MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reaction To Khamzat Chimaev's Withdrawal, Pereira Being UFC's MVP, UFC 303 Madness

Episode Date: June 14, 2024

Thursday will be a day MMA fans won't soon forget after losing three of the four fighters in the originally scheduled main events of UFC Saudi Arabia and UFC 303. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to the UFC announcing that an injury to Conor McGregor has postponed the anticipated bout with Michael Chandler, and the new main event for UFC 303 is Alex Pereira vs. Jiri Prochazka 2 for the light heavyweight title. Additionally, topics include why Pereira is the UFC's MVP from the fighters side, the addition of Brian Ortega vs. Diego Lopes as the co-main event for the July 29 card, Carlos Ulberg now facing Anthony Smith instead of Jamahal Hill, Khamzat Chimaev being scratched from the UFC Saudi Arabia main event with Robert Whittaker, Ikram Aliskerov stepping in, rumor and innuendo clarified about the events, Michael Bisping having egg on his face, Hunter Campbell coming through huge once again, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser 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?

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Visit darktrace.com forward slash defenders for more information. Listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. It is Friday, June 14th, 2024. And boy, it is certainly a heck of a morning, isn't it? Thanks for joining us live on the NBA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Thanks for listening after the fact on the podcast network. But I am Mike Eck and... I don't even know how to describe what the last week and change has been like.

I don't know how to describe how the last 72. hours have been. And I certainly don't know how to describe how the last 48 and 24 hours have been when it comes to the craziness that is the world of mixed martial arts. And just when you think the crazy world can't get crazier, it just does. It just does as yesterday, Thursday, showed us. And I think as of now, most of you know exactly where I'm going to begin things, because it's the place everybody wants me to begin, right? PFL happened last night at beautiful Mohegan Sun in scenic Uncasville, Connecticut.

No, we're not going to start with PFL. I will say this. I watched the majority of the main card. Man, it is so bellatory. It's just, boy, if the night ended with Dakota to Chava, I think we would have been okay, but man, just trotting out Valentin Maldowski and Linton Vassel was just a tough way to end the night, wasn't it?

Going to Splitty City, thought the wrong dude won, but that's beside the point. It was just a very PFL at a tour card at a very Bellator venue. But that card happened, and we're not here really talk about any of that stuff. Maybe we'll talk about it later. But mystery was solved.

mystery was revealed. All the answers to the questions, for the most part, were revealed yesterday. Because there's speculation, there was a lot of false reports, a lot of people who are very well respected within the space, dumping on Ariel Hawani, who was the MVP of all this, kept everybody informed the best. the best he could about the Connor McGregor versus Michael Chandler situation which we'll get into throughout the program sure but as we found out

late last night right before the main event of the PFL card which was basically took all the shine off of it and I actually thought it's a brilliant move by Dana White to time it out in this way. Conner McGregor versus Michael Chandler no longer

happening at UFC 303. I don't think that was a big surprise to anybody considering what the reporting was throughout the week. New main event for June 29th. It is the rematch for the UFC light heavyweight title between Alex Pereira and Yuri Perhashka. We also found out Jamal Hill is out of UFC 303. Carlos Ulberg will remain on the card.

He will fight former title challenger Anthony Smith. That is no longer the co-main event because the co-main event is Brian Ortega taking on Diego Lopez. So UFC 303 looks a whole lot different. No Connor McGregor, no Michael Chandler. We get Alex Pereira saving the day again. Yuri Perashka stepping up on very short notice.

We get Anthony Smith stepping in on short notice. We get Ortega and Lopez stepping in on short notice as well. Let me tell you sort of like how this whole thing sort of kind of played out for us. Because to me, none of this was a surprise. Even the main event announcement wasn't a surprise, and I'll explain. Hawani did an amazing job with all of this. And everything he said throughout from last Monday with the whole press conference situation all the way through, was spot on. The only thing that I did not know about, and we talked about this a little bit on BTL,

and BTL was one of the weirdest episodes ever because of how I had to handle myself during BTL. The only thing I didn't know was why the fight was in jeopardy. I had heard rumblings it was an injury. I had heard rumblings of different kinds of injuries. And as I said on BTL yesterday, everybody that I talked to about the whole situation because when we're trying to figure out what's happening with the fight,

if the fight is off, what are the feelers, if there are fears being sent out, who is being sent these feelers, which managers, which coaches, which fighters, etc. So as we typically do, we reach out to everybody. And the amount of information I was getting regarding this fight, and Connor in general, from what these people were being told, was hilarious. I mean, I'm not, like, I can't show the text or, like, the DMs or anything, but I must have talked to 20 to 25 different people.

people, some on the record, some off. And I probably got 18 different answers as to why they were told the fight was in jeopardy. Oh, he injured this. Oh, he injured this. Oh, he doesn't want to do this. Oh, he wants more money. He wants all this. Like, everything, it was just so wild.

It was like being in middle school hearing all the rumor and innuendo. Like I said, telephone, telegraph, telewrestler, telephone telegraph, telefighter, or tell somebody in the MMA space. So I don't really want to like rehash it Ariel did I loved his victory lap yesterday because it's amazing Even like even like Michael Bisbing's out there on his YouTube channel Like trashing Ariel and I'm just like man I can't wait to see how Bisbing reacts to all this when he finds out how wrong he is about all of this

And I know there were others too but they do this for a living but to see Bisbing kind of like do that to Ariel was pretty crazy So it was all like super weird. Talked about the optimism. And then it turned to pessimism on Tuesday, Wednesday. Seemed like we were in some deep shit when it came to the fight. There was like a percentage of hope that maybe they could salvage us, but it wasn't looking good. And then it's pretty much like Tuesday or Wednesday.

It seemed like we're at 99.9% the fight wasn't happening. plug gets pulled we found out on Wednesday that they were more than likely going to announce Alex Perey versus Yuri Perashka 2 is the main event now it is important to note

that I did BTL yesterday knowing full well that that fight was probably going to be announced but again you're put in a situation where there is sort of that Twitter reporting which is like we're just going to

slings shit at the wall and hope that we're right? Because boy, oh boy, did I see a lot of that. And I've seen a lot more since, and we'll discuss that. And I'm sure we're going to get questions about it as well. But it is important to note that when you're in this space, and yes, Emma fighting, we are sort of a journalistic website. We're not just going to take any report that we see and be like, yeah, let's write it. I talk about the golden rule all the time.

There's a reason that I talk about the Golden Rule that if it's not on the website, if it's not on MMAFighting.com, it's not real. It's not done. And it's not on the record officially. So yes, did we know that Muri Parashka was going to fight Alex Pereira on Wednesday? That it seemed very likely, yes. Did I go into BTL on Thursday knowing that that's the fight that was going to be announced? Yes, I did.

But when we're told we can't say anything, when we're told it's off the record, you can't report it. And there's multiple reasons why. And there's other things that were in play as well that we could not talk about. Henceforth, the other news we got on Thursday, Hamzaa Shemayath no longer fighting Robert Whitaker and that he's fighting Icram Alaskarov. Throughout the day, it was pretty obvious what was going on. There were reports that came out that Hamzat was out. I knew he was out.

There was reports that Whitaker needed a new opponent. there were reports that Nasredeen Imovov was the frontrunner. I could tell you 1,000% that Nasredin Imovov being involved in this fight in any way, shape, or form was unequivocally not true. There was zero chance he was taking this fight. There is zero chance that he was the frontrunner. So that report, I was able to debunk very quickly, as did others. A couple hours later, same individual who reported. that news came out and said,

Icram Al-Scaroff, another name being floated around, then reported that the Al-Scarat fight was done. Again, wasn't on the website for a reason, because it wasn't done. But we were very, very close to getting there. And sure enough, Dana White comes out and announces that that

is the fight. Other reports that I've seen in regards to this fight, outside of Yemov, I saw a report that Sean Strickland was asked to take this fight. I could tell you 1,000% that that is not true.

Sean Strickle was actually not even approached I found out this morning about this fight. Not even an ask. Mr. I will fight anybody anytime anywhere in a parking lot outside of my backyard. Everyone would assume that Sean would be asked. Sean was not asked to fight Robert Woodacre in Saudi Arabia.

There was no mention of Sean's name in this conversation whatsoever according to people who would obviously know the answer to that question. That would be two people that I spoke with. So that's not true. I know Kamar Usman is another name that was thrown out. I don't know if that's true or not. Something tells me it's probably not.

Because I know when Dana comes on and says, oh, we asked everybody, are there other names that wouldn't shock me that are on that list that were asked and probably like, nah, it's a little too soon to take a risk like that. We'll see. But I know that John Strickland was not one of those names. So we'll throw that out there with all the kind of cuckapoo-poo news that has been out there.

But yeah, it's been a crazy ride, man. It's been a crazy ride. Yesterday was insane. Today is going to be even more insane, and one would assume, especially not all this news, is out there. PFL just getting buried in the sand with all this news. It's just, it's been a while week and a half. Other news in regards to this, it appears, at least according to, Ari Hawani, which at this point, if he says it, if you don't feel like his word is gospel at this

point, if you're a newer fan and didn't really recognize this already, you should recognize this by now. Ariel's saying that they're going to rebook this fight. Connor probably can return in a couple of months, maybe September, maybe August, maybe September this fight happens. And like I said, if Ariel says it's got to be gospel at this point, that is the plan right now to rebook this one. There were other questions about will Michael Chandler remain on the card? I saw reports about Michael Chandler

versus Charles Olivera. Again, what I've been told, not a real thing. The only name that I can say was offered to Michael Chandler that I know, for fact, is Max Holloway.

Max Holloway is the only name that was even sort of in play and even then he wasn't really in play because Max got other things to do he's not going to take that big of a risk why would he? Why would he? He's probably going to fight Ilya

in a fucking gigantic fight later on this year for the featherway title. If he goes in there and fights Michael Chandler and somehow loses, then that goes away. So why risk it on such short notice when you're not even sure if you're even going to fight?

So I 100% 100% understand why Max wouldn't take that Unless you're going to throw him Like Undeniable money Which I think at this point We know that wasn't going to happen

But Charles Olivera was not really a real thing And it seems like at this point That was really the only option Somewhat in play for Chandler was Max From all the conversations that I've had but it just didn't really seem likely. So there were very, maybe for a couple of days

there were talks about keeping Chandler on the card if it wasn't Connor, but there we are right now. It's just insane. Really just insane all of this stuff. There's other stuff that I know I'm missing at this point. So this is what we're going to do. There's going to be a million of you ask some questions today.

We're going to keep these questions 30 seconds or less. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, in and out. In and out. I have to be that guy that's going to have to cut you off after 30 seconds today because there's so much happening and there's so many people going to want to ask questions. So, and if you're a newcomer, if you've never been on the program and have asked a question, you jump to the front of the line today. All right?

This is going to be a special show. We're going to get in. And also one other rule, the free for all Friday questions, out the door. Out the door. Southwigs are going to win Banner 18 tonight. So if you want my take on the NBA and on the side, Celtics series. This shit is over. It's all over tonight. Okay. 4-0. It's done. I was wrong. I said Celtics in five. It's going to be Celtics in four. Okay. So there you go. There's your MBA stuff.

30 seconds in and out. Just if you got multiple questions, just go boom, boom, boom, and then we get a roll. All right? Let's do it. C.V., you will kick us off. I'm ene, me, mini, my, moaning us because there's so many of you in line right now. See if you go. Hey, Mike. A heck of a Friday, eh? Anyways, what's your thoughts on the light heavyweight division? Kind of crazy that they're going with the Yuri and Alex rematch. Like, where does Magumet Anklaya fit into all of this?

I think you know the answer to that question. He doesn't. He doesn't. And it's unfortunate because he's probably the best light heavyweight in the world right now. And he's just in not good favor with the UFC. He, you know, had the fight with Janboovich, which he probably should have won, but it got scored a draw. But Dana hated that fight. Dana White absolutely hated that fight.

And when Dana White hates a fight, you can be in the doghouse for quite some time. and there are not a lot of people that are just jumping up and down to watch Magabed Ancolaia fight right now. Now, if this is PFL, this is Bellator, he's put a fought for the belt already and he's probably the champion. But Alex Pereira is the champ. Alex Pereer is a big star, and Alex Pereer is certainly the biggest star in this division right now. So if you're the UFC, you want to give Pereira tough matchups, but you also want to give him matchups that are favorable and that are fun. Yuri Perashka is fun. To a lot of people,

Magamahenakalive has the potential to not be fun at all. And that's the risk you take. Yes, he beat Johnny Walker back in January, and that was a good win, but he's going to have to win another one. And if you're Magamaheinakalif right now, you need a couple of things to go your way.

One, you probably need Carlos Oldberg to beat Anthony Smith. Because if Anthony Smith, goes out there beats up Carlos Oldberg and then cuts a promo on Alex Pereira because those two have been circling each other for a while and the UFC loves to book beefs, that helps his case. He also needs Yuri Perashka to lose because if Yuri Perashka beats Alex Pereira, you know exactly where we're going in this situation.

So he needs a lot of things to happen. If Carlos Oldberg beats Anthony Smith and Carlos Oldberg is probably going to have to fight Magam and Ankylaif. And that will be sort of like, you know, your title eliminator. So yeah, it's tough to say. Ankle-Av's going to have to fight again. He's probably going to have to fight Carlos Oldberg if he wins.

And that's sort of where we're at right now. But, yeah, it seems like Alex and Yuri was the probable most realistic fight on the table. Now, there were other things that were kind of like floated out there that just couldn't be done. But all the hope is on Alex Pereira here. Because Yuri obviously was in. And I'll say this as well. And I know Ariel kind of touched on this at other points in sort of his description on how everything was. They were targeting that fight for 305 for Perth.

And this is something that was in play. And I knew it was in play for a little while now. But it was like being discussed. We were getting close. It wasn't at the official. hey let's put pen to paper just yet but we're very close to that fight happening in Perth and I know you're thinking oh what about is he and dDP talks about doing both of those fights on that card from what I've been told but now we don't have to worry about that and

it seems pretty obvious it's not going to headline UFC 305 so this whole thing has been kind of a mess this whole sphere card is kind of like screwed up the schedule in a lot of respects because some of those fights that were being targeted for the spear, you can't really move them. Although one fight that was targeted for the sphere is happening at 303, which is the Brian Ortega Diego Lopez fight. Now that fight was not done for September, like 100% done, but it was like 95% done. And that fight was going to happen September 16th.

But now it's happening on Saturday. It's a huge opportunity for Diego Lopez. So good on him. good on Ortega. And Alex Pereira is a fucking hero. He is the MVP of the UFC right now. Without question. Alex Pereira is the MVP of the UFC from a fighter standpoint.

Because Hunter Campbell is probably the actual answer to this question. You could feel however you want to feel about the UFC and their business practices and how they're running the show. And even Hunter Campbell after watching the Fight Inc. documentary. But to be able to do. this time and time and time and time again and be able to put something together that never could replace Connor McGregor, but at least be something that's still good is pretty unbelievable on just over two weeks notice. Like, I shit on the UFC when they do bad things.

Like, this card on tomorrow is awful. It's a terrible fight card. And I know there's people in here are going to sit there and be like, oh, it'll be positive. No. This is sports. If something sucks in the NFL, the people who cover the NFL are going to say it sucks. If it's great, you praise them. Like, we're honest. We're honest. If something sucks, it sucks.

If something's awesome, it's awesome. And what the UFC continues to do in these situations is awesome. It's incredible what they've been able to pull off. It really is. And they deserve a shitload of credit. Alex Pereira deserves a shitload of credit. because he's banged up, man. He's got two broken toes.

Dude was in Australia, like yesterday. I don't even know if he's back home yet. Dude is in Australia, like doing seminars and touring around Australia. And now he's got to get ready to turn around, fly home, and prepare to fight an absolute madman like Yuri Pyrashka on just over two weeks notice to save a card again for the second time this year. What a run this guy has had. He's the MVP.

He's the MVP fighter. If he went, honestly, if Alex Pereira goes out and beats Yuri Prahashka again, he doesn't need to fight again. He's the fighter of the year. Without question, he's the fighter of the year. I don't care what anybody else does. Him stepping in and saving two cards, especially this one banged up and hurt, he goes out and knocks out Yuri Pajka.

He's the fighter of the year. He's my vote. I don't give a shit if he does anything else the rest of the year. 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 reprises, role as Roscoe Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original blockbuster, The Downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-by journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine.

Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from Volkswagen. As the U.S. gets ready to host soccer's biggest moment on a worldwide stage, Volkswagen is helping people discover new turfs and new ways to play the beautiful game right here in the U.S. From deaf and power wheelchair soccer to beach and futsal, Volkswagen is actively supporting all the communities and teams within the U.S. soccer ecosystem. They're supporting talent from across the U.S. soccer extended national teams

and are focused on helping to give these less widely known forms of soccer a platform moving forward. from the pitch to the sand and everything in between, welcome to our turf. Asap, go ahead. Yeah, I was just wondering if you think that, or why you think the UFC waited so long to announce something like this, and if the fans, if you feel the fans deserve to be notified sooner, that's all I got. Thank you. So the UFC gets no blame in this whatsoever. none absolutely zero because just go through hellwani's entire timeline

fights in trouble before the presser aerial reported hunter campbell and heather linden from the PI actually flew out to dublin after the cancellation of the press conference because they knew there was an injury they knew there was something they went in there and tried to do whatever they could to keep this fight because Connor wanted a fight. Connor wanted to fight because that's what Connor does. He doesn't pull out of fights.

He never pulled out of a fight for he's been pulled from fights, but he's never pulled himself pulled out of a fight that he was signed, sealed, and delivered to compete. And he wanted to go. But ultimately

that didn't happen, but they tried. And then once they realized probably about Tuesday of this week that this fight's probably not going to happen in probably not going to happen. They had to go into scramble mode. They had to go into scramble mode. And like I said,

Wednesday, we knew that it was going to be that Pereira and Perashko was the fight that they were targeting. That was the one. And even when they were throwing out feelers and like this is what our backup plan is, we have to

like this is the one we're looking at. But again, you have to deal with all the factors. Yuri Prakashka, healthy, ready to go. Alex Pereira, not healthy. Broke a toe heading into 300, broke another one during the fight at 300. Dude's banged up, traveling the world right now. So getting Pahashka on board, somewhat easy. Getting Pereira on board is a whole different ballgame. You can't come out and announce that things are done or not done until they're. actually a go. And once the ink dried and stuff, like, I guess the one thing, and I don't even,

like, I don't know when Penn actually went to paper for Pereira and stuff. Plus, you have the addition of, okay, now we lost Jamal Hill, one half of our co-main event. How are we going to replace that? So they just kind of wanted to wait and have everything finalized before making an announcement. They needed to make sure Connor 100% isn't fighting, Chandler 100% isn't fighting. Let's throw out the feelers, let's throw out the options. Can we get this to happen? Can we get that to happen? Is he in? Is he in? How do we make this all work? And then once they got it all done, then they came out and announced it. Now, I understand if you bought tickets to this, you spent a shit ton of money to see Connor McGregor's first fight back, $20 million gate.

You can go get a refund. If you bought tickets and you're just like, nah, this ain't doing it for me, go get a refund. They have to give you one. they have to. It's like state law. So if you want a refund, go get it. If you like the card, cool. It's up to you. But yeah, if the UFC had this for a week and just sat on this and was like,

well, we're going to wait until the PFL main event starts just to announce it, then yeah, but that's not what happened here. No fucking way. No way. What a nightmare scenario it has been for the UFC. What a nightmar scenario. nightmare scenario it has been for Michael Chandler. What a nightmare scenario it has been for pretty much everybody involved.

This sucks, man. It sucks. Even for like the fans who bought tickets. It sucks. Wondering what's going to happen. What you spent $1,600 for. I get it, man. But to blame the UFC, there is no blame that goes to them in my, in my, at least in my opinion.

There's nothing you can do. Nothing you can do. Left Lane, I don't know what else you would want to ask me at this point. But we'll get you in real quick. Can you hear me? Yes. Sweet. I know I was messaging you before, so I've kind of already said a few of these things.

I'll go rapid fire. How much of a chance do you give Iqlal Oskarov to beat Robert Whitaker personally? I don't think he's like on past skill level, but I think the way he's got to win is just catching Rob with some sort of shot because Whitaker's a bit chinny. Lopez v. Ortega, love that fight. In my opinion, that combined with the new main event, honestly, I think this card's come out better than it was at the start of the week. I think I told you, I think Lopez is going to smoke Ortega, to be honest. I don't think Ortega's striking is up to par.

I think his defense is terrible, and I think his chins not as good as it was in previous fights. So I think he's going to get smoked. And in that case, who would you say Lopez would then fight on it's early, but who would you say Lopez would then fight after that? Would he be title shot or would he be like one more, maybe like a winner of Alan and Giga or something like that? So yeah, that's all. Thanks. So let's start with Icramal Scarraf.

Let me just tell you something. I love this fight. I love this. There are two fighters in particular that I have been super high on for years. One obviously is Armin Sarukian. The other is

I'm Alaskaroff. I've been telling you about this dude for a while. Every time I was asked like end of year, like who's the guy in each division that's going to make the biggest move

that's not ranked that we should be we should pay attention to. And I have been shouting from the rooftops. I'm telling you right now Ikechermal Scarf is that dude. Skill wise,

he's got it all. The big problem is he's just for one reason or another, he hasn't been able to get into the cage. Now he was going, he was going to thump up Tricoli bad, like real bad. And the UFC did that man a huge favor

by getting Icarap away from Tricoli because that would have been a real rough night for him. But now he gets this huge opportunity to fight Robert Whitaker and I mean, just look how the betting lines opened. Robert Whitaker opened as a minus 140 favorite,

the comeback on Alaskarraf was plus 120. That's how the sharps viewed this fight when they opened the lines. And I went to bed last night thinking, when I wake up, Ikema Alaskarf is going to be like a plus 150 underdog.

Because everyone's just going to hammer Robert Whitaker. It's not what happened. Money has come in on Icaroff. He's down to a plus 114. And at this point, the way this is trending, it would not shock me if Whitaker ends up being the underdog here. This fight rules.

It rules. And if it wasn't Hamzaa Shemayev, this is the fight that I wanted. This is the fight that I wanted. I love this fight so, so much. And I think it Kamala Scafri has a real chance to be Robert Whitaker. Because he can hit like a motherfucker and his grappling is nasty. He is super good. He's super, super good.

So he's got a real chance. Now, here's the concerns I have. One, he's going to have to cut weight again. Not easy to do. Not an easy thing. You have to cut weight basically two times in two weeks. But at this point, he's already cut the weight, maybe he puts on a little bit,

drinks water, eats a little bit, but doesn't smash a bunch of pizzas and pumpkin pies. And I think he's going to be okay. I think the weight will just kind of fall off easy. but it is a concern and I understand that. And the other thing is going from a three-round fight against a dude you were a minus 1,400 favored against to a five-rounder against one of the best ever in your division.

Understand that trepidation as well. But it comes really good and he's got a real chance to play spoiler and put himself in title contention if he can be Robert Whitaker on short notice. Diego Lopez-Bryonertega, great fight. I know you use the word he's going to smoke him. No one smokes Brian Ortega. It just doesn't happen. Max did.

Max did. Even Volk, who at the time is the best fighter on Earth, had problems with Brian Ortega. You're going to have to kill that, man, to beat him. He's just that guy. So he is live as long as this fight goes. This has sort of Mobsar vibes to it. Like, this is how this fight could probably go. But I love the matchmaking.

I do think the short notice nature helps Diego Lopez more than it helps Brian Ortega. But I also have no idea what Brian Ortega has been doing since the Yair fight. We don't know how hard he's been training. We don't know what his preparation was like. I think Brian was getting ready to fight Diego Lopez anyway. So I think he had the idea of this is the man I'm about to fight. He's just going to happen a lot sooner. So what's the line on that fight?

I'm curious. Let's see. Where are we? uh dago lopez minus one one 25 boy i'm going to let that line simmer but i can tell you right now uh as i look at this there is a very real chance that come the ufc two uh 303 watch party that i will have a bet on brian artego because if you're going to give me brian artegao like plus 125 or something or plus

150 which this line could certainly get to uh i'm going to jump all over that real quick but I can see Diego winning. And if he wins, if he goes out there and melts Brian Ortega, it just finishes him. If he smokes him, like you say, then Diego Lopez is maybe taking a trip to Perth to fight Alexander Volcanovsky. Because I think that's the fight you have to make.

I think if you go in there wipe up Brian Ortega, I think you fight Volcanowski. Because Volk's probably not getting the title fight. And if he wants to fight, before the end of the year, go fight this kid. And if you beat him, then you get your shot. Be tough ass for Volk because he deserves an immediate rematch, but it doesn't seem that the UFC is going to give it to him.

So there you go. But that will be my otno pick if he goes out there and wipes the floor with Brian Ortega. Lee, go ahead. Hey, Mike, I go morning. A lot of news, Bergen. Yeah, like you said, we've seen Alex Fair save two UFC pay-per-view events. My question was, do you think the UFC would actually, you know, since he's doing this, on top of having the broken toes, if they'll give him that opportunity to potentially fight for either the interim or the actual heavyweight title,

just off of, you know, pure favor, pay in the back, you know what I mean? And second thing, we always talk about what John does if he wins next and what's his, you know, future past this type of fight against Stipe. I just want to know what your thoughts on if Stipea wins and what's his future if it's not retiring. Yeah, have that the rest of your day. I mean, look, Pereira's got favor with the company forever now. I mean, whatever he wants, he probably gets. Now, does he get John Jones? Maybe if John wants that fight and takes care of business, then sure.

But we don't even know if Alex really wants that fight either. I know he sort of mentioned it. It would be, but he still feels he has work to do in his division. So it's kind of whatever he wants. He's got a What's what? He's he's got like a lottery ticket. He's got like a golden ticket right now where you can just kind of cash that baby in for

For a favor whenever he needs it. So yeah, there's he's in a great place right now. And I'm sure he's making a shitload of money to fight Yuri Perashka on short notice. I'm sure he got a huge bump up with his contract. And yeah, pretty damn cool, man. the dude is the MVP.

Dude is the UFC's MVP right now. For John, or if Stepe wins, he's retiring. This is Steve-Bays, hmm, Stepe probably retires. The only way he doesn't is if the UFC just gives him

an immediate rematch. If he goes out and just knocks out John Jones becomes the first to do it, I mean, he's going to make a ton of money to fight him again if John wants to run that back. But my guess is,

winner lose, he retires. And because they're in a decent spot right now. They already have an interim champion that they can immediately upgrade to the actual champion if they need to. Steve A's not going to stick around if like Tom Aspin or Curtis Blades, that I can assure you. So my guess is he's done. But maybe a second fight with John Jones would be incredibly lucrative, which it would be. And maybe he sticks around for that.

I don't know. at this point until I see John Jones walking to the octagon, I don't believe he's fighting. Can you hear me? Yes. What's up for in Sniper? Hey, heck of a morning. A whole lot of news from the UFC coming out last week or so.

I actually wanted to talk to you about the PFL card from last night, though. I don't know if you saw the card, but I wanted your thoughts on the whole card itself and how it played out. And who do you see winning the million dollars from the 125 pound division? Thanks. PFL. So let me just, let me pull up everything just to make sure I have everything that I need. That's what we're looking for. Okay, so I didn't watch the whole card because, you know, I have a life.

JK. No, but I did have, we had softball last night. And I kind of, I mean, I was paying attention to the fights that I had questions about, which were really basically Tyler Santos and beyond because everything else seemed like pretty obvious of what the result was going to be and Tyler Santos beats Jenna Bishop

so there you go but we knew Jenna Bishop was still going to be in the playoffs the Liz Carbush thing was pretty wild that was essentially like the last thing that I found out about because Slack Channel was paying attention to the Slack Channel getting ready to drive home from the game

last night, that Kana Watanabe was winning and would have won if she didn't get armed barred in the last eight seconds of the fight by Liz Karmouche, which good for her. Goldsoft beating Tiago Santos was a no-brainer. I thought Linton Vesel

headlining this with Linton Vesel versus Valentin Boldovsky was a choice. Certainly a choice. And that was a tough hang. I know there was a huge, shot to the ding-ding that changed the entire course of the fights that Madovsky was rolling.

Lidun Visell had a big moment in round two. I thought Moldovsky won the fight. I thought he won the first and third round, because the third round literally nothing happened. It was just bad. Two guys who were really, really tired that just grappled the entire time. There wasn't like a lot of striking going on. No damage.

That I thought Moldovsky won. and it's crazy Lin Vassell wins and he's not in the playoffs Jenna Bishop loses and she's in the playoffs like it's just the whole thing is so dumb and then Dakota to Sheva like she was a minus 2,800 favorite

by the time that fight started we knew exactly like this played out exactly like PFL wanted it to where it's give Dakota to Cheva the easiest fights she could possibly have because she's going to a two first round finish she'll be the number one seed

she'll avoid juliana she'll avoid liz carmuch and tyla santos in the first round although jennah bishop could be a tough one for her it's definitely the biggest step up of her career but i mean

this was just not a card that was surprising at all like this we knew the results not like it was like it's not that it was fixed or anything but we knew exactly how every fight was going to play out. Main event was a little questionable because both guys had a win over each other, but I think all the favorites won except for the main event. And every fight played out the way we expected it to.

And it didn't seem like people had a tremendous time watching it. We did have the knockdown kick to the balls thing that was pretty awesome. Like that will be the thing I remember most from PFL, probably this whole year. But, yeah, it's just, like, they all just blend together. They never really stand out. It's just a card. And then we go into the playoffs and we look at the season structure. Lin Vassell pulls up this huge upset as like a plus 300 underdog, and it means nothing.

Like, it truly means nothing because Moldowski is going to fight his teammate in the playoffs. The whole structure is dumb. They should be seating the fighters before they even start the regular season because Liz Karmouche, who is the best fighter in the division for this company, has to fight Juliana Velasquez and Kana Watanabe in the first two rounds. Like, that's fucking stupid. What's the point of being, like, such a high-ranked fighter? What's the point of it? Like, what's the point of, like, being a, oh, but we're the real sporting league? okay, what's the point of having like the Celtics, you know, play the number two seed?

Like, it's fucking stupid how they do it. They have to fix this. I'm glad they're doing something different, but it's just you've got to see these fighters before. Then it makes like these cards seem less obvious because there's literally no surprises last night, not a single surprise. Outside of Liz Cambruch getting like a comeback win, that was a cool moment. moment. But other than that, like, if you just looked at the card and the results, you're just

like, yeah, knew all that was going to happen. So we like our MMA to be at least somewhat thought provoking before heading into a card. And at least with Dakota DeCheva, she's going to fight Jenna Bishop, who's pretty solid. Like, she's a solid fighting. Way better than anybody else Dakota has fought. Way better. So that's going to be interesting. But Dakota, she goes out there and does this to every fighter she faces and wins the million, it'll be her official arrival. But yeah, it was a card that happened. Yes.

Henderson, go ahead. I'll be quick. Number one, just wanted to say, I appreciate MMA fighting, always sticking to their morals when it comes to not leaking things that are revealed by sources off the record, not engaging in that, and also clarifying things when possible.

before I got into like contracts and all that that I do now, I was doing radio. I was doing entertainment, writing, and I've had times where you get told about the most incredible thing, but you can't release it because there's some reason why you were told that, you know? And you give up money and attention and a lot of prestige sometimes, and you have to bite your tongue like you did and like Ariel did. And it sucks. it's also important because that's like what makes journalism actually important.

And to the extent that writing about MMA and music and entertainment is journalism, I think it's important that that gets upheld. Number two, real quick, I was trying to think about all these fighters that have moved into these new positions and who is really giving up the most and who is getting the most benefit from the UFC. And I feel like Alex Pereira, the UFC is kind of doing him in its own way, a really quick, like a really big favor in that he's helping them save this card. But they're giving him someone who's very beatable, who in fact he already beat,

and he's going to have the situation after this where he can really pick whatever he wants to do next, which if this all goes to plan for him, that's another two title defenses at Light Heavyway. And he's now up there with John Jones, right? So I think that he, if this goal goes well for him, he could be in a position to really etch his name on the legacy. And we'll see if it pays off because it is a huge risk. All right, Mike, have a great show. Thanks, buddy.

Yeah, it's, it is, it's a big fight. But it's also like, I mean, it's kind of a win-win for Pereira. And a lot of respect is like, if he goes out and loses the year, he's just going to get another title shot. And a trilogy fight between those two is going to be fucking gigantic. You know what I mean? So, yeah, I mean, obviously, Perrera, if he loses, like, he's going to feel bad about it. But dude's compromised, got two broken toes. He's got, like, people would understand if he loses.

And then he's just going to get a massive payday to fight Yuri a third time later on this year. Like, he's in a pretty good spot. He's in a real good spot. And then I appreciate you saying what you said earlier because, look, Here's the conundrum that a lot of people somehow, like, question they don't understand. I could have, like, we could have gone out and just broken that Alex is fighting Erie. Like, we could have gone on and broke that. But guess what?

By the time we got to this show, nobody would have given a flying fuck that we reported it. And then in the process, you're burning bridges, you're burning relationships with people that you've built over the last several years. your sources, people who help give you this information that answer your questions anytime you ask. Like the amount of times I can text people and just get an immediate answer is awesome. It's pretty damn cool. But I go out and report that just so I could say that I'm first. Like why throw away that trust and throw away those relationships that you spend so much time building just so you can be first on a news story that literally a day later, no one will give a shit that you reported.

Ariel said something a long time ago that always sort of like resonated with me. I would rather be right than first. I would rather be last and have it right than be first and have it be wrong. Or burn a bridge or burn a relationship. That's so important. That's so important. And the Michael Bisbing's of the world, I've still got like the whole Bisbing thing is just so funny to me. You know what, Michael Bisping?

Let me just tell you something. You owe Helwani an apology? I think a lot of people also owe him one, but he owes him one specifically. And if Bisbing wants to be a true, like a true man of character, he should apologize and drop Helwani's name on the broadcast Saturday. Because he's going to be insufferable anyways. He's so tough to listen to.

And it's Dominic Cruz with him. John Gooden is a friggin' saint, man. He's got Cruz and Bizfax. Bisbing on Saturday? Ooh. Golly. But Bisbing, saves some face, man.

When do you talk about UFC 303? Because that shit's coming up on the broadcast. They're going to show graphics of the new main card. They're going to have a promo ready to go. When it's your turn to talk, you should probably drop Helwani's name and be like, Yelp, Helani. My bad, bro.

My bad. Tough scenes. Tough scenes. He's got egg on his face. And so it happens when you try to be that guy. Popcorn Catalyst. Go ahead. Sure. Just have a quick question on most of it like a scenario.

Let's say Pahara goes and get it stunned. And B.HCA Pahaska like he did with Jamal. And then there is the Manchester card. And the champion, John Jones, already, isn't interested in fighting him. And he can say that, okay, if Pahara versus Aspinall, the winner gets the title shot against John Jones, what do you think? That would be a bigger fight because John Jones has clearly stated that he isn't interested in Aspinall.

He has taken multiple shots at him and said, no, he's not worth the time. He's just famous in the UK and the rest of the goal, you know, they doesn't care about him. So what do you think? That's it. Big fan, again. Thanks. Thanks, man.

if i'm perera i'm going near tom aspinall why why would he why risk it against tom perera like has john's attention like john is tweeting about fighting alex he ain't tweeting about fighting tom like alice already has the fast track towards that fight but why risk it against aspinall you know what i mean like he's got a good chance of just getting it especially with where he is right now with the UFC, he could probably just ask to fight John Jones, and they probably give it to him. They probably give it to him. But yeah, I just, that fight has never really made sense. Remember all this talk before like 300 and, you know, some of the other cards about, oh, let's just do Pereira versus Aspinall for the interim heavyweight title. And there

are people like so excited about that. Like, but it makes no sense. It's just a fight that like I just have never been able to buy into. And I'm not saying like, I'm better. than you because I didn't buy into it. It just didn't make any sense at all. Pereira could get the John Jones fight right now. Like if something happens with Steepay along the way, like they're going to call Pereira first to fight John. There's no doubt about it for MSG.

There's no doubt about it. He will be the first call. It won't be Tom. It'll be fucking Pereira. So I think he's going to be all right. I think he'll be all right. I don't think he even needs to fight Tom Aswell. No way.

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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. Collin City, go ahead. I'm a fan. If he pulls off a spectacular win, the sub or KO. I do think Whitaker by decision would be my play at the moment. But if he pulls off

a spectacular win, any chance he jumps Sean and maybe gets the winner of Izzy or DDP because he's doing the UFC a favor coming in, you know, cancel in his fight, easy dub, and comes in and takes a tougher fight. Would they do him a favor? And second point, I got to disagree about calling out leagues and sports from the media all the time being negative. I don't think any NFL media member is going to critique the NFL for Giants Panthers matching up this year, like two of the worst teams in the league. Sometimes you've got to find a story or promote something from the event that in a positive light, not just always, you know, trash it.

Anyway, bro, thanks, man. Man, you just love the apex. You just love everything. Like, we find positives. We find positives. And, like, good for you, man. Good for you for just staying positive and not finding a negative thing in anything. But, like, we just got to, we got to be honest with ourselves.

We know the UFC is better. We know they're better. And we know that they are capable of giving us better. They choose not to because they know that you will watch everything and not critique them. That you have no issues in everything. And even with this card, how many times? How many times have I said Saturday's card is Garbo when it comes to stakes and meaning

outside of the main event and that's only if Tetsuro-Taira wins. Everything else is just, they're just fights and that's okay. And it's not going to be the worst day ever if you sit back and watch this card. But there's nothing here. There's just nothing here.

PFL's fight card on paper is better than this one. It's better. It just is. There's more significance, more stakes. The fights are better matched. It's just better. It was a better card on paper.

Do better. Have less events. Like, you can do it. Your next TV deal should be less than 43 events a year. And we can build better cards. And yes, if you watch NFL panel shows, they do say these things. If Tom Brady is a bad game, do they say, oh, man, Tom Brady through six interceptions, but man, his spiral is tight.

We can't knock the throat. He threw a beautiful spiral. He threw six interceptions, but that's okay, because the spiral was beautiful. No, they say he sucked. He was terrible. He cost them the game. But it's,

but we, you're saying there's no critiquing? What are you talking about? What are you talking about? You're the best MMA fan. I mean, I got to say, the UFC can do absolutely no wrong. Good on you, but we're here to be honest with the world.

We're going to tell you like it is. And we're going to be who we are. I'm going to be who we are. I'm not going to be a phony baloney. I'm not saying you are, but I'm not going to be. If I literally, I'm telling you right now, if I did not, and I'm a huge MMA fan, gigantic, been watching forever. If I did not have to work tomorrow, I would not be watching this card tomorrow.

That is a fact. I would be doing anything else. I would be going to play golf. I'd be hanging out with friends. I would be leaving my house if I didn't have to work. But I'm going to work and I'm going to do the shows and I'm going to give you my all. Because there's so much other shit going on.

The UFC's card is honestly like, of all the shit happening tomorrow, it's the third most important thing happening. The Tank Davis fight is probably number one. Even though, like, it's not a real thing, it's going to get more attention than the UFC card by a mile. Anderson Silver versus Chil Sondon 2 is number 2. And the UFC card is number three. Like, and it's not close.

It's just not close. And that's a problem if you're the best organization in the world that your card is less important than a fucking exhibition match between Anderson Silver and Chal Sondon who are in their 40s. Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Big Mike, what's going on, man. How are you? Good, good question for you. I don't know if you covered this. I kind of came in late. But do you know what the injury Jamal Hill sustained? And do you think this kind of favors him in a better way so that he can, like, fully recover from his, I think it was his ACL injury.

And my other question was about the tank and I think it's Frank Martin. What do you got for that? Appreciate your mind. Thanks, Ben. Tank by K.O. I think he finishes Frank Martin. not sure when but I think I think tank knocks about

um Dana Wentz and Jamal Hill had a knee injury I don't know the specifics about it but it was a knee injury the injury had before was an Achilles injury but yeah he said it's a knee injury not sure how long he's going to be out for

but I mean I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing for Jamal at all I mean, like earlier this week, he's, or like last week he's sitting there talking about Alex Pereira and the Colano fans to fist fight him. Boy, how ironic it would be if he got the knee injury from a fan who showed up to fist fight him. That'd be pretty wild, right? I'm not saying that's what happened, but what if, right? And we'll see how Jamal kind of handles it.

Will he sit back and just be quiet? or will he take this injury time and just start shit-talking everybody like he did the last time? I mean, he spent pretty much his entire injury. You know, I mean, there were moments. I mean, he was obviously talking about Yeripar Hasco, and he's very respectful. And then eventually things got a little weird. And then he spent the rest of the injury recovery talking about Yuri and then talking about Pereira and how after Pereira won the belt, it would be, it was the, the,

the best thing that could have happened to him, that it was the best option and the easiest option for him, all these things. So maybe this will, we'll see how Jamal sort of handles it. Because again, when I say these things about Jamal Hill, the real issue I've ever had with Jamal,

and I thought that was just kind of weird, even like this Pereira stuff is really weird, but him just like commenting on the rankings and just like all that stuff was just super weird. Boy, did we give him a lot of shit for that. But at the same token, he was the MVP of UFC 300 fight week. Without Jamal, like that fight car ruled anyways,

but the intrigue for the main event built specifically because of Jamal Hill. And he was a huge factor in making that fight interesting. Because as we talked about on this show and others, the second that fight was announced, I was like, oh my God, Alex Burr is going to kill this man. He is going to destroy this guy. This fight is not even going to be competitive. We all said it.

But the way Jamal Hill acted and, confident he was, the energy he brought to that fight week, made people doubt it, made people question a little bit. He was huge. But I don't know. He might have dodged a bullet here too. Like just going and rewatching these fights between these two guys sort of in preparation. Like Carl Zulberg had a real good chance of beating Jamal Hill.

But we'll see. We'll see how Jamal. See how this affects him because we'll see how. how far out of the conversation he's going to be. He might have to fight Malik Beninkelaif when he comes back or somebody like that. All right. We'll go Tyson, Nicholas and Four Corners Sports, and then we're going to get out of here. Tyson, go.

Hey, Mike. Yeah, I wanted to touch on that Jamal Hill subject to see, you know, what's next for him. Like, do they rebook that Cleo fight if he's not out for a significant amount of time? Do they rebook, does he get the winner of Anthony Smith versus Ulberg? So that was my first question. And then my second question was about Dana White in, you know, his infamous videos, screaming videos. He said that, he said that that fight with Icrum and Whitaker that they offered that fight to everybody in the division. Should we take that light with a grain of salt?

Because I highly doubt that they offered, they called everybody up in that division to take on that fight. But that's all I got for you, Mike. Thanks. well I mean the Jamal the Jamal Hill question is really tough to answer because we just don't we don't know how long he's going to be out for we don't know if this is like an injury like Connor's dealing with where he could be back in like two or three months

or if this is like an ACL a torn ACL where he's out for a year like you just don't know and that would really suck for Jamal Hill if that's the case where he deals with the Achilles injury battles back gets healthy he's able to come back and fight in nine months and then you come back preparing for another fight and then you

tear your ACL or something like that like that would suck man so I don't know we don't know the extent of the injury so it's tough to say uh the longer he's out the worse it is for him I could tell you that he becomes one of the forgotten guys in almost in a lot of ways so yeah it's tough again, without really knowing where he's at and how long he's out for, it's kind of tough to answer. But once we get like an update, we'll be able to answer it a little bit more clearly. The, look, this was, this is Dana promoter talk.

This is him really putting Icrum over as the, the dude that will step up and take up, you know, any competition. Do I feel like this fight was offered to people? Certainly. Like I said earlier in the show, someone reported that Nasrini Emovoff was the front runner for the fight, which was not

true. If you actually talk to people who know Emovoff and his team, they were just like, dude, he fought four days ago. Like, what are you talking about? And it wasn't like he went out there dusted up Jared Canaanere in 15 seconds. Like, there was a hard fought fight until it was over. Until he got

that finish, which was somewhat controversial. So asking him to turn around and then if he says no, and then treating him like, oh, he could have taken this, but he turned it down. It's just, I hope that's not what Dana's trying to imply. Like I said, I know there are reports that Sean Strickland was offered the fight. He was not, because I've talked to people who would absolutely know,

and that would tell me whether or not he was offered. And guess what? Even if Sean Strickham was offered that fight and turned it down, of course he would. And of course he should. You're going to go fight Robert Whitaker on nine days notice in Saudi Arabia. Come on now, especially in the position that Sean Strickland's in. That'd be crazy for him to take that fight. Now, I don't know anybody else that's been offered it.

So I don't really know. You have to imagine they probably offered it to like, I think Kamara Usma is another name mentioned. And maybe it was. I don't know. Maybe Brennan Allen was the name. I don't know. Brennan Allen would seem like, you know,

one of those dudes that you'd want to call up for that type of spot, considering the run he's on and the fights that he wants. But we don't know. We don't know if he's dinged up. We don't know if there's an injury. Plus again, like he's on a eight-fight win streak or seven-fight win-streeks, finishing everybody just had a fight of the year contender with Chris Curtis. Not that long ago.

Like two months ago, that fight happened. So he could be sitting on the sidelines a little bit. And I think we can all kind of look at this through a realistic lens. Brennan Allen needs to win every single fight to actually get a title shot here. It's not like he can lose and then get back.

He's not like Sean Strickland. He's not that popular. He's not that over. He's just, he's kind of like his, it's not exactly the same, but he's kind of like his good friend,

Bala Muhammad. He's going to have to win like 10, 11 in a row before he actually gets a title shot. So do you risk it fighting Robert Whitaker on nine days notice? Oversease?

Wouldn't blame them. So, yeah, I don't think this is a, you're all a bunch of wimps, but I'm a man. Icrum's in a great spot. He's fighting like the 117th ranked guy in the division in a fight he was going to win in 14 seconds, which would have done nothing really for him. But then automatically he just has to wait a week and he gets to fight Robert Whitaker. Like that's, I mean, for him, it's a no-brainer. It's an absolute no-brainer for him to take.

this fight because he's in a training camp he's already getting ready to fight like this is a way that is no brainer as it gets you have to take this opportunity if you're at grim alaskaroff and this is a fight he can win it is a winnable fight for him but yeah i think it's just dana being a promoter you know a lot of times he's not great at being a promoter but in this sense positioning ikram to look like this guy with balls of steel and a tremendous will to compete against the best guys in the world on short notice, even though he's already getting ready for a fight. That's what you're supposed to do if you're Dana White. That's what you're supposed to do.

I'm sure Ikewarm wasn't the first choice, but he was an easy choice. Nicholas, let's see if we can get through the Wheel of Doom. If not, it'll be unfortunate. Give it like five more seconds. Not working. 4-Core sports go ahead Hey Mike Gave, hear me? Yes.

All right, cool. So Antonio Sarkali better be giving Hamza Shemaya a Rolex for his birthday, whatever he wants, because you're going to get the beating of a lifetime against Icumalaskaroff. And I'm at the point where they're, I'm on the ledge

whether to jump off the cruise ship or not when he comes to Hamza Shemaya because I'm not sure it was to be done with him or not. I get that he was ill, but this is way too many occasions where he's not available to fight. I forgot what coach said it. The best availability is available.

And he's never available. Even in favorable areas like Saudi Arabia, he's just not able to be available. And this is a perfect opportunity for Iqram. My thing is this. Who out of the top five should hope that Iqum Alaskarov loses to Robert Whitaker? Just because I feel like if Icrum gets inside that top five, He's going to make a lot of noise, and a lot of these fighters already have been trying to avoid him because he's that guy.

And then lastly, I don't know if he touched on this or not, but Diego Lopez versus Brian Ortega, I think that might be the fight of the night on 303. I'm very interested to see the jiu-jitsu scrambles and the matchups that prolong with that. I know that Ortega is the underdog. I will put some money on him because nobody runs through Brian Ortega. on the only one is Max Holloway. So I just want to get your input on that. All right, thanks, Mike. Yeah, I'm going to let that batting line simmer for a minute

and hope that Brian Artega, wow, he jumped up. Literally on this show, he went from like a plus 105 to a plus 140 since we started the show. That is insane. So now do we just like let this line continue to jump up? Like, could we get Brian Artega at like plus 200?

Because that would rule, and I would jump on that literally in a second. This does not be saying that my prediction is Ortega wins, but I mean, come on now. Strength of schedule, competition, the fact that, like, Jed has things that to say about Artega. He thinks he's terrible at fighting, but he also, like, just finds he loses until he wins. Like, he can always find a way to beat you. You can always find an opening and make it happen. A. I. A. A. A. Ear fight was not going well for him, but he still found a way to win. That Volcanowski fight was not going well for him.

Almost pulled off the mirror, like the incredible submission against the best fighter on planet Earth at the time. Max dumped him up, but Max is stomping up everybody at that time. Like, Brianne Take is pretty good. I think people forget that because they don't see him that often. And a lot of newer fans have only seen him fight once. But it's a huge step up for Diego Lopez. I mean, he fought Mobzar and, you know, gave Mobsar hell on short notice. But it's not like Diego Lopez is coming in off the couch anymore and no one knows who he is. Brandtegis is a gamer, and it's going to be fun as hell.

I love the addition. Don't need it to be five rounds. I mean, it wouldn't suck if it was, but this is fine being a three-rounder. I think the UFC probably learned some lessons after Sean Shrickon versus Paul Costa. They're not all co-main events that have divisional certificates have to be five rounds. But that fight's going to be great. They're just going to empty the tank on each other. And it's going to be a great fight.

So who in the top, the other question, who in the top five should hope Icramalus Garab doesn't win? All of them? Absolutely all of them. That's the answer. Every single one of them. I think everybody in the top five needs him to get obliterated by Robert Winneker. Like he can't even be competitive.

This guy is the real deal. I'm telling you. He is the real, real. He's got to fight for a belt. It's just a matter of when. And it might happen real soon. So the answer to your question is everybody should be worried. Before we go, let's run through the comments real quick.

Dude asked, do you think 303 event will be a flop? No, it will not. It's certainly not going to do the same pay-per-view volume. It will not do a $20 million gate more than likely anymore. It'll still do very well. It will not be a flop. And look, I know we're all pissed off that Connor's not fighting. But if we take a look now at the new card, the new lineup, it's better than it was before.

It just is. I know it's hard to think about right now. But in terms of like competitive fights, like, significance, meaning prime career type situation. stuff. Like, this card's better. Like, it's, we're getting a title fight with one of the biggest stars in the sport. We're getting a fan favorite in Yuri Praschka is an absolute wild man.

We're getting Brian Ortega versus Diego Lopez, which you would not have gotten before. We're getting Carl Soltberg and Anthony Smith, decent. We're still getting Ian Gary MVP. There's some bangers on the card. So no, I don't think it's going to be a flop. What else we got? Nicholson Abbey, I tried. Zev, how come all these fights get canceled?

All different reasons. Jamal's injured. Hamsat's really sick. Connor's injured. Sometimes everything goes great. Sometimes it's a mess. Heart throw up. Homsud out.

McGregor canceled. U.S.C. looking like a joke right now. No, I don't think they do look like a joke right now. I think they've handled this incredibly. I really, really do. Able to pull the rabbit out of the hat time and time again is pretty remarkable. Peter, Connor probably won't ever fight again. I think he fights.

I think he, I think they, Chandler fight happens for the end of the year. Cori and May rules, I want my money back. Tickets 303 ridiculously high to see Connor fight. Then get your money back. You can get a refund. Bakes says, Gary MVP should be co-made instead of Ortega Lopez. Don't hate that idea. But that you also have to keep into account too.

There is no way Brian Ortega versus Diego Lopez is a bad fight. There's no way that fight isn't fun. There is a chance Gary MVP is not fun. There is like from a stylistic perspective, there is a chance that this fight is not that thrilling. Collins said talk about the NFL as a product, not specific players. They do trust me when I tell you that you go and listen to

maybe not on like the NFL network just like you're not going to hear Karen Bryant and Rashad Evans and Anthony Smith on the desk trashing a UFC card. If you go to CBS Sports or you go to SiriusXM to listen to

football talk, hell go listen to Boston Sports Radio. They will shit on everything. They will shit on their own teams. They will shit on the sports. They will shit on the lineup. It's just the way that it is, guys. We don't work for the UFC. Matt, random thought I had this morning.

Instead of adding a new day for McGregor, why not do McGregor versus Chandler at 306, make Noce UFC a fight night, the night before 306, maybe at the apex small venue in Vegas, because they can get multiple pay-per-view bites of the Apple here. By adding a set, because look, we knew at some point

we're going to get a second pay-per-view, right? Like if you go to the schedule and you look back on the news and you look at some of the deals the UFC has cut over the last several years, right? there's a couple of cities that have that need cards that haven't gotten them yet so salt lake city is won like ufc 304 the manchester card that was supposed to be in salt lake city but because tom is a champion because leon's a champion because of the outpour of support to have a pay-per-view event in that area they're opening up this new venue it was just like all right we're going to have to pivot and from what i understood early talk October, they were going to do

obviously the Abu Dhabi card and they were going to do Salt Lake City right around the same time. There's talks about getting Houston in the mix at some point. So, I mean, look, the UFC could just do pay-per-views whenever they want. Like, they could just take, like, they could just end this, they could take

tomorrow's card off and just, like, book a pay-review if they wanted to and just sell it. And people would buy it. Like, they could do that. So no, I don't think they're going to use the spear for that plus the sphere is cool but it also doesn't fit a lot of people it's not like you could fit 20,000 people in the sphere i think it's like less than 10 so if you're gonna do a mcgregor fight like

you want to you want to juice that gate up as much as possible but yeah you get multiple bites of the apple do the big sphere card and then you still get a connor pay-per-view like they're going to try to do that uh Alex is the goat for saving two big ufc main events is john ray and And yes, he is the MVP. Who is Tricoli fighting at UFC Vegas-903 because of Grimalscariff has already scheduled? He's not fighting anybody. He gets the night off.

Maybe they let him make Wade and he gets a paycheck, but yeah, he can't fight nobody. And Kamakka says, I don't think Steeper retires if he beats Jones. I really believe he fights Estab. Why? Why, in God's name, would Stepe Meitchh fight Tom Aspinall?

Seriously. Why would he fight him? You just beat John? Like, if he beats John Jones, he's going to go fight Tom Aspinall? Why would he do that? Like, Stipey doesn't need to fight at all. But he can't ignore John Jones payday. You can't ignore that.

Like, he's the second biggest draw on the sport right now. So, yeah, that's worth it to him. But Stipe's going to fight. Stipe was going to fight John Jones or Francis and Gano. That's it. Literally nobody else. He doesn't need, like, he doesn't need it. yeah if he goes and fights john he's he's either gonna he would either retire or he would fight john again for a big payday

there's no way he's fighting tomass ball there's no way he's fighting curtis blades no way he's fighting sergey pavlovitch that's it all right we'll take one more uh yentie go ahead yentie you're there unmute yourself no go uh do we have any more comments do you have any more comments I think we're good. I think we've hit up, we've hit everything. Yeah. So what a day it has been,

my friends. And guess what? We're not done. We're not done. We got the, we get a big preview show coming up in about an hour's time if you're live in the space,

12.30 p.m. Eastern. We're going to preview the three big cards. Because why not? The UFC card, basically we'll probably just, quickly talk about the main event and just probably do a Q&A. We get Silva Sound 3.

We got Tank versus Martin. So we'll discuss all three of those events on the preview show at 12.30 p.m. Easter, I believe it is myself, Jed Mishu, and Jose Young's. If memory serves me correctly, so it'll be a good time. It'll be a tremendous time. And you should join us for that. we should join us for that we have one more comment

the UFC book comes out for the Abu Dhabi fight card in August hold him for October and against two he should not fight in August I'll tell you that right now I don't know if you guys saw the the hospital photo

he looks in really tough shape man so August is probably way too soon you probably try October and do Paul Costa like what are we doing you should have been the fight from the get-go all right but thank you all very much appreciate

you all. Preview show, I guess, to 12.30 p.m. Eastern as far as we go here, back on Tuesday. We'll do it again. You all rule. Have a great rest of your Friday. Have a heck of a morning, everybody. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to lux beauty and fragrance sets. Our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holtz holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com. With Instacard, you get groceries that over-deliver so you can over-share your preferences.

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