MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reaction To Dustin Poirier & Michael Chandler Beef, Paddy Pimblett's Potential Free Agency

Episode Date: July 12, 2024

Dustin Poirier has had himself quite the week on Twitter with impeccable timing, while Michael Chandler has been opportunistic as well — although, it apparently hasn't gone over as well as his past opponent. The fans have seemed to turn on Chandler as of late, but why is that? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses the ongoing Poirier and Chandler beef, Chandler getting a lot of negativity amongst the MMA community, but not truly understanding why that is. Additionally, listener topics include Jon Jones' future, Ciryl Gane vs. Alexander Volkov 2 being targeted for UFC 308 in October, Paddy Pimblett revealing his UFC 304 matchup is the final fight on his contract, Sean O'Malley winning the ESPY for Best UFC Fighter and the social media world being up in arms about it, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays 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. Does it ever feel like you're a marketing professional just... Speaking into the void. But with LinkedIn ads, you can know you're reaching. the right decision makers, a network of 130 million of them, in fact. You can even target buyers by job title, industry, company, seniority, skills, and did I say job title? See how you can

avoid the void and reach the right buyers with LinkedIn ads. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a free $250 credit for the next one. Get started at LinkedIn.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply. The Vox Media Podcast Network. By 12th, 2024, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the NBA Fighting Twitter space. You can hear the show at its entirety, shortly thereafter, on the MMA Fighting Podcasting Network. What's up, everybody? I am Mike Kat.

I hope you're having a wonderful week. If you have been deprived of UFC action, that will all change tomorrow. UFC back in Denver, Colorado for a fight night event that is apparently completely sold out, despite a this is an apex card like let's be honest and they sold it out that just tells you how powerful

those three letters are right now UFC just absolutely on fire main event Rosamamunis versus Tracy Tracy Cortez co-main event Santiago Ponzanibio versus Muslim Salikoff

nearly 80 years of age in the co-main event combined still should be a fun fight. Drew Dober versus Gian Silva. That is going to be an absolute banger. Gabriel Bonfim versus Angeloza. Christian Rodriguez versus Julian Arosa.

And the main card will open with Cody Brundage, fresh off of his loss against Bo Nickel, taking on the always dangerous get-or-get-God all-star himself, Abdul Razak al-Hassan. I mean, there's good fights on here. Like when I say this is an apex card, I'm not saying that it's crap.

We've seen way worse cards this year. Josh Van versus Charles Johnson's a good fight. Jasmine Jazz DeVizius, taking on Fatima Klein, the newcomer. That's going to be fun as hell. Montel Jackson, Demand Blackshare, Luana Santos versus Maria, Agapova, Josh Vres versus Andre Petroski. And then for some reason, they added Evan Elder versus Darius Flowers to this card. On pretty short notice, but 12 fights. It seemed like, I remember doing on to the next one after 303 and running on the lineup, there was maybe seven fights on the card because Drew Dober was fighting TBD.

We had Nazim Satikov on the card against TBD at the time. And this thing's had a whole bunch of different iterations. Mike Malab versus Gilbert Rabina was supposed to be on this card. Jazz DeVizio is supposed to fight Viviani Araujo. Dober was originally supposed to fight Mike Davis, Rosnamuiz. supposed to fight Macy Barber. Sattikoff had multiple opponents, and this is where we ended up.

I do think this is going to be a pretty decent watch. It is going to be a long night of fights because the prelim started 7 Eastern, six-fight main card at 10 p.m. Eastern, so we're probably wrapping and packing around 1 a.m. Eastern. But, yeah, that card's happening. And then that'll lead us into next week, back to the famous Apex.

then we get ready for Jake Paul versus Mike Perry and then we cruise on into UFC 304 in Manchester so a lot going on we could talk about that we could talk about

Dustin Porre and Michael Chandler going back and forth Porre just throwing absolute darts at Chandler and all the other news and notes we confirmed a report from AG fight earlier this morning

that we can stop sort of asking what is going on with Cyril Gahn. When's Cyril Gahn fighting? Is he fighting in Paris? Why isn't he fighting in Paris? Well, it's because he's going to have a rematch against Alexander Volkov at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi. Fight not signed, sealed, and delivered just yet, but it has been agreed upon on both sides. So for those who keep asking what's going on, Cyril Gond, there's your answer.

greed and principle to fight UFC 308 in October against Alexander Volkov. All right. There are a lot of you lined up. So what we're going to do is what we're probably going to do moving forward. Rapid fire. Get in. Ask what you got to ask. 30, 45 seconds.

Bam, bam, bam. And we'll get to everybody. I want to try to get to as many people as we can today. So, any, me, miny, mo style, since there's a million of you lined up. we will begin with Tyson gets to kick us off today. Tyson, go ahead. Hey, Mike. Good morning.

I just got two quick ones. I'll try to keep it rapid fire. I've been watching that Michael Chandler, Dustin Poirier, back and forth, but I wanted to ask you about the back and forth between Ilya and Max. You know, both sides are kind of pointing at each other. No, it's not me. I'm not to hold up. I just kind of wanted you to speak on that a little bit.

That's the first question. second question was I heard someone say the other day referring to the Izzy DDP fight that Izzy is going to be outmatched because DDP is big for 185 and it kind of threw me for a loop. I'm like, what are you talking about? Because Izzy's first title defense is Undisputed Champ was he called out Y'all Romero. He's fought Romero. He's fought Romero. He's fought Paulo Costa.

He's fought Robert Whitaker, Jack Cannonier, who fought at heavyweight. So a bunch of guys that are big for 185, so I didn't understand the argument. So I just kind of wanted you to speak on that. as well. That's all I got for you, Mike. Appreciate it. Thanks. He's also fought maybe the largest of the mall, Alex Pereira twice, who is now the light heavyweight champion, and everybody wants him to boo up to freaking heavyweight. That's a large man. I still don't know how Alex Pereer made 185 pounds. No clue.

So, yeah, I've really heard that stance on things, because if that's somebody's, like, expert opinion, it's not a great one. It's not a great one. I think what makes that fight so interesting is that DDP is just such a chaos merchant, but he's been able to control it a little bit because I remember interviewing DDP after, or not interviewing him, but talking to him after his win at UFC 276 against Brad Tavares, dude was a psychopath. Absolute psychopath. Just going in, chucking as hard as he can, just looking for a finish at all times.

just caution to the wind, just getting after it. And I asked him about that chaotic style, and he would tell me like, no, it's not chaos. What are you talking about? It's controlled. I'm like, eh, don't really think so. I mean, you're winning, so it's a very effective strategy. But we've seen since then that he has controlled that chaos a little bit.

We saw it in the Whitaker fight. He was a little more patient. He waited for his opportunities. and once he found them, he pounced. We saw it in the Sean Strickland fight. Still threw very, very hard when he threw, but not an absolute psycho anymore. Which makes this easy fight really interesting

because if he goes in there being an absolute psycho, it might not end well for him. So I am interested in seeing how that fight is going to go, but if we're breaking down the pros and cons from a stylistic perspective for Israel-A-D-D-P being a bigger man is not one of the things I look at. It's just not one of those things. Now, DDP is extremely athletic, so that's a big deal. He knows how to use that size.

But he's fought way bigger. He's fought bigger dudes. He's fought Pereira twice in the UFC. He's fought a bunch times outside of it. He's fought Janbovich. I mean, dude has fought bigger dudes across. the board. And he is, he's not a small guy. He's a little, like, thin, but he's a, he's a pretty big dude. So I don't think that factors into the fight at all. And then the Max Ilya stuff,

I mean, it's fun. It's fun. I'm just, at this point with those two guys, I just want this fight to be on the books. Like, let's go. This is what everybody wants. This is what we appear to be getting, it's just a matter of when. Is it going to happen at the sphere? Is it going to happen on the Salt Lake card? Is it going to happen at MSG? I don't know. But I just want Dana to yell into a cell phone that this fight is signed sealed and delivered. That's what I want. And I think it should headline the sphere. I mean, no disrespect to Sean O'Malley and Marad Wallace. Really, there's just no world where O'Malley versus Marab is a bigger fight than Ilya versus Max.

It's just not, you just can't sell me on that. O'Malley, Marab is a big fight, but no way. I mean, everybody wants to see Ilya Max. That fight will likely determine the fighter of the year. Unless Pereira fights a third time, fights either on Goliath or goes up and fights John and wins a heavyweight title.

But if Pereira is done for the year and doesn't fight again, whoever wins Max Hollow ever still eat's poorest fighter of the year. There's a lot there. I can't. That's one of the most anticipated fights of the year for me. It's one or two. I put Arm in Islam two up there somewhere, but who the hell even knows about that fight happens?

With Michael Chandler out here saying that he's been offered a title shot, which you already know my feelings on that. Matt, go ahead. Matt. Sure. About the Aljo callout of Diego Lopez. Honestly, I think I'm in favor of it. especially because a lot of the top was maybe Aljo versus Brian.

But it didn't seem like he's going to be fighting at 45 much longer. So I honestly am pretty interested in that fight. I think it would be wild on the ground and a lot of fun. I didn't see the Lopez call out. I saw the, like, because he continues to go back and forth with Bobzar of Lov. I actually prefer, I mean, I'm fine with it. If they booked that one, I'm cool with it. I actually want to see Aljo versus.

the bobs are I think I don't know it's an interesting fight I think I think it'll end up being a striking match honestly I think

they're grappling their wrestling will sort of negate each other it's a really interesting stylistic fight Aljo looked really he looked great against Calvin Cater

wasn't the most thrilling fight of all time but he dominated Calvin he completely shut down Calvin Cater which not a lot of people have been able to say but if they do Diego yeah I'm down for that I like the mobsar fight as well and I think the UFC might be looking at

Sterling Mobsar for the sole purpose of all right and I think we kind of know the UFC feels about both these guys at this point although the have a thing is super weird to me I think they would just match those two dudes up because someone's going to lose and then they'll be out of the title discussion at least for the for the time being. But yeah, if they do Algebra versus Diego, I'm in. If they do Diego versus Danny Gaye 2, full camps,

in for that as well. Diego versus Josh Emmett, in for that. There's Diego versus anybody right now is fun. In versus anybody is a damn good time. And I think people will, we'll enjoy it. People will be excited for it.

Diego's on fire right now. All right. I like what we're doing here. far. Let's go to Left Lane. Yo, can you hear me, Mike? Yes, sir. A couple quick ones. So Volkov and Garn, do you see that flight going any differently? If so, like, what do you think would be different about it? I think Volkov's definitely

looked better since the first fight. I feel like Garn will probably still win. Maybe it'll just be a bit closer than the first fight. Also, just saw this. I don't know if you mentioned this before in the intro, but Dan Hooker versus Gamrot is actually in the works for 305 in Perth. It's not just a, it's not just a Dan Hooker troll job from what I'm seeing. I think junkies actually reporting it, so I'm assuming there's actually some smoke to that fire. And then one more, just a cool fight that I saw before. Manuel Torres versus Ignacio Bahamondez for the spear card. That's a pretty cool fight.

And I saw another rumor about Zell Hooper versus Rebovich, which is a cool fight. thing with that sphere card just another quick point is like I feel like some people's expectations might end up getting a little bit like not met in terms of like stacked names I assume we're still going to get some stacked names but I do think there's just going to be more like fun stylistic matchups that aren't with like top 10 guys rather than like just the super stacked lineup of non-mexican fighters it seems like they're going the Mexican route obviously but I think some people had like a assumption that they would just chuck some big fights on there just for the sake of it. But I'm guessing they're just going to go to the Mexican route.

Hopefully get Lopez on there. Hopefully get, I think he said he's not fighting on there, which is unfortunate. But yeah, see you, Mike. Thank you, sir. Yeah. Look, all these are interesting matchups. We haven't confirmed most of them.

So I know Hooker kind of sort of confirmed the Gamrock booking himself. But maybe we'll confirm on the show. I do have a couple messages out. We'll see. Yeah. I mean, all those fights are fun. All those fights are fun. But we got to, you know, it's been a weird year.

It's hard to get, it's almost getting to the point where it's hard to get really excited for anything because we've seen how quickly all these big fights fall apart. How quickly the main events fall apart. It's been a tough year for the UFC. It really has. It hasn't, it's, they've had big moments. UFC 300 will go down in history. is one of the coolest events of all time. I think UFC 300 is the story of 2024 so far.

I think it's the coolest thing that's happened. It's the biggest thing that's happened. And without UFC 300, this is a pretty awful year for the UFC. I mean, they've had, $2.99 was great. But if we're just looking at $300 being a, like, a solid card, but $2.99 being far and away the best card of the year, like that's tough man

like that's tough but luckily 300's been great we've seen some individual fighters get after it a little bit Alex Pereiras star continues to shine we've seen the guys like Diego Lopez and Danny Gay

do some really cool things we've seen Sean O'Malley have an incredible performance we saw Ilya Tanya at Alexander Volcanowski so like some very cool individual things have happened but so far it's just been kind of a sluggy

2024 for the UFC overall. I mean, it's not great and fun to say these things, but they're still having a better year than everybody else. Because PFL and Bellator, PFL, that whole combined thing, they have an opportunity to make a move here because of what this year has been for the UFC and they have dropped the ball

tremendously, like unbelievably drop the ball. There's just no, absolutely no hype for PFL right now. It stinks. It really sucks. They just got nothing going for them. Don Davis continues to tout out, fight metric rankings, and being the co-leader and all this stuff. It's just not true.

It just isn't. So, yeah, it's been a weird, year. Race the runners. Raise the sales. Raise the sales. Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching. Over. Roger. Wait. Is that an enterprise sales solution? Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors. With LinkedIn ads, you can target the right people by industry, job title, and more. Start converting your B2B audience today. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a free $250 credit for the next one. Get started today at LinkedIn.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply.

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Benefits available only to eligible Chase card holders. Deposit and credit card products provided by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. member FDIC. Terms, conditions, restrictions, and limitations apply. Ethan, go ahead. I'm going to like a watch party thing with Forrest Griffin at a local bar. Pretty excited about it. I just wanted to know what your do's and don'ts are for meeting a UFC fighter. And then also, why didn't Nazim Sadakov and Drew Dover just fight each other?

That seems kind of like a weird thing that happened. So those are my two ones. Thank you. Okay. First of all, very cool. Second of all, dues and dotes. Just be cool. Go take a photo, have a conversation, shake hands. I guess my rule for this would be my rule for most things.

Don't be a dick. I mean, if you can just follow that rule, you're good to go in most scenarios. Just don't be a dick. Then you'll be fine. But that's really cool. Enjoy that. and pick the band's brain a little bit. Dude's seen almost all sides of the UFC product,

so that's pretty awesome. That's pretty awesome. Shit, what was the other question? Damn it. It's got to hit me. It's going to hit me eventually. Shit. Hop back in.

Hop back in, please. I forget the other question. As soon as I bring you in and you say like two words, I'll remember it, but hop back in, please. I remember it being a good question. or if anybody else there you go ahead what was the other question it's coming to me

it just I haven't crossed the threshold all good it was just why didn't Drew Dober and Satikov just fight each other this weekend rather than bringing in Gene Silva okay great question thank you so obviously when all this is happening I reached out and spoke to some folks about this

what I was told was I don't know how I wasn't told this off the record but I don't want to like

I'll just say it was a financial thing that's all I'll leave I'll leave it at that because they try like this was discussed but when the terms

were dullied out they were not agreed upon I will leave it at that there's obviously more specifics to this but I think that's about as comfortable as I will get with it

but it's it was discussed, I will say that. And I would have loved that fight. That was a freaking banger too. But I got to tell you, as much as I would have loved the Sadakoff fight, I kind of like this one better.

I kind of like this one better. Not by much, but it is, I do like this one better. I'm a little more amped for this one. But Sadikoff would have been a great one. Lee, you go ahead, my man. Hey, Mike.

I have a moment. Just a couple quick questions. What do you think about O'Malley getting at ESPN fighter every year. And then, what's my second question? I just had it. Oh, yeah.

Patty Pimlet's talking about maybe testing three agency to box some YouTubers. Do you think his hype is just, he's feeling like his hype died down and maybe that's why he's wanting to do it. Plus, you know, the monetary games as well. But yeah, that was just,

those were not two questions. Have a heck of the rest of your day. Both great questions. The Sean O'Malley thing is really gotten Twitter all fired up. But actually, we wrote about it this morning. I think we're going to probably popped us off in a little while. But yes, at the 2024 ESPY Awards, the MMA world was covered.

There was an award given for the best UFC fighter. And the nominees were Sean O'Malley, Alex Pereira, Islamachep, and Zhang Wei Lee. And Sean O'Malley won. And people are up in arms about this. They are just fired up. and look, I don't know even know how the SPs work. So here's how it works. The nominees are picked by SB's select nominations committee,

but the winners are chosen by fans who vote for their favorite players and teams online. So Sean O'Malley won this award, not because a panel of experts sat in a room and said, you know what, of these four guys or these four fighters, it's definitely Sean O'Malley. No, Sean is a popular guy and he got the most votes. That's how he won. Just like, you know, a lot of these awards,

just like the fighters only awards. You know, it doesn't make a lot of sense sometimes, but whoever gets the most votes wins the award, and that's what happened here. But people were freaking livid about this. And I always thought it was a fan vote. and I just wanted to make sure I looked it up and confirmed it

but yeah people are really pissed about this people are really, really upset about it. I don't know why, but people are really pissed about it. I think, I mean, Pere has to win that award. I also don't know like the time frame of when they all, like,

is it what happened in 2023? Is it between like July of last year to July of this? this year, I don't know. But you have to give it to Pereira, right? I mean, Jesus Christ, what this guy's done since July of last year, it's a no-brainer, beating Janbovich, winning a second title, three knockouts in a row, Islam, Zhang, I mean, you can argue that those are all

great choices, and you can make a case that Sean O'Malley is number two, number three, maybe number four because of how great Jean-Wea Lee looked in her two title defenses. So, yeah, I don't know why people are so pissed about a fan voting thing. But yeah,

Sean O'Malley won and congratulations to him. Congratulations to him. Oh, the Patty Pimbleau thing. I'm trying to like talk myself into remembering what the other question was. Yes, Patty Pimbleau did an interview,

I believe, with M.A. Junkie and said that the Bobby Green fight coming up in 15 days will be the last fight on his deal and then he teased yeah maybe i'll go box a bunch of YouTubers because he will make a bunch of money and i don't hate it i actually think this is a very smart strategy from him for a couple of reasons one because patty will just go do it and make way more money doing that outside of the UFC if he wants to The other thing is, it actually makes that fight much more interesting now because Patty is taking a huge risk here. He goes out there and just wipes out Bobby Green.

His stock rises tremendously. He has a lot to bargain with. Now, we'll see how we know sort of how his management is very, very close to the UFC. Maybe they haven't negotiated the greatest deals for their fighters. I don't, I think that's pretty public knowledge at this point. But if Patty goes in there and looks like a star and beats Bobby Green, like that's going to be gigantic for him. And if I'm PFL, if I'm anybody and this dude goes into free agency,

I think you got to go after him. I think you have to go after him. But this is just a prize-fighting thing. On top of that, it seems like Patty just wants to make a bag. and that's what he if that's what he wants it's great I think we can honestly have this discussion at this point I don't think there are very many people on earth there might be a handful of people

who actually look at Patty Pimble and say you know what this guy could win the lightweight title because I don't think I don't know if I've ever heard that I know AK I'm going to say he defends Patty Pimble but he at least says guys He's not as bad as everyone's making him out to be. And there's some truth there. But let's be honest.

Just look at the top 15 of the UFC's lightweight division. Let's pull it up here. We'll put the UFC rankings. Patty's not ranked. He will be if he beats Bobby Green. Excuse me. It's even updated in the UFC rankings as King Green. If he beats King Green, he'll be ranked.

Would you pick Patty against RDA? Maybe, but it doesn't seem like RDA wants to fight with the fat anymore. Would you pick Patty against Jalen Turner? Would you pick him against Ben-Wa-Santini? Would you pick him against Dan Hooker? Hannaulte Moikano? Max Holloway, Raphael Fiziv, Benile Daryush, Michael Chandler, Matush, Gamron, Dustin Porier,

Justin Gachie, Charles Alavera, Armand Saruket. There are very few matchups there that you, could feel confident being like, you know what, I think Patty has a shot here. I would, the green fight, I think, I mean, he could, he could definitely beat Bobby Green. He could definitely be Bobby Green.

If he gets his fight to the ground, he has a very good chance of winning. Jalen Turner is going to be tough. BSDs would be tough. His durability makes him dangerous in the BSD fight. Dan Hooker would be a tough one. I would pick Moikano.

I'd obviously pick Max. I'd definitely pick Viziv. Dary U should be interesting. I'm surprised they didn't try to go in that direction. I think we understand why they didn't go in the Moikano direction. I think that's a horrific matchup for Patty Pimbled. So I think Patty's just kind of looking at things like looking at the landscape and just thinking,

okay, I might not get all the money I want the UFC, but the UFC has helped get my name out there. Maybe if I go out there and beat King Green, I'm a ranked UFC guy, I can parlay that into a big fat paycheck. I don't think it's a terrible idea. I don't think that's a terrible idea. So, yeah, I think that, knowing that, raises the stakes for this fight. And if I'm Patty Pimplett, I don't care what his manager tells him or anything of that nature. I do not resign.

I do not sign a goddamn thing. Nothing. You fight this fight out. If you win and he's got a darn good chance to do it, you roll into free agency with your stock as high as it can be. Do not resign before. I think that would be a horrific idea. Now, it is a risk.

But even if Patty loses and goes into free agency, He still has value. In the influencer boxer scene, he has value for a PFL, a PFL, a TFL, if you will. He's got value. Like, he's in a good, he's in a pretty good spot, mostly because people care about him. Whether it's for good or for bad, Patty Pimble, people don't look at Patty Pimble and say, eh, it's Patty. You either love the guy or you friggin' hate him.

And that is valuable. That is valuable in this sport. It's just like in the pro wrestling world. You become a star by having people care. Booze are just as profitable as cheers. Sometimes even more so. So I think Patty's going to be fine. But if he wins and goat rolls into free agency,

he's in a frigging tremendous position, man. So we'll see. Aaron, go ahead. Aaron, are you there? No. Bounce out, bounce back in. All right. Let's keep this rolling, rapid fire.

Who gets this one? Absalia, go ahead. Yeah, two questions. If Bobby Green wins against Patty, who does he fight next? And did Brandon Allen shoot himself on the foot, not taking the email of our fight at France as a possible headliner? Where does Bobby Green go if he wins? I mean, man, it's tough to say.

I don't know. I don't know. Because, like, Patty's not ranked. It's not like Patty's number 10, and he gets to jump up to number 10. I'm trying to, like, look, I'm trying to look at, like, the landscape right now. Because RDA's a welterweight.

BSD's booked. Hooker is apparently booked. Moikano is booked. Holloway's not going to fight him. Viziv, maybe, but they fought already. and physique beat him he's fought like almost all of these guys already i don't know it's tough to say tough to say it's probably gonna have to fight i don't know brian or tag goes to 155 like i don't mind that i don't mind that and then brennan allen shoot himself at the foot yeah i think he did

i think brant like as soon as as soon as email boss beat cannoneer i was like all right he's gonna fight brennan allen though like that's the only fight that makes sense The unfortunate thing for Brennan Allen is he has no power here. Like he has no negotiating powers. He's not a, and I love Brennan Allen. I like, I mean, is a person, I like him a lot. Very nice guy. He's always treated me well.

I like the guy a lot. But he is the Belal Muhammad of the middleweight division, where he's good and he's winning and he's beat some good dudes. but for some reason, like he's, he'd just be Chris Curtis in one of the five best fights of the first half of the year. And if it wasn't at the world's most famous apex where there was like 11 people there to watch it, and we weren't already slogged out of our minds by the rest of that card, I think that fight would be ranked higher. So he's in a good spot, but he just has, like, you can't go in there and be like, nah, I'm not fighting you, Martin Vittori.

No, Nasredeen, I'll fight you, but I'm not fighting you in France. oh but if I fight you again it has to be a main event in the U.S., like, come on, man. Like you don't have that poll right now. You just don't. So who's he going to fight? I don't know. I don't know.

I'll tell you what I, honestly, this is what I would do. If you cannot get Paulo Costa in there, if you don't want to take that risk, do Hamza Chabaya versus Brennan Allen in Abu Dhabi. Do that. Let's see what Brandon Allen's got. If you're not going to do Paul Acosta, That's the fight.

I mean, you could try to rebook the Whitaker fight, but are you going to do that? I don't know. So I think he did kind of shoot himself in the foot. He might end up fighting like Michelle Pereira, Anthony Hernandez's winner. He might fight Kyle Barallio. I just don't know. Brennan's not even ranked in the top five in the UFC's rankings right now. Of the names he could, like, realistically get right now, I think Imovov's like the best he can get.

because he ain't going to get Whitaker. He's not getting Izzy. He's not getting Sean Strickland. He's not getting DDP. I'm stunned. He didn't jump on that opportunity. And that looks like BSD is going to headline against Panata Moikano.

And it's a damn good fight. So yeah, a little mismanagement. Don't love it. But it's his career. and hopefully he gets what he wants. Stevie, go ahead. That's up, Mike, heck of a morning. Just one non-MMA-related thing for me.

My birthday's coming up on Monday, so I was wondering if I can get an early birthday shout-out. And since you're a grizzled veteran yourself, can you pass on some wisdom for someone who is finally turning 30 years old? Thanks. Jesus Christ. 30. I mean, what do I say? I'm so far past 30. It's not even funny. Well, first of all,

happy early birthday. Second of all, I don't know what wisdom I can pass off to you. Enjoy it. Enjoy your, I guess, athletic prime. Get out and do some shit that you wanted to do, like physically, I guess. Yeah, I guess just like kind of get after it now. Like, this is your peak. If you want to get like do different workouts or different things that you haven't done like now's the time now's the time this is where you get the benefit like the benefits of all benefits um yeah i wish i did sort of the regimen i've been on for the last year and a half i wish i did that when i was 30 i really do i really do it wouldn't be as much of a uh i mean i'm doing fine but wouldn't be as much of a struggle.

The aches and pains wouldn't be as much. That's for sure. But yeah, just enjoy it, man. Just enjoy it. Don't take life too, too seriously. Work hard. And do you? Enjoy it.

Let's bring in our guy Toke. What's up, Toke? About the guy who just turned 30? Yeah, as you said, just start doing exercise now. I started when I was 29. I started Muay Thai, done it three years now. and doing it three times a week now and I've never felt better.

So just go ahead and do it. And what I learned in the last week is it's kind of a pound for pound thing. I've discovered that Dustin Porriere is a pound for pound best tweeter in the game. And, you know, Michael Chancellor is kind of the,

let's call it Tony Ferguson of Twitter. You know, I just want you just deactivate because you're only hurting yourself, Michael. Okay, that's it. See you. I'm glad you brought this up because, look, I am not Jed. I do not feel about Michael Chandler the way that he feels about Michael Channer.

And apparently the majority of the MMA community, okay? I actually have no issue with Chandler tweeting what he's been tweeting. In fact, I actually think everything he's done has been pretty smart. The one tweet I had a problem with, and it's not even because of him, it is just the idea that I believe him when he says, I was offered Islam for October. I believe him. I'm not even mad at Chandler. I'm mad at the UFC for even bringing this to him, because this to me would be the most agreed. title shot I've ever seen.

It would be the most egregious title shot I have ever seen. He's got two wins in the UFC, one against Dan Hooker, one against the ghost of Tony Ferguson. And yes, he's had fun competitive fights with Gaichi, Porier, Chuckie Olives, like great fights, like fight of the year contenders. But he's two and three in the UFC. Like, you cannot give this man a title shot. unless they book Armin, and Armin gets hurt three weeks before the fight, and you need somebody to fill in, and the only guy available is Michael Chandler.

Then it's like, okay, bet, cool, you had to do what you had to do. But if they just give it to him, it would be the most egregious title shot ever given to the UFC. Having said that, people are just ripping on Chandler, they're hating on them. And look, I don't think his Twitter game is great. I also think that I think people just have a certain feeling about Michael Chandler right now I don't know if it's because of the McGregor attachment

I don't know if he's taking the lion's share of the blame I don't know if he's like the Daniel Cormié in the situation a laud the John Jones rivalry where D.C. was just like the dad, family man like nice guy

John Jones is the dude getting in trouble and being an asshole and yet the people are like yeah John we love you I post my kid is posters of you on his wall and DC's like the nice fella who's down to earth and doesn't get in trouble and obeys the law and they boom out of the building I kind of feel like Chandler is getting the DC treatment right now and I don't think it's necessarily that fair I do also understand that Chandler is just I don't know he's just who he is but just this unbelievable

I don't even know I don't know if it's hatred but we're like bordering it for Michael Chandler across the board is just wild to me like what has this man done to merit such negativity

dude just trying to get a bag and he's strategically tweeting in different ways the porre stuff's just super weird but I watched the video yesterday, Chale's sonn talking about Michael Chandler, like, okay, what's he trying to do here?

Why is he tweeting what he's tweeting? Why did he call out Nate? Why did he do this? And Chilk kind of laid it out and I was like, you know what? You're not wrong. Like, you're not wrong. It's just like, he's planting very strategic seeds across the board.

Now, if you want to hate him for being like the company guy, I you know sure but I mean I just don't see Chandler is like the most hated guy like I don't know if he should be like the top five most hated guys of the UFC it just seems too weird so weird I don't know just like I think the Ian Gary stuff's kind of weird too although there are certain things about Ian I'm starting to get it a little bit more but it's just a very sort of cocky young man trying to make it in this sport But the whole stuff about like his personal life and the stuff like Strickland was saying about him like that's why people hated him like I didn't really understand that But him coming out of the MVP performance and being like You know, I'm John Jones. I'm this and that I understand why that rubs people the wrong way, but I don't know the channel thing's just kind of weird to me That's just where I'm at I understand why there's some some negativity, but I'm just I'm very surprised it's this much

When it comes to Chandler but we'll see if he gets Connor, if he gets a title shot, I'm going to lose my mind. Not because of Chandler, but because of the UFC. This to be, this to me would be the worst title shot in UFC history. And there's been some bad ones.

Don't get me wrong. This would probably be the worst. I'll try to get Nicholas in, but it looks like the Wheel of Doom is coming and rolling at a ferocious pace. Support for this show comes from Volkswagen. As the U.S. gets ready to host soccer's biggest moment on a worldwide stage, Volkswagen is helping people discover new turfs and new ways to play the beautiful game right here in the U.S.

From deaf and power wheelchair soccer to beach and futsal, Volkswagen is actively supporting all the communities and teams within the U.S. soccer ecosystem. They're supporting talent from across the U.S. soccer extended national teams and are focused on helping to give these less widely known forms of soccer a platform moving forward. From the pitch to the sand and everything in between, welcome to our turf. I'm Nilai Patel, editor-in-chief The Verge, and Decoder is my show about big ideas and other problems. We've talked a lot about generative AI on the show lately, which is a very big idea that is causing quite a few problems. And one thing we keep hearing about over and over again is that generative AI is causing a lot of problems in schools.

There are a lot of people out there, including many of the listeners of this show who email us, who are worried about the obvious problem. students using chat GPT to cheat on assignments. But when our team went and poked at the story, they found that the issues in education with AI go a lot deeper, to the very philosophy of education itself. If this technology becomes more ubiquitous, we'll have courses created by AI, graded by AI, with submissions from students,

absolutely generated by AI. So it begs the question, what are we even doing here in higher ed? This episode is presented by Salesforce. Okay, bounce out, bounce back in. We need a better connection. Jemir, do we have you? You do, what's up, Mike?

What's up, brother? Not much. I had a question, a journalist's question. Sure. I listen to BTO every Tuesday and Thursday whenever it comes out. I'm a big fan, obviously. But I have a question is like, you guys are a legit website. I mean, if I mean, if I think you guys like the best, right?

But you guys have writers like Jed and AK who constantly call John Jones a coward. for not wanting to fight Tom. But for one, John's, you know for a fact, you've been in the game for a while. John's not scared to fight anyone. You know that. They know that. So I don't understand, like,

where is the line between being a journalist and being a trope? Because that's kind of like tro's behavior, calling John a coward, saying that he's scared that he's ducking. He's clearly not, he's not ducking Tom. The steep-based fight is going to happen, as we know, whether you agree with it or not.

I don't agree with it, but it's going to happen. But we don't know if John's not going to fight Tom or if he is. But I don't think he's ducking Tom and I don't think he's a coward. So for them to say that, it's like, and there hasn't been any pushback from anyone about it either because I know for, like, Ariel, Ariel's never called anyone a coward unless they've been in like a B, but not as far as fighting, right? They've been calling John a coward over this entire time thing.

It just doesn't make sense to me. I don't want to get your thoughts about that. Fair. But I also think if you listen to like everything we've done, it's pretty clear it's a bit. Like there might be some internal feelings that, you know, John is doing this to somewhat avoid a Tom fight. And look, the coward thing, it's a, it's a gimmick. It's a bit. Jed's been pretty open about it being a bit.

The gaslight John Jones thing was a bit. And I don't, I don't truly believe Jedd's. feels that John Jones is a coward. I don't think A.K. feels that way. But it's a bit that took off. And Judge is sort of living the bit. I mean, if you've been listening to B.T. Allison's Jump Street, I don't think he truly hates Michael Chandler or Steep A.

But there is a sort of meritocracy that needs to be dealt with here. And as I've said on the show many times, I don't blame John Jones for taking the path he's taking because it's not his fault. It's the UFC's fault 1,000%. Them booking the interim title fight between Tom Askenal against Sergey Padlovich and MSD last year was the second worst booking of 2023. The fight I do not have a problem with.

The fight I have no problem with. Putting an interim title on it, I have a huge problem with. The number one worst booked fight of 2023 was Balaul Muhammad versus Gilbert Burns. For an event, nobody gave two shits about, adding a five-round fight that you called a quote-unquote number one contender fight. When it wasn't, let's just be honest, for a car, in booking a fight that did not sell one ticket or one extra pay-per-view. And then Bala goes out there and wins. Gilbert gets injured because he took two fights in like a month's time, less than a month. And nobody cared about the fight.

Nobody wanted to see it. It did nothing for the bottom line. And Belal still had to watch Colby Covington fight for the Welterweight title seven months later. And then it took him another seven months to get the title shot. Like it's just bad booking. And then doing the interim title, the problem I had in the, thing with the interim heavyweight title thing is like we all said this is going to happen we all said this why are you doing an interim heavyweight title fight just make it the real belt

who cares does like honestly if you want to do john jones versus stepe i don't care fine you want to do it at msg as a main event cool those two names will sell out that arena those two names, especially John, will do 700,000 pay-per-view buys at minimum. But does it need the heavy, does it need John Jones defending the heavyweight title to make it better? No, it makes absolutely no difference. None. Zip. Create a fake belt.

Create the UFC legacy heavyweight title. fine put a goat's face on the center of a belt and call it the heavyweight goat title it makes absolutely no difference and now we have to watch tom aspinall defend an interim belt in two weeks time and we're probably going to have to watch him defend it again because make no mistake about it ladies and gentlemen john jones is going to beat the soul out of steep amyitch That fight is not going to be competitive. John is going to tackle him, and he's going to beat him up, and he's going to finish him within seven minutes. That fight will not be competitive.

John Jones is going to get onto a microphone, and he's going to say, look, I'm not retiring, but I want to see how things play out. And he's going to keep the heavyweight title at his house. The UFC is going to recognize him as the heavyweight. heavyweight champion for as long as it takes. John Jones can sit on the sidelines for three years, and the UFC will keep him as the heavyweight champion. Or what he's going to do is he is not going to call out Tom Aspinall. He's not going to call it Curtis Blades.

He's not going to call whoever wins a UFC 304. He's going to call it Alex Pereira. That's what he's going to do. So again, I think that's a bit. I think if and I also think that if John has the choice if the UFC called John Jones like the UFC called John Jones

and said hey you're going to fight Stepe at MSStre but I want you to pick your next opponent right now I'll give you the choice you can fight Alex Pereira or you can fight the Tom Askenall Curtis Blades winner John is going to give the answer

that probably every other heavyweight's going to give it's Alex Pereer because it's a bigger fight it's a money fight it's a legit super fight. Like there are no superfights anymore. Like to me, Islemaqachev versus Leon Edwards

is not a super fight. That to me isn't. But Pereira going for a third division title against John Jones, that to me calls for a superfight title. And John's going to do it. And I don't, honestly, I don't have a problem with it. This is prize fighting.

The UFC is a different organization. But there's going to be a bunch of people, who are going to be like, yo, why aren't you fighting Tom Asperol? Why aren't you fighting Curtis Blades? And by the way, there's a real world where Curtis Blades beats Tom Aspinall in a couple weeks.

Like, that can't happen. And John is certainly never going to fight Curtis Blades because why would he? So, yeah, it's a bit. It's a bit. They're going to say it. But I think, like, if you go back and listen to all the programming, it's a bit.

And it took off. People, like, people jumped on board pretty quick with this whole thing. But it's not like Jed's the only person in the space who has this take, but the coward thing is just a bit. That's why he keeps saying, chickens can't be goats. It's a bit. It's a bit. But I don't think John's fighting either of these dudes.

I do think he fights. I do think he would eventually fight Tom. I really do. It's not going to happen within the next year. I just don't see it. If Tom beats Curtis Blades, like, that's a cool win, but I don't think people are going to be, and he'll look like a star, and it's going to be up to Tom to cut a really strong promo on the mic, like a really strong one. But I also believe that Tom should just ignore John's existence altogether. John is not a fight.

John's not the heavyweight champion. I'm the heavyweight champion. John's belt is the fake belt. Mine is the real belt. And I'm going to keep defending this real belt as many times as possible against the next man up. And if John wants a shot at the real belt, he knows how to get in touch with me.

That's how he needs to handle this. But I don't know. But yeah, long and short of it. There's probably like some feelings there, but I don't think Jed Act truly believes that John Jones is a coward. I don't think so. I think it's just a bit that is taking on a life of its own,

and sometimes you just go with the gimmick. Clay, go ahead. Hello, Mike. I hope you're doing good. It's been a while since I came up here to talk. And I was going to ask you for your opinion on the Hamzad tweet. Like Hamza put this tweet saying, hey, it wasn't the guy who stole your money. And then he immediately got community-noted and led by someone.

and it was discovered that he did, in fact, stole from his supporters. What do you think about this? Honestly, I don't really have an opinion on it because I don't know anything about this world. I truly have no idea. For CV who's turning 30, learn about the new age of finances because I honestly have no idea. I don't know how the crypto stuff works. I can only go by with what I read. I know the Logan Paul situation.

He's like taking some sort of accountability and paying people back and whatever. This seems to be a different story. But yeah, honestly, I haven't really dug into it too much just because this is not my realm, honestly. But if it turns out that he actually like stole money from fans and like knew about it and like did it on purpose, then that's real shit. real shitty. But I don't know anything about this shit. I'm bad at this. Not my forte.

Ginzu, go ahead. What's going on, fan? First of all, shout out to you guys. I really enjoy your content, man. Just real quick, before I get into my question, I just wanted to say that without the journalists and those bits that you guys do casting the lines out to grab a fish,

some of our favorite fighters wouldn't even be not necessarily relevant because they are, but we got to keep them kind of moving, the gossip, and everything has to keep flowing. And I really appreciate the journalism that you guys throw out there, even if it's a quick fade. So I really understand, I understand the bottom line, and I understand that it's just a bit,

I understand that, and I really respect that. The question that I have is Patty Pimbley is on his last fight of his contract. Now, he was talking about letting his manager do all the negotiating for him, and he doesn't want to be too much involved. He threw two different things. He was talking about these YouTube fighters could pay me millions. And then on the other,

and he obviously calls USC the cream of the crop. You know, he always goes back for the UFC. But what do you think of potentially an ultimate fighter between him and Money McConnell? I personally, I love the idea. I just want to know what you guys think about that. Thanks. Yeah, we talked about the Patty thing earlier.

Yeah, look, we know who is man. is he is very tight with the UFC. He's one of the UFC's favorite managers. So I kind of hope Patty's a little more hands-on if we're being honest. But at the same token, like, I don't know. All this is public or whatever. But I guess, first of all, when it comes to the contract, like I said earlier, if I'm Patty, I am not signing anything until after this fight.

Not a single thing. And I know the UFC is going to try and get him locked up. before this fight starts. And I got to tell you, if he shows up to the media day and says, yeah, I just inked a new eight fight deal, I'm going to be disappointed in him. I'm going to be disappointed in him because this opportunity that's in front of him right now,

like he might not get another one to go into free agency as the 15th best fighter. Like if he beats Bobby Green, he becomes the 15th best lightweight in the promotion. He's ranked number 15. He can go off into free agency and make a bag. PFL will pay him a ton. And he doesn't even have to do this season.

He could be one of their pay-per-view fighters, and they will pay him a shit ton of money. Or they throw him on one of those Bellator cards. And we know how they're matching those guys up. They're giving them, like, fights for their minus 900 favorites, and they're making a bag. Or he can go box. a YouTuber and make a bag.

He's going to make more money outside of the UFC. There's no question. Win or lose, he will make more money outside of the UFC. That's why I really want him to just fight it out, man. Take the risk. Like, you've come this far. You've made it public that this is the last fight on your deal.

Take it all the way. This in itself makes this fight even more interesting. And honestly, and this includes, like, I am, you know, the main event is what it is, Leon versus Belal. Like, I feel like I know how that fight's going to go already. Aspenall Blades is interesting, but to me, like, the one that stands out to me that I'm most intrigued by is Patty versus Green. And now you're adding the risk of him fighting out his deal and going into free agency. it just spices things up a little bit more. I love that.

I love that idea. Now, the Ultimate Fighter thing, if you've listened to me talk about the Ultimate Fighter, I would say this is a terrible idea because nobody cares about the Ultimate Fighter. It will do nothing for the show. They had Connor McGregor on the Ultimate Fighter,

the biggest star in the history of the sport, and people cared for three weeks, and then they just stopped watching. The show, It stinks. It's terrible. It's an awful show. It is the same show it was two decades ago. It has not evolved at all. The only thing that has changed is that the camera work is cleaner and they're not in the ultimate fighter gym anymore. They're at the world's most famous apex. That's the only thing that's changed. We're still doing basketball jerseys. We're still doing coaches, challenges. we're still doing the same thing we've done since the first season. So no, I would keep those two away from the ultimate fighter because just think of the bad luck we've been having with it

when it comes to coaches' fights. Connor and Chandler still haven't fly yet. Alexa Grasso is out here telling people she might not fight Valentina Shubchenko at the sphere. So like, no, no. It's not because I don't think it's entertaining. It's that I just wouldn't watch it anyways because it's the ultimate fighter

and that show's terrible. It's horrendous. Bored out of my mind. They're even ruining the Contender series for me, which that's a whole other show. D.C. Betts, go ahead. Hey, Mike, did you guys already touch on the Bolkov and Cyril gone?

Yes. Okay, I figured so. So then I'll ask a different one. So what do you think about about all this Kabib and Hamzot stuff and both of it kind of being related to like

guys in political power supposedly you know backing them with with Kamsat with that Chechchian guy and then if you look more into Kabid there was that Russian

oligarch who I guess you know funded him coming all the way up and then ended up was in Putin's hand and and was all good and then all of a sudden the government came down on him. And then right around, you know, later on, now this Khabib stuff is going on. But just what do you think, what do you think about, you know, like what kind of, what kind of, you know, causing effects does that kind of stuff have on, on the sport?

And do you think that's more, or, you know, we're going to start seeing it more often from these countries where guys, you know, can't really get the funding and sponsoring that, you know, we can't in like America or, you know, other countries like that. Do you think this is something that more fighters are going to keep running into and that, you know, people with political power or money or anything like that, just see the potential, you know, the potential things that could come out of, out of supporting a really good fighter who becomes a star and a multimillionaire that these guys are seeing, that that's like a, you know, a viable investment for them.

It's something that, you know, it's kind of like a card that they hold in their hand later on. Because I could imagine the guy who did this for Khabib, I mean, you know, or even with Putin, you know, favoring Khabi, giving them all his stuff. And then, you know, when they're done with you, they're done with you. But yeah, just kind of, if you have any opinion on that, just because I know a lot of that's going around in the news, you know, with the whole Hongzad and Khabi thing. And I know with Khabi, the whole gym thing isn't always exactly his fault. but yeah just your opinion on that heck of morning. Yeah, the gym thing we've looked into,

but we really haven't confirmed a whole lot. Plus, you know, it's not an isolated incident with the gym thing in that area. So again, not really my thing. What I will say is this. One, this has been going on forever. Two, it's going to continue to go on. And three, to just keep it simple.

what does it do for this, like, how does it affect the sport? It doesn't. It doesn't. It certainly doesn't affect the way the UFC presents the sport because they don't care. They don't care. The hardcore fans will care about this, and they should. But as you all know, the UFC does not book and promote and run their business for the hardcore fans. They have us already. They promote for the casual fan, for the new fans. That's why they, they do the things they do that's why they partner with full sentence that's where they partner with nina drama that's why they partner with bar stool they do that for a reason it's for the newer fans so and none of them are talking about any of this and there's a reason for that but yes we've dug

into the hubib stuff a little bit we saw the reports uh we know reputable outlets are reporting this but we just haven't been able to to confirm to the point where we can like we're report on it and do all that stuff. And, you know, that's kind of where we're at right now. But yeah, dude, this is, this, this shit's been going on forever. And it's going to keep going on. Um, peaceful, please. Yeah, hi, Mike.

Oh, uh, sorry if you talked about this, but I was just wondering about that, uh, that potential Gamrot, Dan Hooker, uh, fight in Perth. Um, I was just wondering, what does a wind do for Gamrod over? Dan Hooker. Like, it doesn't feel like he'll get someone above him. And it feels like maybe Moikano, a BSD, might eclipse him in the title picture, not in the rankings, but it just always feels like he's like two fights away from a title picture at minimum. So what does the win over Dan Hooker actually do for Game Rock? Nothing. It just doesn't do much. I mean, it just gets him out there. And that's half the battle right there.

Gets him out there. More people get to see him. But in the overall scheme of things, does nothing. This was the backup fighter. This is the guy. He was inserted as the backup fighter for Islam Makachep

versus Charles Olivera, too. He was the backup fight. As of like six weeks before the fight, Matush Gamron is the backup fighter. They lose Charles Olivera. Lose him. He's out of the fight. fight. They have a backup fighter. They announced this dude's the backup fighter. They didn't even call the backup fighter to fight. They called Volkovsky to fight. So that should tell you everything you need to know. They were like, okay, we have the opportunity to put the backup fighter in because you bend the backup the whole time. We're going to call somebody else. The champion from another division on two weeks notice, when we have a guy who is getting ready to be the backup.

that tells you everything you need to know. He is, he should be closer to do a title shot, but he just ain't. And he's in a division where he's kind of screwed, unfortunately. Because I just don't know if he's going to get the fights he needs. He's going to fight,

he's going to have to fight like Charles Olivera at some point. And I don't know if like O'Ferri really cares about that fight at all. So yeah, he's going back and fighting Dan Hooker. So in back-to-back fights, he's fought the 14th ranked dude and now he's fighting the 11th ranked dude and he's the number five dude.

Yeah, he's in a very strange place. That is for sure. All right, we got to get out of here in a minute. So we're going to get real quick with this. Ani, I'll try to get Nicholas one more time that I've got to go. Ani, go ahead. I mean, it's been a while, and I always keep going off on how the UFC does not treat their veterans well.

As in, I think, you know, whenever you have, these last minute paper views which lack the name so when we look at you know for example the paper view that Gilbert Burns and Bilal Mohammed fought on was that the one in Canada see I don't even remember it if for example it had a veterans fight for example and it doesn't have to be really really spicy or really juicy it can be something very um you know something that gives you an expression, like something that Macy goes, oh, that's nice. Something like maybe Alexander Gustafson versus Dominic Reyes or Stephen Wanderby Thompson versus RDA or, you know what I mean?

Something like Jim Miller versus Bobby Green was at UFC 300. And I feel like, and I've said this many times, I'm not sure if you remember, I've said, you know, they robbed us off of Frankie Edgar versus Dominic Cruz. They robbed us off of Dominic Cruz versus Joe Zayaldo. I'm not sure if it will happen. They robbed us off of Cody Garbrandt versus Frankie Edgar. So what do you think, if you were given a chance to make a legacy fight or a veterans fight to spice up a paperview, which one would you make? And in which division would that be?

Thank you, Mike. I don't know, man. probably do like Tony Ferguson versus like Joe Lozahn is like perfect like that's perfect it's great fight

I don't know I don't know I don't know but that's it gets hard to answer because the UFC doesn't do this they might do it for Dustin Porre because I think like I do think Porre is going to fight

one more time I don't think it's going to be any time too soon but I do think maybe international fight week or you know next summer or something we see Poria one more time it'd be cool to see them make a very big deal out of this

and then just book them in with like somebody cool man like I don't know like if Holloway loses to Poria like do Dustin and Max again like I don't give a shit like I'll watch those two guys fight a million times do Dustin versus Charles like there's ways you can go about this but I think Dustin would have to be involved

I don't want to see Dustin if he's going to fight one more time fight Jalen Turner. Like I don't have any interest in that. Get him in there with the vet who's also on the last leg of his career. And that's how you do it. But I think Dustin would have to be involved. It has to be made a big deal of.

It has to be made that it's his final fight. And you just do it like that. Like have him go out against a vet, win or lose, make it a very special thing. You can go that route. That's how I would do it. all right we'll try nicholas one more time see if we can get him in if not we got to go because we got a preview show coming up in 45 minutes nicholas do we have you now no we do not all right so we'll try true as god real quick see if we can get him then do we have you sir okay well much appreciated we'll be back on tuesday we'll do it again we'll react to ufc denver we'll get ready for ufc vegas ninety four or five i don't even know at this point damn Apex guards. And then we got Mike Perry, Jake Paul coming up next weekend. And I'm sure there'll be other crazy shit to talk about. So thank you all very much. Preview show, noon Eastern,

M.A. Fighting YouTube channel to get you ready for UFC Denver. Appreciate all the great questions. Back on Tuesday. Have a great rest of your Friday. Have a heck of a morning, everybody. Listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Defenders and cybersecurity are always there when we need them. They should get a parade every time they block a novel threat and have streets, sandwiches, and babies named in their honor. But most of all, they deserve AI cybersecurity that can stop novel threats before they become breaches

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