MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reaction To Dana White's Moderation Of UFC 287 Press Conference

Episode Date: April 7, 2023

Dana White made it very clear that the UFC 287 press conference was going to go on his terms, no matter what interesting storylines had been created throughout the build to Saturday's event in Miami. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to White's somewhat odd behavior at Thursday's presser. Additionally, listener topics include prediction for UFC 287 Fight of the Night, Israel Adesanya's legacy, Jorge Masvidal being the biggest underdog on the entire fight card against Gilbert Burns, Alex Pereira's longevity at middleweight, Dana White's odd behavior at the UFC 287 press conference, Amanda Ribas vs. Maycee Barber fight being targeted for June 24, 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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You can hear the show in its entirety short thereafter on the M.A. Fighting Podcast Network. I am Mike Heck. Thank you for joining us. Different start time. A lot going on this morning. We just wrapped up the UFC 287 Wayans. We're like 50-50 on whether or not we're even going to do a show today.

But we're going to do a show today. But we're going to do. do one. Can't take a free-for-all Friday off. And we can't take the day before UFC 287 off. So this is what we're going to do, my friends. It's going to be your show. And we're going to go for 45 minutes. That's it. So we cannot have just a little warning to those who are going to be asking questions. Make them short and sweet. Okay? Short and sweet. 30 seconds. Say what you got to say. want to get to as many people and calls as possible. All right.

That's how we're going to handle this. We're going to go 45 minutes. And then we get a preview show coming up at one. And I would like to eat some food this morning. So I like to replenish. You know what I mean? That's how we get to do it. So let's get right into it.

We can talk about 287. We could talk about what happened at the way ins. We can talk about whatever the hell you want. We have at least for now one miss, Christian Rodriguez, who is fighting Raul-Rour, is Jr. missed weight by a pound and a half. He is in the midst of getting an extra hour to try to cut that final pound and a half. So we'll see what happens.

And if we have any updates on that, we will let you know. But Four Corner Sports was first. And that's where this begins. So I have a question. So now that both Adasania and Pereira both made weight, do you think that, what's it called? we are, I mean, because I feel like Pereira looked very light on the scale. Do you think that he may have maybe just, I would say, like an estimate of maybe no more than like four fights left at middleweight?

And I feel like at some point he's going to have to move out to 205. And can Adasanya, do you feel that he can get past the trolling of Pereira? Just because I feel like Pereira is always in his head, especially with the fact that he has, you know, three victories. over him. The whole, you know, aspect of him, like, mocking him with the whole Pikachu thing. I just think that that was just all, you know, just to get inside his head. And I don't know, just thought yesterday's a press conference with him, you know, him wearing a doll collar was just, you know, just a little bit too much. Like, I feel like he was just, like, reading too much into it. And then lastly, is this the first fight that Shilom Bechton

is fighting since the Derek Minter fight? If so, what do you think about his fight, this Saturday. All right, thanks, Mike. I believe it is his first fight since, and I don't think that whole incident will have any effect on the fight at all. No one blames him for any of that, so it is what it is. And, I mean, four fights for Pereira at Middleweight, that would be, I think that's probably wishful thinking for being honest. Like, if he wins his fight, he fights Whitaker. and then maybe fights Hamzot. Like those are the two big,

those are the two biggest fights he has left at 1805, and then if he wins those, you can go up to 205 and do his thing up there. So I don't think he'll have, I'll be stunned if he has four more fights at 185. But he looked good. I liked his little, just pointed right at the shorts.

See, didn't need the boxer redemption, didn't need any of that. Got it done. So nicely done. He looked pretty good. He didn't look like, I mean, he looked, weekend, but he didn't look like he was super duper struggling.

Zieg, hello. My man, Mike, how are you? Good. All right, free for all Friday, heck of a Friday. I'm going to hit you with two quickies. One, of course, it's a fun one. Father, son, duo, Augusta, National. What does the heck combo shoot?

Of course, we're going, you know, alternating shots. You could take some shots off the tea for the young man, unless the young man's got a nice drive. I mean, you know what I mean? I haven't seen any drive clips. Secondly, I'm on the other side of this. I feel like Izzy's fighting not only for his legacy, he's fighting for his life here. He made that comment about how Izzy's going to be sitting at a bar talking about,

oh, I beat that guy one time. No, he's beat you three times. And he's about to ruin your life and take your legacy. You know what I mean? So with that being said, he could be as cringy as he wants. But we'll see what happens on Saturday. I hope you learned how to finish his takedown and advanced positions. It could be a long night in the fourth and fifth rounds for him.

Thanks for having me, Mike. Thanks, man. So I would play as a scramble. And we're shooting in the 90s at best at Augusta. That's for damn sure. If we broke 100, I would be thrilled. I would be absolutely thrilled. As far as the Izzy stuff go, yeah, there's some sort of legacy to it.

But the ruining of the life thing don't really buy into that too much. is he's going to be is he's going to be a star no matter what he does you know what I mean? He can leave the UFC right now and still do just fine just fine so

will hurt his like fighting legacy in some regard sure Pere's the the dragon he could never slay but he's still the second best middle weight of all time at this moment. Now, Pereira wants to run off five or six title defenses in a row.

Maybe he takes that moniker, but I don't think, I don't know, I kind of feel the same way as about the Usman, like how Usman walked into the Leon fight. Like, legacy is kind of set, right? It hurts that this dude just has your number, but the rest of the legacy is pretty set in my opinion. All right, let's go to Mikey. thoughts of

what was up that was really weird how Dana was at the presser like really literally shutting down people I understand

trying to keep things level but him shutting down the Kevin Holland-Hore thing was weird and you know

not wanting to be asked about the WWU merger you know because I don't know that's business and it pertains to the UFC

also um god I ran on the thoughts I'll just keep it there. Thanks, guys. Have a good one. Yeah, it was really weird.

You know what I mean? It was, it was weird. I don't know. I don't know if it's like merger Dana. Like this is what we're going to get from now on. Now this merger has happened and endeavors this $20 billion publicly traded company. I don't know. But it was very weird.

I didn't, like, Oscar asking those questions. like it was fine. Like that was literally the biggest story that has come out of Fight Week is those two getting separated backstage and we can't talk about it. Can't talk about the merger? It just seemed, I don't know. It just seemed really weird. But there are other weird ones too.

What was the other one? Yeah, but it's okay to ask about betting lines and shit. You know what I mean? And like, I'm going to bet, should I bet the house on you? It's okay to ask those. questions, but we can't ask about what happened with Kevin Holland and Horri and Mazadol. Plus, by the way, you already spoiled the party for Mazadol. You spoiled it. You got booed out of the building because you said no matter what happens in Mazdaal's fight with Gilbert Burns,

you triple down on the Colby stuff that he's the number one contender. But now Mazadol has like his next fight set up, but he's not allowed to kind of wet the whistle for possibly planting seeds to set that fight up that people are going to want to see? I don't know. The whole thing was bizarre. The whole thing was weird. I don't know.

I've been saying for a while and I've been on an island and I think people are starting to join me a little bit. Dana should not be doing those pressers anymore. John Anick should be running the show. John Anick is the guy. John is a professional. He knows how to run these.

John would have let that marinate a little longer. and John knows when to stop things. Like if they went back and forth for like 90 seconds, John would have been like, all right, next question. And like, it would have been enough. But it just made me more of a believer that John Anick should be doing those press conferences. Dana can give his thoughts about everything at the end.

He could do scrums of the media after. But in terms of hosting those pressers, John's your guy. He's the best at it. He's better than Dana added. And this isn't me hating on Dana. It's just the truth. John is a professional broadcaster.

He knows how this works. He's had enough practice at this. And he's better at this than Dana White is. So he should be the guy, especially if Dana's not going to answer any questions. John will get one question. It'll be all about the fighters. If you really want it to be about the fighters,

let John do it. Let John do it. Let's go to James. James are you there? James are you there? you're muted. All right, we got to move on. Now right, keep him short and sweet today, guys.

Australian talk, hello. You're muted, Australian talk. Hey, good-day, Mike Heck, mate. Thanks a lot. Bloody hell, what an awesome time to be alive, man. Izzy, they're coming back, they're going to do it. They're going to do it again. He's landed all in the line.

He says he's coming back with a vengeance this time. He says to the death. He says, I'm wearing the dog collar because I'm going to unleash the dog inside of me. Man, is he going to step up and is he going to become the anime character who's always said he's going to be? But is that the biggest fight of the main card?

Or is the Musvedo Burns fight bigger than the Izzy fight? Man, I'm excited for both of them, Mike. What do you think? No, it's not bigger. Mazid al-Burns is not bigger than this fight. It's not. It's not. could it have gotten sort of that

like Luke Rockhold, Paulo Costa sort of intrigue or that like kind of Tony Ferguson Michael Chandler build. Yeah, could have, but Dana put the guy, the kibosh on that.

And it was like, nope, there's no stakes to this fight at all. This fight doesn't matter. It's just two guys fighting. He basically took this fight and he demoted it to the point where Kevin Holland and Santiago Ponziadipio is.

It's two dudes and the same. same weight class fighting each other for nothing. They're fighting for nothing. And if Gilbert wins, like, nobody's going to care. And if Mazadol wins, like, what happens? Nothing. Like, he gets, you know what? I'm not going to say nothing.

I might say nothing. Because Mazadol, it still means something. Because he could still get the winner of Leon and Colby and you could still do something there. But, yeah, it's, it just, the fight doesn't seem as important as it once, is it once. did. But the closer we get to Pereira Adasania, the more

I'm excited for. And I've been excited for it anyways, but I'm getting more excited for it. But yeah, it just seems weird that that fight hit just seems like it means nothing now when it could have meant everything. CV, hello. Oh, Mike.

Yeah, I missed the way and show, the one you just did with AK. So just based on the way and vibes on the main event specifically on Jorge, how did you look?

And I know you're doing the previous show soon, so can you do like a little spoiler and have a little like a vibes check on who you think is going to win the fight? Thanks. Between Burns and Mazda? Yeah, Burns and Mazadol.

They both look fine on the scale. Burns probably looked a little better getting off the bus. But Mazadol is never really a big body guy anyways. Like I saw a lot of people kind of making a big deal out of his physique. Like, Mazadal's not a...

Mazadoling Paul Costa. Like, he never has been. So, he's, what, 38? Like, no big deal. I just don't have a pick yet. Like, I mean, like, my vibe has been pretty clear that Mazadol should not be the biggest underdog on the card. Like, it is a...

The fight, like, there's a lot of talk about betting and perceived value and stuff. Nobody on this card has more perceived value than Jorge Mazadol, in my opinion. Nobody. This isn't even a conversation. Jorge Mazadol should not be a plus 360 underdog to give her parents. He just shouldn't. I think people just, I think people read too much into the Colby fight that Mazadol can't defend takedowns.

He's not a good defensive fighter and all this stuff. That's just not true. Like he's a very good defensive fighter. Colby's shooting a bunch of takedowns on him. Yeah, and like him being out-wrestled by the two best wrestlers of the division who chained takedowns all the time? Like, sure, it's tough for anybody in that division to be like that. But Gilbert is not that.

He's not a D-1 wrestler. He's not a guy that's going to spam takedowns. He doesn't shoot singles and doubles across the cage that often. And if he misses one, it's not like he's going to shoot again and just try to take him down over and over and over again. That's not Gilbert's style. And Mazadol defensively with his grappling on the ground, also very good. Also very good. Go back and watch the Damia Maya fight.

That gives you everything you know. And this is not washed Damia Maya. This was Damien Maya, like who was fighting for titles Damian Maya. And he didn't get submitted. And some people thought he won that. fight. And he had Maya, Maya had him in really tough spots and Maya couldn't submit him. I know Maya is a better striker than Gil, I mean, Gilbert is a much better striker than Damien Maya ever was. But this fight to me, the more I look at it, is going to play out on the feet. It's going to play out on the

feet. And I'm not saying Gilbert can't win a striking battle with Mazadol. But you can't say that Mazadol isn't favored to win a striking battle against Gilbert Burns. That's why I think this fight is way closer. Stylistically, this is a closer fight than people are giving it credit for and certainly closer than the betting odds suggest. So if I were betting on either of these guys, I mean, it's an easy Mazadol bet with the price tag. You're saying that the way, at least the way I see this fight playing out, mostly on the feet, with those betting odds, you're saying that, eight out of 10 times, Gilbert Burns is going to win a striking match with Jorge Mazadol. I just don't think that's the case. I don't think that's the case.

Am I coming on here right now and saying that I'm picking Jorge Mazadol to win? No. I haven't made a decision yet. But if you're asking me if Gilbert Burns is going to run over Jorge Mazadol, I don't see it happening. I don't see it. I think it's a close competitive fight. I think it's going to the cards and I think Mazadol has more value on him than anybody else. I wouldn't go and bet the farm on it, but you just can't tell me that Gilbert Burns is an 80-20 favorite in a mostly striking battle.

Because I think that's what this is going to end up being. I think most of this fight is going to play out on the feet. All right, see if we get James back in here. to you. I don't know if you can add any context to this, but I saw last night that the BKFC card with Mike Perry, the pay-per-view price has dropped, almost actually in half from 4999 to 2499.

I don't know if you had any insight on that, if it's not selling like they thought it would. And Adrian Anas, if he just blows the doors off the front on on Saturday, do you think that we're eventually going to be headed towards a matchup between Sean O'Malley. I know a lot of other things might have to happen. He might have to win one more.

Just curious on your take on that. And like always, Mike, man, thanks what you do for us. And have a heck of a morning and have some Dunkin' Donuts for all of us. Thanks, man. I have been hammering Dunkin' Dunkin' Dundits ice coffees today. I didn't see that the BKFC-41 prices going was dropped. I mean, it doesn't hurt. I think maybe GameBred boxing kind of set that up.

They should be charging for that card. I have no issue with them charging. 50 seems a little cray. That seems a little much. But 2499, I think that's a really good price point. I haven't seen it, so I can't. But if that's true, then I think it's a good call. I think it's a really good call.

and then Janice O'Malley not happening next I can assure you that because O'Malley's fighting for the belt next he's fighting either Al Jermaine Sterling or Henry Sehudo next and if Yannes meets Fon he will probably fight Piotr Yon or somebody like that which is exactly the fight I would make but yeah that

if that fight happens it'll be a title fight if O'Malley somehow gets the title yeah yeah hello yeah yeah we got to move on Let's keep this going. Marshall's buyers travel far and wide, hustling for great deals on amazing gifts.

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So plush. Our buyers have got you cover. Marshalls, we get the deals. You gift the good stuff. It's the matcha or the three ensemble Cicero of the FACTA that I just denichie who energize so much. It's the ensemble.

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Feses Rare Beauty, way, Cifora collection, and other part of Vite VIII. Remymini, regrouped for a better quality price, on link on Siforah.com or in magazine. Ah, Ani, what's up, man?

And I have to get something off my chest right here. I have this complaint, right? On to the next one, when you and AK pick matches, like, when you pick the same match, you have this, like, sort of friends, whatever moment. The other day, a couple of, I think a couple of days ago, I tweeted AK

about a match that I had in mind, and I told him that, AK, we are best friends. then he told me off. He told me off, Mike. But that's not what I'm here to talk about. Another thing, I just felt like, you know, there's this weird battles between UFC and the WWE.

Like you have Vince McMahon, Dana White. You have Hunter and Sean in the UFC. You have Hunter and Sean in the WWE. Isn't that a bit weird to you? But yes, I mean, I don't have any questions. It's just two stupid remarks, I guess. Free for All Friday, isn't it? That's it.

Thank you, Mike. It is. It's like Lincoln and Kennedy. It's like the Lincoln Kennedy thing. Yeah, it's, it's, WWE, man. Like, this whole thing, fucking Vinsicman.

That's sly son of a bitch. Dastardly Vinsic man with the mustache. Looking like he's about to take out a bunch of cartoon animals. just that dastardly Vitsuk, man. Now he's back at control and everyone's all angry and Vince don't give two shits. Golly. What a time.

What a time. I don't believe A.K. would ever tell you off. Unless he's just like, no. We only have best room for one best friend. Then I can understand where he's coming from. Yeah, yeah. Do we have you now? Yeah, man. I'm here. My bad.

What's going on? Mike. Good. Good, good. So my question is for in regards to the paths of Izzy and Alex. So in the case that Izzy wins, what's his next path, even though he's kind of lapped in division or if he has new challenges, and then if he loses, what happens? And then I guess on the point of Alex, if he wins,

well, I guess it's obvious he's going to keep defending the belt instead of moving up. And then, you know, if he loses what happens, is my question. Have a great weekend, man. I mean, if Izzy winning and Alex losing is the same option. They're just going to fight again. I know New York Rick wasn't too keen on that. Didn't think they'd go back to that well right away.

But yeah, I think they will go back to that well right away. If Alex wins, he fights Robert Whitaker. Seems like they're keeping Whitaker on ice just to see how this all plays out. And if Izzy wins and then wins again. So this is what I think is going to happen. They're going to wait and see how this plays out. Pereira wins. Whitaker's going to fight Pereira. Hamzot's going to fight Paulo Costa,

and then the two winners will fight each other. Where this puts Adasania, I don't know. He's the interesting piece of this puzzle. Does he just like, is he the kind of guy just going to go back to the drawing board? Is he a guy that's going to go fight Drickus Duplice in a co-main event or in a fight night main events? I don't know.

I don't know. Is he just going to, like, not fight and hope Robert Whitaker beats Alex Pereira? I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen. We'll see what his mindset is after the fact. But like New York, Rick said on BTL yesterday, and I'm with him, all options, all decisions, all things, all roads he could take, everything's on the table. I don't think anything would be surprising.

I don't think anything's off limits. I think no matter what Adasania does, whether it seems like it's out of left field, or not, it should not surprise you. The man has a lot of options. Tretton, hello. How's it going, man? I just, I feel like the Chris Curtis and Kevin Gasselin fight is getting slept on. I was winning your opinions on that fight.

Love that fight. Go ahead, Doug. Sorry about that. Dog's going to go inside. He's driving me crazy. Like to fight a lot. Outside of the main events, I'm probably to...

There's three fights I'm torn on. Adasani, prayer Adasanya, I'm torn on. I just don't have a great read on it for some reason. I feel like if Adasani is more aggressive, he's got a really good chance to win, but that doesn't mean he's going to. Rob Font, Adrian Yannas is another one I'm having a hard time with. I think that's a 50-50 fight,

despite what the betting line suggests. And the third fight that is tough to call is this one. This might be the toughest fight to call. Gasol and Chris Curtis because Kevin has a fought in a long ass time. I don't know what he's going to look like. It was nice to see him make weight without issue today. He was one of the early guys.

Chris has beat everybody he's fought except for, you know, the cream of the crop. I'm not saying, or at least like top 15 competition. He got Jack Hermanson. He got worked in the Hermanson fight. That fight was not really all that competitive. So, and Calvin's still like a viable fighter.

And these are the types of fights that Kelvin does well in. So I don't have a great read on it. I don't. I will lean Calvin Gaston, but I ain't confident in it. It's a great fight. You're right. It is being slept on. Nobody's talking about it.

But it is one of the close, one of the more closely contested matchups on the entire card. 100%. And Gasolam is a fun fighter too. So is Chris. Gloomy, hello. Hey, what's up? So I have a disagreement on Gilbert Burns versus Fraudadal. I don't think that your take on that is correct.

Because what has Mosbadol done in recent years to prove that he could beat someone like Gilbert Burns? Gilbert Burns held down Stephen Wonderboy and beat him up. who is not even close to the defensive grappler that Horaes-Rosol is. You're right. You're right. You're right. But he looked good against Comza. And a striking battle?

Sure. Again, I'm not saying Burns can't win a striking battle against Mazadol, but he's not 80 percent. He's not an 80-20 better striker than Mazadol. That's why I'm saying this one's closer. I just, I feel as if Mosvedal is doing a fight where he's like, and he's already spoken about it where if I lose, I think I'm going to be done. I think he already has that in his mind that he has. has kind of quit you know he has his own thing going with game bread um gilbert burns just looks really comfortable Jorge not so much i i i respect your opinion you know like mazbadal has

done some things but in my opinion not enough and to be in the position that he's in it's all from the aspen you know flying knee ko and i don't know i just i don't see i don't see him winning this fight. Alex and Izzy, very close, Chris Barnett. And, no, not Chris Barnett. I can't remember his name, but Kevin Gasolum and Chris Curtis. That'd be a good one. But shout out Chris Barnett. He's going to get the big

boy. He's, you know, he's for the big boys. So let's go Chris Barnett. That's all I had to say. Yeah, I wish Chris Barnett was still fighting on the card. Oh, you get Carl Williams, and we're going to get ourselves a heavyweighty heavyweight fight if we ever if we ever saw one look this is a style like the way i'm breaking this fight down is a stylistic thing and i mazadol has earned the right to be in the position he's in there's no doubt about it the loses the losses he has are to usman on five days notice flying to abu dhabi and cutting a bunch of weight and mazadol looked pretty damn good in the first

round. Other loss, Kamaru was going to get. Mosadol looked pretty damn good in the first round and got caught and knocked out. And then he lost to Colby because Colby took him down a hundred times. Burns is not either of those guys. He's just not. And Mazel did a pretty decent job defending takedowns against those two guys. Did he get taken down? Sure. But he did pretty well defending him. And Burns ain't that guy. He's not a. spam takedown guy. He's not. Again, I'm not saying Burns is going to lose.

I'm just saying Mazadol should not be a plus 360 underdog to Gilbert Burns. Burns beat Wonderboy. So to Blah Muhammad. I would pick Colby against Gilbert Burns too. I would pick Colby against Gilbert. Colby does that to everybody.

But I don't know. The more I talk about it, the more I might be thinking, Mazadol, the hometown effect, all of them. And it is do or die for him. But the one concern I do have is something you did bring up. Does he have a foot out the door? Is that why Dana White is saying Colby's 100% getting the title shot? I don't know. That's why one concern about this fight, if you're looking at it from a Mazadol perspective. Is he just, does he have a foot out the door? Physically. and stylistically, I don't have a ton of concerns.

I just think this is a much closer fight. Now, Mazadol, if it's like plus 250, plus 240, that seems like the value is where it needs to be. But this is not an 80-20 fight in my eyes, especially from a stylistic perspective. Mazadol's defensive prowess does not get enough credit. It does not get enough credit. Go watch the Damia Maya fight.

you will learn everything you need to know about how good Mazadol is from a defensive grappling perspective. Wonderboy is a decent defensive wrestler, decent. And Mazadol is a better defensive wrestler, and he's a much better defensive grappler. And Burns is very good. But I don't think Burns right now was like Prime Damien Maya, like a half a step below. We'll see what happens. I could be eating crow. I'll come on this show on Tuesday and say,

boy, was that wrong? But on paper, this is a closer fight in my eyes. Tristan, hello. I have three questions real quick. Today would be the 2020-PFL regular season, heavy weights and women feather weights. Question one, would ask them why, does she have to make a statement win tonight?

Does she have to look good and great for this fight here in your mind? Second question would be about Kayla Harrison. She's not in the regular season this year. I guess the PFL has something special for her. It looked like when Kelly Harrison did talk to Ariel Holani on the MMA hour, she's kind of really disappointed. She does want to fight, but what are your thoughts on that situation with her? And then my third question would be just announced I just saw on MNAMI's Twitter feed.

Amanda Heave us versus Macy Barber is in the work for, I believe, June 20. fourth. Do you feel that a man and he was ever going to go back down to straw weight? I mean, she hasn't fallen to straw away in two years. It looks like she likes to fly away. I guess she doesn't like to cut the way

and she has a possible path to try to move up the rankings for a title shot. And what do you think the match itself? Do you think it's intriguing in your mind? That's all I got, Mike. Thanks. Thanks, Kenla, she's going to have a pay-per-view fight

and she'll probably be done. I would say she'll fight once for the PFL this year and then she will end up. I would guess she's going to end up in Bellator. I just don't think the UFC is going to give her what she thinks I just don't think the UFC is going to give her what she wants financially

unless that just doesn't matter. Does Aspen Lab need to look like a world beater tonight? No. She should, I mean, she should look, no one, I respect the story of Elena Kolesnik as

much to the next guy, but Aspen Ladd should put the boots to her tonight. And she doesn't need to go out there and finish her or anything like that, but she needs to go out win decisively. Like, this is about as favorable of the matchup as she's going to get in this tournament. I think it's more, I think it's more important for Larissa Pacheco to look dominant and look like a world beater than it is for Asman Ladd. Ascent just need to get a win and move on in the tournament. Or, you know, just have a win under her belt.

to start the season off. This, this PFL card is going to be, it's going to be a tough hang. I mean, it is going to be a tough one. There is not a lot of compelling stuff going on with this card. There just isn't. Pacheco fighting Julia Budd. I mean, Pacheco's a minus 900 favorite.

Aspen Ladd's interesting. Capulosa, Sheffles, interesting. But other than that, boy, we are, uh, we are reaching and a hoping for something cool to have. happen. And this card just doesn't have it in my, uh, in my humble opinion. The barber hebas fight, I think this is too much for Macy. I think she, she's jumping a little too quickly. I don't mind it. Like this, this is about as, uh, this is about as high as I would go.

Because I, I, I've rewatched it since. I still think Macy Barber lost Andrew Lee. I think Andrew Lee won that fight. And Amanda is a much tougher stylistic matchup for Macy Barber than Andrew Lee was. I would have went with Viviani Araujo. Again, tough stylistic matchup. But I feel like with Barber, you have time. You're not rushing her to be the youngest champion or anything like that. I mean, just literally one ranking spot at a time, just one at a time.

I thought Araujo was like a nice step up. but they're jumping and going with Hebas. And look, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're the EFC, you can't lose here because Barber is kind of over whether you like her or not, she kind of plays the heel. Manda Hebaugh's is about as much of a baby face as that any of the women's divisions have right now.

People love Amanda Hebas. So whoever wins this fight, like, UFC's fine with it. So I get the matchmaking. But if this is about Macy Barber and getting her up the ladder, Boy, it's a tough one. Macy wins. I mean, props to her. I just, I feel pretty comfortable

picking Amanda Hebas right now in that fight. But I'll dive in a little bit more for June 24th. That's a while away. So I just got a question regarding Gilbert Burns from last. But I know knowing how both of them very good jihitsu strikers, I mean, good jih Tijuana's and, you know,

both have fairly decent. striking. Do you think we will see improvement in Gilbert Burns defense, you know, who might play a little bit more safe compared to Hamza fight or even the fight with Kamara Usman? And could you see this fight

playing out similar to the Damien Maher had in the past since, you know, he was struggling a lot of the grappling or is there possible chance we could see Masfordal have a slight improvement on that? Let me know your thoughts. Masadol's, I mean, look, Mazadol is very good at that stuff.

He doesn't need to improve really at all. The one factor in his game that he truly needed to improve on is just wrestling, overall wrestling defense when you're dealing with guys who are just nonstop with takedowns. Colby's the, he's not going to fight Bryce Mitchell, but Bryce Mitchell is another one of those kind of guys. And once you figure that out, you can beat those guys. You beat him. And look who Mazadol is in the gym getting worked by every single day.

He's got Johnny Eblen sitting on him all day long. And Johnny is a, I mean, Johnny, Johnny Eblen is a 5,000 times better wrestler than Gilbert is. And Mazel is dealing with that. Grant Dawson, who, I mean, he's always a lightweight, but he's a big ass freaking lightweight. Mazdaal's ready for it. That's why I think this fight is closer.

Again, the one concern I have on the Mazdal's side is like, Is he just done? Like, is there a foot out the door? You can say things all you want. Who knows? But if he's really like, yeah, if I lose, I'm done, that concerns me. That would be my biggest concern. But stylistically, I'm telling you, I think this fight is closer.

I mean, immediately when this fight was booked, everybody's saying, oh, God, Gilbert Burns is going to run Mazda all over. I'm just like, interesting. I don't think that's true. But I don't know. Again, I'm wrong. I'll be happy to jump on the post-fight show on Saturday and say that I'm an asshole and I don't know what I'm talking about. Daniel, hello.

Hey, Mike, you don't know what you're talking about. You're an asshole. No, I'm completely kidding. I said, I could say that. You can't say that. No, heck of a morning to you, man. Happy Friday. I hope everyone's having a good Friday.

You know me, I'll keep it quick. Just want to get your thoughts on Baja Mondays. I mean, this guy came into the UFC at 23 years old. He hasn't fought in over a year now. Just curious what you think his ceiling is and how do you think his fight against Ogden goes this week? And just another little quick one. I'm picking Font versus Yanez is the fight of the night. Just curious what your pick for fight of the night is.

Thanks, Mike. It's not a bad pick. I think the main – I'm going with the main event. I know that's a cheap answer, but I – this won't be like a main event. eventy fight of the night kind of pick. Because I mean, if you've been watching the UFC long enough, you know that if the main event of a card is somewhat interesting, it's going to win fight of the night.

But, and we're going to have, and usually you have conversations like, well, that fight, you know, this fight should have gotten it instead. I feel confident that we're, there will be no doubts that Pereira and Adasani is the fight of the night. That's, that's how I'm feeling at least how I think this will be approached. but Fontaigne is a great pick. I got to say,

part of me is looking at Raul Roses Jr. Christian Rodriguez is a possible fight at the night pick. I don't know if Roder... I don't know if A.K. can provide any insight on this, but I don't know if Christian has hit the scale back at all. So, I mean, if he loses that final pound and a half, I mean, that's going to be a ridiculous fight.

It's going to be a pace and a half. and Baja Mondays, I don't know. He's got an interesting style. He's big, dynamic, but he's been out for a minute. He's been out for a minute. And he's fighting a frigging dog. Trey Ogden is just, Trey's one of those guys that has just been grinding away

for years and years and years to get into this position. Guy who's been on, was on the cusp of UFC calls for years, taking fights everywhere. This guy was fighting everywhere. He was fighting for ultimate blue corner battles. This is the type of shit he was doing to get to where he is.

Like, just fighting everywhere. The blackout FCs. So, I mean, it's a tough fight, man. Like, this is, it's, it's a tough fight. I'm paying Ignacio, but I don't know if this is like a rollover type

situation. Trey is a, Trey's a dog, man. But, yeah, I'm excited to see Ignacio come back. It's been a minute. It's been a minute. I like him. Liam, final one.

What's up? You all right, mate. From the UK, just been popping in now because I'm at work. Just with Adisania and Pereira, that Pereira just looks more than one weight class above him when it comes on to fight night, don't he? Oh, yeah.

Like by miles, though, as well. and I can't really remember a fight. I do wait up until 6 o'clock in the morning in the UK to watch most of them. And I can never remember somebody being, like, twice the size of somebody by fight night. It's mental. Yeah, it's crazy, man. Yeah. It kind of reminds me of, prayer is a massive human being.

Hamza Tcha Maev is also a massive human beings. Like, that is a giant man. and he looks gigantic on television, but when you actually, like, stand next to the man, you're just like, holy shit, how that fuck do you make 170? And prayer is like the same way. Just like, wow, how is this even possible that you can make 185? But it's kind of always been like that, though.

You know what I mean? Like the size difference, this is not a new thing. It's always sort of been there. And Adasandia has been able to make it work until he just gets beat, whether by the judges or he just gets clipped. So I'm just so fascinated by this fight. Cannot wait to see it.

Can't I'll wait for it. All right, we're done. Well done. Staying on topic and staying on track, my friend. That's it. Big weekend. See you at 1 p.m. Eastern preview show. Myself, Shaheen Alshadhi, Jed Bishu.

We'll get you ready for UFC. 87. I am off to New York. First thing tomorrow morning, watch party, 9.45 p.m. Eastern tomorrow. Myself, Connor Birx, it is going to be festive. My shirt is absolute fire. And so is the cold open, my friends. I might drop a teaser. I might drop the cold open teaser on social media later on because it is that good. Or I might just let it permeate, let it build up until the beginning of the watch party because I honestly think it's the greatest open we've ever done at M-Afighting.com. I do. I feel pretty, pretty confident in that. It's going to be a fun time, everybody. It's going to be a fun time. So stay with us at M8Fighting.com. We'll have all your

coverage for UFC 287 and beyond. Of course, my best friend and I will be live on Sunday, on to the next one for matchmaking. It will have the people's free. I don't know. Just stay with us. We'll tell you what the hell is going on. So enjoy the rest of your Friday. We'll see you at one. PM for the preview show. Have a heck of a morning, everybody. The Vox Media Podcast Network.