MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reaction To UFC 298 Press Conference, Final Countdown To Volkanovski vs. Topuria

Episode Date: February 16, 2024

UFC 298 is coming fast with a card that is flying completely under the radar, event with a spectacular main event for the UFC featherweight title between Alexander Volkanovski and Ilia Topuria. Join MMA Fighting's Mike Heck for a special pre pay-per-view edition of Heck of a Morning, as he answers all of your UFC 298 questions, reacts to Thursday's press confernce, along with getting your thoughts about the stakes of some of the other big fights on Saturday's pay-per-view card. Additionally, viewer questions include what the main event for UFC 300 will be, the fighter who has the most to gain and lose on Saturday, Paulo Costa's chances against Robert Whittaker, Topuria's potential star power, and much 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

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DarkTrace is the cybersecurity defenders deserve and the one they need to defend beyond. Visit darktrace.com forward slash defenders for more information. Listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. It is Friday, February 16th, 2024, and it is indeed. a heck of a morning. Yes, there I am. We are live on the M.A. Fighting YouTube channel.

You can still hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. What's going on, everybody? I am Mike Heck. Hope you're all having a fantastic Friday. We are on the eve of UFC 298. Man, cannot wait for this card.

Cannot wait for this main event between Alexander Volcanowski and Iliotiporia. we had the press conference yesterday and normally I will jump on the show on a Friday following a press conference and be like, yeah, that was kind of bad or kind of weird or kind of strange. I have to say this might have been the best pre-fight press conference I can remember in quite some time. It was super fun. It had a little bit of everything. There was some trash talk. There was a whole bunch of stuff going on. Volkanovsky dressing like the old man

was absolutely incredible. Just everything about it was great. Ilya playing the villain role, telling everybody to shut the F up. Volk followed the sleep. Like everything about it was fantastic. It was so good. It was so good. It kind of felt bad for the Anthony Hernandez's and the Roman copulops of the world because they were just kind of sitting up there. But it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it. The crowd was super. into it. John Anick hosting always makes these a little bit better in my eyes because he gets super into it. And did you see what happened when Tuporia took the, reached over and took the belt? Anik just standing there like a G right in the middle. Didn't budge an inch. But that fight just

ramped up a little bit. And I even liked what Ilya had to say when they faced off. He said, look, I respect you as a person. I respect you as an athlete. I respect you as a professional. I'm just trying to accomplish my dreams. And they had a nice little handshake. It was super good. Enjoyed it a lot. So I don't really have a whole lot of bad things to say about it. And shout out to Volcanovsky for stealing the show and just living the gimmick right now. Shout out to you, Gustavo.

Hope you got some Duncan. You betcha. Got it right here, black ice coffee. Ready to go. All right. Let's mess around and have some fun. It's Friday. let's answer some questions.

Let's get into this thing. Obviously, we have the brand new super chat feature, which I enjoy. You guys are enjoying as well. So, super chatters get bumped to the front of the line, but I will get to as many questions as can. We'll go until about 11.30 Eastern time

because we get the official way-in stream coming up at noon Eastern. So get excited for that. A little NBA action. Again, NBA question. What's the stake here for the east? juggernaut teams like the Knicks and the Cavs.

Do you think DeMitch leaves in the offseason eventually? I'm not really sure. I think the Celtics have like more to lose than anybody else and maybe that's just the Homer in me but Jesus man. They have been looking real good. They beat the holy hell out of the

nets. Beating by over 50 the other night. Like how could you even finish a game when you're just getting ice like that? Craziness. this press conference felt to me that pressure is finally getting to ilia what did you think um i don't know if i felt that but i don't know i think volk handled it perfectly just kind of leaned into everything almost like he ignored it ilia's going off on a rant and volks pretending to fall asleep

like he said so much without saying anything it was great it was great so maybe it is look that that's what and this is the big question about this fight from the tipporia side Is this too much too soon for him? Because it's one thing to be on a pay-per-view main card. It's one thing to headline a late morning, early afternoon fight night show in Jacksonville, Florida. It's a whole different thing to headline a pay-per-view, fight for a world title, and potentially be the world champion. Ili is playing the role, and if he wins, pushed all the chips in the middle, and he's going to cash out in a big way. He's going to become a star.

But if he loses, it's going to be tough for him. But he will learn lessons either way. So it's a huge question about Ilya. Is he the guy? Is he for real? And is he ready to live up to the potential at 27 years of age already? His best win is Josh Emmett. Josh Emmett is a real good fighter.

But to go from Bryce Mitchell on somewhat short notice to Josh Emmett to Volcanovsky, without fighting the Ayers, the Ortega's, the Maxes, et cetera. It's a pretty big leap. It's a pretty big leap. So a lot of questions. There's a lot of questions on the bulk side too. And that's the beauty of a fight like this, is we're going to get all the answers tomorrow.

What's up, Mike? I still think we can revive the hashtag B. Joe Pfeifer hype. His next three fight should be Edmund Chibazian, Abuss Magamadoff, and then Brad Tavaris. After these three wins, we are so back. This whole Joe Piper is done and he sucks and he wasn't as good as, like,

wasn't good to begin with. Stuff I'm seeing is just ridiculous. It's just like Jacker Manson is a good fighter. Dude has been there. He's fought really good dudes. And this was really good matchmaking because either Joe Piper is going to go in there and win and then they could boost him up a little bit more

or he's going to learn a valuable lesson from fighting a guy like Jack Hermanson. And guess what? He's going to learn a valuable lesson from this. He won the first two rounds. Won the first two rounds. Clearly won. We could see the momentum swinging in round two. But Jack's good. He's a good fighter.

And he's a really tough guy to beat in these situations. The losses Jack Hermanson has suffered have been to, like, legit, guys. Or just weird things happened. Like the Roman DeLise fight, the late, substitution, the way that fight ended. But he's been in there with the Chris Curtis's and like a lot of these up-and-comers,

and this is what Jack Hermanson does. The five rounds made it really interesting. And this is one of the big questions I had. What happens if this fight goes to round three, round four, round five? We got our answer. There's no way Joe doesn't grow from this. Even Jack on the M.A. I was like, like, he's got a lot of great skills.

Dude hits like a truck. He's going to grow from this and he's going to learn from this. And we knew, like, the natural, gifted skills that Joe has are enough to beat a lot of these guys in this division. Who he fights next? I'm not sure. I don't know if they throw him in there with Chabazzian. Tavares isn't a bad idea. Abuse isn't a bad idea.

I forget who I picked. I don't know if I picked anybody for him on onset. The next one, but... Let's give him a top 30 middleweight that he could beat, potentially. I don't know. I kind of like the loser. I mean, if you want to do the loser of Hernandez and copulop, that's not a bad idea. But if you want to go a little bit further back, I don't mind that either. Let me see.

Left lane, man, picking Volk by decision. I think I'll think I'll be as good as the nail. He looks phenomenal against Josh, but it's easy to piece up a guy with no defense. Volk's going to stick him with the jab. Volk's one of the smartest fighters we've ever seen. Do you think there'll be a straight rematch if Volk loses? Cheers from Holland. I don't

I don't think there'll be a straight rematch. I think if Volk loses, especially if he gets finished, that's back-to-back knockout losses. I think he's going to take some time off. I do think if he wants to come back, his first fight will be for the belt.

You do Ilya versus... It's interesting. Because if Ilya wins, if I'm Mavzar of Loyaf, I am the biggest Brian Ortega fan that has ever lived. Because if Yaya Yerai Yerai Rodriguez beats Brian Ortega and

Ilya Tupori's the champion and the UFC goes to Spain Topori versus Yair for the belt in Spain would be friggin enormous. It would be huge. Spain versus Mexico. I mean, you just can't write it better. But I do think when Volk's ready to come back, he gets an immediate title shot. But if Volk wins, then things are going to get interesting.

Does he stay at 45? Does he fight of Lov? or does he just say, you know what? I slayed the dragon. I slayed the guy everybody thought was going to beat me. I'm out of here. I'm going to 155. So many questions.

But yes, if he loses, I do think his next fight will be for the belt. Don't think it's immediate. I think he will take some time off. But whoever the champion is when he's ready to come back, he will fight them. If Marabre loses to Henry Sehudo on Saturday, would you like to see him fight Corey Sanhagan or the winner of Davidson versus Cody? Man, there is so much on the line for Marab de Walsh, really. It's not even funny.

He has, outside of the main event, nobody on this card has more to lose the Marab, in my opinion. And I know you can counter with, well, Henry Suhudo said, it's all or nothing. If I lose, I retire. First of all, you get to take anything Henry Suhudo says with a grain of salt. I think we've learned that over the years. But I do honestly think that there is a. very real chance that Henry does walk away if he loses because there's really nowhere for him to go at this point. He's so far out of the title conversation at that point. And there's just not like a lot of

interesting matchups for him. But if Henry wins, he's getting a title shop. Marab loses, it is not good for him. He is going to have to claw and scrape and scratch his way back. And honest, like in my personal opinion and by the way all the respect of the world to Marab I think he's been just sensational on social media I thought he was great at the press conference yesterday he's getting over people were cheering Marab

when was the last time you saw like Marab is like this ultimate baby face who's getting cheered in Anaheim it was great social media stuff's fantastic but we know how the UFC feels about fighters that they don't typically love and if Marab loses he's gonna have to win like six in a row

to even sniff another opportunity at the belt. Sanhagen I like. I don't mind the Davison versus Cody fight. My hunch would be if Marab loses and Umar and Amaga Madoff wins March 2nd, that will be his fight. He will have to fight Umar. That's what I think they'll do. Great questions, guys. This is great.

By the way, uh, press conference. official wayans, noon Eastern, right here on the same channel. So get excited for that. And if you're just joining us, there's a lot of questions here. If you just are like, you know what, I don't want to wait for my turn. You can invoke the super chat clause and you get to skip the line altogether. How about that? Georgie, media and people made Ilya a villain.

When you fight Alex, you're a villain anyway. So we went fully in that game and he did great. Which fight of Volk do you remember with this hype? I mean, the first Islam fight to me had a ton of hype. But yeah, with, I mean, you can, you could say, I mean, I was in Vegas for UFC 276 fight week, and there was a ton of hype around, at least with the people who were in Las Vegas. The fight everybody wanted to talk about when I was there was the trilogy fight between Bolkinovsky and Holloway. So many people thought Holloway was going to go.

in there and just rinse Volk. It was just so many people. It was crazy. And then Volk maybe had the best title defense I've ever seen in my life. It was fantastic. So this is up there. I would say it's top three or four. Islam's number one for me, the first one.

And there was a lot of hype around the second one too, even with the short notice nature of it. So, but he's, he's done a great job. I mean, he's done a great job promoting this fight, but now he's got to deliver. Now he's going to deliver. Could Ilya be the Beck? Thank you, Chase, for the super chat.

Could Ilya be the next big heel in MMA? The reaction he got at the press conferences, mannerisms, and confidence, etc. He has super shop potential. Absolutely. This guy has it all. The common man would look at a guy like Ilya and hate him. It's the Tom Brady thing. It's the Derek Jeter thing.

Ilya dresses like a star. walks like a star, he talks like a star, he's got the confidence of a star, he's already saying I'm the champion, I'm already 15 and 0, it's like this fight has already happened and he's already won. Like he's doing everything right to make you not want to like him, or at least respect him in his game, understand he's a really good fighter, but you would pay money to watch him lose. But in Spain, if he fights in Spain, holy smokes, he is going to look like a freaking hero. He's going to look like Brett Hart and in what he was in Canada, even as a heel in America.

Like, that's, he would be so over. But yeah, he's doing everything right. He's definitely doing everything right. So he could. If he wins, he is on a rocket ship. No doubt about it. Thank you, Kenny. I bet on both folk winning by decision

and Ilya winning by Kio sub. If either happens to come out ahead, which outcome do you think is more likely? I kind of think if I'llia win. Man, they're both pretty close. I'm actually like the opposite of you. I'm very exposed on Volcanovsky right now from a betting perspective for the watch party.

I'll keep this up there. I have a straight bet on Volk and then I have Volk by KOTKO. I think there's like a DQ thing in there too, like plus 250 or something. But I'll say, like I think if Ilya wins, he's going to knock him out. it will be a knockout if he wins.

But either is possible. I'll tell you what, if Tepori goes out there in like 49, 46 is Polkinovsky and just dominates him, like that would be incredibly impressive. A finish would be great. But man, if he goes out there and just dust him up over it,

if he, like, Sean Strickland's him, if he did what, like, Sean Strickland did to Israel out of Sanya, that's incredibly impressive. Thank you, Kenny, by the way. Not on X, appreciate the YouTube viz. Yeah, we're going to try to do this more during pay-per-view weeks. So the next time we'll do this is probably the Friday before $2.99. And I would say there will be a lot of excitement for that card.

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Go to Betterment.com to learn more. That's B-E-T-E-R-M-E-N-T-com. Investing involves risk, performance not. guaranteed. Ladies a bit, Mike, do you recall a time in recent memory where a singular stat in MMA has taken hold of the public psyche as much as the 35 plus title success rate? I've seen it everywhere. Yes and no.

I think you see it more with the Challenger. Like, that's what I've really heard it more. And I know it's come up a little bit more here because because Volk's getting older, but we didn't really hear this much chatter about it. during um during the yair fight we didn't really hear anything about it

we just we just heard the matchup was a tough one yeah yeah could have been a stylistic nightmare we didn't really have the age conversation but yeah this comes up a lot but mostly like with t j delishaw fought al jrimey stirling in abu dhabi that was like the first time like this thing really caught fire and then since then every single fighter that is 35 plus that has challenged for a belt at 170 and below,

this has become a thing. It's become a conversation piece. So, yeah, it's a staff that gets thrown around a lot. It is a question here, but I don't look at it as Volk being 35 plus. I think if Volk started MMA two years prior, it was, Volk was 34. It was coming in on a losing record

and getting knocked out by Islam Makachev, I still think we would have the same questions. Is Volk, quote unquote, falling off the cliff? Has father time caught up with him? I think these same questions would happen if Volk was 34. He's got a lot of fight mileage on him. And he's fought really good guys. When you fight Max Holloway three times,

you lose something. It takes something from you. When you fight Islam-Machchev, the consensus, there's that word, best pound-for-pound fighter on planet earth, twice, even in a close decision loss, then getting knocked out, that takes something from you. When you fight the Ortega's,

when you fight all these really good guys, the Jose Aldos of the world on the rise, it takes little pieces of you. So I don't think it, well, the eight, I don't look at the age statistic as much in this fight as I may have done with the T.J. Dilloshi alternate Sterling fight,

if that makes sense. With the win, Volk is in a different league, destroyed Holloway and he's great he's already in a different league he's in a different league already he's so damn good mike what should be next for Ian Gary if he gets past Jeff Neal he's been looking for Colby and Colby himself sounded open to it on submission radio is that a good fight for Ian at the stage I think 1,000% he's going to call for Colby if he wins and I think the UFC would be extremely interested in making that fight so yes I do think that fight happens if he wins.

And I think Colby would take it. I think he understands it's a... I think he understands that it's a tough fight, but he also probably understands that it's a big fight, and it would draw a lot of eyeballs and a lot of attention. And I think he also understands that

if I'm going to fight Ian Gary, I have to fight him now because he's only going to get better. It's only going to get better. I'm on the Jed train of Ortega sucks and Emmett is a better win. I don't know if that's true. But Ortega for a guy who's been around a lot and fought for a belt,

there's still so much mystery about him. They legit brought up the age stat on UFC on the Lions gone corporate. Yeah. It comes up a lot. I've seen it on Twitter. But again, to me, I don't look at it like that. Lazy bed, enjoy your dunks. Mike, I know you and Connor will talk about it on the watch party tomorrow.

But if Teporia loses to Volcanovsky and Saturday, do you view him is overrated? No. No, I don't. I view him as a guy. who fought like one of the three best fighters in the world and maybe one of the five best

or maybe one of the five most talented fighters we've ever seen compete inside the octagon. Like you can't, Volk is so good. He's the guy. He's the guy. At 1.45. So I don't think he's over.

That's one of the big questions about this fight. Like was this too much too soon? Should he have had one of, more fight. Should he have fought a Yair or an Ortega or somebody else that was ranked slightly above Emmett before getting this fight? Because this is a big leap. It's just a big leap. It's not exactly the same, but it's very similar to what the discussion we had last week about Joe Pfeiffer. Is this too much too soon? There's a huge difference between Abdul Razak al-Hasan and Jack Kermanston. I mean, a ginormous leap. So,

No, I don't view him as overrated if he loses. I view him as a guy probably needed one more fight before getting there. But still, incredible talent. This guy's going to, he's probably going to win the belt at some point, even if it's not tomorrow. He's going to be back. If he loses, he will be back. There's not a ton of 45ers right now that I would pick to beat Iliott's Poirer right now.

Mike, you've been lifting, yes. Well, the CrossFit thing. been on like, I don't know, I've upped the level a little bit, so I don't know, but thank you for noticing, I guess. Is Costa being completely counted out? He looks in the best shape of his life, and Whitaker is coming off of KLOS. I don't think he's being counted out. Let me see what the betting odds are right now. I know Whitaker is a pretty sizable favorite, and that's not that surprising to me. Whitaker's minus 238 right now. That's about right. That's about right. But a lot of people that I've talk to like in this space about which fight could be weird and create a like a headlining storyline

coming out of this event outside of the main event. A lot of people feel like it could be Paul Costa just doing weird things. The guy is still very good. I know he hasn't fought in a while. He's still very good. Very talented. He's rough and tough. But Robert Whitaker's like really good. You can make a strong case that Robert Whitaker is the third best middleweight. in the world right now. I mean, look at his losses. He lost Israel Adisani, and he lost the current champion. But he's beat the hell out of pretty much everybody else he's fought. So it's a big fight for Rob, big fight for Costa. We'll see what happens. I don't think he's being counted out, though. 100% alive dog, agree. Ilya versus Patty. No, they won't do that. Copylov is an absolute

hammer. Him and Pavlovich have had very similar UFC career arcs, bad debuts, long time off during come back, sarching everyone. I like this fight a lot. Would I have preferred the Ikram Alaskara fight? Yes, I would. But he's very good. This is another big leap for Roman Copp. This is a big leap for Roman Coppulov.

Like, he's got a nice wind streak. He's finishing dudes. He's icing him. He's looked real good. And remember, on that episode of On To the next one, after Coppilop lost his debut, remember who believed in him, who said, don't jump off the train just yet.

And I'll look at the guy. Four straight knockouts. He's looked pretty solid. But the competition is nowhere near the level of competition that Anthony Hernandez has fought. And I think Coppulov has a style that makes him very interesting in this fight. Because he's good at defending takedowns and he hits like a freaking truck. So it's a really good fight. It's a perfect main card opener.

Absolutely perfect. Is Saturday a must win for McKenzie Dern? Close. I don't... It's as close as you can get. Because I don't think... I said this on BTL yesterday, and I truly believe this.

I don't think she's ever out of the conversation. The UFC really likes her. She's easy on the eyes. She draws a reaction either way. But I think clearly... And there are people who are still hanging on here to the McKenzie Dern title dream. I think more people will jump off...

we'll jump off that and pivot in a different direction. But it's close. It's very, very close. The winner of this fight is in a tough spot anyways, because McKenzie ain't getting a title shot if she wins. Amanda Lamo certainly isn't getting a title shot if she wins. The winner of this fight's going to have to fight Tatiana Suarez next,

and that's probably not going to go well for either of these two ladies. If Volk wins and does make it to 300, who do you think he would fight? He's not going to turn him around for 300. He's not going to fight to 300. Because that's the question. Who would he fight? Can't do Islam again. Gaichi and Holloway are already fighting.

Like the only thing you could do with Volk is if something happens with Max and you need a substitute. Or, I mean, that's literally it. It's literally all you can do. Something happens with Max or, well, or something happens with Oliverer or Sirukian. and those are the only spots that fit. He wouldn't headline because you just perfectly put it. There's nobody for him to fight.

You can't do him in of Loy of it to headline 300. As much as I love that fight, that's not a 300 fight. More Volk. Who does Volk fight with the win? Who does he fight with a loss? A loss, whoever the champion is. And a win? I'm not sure because he might.

Because he might go to 55. I have to think about that if he wins. I don't think, maybe the UFC will pay him to fight a Vloyav, but don't really know if that's going to happen or not. Kenny back in. Thank you, Kenny. Thank you, Kenny.

What's the bigger obstacle to booking DDP versus Izzy for 300? DDP needing more time to recover, or is he not ready to return from his hiatus? It's probably, like, if I can only choose these two options, it's probably, the former. It's probably the DDP thing. But I think the correct answer is either way.

Mula. It's money. Pay them whatever they need. And let's make this freaking fight. Like, what are we doing here? What the hell are we doing here? I don't understand. Do you see the betting odds?

The betting odds are favoring Leon versus Ball. God. I'm starting to feel more and more like that's the fight. I feel like the longer this takes, the more likely it's going to be that fight. And if we don't have an announcement, if we don't have an announcement before the 298 broadcast ends, I think that's what Dana's going to announce at the press conference. And that is going to go over like a fart in church. or the new grounded fighter rules

that Andy Foster proposed in effect for UFC 298. No. They have not. I think they basically just agreed to look at it, but I don't think it's like officially official yet. Which undefeated fighter lose their O on Saturday? Gary Nakamura or Barlow.

I would say neither, but I'll go Barlow as like the best chance, but I still think he wins. just because he's newer. I think Gary wins and Nakamore is definitely going to win. Got Ilya money line back when he was plus 155. Hey, listen, if I'llie goes out there and wins, it's not going to surprise me.

But until I see it, until I see it, until I see somebody do with Tobolka, 145, I can't bet against him. What's next for Costa if he beats Whitaker on Saturday? Should the UFC rebook Shemif and him is the Saudi main event? Or do you see him fighting someone else like Cannoneer-slash-winner? slash winner of Alam Vittori. I think they'll try to make the Homsat fight.

I think that's a good one. But, I mean, he could get a title shot. If DDP, let's just say they do DDP Izzy and DDP wins, like they would definitely do Costa versus DDP. And that fight would be hilarious. That fight would be hilarious. Are we experiencing a resurgence in second coming of Asian MMA with guys like Taira, Nakamura, et cetera,

now in the UFC and making waves, could we have an Asian champion in the next few years? Yeah, it's possible. I mean, we have Zhang Wei Li right now. Can't forget that. But on top of that, I mean,

Jan Jahn could end up being a champion. She's getting a shot. I don't think she's going to win that fight. Song-y Dongs looked real good. If he beats Piotr Yan, he's in a really good spot. Can't wait for that fight. And Tyre is definitely going to fight for the belt. That guy is,

that guy's super good he's a problem dude is a problem I think neos GX01 speaks to us all happy that UFC 290 is almost here the past fight night cards have been a slog yes they have kind of music y'all thing might heck rocking with I am an old school hip hop

guy 90s early 2000s that's my wheelhouse all my playlists feature that almost exclusively Mike did you see cyborg and clersa shields yapping in each other aren't they friends and training partners is it a work to gain interest in a boxing slash MMA series between both ladies

probably I mean just the just the I don't know it got that got no buzz at all just none and it's kind of too bad but I'm just telling it like it is

the thing had no buzz I don't like is there's really, is there really interest in this boxing fight? I have no interest in watching them fight in MMA because Chris Cyborg would absolutely run her over. Do it like, do we have any interest in watching Ciborg box Clarissa Shields? I don't know. If you're replacing Best, most likely fight her to miss weight today. Golly. I mean, based on what I've seen on Twitter this warning, I would say I'd say Oban

Elliot because I don't know if that's a work or not, but Richard Shore tweeted out like oops, thought the fight was at Wight 85 so that we're trying to cut off the rest of the weight. I don't know if that's true or not, but it seems like him, but I think everybody will make it.

Ilya seems pretty respectful behind the cameras. Even the whole belt grab felt fake, playing the heel publicly. Does playing a character versus real beef make much of a difference in the eyes of the public. Sure. People hate when, people hate when I say this or anybody else says this, especially newer fans. They friggin't hate this. But it's so true. The growth of the UFC, more so than any other promotion because they've done it right, is rooted in pro wrestling. It's character driven to a certain

extent, the promotional materials, all of it is old school WWF. It's what it is. And it's always been that way for them. So having a character come in here and baby face and heal, all of that, they're doing it smart. This is what you do to drum up interest. It's WWF 101. And they do it very, very well. So do you see John Anick hosting press conferences from now on, or is Dana White the question about UFC 300. I mean, we've seen Anik do a lot more of these. So, and I've said this since day one.

Anick should be doing all of them. You should be doing every single one. And this, I already see, I already know there's some people like, oh, you only say that you hate Dana and you hate the UFC. It's, which is ridiculous. You can see it in John's eyes that he gives a shit about what is going on up there.

Dana looks completely uninterested in anything UFC related right now, completely uninterested. He's super interested in PowerSlapp, super interested in playing Blackjack with the Nelk boys, which is fine. Like, you know, do you.

It's fine. But even Dana at those press conferences, like doesn't even seem all that into it. It's all about gates and money and what was the question? Like, that's what it is. Anik is just like super into it.

So, and Anik knows how to host, he lets things he lets things go to the right amount of time like if there's a back and forth with certain fighters and it's going on a little too long like he knows when to step in

he knows when to let things breathe but he also knows when to stop it anix is so good in that role he should be doing all of them he should be doing all the only thing we should see Dana at in my opinion when it comes to the UFC there's two things one he should be

doing the face-offs with the fighters before the pay-per-views in the big fight night cards and the post-fight press conference. That's it. That's it. He doesn't need to do the pre-fight press conference. He doesn't need to do anything else.

It really doesn't. But he just doesn't seem all that interested in the UFC stuff anymore. And that's okay. He's trying to build a new thing. But you still need Dana around for sponsors and the business side and kind of keep everybody in line. Matt, what happens if Arm and Luzon,

to Charles, the UFC like him enough to give him the veneal treatment back to the top. It's a good question. The road will not be easy for him, just like it's not easy for really anybody who loses at that point at 155. So I also don't think Armand's going to lose to Charles.

So that's a different conversation. But, no, I think Armand's far more interesting than B'Neil Darius, no offense to B'Neal. He is a fun fighter, and I think he deserves better. He deserved to fight for the belt. but he's also made a ton of mistakes. Armin hasn't made a lot of mistakes on the microphone from what I've seen. When the moment counts, he's ready to go.

He ain't coming out here after getting a win and saying, I'll fight 10 more guys before I fight for the belt. No, Armin knows better. He's not going to do that. He called out Dustin Porre, called out Justin Gaichie, called out Charles Olivera. All realistic fights. All fights, he deserves.

to have, that's how you do it. That fight is super interesting. Why did Ilya look so uncomfortable with the press? I sure you're not to boost in the crowd with this insane level of confidence. I don't think he looked that uncomfortable. I didn't think he looked that uncomfortable. He is cutting weight too.

Like those press conferences come 12 hours, like 12, 14, 15 hours before you have to cut weight. Illy's a pretty big dude. So, that's probably a lot of it. So, uh,

came for the M. May coverage, stayed to ask CrossFit questions. What's your favorite and least favorite CrossFit movement? I don't know. Like, I like a lot of the lifting stuff. I think you know where I'm going with the least favorite movement, but anything with a burpee just absolutely sucks. Did a whole bunch of those today.

Pretty much the entire Wad workout today was my least favorite things. It was ground to overhead, so there's a lot of like, a lot of power snatches going on. and then burpees, like front-facing burpees over the barbell, all of those suck. Terrible. But I like a lot of stuff we're doing on like our strength cycle now, doing a lot of deadlifts,

doing a lot of squats, doing bench, stuff like that. Like, that's what I like. Right in my wheelhouse. Takiro, man, 91. Am I the only one that thinks Costa has the potential

to be similar fun fight, like the two Whitaker-Ramara fights? This is, I just, one of two things is going to happen. Either Robert Whitaker is just going to do what he did to Marvin Vittori, which I don't think's going to happen. Or two, this is going to be super fun.

I'm going to choose the latter. I think he's going to be a fun fight. I think Robert is going to win. But Costa is just, Costa looks ready to go, man. He looks ready. And it's not like the heart and the grit won't be there. It's just a matter of like Costa's skill set if his weirdness can affect Rob's just unbelievable technique.

And we'll see a lot of questions about how Volk's coming back after a bad knockout loss. A lot of questions, I have a lot of questions about Robert Whitaker coming off of a real bad loss of Drigus 2 plus C too. Like at least when you look at the two knockouts side by side, Islam wrapped a tree trunk around Volcanowski's head. The punch that DDP landed on Whitaker that knocked him down was not this like ferocious in Ganu Alistarovarim punch.

It was just like, it was a short little shot that dropped him and that was it. And I know Whitaker's been saying like he had a lot going on heading into that camp, but it's a big one for Bobby Knuckles. It's a big one.

Estiga. Anthony Hernandez deserved to rank to pony. He's been looking really impressive. Agree. He was supposed to fight Ikorm Alaskaroff. I don't think I'm... I don't have... I'm not ranked in the UFC rankings.

I remember. ranked, I have Ikeram ranked in my rankings. Like, I think right now, Ikema Alaskarraf is a top 10 middleweight. I think he beats a lot of guys already that are in the top 10. I would pick him to beat Jackermanson. I picked Joe Piver to be Jackramansen. Wasn't as confident as I would be picking Iqram Alaskariff to be Jackramson. Like, that's how good I feel, Ikram.

This was a, that was a great fight. Not saying that Roman's not a great fight, but Icrum couldn't make it. Coppulaf stepped in. Good opportunity for him. Mike, 12 months ago, Volk was one minute away from being double champ. Why are people so stupid?

It's the sport, man. Just think, just remember. Just revisionist history. Just remember the feeling people had after the loss to Islam heading into the Ayr fight. The amount of people that went on a heck of a morning, the amount of people that went all the,

on a bunch of shows, a bunch of people on our staff, coming out here. Saying that, man, Yai'er's about to pick off Volk. He's about to start falling off that cliff. And then Volk perfect gamed him. Just beat that ass. Someone's saying there's a headbutt.

I think Yatir mentioned that in the M.A. hour. I don't know. Sometimes shit happens, man. Like you're winging punches at each other. You're in a freaking cage. Sometimes that stuff happens. Didn't get stopped. I didn't even really notice it at the time.

But what else we got? What else you go? What else you got? line. You get super chat. Did you ever tell us the fantastic Paul Acosta story you promised tell us after UFC 294? I told you before UFC 294. And yeah, it was basically

like you read it on ESPN like a week after I told the story. But it was basically to tell you that I knew Paul Costa was out well before he was announced out. And I knew that they were looking for a new opponent for Hamzaa Chimayev well before all of that stuff happened.

And I knew that one of the first phone calls they made to fight Hamzat Shamaif was Sean Strickland. John Strickland had just won the belt. And they offered, they wanted Sean Strickland to come into Abu Dhabi and defend his title against Hamzat Shemayev. They asked about it. What do you think Sean Strickland said? Let's freaking go.

But luckily for Sean Strickland, Strickland, he has people around him who care about him and we're like, I'm not saying, and I'm not saying like, I would look at that fight and Hamzaa would run over Sean Strickland. Because what I learned more than anything watching Hamzaat fight Kamar Usman is that Hamzaa Chamaier versus Sean Strickland might be one of the most intriguing matchups you can make at 185. Because Sean is a friggin horse. Dude doesn't stop. And if you don't kill that, man, he's going to keep going.

So that fight is super interesting to me. Incredibly interesting to me. So I'm not saying it as that, but they were like, this is more from a business sense. Like, dude, you are the champion right now. People should be chasing you. People should be calling other people to fight you on short notice, not you fighting them on short notice.

Like, take a break. You just won the belt. Bide your time. Then make some big money. And they were right. But that was the story. That's all it was. But I was kind of like,

there were so many pieces that needed to be filled in that I had to wait before I could tell that story. But I did tell it. As soon as they announced the replacement fighters, I ended up telling them that story. Jesus Christ, there's a million questions. Support for this show comes from Chase. If you're a fan of women's sports,

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Mike, do you think Jeff Neal has a good chance to beat Gary, or do you think Gary is that good? Jeff Neal is very good. would never count him out of this fight. However, I think he and Gary is just that good. I think Ian Gary is just that good. I think he is that guy. Love him or hate him?

You don't have to like his personality. But that freaking dude, he's very good at fighting. He's very, very good. So, love it. When Dana did his, if you don't know video, the fluffy copulat fight was on the prelims, and Dern Lemosch was main card, hoping that was an oversight.

Oh, God, please tell me. Let me look at the event page. If they frigging switch that up, I will... I mean, I'm not going to be, like, livid, but... I won't be happy. Okay. According to UFC website, it is Hernandez Coppulop opening the main card. We also got, like, the full list sent to us yesterday.

And the full list has... Hernandez Coppulov on the main card. Like the official list. Hernandez Copulov is a great, like, fight to end the prelims with. But the problem is nobody, like, knows who either of them are. And it's, I'm not saying that in a bad way.

It's just the reality of the situation. Mandalayas has fought for a title. Mackenzie Dern is very popular. That's a fight you put on to draw eyeballs and draw rating. But I love love Hernandez Coppulov kicking off the paper for you. Like that fight is just going to be chaos. Absolutely chaos.

Even if it goes to full 15, it's going to be nuts. Forrest, who is the most to lose and the most to gain at UFC 298 tomorrow? I think, honestly, I think, I'm not going to say the main event. Because obviously, like, Iliate's boy is the correct answer for the most of gain, because he gains it all. And we talked about this on BTL yesterday about from a business sentence. is this a win-win, is the main event a win-win fight for the UFC? Because they like

Volk. Volk's been great with them. It doesn't say no to anything. Comes to run short notice if they need them to. And he's getting more popular each and every fight. But Topori becomes a frigging superstar if he wins. So I think Jed put it absolutely perfectly that the UFC is in a no...

Like they're not in a win-win, but they're in a we can't lose situation. But they can win huge if Toporia wins this fight. In regards to the question, I think you can make a case that the answer to both of these questions is Marab de Walsh Willey. If Marab wins, he... If Maraub wins, look, if Sean O'Malley dusts up Marlon at $2.99, there might be like another hurdle Marab has to overcome.

But if somehow Cheeto wins the belt and Marab wins, he's 1,000% getting a title shot. But if Marab loses, he may never get a title shot. We know how the UFC feels about him. And we know how they felt about him when Al Jermaine Sterling, his teammate, was the champion. If Marab loses, he is in deep shit. So, honestly, I think, I think it's,

I think the answer is Marab on both. Gertzhi Films. Can cost a redline the pace of the fight against Rob, per se, like DDP did, and find similar success? Sure. Yeah. If Costa, if this is a battle of whose technique is better, then Whitaker's going to win that fight every time.

This is like a, if this is a MMA fight by definition, Rob's going to win. If this is a Paulo Costa fight, that's his best chance. Things got to get weird. They got to get nasty. They got to get grimy. They got to get bloody. That's how Costa wins.

But if this is like, hey, let's see who's the better boxer. and let's see who the better MMA fighter is, then Rob's going to win that fight nine and ten times. But if Kosta makes it weird and ugly, he's got a shot to win. So I guess to your question, wouldn't hurt. Wouldn't hurt.

Free for all Friday with your favorite movie or movies. Jesus. These questions always are so tough. Last time I was asked this, we kind of turned it into like, if you're scrolling through the TV, what's the, like if you're the old,

days of cable before you had streaming, like if you're flipping through the channels, if you land on one movie, then you're going to stop and automatically watch. Shawshank is probably right at the top of that list. It's a guaranteed banger. But there's a bunch too. Like, all the boss of movies are all good. Departate's great. Town's great. Everything except for, uh, what's that piece of shit movie that Jimmy Fallon made? A fever pitch. Oh, that was god awful. I was, like, embarrassed to be a Red Sox fan after that awful movie came out. Is he drinking and golfing on Insta?

Hey, good for him. Who walks out of UFC 300 is the number one contender to the lightweight title? Man, that's so tough. It's so tough. It's hard to say. I'm going to say Armand Sarukin. I'm going to say Armand Sarukin.

Mostly it's the gimmick now because I'm the only one on MMA fighting who when we did our divisional championship predictions, I picked Armand Sarukian, cashing in the money in the bank briefcase. I've been holding on to that bad boy with Armand's face on it for a long time now. And this is the year I cashed in.

This is the year I cashed in. So I will say Armand Sarukin, mostly for the gimmick. And also, I think him and Charles are going to absolutely try to kill each other. And I think Armine gets the better of like a big exchange. wins the fight early. But it wouldn't shock me at all if Charles won that wild exchange. Like that fight is going to be a tornado of destruction. But Gachi and Max are going to probably put on a war.

And I don't know. It's interesting. The correct answer is who is the most available. Like when Islam is ready to, when Islam is ready to fight, it is whoever is available. I mean, that's it. Availability is the best friend. But if it's like, if we're looking at his,

we're not looking at his Islam to like Abu Dhabi in October, I'll say I'm in Surukin. But I could absolutely be wrong about that. Who should Mike Perry fight next? Interesting question. I'm going to not answer that right now. You'll see why. I don't know, but you'll see why I'm going to save that.

question for another time. Jared versus Costa if Costa wins. I don't think Jared's in a good spot right now, guys. I really don't. He's, I mean, just think about all these times, and I actually feel bad about this. Just think about all the times we talk about middleweight. Just think about what we're all talking about after UFC 297. Like who's next? Where does this guy go? Where does this guy go? And we mention all these names. And how many times do we like forget to mention Jared Cannonier's name? And it's unfortunate. It's like not totally fair, but that's just sort of the nature of the situation.

Canaaner's got to come back and fight somebody. I don't know who that's going to be. I love the fact that he called out Hamzaa Tchamai F, because I don't think he's getting a title shot. But I think he's, I don't know what they're going to do with him. I think he's going to end up like fighting Brennan Allen or something. Maybe they do,

maybe they do Usman? Like if Usman's staying at 185, like that's not a bad one. I know Brendan Allen's fighting Marvin Vittory, but I don't hate Homsop versus Cannoneer at all. I really don't.

Like, you can do Homsat versus Canineer in Saudi Arabia. I think that's fine. I think Homsat's the big draw anyways. And if Canada wins that fight, like, that's the win that kind of makes you undeniable, does it not?

Jonathan Martinez is the Dark Horse of 135. Yeah, ma'am. He's good. He's one of the guys I've given him a better nickname than what he has right now. I've been calling him this since after his second UFC fight. He's the silence behind the violence. He's just such a nice guy, but he's like so awkward in like the best way.

He's just like so shy. I've heard stories about him like being so scared to even like order food at restaurants that he has like his coach order his food for him because he's just that awkwardly He's definitely gotten a lot better. But John's good. I actually thought he was going to get the Umar fight. I actually thought he's going to get the Umar fight. I think that would have been a great fight for him.

I'm not saying, I mean, it's a tough one, no doubt about it. But for a guy that wants to take it to the next level and get over, make his road a little bit shorter. Yeah. Scott, I'm interested in seeing the interaction between Gaichi and Holloway this afternoon, but as a Gaichi fan, I'm already nervous about this fight. Max is so good. they're going to put each other over. It's going to be fun.

Does Ilya... Did Ilya not being fluid in English make the press conference more cringe on his side than if he was? Does a language barrier affect his ability to sell? No, I don't think so. Ilya is a very sharp guy. Again, I think a lot of it was he's cutting weight.

But yeah, I mean, I was in Jacksonville after he beat Josh Emmett. Dude got up to the press conference spoke incredible English. Like, he's come a long way. When do you think, Zeeb comes back from his injury. Great question. When did that...

When was that fight? The Gamera fight was in September. I'll say... I'll say end of the year. I have no insight to this, but... Just kind of going by... What his injury is... Like, the recovery is typically like.

Look at Calvin Cater. It's a while. New sub here. Thoughts of the Welsh Gangster fighting. this weekend. I think he gained a lot of fans going on the MMA hour. I learned more about Oban Elliott in that interview than I ever have. And I think he's got a lot of support. I think he's got a lot of support. Is he a spectacular fighter? No. Is he solid? Yeah. But I think people are going to like him in his personality more. So he's, he has, he has the ability to have a

like a like a bon feme type moment like remember when the bonfine brothers made their ufc debuts in brazil and they both got like really quick finishes and they were sort of like big talking points like kind of low key but they were like low key stars like low key MVP of the MVPs of the events i kind of feel like oh bon elli if he has a great performance can be one of those guys dustin said he wouldn't want to fight armin an interview recently armin is a weirder for saying he wants to fight a guy who trains the same gym with i get where Porias coming from, but I still, at the end of the day, like, you got to try to get to the belt, man. Even if you beat Dustin, like, go beat Dustin. Like, there have been a lot of ATT versus ATT fights. That's a huge ass gym with a million dudes and gals fighting at it. So, I don't hate

it. Free for all Friday question. Could you explain the different roles everyone does at I'm a fighting. Man. I really don't like know them all honestly. Because like we all do, we all wear a lot of hats. Like we all have like specific titles. So like my specific title is,

um, multimedia producer. So like I do a lot of production stuff on the podcasts. Um, you know, host a lot of the video stuff. Sometimes I have to edit video. But multimedia is like writing.

and all this stuff. So like, I basically, I'm the utility player. I'm the Tony Phillips for old school baseball fans. And then everyone just kind of has different rules. Like, Shaheen is, sheen's a deputy editor. So, like, technically, like, if we're going, like, chain of command, sheen is, like, my direct boss. And pretty damn good one to have, if we're being honest, because he does, I mean, he helps me a lot. I'm working on like a really big feature that we're going to try to drop next week. It's one of those like long form sort of under the radar stories that you don't typically hear about. But there's a lot to it.

And there's like, there's going to be like an audio documentary podcast attached to this as well that I've been producing. and Shaheen's been like super helpful with those because I'm not a great writer. I'll be the first one to tell you. But Shaheen is, um, is probably the best in the world. He's a top three.

When it comes to M. M.A. writing, like him and Chuck Mindenhall and like Ben Folks. Like, they are tremendous. Uh, curious about the watch party, Mike.

What should we expect on Saturday? Funky outfits. Cool guess. Awesome cold open. Uh, you always get the awesome cold open. Cool guess. I don't think we have.

Any guess? I think we are going to incorporate some Q&A stuff into the watch party. So stay tuned for that. I will tell you this. If just something that we're, again, we don't know what's going to happen. It's going to be very similar to 297 or it's just going to be him and us. We'll play the video game. We'll rip packs.

We'll do trivia. We'll have fun. If they do not announce the UFC 298 main event during the broadcast, we are going to going to stay on until Dana announces it. So we're going to have the watch party feed. That stream is going to continue on. We will have the feed of the press conference on our website as well. So you can sort of pick and choose.

And then once Dana announces the 298 main event, we will spend like another five to 10 minutes reacting to it. But I'm very excited. Has everyone forgotten about Cater? If he demolishes Aljo, can we finally see him get a title shot in 2024, 2025? I don't know. I would love to see it, but no, it's not going to happen. But this is a perfect, it's a perfect entry fight for Aljo because it's a tough one.

It's a tough one. Cater's very good. He's a good defensive wrestler. He's actually a pretty good offensive wrestler. Cater's a big dude. Like, he's a big featherweight. not a lot of times that al-germain sterling is fighting somebody as big as calvin cater and cater can friggin crack man so it's a great fight i love that fight a lot

is hamzat's first title challenge of middleweight or welterweight all right we'll go rapid fire we'll go another like seven or eight minutes yava do you think stylistically isy is a good matchup for ddp at the moment for three hundred mighty was talking about it on the m a r saying he needs to add more tools based on the style matchup. I don't like terribly disagree with that, but I would pick DDP to win that fight. But how many times have we had, have we broke down an Israel-A-Sanya fight where he fought somebody who's like a way better wrestler than him? And we're like, well, all you got to do is take Izzy down and you'll win. And then they can't take him down. So I think Izzy's competitive

in that fight, but I would pick, I would pick DDP. Strictlin versus Canada or two. Yeah. The first fight wasn't, that fight, that fight was not good. the fight was not good. Jared's getting too much flack for the Izzy dud two years, two years earlier. He's normally pretty entertaining. I could not disagree with you more. Could not disagree with you more.

He deserves all of the flack. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I understand that Izzy's the champion and, you know, he wants to be exciting and he promised all this stuff. But he also was preparing and thought that Jared Candidear was going to come in guns blazing and try to knock him out, which is what he told everybody.

But instead, he just handed Israel Adasanya a frigging title defense. Is he's like, oh, this is what we're doing? All right. Okay, cool. I'll take it. Give me the free win and the extra cash. Sweet.

So I actually, I defended Israel Adesanya on the post-fight show that night. What if Marabweens close-split decision and is injured, does Henry then not retire in your? get the next shot. No, I think if Henry loses, he's, I mean, he can always tease a comeback. You know that, you know he's going to be on Twitter saying I'm coming back. He's going to talk shit about all the middle weight or all the bannam weights. You know what's going to happen.

Thank you, Akilas. Any specific fighters you feel really good about winning this weekend. Help me with my picks. Look, if you're coming, let me just tell you something, Achilles. And I appreciate everything you've brought to this super chat stuff. If you're looking for me to give you games. handling advice, you're coming to the wrong place. Although I did pretty good for 297. But if we're talking like straight picks, I mean, I feel like Rinya's going to, I mean, I feel pretty confident Rinya wins,

but he's a minus 13 favorite. I feel like Miranda Maverick should probably win, but Andrew Lee's tough. And she needs to win this fight very, very badly. I like Barab to beat Henry Suhudo. I do think that fight is super competitive. but I do think Maraub will win. I think I like Ian Gary a lot. I think he's going to be Jeff Neal.

So I'll tell you what I have. And you can jump along or entail me or fade me altogether. And I don't blame you either way, because I'm not good at this. So here's what I got. I got Volk minus 125. I get Volk by KOTKODDQ plus 250. Whitaker minus three and a half points minus 125. Ian Gary minus three and a half points minus 125.

I also have a small sprinkle on Ian Gary by submission at plus 800 because I feel like he's going to try to do that in this fight. Not a lot. I mean, when I say it's sprinkle, it's a freaking sprinkle. Marab by decision at minus 135, Hernandez copuluff under two and a half and minus 170, and then I have a little passive parlay that I've cooked up. Main event over one and a half,

Co-main over one and a half, Marab Henry over one and a half. And then to cap it off. just the riskiest parley play of all. Dern Lemoche, over a half a round. Pays it plus 117. So there you have it. But don't trust me.

And I don't want any shit. Like if you guys are like, oh, I'm doing the mickech picks here. I don't want to hear you. I prefaced it. I've warned you already. Tail at your own risk. Four more minutes.

Has, thank you, eyes or plan. It says the regional feeder circuit run dry. What's your take on true talent? coming from lower leagues, seems like it doesn't happen much anymore. Is it dry? I don't know if it's dry, but it's just a different business now.

We have the contender series, which is bigger and bigger. It's just about filling spots at this point. We have a lot of managers that are just kind of accruing talent, and some of these managers have tremendous relationships with the UFC. and to be clear,

it's very helpful for those fighters who, it's like, it's my dream to get to the UFC and fight in that octagon. It's great. But there are a lot of, a lot of cases where fighters took short notice fights

or got on the contender series short notice or even got a contract after a win on the contender series who were not ready, just not ready to go. And they're still not ready. There's probably 150 fighters on the rock, who are not UFC ready.

And that should, and just like what we think UFC ready is. So I wish it was a thriving scene like it once was, but it is still pretty good. Like New England's still got some good promotions. Cage Titan, CES. There's others. Combat FC. Shout out to Joe Cav. And then you get like the LFAs and stuff like that.

The problem is, there, it's, it's, there are, like, there are fighters in LFA right now. Like, there's a, there's a guy named, um, let me pull up his name real quick. His name's Isaac Thompson, that I know. He's Australian fighter. Uh, he trains with Alpha Male right now. Kid is 21 years old. He's 21.

He's in LFA. This dude is a freaking problem. I'm telling you right now. I wrote a feature on him. before his October fight in LFA, this kid is a savage. He is incredibly talented, a little rough around the edges,

a little raw, but this dude is like, you go watch this guy fight, like you immediately see it. Since Armin Sarukian, this is like one of the, like, young fighters on the regional scene that I watched fight.

was like, holy shit. Like, this kid's going to be really good. And he's an LFA. Now, you put him with certain management companies, and he is probably in the UFC, like, two wins ago. But in reality, he's probably, like, he could probably go there and compete right now. Like, I think he's, I'm pretty sure he's a featherweight,

bought a lightweight as well. And he even said, like, he'd think, he'd get to Bannamway when I talk to him. And he would win fights at all those divisions right now. I think he would. But you could still get a lot more seasoning in the LFA's of the world. And I think that's super important. That is so important right now.

So I don't think it's completely dry to answer your question. Long story short. Thank you, Mokker. Did you see Bigfoot Silva unretired in fights 323? Don't get me friggin started with that. It's just sad at this point. Who is he fighting? Who is he fighting?

I saw it and I was like, why is this happening? And I know it was the name too. Who the hell was it? Let me look it up. He's fighting Juan Espino. Jeez. That was it. I was like, what?

What are we doing here? At least with Juan Espino, like, at least with Juan Espino, um, I don't think he'll get, like, badly beat up. I think he'll just get tapped real quick. so yeah

CFFC is great Fatima Klein should be in the UFC right now she is incredibly talented she's very very good CFFC's doing a great job shout out to them like they I'll be honest with you

I'm always honest with you guys for a while like probably like four or five years ago CFFC kind of annoyed me a little bit um hey thank you poacher I appreciate that because like every time a fighter on the CFFFFC roster,

like whoever fought there, like even if they like cornered a fighter. If they were on a UFC card, they'd be like, look at the guy that we brought, brought into the promotion. This is our guy fighting. And I was like,

why do you do that? And I talked to like certain members of the team, the matchmakers, Arias Garcia, had conversations with. He didn't love me for a little while because there's the situation going on with Sean Santella

when he was the flyway champion. and he vacated the belt and became a free agent. And I did this like interview with him and wrote it up. And he was kind of pissed off about that being like, oh, this is the time you cover our events. And I'm like, it's not really true. But long story short, they are, I love everything we're doing. Freaking love everything they're doing right now.

Lots of events. I love the grappling stuff they're doing. They, they are killing it. They are killing it right now. So shout out to them. They've come a long way. They've always had good talent. But they're doing really good.

Tremendous stuff. All right. Last thing. Oops. I saw yesterday Marcel reported. Vicente Lucca versus Joaquin Buckley is book March 30th. Thoughts on that fight too soon for Joaquin. I don't hate it.

I don't hate it. Look, Joaquin wanted a big fight. He's got a big fight. All right, last one. If Dana had that insane U.S. 300 main event, he would drop the main card announcement on UFC 298 broadcast as usual, but he's not doing that. He wants to explain to some PR at the Post-Way press conference.

If they announce, I'm telling, like I said this earlier and I'll say it again, I truly believe this. If we do not hear the UFC 300 main event, here's my hope is that they announce it today. They do the UFC 300, like press conference or whatever before the ceremonial way ins. I don't know if it's Q&A or a presser. I'm not really sure. That they announce it then. that would be awesome.

They do what they did for the John Jones Steepa announcement. The fight never happened, but I think it was like International Fight Week. It was like on their YouTube channel or whatever. They did Dana White's like, hey, big fight, going to Mattis Square Garden, this date,

here's the main event, John Jones versus Stepe. Like, that was cool. It was like, oh shit, this is happening. This is awesome. If we don't get that, I'm hoping we get it announced on the broadcast. Like, we get through Fluffy, Hernandez and Roman Coppulov and they beat the hell out of each other and it's a great fight.

Someone gets finished. We're on a high. We're ready to go. Right into Mrabin, Henry Sehudo. John Annick's like, we got this this thing. What a fight that's going to be coming up next. And they fade to black and all of a sudden, boom.

Here's the promo. Izzy and DDP in the middle of the octagon after DDP knocks out Whitaker. They have their back and forth. DDP wins the belt. Calls out Izzy. Izzy accepts on Instagram. Instagram makes the video. That's your promo.

You cut the freaking promo. Boom. Nailed it. People are going to go bananas. They will love it. If that does not happen, and we wait until the press conference, we are getting the umbers.

And it's going to be tough. Boy, is that going to be tough. I know he said it's, I know he says the post-fight press conference or whatever, but if you actually listen to the answer, it was just kind of like, roll the eyes at this point

like easy DDP's right there what are we doing what are we doing and it's just they they botched this so badly it's just it's so bad if they just announced that fight first and then build everything else

it's fine like it's okay even if they like New Yorkerick said this on BTL yesterday even if they when they announced the Justin Giacs HAL fight if they just announced Leon Ballal there

like people would have been like okay fine but we're still getting like this isn't great but we're still getting Holloway versus Gaching which is awesome. I think it would have been okay but just the way they've pushed this out this is going to be the greatest thing you've ever seen I'm going to knock your socks off

you guys aren't even ready for what I'm about to announce as this main event like all these promises that this is going to knock your freaking socks off this is going to blow your minds like never like they've never been blown before And then you give us Leon versus Bilal? Like that's, I mean, that is just a letdown.

You've overcomplicated this to no end. And it didn't need to be that. And I was the one defending them for a while. I was defending this being like, hey, relax a little bit. Like, it's going to be a really good card. Like, it's okay. We're going to be fine. Just patience.

They're going to build something up real good. And then it plateaued into this whole, Oh, you guys think you know what this main event is going to be, but when I announce it, you ain't ready. Well, you better deliver that. But again, I don't think at the end of the day they really care. I think they're still going to sell out that arena, no matter what the main event is.

I still think it's going to do a million pay-per-views, no matter what the main event is. So at the end of the day, it's still going to do well. It's still going to do bonkers. And Dana will be like, say, hey, told you. this card delivered. Oh, we'll see. And I've said this as well.

God, I feel bad for Belal and all of this. I really do. And even if they announce this fight, they're all going to shit on Belal. Every single person is going to be like, oh, what the fuck? It's all Belal's fault. But that's just what they've made Belal at this point.

Belal is the walk of shame of the UFC Walterweight Division right now. and it's unfortunate that he's been put in this position. So, all right, we're done. Thank you very much. Appreciate you. Hey, the 20 minutes from right now, as you see me and hear me,

official weigh-ins kicking off from Anaheim, California, IA, E. Casey Liden, the baddest dash in MMA, will be there bringing you the coverage. I believe my best friend will be on the broadcast as well. And that's going to happen. And as soon as that is over, we are going to go live still on this here channel for the preview show, which will be, I think the plan is 2 p.m. Eastern right now.

So, way-ins are done. We're getting right into the preview show. It's going to be a very busy day. So stick with us here at M.Afighting.com. Shout out to all of you asked questions. Super shout out to all the super chatters. We'll be back on this program. Tuesday.

We'll be on Twitter as usual. Appreciate you very much. Enjoy the rest of your Friday. Have a heck of a morning, everybody. And let's get ready. for UFC 298, a card that deserves all the love

because the damn good one. Enjoy the rest of your day, everybody. I'm Neilie Patel, editor-in-chief The Verge, and Decoder is my show about big ideas and other problems. We've talked a lot about generative AI on the show lately, which is a very big idea that is causing quite a few problems.

And one thing we keep hearing about over and over again is that generative AI is causing a lot of problems in schools. There are a lot of people out there, including many of the listeners of the show who email us, who are worried about the obvious problem, students using chat GPT to cheat on assignments. But when our team went and poked at the story, they found that the issues in education with AI go a lot deeper, to the very philosophy of education itself. If this technology becomes more ubiquitous, we'll have courses created by AI, graded by AI,

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