MMA Fighting - HOAM | Rose Namajunas vs. Manon Fiorot Booked For UFC Paris Instant Reaction

Episode Date: June 23, 2023

The beauty of doing a live show in the MMA space is that when big news gets confirmed, you can react to it in real time — and that's what happened on Friday with the confirmation of the UFC Paris flyweight bout between former strawweight champion Rose Namajunas and Manon Fiorot. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck gives an instant reaction to the Namajunas vs. Fiorot matchmaking. Additionally, listener questions include the UFC bantamweight title picture, Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko 2 on tap for Sept. 16, Erin Blanchfield's championship potential, Cory Sandhagen getting matched up with Umar Nurmagomedov, options for the vacant UFC women's bantamweight title, how Holly Holm could potentially shake things up, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: 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 reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original blockbuster,

the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, ghosts in the machine, available now, only from Audible.

The Vox Media Podcast Network. It is Friday, June 23rd. We need a heck of a morning. We are live on the M.A. Fighting Twitter space if you can hear the show in its entirety, shortly thereafter on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. I am Mike Heck. Hope everyone is having a fantastic week, a wonderful start to the weekend.

It is Friday. It's always a great thing, especially on this show. It means it's a free-for-all Friday. We can talk about the wonderful world of mixed martial arts. We can talk about whatever the hell you want. We obviously have some mixed martial arts coming up this weekend, including tonight, PFL, back at it with PFLC, six we got welterweights we got lightweights the main event olivia aubbin mercier taking on anthony

ramara a little canada versus canada boussay sada buchel shane burgos yamato nishikawa and much more i know last week's pfl card got a lot more buzz because francis is going to be there and morris green was fighting so new john jones is going to be there but this card much better than last week's card. I mean, it's not even close. It's night and day. This card is much better. Hopefully the pacing is not an absolute nightmare.

But all in all, it's a pretty good looking card. Should be a fun watch. Some mismatches, as we typically see with the PFL during the regular season, they kind of have mapped out who they would like to win certain fights and all that fun stuff, but we'll see how it plays out. And then tomorrow, early day MMA, UFC Jacksonville on ABC.

I will be there. I'm very excited. First fight 11.30 a.m. Eastern Time, at least as of right now, it's just wonderful. Just wonderful. 3 p.m. main card start. It'll all be capped off by a fun featherweight matchup

between Josh Emmett And the surging Ilya, we got Amanda Hebas versus Macy Barber, former Jaguars player, Austin Lane, taking on Justin Taffa, David Onama, Gabriel Santos, Brendan Allen, the M.A fighting middleweighty, middleweighty, middleweight champion taking on Bruno Silva, his second title defense. We got Neil Maggi, Phil Rowe. It's a pretty good card. Wayans are over already.

We did not last very long about an hour. hours time, everybody has stepped on the scale. Most were successful on the scale. Some were not. We had three fighters miss. Loik Radzaboff came in pretty early, 157 and a quarter. So you miss weight by one and a quarter pounds. I believe the wonderful and honorable best friend of mind, Alexander K. Lee had an update on that fight on the MA fighter Twitter page. A fight will go forward as of right now. 20% of Radzabov's purse goes to Matush Rebeki. We also had Jamal Emmer's miss weight by a pound for his fight against Jack Jenkins. I assume that fight will be happening. The big miss of the of the Wayans came from Cletson Rodriguez, missing weight by three pounds for his

matchup with undefeated phenom tatsuro tyra he weighed in at one twenty nine i believe that is the second time clitzen has missed weight at flyweight let me just uh make sure i have my facts straight he made wait for the c j vergarra fight at ufc 274 he missed weight by a pound for ufc 284 the fight with Shannon Ross. And now we, another big weight miss. This is a big one. It'll be interesting to see how that'll all play out. I assume the fight will go on.

But I don't think Tetsu Retire is taking 20%. I think we're going to be bumping that up a little bit. So there you go. Everybody else was good to go. All the main card on weight. We have the three misses. We have an update on one of the fights as we do the show live. And if anything else pops up, we will let you know.

But let's get into this thing. Free for all Friday. Let's talk to you. Zach, kick us off. Hey, Mike, heck of a morning. Two quick questions for you. I got to get, as a fellow Boston Celtics fan, I got to get your thoughts on the events of the last two days.

And other question, as we see the apex, I know everybody's sick of everyone complaining about the apex. I'm not the biggest fan. I don't really care one way or another. But what's your dream small city for the UFC to go to? I live in Redding, Pennsylvania. We have an 8,000-person arena. In my opinion, that's like the perfect thing to get us out of the apex,

is to get us going to some of these small arenas that can fit. You know, obviously we're not going to sell out. They're not going to sell out something like the Prudential Center with Ilya and Josh Emmett. But maybe they could sell out something. smaller, like less than 10,000 people. So I just want to get your thoughts on those two things. Thanks.

Well, I mean, part of the UFC success is that cities and towns, whether it be in the United States or other parts of the world, they are calling the UFC and saying, hey, we will pay you all this money if you come to our city. And that's what happens when you are a successful thriving business and people see that they want their economy and their town to be boosted. And the arenas in the area is part of that. So they will pay the UFC a bunch of money to come to the area. We've seen him with Salt Lake City. Jacksonville, Dana White has said many times, the reason this card is happening in Jacksonville is that they owe them one more because Jacksonville let them host a bunch of events once the

pandemic was going on and sports were done. So this is kind of like the last piece of the puzzle in order to fulfill that deal. They've had deals with Houston. Like I said, Salt Lake City. They just, now we're getting it with, with other parts of the world. There's a deal. Like, these are deals. And if, if the, the Chamber of Commerce in Redding, Pennsylvania wants to pay the UFC a

bunch of money to come to their town, then I think the UFC would listen to them. Other than that, probably not going to happen. I mean, if, honestly, if I had my, my dream small town, something, that I can get to very easily. Savannah, Georgia. You could do something there. They have an arena here. If WWE comes here a bunch.

So that'd be a pretty cool place to do it. That's probably like the only place near me that would actually make sense. So I think that just because it would be I could do the whole fight week thing and never leave my house outside of just going to the events. Take me 25 minutes to get to and from every single day. So I would love that. As far as the Celtics, man, I don't hate it the more I think about it

like I look Marcus Smart has been has been great he's been great works his ass off pain in the ass defender good vision on the court when he's on when he's really on

he shoots lights out he's got leadership dude dude was really good like we probably got the best of Marcus Smart during his his time in Boston. And I kind of feel like this was a New England Patriots-esque kind of move where

Belichick would always know, like, oh, they just dealt Thai law? How could you deal an all-pro player? Or they just dealt lawyer Malloy. Why would you do that? It's because they knew. They knew that the best days are probably behind them. And I kind of feel like that's the case for Marcus Smart. I feel like he's still going to be a very solid.

hand. He's going to be a very solid hand in Memphis. I think he's going to be a good fit there. But I don't think he's going to be the same dude. I think probably he'll take a small step back in terms of numbers and contributions.

Christopps Prozingis, this is a great fit if he can stay healthy. He had a good year. He had a good year last year. The issue with him is his durability is is so risky. But if he can play

if he can play 65, 70 games and be healthy for the playoffs, I think this is going to be a good move. I think this will end up being a pretty good move. And it sucks when you lose a guy that everybody loves, guy who plays his ass off for your team. But I think the risk is worth it.

But we need him to say healthy. If he only plays like 15 games because he gets hurt, then it's going to be an awful trade. It's going to be a disaster. But if you can go out and play 50, 60 games and be healthy all throughout the playoff run, I'm in. I'm cautiously optimistic.

It's kind of hard to, this is like my fanmanship to compare it. This is like the PFL signing Francis Ghano. Has potential to be great, but we need to wait and see how this all plays out before. we can actually make judgment. And I kind of feel like we can't really judge this trade until the end of the 2020-20-3-24 season. That's how I'm looking at it. I will be cautiously optimistic for now.

But if he goes down and like game three and he's out for the rest of the season, then I'll be pissed, obviously. Four Corner Sports. Hello. Hey, so I, by the way, I did like that trade. I just think it's going to open up a lot of spacing for, you know, Tatum and, Brown and maybe Brock then can slide into that role of what Marcus Mark was, but he won't ever fulfill the shoes of what Celtic fans want.

So that's just my opinion. But I saw yesterday the Big Marcel, and I think the Schmole said that Valentino Cholchenko versus Alexa Grasso is set to be the, I guess, like the headliner for Mexican Independence Day, September 16, and that's a fight night. Were you guys able to confirm that? by any chance. And I figured that was going to be the headliner. I'm just wondering when the UFC is probably going to announce Raquel Pennington, Julian

Pena. I have a strong feeling that, you know, they might end up announcing it. You know, typically, typical USC, I feel like they're going to end up announcing it maybe like around the Sydney card just because of the fact that, you know, they might need, you know, just to bolster up the card and which would make no sense for both those ladies to be a co-mean event. in Sydney of all places. But last thing

I wanted to talk about, so is there, what are the chances you think that Zagas and the rule of ends of fighting tomorrow just because I feel like he's been in a series of bad luck? And that's what I have to say. All right, thanks, Mike. First of all, don't you dare

put that negative energy out here? I'm not even going to comment on this. I'm not going to jinx anything. I want to see this fight. I want to see, and I think, Joshua Van is going to be a great addition to this division. That dude is an animal. Kind of sucks that he's taking the fight on, you know, a week and a half's notice, but the dude's an

animal. So it should be an interesting fight. Zalgus is on a tough run, but there's some splities in there that a lot of people thought he won, and he's fought like pretty good guys. Like his level of competition has been really strong. So this will be an interesting fight, much like the Porzingis trade, cautiously optimistic. As I've said on the show for the last couple of weeks, the discussions were ongoing to do Valentina Shepchenko versus Alexegraso. I actually woke up this morning around 6.30 and woke up to official confirmation. That fight's happening.

September 16th. It's happening. The rematch for the Women's Flyway title. as of now that it's positioned to be a fight night event. I don't know if it's going to get moved to a pay-per-view or not. I think, honestly, it's all going to depend on what happens in the middleweight division. But still, I think they will do everything they can to make sure that's pay-few. Because why would you go to Sydney and make a big deal out of this and then book Whitaker DDP

and say the winner's going to fight Izzy in the fall in Sydney and then not do something with Izzy? I feel like it's such a missed opportunity if Izzy doesn't fight a lot. on that card. But if he doesn't fight on that card, what the hell's going to headline? And that's a big question. We've been talking about this. And man, oh man, my mention's been a mess since Tuesday talking about this middleweight division. Because New York Rick put it out there into the universe on Tuesday, you know what? You know it would be a good idea? Let's put bow nickel in the fight with Israel-A-Sahia. If nobody else is available, let's throw good old bow in there. Because he's probably going to be Trishong Gore, and it's going to generate attention.

That's for damn sure. So, and then, of course, we talked about it again on BTL, and that, yeah, that just ruined my mentions for the last 48 hours. So hold on one second. A little work thing. There we go. But yeah, the middleweight division thing is a mess. but Shepchenco Grasso Chfchenko 2 happening September 16th

it's all but on the marquee at this point. I don't know when they were going to announce it, but I would say probably sooner rather than later. Look, it seems clear that Pennington Payne is the fight to make, but are we 100% convinced that's it? I don't know.

It should be the fight. It should be the fight, but let's not forget. In like three weeks, Holly Holm is fighting Myra Bueno Silva in a five-round-made event. And we know that UFC loves to give Holly Holm title shots. And she hasn't had one in a minute. In a hot minute. So I think they're going to kind of wait and see how that fight plays out before they announce anything. Because if Holly Holmone goes in there, it just melts Myra Bueno Silva.

She goes out there and just head kicks her and finishes her. it finishes during the first round. I don't think that's what's going to happen. But let's just say that she does. Let's just say she goes out there and knocks out Myr-Boyna-Silver in the first round. She's jumping the line. There's no doubt about it.

And it'll probably do Holly Holme versus Giuliana Pena. Because I don't think anybody wants to see Holly Holieholm, Raquel Pennington, three. I don't think anybody wants to see that. So I would say we're going to have to wait and see. Jed Michoud blew my mind on BTL two weeks ago.

or last week when he mentioned what about Ronda Rousey? Could this open things up for the UFC to reach out to Ronda Rousey and say, hey, why don't you come back and fight for the belt and just see how it goes? Let's try to write the wrong,

let's try to get the bad taste out of people's mouths. Let's try to fix the image. I know she's with WWE, but guess who all works together now? Guess who's all under the same umbrella? So that would just be, freaking wild. That would be freaking wild.

But yeah, if it was up to me in a meritocratic world, we do Pennington versus Pena, I would like to see it. I would like to see the UFC do like an actual tough finale event, not just throw it in the apex. Like just do a, you know,

2,500, 3,000 seat arena. That fucking headline. That fight can headline. I understand they just like to make two title fight pay-per-views. But is that fight really going to draw any extra pay-per-view buys? Not really.

Is that a game changer? No. Could it get a few more ESPN plus subscriptions for people to watch that fight? A title fight? Absolutely. Let's just do that. Looks like Grasso Shivchenko is going to be

as of right now. That's going to be on a fight night card. Why not? Let's have some fun with this. go full circle with this whole thing. Let's go to Cole. Good morning, Mike. I really enjoyed your chat with John Anick the other day

and was happy to hear that you both are planning to go to UFC Nashville. I just have a question about just a matchmaking with Cheeto and Corey. With Corey went in that last fight between those two and seemingly him getting a tougher fight while Marlins getting Sehudo. just kind of, am I kind of overreacting? I'm a big Corey fan, so I'm a little pissed off that he has to fight this monster, but I do believe in him. But what do you make of Cheeto getting that Sehudo fight and then Corey getting the tough one?

Look, they're both tough fights. They're both tough fights. Obviously, the bigger name Cheeto got, Henry Sehudo is the more well. known name, just fought for the title, all that stuff. We talked about this yesterday, and this is a business move for the UFC. Now, Maro O'Varek continues to tweet out, like sign the contract, sign the contract. I knew this fight was in the works a couple of weeks ago. I mentioned on this show, when we're running down the 292 lineup, there could be a couple more

ban on-of-eight fights added to the mix. One was officially announced. Actually, I think they both were. Rob Font, Song Yudong, UFC officially announced. I was told that the contract was actually signed yesterday for that fight. So that is 100% ago. Suhudo Vera's been in the works for a little while. The plan for Suhudo was Marab.

That was the plan. Marab got hurt, had to do some surgery. Sohudo was kind of hopeful maybe September, October. We could maybe do that fight, but Marab probably won't be clear to even, get to full-time training until that time frame, September October-ish, so So Houdo wanted to fight on this Boston card.

So if he wasn't going to fight Marab, he wanted to fight on this Boston card. This is, I believe it's the 10 or 15-year anniversary for when he won the gold medal. So the date means a lot to him, so he wanted to compete on the card. Cheeto was kind of always the name in play once Marab was off the table. But this is a business move for the UFC.

This is a business move for the UFC. Because, and it all has to do with the main event of that card. It all has to do with the title fight. Because if Sean O'Malley beats Al Jermaine Sterling, then the winner of Suhudo versus Vera, we have history with both of those guys with Sean O'Malley. History with both of them. So we have the back and forth in the shit talk between O'Malley and Sehudo.

the biggest fight in the Bannamweight division that can be made right now is Sean O'Malley versus Marlon Verra too especially if there's a title on the line. So they're just planting seeds. And if Al Jemaine Sterling wins and he's obviously going to, he's said it many times,

he's probably going to vacate the belt. Maraub will step in and fight for the belt. If it's Suhudo, there's history there. If it's Cheeto, I mean, there's not really a lot of history with Cheeto and Morab will. Rob. So Cheetos is probably the odd man out if Al Jermaine Sterling wins.

But Sohudo is very much in play. The Sanhagen Umar fight, man, I kind of feel for Sanhagen. He is a G. Good for him. But I wouldn't say Sanhagen's like out of the title discussion altogether. If Al Jemaine Sterling wins on August 19th, it vacates the title. and somehow Corey Sanhagan beats Umar and Magamatoff they will probably do Corey Sanhagan versus Marab for the Bacon title

but this is all to potentially get to Sean O'Malley fighting either Suhudo or Cheeto for the title. The UFC will never openly come out and say this but they are hoping Sean O'Malley wins this fight. There's no doubt about it. They are hoping Sean O'Malley wins this fight so that they could do business because like,

I said, shot up, this pay-per-view is going to do really well. Like, it's not going to do incredible numbers, but it's going to do pretty, pretty solid numbers. And it will help if O'Malley wins, it's going to build him as an even bigger star, and he will become a pay-per-view draw. There's no doubt about it. And you throw him in there with either Sohudo for the build of that fight, or you throw him in there with Cheeto with the history of those two guys have.

Those are massive fights. Those are massive fights. This is a business move. We have to understand, folks. this is not a meritocratic world we live in. This is a how can we make the most money world that we live in. And Sean O'Malley winning the title and becoming the champion sets that up. No doubt about it.

Sanhagen could be the odd man out, but doesn't mean he's out of the picture. Corey Sanhagen, if he beats Umar Tamaga Madoff in Nashville, he is going to be the biggest Al Jermaine Sterling fan on planet Earth. and before that he's going to be the biggest marlin vera fan on planet earth he needs a lot to happen on that augen's 19th card if he wins he needs so hoodo to win and he needs aljimae sterling to win and if both of those things happen all of those things happen he's getting a title shot he'll fight marab but that's a big if there's a lot of moving pieces but that's why these fights are happening in my opinion we're going to go to siberam 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.

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. There is no news officially from the UFC, but what are your assumptions that when will the match will take place? And the second one is, Mike, do you watch movies?

watch what? Movies. What is that? Films, Mike. Pictures, movies. Oh, do I watch movies? I'm sorry. Sometimes, I don't go to the movies

as often as I would like, but my kid, like if my kid has a movie he wants to see, I'll go, I'll go watch it. Like, we watched across the Spiderverse a couple weeks ago, and it was awesome. Loved it. But I don't go that often. I'll watch horror movie from time

a time but yeah i i watch i watch as much as i can but it's not a tonne i'm a big horror film but also uh my question about the movies is uh what does the movies that you are looking you're looking forward to see you open hammer or but we are both that's it like so i mean honestly after watching cross spiderburst that final one with uh that's coming out in march apparently. Can't wait for that. That is appointment viewing. That is appointment viewing.

The only other movies that I was like, I have to mark the date was the Halloween series when that was cooking. But man, do I wish I could have that time back? Because Halloween ends was a piece of shit. That was awful. Can't believe that I spent all that time

getting excited and that movie was just the worst. just the worst when is colby leon going to happen jesus your guess is as good as mine i would say what because everything is so up in the air right now like what's going to happen with john jones this fight with stepe going to happen

we don't know now there's talks about hybrid fights with tyson fury and all sorts of craziness hopefully dana whites in jacksonville to address some of this stuff because i would love to hear what he has to say and i'll be there tomorrow someone mentioned the previous caller about nashville John Anick will be in Nashville. I will actually be in Dallas for the Nate Diaz,

Jake Paul fight, so unfortunately I will not be there. But I will be in Dallas for that fight week. So I haven't been to Dallas in forever. So I'm pretty excited to head back there. I got some family there. My oldest brother lives in Dallas now. So it'll be good to connect with him. I got one of my favorite cousins lives in Dallas.

So it'll be good to get back there. If John's steep, let's just say that the schedule all plays out. take all the negative negativity out of the way. Let's just live in a positive world where Connor McGregor is going to fight Michael Chandler in December. Let's just go ahead and bookmark that. Not confident in it, but let's just go ahead and bookmark it. And let's just say Steepa, John Jones, happens in November.

The plan comes together. John Jones versus Stepe, main event Madison Square Garden. My hunch is the co-main event will be Leon Edwards. versus Colby Covington. Whatever fight, whatever fight, but if John Jones-Stepe can't get put together or the Connor fight doesn't get put together, Leon and Colby will headline either November or December.

That's my guess, but that fight ain't happened until the end of the year. Because, I mean, look, Abu Dhabi makes no sense to do that fight. Sydney makes no sense to do that fight. MSG makes sense. Vegas makes sense. So I would say it's one of those two. But who the hell knows at this point with everything going on? Yes, sir.

Hey, heck of a morning. I just wanted to chime in on the whole Bannon Wade situation we got going on. It seems clear that the UFC have an obvious bias to who they want to move forward, whether they want them to fight for a title or whether they want them to take a step closer to fighting for that title. It's just a question about Corey Sanhagan. chances of fighting for the belt or coming closer to fighting for the belt soon, what is the perfect situation for him to, you know, possibly fight for the belt next? Is it Al Jermaine Sterling winning against Sean O'Malley and then, I guess,

Cheeto Vera losing to Henry Sehudo, who I think he'd matched up with? How would you, what do you think is next as far as, like, the situation for Corey Sanhagan to get closer to the belt? Sorry, Mike, I got tongue twisted. But, yeah, that's my question. All good. I think you were very close, at least in my opinion. You were very, very close.

First of all, Corey Sanagan has to beat to Ramaramauga-Madha. And that is not going to be an easy feat. If he does, then, yes, Al Jermaine Sterling winning and vacating the title will be very helpful. I honestly think Cheeto Vera winning is actually more impactful for Corey Sanagan. because Corey already has a win over Cheeto Vera. It was not a close fight. It was a dominant win. And if Cheeto beats Sehudo, that's two losses in a row for Sehudo.

He's out of the title picture for the foreseeable future. Then we could do Corey Sanhagan versus Marab de Walsh, Willie, for the vacant title. That was the fight that everybody kind of wanted to see anyways. After Corey Sanhagan beat Cheeto Veri, he called up Marab. I'm like, holy cow. Like that is a perfect callout, made all the sense of the world. There were talks about Marab possibly fighting Umar, but that didn't come together from what I understand.

And there's just all this talk, like, at least they're trying to push Umar. They're trying. And like I said, kudos to Sanagan for taking this fight. But Corey needs a lot to happen. He needs to win. He needs Cheeto Vera to win. And he needs Al Jermaine Sterling to win. And not only that, he needs Adjus Remain Sterling to say, I'm done, I'm moving up to 45, I'm going to try to make history, I'm going to try to become a two-division champ.

I want new challenges. My boy Marab is ready to go. Give him his title shot. You do Marab versus Corey Sanhagen for the vacant title. But if any other thing happens, Sanhagen is out of the picture. He's out of the picture. He might end up fighting Marab anyways. But again, this is.

not a meritocracy we're living in. We do not live in a meritocratic world in the UFC. If you want to live in a meritocratic world, you watch PFL, you watch Bellator. You want to watch business, a promotion that just wants to make the most amount of money.

Whether it makes sense or not, you watch the UFC. So it's murky, man. It's murky. And Sanhagen, Sanhagen needs a lot to follow in place for him to get to to get to that title fight. But we shall see.

And it's a fun time. The next couple months are going to be really fun for this division. Ani, hello. Ani, are you there? Yes, yes, I'm here. I'm sorry about that. Mike, I'm extremely emotional. And my heart is hurting, Mike.

I'm like on the verge of tears right now. And I don't think I have anyone else to share. this with for I have sinned by booking Armand Sarukian and Matayosh Gamrod again and not even adding two. I'm so sorry about that, Mike. You have to forget me. Oh, you got the do-doo. Do-doo. That was do-do. Oh, my God. But that was not my intention, you see. I don't, I have no idea why did I, you know, say Armand Sarukian and Matejosh Gamrod. I mean, I'd like to see that fight again. But I actually wanted to say Armand Sarukian versus Raphael That's what I had in my mind.

But, well, I made a mistake, and I hope you being the bigger man, you'll just forgive me for this. And, you know, I've spent sleepless nights thinking about this. I apologize, Mike. And... All good, honey. Anyway. Anyway, so one thing about the bantam weights that I want to share that I have in my mind is, I think, for a hardcore MMA fan, The match that everyone wants to see is Mirab Davalishvali versus Umar Nurmaghomadov.

And I think that is possible. It's in the right, it's highly likely. Like if Umar Nurma Gomeradov beats Corey Sanhagen, would he be next for the title? I think he should be. And if Al Jermaine Sterling beats Sean O'Malley, which I think he should, I guess. I'm picking Al Jermaliyan. Mali, but he might get starched, but you never know. So Marab Davalishvili versus Umar Nirmaghamara Mera is the match that I want to see, Mike.

And also, you know, when it comes to the women's bantamweight division, it will be really nice to see Holly Holm become the champion again. And it's quite possible, don't you think, with all the contenders who are currently there? I also love the Aaron Blanchefield idea. But I think what will most likely happen is it ties into the Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shepchenko matchup. I haven't seen the golden rule. I'm following the golden rule.

You see, did you guys confirm it? No, right? Yes, we did. It should be up on MA fighting shortly. I confirmed it this morning. Oh, perfect. Perfect. That's nice.

So, yes, so when Valentina and Shepchenko and Alexa Grasso fight, fight, it's, you know, it's not like Juliana Pena versus Amanda Nunes too, because we clearly understood what happened in the first Amanda Nunes and Julianna Pena fight with Amanda Nunes actually having a mental block or she just wasn't expecting that sort of competition from Juliana Pena. That was the narrative, right? Or the correct narrative. But with Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shofchenko, as we've seen,

she capitalized on this mistake that Valentina Shafchenko made every time she was pushed towards the cage she used to go for a spin kick or something and she just capitalized on it. So that's that's a fight IQ mistake. She actually outtaught her or outmaneuvered her. I actually think Alexa Grasso has a good chance of retaining. But if Valentina has to win, I think she can win if she wrestles a lot. And I think she was having a good amount of success with takedowns, although she wasn't doing a lot of damage as she usually does,

but I think she can still win. I think if Valentina Shafchenko loses, she can be slotted right into a bantamweight title shot. And I think she beats all the bantam weights who are currently there. I don't see anyone beating Valentina Shepchenko at bantamweight because the talent level is just not up there. that's what I feel. So what do you think, Mike?

And one last question, since it is free for all Friday, do you listen to metal songs? And if yes, what would your walkout song be? Walkout, not work out. Both actually. Tell me both. Thank you, Mike. Man, so I like rock.

I think 90s is. And honestly, my wheelhouse is like 90s, early 2,000. thousands anyways for all music. I'm an old man. What can I say? That's my wheelhouse. So a specific song, I'm not really sure.

I'd probably more of a hip hop walkout guy, like an old school hip hop walkout guy than a, like an older school, like rock metal guy. But yeah, there's not like one like metal song. And I'm like, oh,

I have to, I would love to walk up to that song. I actually liked, uh, Juliana Pena's walkout. She came out to Psycho by Puddle of Mudd. That's a really good one. Doug that one.

That would be probably on my top five if I had to really think about it. Oh, so much to unpack there. So for context on the doo-do thing, we do the matchmaking show onto the next one. We do listener submissions. We have like guidelines and rules where it's like if it's a rematch,

like tell, say it's a rematch. If someone's already booked, but you match me with somebody who's already booked. Like those are do-do picks. And we call you out a little bit, but it's all in good fun. And that's what happened to Ani. You said Armand Sarukham versus Matush Gamra.

It didn't say a rematch or part two or anything like that. So we gave them a little crap for that. Bannon Wade is weird. Because you said like, you said something that I was just, I rolled my eyes a little bit at because you're like, oh, all these contenders. There are very few. Like, and it's not only contend.

tenders, there's just not a lot of fighters in the division. Like we've talked about many times before, the bottom third almost of, like, the last three spots in the women's Bannamweight rankings are not even Bannam weights. Like, they don't even have Bannamweight fights. They either had catch weights at 140 or they're fighting at 45. There is just no depth in this division at all. And it's brutal. luckily we have like

Meyer Buena Silva so like that's a newer face if she could beat Holly Holm but I feel like I feel like Raquel Pennington is the fight to make for the vacant belt I feel like that's the way to go unless they can somehow

pull Ronda Rousey back you do Ronda Rousy versus Giuliana Pena because that'd just be fun as hell the build to that would be incredible the Aaron Blanchfield thing so people bring this up all the time Aaron Blancheville could go to 35

and do some damage She can go to 35 and use some damage. However, I don't want that to happen. I think, and I've said this on this show many times, you can go back in the archives. I've said on BTL a million times, post-fight shows, whatever. When Aaron Blanchfield gets her chance, she might have to win one more fight.

If we're up to me, Aaron Blanchfield shouldn't have to wait at all. Let this rematch happen between Valencien to Shepchenko and Alexa Grasso. And if Grasso wins again, Aaron Blanchfield should just be fighting for the flyway title. she should just be fighting for the belt. I don't know what's going to happen. Maybe they'll do...

Maybe they'll throw her in there. I saw it like rumors. We haven't... I don't know if there's any truth to this or not. Maybe Manon Fioro. Like, if you want to throw her in there with like Manon Fioro as like a legit number one contender fight, sure. I would pick Aaron Blanchfield to win that fight.

I would pick Aaron Blanchfield to beat most people. And when she fights for the belt, I am very confident she's going to win. And not only that, I feel like Aaron Blanchfield is going to be the champion for a long time, like a real long time. I don't know if she's going to beat,

like I said, I don't think, I said this yesterday, I don't think anybody's going to beat Demetre Johnson's consecutive title defense record. I think at this point, the evolution of the game, how this sport has evolved, fighters starting to train

like when they're young kids all of that I don't think anybody's ever going to touch that record but I think Aaron Blanchfield's going to give it a run for its money like I honestly think she is

she is going to be a problem and here's the biggest reason why is at 24 years of age her skill set is just incredible her athleticism is incredible and she's nowhere near her athletic prime yet. She is nowhere near as good as she's going to be.

And that is scary. Like that is scary. 24 years of age, already putting together this resume, the wins she has, the performances she's had. She's going on there and just finishing people. I don't care. Like people are like, well, she'd be Jessica and Drudge on short notice. So what?

How many people can you say go out there and just melt Jessica and drudge like that? I know Janja Nod just finished her as well. But that was like, people were saying, people were saying when that was I don't remember which pay-per-view was, but when it was announced that Aaron Blanchfield is now fighting Jessica Androge, everybody on Twitter. I saw it.

I saw it. We talked about it on the watch party. People were like, oh, it's a nightmare matcher for Aaron Blanchfield. This is a way tougher fight. Oh, I thought she was going to beat Tilos Santos, but now she's going to lose to Jessica Androge. And she just went in there, ran over Jessica Andrage. She went toe-to-to-to-to-a-tose.

She took Jessica's best shots. And then she took her down and killed her in the second round. like Aaron Blancheville is a problem. She's going to get her shot and she's going to win and she can be the champion for a long time. Now I could come back and eat my words and I certainly will come on the show

and be like, boy, was that wrong? But I don't think I am with this one. It's going to happen. I feel very strongly about that. Marshall's buyers travel far and wide hustling for great deals on amazing gifts so you don't have to. They've bagged this season's

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on magazine. Chase that, hello. Uh, kind of. You're breaking up a little bit, but go for it.

Um, Well, kind of off topic, but kind of on topic. Who are your top five or top four pound for pound bald fighters of all time? That would be all. Bald fighters? Bald fighters? Bald fighters. Jesus Christ.

Paca Porta is right up there. I mean, are you kidding me? He might be one, two, three, four, and five. I don't know. I don't remember, like, who's bald and who's not? shaves their head, like who's, like this ain't, like me in the shaved head. It's not a gimmick. It's just, this is what I have to do because I would look like an asshole if I grew

my hair out. I would look horrendous. Nobody wants to see that. So I just shave it every couple days. Like I shaved it yesterday and I'll shave it tomorrow morning before I drive out to Jacksonville. But you just, and I don't look great ball. That when I had hair, I, I did the little comb it down. a little flippy up in the front

when I had hair. But I lost that battle. Now I have to shave my head. But pocket porters on that list. I don't know. I have to Google bald fighters, I guess. Terrence. Hello, man. I wasn't going to hop on, but I just

was on Twitter two minutes ago. Rose versus Minot has just been announced for pairs. I want to know. What? Holy shit. And I want to know your thoughts on the matchup.

I know you guys, it's two minutes ago, so maybe you guys just didn't have time to confirm it. But that's a crazy out of nowhere to fight, and it's exciting. It's a tough fight for both. That's it. Wow. Okay.

Well, geez, Louise. I got work to do, I guess. Wow. So I'm going to be multitasking here, because I got some confirmation. to try to make, I guess. But wow, that's freaking wild. Look, I love it.

Let me just make sure. Look, this is not news I can ignore. So I'm going to be doing many things at once. So I'm sending some messages out. That's freaking wild. And look, when I talked to Rose the end of last year, she told me she was going to bulk up and lift weights and possibly move to 125.

So I guess that's what's happening. Man, if you were called her shot and she got it, I guess. I mean, we have to confirm this, but that's freaking wild. I will pass more judgments once we confirm, but that's a freaking wild fight. Now I wonder what they're going to do with Aaron Blanchfield. Maybe Blanchfield's in the mix at 135. I don't know. Blackbell, hello.

Hi, my friend. How are you? I'm good. I have two questions for you. Sure. If Hamza Shimae of Fight Alex Pereira, who will win? And the second one, who do you think is the best BGGG wrestling or guy? Thank you.

Thanks, man. It's a good question. I'm so, like, enamored by this Fioro Rose report that I have just completely lost focus on everything that I'm doing right now. So I don't... I totally remember your... Blackmail, tag back in, man. Please.

I forgot... I totally forgot your first question. Golly. Stay focused. John? Hope I pronounce that right. Are you there? John Lalo?

Are you there? All right. I don't hear you. Yes, Blackbell, give me your first question again. I'm focused now. I'll remember, I promise. Okay, thank you. If Alex Pereira fight Hamza Himai.

Oh, okay, I got it. Who will win? I think the tall, I think, in my opinion, that Alex Pereira, he will win. because he is very tall. But we didn't know. Thank you.

Hey, look, that's interesting. Here's it, like, look, Hamzat is ginormous. He's huge. Like, Alex Pereira is a freak. That dude, he's bigger than Hamzot, no doubt about it. But that'd be an interesting fight. That'd be an interesting fight. Well, we have confirmed,

myself and Damon Martin Manifior Rose Domi Unis is a go for Paris holy shitballs wild

now I just have like a million questions about this division and where Aaron Blanchfield sits that's a crazy ass fight didn't have that on the bingo cart

today that's for sure wow it's a big one Paris getting a banger and getting a really fascinating fight

holy shit uh henry hello hey man how you doing yeah yeah i'm good yeah i'm good um yeah i was just thinking back to yesterday's show when you was talking about jessica and drange and that also had me thinking back to another show you guys did about a month ago the draft show um when i think someone raised the idea of her going into bkFC which i personally think is a super fun idea

I love sort of the idea of that stocky, super powerful builder fighters such as like a Chad and Michael Chad, that kind of builder fighters. So do you think she'd be super fun in her BKFC? And yeah, I think that's what I've got. Yeah. Thanks, man. Who is this? Who is this?

Who for BKFC? I'm sorry. Jessica Andrage to fight in BKFC. Oh, yeah, yeah. I think she would actually be really well there. I think she'd actually do really well there. Like Mike Perry was born for this BKFC stuff. Had success in the UFC, good for him.

But Mike Perry has found himself in BKFC. Like that is that sport and that company and everything about it. It was built for that man. So, yeah, Andrade should be, that'd be fun. Her and Christine Faria, holy smoke. Can you imagine that? Them two in a BKFC fight? That'd be something.

That'd be something. Yeah, it's been a crazy morning, guys. Sorry. Yes, if you haven't checked it out, my interview with John Anick dropped earlier this morning, probably like an hour ago, maybe a little more than that.

We talked for like 35 minutes, maybe a little longer. And that's what happens when John and I get together. We try, we're both very busy. Usually our schedules don't sink up but when we get after it we just hit record and it's like not even an interview we just shoot the breeze and it's almost like a giant BTL episode almost we just talk about a million

different things that like hit my brain and hits his brain and all that stuff and it's just fun we talked about Amanda Nunes retiring her coming over to him and giving him the kiss on the forehead and what she said to him and his thoughts on whether or not she'll ever come back I'm with him We're both in the same wavelength. We never put a 0% on anything, but we're both at like 1%. What we do with this division, where Charles Olivera sits as far as like superstardom in the UFC,

which I thought was really interesting to get his take on that. We talked to UFC 290, Pori Gaci, some Connor stuff, some Connor Chandler stuff, Yaya Rodriguez and his chances against Volcanovsky. We talked about everything. It's awesome. God, it's on the YouTube channel. Check it out.

It's a lot of fun. Really enjoyed it. We'll take one more call. James, hello. Hey, heck of a morning to you, Mike, and happy peak week. If Trevor Peek just goes out and does what he has been doing for his first eight fights,

I personally would love to see a matchup between him and Terrence McKinney. I know McKinney is booked, I believe, like September 7th. I forget who he's fighting, but could you see that being a next opponent for Trevor Peak? And let's say like Volk beats a Rodriguez on the International Five Week card. And if they do run back, Volk and Islam, do you think they'll do another interim featherway fight between Teporia

if he's able to win on Saturday against whoever, or do you think Taboria will just have to sit away because there's not too many options if they go that route? Have a heck of a morning, Mike, and thanks for breaking news for us. I think that's why we all come to this space. So thank you and have a good weekend. I did not break that news. I just confirmed it with help from Damon.

Farahannoon was first to report that, and kudos to her for that. That's a big one right there. Terence McKinney is fighting July 15th against Nazim Sadikoff. Trevor Peek versus Terence McKinney. would be fun. But see, here, this is the beauty

of lightweight. This is the beauty of lightweight. There's so many fun fights for a guy like Trevor Peak. And with Trevor,

you don't need, like, you don't necessarily need to rush him up. Like, I think he's just going to get over. I think he's got

kind of Nate landware-ish vibes to him where it doesn't matter who this dude fights. People just be like, yes, Trevor Peaks fighting.

And I think he's, he's, he's, he's one of those guys. The dude's story is incredible. We'll see how he does. But yeah, I think he's a guy

that we're going to be talking about at the end of this card on Saturday. I think he will be a guy that, uh, but Chepin-Marsal is, is, look, when you look at,

like, overall resumes, he's had a tough run, but look at the guys he's lost to. Like, a lot of people are counting him out. His losses, Mariscal making his

UFC debut his losses are I don't know who Frank Buena Fuente is but prior to that these are his losses Gregor Gillespie Bryce Mitchell

Joe Anderson Brito Steve Garcia Sean Soriano all guys with the UFC experience some of these guys are ranked in the UFC right now join us in breto is a pretty hot prospect steve garcia's knocking dudes out like crazy sean sorriano's had a very interesting run he's come back and won three straight i think this is going to be a good fight i think it's going to be a chaotic fight i think it's

going to be fun i wouldn't count maraskell out of this fight but trevor pich is one of those dudes where he's going to get in scraps and win or lose people are going to love him anyway so yeah if you want to do trevor pique versus terence bennie let's party i'm done out for that. Win or lose? Blumen, hello, and then we're going to go. Hello, Mike. A couple of a morning to you.

Same to you. A name you just said, Gregor Gillespie. Any updates on him? I mean, I think last we know he was trying to squad in his position. He got removed from rankings because of an activity, so

nothing new from him. Nothing. Nothing. at all. He is he's out just fishing, man. He's living life. I don't know what he expects is going to happen at this point.

But if he's in a position where he can be picky about things and he's fine financially and he's good to go, then kudos to him. Be picky. Be picky. There's not enough fighters who are picky. But yeah, I have no idea what's going on,

Greg Gillespie. I know we wanted the Tony Ferguson fight. There were talks about that fight happening a couple of years ago, but just never, never came to be. And since then, he's like, no, I want to fight a guy with the name or somebody that's ranked in front of me or I ain't fighting anybody. So it's pretty open about it.

But yeah, I have no idea what's going on with him and when he could come back. So there you go. All right. We're done, everybody. I got to go. I'm actually, today's actually my day off, but wanted to make sure we did a show. and good thing because holy smokes is a lot happened since we hit record or since we went live on the show. So there will be a preview show for this Jacksonville card coming up at 3 p.m.

Eastern, it'll be just a legendary cast of characters. Shaheen Al Shadi running point. My best friend, A.K. Lee, Jose Young's. People's pre-fight show around 11 a.m. Eastern tomorrow. my best friend will man the ones will man the hosting seat Casey will be there

maybe I'll call in maybe I'll call in from the media room in Jacksonville and then I'll be there so you can follow get all the videos and stuff on the YouTube channel and then the post fight show

will be a lot of fun as well I actually like this event I like this event a lot I think it's gonna be a fun watch and it's early day MMA and just don't get better than that I love that so much So thank you all very much.

Appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of your Friday. And as always, have a heck of a morning, everybody. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first,

there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.