, I'll see you in October. Like, you don't have to talk trash. Just say, I've done enough. Islam, you've already said that you want to fight me. Let's go. Just do that. Then you'll get your shot. You're undeniable at that point. That's the perfect card to do it on. Because again, you're going to draw a gate. It's going to be a massive card.

You don't have to go crazy. You don't have to be too cute with it. Islam in the main event, against B'Neil. Just do it. And then if Fizim beat Justin Gagyi, Porier is going to be like, all right, I'll fight that guy. That's going to get him excited. That's going to get him excited.

But even Fiziv understands the situation he's in. He doesn't think it would be fair for him to, jump over Benile. He wouldn't want to do that to him. But if he, and if he beats Porre, he gets a title shot next. So that's why I'm not, that's why I really don't want to see the Volk fight right now. Like, we don't need it. We don't need the Volk fight. The first, it was great. But it's not like these two guys don't have options right now. Of course, you need Arnold Allen to beat Max Holloway and that makes things a little more interesting at 145. That guarantees Volk has like another guy to fight. But Bokachev's got plenty of guys to fight right now.

if Benial wins, that is. And Fiziv wins. And even if Gajie wins, like Gachi is a fresh matchup for Islam too. So they'll be fine. But I would love to see, if all those things play out, Bineal wins, Fizier versus Porier would be sick. You could throw that on the same card. Throw that on the same card.

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Hello, Yaya. Peace Mike. How are you doing, bro? What's going on? Not much. Question. So for Jalen Turner, where do you think his path is to getting a title shot? I mean, I know the last fight was really close with Gamrod. He's ranked 10th right now. What do you think is his path to getting a title shot? You know, he's very talented, really long. Just needs to work on his take down defense and, you know, we'll see what happens from there. So what do you think? Thank you. I mean, unfortunately, his path's a long one.

And even if he beat Matush Gamrod, his path is still going to be a long one. It's just going to be a little bit longer now. So if I am him, I am trying to get that Dan Hooker fight back. That's exactly where I would want to go if I was him. Because I think he beats Dan Hooker and Dan's a pretty decent name in this division. So that's probably where I would go. If I were him, I would throw my eggs into that basket. but it's going to be a road

it's going to be a road for him it's going to be a road for everybody Sarukyan Grant Dawson all those guys who have tremendous upside but it's just this division is just where it's at right now just all the names

are still the same they all just fight each other we're starting to get a little bit of separation now that we're getting Gachi versus Viziv but we'll see if that trend continues and some of these other names get these opportunities because there is just no reward for a guy like Dustin Porre to fight Armand Saruky on right now.

There's just zero. Zero upside for Dustin Pori to fight that guy. None with where he's at right now. So there's this just new crop of 55ers that need their shots. It's just we need guys to lose. Like, unfortunately, like the best thing that could happen for the Jalen Turner's of the world is that Rafael Viziv goes out and beats Justin Gachi. That happens.

Gachi falls down a little bit. Gaci's going to have to fight another up-and-comer. And that's how it works. Like if Olivera loses, Oliver is going to have to fight another up-and-comer. He's going to have to fight a guy on the come-up. So we need some of these guys to lose. Stinks to say, but that's really how this division is going to move forward, is that some of these bigger names is going to have to lose fights.

Chandler losing to Connor opens that up too. Because Chandler takes a step back and he'll have to fight one of those guys too. Connor ain't going to do it. Connor's not going to fight Sarukyam. But if Chandler loses again, what's he going to do? He's gotten, he got the Connor bag. He's gotten tremendous opportunity after tremendous opportunity. There's nowhere else for him to go.

but to fight those guys. So we need, Fiziv winning would be huge to get this path going for Turner and all those other guys. But again, this is 55 and it's a weird division with a lot of big names.

I'm going to try to get Tocke in here, but his record is spinning. All right, Tocke try again. Let's see if we can get Mikey in here. Can we do it? Can it happen? I don't think it's, looking great. Let's try Patrick.

Hey Mike, what's going on? What's that, ma'am? Not much. Just chilling, just chilling. I wanted to ask you a little bit about the bantamweight title picture. It's getting a little bit interesting with how things are looking. Obviously, Sterling and Tehudo are fighting. But when Sterling, if Sterling wins, do you think he definitely has to move up in order to make that room for Marab?

Or if Sterling loses, does Marab just, slot himself right in or does Marab drop down? Like, I'm just wondering what you think happens at Bantamweight at this point because my personal opinion, I think Al Jermaine probably beats Suhudo, moves up to featherweight, becomes another possible title challenger for Volcanovsky, and then Marab and O'Malley probably fight for like a vacant title while Cheeto waits for the winner of that. That's just my opinion. I just wanted to ask what you think.

Thank you, Mike. Have a good one. Yeah, it's a weird place in the sport. and there's just so many, like, hypothetical questions that come. I think Marab's going to have to fight again. He's going to have to fight at least one more time before he gets the title fight. Might even be more, depending on how this all plays out. Because I know Sterling wants to make room for Maraub and, you know, cool.

But at the same token, if he beats Ahuto, he's going to fight Sean O'Malley. He's not going up to 45 without fighting the biggest name in the day. division. It'd be crazy to not do that. And Marab seems to be okay with waiting. And Marab seems to feel like that's what he's going to do. Even on the MAA hour, he said he's going to go beat Sehudo, they're going to go beat up Sean O'Malley,

and then he's going to move up to him 45. So that's what I think's going to happen. And I think even if Sehudo wins, he's going to fight Sean O'Malley. Because while I say, well, I am not the biggest supporter of how Henry Suhudo retired and how he came back, The man is not a moron. He understands that he has a very favorable matchup against the biggest name in the division.

Sean O'Malley's just sitting there waiting for the winner of this fight, and both of those guys are probably going to be heavily favored to beat him. Stylistically, they have very good chances of beating Sean O'Malley and make a lot of money by doing it. That is the definition of prize fighting. Get the biggest bag, least amount of competition. And I'm not saying this to dog Sean, because Sean can beat anybody.

A lot of people don't think Sean could beat Pieter Yan. Sean has a very interesting style, and you never know. At this point, to say that nobody has a chance against anybody, after seeing what we've seen

in the last couple of years, you can't say that anymore. But both those guys are going to be minus 200 plus favorites over Sean O'Malley. You got to take that fight before you go up. And if Aljo,

let's just say Aljo does win and moves up. Sure, you could do Marab versus shot O'Malley. But if Chito Vera beats Corey Sandhagen, that ain't happening. If there's a vacant title to be had and Cheeto wins,

they're doing Cheeto versus O'Malley for the vacant title. And Marab's just going to have to sit there and wait, and he's going to be pissed, and he probably should be. But the UFC just doesn't seem like terribly high on Maram. They just don't seem that way.

Dana hasn't really had a great thing to say about them in like two years. In like the last year and a half. All he's been saying is, eh, should probably be more exciting. Eh, should probably have a different line of thinking when it comes to fighting your friend. And the UFC takes that stuff personally. They take that and they put it in the vault and they would draw that when they need to. So I think Marav's going to have a road. By this time next year, I don't think Maraub's,

Rob has a title shot lined up, which is crazy to say after that performance, but just, this is just what the division is with O'Malley hanging out in the position he's in. I just don't think Sterling's going right up to 45. I think he's going to, if he beats Sohudo, he's going to fight Sean O'Malley and get that bag for himself. Then he'll move up. Then he'll make room for his buddy. But you've got to look up for number one.

And I think that's what Aljo's going to do. I think Alju even deep down knows he fumbled the bag and he knows he should be fighting Sean O'Malley at UFC 288. he's going to fight Henry Sehudo. So he's going to have to wait to try to secure that bag. But he had the bag, fumbled it right away, and that bag was just covered in butter. He tried to keep picking it up.

It just kept slipping out of his hands. And now he's going to fight Sehudo. And that's where we're at right now. And Marab is the guy that's going to be on the outside looking in. And he's been that way for a minute. He's been that way for a little while, in my opinion. Even after the Aldo win, of all the names that were in play, he was the last of them.

And I think the best thing for Marab right now is that I think for Marab he becomes the biggest Corey Sanhagan fan in the world. Because if Sanhagen beats Cheeto, that's probably the next fight for Maraub. I think Maraub would beat Corey Sanhagen. He would have a very good chance of beating Corey Sanhagan with his style.

And that will probably be the fight that gets him over the hump. And I think even if he loses, the best thing he could hope for is fighting Corey Sanhagen. That's why I'm on to the next one. That was the pick. Win or lose, he fights Sanhagen. Because other than that, they're going to try to feed him to Umar and Amagamatov.

And, boy, imagine having that performance against Piotr Yan, arguably having a case for a title shot. And as your reward, you have to fight Umar and Amaga Madoff to get that. Oof, that's tough. But that's kind of the position he's in right now. It's unfortunate. Let's go to DC Betts. It's up DC Betts.

You're muted right now. Can you hear me now? Yep. What's up, ma'am? Hey, what's up, brother? I love the show first time calling. I'm usually at work when this goes on live. But I just wanted to call and have my boy New York Rick's back on the new,

on the lightweight, band-em-weight argument on, I think it was on Monday's show of the MMA hour. And I was kind of just wondering. which side do you take on on whether the Bannamweight or the lightweight is, you know, they were saying deeper, fun, interested, all of that. But I'm more on deeper.

You know, the lightweight to me, the top 15 is just a deeper division rather than Bannamweight. You know, Bannamweight has great guys in the top 15, but I think there's only so many that you think can actually become a champion. Where in lightweight, I think there's, you know, a few more guys.

So I wanted to ask that. And then my second question is, is who do you think in the top five of the lightweight? Because the top five is Chandler, Darius, Gachi, Porre, and Olivera. I think in the next three to five years, it's very likely that all of those guys could either be very close to retirement or already be retired. So who do you think probably takes off first out of those five? And then that'll be it. Thank you, Mike. Appreciate it, man.

Have a heck of a morning. Thanks, man. So I'm on team lightweight in this battle. I've been on, it is, it's just lightweight. Lightweight's the Cadillac Division. There's a reason why, and I love Bannamweight.

Don't get me wrong. I love Bannamweight. I love Bannamweight division. It's a great damn division. It's very deep. It's very fun. It's very interesting division. But Lightweight's Cadillac Division.

Sterling Sohudo is headlining the May pay-per-view, but you throw that fight on any other card and it's not headlining. It's not. But Islam Makachev is going to be a main event every single fight he has. The lightweight title will be the main event on every card that it's on 99.9% of the time. Bannamweight, not so much. And there's a reason for that because lightweight is the Cadillac division. I like Bantamweight.

to me bannamweight like i always called bannam weight like lightweight to me is like when we look at like 90s w w f lightweight is like the heavyweight title it's like the world wrestling federation title banamway to me is the intercontinental title which is still damn good it's the second best title but it's not it's not the main event it's not the draw lightweight is the draw Bannamweight is great and the intercontinental title is always like these are the best wrestlers, the best workers, always had the best matches.

But lightweight is just infinitely more interesting. There's just way more star power at 155. It's just the better division. The depth of 35 is great. I mean, you got Umar in there. Jonathan Martinez looked good. Chris Gutierrez is coming up. Saeed's looked pretty good.

He's coming up the loss. Cody Stamen is still a really solid hand. Agent Yanya is getting ready to fight Rob Fonz. Davy Grant's had his moments. And we got guys like Javi Bosharad on the way up and others like that. Montel Jackson I've been very high on. But lightweight is just, it's just a killer division. Like I can look at Bannamway and be like,

oh, Chris Gutierrez is a really good fighter, but do I feel like this guy could be fighting for a world title? Don't really know. Jonathan Martinez, same thing. Solid hand. Do I think he'll be fighting for a belt? Probably not. Ricky Simone, maybe.

Song Yidong in the next five or six years, possibly. But look at Layway. Jalen Turner could certainly fight for a title. Grant Dawson could certainly fight for a title. Demir is Magulov, depending on. on what he does. He could fight for a title. Armand Sarukian could fight for a title. Matush Gamrod could fight for a title. All these guys. Guram Kutatsalate is really good. Drew Dober is really good. I don't even think he's really ranked. He might be ranked. I'm not sure.

Then you have guys like Patty Pimblit is a bigger name than anybody in the Banimateamweight Division. And you guys, you guys like Joe Selecki, who's really good. He's like five and one in the UFC. He's like a top 35 lightweight. Israel Bonfim is probably like a top 40 lightweight And that dude is a problem Jamie Malarkey's very solid Mike Davis Probably like a top 50 lightweight

But he could beat a lot of guys like it's lightweight It's lightweight 100%. I love Banimateamweight But it's lightweight's correct answer I'm thinking I'm pondering your other question But let's go to uh let's go to Dixon Hello Dixon You're just muted

Can you hear me now? Yep, I got you, man. How are you? Hey, Mike. How's you going? Good. I'm hearing reports of UFC Canada for UFC 289. What can you tell us about that? I'm hearing reports that it's going to be coming to Vancouver.

Can you confirm or deny? Thanks so much. So I've seen reports. It looks like they're, it looks like they're looking. It looks like Canada is a very strong possibility. I've talked to some folks. Nothing has been decided. I saw like Vancouver was like pinpointed,

but that's not true, I'm told. It's in play, but it's not like, there's no like front runner right now. Who have confirmed information for me in the past when it comes to this card are saying Canada is the hope. That's what they're hoping for. So I would not be surprised

if 289 ends up in Canada. Aaron Bronsetter, who I feel like covers this about as good as anybody and is definitely the most reliable in this case. I think he touted Vancouver is an option. Calgary is another. Edmonton is another. And if he says it, then it's gospel to me.

So he would know better than I. So I would say follow Aaron when it comes to all of this because he probably has the finger on the pulse more than anybody else does. And he's definitely the most reliable when it comes to all of this. So, yeah, it would not surprise me at this point. But anybody that I've talked to about it have said they were not told anything specifically, but the hope is Canada for that June card. But that's as far as my knowledge goes.

But like I said, just follow Aaron and you know the information will be, Pretty damn close to being as accurate as possible. So good on him. And I'm trying to figure out this lightweight question that you had from before about like the top five guys who could be on their way out first. Something to like something tells me it's Olivera. But I don't know. All right.

Let's pull up the UFC rankings. Not the only rankings. Oliver, Poria, Gaichi, Darius Chandler. I don't think Poria has a lot left He's been pretty clear about that He probably has a couple more fights left Maybe he gets a title shot and that'll be it Oliver maybe

Oliver has just got so many miles on him He's been doing this for so long Chandler's another guy He's getting up there in age But man he's just getting Talk about Just a change in fortune for Michael Chandler Holy shit

coming from Bellator, he goes out, it beats Benson Henderson, gets that quick finish over Benson Henderson, last fight before he becomes a free agent. And then he comes over, he becomes free agent, signs with the UFC, immediately gets booked on a big card against Dan Hooker,

has a great moment, finishes Hooker in a fun fight, cuts that promo. Then he gets a title shot. After beating Dan Hooker, He gets a freaking title shot. Almost wins the belt. Gets finished by Charles Oliver.

Then he fights Justin freaking Gagee at Madison Square Garden, and they have a fight of the year contender. Loses. Then he fights Tony Ferguson. Gets dropped in the first round. Ends up highlight reeling Tony Ferguson. Kicks him in the face. And then he fights Dustin Porreier at UFC 281,

fun-ass fight gets stopped. So he's two and three in the UFC. All exciting fights since coming over from Bellator. You know who he fought before he fought Benson Henderson and Bellator?

He fought Sydney Outlaw. He fought Sydney Outlaw. He went from losing the title to Brent Primis to fighting Goichiamauchi, Brandon Gertz, winning the belt back against Brent Primis,

gets knocked out by Patricia Pitbull, fights Cindy Outlaw, fights Benson Henderson, who just retired, and now he got Dan Hooker, a title fight, Justin Gagie,

Tony Ferguson, Dustin Porre, and now he's fighting Connor McGregor. That is insane. That is an insane run of big time fights. And he's two and three.

He's two and three in the UFC. And now he's going to get the red panty nights, He's getting the big bag to fight Connor. Incredible. No one could have predicted this. Nobody could have predicted this. Nobody.

But good on him because he got it done. And now he's going to fight Connor McGregor and make a floppy-dity trillion dollars. And he's two and three in the UFC. Incredible. Daniel, what's up, buddy? Hey, Mike. Heck of a morning to you. More, I guess, of just kind of like a random question.

here just because we just keep talking about Bandomweight lightweight just going back for these divisions just a question at Bannamweight for you um i mean there's only been honestly a handful of champions at 1 35 just because of when the division was made and how many guys held it um like dominic and tj and henham brown and things uh i mean where do you think someone like cody garbrand a former champion is going to go on this division um like i said maybe more random just because i'm pinpointed just him specifically but Just curious what you think kind of his future is going to look like if his new like decision wrestling style you think is going to be, it's going to work for him later against some of these top guys. If you think he's going to end up facing any of these top guys, just curious what you think that that'll look for him being a former champ at this division.

Thanks, Mike. That's like, I mean, that is, that is a great question. I have no idea. I have no idea. And you heard it because on onto the next one, after 285. I said, and this is the fight I've wanted since the tetrology fight between Brandon Moreno and Davis and Figurato, throw him in there with Figgy. And let's see, sink or swim time.

Like, this is where we're at with Cody Garbrand. And I understand he's been knocked out a bunch. But let's not, like, let's not forget. Like, I understand he's gotten finished a bunch. And I understand that Kai Karfran's lit him up. And maybe he was the weight cut. maybe was he shouldn't have gone down to 25 and all that stuff this dude

let's look at the losses finished by tj finished by tj finished by pedro munoz that was like i mean that was just that pedro munoz fight was insane just bolts hafiela sunsoe gets knocked by kai kar france again called the weight cut personal issues all that stuff but this dude went hammered this dude went five rounds with rob font

and he got hit an awful lot in that fight. And I know Rafon isn't like a massive knockout artist. But he hits a lot and he hits really hard. And Cody took 176 strikes in that fight. He took 176 significant strikes in that fight. And made it to the final bell. So I think like maybe this new approach from Cody is probably going to keep him from just getting annihilated.

from everybody like you know what I mean it'll help his durability it's just a matter of I need to see what happens when Cody gets into that position where he gets hit and how he handles getting hit how does that work does he turn back into war Cody where he just puts his feet into the fire and just starts throwing bombs that that's how he gets knocked out because he just turns everything off. He just gets into war mode and gets finished. So I think Figgies the fight. I think that's the fight.

And then we see where he is. If he goes out there and beats Figgie Smalls, then we have something here. We got something. But if not, he's, I mean, he's just going to be, I don't know what you do. Because I don't even know if he's like a litmus test or a gatekeeper kind of position.

I don't even know if he's like, I think he's like beyond, like behind that now. But if he beats Figgie, he's in a whole different situation. So that's why I like that fight. That's why I like that fight. And a lot of people are like, oh, you try to get this guy killed?

No, but let's see, like if you want to see what he has, you have to give him a fight like that. You can't just give him Trevin Jones. You can't just keep fighting those guys. You gave him Trevin Jones. He was like a minus 14 trillion favorite in that fight. And he won, but it wasn't.

wasn't anything the right home about. He said he had a little bit of an injury, the day of the fight, and maybe that hampered him, but let's see if that's true. Let's see if that's true. And if he beats Finging, go fight. Then we can do the Dominic Cruz fight. And then we can see what he has. But we have to test him.

We have to test him against somebody who's going to try to finish him. Travis certainly wasn't trying to finish him. He tried a little desperation at the end. It got a little hairy, but. Let's just, it's sink or swim time. Like, we're beyond, we're beyond the testing fights. We're beyond the stepbacks. I don't know how much further back you can go from Trevin Jones.

And I'm not saying that to be a jerk, but just look at the rankings. Like, look at your own personal rankings. Where did you have Trevin Jones in your personal rankings at 135 pounds? Top 50, 40 at best? And he won the decision against Trevin Jones. Like we're beyond that. He got his big step back. Let's throw him in there with somebody who's going to get after him.

And let's see how he does. And then we can see what we can do with him. Otherwise, it's just going to be a slow, slow burn for a guy who won the belt. I don't know. Maybe 1.25. I don't know. He's such a mystery right now. But that's why I like the figgy fight.

That's why I like that one. Viking. Hello. Hello, Mike. What's up? Everything is good. How is your weight lifting is going? It's going well.

I'll be back there tonight to continue on. All right. What about the BTL who is going to? My gang, I'm losing you. All right. Can you hear me? Am I audible? I lost you.

I had you and I've lost you. Try again, though. We'll get you back in. Let's try Matthew here. See if we can get Matthew in. Hey, Mike. I just want to say, to ask about.

I got like five more minutes. Kid has a half day today, so I have to go pick them up in a few minutes. Can you hear me? Matthew can't get you in. Try again. Let's see if we can give Viking back in here. Viking, do we have you now?

Viking. I'm not getting anything from you, buddy. I had you, and then you just, yeah, I just lost you all together. Viking, I think I hear you now. Yes, okay. You go right? We're good.

Now we're good. All right. So just tell me if Islam had fought binildarious instead of Alexander Wolkonowski. So what should have been pound for pound rankings by then if Islam beats binildarios? I think bin Ladenairius has a better resume than Yehi Rodriguez. and yeah, Rodriguez and

Josh Emmett. So who could have been the pound for pound number one by then if Islamish

Daniel Darius instead of fighting Alexander Volkonowski. I mean, it doesn't change for me. It doesn't change

for me. I still have Islam number one. And he'll stay number one. Oops. Yeah, he'll stay number one.

I still have Islam number one. I've, bulk at two and I have John Jones at three. That's how I did my pound for pound rankings. Islam is Islam's not the wild card in this conversation to me. It's John Jones. It's John Jones.

If he goes out there and just melt steepe, it's going to be hard to not put him at that number one spot. But him beating Cyril gone just wasn't enough for me. I'll put him from unranked to three, but I kept Islam a number one. I put Volka 2. But to me it's 1A, 1B, and then John's right behind him. But that's where I'm at right now.

So Islam doesn't change. He just stays where he's at. But John's the wild card in this whole situation. But I don't know. It's one of those things where, like, Volk's probably going to fight first. And if he just goes out there and finishes Yaya Rodriguez and just dominates him, maybe Volk gets one for me, like he inches ahead.

And then if Islam beats Bineal or whoever, he inches back up ahead, it's just a weird time for the pound for pound discussion, especially now that John is in play. But again, it's all based on what you think and what you believe. It's just amazing to me that these conversations get people so upset.

It's crazy. Pound for pound lists are what you feel. It's like the goat list. Some people think that if you got popped by Usada or had any sort of, there's a freaking massive helicopter flying over my house. All right. If you have any kind of an asterisk in your name, it just automatically eliminates you from the discussion.

Other people don't care. So some people have GSP as number one. Some people have John Jones's number one. Some people have Anderson Silva on the list. Some don't. It's just based on what you think and what you believe. And that's kind of how I view the pound for pound conversation too. If you have Volkanowski number one based on his performance against Islam, I had no issue with that.

It's not how I see it. But if you see it that way, I'm not going to argue with you about it. I don't think you're wrong. There is a case to be made for that. I couldn't put Volk above Islam because they fought and Islam won. That was my reasoning for it. It was a great competitive fight. And Volk didn't lose anything.

Probably gained something from a law. which is very tough to do in the sport. But to me, it's just not, they fought. That's how I view it by and far. Like if somehow we could shrink these fighters into being in the same weight class or bulking these fighters up to being in the same weight class and they fought each other, how would it go?

Well, we saw it. We saw Islam fight Volk and Islam won. So to me, I can't ignore that. I couldn't put Volk number one with Islam winning the fight. But if you put a mess, If you did that, I'm not mad at you for it. I'm not mad at you for it.

All right. So I think we're done here. Sorry about the connection issues. That sometimes that happens. But at least you got Viking back in. And I know it wasn't the problem with Mikey Bats earlier because I don't know why we can't get Mikey in here. So we'll be back again tomorrow, 10 a.m. Eastern. We'll do it again.

It's going to be a busy couple of days, my friends. 12.30 p.m. Eastern. We got BTL. it's going to be a fun one. Jed Mishu versus Brian Petrie. A lot of UFC 286 chatter. We'll talk about some of the debates

and discussion from this past weekend with Marab, with Oost and Amaga Madoff's win, and then just a ton of UFC 286 chatter on the back end of BTL. Basically, it's going to be rounds two through four and then some. And then tomorrow we'll have this show,

way in show, pretty early in the morning. I believe that's the plan. And then preview show, 2 p.m. Eastern tomorrow is what I am told for the UFC 286 preview show. And then my happy ass is on an airplane. First thing Saturday morning, off to New York for the watch party. Don't forget, UFC 286, early start time. 1 p.m. Eastern prelims.

So we're going to do the People's Pre-Fight show around 1215. and then main card starts at 5 p.m. Eastern. We'll go live on the watch party at 4.45. And then we'll post-flight show, post-flight press conference, all that good stuff. And then AK and I will be live on Sunday morning for on to the next one. So strap in. It's going to be a very, very busy next several days. So thank you.

We'll see you back on this show tomorrow at 10 a.m. Eastern. Have a great rest of your Thursday. And as always, have a heck of a morning, everybody. You know, Thank you.