MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reaction To Paddy Pimblett vs. Tony Ferguson, Other Big Fights Announced

Episode Date: September 26, 2023

Dana White and the UFC matchmakers have been busy announcing a slew of championship bouts, fights with high divisional stakes, as well as a lightweight bout that left the MMA community reacting in a fiery way between Paddy Pimblett and Tony Ferguson for UFC 296. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to the Pimblett vs. Ferguson matchmaking, along with Michael Bisping's thoughts about the fight being a "lose-lose" for Pimblett, and more. Additionally, listener questions include the Dec. 2 Fight Night card that alreadt has Rob Font vs. Deiveson Figueiredo, Jared Cannonier vs. Roman Dolidze, and Sean Brady vs. Kelvin Gastelum, when the vacant UFC women's bantamweight fight could take place, what the Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington main event for UFC 296 could mean for Belal Muhammad, Stephen Thompson vs. Shavkat Rakhmonov, and Vicente Luque vs. Ian Machado Garry also announced for the UFC's December pay-per-view, 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 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 Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from Volkswagen. As the U.S. gets ready to host soccer's biggest moment on a worldwide stage, Volkswagen is helping. people discover new turfs and new ways to play the beautiful game right here in the U.S. From deaf and power wheelchair soccer to beach and futsal, Volkswagen is actively supporting

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What's going on, everybody? I am Mike Heck. Hope everyone having a great start to the week. Everyone had a great weekend. A lot obviously happened since we last spoke in the world of mixed martial arts. had one championship. We had Bellator 299. Johnny Eblen retained his middleweight title, finished Fabian Edwards, almost gotten to a little bit of a skirmish with Leon Edwards at the end of it, but cooler heads ended up prevailing. 21 fight card for Bellator. Main card was fun.

Aaron Pico looked incredible. Not too bad. Dublin got themselves a pretty decent card. And then over in Las Vegas at the world's most famous apex. We had UFC Vegas 79. Again, another pretty fun card. On paper, wasn't

terrible on paper, but it was pretty good. The whole main card was real solid. Prelims were a little bit slow to start. We got to, but once the disqualification happened in the Cody Brundage Jacob Malcun fight,

things started to ramp up a little bit. Tim Means, Andre Fialio had themselves a banger. Tim Means gets the job done. That was the fight of the night. Miles Johns, Dan Argetto was a fun fight. Charles J. J. J. Ramos Brian Battle just continues to win fights. Rear naked choke submission of A.J. Fletcher in round two.

Marino Rodriguez beat the hell out of Michelle Watterson Gomez. Gets a second round TKO. Bryce Mitchell, Dan Egan. had a really fun fight. Bryce Mitchell showed up, gets a unanimous decision win, and the main event, unfortunately,

left a kind of a sour taste in our mouths because Rafael Fiziv and Batush Gamrott, they were having themselves one hell of a fight. That first round was super duper fun. Fizizade throws a kick with his right leg

and ends up tearing his ACL and his left leg. It was just a tough. ending to a really fun fight where Matush Gamrod gets at least in the record books the biggest win of his career. Called out Charles Olivera. I don't think he's

going to get that fight. Depending on what happens in his title fight. But yeah, that all happened on Saturday so we could obviously talk about that. And since we last spoke since we didn't have a show on Friday, tons more fights being

announced. We reported on Friday December 2nd, Rob Font is going to welcome Davis and Figurato to the Bannam White Division. That December 2nd card is looking

mighty spicy right now. Still don't know where the hell it's going to happen. As I told you guys, I don't know if it was last week or a couple of weeks ago. Looks like Minneapolis no longer on the table for December 2nd. I've heard some rumblings about Orlando being in place. I know there are other reports about Texas, maybe California.

As of right now, no one really knows. I know there were rumblings earlier on about maybe an Atlantic City card. I don't think that's on the table as of right now, but it's so hard to confirm the locations of these events. But December 2nd, man, we got fought Figurato, three-round fight. We got Jared Cannoneer, Roman DeLidez-A, three-round fight. And one day I'll tell you the story about what's going on in middleweight. because it's insane.

But we ended up getting this fight. It's a good one. Misha Tate, Julia Obula on that card. Sean Brady, Calvin Gassel. We confirmed that on Sunday. Khalil Roundtri, Azamat Mirza Kanoff. We confirmed yesterday, Joe Selecki, we'll welcome back to Kar Klaus on that card.

Clay Guida, Joachim Silva on that card. I love that fight. Veronica Hardy is back. She'll fight Jimmy Lynn Horth. So December 2nd is looking pretty good. And then December 9th, it appears we're going to go back to China, but still no official confirmation on that yet. And then we got some other fights added to UFC 295.

We found out Matt Rivola is going to fight Benoit Santany. That's the fight that should have happened. That is absolutely the fight to make. And then between Friday night and late Saturday night, Dana White made a bunch of announcements in regards to UFC 296. We had seen on Friday that Stephen Thompson went to Twitter and said, Hey, Shafkao Romanov, I was offered a fight with you. I've accepted.

I reached out to members of Shafkot's team. They said, wow, that's the first I've heard of that. And then five hours later, you find out that that fight is official for UFC 296, Rachmanna versus Stephen Wonderboy Thompson. I actually really liked that fight, especially after watching the Jeff Neal fight. So we'll see what goes down there. And it's a big one for Shafkaa Rok Bonoff.

Definitely the biggest name he's had the chance to fight. But that's not even the fight that stole all the headlines from that Friday night announcement because Dana White confirmed Patty Pimblet against Tony Freaking Ferguson for UFC 296. Damn you, AK. Damn you, Algena K. Lee.

This is all your fault. You put this out into the universe and on onto the next one a while ago, probably a year and a half ago. You kept sticking with it. You wouldn't let it go. And now be careful what you wish for, AK, because now we got it. Tony Ferguson, Patty Pimbleau, UFC 296, December 16th in Las Vegas. And then after UFC Vegas 79, Dana White goes back to Instagram and announces another fight for UFC 296.

Vicente Lucke versus Ian Machado Gary, a little Killcliffe versus Killcliffe crime. I know Ian Machado Gary doesn't really have, I don't think he necessarily has a home base at this point. He's kind of traveling around and training with some different people, so I'm not really sure what his status is when it comes to where his home gym is, but that fight is happening as well. Holy shit, man. UFC 296 looking real good.

We got Edwards Covington, Pantosia Roy Val for the flyway title. We get Shafcott, Rachmana versus Stephen Thompson, Ferguson Pimbled, Vescenti Lucay versus Ian Machado, Gary. Cody Dirden announced he's fighting to gear Ullum Beckoff on that card. Sheesh, man. UFC is not messing around when it comes to these cards. And then UFC 295, we got 12 fights in the books. That one's looking pretty good, too. Obviously, this is the best one-two punch of the year.

John Jones Steppe for the heavyweight title, Yuri Barashka versus Alex Pereira for the vacant light heavyweight title. Just Gondraj, Mackenzie Dern on that card. Matt Schnell, Steve Urseg on that card. Jared Gordon, Mark Madsen, Josh Van, Kevin Borjas, Pat Sabatini, Diego Lopez, great googly-mugally. That's going to be a great fight. Matush Rabeski versus Nerulo Aliyov.

That's a great fight. Dennis Bezuka versus Jamal. Embers. I mentioned for Volosantini. We got Nazim Sadakov versus Vaisalab Borchief Slava Claus and then we confirmed last night a report from ESPN deportes. Lupi Gaudinez already getting back into it. She's fighting Tabitha Ritchie on that card. It's some good matchmaking right there. So lots of fights announced, lots going on. We had the weekend. No UFC this weekend. And then we're back at the world's best famous Apex next Saturday for UFC Vegas 80,

headline by Grant Dawson versus Bobby Green. So any, meeny, mighty Mo. Dylan, kick us off on this Tuesday. Hey, Mike, I just wanted to make a couple of like PR predictions for two of the fights that were announced. I think with the Patty versus Tony fight, unless Patty just goes into that, like all fight week, super respectful, which I don't think he's capable of sometimes.

I think the fans are going to start hating him maybe even more than they already do. I don't know if my perception of him is kind of clouded just because I always do a lot of MMA fighting stuff and he's not beloved in this space. But, and then with Ian Gary and Vicente Lucke, I feel like that's going to, that's going to, like, I think made people like Ian Gary a little more because I think, I think he kind of rubbed a lot of people, including myself, a little wrong in that last fight, because he was a little, like, intolerable, just insufferable to listen to at times. But I think since he's going into this fight against a former teammate, I mean, in social media posts,

he's put things like, hey, I love you, but we got to fight and stuff like that. But I think he's going to be respectful and not his insufferable this time around. But that's just my thoughts, if you had any thoughts on that. Yeah, it's actually a really good point. And maybe this is kind of smart business by the UFC in order to make Ian a little more likable in that sense because he's, I mean, he's going to sit there and say he's going to go out and beat the hell out of his Sente, Luca.

I'm sure that's going to happen by the time we get there. But I don't think we're going to get the scumbag talks or anything like that. So it's a really interesting point. The Patty, Ferguson fight, I kind of feel like Patty is going to go in pretty respectful I don't know if Tony will Tony's kind of a wild card he might just say a bunch of crazy stuff and get Patty riled up

I can definitely see that happening but I can see Patty's just kind of going in and being sort of honored with the opportunity to fight a guy like Tony Ferguson but Michael Bisbing said something on his YouTube channel that actually like I

don't agree with a lot that Bisbing has to say about fights and stuff going on. But I do agree with one thing when he comes to this fight. I don't love the matchmaking here. I get it and I'm intrigued by it, but I feel like

you could have made this fight before the Jared Gordon fight. It would have made a lot more sense. And one of the biggest reasons why is because of something Michael Bisping said. Patty Pimbleau is in a complete lose-lose situation here. He is in a lose-lose situation,

1,000 percent. Because if he goes out and beats the hell out of Tony Ferguson, everyone's going to be like, well, the UFC gave him a cupcake. They gave him a big name that they knew he was just going to run over. Now he's lost seven in a row. Patty did nothing at all here. He'd just beat a guy that he was supposed to destroy. The UFC led Tony Ferguson to the slaughter, and this is supposed to happen.

On the other end of Tony Ferguson beats Patty Pimbled, we will never, like, he's never going to hear at the end of it, ever. He's the guy who lost to a dude who's lost six fights in a row. He's in a tough spot, man. I actually give him a lot of credit for taking this fight. I understand that it's a big name, but I'm not sure if he weighed that part of it out. Maybe he did.

And I'm sure by the time he gets the fight week, and by the time he starts doing interviews, he will say something similar, but he is 1,000% in a lose those situation here. I mean, I don't know how he comes. out of this looking good in any way. Unless him and Tony just have an absolute banger and they just have a fight of the year contender,

I don't know how he comes out of this looking any better than he does right now, honestly. So I think his attitude's going to have a lot to do with it if he can kind of block out the noise of Tony Ferguson because you know Tony's going to say a bunch of crazy stuff to him. So I'm curious to see how he handles it all. But yeah, he's in a really tough spot with this fight, in my opinion. Cole, go ahead.

Good morning, Mike. After hearing the Patty, Tony announcement, a lot of people are saying that that's like one of the most shameless matchmaking jobs by the UFC of all time. And I just think that, I just think that that's so overstated. Like the Hamzot Diaz fight,

that is shameless matchmaking. The only way you can say this is shameless is the sole fact that Patty is a six-fight win streak and Tony is coming off six-losses. I have a question for you. Where would you, if it was Jared Gordon versus Tony, how would you handicap that fight? Do you think Tony would be a plus 360 or 350 like he is now against Patty?

Because I, like, I just think, like, Patty's good, but it's not like this fight is just like as shameless as people are making it out to be. Like, no one's getting deaded in his fight. The Hamzot Diaz fight, that is just terrible matchmaking. That's all I got. I get it. I mean, I still don't. I don't love it because I get, for the reason I just said,

I don't think this fight does anything for Patty at all. I really don't. It's a name on the resume, but in the end, the way people feel about Patty to begin with, they're not even going to give him credit for the win. It's just, oh, yeah, UFC just gave him a body. And this body just happened to have a really big name. So it's weird in that sense because if you're,

trying to build Patty up, this is not the fight to do it. The Frivolta fight, that would have been a way to do it, but I kind of understand why they didn't make that fight because Patty has said multiple times in public, they doesn't want to fight New York because of the taxes and whatnot. But it seemed like Favola fighting at MSG was an automatic. So I think if Favola was a little less MSG-ish, it was more paddyish, I think he would have got that fight. But I think him just going on saying, oh, I think he was a little less MSG-G-ish, it was more paddyish, I think he would have got that fight. I think him just going on saying, oh, I want to fight at MSG, let's do it. He brings in bodies.

He will sell some tickets, et cetera. There's just no doubt he was going to be on that card. And Patty's already said a million times he's not going to fight in, he's not going to fight in New York. So there you go. But this is, at the end of the day, this is a winnable fight for, like Tony can win. He can win. I just don't know.

The problem with this fight, Silas, is that Patty is incredibly durable. And Tony's best chance to win, I think, honestly, is for him to just get Patty out of there early. I mean, he has dropped Michael Chandler. He dropped Bobby Green. But as the fight goes on, he just starts to wear. He starts to take punishment.

And I feel like the way I see this fight is that Tony's going to have moments. He's going to land some good shots on Patty. Patty's going to walk right through him. and eventually Patty's just going to wear on him. He's just going to take Tony down and he's going to strangle him. Like that's how I feel this fight's going to go. But I think Tony could have moments early in this fight. I'm not ruling him out altogether, but

Patty Pimlet is a much better grapple than Bobby Green is. And he hits pretty hard. So it's a tough fight for Tony. But man, if he wins, it would be in a year of hilarious outcomes and things happening to take the UFC's plans and just light them on fire, Tony Ferguson beating Patty Pimbleau and finishing him would just add right to the list of crazy things that have happened this year. So I'm not saying Tony's can't win,

but it's just a guy like Patty who's just so durable. I just don't know if Tony has the oomph to get him out of there. And if he can't, I don't know if you can go a full 15 with Patty. because Patty gets better as the fight goes on. If you're asking you with the Jared Gordon fight, I think Gordon would be favored, but not by much. It's just a different style. It's just a different style altogether.

Yeah, I mean, look, I don't think this is, they're trying to kill Tony. This is not Hums on Nate. I completely agree with you there. But I just, I don't know why this fight's being made. It seems like they want to build Patty, but I just feel like out of all the guys you could throw him in there with, I feel like he's like one of the worst ones you could build him with

because he doesn't gain anything from beating Tony Ferguson, I don't think. So we'll see how that all plays out. But again, damn you, AK, damn you. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix Colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.

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

Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. Waiting for Flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo, great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games

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Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close to you, call 1-8665-3-1-2-60 or visit Connexonterio. Go ahead, 4-Corpsports. Hey, Mike. So you said December 9th might be, the U.S. team might be heading back to China. That's what it appears to be. That's what the rumblings are right now. So then that would eliminate Atlantic City because I would have thought that the U.S.

this the December 2nd card looks like it was gearing for Atlantic City but if it's not Atlantic City then I guess it might be Orlando what do you think so none of the fights that were that were announced are the main event

because I would have thought Jared Cananier versus Roman Alite was going to be the main event if not then I'm very intrigued as for what that might be I would say they should just pitch chin and have the women's

band-o-weight fight as the main event because it worked out very successfully for Notia USC and you know I believe it can actually do very well if you do that for another fight night and as for Tabitha Ritchie

versus Lupi Godinas who do you have favorite in that fight? I feel like that's going to be a very sleepy fight like a very sneaky fight that people are not going to pay attention to just because the two title fights at the top of the card. All right, thanks, Mike.

Yeah, December 2nd, at first it was going to be, like, Minneapolis, and I think this kind of happened after, WW did a raw, like a raw there, and they sold it out and had like one of the biggest gates they've ever had. And I think the UFC was like, hmm, WVE did well there. Maybe we could do all as well. maybe we could do really well there too

so I know there was talks about that I talked to some people who would know this and originally that was what they thought was going to happen as well but now Minneapolis I'm told is not on the table

um Atlantic City would actually make sense considering some of the names on the card so that but I don't think that's even in the running right now from the conversations I've had so I don't know what's going to happen there maybe maybe Atlantic City was kind of a backup

planet they couldn't get back to China but you have to think at this point if they're going back to China we're getting John Wei Li versus Jean Chownan like it kind of feel like that has to be the fight right like otherwise what are we going to do what are we doing here so I mean I don't know I don't know where the hell it's going to take place honestly because like Sean Brady is from Philly so that's not too far from Lake City. Vance from Boston

is not terribly far. Joe Selecki has like jersey ties so that would make sense. I don't know. I have no idea. I have no idea where this card's going to take place and nobody else does either.

But it's a good one. But yeah, if you're selling tickets, you can't do cannoneeer in the main event. You just can't. if this is the apex canadaer deletes could headline Fott Figgi could headline I think Fott Figgi is a better main event than Canon Air Delizzi if we're being honest but

be a pretty good stretch man if we can go MSG with two title fights and then we're back of the apex to 18th we get the Thanksgiving week off roll into December 2nd if we get Pena, Pennington for the Bacon Belt, on that card. And then we get Zhang Wei Li, Jan Jonan on that card.

And then we lead into 296 and two more title fights. We could end the year at like four consecutive events with title fights. That'd be pretty friggin sick. But they could just be saving that Banimate fight for January at this point. I don't know if you saw Vulcan. Vokovsky's tweet this morning, but he said January, it's something to the effect of like January sounds fine to me. I have spoken to some people.

That fight is being, the Volkadovsky-Tuporia fight is being discussed for that card. I am not reporting this fight is done or anything near it. It is being talked about for that card, which isn't that big of a surprise, honestly, because what the fuck else are you going to put in that spot? That's got a headline. But Volk Toporia is a damn good main event to kick off the pay-per-view season, but not done. Do not be saying, Mike Hex reporting this. Vult tweeted it out, so that should give you something. But from conversation I had, preliminary discussions are

happening about possibly putting that fight on that card, okay? Don't be saying stupid shit, all right? It's possible. It's being talked about perhaps being on that card. Okay? That's it. and you could do Pena Pettington as the co-made event, perhaps on that card. But I would prefer to see it December 2nd. I prefer to see it December 2nd. Because what else is going to headline? I'm just trying to look at stuff. Like, who's available?

I don't know. Maybe you do like a Kamara Usman-Balamahman main event. Like, that's not a bad one. Leading right into the title fight two weeks later. That's not a bad idea. So we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. Loopy, Tad of the Reach is a good fight.

They have very similar styles. What they are each very good at, they are very good at. I think Loopy's a little more action-packed is probably the nice way to say it. Maybe a little more reckless than Tava the Reach is. Like Tava the Reachy is like Tim Duncan. Just buy the book. Boom, boom. Boom, boom.

This is the game plan. I'm going to stick to it. Buy the letter. And Lupi's just kind of crazy in a good way. So I like that fight a lot. I think it's a really good addition to that card. It's going to be a sleeper one for sure, considering all the other fights that are on that card.

But should be fun. CV, go ahead. Yo, Mike. Can you hear me? Yep, got you. Hey, so Voltipuri, I'll confirm day for Toronto. No, I'm just joking. Yeah, I want to talk about the Walter

weight division. I feel like it's the most intriguing right now just because there's like a bunch of matchups announced. Like obviously we got the we got the title fight at the end of the year. We got we got like I saw like Sean Brady versus Kelvin Gasolum too. Obviously we got Ian Gary, Sente-Luke, Stephen Thompson and Rockmanov. I just want you to comment on like it. I'm not saying it's like mini grand prix or anything, but it sounds like like there's like a lot of matchups lined up just to move the division along and like you said you also mentioned like maybe usman versus mohammed is a future matchup i think that makes sense and yeah and um i would love to see uh jdm versus jeff neal i think that matchup would make sense but yeah i just want you to comment

on like the the welterweight picture right now thanks yeah man we needed this title fight booked asap we we have a date for it colby's doing his his his his his his interviews and doing Colby things. And yeah, man, I mean, that fight needed to happen. And once that fight was on the books, then we could start matchmaking the rest. Yeah, so I don't think it's like a mini-gramperee, but at least we got something. This division is moving along. We got top 10 guys fighting each other, or at least top 10 guys in fights.

Brady, Gasselms, good fight. Shafcott versus Wonderboy's good fight. And then we got Luke A and Machado Gary. that's a fun fight. But, man, it's just so weird at the top because I don't know what Belal's going to do. Like, I don't know what Bilal Maham's going to do. Is he going to weigh in as the backup?

Like, what's going to happen here? What's going to happen here? Does he just hope and pray that Leon wins and cares enough to want to fight him? Or does he just say, you know what? I kind of need to take another fight. and if I get to fight Kamara Usman, and I think Bilal could win that fight,

if he beats Usen, he's undeniable. But I'll tell you what, man, if he doesn't have a fight on the books and Shafcott just runs over Wonderboy, or vice versa, if Wonderboy beats Shopcott, like goes out and finishes him, Wonderboy probably jumps the line,

and I know that would be completely unfair to Bilal Muhammad, who rinsed him over 15 minutes. But, man, I don't know what Blal's going to do. And if Colby wins, he's screwed. He's not getting a title shot up. Colby coming to wins the titles. There's just no way.

Colby's already planting seeds. He was planting seeds earlier this year with me, saying that him and Connor, and I wouldn't rule that fight out at all. He's talking about Islam Makachap, going down to 55 and fighting Islam. Like, Blal is effed. if Colby Covington wins the title.

Unless he fights Oosman and wins, and then maybe he finds his way in there. But honestly, I think Colby could fight three welterweights and if Colby wins the boat, Colby isn't going to fight him. So Colby's just going to go after. Colby's a prize fighter.

Dude wants to make money. And he doesn't see a lot of money in below. So I don't know, man. We have fights in the books, but I'm very, curious to see what Bala Muhammad's going to do. I'm very curious see if he takes another fight.

Very curious to see if they offer him Uspin. If he says yes. I think he absolutely should if they offer him that fight. And again, I'm not going to rewrite history, but I hated hated the Gilbert Burns fight on that 288 card. I made absolutely no sense. And now we're in

the same position. We were in like after that fight. because now it's seven months since that fight before the title fight. Well, I was like out of the picture right now. It sucks for him. I'm Zwaalia, go ahead. So, yeah, hi, Mark.

So I've got just two things I want to ask. I'll start off with the lightweight division general. I think the Saturday, like the fight that happened, it's definitely left a big question mark. I would definitely love to see Gamrod and Physio. I've definitely run that back down the line in the future. maybe hopefully when one of them kids close to the title shot. I just want to talk about Gamrod specifically

and just the future the lightweight with the next few fights. Gamrod's obviously in a very unique case as a fighter where he's somehow beaten the current generation of his topily lightweight fighters. And I definitely would like to see him fight the loser of the Islam or Charles fight, that would definitely put him one set closer. But I also, you might not agree with this, but I would definitely like to see running back

with Benil Dariush, because, yeah, it's not really exactly been a year yet, but I think that's a fight that they should do. It would be really interesting to see how much gamelots improve. But yeah, and I think with Charles and Islam, like, I guess if Charles is to win, obviously that puts him in a good position again. But then what happens to Islam?

Does he get it, like, do they have to run it back with a third fight because of how big and popular this, you know, fight is itself, this rivalry? Or does Islam maybe have to fight a Benile Daryush or, you know, or Dustin Porre just to get back in the title shot? You know, and then where does this leave with maybe, like, some of the other contenders down the line? You know, I'm really curious to see how this lightweight division

is going to shape up, because it can go two ways. I see Islam winning, Justin Gachey's going to fight him next, you know? Or this whole division can get modeled up with a bunch of, you know, interesting scenarios. You know, now we have gamma on the mix.

You know, Islam's lost. He has to fight a contend again. Volcanowski, if he wins against Elia, it's up there in discussion. Justin will still get to father-toe, regardless. It's kind of the middleweight division right now, in my opinion. And just the other thing we want to discuss a little bit about is just the five step in the announced.

I saw a report about Pira Yan and Song Yadong being announced for China Car, but then I saw another post about it for the Madison Square Garden Car. Can you confirm or deny if any of those reports are even vaguely true? And just to add on to this discussion, with the Ian Gary fight and Vicente Lucke, how do you see that fight really playing out? out. Vincent's strengths

overcome some of Ian Gary's big strength. If you look at Ian Gary, he's a very post-pressure kind of fighter, and he's very good at the clinching and striking. But Vincenti, he has a very good method of just really heading those major targets sports. Like if we've seen the past when he fought Wonderboy, when he's fought Leon Edwards in the past, he didn't have lost that fight, or you know, just

like Marco Keseiorese, And he's also very good at the jih Tjutsu. I'm definitely curiously how the five plays out, because if Vicente wins, that's a very good win for him in my eyes. And I think that really does still put him back in the contenders shot for him to still try to make a run at the Waterway Division. Yeah, that's all I have to say. Have a good day.

Oh, man, I got to remember all of that. I mean, I'm going to focus on the lightweight stuff. Gamron, look, here's the problem with Gamron. here's the problem Gamrod has. Unlike most of these other guys in the come up, Gamrod has had his shot at a top five guy and he lost. So this win, while it's a win, if he gets a Darius rematch or he gets a top five guy

before Armand Sarukian does at this point, I think it's ridiculous. Honestly, I think it's ridiculous. Because there's only really two guys on this up-and-comer list who have gotten these big fights. Fizib is one of them. Gamrod is the other and both lost. So it's time to give somebody else these opportunities.

And I think Sarukians should get the Darayush fight. I think that is 1,000% the fight that should be made. That should be it. Let's let some of these other guys get their opportunities. I think Gamrod should fight Dan Hooker. Dan's cleared. So he's ready to come back. Do that fight.

That's a name. People love Dan Hooker. you go out there and you just beat the shit out of Dan Hooker, all right, now we can start talking about some other stuff. But yeah, we can't do that, man. Like the only, I will say this, if we're going to do a rematch for Gamrod, do the Saruket one.

Like I have no problem if they run that one back. But if you give Gamrod Darius or Olivera, that's not right. That's all right, especially the way that that fight ended. I just, I don't agree with that, honestly. I don't. So I think he's not going to gain a whole lot from this.

It's a win. It's the best win he has, but it's just the way that it happened after losing the first round. And I kind of feel like that's how that entire fight would have gone. If we're being honest, I thought Fizie would win.

I thought he would get taken down a bunch, but he would get back up a bunch and land the more impactful strikes. That fight was playing up the way I thought it was going to play out. So give him Dan Hooker. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. Go fight Dan Hooker.

Dan Hooker just beat Jalen Turner. Camrock beat Jalen Turner. The last two guys would beat Jailen Turner. Let's have a fight. Let's go and do that. As far as Oliver goes, if he wins, I kind of feel like Gachie's getting it no matter what. Mokachev wins.

You do the Gachi fight because he does. deserves it at this point he's he's earned it we haven't seen it before and if oliverer wins who doesn't want to see oliver gaecchi too i sure is hell will that was like one of the best fights i've ever seen it was only around it was less than around but that fight was insane that was like one of the most craziest rounds you've ever like you will ever see in your life so yeah i kind of feel like gamrots already had his chance not saying he can't get back, but at this point, we got to let some of these other guys get their chance to

climb. And I think Sarukian's one of those guys in the top of the list. Don't be saying, oh, Mike, you've been the Syracian guy. I thought he beat Gamrod in their first fight. Still say to this day, I've watched that fight a thousand times at this point. I feel like Syracian won every single one.

Every single watch. Just give him a chance, man. Let's see if he goes up and fights Daryush and loses, then okay. he got his chance but that's right now. Jan I've heard the Yan Yadong stuff I haven't heard really anything about at this point. I'll ask around, but it's not an M.Afighting.com.

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For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. for details. Viking, I'm trying to get you in, but it's not a letter to me. So we'll go to four. Oh, wait a minute. Do I have you?

I try again, Viking. Sorry. Foreign Cybergall. Hey, heck a little morning. Real quick, a question about the welterweight division. Being Ian Gary has been match made up with Vicente Lucke. I thought they were going to rebook the Jeff Neal fight, but it seems like they might want to give him the slightly easier fight.

I was going to ask who do you think Jeff Neal would then go on to fight, but I also want to know if Li Ji Liang is going to return to UFC China. I think I heard you talking about that going down on December 9th. Do you think they go Jeff Neal Li Ji Liang or do you think they maybe give Lee somebody lower in the rankings? That's all Mike. Yeah, so China is that's the rumblings. It's not done. So I can't go that far just yet.

but if they do go there, the lead should absolutely be on that card. It won't be against Jeff Neal. The Jeff Neal fight for me is Jackie Three Names. JDM versus Jeff Neal makes all the sense in the world. Go ahead and make that fight. Go ahead and do that. That's a fine fight.

Let's give JDM a top 10 guy and see how he does. I kind of feel like the Jeff Neal thing, it's kind of not saying it's run its course, and I would like to see if they booked that fight, but they tried they did a whole bunch of stuff Ian Gary wore the the mugshot t-shirt

all of that and a fight never ended up happening so yeah we can probably just not do it right now so give them JDM I like that fight Leach you can just throw leach in there with anybody at this point

Panda go ahead nope why they even I think this is going to go through on the first try. Go ahead, Joe. Hey, what's on, Mike? What's up, man? So I got a, as far as the Bala Muhammad,

getting a title shot, I'm pretty sure he's weighing in as a backup for the Leon Colby fight. And as we know, based on the recent history, that's kind of what got him into the title picture for weighing in against, or weighing in for the Leon and Kamar. Usman fight in London. So I'm pretty sure that he'll do that.

And if they end up fighting, I think he'll have next just based on that, despite the performance of Shavkat or Wonderboy. And then I wanted to know who you had on Islam versus Olivera. I see a lot of people thinking Olivera is going to get it. And then what did you think of the exorcism that happened in the middle of the octagon with Bryce Mitchell and Dan Igay? Just wanted to know if you saw any demons. Thanks, man.

Have a good day. You know what? I'm not going to like dump on Bryce. Bryce is him. Like that's just who he is. So Bryce has strong beliefs. And I will say it was a little awkward with Dan there. Like it was a nice sediment.

I'm going to donate $5,000 on your behalf for the Maui fires. And then to come out and say it wasn't like natural. It was man-made and all this stuff. Like you could just see the awkwardness on Danny Gay's face. But yeah, it was a good fight, good performance. Bryce needed that one bad. Like, he really needed that one bad. And I thought he looked good.

I thought he looked good. I've rewatched that fight. It was a tough one to score on Saturday watching it live. Because watching it live, I thought Danny DeGay won the first round. and I thought he won the second round. I did. Dan did all the damage. He was just piecing up Bryce Mitchell on the feet.

Bryce had nothing for him on the feet. The only clear round of that whole fight was the third because Dan was on his back 95% of the round. And Bryce was getting better positions. He was just, Dan had nothing for him on the mat in round three. But you can make a case Dan won round one. I definitely thought Dan won round two But then I rewatch it

I'm like I can see how Bryce got round one I could see that So I didn't think I get screwed or anything But that was a super tough fight to score Watching it live And then rewatching and I'm like Alright yeah Bryce probably won

Two rounds to one So good performance Be interested to see where he goes from here He needed that win badly He lost to Dan Ige His ceiling was met that's it. So now his ceiling gets a little higher.

I don't think he beats a lot of guys in the top 10 if we're being honest. But who knows? I thought Danny he was going to beat Bryce Mitchell and I showed up. It's good performance. You mentioned Bilal maybe weighing in as the backup. I don't think that does anything. Like he's not Colby. He's not Colby.

Colby's not a gigantic star, but people, Colby makes headlines. You know what I mean? Dana likes them. I'm not saying he doesn't like Bilal, but what if you heard

Dana just going to just mention Belal in a press conference unless he's like specifically asked about him. It doesn't happen all that often. And as we've seen, just because you weigh in as the backup,

it works for some, but not for everybody. Sergei Pavlovich is about to weigh in as the backup for a heavyweight title fight for the second time this year. For the second time this year. He waited as the backup in March.

Now he's weighing in as the backup in November. Jared Canaanere just waiting as the backup. For the Sean Strickland, Israel-Azania fight. Who's Jared Canaanier fighting in December? He's not fighting Sean Strickland. He's fighting Roman DeLizze. He's fighting way back in the rankings. So he's fighting the guy coming off of a loss.

after weighing in as the backup. So I don't know. Like, Belal deserves a title shot 100%. But I, this is why I absolutely hated that Gilbert Burns fight being on UFC 288. It made absolutely no sense. Like none. Zero sense to put that fight on that card. None.

So we'll see. And if Colby wins, I don't think he's getting the title shot. I really don't. Chris, go ahead. Oh, sorry. Yeah, I didn't have a question. I just wanted to be in the space, sorry. Oh, all good.

No problem. All right. Let's go to, let's try Panda. Come on, Panda. Mike, how are we? Can you air it? Perfect. All right, yeah, so I kind of want to hop on your train here a little bit.

I might want to dunk on the previous guy who came in here last, who said that, like, Bala might be a shoe in because he's weighing in as the backup. Like, Balala isn't Kobe. You know what I mean? And I feel like the company never does Bilal any favors, especially with the situation he's in now. Like, what is he going to do?

He's going to sit back and wait. Pray Leon wins. If Leon doesn't win, he's in a lot of trouble. If Leon does win, he might still have to fight Kamar Uzman. Like, Blam-Lah, Mohammed's in a lot of trouble. In my opinion, if I could throw that out there real quick, I think Kobe's a match-up nightmare for Leon. I think this took so long to book because Leon,

I don't want to say Leon was ducking Kobe, but I do think Kobe was probably one of the last names Leon wanted to fight. And then moving forward and kind of backwards, because what we started with on this show was Patty versus Tony. I have to put my Tony time glasses on. I have to hope he can somehow find a way to an early knockout because if not, yes, he's going to find his way strangled or maybe knocked out on the mat by the third round because I don't think Tony has the gas. tank that he had. Thank you for having me, Mike. Have a heck of a week.

Yeah, I mean, I mean, I think Ballal's best chance to get a title fight is Leon winning. Because Leon doesn't really strike me as the guy that's going to be like, like go the prize fighty route. I think he's just going to be like,

all right, next man up. So I kind of think Bilal will have a shot there. Um, I don't know if I agree with, like, Colby could definitely beat Lee. There's no doubt about it.

If he gets takedowns early and starts to wear on Leon, like he can definitely win. I think Leon's just kind of on one right now. He's just really good. He's coming into his own. I think it's a really tough fight for Colby. I really do. And Colby's tough for everybody.

That fight to me is so interesting. It's super interesting. Because Colby looked real good in that second Usman fight. It just took him forever to get started. He didn't get going to like, middle of the third round. Like that's when Colby started to turn it on. Like once he got to the championship rounds,

it was all Colby. Like he won both of those rides. He beat Oosven on the feet. He was looking real good. Like once he started to get a little more aggressive, he was doing really well in that fight. But then he just, but he just started so slow.

And you can't let Leon just control him at space with his striking. He just, he's got to get going quick. He's got to put that pace on him and score takedowns early. That's his best chance to win. But if you can't get Leon down,

especially early, if he starts slow, this could look very similar to the second Oosman fight where Colby starts to pick it up and it's just too little too late. So it's such a good fight, such a good fight. And then, like I said,

Balala's just kind of screwed. Honestly, if Colby wins, he's not getting a title shot. It sucks to say, but he's just not. And even if Leon wins, depending on how things play out with the Wonderboy and Shofcott fight, like,

I don't know, man. I don't know. I think he's going to have to fight again. Sucks to say, but I do think if he's smart, he just goes and fights come on. Go fight Camarro. Like, what's,

that there's nothing wrong with that. That's a fight he can win. He could beat Camaro. Mara Usman. Usman can certainly beat him too, but that's a fight he could win. And then at that point, it's just like, all right, you're undeniable at this point. Like, you are completely undeniable if you go and beat Usman. He goes and fights Usman and beats him.

Like, if they headline December 2nd or something, the timing of that is perfect. It's perfect. You get a head start on everybody. Not a seven-month head start, but you at least, excuse me, get a two-week head start. So, yeah, he's in such a weird place. It's crazy. Henderson, hello. Good morning to you, man.

Great show, as always. Thank you. What's up? So I'm a huge Wonderboy fan, and I love the booking of this fight in some ways, and I hate it in other ways, you know, because this is a really high risk, high reward, and that's the time in Wonderboy's career where we're at, you know? He needs a big win.

I think on the feet, he's better wonder boy is better hurt on the feet than jeff neal i would say and shavka and neal on the feet even i i think so i think on the feet wonder boy can do it and what encourages me is that shavkot said after the neal fight if you remember he said something or posted on social media to wonder boy and said like look i can stand and fight please fight me i'll stand and fight you you know almost like a kevin hollandesque promise so So if that's the kind of fight it is, it's really a toss-up. But Shelfgat's wrestling is ridiculously good.

And Wonderboy over his career has had very good takedown defense. But that seems to be the first thing that's kind of gone as he's gotten older. Obviously, Ballal took him down and Burns took him down. So that makes me really nervous. I think we might be in for some trouble us Wonderboy fans. and my prediction right now is that Wonder Boy hangs in there and then gets finished on the ground by some variety of ground and pound or something. Shavkot's ground and pounds just too much.

But do you think there's any chance Wonderboy can pull it off? And do you think there's any chance that Shavcott will keep it on the feet just to keep things interesting like you did with Neil? And then one last shout out if I can. My little sister is in the movie Dumb Money that's out this week. with like Seth Rogen and Pete Davidson. And it's her first movie in theaters. So I'm super proud of her and we're all stoked. So everybody should go see that movie.

So it does well. All right. Thanks again, Mike. Thanks, man. Shout out to your sister. I am actually interested in seeing that film. So it was a great story. I loved to a scene in movie form.

So, yeah, that's pretty awesome. Yeah, Wonder Boy can win. And do I think Shofcott will stand with Wonder Boy for a bit? Yeah. Do I think he's going to stand with him for 15 minutes? No. I think that's craziness if he does that. And I'm with you.

I think Wonder Boy is a better striker than Jeff Neal. Jeff Neal's a very good striker, but Wonder Boy is better. Wonder Boy is one of the more technical guys. And Shafkot's, not saying he's not technical, but Chofkot is a crazy man. on the feet in the best most entertaining ways possible. So yeah, I mean, I don't think this is

this is bad matchmaking. I'm kind of shocked Wonderboy took it for being honest since he was going he had the shot at the Ian Gary fight. I thought that fight made a lot of sense. I think that probably would have been a better matchup for Wonderboy, honestly. From a stylistic perspective, but this is

this is fine. He went for the Usman fight. He didn't get it. maybe they have other plans for Kamaro. Maybe they do do the Bilal fight. Yeah, it's fine. But again, Wonderboy does have pretty good take down the fence against kind of the older, not like the older generation,

but the generation before where, because we've seen it out like, we just talked about Bryce Mitchell. The Bryce Mitchells, the Colby's, the Balals, the guys who can just, just, chain them together over and over again. Like those are the guys that give Wonderboy problems. Like, Roy McDonald had a hard time taking him down,

but he shot for like a takedown. And then just, it's like, okay, now I'll fight on the feet. But Balala is just, ball is just all over him. Like, if he didn't get the first one, he went for the second one. If he didn't get the second one for the third one, that's how Colby will fight him.

That's how Bill Burns fought him. Those guys who could just chain them together. those are the ones that give Wonderboy problems. And Shofcott's a bad man, man. I love that fight. It's going to be interesting. I think the stakes are super high in that fight. I really do.

Especially if Bilal sits to the side and doesn't take a fight. It could be a very high-stakes fight. Wonderboy's 40s. It's going to be 41 in February. Everyone loves Wonderboy. If he goes out and beat Shof-Kod, They might just get him a title shot. Like give him one more chance.

They might just do it. And if Shafka goes and runs Wonderboy right on the building, he might get, I don't know. I think the stakes in that fight could be very, very interesting depending on what Blah Mohamed does over the next couple of months.

I'll take two more. We'll take Zach now and then we'll go to Tom. Zach, go ahead. Hey, Mike, how you doing? Good. I got two things for you. First, I know the UFC doesn't care about optics at all.

but do you think there's anything maybe in the optics of having for the women's band-of-weight fight having that on a fight night as the main event? You know, that'd be two women's title fights in a row, not- What was your other one? Can you hear me still? Yeah, I got you guy. So I just think the optics of that being having two women's title fights not on a pay-per-view in a row. It's not a good look. I know the U.S. he doesn't care about optics, but not a good look, in my opinion.

And the other one, I was hoping to get in on Free For All Friday last week, but I know you didn't have it. So I got to ask this here. This time tomorrow, I'm going to be a dad. So I was hoping I could get some fatherly advice from you. Thanks, Mike. Wow, man, congratulations. It's the best.

It's the best. Let's see. Well, at the women's fights, like, I mean, if they do it December 2nd, and they do China December 9th, we might get three in a row. We might get three women's title fights on not pay-per-view. Because if they go to China

and they don't do Zhang versus Zhang, like what are we doing here? Like, why are we even going? Like, I know it's a big market, but the reason you go to China is to book that title fight. You do Zhang Wei v. John John, John. So we could get it there.

the more I think about it, the more I think that we'll get the Bannamweight fight on pay-per-view. I don't think it won't be a main event, but Volk, like I said earlier, Volk tweeted out, January sounds fine to me. I know preliminary discussions are going on

about the Toporia fight. It's not done, but we do Volk Toporia as the main event and then you do Pena versus Pennington is the co-main event. that's fine. Get two title fights to start the year. Not too shabby.

Not too shabby. As far as fatherly advice, look, there's nothing I can really tell you that you're not going to experience for yourself. So one thing I learned is that other people's advice, it's nice to hear. It's nice to have, you know, the brothers in arms, so to speak. but I learn that there is no advice that can prepare you for it.

You just have to experience it for yourself. The one thing I will tell you that I know for sure is that the second your child is born, your life is going to change forever. Your motivations become much larger. The reason for everything you do is going to be enhanced by a thousand. You're not going to sleep. You might get lucky and you will sleep. But all that doesn't matter.

all that doesn't matter like I didn't care I it was the best I watched so many episodes of cheers in the first two years of my kids' life

because he never slept I would just wake up and calm him down and I'd watch cheers until he fell back to sleep which most times he didn't really fall back to sleep so I'd have to watch like four episodes

so it's just the best it's just awesome and then it just goes by real quick. All right. So I have my advice. My advice is just to enjoy every second of it because it is going to go by in milliseconds. It's just going to like if you're married, you know how you're like your wedding day? You don't even remember it's like the blink of an eye. This is like that times a million. Like my kid like it seemed like just yesterday like I held my kid for the first time and he's 10. It's to be 11 in April. It's insane. So just enjoy it all, man. That's the best.

advice I can give you and just figure everything out. Figure everything out. Everyone's experience is different. So just enjoy it all, man. Congratulations. That's the best. All right. We'll take one more.

Riley, go ahead. I was out early. So I'm sure someone asked you this already. But did you get a chance to see Superlack versus Rod Peng? And what was your thoughts on the scorecard on that? And secondly, if the UFC ends up going back to China this year or I mean even early next year do you think we'll see song y dong he's my boy and I feel like we haven't seen him fight in a while I thought he was doing

really well versus Corey when he got the doctor stoppage so I'm excited to see him whenever he gets back thanks man so China might be happening this year rumblings for December 9th I'm certainly not the first one to say that someone asked early earlier about there's some rumblings that he's fighting Peyotrion maybe on that card, but I've heard nothing about it. Honestly, I've heard nothing about it. So, uh, Riley, do you have something else? Riley?

No. Didn't mean it happen. Okay. So, yeah, it'd be a great fight. Him and Peartrean kind of is like it. It's kind of like the last fight left, really? Because who else is he going to fight? So him and Peartrean makes all the sense in the world.

because I don't think they could get thrown in there with Umar maybe but I don't know if Umar's ready to come back just yet from his injury so yeah him and Pieter Rian is is a fine fight that'd be a good one it's just kind of like the the fight that's left over that needs to be booked really for this incredible band and weight division so all right thank you all very very much I appreciate you we'll be back on Thursday we'll do it again 10 a.m. Eastern

I'll be a busy day. We'll have BTL later on that day as well with a lot to talk about there. I'm sure we'll have more stuff to talk about with an off week, even with an off week in the UFC. Like we have, if this is just the new cycle, like BTL is filled already. We don't even need anything else, but I have a feeling we may get some more stuff. May get some more stuff added to the pile. So you guys are all the best. So I'll see you on Thursday morning, everybody.

Until then, have a great rest of your Tuesday. and as always, at a heck of a morning, everybody. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.