MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reaction To Jamahal Hill Vacating Title — How Will New Champ Be Crowned?

Episode Date: July 14, 2023

As if the combat sports news cycle couldn't get any crazier this week, Jamahal Hill announced on Thursday that he ruptured his Achilles tendon and will be vacating the UFC light heavyweight title. With the belt vacant once again, Jiri Prochazka getting ready to return, and Jan Blachowicz vs. Alex Pereira booked for UFC 291 later this month, how will a new champion get crowned? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts too Hill's injury, and lays out some of the options that seem to be in play to keep the title picture moving forward. Additionally, topics include Francis Ngannou getting the fight with Tyson Fury, the fallout from UFC 290, Robbie Lawler's perfect retirement and how the UFC is capable of greatness more often than fans are getting, Islam Makhachev's options for his lightweight title defense in Abu Dhabi, Alexandre Pantoja's next move after winning the flyweight title against Brandon Moreno this past Saturday, 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

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Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Friday, July 14th, 2023, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are back, and we are live on the M.A.

fighting Twitter spaces. We hear the show in its entirety. shortly thereafter on the MMA fighting podcasting network. I missed you all. I am Mike Heck. Thank you for being here. First show of the week. And what a week it has been, my friends.

And not in a real good way, at least personally for me. Remember, about eight days ago, hopped on here, said my throat was bothering me, thought it was allergies, battled through it Thursday, through it Friday. Was feeling okay during the watch party on Saturday until Drick is Duplice. Knocked out Robert Whitaker. And then my voice was just cooked after that for the rest of Saturday, into Sunday.

Then get on to the next one done. Get it on the pod network. Getting ready to head to the airport. Find out my flight is canceled. So I'm stuck in New York an extra day. There's no flights going out of New York to Savannah on Sunday. Got a flight first thing Monday morning, had to wake up at 3 a.m. go to the airport. What a friggin nightmare that was.

Waited in this huge line to check in with JetBlue. And I have a JetBlue card. So I'm actually like a Mosaic member. So I wait through this entire massive line for an hour and a half. And when I, excuse me, when I get to the front, they're like, why did you wait in this line? There's like a whole other mosaic line right over there. And there is no lie. You just go in there and get everything done.

I'm like, son of a bitch, you live and you learn. And then I get to my gate, flights delayed like five times, finally get home Monday afternoon, can't talk, realize that like I can't really. really do anything. Can't really swallow anything. Throats real bad. And I'm just like, maybe it's just because I use the voice too much on Saturday. Maybe it was just screaming during DDP's knockout that really got me. Wake up Tuesday. Cannot cannot talk at all. Cannot speak at all. And like I could barely breathe out of like one side of my, my voice. And I knew something was wrong. I was like, all right, this ain't allergies anymore. something's going on.

So I go to the doctor Tuesday evening and it's just so bad. I feel like I swallowed a bunch of rocks. Can't take any medicine. Can't eat. Can't drink. And it turns out pretty gnarly case of strep throat.

It was really, really bad. Doctors like, Jesus. Because you actually like talked through all of this? I'm like, yeah. Like, I don't know how the hell you did it. And luckily they put me on some antibiotics.

Felt a little better Wednesday. Yesterday, felt a lot better, was able to do BTL, struggled through it a little bit, but got through it, and then woke up this morning, and throat still bothering me a little bit, but the swelling is mostly gone. I can actually eat food and drink drinks,

and for the first time this week, I'm actually drinking a Dunkin' Donuts ice coffee. So it feels good to actually talk. I don't sound like a Muppet anymore, so I'll as well. And since we last spoke on Friday, We had UFC 290, which was an incredible event. I mean, one of the best pay-for-you cards you've had in a long time.

Volkanowski just continues to be incredible. That fight was not close. It was not competitive. There was like one moment when Yaira started a cook, and as soon as he really started to cook, I guess not really, but once he started feeling comfortable, Volk was like, all right, I'm done with this. Punch him in the face and finish the fight.

Pantosia, Alexander, Pentosia the new flyway champion. That fight with Brandon Moreno was incredible. Mentioned Drickus DuPla-C. Then obviously him and Izzy had the moment, which I remember being on the watch part. I'm like, don't worry everybody. I'll tell you everything is he's going to say. And then I was like, nope, not saying any of that into a live microphone. So then that happened. Bo Nickel looked incredible. Dan Hooker. What a gutsy win over Jalen Turner. Crazy fight. UFC 290 just ruled. It just ruled.

It was incredible. So we're just living in a world where we're just celebrating the greatness of UFC 290 and how spectacular that event was. And by the way, even before that, even before 290 happens, we're getting ready for the ceremonial weigh-ins. And out of nowhere, Dana White announces John Jones versus Steve A. Mietich is official for MSG. in November. So that's another thing that happens since we last spoke. 290 happens. And then Tuesday, it is announced that Francis and Ghanu is going to

freaking box Tyson Fury on October 28th. Not really sure what it was going to be. Is it going to be an exhibition? Is it going to be a real fight? Is the title going to be on the line? Fury's title? Turns out yes to some, no to others. We were first to report yesterday, the great Damon Martin. We'll be a pro bout. We'll be an official bout on the records, but the title will not be on the line. So it's a real fight.

Not an exhibition, professional bout. Francis Gano, the fumbler of the bag, fumble that bag into a floppy-d-d-dollar. How about that? And as I said after he signed the PFL deal, if that is what fumbling the bag is, then allow me to fumble all the bags. Allow me to fumble all of those bags

because my family would be taken care of forever. for generations to come if I can fumble the bag like Francis and Gano did. Holy smokes. And then we're thinking to ourselves, this new cycle can't get any crazier. It's just not possible. Let's just simmer it. Everything's going to simmer down.

We get $2.90. Everything that happened there. We have UFC Vegas 77 coming up on Saturday. Whatever. Ingano Fury. Awesome. And then we find out last night, Jamal Hill, no longer the UFC light heavyweight champion. Injury, the Achilles ruptured.

We're told via sources that it was due to, it was something that happened in the basketball game that happened during fight week. But Jamal Hill's going to be out for a while. He's vacating the title. And this is just wild, man. It's just like this division. Just think about what has happened over the last eight months. Uri's getting ready to fight Glover for the second time. The follow-up to one of the craziest title fights of all time.

Uri injures his shoulder, vacates the title. Then we have a vacant title fight between Janbovich and Magabed Anc Goliath in a fight that Dana White just despised. They go to a draw, no champion, so we get Jamal Hill Glover to Shara a month later, less than a month later. for the vacant title. Jamal Hill has the performance of a lifetime, wins the title.

And all year long, we were wondering, when does this belt be defended? Is Yuri coming back? If he's not coming back, who is Jamal going to fight? And we go through all these months. Apparently,

Yuri is almost ready to go, according to his management. We have Jan Buhlovich getting ready to fight Alex Pereira in a little over two weeks' time at UFC 291. And now that fight has a lot more stakes, and it could have even more stakes because the UFC and their infinite wisdom

could absolutely just say, all right, that's the vacant title fight. They could have Yeri just fight the winner later on this year. They could do Yeri versus Ankhalyaf. We don't know what the hell's going out with Israel out of Sanya right now. Like, we assume he's fighting DDP,

but are they going to do it in September? Is this going to fight somebody else before the DDP fight? Is that going to be enough time for DDP to turn around and fight Izzy for the middleweight title in Sydney? Are they going to just pull Izzy from that card altogether? Like there's so many questions that are up in the air right now because of this. And it's just wild news. It's just wild news.

And to find out that it probably happened during this basketball game, man, just a crazy turn of events. A crazy turn of events. So we have no light heavyweight. champion. The vision just continues. And as soon as it gets interesting, bad things happen. It's just unbelievable. It's unbelievable.

There's so much going on in the space right now. But we're going to turn it over to you guys. This is not going to be your typical free-for-all Friday. I mean, if you guys want to ask free-for-all-fri-day-type questions, go right ahead. But there's just so much to talk about. And I haven't been here all week. So let's get after it. Toke, you are first.

Get us rolling. don't sound like a Muppet and that you can actually talk. That's good. So, you know, I have two speeds. I have two speeds. I have, let's bring on a serious question. Or I have rent time. And today I feel like renting a little bit because I will say this.

Yeripokaska started a bad fucking trend of why the fuck do you give, you see the idea that, hey, if I get injured, I'm going to just vacate my title. And now Jamal Hill is doing it as well. From an injury he got at a UFC-related event at the UFC X. Like what the... I'm so mad. And what's really strange is I saw Nolan King, right? He said, okay, the fight to do for the title is Ankleiv versus

Pohaska. And I was just thinking, there is no way in fucking hell that Dana White after Ancolaoslav's fight is going to say, yeah, let's try Ancalaia for a title again. That's not going to happen. He's going to

have to win three fights. Maybe not three, but he's going to win. He's going to have to do more than just sit around since the draw and just get a title fight. That's not going to happen. So, I mean, let's see if they're going to put, make it a title fight between Alex Parada and, and, uh, and, uh, Jan. But my God, this is a trend that I don't like to see because, again, he was injured during their events.

And, I mean, now he has no security. He says, yeah, he's going to, you're going to get the title shock when, when you're back. those promises are always really good with the UFC. They never, ever would breach one of those promises, would they? Like, this is, you just lost your security because you vacate your belt voluntarily because you got injured at a UFC event. That's just nonsense. And I just don't like to see it.

But if I should throw a question in there as well, I should say, What do you just want to see the title, the vacated title, be between Alex Parada and and Jan Blahovich? Or do you want to see something else? That's my question. I guess. I just wanted to vent a bit. Thank you.

Yeah. I mean, look, I get where you're coming from. It's just weird. I mean, you kind of, I've told my theory about the Uri thing for a minute. I don't think URI was like, yeah, I'll vacate the title. I think the UFC like kind of. was like, go ahead and vacate. You know what I mean?

Go ahead and give up that belt. Maybe we'll kick you a couple shekels to do that. So we can have a title fight on this pay-per-view that looks awful without Phrashka versus Tashka. So I feel like the UFC, it was more of the UFC just being like, dude, just vacate. We'll give you a title shot when you come back. And I think, I don't know if the Jamal situation is exactly the same, but I'm sure the UFC is not. happy with how this is all played out. But you have some

interesting options here. I am with you. I don't think Ankleif's going to get the title shot. Not that he doesn't deserve it, because in a in the real world, in like the Bellator meritocracy world, Ankylaif is getting a title fight in his next fight.

I still don't understand why Dana hates that Plovich Ankolae fight so much. I know it started off like pretty hot for a couple rounds and then it just slowed down and it just turned into Ankelyev just taking Blahevich down and just kind of laying on him. And I think most people felt like Ankelaif won that fight. But in the end, Dane is not happy. And if Dane is not happy, you got to do more work. So to me, I don't think Akelyev's in play

unless there's literally nobody else. Unless there's literally nobody else. So if they say, here's what we're going to do. We're going to do Pereira, Behovic, the winner of that will fight Yuri for the vacant title and those two just beat the hell out of each other and the winner can't turn around quickly. Could they give Ankleyev a call? Sure. Will he be their first choice? I would be stunned if he is. Will they just make, I kind of feel like they're just going to do Jan versus Pereira for the vacant title, but I have no idea. Honestly, I have no idea. But I would say Ankylaif is probably going to have to get a win, maybe throw him in there with Johnny Walker. He goes out there and just melts Johnny Walker, his next fights for the belt.

I'm just looking at this from a UFC's perspective because Magamankalai very well could be the best light heavyweight in the world. But of all the options that are available right now, he's probably the least interesting from the UFC's perspective. So I'm with you. They either they just say this fight at 291 is just winner of this fight's yeary or they just crowned a champion. then Yuri gets the first shot. Either way, it's going to be involving those three gentlemen, I think. And then A. Goliath will be like the backup in case something happens. But yeah, what a crazy situation.

It's freaking wild. Maybe I should just like skip out on heck of a morning for a week more often than we have so much to talk about. No, I'm not going to do that. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. What? Sounds like Ojo Time. Play Ojo? Great idea.

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That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Four corner sports, what's up? Hey, I mean, that would be pretty funny if they do have Bolivich versus Perea on that USC 299 card because that would mean that the BMF title would hold more significance on the card as the main event, and then the USC light heavyweight title would be the co-main event.

usually would be flip-flopped around but I do feel like that might be the direction that the UFC might end up turning towards you know Jamal Hill I mean what's it called we don't know when he's going to come back he pretty much has that Kobe Bryant injury and it sucks

because I really wanted to see you know how he was going to be able to turn it or what his next fight was going to end up being like after he ended up demolishing Lovers to Shera for five rounds it sucks because the U.S. really was holding him on ice and I remember

I think you said it on the watch party and I thought about it was like you said that he's on he's at every single UFC event and I'm like you know I feel like what's the cold at this point he's at more UFC events than he's been in fights in the UFC because like

I wanted to see him fight I wanted but they had him on ice I feel like to have Yuri and it sucks I felt like Jamal Hill you know granted you know he he, you know, he was on the sidelines, and I feel like he was doing a lot of TikTok videos.

It looked like he was out of shape and stuff like that, and I feel like a lot of that ended up accumulating towards that injury. And I saw the tweet from Damon Martin about, you know, him, you know, having the injury. I'm like, damn, what's going to happen next? And, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if the USC holds off until year he comes back. And then we might put him, like, I mean, against, like, Yeri against Johnny Walker, just because, you know, Dana has some type of vendetta against Magamannak Live. It just sucks right now because I feel like this division has been cursed ever since John Jones has left the division.

And as for the UFC 290, I got to say, wow, I was very surprised on DDP knocking out Robert Whitaker. I didn't have that in my bingo card. I was for certain that it was going to go towards a decision, and that's what it felt like he was strained towards. But, I mean, maybe Jed might be, you know, mystic Jed, because, I mean, he's been predicting a lot of good stuff, the Giuliana Pania one, DDP. He predicted that Pansoja versus Moreno

was going to be the best fight on the card. If I'm DDP, I'm seeing, I'm actually declining the Israel. Adasania fight in Sydney and then hopefully having that fight in December just because I feel like it's too quick of a turnaround and it actually favors more Adasania as opposed to DDP just because Autasani's last fight was in April. All right. I just wanted to know what you guys think. Yeah, that is going to be really interesting how they do this. Is it like Izzy is definitely fighting on that card? Because if this is definitely fighting on that card, I just don't know like DDP has certainly earned it.

And if DDP is game and wants to turn around that quickly and fight Izzy, good on him. But I don't know. Could they just do Izzy versus Sean Strickland? And if Izzy wins, like we could properly build this GDP fight? Sure, they could do that in order to keep Izzy on the car. But if Izzy isn't fighting in Sydney, that is not a pay-per-view anymore. It's not a pay-per-view. because why are we doing this then?

What's the point of the card? What's the point of putting it on pay-per-view and charging people $85 bucks if the man with whom the card is built around, shout out John Anick, isn't able to compete on it? But I'm with it. Like, DDP is the only fight that makes sense, but to do it in, what, now, seven weeks? You're asking a lot of DDP.

And this is going to be one of the biggest fights the UFC can make for good or for bad, the build is got to be what it is. It's going to be built around something weird and kind of hateful and all of that. It's a massive fight right now. A massive fight for the UFC. But do you want to just rush that over seven weeks? Do you just want to get Izzy in there? Because the Strickland fight will gain traction.

And I know he just beat Abuse and it's weird that Strickland would get the shot before DDP. but if Izzy goes out there and beat Strickland, which he probably would, and probably would do so pretty easily. No disrespect to Strickland. Then you can properly build the DDP fight. But I just, I don't know what they're going to do. I don't know what they're going to do.

And I don't know if DDP's going to, DDP's got some leverage right now. He can just be like, no. Forget that. I'm not doing it in seven weeks. Find somebody else. make his he wait and that's what he should do that's what he should do what a performance man what a performance proved a lot of people wrong shut me up Whitaker tried to stand there and slug it

out with ddp was kind of surprised by the game plan but ddp just tripped him took him down and as soon as that first round was over you just felt the momentum go full on to the ddp side and man what a performance that was a game changer. That was a game-changing performance. Well done. DDP. Let's go to Eric. What's up, Eric? It was a great card. The Kermaine event lived my expectation. The current made a bit of the last guy. I think DDP should not take it as your honor to sign-in-flight because he fought. Remember Whitaker. So, yeah, I don't think that's going to have. I think they might. If this is not on the Sydney card, bro.

He was he going to fight. Next, guys. He's going to what? He was going to fight on his, yeah, who is he going to fight? If Izzy, yeah. I mean, if Izzy's going to fight on that card and it's not DDP,

they'll probably just do the Sean Strickland fight. Fresh matchups coming off a win. There's heat there. You can build video packages just with the press conference last year. You could do that. I mean, it is risky because you don't want like a banana peel moment where something happens. Maybe like Izzy checks a kick and breaks his leg.

Like it's risky. You just never know what's going to happen. But if Izzy is going to fight on that card and DDP is not going to turn around, he'll probably fight Sean Strickland. Who knows? Maybe they'll put Izzy in the Bacon light heavyweight title fight. I don't know. This whole thing is kind of a mess right now, which is why booking DDP versus Robert Whitaker in hindsight, I was kind of stupid, but it also made this fight much bigger.

So I don't know. I don't know what the hell they're going to do. And you can't just come out and say, well, you know what? We changed our minds. The Sydney card's going to be a fight night, but this card on September 16th that we promised you is going to be free on ESPN Plus is now a pay-per-view. Like you can't do that now. You've already put it out there.

That this is the free card. And you're going to get a title fight just by being. an ESPN plus subscriber. You get this long-awaited rematch between Alexa Grasso and Valencia and Shevchenko for free. You can't just go back on your word now. So you're going to have to...

You're going to have to make this work somehow. And I'm just wondering when that's going to happen. When are we going to find out what the deal is with any of this shit? Mikey, hello. Good. Let's just keep it simple. Yon...

Keep Yon and Pereira as it is because to turn that fight around into a five-round bout on about two weeks notice at elevation, while doable, is also just, it's impract. It's a little impractical. If they do it, they do it. If they don't, I'm just saying it's one of those things. Just keep that as a title of Eliminator. Then the vacant title, whatever, take the next batch of contenders and put them up against each other.

If Uri's available, book that fight for what, Al, know. I mean, it would kind of be funny to have Yuri Pajashta if he's ready to go, fight for the, fight for, well, not even fight. It's technically it's title defense, you know, like finally fight for the lightweight title on the undercard of Jones, Miosich, against whomever. Also, what the hell is Alexander Rockich? Is he still hurt? And as for the drinkest fight, that was fine. I thought the rob, putting him against Rob was fine because it established him as the outright number one contender. If he can't fight the sonya right away in Sydney, then like you said, make it Sean Strickland.

Because like I said, as I preached on forever, it doesn't always have to be the outright number one contender or gets a title fight. If you're ranked in the top 10, you're, and if you're ranked in top 10, especially in the top 5, and you're healthy, you should be available to fight for the fight for the title, especially if you've never fought the champ, you know? So, I mean, sometimes that's what you just got to do. That's the nature of the beast, you know, we, if you, you can't, everybody fans always do this thing where they both talk out of both sides of their mouths. They're like, they want champs active, but they want the perfect fight to happen. I'm like, this isn't a video game. Not everyone can be healthy all the time. Sometimes you have to take the best available thing. That's, that's what happens in all sports, you know, like nobody, nobody stops the Super Bowl,

because, you know, Patrick Mahomes can't play. They're like, well, I guess we got canceled Zubal. Pat Mahomes isn't going to play. Nope. If Matt Castle's the backup quarterback, you're getting Matt Castle versus whoever the hell. You know what I'm saying? That's just the way the, that's just the way it shakes. And what I am curious, though, is now what's next for Brandon Moreno?

Because I just rewatched the main car for the first time since last week because, you know, I was out in the bout for International Fight Week. And that fight is close enough to warrant an immediate rematch, but I also, on principle, don't want an immediate rematch because I'm sick of immediate rematches that aren't off controversial losses. I mean, it was controversial to fans, but it wasn't controversial on scorecards. It was Antonio won. It's fine. I mean, you could, you know, it wasn't a robbery.

So I'm curious what they will do with that and when that should happen. So, all right, that'll be all for me today. Be kind, guys. Have a good weekend. Yeah. I mean, you make some interesting points. Like with the DDP Whitaker fight, like I didn't have an issue with the matchmaking. I didn't issue with the matchmaking on that card when you're promising the champion is fighting two months later. The timing of the fight was just awful. Now, if they booked that fight for 289, one, that would have made that card way better.

And two, it gives them an extra month to build up to this other fight. So I would have had no issue with that. But like I said, now the fight's bigger between Izzy and DDP. Everything kind of works out. Let's see what happens with Izzy. Is it going to fight DDP in Sydney? Is he going to fight somebody else?

Is he just going to get pulled from the card? What are they going to do? Not really sure. What's next to Moreno? I don't know. I don't know. Both those guys are going to be out for a hot minute. My initial thought was Pantotia's just going to fight Amir al-Bazi.

maybe do it in if he could turn around quick that could be the co-main event for Abu Dhabi for Islam and whoever he's going to fight but now maybe we do Yuri fighting somebody for the vacant light heavyweight titles the co-main event

I mean there's lots of options I don't think Yuri I have a feeling there to do Leon Colby as the co-main event to the John Jones fight that's just a massive fight it would make sense can you imagine Colby John Jones doing pressers together. That's just going to be a shit show.

We know how much the UFC loves a good shit show. So I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know how long Pantosia's going to be out for. Moreno broke his hand in the fight. So he's going to be out for a minute. I suggested on onto the next one. And I even like Pantosia's idea. Like at this point, let's just have Roy Val and Albaughy fight each other,

number one contender fight. Pantosia gets the winner. And I suggested, just do Moreno versus Zahudo. Like who gives this shit? Just have them fight each other. I know it doesn't make any sense. It has no title implications whatsoever. But Sehudo needs to get a win. At some point, there's a beef between the two. These two are just going to keep talking about each other and the buildup to one another's fights until the day they die unless they fight each other. So let's get Moreno out of the picture for a little while. Let's get them away from

the trilogies and the tetralogies and all this shit for a little while, and let's just settle the beef between these two guys, and then they could both move on with their lives. Like, who cares? Just let them fight each other. They want to fight each other. She just let them fucking fight. Not everything has to have title implications.

Sometimes two guys just don't like each other, and there's a backstory, and then they can just fight, and then they don't have to talk about it anymore. I think this is a perfect opportunity to get Moreno away from it, Sohudo out of the Banimay title picture And then it's just squash a beef. Why the hell not? Do you think anyone's going to complain if they put that fight together?

No. Because we have viable contenders at 125. We have viable contenders at 135. None of the, like both of these guys are kind of like, sure they could go and do the immediate rematch, but we don't have to do that. And if Moreno beats Zahudo, guess what? He's going to get a title shot.

He'll get his shot right back. And if Sohudo beats Moreno, at least he has a win, and now you can make a case to go fight for the 135 pound title, depending on where that all shapes up. But sometimes you just need to go in there and squash your beef. Go squash the beef, let's move on with life. One Toro. Hello.

Hello, so, Mike. My question was, well, my first question has changed because somebody really asked me. But you said that you wanted to see Mirabazi versus Brandon Ravel. even though Brandon Roval has been in multiple, I guess I can say, quote unquote, number one contender fights. And I just want to know why you don't think Pintoja should just should not fight Brandon Morval instead of fighting Amarabazi for no one contender fight. Even though Amirabazi's last fight was kind of controversial, in my opinion, I think that Kikar and France actually beat him.

That's besides the point. And my second question was, why do you think Kobe Covington versus Leon Edwards should be a co-main event and not a main event, especially at the end of the year, because I know that it's a very limited space between numbered events for the UFC. And some of the fights actually might layover to 2024. but I want your thoughts as to why Kobe Covington versus Leo Edwards shouldn't be a co-man event and be a main event. Thank you. So the first question, look, if they book Roy Val versus Pantosia, like, sign me up.

My hesitation is Pantosia just, I mean, he just ran over Roy Val and finished him not long ago. It wasn't like this happened five years ago. this was pretty recent. So if the UFC wanted to go a different direction. And the only reason I said Elbaazi would be a bit ahead of Royval in the conversation, should Pantosha win, was because of the timing of it all. There is a world where I thought the UFC would be like, hey, Pantosia, I want you to turn around in October, fight Al-Bazi and Abu Dhabi,

because that's a good fight for the local crowd. El-Bazi being who he is and where he's from, he will have a lot of support. So that would make sense just to put that on the card. So the timing actually lined up for Al-Bazi. But after the way that fight went and the way those two beat the hell out of each other, I just don't know if October is realistic at all. And we don't even know of like November or December is realistic for either of those two guys, for Pantosia to fight right now because of the war those two guys just put on,

you're asking a lot. So if Pantosia is not going to be able to fight until 2024, then let's just have those two guys fight it out. Let's just settle the argument. Who's the number one contender? Let's just have them fight. Do a five-round main event. Winner gets the title shot.

There you go. And if they go back to Moreno, which they could, then those two guys are going to have to fight anyways. So look, if Roy Vall is the guy, dude, I'll watch the hell out of that fight. I would put Roy Val above Obazi for sure. But the only reason I suggested Albazi in the first place was because of Abu Dhabi. Could they turn him around quick, give Albaozy the title shot in front of fans that will cheer for him,

where he'll look like kind of a star. He won't look that way in front of any other crowd. So that was my biggest suggestion, but no real wrong way to do this. But I would be down to watch Roy Val and Albaughzi fight. I just don't know when Pantosia is going to be able to come back. Edwards Covington could they headline in December sure but again we don't know what's going on with Connor my god is telling me

that they're still going to try to make that fight the Connor Chandler fight for December I know Dana fires back in the media for writing you know exactly what he says who gives a shit about USADA or something like that

And then he claps at you. This is why I hate you guys. You guys twist my words around. You literally said those exact words. It's right there. You said those words. You've been saying it for months. I don't deal with this Ushada thing.

Not really going to matter. If they want to use an exemption on Connor McGregor, if they can use an exemption on Connor McGregor, they can do it. And if Connor is headlining a December card and it's a non-title fight, then they're probably not going to put a title fight underneath it unless it's maybe like a women's fight or I don't know so I'm sure Leon Edwards

and Colby Covington and I've talked to Colby about this already Colby would be just fine being the co-main event underneath John Jones because they will make a lot of money there are going to be many more pay-per-view buys for John Jones Steepay as the main event and Colby and Leon is the co-main event than Colby and Leon being the main event by itself and they will get a piece of that pie. So of course they want to be on that card. And that's a pretty damn good one-two punch right there. But is it good enough to headline?

Sure. But do I think it will? My guess is they'll do it in November. It seems like October, November are the timeframes, but that fight makes no sense to do in Abu Dhabi, and it makes fine sense to do it in November at MSG. Colby's got a history there. Leon Edwards would love to fight at MSG.

seems very logical to me. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice, yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no, but chicken tenders, yes.

Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too, along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans,

real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence. While Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross draining Treadplus at OnePeloton.ca. Let's go to CV. What's up, CB? Yo, Mike, heck of a morning. I'm glad to have you back. Just two quick takeaways from me from 290.

First off, I can't wait for Volk versus Topuria when eventually that happens. Like, imagine if that happens in Spain. It's going to be crazy. Two, shout out to Robbie Lawler for having a successful retirement fight. And one last thing for me, is it possible to get a birthday shout out? My birthday is actually tomorrow. I'm old as fuck. I'm turning 29 tomorrow.

I'm washed. And I'm celebrating my birthday tomorrow by having a watch party of tomorrow's Apex card. No, I'm joking. But glad to have you back. Thanks, man. Happy birthday to you. Happy 29. Yeah, you're washed.

You're way younger than me. Enjoy it. I don't want to hear 29 being old. at all and enjoy your uh enjoy enjoy enjoy the watch party the robbie loller thing was incredible like everything about it was incredible the only thing that would have made it better is that the ufc spent a lot more of their promotional time during fight week promoting the fight card and not the slap fighting you know what i'm saying but other than that this is incredible we talked about this on the watch party

we talked about it on the post fight show we talked about it about it on btl yesterday and it's funny because i was talking to bc last week before we went on btl and he said something that made me laugh hysterically much like we are at times or at m a fighting dot combe the morning combat guys when a card is not good they're not going to paint a different picture.

They're just going to tell you that a card's not good. And they have been told oftentimes that, oh, you guys are sounding like the M&A fighting guys being a bunch of negative nancy's. First of all, I feel with these preview shows that we have done in the past, with these rotten cards, that we have done the very best we can to find the diamonds in the rough.

We really have. and when he told me that, I thought that was hilarious. And here's the reason why, okay? The reason why we beat up on the UFC for some of the cards they give us is because we know what they can do. And we know what they are capable of. And we saw it on Saturday. We saw it on Saturday, not just with the fight card,

but how this Robbie Lawler thing played out. They had this great video package, tremendous matchmaking. Everything about it was perfect. Everything about it was spectacular. And then what did we get prior to that? We got Shogun Hua getting danced all over by the duelist. We had Frankie Edgar getting knocked out, unconscious by a flying knee by a young hungry whippersnapper

that made absolutely no sense. And then they got it together and they did it perfectly for Robbie Law. Why is it, why is it negative for us to, to want and demand better from the best fight promotion in the history of the world? Why? How is that negative? How is that negative when we know you are capable of greatness, but you give us, man, 85% of the time? It's okay as a fan to find good things about a card. but then be like, hey, we know you could do better than this.

And then they come out on Saturday, and everything about Saturday was incredible. And we're just like, see, you can do this. You can do this. So just do it more often. Not every card is going to be $2.90. I get it. But give us some stakes. Give us a reason to care.

Give us a reason to stay in on a Saturday night. Besides just, well, it's fights. I'll watch them. Give us stakes. give us storylines, give us something to dig our teeth into. And that moment with Robbie Lawler just put it over the top for me. Because there are times where I'm like, well, am I too negative? No, I don't think I am.

I don't think I am. And it's reasons because of that. And what Robbie Lawler did on Saturday was incredible. The UFC deserves a big pat on the back with how they set all that up, the video package at the end, the production, all of it. A plus, plus. us. And if the UFC does something bad, we'll call them out on it. And if they do something great, we will shout them out. And this was great. This was incredible. Well done to everybody.

Congratulations to Robbie O'Lahler. It's probably the best most positive retirement in the history of the sport. Just well done all around. It's fucking great. Joe, hello. Hey, Mike, how are you doing today? Good. How are you? not too bad um i don't like to get too far ahead of everything but i do as a fan um i'm already starting to look at you were just talking about big cards and amazing cards and the next one is probably 300 i know we're eight cards off into the myth here nine cards off but i'm already starting to look as a super fan like uh what it could be like i'm already starting to wonder if uh ap gets the title shot so isy an ap could headline it for the 205 strap if conner holds off because

we've seen the UFC just hold fights off for no good reason. If Connor gets held off till 300, I don't know who else in the UFC would have enough star power to give us what we would consider the UFC 300 main event. So I guess, Mom, just asking what your comments and thoughts are on what the path to 300 and who could headline 300? I mean, I would assume they would try to

get Connor on there. I would say John Jones, but I'm not really confident that he, like, comes back and fights after the steepe fight. Could see Izzy on there. I mean, Islam Volk would have been a real good one because I don't need to see that right now, but there's a chance we get it. I don't know what's, it's just so far away and there's so many unknowns. Now we're looking at a, we have a division at 205 with no champion right now.

excuse me so there's a lot that can kind of play out but i would assume if they can get connor on that card sure now if they push connor to 300 michael chanler's going to have to fight somebody they're not like he cannot sit on ice for how long will it be 16 months no so does he fight Islam, it would not shock me if they gave Chandler that phone call. I've been saying it for weeks. It would not stun me at all if they gave Chandler that call just to fill that spot. And what do you think Chandler is going to say? No, I'm waiting for the Connor fight. Of course he's going to take the title fight and then maybe fight Connor in April. If Chandler somehow wins the belt, you bet your ass Connor is going to start selling Michael Chandler as an opponent he wants

to fight. So I don't know. It's very strange. I feel like Connor's going to fight in this. December, but it's just hard to look that far ahead. That's what? It's probably going to be like April when 300 happens. No, maybe Hamzaa Shama. I don't know, man. 300 is going to be a, 300 is going to be a wacky. Jim Miller needs to be on that card.

That's for sure. But the rest, I have no idea. Jim Miller versus Max Holloway should be on UFC 300. Viking, hello. Hello, Mike. How are you? Good. What's up?

I have been waiting for this opportunity since very long. I mean, I've been feeling so low. I had been feeling so low since one month. And I just want to say that thanks a lot, you guys, especially you, my brother. I just, I have so much impact of your presence in my life, brother. at that time I had so many bad thoughts

but I couldn't do that and and one more thing that you mentioned in the past that if you have a strong woman in your life your life is amazing

and that's the same thing has happened with me five years ago so my girlfriend was there with me all the time but I especially I want to thank MAMA fighting.com crew just you, AK Jedmishu, even if I don't like him.

Jedmishu, Shane Al-Shiadeh, Jose, I mean, E.K.C. Thanks a lot for, thanks a lot, you guys, for making my life better. when I was so low, when I was feeling so low in my life. And right now, everything is fine. And especially you, Mike, you are my brother. I love you a lot, brother. Thanks a lot. Man, Viking, that means the world.

Sometimes you don't realize what impact you can have. And that means a lot. But stay with us, Viking. world, everything is, when things look like they suck and they're really bad, they get better. They get better and you're right. When you got a good woman by your side who is with you through the good and the bad, the thick and the thin, it just makes you appreciate everything that you have. And yeah, stick with us.

Stick with us, my man. You know, you've been a long time member of the heck of a morning. community and we love you Viking so yeah stay positive my man glad you're doing better and uh appreciate the kind words shit's gonna turn around when it gets bad it'll get better cole hello good morning mike back of the morning um i hope you don't look at me any differently because on saturday night i might have had too many bush lights that i actually scored it live 49 46 for Brendan Moreno. Now I knew in the moment that I was discrediting the aggressive,

or the grappling control of Pantoja late in that fifth round. But man, I just was favoring the striking all day. I thought it was really close. And then hearing Ben Cartlett's scorecard read first, I thought I had it like right on the head, which is why I was kind of shocked when I went to Twitter later and saw everybody going crazy about it. that was my first time being on the wrong end of a scorecard like that but um yeah that's pretty

much it last week i don't know if you remember i kind of told you i was like we with robbie luller we could see one of the greatest retirements non-title retirements ever it was set up to be and i think just him being in the hall of fame earlier that week just put the icing on the cake so i mean yeah i hope you don't look at me any differently based on how i scored that co-main but just your thoughts on that. Nah, man, I don't look at you differently. It's a weird fight to score. There's just so much action in all of it.

And to find out that Brandon Moreno, like, broke his hand in the first round, I think, and he was still throwing it. Like, I had no clue. Normally you could tell, like, oh, this dude broke his hand. Not Moreno. Dude, is such a savage. The 49-46, like, I just don't truly understand. but I know you're not a lot like I know you're not the only person like Ben Cartlidge I ain't

gonna sit here and rip on Ben because Ben is one of the best judges in the world he is incredible what he does he understands the criteria oftentimes he'll come out and like explain his scoring on social media I don't know if he did with this one or not but Ben is really good and I remember when Ben was kind of announced as someone who will be able to to he was like accredited in in nevada i was like yes like cool let's get ben on as many cards as possible so i don't agree with 49 46 but i ain't going to sit here and dog him because again judging's tough and we give you a pass here and there now if it's consistent if you're running off a bunch of shitty cards in a row yeah you get put in the dug crosbie hall of fame um

but I don't really put Ben there for that reason. 4847 Moreno, I will listen to, but I just, I went back and rewatch it. I think I scored it, I think I scored a 4946 Pantosia live. On the rewatch, I scored at 4847 Pantosia. There was one round that even on the watch party, I was like, I'll score this for Pantosia,

but I'm not confident in it. and I know Jed and G.C. felt more confident than I did. But I think 48-47 Pantosia is a fine card. I will listen to 48-47 Moreno. But to me, I think after watching the fight on the watch party and then giving it another re-watch on Sunday, I think 48-47 Pantosia is the right guy. I think the right guy won.

I think the right guy won. But great fight. Great, great-great-fought. right. Brent, hello. Good morning, Mike. You can hear me, right? Yes, sir. Okay, cool. I'm on my way to work, so I'll make it quick. Who do you think should be the backup fighter for the Jones and Stupid Fight?

And who do you think will be the backup fighter for that fight? Thanks. Have a good morning, everybody. I don't know if there will be. I mean, there might be. I think you kind of have to have one any time John fights. I think the answers to both of those questions will be Sergey Pavlovich. Yeah, it's probably going to be Pavlovich. Let's go to Black Belt MMA. Black Belt, are you there?

Hi, my friend. Hey, buddy. I'm good. First of all, I'm so happy to talk with you. And I want to talk about Jamal Hill, the kids. I think there is, there was a good thing to do is to stay to stay the built with him and make a fight between Alex Pereira and Brohashka for the interim fight.

That would be a very good fight and it will make a good review because there, the two of them are the people love them. And that's all. Thanks. Yeah, I mean, if we get Yuri versus Pereira, sign me the hell up for that. Sign me up for that. But it's just, again, it's going to be interesting. Are they just going to make Pereira Blahovic the vacant title fight?

Are they just going to make that the official eliminator? The winner gets Yuri. Is Yuri going to face off with it? one of those guys after? I don't know. It'll be interesting. I wonder if Dane is going to come out and make one of his special announcements today. I'm surprised we haven't had one this week after the Tyson Fury Francine Ghanu fight got announced. As soon as Ariel put out that tweet that it was going to be announced soon, we got Joan Steepay announced like three hours later. So I'm surprised it's taken this long, to be honest with you. Amad, hello. Amad, do we have you? Okay. I was just

going to say, too, like, we have had a great string of calls getting through right away. Everyone sounded crisp and perfect. And then I just, I jinxed it just even by thinking about that. Justin with a why. Hello. Hello. So I've been thinking about this Jan versus Alex fight. I think it should be the title fight.

I think they're the highest rank light heavy weights. I know Alex isn't technically ranked, but whatever. but is this the most consecutive vacant title fights in one division and is yon done if he loses this that's a great question i think a lot of people thought yon was done after the yankolaia fight um so yeah i mean this division is just so weird like i don't know and yon is such like an interesting cat and i think the more we the more we learn about him the more intriguing and interesting that he is. And I think people like Janbovich.

So if he loses to prayers, he's done? I'm not, with this division, I'm not willing to ever say that somebody's done or completely out of title contention. So probably not. But I'm curious that they are going to put the title online in that fight. And if they do, hopefully these guys get paid some more money.

They should, because we're extending it to five rounds. in its title fight. Maybe they get some paper viewpoints because I'm sure that paper is going to do pretty damn well with Poria and Gaichi fighting for the BMF title in the main event. It'll be a weird co-main event. It's already the co-main event,

but it'll be weird putting like an actual title fight as the co-main event, but sometimes circumstances call for weirdness and UFC likes to do weird things. Good morning, sir. How you doing? Good. So my question is,

what do you actually think is going to happen for the October pay-per-view with Islam. Who do you think actually is going to fight Islam for that title? Thank you. And this is such a good question because I don't really know.

I'm with, I don't say this very often, but I agree with Dana White. Dana said what I said after the Watch, like after the Volcanovsky went at the Watch Party, said the same thing in the Post-Fite Presser. It's on Volk. if Volkanowski says, I want Islam, he's getting it. 1000%.

He's getting the fight. If Volk's like, eh, I'm going to wait for the rest of the year to play out. I'll fight Ilya. Maybe I'll fight him down the road. Then they'll go somewhere else. Oliver is such a wild card in this, because I don't know if he's just saying this to like get more money. I don't know if this is like a negotiation tactic from Olivera.

because it wouldn't surprise me, and it would actually be brilliant, if we're being honest, especially with the way that fight played out and Volt needing surgery. Maybe Oliver was aware of the surgery, which apparently is this supposed to be major. It's supposed to be like a scope. And if Volk said, like, I could fight in October. So I think Volk is going to have the right of passage. If he says, I'm in, I think he gets it. If he says no, I think they'll go.

back to Oliver again. If Oliver really isn't ready to go, I think Chandler's, I think Michael Chandler's in play here. It's weird to say a guy coming off of a bad loss, I mean, not a bad loss, but he was finished by Dustin Poria in his most recent fight. I kind of feel like Chandler could get the call here. It's very possible. Obviously, Poria Gaichi, the winner of that would be the number one guy, but there's, I just don't see a world where those two just don't beat the hell out of each other for however long that fight lasts. To turn them around in two and a half months, that's going to be tough, man. It's got to be tough, especially Dustin Porre. Because of his priorities. He's got a daughter. She's in school. And Porre talked about

this what he fought Michael Chandler last year. I'm going to be a lot of, but he fought. I'm not fighting again until July. I'm not fighting again until the summer because I already had to pull my daughter out of school, bring her to Florida so I could get ready to fight Michael Chandler in November. I can't do that to her again. And I don't know if Poria is going to want to do that and turn around that quickly. Now, if Justin Gaichi wins that fight and doesn't take a lot of damage, I could see Gaichi being chaotic enough to be like, you know what, let's go. I'll be ready, cool. But if neither

those guys are in play, and Oliver is not in play, and Volk's not in play, I could certainly see the UFC calling Michael Chandler. They love him. He's a company guy. He's on tough. For some reason, McGregor, that fight doesn't pan out

for this year. Maybe this is the penance from the UFC. Like, I could see this happening. Sounds crazy. Doesn't make any sense meritocratically. But it is something the UFC would and could absolutely do.

So it's kind of a mess, but I think Chandler's certainly in play here if none of the other guys are. Fitz, hello. What's up, Mike? A heck of a morning to you. I hope you feeling better. It was such a peaceful

week without your show, man. So, no, all, all jokes. Actually, no, actually wanted to actually shout out Viking too, man. You got an Metsamay community here with you, man. Everyone, I'll reach out and talk to anybody. I'm sure anybody in this show would be happy to talk to you too, man. But you know me, man, I'm going to keep it quick.

Everyone's talking about these titles and these championships. Everyone's leaving out the biggest one in question here. What's up with this women's 145 pound division? I don't know why Norma and Chelsea are fighting here. I mean, I'm guessing just because the fight was booked and they don't want to scrap it. But, I mean, what is going to happen here, Mike? Are we, I mean, is this the last 145 pound fight we see here? Thanks, ma'am. Probably. I just don't know how it's going to work. I'm not saying it's the last one that will happen, but I would say it's probably the last contracted 145-pound fight.

Could we have situations like we had recently where a fighter, like the Carol Hosa fight where a fighter has to step in on short notice and I'll do it, but I can't cut to 35 in two weeks. So we'll just do it at 45. Could I see that? Yeah. But do I see featherweight fights being on the contract? Probably not.

It's weird, man. I don't know what they're going to do. I don't know what they're going to do. Dumont says she can make 135. Chelsea Chandler was supposed to fight Leah Letson. That was supposed to be a bad of a weight fight. And Letson ended up retarded. and Chandler fought somebody else.

I think it was at 140. So I don't even know if she can make 135. So, yeah, it's a weird position. But as far as, like, weight being initially contracted for 145 for the ladies in the UFC, it's going to be tough, man. Don't see it happening. The average as bleep podcast, what's up? You're muted.

There we go. Hey, so sorry about that. So I hate to keep circling back to the lightweight fight, the title fight, or the light, heavyweight title fight. But I just don't like Jan and Pierre becoming a title fight, one, because of the logistics that you mentioned with it being a co-main undisputed, because I doubt that you can't do like an interim title when it's vacant, right? so it'd be an undisputed below the BMF.

That's kind of weird. But then, you know, the winner of this fight would have had to wait for Yeri anyway because he was guaranteed the next title shot. So just make it the number one contender. And then, you know, next fights for the vacant title against Yeri. Sounds like hopefully by the end of the year. But yeah, what do you think about that? Yeah, I'd be fine with that.

you know what the UFC should do? They should just give Yuri the fucking title back. That's what they should do. Because I've been saying this for a while. I don't think that Yuri Perash, like, I think Yuri Perashka is like, got the warrior spirit and all that. But I don't think when Yuri was hurt,

he was like, hey, UFC, I'm hurt, my shoulders hurt. I think I can be back by the summer, but I'm going to vacate the title. I don't think that happened. I really don't. I don't think that. that happened. I think the UFC said, look, man, that sucks. Here's a couple, I don't know,

here's some money, just vacate the belt and so we can have this pay-per-view with the actual title fight. And then as soon as you're ready to come back, you get a title shot. And I think it will present it like you made this decision. I don't know if this is the case or not, but that's just how it feels to me. It just felt so strange for a guy who was like, I'll be out for like six or seven months and then I'll be ready to go.

And it seems like his timeline was pretty spot on because he's ready, apparently he's ready to book a fight. So if that's a case, why did we strip him to begin with? Like, why is he not the champion? So you can just give him the title back. You've done it before.

You did it with D.C. He never lost the title in a fight. Just give him. give him the belt back. He can just be the champion. And then Pereira and Behovic can fight and the winner fights Yeri, who shouldn't have lost the belt to begin with. So like, it just took us in a weird circle and around a weird roundabout.

But at least we got back to where we should have been to begin with. So, yeah, I don't mind that. Just have Yeri there with the freaking belt on his shoulder. whoever wins that fight, bring Yuri in the cage. They have a little face off. And there you go. Your next fight is booked. That could happen.

Or they just strapped the belt on Behovich-Perre, but you don't need to. You don't have to do that right now because you got the BMF title fight. That's the draw of this card. We'll just keep it as is. But if they gave Yuri the title back, like would anybody complain about that?

No, because he shouldn't have vacated the belt to begin with. Old thing was just bizarre. But all right. I think my voice has gone through enough today. We've done it. We've gone through 67 minutes of this. A lot to talk about.

We barely even talked about Francis and Tyson Fury, which is pretty crazy. But there's always next week, right? And I'm sure we have a million things to talk about on Tuesday when we return. We'll have Wayan coverage for UFC Vegas 77, Way and start at the top of the hour over at MAAfighting.com. Tomorrow we'll have the people's pre-fight show. Believe it's at 6.30 p.m. Eastern, post-fight show. I'm not going to be on either of those.

The wonderful bosses of mine are like, dude, give your voice a rest. We'll handle it. No worries. And then I'll be back to, Sunday, on to the next one. Myself, a Jedmishu guest hosting for the vacation. Best friend, Alexander Kay Lee, enjoy your vacate, my best friend.

And we'll be back here on Tuesday, 10 a.m. Eastern. We'll react to everything that happened on Saturday, potentially some announcements. We'll see what happens over the next several days. But it's been a whirlwind, everybody. And shout out to all of you guys for your patience and for being just an incredible community. So thank you all very much.

Back on Tuesday. Have a great rest of your Friday. And as always, have a heck of a morning, everybody. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first,

there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.