MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reaction To Kevin Holland's Short-Lived Retirement, UFC Orlando Headliner vs. Stephen Thompson

Episode Date: October 5, 2022

Kevin Holland's retirement didn't last long, and now he's set for a huge fight against a two-time UFC title challenger in December. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to Holland's short-lived retirement from the UFC, and his scheduled main event matchup against Stephen Thompson for Dec. 3 at UFC Orlando. Additionally, listener questions include Conor McGregor's comeback opponent, who Justin Gaethje should fight when he's ready to return to the octagon, the UFC lightweight division, Bo Nickal, the UFC's 30-year anniversary coming up in 2023, Paddy Pimblett, who should fight Frankie Edgar in his retirement fight at UFC 281 in November at Madison Square Garden, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. It is Wednesday, October 5th, 2022, and it is indeed a heck of a morning,

which we don't typically have on Wednesdays, but we have it today, baby. on the M.A. Fighting Twitter Spaces. The show will be heard shortly thereafter in its entirety on the M.M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. I am Mike Hack. Welcome to the bonus show. And this will be the first of two bonus shows coming up over the next five or so days

because we're going to do a show on Monday as well because we figured, you know what? Ariel Hawani is working his ass off. It's taking a little time off. I believe it's a... It's a holiday for him today. And then Monday is Indigenous People's Day. So no MMA hour today, no MMA hour on Monday.

So we decided as a website, we're just going to do this show on those days just to give you a little something, something. But thank you for joining us on this Wednesday, starting a little bit later than we normally do, because technically it's my day off. And I had to get a workout in. I wanted to hit some golf balls, trying to do some returns at Walmart, which, is a friggin' nightmare, because no one's there to do returns. So it sucks.

But we have quite a bit to talk about. The highly anticipated Justin Gaichi interview that I've been teasing for a little over a week now, is now live on the M.A. Fighting YouTube channel, the first article, I wrote three of them, so I'm not stunned that the article that dropped it,

was the one that dropped today about his thoughts on Connor McGregor, which has gotten a lot of play. And I saw, I had somebody DM me basically saying they were kind of giving me crap for it. Like I was setting them up to say what he said about Connor and that I shouldn't even have asked him about Connor to begin with because it was just a quote colossal waste of time. And to that I say, all I did was say, we've had a conference. conversation amongst the team here that, and I know Jed Mishu has said this quite a few times, that he feels like a fight between Connor McGregor and Justin Gates. You'd be one of the most exciting fights on paper in UFC history because you have two guys

who just get after it. They want to have a short night at the office. The fight's probably not going to last 10 minutes. And it's just going to be a banger. Unbelievable banger. And that's all I asked him about was, do you see that fight? your future. Is that something you'd be interested in? The whole thing he said, the steroid stuff, that was all him. I didn't say, do you think Connor regrets on steroids? This is all stuff he offered

on his own. So what are we supposed to do? Just ignore that he said those things. So we did reach out to Conner's team to respond. They chose to just kind of shrug it off another day, another dollar. And there we go. So there's the response to that. But you can check out that interview. It's not just about fighting stuff. Someone else reached out and goes, why don't you ask about Rafael Fiziv? I did ask about Raphael Fiziv because there were reports out there

that he was offered a fight that the UFC was close to quote unquote finalizing a fight between Gaiji and Fiziv for December 10th. I told you a few times on this show that that was not wholly accurate. And I asked the man himself

if that was true and he said it wasn't. So he's never offered that fight because he told the UFC is not fighting this year. He just had no surgery. He hasn't even started training yet. So he's not going to fight until 2023. He's targeting potentially London because that's the fight between,

at least that's what it's looking like, when they do the trilogy fight between Leon Edwards and Kamara Usman. Gachi is, of course, teammates with Kamara Usman. Gaiji would love to fight in London. So maybe they do that fight there. Who knows? But Gachy pinpointed some of the opponents that sort of made sense to him.

Maybe the winner of Chandler Poirier. could do a rematch there with either guy. I'm sure no one would complain about that. Talked about the title fight, maybe fighting the loser of that. He mentioned, agreed maybe someone in the Benil Darius-Betouche-Gamrot realm, since those guys are fighting as well at UFC 280.

So there's a lot going on. Plus, it was not all fight talk. It was him teaming up with Modelo and doing some cool stuff in the Denver area, helping to renovate a gym in the area, which I thought was really cool. And yeah, so it was a good interview. I didn't have a lot of time with him,

and it wasn't just like me and Gaichi hooked up and we're like, hey, let's do an interview. No, this is put together by multiple people. So when we're doing the actual conversation, it wasn't just me and him in the chat. There were like five other people in there as well. So I only had a certain amount of time. I got what I could out of it.

And there you go. You can go check it out for yourself. We also got some other news that Kevin Holland retired, and then that retirement is just incredibly short-lived. Kevin Holland has put on a new meeting of MMA retirements. I thought Jed Mishu's retirement from BTL would be the shortest of all time. Turns out the shortest M.A. retire is Kevin Holland, because he is fighting Stephen Wonderboy Thompson in the main event of UFC Orlando.

And I told you that the Derek Bruns and Jackerbanson fight, while it might still take place on the card, it will probably not be the main event. And there you have it. Kevin Holland, not retired, fighting Wonderboy. And I got to say this, people talk about Kevin Holland and, you know, quote unquote, big mouth and things like that. That man is a freaking genius. Him, and I got to give his manager from KO. Reps or in Hodak some credit to those guys did a tremendous job with this entire thing. They got people talking. They got people not really believing it, but they had some people thinking about it.

That's for darn sure. Then he goes out on this podcast and said it needs to be something magical. And apparently Wonderboy is the magical name. So there you go. Five rounds, Orlando, Florida. And hopefully since I don't live too far from Orlando, Florida, perhaps I will be sent out to cover that event. That'd be great. My parents have a house not far from Orlando.

So I could stay with them. works out wonderfully. And that card's starting to come together as well. We just found out we reported a little while ago. Yasmin Uruguay is back. I know there's a lot of excitement behind her after her win at UFC San Diego. She's fighting Estella Nunes. And that card is starting to come together.

And one of the quick thing, a little bit of a tease, some planting of the seeds. I was telling you guys over the last week or so that we have some things in the works for UFC 280. And I can't tell you what it is yet, but I can tell you this. It's happening. It is happening.

It is a done deal. But I cannot tell you what it is just yet. But I will tell you this. You are going to love it. I am jacked up for it. I am fired up for it. And I can't wait for you guys to find out what we're going to do on October 22nd

because it's got a rule. And I'm very excited for it. So I see a lot of people lined up. Let's get to your calls. I have no really idea what we're going to do. I guess we're just going to take calls and do what we normally do here. So I'll kick things off with my best friend, Alexander Kaylee, because we were talking about the matchmaking for Patty Pimblet yesterday on the program,

AK and I had a conversation on onto the next one. I said, why don't we just do Patty Pimbleau versus Mike Davis? I like that idea. and at first I felt pretty good about that and I felt like people were on my side. We didn't have a lot of people weighing in out of yesterday, but I was keeping a tally and on this program more people were a yay than a nay.

I saw some other people, Crystal, also put out a poll. We were winning that poll and then I put a poll on M.AFinding.com and I got crushed. I got crushed. So let's bring in my best friend, AK Lee, A.K., I'm not going to say I'm wrong in that you're right, but I will say this. I have accepted a unanimous decision defeat.

I feel like you have won this battle. The numbers don't lie. The numbers don't lie, Mike. The last part of the show was kind of cut off there. I think when my audio came on, like, it cut you off. But yeah, I assume you were talking about the poll on M.A.fine.com. The educated readers of M.A.fine.com. The listeners, the listeners of the second of morning are also

esteemed crew and it is nice to be able to hear people's like explanations so that was great I mean I listen of course I listened to Tuesday show so you know getting to hear because we don't know what people are thinking when they click on the website it's literally they click one button they might just like hate Mike Davis when they might really love

Patty Pimble I don't know so we don't know their motivations but yeah the raw numbers were very favorable for the hashtag anyone but Mike crowd yes 72% no so before I We won't get to more of that. My best friend, thank you for blessing everyone with a bonus show and all the other additional

programming you're doing this week. I tell you, people wouldn't even, you know, you went on vacation, what, last week or two weeks ago? A couple weeks ago, yeah. I don't think people notice, not because they didn't miss you, because, like, you were still around and you're always just cranking out stuff. And, like, so even Mike Heck's vacation is like a, you know, a 60-hour work week for, is it, so I'm a 60-hour work week for anyone else. I don't know. The guy doesn't stop.

So, Mike, you know, I love you. But, yeah, I do want to touch upon that, of course, you know, my, it's, I don't think it's a dead issue. I think I think you're fine to support Mike Davis. But I will say the constant slagging of hashtag Tony Patty needs to stop because the fight has a lot more value than Mike Davis. People, we both like Mike Davis. We both think Mike Davis is legitimate, you know, could be a top 20 guy once he gets more active. could he has the skills i think to like fight for a ufc title someday like it would not shock me if someday he fights for a ufc title he's just really good really solid really good um but he just

doesn't have the value of a tony ferguson fight win or lose tony ferguson is actually ranked in the ufc still do you know that he's number 15 it's crazy and he's in our rankings he's even higher in the global rankings he's number 12 uh i think i don't think i'm one of people keep me up there i know I'll feel free to name names here because I don't think he'll feel bad about it. I think our own Shahi now Shaddy probably still has him pretty high, huge Tony guy.

I'd have to look at the ranks to see who else, but yeah, some people are still hanging on. And I understand why. Again, he's only lost to the best of the best. And again, he still has a lot of names. So that's why for me the Tony Ferguson fight makes a lot more sense. You kind of presented it as binary the other day, like, oh, we can either push him with squash matches

or we can have him take these big fights. But there's an in-between. And I think Mike Davis is in between in a bad way. I mean, he doesn't have that name value. He doesn't have that track record with the UFC yet. He just hasn't been busy enough, right? Like I think he hadn't fought since January 2021 or something, right? So he just doesn't have that name value.

So he's just in that weird in-between spot where if he beat Patty, it would just look bad for Patty. People don't know, like, your average, like, sort of mid-level M-A fan just doesn't know how good Mike Davis is. So they would just think he lost some guy like Mike Davis, who they've never heard of. If Patty beats them, I agree pretty big, usually for us and the media and who really follow closely.

But for most people, Mike Davis doesn't have, like he has the same name value as Jordan Levitt or Kuzula Vargas. They really just don't know who this guy is just because he hasn't been active. So that's the real danger of the Mike Davis fight is it's super high risk, and I think only medium to low reward. Like I would love it, it would like if he beat him. But I think losing to him, it gains nothing. losing to Tony is fine.

Tony is, again, former UFC interim champion, long-time lightweight contender. Again, your hardcore might be like, oh, that's really bad to lose to Tony today, but your mid-level fan is like, oh, yeah, it's Elkikoui. It's Tony Ferguson. Of course, he beats Patty Pimlin. So I'm totally defending that.

I won't back down on that. I don't think Mike Davis happens, but either way, I'm glad that people have spoken, both that heck of a morning and also on the website and, you know, tilting towards don't do the Mike Davis fight, so I'm happy to see that. Either way, Mike, it was a discussion worth having. And I want people to know, we are still best friends.

We are. And best friends are able to have a spat every once in a while. And in fact, I even invited AK to come on BTL tomorrow. And he will be there. And we're going to do something a little different on BTL tomorrow. We're not going to have a competition per se because we're about to hit a very intrical stretch for the UFC and for the sport. So we're just going to come, we're going to do a live roundtable, myself, Damon, and AK,

and we're going to do a sort of a final, sort of a, like a final chase for the year-end awards on M-Afighting.com. Like, who's in the lead, who still is a chance, what could change along the way. So we're going to discuss because I realize this coming up real quick and I haven't really thought about it. And there's some, there's some options out there that I'm just like, ooh, I haven't even really thought about that. So we're going to get the conversation rolling and we're going to have some fun in a different way tomorrow. I asked Jed to come on, but he's like, nope, I am retired.

I ain't coming on the show. But something tells me he'll be back. Let's go to Zeke. Zeke, are you there? Zeke, are you there? No, he's not. Let's try. We'll try that again later. How about Ebswalia? Maybe Ebswalia is here. He is. You know. You know. Good. Good. So I have a question about the Stephen Thompson, Kevin Holland's fight.

How do you see that fight playing out? And from my own analysis, I can see Holland winning. And I can see him, you know, slowly move out to the top 10. If he wins, where does he go on from there? If Holland wins, where does he go? Yeah, where does he go on from there. All right, cool. So let's see.

I'm looking at our rankings right now. So we have Wonderboy at number eight in our rankings. Let me see where the UFC has Wonderboy right now. The UFC has Wonderboy at number seven. So we're kind of on the same page with where Wonderboy is ranked. I like the matchup. I feel like I'm favoring Kevin Hollins because all, although Kevin is not the greatest defensive wrestler in the world,

he is a serviceable offensive wrestler. And I feel like if he needs to go that route, he can. And we've seen what happens when Wonder Boy is on his back. He has a hard time getting up. So if I'm Kevin Holland and it's all about just going out there and getting a win and climbing the rankings, I'd probably wrestle a little bit if I was him. But Kevin Holland is kind of a wild card.

and he might just go in there and strike with Wonderboy. And I think there's a good chance he could win that exchange as well. But we've seen Stephen Thompson in stand-up fights against really good strikers throw them off and do very well. The Vicente-Luke fight really stands out to me. We saw what happened after that fight for Vicente-Luke. He was just going out and finishing dudes left and right. And he had a tough time figuring out Wonderboy.

So this is, This is as good as it gets for Wonderboy, honestly, because they could have thrown him in there. You know, there were reports that there were talks about maybe throwing him in there with Shafkat Rahmanoff, which he obviously wasn't that interested in. I just feel like this is the best opportunity for Stephen. If he ever wants to get back to a title,

and I know he does want to get back to a title, he's got a ways to go, but if he beats Kevin Holland, that's a good win. Kevin's got some name value. right now. So, and if Kevin beats Wonderboy, this is a good situation for him, too. It becomes a top seven, top eight, welterweight in the world.

And if Kevin wins, maybe he gets, maybe gets like a Gilbert Burns. Maybe he gets, I know Sean Brady and Blahmahomber fighting. Maybe if Sean Brady wins, they can do Brady versus Holland. There's a lot of ways you can go, but it's a great fight. It's a much better made event than Derek Brunson versus Jay. Jack Hermanson, no disrespect to those guys, but we're trying to sell tickets to this bad boy, and I feel like they'll sell more tickets with this one headlining than Brunson-Hermanson. So, yeah, I like the fight.

It's a big one for both guys, and let it happen. We'll see where they go from here. I love the fight, and Kevin can't retire. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo. idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering

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Hey, Mike. How are you? Good. How are you? I'm good. Thanks for asking. So this question just came to me as I was like, listen to you, talk about like BTO and like UFCs coming up like landmark or what have you. And I don't think this is what you're talking about, but it made me think about November would be one year away from the 30-year anniversary. So what do you think they're going to do for a three-year anniversary? I know we like to say that they don't like to do fun things, but wouldn't that be the perfect opportunity for them to do throwback?

WEC, also, like, pride rules type thing, or just anything that they, like, strike force-type fights. Even, like, in Evict, even though they're not associated with Invitia anymore, but, like, they're, like, half of the cards, like, throwbacks to those, like, legends that were in Invicta. And then the last thing I want to do. want to ask you about, I kind of was asking other people, but nobody answered me. Do we know the definition of intelligently defending yourself?

Because the fight last week with, Jan, I know if you're talking about that fight, but there wasn't any, like, defending, like, once McKeevee got her on the ground, she was just basically just, like, trying to defend, defend, like, the tape, and I mean, not picked on, but the submission. So at what point, like, oh, you're not defending yourself, even though these are, you're not defending yourself, even though these are rabbit punches, you take them like 50 of them already and those add up. Are we just going to like, oh, those don't look like they hurt, so we're just going to let it keep going. Like, as certain ref will let you keep going into certain refs, like,

well, you need to defend yourself. They'll at least say something. This one didn't say anything at all. So do we know the definition of intelligently defending yourself by like rest standards? That's all. Thank you. Thanks, man. So, I mean, in that situation, the punches, I mean, the punches were landing. And I said multiple times that if McKenzie just kept punching over and over again until the fight was over, she might have gotten her out of there. But she stopped punching. And she was landing like small shots.

She was really looking for the submission. But I think if she really opened up striking and just tried to get her out of there in that sense, she might have had, she might have done it. But Jan was defending. I mean, she was getting her arm up. She's blocking some of the shots. McKenzie only got credit for like six or seven significant strikes in the fifth round, which I thought was kind of odd.

I thought she learned a little bit more than that. But, I mean, if she's just sitting there getting punched in the face over and over again and she's not moving her arms trying to block anything, then you're not really intelligently defending yourself. So basically, it's just if you can't move around, if you're not trying, it just didn't seem like the ref didn't really need it to get in there that much because McKenzie sort of stopped punching. She would land like four or five short strikes.

Jan would get her guard up a little bit and get her arm in the way. And then McKenzie just stopped striking. She just was looking for the submission and looking for the arm. She worked on that arm for a while. So I think McKenzie just kind of postured up and just started on loading as hard as she could over and over again. She might have gotten her out of there, but she chose not to do that. And she lost the fight. I thought it was a draw, but again, I haven't gone back and watched it,

and I'm probably not going to it for being honest, but it's, uh, yeah, there's different examples. I didn't think the referee needed to go crazy on that one just because McKenzie, it seemed like the ref was looking a little closer at it, but then she just stopped punching. So didn't really need to get to that, to that point. Let's go to William. Hello, William.

How's gone? All as well. First and foremost, all respect to the man. Happy birthday, AK. And then I have two thoughts for you, and I'm a little scatterbrain, so I hope I don't get on your nerves with this. Yesterday I called in, and we talked about Bo Nickel in his stance on not wanting to fight on prelims. Because when you go to Tapalogy, as you mentioned, it looks like the card's pretty firmed up. I know Jerry and Glover is still like an unconfirmed thing, and we all.

know UFC can change anything at a drop of a hat, but I wanted to know, did you see his tweet last night kind of backing down from that stance? And how much of an impact do you think you and I's conversation had on that? I mean, let's be honest, Mike, you know he's listening to you. And then the second thing, I hope I can, you know, keep these ducks in a row, a couple weeks ago I called in and asked about Eddie Alvarez, because at that time, we hadn't heard anything about him. He was still with one. he wasn't fighting. It just seemed like everything was in the dark. Since then, obviously, he's gone on Ariel Hawani show,

and he's kind of put it out there what he's looking at. Where do you think he will end up landing in regards to Bellator, UFC, PFL? What do you think is most realistic? Thanks, Mike. Thanks, man. So to answer the second question, I would favor PFL. I just think they're going to have more money to spend in this situation. but now that they're doing this,

now that Bellator is doing this lightweight Grand Prix, I think Bellator is going to take a shot at him. I don't think the UFC is going to be an option because it seems like, you know, Eddie's not, Eddie feels like the next contract he's going to sign is going to be his last one. So I feel, I don't think the UFC's going to pony up the kind of money he thinks he deserves.

I think the PFL will. I think Bellator will get close. So I'm going to say, and I believe Eddie's going to start talking to people. I think he said it was this week. He was going to start having conversations. So I would say it's between those two. I don't think the UFC is going to be in play. I know that if he had his druthers, he would fight Chandler a third time.

And I would love to watch that. I just don't think the UFC is going to pay Eddie Alvarez what he wants to be paid for this final contract. So if it's about money and it seems to be the motive in a lot of ways, I think PFL is going to give him the most opportunity. But if he jumps into this Bellator Grand Prix, there's usually a million dollar prize at the end of that as well. So it's going to be between the two of them. It's going to be between the two of them.

But if I'm Eddie and I'm looking at the divisions and the path to that million dollars, you have to think the path is a little easier with the PFL than it is a Bellator. So I think it'll be the PFL. I think it'll be the PFL. The Bo Nickel thing, like I said yesterday, I think Bo kind of, people just throw prelimbs willy-nilly. But when you look at the pay-per-view,

like the prelims are different. There's the early prelims, which is on ESPN Plus, it's on FightPass. Not a, I mean, people will watch, but not a ton of people tune into those. then there's the middle prelims, which I think is a very valuable spot to fight on because it's on ESPN.

Sometimes they put those on ABC. You're going to get more people watching you on ESPN, especially if you're the featured prelim. You're going to get more people watching you on ESPN than on the pay-per-view. It's just the way that it is. And typically those numbers come out as close to like a million people are watching

the featured prelim, and then they go to pay-per-view, and those numbers diminish because not everybody has $75 bucks to spend every single month. So if I'm the UFC, I mean,

I'm looking at this card right now. Lawler's probably going to be on the main card. Darren Till's probably going to be on the main card. This is probably, I mean, this is probably going to be a main card fight. This will probably be the one that opens up the main card. Santiago, Robbie, Till DDP.

Then you could do Nickel Pickett first fight on the main card. And then whatever they're going to do for a main event, if they're going to do Yuri Glover on that card. Again, we don't know. We don't know what's happening

with the heavyweight division. We don't know what's happening with Francis. We don't know anything. So it's kind of up in the air. To say that Prahashka, to share is a done deal for that card is just not accurate at this time. So, and who knows,

that maybe they'll go a different route with the main event. Maybe they'll do, like I had said yesterday, maybe they'll do Colby versus Hamza. Who knows? But no, I don't think, I don't think our conversation

anything to do with that. Although I feel like the show has helped, what the show has done, I feel, is we have helped fights that should have been on main cards for fight nights, get the bump up to the main card. But I don't know if,

I don't know if they cared as much about pay-per-view. I'm just joking about that. I don't think the UFC cares what we have to say, but I feel like we made an impact anyways. Zeke, what's up? I mean, it's impossible to not make an impact on such a fantastic fighting network, MMA Fighting Network.

Mike, how are we on this fantastic Tuesday? Interesting day to hear from you. Yes, yes it is. I got two for you. I got two for you. First thing, first, of course. Mighty mouth, Big Math. Kevin Holland, not retired.

You, you know, you went into it a little bit. I kind of want to attack a little bit more how you broke it down, however. Do you actually think Kevin Holland will go on the offensive wrestling? I think he likes to play the hero, you know what I mean? Literally and figuratively in that moment in time. With that being said, I think he's going to give Stephen Thompson everything he's been begging for. Maybe five rounds, if this is the main event, it seems to be in Orlando, of just on the feet, fantastic striking, which would be an absolute disaster.

for Kevin Holland's MMA career and the outcome of that fight in my opinion, which I think Stephen Thompson is a better striker. But what do I know? We did get a blessing from A.K. Lee earlier. Happy birthday, A.K. Lee. Everybody used to get me on that. That felt awesome. Secondly, Frankie Edgar, something me and A.K. Lee cherish and, you know, we hold near and dear to our hearts. Hopefully we get them at MSG. Who knows? If we do get them at MSG, I went down that lightweight rankings. Oh my God, that lightweight ranking is a, it's a firework show. Like,

I don't even want Frankie honestly to fight anybody in the top 15. In the beginning, I heard Ricky Simone whispers. I'm not hearing that anymore. What about like a Renato Morcano or a, I don't know, just somebody like right outside of that top 20. So Frankie could get that hand raised at MSG one last time, run off into the sunset on those horses like he deserves and everybody's happy. Mike, have yourself a heck of a week. Thank you for having me. No problem.

Zeke, I think you're confusing two divisions here, lightweight and bantam weight. Moikano is a lightweight. Moikano is fighting Brad Riddell on that card. So, yeah, so that won't happen. I don't know what's going on with, Frankie. Like, it appears, because I know he's got a podcast with that dude, Roger Matthews, who was famously known for,

being J.WOW's boyfriend on the Jersey Shore. They have like a very tight relationship and they do a podcast together. And one of the teases that I saw on Instagram for their latest show is that Frankie is getting prepared for his fight on November 12th. But I don't, I haven't listened to the entire show. It doesn't mention an opponent or anything like that. Nothing's been announced by the UFC. So I feel like Ricky would actually be an okay choice here.

honestly. I don't love it, but I feel like it would be an okay choice. Let me look at our rankings here. Yeah, I just don't, I mean, maybe Dominic Cruz, but I don't know if Cruz's going to bounce back for that. Let me look at the UFC rankings and see what they got going on.

I mean, if they want to run it back with Pedro, I wouldn't have any issue with that. I don't want to see Adrian Yanez. Although that would be great for Adrian. Yeah, I kind of feel like Ricky is the guy. If they can't get Dominic Cruz, I feel like Ricky Simone's the guy. And I don't think Frankie's going to win that fight, but I think Frankie is competitive in that fight.

I don't want to see him fighting like Umar or the Yanaz one. I actually think he'd do okay in the Yanaz one, but there's always that potential he gets brutally knocked out. I feel like there's that potential somewhat with Ricky Simone, but I think Ricky, I think Ricky would just be a fun fight. A lot of scrambles, a lot of wrestling. Ricky can strike.

He's a super duper athlete. But I feel like that's the right one. I feel like if it's not Dominic Cruz, if it's not Pedro Munoz, I'm cool with Ricky. I'm cool with Ricky. But again, they haven't said anything. We're getting close.

We're a little over a month away from that card. So hopefully we get something soon. Maybe we'll find out next Saturday when they have their next fight night card. Let's go to Octagon Blog. Good. I'm doing fine. I have something about the fight between Charles and Islamakshayev where I'm going. To me, it's a little bit strange.

Charles is a champion, and they put him in a fight in Abu Dhabi. And on the other side, you have Yiri Prohaska, who's going to fight. fight probably away from home against Glover. How do you think about a home advantage for a champion in the UFC? Just in general, I just giving you two examples. Charles is fighting in Abu Dhabi, and Yeri will fight somewhere in America or in Brazil. Thank you and good luck. Thanks, man. So the Yeri one is kind of interesting because they just don't really go to the Czech Republic all that much. And, I mean, maybe they'll go kind of, I don't know, maybe they'll go in the next year or so,

but it's not going to happen for this fight. I know the Brazil thing was talked about, so it'd be kind of tough for him to go to Brazil as the away team, but maybe he eats that stuff up. Maybe he eats that stuff up. So if they do it in Vegas, I don't think it's really, I think it's a neutral ground for both guys. And if you want to kind of throw out, I mean, Singapore isn't a hometown fight for Yuri,

but Yuri has a following there. Yuri has a following in the Asia market so it's kind of the same I don't know I don't if it's in Vegas I don't have an issue with that the Abu Dhabi thing I yeah because we have to remember maybe in our hearts and in our minds

Charles Olivera is the lightweight champion but officially he is not the lightweight champion officially there is no champion right now the belt is vacant because of the weight miss for the Justin Gachi Gachi fight so this fight at UFC 280 is for the vacant lightweight

title. So Oliver is not the champion. He's not defending his title on like enemy territory or anything. He's not the champ. So I don't have a real issue with that. And this is why I feel like Connor McGregor is in play

for Charles Oliver. I feel like Connor's in play. Because Oliver, you could do Oliver Maccheeff anywhere as a main event and no one's going to complain about it. It's going to sell out any arena that it's going to be at. It just so happens to be in Abu Dhabi where the government is paying the UFC an F ton of money

to put on the biggest cards possible. Alvara said yes. He's kind of not in that's just more we're at right now. So I don't have an issue with either. I don't know if Gary ends up fighting in Brazil. My gut tells me that will be the 282 headliner, Again, we don't know. There's too many unknowns at the moment.

But Oliver is not the champion right now, so he doesn't really have a lot of say in the matter. Let's go to Dom. And then we'll go to Patrick and then we'll go to a hit. Dom, what's up? Yeah, hey man. Fast forward, like I say, Paddy, Tony, like that fight. Also interested in what you think.

If Charles comes through Islam at 280, what's next for him there? Is it Volk stepping up from featherweight to fight Charles If so, how do you see that fight going? I think, like I just said, I think he's going to push for Connor. He's going to push for Connor. That's the fight he wants. He wants that red panty night.

So I think he's got to push really hard for that one. And I don't think the UFC is going to frown upon it. It all depends on when Connor's ready to come back. And it all depends on if Oliver wants to fight in Brazil or if he wants to wait a little while and fight April, May of next year. year. But I think Conner's in play for sure.

And Volks in play as well. Volks in play as well. It's tough. I mean, it also depends on what happens with the Darius Gamrott fight.

It all depends what happens with the Chandler-Porye fight. I think they would, if Chandler beats Porre, it wouldn't be the most shocking revelation if they just went back and ran those two dudes back because you could build the story that Chandler was seconds away from

from winning the title and he was. Chandler stayed on his feet and kept punching instead of taking the fight to the ground, he might be the champion right now. So, yeah, a lot of these divisions are just kind of jumbled up right now. It's crazy. Let's go to average avenues.

AA, what's up? Good, how are you? I just want to, first of all, So good job on the Gatchy interview. That was really, really good. Secondly, I know the answer to this question, but I had nothing else, so I'm going to ask it anyway. In a good story, whether it be fictional or building a storyline in sports,

you have your hero and you have your villain. UFC 280. Al J. Dillard. Who there? Which one is which? Like, seriously. Who's the hero who's the villain? Anyway, have a good day.

Who's the hero? Who's the villain? I think Aljo is, I mean, it's probably Aljo in this sense. I think Aljo got some of that mojo back at UFC 273 when he beat Piotrion. I think he got some of that back. I gave a lot of credit to Al Jermain Sterling for how he handled that fight week. because I have come out and said many times prior to that fight week,

I was like intrigued by the rematch between Jan and Sterling, but I wasn't like all that fired up for it because it just felt like Jan was the better fighter. And as soon as Media Day rolled around and we saw Al Jermaine Sterling and he said what he had to say, answered the question,

questions, he sold me on the fight. And then he had some fun at the press conference with all the props and everything. And then the performance happened and he shot a lot of people up. So I think Aljo is probably going to be the quote unquote baby face. TJ will be kind of the heel, but it's not like, it's not like Aljo is, it's like Aljo's just engaging in this situation. Aljo's just, I think the fan base is just like, eh, we'll just kind of tolerate Al Jermaine more

because Dillashaw has that, you know, the positive test and the suspension just attached to him and there's nothing he could do about that. And I just never really understood all the negativity towards Al Jermaine Sterley. I didn't really understand it. The dude got need in the face illegally. He won the title by the rules.

everyone's telling him to lean into it. He did, and now everyone was booing him for it. It's just, it was, the whole thing's just kind of strange to me. So probably Aljo gets the baby face rub, but not by a ton. 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. Gold tenders, 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-Training Treadplus at OnePeloton.ca. Let's go to Caleb. Caleb, are you there? All right, try again, Caleb. Let's go to... Let's bring in Viking MMA. I know he's been waiting for the Justin Gaci interview to drop, and it did. Viking, what's up, man?

Viking. How are you, Mike? Good. How are you? I'm good. I just want to apologize for my yesterday's behavior. I was in a really crowded place. A lot of people were there.

And then I spoke in appropriate English. I'm really sorry about that. My question and my question was Mike. Ariel and McLaren were speaking about boxing and how it's on such a high level has a lot of followers. Fighter gets unbelievable money.

And so what he meant was that Rocky movie helped boxing to gain much more followers and boxing got so much followers after that movie. So UFC or MMA community needs that kind of movie to spread worldwide. How relevant is that statement? Just think that someone else, just think that someone else said that not McLaren,

and that was my question last night. And my other question is, I was listening to Binel Darius last night, and he said that if Vox won't to keep both belts, he has to fight every three months, so he has to strip one belt for that. So which belt he has to vacant, in your opinion,

if Alexander Volkanowski becomes the double champ, which I think it's impossible? But what if he wins the both belts? Which title he has to awaken, to feel comfortable or to fight comfortably? Thank you, Mike. That's a good question. I think Volk is going to try to keep both belts,

but if he can't, I mean, he'll probably get rid of the 45 title. I think the bigger fights for him are at 155. The bigger names are at 155. The bigger draws are at 155. The more interesting matchups are 155. And I know Jed has gone on record many times to say he hates the fact that Volcanowski's going to go up to 155

and try to be a double champ. He's fine with Volt going up, but it's kind of the same feeling that if you're going to do that, just dump the featherweight title and just go all in at 155. Like you still get in the the annals the record books as a guy who won titles in two different divisions But at least we're not holding up 145 we can move forward we can crown a new champion and

The beat goes on the Campbell thing now I get to to hear the question Yeah, I mean like Rocky definitely helped out boxing there's no doubt about it but we also have to remember like it's it was a whole different world back then there was no social media there was no internet there was no there's no none of the stuff that we have right now so at that point like that movie was just massive and most people had televisions and most people had access to ABC and other networks that were showing boxing all the time and those ABC cards had some huge names on them so when we talked about the UFC going to ABC and sort of the historical significance behind it because of ABC and combat sports and the two coming together, it's a very big deal.

And of course, the Rocky movie helps gain followers for boxing. I just don't know if there's an MMA type of movie out there that can do the same because you don't really need it now. It's just a whole different world where everything is so easily accessible. It's not like people could go watch Rocky and be like, oh, let me go to YouTube and watch old Muhammad Ali fights or go watch Joe Frazier or George Foreman or anything like that. Like, didn't have that.

It was just we went to the movies, we saw it, and then we're flipping through the channels and ABC has boxing on, oh yeah, I watched us on Rocky. And it made him more interesting. And it's just a different world where I can go watch any MMA fight that I want to right now at the click of a button. You didn't have that back then. So, yeah, it was huge.

I just don't know if there's, there's a movie that could do that for it now. Like, there's been some decent MMA martial arts, fighting movies, like Warriors pretty good. And there's others, but I just don't know if MMAs,

I just don't know if we're going to get anything quite like that now, or if it's even needed. I don't think, you know just i i think just there's just enough people out there with social media presence that put the sport over that will have just the same impact like no matter how you feel about ufc vegas 61 we zucked you it was having zuckerberg there was actually pretty smart because everybody was talking about it everybody in the sport out of the sport writing about it I know Michael Bisbing talked about

Michael Bisbing and Anthony Smith talked about Zuckerberg's presence there and how it's kind of important in their eyes because Michael Bisbin called him an effing nerd but he's also a tech genius and if we can get people from that world watching MMA, it only helps grow the audience. So I think just having celebrities get involved

and those kinds of people getting into the sport and sort of giving their seal of approval for, their stamp of approval. That's just as impactful as Connor McGregor joining Jake Gyllenhaal in Roadhouse in putting the sport over or Warrior, any of those other movies that have come out about MMA.

So that's my thoughts. But it is an interesting question, though, but you're not wrong about the impact Rocky had on boxing. Toke, what's up, man? But I just wanted to briefly say MMA retirements. Kevin Holland is back, which is nice against the Wonderboy, which is the matchup we wanted all along.

So now we got that, which is nice. And then I wasn't here yesterday. So I was just thinking about the Patty Pimplet talk that you all had. And how hard do you want me to go in on you here? Because you have two ways to go about it with Patty Pimplet. Either you get him a highlight reel by going against, going into winnable matchups, or you jump him up in competition and in name value. What you did with your Mike Davis idea is you went way up in difficulty, but not

of name value. So what we're doing here is not building a name. We're not really helping Patty by doing this. We're just, we're kind of just going into the middle of nowhere with the, that booking. I hate everything about it. I think it's wrong. I think you go gradually upwards with a name like Ludov Klein, like I wrote in tweet. Like, you know, that seems more like we're not going up in name value, but not massively up in experience either. So that's fine. But either you go full Tony Ferguson mode or you go gradually incline.

And you didn't either of those with your pick. So I'm just going to say that's a do-do pick, sir. Good day to you. I love how you come on here, Tocke, and you call my pick do-do. And then I'm waiting for you to come up with this compelling idea that can change face and change the trajectory of Patty Pimbled. And the name you come up with is Ludovit Klein. Are you shitting me?

It's like exactly the same. It's like exactly the same. They're both ranks like, right around the same. What are we talking about here? It's exactly the same thing. But my idea is actually better because guess who's going to get more of a rub from beating Patty Pimbley? Mike Davis, not Ludwig Klein? Not Ludwig Klein. You think Ludwig Klein is going to become a star if he beats Patty Pimbleau? No. Mike Davis at least has a really super interesting story. The dude has had, he's got run over by a freaking car. That's why he's a

He had so many long layoffs. This guy has been through hell. His road to the octagon every time is that a long one. People get to hear his story. I don't give a shit about building Patty Pimbled. I don't care about that. Patty's

anywhere between the 10th to 15th biggest star in the company right now. He doesn't need the rub. He doesn't need to fight Tony Ferguson. He's a big, he's a star. He's a star. He's a star. a star already. People go to UFC London, not for

the main events. They go to watch freaking Patty Pimbleau fight. Patty's a star. Patty gets Patty's up there. We don't need to give him any more of a rub. What we're doing with the Mike Davis thing is, okay, Mike's got an interesting story. We want people to hear it. And we

think this guy's pretty good. So if he beats Patty, he gets a nice rub off of that and they could build something with him. That was my suggestion. Now, if you want to go to the squash match route with Patty, I'm fine with that. I'm totally fine with that. If they book him against a guy who lost on the contender series next for UFC 282, I'm fine with that. I'm cool with it. But we have to decide what we're going to do. And to counter Mike Davis with Ludwig Klein,

oh my Lord, it's exactly the same thing, except mine's way better. But who knows, Ludwig Klein? Get out of here with that. I love you, Toke. Let's go to Mosa. Mosa, you there. Unmute, Mousa. Hi, Mike. How are you doing? Good. How are you?

Thank you for the Gaji interview. I liked it, but I have a couple questions about it. It was about Gigi wanting to fight either the winner of Chandler and Dustin or the loser of the title fight. But on the same time, a couple of days ago, we have seen Tsarukian getting booked against Smagulov. We are seeing the new generation beating each other, but the old ones are always the same and fighting each other.

And they don't have the chance because I see Gamruth being Tarukian was a close decision, and Gamroth was arguably undefeated because even when, Guram defeated him, he said on the microphone that he lost. And now you have Esmagalov, which also a beast coming up, what do you think we should do with a lightweight division as well? Do you think the promotion doesn't want any young champions anytime soon? And the second thing is about Connor McGregor next fight. what kind of fight would you like him to see?

Because we have seen in the last years that the guy who beats Connor always gets a very big hype and gets a very big as a star. We have seen Diaz and Kabib. Okay, they were stars, but they are not as big as when they beat Connor. So I think the best way for the promotion is to put him against a guy which he can beat. and at the same time, if he lost two, he's your new guy for the next couple of years. Thank you, Mike.

Yeah, I mean, again, you can put McGregor against anybody and it's going to do a million buys. I think we also have to remember McGregor doesn't have a ton left on his UFC deal, so they have to be kind of careful with how they do it. So it wouldn't stun me if they put him in a title fight, especially if Oliver beats Mockachev. I want to see the Gachie fight. Like, I think that would be massive. And guess what? McGregor can win that fight.

McGregor can beat Justin Gachie. It's a 50-50 fight in my eyes. I think it's a really exciting fight. I think Gachy's a little more elusive, but it's those two are just going to crack each other over and over again until somebody falls. Like, that's a great fight. I would love to see that one.

I don't know what they're going to do with them. I honestly have no idea. Gachi stands out. Mazadol stands out if you want to do something there. I don't have an issue with that one. It wouldn't stun me if they gave him a title shot, although the meritocratic side of me thinks it's so super stupid to do that. But if Oliver wants that, if he beats,

if Oliver beats his Lamachev and he wants to fight Connor and Connor wants to fight him and Connor comes back before the summer next year, give Charles the friggin' fight. Just give it to him. I have no issue with it. But the meritocratic side of me is kind of shrugs it off. Like, all right, I think we understand what's going on here. And then the other part of it, I mean, it's been the problem that lightweight for a long time now.

We have a lot of the top names, a lot of the top draws are just kind of hanging out and coming off losses. Some have already fought for the title and gotten finished. But, I mean, at least Gamrod is getting baniel. it's not Gamrod getting Chandler, but at least we're starting to see some kind of movement there. And if they want to do Fizzi versus Gaichi sometime next year, I'm fine with that. Like that's a great fight.

That fight makes a ton of sense to me. But it's just, I don't know what the UFC is going to do. It's just, we have to kind of wait until after November 12 or whatever to kind of get a little more clarity because we'll have results of the title fight. We'll have a new champion. We'll have the Darius Gamrott winner. Hopefully. We'll have the Chandler-Porier winner, hopefully,

and we can go from there and try to matchmake after that. But, yeah, I mean, that's been a big problem at Lightway for a while now, where some of the guys who have lost for the belts but are bigger names are just fighting each other. we have this young hungry whippersnappers that are on their way up i can't wait to see what this division looks like at the beginning of like 2024 that's what i'm really excited about we see sirukyan up in the top five and fazeve and gamrod and isma guloff will be close to that point and and some of these other guys as well at 155 i mean it's just it's just such a good

division but Jalen Turner and other guy I mean there's just there's so many and there's there's other guys behind them Claudia Puez Grant Dawson and more so this division is going to look vastly

different two years from now but unfortunately we just have to be a little bit patient for these openings to happen and I don't think it's going to be happening anytime soon if we're being honest but I get where you're coming from Tristan hello. Hey Mike How are you doing? How's everything?

I want to talk about this. This is very interesting. So Bo Nica was speaking to Ariel Hwani on the Emmy hour on Monday. And one of the things that really was interesting is he talked about he wants to leave a lasting impact on the sport in the sense of he wants to make MMA or the UFC more professional in a sense of how fans talk about MMA. He wants it where fans, he wants to wear fans to get out the saying of,

well, oh, this guy has sick Brazilian jih Tjitsu or this guy, oh, did you see that knockout, things of that nature, and wants us, and wants a lot of the fans to speak it in a way in a more intellectual manner in a sense of like how we talk about the NFL, MLB, and all the major sports. And I think at,

great. I would love it. Oh, my God, I would love it so much. But I don't know if he's being realistic or understanding that this, MMA is totally different. It's just the way it's set up. It's just totally different. You can't. And, you know, the casuals talk the way, you can't force the person the way to speak about MMA, just like a hardcore one where they're looking at the intricacies of like, okay, why did this happen? Why did this person happen? Like you said the other day, as an MMA media member, you look towards the headlines. You're not an ex and those guy. But you're not an ex and those guy, but, you know, you do try to get coaches, right?

Hey, I mean, let me speak to Tyson Charteneer. Let me speak to Sayyud. Let me speak to Henry Hoof. Let me speak to these coaches here to get me to understand what happened here. Why did this happen? Intellectually, what happened in the game plan? That's something went wrong for them to lose and how they could get better from it. So it was very interesting when he said that.

I think that great idea, that's a great idea. And I don't know, listen, I'm assuming here, I don't know in the back of Bo Nichols' mind if he's thinking about trying to push for unionizing the MMA. But, I mean, maybe when he gets to that point, if he gets to the point where he is pound for pound, a pound for pound ranking, and where he's out to the point where he has the belt

and then he has more leverage and more power to try to get to that point. But I just don't think it's going to work, if he thinks it's trying to compare it to, well, I want to get it to be like how the NBA, how NFL and baseball, well, we all know what that has to be, you have to unize and get certain protections and things that nature.

Not only that, and then if you really want to do it, you got to get rid of USADA, and then we do Olympic style testing. Just the way GSP try to do it, but GSP should try to get a style, but you couldn't do it. It's just, it's not set up.

It's not, damn it. UFC is not set up that way. That's why we always say it's never going to happen because it's not going to happen. It's just not going to be set up that way. So I don't know if he's being, listen, you know, maybe I'm assuming here or whatever, but maybe I misinterpreted what he said.

But, you know, reading it over and over, it sounds like that's the way he's going. So I just want your thoughts on that, his mindset, what he had to say specifically on that trying to make MMA more professional. And then my other point, I'm hearing rumors here. Again, I'm not sure.

I'm just hearing rumors. I could be totally wrong. As always, if it's not confirmed by any fighting, then it's not really happening. But there is, we saw, I was hearing that Evalov got hurt.

I don't know. I don't, maybe he got hurt, but he's able to overcome and still have that fight with Bryce Mitchell happening, I guess, believe, on November 5th or so.

You know, so I was hearing that he got hurt and he's out for the fight and then UFC was looking towards Elias Soporio versus Bryce Mitchell either on October 29th or November 5th just want some clarity on that what you're hearing again I could be wrong totally on that so just your thoughts on those two things that I just described Mike have a happy morning thanks for everything thanks man yeah I have to be honest with you I did not watch the Bo-Nickel interview with Ariel there's just a lot

going on. So what will we when we are working during the M.A.R., we each kind of pick an interview to write up. My interview was Ben Rothwell. So I was watching Big Ben and

talk about the BKFC knockout and stuff of that nature. So I haven't seen the Boe-Nichol stuff. So I'll go back and watch it and all the better answer later on this week. Apparently my dog is mad that I didn't watch the Bo-Nickle interview. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't watch the Bo-Nickle interview, okay?

Damn, Shiloh. Good Lord. The other thing I do have insight on, I saw the report that Mavzar Vloyaf was injured during training, and that was pretty much the report.

I reached out to people close to the situation. One person told me they haven't heard anything about the fight being canceled, and then one person close to Vloyaf told me that the report is, quote, not false, but he's fine. He's going to be fine, and he's fighting, as of now he's fighting.

So that's what I heard. This person who confirmed that he's fine has no reason to lie to me. So I, of course, reached out when I saw that report. I was told it was not false, but he's going to be fine. So I think we're going to be good to go for that fight. So there you go.

I guess William wants to tag back one more time. And then, Terrence, I'm going to answer your other question in a second. I just saw your comment. William, what else you got? So, boom roasted. Also, thank you for the opportunity. Being on twice today makes me the official heck of a morning fighting question club championships double champ. I can't thank you enough for the opportunity, Mike.

It means a lot to me. Speaking of being cringy, Henry Suhudo. Oh, God, no, you did. It's about that time. It is about that time. Do you have anything, anything at all about Henry Suhudo and how soon we will see him? I was hoping, I mean, we have had a nice little stretch without that name coming up on this program. I'm not going to go off of my normal Henry Suhudo diatribe about him having the worst retirement in the history of combat sports and one of the worst retirements in the history of all of major sports.

No, I have nothing. Because you know what? He's not fighting. He's not going to fight. He's not fighting. And this is not me like being a reporter. This is me just being a realist. He's not fighting.

Who's he going to fight? He's not fighting for the Bannamway title. He's not fighting for the Featherweight title. Who's he going to fight? Is he going to fight Marab? No, he's not going to fight Marab. What's he going to do? I just don't think he's fighting.

I don't think he's fighting. And at this point, I don't think anybody cares whether he fights or not. I think Henry Suhudo is a great person. He's a great human being. I've gotten to meet him a couple of times. He's a nice guy. His resume speaks for itself. It's spectacular.

He's a tremendous fighter, tremendous competitor. He retired at the absolute wrong time, and he did it in just the worst possible way. and now he's saying he's coming back because he thinks he's this giant superstar and he's not the sport moved on without him the division moved on without him and Bandaway has flourished without him

I hope he fights like I really do I would love to live in a world where he fights Marlon Vera that's the fight I've been screaming for for a while if you want to tell the world that you are ready to come back You go fight Cheeto. And if you fight Cheeto, I will come on this show and I will praise you for it. Go fight that guy.

And if you beat him, then you get to fight for the belt. But you ain't sliding into a title fight. You're not. You're not. Nobody cares. Nobody cares until you actually get in there and fight some money. And until that day, I don't believe he's fighting. I don't believe he's fighting.

until he actually steps in there with somebody. Ain't going to be an easy fight. He's going to have to fight Marab or he's going to have to fight Cheeto or somebody like that. Go fight Rob Fon next year. I'm fine with that too. Just go fight somebody. Show us that you actually want to come back. Show us that you actually want to be a champion and show us that you're serious.

The fact that you're in the USADA testing pool is cool, but that doesn't prove to me that you actually want to fight. get in there and book a fight fight that person and then if you win go fight for the belt go fight for whatever belt you want I don't care

but you have to fight somebody and once that happens I will believe it I was the same boat about Nick Diaz me and Jed talked about it all the time until Nick Diaz walks down to the octagon the cage door shuts

and the referee says fight I didn't believe Nick Diaz was coming back. But then I saw it and I was like, all right, I guess he's back. And Henry Sohudo has officially made that page of my book until he actually walks to the octagon and the referee says fight and the clock, the Modelo sponsored fight clock starts ticking away. I ain't buying it.

I don't believe it. I hope I'm wrong. I want to see him fight, but I just don't think he is. Prove me wrong, Henry. Prove me wrong. And I went to International Fight Week, and I was really hoping I got the chance to interview him.

He was on the list for Radio Row, and it never came to be. But damn it, I tried, and it just didn't happen. Because I would love to talk. No one's asking these questions. I would love to ask him these questions. Because I like Henry. Henry, the person is great.

Henry, the gimmick. is not doing anything for himself right now. He's just not. And it drives he crazy because I just don't know what this division would look like if he didn't retire in such a strange, nonsensical way. Because he ain't getting what he wants.

They weren't going to pay him Connor money. It's just not going to happen. He was on the cusp of getting to that place. He's probably two wins away from getting to that place he thinks he's at. And then he left. And the UFC was like, huh? And you want to know the UFC responded to that?

They put Pieterian in a vacant title fight the same night after he retired. They moved on. Data White moved on from Henry's retirement two hours later at the post-fight press conference. He said, we're just going to put Pieterian in a title fight against whoever. And he's going to fight for the belt. They didn't care. They didn't care. But I would like to see him fight against.

Let me answer Terrence's other question. The 30-year anniversary thing, I don't know, man. What I would like to see them do, and I wish, like, the 30th anniversary took place in December. Because what I would like to see them do is, like, because first of all, they're not going to do the WEC thing. They're not going to do the Strike Force thing. They're not going to do the Invictor thing. What I would like to see them do is whether it happens in July or happens in December, I mean, even if you want to do in November, if you want to do it in, New York, but I don't think they would because it'd be a lot of red tape there.

I'd like to see them just for this, not all the time, but for the 30th anniversary, let's do, let's do what we used to do for International Fight Week. Let's treat it like WrestleMania Week, where this is the mecca for mixed martial arts. We're going to have UFC 290, whatever, and then we're going to have like a fight night before that. maybe we do a contender series event that week. You just make it like a whole fun week of fights and fight events. And then other promotions can come in and like find places sort of local.

And then they can do their own thing as well. And we just have like a super fun MMA week. I would love to see that. Like I would love to see that for every international fight week. Like it's not just the UFC, but let's have Bellator and let's have PFL come in. and there's multiple casinos, there's multiple places, there's multiple other venues where you can have cards, and we can just get all the fans together.

I think that's just such a cool idea. One can do an event. It doesn't have to be in Vegas, but somewhere within driving distance. Like, that's the kind of stuff I want to see. And I would love, like, if I had the book for this 30th year anniversary thing, I would do like a couple of fun, five-fight cards. Let's get the Strike Force vets in there.

Let's do a WEC show, like on Thursday. or something. And let's just like do a five-fight card. It doesn't have to be a 13-fight card. Let's just have some fun. But you know what? The UFC doesn't like to have fun. They don't like to have fun.

They put on fights. They're killing it. Their business is unbelievable. But when it comes to like out-of-box fun ideas, it just don't have them. And it stinks. I'd love to see this like WEC tribute show. Unfortunately, the Strike Force things,

there's not many of the Strike Force vets left. but if they want it like a wc thing would be awesome like cum swanson's talked about it all the time him and your riah favor headlining like a wc throwback show would be awesome who wouldn't want to watch that and you can get crews on that card and get a lot of other guys in that card just be super fun i would love to watch that but

we're not going to get it because the ufc's not fun all right caleb do we have you hello hello we got you sweet what's going on mike how we doing good. Just wanted to give a quick shout out to my gym,

MMA Lab Elite Fight Team. A bunch of guys coming up. A bunch of guys in the UFC are going to have fights pretty soon. Shout out Drew Carr Close. He's going to put on a show against Mark Madsen. Shout out my boy, Mario Batista. Shout out my boy, Kyla Phillips. Shout out my boy, Sean O'Malley.

He's going to put a whoop in Piotr in Abu Dhabi. Just had a few notes. I just wanted to say I've been really high. on Mike Davis since his contender series debut. And, yeah, I just think, I think he's like top five in the division, honestly. Like, at this time, he's just a little bit inactive, you know, because of his, his, I don't know the things he has going on, which is unfortunate. That'd be cool if he fights Patty because it really bring light to him and show the world

who he is and how freaking good he is. I think that's a bad matchup for Patty, though. So I don't think he'll take that fight. I was looking at the rankings, and I think some good matchups for Patty to break him into that ranking, and could be like good matchups would be maybe Brad Riddell or...

Honestly, either Brad Riddell or Bobby Green. I like those two for Patty. And yeah, that's pretty much it. Shout out M.M.A. Lab. Shout out M.M.A. Lab. Yes, Dracar closed fighting Mark Matts in October 29th. Jekar has signed a new deal with the UFC, I'm told. That was supposed to be the last fight on his deal.

That's why he wasn't announced at the time. That's why it took a little bit to get going, but his team renegotiated and they got themselves a new multi-fight deal. So good on Jekar-close's part. I don't know. man. This, this catty thing is just, at this point, like, I'm just done talking about it. Like, I just want to see

what they're going to do. I need an answer. We can keep throwing out suggestions so the cows come home, but we're usually all wrong anyways. So I don't know. I honestly don't know what they're going to do. I'm going to just pull up my lightweight rankings that I have for the

UFC and see what I think they're going to look at. I think maybe a Chris Gritzmocker or something like that. That's what I think they're probably going to do. Someone who's going to go after Patty, but Patty will beat. That's what I think they'll do.

I think a lot of these other matchups are really tough. I think Ricky Glenn's a tough one. I think he can beat maybe Hackperast. That's interesting. If they want to do Jim Miller, I wouldn't totally hate it. Jared Gordon actually makes a ton of sense. I'm cool with that.

I don't know. There's options, but it just depends on what you want to do. If we're just going to give this dude wins and get him over, then you do like a Chris Gritzmacher type, someone of that nature. I don't know. Trey Ogden would just be one prospect. Maybe he could be like the newcomer killer of some kind. Demir Hadzovich. I don't know. We'll see what happens.

I just want to know what they're going to do. Let's see if he's going to fight December 10th. If not, just hold them to London. Just hold them until London. And then just put them over. All right, we're out of here. We got us to go. Thank you very much.

Nice little bonus show. I know some people are like, Mike's going to slip up and tell everybody what's happening at UFC 280, what we're going to do. No, I will not. Just know that something's happening and it's going to be awesome. So stay tuned for that. Probably be announced in the next week and a half.

probably like the beginning of that flight week, we'll reveal it, but it's happening, and it's going to kick ass, and I cannot wait for it. And hopefully it's the start of a regular thing. And I hope that's the case, ladies and gentlemen.

But we are done. Thank you very much. Back tomorrow, 10 a.m. Eastern, we'll do it again. And we got BT out tomorrow, fun episode, 1 p.m. Eastern, a little roundtable. Myself, my best friend, A.K.K. Lee, Damon Martin. We're going to do a little final chase for the awards.

At the end of the year, we're in a very pivotal stretch for award season, about to kick off. So we'll give you our thoughts on who's in the lead, how this is going to work, who can take over these spots. How will it all play out potentially at the end of December? But until that, everybody, have a great rest of the day. And as always, have a heck of a more.