MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reaction To Gilbert Burns vs. Belal Muhammad Short Notice Co-Main Event For UFC 288

Episode Date: April 21, 2023

The mystery behind a new UFC 288 co-main event was finally solved on Thursday night when UFC President Dana White revealed that Gilbert Burns and Belal Muhammad will take that spot on the May 6 pay-per-view in a five-round welterweight matchup. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to the bout being set for the UFC's return to Newark, N.J., and what the stakes are for both men in the matchup. Additionally, topics include Charles Oliveira vs. Beneil Dariush officially moving to the co-main event spot of UFC 289 in June, other main event announcements from White on Thursday, the UFC sticking around the APEX for a bunch of cards over the next couple of months, Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia, what could be next for Shavkat Rakhmonov, a potential Israel Adesanya vs. Dricus Du Plessis fight, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Cudulian 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-by 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. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. Today, April 21st, 2023, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live in the MMA fighting Twitter space. You can hear the show shortly thereafter in its entirety on the MMA fighting podcasting network. I am Mike Heck, and boy, oh boy, has a lot happened since the last time we spoke.

Dana White, last night did the Dana White fight announcement thing where he was in the studio. He screamed at the top of his lungs and announced a whole bunch of things, a whole bunch of fights, some main events, some locations, a whole bunch of stuff came out. And it begins with the mystery being solved. What would be the new co-made event of UFC 288 coming up two weeks from tomorrow? Well, Dana White gave us those answers.

It will be a five-round welterweight matchup between, I guess, the number two and number three contenders at 170 pounds, Balal Mohammed versus Gilbert Burns. The fight is happening at 170, and it's going to be five rounds. It's a damn good fight. And I see a lot of people on social media, they're like, oh, Gilbert Burns is a badass. The dude is crazy.

Give him his props. Yes, he should get his props. But you got to give Belal Mohammed his props. props as well. This is a great replacement fight. The stakes are incredibly high for both guys. Basically, I mean, it's just for both guys, really. I mean, they're battling just to see who the number two contender is because Colby's going to get the title shot. At this point, we just have to accept this. And the winner of this fight will probably get the winner or be the backup fighter but man props to both dudes because you have to imagine especially if you're bala

Muhammad if you lose this fight you may never get a title shot it may never happen for you if you haven't got one by now you just got to keep winning and winning and to fight a guy like Gilbert Burns on a little over two weeks notice and a five-round fight. And you're basically putting it all on the line. That's some theater. And who knows if Gilbert Burns will get a title shot if he loses this fight too. So a lot on the line for both guys. And I mean, I couldn't be more impressed with the boldness of both of these individuals.

Incredible stuff. We also found out that the original. co-main event for UFC 288 between Charles Oliver and Benile Darius. It is officially going down. It is on the books for UFC 289. And boy, does that card need it. UFC 289 went from, I mean, just pretty bad to pretty solid. That's going to be a pretty solid main card.

Main event is what it is. But the rest of the main card is going to be pretty solid. This is a huge fight. And we'll get some answers. at this 155 pound division. That is for sure. We also found out some other news. Marvin Vittori, Jared Canaanier,

will compete at UFC Vegas 75, June 17th. That will be a five-round main event. Kind of the fight we sort of expected. The Josh Emmett-Illia fight is now back. It's going to happen in Jacksonville, June 24th, So those initial reports were accurate. So nicely done. I forget who was the fine person who reported that.

He was steadfast. People were doubting him. And he was like, mark my words, this is what's going to happen. And man, he was right. I will say, I was told that that wasn't 100% accurate yet. But like I said, it wouldn't surprise me if it does happen. Here we are. Jacksonville has a made event at 145 pounds.

We reported earlier today about an hour ago Punahili Soriano said Riki Dumas will also take place on that card. I'm sure they're going to build that up with a lot of local talents. I would not be surprised to see a guy like Phil Roe on that card. So we'll see what happens.

We have a main event for July 1st. This one kind of threw me off because I'll tell you what, I didn't see the Dana announcement. I actually found out about this fight before Dana announced it and it was a weird kind of situation because I fell asleep. I fell asleep around 8.30. I just laid down and next thing I know was like midnight. And I wake up and check my phone and I get a text message from a source that Sean Strickland is fighting

Abu Maga Madoff in the main event July 1st. I was like, what? I was like, really? And when I respond to this, I had no idea that Dana had already gone on and did his thing. But because I even responded, really? That's what's happening. And I was like, I was told yes. And then I was told that it was already announced. So that is the main event July 1st. Very interesting fight.

Very interesting main event to lead into international fight week, Sean Strickland, Abu Magamadoff. And Data White also revealed that the July 21st, 22nd card will take place in London. It will not be a pay-per-view. It will be a fight-night card. Details to follow, which means if they do do two paper views in July, the second will be July 29th.

That's kind of what the schedule was, but I don't even know if Dana really addressed July 29th. But a lot to unpack here. A lot to unpack, a lot of fight announcements. We, of course, have Bellator 294 coming up tonight. I have to talk about this real quick. Liz Carbush, the flyweight champion, is defending her flyweight title against a fighter who cannot win the title. Deanna Bennett missed weight.

She had three attempts to not make the championship limit. So Liz Carmuch will receive 30% of Deanna Bennett's purse. If she wins, she gets to keep the belt. But if she loses, the title is vacant. Like, I don't get this at all. I don't get this at all. It's just so weird. I don't understand it.

I don't get it. But that's what's happening. And then what? They'll fight again for a vacant title? I mean, I get it. I don't know. It just seems so strange. It just seems so strange.

But I don't think Liz Combrose is going to lose this fight. So it's going to be off or not more than likely. But I thought that was very strange. And then we have a lot of combat tomorrow. geez Louise with we have Davis Garcia we have the UFC card we have Bellator 295 with the best fight of the weekend especially in MMA Rafion Stats versus Patchy Mix we have influencer boxing up the wazoo this weekend just so much going on so let's go to you all and see what is on your mind I don't even know who is first so I'm just going rando here Skyler kick us off hey Mike for him morning how you doing

say. Good, how are you? Good, good. I just wanted to mention now that we have the Balaul Gilbert, I think the UFC, if we're being honest, is playing this right in that they can't give Balaal a title shot as long as Leon is champion. I mean, talk about the most boring lead-up to a fight possibly ever. They already had the fight once. I'm not sure anyone really cared the first time. And now you have a title on the line. If I'm the UFC, I need to find a way to knock him out. And Gilbert might be able to do that. I think the Shavkat was their best shot. I know Bilal didn't take that for the right reasons.

But I think we just got to be honest. We can't give Bilal a shot until Leon's out of there. And literally anyone else as champion, I think, would be all right. But it just doesn't make sense. And speaking of that for Free For All Friday, what do you think? I've heard so many times that the UFC doesn't have a pay-per-view structure or, you know, it's not really what it used to be or things like that,

but why do we still have it? I'm curious, not only do we still have it, they keep raising the price for it. Does endeavor purchasing U.S. or purchasing W.E make it any less likely or more likely that the pay-per-view structure stays? Because if the U.S.C. really wants to compete with these major sports like the NFL NBA, you would think they would leverage the ABC and ESPN networks for maybe some of these pay-per-view events and get some really good viewing numbers. So that's kind of what I got for you today. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, so I don't know if I agree with you about the Bilal thing, but there's just no way

he was getting a title shot after beating Sean Brady. It just wasn't going to happen. He was going to have to get another fight. I thought Hamzaa would have been a great one. I do think Bilal's stock has risen amongst the MMA audience because of the John Anak Colby situation and the way Bilal handled it and kind of took the ball and ran with it. I thought that was very

smart on his part. And Balal doesn't do very smart things often when it comes to getting himself over but in this case I think he is about as over as he could possibly be right the second. Now you got to strike while the iron's hot

and I think Bilal realizes is that he might need a win maybe two before he gets a title shot. So getting Schofcott Rachmanoff probably still wouldn't have been enough for him to get a title shot. So fighting Gilbert Burns was the best way to do it. Yes, you got to do it on short notice. But if he wins, he's probably going to be the backup fighter. And he probably is going to get the winner of Leon and Colby. There's a story there.

He stepped in on super short notice to fight Leon. the fight was not going very well for him, but it was far from over. I mean, if you watch Bilal Muhammad fights, he gets better as the fight goes. And, yeah, it was just kind of a weird, random main event that came out of nowhere, and it ended in such a bizarre way

that there is a story there. So the stakes are very high. I don't know. I mean, the winner of this fight is getting the winner of the title shot. There's, I mean, it just has to. Because what's the point of taking this fight? I'm just going to save the UFC

I'm just going to save this card and put on a cool main event but we're not fighting for anything they're not fighting for the title shot but they're fighting to be next in line and there's really nobody else there Mazadol is no longer a part of the equation for the Leon thing

they're going to do the Colby fight and then the division will somehow return in some way to some meritocracy of some kind. So the biggest question I had out of all this because I was just like, this is a damn good fight props to both guys is now what do you do at Shafkat Rachmanoff?

Now what do you do with Shafka? That's an interesting question. Maybe throw him in there with Sean Brady. Maybe do it international fight week. I don't know. Brady talked to my buddy James Lynch and said that there's something possibly being targeted for him for international fight week. I think him and Shofka would be a friggin great fight. That'd be a good one. Let's go to Omer.

Hello, sir. Are you there? I do not hear you. Try again. I'll get you back in. I'm just going all rando here. Let's go to Terrence. Hello, Terrence.

Hey, Mike. What's up, buddy? Not much happy for our day to you. You too. So I was just questioning. So you have Chris Dawkes. It's about to go down to 205. He's on a three straight, should be three, fight, losing three.

Same thing just happened with Tannen Bowzer. And then you have Cynthia Cavio just got cut, unfortunately, after going back to 116, or 115, rather. Do you think a lot of these fighters are doing this as a last resort thing when, in fact, they should realize sooner that their optimal weight classes, like, below that? Because I know, for example, with Tanner, like, people have been talking about. tell him from the beginning, like, hey, I think you'll be good at 205. And same thing with Chris Dawkins, same thing with having success there as well. And then, like, with the PI, they're able to make these cuts a lot easier if they dedicate time to it.

So do you see more people taking advantage of it earlier to where they think they can go back down to a particular weight class? Or do you think people are going to continue to do this as a last resort? and if they don't win it, then they're pretty much probably going to be cut. And then the other thing that I want to talk about since this is Friday, who you think are going to be in the finals? I know you're going to say Celtics, but on the West, who you think is going to be the opposite team on that side?

That's all I got for you. Thank you. So to answer the first question, we've been seeing this for a while. We see a lot of fighters dropping and, and seems like it's kind of shoulder shrugging decisions to drop weight and you see them struggle in a big way to get down. Calvia was a straw way when she got to the FC,

but this is just kind of her return. So it was probably a last resort for her, but I thought she fought well against Lupi Godinez. Lupi won, but I didn't think she got the doors blown off her. I thought she fought well, anybody who bet on her on Cynthia. I thought she was a very live dog.

I think Cynthia fought for your money. There's no doubt about that. Docus had probably put in the same place as Bozer. A lot of people are telling Docus like, dude, you should go to 205. A lot of people have been saying that for a while. We were talking about that on BTL yesterday. Jose was saying, you know, everyone's been telling Doccus to go to 205. I think he's a better light heavyweight.

And then we found out that he's making the drop as we were doing BTL live. But boy, what a welcome he's going to get with freaking Khalil Roundtree. he better hope that we don't get Thailand, Khalil, the dude who fought Eric Anders and the dude who fought Modestis Poccascus, because that could be a very rough night for him. But it's weird because, like, you see, like, Chris Curtis is a perfect example. Chris Curtis is a welterweight. Like, he's, he can make, obviously, 85 easy,

but he's having so much success at 85. Like, he went hammered. in Tongues with Kelvin Gaston, who's still a really good fighter. He lost to Jackramansen, but he's beating everybody else. So, like, what's the point of him going back down to 170 when he doesn't have to make that massive weight cut and he's still winning fights? Like, even if Chris goes to 170, he'll have success there, but it's not like, I don't think Chris Curtis is going to be a guy who's fighting for a welterweight title.

So it doesn't really make sense for him to drop to 170 when he's still winning at 185. But there are different examples. Doc is losing three in a row. Tanner Bozer was struggling. Why not move to 205? But this isn't new. It's a little more prevalent now seeing heavyweights kind of drop to light heavyweight. But we'll see how it plays up.

That's a tough friggin fight, man. That's a tough 205 debut against the guy like Khalil Roundtree. And with the NBA, Celtics versus the winner of the King's Warrior Series. I think that's what we're going to get. I think that's what we're going to get. The Celtics are just going to kill Atlanta. They're just going to run them over, and then they're going to rest and wait for the next series. Because they're just going to kill Atlanta.

It's a great matchup. Couldn't ask for anything more out of a first rounder for the Celtics. Henderson, hello. Hey, Mike. You too. All right. My devils are ruining my life right now, how bad they're losing in hockey. But other than that, I'm pretty excited that the UFC is coming back to New Jersey.

There's no way I can afford to go to this card. The prices are crazy, but that's kind of the UFC fan life for you. You know, pay-per-view prices are crazy, ticket prices are crazy. And I agree with that earlier caller who said, now that the WWE and the UFC are together, like, they could definitely get some sort of a cable deal and just get all the big cards at least to be on normal people's things that they can afford streaming service. and whatever. But anyway, I'm stoked about the new fight with the Burns and we'll all announced for New Jersey. And it's awesome that it's five rounds. And I was thinking of this

scheme. I always like to have some sort of crazy scheme if I'm calling in. And I think the UFC honestly should go to more flexibility in how long fights are. Like we've seen that in boxing, obviously, as all different types of rounds. And we could easily, switch to a format where like maybe under card fights are like prelimbs are like three four minute rounds right and then you could do main card fights are five four minute rounds so it gives you more rounds at least they're shorter rounds at least so it's not as much like extra time and more breaks in between rounds where they can like show the corners and go to the the things that the UFC loves to do during the main card anyway. And then for title fights, you can make it like seven four minute rounds or

something. You know, so I know the UFC has changed in the past, like the length of fights and there were fights without rounds. And then they can easily change it again, right? Like, I know the UFC and MMA is kind of more solidified now, but would you think they would ever switch round formats like that or make some changes in that way? Because we're starting to see more of these five round fights that aren't main events and aren't even title fights. So just your thoughts on that, man. So, I mean, they've been doing the five round main events for a while now. Bellator is doing the same thing, whether it's title or no title.

We've seen them do five round co-main events. I wish they would do more of that, if we're being honest. Like, Justin Gaitie, Raphael Fiziv, five rounds would have been sick. That would have been friggin' amazing. I'm not saying to do that all. Not every co-main event is five-round worthy, but Benile Darius Charles Levera should absolutely be five rounds. Like that should be a five-round fight.

When you have like a possible number one contender fight or something with super high stakes, and it's a co-main event, I have no issue with it being five rounds. Like they should do more of that. We had Hanato-Moycano fight RDA in a five-round co-main event on like a week's notice. Like how is that fight worth five rounds?

but Gaichi Fiziv was not worth five rounds. Like how? But you're also going to get the fighters on board with that stuff as well. And we're not going to see any changes to the round numbers. We're not going to do seven, four minute rounds. I mean, the UFC is a powerful organization, but they are not powerful enough to change all of the rules of the M.A. And make commissions, like, rewrite their rules and all that stuff.

So I'm not going to happen. I will address the other thing you talked about with the pay-per-view prices and all that stuff. The ticket prices are redonculus, but people are going to pay them. People are just going to pay them. And oftentimes, like we've talked about before, and I know Ariel's talked about it a lot, a lot of places the UFC goes to is because they are paying the UFC to go. So how do these arenas and these places recoup those funds? Well, they have to sell tickets, and sometimes you have to sell them at a premium.

to get some of that money back. And while we would love to sit there and blame the UFC for the pay-view prices going up, you can't really do that altogether because that's an ESPN decision more than it's a UFC decision. The UFC doesn't, they don't get like a huge bump from pay-per-view buys anymore. Like all that is cherry on top of the Sunday. This deal with ESPN, they are getting paid an assload of money to just host the cards on their network. So pay-per-view buys are just, they're getting a guaranteed dollar figure no matter whether you sell one pay-per-view or two million. They're getting a huge chunk of

money just to host their cards on ESPN and some of the partners they have. So sure, if you sell a million pay-per-byes, I'm sure they get a little piece of that, but it's not make or break for them. It just isn't. So it's more about the gates. And, making sure that the hosts that pay them, they put together a card that is worth their time and worth the money that people will spend to fill the arenas. That's why they care more about gates and sellouts and all that more so than pay-per-view buys. That's why we don't even know what the pay-per-view buys are.

People can throw out figures, but who really knows for sure, honestly. And look, if they bump it at 80 bucks, or whatever, that's what they're out right now. And it wouldn't shock me if they don't go up at like another five next year. Most people are going to buy them anyways. Not all of them, but most people are going to spend. Like, I would buy every single one of them. It sucks, but I would buy them all.

A lot of people would. And guess what? ESPN is well aware of that. ESPN is well aware of that. Now, this WWE thing, when they do the network shopping, that's going to be super interesting because WWE's deal is coming up at a year I think the UFC deal is coming up in two years

will they package everything together with the SPN? I don't know I'm not sure Warner Brothers Discovery there's reports they're interested in WWU programming will they package them together will they be separate entities I don't know I don't know I just don't want to see

stop it child I just don't want to see WWE go back to like 80 all our pay-per-views. I don't want to see that happen. I like what they're doing now. It makes it much more palatable. But that's going to be interesting. Next couple of years are going to be interesting to see how the television deal is going to work.

Tristan, hello. Can you hear me clearly? Yep. Okay. With the Shafcott, that's my, I want to get to that Shafkat, Raphano, what happens with him. My thing is, this is what I was thinking about. The only thing I could think of, with Sean Brady, I think you match him up against Jeff Neal in July,

because I think Shafat wants to fight on the Abu Dhabi card. So the thing is, here's my thought process as far as the option's concerned for Shafka. Either he gets to look for him or he gets the winner of Stephen Wonderboy Thompson versus Michelle Prieta. And keep this in mind with Shopcott, he wanted even one of those guys the last time out. He wanted to fight Wonderboy or he wanted to fight Michelle Prieta, one of those two. So that would make sense with those two options. The wild card is what happens with Kamar Oosman?

What's going to happen with him? Who is he going to fight because he wants to be itching to get back in there? So that's the thing. Because you may have a situation when you have Leon Edwards versus Kobe Covington and Shaqat Rowanah with the other options that I just mentioned on the same card for Abu Dhabi. I think that's the way to go, you know, in my thought process. Do you think that makes sense, hypothetically speaking?

Thanks, Mike. I mean, sure. But you can, here's the thing with Chaffcott. You have to get him over. We all know who he is. We all understand that he is a menace. But the casual viewing audience has no idea who this guy is. They have no clue. So what you need to do is you need to get this guy

active. He cannot, we cannot wait till October to have Schofcott fight. If he can fight in July, he needs to fight in July. And Shofcott is a monster. He might have a tough fight, but I think the goal at Shafcott is, I would have had, like I said before, I would have had him still fight on that January card. Just throw him in there with anybody. Let him absolutely run over whoever he was going to fight. Then still have him fight Jeff Neal in March.

Then have him in July, then have him in October. I know that's tough asking for four fights. But that first fight wouldn't even really count because he would just murk whoever he fought. It's just about making this guy look like a killer. So if you can get Shopcott to fight in July against Deshawn Brady or somebody like that,

and then turn him around in October, that is ideal. That's what you want to do. That's what you want to do. Could they do Brady Jeff Neal? Sure. I would rather see Brady Shafcott, if we're being honest. But I don't know. I just think that's a really interesting style matchup.

Because Brady's a really good grappler. Shofcott's a really good grappler. Shofcott's a better striker than Brady. But Brady's striking is getting better. interesting fight. I don't know. I don't think Wonderboy is going to fight Shafcott. I don't think we're ever going to see that fight.

I don't think Wonderboy would just be happy training a bunch of future karate champions than fighting Shafcott. That fight just does not interest him. It just does not interest him. Pereira? Maybe. Maybe.

Wonder Boy's 40. I know he wants, I know he's saying he wants to fight for the belt, but he'll take a different path than having to deal. with Shafcott, I think. But if you can get Shafcott July and October, you got to do it. You got to do it.

We'll go to Four Corner Sports, and we'll go to Anthony. That's four corner sports. Hey, Mike. So you guys, so in the previous caller, I was just getting to what I wanted to talk about. I agree with you. Shofcott, a lot of casual people don't know who he is.

I would say give him a tune-up fight, put him on International Fight Week, or even this, put Kamar Usman in there. I know it sounds crazy. I know many people may not agree with it. You may not agree with it. But if Usman does what's it called get past Schaftcott, he gets accelerated into a title shot, right? When a Schaftcott gets the victory over Usman, then what's it called, one, Usman's a name, two, a lot of you know who he is just because of the fact that he, what's

a quote um what's a called shot if uh shavka's able to be ozman then what's it called you know big name right there on the on the resume you can't deny that he might be able to catapult his way up until a title shot and he could just be put on ice and the u.s. he could just build around him and that can set up possibly for a super fight down the line you know if shop cut ever wants to go up to 185 just because he looks like a big 170 pounder that's just my opinion right there Um, what's the quote? I wanted to ask you also, so I wasn't really impressed with, with the selections that they were saying as for like fights. I mean, yeah, Hermanson, Allen, that's cool.

Elisipharia, I mean, we already knew what I was going to happen. But does this kind of solidify that with all these announcements that it looks like Israel Autosanian might end up fighting? Drake is dupluses. And then also, this also solidify. that Volcanowski might be the main event for International Fight Week. And last question, who do you think main events the London card on July 22nd? Oh, let me only meet myself. I would assume Tommy Aspinall will be the main event.

They'll probably do like Marchine Tybora. It seems like that's what both guys want. It doesn't really matter who Tommy Aspenol fights on that card. He just needs to fight on it. Both guys want that fight. It seems to make sense to me. that's probably what they would do. The fight selections, they're fine.

Look, this is, like we talked about yesterday, they ain't leaving the apex. They're not. We're not living in a world where every fight is going to be in front of a big crowd. It's not happening. They just don't have enough, they don't have enough star power to do it.

Like, I don't even know how, I love the Josh Emmett, I'lli, it's a great matchmaking. but is that the kind of main event that's going to sell you 15,000 tickets? I don't know. So to me, this is going to be a Florida heavy card. This is going to be guys from that area fighting on that card, friends and family getting a bunch of tickets. Like, these are the main events you get when you have the apex.

Sean Strickland, Abis Magamadavad is one of the weirdest fights that I've ever seen. Like the fight's not bad, but having it headline a card is just, it's a head scratcher. But again, when you have the apex and you have to fill cards and you have this deal with the SPN, that's just what we get. We get a bunch of middleweight made events. We get Alan Hermanson. That's going to be at the apex. We're getting the Vittori Canaaniers of the world.

That's an apex fight. Strickland Maghavadoff, that's an Apex fight. But these are better made events than some of the ones we've gotten in the past, if we're being honest. But the Strickland Maghavadoff one is a little strange. But this is what happens when you put on a million cards. So my hope is whatever the next TV deal is that we're, even if they stick with the SPN, they work out a different deal where there's like

eight to ten less cards a year because this is what we're going to get. This is what we're going to get. You can't have Max Holloway fight four times a year. You have good fighters who are ranked, but they're not big draws and they're not big stars. This is what happens. We have 700 fighters on the roster. So it happens when you give out 50 frigging contender series contracts every year.

We have to get these guys fights. We have all these cards, but what are going to headline these? How are we going to sell tickets? The answer is, if you don't have a fight that could sell tickets, you throw it in the apex. And we sell some tickets there. That's it.

So, and the Shafkot thing, look, if he fights Uzman, that's a cool fight. But giving him a tuna fight and then Uspin, I don't know. I don't know. If you're going to do the Uspin fight and Uspin's down to go to Abu Dhabi in October, cool, do that. But you can't just, Shafcott needs to fight somebody with some sort of name first. He gets by them, he calls out Uspin, you want to do that fight. that's cool it's got to happen in october we have to let the leon colby thing play out and we have to see

what happens with ball and burns because a balan burns fight this five round co-main event on short notice the winner of that is getting the the winner of edwards and in colby like there's just no other explanation there's no other purpose to take this fight unless you're just getting a floppy trillion dollars and i don't think i think both these guys are probably getting a pay cap but there's probably assurance that you're the backup fighter for the title fight and then you're going to get the winner. And then to do Shafkat, Oosman, yeah, I just don't want, I don't even want

Usman in the conversation for the belt right now. Like, let him tell him, who knows, who knows when he's going to fight, who he's going to fight. I'll tell you what, I'll give O'SBitt a ton of credit if he takes most of this year off and then fight Shafkot in October. But as long as it doesn't, I suppose, support that, that concept, as long as the guy he fights in July is a ranked guy, and we don't mess up the order here. And we don't start screaming from the rooftop. So, oh,

Shafkat's way better than Burns and or Bahamad. No, we got to let this play out. We're almost at a meritocratic place at 170. We're almost there. We're just about there. So let's let this all play out and we'll see how it goes. Let's go to Anthony. That man. Yeah, that Usman Shavkov, I would really muck up the works for Gilbert and Bilal. That'd be pretty pretty Bilal-like to get jumped up like that.

And I thought you'd love all these middleweight bouts. I mean, that's your middle-wadiest month of the year. Oh, so many. So many middle-weighty, middle-weight main events. It's incredible. all. Hey, well, I was just, I had to take umbrage with something, uh, I love Jose Young's, but I just had something he just said that was kind of, I would say false. He said that there's like the four princes and I don't even think there's that.

And he said that Ryan would be the bottom of them. But I think there's even more than that. There's Timo Fimo Lopez. Isaac Cruz would be in there. George Combosis could be a player. And you just don't know because Tio Fimo Lopez literally destroyed Lopold on the cards. It wasn't like he flash knocked him out like Cambosis did or something like that. So it's kind of tough to say with that. And Ryan Garcia was three and three with Haney in the

in the amateurs. And he's 24. So if this fight is kind of even close with Tank, you know, I'm giving him the upper hand and going farther in his career, you know. Because I feel like Tank, yeah, at 28, we could see a lot more out of them. But, I mean, what else could we see it out of him? He's one of the most accurate punchers, hardest puncher. I mean, the speed only goes down the time. The accuracy is going to go down with time. Ryan's so young, dude, in this fight, even coming together kind of blows my mind.

But if they don't fight the winner of Loma versus Haney, it kind of all goes for waste. Like, if I see Loma versus Haney fight some Olympic silver medalist, I mean, Shakur Stevenson would be that Olympic silver medals, but some other random fucking silver medal is from some random country. I don't know. It would just be like, all right, what are we doing here? Boxing is fucking stupid. But no, I love boxing.

And that's, those are the first martial art I got into. And I listen to like Teddy Alice podcast for a minute and stuff like that. And to hear everybody talk about this big boxing card and what's going to happen, it's kind of pretty funny. because it's not even for a strap. What do you think? What's your pick? Who wins? I was leaning Ryan Garcia right when it was announced.

I was like, oh, right when I saw the odds, I was like, oh, I'm definitely betting him. Now I'm thinking Garcia's going to look really good for the first six rounds. He's going to surprise a lot of people, but Tank's going to download something and hit him late. And I just feel like it's inevitable. Except if Ryan Garcia makes it a boring fight after eight rounds, after four rounds of doing good, work. If he literally sits there and makes it a boring fight, then he can win this all day. I don't see how he can't. Mario Barrios almost beat him, but Mario Barrios was throwing haymakers.

And same with Leo Santa Cruz. They were throwing haymakers to like round 11. That was stupid. But, yeah, that's all I got. It's going to be a good fight. I honestly, I think it's going to be closer than most people think. I think there is value on Ryan Garcia at the odds he's at right now. but you make a great point.

To me, he's got to be perfect. He's got to be, quote-unquote, boring. He needs to box. He needs to box. I like the comparison he had when he was talking to Ariel about this fight, when he said, Davis is like Mike Tyson, but I'm going to be like Lennox Lewis. And you've got to be pretty damn disciplined

to have that kind of a performance against a guy like Tank Davis. Because there's going to be a point where the heat's going to get to you, but can he say discipline enough to keep this fight as a quote-unquote boxing match where he's able to move laterally and use his length and use his jab without engaging in a brawl with a guy like Tank Davis? Can he frustrate Tank? Because Tank just seems like in his own world when he fights. Like he doesn't even really understand what's happening a lot of times.

Like Jose brought up one of his recent fights where his corner was telling him that he was losing and he didn't even realize it and he just went out and bolted a dude. So it's an interesting fight. I think a ton of people are counting out Ryan Garcia. And I think, I think Ryan's got a chance, but can he say discipline the entire time and not engage into a brawl? That's the big question I have. Is this movement, can he move laterally?

Can he move like a boxer? because he doesn't really his movement isn't like what you typically see from Ryan Garcia the way he moves it's kind of plays right into Tank's hands but can he switch things up a little bit that's the big question I have let's go to Abs Walia we'll get to everybody what's that ma'am how are you doing good so I'll just have a few questions I want to ask my first question is any news on RDA what potential far he could have next and, you know, a future card. And I'll keep this a little bit short as possible,

but it kind of relates to Hamzaa Chimaire, but also just a general topic of star power. You know, because Hamza, so basically with Hamza, we know he's like arguably the biggest thing that happened since Connemagreger, but is there a possibility he might not become any bigger than he is if we don't soon see him in a title fight within the next year? so because as the way I'm seeing it we don't know if he's ever going to find the

waterway division again the fight that he was supposed to have with usman could have been the biggest thing in that division a very long time you know it was perfect you know the upcoming hungry boogeyman lying coming to take over the pound for pound dominant number one champion the world and obviously that all ended because leon gave the most iconic headkick in recent history then you know middle way it's like i think it's a perfect opportunity to still do that Adesania fight because Ardissania is the biggest star in the sport right now after Conan McGregor and why wouldn't you want to push Hamza out to that level once he beats a top contender in the middleweight you know I mean I don't know I just think like and also just in general with other

UFC fighters there's a lot of guys I see who are very good like they have potential to be stars like Arnold Allen I reckon Yarra Rodriguez I think even like Teporia he's he's got star potential even like a month, a rookie and, you know, there's a lot of guys, I think, who have star potential. I do believe they have the responsible promoting themselves, obviously, but the UFC should do a better job than letting their fighters just pass through as, you know, being regular fighters. Because when you look at other sports organizations, even including boxing, NBA, you know, football, hockey, not hockey, like MLB, you know,

with and just other sports cricket, they always tend to promote their, like, athletes to the highest level. But in UFC, outside of Connem of Gregor and Rhonda Rousey and maybe Habib, there's no one who's really been higher big than the organization in general. And I don't think we'll ever see that again, unless truly there are fighters who are willing to play the game very smart

and promote themselves to a high level. But, yeah, I mean, what do you reckon about this? Do you reckon the UFC should do a better job promoting their fighters in general? Thanks for having a good day. I mean, I think sure. But again, the UFC is making money hand over fist,

so they must be doing something right. But I get where you're coming from. The thing is, we talk about this all the time. You have to fight. You have to fight. You have to get out there and you have to fight. That's why I can't.

You know why Kevin Holland got over so much? It's because he fought. Because he fought so much in 2020. He just kept fighting, kept getting out there and kept fighting and kept going out there and competing and getting his voice out there and being Kevin Holland. No one even knew who Kevin Holland really was before 2020. But he got himself over because he just fought and looked good and finished people. And that's what got Hamzaat over to begin with Because he had the two fights early

Then he went in there and just Ran dudes over, ran over Gerald Mearschart And then he has He lost a little bit of steam And then he got it back when he fought Gilbert Burns And then he kind of lost steam again He was going to fight Nate We all understood what that was going to be

Then he misses weight by a million pounds And he fights Kevin Holland and the fight goes the way it is. And he kind of turned heel on everybody, but still sort of an interesting cat. And he hasn't fought since September. Is he fighting at 170? Is he fighting at 185?

He's calling out this guy, this guy, and this guy. Like, that's great. But you got to fight. You got to fight. That's how you get over. As you fight and you get out there, that's why Belaw's about to get over. That's why Gil Burns is about to get over

because they're fighting all the time. They're fighting often. They're in the news and then they fight. What hurts Hamzai's eyes, you're probably going to have to wait until freaking October. It's going to be over a year. There'll be 13 months between fights. They can't happen.

That can't happen. So I think for him, it's just fighting. It's just fighting. And I say the same thing about Teporia and Sirucion and all these guys. But it's hard. The problem is it's, you fight and you get these wins

and people get excited for you, and then it's a matter of getting the right matchups. 155, very difficult to do. Gamrock got the Benny Darayush fight. Zeev got the Gaichi fight. Sharukyan had a fight Moikano and Izma Gulov. After, in my opinion, he beat Matush Gamrod. So, yeah, it's just getting out there and fighting.

That's the thing about Shafcock. Like, I think Shafcock can get over. But he's got a fight. He's got to fight often. You can't fight twice a year if you're going to become a star. You've got to fight a lot. That's how you get over as you fight. You can tweet all you want, but that's not going to do it.

Let's go to JD, CV, then Emilio. And then we'll go to Siviram and Ani. JD, hello. Oh, I hope that your Dunkin' Ice Coffee is treating you well today. It is. Awesome. As a little a side note, I love that Bobby Green is now just going to be king.

That's such a boss move. Speaking of kings, good luck to Jed Mishu on his marathon this weekend. Jed, you're going to kill it. All right, so I only got one question for you. I'll keep it short. Balala Muhammad, I got him versus Gilbert Burns. I think that his analytical mind and his approach is going to be the factor in this fight. And anyway, so because he always, always happens to bungle the call out,

how bad is he going to bungle it this time? Who's he going to call out? And why is it someone like Brock Lesnar? Thanks, Mike. Later. You can't bungle this one. You can't. You can't.

Even Benile Darius wouldn't screw this one up. It's right there. You know what you're getting. You know what you're fighting for. It's right there. So he can't bungle this one up. It's an interesting fight. Would it shock be at Ballot 1?

No. Am I picking him right the second? No. I'm picking Gilbert Burns. But I could be dead wrong. It's a really good fight. And yes, props to Jed for his marathon running. Let's go.

CV, hello. CV, you're muted. Okay, no CV. Emilio. What's up, Mike? What's up, ma'am? Not much, not much. Just here, like I said, yesterday, getting ready for an awesome weekend of boxing.

I'm originally an MMA fan, and then I kind of became a boxing fan over the years. So everybody should chill the F down when I say this. Or rather, I mean, this is my question or my topic for today. for you and that is do you think that this could be in general terms a better bigger year for boxing

than for MMA with all the fights that have been going on or well yeah the fights that have been going on up until this point in the year you know with planned against Benavitas and what's the McCauley Ryan fighting tank tomorrow and

I mean, this is all theoretical because there's no fights have been agreed to or like there's no deals in place. But if Crawford against Spence happens, like everybody's saying it's going to happen, you know, film me once, shame on you, film me twice, you know how that goes. And then eventually in December, this Saudi Arabia boxing bonanza that they're talking about. of Fury against Who is it? Fury, AJ, Wilder, and...

Who am I missing? Music? Thank you very much. Yeah. Do you think that it could be a bigger year for boxing, that for MMA? And overall, what's your stance

on the relationship between MMA and boxing in terms of is a good year for boxing, good for MMA or vice versa? Are they two things that are completely different from each other? I mean, they are, but you know what I mean?

Is it a symbiotic relationship or not so much? Anyways, that's it. Let's go. Tag, let's go right. I'm not even rooting for anybody in particular. I'm just looking forward to a good fight. I think that's what we're going to get. And have a heck of a weekend, Mike.

and have a heck of a weekend to everybody else. I mean, boxing is, there hasn't been one UFC fight that has been bigger than the biggest boxing fight. There just hasn't. This notion that boxing was dying and all that,

it's just not, it's just overblown. It's just overblown. Now, there are things about the boxing model that frustrate the shit out of each and every one of us, and I totally understand where that comes from. We're not getting the big fights and all of that.

We're not getting the fights who deserves, there's no meritocracy, blah, blah, blah. It's the same thing with the UFC. And the biggest boxing fight is going to draw more interest amongst MMA fighting viewers than any UFC fight. Unless maybe Connor's involved, and he hasn't been involved in a while. So, I mean, it just depends on how you gauge it. It just depends on how you gauge it.

Like, which sport will have more interesting storylines? I don't know. Will the UFC have more overall successful events than one boxing promoter? Probably. But their biggest fight is going to be bigger than any UFC fight. It's going to make more money. It's going to have more eyeballs on it. People are going to be talking about it more.

I don't know if the UFC can put on outside of maybe the Connor Chandler one. I don't know if they do a single pay-per-view this year that is going to do more than this Davis-Garcia fight is going to do. So it just depends on how you look at it. But to say that, like, the UFC just kills boxing every year and has been doing it for a few years, this is wrong. It's not true. It's just not true. So it depends on what your analytics are. I think that question is probably going to be answered by each individual and what they care about.

But overall business, I mean, this fight's going to do massive business. Every Tyson Fury fight does massive business. The big heavyweight fights do massive business. fights Uzek, it's going to be ginormous. Gigormous. Jake Paul versus freaking Tommy Fury did better than most UFC pay-per-views are going to do

this year. That's a rat. Jake Paul Nate Diaz is going to be huge. I don't know if there's a UFC pay-view that does better than that. So it guess it just depends on what your definition of success is. C.V.

Oh, Mike. Can you hear me? Got you, yep. Yo, my bad, I was talking to myel box. Two quick questions for me. My bad is they'd been asked already because I missed the whole previous nine callers or whatever. First question. Yeah, the Strickland versus Mago Medov main event?

I don't know about you, but that was super, super random. Like, what are the stakes of that? Like, if Magomero wins, are they giving out the Alex treatment where they just fast-track them to the belt? and second question since it's free for all Friday I was watching BTL yesterday and I think you guys were talking about walkout songs if you were a fighter

what would be your workout song and yeah have a heck of a vacate and thanks for all the content thanks man yeah I think this is a I think this is just a Sean Strickland thing Sean wants to fight probably said yes to most things

and Sean was getting turned down left and right he was talking about maybe going up to 205 just to get a fight and somebody said yes and I think that's kind of where this ended up so that's what I think it is a kind of is a super random fight but I think this is like hey Sean this dude wants to fight you we'll do it in a main event and he was like okay I'll fight him I don't care who it is that's just kind of how Sean Strickland is so that's where I get from that man what would I walk out to I don't know there's so many there's so many songs

it would have to be like a 90s hip hop song of some kind very underrated jam I am a big fan of like House of Pain like I know jump around is the big one but the have-nots by House of Pain

is a badass song something from Gangstar would get me all fired up I don't know just kind of depends on what mood of it maybe I want to sing myself to the cage and then there's the options are a plenty there.

So, yeah, I could, I could see myself walk into, like, the have-nots by Pousa-Pain. All right, we're going to go rapid fire with these last five, and then I've got to go. Zivaram, hello. It's a only question to you, but anyway, who you got on Bella Lus' months, and how do you think the fight would play out? That's it, right? I'm picking birds as of right now. I have to dive into it a little bit more.

I just think Burns is really good. Not saying Bilal is not. I just think what Bilal does well, Burns does well also and probably better than Bilal. Like I think Burns' grappling is way better. Obviously,

is jujitsu is way better. I think Bilal could strike with volume, but I think Burns could hurt Bilal a lot more than Bilal can hurt Burns. It's a good fight. Like this is a high-stakes fight. fight, but I just, there are very few guys that I would, there are very few guys that I would, I would not pick Gilbert Burns to beat right now.

And I know I came on here and said that if you were betting, you should probably bet on Jorge Mazadol against Gilbert Burns, but it wasn't because I thought Mazadol would win. I just thought that the lines were too wide. And I didn't take into account that Mazadol was just completely done as a fighter. But that's what happened. I thought even like 80% of Mazadol was a closer fight than we got with Gilbert Burns. And we didn't even have, we didn't have that. And he had sort of admitted that himself, just wasn't the same guy and had a million things happening.

But yeah, I think Burns is the better fighter. I think it's probably going to go to the, I think it'll probably go to the cards because the ball is tough as shit. But I think Burns can wear him down. I'll blow out a really good gas tank, but so does Gilbert. I know he just fought, but Gilbert's used to fighting all the time. So, yeah, I'll go with that. All right, let's keep this rapid fire going. Let's go to Ani.

Hello. I actually had a bit for Rand, but I'll try my level best to keep it down. I actually sent a tweet out to you, and since we have AK over here, he can just listen to it. I mean, he doesn't have to respond. So my best friend, AK, that is. So we have MMA at its finest. You know what I mean, Mike? Like, if you look at what I sent, I said, you know,

when you see matches such as Mirab versus Jan or Aldo or any other top five title contention fights or Vera versus Cruz or Edgar versus Gutierrez or Shogun versus Ihor or Al Jameen Stirling versus Henry Saudo, or any five-round Sean Strickland fight. All of these are MMA, like this means MMA at its finest. Do you know what MMA stands for in this case? Matchmaking atrocities.

That's exactly what it stands for. All of these are matchmaking atrocities. And I've been going off about, you know, Aldo versus Devalishvili was not the fight to make. I mean, we all know that as well. and I just don't understand why Sean Strickland is being given five-round main events. I really don't understand. Okay, do it an apex. I don't really care.

I mean, there was a point when I told you that I actually don't mind a couple of apex fights because, you know, sometimes we could use that platform to build stars. Rather than having Sean Strickland versus Abbas, Magomedov, I do not understand why did they put him in. They could have put maybe Sean Strickland versus Kelvin Gastilum or maybe Gastilum turned it down. But if not, at least, you could have had Aaron Blanchfield versus Tyler Santos. What a good fight that would have been. Or have Amanda Lemoche versus Tatiana Suarez.

Give this platform to straw weights and fly weights so that they can be stars and then you can use them to sell out arenas. You need to use the apex to build these lesser known, highly talented mixed martial artists. Only then will you be able to sell out arenas. This is a bit of a rant, but one question that I had for you is, you know, in your line of work, as in people like you, AK, Jed, of course, and, you know, Ariel and everyone, you get to, you're usually on the side of receiving end of a lot of flack from a lot of people. And sometimes criticism is constructive. Sometimes it is not.

I just wanted to know, like, ever since you've started your work as a media member or an MMA journalist, how have you grown in taking the criticism? As in, is there any specific type of criticism that you appreciated? And was there a criticism that you absolutely just couldn't stand? I'm pretty sure that was that. And how did you, you know, sort of grow in all this process? in all these years, especially in terms of taking criticism. That's my question for Free For All Friday. Thank you.

Happy. Thanks, man. Oh, yeah. Happy whatever you're going to say to you. Look, I just learned, and this is something I've kind of learned all my life, is that not everyone's going to like you. And that's cool. I ain't for everybody.

I'm just not Not everybody likes vanilla ice cream Not everyone likes cookies and cream Cookies cream is delicious But just because I like it doesn't mean Everybody else is going to like it And I will say like it was It was tough for me when I first got to M.A. fighting

Because, you know, the way M.A. fighting was being looked at at the time and probably for the year or two before that was Oh, it's a dying breed They lost Ariel and Luke and Ramundi and Shaheen Al-Shadi and everybody left for ESPN or The Athletic or all these different in Denver's. But I didn't understand that because you had guys like AK who I would do some certain, like even before I got to MMA fighting. I was doing things with Jose.

I worked with Jose over at Fancied for a while. I had a lot of respect for him. Did a lot of stuff with AK. before Between the Links Went to M.A. Fighting. Between the Links was a totally different show on a different network. And AK was a guest.

AK and I would do like Contender Series Recaps. We would watch the Contender Series and we would like do live recaps on my YouTube channel that nobody really watched. But AK was great. It's like we were destined to be best friends

because I just wanted AK to do shows with me all the time. And I knew the talent. And Damon was a guy that I was a guy that I've always done different stuff with. I always thought Dame was like an underrated voice in the sport, super knowledgeable. And I knew the pieces. And then, you know, obviously you heard about Guillermo and, you know, Jedi knew a little bit. But once I got Jet on BTL, I was like, oh, dude, this kid's a friggin star, whether you like him or not.

Because he has opinions and people needed to hear him. and it was tough. And then it was just a matter of like, how do I, because I knew I wasn't going in to like replace those guys. You know what I mean? Like when you have Ariel and you have Luke and you have all these big names, like at first I felt like so much pressure. You know what I mean?

And then I realized like there's no way I can replace those guys. It's impossible. Absolutely impossible. So at first it's just like, how do I want to do this? Like, how do I want to find my voice? And how do I get comfortable with this big space? Like, how are all these people who never even knew I existed going to take to me as I come in? And for me, it was just put your head down and go.

Just go and do as much as you can and do whatever. And then eventually I got really comfortable with everything where it was like, I can't replace these guys. And management and the people who are above me were pushing me to just like, do you, bro. Like just be you. Do what you do and just be yourself. And we accept that.

We want you to try these different things. They're pushing me to get out of my comfort zone a little bit and do different projects that I never did before. And I started to get comfortable. And then with the criticism stuff, like, again, that was part of it too. Like, oh, well, where's Ariel? Where's Luke? All that.

And I would read the comments and just be like, why am I doing this to myself? But I think eventually I would read them. And then like things started to calm down a little bit. And people started to like catch on, I guess with not just me, but like all of us together, getting everybody out there, everybody was on camera, everybody was doing more stuff, and I don't know,

I think we're in a really good place right now. We're not, like, it's a different generation of, of MMA fighting. And I love this generation. I think we're at a great spot.

Obviously, Ariel's back and Sean's back, and I think we're doing a lot of things that not a lot of other people are doing. No one's putting up more programming than we are, just not happening. The amount of content we put out on a weekly basis,

no one's touching that. I'm close. Not even close. And I just learned to like kind of ignore it. Like sometimes I'll look at the comments and sometimes they'll laugh and I'll bring it up here and hash it out with all of you. But for the most part,

it's just there are just negative ass mofos out there who just hate everything. And I think like a lot of the criticism is some of it's warranted and then some of it's just like well i would have done this and i would have done this and my response is always okay go do it then go do it go get colby on and you ask colby whatever you want go ahead do it better i want you to i want you to do it better and then they don't and that's it so i've just learned to live with it i'm having fun most of the

people are enjoying the content from all of us and couldn't ask for better, couldn't ask for more. But it took, I will admit, it took a minute to get there because, of course, like, you want to look at the comments and see how people are reacting to you, but I just got to the point where I'm just like, I think we're good. I think we're in a good place right now. All right, we got three more in line. We'll get to all three of you. Daniel, Forron, Sniper, and Pella, and then we guts to go. Daniel, hello. Hey, what's up, Mike? I think I actually get to the, I think I actually get. to say happy Friday today.

I think I'm on the right day now. There you go. But yeah, man, you know, I'll keep it short here just to end it off, I guess, on this main event coming up tomorrow. Pavlovich Blades, I mean, do you think this fight gets to round two? Do you want to talk about how you think it goes? Let me know. But just kind of curious if you think this even goes over five minutes.

Have a good Friday, Mike. Thanks, man. Am I not? I'm going Curtis Blades' second round TKO. That's what I'm going with. I think it goes under the seven and a half minute mark. I think Blades has a really good first round. Pavovich survives.

And then Blades just takes them down again and then just beats the hell out of them until the fight's over. So yeah, that's how I see it. I think it'll get out. I'm picking it gets out of the first, but not by much. That fight's not going to the cards. Boy on sniper. Hey, can hear me? Yep.

So, unfortunately, Daniel sort of took my question, but it's all good. I got another one for you. What are the chances that we can get you on No Bet Spard? I'd like to hear you insight on a few fights that are coming up in the near future, and that's pretty much it. If those gentlemen would like to have me, I would be thrilled. I have been on No Bet's Barred before. It was before. What card is it?

The Singapore. It was right before the Singapore card. UFC 275? I think that was the card. And I picked some good underdogs on that card. Jake Matthews is one of them. That might have been like my best pick. I think it was 275.

Let me just pull up the card and make sure I'm right. Yeah, Jake Matthew, I remember Jake Matthews being an underdog. Was it that card? Yep, Jake Matthews, Andre Fialio. Jack Delamette. Adelaina, Josh Kulabah was a good underdog pick. I actually took a flyer in Jacob Balcoun against Brendan Allen. I actually thought that was a really good bet.

Didn't really go down in that way, but it was a close fight. But yeah, it was fun. I don't bet at all. But I like to look at the odds and I like to look at perceived value. And I like to look at things like when I make picks, like how I would do it with hypothetical dollars. And I do it honestly. I'm just like, well, I would put this fake $25,000 on this plus 18,000 underdog because I know that wouldn't work.

But when I look at how I see fights and I look at the betting lines, I do like to look at them and survey the scene kind of. Like if there's value, if there's dog value on certain things, like looking at the card tomorrow, there's some pretty live dogs on this card. I think Priscilla Cacruera is a live dog I think Chris Giosgios is a live dog There's not a ton of live dogs on

Tamara Scar, but there's some But there's some, but I like to I view a fight like by percentages And if I think the betting lines off Then I will talk about it But I'd go on no bets barred for sure If they want me to hop in Let's try to get Pella in here

And then that's it What's up man? Yeah, so What do you think about Easy versus Dreckers. And what do you think about, I don't know, what do you, I think, Ancly of Megameg and Alex Pereira would be a good fight. And what do you think about Dariushna being the number one contender in the lightweight

division? And again, I think Gilbert Burns is just going to win that match because it's for two times is here already and I think Givert Burns is a beast you know yeah that's what I have

thanks man I mean the Darayor we've talked about a lot he will certainly be the number one contender if he beats Charles Oliver on June 10th and even if Charles Oliver doesn't make it Benny will be the number one contender

that's kind of what it sounds like to me with you on the Gilbert Burns pick is he DDP if it has it happens, I think, I mean, I would certainly take Izzy without much hesitation. I like DDP. It's a good fighter. Action-packed.

You know, he's going to give you everything he's got and he's going to make things chaotic, but there's just so many defensive tendencies that are just a problem. That's just going to be big problems for him. That Izzy's going to take advantage of. It will be fun. while at last, this will not be a point-striking fight.

This will not be the cannoneer fight. But DDP will try to invoke the chaos clause, which will in turn make Adasani react to that. But I just think I think Adasania absolutely just roasts DDP. And it's not disrespectful. I just don't think DDP's quite ready for this. I don't think he's quite ready for this. I think this probably will end up being the fight we get

but I just don't know if he's ready. I don't know if he can clean up those deficiencies fast enough. I don't know. But, yeah, I think Izzy would add value at minus 550 or below. I think he's a humongous favorite in that fight. So there you go. All right, we are done, folks. Thank you very much.

We got to go. Jack, I sell you in there, my bad. But I got to go. We do a preview show 1 p.m. Eastern. We will preview the UFC car. We'll preview Bellator 295. Probably answers some questions. It'll be kind of chaotic.

And then, yeah, a lot going on tomorrow. Jed's running a marathon. I'm competing in my first CrossFit competition in the morning. It's going to be a beast. So I'll be doing that. And then as soon as that's over, I'm come back, take a shower, and I'm hopping right on board.

We got influencer boxing. We got the UFC. We got Bellator. We get Tank Garcia. All sorts of craziness. So we'll have you covered at M.Afighting.com for that. Then AK and I will do on to the next one on Sunday. And then I'm off for like a week and a half.

AK is going to host this show in my absence. So he will do the three shows next week. and he will do the Tuesday, more than likely, the following week. And then I will be back for the Thursday, Friday shows ahead of UFC 288. So there will be a Lee of the morning, Lee of a morning, named to be worked on and finalized in the next coming days. But get ready for Lee of a morning, 10 a.m. Eastern this Tuesday. I'm going to walk him through how to do all this stuff, and we'll go from there. But thank you all very much.

You are the best. And if I don't see you, and I'll hear from you all, we'll see you in about a week and a half right here on heck of a morning, but don't miss Lee of the morning. Goodbye, everybody. The Vox Media Podcast Network.