MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reaction To Return Of The Ultimate Fighter, UFC Matchmaker Tweets

Episode Date: June 1, 2023

The Ultimate Fighter returned to the screens for MMA fans on Tuesday with big name coaches Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler selecting their teams, seedings, and matchups to see who will emerge in the bantamweight and lightweight divisions. For those who watched, did it hook you enough to want to return for episode two? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck gives his thoughts on the premiere of season 31 of TUF, and why he's intrigued enough to give it another chance next week. Additionally, listener topics include McGregor as a coach and not showing up to the weigh-in for the first fight of the season, UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard's tweets over the weekend about card quality, the potential of the UFC heavyweight division with fighters like Sergei Pavlovich, Jailton Almeida, and Tom Aspinall emerging, how — or if — Jon Jones fits into the equation, golf foursomes featuring MMA fighters, former TUF champ Jesse Taylor, who Shavkat Rakhmonov could fight next, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer,

but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose

to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. The show is heck the morning. If you're on the East Coast, it's a heck of it afternoon.

We are live on the NBA Fighting. Twitter space, you can hear the show at its entirety shortly thereafter on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. Hello, everybody. I am Mike Heck. Thank you for your patience. Wasn't sure if we're going to be able to do a show today, but made it happen. It has been a very busy day.

Very busy day indeed. My wife and I, we closed on a little condo, kind of like a second property. And my mother-in-law has been living with us since November of 2021. and we wanted to buy like an investment property and we wanted to get a place where she could kind of have her own space and lo and behold, we accomplished both of those things. So closed, I unloaded a moving truck this morning. It's been a morning, everybody, but luckily had enough time to get back here,

get a bite to eat, and now I am live with all of you guys. So it kind of made the schedule a little bit wonky doing the show. a little bit later today live and we'll do BTL a little bit later on as well 3 p.m. Eastern we will go live on the YouTube channel. It will be Jed Mishu and Alexander Kay Lee back on the program. It's been a minute since AK has been on BTL, but he's going to join. Try to turn that kind of weird record upside down a little bit. And it should be a fun show.

So 3 p.m. Eastern, we'll go live on BTL. but we are here today to talk about MMA. We could talk about the return of the Ultimate Fighter, which went down on Tuesday. I did not watch live. I have been just dealing with this nasty ass, like, head cold. It's really kicked the living crap out of me. So just deal with my voice.

If I have to cough a little bit, just forgive me for that. But I did not watch live. I took some NyQuil on Tuesday, fell asleep. I watched it yesterday. I have to say I'm a little bit intrigued. It wasn't like the best episode ever. It wasn't the worst episode ever. It's kind of the same show, but at least it was done a little bit differently.

We already have the matchups in place. I like the fact that the veterans are on one team and the prospects are on another team. I have a feeling things with Connor and Chandler are going to explode if you saw sort of the pieces of the season to come. You saw the moment where Connor and Chandler went nose to nose or some pushing and shoving. Dana White started running

and has become one of the best memes of the year. But they got me intrigued to watch week two. I will say that it was nice to see a guy like Roosevelt Roberts come in after a tough run in the UFC and have a quick finish.

So all in all, they got me at least intrigued to watch episode number two. and we'll see how this all plays out. Not sure if this is going to be the type of thing that's going to hook me to be a fan of the show forever, but at least they got me intrigued to watch next week. So we can talk about that.

We can talk about the UFC card coming up on Saturday, UFC Vegas 74, headlined by Kai Kar-France versus Amir al-Bazi. We could talk about Bellator getting a flyweight division. We can talk about Bellator versus Ryzen 2. we can talk about how the PFL season has been kind of a disaster with failed drug tests. We're going to be talking about a lot of that stuff on BTL today as well. But whatever you want to talk about, I am your man for the next 45 minutes to an hour.

Tristan, you were first in line. Let's go. Okay, Mike, can you hear me? Yep. Okay. The question I have is, I just want to know what you're thoughts about Nick Mayer's his response back to bloody elbows in regards. in regards to him thinking or possibly being tone-deaf about or being criticized about how the fight cards are being matched or put together.

I was listening to Brian Campbell and Luke Thomas talk about it, and I was pretty taken aback to how Nick Maynor was not understanding why he could be. So just your whole thoughts about the whole thing. Thanks, Mike. Yes. So McManor came out and just out of nowhere, dropped a tweet during the off week about,

well, maybe Bloody Eble will find a way to complain about the card this weekend, even though there wasn't one, kind of taking shots. And then he said some other things. Let me just, let me pull it up real quick, see if I can get the full context here. I did see it. I kind of chuckled at it like most others did. but let's take a

let's see if we could find everything do to do bet you bloody elbow complained about the UFC card this weekend I have no idea why I'm doing this but which card did you actually think was bad these athletes have been amazing and then he said something else too about

not remembering it said it's been years since there was like a bad UFC card see if I could find it. Let's see. Someone responds to, with all due respect, don't feed the trolls. There are plenty of fans who really, really love awesome UFC shows every week, especially with the different tones and vibes. Stars are born in Apex shows.

The blend of journalism and Asurbic, angsty opinion is frustrating. And then makes it it it an honest question. I actually do remember the last fight card. And it's been many years ago, I feel the more cards we have, the more opportunity, the negativity is odd to me. look, he is part of the company. He's one of the head honchos for the company. He is one of the matchmakers.

And throughout a lot of our preview shows and all of this, we have talked about the quality of these cards. And some of them have been pretty solid for fight night cards. And some of them on paper have not been very good. they have not been very good on paper. There are times that we'll say, hey, look, if you got nothing better to do on a Saturday and you watch this card,

you're probably not going to be upset with it because the matchmaking as a whole has not really been bad. At least with these fight night cards, even though some of these names aren't really recognizable, they are pretty well matched.

Even like the card a couple weeks ago, the McKenzie during Angela Hill card, a lot of those fights were close fights, even on the betting odds. They were matched pretty, pretty well. So it's not the matchmaking that's an issue. It's making people care about the stakes. And I think that's what people want more than anything is stakes and they want storyline

and they want fights to matter outside of just wins and losses. So again, the UFC, Dana White in particular, and we're seeing this from Mick here, they lump everybody into the same category. And that's just not true. Now, oftentimes we'll look at cards and be like, eh, this is just not great, but it doesn't mean we're like, don't watch it.

Because if you do watch it, you're probably going to get some enjoyment out of it because some of the matchups are pretty rock solid, and the betting odds would suggest that. Like, this card on Saturday is not bad. It's not a bad card. Kai Kar, Frantz, and Miro, Basie's great, main event. Alex Casares, Daniel Paneda, great fight. Jim Miller, Jared Gordon, interesting

fight. Tim Elliott, Victor Alta Marano, pretty fun fight. Corrinez Silva, Kelton Souza, could be decent. Like, there's some good matchups on here. The issue is nobody knows who a lot of these fighters are, and the UFC is doing a pretty bad job of getting people to care about the stories of these fighters. And I don't put Onus on the matchmakers for this. I put it on the promotion because they could be doing more. Yes, it is on the fighters to get themselves over in some ways, but instead of tweeting about power slap events, you could be tweeting about the upcoming fight cards or teasing things about the next fight card, get people invested in the fighters and the events. And the UFC does a pretty bad job at that. So I think that's really the issue.

I thought it was kind of hokey that Mick came out and said that, especially when most people aren't blaming the matchmakers. Like the cards are pretty well matched. It's just there's so many of them. We understand the deal. We understand what's happening here. That's all. That's all.

But there have been some stinker events. There have been a couple of events because normally I host the post-vite shows and I have to write up the headlines and I usually clear with a couple of other people on the site of what I'm going to write. And there have been a couple of fight night cards where the headline was almost, was that the worst fight card of the year? Because there have been a couple like that. So to say that it's been a few years since the last bad fight card, it's just not true. It's just not true.

But I thought it was kind of weird. And again, this is higher ups in the UFC, just lumping everybody together. And that shit drives you crazy. But it is what it is. I've come to terms with it. That's just what's going to happen, my friends. Abzawalia, hello. So, Mike Hark of the morning.

How you doing? Good. What's up? Yeah, so just two things. I'll start off with this one. It's more of a statement than a question. I'm really intrigued and excited about how the heavyweight division is currently going right now. We actually, I guess for the first time in maybe seven years, eight years that we're actually having at least four, five guys who are possible future title.

holders or all the number one contenders, you know. And I'm really curious to see where the division is going to head towards the next three, four years. And I think maybe if everything goes well for Tom Aspinall, he could become the number one title bear for the next maybe at least two, three years, you know, barring any injuries and stuff. I just also wish that, you know, Dana never fucked up the whole Francis thing, you know, because it would have been really interesting to see Francis for some of these guys right now, especially how great his takedown defense has improved over the last few years

and how, you know, how he's been more of an IQ fighter. You know, it really does sucks. And obviously, if you look at the history of the UFC, they've probably screwed up and blown more opportunities to make the UFC heavyweight, you know, host some big super fights, you know, such as the Fidel versus Brock or Alistair fight. You know, we had, you know, there was also, I think, maybe. Daniel Kormier versus Francis and Ghanu, you know, just a few off the top of my head.

But, yeah, I mean, I think it's a really cool division. I can't wait, see where it goes in the next few years. I think there's all, you know, especially now we've seen with Geraldton, Elmira, you know, Volkov, Spivak, you know, Povic, all these guys. It's just really interesting. And the other thing I want to say is with this Saturday's card you know

with the main event what round could you see if if kai karence was swimming what round could you see him win the fighting thanks man that's all I have have a great day yeah heavyweight is is pretty interesting right now it's also kind of weird because we have

john Jones is the champion we assume he's going to fight stepe next but there hasn't been like an official announcement of that yet so when you're dealing with two personalities like that, who can typically be tough to get on the same page and make extremely happy, and I want to be perfectly clear about this, I applaud them for being like that and wanting to get what they feel they deserve

for a fight of this magnitude. And there's no guarantees of anything. And if John Jones beats Stepe, then I don't know what's going to happen. Is he going to stick around and try to break records, or is he just going to be like, nah, I'm out of here. Let's see if a star can emerge and then maybe I'll come back and fight them.

So the potential is there for a very fun division. It's just a matter of how this is going to play out. When is John and Stepe going to fight? Are they going to fight? Is John going to win? Is he going to leave? Is he going to stick around? And then we kind of see what's going to happen with Sergei

and Jailton Almeida. And, you know, Tommy asked, Aspinall is another guy. He's fighting Marching Taibora. I think Tommy Aspinall is a very high ceiling, but the Curtis Blades fight, and it's unfortunate the way that it ended, I'm just, I'm not ready to anoint him just yet.

I know a lot of people are. I'm not quite there yet. Like, even if he beats Marching Taibora, I think it's a matchup that is, I think it's a little tougher than people think it is, but I do think it's a bit favorable for Tommy Asponel. So even if he goes out there and beats Marching Taibora, which I think he will,

I don't know necessarily if I get the answers to the questions I have about him. So I feel like rushing him like right into whatever spot that could be for an interim title or a vacant title or whatnot, I think it might be a little bit too soon. I think if we're looking at who could be an actual star in this division, I think Asvidal has all the makings of one, but you don't want to rush him too fast into a fight that he may not necessarily be ready for. So I love the Taibora fight.

I think it makes a lot of sense, and I think it's a good way to potentially build him up, get him a big win in front of a raucous crowd that's going to be rooting for him and could be a cool thing. But yeah, it's going to be very, the next year is going to be really interesting for the heavyweight division.

because you can in this division you can make moves real quick like if marco shri delima it just goes out there and just melts derrick lewis when you go out there and you beat derrick lewis usually good things happen for your career you get put into big spots look what happens with sergey pavillage derrick lewis then he gets tied to ibasa then he gets the main event with curtis blades and now he's knocking on the door of a title shot you can make moves up this division very quickly So the way it looks right now is fascinating, but in the next year or two, it could look even more fascinating. So, yeah, potential is there for a very fun division over the next year to 18 months, but just a matter of how John Jones fits into this. Does he fit into this?

And if so, how does he fit into this? And with the main event on Saturday, I don't think this one's going to the cards. I think there is going to be a finish year. I'm probably leaning Kai Kar, France. I'll say round three. Either way. Before it goes to the championship rounds, that fight's going to go,

going to get stopped. Four Corner Sports, then we'll go to JSTAT, then we'll go to Derek. What's up, Four Corner Sports? Hey, Mike, I wanted to ask you, so how come the UFC doesn't really, I mean, they don't, in my opinion, I think they should try to book this John Jones-CP fight,

but my question is, How come they don't do these like multiple city tour, like, events? You know how they ended up doing, like, promos for, like, when McGregor had, like, a big, you know, fight and stuff like that? How come they don't do that often? I'm not saying they have to do it with only McGregor, but, you know, I would feel like Jones versus CEPA is a big fight. And that made me question, like, I believe it was like Tristan had the question earlier. And it made me think. I was like, you know, the UFC is on a big platform with ESPN.

And if you really think about it, I mean, you can probably ask people on your softball team, you know, they probably maybe know about like three to four fighters off the top of their heads. And the UFC should have really tried to at least expanded and try to promote these fighters. Like people like Kevin Holland, who shouldn't have to promote himself. People have discovered who he was in 2020. And, you know, there's plenty of good fighters, you know, on multiple cards. stuff like that and you know the average person doesn't know who they are and that's somewhat you know puzzling because you're on a big platform as ESPN and i i understand you know maybe dana has the

agenda of nobody should be bigger than a brand but don't you think it's it's a little bit weird that you know it's on you know the uc's on ESPN and you know i felt like you know fighters are bigger on fox when they were on uh on their platform and i wanted to ask you also this is a weird curtain jerker of a fight, but why is Felipe Linz fighting Maxing Gresham? I feel like this is actually a fight that could be on the main card. I mean, you could replace Nirmagamato off of the opener of the main card, and you could put Linz and Grisham on that main card.

I feel like Linz versus Grisham is actually a good, you know, doable fights to have on the main card, but I just think it's weird to have as a curtain jerker. But, all right, thanks, Mike. yeah i mean i didn't really think too much of it grishin i think is kind of is opened a couple of cards if memory shows me correctly but yeah i mean it's it's one of two things

it's either they feel like this fight's going to go to the cards and it's not going to be all that thrilling or they feel like it's going to be a good hot start to get the card going and someone's going to get put to sleep fast so yeah i mean again these fight night cards i don't really care too much about the card placement. I think really the only spot that really stands out is the main event. Because it's all

in one thing. You can call it prelims a main card, but it's all on ESPN Plus, and it just goes from the prelims. You don't have to change the channel or anything. It's all like one card. So I don't really think too much of that. As far as the World Tour thing, I mean, here's the thing.

When are you going to do it? when would you do the world tour and how would you pull it off when you have cards every week because it's rinse repeat card happens on saturday sunday you take a day off then there's monday fighters start coming into Vegas or wherever the card's going to take place they get in tuesday media day wednesday press conference stuff thursday way ins friday fights on saturday and then we do it again the next week and then sometimes there's a pay-per-view sometimes you have to travel There's just no time to do it. Like, we get one week off every 12 to 13 weekends and then back at it for another 12 to 13 weeks.

The only real break that the UFC gets is after the last fight night card in December. Then it's like Christmas week, New Year's week, maybe another week, and then it's back at it again. So there's not enough time to do it. number two what's they don't really need to do it they have no like the UFC is won they have won the game they have no competition right now they have no competition there are other

promotions out there who that people are aware of but they have no direct competition and that's why I can I tend to call where the UFC is at right now where the WWF was in the mid to late 80s where they had no real competition. There were other regional brands that people were aware of,

that people liked for different reasons, depending on where you lived in the United States or around the world. But WWE had their own thing. They had WrestleMania. They had closed circuit television that did really well. They were selling out arenas. They were on MTV. They were everywhere.

But they had no direct competition. And until they got competition, that's when things started to change. That's when the sport. changed. That's when their format changed and that's where everything really changed. And even when we talk about fighter pay and things of that nature, when WWF back in those days were the juggernaut so far ahead of everybody, those, the wrestlers weren't getting big money. The stars were, the ones they were able to get over, the Hogan's and Pipers and whatnot, they were making

great money, but most of the other talent wasn't. And when Vince would sign people, they would basically say, look, we'll give you this. I can't give you much more, but I can give you an opportunity to get over. And if you get over, then the riches could come your way. And I feel like that's where the UFC is right now because they don't have any competition. They don't need to overpromote because they have nobody really nipping at their heels right now. They've won the game. They're getting so much money from this ESPN deal. They're making so much money, hand over fist. I mean, they're printing money. They're printing money.

They're killing it. They sell out all these arenas. Cities around the world are paying them. Multi-million dollars to come to their area. I mean, there's no need for them to really do that from a business perspective. Plus, there's really no time to do it. Now, back with Connor and Aldo, we're getting after it, yeah, the UFC was starting to get some space in the competition,

but they knew they had a big star in Connor. They just needed to show him. off to everybody so he can become an even bigger star and the casual audience knows who john jones is jones is that's why the march paper view did so well the ufc on there one of their recent stockholders call said that was the most lucrative payper view they've had in the last year and there wasn't a lot of time to promote that one that one came quick and then six weeks later the fight happened and did bonkers numbers it was gigantic so i think the casual audience is with john they know who he is, but with some of these other fighters, it's a little bit of a problem.

But at the same token, they're getting money just to put these cards on. So there's really no need. There's really no need from a business perspective to spend any more money than you have to when people are going to buy it anyways. And then they could just save the promotional push for the fighters at the casual audience knows. You can really push it. So they don't really need to do that right now.

now. And that's why they're not. But that's, I mean, like I said, they're killing it. Printing money left and right. They've won. They're winning by a lot. Boarding 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 and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won! Boarding will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating.

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What is next for a Romanov? It's a great question. I have no idea. I have no idea. I don't know what they're going to do. Bilal is a great pick, and I'm not ruling that out at this point. I just feel like,

why would Bilal do that at this moment? I mean, Sean Brady's fighting Jack Deli. him at elena but i don't know if they're going to pay like if jdm wins that fighter they're going to pair him up with shafcott probably not i don't know he's going to have to probably he's going to have to fight backwards r d a's fighting luke he already fought jeff neal wonder boy's fighting perera colby's fighting for the belt gilbert's hurt ball's waiting shemaiah shemaiah if if shemaiah goes to one 85 shovcott versus usman would be really interesting that would be a really interesting fight but if not he's fighting backwards where he's going to fight

i have no idea who he's going to fight i have no idea it's a good question i'm curious about that one as well darry what's up how's it going mike yeah i uh i watched the first episode of tough and i mean i agree with you not the best not the worst episode i've ever seen but uh chandler seems real invested in his team and you know he brought in bader and all his coaches and uh mcgregor you know just classic mcgregor shows up in a suit uh suit and tie and uh he wasn't out his his fighters way in um i have a feeling it's going to be a long season for the prospects just wanted to know your thoughts on that i mean you had roosevelt roberts going and starts the guy in 10 seconds.

So I just wanted to know your thoughts on that. Have a hell of a morning, man. Yeah, it wasn't a great star for Team McGregor. But Connor not showing up to a way in on tough is not really all that surprising. And I'm sure that's not going to be the last time that happened. So didn't really think much of it. I know he did the season with Faber. I don't know if he was at every single way in and every single event that came to pass.

fight bookings and matchups and all that stuff. I don't remember him being at everything, but I also haven't watched that season in its entirety and haven't watched a single second of that season in a long time. I've watched single second of Tuff in years. That was probably the first episode of Tuff that I've watched in five years. It's been that long. So, yeah, we'll see.

I mean, if this is like a regular, if he's missing practices, if he's missing fights, that's another thing, but I don't know, him missing a way in, didn't really think too much of it. But Chandler ain't going to miss away in, that's for sure. Patty, what's up? Can you hear me?

Yep. I am wondering if you know what's up with Eagle FC. Ha, ha. Wonderful question that I don't have an answer to. Let me see what they're up to. I think they have another card coming up. June 17th. I mean, they're running events.

They had a July, they had a July card, in August, two August cards, October, December, December again. And then this will be the first card of

2023. But they did have that run in the U.S. And people thought that maybe Eagle FC can be the next big, thing, right? They were making all these big signings. We're seeing like Rashad Evans fights. They were bringing a lot of familiar names. They had the FlexCast Arena doing the thing in Miami. It seems like they were getting some rockets strapped to him bringing in Kevin Lee

and Diego Sanchez and other guys like that. And their broadcast team was like nothing but heavy hitters with Chale and Usman and Sohudo was a part of it, which was like the best part of the actual broadcast was listening to Henry Suhudo pronounced people's names. I enjoyed that very much. But we kept out like it got to the point where we did our we did our drafts, our little fantasy draft drafting for promotions and Eagle FC was one of

the promotions because not only were their cards providing name value, but the traffic on our website, when those cards are happening, were like through the roof. Like, they were running over the UFC, running over Bellator, PFL, what have you. If Eagle FC had an event around the same time as the others or the same weekend, Eagle FC was usually winning. And my whole question was like, how are they able to do this? how are they able to just bring in all these fighters, do it at this arena,

overpay for them all, and still somehow make a profit. And after the Junior de Santos, you're going to cash a card, we haven't had a U.S. card since. So I honestly don't know. I honestly don't know. I think they just kind of,

I, maybe they like over-exerted themselves but there was just a lot of weirdness about it to begin with when it came to the matchmaking and who is getting paid what and how and all that stuff like there was just a lot of unanswered questions that we weren't getting like anywhere with and we were just wondering if it was a matter of time before this big push for them was going to stop and it's been when was that may of 2022 over a year since the last Miami card so they're back June 17th and we'll see yeah it's a weird one they were there and they were getting buzzed and then they were just gone let's go to Martin what's up Martin oh Mike can hear me yep what's

going on man not much man I'm a long time listener first time call but I noticed that you're a golf fan as well as an MMA fan as a my. So this question might seem a little bit out of the blue. But if you had to create a four-man scramble of MMA fighters and the goal was to go low and have fun, who would your four be? Thanks, Mike. Oh, man. To go low and have fun.

So I don't think, like, I think I would have fun with anybody. So I'd probably try to find, it seems like DC's a pretty decent golfer. Like he's got that Barkley-esque swing, but the swing no matter. As long as the ball gets in the hole, it doesn't matter what it looks like. So I think DC would be a good one.

Seems like Gaichi can play a little bit. And I think Gaichi on the golf course would be a good time. So it would be those two guys. one more I probably need like I probably need like a little bit of a wild card on my side plus somebody I'm familiar with

that can speak my language so I probably go with like with like a Calvin Cater because I don't think he's probably not a very good golfer but I bet he'd be fun to have a route and he'd tell jokes he'd talk a little shit about how the Boston sports teams are better than most others and he seems like the kind of guy

if we get a ball in the fairway and you just kind of slap Calvin on the back and say, go hit it as far as you can, man. He would just go up there and just take a whack at it. So, yeah, I think that'd be a pretty fun for some right there. I think we'd have a good time. It's a great question, though.

It's something that I want to do. It's something that I want to do. Trying to find a way to incorporate playing a little golf with some fun. fighters. We just haven't really been able to link up yet. But I've planted a lot of seeds, just a matter of like logistics and how we can make this happen. But I'm going to be in Dallas in August, which is a brutal time to try to play golf. And there's a lot of fighters in the Dallas area. So maybe we can get a little rounded and have some fun. See if we can make it happen.

We almost did something in Jacksonville. It didn't pan out. So, Barbara Roussa, hello. Hi, Mike. How are you doing? Good. How are you? Good, good. Since we are talking about Ultimate Fighter and Connor, I just wanted to ask you, it's not exactly

about Ultimate Fighter, but about press conferences in general. What's the line or just the moment do you think it's the most iconic in the, press conferences history. For me, it was like in the Rio de Janeiro press conference when the fans pulled Connor and then it was like Connick he said, I'm booting my feet over the disc, what are going to do about it? And it was a different time, this is for me, I just want to know what's yours. Thank you, Mike.

There's, I mean, there's a lot of good ones. That was a good one. I think Connor taking the bell from Aldo was a big one but the one that always sticks to me is the who the Fook is that guy that Jeremy Stevens come back

that was just unreal unbelievable timing like everything just fit in right for that moment that was just incredible stuff or how does the bill become a over and over again. I'm just joking.

That was really bad. But yeah, who the food was that guy? It was probably my favorite. Because it was just so immaculately timed. Just the moment, just everything came together and boom, is incredible. Four on sniper. Hello. Mike, can you hear me?

Yep. Okay, there we go. I'm having issues. Sorry about that. You're good. Well, heck of that afternoon. So we're talking about the ultimate fighter. and what do you call it?

What's his name? Jesse Taylor. I remember first season for him, he was supposed to go to the finals, got kicked off the show, and then nine years later, he came back, and he actually won that episode.

So I was curious, what happened to him, or why did he not, you know, make his return to the UFC? Because I, you know, I don't know what happened to him. Wait, who is this? Say it again?

Jesse Taylor. My sinuses are acting up, so I can't speak properly right now. Oh, that's all good. Jesse Taylor? Yeah, man. I don't know. I think there was,

let me do some Googling here. So I know there was a, there was a USADA test that he failed. And then I'm not really sure what happened after that. Like, I'm friends with him on Facebook. So he got, after that failed test,

he got released, or at least he did some interviews saying, that he was released up Jose Young's coming through in a big way here um so he failed the usada test said it was a tainted supplement I think there was like a long thing going on trying to clear his name got really expensive and I think he ended up just getting released from the company and then that was it and I think he's fought a bunch since then too Yeah, I knew it was a USADA test of some kind. I think he ended up getting released after getting a year suspension.

That was, let me go back. Because he's fought a bunch since. So Ultimate Fighter, won the finale. Then he did some grappling. Fought at ACA in 2019, got submitted in the first round. Fought Seth Bizzinski and August of 2021 got a first round. He fought again in November of 2021, got a 32nd submission, and then he just fought in March for Battlefield Fight League. Yeah, Battlefield Fight League in Canada.

And he got submitted in the first round by Jared Rebel. Now, he was supposed to fight at Cage Warriors 148 against CLD, Christian Leroy Duncan. And I believe the day of the fight, there was some sort of like hit and run accident. And the fight was canceled. I think it was the New Year's Eve card. And then that was kind of the last we heard from him. So I know just based on like things he said on Facebook,

he wanted another chance with the UFC and they just kind of cut bait. And we're like, now we're good. And that's really it. Yeah, he failed the test, got suspended, and then got released. And he's still trying to fight. But I don't think we'll see him in the UFC. How old is he now? Is he 40 yet?

He's got to be close. Yeah, he is 40. Just turned 40 in February. So I don't think we'll be seeing Jesse Taylor back in the UFC. Will we see him on our television screens fighting? Wouldn't surprise me. But, yeah, weird story. Thank you, Jose.

James. What up, buddy? Hey, Mike, I can't have a morning to you. I want to apologize for your Celtics. I'm a Nugus fan for myself, and I was kind of hoping that your Seltas would have came in, because either way, I would have been happy. I would have been happy for you if your team would have got it. And also I've been happy if Nuggets would have got it.

But I know that you're still probably angry at Miami's fans. So how happy will you be tonight if Nuggets just blow the heat just out of the building? Are you going to be the villains kind of twirling? pulling the mustache, going back at these trolls, are you just going to weigh until after the sweep? And, oh, crap, I had an M&A question for you, but I guess I'll just say it for tomorrow. But have a heck of the morning, Mike, and enjoy the game tonight.

I'm kind of over it. I said what I had to say. And look, like I said on Tuesday's show, if Miami fans just, like, let it be and didn't, like, flood my DMs with bullshit, I wouldn't have said a word about it. It would have been over and done with. But they started it.

I said what I had to say. And I hope Denver kicks the living shit out of them. I hope they just annihilate them by 40 every single game. Will I care either way? No. But you started it, not me. I didn't go on the show and just talk a bunch of noise. I woke up to all your noise.

And I responded. So. But yeah, I think Denver's going to. going to do well. I think I'll be a little frustrated seeing some of Miami's heroes in the Eastern Conference Finals if they have like bad shooting nights.

There's a bunch of memes going around being like, oh, after torching the Celtics during the Eastern Conference Finals, this guy is two of 13 from the field. That shit will probably frustrate me a little bit. But all in all, I don't really care. But I just kind of wish that the Heat fans didn't involve me in it.

just kind of should have kept your venom to yourself but all and all won't affect my day either way Jose what's up my man what's up guys um I am calling because I know what happened I for the full story of the Jesse Taylor situation because I've written about this few times it's all happened before I was at MMAF fighting dot com but he got so obviously he won the the tough redemption after he initially got released because he kicked out the limelum of thing. I think that was the Amir Sadala, C.B. Dahlaway tough. I think C.B. replaced him.

I can't remember. That's so long ago. But obviously, he won Tough Redemption. I think it was tough 25, actually, 2017. And then he popped for, I think it was low-level estrogen blocker. So, in his argument was it was so low, there was no way he

knowingly took to the band's substance, but he got a one-year suspension for the low-level estrogen blocker when he thought it would be a six-month suspension. But, so Obviously, they gave him a one-year suspension, and then when it came up, when his suspension was done, I know they offered him a fight. I can't remember who it was against,

but I know it was on UFC Moscow at Welterweight because he was fighting a welterweight at this time, and it was super short notice. So he declined it because, A, I don't think he was going to be able to make wait on short notice because Jesse Taylor is a big guy, especially in Moscow. So he turned the fight down because he didn't want to look like an idiot in his return fight after a one-year suspension.

and then less than a month later, the UFC released him. So he got a one-year suspension and then released right when his suspension came up. So if they had released him right away, he probably could have fought. So he was basically shelved for a year and then cut, which is in his eyes, the UFC and you saw it did him dirty. I think it was, I might be speaking out of, I might be different to someone else, but something similar with Tom Lawler happened. He popped, but it was low enough.

that it was attained supplement and then during his suspension if if the science they had used retroactive like retroactively he could have been like it could have been a lesser suspension but it was like a two year suspension then he got released right when his suspension was up so this was like five six years ago when usada was a lot of fighters were not happy with usada because they would suspend them for long periods of time and in jesse taylor's case he sat out an entire suspension and then got got cut after turning a fight down so that is what happened than Jesse Taylor. I think he's fought like four or five times since.

I think he's like 500. I know he lost to Seth Vizinski at a catchweight in Arkansas in 2021. But other than that, don't really know. But that is the full store of what happened with Jesse Taylor's release. Fought for tough twice, one once. Didn't even make the finale because he kicked a limo window out. Thank you, Jose. Jesse Taylor will be an interesting documentary down the road, that's for sure.

Yeah, that's how 25 season was interesting. Like the redemption season. Yep. So since that, yeah, he lost in 2019, beat Seth Pizzinski, beat Daniel McWilliams, and then just lost his last fight a few months back. So very strange career for Jesse Taylor. All right, I think we are done. Again, appreciate the patience.

We had to go a little bit later today, but tomorrow we'll do the normal time, 10 a.m. Eastern, free for all Friday, so we can talk about anything and everything. MMA, not MMA, whatever the hell you want to talk about. We'll be back with BTL, 3 p.m. Eastern special start time. Jed Mishu versus my best friend, Alexander K. Lee, should be a lot of fun. so join us in the YouTube channel.

And until then, everybody, have a great rest of your Thursday. And as always, have a heck of a morning, everybody.