MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reliving Chaotic Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor Title Fight 4 Years Later

Episode Date: October 6, 2022

Four years ago today, Khabib Nurmagomedov submitted Conor McGregor to retain the UFC lightweight title in the highly anticipated main event of UFC 229, and then all hell broke loose. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck takes listener questions about the Nurmagomedov vs. McGregor bout from October 2018, the build to the matchup, and the aftermath — most notably, Nurmagomedov jumping out of the octagon into the crowd. Additionally, listener topics include the UFC's lightweight division, the chances Michael Chandler gets a title shot with a win over Dustin Poirier at UFC 281, Sodiq Yusuff's next opponent, UFC Vegas 62 and the main event stakes between Alexa Grasso and Viviane Araujo, Francis Ngannou, 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 Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-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.

It's Thursday, October 6, 2022, and it is indeed a heck of a morning, live on the MA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Show will be heard in its entirety shortly thereafter on the M.A. Fighting Podcast. Podcasting Network. I am Mike Heck. Hope everyone's having a great week. We are heading into a weekend without the UFC, without Bellator, without major mixed martial arts going on. Of course, we get glory, we got some boxing. But I think we need this little bit of a breather because things are about to get real interesting in the world of MMA. most notably for the UFC. We got UFC Vegas

62 next Saturday. It's a pretty good card. Main event is Alexa Grasso versus Viviani Araujo. And then that's the go home show for the events that everybody is talking about, that everyone is looking forward to. UFC

280 in Abu Dhabi that card is redonculus. It is loaded. On paper, it's probably the best card of the year. and the main event is super, super interesting for the vacant lightweight title between Charles Olivera and Islam Makachev. And it's just onwards and upwards. The next bunch of UFC events are really interesting, some good made events.

We head from there into the Calvin Cater Arnold Allen card. Then it's Mavzar of Loya versus Bryce Mitchell, that card. And then it's on to UFC 281. at MSG, Madison Square Garden, and on and on we go to UFC 282 on December 10th, and the UFC will close up shop on December 17th. And I don't really have any kind of a layout of how this particular show is going to go

because I think we're just going to treat this like we treat the Friday show. I mean, if we're being honest, every day is kind of a free-for-all here. There's no real agenda. We just go and let you talk about whatever you want to talk about. And that's what we're going to do here because we did a show yesterday and we already

reacted to the Kevin Holland News. We talked about the Justin Gainche stuff. I know the undercard for the Jake Paul Anderson Silva fight had their little, they had their virtual media day yesterday. Dr. Mike was dropping lines who's fighting Nate Diaz, protégé, Chris Avila. So we can talk about whatever the hell you want to talk about. BTL will be fun today.

She wanted to talk about that. 1 p.m. Easter. little BTL action. We're going to just do a roundtable talking about where myself, Damon Martin, A.K. Lee, how we're looking at the

year-end awards for the sport of expartial arts, which we'll obviously have for M.A.fighting.com. Knockout, submission, fight of the year, rookie of the year, male and female fighters of the year, all that fun stuff. So that's what we're going to talk about today.

on BTL at 1 p.m. Eastern. Who's in the lead of those categories, who's in the mix for those categories, what can change over the next couple of months. I feel like we're going to be an agreement on some stuff and some stuff we might get in a little tiffy about. So I'm excited for all of those things to talk about all of that stuff.

And still, I'm not telling you what's happening with us at UFC 280 just yet, but it is happening and it's going to kick ass. So with that being said, let's start with Tristan Gordette. He was first in line. Tristan, hello.

How are you doing, Mike? I just want to ask this question, a couple questions here. Did you get to hear the Bonneckel yesterday or no? I haven't had the time, honestly. Okay, that's fine. That's fine. Yeah, I have it at the time. Okay.

Now, I just, look, I confirmed a couple of sources here that it's announced well, it's been reported that Sayy Koukongromato will be facing Saeed, Nehameda, November 17th, UFC, UFSA Vegas 66. That,

if that fight is true, that is a, that is a bang of a fight. Mike, I like both fighters on that card. That's a pick-em-fought. That's going to be a lot of pressure on Saeed to win that fight.

Hashtag Said on Saeed on Saeed. A lot of pressure on Saeed, Nameda, to win that fight there. is kind of close to get into the top, to possibly face the top 15 opponent. And kudos to, kudos to Saikou, because it looked like he confirmed there on his Twitter,

but he's like, I'm not cherry picking any fights. I'm going all the way to the top. I'm going to take the toughest fights. So, listen, that fight is going to be a banger. I, man, that's going to be, that's, I am surprised that

Saeed took that fight. It's a dangerous fight. He has to win that fight. If he doesn't win that fight, he's not going to get, he's not going to get close to the top 13 at all. He's going to take a couple of notches back. As for Saikou, what a way to start your UFC career. You face Trevin Jones, I think, in your debut, and then you go and fight Ronnie Morris, gets both of those wins. And then now you face Saeed, you win that fight.

I mean, I guess the UFC is very high on him. Saeqq could, I mean, if he gets that win against Saeed, I mean, he gets that win against Saeed, I mean, this guy could be facing, I guess, the winner of what Victor Henry. I forgot who he's facing, maybe face him or someone close to that top team or probably get a top 15 opponents, such as like maybe a Omar and Emmer McA Medov. Who knows? But, I mean, wow, unbelievable. So I just want your thoughts on that.

I know MMA fight hasn't confirmed yet. So just let me know if it's ongoing, if that fight is a go. also two here. I want to talk a little bit about the Alexa Grasso versus Viviana Rajel here. Lexa Grasso has got to be looked at a little bit more and talked about more. Now, I know she's on a three-fight win street. I think her

debut against Jojo Wood, Andrew Wood, or Jojo Wood now, was her possibly, I think, her debut, if I'm not mistaken. If I'm looking after her in the anime-fighting Global Rankings here, she's ranked

number nine So I think she's got to get more love here. I mean, she has been absolutely, that was probably her best performance that happened in March. So, you know, what's your thoughts on Lexa Grasso here? Big spot here. She's got to be talked about more. I think if she gets a win over here, beats Viviana and Roger. You know, it's going to be big things are going to be happening for her at that point.

So just your thoughts on those two fights there and what you think. And have a heck good morning, Mike. Thanks. Thanks, man. Yeah, let me pull up our rankings real quick. Where do we have her? Do we have her at 9? I thought she'd be higher than that.

I have Grasso. Yeah, I actually have her at 9. Yeah, I have her at 9. I got Valentina, Santos, Jessica Andraj, Chakian, Lauren Murphy, Liz Carmouche, Giuliana Velasquez, Fioro, and Grasso. I think nine's fair. I think nine's fair, and I have Arrucho at 10.

So I think that's a fair spot. I think Fioro has honestly beat better competition. I think Lauren Murphy, I mean, she just fought for the belt, and then she pieced up Misha Tate. Chukagian just continues to win, and I think Jessica Androge is top three pound-for-pound women fighters in the world. So then Carmuch is the Bellator champion. Velasquez is winning that fight.

the entire time until the finish, which was kind of controversial when all people said, I think nine's a decent spot. But at the end of the day, the rankings don't really matter all that much because we have Fioro at eight, Grasso Arrugio right behind. And between the three of them, this is probably like a little mini tournament to determine who's going to fight Valentina next. Now, who knows? If Chukagian beats a beats man in Fioro, maybe. Maybe they throw her back in there, but I just don't know if the world is ready to see that again, especially with how dominant Valentina was the first time they fought. But Grasso and Arujo could definitely set the tone.

They can get a nice little jumpstart. And if Manit beats Chukagian, she's getting the title shot. And if Chukagin wins, then I wouldn't be stunned if the Grasso Arroozjo winner gets a title shot. But that again, the UFC needs main events. need big fights coming up, maybe Brazil, UFC 283, they do the Amanda Nunes, Valentina Shvchenko, champion versus champion fight. So a lot on the line there. I like the fight. I mean, there's stakes, and I like when main events have stakes, and there are stakes here. And I like the, if that is the case with the Sayyid Nurmaga Madov, Sayyukh Khurv, Haqorvana fight. I love that

fight. It's a great fight. If Sayyadikub can confirmed it on Twitter, then I would say it's probably a go. But it's a little early to be reaching out asking the managers, especially the ones who I would speak to about this fight. So hopefully later today, we will be able to confirm that fight as a go. But I like the matchup. I like it a lot. Let's go to my buddy, Toke, Mr. Dudu Pick himself.

Yes, I can. I'm trying not to get show to that today. was fine yesterday. We'll keep it clean. We'll keep it non-controversial. So what I'm thinking about, I saw Shy in Blissmus. She confirmed on her Instagram that she's fighting Corey McKenna. And then is it safe to assume that the, I don't know how many quotation marks I should use here, the issues that kept her from fighting all through the summer that they're gone, And what do you think about the matchup? And because it's two, it's two good prospects in the division,

but it seems like it's, maybe that's just me and being bad at matchmaking, but this seems a bit early to put them together, for my liking anyway. So I wonder, I just wonder what you think about that. And, yeah, let's have a happy day. Let's not shout at each other today, yeah? Yes, thank you.

I thought you're going to come on and be like, oh, Patty Pimblitz should fight Joachim Silva next or something like that because I'm just joking around. Yes, I got a little heated yesterday, but I apologize, Tocke. Yes, that fight is confirmed. I don't know, honestly. I don't know if the issues are clear. It seems like they are, but we thought they were kind of clear before, because she was supposed to fight.

She was supposed to fight like last week, wasn't she? who is she supposed to fight hold on let me pull this up real quick I am who is she supposed to fight then the fight didn't end up happening anyway oh she's supposed to fight Tabitha Ricci she's supposed to fight Tabitha Ritchie

and then Shyan had to withdraw I guess for similar reasons but it seems like they're okay it seems like things are fine but again I honestly don't know I confirmed that the fight is happening on December 17th, as you probably know, and I still take a little bit of crap for this whole thing.

Cheyenne and I are not buds, apparently. I have no issue towards her whatsoever, but she apparently has an issue with me because of an interview we did earlier this year. And it was just one of the... And I talked about it before. I don't think I've ever talked about it here. But basically, I mean, you can go to M.A.

fighting.com and see it. We did an interview. It was, I think it was after, it was like a few weeks after she won in December. And I had reached out and I wanted to do interviews with her and she was really busy. She was traveling and we couldn't get it done. And then one day I reached out to her. I'm like, hey, you want to do it again? Do you want to do it this day? And she said, yep, she goes, I'm traveling right now. I'm on vacation. So let's do it. But I said, okay. So she tells me she's on vacation, she's traveling the world. And then we do the interview.

And the first question I ask her when someone tells me they're on vacation and traveling the world, where are you? Because that's like the first question I would ask anybody if they said, oh, I'm on vacation right now. My first question would be, where are you? And then she said, what she said, she didn't want to tell anybody where she was. And she was and I remember that was like one of those weird days for me because you know, I did the interview and I wrote up everything she said and it was like really confusing

and I didn't know how to how to handle it because I will admit I am not a great writer. I am not a tremendous headline generator. I, that's not my forte. That's not my forte. So the headline comes up and I think we all know what's happening between her and her, I don't of soon to be or about to be ex-husband, J.P. Bays. And it was this whole thing that people thought the headline was clickbaity, which by definition it actually wasn't. And it turned out to be this big thing. And JP responded to it on Twitter. And it wasn't

good. And so, of course, we had to get J.P. side of it. We got J.P. side of it. And it was just a friggin nightmare. It was just a friggin nightmare. And It was, it was ridiculous. So she's, I don't think she's too overly thrilled with me. I haven't tried to like reach out to her since. But, um, I do know that the fight is happening. I confirmed her side from people with knowledge of the situation. The people at her camp, people that she's trained with have no issues with me.

Uh, I don't know how she feels about me. I don't know if her and I are going to be doing any interviews anytime soon. But, uh, there was what I did, we got next. that podcast, I gave an explanation about it, like a couple days after the fact, because it was just a nightmare. And I just think it was portrayed in a way that it probably shouldn't have. I just think she's very young. And I just think the way it came out just didn't, I don't know, it's just the way that we had to transcribe it. I'm like, how do we even write this up?

How do we even headbine this? and we just went by definition and so forth and so on. But she talked about the issues that she was having, dealing with the divorce and stuff, and wasn't sure when she was going to be able to fight, and JP was dealing with a lot of the same stuff when I talked to him. So it seems like things might be clear now. I think a lot of time has passed,

and hopefully we get to see her back in there. I think Cheyenne's a great fighter. I like her as a person, and she's got a lot of potential. there's no doubt about it and I actually think this is kind of a mismatch I think she's going to destroy Corey McKenna I think Corey's a good young fighter too

but I just think Cheyenne is just better than her almost everywhere here I think she's got she's fought tougher competition she's more dynamic she's a really good striker but yeah I mean I'm picking Cheyenne to win that fight

I'm definitely picking Cheyenne to win that fight. But yeah, it should be an interesting matchup, and hopefully all the things are cleared up, and we can see her compete. That would be, she's an exciting fighter. I want to see her fight. 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!

Feel the fun J-O-2. Boarding will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling

or that if someone close, you call 1-8665-3-1-2-60 or visit comexonterio.ca. With Amex platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex.

Conditions apply. Let's go to Mikey Baths. even heard from him in a minute. Mikey, hello. Every morning to you guys, you missed me? Yes. I have no idea. I missed the other day, but you're talking about ranting and raving. I'm like, wait, aren't you like a Boston sports fan? Isn't your entire existence about being miserable? I'm just kidding. I'm a stubborn. I'm a stubborn S-O-B. I mean, listen, I mean, I'm a cool, I'm a cool, complex West Coast guy, but trust me, I feel you

on there. I just like kneeling Boston guys as a Laker fan. You know what I mean? So, But yeah, just to give, just going to give a quick rundown of stuff. Got to give a shout out to the new Adamweight champion of the world, Jillian DeCorsi. I don't know if her, I think her sub should be up for submission to the year. Not that it'll win because I know there will probably be some other cool shit that'll happen later this year. But I think that was the way she, listen, to submit Del Boni the way she did in the manner she did is just monstrous. I mean, the UFC needs to freaking add an Adon, Adelaide division. It's getting ridiculous.

It's almost insulting. Actually, it is insulting at this point. After we've seen that division, I know won championships, anime division's technically like straw away, but you get the damn point. And honestly, as a feel-good moment, that's a pretty damn good field goal,

MMA Twitter feel-good moment. You know what I mean? Like, I don't want to go too far, but that was almost as, that was probably the closest thing I would have felt to if Roxanne Motherfary won the UFC title all those years ago that we all hoped and prayed for, but unfortunately,

things didn't happen. Love the maker. Isn't it kind of weird the UFC is doing like this weird like two buy weeks but with a card sandwiched in between? I mean, I understand certain schedules are up, but I thought that was kind of weird. So it's nice to have a little respite before the, they do the strong run this weekend. And as I've been ranting about slowly, not to dump on UFC 280 because it's an absolutely fantastic card, it's going to bother me that two of those fights shouldn't be on there,

simply because if the UFC is trying to promote people as stars, to put Al Jermaine Sterling and Manon's Fear on the most random location ever, is just frustrating to me. Al Jermaine Sterling and T.J. J.J. Joshua should be moved down a month to the MSG card. For the love of God, how many times, I believe there's only two American champions, Not that I really give a shit, but apparently, you know, the tribalism thing, right? Like America versus the world stuff. There's only two American champions, Carla and Al Jermaine, and both of them relatively fight it from big markets.

How in the world do you not have Al Jermaine Sterling? A black Jamaican man from freaking Long Island, not fight on Madison Square Garden. It's promotional math practice. And Manon Fero, if I'm not mistaken, I understand it's because they rescheduled the fight with Chu Kagan and all that other stuff. But they should have left her on the Paris car. You know, just drum up some top 15 fighter to fight her

and then rebook her in a contender fight later. The whole point is you want people who've never seen her fight to make her look like a star. You go to Paris for the first time and a homegrown female fighter from Paris and you don't put her on the card, it just doesn't make sense to me, man. And I can usually show.

show for the, and I show for the UFC a lot, and I understand a lot of their decisions. But like, sometimes you have to call it what it is. You know what I mean? Like even, perfect example, Camaroo and Leon, to this day, still kind of bugs me that they were in Utah. You know, you could have put that bite in London, but you put it in Utah. You could have put that fight in Florida because Camaro at least trains there. But again, that's, you know, not going to cry over the movie. That was cool. But I'm just saying you want to maximize some of these moments for these fighters, you know what I mean? And it's just, I feel like sometimes the UFC is losing,

they don't have the near side that they need to have for some of these bookings. You know what I'm saying? That's all. Ultimately, you know, great fights are great fights. No matter where they happen, I'm just saying I would like to see. Because don't be sitting there to talk about like, whoa, the UFC lacks stars and they don't have this, they don't have that. And then they position fighters who could become stars in like the weirdest fight cards.

You know what I'm saying? Anyways, that'll be all this morning. Much love to y'all. be kind until next time thanks mike yeah julia of course she's she was nasty she is a beloved figure in the mma twitter space so good on her um you know she's essentially like come out of nowhere uh to have a nice run and i mean i've been talking about trying to get an add-of-weight division in the ufc for a long time and it's just one of those things where it makes so much sense but it's just i just don't think it's

going to happen. I think I think Belator should absolutely do an atom weight division. They don't even have a freaking straw weight division. They don't even have a freaking Bannamweight division. They have a flyweight and a freaking featherweight division. It's just so bizarre. They should just jump in and be like, hey, we'll do this. Be very smart on their part.

The title fights, like, look, we have to understand the relationship that the UFC has with Abu Dhabi. and they are they have to put two title fights on for these cards that's the deal they have in place they have to with this new deal the new stadium everything the amount of money that they're paying the UFC has to present them with is the one of the is the best cards as they could possibly put together and they just didn't have a ton of options they had olivera versus mokachev we needed a second title fight didn't seem like October was going to be an option for carlos barza she wanted

to wait a few weeks. November it is. So, I mean, what else is available? They had to just put Al Jermaine and T.J. out of this card. And this would have been much better if it was Al Jabine versus Jose Aldo.

Instead of Jose Aldo fighting Marab and now he's retired. And we're not going to see him fight for the belt. But it's fine. I mean, I get that it would be cooler to see him fight at MSG, but it's just the way that it is. It's just the way that it is.

Aljo's on the better card. So I actually think it's actually in a weird way. He doesn't get to fight at home. But I actually think it's, I think it's better for Aljo. I think it's better. I like the fact that it's early day MMA. People are going to be real excited to watch it. I think it's a great fight with T.J.

I'm very intrigued because we haven't seen T.J. in a while. We saw him in the Sanhagen fight. And a lot of people thought Corey won that fight. But I was talking to Eric Nixick about this, about that fight. fight in particular and he essentially got me to watch it again. And I wouldn't watch it again. I'm like, huh, this fight's actually closer than I thought it was. And to see TJ kind of overcome adversity, it was pretty impressive going back and

watching it a second time. But that's just why it's there. It's not like a, it's just, oh, we need to put a title fight here. What do we have? Okay, we have this one. And this is just how it works out. So. And then same thing with Fioro.

That was a whole nightmare too, because it was supposed to be Manon versus Chukagian for Paris. And then it was Manon and Juskan Drogge for Paris. And then Juskan's like, yeah, I'll take the fight, but I'm not fighting in September. We can do it in October. Okay, here we are.

And at this point, you can't put Manin in there with just like a random fighter. Especially now with, we got this main event with Alexa Grasso and Viviani Arruzo, there's a lot of stakes there. You got to put her in a big fight. You got to put her in a big fight. And this is the one. And again, it's not fighting at home, but there's going to be more eyeballs upon her for this one against Caitlin Chigigan. So, I mean, I get where you're coming from, but I'm not torn up about it.

I get where they're coming from. This is just the deal the UFC has in place with. Abu Dhabi and this is just another big fight on a really stacked card. Let's go to Octagon Blog. I'm great. How are you? If she wins this fight against Kathleen Cicodian, I think the best will be, I think that you see the strategy to bring her up at the next Paris event next year.

Maybe if the fight with Valentina S. F. Schaigel, if Valentina Assefchenko who fight with Amanda not going on. It depends on the negotiations, but I think that's the U.S.C. the strategy because France is an enormous market is similar to Britain

if it comes to population. Only it's a very single big market. Americans should understand that. Thank you and good luck today. Thanks, man. Hey, listen, I agree. If they want to get Fioro's title shot in Paris,

I'm down for that. But again, we got to see what happens. We got to see what happens, how they book this thing, if they do Valentina versus Amanda. And if they do Valentina versus Amanda, how's that all going to shake out? When will they go back to Paris? If they do Valentina fighting Amanda in January

and then they go back to Paris in March or April, or even sooner than that, you can do an interim title fight. I'm fine with that. I'm cool with that too. So, yeah, I think her next fight should be in Paris, no matter what. It all just depends on when they're going there and who's available and whether she wins or loses October 22nd. Paris is a place they're going to go back to probably every year now.

And to have her on the card certainly isn't going to hurt. Let's get Corey Anguish in here. Corey, hello. How's it going, Mike? You know, you're talking about the Paris fighters and stuff. It made me think of Francis again. And I know it hasn't really been visited very much lately, but I can't help but reflect back on the Francis issue. And I kind of think he kind of got played into the whole situation.

You know, Tyson really propped him up. And I think Tyson kind of, you know, punked him a little bit. He got a little notoriety off of him, put his arm around him in the cage, and then kind of swept him to the side. Now he's got a, you know, knee reconstruction. And now he's going to have to renegotiate with people that he kind of, you know, soured previously. So, man, I can't help start thinking about that we maybe. have a as fans and people have pushed francis into a kind of a negative situation here yeah maybe but i actually think in a way especially at that point in time i i think

tyson helped francis a lot there bringing him in the in the ring and stuff like that now tyson fury is also Tyson fury and he says he's retired one day and then he's trying to fight anthony joshua the next day and he's putting deadlines on signing contracts and all these different things, even though we know that it was almost impossible for those deadlines to be met. Tyson's playing everybody if we're being honest. So I still think that fights, I still think that fights a possibility. I certainly think it's in play. It's just going to be like an exhibition style fight of some kind. And it could still happen. But Francis, I feel like Francis is going to resign with the UFC. I feel like cooler heads are going to prevail in all this. And

Even if he doesn't, everyone's going to want Francis. He's going to get big money with any promotion he goes to, whether it's Bellator or PFL or if one takes a shot at him. There's, he's going to be fine. He's going to make money. He's going to be a star. But I just feel like there's so much money on the table, potentially for Francis versus John Jones.

You got to make that happen. You got to find a way to make that fight happen. And I think Francis is, I think Francis will eventually resign I don't know if there'll be a contingency in place where he gets to fight Tyson Fury. I'm sure the UFC at some point should be like, yeah, whatever. If it happens, cool, we'll let you do it

as long as we're a part of it. But we'll see if Francis ends up doing. This is a massive story. And then as MMA typically does, the news cycle just continues to churn out different stories and different big things. And, you know, Hamzaa Shamaa becomes a massive story. multiple times throughout the year and it's just

it's just tough to like keep track of everything especially at the France fight happening at the beginning of the year did that interview with Ariel Hawani and that was bonkers just hearing some of the things that he was accusing the UFC of doing and it was just nuts so we'll see and the Francis thing is holding up a lot of this stuff in my opinion in terms of what's going to headline UFC 282 what's going to headline UFC 283,

when's he going to come back and fight, if he comes back and fights, what's John Jones going to do, what C-Pay going to do. Francis started the year as the biggest story in MMA, and I feel like over the next couple of months, it's going to return to him being slowly but surely, again, the biggest story in MMA,

because no one knows what the hell he's going to do. And it's very interesting. Let's go to Absualia. Hello, Absuelia. How are you? You're going. I'm good. Yeah, so I have two things I want to ask.

The first one, just in regards to UFC saying they want to go to certain countries or locations around the world, you know, in the next coming years, there's a few countries I would really like to see UFC visit, you know, countries such as like Saudi Arabia, Paraguay, Uruguay, No Sheikh Republic, Poland, Malaysia, Qatar, South Korea, I think it would be a really good way for them to expand the fan bases more and kind of shows that they're hitting different location targets

and building the brand up on the international level because we've seen the UFC now they just hit France recently. A few years ago, they went to Denmark. You know, they've been going to Australia for like the last 15 years. So it's just really interesting to see, you know, the diversity and how huge this brand is going

and it's reaching that like, NBA, football level, tennis level of popularity and global success. And my second question is, when do you realistically see Francis and Ghana returning to the UFC? That's all I have. Thanks, bro. Thanks, man. So if Francis resigns, I think by March, he will fight John Jones. March, April, somewhere in that neck of the woods.

There's no way, I know. earlier in the year on his YouTube channel, he's saying, I'm going to try to come back by the end of the year. There's just no way. There's just no way that's going to happen. So I have talked to his coaches about it. They feel like December is impossible. But February, March, April makes sense.

They think it's possible for him to come back early 2023. So, yeah, I would expect that if Francis does resign, he's fighting John Jones right out the gate. They're not going to do Jones versus Stipe. they'll just go right to John because that's what you should do at this point. Why risk John fighting Stepe? What if he loses?

Then all the luster is gone. And, you know, what if John wins, but they beat the shit out of each other for five rounds? And John can't fight till the end of the year. And then you get Francis on ice still. It's, you don't, it's, I would say the UFC is looking to just go right to Francis and John if it's possible. But again, we got to get Francis re-signed.

Yeah, I mean, and I think the UFC will visit a lot of those places that you mentioned. I know they've been to a couple already. They've been to Poland. They've been to the Czech Republic. But obviously, the pandemic changed a lot of things. They haven't been able to get back. And I expect some of those places that they've visited before or haven't visited, they're going to start taking a look at these places.

I think they're going to travel a lot more. I think they're going to hit some benchmarks they haven't hit. yet. They're killing it right now. They can go anywhere. They can go anywhere. They can build relationships with these governments

and get paid to come to these places. So it's kind of like WrestleMania. WrestleMania like bids for the city's like bid for the WWF or WWE to go to their certain locations. And the UFC has deals in place with some of them already. So yeah, I could see them

definitely hitting a lot of things. Africa has been talked about a lot. I think that's probably going to be like the first thing they think about. I think Canada, I think they're definitely going to want to get back to Canada first and foremost. And then they'll start sort of looking at these other places. Now they're definitely going to go to London once, I mean, probably twice a year now. They're definitely going to go to France once a year now. And they'll just do an Abu Dhabi once a year.

It's just a matter of how they can fit all these different international spots in throughout the year. and still tap into the market that helped make them where they are now, which is the United States. When are they coming to Boston? When are they going back to some of these other areas? There are other places that had cards scheduled right around the pandemic started and those cards got canceled. You know, when are they going to go back to those places?

What are they going to go back to Portland, Oregon? When are they going to go back to Seattle? Where are they going to go back to some of these other places that they had things lined up for that these cards couldn't get done. But they're going to hit as many markets as they can over the next few years, I would say. Let's go to Don. What's going on on? Mike, a heck of a morning, Tuesday, all that stuff. I just, I went to C.A.W's three-year anniversary show yesterday in D.C.

But that's not what I'm here to talk about. I wanted to ask you about Sadiq Yusuf. So I seen at the end of his fight with Don Shainless, shaneless, something like that. He said that he wanted to fight Korean Zombie. And then I seen on his IG that he had posted that he wanted to fight Bryce Mitchell. I know Bryce Mitchell has got a fight coming up. But what do you think is a better fight for him or a good fight for him? I think he needs a guy in the top something.

He needs like somebody. I think he's ready to eat again. and feast on a top guy to see where he like stands and this. He's kind of been in his same position a little bit for a minute now. So who do you think is a better pick for him? I like the Koreans zombie pick. I think that's a very winnable fight for him, too. Not saying Bryce Mitchell isn't, but boy, that would be crazy.

It would be a crazy fight. But have a too sweet day, man. Hug of the morning and all that jazz. And enjoy that Dunkins, man. I hope you're sipping on some Dunkins right now, all right? Be safe. Thanks, man. And yes, I am.

Every day, every day Mike Heck runs on Duncan. I wake up nice and early, I get a workout in. My wife has to leave the house to go to her teaching job at 7 in the morning. She runs on Duncan as well. So after my workout, I go to the drive-thru and get a couple of large ice black coffees. She takes one to work. I bring mine to work. And we're all set.

We're good to go. So, Deke, I mean, look, every featherweight trying to get over the hump wants to fight Korean zombie. They see Korean zombie as a guy who's sort of on edge. He just got lit up like a Christmas tree by the champion. They feel like he's beatable right now. And Korean zombie is a pretty big name in this division. And they feel like this is prize fighting.

They feel like he's the biggest name, but not the most. Zombies good. Don't get me wrong. but they feel like he's a winnable matchup that can get him over the hump. And I just don't think he's going to get that fight. I just don't think he's going to get that fight. I think maybe the,

like I can see the Bryce Mitchell, Mavzar of Loy of Winner getting Korean zombie before I see the use of getting Korean zombie. What I suggested was he fights Iliot to Poria next. I think that's a great fight. And it just depends on, like what's going to happen with Ilya on October 29th?

Like, is he going to stay on that card and fight a short notice replacement? Or do we just want to pull Ilya from that card and have him fight Sudique later on down the road? Either way it works. You could still get to that fight. But who knows? I just don't think Suddick's going to get that fight. I don't think he's going to get that fight. He's had opportunities.

I mean, they gave Arnold Allen. He lost that fight. Had he beat Arnold Allen, he was. would have a better case for zombie, but he didn't. So, yeah, go fight Ilya to pouria. That'd be a big win for him, and we'll see what happens. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything.

So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice, yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no, but chicken tenders, yes. because those are groceries, and we deliver those too, along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. confidence while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton cross-draining treadplus at OnePeloton.ca. Let's go to Ahead.

My man ahead. Hello, sir. You're muted, so the world can't hear you. Bye. Yes. Can you hear me now? I sure can. Okay.

So the thing is, is this. So Mike, it's just like yesterday I didn't come on. I had so much to say. So it's just the first thing is that... The first thing is that you just fell out. Good God, I hid. Be professional, damn it. Let's go to AA, my man, average avenues.

Yellow. Good, how are you? I've got two for you. One is Brennan Moreno, Davidson, Figuero. their fourth fight, is it going to be the last one? Is there a chance that we actually see them fight a fifth time? And with it being, I think, I believe it's the fourth anniversary of Habib versus McGregor, just your thoughts on that rivalry.

It's probably the darkest in UFC history, I'd say. Yeah, I hope everyone has a good day in the call. You too, Mike, have a heck of a morning, man, and cheers. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I mean, it was the biggest build in UFC history It was the biggest fight in UFC history It was the biggest fight card in UFC history And it was one of the darkest times in UFC history

Because of the build and because of the rivalry between those two guys And the lines that were crossed along the way It was It was tough to watch, but it was also super compelling I mean, I've talked to John Anick about the build to that fight multiple times and he's told me a million times that nothing compares

to the feeling he had when those two walked to the octagon that night. And then the fight goes the way it did. Wasn't really all that surprising. And then everything with Habib jumping out of the cage and all that and no repercussions really,

didn't get any real punishments and stuff like that. I mean, it was a dark time. But it was such a crazy event. and such a crazy build. And it just did bonkers numbers. I just don't know if we're ever going to get to a place where we have a 2 million buy rate pay-per-view again like that one. I don't know if there's going to be a fierce enough personal grudge

and a rivalry that will match those two guys. I don't know. But it was a crazy time. and that fight was bananas. Absolutely bananas. Let's go to Crypto. Crypto are you there? Yes, yes, Mike.

I hope you can hear me. What's up? I got you. Thank you. Yeah, okay, Mike. So I have a question for you. Maybe a different question, but looking at UFC 280,

I mean, the card is just amazing. It's crazy. I mean, even if we look at the prelims, there's a bunch of great fights. but let's assume Mike that if you had to choose one of these fights that for some reason would not happen due to any issue or yeah

a fighter just basically maybe not making weight or something else which fight do you feel that would be if there's one fight that is not going to happen so that's my first question and then just a quick one Mike because I really I kind of feel bad for Sarukyan and I know you talked a little bit about this but I'm just, I didn't like the matchup between him and Gamrod.

Not because I didn't like the fight. The fight was amazing, but I thought it was way too early. I didn't fully understand why you matched those guys up that early. So my second question is, Mike, is Siruka getting the short end of the stick here fighting is Magulov? Because I'm just wondering, what does that actually do for him? Yeah, that's all, Mike. Thank you.

Thanks, man. UFC 280. You know, I'm not going to answer that first question because I don't want to put any negative juju out into the universe, so I'm not even going to... I like where you're coming from. We're thinking outside the box,

but I'm not going to answer that because I want all those fights to happen. The Surukian thing, I've talked about on the show before when the fight was announced and when it was made the main event. That was not the plan. The plan was not to do Armand Surukian

versus Batush Gamrott. Plan was to do Armand Sarukian versus Gregor Gillespie, and Gregor Gillespie didn't take the fight. So then we're left with, okay, who is going to take the fight? Gamrott said he would take it, and the rest is history. And from what I understand, Serucion is having a lot of the same issues right now, trying to get a guy and ranked up there a little bit.

in, I mean, if you're managing one of these top-ranked 55ers, if you're managing Greg or Grogh, B, or anybody like that, do you want to fight Armand Sarukian? I sure as hell don't. So, Demir's in. I'm sure his management team feels a certain way about that because they're both managed by the same crew. And it's just a great fight.

Like, it's a great fight. It's good for both guys, honestly. I mean, did anyone really think that the Gamrot, Suruky on flight would lead to what it led to. I didn't think the winner would get like Benile Daryush. I thought like the best they would get was Gillespie would just have to say yes because they both guys would be ranked above him or at least I know he's not, he's been inactive.

So I don't think he's in the official rankings now anyways. I know he's, I don't think he's in our rankings. He might be. Let me just check that real quick. Yeah, he is. He's still right around the top 10 in our rankings. So, but I've served, even off the loss I have Surukian ranked above Greg Grego-Spie.

But that's just, I mean, it's just the fights that are there. There's, as Eve doesn't need it, Chandler ain't going to do it. Chandler's booked, Darryush's booked, Machchette's fighting for the belt, Gagey's hurt, Porreys fighting Chandler, Olver is trying to get the belt back. There's not much for RDA to do. He's booked. Ferguson might not even be a 55 or anymore. So, I mean, the only real options were

Is McGulah for like a Jalen Turner type, honestly. So that's just the best you could probably get at the moment. It's probably the only rank guy that would say yes or was available at the time. So, yeah, I can't wait for that fight. And I've talked many times about how much I love the Surukia on Gamron fight. And it's why it may not, hold out of it. It may not be a,

It may not be the, it might not win fight of the year, but it is, might be my favorite fight of the year. All right, Ihead, go ahead. Let's try this again. Now it seems to be working. Mike, so much to say. Firstly, the UFC 282, I wanted Colby, Hamza, but it looks like Hamza is being drafted into war.

Like, and he's going to literally, like, that's some stories I'm hearing, and he's been drafted into fight Ukraine, and he's going to literally kill everybody. Now this time he's taking that phrase literally. I don't know what's going on. Secondly, one championship. They lost, I think it was $100 million in 2021. Luke Thomas said it totaled $300 million.

That's insane. Like, as in, we talked about this, about how one messed up, I didn't realize. We lost him again. We lost him again. I'll talk about the Homsop thing. I know I got asked about it a couple of days ago. I didn't hear anything about it.

And then obviously, once you get off the show, I could go on Twitter and see the different reports about it, that he was basically detained in Russia. Not really detained, but he had his passport taken away and he was kind of stuck there and wasn't able to travel. Brett Okamoto from ESPN came out and basically said that wasn't whole. accurate that he's just in Russia and that he's there visiting family and then he can leave whenever he wants. And I talked to a member of Shamiya's team who basically confirmed the same

thing. So that's just what they're telling me. I don't know what's true and what isn't, but I did reach out to somebody from Hamzat's team and it basically gave me the same thing they gave Brett. So not really sure what's going on there. And the one championship thing, go check out Bloody Albows in-depth right up about one's financials. I've talked a lot about one on the show, and they have good events on Amazon Prime, but they do a lot of things wrong to make a long story short. Let's go to Viking.

Viking, hello. Hello. Michael Chandler. I mean, he was a better to a champ, was dominant there. But as he entered in UFC, he just won against hookah, Rintone, Ferguson. and lost fights against ideal and better fighters,

Gichi and Charles. But what if he loses to Destin? Does that mean he was beating an average fighters in the bellwinter or Michael Chandler himself, an average fighter? And just one thing. Who is going to be on tonight's BTL panel? I missed the part when you mentioned their name last night at the end of the show.

and this other thing. My girlfriend really missing the heck of her morning and being in here. She's too busy with her work. She's your big fan and she told me to forward a message to you. Thank you, brother. Well, thank you and thank her as well. And the beauty of this program is if you miss it live, you get listened to it later.

It's right on the podcast network. So she can hear your kind words and my thank you to her as well. I will be AK myself and Damon Martin. on the BTL panel talking about the Chase for 22, 2022 awards. Jed Mishu will not be there. He is retired. I did reach out to see if he had a Kevin Holland type feeling about his retirement.

And as of now, it seems like he does not. So no Jed, but it'll be AK and Damon. We'll have some fun banter. We're just going to basically hit record and get after this thing and talk about awards and how things can change over the next couple of months. The Chandler thing, think he's, I don't know, man.

It's Porre, I mean, they're both top six dudes. So, I don't know. Like, the Gaichi one, he, I mean, I picked Michael Chandler not Justin Gauchy out in the first round. I just had a feeling

that, like, nobody was giving Chandler a chance. And I was like, this dude should probably have more of a chance than people are giving him. And I felt like I was very close to that happening, but it didn't happen. And Gaichie just kind of picked him apart. and let's not forget, go back and watch that Charles Olivera fight. He was a go-to-the-ground away from becoming the champion.

He decided to go to the ground so they keep the fight standing, and we could be talking about Michael Chandler, the champion right now, but we are not. I don't think he's an average fighter. I just think, like, Chandler's talked about it many times. He's not in there to wrestle in the UFC. He wants to put on the most exciting crazy fights possible, and I think thus far, through his four UFC fights,

he has done exactly that and then some. He is one of the most exciting guys on the roster. Are the things he says in interviews that I don't necessarily agree with when it comes to towing the company line? Not necessarily. But the dude is going in there and bringing excitement every time he fights. So yeah. How can you not be happy?

How could the UFC not be happy with this investment? They have to be thrilled with this investment. And this fight with Dacepore is going to be a crazy, crazy-ass fight too. A UFC 281. I can't wait to see it. Let's go to Zeke, and then we'll go to Milo. Zeke, what's up? Zeke, unmute.

Zeke! We lost them. All right, Milo. Milo, what's up, man? Not much. How are you, Mike? Good. Great. Yeah, I wanted to make a comment maybe about the Khabib Khonar situation.

I think like from the Cabee's perspective, jumping off the cage, from the PR perspective, was probably the best thing that happened to his career because it kind of energized his base. And there were those people kind of divided really, right? There was a mixed reaction. But I think from the point of like, from the coverage standpoint and the social media engagements and stuff like that, I think this was probably the best thing that could have happened to his career. Nevada State Athletic Commission obviously was held his purse, and I think that was there was a financial detriment to that.

But I think overall, like I said, from the PR perspective, it was pretty huge for him. And then in terms of the Zerukin fight versus Jumagula, the problem with Sarukin is that nobody wants to fight Zerukin, right? And it's a general problem with the top of the echelon where the fighters, you know, were ranked, you know do not want to fight with a lower ranked opponent so i think this is kind of was was predictable uh from the matchmaking standpoint i think uh matthews gamrott versus benile dariush uh on the paper should be a title contender fight because of the amazing streak that benile has had and matthos is obviously coming as uh one of the top contenders uh but i think in reality that might not be the case because if if michael chandler beats decisively dustin poria and you know does his famous callout

he's probably going to get the winner of uh charles bronx charles olivera versus machochev i think machochev is going to win this fight and i think i would love to see actually chandler chandler fighting uh machochev for the title and then from the gambrod perspective i think it would help his career to fight somebody like Justin Gagy because then it would elevate his status and he can steal some thunder from Justin and then fight Mahachev or Chandler next foot fight. Thanks. Thanks man. Yeah, I agree with a lot of what you just said. Darryush Gamrott should be a number one contender fight and it might like sort of domino effect end up being that way, but I'm not putting any hard-earned money on that at all, especially with Connor

lingering out there, especially of all of Air wins. If Islam wins and Porre wins, then you could probably make a case, but if Chandler wins and Islam wins, that's probably the direction they're going to go. That's what I think. And I'm with you on the Syrucillaum thing. All right, Ahead. Come on now. You're killing me. How much did you hear from the last time? So I know not to repeat myself. The last thing I heard was you were talking about one championship, losing 100 million,

Luke Thomas at 300 million, and then you fell off the face of the year. Wow. Okay. So if you address those points, I won't repeat it. The last two was Connor said he's moving up to 170, right? So you know the fight to make is Connor and Leon for the World toweight title. Connor doesn't deserve anything,

but screw Marty. Okay, that that's like it's so big for European MMA, especially if Connor wants to go to 170. Why not? And because he's using all those steroids to get big. Maybe he can't get down to 155 anymore. And that's the last thing I'm way to say is steroids. We should make steroids legal because Connor McGreg is using steroids. Usada hasn't tested him.

You know it's corruption. And the other Connor, Connor Ben, fighting Chris Eubank Jr., tested positive for steroids. now all these undercard fires are going to lose their money. And apparently there's been corruption there. Eddie Hearn, Ariel's best friend tried to sue. Apparently, Matrim tried to sue the boxing regulation for doing their damn job. So we might as well just let steroids be legal and let's see how far human performance can go. Finally, drop the mic, Mike.

You're speaking Jed Mishu's language about the steroids. So he would agree with you. Jed has no issues with steroids or performance-enhancing drugs. Doesn't care. If everybody's on steroids, doesn't care. Yeah, the Ben, the U-Bank-Connor fight is just ridiculous.

That whole thing is just a mess. What a nightmare that has turned out to be. And who knows if Connor actually fights at 170 or fights at 155? Who the hell knows at this point? Guys aren't even clear to compete yet? I mean, who knows? Who knows?

If he goes to 170, just do that. I mean, if they give him a title fight, sure, but they're going to do the Eusman fight first. Doesn't mean he's not in the discussion for later on in the year. And I'm sure Leon Edwards would have no issues fighting Connor McGregor. Just like you'd have no issues fighting Jorge Mazadol. So, I mean, those are big fights. You can do McGregor and Mazadol.

I mean, there's a number of different ways you can go with Connor. It's like so hard to matchmaking for him because all avenues make sense. You can make an argument for all of them. and it's i don't know i'm kind of tired of talking about connor right now because you just don't know what the friggy's going to do all right zeke how's your connection all right take two how are we good yeah it's ridiculous one day wants to work immediately next day it's bipolar who knows who cares let's get after it uh it actually was me who asked you about the humsat uh passport disaster fiasco it actually happened that day i'm pretty sure it was monday or tuesday not 100% who knows who cares

My big thing to you is what does this do for him in his future? But you could ask this question almost every single day. So let's move on. Saeed Namagamatov looks like he got a fight. Oh boy, I do not want to ruin his name, but I'm going to give it a try. Are you ready? Said Diabobu Kaka Romanov. Oh my God, you could record that.

That was a disaster. However, this guy's a dog. This guy wore Ronnie Lawrence like a backpack. I don't think he's going to wear Saeed Namagamato. like a backpack. However, I think this fight's going to be awesome. Lastly, I really don't know what to do this weekend, Mike. So what do you do on a weekend without a UFC event or a high caliber mixed martial arts fighting combat sports card? Thank you, my man. Let's have a week. Hey, listen, if you want to watch combat sports, glory's having a nice little card with quite the

compelling main events. Alistair Overeem and Bader Harri. So you got something there, something with some legs, something with some juice. WWE's got an event Saturday night, Extreme Rules in Philadelphia, the home of extreme. So that should be an interesting watch in itself. I will be spending time with family. Yeah, that's what I'm going to be doing.

Might go play golf with my kid. At least go to the driving range. I know there's, my wife wants to go do the fall thing. I know it's not, we don't have a ton of fall. activities like I did in Massachusetts, but there's pumpkin patches of some kind in South Carolina. So we will probably hit those up. And it's a long weekend for us. So, yeah, be some family time this weekend.

Because it doesn't happen all that often. Usually Saturdays, it's UFC time or like last week we had multiple events. It's nice to have the occasional week off. where you can enjoy it. And then it's just off to the races. October 15th, we got a card, and then 280. A lot going on for me that weekend, as you'll find out.

And then we got just a bunch of great cards coming up. So Bellator is going to be in Milan, Italy coming up, and let's just enjoy the weekend off. If you want to, you know, go see a movie. I'm excited next week. Halloween ends comes out. I'm going to be seeing that. next week

I believe yes Mazadol's icon FC is coming back to this area in Savannah so I'm going to go

check that out on Friday of next week I'll try to get some time with Mr. Mazadol again like I did

the last time they were here so yeah I'm just going to enjoy some family time I do have to work a few hours on Sunday but

other than that I'm going to unwind and recharge the old battery. So all right, I think we're done. I think we've hit up all the calls. They've gotten everything. So thank you very much. We'll be back again tomorrow.

We'll do it again free for all Friday where we can just cut loose and just talk about whatever the hell we want to talk about. Don't forget BTL 1 p.m. Eastern today. Very excited to not talk about Mark Zuckerberg because we would have spent 20 minutes on that today. And I don't want to talk about that show. it anymore. So we're just going to have some fun, go a little outside of the box and talk about

the year end award conversation where we're at with just a couple months left to go. So thank you all for listening. Thank you all for being a part of this. If you're listening on the podcast network, tip of the cap to you as well. We'll see you tomorrow morning 10 a.m. Eastern right here on the NBA fighting Twitter spaces. Have a great rest of the day. And as always, have a heck of a morning.