MMA Fighting - HOAM | Remembering Stephan Bonnar, Bellator MMA vs. RIZIN

Episode Date: December 29, 2022

Stephan Bonnar sadly passed away at the age of 45 recently, but the impact he had on the UFC — most notably with his incredible battle on the finale of the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter ��� will be remembered forever. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to the news of Bonnar's unfortunate passing, his legacy, Bonnar's incredible battle with Forrest Griffin at the TUF 1 Finale and its importance for the UFC, and much more. Additionally, listener questions include MMA Fighting's year-end awards, Bellator MMA vs. RIZIN and the card not airing live in the U.S., Derek Brunson vs. Dricus Du Plessis added to UFC 285, Brandon Moreno's new team ahead of UFC 283, Glover Teixeira vs. Jamahal Hill for the light heavyweight title, Khamzat Chimaev, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cadulian 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. This Thursday, December 29th, 2022, and it is indeed a heck of a morning live on the

M.M.A. Fighting Twitter Spaces, you can hear the show at its entirety sure thereafter, on the MMA fighting podcasting network. Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday, had a great Christmas if you celebrated, enjoying some time with family and friends, enjoying some time for yourself, if that's what you preferred. And I didn't think I'd be back again this week.

I didn't think we'd have another one of these shows until 2023, but alas, things worked out. We'll have a show today. We'll have a show tomorrow. We'll lead right into the Bellator MMA versus Risen card, which goes down on Saturday. We'll have a BTL later on today. Myself and Jen Mishu will do our annual MMA promotional Festivus episode where we give grades for the major promotions. We air our grievances towards said promotions.

It's a lot of fun. And we'll do that today as well. So I had a nice little break, went to Massachusetts. We talked about that. Florida Mike made an appearance starting Christmas Day. Florida Mike had to be left behind yesterday back in South Carolina today. Got to play some golf from my father. Had a little generational golf outing on Tuesday, myself, my dad, and my nine-year-old.

It was a good time. It was a good time. But I don't know about you. 2022 has been a crazy year. It's been a great year in a lot of ways, been a tough year in some ways, but I got to be honest, I'm ready for 2023.

I'm ready for it. I'm ready to get this party started. And today we can talk about whatever you guys want to talk about. We can talk about Bellator versus Rising. A lot of people had some issues with the MMA fighting awards. The submission of the year was probably one of the ones that I heard the most about. So we could talk about your.

thoughts on our awards. We can talk about everyone, but before we get into any of that, I just want to do, I'd be remiss if we didn't talk about the sad news over this past week or so, the death of the Ultimate Fighter one finalist, Stefan Bonner, we confirmed he passed away at the age of 45. He died on December 22nd. The UFC made the announcement as well, so it was due to, presumed heart complications.

And, man, this was just a gut punch on Christmas Eve when our own Stephen Morocco confirmed this information and the UFC sort of put it out there as well. It's been kind of a tough go for Stefan Bonner the last few years, but I don't want to talk about any of that stuff. I want to talk about what this man meant to the UFC in particular and to the sport. because especially the newer fans, you probably have heard the name. Maybe you got into the sport, like, during the pandemic.

There's sort of these generational joining of MMA fanmanship that has come out. A lot of people are like, oh, I've been watching since UFC 1. And there are people who became fans during the first season of the Ultimate Fighter or after the first season of the Ultimate Fighter or during the finale. of the first season of the Ultimate Fighter. And that's kind of the benchmark for a big generation of MMA fans. And one of the big reasons why was because of Stefan Bonner's finale fight with Forrest Griffin. Now, I will say this, I was a very casual MMA fan before the first season of the Ultimate Fighter.

I watched some of the earlier UFCs with family members. I wasn't a huge fan. I didn't order all the pay-per-views or anything like that. I think the first pay-per-view I ever purchased was UFC 40. That was the Tito Ortiz, Ken Shamrock fight, because obviously I was a big WF fan, guy was coming back, you heard all these stories, the most dangerous man and all that stuff.

So I had to watch that. And then the ultimate fighter comes out, and they have this reality show concept, and we had some of the more interesting people and personalities that we've ever seen in the sport. And Stefan Bonner was one of those personalities. And I have to say, the reason I watched the first of the ultimate fighter is I thought

Diego Sanchez was kind of the perfect weirdo for sports. I just wanted to watch and see what kind of weird stuff he was going to do. It's kind of like watching Frank Dukes, played by Jean-Claude Van Damme in Bloodsport. He's doing splits on the balcony. He's doing all this crazy stuff. But obviously, Stefan Bonner was a big personality for. Griffith was a big personality. And then the finale happens.

And Diego beats Kenny Flores. in and I'm like, all right, woohoo, he wins. And then we get to the Stefan Bonner-Forst-Griff fight. And these two, I mean, if you haven't seen it, you need to go watch it. This was not, like, if we're comparing, if we're comparing 2022 fights, this was the Yuri Perash could go over to share a fight. Not a tactical fight by any stretch of the imagination, but this is not a mixed martial arts competition. This is a freaking fight.

These two just beat the shit out of each other for 15 minutes and it was super close. Forrest Griffin gets the win. Dana gives a contract to both guys. But Dana White himself has said, and he even said it when the UFC made the announcement. Let me pull it up real quick.

Stefan Bonner is one of the most important fighters to ever compete in the Octagon. His fight with Forrest Griffin changed the sport forever and he will never be forgotten. The fans loved him, related to him, and he always gave him his best. He will be missed. That fight without that fight, we're not talking right now.

We're not doing the show. We're not talking about the UFC. The UFC's certainly not on ESPN. They never got to Fox. We're not talking about cross-promotional fight cards like Bellator versus Ryso. There probably isn't a Bellator. There isn't a PFL.

The sport, where it is right now, it is not possible without that stuff Bonner versus Forrest Griffin fight. It's not. We're talking about a whole new thing. This is a very niche thing. And that tough series was do or die. That reality show concept, that whole first season, this was the, this is the UFC's

WrestleMania. This needed to happen and it needed to work. And that fight was the first like telephone, telegraph telem-m-a-fam fight that I can remember where it's going on live. You watch the first. three or four minutes and you're like, holy shit, what is going on? And then you get to the second round and you're like, this can't continue. These guys are just going to get tired.

This mayhem has to stop at some point, right? But it doesn't. And then at that point, this isn't a cell phone era when this fight happened. You're not texting your friends. You're going on like America Online Instant Messaging. My handle was Hekelberry, by the way. and I ain't ashamed of it. Or you're calling it, you're picking up the house phone,

and you're calling your buddies to be like, dude, put on Spike TV right now. You have to put this on. This is a crazy fight happening. And then that person called five more people, and then that person called five more people. And by the end of the fight, it was like the whole sports world was watching it. And this is the first time that the UFC got that much attention

for one single fight. And people got introduced to the sport because of that fight. And a big reason for that was because of Stefan Bonner. Stefan was just that kind of dude. Now, he's been on the wrong end to some highlight reels, but it doesn't matter. That stuff doesn't matter. What mattered was the importance he was to the sport,

and it was because of that night with that opponent, he got in there with Forrest Griffin, and they just beat the shit out of each other, and it was magic. It was magic. It was the whole UFC world. It was the sport of MMA. It was so historic and important.

and it happened at that right time and people just happened to be home and they were flipping to the channels Saturday night, what are we going to watch and then the phone rings. You got to put it on Spike TV and that was it. There was a rocket ship from that point forward and we have never looked back.

So very sad news for Stefan Bonner. He obviously went on and he had some tough times but he was also a very talented broadcaster who's great commentator. He got into the pro wrestling world a little bit. He's part of one of the weirdest things ever in Bellator

with T. Ortiz. I mean, this guy has been a part of a lot of crazy moments in the sport, but none more important than that fight with Forrest Griffin. I had a chance to interview with Stefan Bonner a couple times. Just such a good dude.

I remember even just I forget where I was. I think it was like in some random casino in like South Dakota covering a bare knuckle event or something I ran into Stephen Bonner just not at the card but just happened to have been there and you actually like remembered our Skype interview from a couple of years before it was just just such a nice guy and obviously he had

some demons and everything and it just opens up these doors to in these conversations our great our colleague my colleague Shaheen Al Shadi were a great piece about remembering Stefan Botter and how important he was to the sport and how we should remember all of these legends all of these OGs from the past that MMA needs to do a better job of telling these stories and reliving the history of these fighters and these fights that these promotions they need to take better care of these athletes as they go on to different things it's it's just a really tough lesson we have to learn every time this happens and thoughts prayers apologies to all Bonner's fans friends family, all that.

Just, yeah, man, what tough news to find that out on Christmas Eve? It was just rough. Just terrible, terrible news. But hopefully with this horrible news, more people can go back and watch that fight between Bonner and Griffin, go back and look at some of the great highlights he had, some of the moments he had, look at some of the commentary he did in the past, and just remember the absolute animal that he was when he got into the Cajun fought. So rest in peace

Stefan Bonner You will be missed for sure So let's go to you guys Let's take your calls You can talk about whatever you want to talk about We can talk about that Tough to transition But double A

You gotta carry that weight right now my man How are you sir? Hello Sorry man No that was that was really good That's what really kind of good Good on you for that mate Good on you

Thanks What's on your mind? I've got a question but if you don't mind I'd like to say something about Stefan if you don't mind Sure

So I'm a younger guy So I'm a new-ish fan I guess you could say But before I have this weird thing When it gets When it's getting into any sport I do research Like there's no tomorrow

Right And when researching mixed martial arts One of the first things I found out about Was death and bono versus Forrest Griffin. And I found that so, so inspiring that those two just went out there,

not really knowing what their faiths were going to be and just through leather. And I think that's just a testament to what kind of person that Stefan was and it really, really sucks that he caused away so young. I mean, John Jones, his second opponent in the UFC

were Stefan Bonner, which is a crazy thing to me. maybe that's, maybe, like, that's the, that's the big, first big test that he gets in his UFC career as Stefan Bonner. And people talk about all, all, like, the massive throws and stuff that John landed in that fight. But what people don't talk about is the fact that Stefan is such a tough dude. He actually outstruck John in that third round.

Anyway, just moving on from that. Just your thoughts on the Corey Sanhagen, um, Cheetah Verify and what will that, what's that going to do for the band? in my title picture. Everyone, you're awesome. Have a great day.

Take care yourself and peace. Thanks, man. Yeah, Cheeto versus Sanhagen, great friggin fight. It's the fight that needed to happen, in my opinion. Although, I still think that Cheeto should be fighting, he should be fighting Henry Sohudo or fighting for the belt or Sean O'Malley. But listen, this is a pretty damn good consolation prize. I think the stakes are very high, mostly for Cheeto Vera.

And I think, obviously, every fight for Cheeto Vera, the stakes are very high. he's got to win, he's got to just, he can't lose. He wants to fight for the belts, he's got to win again. And who knows that that'll even be enough? Because if they end up doing Al Jermaine Sterling versus Henry's Hudo, which, by the way, that fight is not done yet. That fight's not done. It's not signed. I know there's rumors and all that, but it's not done.

So who knows? And if they end up going with that fight, you got Sean O'Malley waiting in the wings. So it still could be a long way for Cheever. and he's not the kind of guy like to sit around and wait. So the stakes are much higher for him. Sanhagen coming off that big win, I think he probably still needs like two,

another win after this, maybe two to get back to a tight, you know, to title hopes and being in interim spots or whatever. So I think the stakes are much higher for Cheevera here. It's a great fight though. I can't wait.

That's high level martial arts for sure. Yeah. And just going back, and looking at Stefan's career. I mean, just look at the frigging guys he fought. The Forrest Griffin fight was obviously a big one. James Irvin, who in 2006, that's a great win. Finished him in the first round, Keith Jardine.

That win aged pretty well when you saw what happened with Keith Jardine's career. He got one on a nice run. Fights Rashad Evans, fights Forrest Griffin again in a rematch, which is another fun one. Obviously, it wasn't the first fight, but still a lot of fun. Mike Nichols, Eric Schaefer. And then it's John Jones. Jones, Mark Coleman, and then Christoph Soszinski, all in a row.

And at the time, Christoph Sizinski was, I mean, he was a bad son of a bitch. And that fight obviously ended in a weird way with the doctor stoppage and they ran it back. And Stefan gets the win and finishes him in the second round of that one. And then he ends his career with Anderson Silva. That's kind of one of those reverse highlight reels. And then he has that weird fight with Tito Ortiz in November 2014. But this, I mean, he fought some of these names you look at as like super old school or you don't really recognize me if you're newer fans. But at the time, I mean, he fought, he bought a freaking murderers row of guys throughout his career.

And his career, especially coming off tough one, wasn't as long as people thought it. Like if you go and look at his topology page, you thought you would think that you'd see a lot more fights on there. But it's because the level of competition this guy fought. And he showed up for all these fights. And even like AA said, the John Jones fight, just getting chucked around in there. But he landed some great shots in the third round. Like he had, he had his moments in the third.

That's just, the dude was just a dog. The dude was just a dog in that cage. Wasn't the most skilled guy across the board, but his heart was 15 miles long. That's just who he was. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time.

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Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1-8665-3-1-2-600 or visit Comex-Ontario.c.ca. Unwrap Holiday Magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you From festive and cozy fashion to Lux Beauty and Fragrant Sets Our special selection has something for every style and price point Visit our Holtz Holiday Shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com Tristan, what's up buddy? Hey Mike, yeah, Stefan Bonner.

I mean, that's just rough praise to his family. But, you know, you literally saved the UFC in that fight in that first UFC with, of course, Griffin. they absolutely rejuvenated the sport because it was a good looking there so rest and peace to him Mike I'm just hearing right now

according to Big Marcel that Jeff Neal has pulled out from his fight against Shop Khan Rahmano January 14th for the co-mate event it looks it looked like it was kind of confirmed by

him on his Twitter page I don't know if you guys are still trying to find out more information on that. It looks like they haven't canceled the fight, so Shafqqat may be still on it. I don't know if they could find a fighter in two weeks, but we'll see. I just devastating because I want to see Shafat

fight. I don't care if I see him fight a bear for crying out loud, watch it. I love that man, but I don't know, they may rebook, try to rebook it. Maybe that might be a blessing in disguise. You could rebook that fight. maybe on a pay-per-view or added to where you get shop-cont fighting in front of fans. So maybe they'll do that, so we'll see.

One thing also too, I wanted to talk about the comments from Cheeto Vera about people, you know, putting on a lot of weight and then trying to cut down to make weight. It feels like it's cheating and things that nature. And I kind of get his point a little bit in a sense of a lot of these fighters, you know, they're professional. athletes and they balloon up to this amount, like they put on 30, 40 pounds, and then they try to cut weight to the 135, the low weight classes. I think he's specifically talking about Alderman Sterling, you know, because obviously I understand what Alderman is trying to do. He's trying to gain an edge, you know, that he can gain back that way after he cuts weight, and, you know, especially when he's grappling and he's like a human backpack. So the

advantage is to him. But, you know, the whole thing about that. awakening and I know it sucks and things like that but I think a lot of these fighters got it guys need to you know not put so much weight back on if you decide that you want to cut down to a certain amount of weight I think you should be hovering around even and Tito said you like I'm like out of cam I'm like 20 pounds over and that's still a lot of to cut weight so I think a lot of these fighters should be hovering around like 15 pounds from or like getting close to it so I'm just looking at it from a standpoint of cutting, you know, to being healthy and, you know, being a professional or going to the PI and making sure this is the weight you should be

fighting at. So it kind of makes a point there, but then I do understand the other side, you know, some people want to, after, you know, after their fight, some people want to eat, whatever they want. But, you know, sometimes I just feel like they put too much weight on. I mean, I think you were talking about it every time when Shemai hit that scale. I don't understand how he makes 170 or, you know, certain fighters, like, I don't know how Michelle Piero makes one, one, one, one seven, one seven, one seven. That guy looks like he's 185. He should be

a middleweight. And, and it just, it's just very stunning to see these type of people how they make weight. It's just, you just, you just, you just shake your head, like, geez, all right, I guess, you know, so. And as far as the award, uh, MAA awards for 2022, the only disagreement I have, goes upon the rookie of the year and not who won the rookie of the year but what you guys had at number five i listen i know pierro um brello i i know you know he's high title prosper but his debut wasn't great he had some issues in that i would have put yadvin your guy at number five instead of um instead of um berreau to be honest with you so that's the only issue i had with that one i would have Yasen at number five.

Hi Mike. Thanks for everything. Thanks, man. Yeah. I think I had, I had Yazden number five on my own personal ones, but I have no issue with putting Kio up there.

I mean, he beat three pretty solid dudes. The Godsy win wasn't spectacular. It was kind of weird. The Petrosian win. I mean, Petrosian, I think that one's going to age really well, but just wasn't, I mean, I get

where you're coming from, it's not the most memorable win, and then the Murdof win was a good win for him. So, I mean, 3 and 0, he didn't fight any bums. I mean, there are no bums in the UFC, but yeah, I don't have an issue with that. I think his competition was

much stronger than Yasmin's was, but I think Yasmin just got Yazan just got a big push. I mean, she just got over naturally and people are just really excited to see her again. Now, I don't know. I think people want that for kio i just don't know if he hasn't if he's just gotten there yet we'll see what happens but i i mean i have no issue with that i had yazen number five on my personal list but

kio was probably like five b or six for me so yeah i got no issue with that and then the shafcott rachmanov jeff neil news i haven't confirmed that yet i've been that's what i've been working on pretty much all morning uh igor lazare lazarin was the first to report this on his Instagram page and nothing yet that I have heard, but I have reached out to multiple people. Hopefully I'll have an update on that. Maybe we'll have an update on that as this show goes on. Let's go to Bikod.

I think I hopefully I pronounce that correctly. We'll see. But the wheel is spinning and I don't know if we're going to get them. Try again, Big Hodd. Connection is just not working. Let's go to Mikey and we'll go to James. Hello, Mikey. Here to everyone soon.

And so let me just jump right into it. Said the Stephen Barner news was semi-shocking but not really considering how we've seen his health. And I just want to make a quick address for everyone that's seen that video of Sean Strickland saying, oh, everyone's paying to read to him now, but you guys weren't there for him when he needed you. I just want to say, you know what?

He might be right a little bit on the surface, but I think if you've ever had to deal with a loved one or a friend that had substance abuse issues of any kind or any kind of issues, you can only do so much for them. So I think it's kind of nonsense that Sean Strickland was a sound, you know, trying to virtue signal for points. You know what I mean? Like, oh, hey, because everyone's like, oh, no, he's right.

People, you, how do you know people, how do you know people, weren't there for Barner. You know? And I kind of irritated because that's typical Sean Strickland, just trying to say stuff for the sake of saying stuff. And it's like, to some people, be like, oh, yeah, that makes sense. But then when you think about it, it's like,

well, then why weren't you there for him, dude? You know, don't, don't sit there and talk about how people weren't there from when he needed them. And then you clearly knew him enough. So why weren't you there? You know what I mean? So, like, it just bothered me from him. Because, like, it's so tough to help people when, you know, when sometimes they don't, they don't want to help.

You know, I mean, I don't know, Stephen Barton personally. I've made him a couple times. He was, we had pleasant interactions. Obviously, he's had some really problematic opinions lately last few years, but I'm not going to focus too much in that right now. But it's just, I just thought that was really, really tone deaf of Sean Strickland to say. As far as his career's concern, it's funny how he and Forrest Griffin were like, they were really kind of the perfect guys to be.

in that tough finale. You know what I mean? Like, they weren't these, like, stud freak athletes that you knew. Like, let's be honest.

Last, sometimes when we watch the ultimate fighter, you can tell there's like a ringer. You know, like, remember the heavyweight season when they had Roy Nelson there. And you're like,

you're like, you're like, Barron and Griffin were just, they were the epitome of what that show was supposed to be about, you know, like these two middle of the road

MMA fighters, they had, you know, solid records. Like, like, Barner fought, Leodemachita before anyone knew who Leodemichita was outside the UFC, like right before he went on tough.

You know what I mean? So in many ways, they were the perfect guys to epitomize what the ultimate fight was about. It's like these guys that you didn't know about who became stars or names off of that fight. And yes, hindsight, hindsight makes their first fight kind of, you know, it's not the best fight ever anymore,

but it's still damn good, especially for the time, at the time it happened I mean 2005 just I mean outside if you weren't watching pride and you were just watching UFC it's like that that was about as good as it got

between people that you didn't consider a high level and yeah Severn Barter's like also a huge pro wrestling guy I know he had to he was wrestling in the Indies a little bit out of time that's where I met him I met at an indie pro wrestling show

and as for the first of all just a pivot Bellator can't get out of their own way. Like, how do you have arguably your biggest show of the year with that rise in co-promotion and it's not live? You're not going to show it live. Basically, everyone has to, like, you know, either stream it or go VPN or if they're living outside the country, you know what I mean?

They're not going to be able to see it live. As for the Shavcott news right now, they got at this point, like, I was going to say a good test probably. would have been Michelle Pahara, but then they broke Michelle Pahara in a different fight. So that will be interesting. I'll be curious to see who they put up in that fight. And as one more thing I like,

I think the next fight for Valentina, I think the UFC needs to go with the twin bill, have Irani Adana and Alexa Grasso co-headline a fight card in Mexico against Amanda and Valentina, just, you know, run, or put the fight. fight in Southern California, you know, because big Mexican population there, obviously. So got to capitalize on that, you know, that bit of, if you can't promote the outside of the

UFC outside of any market, that you got to capitalize on that stuff. But anyways, that'll be all for me. Again, happy New Year. You guys. Be kind of one another. See around. Thanks, man. So a couple things.

I'll touch on. The Rachmanoff one, it's got to be really tough to find somebody that's going to want to fight this dude on short notice. But, I mean, honestly, like I know Trista was saying earlier, hopefully they just rebook this one. I say absolutely not. Like, if you want to rebook it fine, but I think it is of the utmost importance to keep Shafka Rukmanov on this card. And I don't give a shit who he fights.

Throw him in there with anybody. Like, it's probably going to be somebody who signs a short, like, just picks up a short notice outside of the UFC kind of a deal. But I don't care. Like that, it doesn't matter. to get this guy out there. Get him and just let him have a squash match. It's fine. It's fine.

That wasn't the original plan, but you have to get him on television. You have to. You're trying to build this guy up. You're trying to, everyone is so, anyone who's seen this guy fight, if you watch a Neil Magnet fight, everybody is excited about this guy.

You have to get him on television. Just let him sacrifice somebody. Just let him go in there and just smush somebody in two minutes. Who cares? who it is, it doesn't matter. This guy has to be active. He needs to fight two or three times this year, at least. Okay?

So if you want to do, if the Jeff Neal injury isn't that bad, he can come back in like March or April, let him fight on this card, just give him some newcomer, let him just absolutely truck him, and then rebook that fight, throw it on the March 4th card,

throw it on the April pay-per-view, it doesn't matter. But this guy needs to begin. get reps. He needs to be out there and he needs to be swishing people. This is how you set up those fights that you want. The Hamzat fights, the Colby fights, the Bilal fights.

This is how you do it. You let this guy go out there and just destroy people. And that we can get to Jeff Dio. That's fine. And that's a great fight. That's a perfect step up. Jeff's a gamer. I think we all know how that fight's going to go, but Jeff

ain't going to just let him let himself get trucked over. So, yeah, Shafcott has to fight on this card, even if you have to sacrifice somebody from LFA to keep him on the card. There are a lot of fighters out there who will just be happy to be in the UFC, even if it's to get absolutely run over by Shafkat Raghmanov. As far as the Bellator thing goes, I just want to, let me just say this. I know we want to sit there and we want to absolutely annihilate Bellator for this decision-making. that it's not being streamed live this card on Saturday. And I get it.

I get it. Bellator has put us in positions to do this for years. I will say this, though, from what I understand, this is not a Bellator choice. This is, Bellator wants this live. They wanted it live. And it seems like it's a network thing. It doesn't seem like it's a Bellator thing. So, yeah, I don't know why.

I know Bellator's for a while now. They've been pushing to try to make it happen so that there's a U.S. stream live. It's just not in the cards. And they're not happy about it from what I can tell. And from conversations that I have had and other people that I work with have had,

they wanted this live just as bad as you did. But that leads me to kind of my next question and we'll talk about this over the next day or two. Maybe we'll talk more about it tomorrow is I will be watching it live. One of my colleagues will be watching it live. And so my question is, do we want to do a Twitter spaces? Do you want to do that?

Do we want to jump on here at like 5 a.m. Eastern time and just, I ain't going to give you all the deeds that happen. But do we want to do this? Like, I can just jump on and tell you what's happening. Live. You got to wake up damn early to do it, but I'm waking up early to watch it. So if we want to do that, sure, we'll do that. And we can all figure out what's happening live.

And if you want to go back and watch the festivities, especially in the United States, you can do so 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Showtime. You can watch the events back. But maybe we'll do that. That's kind of what I'm thinking right now. I haven't completely decided, but that's kind of the plan. But yeah, the fact that this isn't live is just bad. But I don't really blame Bellator for that because they want it to be live in the U.S.

just as badly as you want it to be live. But this has to get fixed. If you're going to keep doing these kinds of events, you have to figure out a way to do it live. Because no one's going to watch the APM broadcast. No one is going to watch the APM broadcast. We're not going to like, we're going to tell it, like, we're watching it live. Like, we have a way to do it. So we're going to give you all the results.

Like by the time it airs in the U.S., you're going to know everything that happened already. And if there's video, if Verizon drops videos on social media, we're going to use those too. So I don't know. It's very strange. But I actually don't blame Belator for it.

Let's go to James. Hey, James. Maybe. The wheel is spinning. I don't know if the connections. Oh, do we have you? Can you hear me? Yes.

How are you saying? Is this B. Heckelberry? It is indeed. Okay, firstly, sorry about that. I had a little issue there at the beginning. I think that armchair quarterbacking someone's death in the immediate aftermath is rarely, if ever, not in poor form. So it doesn't surprise me that Sean Strickland was the one to do so. But that's not really what I want to talk about.

I wanted to bring up UFC 283 because I think there's a lot. some good bangers on that card and I'm very excited for it. I think the Andrage fight could be interesting and obviously the two main fights. Firstly, I had a question and maybe this is out there, but I haven't seen anything about it. Have we heard what Brandon Moreno is going to do for a team after all of the chaos that happened with his former team? also I believe that Glover is going to win. I think it's a great matchup for him. And I think it's perfect.

It's in Rio. He can ride off into the sunset if he'd like. It will be a fantastic scene if that's the way it goes down. And if not, Jamal Hill's a guy that we can get behind, we can get some interesting fights for him. I think it's great either way. My question is, if Glover does want, to fight again after winning, hypothetically, at 283.

Do you just run the Yuri fight back, assuming he can get healthy in the timelines matchup, or where do you think you would want to go with him, assuming maybe he's only got one more fight left after that? Have a heck of a morning, and hopefully your holidays remain good. Thank you. Thanks, man. Yeah, that's probably what they're going to try to do. That's probably what they're going to try to do.

They're going to try to get to that Glover-Yuri fight again. But again, we just don't know how long Yuri's going to be out for. Yuri says it's going to be out for six months. Dana White said it's the worst shoulder injury and the history of shoulder injuries. So we don't know. Like, if Yeri can fight, like, if he gets checked out medically, February of March, And they're like, dude, six months you can fight. Then I think the UFC will probably point to that.

But if not, then they'll probably do, I don't know what they're going to do. Because do they run back Yombo Hulovich, Ankelaif again, to try to get a number of contender? Do they just say, listen, the judging was weird. We think Ankeliath won, so we'll give him the title shot. So I don't know. But I think priority won. But again, and Glover has to win too. but I think if Glover does win, which I think stylistically he has a very good chance to do,

unless he gets knocked out, which Jamal Hill hits like a truck, then I think the UFC will try to get that rematch done sometime in 2023 with Europe Burashka. I think that's the fight everybody wants to begin with. As far as Moreno goes, he's in Vegas. He's put together a little squad out there. I think he's training at the PI, but he's training with like Raul Roches Jr. and all them. Sayyud is out there working with him as well. So he's got like George Capitillo, those guys.

So I mean, he's obviously built something and Safe Sayud is involved. And he's obviously got a ton of fighters out there that he can work with. So yeah, I think he's going to be fine. I think it was probably a little bit of a shock for him early on with everything happening with James Krause and everything. And I know a lot of people had asked about the Jeff Molina suspension. And I guess I could touch on that a little bit. I have no idea.

Nothing that I'm comfortable with reporting right now. But I think the rumor in innuendo is that he's somewhat attached to this investigation. I have not been able to officially confirm that. But you've all heard the rumor and innuendo, as have I. And we're going to find out for sure at the – I mean, I don't know if it's for sure. but we'll know more at the next Nevada Athletic Commission meeting, which is happening sometime in January. And I believe Jeff's going to be on the docket,

and they'll probably talk more about that. But yeah, that whole story is getting crazy. That's developing. I know a lot of people are out there saying that not everyone's talking about the Ali Act being put back on the table. It's a big deal. And when it does get put back on the table, you bet your ass are going to be talking about it.

but it's all reports at this point. And when it's put on the table and it's being seriously discussed, that we'll have the conversation. But how many times we talked about the freaking Ali Act and then literally nothing happens. So fool me once. Shame on you. Fool me twice. Shame on me.

Trust me when I tell you, when those things get serious, we're going to be all over that shit. Okay? Don't you worry. Don't you worry. Okay? We'll go to the four-ounce sniper that we'll go to Viking. and then we'll go to my man, Brad.

Yes, what's going on? Hey, heck of the morning. Real quick, I was looking at a post that said UFC was coming to San Antonio on March 25th. I also saw something that Kevin Allen said he wanted to fight on that card. I guess just real quick, who would you match him up with? And I also think Adrian Yanez being a Houston native would also want to get on that card being it's in Texas. So who would you match those two guys up with? I mean, Kevin Holland is a badly, badly broken hand.

So I don't know. I think just kind of anybody really. Let me say. I assume they're going to want to keep him at 170. Maybe to do the D-Rod fight on that card, if they can make that happen. I think that'd be a pretty solid one. Like Randy Brown would be a good one. Somebody like that.

Nothing crazy. sat in Ponsinibio maybe something like that I'd be cool with either of those things maybe a Michael Kiesa something like that Yannes Yonnas is interesting

I know Janus really wants to fight on this card I know he's been offered a name I know who that name is I also know that Yannes has said well he needs two more weeks I know that is true as well.

But it's not, how do I want to say this? It's the fight that you're probably thinking it is, but the opponent that they want said that they're not going to, like it's not happening. The initial offer for this fight was to take place April 8th. And once that offer came for that date, this fighter and his team were like, okay, this is the earliest we're coming back to fight.

We're not fighting any of it. earlier than this. And then Yannes obviously wants to fight March 25th on that San Antonio Antonio card. It ain't happening. It ain't happening. This matchable will not happen March 25th. I can assure you of that. I'll be I'll be stunned if it happens March 25th. Could it happen April 8th? Yes, but that will have to be something that Adrian Yannis will have to concede. He will have to give up fighting in San Antonio, fighting in Texas to get this matchup. And from all accounts, people I've spoken with, it seems like fighting on that. San Antonio card means more to him than the opponents and the name itself.

So I don't know. With this name kind of off the table, what's Pedro Munoz doing? What's Chris Gutierrez doing? Something like that? Montel Jackson. Tyler Phillips, somebody in that realm? I loved the Cody Garbrand fight. I really like that one, but it looks like that one's off the table.

because Cody's got a fight. So maybe a Hafio's son-so. I don't know. I don't know what they're good to do, honestly. But I would expect, I'd expect Adrian Yannis to fight March 25th opponent. Your guess is as good as mine. And if Holland fights in that card,

he's a freaking superhero because after that hand injury, to come back from that and actually fight three months later, that's friggin' insane because that hand is broken badly. 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 rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those.

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See app for D. 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. Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton cross-training tread plus at Onepeloton.ca. Viking. Hello. Hello, Mike. How are you?

Good. How are you? I'm good. I do back. I mean, is this space regular or just one space? No, we'll do it tomorrow. We're back. We're back. And what about BTL? Is it happening? BTL is happening. It's going to be a podcast, not a video. But next week we'll be back doing the videos.

Everything back to normal next week. We might even do four of these next week. We haven't decided. All right. Thanks a lot for that. So I just want to talk about Corey Sandhagen and Chito Vera fight. So the winner of this fight, going to get the title shot? If yes, then when Shano Miley is?

he's going to fight because after we know Peter Ryan, he's not going to fight another challenge like Sterling or like Corey Sandhagen or Chitovira. And Sterling and Saudo, they are verbally agreed, but we don't know if they are on for the fight. So what about Saudo and Sterling according to you? And what about Omali, Sean Omeli versus. winner of the Sandhagan and Chito Vera. And should the winner of this fight,

Corey Sandhagon and Chitovara, fight for the title for the next fight? Thank you. Have a good holiday. Thanks, man. I think Chito should be fighting for the belt right now. I've been saying he's the front runner ever since the

Dameda Cruz win. Obviously, the Sean O'Malley situation is difference. It should be Sean getting the fight, but and then Cheeto getting the winner, or Cheeto fighting Sehudo. Like, that's the fight I wanted. Even when Suhudo is coming back, fight Cheeto Vera. It's a winnable fight for Sehudo, but it's a tough fight for Sehudo. And if he beats Cheeto, go fight Sterling, go fight Volcanovsky. I don't care. But that's a great, like, I've been out for a while. I'm going to show that I'm serious about this comeback. That's the perfect fight. That's how I would do it.

But we'll see. I mean, it's tough to even answer that question right now because we don't know what's going on. Like Sterling Suhudo is not done yet. I know they both kind of feel like this is the direction of going. But when you're dealing with Henry Sehudo, it could be a number of factors. Maybe the money's not right. Like he left because he felt like he wasn't getting enough money. Now, what are they offering him?

Is it enough? Is that something that's going to get Suhudo? excited. I don't know. So until that fights on the books, it's kind of hard to say. But the way that I see it playing out is they probably will go ahead and make that fight somehow. O'Malley will get the winner. And then Cheeto will probably just kind of sit out. And if Cheeto beat Sanhagen, then he's next. And if that's, and if Sanhagen wins, I don't know. Maybe he'll be next. I don't know. We'll see what this division's crazy.

his other names coming up as well like what are you going to do with Marab what do you get to do with Sondi Dung what are you going to do with what's going to happen with Peter Yan when he's ready to come back then you have these other up-and-comers you got you know

Rob Font wanting to come back sometime the first half of 23 Ricky Simone's been on a tear coming up the best performance of his career there's a lot of options at 135 and I have no idea what they're going to do with any of this stuff

because it's so convoluted. Brett, what's up, dude? Hey, what you, bro, and the Berkshires. That's not like an awesome time. Too bad you're wearing Bossa. We got to meet up a little bit. But I just want to touch on what you would just,

the last call on Vikings, ironic that he was talking about Cheeto Vera, Sanhagen, because I just happened to look at the odds on that fight. Chito Vera is a two-to-one underdog. In what world is Chito-Vera, half the fighter that, odds-wise is Corey Sanhagan. I am not seeing that.

I think Chito Vera is the underrated guy in this division. He's a beast. The guy can take punishment. He could take a beating, and he's going to just knock you to fuck out, like at the end of that fight, like if you're not expecting it, because the guy is just built for a five-round fight,

and I think he, San Diego might win the first couple rounds. He's going to get face beaten, and he's going to get slept. But that isn't the reason why I call. Like, first of all, I wanted to give my props to Stefan Bonner. I myself as a 50-year-old man, I've always been into all sports and boxing and prize fighting and beginning of UFC. And until the ultimate fighter came on Bravo TV or Spy TV, I forget which one was first, until that fight, that fight versus first,

Griffin, that transcended the UFC mainstream into what it is today. And the younger generation that might not know about that fight, you got to look that up, bro, man. You're going to go and just watch it for what it is. And UFC was struggling with the media, like, in mainstream, it's too violent. It's this. This could never go on. Those guys, that guy, and that fight just put UFC on the map.

And my last thing I just want to touch on is for any fight of the year category, fights, I'm listed one as Cosmott and Gilbert Burns. For my entertainment dollars, like, there was nothing. There was nothing. There was nothing for three rounds that matched that intensity, that whole fight. And I just want to say, awesome, listen to you, Mike. I can't always catch you every day. But again, happy holidays.

Merry, happy New Year, and have a heck of a morning. Talk to you later, brother. Thanks, man. Yeah, I mean, look, Hamzad, Gilbert was my number two. Just because I think the intensity is what put it over the top for me. Just being in the building, like I wasn't sitting cage-od watching it, but I was there in the media room as that fight was happening. It just you could even feel the intensity in the building down below there.

Like, it was like an earthquake. in the building during that fight. So that ended up being number two for me. It probably, to me, was Surukian Gamrot. Like, Surrogian Gamrod to me was my favorite fight, but you just have to weigh a lot of things in here. I'm going to get to you, Ani, because I know you have a lot of questions

about my rankings personally and some of the other staff members as well. But I like to weigh in different things when it comes to these awards. Like, what are the stakes? Where are we at? what was the significance of the moment? What did it mean?

All of this. And to me, Uri Glover was just, it was just incredible. For five rounds, these two went back and forth, looked like one guy was about to get finished. The other dude turns it around.

Looks like he's about to finish the other guy, turns it around. That happened for 24 minutes. It was so many emotional swings, so many physical changes of momentum. I've just never seen anything. like it in a five-round title fight. Burns and Shemayev was great,

but I just don't think it was that. I don't think it was that with the title on the line, main event spot, most people expected. And I think expectation kind of flies into it as well because I was very confident that even when Glover beat Yombovich to win the belt, I said he's going to fight Yeri Barashka,

he's going to take Yeri down in the first round, he's going to choke him out in the first round. Like the first time he takes him down, he's going to submit him. And boy, we're we close to getting that. And then the other side of the coin was, well, if Glover can't take him down in the first round, Uri's going to knock him out in like 15 seconds. Like he's going to knock him out.

Like if he shoots and takes him down and misses, year he's going to knock him out in 20 seconds. It's just the way that's just the way this fight's going to go. And we're all wrong. All of us were wrong. I just don't know if we're going to get a better fight than that for a long time with everything attached to it. But Bernshamai if is great. That's another great fight.

I agree with you on Stefan Bonner. We talked about that earlier. The Cheeto Sandhagen line I'm looking at right now has Sanhagen minus 150 and the comeback on Vera plus 130. But I'm sure there's different lines. Fights in February. So I'm sure lines are just kind of going up. And now I'm sure they'll probably get close to even as we get closer to February. That February card, what is that the 19th or 18th, February 18th?

when that one's going down. So let's just go to Ani here. And then we'll go to Jordan, then we'll go to gamble. Everyone waiting, we'll get to you. Ani, hello, my friend. Yes, I'm good. How are you? Merry Christmas.

And I also sent another tweet. I don't know if you saw it. So before I move into the MMA stuff, I just want to, you know, thank you and the entire MMA fighting team for giving all of us this platform where we can share, you know, views. You know, sometimes we have friends and we watch fights with friends, but, you know, where I am right now, I am the only person who is a hardcore MMA fan.

The others are just into either football or cricket or any other sports. So this is an opportunity for me to, you know, share my views and exchange and even listen to others' perspectives on a few fights or a few decisions or, you know, various perspectives. and I'm really grateful for that. And I thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak to you to a natural journalist who is within the loop. Moving on, I would like to say that I'm absolutely disgusted that San Hagen versus Marlon Vera is in the apex. I mean, you know, when you know that doing something is bad, I mean, when you know that it is wrong, Why do you do it? It's like, did you ever, have you ever eaten Indian food, Mike?

You know, red chili powder is extremely spicy. Have you ever opened a packet of red chili powder and chucked it in your eye? You have not, right? Why? Because it sucks. Why is UFC doing the same damn thing by putting fights in the apex? I seriously don't understand. And are they blind?

Are they blind and are they like intellectually blind? I don't understand that. So anyway, that's that was just a mini rant. I don't want to keep going on and on. So and about the awards thing. So before I, you know, go into it, I just wanted to say that it was just for a healthy debate and I was not taking any shots at you because I saw the other tweets, you know, in that threat and people were just, man, I just hate these, you know,

awards that you people give. It's just so biased. And, you know, there were people all over the place. But I just had a healthy debate, you know, a change in opinion. So my question was, so when you say a submission of the year or a knockout of the year or a fighter of the year, so, okay, maybe fighter of the year, you can have a lot of stakes. But when you say submission of the year, the first thing that comes to my mind is what is the

skill set? What is the technique? Have we seen that technique before? and how intelligently was that technique applied. So when you think of all that, you know, people like, you know, Tom Aspinall, that straight arm lock was beautiful. And, you know, the position where he was at. And even Jessica and Raj, so these two people came into my mind.

I also thought about Islam Mark Achael, and I did have Ii Prohaska. So the way I had, you know, the nominees of submissions of the year rant, would end with Yeri Prohaska, as in whatever rankings you give, you end it with Yeri Prohaska. Because when you're talking about the submission, I think it's better to look at the technique. And since MMA fighting has the freedom of making their own categories, I think you could have made, you know, a category something of like, you know, the warrior spirit award or, you know, something like, you know, you know what I mean, right? You could have made another category. That's where you could have given it to either Iri Prohaska or Leon Edwards, any one of them. So Iri Prowaska was getting battered.

Even Glover was getting battered. But Yri Prowaska was getting battered and still he was able to find the finish. So more than the submission of the year, all the stakes that you looked at, it actually points towards, you know, the warrior at heart that he is. It should have been, you know, you should create that category to award fighters for their, you know, for their heart. Because I, but such things are acknowledged on the commentary and such things are usually just, you know, discussed on the social media, but never really awarded for. You know what I mean? And if this actually becomes a culture and if this award becomes really famous, like the MMA fighting Warrior Award or MMA fighting Heart of a Warrior Award, I think it's going to be really nice.

because you're such a big organization. That's what I had in mind. And to finish off, I just wanted to ask you, the fight that they were thinking about Adrian Yannes, is that a ranked opponent? You just have to give us a hint, and I just want to figure that out. And any update on who the potential opponent for Tatiana Suarez is,

I guess that's a lot for you to unpack. Thank you, Mike. Thank you again for listening to me. Thanks, man. Suarez, no idea. everyone's keeping that one pretty close to the vest. I'm not going to answer the Adrian Yonnas question. Yeah, okay, the fighter's ranked.

I'll say that. But that's as far as I'm going with that. And the fight's still kind of on the table. It's just, I don't know if it happens because Adrian really wants to fight March 25th in San Antonio. That means more to him than anything else. The awards thing, here's kind of how I, here's kind of how I, here's kind of how I, I look at the awards, okay? And there's like so many different ways you can do it.

It's all based on taste and what you think. Like some people dive a little bit deeper into submissions. I look at some, you know, preliminary bouts on certain cards. And, you know, sometimes I look at that. Like to me, like, if the topic is like mixed martial arts fight of the year, the best mixed martial arts fight of the year was Armand Sarukyam versus Matush Gamran. 1,000%. That was, if we're talking like high level mixed martial arts fighting, technique, all of it, that is the fight of the year.

Unequivocally, that's the fight of the year, in my opinion. But the category is not like, what is this the best mixed martial arts fight of the year? It's Sirukia on Gamrod by a mile and it's not close. But when we're talking about a fight of the year, like it's a fight. and we look at Yuri and Glover and that, like, that's, to me, is different. And we look at knockout of the year. Like, to me,

Chandler's knockout of Tony Ferguson is the craziest. It's just insane. That should probably be the winner. But what I think, like, how I do my awards is, okay, if I, if, when I think knock out of the year, I basically, like, will close my eyes. I'm like, what's the first thing that I remember? Like, what's the constant in my mind?

It's Leon Edwards's foot going across the face. of Kamar Usman. Like, it was such a crazy moment. It's a Mount Rushmore moment for the UFC. And his greatest Chandler's knockout was, it's not a Mount Rushmore moment. We've seen other front kicks to the face. Not saying that that wasn't impressive

because that's probably like the best or the second best front kick to the face you'll ever see. But it's not a Mount Rushmore moment. It didn't change the history of the promotion. And Edwards knocking out Oussman, it's one of those ones that kind of changes the history of the promotion in a way. It's going to be in every highlight reel. It's one of the craziest finishes of all time. No one saw it coming.

It's just incredible. So that has to win. And Yuri gets a submission for me for a number of reasons. One, it's not the most technical thing, but it's the same thing as like Amanda Nunes getting submitted by Giuliana Pena. Was that like the most pretty submission of all time? No. but it was so unlikely and of all the ways

that certain fights could go did you expect no one expected Giuliana to submit Amanda Nunes and no one on God's green earth thought that Yuri Perashka could or would submit Glover

to share her that night at UFC 275 a minute away from losing the fight he's almost getting stopped and then somehow he submits the submission machine like that's just ridiculous theater it's just ridiculous theater

and is it the most technical beautiful submission of the air? No, but with everything involved is it the most memorable submission? Fuck yeah, it is because nobody saw it coming. Nobody saw it coming. No one could have ever predicted it. So to me, that was the winner for me. But I get where you're coming from.

Like some people like aesthetic beauty and technique of submissions. I'm not here to argue with you. If everyone wants to argue with us, not saying you're doing that, but a lot of people just want to shit on on the awards. And it's not just us. It's like every award, every award show, every awards format,

everybody has an opinion. Everyone thinks they're a freaking expert. I'm not saying you, Andy. I'm not calling you out specifically because you're very respectful at everything, and I appreciate all the kind words. But there are people who have not been respectful about it. And I remember the first awards write up I ever wrote for MMA fighting. It was the breakout fighter of the year for 2020,

Kevin Holland did not win the award. Hamzat Shamaev did, and people were calling for me to be fired from the website. When I voted for Kevin Holland, I voted personally for Kevin Holland to win that award, but Hamzad won it, and I totally understood why. But people were pissed at me

just because I wrote the article. But I'm not the only one voting. Everyone votes. So sometimes these awards fall into different places. And some people vote differently than I. others. It's just, it's taste and appeal and what you see. That's how the votes happen. That's why you have your own individual votes. That's why you pick your top five. That's why it was important for AK and I to do the BTL last week to let you know how these awards work. Just because I write an article

or AK writes an article or Damon writes an article does not mean that he's choosing the award himself. There's a staff of like 10 or 12 of us, even GC's on the panel. G. G.C.'s on the M.A.R. G.C. who is a producer of the M.A.R. doesn't write anything for us. I love G.C. We do the watch parties together. But he's on the panel, too. And everyone has their own vision. Everyone has their own tastes. Everyone has their own definition for these awards. And the breakout one was always so tough because it could be like an established fighter who just was like a mid-level guy, like a Charles Oliveira. And then all of a sudden, boom, he broke out. Or you could look at that award. like Hamzaa Chimaev, nobody knew who this guy was. And then all of a sudden, he wins three or four fights. And boom, he's about to fight Leon Edwards in a number one contender fight at the end of 2020. Totally justified. Totally justified.

But awards are tough, man. It's just different tastes. And you're talking about millions and millions of fans who have their own taste. Some are very hipster about it. Some just hate different things. And another one that's kind of divisive too, and I think it was actually unanimous with us, was the fighter of the year.

Alex Pereira, to me, this is kind of a no-brainer. Three and O, unranked a champion. That wins it pretty much every time. Pretty much every time. But to me, Volcanovsky, if you want to vote for Volkinovsky, I am mad at you because that frigging guy, to picture perfect title defenses,

If we're looking at, in my opinion, if I could list the top 10 best title defenses in UFC history, Volcanovsky's title defenses in 2022 are two of the top 10. But it's just hard to ignore a guy going from unranked to world champion, even though the promotion pushed him that way. It's just he was the only guy that could win it. He was the only guy that could win it. Even if, like if Adasani had beat Pereira,

I would have given it to Volcanowski. over Adasania. Even though Adasani had had an extra victory under his belt, I still would have given it to Volk over him.

But Pereira, he was the only guy that could beat Volk, in my opinion. And him winning the belts against Israel on that card, one of the best of the year, the way that card concluded,

it has to be him. But I get the Volcanowski love. That's for sure. But I'm glad awards are almost over. By the way, I'll get to you in a second, Jordan. We might have some more MMA fighting awards coming your way. Maybe tomorrow. Different ones. The best of the rest. Stay tuned for that. Jordan, hello. Mike, heck of a morning. I just wanted to get to, and it'll be a short question today. Belator and Risen's card, I listened to Luke Thomas and

Brian Campbell talk about it yesterday, and they made the point, and, you know, obviously I think everybody in here would think it's the same, but like, this isn't going to persuade the UFC to ever, ever do a cross-promotion. There's nothing for them to gain. There's zero until there's a legitimate, like number two that's got legitimate fighters that we question if they could be the best in the world, which Belator is getting to, mind you, Belator is getting to. But they're just still is not a singular organization I think they'll ever do a cross-promotion.

with. And the second thing, two of my partners that I roll with were on the MMA Fighting Awards, submission of the year awards on the wrong end. And that was not, that was not my highlight of listening to the MMA fighting awards of the year. Hey, let me, let me ask you this real quick, because I just want to clarify this, because you said, and I agree, none of this is going to make the UFC want to co-promote with anybody. And they're not going to unless, you know, an ALEC comes into play and then co-promotion doesn't matter because everyone's just going to get mixed a match

anyways. But are you saying that Bellator is on its way to being the number two, like a standalone number two? Is that what you're trying to say? No, I think of Bel... Oh, you there? Yeah, I got you. I got you. Go ahead. No, I think Bellator's

a clear cut number two right now. I just, they're not a strong enough number two to make to make it so the UFC would do anything with them. Okay. That was my... Fair enough. No, I hear you.

I hear you. The reason I brought that question up is, are they, though? Like, are they clear cut number two? I don't know if that's the case anymore. Like, I just, I don't know. Like, I kind of feel like the PFL is like right there. At worst, their neck is, like, right there. At worst, their neck is.

neck with Bellator. And look, the PFL, and by the way, I can't wait to do this BTL with Jed, because this is our promotional festivist. So we're going to talk about the good and a lot of the bad from 2020 for these promotions.

PFL has done a lot of bad. I mean, a lot of bad. Belator has done a lot of bad, too. UFC has done a lot of bad. but one thing PFL has done very well is they have promoted their cards exceptionally well and their final events of the year, the finals, even though it was absolute ludicracy and stupidity that they charged $50 plus for a freaking pay-per-view of that card, that card is really good and they got a lot of buzz and momentum from that card.

there have been very few Bellator events this year that have gotten them a ton of momentum. It just isn't there. And this card on Saturday, this co-promote with Bryson, it didn't need as much pressure on Belator as there is on them. Like, there's a lot of pressure on Belator. And it's not because of the media and it's not because of anything else. It's because of Belator. Like people who work for their company are just sitting there saying this is the greatest event in the history of the sport. And what if it isn't?

What if it isn't? Like some of these names that people recognize are just putting all this pressure on this card to deliver. And I understand that it's a two horse race and there's two promotions involved. And there's a very strong world that we live in where this agent McKee-Satoshi fight could not be fun. Like, there's a chance that this is not a fun fight. Like, because I think the best chance for A.J. McKee to win this fight is he's going to have to sort of be, how do what? Like, I'm trying to figure out, like, the best way to present this. It's not the same, all right?

It's not the same, but it's kind of similar. This is very Olavera Makachev-esque. And when I say that is that A.J. McKee is so successful with chaos. like he needs that chaos to survive like look at the spite carlyle fight fight is insane when you put him in a chaotic situation he loves it Satoshi is a very slow methodical technical wizard and he just takes your chaotic moments he slows them down he takes your chaotic energy

and just saps it away and then he strangles you so it's almost like AJ has to fight like a very slow methodical pace and just not make mistakes he almost has to fight like a you have to fight not not to lose kind of a scenario

I think that's like his best chance to beat Satoshi but this is a very and if he does that it's a very real chance of this fight is a snoozer having said that I don't know if it's possible that for AJ to do that so I don't know

but there's just so much pressure put on this card that didn't need to be there. And the fact that it's not live, it just hurts Bellator. And it's not their faults. I know that they want this to be live. From what I understand, they did everything they could to try to make this live for the U.S. It just didn't happen. So I don't know. It's been a tough.

I honestly, this is a tough year for Bellator, really tough. I think PFL had a really good year. I think Bellator had a tough year. And they've done better. There are certain things they have done better in builds to have them stand out to be a little more interesting. But overall, they have a lot of work to do. And I just don't know if I agree that they're a clear cut number two. I just, I think heading into 2022 they were.

But coming out of it, I don't know if they are. I don't know if they are. and as much as I like to dump on one championship, they've had some good moments themselves. But promotionally, they're awful. I mean, they are worse than Bellator when it comes to promoting events. I mean, nobody knew Roberta Soldich is making his promotional debut until like the day of the card. And that just shouldn't happen.

And I want all these, I want Bellator to do well. Like, I really do. I really want them to succeed. but they just, they just keep getting in their own way. It's so frustrating. Gamblers Inferno. Burn, baby burn.

What's up? You're muted. I don't know if you can hear me or not. Oh, good morning. Hey, can you hear me? What's up? Yep, I got you. How are you?

Good. I would second that too that. I think the PFL took great strides this year into taking that number two spot because their product was really good this year. So just wanted to say that. But my main question is, I can't remember what preview or post show it was, that you mentioned that the UFC was trying to do something different with the San Antonio card.

And I was wondering if you could maybe expand on that as much as you can. Sure. It didn't come to fruition. There were talks about, and I talked to like multiple people about this. And I know colleagues of mine have had these conversations. conversations as well. There was talks about having the March 25th card be an all women's event. It was like very early stage. But there were talks about doing that, doing that sort of format, like a women's empowerment type thing. And I don't know if they're still going to do that.

Like they might still do that in some way. But obviously, we have other fights that have been added to that card that and that have men attached to it. So there were early talks that they were trying to maybe do something like that. And I know this because originally the Anthony Smith-Gemal Hill fight was going to happen March 25th. And they ended up moving it up to March 11th because there was talks about possibly doing something like that. It didn't end up happening. Like I said, it was like at the early stages because they had enough time to maybe put that together. And it just didn't happen.

It just didn't happen. know if it has anything to do with the location or anything, but there were just like initial talks about possibly doing that. Nothing was like close to being done. So don't go out reporting and tweeting any of the shit. But that was a conversation. That was had from multiple people that I've spoken with. But not doing that. Maybe they'll still have some sort of theme to it in that sense, but it's just not going to be like an all-female card, at least for this one. But that's what I had heard from a lot of people involved. And it looks like that's not going to happen anymore.

That's okay. That's okay. A great concept. Let's go to Gero and then we'll go to Max and we'll go to Dante and that's it. I got to go after this. Jero, hello. Hello, can you hear me? Yep.

Awesome. Good morning, Mike. Thanks for having me on. So yesterday, Derek Brunson and Jake Stupaci got announced for 285. And I just wanted to ask, you think Hamza v. Colby would be the co-main or featured about on the main card under Sterling Zeghudo, if possible. And also, what do you think is happening with Jalen Turner? And who do you think you can match them up with if you had the choice?

Thank you. Jalen Turner, I mean, look, the Drew Dober fight is right there. sure we called him out Jaylen wanted it just do that I'm cool with it totally cool with that had Patty Pimbled like beat Jared Gordon

and I mean like beat him like we came out of it all thinking he won I would have gone with Patty versus Jalen Turner but no one thinks Patty won that fight except for Patty and a few other people

so yeah do the Drew Dober fight it's fun as hell it's fun as hell Colby Homs I have no idea. Like, honestly, I have no idea. And like I said, a few other times,

Sterling Sohudo isn't done. It's not done yet. It's not done. Maybe it has to do with Hamzad. I don't know. Because if you put, like, if somehow the UFC does, if we get Ingano versus Jones,

and then they have the choice of like, oh, what could be like a five-round co-main event? Do we want, do we do Colby versus Hamzot? Or do we do Sterling, versus Zahudo. Colby versus Hamzaat wins by 5 trillion miles. And at that point, you don't even need that

fight on that card. Because you already got 2-5 rounders. Like, you don't need Sterling Sehudo on that card. And there's no chance you have to be like, well, Sterling Sehudo is for the title. So let's put that over Colby versus Hamzad.

There's no chance they have that conversation. So, yeah, Hamza's saying nobody wants to fight him. It's a weird situation. We'll see. All this is developing. We don't know. Hamzat's like all over the place. Fighting at 185.

Let's fight Alex Pereira. Let's fight at 205. Let's fight at 170. Where are you at Colby? He's all over the place. I don't know what's going to happen with this guy in 20203. Max, hello. I'm making sure.

What's up? Oh, nothing much, brother. Just a bit under the weather after my vacation, classic. So, you know, just trying to, you know, still have to go to work. So it is what it is. So trying to brighten my day by coming on your podcast. So I appreciate you making room for me, brother.

Thanks. So I just would like to ask about what fight you're most looking forward to in 20203? I hopped on a bit late here. So if someone asked, I apologize in advance. But what fight are you, like, most looking forward to in the new year coming up? For me, I'm really, since we talked about last time, I'm really curious to see how Kelvin does. Maybe not my favorite, but definitely the one I'm most intrigued about

because I feel like Nasserdeen can make a massive jump, whereas Kelvin may fall into a total obscurity. But yeah, what fight are you most looking forward to next year? Thanks, brother. I mean, Cheeto Sandhagen's friggin's fun as hell. It's a really fun fight. Let me just pull it up, bro. I'll be pull up.

I mean, Figgie Moreno is super fun. I could watch those guys fight forever. Kind of a cheap, cheap answer. Obviously, Usman Edwards 3 is a lot of fun. But, yeah, it's, it's, it's, Mockachev Volkadovsky's the correct answer. I think Mokachev's going to win, but I think Volkadovsky is a better chance

than a lot of people are giving him. It's just such an interesting fight. It just seems like, like, if we thought about this in July, would we, we'd be talking about this? Let's just say June. June, do you think we'd be having conversation?

Like, oh, I wonder if Mokachev and Volkovsky would fight each other. We're not having this conversation. And now we are and the fights on the freaking books. So yeah, it's absolutely wild. So that's probably the answer for me. But that could change in an instant as the sport typically does. Dante, hello. All right.

So I just have two quick questions. My first one is, how far do you think Anthony, Smith is from a title shot. And my second is, how do you think Drew Dober does against the other exciting lightweets like Gaichy and Porier? Ooh.

I mean, I think he's in all of those fights. Hmm. I would favor both of them to beat Drew, but I'm not counting amount of either of those fights. He's just, the dude's so durable, and he hits so hard.

He'd be probably he'd be a sizable underdog in both of those fights. He's probably, he's probably an underdog in every single fight in the top 15 right now. Hold on a second. Okay, so we have confirmed officially that Jeff Neal, Shafcott, Rukhmanoff,

no longer happening, January 14th. So, I mean, I know we talked about it enough here, but we have a, officially confirmed it as well. So there you go. Stay tuned. That's about to go on m-fiting.com any matter of moments. So what a day.

Sad. Speaking of intriguing fights, that was probably one of the more intriguing fights that has been on the books for 2020. But like I said earlier, You keep Shafat on that card. You let him do the damn thing. And just let him smush somebody. And we'll go from there.

But, okay, four-quarter sports, I have you. No, would you go? There we go. Four-quarter sports. Hey, so I saw Big Marcell reported that earlier, and I wanted to bring that up, but I wasn't sure if it was confirmed or not. But, I mean, what are you going to do with Shafat at that point?

Are you going to have to put them on ice? I mean, find replacement. No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. You bring in anybody for corner sports. I don't care who it is. There are some youngsters looking for that UFC phone call at 170 or 155. You pick up the phone, you call them.

They say yes, you let him smash somebody. That's what we do. We got to get this guy on television. That's what we have to do. All right. Well, I'm hoping for the scene, and I'm hoping that nothing happens to Jailton Almeida. I mean, I feel like those are two people that, you know,

are having, like, bad luck of the draw. in the comes to getting fights, Jelton and Shopcut. But all right, Mike, I think that you're back, and I hope you enjoyed vacation. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, ma'am.

Yeah, some tough news, but it is what it is. All right, so we're done. Thank you very much. Appreciate all of you, as always. Wasn't planning on doing a show like a week ago, but here we are. And guess what?

We're going to do another one tomorrow. And maybe we'll do another type of show-ish kind of thing on Saturday, super early in the morning, for the Bellator versus Rizot event, since I'll be able to watch it live. People in the United States will not be able to, but I can let you know what the hell is happening. We'll let you know what we're going to do with that.

On the flip side, Jed and I are going to do our promotional festivists for BTL. We're going to record that in about 90 minutes from right now. That'll be a podcast only. and then next week, sort of back to normal, kicking off 2023, multiple shows a week of this show. We'll be back on video for BTL. Ariel will be back next Wednesday for the MMA Hour award show. So there'll be a lot to look forward to for 2020, 23 and beyond.

So thank you very much. Back tomorrow for the final heck of a morning of the year. Have a great rest of your Thursday. And as always, have a heck of a morning, everybody. Thank you.