MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reaction To Dana White's UFC 300 Fight Announcements

Episode Date: December 22, 2023

UFC CEO Dana White dropped a slew of fight announcements on Thursday, including the first bouts for the historic UFC 300 event in April. While White didn't drop the main event, he did drop some interesting bouts such as Aljamain Sterling vs. Calvin Kattar, Jiri Prochazka vs. Aleksandar Rakic, and the return of Bo Nickal. Do those fights make you feel as if the PPV lineup will be the most stacked card we've had in a few years? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to the UFC 300 bouts, along with White announcing Robert Whittaker vs. Paulo Costa, and the moving up of Ian Machado Garry vs. Geoff Neal, Yair Rodriguez vs. Brian Ortega 2 for Mexico City, and Erin Blanchfield vs. Manon Fiorot for UFC Atlantic City in March. Additionally, listener questions include Alex Pereira potentially teasing a move up to heavyweight to try and win a third UFC divisional title, Alexa Grasso and Zhang Weili's respectful back and forth, Parker Porter's UFC release, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco 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 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. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. Friday, 7.22nd, 2023, and it is indeed a heck of a morning.

We are live on the M.A. Fighting Twitter Space, so you can hear the show in its entirety, shortly thereafter, on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. Hello there, everybody. I am Mike Heck. Hope you're having a fantastic week. Countdown to Christmas is on. And there's a lot to talk about in the wonderful world of MMA. No, there's no major mixed martial arts events coming up this weekend.

The UFC is done for the year. I believe one has a card going on right now. We obviously have the Risen New Year's Eve card. We have Day of Reckoning on Saturday, the big boxing event. in Saudi Arabia with guys who are in individual fights that should be fighting each other. But that's another story for another day. So at least if you're looking for something to watch in terms of athletes punching other athletes, you're covered. But a lot has happened since we last spoke yesterday.

Dana White went to social media and announced a whole bunch of fights, including UFC 298, which is getting a little bit better. Got some additions. That is the card that's going to be headlined by Alexander Volcanovsky versus Iliott-Tuporia for the Featherway title. Dana White announces the fight we talked about on this program, one that I told you guys was being discussed. Hadn't gotten over the finish line yet,

but it was being discussed for this card. Robert Whitaker versus Paulo Costa, which if you asked me a year ago at this time, if this fight would have a ton of significance. Actually, maybe a year ago, it might have, because Alex Pereira was the champion. But if you asked me like six months ago, if this fight would have any real significance with Israel,

Asania's champion, getting ready to fight Sean Strickland, I would have said, probably not because Izzy absolutely washed Paulo Costa and he already beat Whitaker twice. So the winner probably wouldn't have a lot on the line here, but now things have gotten much difference. Paulo Costa is certainly,

in the mix to fight either Sean Strickland or Drickus Duplice, depending on what happens at UFC 297 next month. And if somehow Sean Strickland retains the belt and beats Strickland too plus C,

Robert Whitaker could find himself in a title fight. Like that is very possible. So, strange times for the middleweight division. So that fight is happening. Also, we found out that the fight between, Jeff Neal and Ian Machado, Gary will not take place at UFC 299.

It will actually take place on this card. UFC 298. There you go. So we get that fight a little bit sooner. I wonder why we're getting it a little bit sooner. That was like my first thought. I was like, hmm, they're pushing this up a month. Why?

Why are they pushing this up a month? Is perhaps another man in play? for Leon Edwards. I'm talking about Ian Machado Gary. Could the UFC be looking at Ian Machado Gary as a guy who could fight Leon Edwards for the belt in the UK? I got to say, it shouldn't be that way,

but I have to tell you, the thought has crossed my mind. That was the first thing I thought of when this announcement came from Dana White. We also found out that the UFC's Atlantic City card on March 30th, will feature a massive fight in the women's flyweight division. Aaron Blanchfield versus Manon Fioro, a legit straight-up number one contender fight.

And this to me pretty much almost guarantees, at least in my eyes, unless they do something crazy with Zhang Wei Li and bump her up, we're probably going to get Alexa Grasso versus Valentina and Shofchenko three, which I honestly think they should just do again. and you have to believe the winner of this fight is going to get the next crack of the belt. So big fight. I'm glad it's happening. This one makes a lot of sense that they weren't going to go this direction.

I would have just given Blanchfield the title shot. But to me, Aaron Blanchfield is just looks like a fighter that is just waiting to capture that title. So that's a big one. And then so many questions over the last few months about UFC 300. What's going to happen at UFC 300? What does this card get to look like? What are we thinking here? We still don't know what the main event is,

but Dana White did announce some fights. UFC 300, April 13th, location TBD, venue TBD, Al Jemade Sterling, moving up to Featherweight. He will fight Calvin Cater. I freaking love that fight. That is a great fight. Yuri Perhashka, back five-month turnaround.

He's going to fight Alexander Rackich, who is supposed to fight Janbovovich at UFS. 2297, Belhovic out. Now he fights Yuri Perhashka. Huge fight for Alexander Rackich. He could insert himself into this title conversation real quick. And we also found out who Bo Nichols next opponent is.

My onto the next one pick was somebody from the UFC Austin card. I just picked the wrong middleweight. I picked Dustin Stoltzvist. They went with Cody Brodage, who is coming off of a slam-KO win in his most recent fight at UFC Austin. So Bo Nickelback, his first fight of 2024 on the books, he will fight Cody Brundage. So there you go. But as big as that news was, as emotionally fun as that news was, you know how this sport is, ladies and gentlemen.

It is an emotional roller coaster. And when you get a whole bunch of good news, it's either followed by or preceded by some sad news, some controversial news, if you will. And I think you all know what I'm talking about is the news that the UFC has a fact. officially released the goat, Pac-a-Porter. First of all, how dare you release anybody four days before Christmas? How dare you do that? But the roster watch tweeted it out. I, of course, did my due diligence because that's what I do, especially when it comes

to a guy like Pac-a-Porter. I found out it was true. Confirmed it. He's no longer on the roster. His UFC career as of right now is over. a lot of people have hit me up on social media and said, why is this happening? Why did they get released? Why didn't it happen sooner?

Why is it happening now? I can't really disclose why. I did talk to somebody about it. It's off the record, so I can't really talk about it. But all you need to know is that it's true. Packaporter no longer on the roster. It's going to be real interesting to see where he goes. I already see another movement starting on social media.

Jet already started the John Jones is scared to fight Tom Aspinall movement. And now the people want the Francis and Ghanu is scared of Paca Porter movements, which we obviously know is not true. But why the hell not, man? Why the hell not? Let's do it. Give, this is a, if Francis is going to have an MMA fight in 2024, this is frigging perfect. This is perfect.

absolutely perfect. Because if Paca Pota wins, I mean, that's just going to change this man's life at 38 years of age. But let's be clear, I love Pocoporter. He's our goat. Love the guy. I think most of us here love him too. We don't expect him to beat Francis in Gano.

But at least Francis can get a nice win, potentially over a former UFC fighter, guy with multiple fights in the UFC, guy who has a lot more MMA fights than France and Gano has in the last couple of years, and a guy who has done something that Francis has never done. He fought John Jones. So you can tie that to the storyline.

It's all there. It's perfect. So here's my message to you, Don Davis. Here's my message to you, Peter Murray. here's my message to you, Mike Kogan, or anybody that is involved in the matchmaking here, anybody that is involved in the future, growing the future of this business and this company, you want to be the co-leader,

you go and sign this guy right now. Let it not mess around. Do not let this man test free agency because everyone's going to be coming for him. Everyone's going to be coming for him. You don't think BKFC is already going to try to make this happen? You don't think Jorge Mazadol and Cruz trying to make this happen. Beat them to the punch.

Go and sign this guy. Put him on your roster. Give him a tune-up fight. Give him someone he will squash. On the pay-per-view you're going to do in March. And then you do him versus Francis sometime at the end of the year. I have solved your problems. You want to be a co-leader.

You want to be taken seriously. This is what you do. These are the moves you make. These are the moves you make. Do I want to see Parker Porter? in the heavyweight season? No. Do I want to see him fight Francis deGano? Let's go.

Let's do it. Parker Porter making a couple Millie to fight Francis, it would just warm my heart. It would warm my heart. But happy trails to Parker Porter, which honestly, I will say this before I start taking the calls here. The fact that this guy made it to the UFC

is unbelievable. I've told this story many times. I was at the Parker Porter, John Jones, fight. This is well before John Jones was the John Jones we know now. I was at Parker Porter's return fight. He took some time off, came back, fought at reality fighting at, I believe it was Mohegan Sun Arena, same place Bellator always hosts their cards. Parker Porter was in the main event. Fought for the reality fighting heavyweight title and won. Dude, won the belt. And it wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing fights of all time. But then to see,

see him make it all the way to the UFC and get wins. The dude got wins in the UFC and a bunch of them. It's an incredible story. It's an incredible story. Parker Porter also making history is the only fighter to appear on the watch party, not once but twice. And I was talking to, you know, after I confirmed all of this, I talked to his manager, Tyson Chartier.

And he was telling me that outside of, I'm trying to think, I'm trying to think who else it could be. I think he only said one guy. Besides Rob Fonk's going on a four-fight win streak, and he's got a pretty significant roster of guys who've been in the UFC. Parker Porter is like the only guy that he's had win three fights in a row in the UFC.

Dude, won three fights in a row. And then they fed him to, he was supposed to fight Hamdi Abdelawab. He probably would have won that fight. He was supposed to fight Slim Trebeli. actually think he might have a really good chance to win that fight. But then they chucked him in there with freaking Jailton Almeida, which is just crazy. I mean, no matter what, how long your winning streak is, if you go in there and you fight Jelton Almeida, it's probably not going to go

well for you, whether you're Parker Porter or anybody else. So look, hopefully he gets signed. He had eight UFC fights. He went four and four. Dude had a pretty good run. Dude had a pretty good run. He's 38 years of age. Do it, PFL. Don Davis, get these guys on the phone. And let's make this happen, shall we? All right. Let's go to you all. Lots to talk about it. This is free-for-all Friday so we can get bananas here. A lot of people waiting, so let's not go crazy with the length here. But let's have some fun. Ani, kick us off. Hello, Mike. It's really nice to speak to you on a free-for-all Friday. I have a funny one. I mean, before I ask you the question, I just wanted to know how did your fast go?

What did you eat after your fast? And what are the health benefits of your fast, really? I'll ask you the question later. Can you answer this first? You can keep going. I'll get into it, I promise. Okay, fine. So I always think of asking you this, but I keep forgetting.

So on your Twitter profile, like you're announcing someone, are you not? Can you give us a sample? You know, it would make my day if you announce my name. That's about it. It's a free for all Friday. We're having fun. Merry Christmas in advance. How do you pronounce your last name, just the way it's spelled?

It is Annie. It's gullapalli. You can just say gulapali. However your tongue twists, really. I know it's a mouthful. Gulapoli? Gulapali. You have...

Gulapali. Yes, exactly. Guilapali. Yes, exactly. Okay. All right. Thanks, man. Before you do it, I am a welterweight.

You're a welterweight? I'm a welterweight. All right. Thanks, man. Oh, God. Put me on the spot. So, yes, I have done ring announcing for... some local New England

MMA promotions in the past. I kind of got to be in the zone, but I'll give you my best. Fighting out of the welterweight division. Let's hear it for Ani. Paca Porta's biggest fan, Gunapali. I'm way more,

when I have the suit on, I'm in a whole different world, but I can bust that out real quick. 72 hour fast came to an end. I went about 73 hours with the fast. I was still, I was on like, about 30 minutes into BTL, that's when the fast ended. And then by the time I, like, produced it and put it all on the podcast network, then I had my first meal.

I had like a small bowl of salad. And then I had like two slices of chicken breast and like a half a cup of rice. That's what I had. That was my first meal. All week long, I was thinking I'm just going to have two scrambled eggs. I'm going to just like take the yolk out. I was going to put the whites in and to scramble them up. I'm just going to eat like two egg white scrambled eggs.

And then I opened the fridge and realized we didn't have any eggs. And I was like, damn it. So I went a different route. But it was good. My body was just like, wow, you have food. Enjoy this. And my body certainly did. And then for dinner, my son wanted tacos.

Little does he know, we make it with ground turkey instead of ground beef. So I made him some tacos. And I had two. I had two tacos. Usually on taco night, I get after it. I get after it. I usually eat like four tacos. But this one slowly ate one and then slowly ate a second.

And I was like, all right, that's enough. I'm good. And honestly, I have not eaten anything since. So it's been pretty good. I feel great. Had a workout this morning after eating yesterday. It felt real good. Just did it a little bit earlier than I usually do.

So, yeah. As far as like benefits go, there's a lot. It does a lot with cell replacements. It does a lot with reducing, like, toxins in your body. Obviously, you lose a little bit of weight. That doesn't hurt either. But a lot of it has to do with, like, the mental willpower.

It takes a lot of stress off of you. Like, you have to stress during it, but your mental clarity gets a lot better because you're improving your willpower throughout all this. And I think, like, the biggest benefit is, basically you get replacement cells in your body. A lot of the bad cells in your body that could lead to things like Alzheimer's and cancer. Some of those, a good chunk of those cells are replaced by just more healthy cells, activates the pathways a little bit, and it's pretty good.

So I'm learning more about it. I had a gentleman Michael Koch reach out to me, great guy, just a business savvy dude. written a bunch of books, including a book about fasting. Dude's a monster. And incredible shape, a very successful guy. He's going to send me his book so I can learn more about doing some different things with the fasting. So am I going to do it again?

Absolutely. When? I'm not sure. Will I go longer than 72 hours the next time? Probably. Probably. But, yeah, it was a good experience. I felt good.

for it and if I could do it, and I know like the exact way to do it perfectly next time. Just find like a three-day stretch or four-day stretch where I'm incredibly busy. And that's the best way to do it. So yeah, but I feel pretty darn good about it. Boating for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo. Great idea.

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you call 1-86653310 or visit Comexonterio.ca. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first... There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. Uh, cats, go ahead. Good morning.

I hope everybody here is having a lovely day. I really wanted to remember what I was going to tell you about two spaces ago. I remember you said something that pissed me off. I ran across my house. I jumped over my couch. I tried to make it in my phone. I've never ran that hard in my life. I made it to cross the house just for my phone to die in my fucking face.

So when I remember what I was going to get on your head about, we're going to have a match of power slap. But I had a question. So, you know, in other sports, let's say soccer, basketball, football, the majority of the time, everyone's going to play around the same amount of games throughout a season, you know what I mean? But in UFC, I feel like a lot of men's and women, their primes get robbed. And especially, I feel like it's getting worse with the way the UFC's doing his matchmaking. We're getting like one big banger per card.

I love watching all the way through early prelims to the finals. So don't tell me I'm a casual, y'all. All I'm saying is the way that they've been making these cards. Seems like they want to just give us one champion fight per card these last at least six months. to a year, you know, with the exceptions. And I just really wanted to talk about that. Like, do you guys really think that if we were to start eating good, if we were to start having stacked cards to the brim,

do you guys think that we would burn ourselves out? Like, we would run out of fights? Because I feel like I forget how the saying goes in English, but we have a saying in my language, whatever you spend will come back to you, if that makes sense. I don't think that if we were to, if Dana or the matchmakers were to put out all the most amazing fights and put them on one card rather than spreading them all out,

I don't think the UFC will run out of possibilities for fights. That's my first point. And my second point is, is do you guys agree or am I tripping? Do you guys feel like the UFC is just kind of cucking these guys? Like I feel like a lot of men are losing out on their primes because, you know, they're waiting to fight. You know, a lot of guys are fighting once a year, twice a year, and they want to fight more than that. And I feel like the UFC doesn't allow it. But I know there's a lot of reasons for all of that stuff.

But I just wanted everybody's thoughts on it. More importantly yours, Mike. You have a wonderful day. Merry Christmas. I'm afraid for you to remember what I pissed you off about. But look, it's award season. It's award season. And I can assure you I'm going to piss off multiple people with awards because that's how it always works.

So it's not the first time I pissed somebody off with the take. It certainly won't be the last. But if you remember, hop back in. I would love to hear what I said that made you so upset. Wow. What a reaction. The card quality stuff, look, I talked about this a lot. At this point, and this conversation has come up a lot recently

because the UFC is going to be doing. Let me pull up, let me pull up what's happening in 2024 because this conversation has been, has come up, especially the last like 24 to 48 hours. This has been a big conversation. So let's see. So we're off now. So January 13th, we're at the apex.

then we have 297 February 3rd guess who we're at the apex February 10th guess where we're at the apex then we take a little bit of a breather from the apex we go to Mexico City we go to Saudi Arabia we go to Miami and then guess what

Apex Apex New Jersey and then guess where the card the go home show for UFC 300 is going to be you guessed it the apex the go home show for UFC UFC 300 will be at the world's most famous apex. And that is where this all comes from. Because look, I completely agree with you. I have been saying for the longest time, and people get pissed at me for this, the UFC's just running too many events. And because

they're running too many events, they have to use the apex more often than not. And I'm not saying it's a terribly bad thing to do that. And a lot of people will fight back with me on this saying, like, well, how could you create stars if you don't give them fights? You can give them fights. You can. I would rather see one, I would rather see, let's just say like February and March. Let's say March rolls around. I would rather see a fight night card on the road, another fight night card on the road. And let's be clear, these fight night cards, they don't have to be at major arenas. You don't have to sell out a 20,000 person stadium to do a fight night card. You could do it in a smaller venue. You do one that seats like 5,000. And you can, I guarantee you, even if you put,

let me just pull up a random example here. If you put the Jackermanza Joe Piper card in an arena that seats 4,000 people, because it's the UFC, I will guarantee you that son of a bitch will sell out. Doesn't matter who's on the card. That's what I'm saying. Like, you don't have to go to an NBA arena every single card. You want to know what the best non-paper-view Vegas card was of the year? It was the one card where they didn't use the apex because they were doing power slap there and they booted the UFC out of its own apex for power slap. And they just did like a random, they did a fight day card in Las Vegas at a hotel that had like

1,500,000 people. That was the one headlighted by Marabda Wallace Relie versus Piero Young. That was a great card. That was a great card. That was Rob's like breakthrough performance. We had a submission of the year contender on that card. A lot happened on that card. So you can, the aesthetics of the apex is just boring.

It just sucks the life out of you. It really does. At first I was like, this is cool. Like you get to hear the thumps and everything. But then like, what do you do three weeks in a row? It's just rough. And most of the cards are just not great. It's just not great.

I have been screaming from the rooftops. The UFC needs to do less cards. I'm not saying, like, do one card a month. No. You could do two or three, but just take, like, take one week off a month. And then you could take some of the other fights that look really good on the fight night cards, those intriguing fights on the fight night cards, and add it to the pay-per-view. Would anyone complain if we had no apex cards, but the pay-per-view cards had 17 fights,

and they started an hour earlier? Nobody would complain about that. because the featured prelims are still going to start at 8 p.m. Eastern and the paper is going to start at 10 p.m. Eastern. Who gives a shit? And then we can load things up a little bit more. We can stack the deck a little bit more, as opposed to just throwing a bunch of debuting contender series guys, stacking up an apex card, and then giving us Magabed Angolae versus Johnny Walker as a main event. You know what I'm saying? We can do better with this. The card quality is bad. And I understand why the UFC is continuing to go to the apex.

Because honestly, if I was the UFC, I would stay at the apex too. How much money they make staying at the apex? Just stay in their own building. They're getting a whole bunch of money from ESPN anyways. And then on top of that, all their production costs are in-house. They make so much money doing those cards. So I get it. And as I've said a million times, as long as they have this.

type of deal with their television distribution, which doesn't come up until the end of 2025, they ain't leaving the apex. We're going to see probably 18 to 20, if not more apex cards this year. They are going to hit the road a little bit more, but we're going to see one to two apex cards every single month. It's going to happen. It's going to happen. But I just wish the card quality would be better across the board. Everyone's like, oh, this is the best year the UFC's ever had. Yeah, kind of. I mean, from a financial standpoint, yes. Do they have cards that delivered? Sure. Do they have moments that delivered? Absolutely. Do we have storylines to talk about? Yes, we certainly do. But how many times did we enter a UFC fight week this year? If this includes a couple of the

pay-per-views they had as well, by the way, where we're just like, eh, this card's not great. Or this is a one-fight card, or this is a two-fight card. And we have to try to be positive about it. We try to find you like the diamonds in the rough that could be really good. It shouldn't be that way. It shouldn't be that way. And we've seen the UFC could do better with stuff. So all I'm saying is if you get out of the apex and I understand why they, you know, don't take all these fight nights on the road, but you can still make money and still do good business if you just go to a smaller arena. Look at AEW right now to go to pro wrestling. AEW like rents out like the Amway Center in Orlando for a dynamite car.

And they sell like 3,000 tickets. Like, no, no, no, no. That's not what we're trying to do here. Obviously, Magamette Ankelaif and Johnny Walker is not going to sell out the Amway Center. But they might sell out where like Jake Paul just had his fight, which had like 2,500 people in there. That's fine. That's fine. The acoustics in that building will make it seem like there's a million people in there.

You can just make it better. Get it out of the apex. The occasional one, fine. but it doesn't need to be that way all the time. But with this new TV deal, I'm very curious to see how it's going to play out if they will run less cards, which I think will be super,

like super good. You know, if you want to do three weeks in a row, fine, the occasional four weeks in a row, but like having stretches of like 17 weekends in a row with like eight of them at the apex is no go. It's no blano. It's no blano, especially when the card quality for more than half the cards

is just subpar. at best. So I get where you're coming from. I would rather see an 18-fight pay-per-view with better fights than see a 13-fight pay-per-view with four good fights, and then an apex main event that is on top of a card featuring a lot of fighters you've never seen fight in the UFC before, or on losing records, or have been knocked out in three straight fights, et cetera, et cetera. So I'm with you. I think the card quality could absolutely improve. and I think the paper views as a whole. Now, again, some of them were really good.

$2.96 on paper was really good. $290 on paper. You know, $285, $287, all great cards on paper, $292. But, you know, I'm with you, Kat. I'm with you. Hopefully you're not jumping over your couch in anger that I am agreeing with you. And hopefully you can work this out someday. Lee, hello.

Hey, Mike. you doing a heck of a morning you too hey i had a question i don't know if you've seen pierre's uh post on instagram with um you know the 30 plus 3 equals 300 or whatever and people you know thinking about him fighting um tom aspinall for the you know the

interim belt i just wanted to get your thoughts on that and um i know you guys are doing pretty good over there at m mhm a fight and let's say um you and gc maybe get some uh get a console up there and play some ufc 5s on the watch parties or something, that would be pretty cool. But yeah, I just want to toss that in there. Have a heck of a holiday. Thanks, man. So, G.C. and I have, we've done the video game thing.

We always, like, go into the watch parties planning to play the video game. And then so much happens and we just don't have time to do it. It's either with the packs being ripped or, like, for 296, for example, we find out Sean Strickland and DDP get into a fight in the crowd and we had the video and we were breaking it down, which obviously was a big story. Just other things that were going on at the time. So we try. I think UFC 5 will be a bigger part of things next year after talking to GC about stuff. Obviously, I love doing those watch parties.

That honestly is one of the best things we have done since I've been here. It's one of my favorite things we do. even though I like it's a pain in the ass to travel for one day like you hop on a plane you go to New York you get like no sleep that night because you got the pay-per-view and by the time the post show wraps up we get it on the podcast network and we do all the stories in the aftermath that's like six in the morning and you get like two hours of sleep I got to wake up in time to like pack up all my stuff get my coffee and then me and AK will do the live on to the next one at 10 and then usually like the flights back after that aren't to like super late so it's just it's just

a slog of a one day but other than that like it's so worth going because it's so much fun but I would love to do that absolutely love to do that and it would be it would be cool just keep playing the video game so no one gc I'm sure UFC 5 will be in the studio the next time around and it'll be a good time it'll be a good time I honestly don't remember your other question I'm sorry But I will remember it. It'll pop into my head and then I will go because someone else will say something similar. And I'll be like, oh, yeah, this is what we're talking about. Average avenues, please.

Good. How are you? I'm okay, I guess. I have a moment. You too. Okay, I've got two questions. My first one sort of segues into my second one. My first one, I'm going to put you on the spot and going to ask, does Paula Costa make the walk against Robert Whitaker?

and my second one is for the Robert Wittaker, Paula Costa fight and the Brian Ortega Yeo Rodriguez rematch, what happens to the loser of those fights? Because I feel like more so Rob and Brian Ortega, I feel like they're kind of stuck in the mud

in terms of their careers if they end up losing those fights. All right, that's all I've got. Have a good holiday, everyone. Peace. Interesting question. Will Paula make the walk? Yes. Yes, I feel confident. I feel confident he makes this walk. Did I feel confident he was going to fight I, Grim Alaskaroff? Hell no. Hell no. I mean, as soon as they announced it, I came on the show and I said, by the way, this fight's never going to happen. So don't get too excited about it. It's never going to happen and it didn't. I honestly thought Paul Costa would fight Hamzaa Chamaif. Having what happened to him happened to him, there's nothing you can do about it. You can't really give him shit for.

it, he just wasn't cleared to fight. You can't, you can't do that. Even though it turned out that a bunch of people fought on that car with staff infections anyways, that's neither here nor there. But yes, I do think he makes the walk. As far as, oh yeah, that was another fight that got announced. The Brian Artigiegari-Rodriguez fight was announced the five-round co-made event for Mexico City.

It was supposed to be, it was originally going to be the main event. But as I told you guys on the show, that fight wasn't really, that was the fight the UFC was going to make, but it was just a matter of, is it going to happen in Mexico City, or is it going to happen on the February pay-per-view card? Ortega is very popular in Anaheim, and there's obviously the featherweight title fight on the line, so could those two guys just be put on the card in case something weird happens and one needs to be bumped up? That was being discussed, but in the end, they went with Moreno and Albaughzi as the main event, and they went with Yair and Ortega as the co-main event, both are five.

rounds, both are very important fights. Now, in terms of who loses that fight in the Whitaker-Costa fight, probably, man, Ortega-Yair is interesting. I don't really know where they go, but it would probably be, I mean, they're going to, the answer is pretty much the same across the board. They're just going to be sort of delegated to high-end, I don't love the word gatekeeper, but there'll be high-end litmus tests for some of these up-and-comers. And featherweight is freaking loaded with talent right now. Like, for example, Lorone Murphy's getting ready to fight Dan Igay. That fight's going to be a great fight.

If Lorone Murphy beats Dan Igay and let's say, Yair beats Brian Ortega, there is a real world where when the UFC goes back to the UK, if Brian Ortega is healthy, they will do Lorone Murphy versus Brian Ortega. Like, that's kind of where this goes. As far as Whitaker goes, I don't know, man. Like if he loses, like, he's in play to fight for the belt right now. He is in play. As long as Drick's due pussy does not win the title.

And as long as Whitaker beats Costa, there is a very real world where Robert Whitaker could fight for the belt. Very real. And there's a very real world that no matter what happens in that title fight, if Paul Costa beats Robert Whitaker, he's getting a title shot. Like, it's a very real world that that that happens. could happen. The loser, let's just say Whitaker loses, he's going to have to, honestly, the answer to both guys is when I expect Icramalus Scaref to beat Anthony Hernandez. And I,

I am a huge Fluffy Hernandez fan. I think the guy is incredibly fun. I think he's really good. I think he's incredibly underrated. I think Ikemael Skaerof is going to be the dude at 185. I've been saying this for a while. The fact of that guy had a fight on the freaking contender series is a travesty. He should have been in the UFC long before fighting on the contender series. But, yeah, I think the loser that fight gets Iqram after he fights Anthony Hernandez, and then the Iqram build towards title contention, that's how we're going to go. So, yeah, they just kind of get thrown into gatekeeper-esque litmus test status.

So a lot on the line in both of those fights, honestly. Hey, Denai, please. How are you? It's been a while. Yeah, we've got a lot of things going on. First off, Parker Porter. That's tough, man.

I think they should just give him someone other than one of the tafas, and then I think he should be all right. But, uh, fight Francis. Let's go. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. There's no third top. There might be, but he cares. He's, he's beyond the topis.

He's already done that dance. PFL, you want to be the co-leader. do the thing. Sign Parker Porter, Francis Gano Parker Porter, November 2024, PFL belt sells 500,000 pay for them away from the heavyweight season. We want them in the pay-per-view class.

100%. See, let's get this movie going. Yeah, you brought up the Marat flight. Yeah, it's like the words out of my mouth. It's called the Theater at the Virgin hotels. I looked it up. That place was sick. Yes. And then yesterday I was talking with someone And while all these fights are at the apex, I want to go to one.

As a viewer, I feel like it's probably legit. And, yeah, UFC 300 announcements was as anti-climatic as Yamamoto signing with the Dodgers. So that's all I got. Oh, man. There's a Red Sox fan seeing that. And just there'll be no answer from the Red Sox at all. It's just going to be the funniest thing ever. They're just going to do nothing this entire offseason.

Look, the 300 fights were good, man. Those are pretty good. We got Bo Nickel, big name. We got Al Jermaine Sterling versus Calvin Cater. That's a good fight. Yuri Perashka just fought, was a former champion, just fought for the title in November a month ago. And a guy who took a long time off dealing from a shoulder surgery is coming back five months later after losing to Alex Pereira. There you go.

I just thought with the other question that gentleman had was. I'll get to that in the second. Good fights. I mean, look, you can't announce them all now. You can't fire off the main event. You got to whet the whistle. I think they did that. And Dana announced 298 fights that were all good.

We got Ortega Yahir. Great fight. And we got Blanchfield Fioreau. Great fight. A lot of people are asking me if that's the main event. I'm not going to say no. It's not yes right now. Could it be the main event?

Yes. From what I understand, there are other options potentially being discussed to headline that card. But as of right now, that is not the main event. As of right now, it's a three-round fight. But if it gets offered to be the main event, I would assume both those ladies would be all over that idea. So there you go. Yes. And I remember the other question.

Alex Pereira, the story, 30 plus 300 equals three. A lot of people assuming that means he's going to put on 30 pounds. fight at UFC 300 for the heavyweight title or some sort of belt and become a three division champion. Let me just say this. I have zero interest in this right now. None. Absolutely none.

You guys know how I feel about the champion versus champion thing. I'm over it. I don't care. It doesn't do anything for me. Alex Perry just won the late heavyweight title. Like literally just won the late heavyweight title. Just won it a month ago. I don't want to see him go to heavyweight.

I certainly don't want to see him fight Tom Aspinall right now. And by the way, if they're going to the UK in June or July, why the hell would you put Tom Aspinall on any other card? What are we doing here? What are you talking about? So could they do Pereira versus John Jones? That might be interesting. But I still would rather see him fight light heavyweights.

We've already done this dance. I would rather see him fight light heavy weights. Is there anybody available right now? Maybe. As far as UFC 300 main events go, Pereira versus Izzy 3 for the late heavyweight title will be a pretty damn good main event. A lot of story attached to that one.

If it's not going to be Connor versus Chandler, that's a fight that could absolutely headline UFC 300. For sure. Do I think that's what they're going to do? Probably not. But look, there's big fights coming up in the division. We got a main event at the apex that's going to have significant stakes for the division. Jamal Hill's going to be coming back at some point.

Landscapers are outside my house. It's loud as hell. So there you go. Do I think he's going to move up to heavyweight and fight a UFC 300? No. Would it shock me if they did it? No. No, but it would be a scramble move. It'd be a scramble move. Like, all of our plans fell through and you'd have to get John involved. Like, Pereira fighting Tom Aspital would be like kind of cool and interesting, but that's not going to sell a lot of pay-per-views. You know what I mean? And Alex isn't going to, I don't think Alex is going to move up and fight for the interim heavyweight title.

I think he would move up to fight John. Oh, Jed would be so mad if they made that fight. Did the Tom Asmodal fight, it'd be hilarious. Cole, go ahead. So, Mike, when a couple weeks ago when we were talking about the super fight that Dane was talking about, do you believe that that fight's headlining 300, whatever fight he's talking about there? I don't know.

Because I don't know what he mean. I don't know what his definition of a super fight. Okay, I've been reading the tea leaves. And God, does that, does Pereira versus Aspinall for the heavyweight title just fit his definition of a super fight like a glove? Like, that fight is 100% going to happen. It's the two guys that you've been saying that you just cannot ice or bench in, like, this spring in second quarter.

Man, like, after seeing Pereira, two. about that and just like who else could main event i just don't think they're going to like be like bang connor chandler for like i i feel like when they announced that fight there's going to be a good five six months in advance that they're going to announce that i don't know maybe not but man do i feel like that that perera aspinall for the while i agree with you and like he just won that light heavyweight belt and he's not deserving of it like that's the only super fight that like could be made in any way that's the one way that's the way that's it. weight class, really, I think.

I don't know. I think it's perfect for that. But Pereira versus John Jones isn't more superfighting? Like, that's 10 times more superfighty than Tom Aspinall. You know what I mean? Like, dude, Aspidal's the guy. He's going to be the undisputed champion. And if he fought John Jones tomorrow, I would pick him to probably beat John Jones. Like, I'm very high on the guy.

I just don't... Aspinall has guys, too. he could fight Cyril gone right now like if they go back to manchester in june or july like it's being rumored right now you're not going to save tom for that card i i don't get it i don't understand why would you even go back if you're not going to put tom in that card to defend that belt so it'd be kind it'd be just like a super weird matchup it'd be like oh okay but why that'd be my reaction why

why are we doing this there's no story line there. There's no nothing. Like, Izzy fighting for the light heavyweight title feels more super fighty to me, even though they fought twice. But that's like a trilogy fight with significance. And at the end of the day, like, that will end the rivalry forever. Whoever wins that fight, like wins the rivalry. They'll never fight against the last battle.

Like, that does more than Tom Aspinall. So, I mean, as good as Tom is, he's just not quite there yet. in terms of like super start a bit. If that fight was announced at the main event of UFC 300, that's not going to go over great. It's just not. An interim heavyweight title fight? I don't know.

I think they go a different way. I'm with you on both. Tom should fight. His next fight should be in the UK. 1,000%. If John Jones is going to fight Stepe, if they're hell bent on making that fight, Tom Aspedal needs to defend that title.

The next time they go to, to the UK. You took the fight on short notice. He was banged up a little bit. Let him heal. And then when he defends that belt, he gets to do it in front of a home crab. There's just going to go freaking bananas for him.

If you ever want to make a fight between Tom Aspinall and John Jones, you have to make Tom Aspidol look like a freaking superstar. You need to make this guy look like he is the next big thing. And if you put him in a fight with Alex Pereira,

that in Las Vegas, it doesn't do that. But if you put them in the UK against Cyril or Jelton Almeida or whoever, you do the rematch with Curtis Blades of Curtis Beach Yelten Almeida, like he's going to look like a freaking rock star there. And that kind of thing will get John's attention. So I don't know. I don't think it happens. And I would not be overly thrilled if that happened.

And knowing how like Dana's announcements have been recently, like his his super fight is probably going to be like Mario Lopez versus Mark Paul Gosseler in a slap fight it's just going to be like two rando celebrities Corey Feldman versus McCauley Culkin for the child actor slap fighting title like that's that's probably what he's thinking

but if you're asking me if there's going to be some kind of a weird superfight at UFC 300 I have no clue it'd be cool if they did some Like, someone threw out GSP Silva. Like, that would be kind of interesting. I don't really want to see it. Could it be Ronda Rousey, Misha Tate?

Could they get Rhonda back for one more? Like, that would be interesting. I think that would be, honestly, that would be pretty cool. If Rhonda came back for one more, win or lose, and just, like, handle it like a pro, and kind of got the sour taste out of people's mouths from the Amanda Nunes fight, where she just didn't do any media,

and she just looked like a grump, the entire time and just handled it like a grump the entire time. She comes in and just has a good attitude and does the thing. It does all the media and just is happy to be there and it's positive. Like her legacy changes after that.

It's not just, oh, she was great until she lost and she's a sore loser. No. She realized her mistakes. She went to the WWE route for a little while, made a bunch of money, and now she wants to write the wrong. I think it's a good story.

I think that's a good story. And that would be an impactful kind of a super fight right there. Like getting Rhonda back for one fight. And who knows? Maybe she comes back and fights Mishin wins and wants to stick around. And guess where she would get next? You'd get a freaking title fight. And you're telling me that Ronda Rousey wouldn't have a chance to beat any of the possible contenders there.

Raquel Pennington, Juliana Pena. Meyer Buena-Sovra might be a really tough fight for her. But that would be more when I'm thinking for 300, not Pereira versus Asperol. I would just, it would be an empty, I would just be an empty reactionary and I'd be like, okay, why? Why is this fight happening? It makes no sense. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex.

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Tibby, go ahead. Timby, you're hearing it. There we go. All right, perfect. Happy holidays to you and the family and to everybody on this space. So two things. First question. Speaking of due diligence,

has there been any confirmation that Kobe didn't get any viewpoint for this last event? because he was the main card on, I think, the Miami event with him in Moussville, and him being a businessman, I would assume he got pay-per-view points for that main event. So, like, why not this type of fight? And then my second question is, I remember hearing you and you said that you were a wrestler? I'm wondering, do you, like, watch college wrestling today? And if you do not, I highly recommend it. there's a lot of good story points going on and they also make some new rule changes that to me make the sports more interesting and lastly mike davis get your ass in the cage you are

missing out on your prime years right now thank you and have a good day yeah man what's going on I'm like, I don't know. Love to see him back. He's just super fun for this division. I was not a wrestler. People had asked what I played in high school and stuff. I was recruited to wrestle. A lot of people thought I'd be really good at it.

But it was right smack in the middle of like getting ready for baseball season. And that was like my sport. Played football to let out aggression, but my sport was baseball. It's always by sport. It was a sport I was best at. sport I played in college. So I was always like, I always took the winter to get ready for baseball. There's one, my senior year I tried out for basketball.

I was like one of the last guys cut because I'm just not a guy who runs plays. I just shoot the rock. That's my jam. I can shoot and pass and play defense, but I can't run plays. It's just, I just run around like an idiot. And I couldn't figure it out. And I didn't make the team. So it was just like, and they were like, oh, just come wrestle then.

You'd be really good. And I'm like, nah, I'll just get right for baseball. But yeah, I do watch college wrestling from time to time. I mean, I went to a lot. I had a lot of friends who wrestled in high school, so I went to a lot of their meet. So I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. We had a guy on our high school wrestling team in one of the state championship matches at heavyweight.

His name was Jimmy Papadonis. And Jimmy was wrestling a guy who talked a lot of, a shit to him before they wrestled. And Jimmy was a guy who wasn't like a wrestler as a kid. Dude was just like a big, strong, rugged athlete and took to wrestling really, really well. Was it the most pretty wrestling you've ever seen? God, no. But he just like thumped you with power and just recklessness.

And Jim, I'll never forget this. They lock up a little bit. Jimmy gets a little bit of separation, takes three steps back, and then he shoots for a double leg. And he runs this guy off the mat into the scorers table and almost runs him, breaks the table in half. It was incredible. And then he just went back and looked at the guy and winked at him. I was like, this is my dude right here. This is my guy.

But no, I never wrestled. Like, I think if I could do it over again, I probably would have, if we're being honest. the Colby thing I honestly don't know for sure Mazadol had always said he got all the pay-per-view points for the Colby fight but again I don't know

if that to be true I would guess Colby did not get paper-view points for this Leon fight because normally the champion's the only one that gets the pay-per-view points now could have deal been done perhaps to get Colby some paper-view points maybe but I doubt it

I doubt Leon would have been like, yeah, man, I'll give this guy pay-per-view points. I don't think that happened. Could the UFC have given him a little backroom bonus, perhaps, but for the most part, the champion is the one that gets the pay-per-view points. So what did you guys think? Colby revealed he broke his foot early on in the fight. He said within the first minute, he was on the PBD podcast, said he broke his foot. throwing his first high kick to Leon said it hit him right in the elbow and broke his foot.

Again, I'm not making excuses for the guy. He went out and laid an egg. End of discussion. It doesn't change my perception on it. It doesn't change the fact that I said and I stand by it that Colby delivered one of the all-time worst performances by a title challenger. I can remember. It was really terrible. It was really, really bad.

I also took a ration of shit on Saturday during the watch party my DMs are flooded with people who were like oh you're making excuse for Colby go back to the watch party when we were watching that fight what is something I said either in the second round or early in the third Colby Covington

is losing this fight but he is fighting like a guy who's trying to hide an injury he had all the aesthetics of a guy who was hurt who something whether I didn't know whether it was like he was dealing with an injury heading in, if this is a T.J. Dillashaw type situation, or if he, you know, his knee got tweaked or something. But he just had the aesthetics and knowing Colby and seeing how he's fought,

he just looked like a guy who was trying to hide the fact that he was hurt. And so many people like, oh, biased. You love Colby. Making excuses for him. Again, let me reiterate. No excuses. I still stand by what I said on Tuesday. One of the worst performances from a title challenger I've ever seen.

It was terrible. He looked really bad. Leon owned him. That fight was not competitive at all. Not even for a second. But I saw a guy who was trying to hide an injury. And if what Colby says is true, and it appears like he is because they said on PBD that he walked in in a boot,

dude finally dude was hurt dude was dinged up again let me just say this for the 1,000 time I know people like oh you repeat yourself a lot but let me just say this again because I know people I know how some of this that make community is and I just want to reiterate one last time no excuses for Colby

you sign the dotted line shit happens and Casey made a great point on BTL yesterday Colby looks like he just strutted his happy self into that press conference no crutches no boot on, didn't get wheelchared in there. Dude looked like he just shredded right into the press conference, shredded right out of there.

So I get that as well. Leon won the fight. Colby did terrible. It was a terrible performance, whether he had one foot or not. And that's not an excuse. Look at Tiago freaking Santos. Look at Tiago Santos.

Dude had no working knees. None. No working knees. What, he fought the greatest fighter of all time. and there are a lot of people to this day. John Anick included who believes it wasn't the Dominic Reyes fight

that was the robbery against John Jones. It was the Tiago Santos fight that was the robbery against John Jones. That Tiago Santos in his eyes that night and even on rewatches on no needs beat John Jones.

So you can't use it as an excuse. Sorry. And I don't know if Colby can bounce back from it. The other comments I'm not even going to get into because they're just fucking ridiculous. But, yeah, that's all I'm going to say about that. Mac, go ahead. I have a comment for something I think is going to happen.

With all the UFC 300 talk, Dana White's saying, you guys are not going to believe who is on the prelims. And what a better person to be on the prelims than the most hated champ there was. Al Jermaine Sterling is going to headline the prelimes. But the prelims with your boy calificator. That is my prediction for the prelimb headliner for UFC 300. I'll tell you what, if that's the case, and this main card's going to be freaking rodunculus.

I'd be kind of surprised if that's the case, though. But who knows? I mean, let me pull up UFC 200. Because UFC 200 had that feel, right? Where Dana was like, you're never going to believe this shit. Here's UFC 200 from top, from bottom to top. Jim Miller, Takedori Gomi, was the first prelim. A ridiculous fight on paper.

I totally expect Jim Miller to be fighting at your C-300. The second fight on the prelims was Gagard Usasi versus Tiago Santos. And we got Joe Lozahn versus Diego Sanchez, Staged Northcott versus Enrique Maren. T.J. Dillishaw versus Hopiola Sunsau was on the prelims. Kelvin Gassum, Johnny Hendricks on the prelims. Featured prelim was Juliana Pena versus Katzangano. And then look at how this all played out.

The opening fight for UFC 200 on the main car was Kane Velasquez against Travis Brown. Then it went to an interim featherway title fight between Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar. So the second fight on this main car was a title fight. And some of you were not around for UFC 200 are probably like, oh, there were four title fights. there were two. Then we got Daniel Cormier versus Anderson Silva. Remember all that stuff that happened? Because Daniel Cormier was supposed to fight John Jones in the main events of this card.

And then John tested positive. Anderson Silva just saves the day on like 48 hours notice. It almost beat D.C. Had him in big trouble in round three. And then we get Brock Lesnar, Mark Hunt, the co-main event, and a man in Nunesvichita was the beta event. So could that be the prelim headliner? Sterling and Cater?

Yeah, maybe. But I got to see what the rest of this card looks like. That's a banger. Sterling Cater is a super interesting fight to be. Really, really interesting. Stylistically, that's going to be a really tough fight for Aljo. So I'm looking forward to it. I love that fight.

We'll go to Four Corner Sports. Then we'll go to Tristan next. Got, Four Corners Sports. Hey, Mike. Are you hearing? Yep. All right. So I don't know there's any confirmation.

or anything like that that you may have heard. But I've been hearing that Bo Nickle might be opening up the prelims. I've been seeing that in a couple of different, you know, sites as like speculation. If that's the case, then I'm really interested in how these prelims are going to stack up. You know, and, you know, one can only imagine if this is going to be maybe a two-fight, a two-title or a three-title fight card. I have a very big issue with Dustin Porre.

He put out, I saw it on the ESPN MMA's Instagram post. He said, I'm in a weird spot, still at the top, but kind of waiting for something big to happen. The other day, he ended up posting something about, you know, I think he tweeted Nathaniel, and that really, you know, irked the shit out of me because, one, we already know how that outcomes is going to go. He's going to probably go all five rounds with Nate Diaz. Two, I don't think there's that many people, I mean, there are people that are interested in it because of the names and stuff like that. But from a silent standpoint, I mean,

it's kind of like watching a movie that you already have seen, right? You know, you know that Dustin Porrier can handle himself with the Connor McGregors and the Nate Diaz of the world and stuff like that. And I know they were supposed to fight in MSG a couple years ago. But Nate Diaz is already on the, you know, I would say, on the back line of his career, Dustin Porre, I feel like he still has enough tires,

treaded, you know, left. I would like to see him fight, you know, the up-and-comers. I know he doesn't, you know, want to do something like that. But that is a,

I think Jed has said it before on BTL. That is one of the biggest issues that we have at Lightweight is that people squatting on their own rankings, right? We, you can go through the whole topology page, right? And you can see on the fighters that Dustin has four,

all right? I know he's for, what's the call Chandler. he has fought in Hooker, he has fought in Charles, number four, Islam. I know he's waiting on that, but it just seems like it is bad precedence of him just waiting and squatting on his position on trying to, you know, get for a title shot. He got knocked down by Justin Gigi. What is he going to wait another year or so?

Probably fight once and fight the ideas. It doesn't make any sense. I don't like it. I would love to see him fight somebody of, you know, an upper echelon. You know, even if he fights Dan Hooker just to repeat that. again because their fight was was a banger in 2020 but for him to squad on his position like just

really irks and shit out of me and it's just sets up why Lightway has been you know the way it's been since Connor has won the title over Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 all right that's what I got to say thanks man

could nickel Brundage open up 300 possibly maybe that's the one that Dana was talking about I don't know I look, I get where you're coming from. No one has touted the lightweight division as a division of squatters more than I have.

Well, I mean, more than we have as a website. But I'm going to give Dusset a little bit of a pass here. The dude has fought 29 times, about to have his 30th fight in the UFC. Now, I spoke with

Porre not that long ago. And the dude just wants big fights. He didn't sound like a guy that's like, like when you talk to Wonderboy, you can see it in Wonderboy's eyes. Like I know I could get back to this belt. Like I'm fighting for that chance to get to that title.

I don't know if Dustin is quite there anymore. Now, if a title shot happened to fall in his lap, what is he supposed to do? Say no, Armand Sarukian is better. No, that he gets it. I just think he wants big fights right now. He's in sort of like Robbie Lawler mode right now, where Robbie Law just wanted fights to get him excited. Otherwise, he'd just stay home and not fight.

Like, he's fine with that. That's, I think that's more of what he's thinking. Now, if Dustin goes on the MMA hour in like three weeks or something is like, I want to, you know, the only thing I care about is fighting for that belt. And then he calls out Nate Diaz. Then we have a problem. Then I get where you're coming from. but to me it's like you've given a lot to this sport it seems like Dustin doesn't have a ton left

he's going to be 35 soon but in fighter years he's probably like 44 dude's got a lot of mileage on him he's been in a lot of wars he's taking a lot of damage the guy has earned the right to try and fight in Nate Diaz the guy has earned the right to try to fight a Connor McGregor again he has earned the right to do that

as long as he doesn't hold up the rest of the division, I have no problem with it. Now, have there been times where it seems like he did hold up the division? Sure. I think the Chandler fight is a perfect example of that, but that's just the UFC wanting to put on a banger at MSG. They did it with Gagey the year before, and that same building did the same thing.

Dust has been in there with everybody. Look at his run. from April 2015. That's what he moved up to lightweight. Diego Faheda, Yancey Medeiros, Joe Duffy, Bobby Green, Michael Johnson, Jim Miller, Eddie Alvarez, Anthony Pettis, Justin Gachey, Eddie Alvarez again, Max Holloway,

Habib Nirmaga Madoff, Dan Hooker, Connor, Connor, Olivera, Chandler, Gachie again. That's a murderer's row. It's a murderer's row right there. where we'd like to see him fight. And the whole, let me just say this about Dustin. This whole Benil Daryush thing was blown way out of proportion. This whole narrative that, well, Dustin said Darius is boring, so he's not going to do that.

Here's how I interpreted that. And I've talked about this before. Dustin was just coming off of the win over Michael Chandler. The third round submission at Madison Square Garden. Benile Daryush had just won in October. And they asked him at the press coffers because they had just booked the Islam Makachap versus Alexander Volkanowski fight for February. That fight was signed, sealed, and delivered, already announced.

And they had asked Dustin if he would fight Benile Darius on that card. And Dustin said, no, that fight doesn't get me that excited to turn around. But then a point that he made that not a lot of people remember, is they said, look, I had to pull my daughter out of school to prepare for this fight. I already had to do it. We had to go back and forth to Florida. I had to pull her out of school. I had to mess with her entire routine to do this.

If I turned around to fight Darius again in February, I would have to do it again, and I don't want to do that. So he said if he had his druthers, he would fight again in the summer. And at that point, if they had offered him Darius in the summer, you probably would have taken it. but I think people forget that part of it. It's not that he said he was at the time. Now, if they said, hey, Dustin, turn around three months and fight Islam for the title, yeah, you don't turn down those opportunities. Dustin's been around long enough.

But at the same token, it was like, look, I already pulled my daughter of school, is the reward worth messing up my daughter's education for the year? And for Derryu, she said it wasn't. So I think that gets blown out of proportion a little bit. I don't think people remember that half of the conversation. And I think it's important to note when we talk about this whole Porier-Derry situation. Actually, King Cat, Ben Tristan. You're next.

Go ahead, King Cat. Hey, Mike. How you doing? Good. Good. So I'm pretty sure I didn't hear anybody talk about this yet. But I'm sure you saw it because it was on M.M.A. fighting. The way Lee.

Hang, I forgot I knew that quick. Grasso back and forth on Instagram. Now, you know, Mano has kind of chirped about it on Twitter, and we have the Mano and Aaron Blatchfield fight coming up. What do you think the likelihood of that fight happening is? I'm a little surprised that Wei Li said that. I mean, has UFC not talked to her about the Yon fight? Just what are your thoughts about the pretty wholesome exchange between Grasso and Wei Lee and the likelihood of that happening next or just in the future? Thanks, Mike.

I have no interest in that fight right now. Like, absolutely none. None. Zhang, like, John just won the belt. Not that, like, 13 months ago, she just regained the title. She has only defended it once

against Amanda Lemoche. She's got people to fight. The Janjanon fight is right there. Tatiana Swarres is getting ready to fight Amanda Lamosh. I think Tatiana Swarres does to Amanda Lemoche what she does to everybody else. Tatiana's coming, she's got two fights ahead of her. Now, if Zhang and Jan are being discussed, and they do that fight, but Amanda Lemaume beats

Tatiana Suarez, then yes, we can entertain that idea. And for Alexa Grasso has no shortage of fights coming her way. You could do the Shefchenko trilogy, which is, if we're up to me, I would book that I thought Chivchenko won the rematch. I'm not married to it. If you want to make a case for Grasso winning, it's fine. But it was a draw. We have no actual, like, move ahead from that.

Go ahead and run that one back. Let Blanchefield and Fioreau do their thing. Winner gets the title shot. And then we just go from there. And there's so many others that are on the way up right now. This division is so good. Like, it's so good. Just look at this freaking division.

Macy Barber, fighting Caitlin Chukagan. Tracy Cortez is on her way up. Natty Ice, on her way up. Getting ready to fight Araujia. Karine Silva, on her way up. She's fighting Lauren Murphy. Miranda Maverick. She's coming up.

I know she had a little bit of a stumble. She's coming up. Ariani Lipski has looked incredible as of late. And there's others on the way up as well. She's got to have plenty of fights. she's going to have plenty of fights at 125. So do I want to see that fight down the road? Sure.

But my rule of thumb before we see this is I want to see three title defenses before that happens. From both. From both. Like Grasso needs to defend the title a couple of times successfully. And Zhang Waelis needs to do the same. And then if that happens, each has three title defenses. Go do it. I'm fine with it.

but this whole win-one not to fend the title or only defend it once and then already talking champ versus champ fights that you want to talk about things that irk me that irks me that irks me stay in your division runoff title defenses that is way more impressive to me than winning two titles Tristan go ahead yeah that yeah I think the last call

I just throw a little bit of my thunder, and that's what I was referring to and wanted to talk about, was because I'm wondering what, especially the women's flyweight and the women's straw weight, those titles, where are they going to place them? I mean, the announcements are not done yet, but my thought process is they're going to put, I'm assuming here, is that, or in speculating that,

they're going to put Jan Shanan versus Jan Wei Lee on their UFC 300 card title fight and then I could also see them I mean I could also see them putting um Shevchenko versus Grasso

the trilogy fight on UFC 300 because I I think the UFC probably thought about like let's put it on the Mexico City uh Grasso versus Shevchenko but Shevchenko probably is like yo why am I have to

fighting at enemy's territory again. Like, I don't know she's going to be cool with that. And number two, maybe the UFC is going to be a listen. We want to give you a little bit more time so you guys heal because Shevchenko and Grosso are coming off surgery. So I think the UFC 300 card would be most likely because it gives them a little bit more time to recover and train and be ready for that fight. Because this is a major fight.

That's going to be that's it. Like whoever wins that fight, I don't think that, you know, it's pretty much it. As far as title shots are concerned in the shape of the division, the flyweight, the women's flyweight. And then as far as Jean-Wea Lee versus Jan Shanan, I can't, I mean, I don't even remember. Am I going to have to clear this up? I don't even know if the UFC has announced if they're going to China at some point in that first quarter. I don't know if they are. And it's been a while.

Those two, like John, Jan Arn and Giannihan, they only fought once last year, which is stunning. Like, and, you know,

we've guys discussed it before. John Ralee doesn't fight very often. And I mean, UFC 300 would be perfect. I mean, I guess you'll have three title fights on their card, or,

I don't know, two women's fights with title contempt, with title on there. To be, on that UFC 300 carder. You're going big, so you might as well, I would think. Just, you know, what are your thoughts of where they're going to place those fights?

I mean, I'm expecting in the coming weeks those announcers are going to be had because at that point, you know, Tantanosaurus versus, oh my gosh, I'm blinking out here. Amanda Lamos will be decided. and then you have Aaron Blanchfield versus Mano Faroe decided as well. So, you know, it just makes sense to me. Just your thoughts of how this is going to play out, in your opinion, from your standpoint, Mike, thanks. I would be completely shocked if both of those fights end up on UFC 300. Could we get one of them, perhaps?

I have no insight to this. I would favor Grasoszschevchenko 3 on UFC 300. I would put, I don't know. I mean, first quarter plus, they're definitely not going to China, at least as of right now. So, I don't know, maybe you do that as part of International Fight Week or something. I don't know. I think that's the fight that gets made, but I don't think both are going to be on 300. You have to, you want to stack the card.

I totally understand that. but you can't over stack it to the point where you have nothing. You know what I mean? And if you have like a, trying to think of like a good example. Like the Al Javain Sterling Henry Sohudo card. Like on, like no one cared.

Like let's be honest. No one cared that Sohudo was coming back. Like was an interesting story in some way, sure. But nobody cared. Nobody really cared about that fight. That fight did terrible numbers, I'm sure on pay-per-view. It did terrible.

numbers across the board for pretty much everybody working up on that card. That's why I hated the Bala. It would have been better if Olivera and Dariusurot, because Oliver is a star. Ballal and Gilbert did nothing for that card. Good win for Balaal, but it didn't sell one extra pay-per-view. But like if you end up with a fight like that, that people are like, yeah, this will be like a good fight for the hardcores, but like no casual appeal at all. You kind of need something else to

to juice it up a little bit. And that's the importance of these women's fights, especially someone like Zhang Wei Li. So I would be stunned if we get both of these fights at 300. We may not get either at UFC 300.

Who knows? Who knows? And then the other thing I heard you say that I was just like that was kind of interesting was, you know, if you're Valentina, do you want to go to enemy territory again for Mexico City? What people need to realize is both Grasso-Shifchenko fights took place in the same building. In the same arena, same building, same city, same thing.

I understand it was Noce UFC. I understand there was a much more pro-grasso crowd the second time around. But you can make a strong case there was a much more pro-valentina crowd the first time around. They fought in the same building. So I don't know what happens. We'll see. And if they fight at UFC 300, guess where? Guess what?

They're going to fight the same building again more than likely, unless they end up going to the stadium or something. So I don't know. We'll see how it all plays out. Abzwalia, go ahead. Hi, Mark. How are doing? Good.

Yes, so I just have two questions. My first question is about the Ian Gary and Jeff Neal fight. if Jeff Neal pulls the upset in convincing fashion, where does that put him in position for his career in the future of the Walter Way Division? Because, you know, he's lost to Shafka, he's lost to Wonderboy and Neil Magni. And those are very, you know,

not being able to pass the Neal Magni is a very big test off in the Waterway Division and then we know how the other two fights were. But do you think he gets one last crack at possibly getting a top of opponent, like if that situation ever arise as an opportunity. And my second question is,

uh, yeah, it's about Hamza Chimayev. Is it very likely he will fight for the title shot next? Or let's say if Paula Costa beat Rob Whitaker in February, maybe the UFC wants to run that fight back eventually. as a proper title eliminator. And maybe it's a good way to actually build Hamzaa Chmive

in the middleweight division again before he gets a title shot. What are your thoughts on that? That's all I have. May I have a great day. Hamza one is interesting. I don't know. Timing is going to be everything here. Man, it all depends on what happens in January.

There is a very real world that if Sean Strickland beats DDP, they would ask him to turn around for 300. to fight Hamzaa Shemaya from that card. I could absolutely 1,000% see that happening. And you know Sean, he's going to be like, yeah, man, let's go. So Hamzaa's tough, man, because, I mean, anything's possible. Anything is possible. He could go fight for a belt immediately.

They could give him one more fight. Who knows? But what is important is that if Hamzaa Tchamai if the surgery goes well, and he could heal up in time. He needs to get back in that octagon as soon as humanly possible. Because the mystique, the aura that surrounds him is still sort of there, but it's nowhere near where it was two years ago. Nowhere near it.

It needs to get that back. And that Usman win, yes, he was hurt. He won. And that's half the battle right there. Or no, yeah. at the end of the day, the dude's got to fight. The dude's got to fight. And he just get back in there.

We can't wait another year for Hamzaa to fight. So this is a crucial year for him. Would they give him one more? Maybe they would do the Costa fight? Like if Whitaker just rinses Costa. Or if Costa beats him, I don't know. That fight's going to play a factor. But, you know, if they want to give Shami if one more before you fight to fight to the belt,

they would probably do the Costa fight. before that happened. So I don't know. He's going to be one of the most interesting stories of the year. But he needs to be active and he needs to fight. Stevie, go ahead. Yo, Mike, I come up a morning. My bad if somebody else asks this.

But I want to talk about the Featherweight division. Of course, we just got Kater versus Sterling announced. This winner of this fight, potentially, you know, and get a crack at the title depending on how Volk and Ilya goes and I just want to talk about featherweight

as a whole as a division we also next month we got Mavsar versus Arnold Allen and of course the Ortega Yaya rematch so yeah I just want to you know if you can sum up your thoughts on all those

matchups and like what do you think about the division going forward Thanks, man. Love the division. Tremendous division. Third best division in the sport, in my opinion. And these guys are coming, man. They're all coming. Where does the winner of Sterling Cater go? They ain't getting a title shot. They're definitely not getting a title shot.

I would assume the mobs are of Loy of Arnold Allen winner will get a title shot, even though Arnold lost to Max Holloway. If a lawyer wins, he's definitely dead in it. Yeah, Sterling might just get the winner of Yair and Ortega if he wins. And then, look, I mean, honestly, I think that's kind of what you do here. Do the winner, the two winners fighting each other. Sterling versus Yair or Kater versus, I've wanted Kater versus Yair for multiple years. So I do hope we get that fight someday.

Cater versus Ortega would be interesting too. And Aljo versus either guy would be interesting as well. So, yep. that's kind of how I would play this out because you would have to imagine the avoid if Arnold Allen winner is getting the next shot. Viking, you are the last caller of the day. What you got?

Viking. Hello, sir. I just loved your house. And I thought you were poor, but you're rich. You have such a nice house. I want to build a house like that. And in the same video, you mentioned your weight that you are some sort of 90 kilos. Is that right?

And that's it. Thanks, bud. No, I am not rich. I can assure you of that. Yeah, it's, I don't. No, no, no, no, no. I'm doing okay. Mid-level, to say the least.

your rapport is one of the funniest things I've ever heard. But no, we're definitely not rich. That I can assure you. My weight, so when I started the fast, I was 226 after the fast. I think it was like 226.4, and I think after the fast, I was 215.3 or something to that nature. It was whatever, it was 10.2 pounds. obviously I've been doing the CrossFit a lot of super heavy lifting

so I have put on a lot of mass because of that so yeah I was happy with 215 I was like damn good to go all right we'll take one more we'll get Carl in here and then we got to go okay Carl Carl the butcher you muted five four three Carl, two, one.

All right. Sorry, buddy. We tried. All right. We're done. We got us to go. Thank you very much. Much appreciated.

Again, as far as next week goes with this show, I will not be here at all. I'm not going to be here in any way, shape, or form. If I will reach out to my best friend, A.K., if he wants to take the reins, I will have no issue with that. When my day wraps today, I will officially be on vacation for the rest of the year. I haven't really taken a vacation this year outside of just a few days off here and there. But I'm taking the rest of the year off. I'm parting ways with the sport for a week and a half or so.

So at the end of the day today, I'm officially on vacation. I mean, Jedder going to record one thing this weekend. We are going to do our annual Between the Links Promotional airing of Grievance episode So we're either going to record that like Saturday or Sunday And then I'm done

That and I'm done for a minute AK and I recorded our On to the next one Predictions Recap So that's going to launch New Year's Eve morning on the podcast network So you can see how good

Or if we're being real How bad we did with our predictions 42023 and promotional hearing of grievances is going to drop if all goes according to plan next Thursday. We will have our award show, which I've already recorded my parts for that. I think that's going to drop the 27th,

which is Wednesday of next week. So you get that coming as well. And then we're going to turn the page 2024, and it's going to be a lot of fun. hopefully we do our airing of grievances ranking show at the beginning of 2024. Hopefully we do our draft again. And then the first on to the next one of 2024 is my favorite episode of the year. It's when we do all the predictions.

It's the predictions show. The buy-sell questions have been coming in fast and furious. There are a lot of them that we've gotten already. So you can continue to send yours the same way you submit your matchmaking. So hit AK and I up on Instagram, on Twitter, emails, however AK does that. And buy sell questions, not, you know, have some fun with these. I'll give you an example. I'll give you an example of what we're looking for.

Let's see. Okay, so this is an example. buyer this is not a buyer sell question we revert it to a buyer cell question we ask it but this is one of the questions i got which number will be higher by the end of the year the number of fighters who are forced to withdraw from a ufc main event bout or the number of games the red sox are out of first place in the a a lees see these are the kinds of questions we're looking for now we turn this into a buy sell question we do the show but these are the kinds of questions like let's have some fun with this let's get non generic let's think outside of the box a little bit. There's, of course, you're going to be some generic questions, but these are the types of things we're looking for. Let's have some fun.

So submit those however you can. That show will go live, I believe, January 6th. We'll go live on YouTube. It'll be on the podcast network as well. So thank you all very much. You are all the best. This show has been so fun throughout this year and getting better and better.

I appreciate hearing from you guys, whether you agree with me or disagree with me. That's what this is all about. MMA is supposed to be fun. You guys have made this fun for me. And I can't wait to have more fun with all of you in 2024. So have a happy holiday. Have a Merry Christmas if you celebrate.

Have a great rest of 2023. And I will see you all in 2024. Have a heck of a holiday season, everybody.