MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reaction To Michael Chandler Teasing Islam Makhachev Fight Offer; Plus, Alex Pereira's All-Time Ranking

Episode Date: July 5, 2024

Michael Chandler recently said he was offered a lightweight title shot against champion Islam Makhachev, but still left the door open for Conor McGregor to face him in September. With Arman Tsarukyan in prime position to get his crack at lightweight gold, Chandler getting the shot over him coming off of a stoppage loss and a near two-year layoff would certainly merit some loud reactions from the MMA community. MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses Chandler's championship fight offer tease, where it would rank among the most egregious title shots given, and what the reaction would be if the UFC moves forward. Additionally, listener questions include Alex Pereira's all-time UFC ranking following his UFC 303 knockout win, Nate Diaz vs. Jorge Masvidal this Saturday, who Dustin Poirier should face if he has one more UFC fight, 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-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?

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Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a free $250 credit for the next one. Get started at LinkedIn.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply. The Vox Media Podcast Network. It is Friday, July 5th, 2024. and it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live. We are back on the M.A.

Fighting Twitter space, you can hear the show in its entirety, shortly thereafter, on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. What's going on, everybody? I am Mike Heck. Hope you're all having a great Friday. If you're in the United States,

hope you're all enjoying a extra long weekend. Hope you were given an extra long weekend. Of course, we had Fourth of July, Independence Day yesterday and hope you guys enjoyed that. I ate some food, watched some fireworks. I lost a battle yesterday. I lost a battle to the sun

because we went to a water park in Georgia and it was hot as balls out there and the sun just clobbered me. But man, what a great time. I felt like I was 10 years old again, just going down the water slides. I'm like the best person to go to the water park with because I'll go on everything. I do not care. I will go as fast as I can.

And I will leave you in the dust. And it was a good time. So I did enjoy that. Got to eat some good food after. It was a good day. It was a good day. Now we're back with you on this Friday, a rare weekend without the ultimate fighting championship. No UFC this week.

we're still, I don't know if hangover is the right word, but we're still kind of just falling away from UFC 303, a card that happened. We didn't really even react to it on this program because we, because of the week and because of where the holiday sort of lied in all of this, there was no heck of morning on Tuesday. We ended up doing BTL on Tuesday instead.

We did it at 11 a.m., so that kind of figured it isn't as the Tuesday show, but UFC 303 has come and gone. Alex Pereira still the light heavyweight champion. The card was what it was. It was fine. Wasn't the worst card of the year. It wasn't the best card of the year.

It was somewhere right in the middle. I think it was like a B-9c-plus-ish type of card, but it ended in spectacular fashion. So at the end of the day, that's really the most important thing. And we obviously had everything that happened in the Coalmain event with Dan Igay stepping in on three hours notice to fight Diego Lopez, which is, I still can't believe that happened.

And then we did the watch party in Atlanta, which is fun. And we're going to do that again. We're going to do it even better for 304. We might even do it again before UFC 304. So stay tuned for that, for more information on all of that. And, yeah, no UFC this weekend. They're back in Denver next weekend. we have some fights added to that card,

which is now headlines, as we first reported by Rosnam Units versus Tracy Cortez. We found out that Drew Dober is fighting Gian Silva on that card. That one just got made yesterday. Montel Jackson will be competing against Amon Blackshare. So that card is starting to fill up a little bit as well. And then on and on we go. And then, of course, this weekend, there's K-1.

There's a lot of boxing, a lot of weird boxing. We have the Social Knockouts 3 card featuring the boxing debut of Darren Till. I think that goes down to like 10 a.m. Eastern time. And then we have the Nate Diaz versus Jorge Mazadol card. And we're going to be doing a preview show on this coming up around noon Eastern time. I get to tell you, Diaz Vazidol has done something I never thought I would see. Never thought I would see this in all of my time covering combat sports, covering MMA, covering the fight scene.

They have pulled off a miracle. And I don't mean that in a good way. They have made history. Nate Diaz and Jorge Mazadol and the build to this card this week has actually made me less interested in the fight itself. Now, we've had UFC fight weeks that we would go into. and we either get more excited or we would get things would just kind of stay the same. If we're talking about some of the world's most famous apex cards, we go in thinking, man, this card's a tough one.

And then you go through Fight Week and it just is like, yeah, it's still kind of a tough one. But you just kind of feel the same about it. And then there's other events where you just get more excited about it. This one, I wasn't all that interested in to begin with. I am so less interested in this fight now because of this fight week. The open workouts were terrible. It was really so difficult to watch. I had a real hard time.

And then that press conference, what in the world is going on? That press conference was so bad. It was so bad. Nobody wanted to be there. There wasn't even a face-off after. They did the silly group photo. Oh, let's get everybody up for a group photo. And then Mazinand Diaz are like, bet, this is our excuse to get out of here.

And then they just beat feet on out of here. And then you have the idiot neon asking idiotic questions and getting chased out of the building. I mean, I just, I am so glad I'm not working tomorrow. I'm so glad I'm not working tomorrow. I was at least somewhat intrigued by it. I was like, the fight week's at least going to be fun. so I guess I'll be into the fight. No, I do not care.

Hopefully when they do the final face-up today, something cool happens, but boy, oh boy, I just, I have no interest in this at all. They've done it. They've done something I'd never thought I would see. And it's too bad because I like both guys. I like both teams, good relationships with a lot of them, but I got to be real here.

I got to be real. that press conference was terrible. Shout out to Brian Campbell, by the way, multi-time BTL guest. Man did his best. Man did his best. And in my opinion, he was the lone bright spot of the press conference

because boy, did he try to get something out of these two guys. And he just couldn't do it. Just a tough position. He stayed cool. He stayed calm with it. And did the best he could. I mean, what else could you do in that situation?

But, boy, yeah, it's been a rough fight week. And we'll talk more about that with Jed at noon Eastern time on the YouTube channel. But in the meantime, let's hear from you all. Lots to talk about. I'm sure I missed a whole hell of a lot of stuff. So let's go. We will begin with Tyson, who is first in line. Tyson, go ahead.

Hey, Mike. How's it going, man? Good. How are you? Good, good. Just got three quick ones for you. My first question was about the main event last weekend. in particular Herb Dean.

You know, I've been seeing Herb Dean getting dragged online, you know, about the stoppage. And I kind of wanted to hear your opinion on it. I mean, could the fight, could he have stopped the fight a little bit sooner? Maybe. But he was just getting absolutely dragged. I've been seeing people saying, oh, typical Herb Dean out of position. I even heard Daniel Cormey after the fight. He's like, oh, stop the fight, Herb Dean, you know.

So they were just, you know, he's just been getting dragged. So I kind of wanted to hear your opinion on that. My second question would be the, where the hell did that, that rumors start about the UFC making a 165-pound division, you know, because Dana was asked about it during his press conference. I know you already touched on the subject, and I agree with all your points on that, but I just kind of want to know, do you know where that started, like where that came from? And then the third question, I was going to ask you about Mazvedo Diaz. Who did you have in that fight? But you just said you're not really interested in it, but, you know, just curious to see where

you stand. All right. That's all I got, Mike. So Herb Dean, 165, and then Mazvedo Diaz. Thanks, man. I'll start with Mazdao Diaz. I think George is going to win. I don't know. I was there. Cage side for the first fight, and George just kind of,

Jorge just beat the hell out of Nate Diaz. I know it was like a weird stoppage, and it was a cut, and Nate gets cut in every fight, and it was, you know, obviously just an ending that a crowd of Madison Square Guard

and doesn't want to see. A cut stoppage ending a BMF title fight, but that probably was the best performance of Jorge Mazdal's career that night. He just put it on Nate, dropped him multiple times, just put it on him. It was a tremendous performance. And I honestly don't think that fight would have gotten any better for Nate. Probably would have gotten a lot worse. So I, at the end of the day, I think that that was okay.

That was an okay stoppage. Not what you want to see, but I thought it was fine. I kind of think Mazdal is going to win again. I honestly have no idea what this fight's going to be. It's going to be two dudes who aren't great at the sweet science boxing each other. And I'm probably just going to go with Mazadol, but I honestly have no idea. I truly have no clue who's going to win that fight. But I'll go Mazadol.

The Hokie-Pokey Herb thing. Okay, so I call Herb Dean Hokie-Pokey Herb all the time. There's a reason for that. if you even watch the stoppage there hokey pokey herb is doing hokey pokey herb things he's in he's out shakes it all about and then he stops the fight and i don't know i've seen way worse stoppages watching it live i wasn't like come on herb come on man this is going on way too long i didn't really have that vibe i think he stopped it at a good point i know eury getting viciously dropped to the end of the first round and getting kicked in the face in the second.

I think maybe Herb saw the way that you're able to recover from the knockdown. And it wasn't great. But I thought when Pereira hit him at the end of the first round, I thought he was out on his feet. And he might have been. And then when he hit the mat, it kind of like woke him back up. But he was able still a little bit wobbly legs getting back to the corner. But he was able to get back to the corner on his own power. And then, you know, Pereira hit him a few times.

like Pereira hit him a hundred times and then the fight was stopped so a little bit late but i've seen way more egregious stoppages than that and then the 165 thing i honestly don't even know where that came from like i'm trying to think back i want to say i want to say it's like kevin it had to do with kevin lee because kevin lee is like the ultimate tweener and if you were going to build a hundred and sixty five pond division when this thing sort of became a thing it was for him right because he was too small, it was too big for lightweight, he couldn't make the weight, and he was clearly too small for welterweight.

So everyone was like, oh, let's just do 165 instead. And then I remember, you know, if you're a fan of the Schmo, what put the Schmo on the map was there was a press conference, Schmo got the microphone and asked Dana White the question in his Schmo ways and got Dana to react. And it was about 165 pound division. Let's do a tournament or whatever, was. And that moment sort of changed the trajectory of Schmo's career. Because if Schmo doesn't get

the mic that night, he's not where he is right now. And I've talked to him about this and he's told me the same thing. And then from there, it's just the amount of people who have asked about 165 pound division. And I think it's because we continue to get newer fans in here, it's not going to happen. I've been telling you guys this. They're not, as long as Dana White is breathing oxygen, they are not going to do 165 pound division. They're not going to do 175 pound division. They're not going to do anything. Will we see an occasional fight at 165, like we saw this past Saturday at 303 because

of the short notice nature of it? Certainly we'll see a couple of those, like just catch weighty last second type things. But we're not going to get a division. He's not going to do it. Just like I don't think they're going to do it. Adam weight division. They don't like to do it. add divisions unless they absolutely have to. And they do not have to add a 65 pound division.

They don't have to do it. They don't have to add them weight. There's no big superstar at Adam weight. So yeah, it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. Let's go to four on sniper. Yes. All right. I don't want to take up too much of your time. Just got one quick question. I saw a report on Michael Morales. He's scheduled to fight Neil Magni. I think it was in August or something like that, but I didn't see MMA fighting report on that. So I'm following the golden rule,

not believing it until you guys report it. So can you confirm if that was a fight that's been made or not or if it's in works? Thanks, Mike. Honestly, the first I've heard about it. Who reported it? Danny Seguer reported it. I would say he certainly has the Morales side lockdown.

I mean, I, let me say. Yeah, honestly, it's the first I've heard of it. So I don't know if this is a fight. Like this isn't probably isn't a fight that like makes the website on its own. Honestly, this would probably be like a roundup fight. Morales isn't ranked. I know Neal's aren't ranked in our rankings. but I like the fight.

I like it if it's true. But I don't think junkies reporting something that that at least one side of the table has not confirmed to them that it's happening. And if it comes from Danny and Michael Morales is involved, then I believe it. Then I believe it. But we have not dug into it.

And what's it, August 24th at the World's... Is this an apex fight? Is this an apex fight? Let me see. what the report says. Yep. It's at the world's famous I think.

So, yeah, good test for Michael Morales. And yeah, we haven't confirmed it, but even if we do, I don't think it's going to be like its own thing. If that makes sense.

CV, go ahead, sir. Yo, Mike, can hear me? Yes. Hey, heck of a morning, heck of a Friday. Hope you had a good 4th of July with your fan.

Yeah, just my reaction from 303. Kind of wish Yuri and Alex. had a longer time to prepare for a rematch, similar to Volk and Nakhichchev, but it is what it is. Yeah, I want to talk about the co-main event, man. Can we change Dan Ige's nickname to Dan fucking Ige?

He pretty much saved the card, in my opinion. Like, imagine we would have had freaking Anthony Smith and Roman Deleez as a co-mean event. I think that would have been a disaster. But, yeah, I kind of want to see Dan Ige. actually fight Ortega again at the spear card because I still want to see that matchup under the right circumstances

where both guys are fully healthy and ready for a national training camp. And for Dan Ige, maybe put him up against your ear. I think that would be a sick fight. And also, can you kind of give like a halfway slash, you know, mid-year report card for the UFC? with all the paper views and Apex fights. In my opinion, I think I would give the UFC a C right now.

Like, cards are coming and going. Like, you know, we got some pretty good moments this year. But overall, I think it's been a pretty average year so far. All right, lots to unpack there. Let's see. So for Diego Lopez, I picked Josh Emmett. I just think that's like a really good test. And I think much like what Josh Emmett and that matchup did for Ilya,

I think it could do the same for Diego Lopez potentially. Now, there is a world where Josh just gets him. It's possible. Josh can get anybody in this division. But if he can't, then this is a good showcase place for Diego Lopez. He could shine and look real good. And Josh Emmett is tough as shit. And he could take it.

just like he took a beating for a million to pourier for 25 minutes. So I like that matchup for I gay. I don't think you can go wrong here. I really don't. The one, and I think I said this, maybe on to the next one or one of the shows, but the,

the Dan Ege situation is incredible. Like, it really is. The one downfall to Diego Lopez not fighting Brian Ortega, is if he had fought Brian Ortega and he had beaten Brian Ortega in any way possible, he legitimately could have gotten any fight he wanted outside of Max Holloware,

or Ily Tuporia. There is a world where they would have offered him Volcanovsky. Like I honestly think that was a possibility for him. And him staying on the card, still gets him what he wants, still gets to fight on the sphere, still gets to fight the name, somebody that's relevant in the division. That's all great. So I like Josh Yemen. Again, for Ege, it doesn't really matter.

You still have to be smart with him. Because he's fought almost every dude in this division already. But you can't, as much as he did you a favor, you also have to be realistic about it. So let's see. He's already fought Lopez. He's fought Bryce Mitchell. He's fought mobser of lawyer. He's fought Josh Emmett.

He's fought Calvin Cater. He's fought Barbosa. He's fought a lot of these dudes. I would say, I don't know, maybe the loser of. Giga and Arnold Allen. That's not a bad. Well, that's going to be a quick turnaround. I mean, that's the range, I would say.

Somewhere in that neck of the woods. So, but shit, they don't do you. I hear. I mean, who's going to say no to that? And then giving the UFC a mid-year grade, I still think it's, look, let's be perfectly honest here. If UFC 300 doesn't happen, they're a C-minus. there is c minus maybe a d plus

299 was was real good 298 was pretty good 297 is one of the worst pay-per-views i've ever is one of the worst pay-per-views in the last five years for the ufc 301 was fun but it was probably one of the worst pay-per-view lineups who've ever seen 302 was a garbage card it was awful outside of the main event. Dustin Porre and Islam Makachev saved that card from being worse than 297.

And you can probably make a case that that card was still worse than 297. It was not good. And then 303 was solid, but again, it wasn't like, look at what 290 was. Look at International Fight Week 2023. 290 was one of the maybe 10 or 15, and this is not hyperbole. UFC 290 was one of the, at worst, like 15 best UFC cards of all time. It was incredible. Top to bottom, it was outstanding. And then 303, I mean, again, we have to take into account everything the UFC had to do to get this card going. They did a lot and they deserve a lot of credit for that.

But from a viewership experience, it wasn't great. We got the cool ending. but the apex cards have been terrible. The road show cards, Louisville was pretty good. It started off real bad, but then things got cooking in the main card. St. Louis is pretty solid. The apex cards have been brutal. I mean, they just have been brutal, not just on paper, but in execution.

Like, none of those apex cards have over-exceeded expectations, none of them. I think 304 is a really good lineup. So I like that a lot. 305 needs help badly. I mean, Vinnie Siggs and Kai Kar-France, cool fight. Izzy DDPs is obviously a great fight. But man, that card's coming together.

It's just not good. I mean, it's just not a great card. You're expecting DDP and Izzy to do all the heavy lifting here. The spear is going to, going to be special, obviously. And then there'll be two paper reviews in October. It appears MSG, November. December, we'll see what happens. Can they get Connor back in there? I mean, everything they've wanted to do, it seems, has sort of fallen apart on them. So they have been able to, at least, to their credit, and that's why I'm giving them a B-minus, because they have,

they've done a lot to salvage what could be a disastrous year for them in a lot of respects. Obviously, for a business perspective, they're killing it. If that Louisville card can be the greatest U.S. fight by gate of all time, then no matter where they go, they're just going to continuously break that record. But in terms of just fight cards and promotion and all of that, UFC 300, and the ability to at least salvage things gives them a B-minus for me. But it could be way worse. I mean, this could be way worse without those two things happening.

So there you go, B-minus, which is probably better than any other promotion right now, except for probably karate combat. Seriously. Support for this show comes from Volkswagen. As the U.S. gets ready to host soccer's biggest moment on a world. world-wide stage, Volkswagen is helping people discover new terms and new ways to play the beautiful game right here in the U.S. From deaf and power wheelchair soccer to beach and futsal,

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What's up, Mike? Can you hear me? Yes. All right, I got a bigger kind of question in a bit, but firstly, just a couple fight announcements. I wanted to get your thoughts on. I know you mentioned some of them before, but Blacksheu versus Jackson, I know you're pretty high on Jackson.

I personally think Blackshea's going to take it, but not too sure. Van versus Johnson also got added to the card. Charles Johnson, a quick stat, has this is going to be his i think ninth fight since november of 2020 or 2021 something like that ridiculous that dude's averaging a fight every like 80 days um also dober versus jean silver so those three fights all added to the denver what do you thoughts on those also fluffy Hernandez versus michelle michel pareda great fight really looking forward to that one if that's kind of one of

those ones where like michel might just kill him in a minute or fluffy's just going to drown him And then one more, Carlos Prattis versus Li Jing Liang, another great fight, kind of think Lee Jing Liang is going to get done up badly there. But my main question, and it kind of relates to Alex Badato, because I know on the post show, someone asked about, like, where he ranks all time. And I think a lot of you, I know obviously opinions or opinions. I'm not here to tell you that you're wrong. But I think a lot of you are a bit too, like, a bit too conservative with your, like, estimates

or your kind of placements of him. I'm hearing Jed say like he might be a top 25 fight of all time and I'm just thinking like why are we being so like I don't want to say stingy but like why are we being so conservative with that are we not act like I saw something today um Alex Badat has six wins over UFC champions former champions whatever six wins on his resume of people that have held an undisputed world title that is on par that is equal with Max Holloway Steepamiotich and Matt Hughes now am I saying that is as great as Max Holloway all the time obviously not. But I don't know why are we

acting like, oh, maybe top 25. Like, if he's like maybe top 25, then who are you just like confidently saying he's above him? Like, who are we just like, yep, they're top 10 or top 15? Like, they're above Alex Bray. I think there's a bit of bias in terms of people automatically think

that, like, oh, we just have to show so much respect to the older fighters and the guys from the 2000s and the 2010s who maybe won the belt and defended at once or something like that. And I'm just thinking, like what makes these guys greater than Alex Panetta who won the belt in our middleweight. I know he got a bit fast-tracked, but record time almost for winning a title.

Loses, I know the lost stings. Obviously, if he didn't lose that, then I think people would be, if he didn't lose that flight to easy, I think people would be a lot less bullish about, like, where he ranks all time. But after that goes up, beats another former champion in Jan Blahovich, wins the belt, defends it again, defends it again. So I don't know, me personally, I think he's like pretty clearly like minimum top 20. I think he's like one win away against Dunkerlaya from like being like top 10. I know that might sound crazy, but if you actually just think about it,

who are you like so confident that's above him? So yeah, that's my questions, multiple of them. Quick thoughts on the fight announcements. And then, yeah, where do you think Alex Barre ranks all time? I like all the fights. They're all good. Montel Jackson's a monster. I don't think this goes well for DeMond Blackshare at all.

I really don't. I don't think people understand how good and how talent in Montel Jackson is. You just don't see them a lot. It's unfortunate. The other question, let me just be honest with you. I hate these questions. No disrespect to you. It's just, a little one second.

Okay. So here's my biggest response to all of this, because after the post-vite show, you know how I'm made fans are, especially the duo. So I'm not saying that's who you are. This whole notion of how dare you rank Alex Pereira in the top 25 is like the biggest insult to Pereira fans in the world. How? Please tell me how. A guy who a year ago, a year ago, was on the. receiving end of the knockout of the year, the consensus, almost unanimous knockout of the year,

Alex Pereira was on the receiving end of 15 months ago. So let's just put that into perspective. Coming from a guy who is much smaller than he is, we have to put it into perspective. by saying that Alex Pereira is a top 20 to 25 UFC fighter, is you putting him basically in the same realm as, at least in my opinion, of a Kane Velasquez, a Charles Oliveira, a Dan Henderson type, Like, that is not an insult. That's not an insult.

Like Francis and Ganu, like we're putting him in that range. That's pretty fucking cool. Especially this early into your UFC run and this early into your MMA run. You're already being compared to those guys. You're being compared to maybe the third. or fourth best lightweight ever this early into UFC run, that's pretty awesome. And let's not forget,

lightweight is by far the best division in the sport. So let's just put that into perspective. Like he's up there with like the Chuck Liddells of the world, 20, like this early into his run. Like, it's pretty fucking cool. It's pretty fucking cool. Who can I say is confidently above him? George St. Pierre, John Jones.

Anderson Silva, DJ, Josealdo, Habib, D.C., Fador. I think Volcanofsky deserves to be up there. I think Max Holloway deserves to be up there. Islam Makachev, Randy Kittor, BJ Penn, Dominic Cruz. I mean, there's so many. There's so many. We're talking about like longevity and accomplishment and all of that. And there's like others that honestly you could like like where do we rank the hoist graces of the world?

Where do we rank the Robert Whitaker's of the world? Where do we rank the Robbie Lawlers of the world? You know what I mean? Like it's such a hard conversation. But to say if you rank Pereira 25, I'm not saying you called it like insulting, but I mean, there are people who are like livid that Jed said he was top 25. I'm like, that's pretty fucking good. There's been like thousands of UFC, thousands, thousands, thousands of fighters who competed in the UFC.

And to say over all, in 26 years, not even, not even 26 years that this promotion has been an active promotion, that a fighter who has come in and only been doing shit in the promotion for like three years is one of the 25. best of all time is pretty awesome. Honestly, it's pretty awesome. How can he get better? I mean, if he beats Uncle Lyme, it's going to help. But I mean, does it shoot him that far up? Not sure. Is he ranked higher than Connor McGregor right now all time?

Currently, certainly. But over the longevity of Connor's career and what he has accomplished, the performances he's had is Pereira above him? I don't know. But just, yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because the amount of people were like, oh, how dare you say Pereira's top 25 fighter as if it's an insult

to being the 25th best fighter in the history of the UFC this early in your career is hilarious to me. But yeah, I think it's fair. I think I would put him 20, I don't know, top of my head, 22, 23. But that's, that's pretty damn good. That's pretty damn good. Let's see.

Let's go to four corner sports. Go ahead, four corner sports. Nope. Four corner sports. You've got to get your connection to fix my man. Ab's Wally. Go ahead. So Mark, Mark, heck, of a morning.

It's been a while. How you've been doing, my man? Good. What's up? All right, so where do I begin? I have two or three questions. One is the NBA question. It's a really simple one.

I just want to get your thoughts on all of the recent free agency trades and all their stuff that's been happening. And just, you know, what are your thoughts on the trades itself? Do you think they make these, you know, do you think the respective players make those particular teams a contender or much more stronger? you know like the Chris Ball trade to spurs or Paul George to Sixers you know, Yadro all that bullshit. Another question I have, it's about Jan Blahovic.

I'll keep it a bit simple. For my perspective, he's in a really interesting spot right now despite, you know, basically probably going to be out for the next six to ten months with the shoulder injury. You know, now that Yuri and Jamal Hill have lost to Alex Beherra, he actually might be one of the last. or two wins away, my opinion from the title shot. Do you agree?

I'm just wondering if you agree with me on that or not. And if not, I would like to know why. I just have one more thing to say now. This is my third question. I won't say it's really a question. It's a bit more of a rant. You can feel free to disagree with me. Agree me, I don't care.

And anyone does comment, I don't give a shit. But this is about the UFC Nosea card that's coming up. You know, it's too early to, you know, predict or say anything about it or even what's about it happened. But I'm just going to go off the hypothesis about one of the major fight that may happen in the car, which is Sean versus Marab. Now, I love Marav. I love Sean.

Especially Mara, I genuinely think he's a phenomenal guy, phenomenal fighter all there, and I'm glad he's getting the towel shot. And to his credit, what he did at 298, not only skyrocketed his reputation as a fighter, but even from a marketing perspective, It was really cool to see him, you know, use Henry Sohuda's sort of heritage against him as a tactic, you know, ploy tactic and get some fans. Now, I do like that whole theme of, you know, okay, if it was to be him and Sean headlining Noche card, yeah, Marab is sort of like the Mexican for the night. But come on, let's be real.

I'm sorry, but I just don't really want that fight to be headlining a card such as the Sophia. Neither one of those guys are fucking Mexican. Marab especially, he has no connection to Mexico, right? He is a Georgian from Georgia, fighting out of Long Island, all right? Or Las Vegas now, because he's changed gyms. And like Sean Amali, the only connection he has to being a Mexican is his baby mama, who is a Mexican. He has absolutely zero connection. That's a beautiful fight.

I think that fight should be made for the Salt Lake City card that's going to happen in October. Now, in my opinion, the UFC, I know they're probably going to most likely go with that fight, which is perfectly fine, because they need to get the biggest fights that the fans want to see to stack up that card. I mean, I predict that we will see two or three title fights, but here's the thing. I much rather see Elia Tupuria versus Max Holloway headline that card. Why? Because at the very least, yes, Elia is also Georgian, you know, in every sense. But linguistically, what language does he speak? Spanish, which is what Mexicans speak.

And I believe he can sort of hit that target market. And Max is very light right now. And his reputation skyrocketed 10 times further since UFC 300, to the absolute highest degree with the most viral knockout this sport has seen in a very long time. And it broke the whole fucking internet. it. The only look, the thing is, in my opinion with the Nosec car, I know the UFC's going to stack it up from top to bottom as best as it can with every Mexican fighter they have on the roster.

You know, the thing is like, there's no way you're going to have Alexa Grasso headline that car. Like, yeah, sure she could, but that's a very big... I'm sorry, I'm Zoya. I got to move on, man, because there's a bunch of people waiting, and I've got to be out of here in 18 minutes. but I don't know, man. Like, what's the difference, honestly? You can do Shauna Malley versus Marab or you can have a Spaniard champion headline

a Mexican Independence Day card. I mean, both are somewhat egregious in their own ways. You know what I mean? But we also have to understand what this is. Last year, no JFC, we had Kevin Holland fight Jack Della Madelena in a pivotal fight the card. So, yes, it is a love letter to Mexican combat sports. It is a Noce UFC event, but you could still have your cake and eat it to by putting on a big fight and still stacking

the card with other things. You could do Max versus Ilya or Sean versus Marab and then do Alexa versus either Shepchenko or Fioro, no problem, and then just stack the rest of the card. Like, it's not going to change anything. You think people are going to be like, Oh, Alexe Grasso just fought Valentino. This next fight. Iliate's Porte versus Max Holloway. None of them are Mexican. We're out of here.

Fuck this fight. See ya. No. You need to get people in the door. And God bless Alexe Grasso, she ain't going to do it. She ain't going to do it. You got to put a big fight in that spot. And even if it's Shana Marab.

But Ilya and Max, to me, would be, the much bigger fight. I think Ilya and Max draws better than Sean and Marab would. I think Sean is very popular. I don't think he's I don't think he's a superstar

yet. I think he's getting there. I think he certainly crosses over with the type of audience the UFC is trying to nab if you will. But yeah, that's how I would do it. I would do I would do I would do

Grasso versus either Shepchenko or Fioro, stack the rest of the card, throw Diego Lopez on there. Dude, they promised Dan Igay a fight on the spear. He's Hawaiian. He's from Hawaii. Fucking Dan Igay. I mean, there's going to be enough, man.

There's going to be enough. Trust me. The flow will be there. It'll be cool. It'll be awesome. And if it's Shauna Marab, so what. It wouldn't be my first choice, but it's fine. And then you do the other fight in Salt Lake City.

That's cool. But yeah, that's where we're at here. It's not a big deal. The NBA stuff, we'll talk about a different time. You got to keep the train moving here. A lot of people wanting to chime in. Go ahead, Four Corners Sports. All right.

So, if I'm a Robb, I'm actually trying to pursue the Salt Lake City card. I understand the fear is a big thing, but you also got to take it to the logistics part that, you know, you're going to be up in high elevation and you would want to test out Sean O'Malley's cardio. We saw what it did for, you know, for other fighters whenever they fought in Utah, you know, Luke Rockhole, Polo Costa and stuff like that. But if I'm like, if I'm Rob or Max Holloway, I'm really pursuing maybe that to really test out to see, you know, if my opponent is going to be able to fade, you know, in the later rounds.

Just because we already seen, you know, multiple times, you know, with other fighters on them not doing well on on high elevation. But what I did want to talk about was look, I kind of agree with you when it comes to the whole Alice for everything. When it comes to him being ranked around your ranking area, around

like 22. I have around 19 or 20, so we're pretty much around the same ballpark. I feel like he is higher than Francis and Gano because I hold the title fight victories, you know, more heavier. You know, and obviously he has more what's it called much better

when it comes to title fights against than Francis deGano right so I feel like Alex if I'm Alex strike by the iron is hot take the John Jones fight

try to convince the USC to scrap off the SEPA fight it would be a bigger card especially for MSG I know John said you wanted to fight at MSG you know screw the fact that you know John wants to fight CPA you know for a legacy aspect

this I feel like holds a lot more weight, especially with Steve. They've been on the shelf for so many years, and nobody's really clamoring for it, and maybe this can actually start, you know, building up. So I want to know your thing on that. And as for, I wanted to get your input out against the press conference with DDP and Adasania.

I'm actually more intrigued now, and I agree with Ariel, that DDP needs to let go over this notion about, you know, the African champion, who's the most African, because what he ended up doing afterwards, was actually more intelling and gets people more engaged as that Adisani doesn't have it anymore. So I just want to get your input on that.

All right, thanks, Mike. I don't know if I agree about the Pereira-Gano thing. I mean, maybe the title defenses, but go look at Francis' resume, man. Francis's beat, like, outside of D.C., because he didn't get to fight D.C., he's beaten, like, every great heavy wave. He beat the sh-he annihilated Kane Velasquez,

who, in my opinion, is the most talented heavyweight that's ever competed in the sport. And he destroyed him in seconds. He knocked out Steepay in a bad way. And the other thing I'll... Should the UFC... I think we need to be on the same picture. The UFC is never, ever going to scrap

John Jones versus Steepa. Like, the only way that fight doesn't happen, the only way we see John Jones and Pereira at MSG is that they announced the Steepay fight and then Stepe A trips on a or slips on a banana peel hurts himself and can't fight

because he is Tom Jones John Jones is not fighting Tom Aspinall he's not fighting him and if Curtis Blades beats Tom Aspinall at UFC 304 there is no fucking chance he's fighting Curtis Blades and it's not because he's scared

it's because that fight does do-do no one cares Curtis is not a star Curtis is not a draw. It's unfortunate, but that's just the nature of the business and the nature of the beast. It just is what it is. Curtis himself even knows he's not fighting John Jones. He already knows this.

He's very smart and realizes this. But John is steadfast on Steepay. Dana White is even more steadfast on Steepay. I don't understand it. This whole notion of like, oh, we only give the fans the fights they want to see. And then you're just pushing Steep A, John Jones, down our throats. drives me fucking insane. It drives me insane. It's so dumb. Who is clamoring for this fight? Nobody.

After it fell through, nobody was clamoring for it last year. We accepted it last year. But after it fell off, we're just like, okay, let's move on. Let's move on with our lives. But yes, if you're Alex Pereira, and I talk to Dean Thomas about this, you can watch it on the YouTube channel. Dean Thomas basically said like, yo, call out John Jones. Call him on now. Because one of two things is going to happen. Either John says no and fight Stepe, and then you could say, well, John doesn't want to fight me. I understand.

He could play that card. Or he gets the fucking fight. And Dean laid it out perfectly. The one thing that Alex Pereer would be risking is the greatest of all time, moniker. Because if he goes on Beach John Jones, you bet you're fucking. ass. Everybody's to be like, that's the goat, that's the goat, that's the goat. And if he goes out and loses, then he just, he won't be the greatest fighter ever. Like, it's not that huge of a risk, honestly.

So I actually think you should do that, but I also support meritocracy. And I would rather live in a world where John gets to fight the fucking interim champion in his division. And Pereira fights the next dude up, which would be Maga Manank Goliath, which I would be Maga and Ancolaev, which I honestly think that's a really interesting fight. And I think it's a fight Alex can win. In fact, I'm going to throw it out. I'm going to say it. Hot take.

If they booked that fight next, I'm picking Alex Pereira to beat him. I'm picking him. Pereira's probably going to be like a plus 160 underdog in that fight. I'm picking Pereira to beat him. Who gives a shit that his wrestling defense is a tremendous? It actually is better than you thought it was, wasn't it? As you saw at UFC 303.

So this notion that Pereira is just going to get washed by Ancolaev is just not true. And I think the Ankylai fight is actually really interesting. Primitive Lama, go. Hey, Mike. I got one MMA question and one non-MMA question. What's your ceiling on Carlos Bratis? And if you could live a lifetime as any animal of your choosing, and then come back to here in this moment.

moment and have all those memories, what would it be? Have a heck of a morning, bro. Jesus Christ. I didn't think I was getting an animal. What animal would I be? I don't know. Probably like something badass. Like a llama.

Not a llama. You're the fucking llama. Like a lion or a cheetah or something like that. But like the same, but I'd be like the same dude. Just in cheetah form. I would just be super quick and I wouldn't be the aggressive mean person but if you fuck with me then I'm going to fight back

you know what I mean? Like that's we'll do that. We'll do that. Pratchez? Like what's his ceiling? Dude's fun as hell. Real good fighter. Yeah, I'm excited to see.

It's hard to like put a, it's hard to put a mark on it at this point. But yeah, man. Dude's exciting. I'm always pumped to watch him compete. So if that's something, then, I mean, that's a pretty good thing. Pretty good thing. I like him.

Dude is real fun. J.C. Duloz. Go ahead. Hey, good morning, Mike. I appreciate how you work. So two quick questions. The first one is, has anyone asked Dana White about his comment when a while ago, he said if he was John Jones he would stay in the light heavyweight division after that I think it was after Inghanu knocked out steep A and then the second question is can you explain

I've been kind of out of the loop I might be in the minority but Armand Sarukian is actually my favorite fighter do you know what's going on with the light with the lightweight title Z getting that shot because I saw Islam online saying he needs a target I thought was going to be Armand so that's it man, thank you. Yeah. Where do I want to go with this? The Dana White thing, I'm sure somebody's tried to ask, but you know how Dana gets. He answers his question with the question, and, you know, Dan is very smart about this.

He's very savvy when it comes to the media. You know you got Dana riled up, and when he starts saying, well, what would you do? Oh, how would you do it? What do you mean? What is this? And you try to react and then Dana just cut you off and starts yelling and screaming. It's smart tactic. And it works like every single time.

I don't know if anyone's gone through the history of Dana just saying if I'm, but this is what Dana does. This is what Dana does. You've been doing it forever. You're on his good side. He will put you over. If you're not on his good side or it feels like you fucked him, he will do the complete opposite.

this whole notion that John Jones kills Francis, this whole notion that Francis didn't want to fight John, is fucking ridiculous. And anybody who has been paying attention in this sport and to the UFC the last three years knows for a fact that Francis wanted that fight. And you could draw your own conclusions at this point. It seems pretty legit, just looking on Twitter

and everything has happened since Francis left the, or before Francis left the UFC, But the reason that fight didn't happen is because of John. Francis wanted it. Francis wanted it before John vacated the light heavyweight title. I think I interviewed Francis before UFC 249, and he wanted the John Jones fight. This is before Francis regained the title.

This is before he ethered Jarzini erosion strike in like 35 seconds. But this is what Dana does. This is what he does. but I don't know if anybody's asked them about it. Saving and investing well is an art and a science. It requires high-level math, an intimate knowledge of economic history and theory, and a healthy dose of psychology.

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The downloaded two Ghosts in the Machine available now, only from Audible. What's the other question? Oh, Armin. It fucking, I'm sweared a lot today, but it better be Armin Sarukin. Telling you right now,

this is going to be a problem if it's not Armin Surukin. Fighting Islam Machchep next. We talked about this briefly on BTL. if they give this title shot to Michael Chandler I am going to lose it we will do a reaction it'll be on video

we'll go live to do it and I will not be allowed to host it because there's no way I can bite my tongue if Michael Chandler gets a title shot over Arm in Sarukin I will absolutely lose my mind and I feel for Michael Chandler respect that man. I like Michael Chandler a lot. But if Armand Sarukin does not fight for the belt

next, there is going to be a problem. I'm going to yell and scream, you want Boston Mike? Boston Mike will come out better than ever if they announced, if Dana White says, boy, I got a badass fight for you. Isamakachev, the number two pound for pound fighter in the world because he can't be number one because only John Jones can be number one and he's going to fight Michael Chandler, former Bellator champion coming in after getting finished almost two years ago by Dustin Porriere in his last fight. That's going to be a badass main event. I will lose it if they do that. So as far as an update goes, I saw the Chandler tweet, reached out to Armand's team. I said, Michael Chandler is calling for a title fight.

Please tell me they haven't told you guys this isn't happening. And I basically got the I don't know emoji, all of that at this point. Seems like we're going, or at least we're trending in that direction. There's only two things I want to see in this world at 155. One is Armand Fight for the Belt. And then just kind of as an attachment to that, I have to see this Armand-Sarukian anti-bullying PSA. I don't think anything would make me happier than actually watching this video. Hello, my name is Armand Sarucid. Don't be a bully. Like, I have to see this. I truly have to.

And it's going to be the best. Uh, Viking. Go ahead, sir. What's that, buddy? Good, my man. Yeah. Just skip the gym to talk to you. I just wanted to ask you in person. if you have grown new hairs on your head or not and Jan Jones I just want to tell you that leave him alone let him let him go let him let him go have fun because we all know John Jones is not going to fight Tom Espinal because Tom Aspinall is going to knock him out or submit him so let him go he's he's not gonna fight Thomas Spinole so stop stop chirping about it and the Alex Pereira and Magamarankela fight is there any chance about that fight I

mean is there any chance that fight happening happen in US instead of Middle East if you have any idea if about that fight. And that's it. Thanks a lot. Thanks, man. Look, the John Jones thing, and I've said this before,

and I'll say it again, the John Jones-Tom Asper, I think, is not John's fault. It's not his fault. It's the UFC's fault. It's 1,000% the UFC's fault. Because why would you do the interim title thing if there was,

if you knew there was no chance he was going to have the opportunity to unibrefertil the belt against John. Like, that's just stupid. That's just dumb. You think, do you honestly believe that making that an interim title fight sold like 500,000 extra pay-per-views? No, it probably sold like 20 extra pay-per-views. And I would say 15 of those people probably still would have bought it, even if it was just like five-round co-main event without the title. This whole notion that, oh, we have to do belts. Oh, it has to have a touch.

title on the line. It's just not true. It's just not true. And now we're in this position where Tom Aspinall is going to have to defend his interim title over and over again unless John Jones retires and relinquishes the belt. That's stupid. What are we doing here? It's real dumb. Now, I will say this. The good news is Tom gets to make a couple extra bucks, which is good. which is good. What I'm curious about is will the UFC strip Curtis blades of the interim belt

if he beats Tom Ascentall? That is a serious question that I have. It's a serious question that I have. Pereira ain't alive. I've heard nothing about it. If I'm Pereira, I ain't fighting anybody until the end of the year. I'm probably not even talking about a fight

for a hot minute. Honestly, if they are steadfast if they are we are doing John Jones Stepe I don't give

a fuck what you say then I would do Pereira versusank alive as the co-main event at MSG that's what I would do you put a damn cool fight underneath the

main event that nobody wants to see but has two big names on it and if Pereira wins and John wins we could set something big up can we not it would have

that not to the same level, but it would have that UFC 220 feel where Steepay was fighting Francis. D.C. was the light heavyweight champion. He fought Vulcan Ozymir on that card. And we left Boston that night with seeds

planted for a steepe Mietich versus Daniel Kormier fight which we ended up getting like six months later. I don't think you can go wrong with doing that. So that's what I would do. All right.

We're going to go rapid fire. We got YVMZ. Then we have jumped to gilly and octagon blog and then I have to go. Or just YVMZ and jump to gilly. YVMZ go. Hi. Mike Heck of boarding. Jed being the biggest booper the other day made me crack up on BTL.

So I just want to get that out of the way. Hey, a quick question. Just wanted to know if he heard any news on Shemayev. That's all I had. Thank you. No. Nothing. Nothing at all.

We'll see. Until he actually shows up to fight week, I can't get too excited anymore. A guy to jump to gilly. The last fight for Dustin Poria. Who does he fight? Ooh, it's a good one. All right, so this is another thing we kind of talk. We kind of, I don't even know if we glossed over.

I think we just, just supporte teasing one last dance, one last fight. I remember I was talking to John. before UFC 302 and he said I don't believe his own will be his last fight I think he should I wouldn't surprise me to see the UFC do a Derek Jeter type situation where we do

sort of the farewell tour and we hype this thing up build it maybe do a little press tour all that stuff uh who does he fight I mean Gachy's not a bad one one and one Chuckie

Olive's not a bad one I know Volk wants that fight but I don't know why that fight does nothing for me it should like I feel like that's I should be more excited for the possibility of that fight

but for some reason I'm just not but it's it's got to be somebody like that it's got to be somebody like that or they do or Connor for one more I'd love it to be Nate Diaz like I think that'd be the perfect send off so there you go all right real quick uh 10 seconds each octoblog go ahead octagon blog

i have a question on you mike uh first of all how are you secondly manon feuro will she fight at the ufc paris card and is she ready to fight against the winner of grasso versus sefchenko i like this season's the ultimate fighter and that's the only thing i have to ask good luck like always Thanks, bud. I would say no, because I wouldn't fight anybody else about her unless it's for the belt. I think there's a better chance of her fighting at the spear against Alexa Grasso than her fighting at UFC Paris. Alexa talked about it during UFC 303 fight week, and they officially announced this UFC 306 thing was going to be Read season, Notcha UFC or whatever the thing's going to be called, and I can assure you we're not going to be calling it that on MMAfighting.com.

but I heard rumblings and Alexa sort of detailed that as well. She might not be fighting Valentina Shvchenko. Chichengo has already kind of talked about, you know, I did the Noche card last year. I don't really feel like I should have to do it again this year and sort of be the one boot out of the building, so to speak, a card not built for her. Does she want to put herself into that position again? it's not her fighting in Mexico, but similar in her eyes, the feeling, the juxtaposition of it all. So it's just a matter of like, do you want to do that again or do you not? And if they don't do that, they're not going to take Alex off the card. They'll have a fight Manon Fioro.

So, yeah, I don't think Manon fights on Paris. I think it would be really Joanne Calderwoodish of her to risk her title shot just so she could fight in Paris. It would be. just not smart. She was going to fight the winner of that fight. She's going to fight the winner. And she should. But she might even fight in September at this point. So we'll see.

All right, Collin City, take us home. Also, fight real quick. Are the odds out on that? And just give me your rapid prediction after it just came out. I'm going to go Morales by a third round, TKO, man. Thanks, dude. Have a good day.

Uh, maybe. Let me, do, do, do, let me see if we have actual odds on that yet. Let's see, do we have odds yet?

I'm not seeing any. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Let me, let me take a, I mean, this is definitely the toughest fight on Michael's career.

It's not, I mean, it's not even a question that this should be his toughest fight. So, UFC, Trevin Giles. Adam Fuget,

Max Griffin, Max Griffin's a decent win, Jake Matthews, decent win. But to go from those two guys to Neil Magny is not easy, man. It's not easy. And Neil is very durable on top of all of that.

So, yeah, I think it's a good fight. I think it's a good fight. I'd probably pick Morales, but I think it's going to be one of those fights, man, where it's, he starts off great,

he maybe wins the first round in three quarters and then we see Magny kind of turn the corner a little bit and then Magny wins round three, 29-28. Like I think it's a competitive fight, but I think it's a fight where that's important for all of us because we're going to learn, I think we'll learn more about Michael Morales in that fight than we will have in any other fight that he's had

at this point. So yeah, that's like the biggest thing about that fight that I like is we know Michael's talented. We know he's young. We know he's going to get better. We know once he gets into his athletic prime, he's going to be really tough to beat. And he's had some vet tests, but not to the Neil Magni abilities, not to the top 20 variety, if you will. So I feel like we will come out of that fight, win or lose, learning lessons about Michael Morales. And when you have these young up-and-coming prospects that are really good,

that haven't tasted defeat, that's what you want. You want to see that. And I think even though Ian Gary, like, takes a beating and, you know, maybe the Jeff Neal fight wasn't all that thrilling and some people thought the MVP fight was awful, I feel like we're at least learning some things about Ian,

every time he fights. We learn about his fight IQ. We learn about different tricks at his game. We learn about him being able to take people down and grapple a little bit, like things we hadn't seen before. We're at least learning little

extra wrinkles about him. And I think that's important in the development of these up-and-coming prospects. All right, we're going to go. Thank you all very much. Much appreciated. We will have a preview show talking Diaz, Mazadol coming up, at noon Eastern on the YouTube channel.

Stay tuned for that. It's going to be, I mean, I don't know if it's going to be fun, but we're going to tell you the truth about what we have gone through this fight week with Mazadol and Diaz. So thank you all very much. As far as this program goes,

we'll be back on Tuesday. It'll be UFC Denver Fight Week. So we'll get you ready for that. And that's it. So thank you all very much. Have a great rest of your weekend. Have a heck of a morning, everybody. media podcast network.

I'm Nilai Patel, editor-in-chief The Verge, and Decoder is my show about big ideas and other problems. We've talked a lot about generative AI on the show lately, which is a very big idea that is causing quite a few problems. And one thing we keep hearing about over and over again is that generative AI is causing a lot of problems in schools. There are a lot of people out there, including many of the listeners of the show who email us, who are worried about the obvious problem, students using chat GPT to cheat on assignments. But when our team went and poked at the story, they found that the issues in education with AI go a lot deeper to the very philosophy of education itself.

If this technology becomes more ubiquitous, we'll have courses created by AI, graded by AI, with submissions from students absolutely generated by AI. So it begs the question, what are we even doing here in higher ed? This episode is presented by Salesforce. Support for this show comes from Chase. If you're a fan of women's sports, you're always looking for ways to get closer to the action. And your Chase card can get you exactly that. With a Chase card, you can experience more. That means access to pre-sales, preferred seating, and more savings.

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