MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reaction To Dana White Slapping His Wife During Physical Altercation

Episode Date: January 3, 2023

On Monday evening, a video of a physical altercation involving Dana White was released that showed the UFC president slap his wife on New Year's Eve. White subsequently spoke to TMZ to discuss what happened and that he and his wife both apologized to one another, but other big questions loom in the aftermath. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to the video of the incident in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and asks what will be done in response from a UFC and Endeavor perspective moving forward, and what impact there would be if White were to step down, or be removed from his position. Additionally, listener topics include Damir Ismagulov retiring, the horrifying moment during Monday Night Football with Demar Hamlin, the future of the featherweight division should Alexander Volkanovski defeat Islam Makhachev at UFC 283, Ilia Topuria's ceiling, 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: 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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What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer,

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

It is Tuesday, January 3rd, 2022, and it is indeed a heck of a morning, live on the NBA fighting Twitter spaces for the first time in 2023. You can hear the show in its entirety show thereafter on the MMA Fighting Podcasting Network. I am Mike Heck. Hope everyone's having a fantastic start to 2023. We capped off 2022 with the Bellator versus Rising Card on Saturday. I gave my thoughts on that event on a little bonus podcast that dropped yesterday morning. So if you haven't heard that, you can go back and check it out. I thought it was a pretty solid event.

It's probably not a main card. We're going to go back and watch over and over again, but there were some compelling things that happened on that card. AJ McKee was the standout. Dude just wanted to have fun, and it was a lot of fun watching him have the fun that he wanted to have, excuse me, at Saitama Super Arena. So if you want my thoughts on that card,

you can go back and check that out. And then yesterday, so basically my plan for today was to kind of just get your thoughts on Bellator versus Risen the last week. Because we ended Friday show, I was trying to maybe break some news on the program about a potential fight that I thought a lot of you would be very excited about. And it turned out, we confirmed the news a little bit later on after the show ended. Adrian Yannas, Rob Font, April 8th, which is supposed to be UFC 287. That's sort of the plan right now. That's a banger of a fight. And then we're going to have a conversation about our resolutions as MMA fans and pundits for 2023.

And we could still do some of that stuff. It was shaping up to be a pretty positive show. And then last night, things just got weird in the not just the MA world, but the sports world. And before we talk about the big story in MMA, and we'll get to that in a moment, I think it's only fitting to talk about the Damar Hamlin situation. Good Lord, if you guys were watching the Cincinnati Bengals Buffalo Bills game, you probably saw the clip, you probably saw the video, everything that happened there, just scary, scary stuff. And they ended up postponing everything, not because of the NFL, but

because of the coaches and the players taking a stand and saying, you know what? We ain't playing. We ain't playing. NFL from all reports and from the broadcast, gave both teams like a five-minute warning to get back and warm up. And then Cincinnati coach goes over and talks to the Buffalo coach, and they all come to an agreement, we ain't playing. And there hasn't been really a ton of updates on Demar Hamlin at this point. he had a pulse, he wasn't breathing on his own,

where some of the reports, he's critical, the hospital that he's at right now, they did not want to provide any kind of a statement late last night, but obviously I think as a sports community, even though this is a combat sports website, it's an M.MA website, I think our positive thoughts, our positive vibes, thoughts and prayers go out to Damar Hamlin and his family

and hope he can pull through this. I think it was important to talk about this because even though the sports are different, we're all sports fans at the end. And, you know, this is something that could happen in MMA too. And it's just scary, scary stuff. Hard to transition from that to the other big news that we got yesterday. We saw a video dropped from TMZ with you. F. F. F. President Dana White, who got into a physical altercation with his wife while on vacation

in Cabo, San Lucas, on New Year's Eve. They're at a nightclub. They're up in the VIP section. You see Dana and his wife having a conversation. He leans in to sort of whisper something into his wife's ear. He grabs her wrist and then she slaps him in the face. And then Dana White slaps her in the face multiple times before it gets separated and it was just awful to watch. And let me just address this right up the bat. I see some of the comments. I've seen some people come out and say, well, equality, bro, she hit him first. Like, shut the hell up.

Shut the hell up. Even Dana himself, even, and I'll talk about this in a minute. there is no excuse for a man putting his hands on a woman, just none. And Dana, of course, along with the drop of this video, did an interview with TMZ, a separate interview. And he basically said, my wife and I were out, I'm reading it from M.AFighting.com. My wife and I were out on Saturday night on New Year's Eve, and unfortunately that's what happened. I'm one of the guys you've heard to say for years. There's never, ever an excuse for a guy to put his hands on a woman.

and now here I am on TMZ talking about it. My wife and I have been married for almost 30 years. We've known each other since we're 12 years old. We've obviously been through some shit together. We've got three kids and this is one of those situations that's horrible. I'm embarrassed, but it's also one of those situations that right now we're more concerned about our kids. We have three kids.

And obviously since the video popped up, we've shown the kids the video. We're more focused on our family right now. People are going to have opinions on this. And most of the people's opinions would be right, especially in my kids. You don't put your hands on a woman ever. My wife and I love each other. We've been together for a very long time. We've known each other since we were very little.

And this is just one of those unfortunate situations. So I'm curious, this is, I'm curious how this is going to be reacted to. And I know a lot of people sort of feel like this interview with TMZ doing it on that platform is sort of the UFC's response to everything. And I know we reached out to the UFC and they basically told us see the TMZ interview, that's the response.

And I don't know this for sure, but I feel pretty confident saying like this was this was the UFC's reaction and the plan all along. Let's put you on TMZ. We'll tell them what questions to ask

and how to do it. Dana will say what he has to say. and that's going to be the response to it. Because if you actually watch the interview, there's no really crazy, difficult questions being asked. It's just, here you go, Dana. Here's your platform. Do your thing.

I have reached out to ESPN. I've not heard anything back. We have not heard anything back from Endeavour. But you've got to do something here. You cannot allow this guy to go in front of a microphone and do scrums and press conferences and all this stuff. And not to mention, to add to the list here, UFC, ESPN, Endeavor, Turner, too. Because the power slap fight bullshit, that's going to start airing on TBS, or it's supposed to be this month.

What are they going to say about it? How could you sit there and allow this to be aired on your television screen? when the guy who's running this, the guy whose name's attached to it, has a video of getting into an altercation with his wife. Like, how can he do this? You need to have some sort of response to this. And you can't trot this guy out here to do press conferences and promote events and do it F at Fridays and y'all, you know,

if you don't know, now you know, you can't. You can't trot them out there. You can't. There has to be a response to this. There has to be a response. Now, will they do basically what WWE did and just have a meeting of the minds with some of the heavy hitters

and just be like, he's got to be off TV. He's got to be, he's just got to kind of be out of the situation here. I don't know. But the next several days are going to be very important here on how this is handled. And this can't just be a swept under the rug type of situation. situation. You got to respond to this. You got to respond to this. And if that means he's got to step

down or you got to suspend him somehow or do something, you got to do something public here. You have to. You can't just say, well, he did an interview on TMZ. That's okay. That's it. If Roger Goodell did this, he'd be done. The owners would have voted him, would vote him out. he'd be gone. Any other major commissioner or anybody in that position who makes those decisions who is sort of the face of the company in that regard, they're out. They're out or they are publicly punished. There is no doubt about it.

So I'm very curious what the response, what the reaction will be, and just how it's going to be handled because it's got to be handled. This is not handling it. This is not handling it. This is just a thing. This is just him talking about it. And he's not going to talk about it anymore. Like he's not going to go to a press conference

and take questions about it and talk about it. Although he's probably, he probably, probably a good idea if he did because he's going to get challenged at least by the media who's going to ask him about it. He's saying it's the first time this has happened. His wife obviously gave a response as well. Well, let me pull hers up.

She gave a separate response to TMZ, and this is what it said. Quote, Dana and I have been married for almost 30 years. To say this is out of character for him as an understatement. Nothing like this has ever happened before. Unfortunately, we were both drinking too much on New Year's Eve, and things got out of control on both sides. We've talked this through as a family and apologized to each other. I just hope people will respect our privacy for the sake of our kids.

it's just not going to happen Dana knows that too but it's public it's out there the world has seen it now it's it comes down to how you respond to it and I'm very curious to see

how this will be responded to because this is just bad this is a very very bad look and you can go on TMZ and apologize all you want but this is a very very bad look so that's what I'm going to say

about it to start. I'm sure we're going to talk about it some more Four Corner Sports is just going wild with the emojis here. So let's tag them in. What's up, man? Hey, so I just wanted to say, you know, hope this got, hope that the more Hamlin is doing okay. It's very scary. I wanted to ask you,

has anything ever like that happened in like mixed martial arts, whether it's, doesn't have to be the UFC or any of these top promotions, maybe like some of like the lower tier promotions? Does anything like that ever happened where they had to suspend the show entirely and, you know, see, you know, what's the likelihood on the fighter just because, I mean, I think they said that he had a cardiac arrest after getting tackled. And I just think that the timing of everything with Dana, you know,

of him slapping his wife, I mean, there's no call for that. The first thing that popped into my head, I believe it was 2020 when Robert Woodker had. set it out in our interview that he's open for fighting women, you know, equal fights for equal rights or something like that. That's the person that popped in my head. And I don't know, I think the timing of Dana, you know, slapping his wife, right, whether it was on New Year's Eve, I think with everything that's happening in the world of sports,

I mean, it's going to get pushed to the side. I feel like he's not going to get the proper attention that it should. And I think that, you know, there should be, you know, reporters, I'm not saying you in generally, but I'm just saying like whenever he's at a press conference, you know, challenge him, challenge him with the hard questions. You know, this stuff isn't okay at all. You know, no man should be laying the hands on a woman, whether alcohol is involved or not. I mean, I do believe ESPN will try to, you know, get to the bottom of this just because anything, you know, of that type of nature, they have responded pretty well, whether it's a lengthy suspension or a termination. don't think they're going to cut any type of,

they're going to cut out the UFC entirely, but maybe they might tell, you know, the people of, like, endeavor that Dana might have to sit back and not be around any type of, you know, uh, showings and, or maybe results to him, you know, in some type of counseling or a, uh, you know, some type of, you know, anger management or something like that. But, you know, this attention needs to be brought out more often,

um, you know, so everybody can see. I mean, it's not okay. You know, it looks worse on video. Remember the very rice thing when he ended up hitting his wife? Well, I mean, people didn't have a big up until they sold a video. And I think that, you know, more people should, you know, be broadcasting this. And so this type of stuff has more of an attention. All right.

That's all I wanted to say. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, man. Yeah, I mean, with the Hamlin situation, I mean, there's, there have been deaths in MMA, in regional promotions around the world. There was a scary thing that happened in New England with an amateur fighter who got into a fight.

He cut a lot of weight. End up getting stopped in the fight. I'm pretty sure he ended up passing away, unfortunately. And it's just the dark and brutal side of the sport. And that was one of the first things that I thought of watching it last night. Something like this could happen during a year, UFC card or a Belator card or a PFL card or something like that.

Like we've seen weight cutting deaths in other promotions. We've seen all sorts of scary and wild things to that extent. And hopefully this turns out to be not good because this is bad, but that he, that DeMar can pull through. And yeah, it's just, it was just scary to watch it. It was tough to sleep last night, honestly, after all that went down. But yeah, I don't know what they're going to do. I honestly don't know what they're going to do.

And I don't think you're going to see Dana in front of reporters anytime soon because, or it's going to be a type of situation where, and we've seen it before, right? We've seen it before where the promotion will say, do not talk about this or do not talk about that focus on the fights. There was a, you know, the MAJA takes a lot of a beating for that association. But I think it was the announcement of like Greg Hardy fighting on a card with Rachel Ostevic. And basically the reporters in the building were told like, focus on the card, don't ask about this. And obviously the MAJ caught wind of it. It was a it was a very big deal. And then they brought one reporter to do.

basically a scrum with Dana as sort of a like a common ground but I mean look the video is right there it's right there you can't sweep this under the rug you can't you gotta do something you have to like when those Vince McMahon articles were coming out WWD didn't just like sit on their ass

they made moves they fired people Vince was taken off TV he was taken out of his role you gotta it's probably gonna be something similar than that. And again, I don't know what's going to happen if Dana gets put in, he's not going to be in a pool of reporters are going to ask him about it.

The UFC's not going to allow. That's why he went on TMZ. This was not like, this is not TMZ just being like, hey, Dana, come on, let's talk about this. This is clearly a planned thing. Like, we're going to talk about this. The video's out there.

This is how we're going to handle it. we're going to put them on TMZ, let them talk about it. They're not going to really challenge him on anything. That's how they handled it. But where we go from here, I don't know. Again, we've reached out to ESPN, nothing to this point. Nothing from Endeavour, nothing more from the UFC. You got to handle this.

You can't just let time pass. I know I'm amazed. I know we're part and we're fans of a sport that the news cycle just circles on. And when things happen, there's this sort of hold by beer mentality because something else big is going to happen. You can't do that with this. You can't do that with this. This is going to be attached to Dana for as long as he's a part of this company.

It's there. It's not an accusation. You see the video of it. it's right there. So this is going to be part of his legacy till the end of time. So I'm curious how this is going to be handled because this is

it's just bad. Just really, really bad. Tristan, what's up? Hey, Mike, how's everything? Just devastated with the Hamden thing. I didn't watch the game. I saw breaking news on ESPN to see that whole situation.

It was just a tough thing. When you saw that, I died of line, it's just, you know, it's tough, especially combat sports or football or anything like that. It's just tough to watch. And just really praying for Hamlin and his family and hopefully everything ends up okay. As far as Dana-wife is concerned,

the question I have is going to be the internal discussion between ESPN and endeavor of what they're going to do. What decisions they're going to have to be talked to internally between those three and Dana? Is Dana volunteer going to just, step down or doesn't want to step down? Is he going to be suspended for a year? Because that's the thing is the future of UFC is at stake here in a kind of like how it's going to be representative as far as who's going to be the head of it. I know is it, will it be time for Dana where he comes

to that decision where he's like, I'm stepping down as president and here's my successor to carry forward the UFC? Because this is a big deal. I mean, um, When there's something like this happens, it costs that individual of their career. And that's that. You know, I mean, obviously it's going to be handled internally, which is what are the decisions are going to be made between ESPN and Endeavour and what they're going to do with Dana. This is a big deal, and, you know, the consequences are going to have to be met. It's just that simple.

Can't let this lie, man. You just can't. You just can't let it happen. And it's going to be interesting in the coming days or months of what decisions are going to be made internally. That's my focus of what's going to be decided. And then it's future at the end of the day. And my last question in regards of the January 14th card with Shafkaov, Rakmanov, Mike, I did see your tweet that it looks like Rachmane might be out entirely.

I mean, do you think that they're going to find an appointment in time, or do you feel like, you know, that's it. He's scrapped. That's done. And they'll just move on with the card without Rachmano. Thanks, Mike. Yep. I mean, I agree with you with the Dana thing. And I'm curious if Daniel just kind of make the decision on his own just to be like, I got to step, I got to step away.

I got to step away and for the good of the company. Again, we don't know what's going to happen. It's got to be handled internally. And then it's eventually going to be made public. It has to be. But I'm curious to see how all these parties will come together and react to this thing. As far as the Shafcott thing goes, he's, I would be stunned. I mean, I would be completely shocked if he's fighting next Saturday.

Because from what I know, the Brian Barbarina thing was real. Like both sides wanted it. both sides approach the UFC about it. And the UFC, you saw Brian Barbarina's statement saying, no, we're not doing it. And then I reached out to people acknowledge on the Schofcott side. And they said, we said yes. They said no.

And then I asked if they're going to try to find somebody else. And they said it unlikely. So if a fight like that just fell in their laps and they're not going to do it, then I just don't see. why they're going to put them on this card to begin with, which I think is a mistake. You should have just went ahead with that. Look, I respect the hell out of Brian Barbarina.

I respect the hell out of the man. But we all know what would have happened in that fight. Shofcott would have smushed them in the first round, and that would have been it. And that's exactly what you want right now for Shafkat Rokmanoff. You want him on television dominating people. That's what you want. this is what gets him over.

This is what got Hamzad over. This is what got Kevin Holland over in 2020. You just let him go out there and fight whoever is there. And just let him get him on television and just strap the rockets to him. The dude is going to fight for a title. He's probably going to win the belt at some point. But at this point, like the hardcores know who he is.

Fans who watch every UFC card know who he is. Casual audience. They all know who Hamzat is. they all know who Kevin Holland is. They don't know who this guy is. And you got to get him on television as much as possible. So I don't, I actually think the UFC kind of dropped the ball here. Especially when you have him fighting a guy with a name.

Like it's not a ranked dude. It ain't Jeff Neal. I get it. But people know who Brian Barbarina is. And if he goes out there and just smushes Brian Barbarina, which you probably would. That's good for the brand. That's good trying to build a new star. That's what you're trying to do.

That's what you do here. You're trying to build stars and get people to watch your product. And you're trying to eventually build to the fight that everybody wants to see. And that's Shafka Rakhmanav versus Hamzaa Chamaev. And I see people in me all the time like, ooh, this would be a great opportunity to pull the trigger on that now. They're never going to do that right now. It's not going to happen. That fight, there is zero upside for Hamzat Shamaev to fight Shafqat Shafqat Shaf right now.

zero. If there's a number that I could use less than zero, I would use that. It means does nothing for him right now. It does everything for Shafkaa Rakhmana, but does nothing for Hamzaa Chamaa. Nothing. Nothing. So I don't know. There are other people saying, well, let's just take him off the card and we'll have him fight Jeff Neal. That could be the made event in San Antonio. I like that idea, but you could have done both. You still could have done both. You could have thrown Shofcott in there with a 5-0 guy who trains at Extreme Couture or trains at

Syndicate that just is really solid that just wants to get to the UFC. Get him in there. They brought in people who let's be honest, probably weren't UFC ready or probably weren't ever going to be UFC ready to take short notice fights. Just chuck them in there with

Shafcott and let him just run them over. It's okay. It's okay to do that. But the UFC decided they weren't going to do that. So we'll see. I think they'll probably just end up rebooking the Jeff Neal fight. Maybe they do do it in San Antonio because that would make sense. The Jeff Neal fights out of Texas.

So that would be cool. And that'd be a pretty cool main event if you wanted to do that. So, yeah. There you go. Boating for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo. Great idea.

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What's up Barbarossa? Barbarusa. You're muted, buddy. Hi, Mike. How are you doing? Good. How are you? I'm good, I'm good. I want to ask you about the London card. I hear a lot of talking. I've seen Usman with a hand injury, and a lot of people are throwing Masvidal in there and now Bilal. But don't you think that the obvious option should be Hamzat since we know that he has problems with the weight and you should use the time because with the aging it's not too easy to cut weight. And the other hand, do we really think that

Masvidal is more of a draw than Hamzat at the moment because the last last paper view against Kobe wasn't published. And I don't know if at the moment, I think also for the casual fans, I think it's Hamz that is going to be a beta. Since we know that the British community, it's not too easy to have a champion at the moment and you have to use it to the fullest.

This is my only question, Mike. Thank you. Thanks, man. Yeah, I saw, I mean, a lot of people, I'm sure anyone in here had already seen it. The photo of Kamar Usman showing up at an M.A. A band, his hand was in a, it's one of those sort of Velcro cast type things. So clearly there's something going on there. I don't know.

Like, we've talked to people who have said that he's definitely not going to fight. They're completely denying that. So I guess time will tell. But I think, honestly, I think they would probably give it to Mazadol first. I think they would give it to Mazadol for multiple reasons. One, the story is there. It would draw well, especially in the UK.

I mean, Leon would be a freaking superstar in there, trying to get one back against Mazadol. Two, it's a winnable fight. It's a more winnable fight for Leon. Not saying that Mazadol couldn't win, but Leon would probably be a pretty significant favor in that fight and it would do well. Like it would do well. All the UFC has to do is just keep reposting that video of the three

pieces of the soda and you're good. Like you'll draw. That thing will do well. I understand where you're coming from with Hamzat, but that it's tough because they they gave Hamzat a title shot on a silver platter and let him headline a pay per view against one of the biggest stars of the history of the company to get the rub and he missed weight by eight and a half pounds. Now, are they going to just take that risk again and just say, hey, we don't have Camaro. Let's just throw Hamzot in there.

What if he misses weight again? Then you have, like, you'll still have the main event, but if Hamzaat wins, you've accomplished nothing. You've accomplished nothing. So I think it's way too risky to Chuck Hamzot in there. Now, if Hamzaa calls the UFC right now and goes to Vegas and steps on the scale and he's like 181 right now, three months out. months before the fight, maybe that's a different story.

But I can assure you, Hamzani 181 right now. He is a massive guy. I don't know how he ever made 170 to begin with, but he's made it before. But it's just so risky. It's so risky in a market that the UFC holds so fondly. And I think the Mazadal fight would do well. I honestly do. Now, does he quote unquote, deserve a title shot?

Of course not. But would it do well? Is there a story involved there? is this like the best possible situation for Mazadol? You damn right it is. Would people buy the pay-per-view? Yep. They sure would.

Would that arena sell out in five seconds? Yep. Although it would probably sell out in five seconds anyways. The build to that would be huge. It just would. Even though we don't agree with the meritocracy of it, the build-up would be huge. The promotion would be super easy to do.

I think they would tag in Mazadol before they tagged in Hamzad, just because it's just so risky. It's just so risky. Mazadol took the Uzman fight on less than a week's notice in Abu Dhabi and made wait. You don't have to worry about Mazadal. He'll make it.

But you have to worry about Hamzad. We'd be worried the entire time. We'd be worried the entire bill to that fight, whether or not he's going to make weight. That would be the entire story of the build to the fight. But who knows? Maybe they will tag him in. But again, we don't know what's going on.

This is all, we're just looking at screenshots and videos and we're hearing things, but nothing's etched in stone. We know nothing. We know nothing at this point. Let's go to Mitchie, perhaps. Mitchie, are you there? I don't hear you, Mitchie. Try again. Let's try King David. King David, are you there? Right now you're muted. Still muted. All right. Let's try. Let's try Clears Values. How you doing? Good.

So first of all, I wanted just to say that I think anybody that expects real consequences from that video coming out, I think they're going to be disappointed. I don't expect to see anything, you know, substantial. I think Dana has a chokehold on whatever comes out pretty much to the media. And I think something like that, you're not going to see much of anything. Endeavor's happy. They're making money. ESPN's happy. They're making more money than they ever could have expected with this deal.

So I wouldn't expect anything substantially to come out. What I think we could see this year is, you know, maybe the involvement of Hunter at some more scrums or Sean Shelby answering more questions. Because I think for the most part, the background players are very silent. But maybe they are setting up for the day that. Dana isn't totally in control. So I want to hear your thoughts about that. And then on a totally like unrelated but slightly related note, I wanted just to hear your thoughts about what you think, you know,

MMA media's role should be in covering the Slat Fighting League because it is something, you know, I have seen a lot of MMA outlets talking about it, covering it, stuff like that. And I'm curious what your thoughts are about what that should look like. Because it's an interesting conundrum because it is, you know, UFC adjacent, but it's not MMA. And I think it's something that a lot of, you know, journalists in the space aren't too happy about seeing. So I just want to hear your thoughts. I mean, it's a pretty good question.

I mean, it's tough because even for, what was it, UFC 282, even UFC 282, like they had, they had their media day for the card. But before that, in the same building as part of the media day, they had a bunch of the slap fight guys there too. And there were one-on-ones available of them. And Jose

went back and talked to them. So it's tough, man. It's tough. I'm in agreement with most of the journalists. I just think it's a stupid idea. It's a dumb idea. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know what our stance is going to be on it. Maybe we'll cover the first one and see. I have no idea. But we don't even know what's going to happen now. Like we don't even know if it's going to air on Turner anymore after all of this. Because like how could Turner be like, you know, we'll have after AEW Dynamite, let's have this slap fight league with Dana White's name attached to it,

when everyone knows about this video of him and his wife slapping each other around, I don't know. It's kind of a TBD right now because I, while you might be right about how the UFC endeavor and ESPN will handle it, Turner hasn't aired a single seconds of the Slap Fight League yet. There hasn't been a show yet. There hasn't been a show. So do they just pull it?

I mean, they're in a position where they just, they could. So, yeah, it's tough. It's all tough, especially now that this stuff is involved. But I think it's a stupid idea. I'm not really a fan of it. But we'll see. We'll see how it all works out. I could see maybe media,

let's just covering the first one and just see how it goes. And if it's as dumb as we think it is, then we probably just won't do it again. But I honestly have no idea, what our approach is going to be towards it or anybody else's for that matter. But I'm with you. Vinny, hello. Vinnie, you're there.

It always takes Vinny. It's always like four or five times before you can get video in. Emilio, do we have you, sir? Hello. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Yeah, great.

First of all, happy New Year's, Mike. Hope that you have a nice time with the family and wishing everybody else. as well. A Happy New Year. It's fingers crossed. It's not going to suck as much as 2022, at least not necessarily related to MMA, but just in general. Yeah, so I got, I guess it is a question, yeah, which is also part of my one very Caliente, but actually not really that Caliente take for 2023. I think that by the end of the year,

Ilya will either be scheduled to fight for the featherweight championship or he will already be the champion. Actually, yeah, let's make it even more spicy. He'll be the champion at 1.45. What do you think about that? Who will be the champion? You broke up a little bit. Yeah, Ilya, Teporea.

Okay, okay, okay. El Matador. I'm so high on that guy. The beating, he administered to Bryce Mitchell was just a thing of beauty. And I can't wait to see what kind of year this guy has because he is exciting. They should put Patty Pimlet, the U.S. you should put Patty Pimlet on a rocket ship and send him all the way to Saturn or something because

that wouldn't even be legal if they put those two in a cage. Yeah, I just wanted to get your take on him. Maybe not necessarily in terms of, oh yeah, is he going to reach? Is he going to become the champion by the end of the year? But more, rather,

sort of his potential. I mean, I think that obviously if Okonovsky wins against Islam, which I don't think is going to happen. But if he does, then I guess that takes him out of the picture, the featherweight title picture. If he does lose against Islam, then I guess my Muj Kalinta take wouldn't have that much legs

because even with an extra year, you know, of training for Ilya, I mean, I don't see anybody at 145 beating Volkanowski anytime soon. So, yeah, I guess what's your take on that? Again, thanks for letting me speak. Appreciate the work that you all do. I hope that you enjoy your break. And yeah, let's hope for a fantastic 2023 in MMA terms and in general terms concerning life.

Yeah, much appreciated it, Mike. Take care. talk to you the next time. Peace. Thanks, buddy. I'm going to sell I'll win the belt by the end of the year. Not because I don't think his

skill set is good enough. I think the time he's just not going to work out for him. I just don't think it's going to work out for him. And I've said many times and I don't know if this is actually what's going to happen, but

I just if Volcanowski does beat is on Mokachev, I just don't see him coming back to 145. It just doesn't make any sense. The biggest fights for Volk, if he beats Mokachev, are at 155. They're the biggest fights he can have in terms of money and drawing power and all of that. And if he beats Mokachev, it's not saying that fighting at 55 would be easier, but you probably took out your toughest competition right now,

and all that's left for you are just big time drawing matchups. with Gagichi and Chandler and Olivera, McGregor, like all those are on the table. Why would you go back to 145 and fight Tuporia or Josh Emmett or Yayao Rodriguez, which are just going to be co-main event fights, more than likely, unless you're the higher weight class? Yeah, I just don't know if the timing's going to line up well.

I really hope they book Teporia versus Arnold Allen. Just do it. number one contender fight totally in for that and then the winner goes from there it's either they fight emitter yeah year or maybe they fight he fights folk at the end of the year so i just don't know if the timing's going to work out um but i i like i like your gusto i'll say that i'm high on the man i think he will fight for the belts at some point there's no doubt about it i just don't know if it's going to happen this year uh let's go to Carpe Diem.

How's it going, Mike? Did you see the Jimmy Flick odds change this morning? I just saw that. It was very strange. Yeah, that's very suss. And I'm surprised more, I mean, I'm assuming more people going to talk about it when today starts. But, yeah, draft kings and fan duel,

according to my friend Henderson over here, pull all the odds. So, yeah. I didn't know if you talked about that, but real interesting glide movement. I don't know. The sport's been in a weird place since, you know, Ontario and all that shit. So just wanted to get your opinion. Yeah, this is wild.

I just saw like a screenshot. I saw a screenshot with it. Jimmy Flick versus Charles Johnson that is going down, I think it's February. Let me pull it up. I mean, we broke that fight, so it's either February 4th or February 18th, Jimmy Flick's comeback fight. It is February, oh no, it's January 14th. Shit, what the hell am I talking about?

It's next Saturday. Yeah, so I saw my buddy James Lynch post a screenshot of this. And when the betting line opened for Charles Johnson versus Jimmy Flick, it was minus 134 for Johnson. and now he's up in some sites at minus 500. And it happened pretty quickly. This happened like yesterday, I think. Yeah, it's pretty crazy. I don't know why.

Let me pull it up here. Yeah, Flicks went from January 2nd, 10.30 a.m. Eastern. He was a plus 114 favorite. and now January 3rd today, as of 12 minutes ago, he's a plus 360. Yeah, that's pretty wild, man. That's pretty wild. And I'm curious, like, I have to, I mean, even, there's been a lot of, I mean, that's a significant line movement.

Like, we've seen Javid Basharad from the same time period, got like a 90 point jump as a favorite in that same amount of time. Let me see what the Umar fight looks like. minus 360 to 485. Like Umar got a big jump as well from minus 360 to 485. Not that much. But it looks like there's a lot of line movement over the last day or so. Like a lot of pretty big movement.

Let me see what this one looks like. Yeah, Matush, Rebecca versus Nick Fiore, minus 450 yesterday, minus 604 right now. So there's a lot of movement. Nothing more significant than that. So I don't know. maybe it's just maybe people didn't have the lines to get after it i don't know but yeah something we'll have to keep an eye on for sure we'll see what that line looks like by the end of the day or you know heading in the next saturday but yeah that's that's huge that's huge i'm stunned that it was

yeah it's it's wild to even look at really but there is uh there's been i mean we just pointed out four fights that had 90 plus point line movement over the last 18 hours. But that one's huge from minus 134 to minus 456 in a span of 18 hours. Jesus Christ. So I'll have to keep an eye on that one. Benny, are you there? Do we have... Hey, how are you, Mike?

How's it going? Good. How are you happy new year to everybody. I just wanted to say my prayers for Damar Hamlin, first of all him and his family. Hopefully he'll come back and be strong. I noticed a lot of negativity out there and a lot of people showing these videos

of how he got hurt and I think that's wrong. But I just wanted to say keep prayers up and keep good hopes, good vibes. And I also wanted to comment on your thing about Dana. I think Dana should be suspended at least for a year. I mean, this guy is the boss. And if he's showing that to his fighters, what are his fighters going to do to their wives? You know what I'm saying?

I don't think that should be allowed any, any. I mean, you're sending a sample. Be for real and step down for a year or, I don't know, maybe let somebody else, one of his kids be the president. I don't know. And then the other thing is I like Bukalowski against Tuporia. I think there will be the fight of the year. That's all I got to say.

Yeah, man, it's, we'll see what happens. I was told moments ago that ESPN will not be releasing a statement about this. Their quote was, we distribute the content, they fully produce it. So, yep, no comment from ESPN. Let's go to Jay. Hey, Mike. What's up? Happy New Year, man.

So first, I wanted to see if you have more info on Demir is McGulov's retirement. seems like he just announced it out of nowhere. I've been seeing online people saying he has like Tourette's, and that may be a reason towards it, but I have no idea, and that's obviously on social media. And my second thing is Jack Delamette, Elena, and Randy Brown got announced,

but I don't know how I'm really feeling about this matchup after Randy Brown fought Chernado, because during that first snow, he got rocked pretty hard. He could have easily gone out if he didn't hold. hold the fence and gone, took him down by Chinaldon gone grounded upon, but he survived that and he did win the

decision, but after seeing that fight, I think JDA might just run through him. So I'm going to get your thoughts on that. Happy New Year and have a heck of a morning, man. Thanks, man. Yeah, it's going to be an interesting fight. I like the matchup. I'm pretty sure that's what I picked for on to the next one, but

I could be wrong. I have to go back before I start sneaking pot-no points from anybody, but yeah, that's kind of where we're out right now. I mean, it's a good matchup. I think it's like the right step up for JDM. I think JDM probably wins that fight, but Randy's a gamer. He doesn't go away easily. And he fights the level of his competition in a big, big way. So I like the matchmaking there. It should be, it should be an entertaining fight because Randy's going to get in his face and chuck with him.

And you know JDM likes that. So that's a good fight for the for the Perth card, which we pull that one up. Let me see what we're looking at right now. Let's see what we're looking at right now. Because obviously we lost a couple of biggies. Yeah, and the Isma Gulaff stuff is, that was shocking. I don't know anything about it.

When it came out, as I pull up this card, when it came out, the people I spoke to were like, your guest is as good as mine. it seemed like it was a shock to even his team that that news came. So there's really no additional insight to it. But I can maybe try to reach out now that a couple of days have gone by. So here's UFC 284.

We got Mokinchev-Volkinovsky. We got Yaira versus Josh Emmett, Tyson-Pajou, Mingyang, Jack Jenkins, Don Chanis, JDM versus Randy Brown, Justin Taffa, Paco Porter, Josh Kulibau, Melzik, Bagdasarian, Jimmy Crute, Alonzo Menafield, Clayton Rodriguez, Shannon Ross, Joel Alvarez, Zubaira, Tugugov, Loma, Lekbunmi, Elise Reid,

Blake Builder versus Shane Young. That's the card as of right now, 12 fights. I would assume we will get another one or two, but I don't think we're going to get anything super significant. added to that card. But we lost Robert Whitaker versus Paul Costa.

We lost Nazarad Hackperos versus Jamie Malarkey. And we lost Kai Kar-France versus Alex Perez. Alex Perez now fighting metal cop on March 25th. So that's the card as it stands right now for Perth. The Isma Gulov news was like, whoa. Was it really ready for that? But I bet there's a bunch of lightweights in the UFC that breathe a nice sigh of relief when they saw that. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats.

Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no, but chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age.

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Andrew, what's up, buddy? Andrew, now you're muted. I can't hear you at all. I got nothing. I got nothing. Try again if you want. Maybe you just need a better connection. Looks like you were,

there's a picture of a golf course green. And if that's the case, then kudos to you. Got to play some golf yesterday with my nine-year-old. and kids are getting good yeah I pulled up Giraff King's sports book for the lines for next Saturday's card

they don't even have Flick and Johnson listed they got Imov Gasslam they got Puna Coppulov and they got Ege Jackson that's it and the rest of the lines are the two title fights for 283

and the main event for 283 for 284. So I don't know. We're going to have to keep an eye on that betting line because that's frigate that that Flick Johnson betting line is crazy. Andrew, do we have you? No, we don't.

Hello? Hey. Oh, we got you. Hey, what's up? Mike, go Red Sox. Hopefully they can do something in this free agency period because they, they suck something awful

right now. So, you know, yeah, I just, I think it's sad with the Dana video because, yeah, I think if that is another, you know, one of the big time sports executives. Obviously, Dan is a businessman, not a commissioner. But, you know, if that's here, Roger Goodell, he's going to be in big, big trouble.

He's going to be in huge trouble. He'll probably be losing his job. He'll be losing his package of compensation. And I just, like a lot of the guys have said here, I just, unfortunately, I don't think Dan is going to get any big time consequences from that. And it kind of goes in line with what he does. You know, unless you commit a really, really serious crime, these type of little dustups, these physical dustups

with the UFC fighters, nothing happens. I mean, we saw it with John Jones, some other people. I just think it's sad. You know, it seems like the NFL NBA guys are just held to a much higher standard. And I hope Disney steps in. I don't want to see Dana banned forever. But like the guy said, a suspension maybe, maybe dock the package of payment a little bit.

I don't know. It would be nice to see Disney maybe stepping a little bit here. I just think it's a very inappropriate action for a guy who's got a huge position in the world of sports. Yeah, man. Again, I don't know. But as I said, no comment from ESPN. They will not be commenting on it. So there you go.

Yeah. I mean, it just seems like something's going to have to be done. I don't know what it's going to be, but it's just bad. And I know some people brought up the Dan Snyder, Robert Kraft stuff, and you ain't wrong. You ain't wrong. But it is what it is. I don't know. Just didn't think I'd be talking about this on a Tuesday morning right off the bat in 2023.

QP. What's up, ma'am? Can you hear me? Yes, sir. What you think of, damn, happy New Year. I'm sorry. You too, man. Damn, what was up about the X?

What do you think of, what chance do you honestly think Jamal Hill has against Gover to Cher? It's a good question, man. Let me pull up the betting lines right now. Wow, Jamal Hill, according to Draft King's is the favorite, minus 120. I'll tell you right now, if the betting lines close with anything with plus money for Glover Tashira, I would say you should jump all over that. I'm not like saying, go and gamble your money away. I just feel like Glover is just, you just go back and watch a lot of Jamal Hill's fights.

and if Tiago Santos can take him down, Glover Tashara can take him down and hold him there for a long time. Does Jamal have fight-changing power? Absolutely. I think he has a better chance than people think. But I'm leaning Glover. I just think he has way more ways to win. Glover can knock Jamal Hill out. He could take him down and smush him. He could take him down and grind out a decision.

He could take him down and submit him. He could take a shot. He took a million of them from Yuri Prakashka. Even in his 40s, Glover still is durable as hell. I don't know how he does it. I honestly don't know how he does it. But I give Jamal a chance. The more I look into the fight, the more of a chance I give him.

But if I'm making a pick, I'm picking Glover to win. I'm picking Glover to submit him. But it's a compelling fight. This is about as good as it could get for Glover right now. It's as good as it could get. gets a shot at the undisputed title against the guy that he has clear advantages over

and he gets to do it in his home country. It's a pretty damn good spot for him to be it. But yeah, I give Jamal a shot. I'm not going to, I'm not going to pick him. I'll pick Glover. But Jamal's definitely got a chance to win. Let's go to Riley. And then we'll go to Eric and the four-ounce sniper.

And then we'll get out of here. Riley, hello. Can you hear me? Yep, got you, man. I was just wondering if you think Aljo is going to move or fight at 145 this year in 2020. Happy New Year. Thanks, man. It's a good question.

It's a good question. I don't know. I mean, whoever he fights next, I don't think he has a lot of fights left at 135. I'll say that for multiple reasons. And that's why I kept saying that Aljo kind of fumbled the bag with the Sean O'Malley stuff. Because had he just called out O'Malley from Jump Street after UFC 280, he's probably getting ready to fight Sean O'Malley in a fight that he's going to be favored in, clearly. And it's a really good matcher for him.

And it's the biggest fight he can get right now. It's not Henry Sohudo. I'm sorry. It's not Cheeto. It's O'Malley. O'Malley's the biggest fight for him at 133. right now. Unequivocally 100%.

But that was also like a perfect exit fight for him. Get the bag, beat Sean, beat the guy that the UFC's been pushing for years, and then perfect time for you to just say, you know what? Thanks for the cheese, Banim wait. I'm going up to 145. I'm going to vacate this belt. And my boy Marab is going to fight somebody for the vacant title. And at least flex in that way.

but do I think he fights of 45 this year? No. Do I think it's in the foreseeable future? Yes. But he's got to win his next fight for sure, whenever that is. From all accounts, Sterling Suhudo is not done yet. I know a lot of people were rumoring that that fight's going to happen March 4th.

That's not done yet. It is being discussed. It's kind of like the path both guys thought they were taking, but something's holding it up. And I don't know what it is. So we'll see what happens. We'll see when Sterling gets back in there. We'll see who he gets back in there with.

But I would say his future at Banim Wade is not a long one. Because Sterling's good. Sterling's been kind of unlucky in a lot of ways, but he's freaking good. He doesn't get enough credit for how good he is. And I think even I have not given him enough credit. That's changed over the last year for me, but

he's a huge 35er. I mean, he's just so big. So at this point, with how long he's been doing it, the success he's had as of late, I just don't think he'll be I don't think he'll be sticking around Bannamway for too much longer, maybe one

or two more. I would say if he ends up fighting Sehudo and beat Sehudo, which I would which I'm probably picking Al Jermaine to do, he'll probably fight John O'Malley and then go. Like, I think after he fights O'Malley, if he beats O'Malley, then he's going to beat feet to 45. But it's good question.

And I have a feeling that one might come up on the predictions extravaganza as well. Eric, what's up, man? Yeah, did he hear that Luke Rockold might be coming back? Is that confirmed yet? So I saw the post that 2023 could be interesting. It was a picture of him training a little bit and saying 2020, there could be interesting. So I don't think anything's really confirmed,

but this is MMA. And more often than not, MMA retirements don't stick. And I kind of don't want to see him come back. I kind of don't want to see it. Maybe one off with Darren Till, like you want to do that. That's probably the only fight that I would care about.

But coming off of a loss, I mean, there's just no better way for, there's just no better way for him to retire than a fan-friendly fight against Paulo Costa, a fight that a lot of fans were like, ugh, this is just going to be really bad news.

This is going to be a really bad matchup for him. He's probably going to get starched in the first round. And then he comes in and has this frigging war and then retired to a lot of fanfare. and it just there's no better way. If you can't walk away with the win, that's about as good as you can get walking away from the sport.

And I don't think it's going to get any better than that, honestly. Maybe he beats Darren Till, but there's not a lot of guys at 185 he can beat right now. And I think he had a pretty fair... In MMA, that's about as fairy tale of an exit as you can make. So to me, no interest in seeing it. would I be surprised if Luke Rockhold comes back and fights again? Probably not.

But I kind of hope I don't see it just for the storyline's sake. Let's head to the four-ounce sniper here. What's up, ma'am? Yep, I got you. I just wanted to say heck of a morning and happy New Year to you and all the listeners right now. I just came in with a high take. I believe Manel Kopp will be the flightway champion by the end of the year. I told one of my friends listening right now

that he was going to hop in to fight Alex Perez. Once his opponent pulled out, I predicted him to beat Alex, maybe fight again, and then probably in November, December to win the belt. But that's it. It's a pretty good take right there. Look, if you've been a longtime follower of MMAFighting.com, what am I doing here?

There we go. Sorry, I'm doing like multiple things at once. If you've been a long time follow around myathlating.com, we have been standing atop the mountain for Monell Cap since he signed with the company. I think we were the first interview with Mnell after he signed. And, you know, it was a tough start for the man. But I think he's finally getting his footing.

I think he's finally figuring it all out. And I think he's going to live up to the expectations that we've kind of had for him. this Alex Perez fight I mean him stepping in and getting this matchup great next step for him but he's got to win that one he's got to win it it ain't going to be easy to get to a title shot at 125

so I don't agree that he'll get a title shot unless he just falls into one because there's just there's we got pentosia right now we got Nicolao that's that's doing good things that probably deserves an opportunity to get close to get a number more contender fight

we still get Figgie Moreno to happen in a couple of weeks. There's a lot that needs to happen at 125 to sort of open that door for some of these newer contenders to get in there. But I will say if there's one guy at 25 who has enough backing from not just the casual fan base, because I think even the casuals are starting to get to know him in a little bit more. But the hardcore, we push it for like crazy, especially after that run he hadn't rising and everything.

I think he'll get there. I just don't know if the timing will line up for him this year because Vigy and Morena are just going to beat the hell out of each other. I don't see either guy bouncing back real quick. And then Pantosia's probably waiting in the wings. And again, like, what if Moreno wins? And I know New York Rick's here. What if Moreno wins?

We know what New York Rick's going to ask for. Let's just do it again. And you know what, New York, Rick? I got you. with you. Let's just have the, these guys can fight a thousand times. I mean, if you want to introduce like an interim title just to keep things a little saucy, that's cool. But if you want to do like the universal flyway title, just have Figy and Moreno fight a thousand times. And I'm cool with that. But we'll see. I'm very, obviously very high. I'm and now I've been

high on him for a long time. So let's see how he does it, Alex Perez in San Antonio. Let's go to M.M.A. Joey. M. Joe, I think you, I think it would. you are you out here like just pissing off everybody you pissing up big john did you get under a skin a little bit yeah i guess is that you yeah i guess he didn't like that uh i told him that the rise in bell to or tape delay just was unacceptable especially considering they were advertising his live i saw showtime tweeting out that it was actually going to be live yeah man i saw that i uh i got a giggle what's on your mind yeah so i wanted to say in regards to the dana white incident with his wife, I'm not going to sit here and clutch my pearls over an incident where

if his wife and his family forgives him for it, you know, but at the same time, obviously, it's not right. But let's be honest, in any other sports league, they would probably have to step down or be fired. And then on top of that, even if this was something worse, I don't believe the UFC or ESPN would do something, even if it was worse than this incident. in it. And especially, I believe if it wasn't on video, there would almost be nothing done about it. What do you think? Do you think if this was worse, would they actually do something about it or no? Because I don't think anything's going to come to this. I don't know. And you bring up an interesting

point about the video because this could have happened and then like there was no video. We would have never even known about it. And that's one of the hairy things about it. But that's playing a weird game when there is a video. I mean, there is a video. It's right there for everybody to see. And the UFC has been a cash cow. They've been on fire. They're huge.

They're not even, like, as big as they are, they are still very far away from where they need to be, to be mentioned in the same conversation as some of these other sports. Like, they're well on their way. Like being on ESPN and putting all those cards out and doing the pay-per-views and doing the big. events and getting a lot of mainstream attention, that's all well and good.

They're still very far away from the NFL's, the NBA's, Major League Baseball, even the NHLs of the world. I love the NHL. I know not a ton of people watch it all the time. They have a long way to go. And this does not help. This does not help. These types of stories and situations are why people were against the sport getting as

mainstream as it was in the first place. And now you have the face of your promotion, the guy who runs everything, and in a lot of people's eyes makes all the decisions, which technically in some ways is true, but for the most part, I think we've learned that it's not really true. Dane is just more of the face behind the name. You could still have the UFC and the UFC can still be successful. I mean, look at WWE right now. Look at WWE.

For years, we were all thinking to ourselves, if, you know, if, you're not going to ourselves, if Vince McMahon is out of the equation. Like if you thought about this in like 99,000, whatever, or like 99, 2000 when WWE was just so big, if you lose Vince McMahon, then you're done, right? And now all these years later, Vince is gone. And the product has, the fans are more excited for the, for the pro wrestling WWE product without Vince attached to it than they have

been in a long time, like a real long time. And what the UFC has done is, they have set themselves up that every Saturday, if you want, you can watch fights. You can watch men and women get in the cage and beat the shit out of each other for our entertainment dollar, for our value. We can do this. We're going to have MMA. We're going to have a UFC card on Saturday for the most part.

It doesn't matter if Dane is there or not. It really doesn't matter if he's there or not. because if Dana's, if they have Dana step away or take a leave of absence or he's just off the product altogether, it doesn't think about it. It doesn't hurt all that much. It's actually probably a good thing in the long run because the fights will still happen. We'll still watch it and talk about it. The only thing we won't get is Dana maybe yelling and screaming at the press conference or a

post-fight scrum with him. And I know, look, I know as somebody who works for a big website that covers MMA, one of the things that you kind of, one of the selling points of covering events and covering paper views is getting that Dana scrum because people watch it

and they want to hear what he has to say and they want to hear his reactions to certain things and they want to just hear Dana be Dana in a lot of ways. but is it really hurt the overall product if Dane is not sitting Cajide watching fights? I don't think so. I don't think so. Now, the big question is, like, who comes in and becomes that guy?

David Shaw could be that guy. He's not going to sit there and say, F this and F that, and he's not going to talk about Jake Paul and he's not going to talk about Oscar Delahoya and start beefs with people from other combat sports. He's not going to do that. but David will sit there and talk about stuff. He'll answer questions, and David's a good spokesperson. Look at him after some of these international pay-per-views.

David Shaw was up there. Was it 275? I think it was 275 in Singapore. Dana wasn't there for that. David Shaw was, and David did fine. Like, David did great. And they had other people as well. Dave Schaller, they had Dave Scholar doing scrums and stuff like that,

representing the company and getting up there and answering questions. And Dave's, Dave did a great job. The show can move on without him. I know he's a focal piece and we look forward to the scrums and everything, but I mean, does it really hurt the overall value of the product if Dana steps away? No, I don't think it does. I don't think it does. You lose out on maybe the Slap Fight League doesn't get the launch.

You lose a couple of points there because you put all this time and effort into it and now maybe it doesn't happen anymore. So what? Who gives a shit? But the show can go on. And there's no questions. There's no questions. You just,

what fights happen? And you let the personalities shine. And John Anna can just host all the press conferences. Like, John Annick's great at that. Just let, just let John be more of the face. Let David Shaw be more of the face. Like, it's fine.

It doesn't hurt. Like, the UFC's not going to, crumble if Dana White is not in the same position publicly. It just isn't. It's just not, it's going to be fine because the fights are still going to happen. And that's it. So I don't think there's a question here. You got to do something publicly where he steps away.

That's the best thing that can happen. Then the fights will happen. The UFC will still make money. It's cool. But you have to admit. You have to admit. And it's been like this for a long time. This isn't something that's happened in like two years.

years. This is something that's been going on for like six years. Dana hasn't been all that into the product anymore. Like he's there and he represents and he answers questions. But that excitement level, that ra-rah Dana White is not there anymore. We got hints of that Dana White during the Floyd Mayweather Connor McGregor build when he was introducing Connor and him promoting his fighter and trying to put Connor over. Like we got that old 2010 Dana White. We haven't really had that much since. So I don't like, it's not a huge detriment to the company and the product and the business. If the UFC and Data White took a stand and even if Dana did it himself, like if Dana just did a video and just said, I'm stepping away as the press, I'm

stepping down as the president of the UFC. Behind the scenes, he could still be a part of it. He could still collect a paycheck or whatever. We never have to know about that. But from a public perspective, him stepping down would be great for the product. It would be great for the product. And it would show that they'd give a shit about the aftermath of all of this. No matter how you feel about it, good or bad, this is what should happen. And it's going to be in the news. But Dana's out of the spotlight.

He doesn't have to answer the questions about it. If he still wants to talk about it, you can go hit up his buddies at TMZ. And do the fluff interviews there. It's fine. But he doesn't have to be there. And the product will still be fine. We don't watch the UFC for Dana. We watch the UFC for the fighters and the fights.

And yeah, that's how I feel about it. I think it's a no-brainer at this point. And we'll talk about it on this show and other shows that he does step down and we'll react to it and we'll be like, what does this mean? And then guess what? We'll just be like, oh, yeah, there's, fights next Saturday, and we'll focus on the fights next Saturday. Before we go, let me just bring in a very special guest.

It's an honor to have the great New York Rick join us to close us out. Hello, buddy. Hi, Mike. Thank you for having me. Obviously, heavy hearts, but I want to bring some positive vibes heading into 2023. We're discussing a lot of heavy and sensitive topics, but I'm still having a heck of a morning, and thank you for doing this show.

I think you raised I just have some thoughts on the Dana White thing I think you raised the most apt comparison that there is that comparing Dana White to owners in other sports leagues I think is probably not as close to comparing him to Vince McMahon of the WWE I think that's probably the most apt comparison

and also raised the point and I heard a lot of people talking about if this was any other sport we'd see harsher penalties and stronger repercussions. I'd probably push back against that. I actually don't think that that's true. I think that in most other sports leagues, we see the bare minimum done over and over and over again, like we will probably see here. But your point about Dana and Vince McMahon, as I said, was apt. If you look at the Vince McMahon situation as it was playing out recently,

he did everything in his power and WWE did everything in their power to keep Vince installed there until more allegations came out and more allegations came out and more allegations came out. And there was just a preponderance of things stacked up against him to the point where they finally said, okay, we need him to step aside. And ultimately, it was the decision that publicly he says he made and the company says that he made. But I think it will take something like that for Dana White to be removed from his position. Ultimately, if the product, if the fans, are going to continue to tune in. If we as MMA fans are going to continue to support the UFC,

then I don't see much change being forced. I don't see their hand being forced in that way. Ultimately, that's what's going to matter. If we're looking to the UFC and ESPN to be our moral compass, we're falling short, and they're always going to fall short because they're a brand. They're a financial product. They're somebody who's trying to make money.

They're not here to be our moral compass. So if we're looking to them to quote unquote do the right thing, we're not looking in the right place. But if we as fans are making choices and decisions with our money and pushing them in directions by saying we will not support the product in this way, if certain things are to continue, then that's the way that change ultimately occurs. Another important thing to point out, while I do think WW is the closest comparison and Vince McMahon is the closest comparison, they're a publicly traded company. company and that is much more dicey than UFC, where UFC is a private company. Now, parent company, Endeavor is a public company and they have shareholders to answer to. So it's going to be very interesting down the line if Endeavor starts to have questions about this. I think that's where some potential change is going to be possible to occur and things are going to get interesting.

And then the last thing I'll say is you raise the point about if Dana no longer becomes the face of the company what happens. I think ultimately you're right from a perspective that the product's not going to change the fighters or the fighters. The roster is the roster and things like that. But there is no doubt that UFC and the Dana White brand are intrinsically linked and very strong. Look no further than Dana White's contender series. And now the offshoot, now not a UFC product, but a Dana White thing that has been promoted by the UFC, Dana White's power slap. His brand is something that they've been able to leverage and use to make money and hopefully make future returns in the case of power slap for them.

So I think there is an investment that they made in Dana White and wanting to keep him installed unless they have to remove. So it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out, but I think they're not going to do anything. In my opinion, as somebody who worked in PR for many, many years, I don't think they're proactively going to do anything here. I think it's going to, they're going to see when the dust settles. you know, what ultimately comes out of this

and then make decisions based on that. And ultimately, if the fans don't have a change in their attitude and their spending habits, I don't know how much change is going to be made in that front. So yeah, I just wanted to say that. But great conversation this morning. Appreciate you really doing the show when everybody's dealing with a lot. But hopefully 2023 can be bright for everybody out there.

Well said. I mean, you're probably right. Yeah. Just a weird situation. This is a very strange situation. But yeah, you're probably right. Endeavors, if anything's going to happen, it's probably, it's going to, the hammer's going to have to be dropped from Endeavour and the stockholders

and not the promotion and not Dana. But, yeah, it'll, and even if they don't do anything, it's going to be really interesting to see how much, Dana is going to be around the next few months because he's just going to be looked at in this way for a while. It's just the way that it is. So we will see what happens

and we have a we have ourselves a week here at M.A. We're kind of back to normal. The holiday season is behind us. We're on the 2023. We have this show back. The M.A. Hour is back tomorrow. We'll have the

highly prestigious the MMA Hour Award show. tomorrow, which is just so fun to watch. It's a great program. Tons of awards. We'll probably maybe see some fighters as well and hear from some fighters as well because that's typically what happens on these shows. And that's always a lot of fun. I'm actually going to be speaking with AJ McKee a little bit later on today to talk about his just incredible performance on the Bellator versus Rising card. He was the MVP beyond a shadow of a doubt of that card

because his New York Rick so eloquently put it on Saturday. AJ McKee just likes to do fun shit, and we appreciate him for that. And I'm going to just tell him how much I appreciate him in that performance when we speak a little bit later on. BTL, back on video form on Thursday. Obviously, we'll talk more about this. We'll see what has come over the next couple of days.

We'll be back here on Thursday as well. And then last reminder of this, I tweeted about it. AK and I will be recording our 20, On to the next one. Predictions extravaganza. Sometime on Thursday, maybe Friday morning. It will be a video show just like it was last year. It will be a podcast just like they always are.

And we're answering your buy-sell questions. Okay? So they're buy-sell questions. Think outside the box. Like one of our favorite questions last year that comes to mind that we talked about on the 2022-2020 predictions recap was, the combination like here's what we're looking for

the combination of stepe ameitchitch and robbie loller will have more fights in 2022 than the Diaz brothers like those are the kinds of questions and it turned out that those combinations both had one apiece so these are the kinds of questions

we're looking for so let's have some fun so however you submit your onto the next one suggestions that's where you will submit your buy or sell questions and then AK and I will break them down we usually answer about 25 to 30 of them. And then we do our predictions for who will be champions at the end of the year

in each weight class in the UFC. And then AK and I will each come up with a bold weak aliente take slash prediction for the year, something that probably won't come true. But if it does, then we're absolute geniuses. So we'll have those as well. It's my favorite show of the year. We knock it out right away. And it's just a ton of fun.

So if you want to submit, you have until the start of this show on Thursday. Once this show starts on Thursday, no more submissions, and we're just going to go with what we have. So it's nice to be back. Thank you all for joining us for the first live show of 2023. We'll back on Thursday. Have a great rest of the day. And as always, have a heck of a morning, everybody.