MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reaction To Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway At UFC 308; Plus, What Will Headline UFC 307?

Episode Date: August 6, 2024

The UFC's annual pay-per-view event in Abu Dhabi has an incredible main event with Ilia Topuria defending his featherweight title against BMF champion Max Holloway at UFC 308. With plans for that matchup expected to take place earlier in October at UFC 307, that leaves a glaring hole in the headline spot for that card. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to Dana White announcing Topuria vs. Holloway as the main event for the Oct. 26 card, Robert Whittaker vs. Khamzat Chimaev as the co-main event, and other bouts announced and confirmed. Additionally, topics include what will now headline UFC 307 on Oct. 5, if the promotion would go to Arman Tsarukyan fighting for the interim lightweight title with Islam Makhachev injured, Dana White's recent comments about Tom Aspinall, 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

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Tuesday, August 6th, 20204. And it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live once again on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. You can hear the show in its entirety, shortly thereafter, on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. What's going on, everybody? I missed you all.

I am Mike Heck. Hope you're having a fantastic start to the week. we haven't spoken in quite some time. It's been well over a week, probably like more of a week and a half. And since we last spoke, the MMA world looks vastly different. Balaamah is the welterweight champion of the world.

After beating Leon Edwards at UFC 304, Tommy Aspinall still the interim heavyweight champion. Everyone's still screaming that they want to see him fight. John Jones, whether or not that fight happens, we shall see. We had UFC Abu Dhabi

this past weekend Umar Nirmaga Madoff beats Corey Sandhagen and I think he proved a lot of people to a lot of people that he just might be the best band of weight in the world.

You would have to think a title shot would be next for him after his win over Corey Sanhagen. We saw Shara Bullitt get a win and what he is saying was the final fight on his contract. I assume the UFC will probably probably resign him, but sometimes they don't resign these types of fighters.

Just ask Muhammad Mahayev what is going on. But we'll see. And then what a win for Davis at Figurato as well. The man is just looking like an absolute killer. At 135 pounds, he actually drops Marlon Vera, the first fighter to ever drop him in a fight and just looked spectacular. dude's making moves and I'm excited to see what his next 12 months or so look like at 135 pounds because he's just looking damn good and it kind of makes you question what would have

happened if he actually made this choice a little earlier to move up to 135. I know I had a lot of questions heading into the Rob Fon fight but he answered a lot in that fight. He answered a lot in the Garbrand fight and he certainly answered a lot in the Marbrandt fight and he certainly answered a lot in the Marlin Verify. We saw Michael Kiesa submit Tony Ferguson in the first round. Eight losses in a row for Tony Ferguson. The man just won't quit on himself.

He just wants to try to keep going. We'll see if the UFC even books him again. Mackenzie Dern back in the wind column defeating Lupi Godinez. Joel Alvarez. Just kind of beat the hell out of Elvis Brenner. Not a lot of people can say that. Brenner's just a dog.

took a lot of punishment and then eventually Alvarez got him out of there. Azabat Mirza Kanoff finishes Alonzo Menafield. Another fight that showed Manafield just taking a incredible amount of punishment before it just became

too much. Fun performance from Kaui Fernandez. We saw Shemil Gadsiev and Dantel Mays have the exact fight we expected them to have going the full 15. Guram Kutatalate Latsay gets the win over Jordan Fuchenik, who looked pretty damn good,

despite taking the fight on short notice, making his UFC debut. So we'll see what he does once he has a full camp. Sam Hughes handing Victoria Dutakova, her first professional loss. Jai Herbert gets a win and said Rike Dumas gets a win. That was UFC Abu Dhabi. PFL had an event as well. Dakota DeCeva. Just finishing everybody at this point.

She goes out and finishes Jenna Bishop. a fight. Tyler Santos for the million dollars at the championship. So good performance. You can see she had a little bit of a chip on her shoulder. Some people are a little more sold on Dakota now as a, as a prospect and a top 25er. Others still have questions because of, I mean, let's be honest, some favorable matchmaking overall.

But PFL trying to build a star and we'll see how she does against a fighter who a lot of people felt should have been a UFC champion. A lot of people felt she'd beat Valentina Shivchenko that night. I was not one of those people, but there were a lot of people out there who felt that she could have been a UFC flyway champion. So a lot to talk about. I'm sure I missed a whole bunch of stuff while I was on break last week. I got to go home to Massachusetts, see some family, went to a wedding, played in a golf tournament. It was a good time. It was a good time, but I'm excited to be back and I'm excited to talk with all of you. So let's do it. Let's talk with all of you. Four Corner Sports.

I think he actually beat me into this room to request. So respect for Quorum Sports. What's up? Four Corps Sports. Hello. We're off to a tremendous start. Arnie Palmer. Arnie Palmy Alert.

Hello there, Arnie Palmie Alert. Hey, how's it going, Mike? Hope you out a good vacation. I just wanted to talk about Corey Sandhagen real quick. First of all, sick fight Saturday night. Corey's a badass for taking the fight. I just thought it was kind of a questionable business decision to take that fight. You're the number two contender.

You're on a three-fight win streak. He kind of dominated Cheeto Vera who just fought for the belt. And now, Umar is probably going to fight probably before Ramadan. So, I mean, it could be, you know, end of next year, early 2026 before, if he even gets to a title fight. They'll probably make Jan versus Faggy for a title Eliminator. So I guess my questions are, do you think it was a silly business decision to take that fight?

And do you see him fighting for a bell? Thanks, Mike. Uh, silly business decision? I don't. I wouldn't say that. I mean, was it maybe, maybe there's like a little bit of that in there. but I'm just trying to like kind of look and see who he could have fought. He wasn't fighting for the belt.

He wasn't fighting Marab. He wasn't fighting Jan. Biggie, probably not. Maybe Sohudo, but I don't think that fight makes a whole lot of sense. Although maybe, but then you kind of have to wait and see. I don't know. I just kind of felt Dana sort of announced it as a number one contender fight. If he won, he got a title shot.

and I know nothing is guaranteed in this world, but he was coming off a long injury. Dude just wants to challenge himself. I mean, it checked off a lot of boxes as a main event, so he probably got an extra few shekels on top of everything else. So, yeah, Corey seemed excited about the fight. This is the fight I wanted to see. This is the exact matchup that needed to happen in my eyes

because it was more so for Umar, but if Corey could be the guy to stop the hype. And Corey loves fighting with that chip on his shoulder. He loves fighting with that extra bit of oomph. That extra bit of, oh, you don't think I can do it. Watch this. And boy, he looked good, but Umar, umar's real good. He's really, really good.

I thought Sanhagen was going to win the fight, but I've watched the fight twice now, and I think Umar won 49-46. I was three rounds to two when I watched it the first. time, but rewatching it, I can see 49-46 easy, but great fight, tremendous action. And I see Jose Young's in here. This is the kind of fight that makes Jose Young's the fan that he is. High-level stuff at the tippy top level.

This is as good as you're going to see at 135 pounds. Two of the very, very best in that division getting after it. It was just a great fight. spectacular fight great performance from umar great performance from corey nothing to to hang his head down about it all it's just great stuff so no i don't i don't think there's i don't think it was really a bad business there's just kind of what he needed to do at that time him getting injured really sucked the timing of that was really bad getting injured right before that rob fawn fight pretty much a week before the title was on the line. So if he wasn't banged up to that degree,

maybe he could have been the guy, but, you know, the injury really sucked for him and the timing of it was awful. So there you go. Let's see where he goes from here. Maybe we get Sanhagen versus Dominic Cruz. I know that was sort of a dream fight that everybody else was excited about. Jose Aldo is back in the UFC. He's fighting Mario Batista. So that's a exciting back in elevation just the way god intended so bannam weight is like always very very fun very very fun but no i don't knock corey for taking that fight lee go ahead oh hey mike uh quick two questions um one can you to your best of your knowledge can you clear up the whole Olympic boxing situation for the women's uh that women fighter um and then two what do you think of

uh Dana white kind of like I don't want to say like go on that just like kind of like brushing them off or you know I don't know it's just a weird situation I just wanted your take on it but yeah those were my two quick questions say it one more time say that one more time Dana brush it off who uh Tom aspirin off oh okay yeah those were my two questions thanks man yep yeah The boxing thing, it was just, I don't know, I was kind of off the radar, saw everything, saw everybody reacting to it. I know kind of what everybody else knows. You just kind of Google who she is and you get the correct information on it.

There was a lot of misinformation out there, and I'll leave it at that. That's really all I can say about it. Just read up on it. take a few minutes to search it out and there you go uh she was born a woman and just kind of had a you know just the way she's constructed it's a little it's very rare having the you know xy chromosome or whatever but to say it's just a lot of just a lot of BS thrown out about her uh which i thought was kind of unfair now there's obviously other conversations that could be had in regards to the situation. But yeah, I think if you actually just do the research and look it up, you'll see

that that was a woman fighting another woman at the end of the day. So, and then Dana brushing off Tom Aspinall, this is just, it's Dana being Dana. He is this infatuation. He has a John Jones right now. It's just unbelievable. And every so often, Dana, has, like his stubborn levels go up times a million. And there's specific things that drive him to that. For him right now, the big thing is there's two things. Power Slap and John Jones versus Steve Amy Ochich. Those are the two things that he will defend until the ends of the earth.

Because it's the fight that only he wants. he wants it John wants it Steve A wants it nobody else wants it nobody nobody wants it but because nobody wants it Dana wants to prove that this is the fight to make he's already this far invested into it

that he's just going to plant both feet in the sand forever and ever and if it falls apart I think they're just going to try to redo it again at this point like Dana will Dana will keep trying to make this fight happen

until it actually happens. And then that leaves sort of Tom Aspital just hanging in the wind. And Dana also realizes that he was wrong and that the MMA community was correct in regard to putting the interim belt on the line in the Asmvedal versus Pavlovich fight. Because we all knew this is going to happen.

We all knew it. We saw this coming from a mile away. And Dana heard everything. It was just like, nah, no, no, everything's going to work out. Don't worry. And now look where we're at right now. We have two heavyweight champions. Now, I've come around to this idea of having two heavyweight champions.

Just the interim thing is dumb. Just call Tom Aspinall the co-heavyweight champion. Then like none of this, like we don't need interim. We don't need any of this other stuff. Like just let him, his title weigh the same amount as Johns. Be co-heavyweight champions. Tom can be the workhorse title and John can be the special. Attractions champion. Who gives a shit?

Honestly, AK has been saying this forever. UFC belts are props. They are props. And if this isn't the perfect example as to why they are, I don't know what to tell you. I don't know what to tell you. And then he's saying like, oh, Tom hasn't earned this. Tom has a lot of work to do, blah, blah, blah. What else does he have to do? What else does he have to do? He has to fight John Jones. There's nobody left for him.

He's already beaten everybody else that's put in front of him. he beat pavlovich he beat curtis blades those are the guys cyro gon was doing a netflix movie so he couldn't do it and cyro's going to go fight full cop he has to beat one of those two guys and then he is worthy to fight the great john jones the hell out of here why put the stupid interim belt on the line in the first place and now we're here with two heavyweight champions and a fight that everybody wants to see but dana is so steadfast on jones stepe that we just might never get it we just might not ever get it and what happens right like what if dana white and i'm i'm super curious about this what if dana white comes out tomorrow

on instagram and announces that john jones versus stepe's official November 9th or whatever the date's going to be at MSG, November 9th, 16th, wherever the hell that fight that event's going to happen. It's a done deal. And then a week later, Stipe's hurt and can't fight. What's John going to do? Is he going to keep waiting for Stepe? Or is he going to fight Aspinall?

Because you know Aspedal is going to show up at MSG. He'll be ready to go. You think he does that with this much notice? Or do you think he says, nah, it's steep A or bust? That's what I'm curious about. But yeah, the Dana White promotion 101 stuff that continues to go on is hilarious. It's hilarious. Four on sniper.

Go ahead. Yep. Real quick, just to answer your last question that you just made, John Jones is not taking a fight against Tom Asman on short notice. It's on short notice, though. It's August. Yeah, I'd be amazed if he took that fight. I mean, credit to him if he did, but I don't think for him it would be a smart decision.

so I wouldn't blame him for not taking that fight. So that would be my answer for that. And I wanted to ask you, is Umar getting the next title shot? I missed the opening segment of the show where you probably address that. I had the volume turned all the way down for some reason. But I wanted to know, do you think Umar is getting that next shot? He only, I want to say Corey Sanhagen was his only ranked win, but it seems that the UFC and a lot of the UFC fans are behind Umar.

So I can see him getting the next shot. Yeah, he may not deserve it, but you say all the time, you know, the word deserve doesn't really, that's not a thing when it comes to UFC. If you have a big name or if you have a certain style that the UFC likes, they'll push you all the way to the moon. So that's my question, Mike. Thanks. Is Umar next? Should he get a title shot next?

I think he should. I think he does deserve it. I think he deserves it. you just beat Corey Sandhagen. I think he beat him four rounds to one. Yeah. I mean, what else does he need to do? If Marab de Valis Willey beat Sean O'Malley,

Umar 1,000% is fighting for the belt next. 1,000%. They will do Mara versus Umar in five seconds. If Sean O'Malley beats Barab, it's going to be interesting. Because then it's Sean's world and we're just kind of living in it. If Sean wants to fight Umar, and I know he's saying things, but saying things and then actually doing them are two different things.

Because Figgy's right there as well. Figgy's coming off of a win over Marlon Vera, which, who just fought for the belt. So could Sean O'Malley come out, beat Marab and then call out Figy? Possible. And if Sean makes that call out and wants that fight, it's a very good chance he gets it. So it should be Umar.

I love the idea of Figué versus Piotr Yan. If once Jan is healthy, hopefully he can fight for the end of the year. Love that idea. And then if Figu wins that one, then he should fight for the belt next against the winner of the O'Malley, Marab winner, and Umar. But we'll see. But to me, like to say he, I don't know who would say he doesn't deserve it. I mean, it's not like he has a murderer's row in his resume, but he's beat some pretty tough dudes. And, you know, he's had guys fall out last minute and things of that nature, kind of like Islam did.

And then he just fought, in my opinion, one of the five best band-imates in the world that he beat him four rounds to one. Like, I don't know. I think he's done enough. I think that win gets, gets him a title fight. That's annoying. What? You're a muffler. You don't hear it.

Oh, I don't even notice it. I usually drown it out with the radio. How's this? Oh, yeah, way better. Save on insurance by switching to Bel Air Direct and use the money to fix your car. Bell Air Direct, insurance, simplified. Conditions apply.

Riley, go ahead. I wanted to ask you about Jose Aldo. Why do you think he resigned with the UFC? Because I think the majority of people thought, going into the Jonathan Martinez fight, that he was just fighting out the last fight in his contract so he could go box or do whatever else. And then he won that fight and obviously re-signed.

And now he's fighting Mario Batista, who I feel like is sort of, he's in the same tier as Jonathan Martinez, in my opinion, but like just a little bit lower. So I don't know. I feel like if he resigned with the UFC, that means he wants to like chase gold again. And he kind of deserves to fight someone higher in the rankings, in my opinion, than Mario Batista.

I feel like he should have fought like, I don't know, Sehudo or Song Yidong or something like that. And then secondly, we got the UFC 308 card, maybe not the full card, but like the main card at least. And Ancolaia versus Rockich is on there. So I just wanted to ask you, one, what do you think of that fight? But more so, who do you think is going to be the next person to challenge for the light heavyweight title?

Because I think we all thought Ancolaev and Pereira was the next fight. but now it seems like that's not going to happen. So I have no idea what they're going to do with Poton because I don't think he's moving to heavyweight yet. So yeah, that's all I got. Thanks, Mike. Have a good one. Thanks, man. Yeah, so obviously, in 308 looks real good.

We got the announcement of Max Holloway versus Liot-Tuporia. We'll be the main event of that one. They're going back to the Humza-Chimai-F versus Robert Whitaker thing, taking that risk again. Hopefully it pays off this time. Let me just pull up the rest of the card. There it is. Let me see what else we got here.

Cyril Ghan versus Alexander Bolkoff 2, as I reported on vacation last week, Lorone Murphy versus Dan Igay, Ankylai versus Rakich, We're not Fokrotinov versus Nersault and Roodsabov. Good old Marker Shugirio Delima versus Kennedy and Chichu. Kennedy going up to

going up to heavyweight, huh? Okay. And Jeff Neal versus RDA. Looking pretty good. I don't know what the hell is going on with 205. I wonder if, I don't know, maybe he is moving up to heavyweight.

He also needs a break too. So maybe there's, maybe he's just bench for the, not bench, but maybe he is not fighting the rest of the year, which if anybody deserves to take the rest of the year off, it's that guy. But he could also be, they might just be keeping Pereira ready in case something happens with Steepa. Because you have to think, even with Aspenol there,

if John Jones needs an opponent for November, and that's not Stepe, I don't think John's telling the UFC call Tommy Aspenol first. I think he's saying call Alex Pereira first because that's the biggest fight. That's a bigger fight. It's as big as it gets for John right now. So, yeah, I'm not really sure.

Not really sure. But this is a really good fight for Anka Live to really look good in. Rackett just got finished by Yuri. Ankylaef's the better grappler, better striker. Like, this sets up to be like a really good, fight for him to go out and get a big finish. And if he could do that, he's undeniable at this point.

So yeah, I don't know, it's unless Perez is taking the rest of the year off. I don't know. I don't know. I was kind of surprised that this is what's happening, but this is what's happening. Four corner sports. Go ahead. Oh, four corner sports. Got to get you a better connection, my friend. CV, go ahead. Hey Mike, heck of a good morning. Glad to hear you had a great vacate. I just want you to comment on the upcoming fights. I should say pay-per-views for the UFC, like the second half of the year.

I know we got 305 on deck, then we got the Spear card. 307, I don't know who's fighting in the main event for Utah. I mean, maybe Pennington versus Peña. then of course we got Holloway to Pura I think that's everybody's most anticipated fight of the year and of course in November

Jones-Miochich finally and December who the hell knows is Connor even going to fight Chandler but yeah I just want you to comment on that yeah so

yeah DDP is he coming up next Saturday obviously a fight that needs to happen the card is okay Kai Kar France Vinnie Sigs then we get Tai Tuvasa

Jarzini Rosenstrike Lee Jing Liang's back against Carlos Prachis Matush Gamar for Stan Hooker solid main card and then the prelims are what they are

you know it's it's fine it's just fine it doesn't blow the doors off you but it's fine it's a fine fight card it's basically what 304 was with the better main event and a lot of local towns so it's it'll be good and you have a main event with a ton of heat and a ton of build on it 306 is a sphere card that's just

going to be a scene in itself i think just the venue is going to be the big sale you got a big main event i saw some some people just trashing the main events i saw some people saying that grasso chenko should be the main event over omali versus marab which is maybe the most insane thing that I've ever heard. Maybe the most insane thing I've ever heard. But I digress. And then 307, let's talk, we can talk about 307 in a minute. 308 looks awesome with Teporeen Holloway.

And then MSG sometime in November. And then December looks like the return of Connor McGregor, potentially, against Michael Chandler. But 307 is kind of the messy one right now, because it was supposed to be max and early on that card. So I wonder what they do here. I wonder what they do here. It seems like we're going to get Raquel Pennington versus Julianna Paney on that card.

But I just don't think you can. You have to remember, Salt Lake City is one of those areas that is paying a site fee for the UFC to come. So this isn't just like, oh, we're coming here. this is like we demand like we're going to pay you millions of dollars to come here like you got to give us a little something right now here's what the card looks like moths are of loya versus all james sterling good fight chris curtis kevin holland good fight josialdo mara batista uh someone asked about josie alder earlier i thought the same thing he did in regards to although just fighting out his DLC could be free, but he said a lot of things afterwards where he was going to sit down

with the UFC, see what they had to say first. And apparently you'd like what the UFC had to say. So there you go. Kayla Harrison, Ketland Vieira, Marina Rodriguez, Yasmin Lucindo, Ihor Potieri versus Cesar Almeida, and then the retirement fight of Carlisparza versus Tisha Pennington. So you have to assume with Tisha fighting on the card, Raquel probably fights on that card as well. but I'm trying to see you're not going to do the heavyweight title let's see what they can do I don't think you're going to headline

Pantosia again O'Malley's headlining the spear Tepore is headlining later that month Mokachev's hurt do you do Balaul versus Shafkat there I wouldn't hate that but like why wouldn't just throw that in Abu Dhabi that would make a lot of sense and I know the UFC likes to do this thing

where the higher weight class headlines I think even Bala Muhammad would realize that he probably shouldn't be headlining over Max Holloway versus Ilya. I mean, you could turn Ballal around quick, potentially. That's not a horrible thing. Do they do Ballal versus Usman? Because Usman has ties in Salt Lake City.

I would lose my shit if they do that. Do you call Pereira up again to try to save the day? Do you like Perreira versus like Beholvich or something? Like I don't need to see that rematch again. They just fought. Grasso's booked. I don't think Jean will headline

and I don't know if you can headline with Pena Pennington this would drive me absolutely insane but what if because I don't know actually I don't know

if that time I would love what would work do you do like an interim lightweight title fight with Armand Serukian versus like Dustin Poirier or something which would suck for Batush Gamrod

who's fighting Dan Hooker I truly don't know what they're going to do but they might just go maybe they do Bilal Shafat in that spot. I think that's, that might be the way to go. Because I think Shafkat would do it in a heartbeat. Ballal seems like the type of guy who would turn around and, and fight on that card. We'll see. We shall see. They got to have to load that thing up if they're

going to do Ballal Shafkot, though. It's got to be interesting. But the UFC just puts themselves in these positions sometimes, so they just load up these cards. And then, you have a card that's just kind of left in the weeds being like, I need, give me something, please, anything. Go ahead, Barbara Russo, what's up? Hello, Mike. I just want to talk about the idea of the interim title for the Lightweight Division, because if we do do that, it's going to have, it can have a real bad consequences,

because what if one of them two fighters get injured? And I mean the winner is not healthy and can't fight before Ramadan next year. That means we're going to have Islam on ice for more months. I don't think his injury is too serious that he needs more than six, eight months. And what if does that he? Emporia wins, so that takes us away the Armant-Sauruqa and Islam fight. And it's not that this is not a possibility. This is my first take and the second one, I just can't understand why Dana is shitting on three of his best fighters every time he can so that he's pop up a fighter who might

fight only one maximum two more fights because after the Islam Dostom fight he shot on Islam who saved his paper view fight and then you have Tommy Aspinall who's extremely talented and doing something you can you can't compare it to any others anyone else when he ends fights in two minutes every time he fights this is extremely extraordinary And I don't think you can compare this to anything else. You can build up a big star. And you know always the heavy weights should be a star division. And at the same time, Dana comes out and says he deserves nothing.

And Joan Jones is the best of all time. And he's in a room with, I don't know. And he talked, it's not so bad as these two, but he'll, he'll. also mentioned after that, Perreira becoming the second pound for pound fighter and he said no, he's not there.

I don't understand it. Why? Thank you, Mike. So the first point with the interim lightweight title fight, trust me what I say this, I don't want to see that at all. I don't want to see it. I want Arman to get his shot against his Lamakh chip. However, does Armour want to wait until 2025

to fight for the belt when he can get a big paycheck and be in a main event of a pay-per-view and fighting one of the biggest stars on the sport if it's Dustin Porre. I don't think he's got to be too, too upset about that because he would probably win that fight. No disrespect to Dustin Porre, but Armand Sarugin probably beats him and beats him pretty handily. I think he, I think Dustin fought his ass off.

I thought, I think we got maybe the best Dustin Porreier against his Lamakachev. and he came up short. And I think Armand is just as good as Islam, maybe a step below, but we just don't know until they fight each other. But it all depends on what Armour wants to do. Does he want to sit on the sidelines, which is fine and just wait for Islam,

totally within his right, or does he want a headline a pay-per-view? And then with the chance of headlining back-to-back pay-per-views, kind of a position he's going to have to figure out. And you obviously, he's got to put some, something together. I don't know what they do, but they can't do a BMF title fight because Max is the BMF champion and he's about to fight Iliate Soporia.

Unless they strip him of them. Like what do they get? I don't know what they're going to do. You just can't. No disrespect to Raquel Pennington and Giuliana Pena. But that cannot be a main event. It can't. It can't. And then the Dana thing is two things. One, it's his stubbornness about the John Jones situation. and two, the UFC and Dana in particular, I think this is pretty clear by now. Dana can come out and say, oh, we're here, we're all about making stars. We don't give you, we give you opportunity at all of that. Make no mistake about it. Dana wants himself in those three letters to be the star. Not a fighter.

Not a fighter. He's been down that road before with Connor McGregor. It's been down that road. I don't think he wants that again. So he wants to be the star. He wants the three letters to be the star. And that's what this is all about. Someone also needs to have a conversation with this man about the difference between

greatest of all time and pound for pound. Because John Jones, I'll tell you who Dan is going to be really upset with, the MMA fighting global rankings, because we are, what, a month away from John Jones being out of all of our rankings altogether. 18 months. He hasn't fought since March of 2023. He's going to be out of our rankings in a month's time.

Before he fights Stepe or anybody else, he will not be ranked in our rankings. You got to fight, man. You want to call him the goat, fine. But to say he's the best palm fighter after getting a cushy stylistic matchup and then not fighting for 18 months, I know he's hurt.

You're just not. You're just not the best-farm fighter when Islamakachap is out here doing the damn thing. And you're pushing a fight between John Jones and a guy who hasn't fought, who had, I still can't believe I could say this out loud and it's true. Pushing a fight between John Jones and a guy

who has fought less recently than Connor McGregor has. What are we doing here? What are we doing here? We are here to make. The fights, the fans want to see. How many fans are clamoring to see John Jones fight Steep Abiotr. Very few. How many are clamoring to see John Jones versus Tom Asinol?

Oh, 98% of people. What are we doing here? What are we doing here? That is my question. I don't know. But he wants to be the star. He wants the UFC to be the star and not a fighter. So he's going to do everything he can to make sure it stays that way.

That's my take on it. Your business doesn't move in a straight line. Make sure your team is taken care of through every twist and turn with Canada Life savings, retirement, and benefits plans. Whether you want to grow your team, support your employees at every stage, or build a workplace people want to be a part of. Canada Life has flexible plans for companies of all sizes, so it's easy to find a solution that works for you. Visit CanadaLife.com slash employee benefits to learn more. Canada Life, insurance, investments, advice. Jonah, go ahead.

Hi, Mike. So on Saturday, it's going to be 885 days since the last time the UFC gave a fight of the night bonus to a heavyweight fight. That was an amazing fight, one of my favorite fights of the year, Sierra Ogun versus Tait Wevasa. in the event of the year and um martin tibura's uh last um opponent was tyto yvassa sergey spivak his last opponent was cyril gun this is m m feng shui mike they are taking the energy from their opponents and they are going to have a fight of the night let me know what you think the betting light for the best line for that to happen is. And seriously, everyone seems to be a bit down on this fight. I think there are a ton of fighters in the UFC that people are excited about.

So what in your opinion should be the strategy for these types of main events, like booking them? Thanks. So you said 885 days. So 6, 7, 8, 8, 9. I think that number is going to get extended here because this fight is just not going to be great. It's going to be fine. Plus, Chipe Mariscoll and Damon Jackson are fighting right before that,

and I just have a hard time believing those two guys aren't going to win fight of the night. So I think that streak is very safe to continue on. I certainly don't think a fight involving no disrespect to Carl Williams, but I don't think a fight involving Carl Williams is going to break that streak either. So yeah, don't think it happens. Don't think it happens. Look, man, the strategy is simply this. The UFC is making so much money

that they can just book anything and people are going to watch it. Not only that because of the apex, now they're taking these types of cards and they're putting them on the road and they're breaking all-time gate records with cards like this. It's insane.

Derek Lewis versus Rodrigo Nossamento was the biggest U.S. fight night gate of all time for the UFC. This fight would probably sell out an arena just because it's the brand.

It's the brand. So there is no real strategy. The strategy is just like, okay, these are two rank guys, this is the main event at the apex. Are you sure you want to do that? Sure, because the fans watch anything. And even if they don't watch this card, who gives a shit? Because the ESPN just gave

us a whole bunch of money to put this card on their network. So on to the next one, let's move on to UFC 305. That's the way they're looking at this. That's the way. Tell me this is a normal start time. Please tell me this is a normal start time. If this is a 10 p.m. main card, I'm going to lose my friggin mind. Okay. Okay, it's not. Mind found and still here and visible. 7 p.m. main card, thank the Lord. Taboris, Spivak, Gutierrez, Basharad, no longer on the card.

I believe Gutierrez has a new opponent. At least that's, it's being reported that he has a new opponent. I'll have to look into this because you're supposed to fight Javid Basharat. Yeah, I don't know. But yeah, that's the strategy. Just throw shit at the wall and

you know it's going to stick because we're the UFC. Let's go to VB MMA picks. Get VB MMA picks. Hi, what's up, mate? Yeah, I think Gutierrez is fighting Quangley. I think Quangley posts on his IG. He was supposed to fight on Contend the series, you know?

We were talking about, like, Aspin McGregor and Jones and all these guys, but where does Kevin Lee, you know, things all this is Uncle Chilts to say. On a serious note, like, you think John Jones actually fights this year, you know? Like, Dana kind of hinted that, like, some interview I forgot that he was going to fight and so like CityCard, but, I mean, in two months he's going to fight, you know. And in general, he's going to fight this year in December maybe. Like, where is this guy actually going to fight again, you know?

And Tom Hospital right now should have like two title defenses as a champion instead. Like we have interim champion and this whole weird thing, you know, so I don't know what's going on anymore. yeah man uh yeah do i think i think john i think john fights i think john fights uh quang lee yes you're right uh quang lee is least posting that this fight is happening so i will have to reach out

you know what maybe i'll do that right now let's find out shall we let's find out let's let's do our due diligence Yeah, but to your question, do I think John fights again? Yeah, I do think John fights again. I think he fights Snipe or he fights Alex Pereira, and then I think he takes at least a long hiatus from the sport. That's what I think. But I do think the Stipe fight ends up happening, which pisses me off.

But we just got to get this fight done, people. We just got to get this fight done. And then we can move on to other things. Four Corps Sports, please tell me we have you now. Yeah, my bad. I was walking my dog and I had terrible connection. But, yeah, a lot of this stuff could have been eliminated if they didn't delay the process of Jones' wings on MSG. Like, they originally were they trying to plan it.

I think weren't they trying to plan it originally for International Fight Week of last year for the Jones-Sipe fight fight? Then, you know, he wouldn't be kicked off the rankings of the, of the global rankings, right? and, you know, we wouldn't be having such a long process of him trying to get his first title defense. But I think he probably spoke about it. I know I was cut out for a bit. I like the Max versus Ilya fight for Abu Dhabi. My thing is, it does feel like Alisara would be the right-fitting person to fit in for the Utah card. If that's the location that is projected to gopher for the beginning.

of October. There's no way you're going to have Raquel Pennington versus Julianne being the main event. Would you even think maybe an interim title fight would supersede that for lightweight? I mean, I know

Dustin wants to fight Armand, but I feel like you can have Armine versus Gamera. If Gamera gets through through what's it called a hooker very quickly, which I feel like that's going to be the case. And I know that you love that matchup between Armin versus Gamrod.

And I don't know if that would be enough to cover for a pay-per-view event. But I just wanted to get your thoughts on that. And then, yeah, I think that moving on forward, I feel like even though Figgi looked pretty good against Chito, I think it's time to fade him. Just because I don't think that – I agree with Dean Sommon said. I don't think he's going to be good enough to secure a title – a title fight. Now he's going to be going into the top five of Bandoah. And Bannamway is pretty good.

And I just think that he got Bucito who is looking like he's on the downside of the career. I know that he had a good fight with Davis-Figueredo, but I just think that Cheetos is starting to creep onto the back nine of his career. I think he's just taking a lot of damage throughout the duration of his career. And that's why he, you know, even that shot took him down. I was very surprised that shot off and Figgy took him down. So I just wanted to give you thoughts. All right, thanks, Mike. I mean, again, I don't know what they're going to do with Salt Lake City.

You kind of only have two options. You can do, well, maybe three. Like, do you want to do, do you want to throw Aspinall in Salt Lake City? I don't know how much sense that makes. But it's Tom Aspinall and he seems to be getting over. But who would he fight is another question. You do like, I mean, just, you do Tom Astell versus Alex Ferreira for the interim heavyweight title? Like, that's a pretty damn good main event right there.

I don't, honestly, I don't know. Do you do Armin versus Dustin? Do you do, do you just do Bilal versus Shafat there? I thought for sure they would look at that for Abu Dhabi. Like, even if you did Max and Ilya is the main event, I think, again, I think even Bolol and Shobu. would be like, yeah, I know we're the bigger of weight class, but come on. The stakes in Iliots for versus Max Holloway, I think even those two guys would be like, yeah, I kind of just want to fight first so I can sit back and watch that one.

You know what I mean? And then do Whitaker and Hamzad as the featured bow, but I know it's going to be the co-main event because they just can't quit on Hamza at this point. So yeah, maybe you do Ballal versus Shafkat. don't really know. And the Jones-Stepe thing, like, I don't know. I'm just so over it at this point. Like, just announce it.

Let the fight happen. And let's just move on with our lives. That's what I'm hoping for. And then for Figgi, yeah, I mean, I could see where you're coming from. But at the same token, give him Piotr-Yon. If he goes and beats Piotr-R-Yon, you got to give him a title shot. Got to give it to him. He took out two very durable guys.

not Garbram, but Font is very durable, very hard to finish. Knocked him down a whole shitload of times. And then docked down Cheeto Vera. Sean O'Malley hit him with the biggest knee I've ever seen. And Cheeto didn't get dropped from that knee. So, yeah, Figgis look real good, man. Give him yawn. And then we'll go from there.

Definitely can't get him a title fight over Umar. But he's close. he's close to getting there uh yams go ahead hey mike heck of morning uh just had two quick questions i don't know if you saw the back and forth between sirukian and michael chandler do you think they would do that one for an interim title over dustin and i'm not sure i got into the space late so i'm not sure if he touched on this but um did you hear the allegations that that girl posted on TikTok about Pereira. I don't know how true they are, but I just

wanted to get your thoughts on it. Thanks, Mike. I saw them. I haven't really looked into them. I saw some people posting about it. I guess it's like a pretty long, lengthy video, but I haven't gone through and checked it out. So, yeah, that's where I'm at, admittedly.

I just got back today. So I tried to like get on Twitter as is the least amount as possible while I was gone. I certainly tried to stay away from as much MMA stuff as possible. I did, you know, break the Murphy E. Gay fight. So, you know, you got to jump on for that. But yeah, I just kind of disconnected myself from MMA Twitter for the last eight days. And it was pretty glorious. I got to tell you.

it was a good little breakaway and then Armand versus Chandler God would that be hilariously funny it would be pretty funny he misses out on the Connor fight and then he goes and gets thumped up

by Armand Sarukian I don't know I don't know how I would be upset about it I know I mentioned Porre but Porreier like beat up Chandler and finished him

so I'll say no, but it's such a weird situation. It's kind of looking at 307. I think we have our headline for today's episode. Like, what is it going to headline this car? What is it? Would Kayla Harrison versus Raquel Pennington

be enough to headline that? Still, probably not, but you would think it would do a little bit better? I don't know. It's a weird situation. We'll see what rabbit they pull out of their hat. Eugene, take us home, my man. And I've got to go. nothing oh but look at this

we cannot cannot leave today's festivities without hearing from my best friend AK, what's up buddy? Hey my best friend, I miss you so much right back at you. I'm so happy you're back. I mean, you were chiming in on Slack on all that, but it wasn't the same. And we also kept telling you to not chime in on Slack and enjoy your vacation,

Mike. People don't know. People don't know this guy. You chimed in almost, not almost every day. But you were around. You were around. Your presence was still felt. I hope you enjoyed your vacation.

Well deserved. Very happy to have you back. Mike, you're asking you about the main event of the Salt Lake City card. What about this main event of this August 24th card? I think it's an apex. What's going on here? I don't even tell my tweet the other day. I was like, is there an event on the 24th?

Because UFC.com just doesn't list it. It's not listed. There's a Wikipedia entry for it. I think we've reported fights for it. Other sites are reported fights for it as well. It has no main event, so I understand why they're not, like, pushing it. But they have other events that don't have, Paris, they have up on their website, does not have a main event yet. And that is on UFC.com.

So ESPNMMA has no, has one fight listed that's happening that day. What's happening? Like, I mean, there is a card happening August 24th, right? But what does it on here? That's a great question, my best friend. Thank you for asking. Dude, I don't know. There's what, seven fights?

Eight, eight. Shabazi and Mierchart, which rules, by the way. That's exactly the fight you should make. Not. Because what better way to book Edmund Shabazian than against another grappler who could just take him down and smush him? Michael Morales versus Neil Magny,

Angela Hill, Tabitha, Ritchie, Dennis Mishuka, Danny Silva, Jose Medina versus Zach Reese. Slava Claus versus James Lomtop. Josiani Nunes, aka. Maybe there's your main event versus Jacqueline Cavalcante. And Kong Wang versus Victoria Leonardo. Yeah, that's certainly a fight night card.

Just leave it at that. Just leave it at that. Just make Angela Hill tab to reach you the main event. Eight fights in and out. Perfect. Perfect. There you go. There's your fight card.

I don't know. What they're going to book there? I mean, that card's what, three weeks away? What the hell are you going to do? Are they doing like the road to UFC finals on that card or something? I don't know. Is that where the tough fights are happening, AK? Is that where the tough fights are happening?

Maybe we're adding that to the mix. I don't know how far along into the season we are, but maybe that's where the tough lights go. Eugene, do we have you now? No, we do not. Eugene, we will try again on Friday to get you in, but we're going to go. We're going to get on out of here.

It's good to talk to all of you. It's good to be back. It's about a minute. And, yeah, knocking the old rust off. We'll be back here on Friday. We'll do it again. Of course, we'll have BTL on Thursday, which I'm excited to be back for that.

and then we'll get you ready for UFC Vegas 95. Is that what this one is? With this absolute barn burner of a main event between Marching Tibora and Sergei Spivak, to the rematch that everybody's been asking for. Time to finish the story between these two giant heavyweights. So yeah, that's coming up this Saturday,

and then we'll be officially on the road to UFC 305, DDP versus Israel Adasania. The nominees for the 2024 World MMA Awards are out. So you can go check that out. I believe we fired those off on the website.

So you can check that out. MMA fighting out for outlet of the year or what is a media source of the year? Media source of the year. Along with Sherdog, Junkie MacLife and of course ESPN

who will probably be airing the event and we'll probably be winning that award as they typically do and but yeah or you can just vote for us because ESPN doesn't have the golden rule no one else has the golden rule we have the golden rule we invented the golden

rule of MMA content where it ain't true if it ain't on our website and that should get us some votes right there so you can head to MAPFighton the link to vote is there Ariel Hwani, journalist of the year, is up for that. MMA hour, up for programming of the year.

So vote for all those things. That would be a wonderful thing, a wonderful gift for my return from vacation. So thank you all very much. Have a great rest of your Tuesday. And have a heck of a morning, everybody.