MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reaction To Luke Rockhold's Explosive UFC 278 Media Day

Episode Date: August 18, 2022

Former UFC and Strikeforce champ Luke Rockhold did not mince words at his UFC 278 media day on Wednesday ahead of his matchup with Paulo Costa on Saturday in Salt Lake City. On an all-new episode of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to Rockhold's media scrum where he opened up about his thoughts on the UFC's business practices, and confronted a reporter for how he handled an interview with teammate Marlon Vera. In addition, listener questions include Rockhold's title hopes with a win on Saturday, Kamaru Usman's mindset heading into his title fight with Leon Edwards and where Usman would go with a win, Costa's pending free agency, José Aldo's fight with Merab Dvalishvili, Miranda Maverick's ceiling, Sean O'Malley's chances against Petr Yan at UFC 280, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. All right, everybody, it is Thursday, August 18th, excuse me, 2022, and is indeed a heck of a morning live on the day. the MMA fighting Twitter spaces. You will hear the show at its entirety on the MMA fighting podcasting networks. So if you're listening after the fact, welcome. I feel like I don't give you guys enough love. But thank you

for joining us there. Thank you for joining us live. I am Mike Heck. Hope everyone's having a great week. We are on the eve of the eve of UFC 278, which goes down this Saturday in Salt Lake City, Utah. First pay-per-view event to take place in Salt Lake City, Kamara Usman, Leon Edwards, the main event for the UFC

welterway title. We had Media Day yesterday, and people were fiery at the media day, especially one Luke Rockhold who just did not hold back at all when it comes to the UFC's business practices, when it came to certain members of the media, he just blasted everybody, everybody caught strays. It was very reminiscent, maybe even a little more outspoken than Tony Ferguson's media day ahead of his fight with Michael Chandler. So a lot from that. Rob de Wallisville got a little crazy saying that Peodor Yan and Sean O'Malley both suck. Kamar Usvin is talking about if the price is right, he'll go fight John Jones.

Leon Edwards, throwing strays at Leon Edwards feels like, or Leon throwing strays at Kamar Usman. He's not throwing strays at himself, but he's throwing him at a Kumar Usman, feeling like Usman's head's not in the game. There's a lot from that media day, and there's a lot going on in the world of mixed martial arts. Dana White's pissed at the media again.

What a surprise. there's just so much going on. It's going to be a very busy weekend in the world of combat sports. Of course, PFL is back this weekend as well. BKFC is in London, which will no longer have Page Vanzan on the card. I believe our own Damon talked to Paige about why she got removed. I don't think if you saw her on social media,

I don't think she understands why she was removed after putting in a camp, but now she's going to fight Charisius Seagala in October. But MVP, Michael Venom Page, is going to make his BKFC debut against Mike Perry in the main event of that card. So a lot going on in the world of combat sports. So let's hear from you guys. We will begin with my man Don.

Like, what's going on, man? A heck of a morning. All that jazz, you already know, too sweet that. I wanted to know who you think made out Like, because this was a crazy media day. It was a crazy media day. Who you think, like, had the most fire, the most heat, in your opinion, coming out of the post-media day scrum?

I had another question. Johnny Walker is fighting after this card coming up this weekend. Crazy how far that man has fallen from Grace fighting Kutalawa. I can never really pronounce that guy's name. What do you think about that match? I don't think that's good. I don't think that's good for him. I think he should have took a little bit more time after getting destroyed by

sweet dreams. But hey, man, have a heck of a morning, two sweet day, all that stuff, man. And keep going with you doing good you're doing well. Thank you, my man. I appreciate that. No Dunkin' Donuts sponsorship just yet, although I am enjoying a delicious, large black ice coffee, very refreshing on this Thursday morning. Yeah, Johnny Walker Kuchelaba, I mean, I think this might be the UFC's way of trying to say,

we need to make Johnny Walker fun again. And Iwan Kutalab is certainly going to put him into position to at least try to make him fun again, because if he's not somewhat fun, he's going to get run over in that fight. He's either going to get knocked out viciously pretty quickly, or maybe we get D1 Kutalaba, who just takes him down and uses that top pressure and ground and pound. So interesting matchup. That's just kind of where he fell.

I talked about this many times before. The UFC builds prospects up pretty well for the most part. But if we're looking for examples of where they screwed the pooch, Johnny Walker is probably a prime example because putting him in that fight with Corey Anderson just killed him. In hindsight, maybe it seemed right. But I just, as soon as that match at his book does, like, I just don't see a word. world where Johnny wins this fight. And we've seen sort of what has happened in his career since then. The answer to the other question, it's definitely Luke Rockhold. I mean, the man was just on fire all day

long. He was on the MMA hour. Then he went into the media day and just fired shots at the UFC, fired shots at Dana White, fired shots at poor bonus structure, poor medical structure, whole bunch of business stuff that he just threw out and nobody was safe. Except for maybe Lorenzo and Frank Fortita because he gave them some shine, said they were hungry. Now he's saying the current UFC brass

has no idea what they're doing. They just got Dana running the show. And then I think the one that really caught everyone's attention was him just calling out the dude from Full Send And just kind of out of nowhere, he just pointed him out and went after him. And the dude from Full Send sort of fired back at Luke. And it was just kind of a weird situation. But again, a lot of people have reached out to me and asked me what I thought about that whole situation,

about Barstool and Full Send and all that stuff. And I've talked about it on the show. Like, I, the UFC partners up with those guys. There's a partnership. between Dana, the UFC, and Full Send and Barstool. And I try to tell everybody, it's a smart move by the UFC to align themselves with those groups of people. Because what the UFC is trying to do, because anyone, everybody here right now that is in this space, for the most part, has been a fan for a while. and the UFC doesn't need to sell us on anything.

They don't need to sell us on cards. They don't need to sell us on buying a pay-per-view. We're probably going to watch it, no matter what. What they're trying to get is new viewers. They're trying to get the casual audience to check out one card, and then hopefully that leads to more cards from there. And I compare them to kind of like your first girlfriend. Like, you don't know what you're doing, but you're trying to figure it out.

And we go to the type of, we go to the popular girl in high school. You get to date the popular girl in high school. You get experience. It's exciting. You learn about this new thing. And then as the years go by, wisdom, knowledge, it all kind of comes into play. And then you realize that as you're a big fan and you're trying to dive deeper into the sport, you're not going to go to the bar stools.

You're not going to go to the full set. You're going to go to MMA fighting. You're going to go to MMA junkie. You're going to go to the sites that have different kinds of insight, breaks down fights,

talks to the fans, gets their thoughts on different things. So it's very smart. It's very smart. And these guys are content creators and they get a lot of views on a lot of their stuff. So, I mean, they're big sites,

they're big groups. And it was just kind of weird. It was kind of weird. There's a part of me that was like, this is kind of exciting, but then the more you listen to it, it was kind of awkward at times. And I feel like Luke kind of felt like he was maybe wrong a little bit.

He was just all fired up. And I don't know. It was just a crazy situation yesterday. But that's what it is. Like a lot of people are like, are you happy that that happened? No, I wasn't like happy about it. But because I understand the relationship.

It's smart on Dana White's part. It's smart on the UFC's part. to partner with those types of broadcast conglomerates because that's how you're going to get new eyeballs to the product. And you could do a lot worse than barstool and full send in terms of getting eyeballs on the product. They have built an audience. They've built a pretty big audience.

And that's what gets them in the door. They're not going to stay consuming that content for their entire MMA fandom, but it gets them in the door. And it gets them buying pay-per-view. and it gets them watching cards, it gets them subscribing to ESVM Plus to watch all the fight night events. Like, it's very smart on their part.

It was just kind of weird and out of left field. It was kind of weird. But Luke was on fire yesterday. He's the correct answer. Let's go to four-quarter sports. Hello, four-quarter sports. Hey, Mike, can hear me?

Yes, sir. Hey, so I wanted to talk about Kamaro Oussman's interview. That was the only, interview that I ended up watching. I still got to catch up on all the other ones, but hearing him talk about him saying that people should shouldn't be underestimating his mindset because of the whole thing that he's in a Marvel movie and he wants to be as bigger than, you know, the rock and stuff like that. My whole thing is like everything that everything that he was saying has, it just shows that, you know, his mind isn't fully

focused from what it seems like on his Leon fight. now if he loses like how much of a big how much of a big loss would that you know hurt him you know just because of all the distractions that he may possibly have like looking on into the foreseeable future as for as for the co-meant event I'm very interested in Luke Rockwell versus Paul Ocosta

Paul Ocosta looks shredded question is will he make 185 that's the real question and you know I have it down as maybe Luke Rockhold winning by the 6th I don't see Rockhold knocking out Costa. But what's your input on the Rock Hall Costa fight? And even Josiahado, like, could we be seeing the final fights of Joseoaldo? I predict that he may have three, four more in the bag.

I don't know what you think. Thanks, Mike. Have a good one. Thanks, buddy. I'll address those in order because those are obviously the three big fights on this card. I don't buy the narrative that Usman's like overlooking Leon Edwards. and that he's not focused on Leon Edwards. I feel like this is a bit of gamesmanship in a way on Usman's part

because, sure, this isn't Colby. Like when he's fighting Colby, it was personal, there was a lot of heat there. He was fired up to just try to put Colby behind him. This is a little different. Like maybe there's a part of him that's like, eh, I'm looking for bigger challenges, but Ousman just doesn't strike me as the kind of guy

that is just going to overlook. opponents because we have to think about this. And I talked to John Anick about this yesterday. That interview is on our podcast network right now. It's going to be on YouTube shortly, probably sometime today. And I asked John about this. And what John said made a ton of sense. And we've talked about this a million times.

Being a UFC champion and consistently defending your title is maybe the hardest thing to do in all of sports. Like winning the belt, I mean, even winning. the belt is hard, but to do what Usman has been doing, defend the title five times against the Colby Covington's of the world, you've got to be on your game every single time you fight. And for a guy like Usman, who has said the things that he has been saying over the last couple of years, who has said what he said yesterday, talking about moving to 205, just throwing out some of these crazy ideas, getting the roles in the movies and things like that. like the man's planting seeds.

And if he loses to Leon Edwards, that kills everything. It's all gone. It's all gone. And it's unfortunate because losses, like, you can bounce back from losses in the we've seen it happen a million times where fighters lose. We think they're done. And then they come back and get a big win. And it's like winning changes everything.

But with where Oostman is right now in the talk of all times, greatness. A loss to Leon Edwards is literally the worst thing that could happen to him. Losing to Colby would like suck for his ego. But Colby is, Dana White says it all the time. There's no Kamar Usman. Colby Covington is the long-reigning welterweight champion of the world. He's the second best welterweight in the world. And I think, I think that's clear his day at this point. And he's given Usman two very competitive fights. There's a lot of people out there who still feel Colby beat Usman at UFC 268. I am not one of those people, but it was a a very close fight. If Usman loses to Leon Edwards on Saturday, and this is no indictment on

Leon Edwards, because the man deserves a title fight and stylistically he actually matches it pretty well, that's a bad look for Kamara Usman, especially with what he's been talking about. And there's no way that's not on the back of Usman's mind. So everything he's striving towards, all the greatness talk, the Mount Rushmore talk, the GSP stuff, all those conversations die if he loses on Saturday. So I think that's in the back of his mind. He's, legacy means a lot to this man and i think to me this is just a bit of gamesmanship to possibly get leon thinking like maybe he's not a hundred percent ready for this fight and who knows how he is physically he's talked openly about his knee issues he's had the hand injury who knows

if that's a hundred percent or not but leon's got to be perfect on saturday and kamarro doesn't and he can win that's what makes this fight a little interesting now There are intangible to this fight. There's things that Leon does very well. But I just feel like, I feel like it's going to take, I mean, it's going to take a perfect game from Leon Edwards to beat Kamaro's thing. Camaro can be off and still win. It's a crazy fight. The co-made event, I do disagree with you.

I mean, if this fight goes to a decision, I will let you go first on the show every day next week. There's no chance that fight goes to a decision. either Paulo is going to land a left hook and knock Luke Rockhold out cold or if Luke Rockhold is smart, he will find himself in some sort of grappling exchange and get this fight to the ground. Now is he going to shoot takedowns from across the octagon?

Absolutely not. But if Luke is smart, he will engage in some clinch battles with Paulo Costa, try to get some momentum going and get this fight to the ground. Because if he gets this fight to the ground and he gets on top of Paul Costa, he's got a great chance to win. But Luke hasn't been that guy in a while.

Just go back and watch the Chris Wyden fight. Go watch the Wyden fight. When he gets on top, that dude is a killer. But he just has somehow just fallen in love with his striking. And it's got to be fun for as long as it lasts. I just don't know if that chin's going to be able to hold up. I mean, three years away is probably a good thing for the chin. But I don't know how that's going to hold up when you have a guy like Paul Costa trying to knock your head off.

So I lean with cost to land a big, it's got to be a left hook more than likely because if you watch Luke Rockhold knockout losses, it's typically the left hook that lands. And I think that's probably what's going to happen. But Luke has a path to victory here. He absolutely does. If this fight could get to the ground, if he can get into some momentum grappling exchanges, it gets interesting. And then with the Aldo Morab fight, boy, I can't wait for that one. This one has to me on the edge of our seats, especially down the stretch. Because I see Josealo stuffing Marab's takedowns early.

I see him piecing Marab up on the feet a little bit. Marab is incredibly hitable despite the winning streak that he's on, despite the pressure he puts on. But all those takedown defense is incredible. He's also a terrific three-round fighter. And I think that plays into all those advantages. but eventually sometime in this fight

Marab is going to get this fight to the mat. It just is a matter of when. If Aldo could get to the second half of the fight without being taken down, I think he wins. I'm picking Aldo to win a very close decision, but I think if you're a Jose Aldo fan,

watching that third round is going to be tough because I think Marab's going to get some momentum in that second round. He might be down 2-0 heading into the third, but eventually Marab's going to get his arms wrapped around him. He's going to get this fight to the mat. How's Jose Alar going to handle that? So, boy, I mean, it's definitely the toughest and closest fight on the card to me,

but I can't wait for it. And although said publicly a few times, he just, he wants to get to a title fight, he wants to win the belt, and then he wants to retire. So, yeah, maybe, I don't know, if he goes back and wins the belt, seeing how this division is, maybe he sticks around for another one or two. But I think three or four fights is, is, a pretty good number. But those three fights are all excellent on Saturday's card. Let's go to Clear's values. Long time, no talk. Sorry about that. I know you've missed me.

Yes, every day. How you been? I'm good, man. So I had a quick thing, or two two quick things, I guess. The first is with the win here, do you see Luke Rockhold, you know, waiting out Pahara and Izzy, and getting a title shot. And the second thing is, I'm just curious what you're interested in BKFC. I tried giving them a shot. I've watched it a couple times. I'm probably going to watch this card as well.

But it just hasn't clicked for me. You know, I really haven't found that interest quite yet. I'm getting more and more into boxing. And obviously, I love the MMA. But BKFC, for some reason, there's something there that really isn't pulling me in. Maybe it's the fact that, you know, I'm not, other than like the one-offs, like this fight this weekend and Paige, there really aren't a lot of names there that I'm particularly interested in watching. So it kind of makes the stakes like uninter.

I know Ariel talks about that a lot with Bellator, but, you know, I just wanted to hear your thoughts on that if you're going to watch this weekend and what, you know, if you're excited about that. Thank you, sir. will I watch that's a good question will I watch I probably will watch it I am somewhat curious about MVP

going over to bare knuckle and how that will translate so I mean there is a part of me that is interested to see how it all plays out I don't know I'll probably watch it I just, I have this feeling deep down like that's a poster fight.

It's a poster fight. It's one of those fights that when we found out about it, we're like, ooh, this is out of left field and weird. And Perry is a gamer. I'll give him that. I just don't see a whirl where he doesn't get pieced up by MVP for the entirety of the fight. But I could be wrong. I could be wrong. I just feel the range, the length, all that that comes into play for MVP.

I feel like he'll probably just win. I think he'll probably just win. Perry is going to have moments and there's going to be moments of fun, but I just think MVP has a very good chance to cruise to a decision. I will say this, though, about BKFC.

I've covered a lot of events in my career. When I first started in May fighting, I was pretty much covering a lot of, like, the quote-unquote, like, sort of freak show events. BKFC 19 last year. in July. It was the Paige Van Zant, Rachel Ostovich card. Most fun.

Best Fight Week. The access was incredible. It was the most fun I've had covering an event. It was just awesome. And the card was insane. Because we had people jumping in and trying to attack rappers who were boxing.

It was just such a weird but chaotic card. And it was, yeah, it was fun. It was fun. And to answer your other question, if Luke Rockhold beats Paul Acosta, especially if he goes out there and gets a finish, which if he's going to win, that's probably how he's going to do it. And Izzy beats Pereira, there's no doubt of my mind. That's the direction they will go.

Because Izzy's beat everybody. And some of these guys twice. So Rockhold get a lot of momentum from that win. And there's just no way they don't go to that well. Let's go to Mikey. What's that, Mikey? good how are you there um all right so about the luke rock holding first of all i agree with him he's right

but i also want to say god this sounds so like typical of like a long tenured fan and me i'm just like i feel like i i didn't hear anything that i didn't already know from him but it's great that newer fans are hearing that so i do only get that out of the way but i have to say m a fans do this thing where they like being cocktys all the time where it's like oh somebody said something really inflammatory about the UFC, but then they'll talk about that fight week and then praise that person and not give a fuck the next week. And I think they need to address themselves and, like, admit,

you really, really care, are you just, like, hearing about it? And second of all, a lot of the stuff that Luke Rockles said is poignant and on point. But the irony is that he gave the vertes a pass, when in reality the very situation and the very system that is in the UFC right now is because of them. So, like, why are you giving them a pass with him going after endeavor? because the pay structure, the very thing you're, the very thing you're freaking complaining about

is because of the Fratitas. Everyone likes to blame Dana White. This is not a Dana-white-Shill rant, but it's like, everyone yells at Dana, but then completely forgets the fact that he actually answers to other people, you know? Like Endeavor needs to set the bar. They need to change the pay scale.

Not Dana alone, you know what I'm saying? And I'm a little worried about Aldo, because as much as I believe in him, like, I just feel he's going to get wet blank by Marab, and Marab's a good guy, too, and he would deserve that win. It would be big for him, but I'm just, I'm worried about that. And again, as I've been tweeting about it, like, Luke is a much better fighter on paper overall than Toss, I believe,

and I think his chances of winning are a little bit better. He just needs to hold up the storm, you know what I mean? So, yeah, that'll be for now. And again, I think he should get a title shot if he beats him, because at the end of day, he's an ex-champion, and Izzy and Adda-Sanya wants legacy fights. and beating ex-champ, there aren't many ex-champions left

for him to fight, and Luke's one of them. So, all right, man. Always appreciate your brother. Everybody else, have a good day. Thank you, Mikey. Yeah, I mean, look, what Rockhold said is nothing new.

Tony Ferguson said pretty much the same thing a couple of months ago before he fought Michael Chandler. It happens. Just more fighters are coming out. And then what it led to was guys like Francis and Ganu sort of breaking,

silence on Twitter when it comes to the UFC because it seemed like things might be heading in the right direction between the UFC and Francis and then we saw how Francis kind of reacted to all of that and there you go now we're sort of back to where we were

at the beginning of the year but I don't know it's a weird situation and again no one's doing anything about it you could say it into a live microphone all you want like we could sit here and talk about fighter pay. Like, we're all in agreement that fighters should be making more money.

I mean, 100%. What they do, getting locked in a cage with another human being, they should be compensated as well as possible. I'm not saying they should all be getting six figures, but guys coming into the UFC should be making more than 10 and 10. And a lot of these fighters should be making, especially at the top, should be making a lot more. But, I mean, we're not, again, until the fighters all band together and say, we're just not fighting. until something changes, nothing's going to change. We can talk about this, still a brew in the face, but the thing is nothing's going to change.

And why would the UFC change anything? They're making so much money. They can't miss right now. They can't. They're selling out shows. They're basically getting compensated to host events in certain parts of the world and certain cities in the United States.

Like, they're just, they're killing it. For a business sense, they're absolutely killing it. As far as the Marab thing goes, I don't know. It's a really good fight. I just think Marab is just really hitable. And this fight's going to play out on the fee for a while. And Jose can absolutely crack. Just ask Rob Fon about that.

And we'll see what happens. I think it's one, I'm picking all though to win by decision. But I think it's a fight where even though Marab might lose a close decision, it's one of those fights. where he ends the fight with a ton of momentum. But it's a really interesting matchup. And then Aldo should freaking fight for the title. He should be fighting for the title now.

Let's go to Emilio. Hello, Emilio. I don't hear you. Try again, my man. Let's go to... What did I just do? Let's go to Viking M.M.A. And then I'll go to Brian.

Unless Amelia gets back in. Viking, are you there? Hello, sir. I thought you selected Emilio. I did, but I couldn't get him on, so now you're up. Okay, Mike. Let me tell you one thing,

that you and your guy, you and your gang, like AK and Dadmishu, Jose, Casey, and the other mustache guy, Connor, the guys with the voice of Chaco-Taco, that Karna guy.

I mean, let me tell you, you guys are awesome and the most important thing on your YouTube shows and the podcast on MMFiting websites. They're, I mean, they're the most honest

analysis ever. I mean, everyone should check on the MMF fighting podcast. You guys are so honest about your reviews and analysis. It's more power to you, man. I love you a lot, brother.

And one more thing. My girlfriend wants me to say sorry to you, but I think that's on Twitter, and I did not say anything to you in person or for yourself. I mean, absolutely not. I respect you a lot. But she wants me to say sorry to you. And she's in the space you can address her.

My question is, if Usman wins and if Alex Pereira wins next, what do you think Usman will do or he should do? He has been consoling fans, you know, to respect him. But do you think even if Alex Pereira wins, he'll skip middleweights and jump to light Hewrit to put a significant mark on his own? career. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, buddy. Apology accepted. We're good to go. You can tell your girlfriend, we're all set. It's all good. I understand that when you listen to a show like this and you want to contribute, you want to contribute every time, it's sometimes these, sometimes things

line up and we get like a million callers on the show and it's just really hard to get to everybody. but I feel like those who get missed, I try to make it up to them the next show and we're all good there and I appreciate the kind words about the podcast network and I agree with you. I feel like we are very honest when it comes to our assessments on different things,

but we try to put a positive spin on everything. We try to find diamonds in the rough. When some people say cards are horrendous on paper, maybe we agree to some extent, but we still try to find the diamonds in the rough, if you will. And I don't think there's anything wrong. I'm not saying like be negative all the time because, again, we try to, we just tell the truth. We say what's on our minds.

And it doesn't mean we're not going to watch anything. We're not telling, well, that's not 100% true because Jed will say, hey, listen, if it's a Saturday and you got friends in the town, maybe skip this card and fall in May fighting for results. But for the most part, like, we're going to watch and we're going to digest things and we're going to talk about them. and in every other sport, it is okay for the media to say certain things about certain scheduling things. Like if you were an NFL analyst and there's a Thursday night football game coming up on Amazon Prime or the NFL network, and it's between two not great teams, they will say that, hey, listen, this is not the game you want to just skip everything for and watch, but they're going to talk about it. They're going to watch it and they're going to react to.

it. Just like if cards on, like, listen, like UFC 278, this is a four card. This is a four-fight card, really. I mean, we're going to watch it and there's going to be some, some good finishes. There's a lot of big favorites in the card. But in terms of, like, I have to watch all these fight. Like, this is not a card full of bangers. It just, it just isn't. The three big fights are spectacular. I love the Romanov-Tybura fight because I think this is going to be the Alexander to Ramonoff, quote-unquote, coming out party. But I'm going to watch it, and it's a big opportunity for these young fighters, these up-and-comers, to make a move.

This is how stars are created. This is something Bellator sucked at for a long time, where they would put these, like, kind of crazy freak show fights on. They throw, like, Ken Shamrock and Hoist Gracie on a card, which would get, like, the nostalgic fan. But then they wouldn't load up the undercar with, like, young talents that everybody could watch. in an attempt to build new stars or build excitements. Like, look at what happened with the Jasmine's at UFC San Diego.

Look what happened with Nate Landware in a lot of ways. Like, I mean, it was a co-main event, but like, people were like, eh, this is really like a co-main event? And then Nate Landware had a great performance, and that fight with Odammo was nuts. And that Landware got a lot of buzz and a lot of momentum. So this is an opportunity for some of those fighters to get that as well. I get that.

But let's be honest with ourselves. is a three and a half four fight card where there's like actual high stakes and that's what we want. We want high stakes in every fight. It's impossible to do. There are certain, we can't expect UFC 276 on paper

for every single card. We just can. But this is a good card. Like the main card's pretty solid. Those top three fights are amazing. It's great. But we're here to tell you how we feel. We're not here to sugarcoat anything. We're not PR for the UFFRA for the

and Bellator and PFL. We're here to talk about the sport. Good, bad, and different. That's what we're here for. And as far as your other question, Viking, if Pereira wins, they're definitely running that one back. There's just no doubt about it. So Usen, his move up to 85, probably isn't going to happen.

At least not any time soon unless Pereira wins a second time and then maybe you have a case. But I don't know. We'll see what happens. but trust me, if Ustman wins and Shemayyaf beats Nate Diaz, that you have to, it's the biggest fight Ousman can get. Him fighting Hamzat does, like, significantly better, probably double the pay-per-view buys than him fighting Yuri or Glover or Blyovic or anybody at 205, that's for damn sure.

But it all starts with him winning on Saturday against a very game Leon Edwards. Let's go to, let's see if we can get Amelia in here. Emilio, do we have you? Emilio, I don't know what's going on, Emilio. We can't get you for some reason. How about Vinnie? Can we get Vinny? Vinny.

Oh, man. Vinny, try again. Brian, save us. Brian Cashman. Mike, heck of a morning to you. Hello, sir. All right, I got three quick questions. for you. So first off, do you think the elevation in Utah is going to play effect in any of these

fights? I mean, they are up there pretty high, so I didn't know if that was going to play into effect at all. The second one was what Romanov and Tybora moved to the prelims? According to the website, it has. So that seems to be the plan right now. I mean, watching Alexander Romanoff do what he's probably going to do to Marchy and Tibora might generate some more pay-per-view buys. I don't know, but I would have seen that in the main card. But, hey, listen, more eyeballs on Romano. You're right. You're right.

And then my third thing is, what do you think the biggest story on that post-fight show is going to be coming out of this card? What do you think the biggest story is going to be? And that's all I got for you today. Great question. So let me address the elevation question. And the only, I don't think it's going to play a massive factor. Like, there is elevation concerns, but they're not in Mexico City. They're not in Denver.

It's not going to be like that. I don't think it'll be anything that extreme. The one fight where I think it might play a little bit of a factor is the Aldo Morab fight. But I do, but I don't think it's really elevation. I think the elevation will somewhat contribute to how that. fight ends, maybe in the third round. Like, I see a world where Aldo starts to sort of puff and puff a little bit down the tail end of that fight.

And I think that's where Marab can really get cooking because I think he's going to have a hard time getting Aldo to the ground early. I think he's going to deal with a lot of punishment and he's going to get hit a lot. But I think if Marab can stay in the fight and extend it and it gets to the third round, although I would feel this way if this was happening in. Boston or L.A. or Chicago or Jacksonville, I feel like the fight would somewhat look the same in a three-round fight. But if it affects anybody, it's going to affect Aldo, but not enough where I'm like, it's a major concern where I'm going to like change my pick or anything. If there's

a five-round fight, maybe I'd look at it a little bit differently. But Aldo's just a terrific three-round fighter. And I do think he's going to win the fight. And then the storyline one, man. It's probably going to be it's probably going to be Ousman Shemayev. Probably. I don't know. At least for me, it'll be

if everything goes the way I see it's going to go and I've been wrong a lot. Is it finally time for Jose Alder to get a title shot? I don't know. We'll see. I mean, who knows? Maybe Luke Rockhold beats Paul Costa and that's probably the biggest talking point

especially if Usman wins. All right, Vinnie, do we have you? Vinny. Hey, finally. I was able to connect finally. How are you, Mike? We got you. Sweet.

Let's do this. Yes, sorry about that. It takes a while for me to connect sometimes. I don't know why. Just a quick question on the A.J. Fletcher against Losa fight. I love Losa, but I mean, AJ Fletcher is not that bad. I mean, who would you pick on that fight? Just your thoughts on that.

Yeah, it's a Those two guys Just gonna beat the hell of each other Until one man falls I lean AJ Fletcher To get it done But AJ's got to get it done early

And it's an interesting fight Because Angeloos is pretty durable guy It's never been finished I know it's not like he has 500 fights on his record But I mean We've seen how good Jack Della Madalane is And he went the distance with Jack

AJ could crack So I lean AJ to get it done I think you probably I don't know if he's going to get him out of there I don't know It's going to be a good It's going to be a good fight They're just going to they're going to crack each other

Until somebody falls I think the longer it goes the more favors Lusa But I like AJ Fletcher to get him out of there And I think it's just going to be one of those deals Where the fans are going to get those guys Like completely riled up and they're just going to sort of throw caution to the wind.

Fletcher doesn't like to fight for a long time. He likes to get in and get out. And the dude can crack. He pretty much hurts everybody he fights. Now, the last fight, that was kind of to his detriment because he got up to such a great start against Matthew Semmelsberger, but Semmelsberger showed his durability. It was able to grind down the stretch and get the win.

But I think Fletcher probably learned a lot from that loss. Semmelsberger is a tremendous athlete. and yeah, I think it'll be fun. Do we have you, Emilio, please, for the love of God. Hello, Mike. Yes, we got it. We did it. Third times the charm.

Yeah, thanks for staying patient with me, but it was always kind of a last second. Oh, I just decided to switch apps, and that's the moment where you turned on my microphone. So then for some reason, yeah, it didn't work out. But anyways, we're here. I hope that you're having a great day so far. Anyways, I'm going to go straight into my questions.

There's two that I got. The first one, I'm related to boxing. I'm a huge boxing stand. And obviously, this weekend is the huge fight between Usik and Joshua two. the rematch. I wanted to get your thoughts on that. I mean, even though not entirely sure that

you're huge into boxing or not, but hey, it's a big comeback sports thing, so I'm interested in your take. I think that Ousick is just going to I think Ousig is just going to put the brakes. Put the brakes? No.

Yeah, he's just going to win another really, really, really dominant decision. Just like the first fight, I think. He's in AJ's head. And I think, yeah, to all my Ukrainian brothers out there and sisters, so Slava Ukraine. And my second question is, it's related to UFC 280. It's about the Jan versus Sugar Show fight.

And I've heard a lot of people over the past few weeks, ever since the fight was announced, like, oh, you know, like a lot of people were saying, Jan is going to just, yeah, bolt Sean. But then my argument, like, and the argument that a lot of people are bringing to the table is that Jan is a full starter. Sean is the complete opposite of that. He's a quick starter.

And it's a three-round fight. And therefore, Sean has a better chance. as like a really good shot at maybe catching Yan while he's still waking up. But people tend to forget. And I'm not saying that Sean doesn't have any chance whatsoever. I think that a lot of people are underestimating him. And I think that this fight is going to be more competitive than a lot of people say it's going to be, at least all the Peyodor Jan fans, even though I myself include myself in that group.

but people tend to forget that Peotor, I think he had like three fights or maybe four fights before he fought Faber. Yeah, I think it was four fights. So before the, was it a main event against Euriah? I can't remember.

Anyways, the point. Now, just a three-round paper. Just a three-round. Okay. Yeah, there you go. That even adds more to the argument that I want to make. And that is that

I think the only reason why people think that Piotr is a slow starter is because is because he if he's in a five round fight he takes one round off to kind of like download all the data you know everything everything that everybody already knows

but in his previous fights and the three round fights I mean he wasn't really a super sole starter it's not like he took it's not like necessarily he took the first round off because he was either winning unanimous decisions or just bolting people. So I think that that whole narrative is being blown a little bit out of proportion. I think that Peotter is going to come out with a fire in his eyes.

And, yeah, it's going to be, I think that Sean is going to make it a fight, but I think that Peirter is actually going to knock him out on the third round or TKOM. But, yeah, that's my take. I wanted to get your take on that as well. Thanks again, Mike, for everything that you do. And sending you love and good vibes your way. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, man.

Yeah, I'm with you. I think Ucic wins on Saturday. Yeah, I have to watch a little more tape on both of those guys just to see how Jan can deal with the range. I mean, Corey Sanhagen's got good range too and good movement. and, you know, Corey had his moments in the fight. It was super fun, really technical battle, but Jan started to get the better of him.

And that's a great point. It's been a long time since we've seen Peodor Yan fight in the three-round fight. So I'm curious to see what that's going to look like. But I've been saying since this fight was booked, and some people agree with me and some people don't. But we all have our opinions, and that's okay. I feel like Shot-O-Malley should just empty the gas tank early.

Just go after Yon's. on with everything he has. Because, I mean, O'Malley's got a pretty decent cardio. The guy can go. He's a good athlete. So it's not like if he just goes out and has sort of Rob Font,

Calvin Cater type volume, that's, or, I mean, not even Holloway, but maybe if he goes out, it's not like he's just get a completely gas in the second round. But if he does that, and he wins the first round and he has Jan in some trouble at some certain points,

win or lose, his stock's going to rise. So I think for him, I think the big thing for him, yes, it's a tremendous opportunity. And yes, it is going to play a factor on where this division goes. There's no doubt about it, especially if O'Malley wins. He becomes like a big time player in the title conversation. But I just, I just think he needs to.

be somewhat competitive. I think as long as he has moments, it doesn't get the doors completely blown off of him. I think he'll be fine. His stock will rise and maybe he takes a step back a little bit. But even if he goes out there and loses a competitive fight to Jan, he's still going to be fighting top 10 guys. So I don't think there's a lot of people feel like there's a lot of pressure on him. I think more pressure is on Jan here to get the job done. And I think in a way, even though this isn't like all 100% true. I think O'Malley is kind of playing with house money here because not a lot of people are expecting him to win this fight.

I remember the reaction when we confirmed it. Everyone's like, oh, come on. Jan's just going to put the boots to him from start to finish. And I just don't think that's the case. Like, I think Jan's going to win, but I think it's, I think the first seven minutes of that fight are going to be really interesting. Because I wonder if O'Malley's just going to go right after him trying to blow the doors off of him. And if he does and has moments

and still loses, that's fine. I don't think anyone's going to talk a lot of crap about him, and they shouldn't. But it's an interesting matchup. Big opportunity for O'Malley, and I think it's the best fight Peter Yan can get after the two losses to Sterling. Let's go to Kfe.

To talk about Luke Rockhold potentially getting a title shot, is this serious if he wins tomorrow night? That's really all I got. I'm also driving. So have a good day and happy birthday, AK. AKA is in Scotland right now.

Just going to weddings on a little vacay. So some scheduling changes this week on the NBA Fighting Podcasting Network and on the YouTube page. I think I'm going to be hosting the way in show. I kind of like not hosting the way in show because then I can just sit back and give my takes on certain things because I'm not hosting. but I think I'll probably have to host that as well, which is fine. We'll have fun doing that. Yes, if Luke O'Reckold wins

and does so impressively, I think he will get the title shot as long as Adasania beats Pereira. It's silly, but, I mean, who else is Adisani going to fight? Maybe there's an argument at Sean Strickland if he beats Jared Canaanair. If Vittori beats Whitaker,

I don't think they're going to give Vittoria a third shot at him. If Whitaker wins, I don't think they're going to give Whitaker a third shot at Adasagna. I mean, who else is there? Like, the UFC built this fight since Pereira got to the UFC. They built, they did everything they did was to set up for this fight. And if he goes out there and, if Adasana just goes out there and bolts Pereira and beats him, like, who else is there? The biggest fight Adasani could probably get at 185 pounds is with Luke.

Because Luke's a star. People care about what Luke has to say. Now, I understand him hating on the UFC and talking a bunch of crap about him. Maybe that hurts his chances, but the UFC is, they're not dumb. They're not dumb. They understand that Luke's getting up there in age, and if you're going to put this fight together, you've got to do it now.

So if he wins, I absolutely think he's getting a title shot. If Adasania beats Pereira, that is. Let's go to the AM. Are you there? Make sure you unmute. Okay, thank you. Good morning. Gotcha. Good morning.

But thank you for all the questions this morning. I have one question for you about Paulo Costa. He said this is going to be his last fight on his contract. And we know he criticized the pay and all that before. Do you think the UFC will renew his contract, whether he loses or wins or do you think you will let him go, especially expressed interest in going to like doing what Jack Paul and Logan Paul are doing.

Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Interesting question, yes. I had heard rumblings that Costa was entering the fight on the last fight of his deal. He confirmed that at the media day. So he's betting on himself. And that's smart. That's smart.

If he loses... This cost is a tough one because say would you will about Paul Costa, how often, I mean, the Vittori situation really rubbed people the wrong way with how he handled himself and didn't really care about the weight cut and all that stuff and missing weight tremendously to the point where the fight had to get bumped. Let's do it at 195. No, I can't even make 195. So let's do it to 205 and he still lost. It was a good fight. And Paul Costa took a fight week that, If you look at it from top to bottom, it was like one of those things where it's like, okay, like this is an interesting main event. But that whole story, everything Paul Costa did that weekend,

that made that entire fight time. Because it just made it much more interesting. Like Paul Costa, when he speaks, people listen. His social media presence is just hilarious. Kind of weird at times. But the guy,

the guy gets attention. People care. People care. He's a big jacked fun fighter who it's very rare like what was

I remember ever seeing Paul Costa in like a boring fight the dude brings it every time so I don't know it will all depend I just it's who's more realistic

about the situation like if Paul Costa Costa beats Luke Rockhold and he's like I'm not resigning unless I get a title fight, then I think Paul Koss is probably going to get let go. They'll probably just let him go. It just depends on the money and the conversation will have to be had,

but it's tough to answer that. Maybe Tuesday I'll have an answer, but it really all depends on how this fight goes. Like if he goes out there and puts on a stinker, then I doubt the UFC will be in any rush to bring him back, but they understand there's value with Paul Kostom. and just if paula costa is realistic about what his value is maybe they can come to terms but again

if you're the pfl if you're bellator if you're bkfc if you're one of these promotions looking to make a move paul costa is a good ad to your promotion paul costa yole romero two and bellotor come on sign me the hell up for that one let's go all costs in the pfl has a very good i'm sure they'll pay him well it's a very good chance to win a million he could fight at 205 or 185 i don't know be fun we'll see i'll i'll have more insight on tuesday

once that fight ends and we'll take a gander at us marshal's buyers travel far and wide hustling for great deals on amazing gifts so you don't have to they've bagged this season's Italian leather handbags. Designer. Hand-picked the finest sweaters from the rest. Ooh, cashmere. Landed makeup palettes from the brands you love. Rushes too.

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online on C4. m. Onmager or in How are you, Mike? How's everything,

man? Good. Okay, cool. I have two questions. So I want to kind of hone in a little bit with the Aldo Morab fight. I've been pleading for him for Aldo to return throwing back

leg kicks. The problem is with the leg kicks against Marab Mara can catch it and then take him down. Do you feel that he should throw, be cautious, if he's going to return throwing back the leg kicks, do you think he has to be very cautious of how he throws them?

Or do you think he should just not even throw him at all? I don't even bother. Or do you feel like if you're going to throw a leg kick, throw the low calf kick where Murat can't catch it? And that could be because, again, we saw earlier as part of his career destroying people with leg kicks. And it was just inevitable that the opponent was just going to crumble at that point. So I also want your thoughts and your perspective of what he should do,

you think, in your mind. And then my second question is regarding Moran, Miranda Maverick versus Shana Young. Miranda Maverick looks like she has like a fire lit under her. I heard an interview, you know, especially, you know, she lost to Macy Baller, then obviously lost to Aaron Blanfield. It looks like she's like, you know, rejuvenated. And it's like, like fires being lit under her where she wants to get back in those talks

and people talking good about her again. I mean, I haven't forgotten about her. I think a lot of people a little bit, a lot of, I don't know, I just feel people have forgotten about Miranda Maverick. I think she can get back in the top 15. So I just want your thoughts on Miranda Maverick, her approach to this fight and how you feel about her now. So thanks, Mike. Always great to hear from you and everybody else. Have a heck of good morning.

Thanks. Thanks, buddy. The Aldo is going to landline kicks. He's not going to throw a thousand of them, but he is going to throw some. He hasn't throw him as much as he normally does. He hit Rob Fawn with some light kicks. they're there if he needs them. But I don't think he's all that,

I don't think he's, I think he's concerned about Marab's takedown abilities. Like how can you not be? But all those takedown defense is legendary. It's like he's so good. He's just so good. He's one of the best defensive fighters we've ever seen. So I'm sure he's prepared for that.

I do think he'll land leg kicks. I don't think he even needs them because Marab is very hitable. He leaves his chin like right. And Marab likes to throw a little bit too. Like sometimes he gets a little crazy. He's like, oh yeah? You think this guy's going to beat me on the feet? Watch this.

And he got absolutely cracked by Marl Mara's. Like real bad. Almost got finished by Mara Mara's in that fight. And if the referee had stopped it in the first round, no one would have been, no one would have complained about it. So I do think that's such an advantage in this fight for Josealdo is that he is very hitable. Marab is very hitable.

Down the stretch, I don't think we're going to see Aldo throwing light kicks in the third round, but I think he's going to land him. I think he's going to land him. I think he's going to piece Marab up. Definitely in the first round. Most of the second. I think Maraub will probably get a takedown late in the second, take a little momentum.

I think Aldo will be up two rounds to none, and then Marab will take that momentum into the third, land some takedowns, get off on some ground and pound, tire Aldo out a little bit and things could get a little hairy down the stretch but I think Aldo defensively is just so good

and I think he hangs on and wins and then with Miranda Maverick I mean you couldn't I don't want to sound like a like a jerk or a hater to Shanna Young but as long as Miranda Maverick doesn't turn into like K1 Miranda Maverick she should win this fight

pretty easily honestly, if she starts if she starts playing the well watch we just strike with her I could strike too. That's a bad idea. But if she just takes Shanna Young down, she'll win. Stephanie Eager took her down and pounded her out.

And like Stephanie's a fine fighter, but Miranda Maverick is better than Stephanie Eager, especially with her wrestling, especially with their top control. Miranda is a monster in that division. I think as long as Miranda just goes in and takes the least path of resistance,

she'll win. But we'll see. It's a fight and anything can happen. We'll take a few more. We'll go to A-Hid. I'm sure he's got takes. A-Hid, are you there? Can you hear me?

Yes, I got you. All right, awesome. My heck of a morning, listen. Okay, so with Luke Rockhold and Paolo Costa, I want to say I'm worried about Luke Rockhold because to me it's the case of Luke is defensively irresponsible and Paolo is just Powell is just a beat, Paulo's looking so light, Mike. He looks so light and shredded and he looks very mentally mature. as well.

Like he seems mature. He just seems so focused. For me, I feel that with both of them as well, Paolo's got that straight right. He's got that body kick. Luke's got that body kick. I just think that Paulo's just going to get him.

You know, Paulo's just got that tight guard. I expect Paulo to just kind of run him over. And with regards to the fight of hay and Francis and Garneu and the crypto thing, I'm not really on Francis' side because the fact is, it's the UFC's company.

They can choose what they want to do. If you don't like it, there's two options. You strike or you leave. It's that simple. The only problem I have with the contract is there's something called an exclusivity clause where the UFC can keep the fighters. And that's the mistake Dana was apparently talking about with Shane Bergos. They waived the exclusivity clause.

So for me, that's the only problem. that like that feels like the fighters are being kept hostage. But apart from that, if you don't like it, just leave. If Francis was to go to the PFL now, he would make a ton of money. If Luke Rockhold was to go to the PFL now, he would make a ton of money with the state of the middleweight are right there.

So the fact is, it's just like, yeah, just strike or leave. But there's no much point complaining or trying to make noise. When you know nothing's going to happen, and the UFC don't have to. take orders from you. That's all I've got for today, Mike. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I think

it's just a weird situation because even if you wanted to leave, he can't. And the whole thing with Nate Diaz, like Dana White was basically saying like, well, maybe Nate should just go box Jake Paul because he's tough to deal with. Okay, well, if that's how you feel,

just let him go box Jake Paul then. But that's not the case. That's the whole independent contractor thing and the employees and things like that. Like you're supposed to be an independent contractor. You're not employed by the company yet. You can't go and fight or do anything else. So it's like, it's just a weird thing.

And again, the biggest thing is until these fighters are willing to walk away, nothing's going to change. And it's, it's tough because we'd like to see everyone make more money and do all that fun stuff. But it just doesn't seem like it's going to happen anytime while I'm covering the sport and it's too bad.

Let's go to Raymond. Raymond, are you there? I was just, I had an interesting question about what happens if Oussman gets past Leon Edwards, because I've been having a few, like, a few conversations with people over Twitter, and everyone seems to think that Ousman doesn't stand a chance at £205, even though he probably, after his fights, weighs a lot more than that. And I was just wondering what you thought about Usman if he gets past Leon Edwards and where do you think he'd be adding after that?

Yeah, man. I mean, look, he has to fight. If Shamiya beats Diaz, he has to fight Hamzaa next. He has to. That is the biggest fight that Kamar Usman can get right now. By far. That is by far the biggest fight he can get. Unless somehow Habib comes back and fights him or Connor fights him,

which I don't think Connor's going to fight him. and I god God willing please please don't ever book that fight but Shemayev has to be I mean that's a big money fight the guy wants to make money

he wants to be set for life that fight does monster numbers you can put that fight anywhere in the world it's going to sell out a building you can put that fight on any pay per view card it's going to do close

it's going to do like 750,000 buys at the very least it's going to do gigantic antics numbers. So if Shemayev wins and the Ushman wedge, you have to do that fight. And if Ushman beat Shemayev, like there's literally nobody else, like you're not going to wait for Shafkat

Rakhmanov, you're not going to fight Colby a third time. Like, then you go up to 205, but you can't make you just can't make that move until you fight Shemayev if he beats Nate Diaz. I think that's the fight you have to make, and I think it's the most

lucrative fight that Kamar Ustman can get right now. So I think Usen will end up doing it. It's smart. It's a tough-ass fight. But he wants to make that money. He wants to cement that legacy. That's the one. Beal. Hello. Mike. What's up? Hey, a lot of stuff going on in the MMA world. I'm super stoked for Cheeto that he won. I am a massive Cheeto stand. And I really think he should get the next title fight. And with O'Malley and O'Malley and Jan, I'm really pissed the O'Malley and Munoz fight didn't actually unfold because O'Malley, to me, seemed like he was starting pretty slow against Pedro,

and I don't know if he just seemed a little nervous in there, but I don't know. I expected a little more output from him, even though the fight wasn't very long. And that just makes me question if not his skills, because I think for skill for skill that O'Malley and Jan are pretty evenly matched, Jan obviously has more experience, but yeah, I'm just worried more for his mentality. And I wonder if, because I feel like his confidence would have been built more if he had beaten Pedro. And basically my favorite timeline for Vantamweight would be if Cheeto won the title,

and then him and O'Malley had their rematch for the belt. And, yeah, I think that would be safe. and enjoy the fight this weekend, Mike. Have a heck of a morning. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, Cheetos look good. I'd love to see Cheeto just go all in on trying to fight Henry Sehudo. That's the fight to make in my eyes.

I mean, it just checks off all the boxes. If Sehudo really wants to come back, this is like the best fight for him. Just Cheeto's got a lot of momentum right now. And Sehudo, if he's anywhere close to where he's been, he's got a chance stylistically to win that fight and then he can get a title fight after that. So that would make sense to me.

I don't think Cheeto's going to get a title fight coming off that win over Cruz. I just think this division's too crazy right now. And yeah, and I'm not surprised at all that the UFC moved on from O'Malley in Pedro. I mean, I set on to the next one the next day that they were going to go in a different direction. I continued to say that.

And in the UFC's eyes, they feel like O'Malley. won and at least that's how I think and O'Malley certainly seems to think like you won. So yeah, that's that. We'll take two more. We'll go to swap. Maybe. Get the wheel spin in here.

Hmm. All right. Swap, try again. I don't know why it didn't work. Let's go to Drop Em. The Dropum MMA show. Hey, Mike. What's going on?

So I'm going to bounce back to the Kamau who's been possible. if he wins beats Leon Edwards going up to light heavyweight thing i don't i don't see that i agree with you in the sense that the chimae fight is the fight to make next if kamar ouzman wins i just i feel like light heavyweight has just gotten really competitive especially with anklay of winning and pavlovich and then all of them winning it's just i feel like light heavyweight just kind of got a little too fun for there to be a space for kamer to go up and grab that belt and i just wanted to know your thoughts on it as well yeah I mean, there's just too much going on.

Yuri Glover, too, is the direction the UFC wants to go. That's not even made official yet. That fight's going to have to happen. And what if Glover wins? You know they're going to run that back a third time. So there's a roadblock right there. And then you have Bojovic, you have Ancolaev. You would have to imagine, at least that's how I would book it.

Just book those two guys. You got Jamal Hill coming off a big win. There's no shortage of contenders at 205. right now. The division doesn't need Usman to go up right now. They just don't. So, yeah, I just, you can talk

about it, but I will say this. If he wins and Shemayev wins and he goes and fights Shemayev, it beats Shemayev, then I think the UFC will probably pull the trigger on that and they'll probably have him cut the line.

Because that, because you know, in Usman's mind with the legacy and everything, he wants that challenge. That's just the kind of guy he is. He's incredibly competitive. And if he wins on Saturday, he's probably just going to show up in the rooftops. I want to go up to 205.

UFC's probably like, nah, especially if Shamiath wins. They know how big that fight between him and Shamiyaf would be. They'll probably be like, dude, just give me one more. You beat this dude. We'll give you a shot at 205. And then let 205 kind of play itself out. Because if Glover beats Yer, it screws up everything.

100%. All right. P money, take us home. I got to go. How's it going, Mike? I was just going to ask in the press conference after the contender series,

Dana said they're looking to add some fights to 279. I was wondering if you had any predictions for that. And also, if Nate beats Shamiyev, then what's next for Usman at Welterweight? Thank you. Have a heck of a morning. That's a good question.

I mean, if they do Uisman Shemayev and Uisman wins, he's probably done a welterweight. I just, maybe do the Colby fight again. I do kind of want to see those two guys fight again because the first two were so close. And like I said, I still have people telling me

they felt Colby beat him the second time. I don't agree with that. I thought Uspen won a decision there. It was close, but we know who left that fight with all the momentum and it wasn't Kamar Uspin. That's for sure. As far as 279, I have no friggin idea what they're going to do with 279.

Dana said they're going to add some fight. Let me pull up the card right now. I don't know how many fights you can add to it. I think there's what? There's already 11 on the slate. He probably had three. It ain't going to, like, I'm trying to, like, narrow it down, but trying to think of, like, interesting names they could just throw on this card.

Maybe Max Holloway? I don't know. I think it might be too soon for Max because he got beat up pretty good by he got beat up pretty good by Volcanovsky. I have no idea. You would have to think

Walter weights are going to end up on this card in some way, shape, or form. I think you kind of have to, but who are they going to get? I don't know. Maybe Colby ends up on this card. I don't know. I honestly, I don't know what they're going to do.

I have no clue what they're going to do. Like, you can't throw Gagy on the card because he just had surgery. I don't know. I have no idea what they're going to do. We'll have to wait and see. I assume we're going to get, I assume if they're going to add fights, we're going to find out on Saturday. But I honestly don't know, like,

Dana said this is going to, they want to add a big one and some other fun fights. Like, I just don't know. I don't know what's available. I don't know. It's a good question. All right, we'll go with Swap. If we can get Swap connected, we'll get it done. If not, I got to go because I got to get ready for BTL in a few hours.

Swap, are you there? Do we have you? Hey, we got it. Yeah, how are you? I'm good. How are you? Yeah, I'm good. So, okay, everyone is stopped.

About fighters pay, and you were saying that WFCR making so much money. But what if Eagle FCs start to address, what fighters' problems are and all their other issues? And Kabib saying that Eagle FC will be in the competition around like five, six years. So do you think that fans will say enough is enough and let's reach to Eagle FC? if Kabib will be able to turn some, like, good fighters and put some good shows. So will it hurt UFC with bigger margin? Thanks, Mike. Thank you.

Yeah, Eagle FC is a tricky one. I just, I don't know where they're getting all this money. I just, and I don't know how long this spending can last. I just have no idea. I have so many questions that we're not going to get answers to. It's just, I don't know. I just have so many questions about Eagle FC. I don't know if they're like, I mean, they got Kevin Lee.

That was like a big signing for them because they opened up a 165 division. It just depends. Like, is it about money? Is it about your legacy? Is it about getting the toughest fights with the best fighters in the world? At least right now, you're not going to. get that at Eagle FC? You're just not. And again, I just have so many questions about everything they're doing. Where is this money coming from? I would love to see how they're paying fighters.

Because, I mean, we're not dumb. Just look at any of these Eagle FC cards that were in, in Florida. They're loaded up with fighters from a certain management company. And I'm curious to see how much more money they're making than everybody else. And a lot of these, a lot of these matchups are very favorable to those certain fighters from that management group. And

I'm not saying anything and no one else has already said. I think Eagle has, I think having options is great. It's tremendous. And the more players that are in play that can make a difference, it's going to change a lot of things. I just don't know

if they're going to be able to get like a Francis Ngano right now. If he becomes a free agent, I don't know if they're going to be able to get Apollo Costa right now. I don't know if they're going to be able to get some of these other names. I just don't know. I just have, it's a wait and see with them.

It really is. Because I just have so many questions. I have so many questions that I need answered. When it comes to Eagle FC, they clearly have money. I just don't know where it's coming from and how long that's going to last. because like even the U.S. shows like they're not it's a VIP setup it's that basically a

television it's like a studio setting it's basically a VIP setup they don't sell tickets to it where is this money like you can watch them for free you can watch all these cards on their FLX cast app for free where are they making money I just I don't know I know they have cards like outside of that, but the ones that guard are the most mainstream attention are the ones they're doing in the U.S. But they, like, they can get a lot of name value from nostalgia purposes, like Diego Sanchez, like Kevin Lee, Junio Santos, maybe they could get like an Alistair Roverine, but I just don't know if they're going to get any stars in their prime coming

from the UFC or Bellator when PFL's out there paying a lot of money right now and giving these fighters chances to win a million dollars on top of everything else. Like when Kayla Harrison was a free agent, I just wondered why she would want to leave the PFL. She's making so much money

and it's almost like she's getting guaranteed Millie on top of it. I don't know. I don't know if Eagle FC is going to be a major. player. They're somewhat of a player now, but they're not, like, I'm not anywhere near putting them in the same category as Bellator or One or PFL, even BKFC at this point. But I don't know. We'll see what happens. The next couple of years are going to be very important to them. And I guess I'll leave it to that. But like I've said a million times, I have so many questions that I just don't have

answers to that nobody seems to have answers to. And that's okay. Mystery versus history. And the mystery is always intriguing. All right, I have to get out of here. I appreciate that. I know there's a couple, couple people waiting. I'm screenshoting. I know Dana Spite has been trying to get on here. Come back tomorrow. You will go to the front of the line. Sagin Noir. You can jump on tomorrow and get to the front of the line as well. But I have to go because I'm doing double duty. I'm basically running the damn website right now. And I've been hanging out with all of you the whole time. I'm neglecting my responsibilities

to talk to all of you. And I don't regret it for a second, but I really do have to go. BTL, 3 p.m. Eastern on the YouTube channel. Jedm. Shue is back. He will take on UFC fighter. Evan Elder. I put out sort of an open challenge on behalf of

MMA fighting to fighters who wanted to come on. And Evan Elder, up and coming prospect for the promotion, is the one guy who stepped up to the plate. So that's where we're going to have 3 p.m. Eastern, a lot to talk about. You know Jed's going to have takes and then more takes on top of those takes. But thank you very much. We'll be back tomorrow.

I don't know what time. I think we're going to have to roll a little bit earlier tomorrow. I think we're going to have to roll a little bit earlier. Stay tuned to Twitter. I'll let you know when we're going to go. My guess is we're going to go at 930 Eastern tomorrow because I have to be. to do the way and show at 11 a.m. Eastern on the YouTube channel. So we'll do a free for all Friday for as long as I can do it. We'll start a little bit earlier so I can get to as many

questions as possible. But thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of your day. And as always, have a heck of a morning. Love you all.