MMA Fighting - HOAM | Should Amanda Nunes vs. Julianna Peña 3 Be Next After UFC 277? Niko Price Joins the Show

Episode Date: August 2, 2022

Amanda Nunes reclaimed her bantamweight title and champ-champ status with a one-sided unanimous decision win over Julianna Peña in the main event of UFC 277 this past Saturday. Despite Nunes' dominance, should the UFC go ahead and book the trilogy fight when both women are ready to return? On an all-new Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck gives his thoughts on the title picture following the UFC's most recent pay-per-view event. In addition, other listener topics include the stoppage in the Sergei Pavlovich and Derrick Lewis fight and where Lewis goes from his second straight loss, Jake Paul vs. Hasim Rahman Jr. getting cancelled, the commentary of Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier during the UFC 277 card, Thiago Santos vs. Jamahal Hill, and much more. Also, UFC welterweight Niko Price (1:22:22) joins the show to reveal an injury he's been dealing with for years, when he plans on returning, thoughts on cheating in MMA, and responds to Bryan Barberena's recent callout. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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

The Downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Hello there, everybody. It is Tuesday, August 2nd. Geez, it is August already.

2022, it is indeed a heck of a morning, live on the M.M.A. Fighting, Twitter, Space, you'll be able to hear the show in its entirety on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network when it's all said and done. And in fact, if you do listen to the podcast version, you're going to get a little extra, a little extra incentives, some bonus stuff. A nice little interview with a man who was brought up almost every time a welterweight fights on onto the next one, got the chance to catch up with Nico Price. A lot of people wondering what's going on with him. And hopefully we have some answers. So you'll hear that conversation on the podcast version

as soon as this portion of the show comes to an end. But I am Mike Heck. Thank you for joining. Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. Having a great start to the first week of August. I still can't believe it is August. But a lot went down this past Saturday in Dallas, Texas. UFC 277.

Amanda Nunes, once again. The Bannamweight Queen, once again, a two-division champion, dominant performance over a very game, very tough, extremely durable. Giuliana Pena. Brandon Moreno is the interim flyweight champion of the UFC after stopping Kair, France, in the third round of just an incredible battle. Magamette Ancolaev gets a big win over Anthony Smith. Some reports that Anthony Smith actually, even though Dana White's says, there's no fracture for Anthony Smith. Apparently he is a broken leg or a broken ankle,

according to Ariel Hawani, and Ariel's got a pretty high batting average. I haven't confirmed that myself, but if Arial reports it, you best believe there's probably some truth to that. Big win for Alexandra Pantosia as well. I thought he looked sensational. This guy is just really, really good,

flying under the radar at 125. and who knows, this guy could be the best 125-pounder in the world. We'll see. Hopefully he gets his chance to prove it. And then, of course, everyone was talking about the ending of the heavyweight bout between Sergei Pavlovich and Derek Lewis, the refereeing. Was it an early stoppage? Was it a correct stoppage?

I feel the same way I felt on Sunday. Not a great stoppage, but not a horrible one. the aesthetics were not good. Derek Lewis went face down. Don't blame Tandan for making that call. Of course, when you see a guy pop up and says, I'm okay, I'm okay, especially with the guy's beloved as Derek Lewis.

It's kind of tough to swallow, but I've gone back and watched that finish a couple different times. I get it. I get why people are saying that it's a fine stoppage. It was a little quick, but again, I'm not a referee. I don't want to be a referee, and that is the exact reason why.

I don't even want to be a little league umpire because people get so mad about that stuff. Like if you call your kid out at first base on a ground ball short, on a bang, bang play, you might have to run for your life. And I can't imagine what it's like being Tandan or anybody else.

I actually agree with my best friend because I believe he said something to this effect on onto the next one, pokey-pokey herb had the worst refereeing moment of the night with the stoppage of the brand of marina thing like it was a fine stoppage is just one of those things or it's just like dude you got to make a decision you have to and dan at least whether right or wrong made a decision and went with it he didn't hesitate he didn't kind of go in and out he made a decision and he stuck with it and we got to give him credit for that by the way i just want to say one thing before he take the we'll get to the calls i see a lot of you line up. I got a couple messages. I saw some of the comments and I wanted to kind of address it. Like, I'm not offended or anything. But on to the next one, some people feel like I was a little too loosey-goosey, a little too hot-takey, a little stubborn, a little know-it-a-a-li. And going back, and I never go back and listen or watch any of my stuff ever. Like, I might

have to hear it when I put stuff together. I think you're probably, right about that. And that's not how I like to come off. So if you really feel that way, my bad, like I don't want to come off that way. Like I am kind of a stubborn prick at times. I am Boston Mike like at, you know, deep down inside. Some of that's there. But sometimes when you get very little sleep and you try to pound a coffee and you try to like find that energy somewhere, sometimes you get a little crazy. I think I was probably a little too crazy on that show. So if you were mad about that, I get it. I'm not offended by it.

And you probably should feel like I was a little too over the top. But it happened. It was a great show. A lot of you took part in it, and I appreciate that very much. All right. Enough about me. Let's go to you. Let's get after this thing.

A lot to talk about, hey, we can even talk about Jake Paul and Hussein Rockman, Jr. getting canceled. We can talk about whatever the hell you want to talk about. But something tells me, you probably don't want to talk about that too much. So let's go to SAV to begin things. Hey Mike, how are you? I'm good, man First of all, I don't think I think you're being way too hard on yourself

I watched on to the next one didn't see any problems with the way you were talking or anything so if people are mad they can go fuck off I feel like but my bad I do want to bring up the Hasim Rockman Jr. thing

because I saw you were in the Twitter space last night as I was I was listening to what he had to say I think it's extremely unprofessional, obviously, that he's going to miss weight. But there is a backup in place, and I think that the whole thing that's getting overlooked is this event is off because it's not selling tickets and it's not selling pay-per-views. I don't know why Haseem wouldn't just be honest about that, because that's not his job.

It's Jake Paul's job to sell the tickets and sell the pay-per-views. So I don't know. What should take on that, Mike? Thanks, man. Yes, I was in that space because I wanted to ask, it's funny you bring that up, and thank you for that. now we have to put the explicit tag on the podcast, so I appreciate that very much. But Nico Price is going to be on,

so there were some naughty things said on that one as well. I went in that space. I requested to speak in that space multiple times. I did not get brought in, and I was literally going to ask him Dana White's thoughts because Dana had said, the only thing I remember from the space, because I wasn't in there like the entire time,

and maybe this was mentioned to him, but it just seemed like a bunch of his buddies were in there kind of talk to him and he was giving his side of the story and which is great like good on him and he gave his side he feels like he should have gotten the chance to cut that 10 pounds like it's a week he just felt like i should have been able to do it and he felt like jake was just like nope i don't want to fight because i don't want to get knocked out i don't want to get embarrassed or whatever and i don't think i honestly don't think that's true and then of course dana white made headlines about this whole thing because the cancellation happened

in the middle of UFC 277. In fact, I had a steal AK away from UFC 277. I myself had to go away from UFC 27 for a little bit. We recorded a little reaction to the whole thing. And it's just such a weird thing. But Dana White was asked about it and he doesn't feel like has anything to do with Rockman. It feels like you just had to do with the ticket sales or lack thereof.

And MSG being a really expensive building. And Dana White said the famous line, you need a half million dollars just to turn the lights on and off. I looked at the ticket sales. They weren't horrible. It wasn't a sellout or anything. But I was curious how that was going to be. I know our man GC felt like that's one of those cards that could have a lot of sort of last

minute walk-up traffic, which is possible. But I will say this. Like, I didn't think the second Tyrant Woodley fight was going to do very well in terms of ticket sales. I didn't think there were going to be a lot of people there. I thought it was to be one of those things, like a typical boxing event. Like you'd show up, I'd show up to a near empty arena in Tampa, and then right when Jake Paul Woodley, too, was about to happen, like the celebs would come in and it'd be a big deal.

That place was packed from the first prelim. I was stunned. Stunned how many people were in there for Anthony Taylor and Chris Obula. Place is completely full. It was nuts. So maybe there was some truth that. But I did see this. It's going to be up on NMAFighting.com.

Nikisa Badarian, who is the co-promoter, the business partner of Jake Paul, went on his Instagram stories today in New York. And it's probably like a one-minute video total. And he basically responded to Dana White saying, had nothing to do a ticket sales, said they had already sold more tickets and had a better gate than Ryan Garcia's fight at Staples Center did. It was trending to be one of the 10 best MSG boxing cards since 2005. Like that's what he said.

And then he took a shot because, again, Dana likes to call Nekisa an accountant because he used to work for the UFC. Nekisa wasn't an accountant. He was the freaking chief financial officer for the UFC. He was the CFO for the UFC. So he had a pretty major role in the company. and now he's with Jake Paul and he's doing the thing and now this whole thing's going on.

So I honestly have no clue. There's probably like six people in the whole world who know exactly what's going to happen. Rockman side is going to say exactly what he's saying. Paul's side are going to say exactly what they're saying. And there's probably like six people on earth who actually know the answer to this question. So it's kind of a bummer.

I guess if we're looking forward to it, like I feel bad more so for like Amanda Serrano and her getting back in there after the Katie Taylor fight because that was amazing. Her being back at MSG would have been a very big deal. I would love to have seen that. She deserved that moment. But alas, it's not going to happen.

And who knows? Maybe, as I was saying in our reaction with AK, maybe this isn't a bad thing. Maybe it's just a short-term kind of disaster. The aesthetics look horrific and they don't look good. But maybe with UFC 279 coming up September 10th, the final fight on Nate Diaz's deal. Maybe this opens the door for Jake Paul versus Nate Diaz at the end of the year.

And I think all in all, I think the reception to that will be much better than Tommy Fury or Hassem Rockman Jr. I just felt like as soon as Rockman Jr. entered the fold, it just felt like weird. It just felt strange. Like it wasn't like that big of a deal. It just seemed like they were going off brand a little bit. Like Jake fighting MMA guys, I think that's the correct way to go. like eventually we want to see him fight boxers,

but I don't think we need to see that right now. The Tommy Fury thing made sense after the first would they fight, but I don't even want to see Tommy Fury's name attached to Jake Paul anymore because it's dumb. It makes no sense, and I feel like that's one of those things that's never destined to happen. So, all right, let's move on. Let's go to James.

Hi, James. Morning. Hi, buddy. Hey, forgive me. I'm still a little sad from yesterday saying a robotic silvic going to one championship. So I guess I'll continue to dream

on a future matchup between him and for Sente-Luke. But looking at this card coming up this weekend, I thought it was strange that Terrence McKee is on the prelims. Like, he's not even the feature prelims. And seeing what is on the main card, I just thought that was kind of a weird placement.

But with the main event, what percentage chance do you think that we're going to get another uneventful 25 minutes from Santos. And I just want to say I love onto the next one. I think you and AK are always great together. Everything you guys touch just turns to gold. And since we're still a matchmaking for Patty, what do you think of a matchup between Patty and Jalen Turner? No, no, I'm kidding, Mike.

Oh, God. Thank God. Part of me wants to see Boston Mike come out, but then again, I don't want to lose you for three days. But like always, man, thank you for what you do for us here in this space. And I have a heck of a morning and hope to talk to you on Thursday. Thanks, buddy. Thanks, man. Appreciate that.

I love doing on to the next one. I've said this sort of to other people, but I have people like reaching out saying that, You know, when the fighter's only thing came out, people were saying that I should have been on there. And I don't, honestly, I don't care. Like, it would have been cool, but I don't really care. What I do care about, what is the first and foremost goal, is when they do that best programming thing,

I want on to the next one on that list. Because I feel like that is one of the more unique shows that the space has to offer. I think a lot of these shows, like even this show is just, there are other shows exactly like this. There's so many. But I feel like on to the next one is kind of its own thing. thing and AK and I just, we just have this thing going. Like we are, like we are show best friends for sure.

We are sight best friends. And that is one person. I can't wait to meet in person. So that'll be awesome. The, let me start with the Soldage thing. I am not surprised. It was kind of, hearing him say one was like, I guess, like in essence was kind of strange. But for those of you who have been listening to this program from the very beginning,

Soldeach has been a pretty popular topic, and I felt that the UFC was going to make an offer, was going to be in play, but I didn't think that they were going to be like a big player in this whole thing, because I talked to him about this. Like I asked them all the questions that you would want to know, probably in January or February. And it seemed like the UFC was in play from a legacy standpoint,

but then I had to ask him, because he talked about how we would match up against Usman and Colby and Lucay and all these guys and he felt like he matched up great with all of them. But when I asked him what was most important, I was like, is it legacy? Is it money? You could be honest. And he said, hey, legacy's great. But in essence, he said, like, it doesn't pay the bills.

Like, I want to make money. I want to, like, fight the best, but I got to make money. Like, I can't do all the things I want to do with the rest of my life. like what my fighting career is over and buy vacation homes and buy cars with legacy. Like you can't do that. So right then and there, I felt like the UFC was out of play because I just didn't think the UFC was going to, I just didn't think the UFC was going to pay him what he probably should be getting paid.

And I've also said this, I don't know the exact dollar figure, but from what I gather, KSW offered him a lot of money, like a lot of money. like big star in the UFC kind of money, like per fight. Like the dump, the figures I was hearing, at least the, like the estimates were like, I was like, there's no way he's not resigning. I thought for sure he's going to resign with KSW. Turns out he's going to one. And what that tells me is that one offered him like a floppy trillion dollars,

like ridiculous money. He might be, I don't think he's the highest paid guy in the company, but he's probably in the top three to five. I'd be stunned if he wasn't. Just hearing the KSW figures or the rough estimates of it, one must have like emptied the piggy banks to get him on the roster. But that sets up some fun stuff. Soldies versus RDR, we can get that going.

I'm excited. I know we mentioned Eddie Alvarez. Please don't do that. Don't. Please don't. They're going to. And I'm going to hate it. Don't do it.

Please don't do Soledage versus Eddie Alvarez. Do not do that. It's literally like a middleweight fighting, a freaking lightweight. I don't want to see that fight. Please don't do it. But one will do it. I'm going to hate it. Don't do it.

As far as Saturday's card, listen, it is what it is. I love the co-man event, Luke A. Jeff Neal. It's an interesting main event because I think Jamal Hill, I think very highly of Jamal Hill. I know Jamal Hill thinks very highly of Jamal Hill as well. He's very confident in his abilities. He feels like he's the guy. And this is one.

This is just another step in his direction now. This is like a perfect matchup for him because Tiago has not been very exciting. He really hasn't been. He just hasn't. And Jamal has been very exciting. And now he's going to face a guy who's not going to try to get into a brawl with him. He's going to try to slow the pace down a little bit. And if this fight stretches out into rounds three, four, and five, I'm curious how it's going to go.

But there is a world where Jamal Hill just blows the doors off Tiago Santos and gets another big, win and moves onwards and upwards and upwards. So we'll see what happens. We got the tough finale stuff. We got, I forgot, I didn't even know Augusta Sakai and Sergey Smevac were on this card until Sunday. And then McKinney and Eric, you would

think McKinney would probably be on the main card. I'm kind of surprised by that. But again, when you look at these cards in particular, especially the late start of this one, it's probably not a horrible thing for McKinney to be the fifth fight on the card because it's all just one big thing this isn't like a paper view or anything like that it's all

on one channel it's all gonna just gonna be a long show and god i hate these 10 p.m eastern six fight main cards especially coming off of a pay per view it's just brutal man it's just brutal these fight nights should be we were spoiled by long island we were spoiled by london like four like the four p m start times for the prelims i will take that all day long 7 p.m. main card. You want to do 8 p.m. main card, that's fine. But if you're going to do a 10 p.m. Eastern main card, six fights is just redonculus. I know I'm speaking as a whiny East coaster, but here we are. When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter.

At just $399, how could I resist? This luxurious will throw for my sister, this gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss? Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at winners? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners find fabulous

for less. Noel! How are you, sir? Oh, hey man. Damn, I didn't think I was getting chosen, but it's pretty cool. Hey, man, I was just talking about Brian Moreno, man. I'm so fucking hype about him getting the win. Honestly, a lot of people are saying that

him and Figgie should not run the fourth. They say that it's holding on the flightway division. But to be honest, I'm really hype about this. It's getting me so much memories about Pacquiao and Marcus four. And how Mark, I don't know if I remember, but, you know, Marcus definitely knocked out Pacquayat that fourth fight. And I'm actually getting these same vibes. And hopefully Moreno does that and gets a big win for Mexico

because Nepali, Mexico is getting on the rise also with, also with Yahir Rodriguez, and hopefully they'd be on the same card. And it's just a great time for Mexico. I'm actually Chicano, so my parents are from Mexico. But yeah, just hype about the Latino community, M.M.A. community. And that's pretty much it. Let's go, Brandon. Let's go, yeah. Thanks, man.

I'm glad we can catch you off guard. and thank you for that. I don't know who would be upset about this fourth fight. I wasn't upset about it like after January. You could have these guys fight seven times. I don't care. Like you could do a legit best of seven or, I mean, technically it would be kind of like a best of eight because the first fight was a draw.

But I mean, these are the two guys are just a match made in heaven. Now, we got Pantosia there, but for a while, like we had kind of. So it all worked out pretty good here. But we need to see this, we need to see this fourth fight. Like, this is the fight that has to happen. And something tells me that when we record our ranking show in a couple of hours, this discussion is going to be a prevalent one, especially in my rankings. And you know what?

You're here. So I'm going to tell you. Brandon Moreno is my number one, 112. You, I mean, that, that's just me. That's just me. Brandon Moreno is my number one flyweight over Davis and Figurado. I will explain more on the show. I'm not going to reveal my entire hand,

but when these rankings drop tomorrow, my vote was Brandon Moreno, number one at 125, Figgy number two. And I'll explain why later. But yeah, love the fight. Brandon look good. He's just a fun guy. Like, how could you not love Brandon right now?

guys up there just getting all in on a box of nutella it's just amazing guys guys the best and that fight I think he's just going to be awesome I can't wait to see it let's go to derico Derek oh yeah Mike uh so I just got a question about Pantosia um is it 100% sure that he's going to be the backup and where's the big fight for him um is it maybe like put on underneath the Davison Moreno number four is that maybe he'll be matched up with Carr France underneath and in case anything happens they'll just bump him up into that spot or do you think that they just make him wait sit him as the backup let's say that Moreno and cai or um merino and figurato is just forced to sit out even longer I feel like he's already earned um his spot a shot at the

title and he had already sat out in the past if I'm not mistaken and didn't end up getting the shot. So kind of two questions. Where's the big fight? And if he's the backup, is it like, is he on the card with another fight? Or is he just sitting out? I feel like Pantosia's just been screwed in this. And he just keeps on sitting out and sitting out.

And I mean a win like he had on Saturday, he could get right back in the cage. So sitting out is not going to be beneficial at all. Your thoughts? Yeah, man. Pantosia's the real real. That was an incredible game plan on his part. Because normally Alex Perez is the guy that jumps out to the hot start and you don't want to get him going right away.

And Pantosia just shot out of the cannon and just got right on him. And Perez was like, oh, my God, didn't see this coming. And then, yeah, it was a great performance. And Alex Perez, Alex Perez is a good fighter. It's a very solid 25er. And he just made Alex Perez look like he didn't even belong in there. It was just, it was a great performance, this great game plan, loved every second of it. The guy's good.

And I want to see him fight for the title. We have to, we have to let this thing play out, unfortunately, because it's one, one, one. And this is the fight that has to happen. Now, a lot of people may not know this, but it is what happened. And Patoja was actually the backup for the Moreno-Kai-Car-France fight, as our man, Guillermo Cruz reported. Pantosia was the backup for this fight, and then he went and fought Alex Perez, and there you go. So we could do something similar.

Now, I know a lot of people are saying, well, he missed Wade. He was 126. He couldn't have been the backup. But he also weighed in after both Moreno and Cai-Car-France weighed in. So once that happens, then they're both in at 124 and a half, I believe they both were 1, 24 and a half. Like, he's not going to cut that extra pound. He probably just hung out, was on weight,

just waited to see how those guys did. And then if you needed to cut an extra pound, he would have. But he didn't need to. And he was already the backup. So, yeah, I mean, I think Cara France is probably the fight to do. That's how I would do it.

It didn't look like, like, like, if you looked at Moreno and Car France at the end of that fight, you would think Car France won if you had no idea the result. Because Moreno looked like a mess. because Cara France messed him up a bit in that third round before the finish. So I think Carafran, like if you wanted to do that, if you want to book this fight in December, January, I'm sure Carafran will be ready to go. I think Pantoja Carafrance is the fight.

They fought before. They fought on tough. So there's a story there. And who knows what else could happen between now and then? Because that's like five, six, five months or so, four or five months. Maybe Minel Kopp gets a win and he gets up there. Like, we saw them fight already. but if we're doing it as like a number one contender fight,

I'd like to see those two guys fight again. But to me, if I'm holding the mighty pencil, we do Figgi Moreno 4, and then we do Pantosia, Cara France, and the two winners fight. Well, we can't really do the two winners, but if Figgi wins and Cara France wins, you could do the two winners fighting, but if Moreno wins, if Pantosia wins,

and he gets the winner of no matter what. So 125 is just so fun. It's such a fun division. I can't believe that we almost got rid of it. How dare the UFC? How dare the people involved trying to get rid of that division? Milo! Hey, Mike.

Heck, good morning to you. Can you hear me okay? Yes, I can. I wanted to share some thoughts about UFC 277, maybe on Brandon Moreno topic. I spoke to Brandon Moreno on ESPN Deportes yesterday, and I think the interesting conversation came up if he would ever consider boxing. I would actually don't mind seeing Brandon Moreno boxing,

and maybe you could share some thoughts on that. But I think Pantoja deserved the title shots, and I think he should be next in line over the fourth match. With Davidson, As far as Amanda Nunez, I think Amanda Nunez kind of like needed this loss against Juliana Pena the first time they fought. It was this GSP versus Matt Zara moment. And I think it rejuvenated her, it energized her.

And I think it made her a better fight. She looked like in the best shape of her life. What else I wanted to say? Maybe on the Sergei Pavlovich topic, you know, there's a debate whether there was an early stop, I mean, I think this debate should not exist because when you faceplant like this, I mean, you're out. It doesn't matter how you recover after that.

It's a chaos. This is the same moment, I think, Dan Henderson had with Fyodor Emilianica, when he just literally face-planted and then got up, and it's just really doesn't matter. When you go down, like, face forward like this, this fight should be stopped. On Kaleif, maybe the last one,

I think, made a great case for a title shot, with his win. It was an impressive win, and so he should be next in line. And I think Sergey Paolovich, I think, is probably one fight away from a title shot because he made a solid case as well. That's all I have to say. Thanks. And for a heck of a morning. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I mean, see, what Zufa boxing should be is just UFC fighters boxing each other. That's what it should be. Remember how that was the thing? we're going to have Zupa boxing and Dana Way was going to get into the boxing

promoter business. It just didn't really happen and I get why but it would just be super fun right? Like Brandon Moreno versus I don't know if you did like Moreno versus Adrian Yonnas in a boxing match or I know they're two different weight classes but like they're not that terribly far apart or Rob Font versus Adrian Yannas in a boxing match like that'd be super fun

like that'd be super fun. I would watch the hell out of that. I would love that. But Moreno, God, Varanos, just so fun to watch. Great fighter. Really fun to watch. Nunes looks spectacular. And that was, I had like, I've talked about this in on the next one. I'll say it again.

I thought, I thought Rogan and D.C. had a pretty rough night on Saturday. I didn't love the commentary. I thought Rogan sets a pretty crappy precedence right away with, with the Davis of Figuero talk. I didn't like that at all. Basically devalued him as the champion. And I just,

like, I didn't get why. Like, why in that moment did you feel the need? Was it to try to sell the fight? Like, I didn't get it. The fight didn't need to be sold.

The winner was going to fight this guy. You're promoting to try to sell the next fight. I hated that. Like, was this a bad start to the night? And like, DC tried to correct them a little bit and disagree. But I felt like the tone from them,

from thereafter, was just not good. I thought the commentary in the main event from at least the color guys was not great. Very, very pain-ya-heavy. And we weren't getting, like, sure, Nunes was getting her shine a little bit

mostly for escaping submission attempts that really weren't that close. There was one arm bar maybe, maybe that was like kind of close, but Amanda didn't feel like she was in trouble at all. And I just felt like it was a very pain-ya-heavy commentary. I just did. To me, that's what sound like I felt like they both had a

had a rough night I thought 276 was like maybe the best that we have heard that trio between like it just seemed like everything was loose they were all on the same page seemed like Rogan is really into it had done his homework DC and DC feeds off of that

like if Rogan's having a good night DC's gonna have a good night if Rowan has a rough night DC kind of has a rough night too and I felt like that's what we saw on Saturday and it kind of hurt kind of hurt things a little bit but it is what it is.

Rogan's voice, I'll never ever be the guy that's be like, oh, Rogan shouldn't be on the broadcast anymore. That would be dumb of me to say. Rogan should be in the broadcast because Rogan's voice is synonymous with the product. He's one of the biggest content creators

on the planet right now. He's, him being there is massive. The fact that he still wants to show up once, and in this case, twice a month, to sit down and talk fights. Like, that's awesome.

Like, that's really cool. But, man, It's hit or miss. It's hit or miss. It's hit or miss. It's tough. It can be tough at times. But Nunes looks spectacular. Her coming out south paw was amazing. Pain's reaction to that was amazing. It was just like, whoa. Didn't see that coming. Definitely didn't see that coming. And then the stoppage with the Pavlovich thing.

It's tough, man. And I wish, I wish we weren't talking about that. I wish we were talking more about the performance itself. because Derek Lewis is just like I feel like if that finish happened with anybody else but Derek Lewis, I don't think we'd be talking about it like we're talking about it right now.

I think we'd have been like, oh, he was down. But I just think because it's Derek and everybody loves Derek and he bounced right back up. It kind of feels different. But I feel like it's like if this is anybody else,

I don't feel like the reaction would be the same, the more I think about it. And I know Casey on our post-fight show and even on Twitter was saying that the way that fight ended costs Pavlovich a bonus. And it shouldn't have, but it might have. It might have.

Just the logistics of it all, how people reacted, sort of the negative reaction. Whether you thought it was a good stoppage or a bad stoppage, quick is probably okay to use there. Like I said, the aesthetics of it, not great. He went face down. but Derek's the guy that has played posseum in the past. He's taken a beating in the past and has come back. He's been in way worse trouble.

Been in way worse trouble. And Big Dan has reft a lot of Derek Lewis fights. So again, very tough spot to be in. 100%. Very tough spot to be in. And that's it. I would prefer what Dan did making a split second judgment call after the aesthetics, more so than what we saw with Herb Dean in the co-made events,

where Herbs just doesn't, I don't know what, I don't know what it is. He's got the yips. He's got the yips with stopping these fights. Like you just got to make a decision and go. You can't be like, all right, I'll stop it. And Big Dan didn't do that there. So I think he's, my reaction at first is like, oh, man, come on. And then the more I watch it, I'm just like, all right, I get it.

I get it. Maybe it was a little quick, but because it's Derek and Derek's just so durable. But I'm curious to see how they matchmake for him. him now because I feel I'm just going like UFCish style here. I'm the UFC with the pencil. I'm thinking to myself, they don't feel like this is a like a real big win for him. Like it's a win, but there's questions. So I know a lot of people are saying like, let's just run this one back. And if they do that, cool. I don't think the result's going to be much different if we're being honest. But I feel like Pavilich might be in a tough spot because UFC 278, Alexander Romano

Ramonoff is getting ready to fight Martine Tibora, I feel like Alexander Romanoff is just going to run this man over, and I feel like they're going to match those two guys up. And that's not doing Sergei any favors right now, who is now, at least in the UFC's rankings,

a top five heavyweights. So we'll see what, I'm really curious to see how they book him moving forward. If they give him Romanoff, if they give him somebody else, we'll see. Let's go to Four Corner Sports. Hey, Mike. Hey, buddy.

I wanted to talk about, I want to know what's his ceiling for Michael Morales. I was watching the fight with my grandfather. I'm half Ecuadorian, and we have Cheeto Vera in the mix. He's a future title contender. So you want to know your opinion, what's your take on Michael Morales and what's his ceiling? Also, do you think that Pena would have landed,

would have, like, completed the arm bar if they weren't so bloody? I mean, look like you got there pretty tight. But one thing that really bothered me was she was holding on to the gloves a lot. She was pulling off like a Simaella. And it's just one of those things where it's like, come on, Pena, like, you know, try not to cheat. I know, you know, cheat to win, whatever, you know, but still, like, that type of stuff kind of, like, bother me. And then also, yeah, if Derek Loolew, like, matchmaking for, like, Derek Lewis, like, are we going to have to put him in with, like, future top 15 contenders? is like, is he going to be like a top 10, like,

Akekeeper? All right, thanks, Mike. Have a good one. Thanks, man. Yeah, the thing, the thing that makes Derek Lewis so valuable is that you could put him in there with anybody and it doesn't matter. People are just going to watch it. You could put him in that sort of like litmus test role or you just put him in fun fights.

Like, Derek, when Derek says, like, I don't care about winning titles. I don't care about the sport. Like, I just care about getting in there and punch people in the face and making a paycheck. He's dead serious about that. He's always been like that. He just, obviously he wants to win.

I'm sure he's disappointed that he didn't win and that the fight ended the way that it did. He wants to go in there and win. But at the end of the day, like, it's just, okay, I have a fight. Cool. I'll sign and I'll do my camp and I'll go in there and people will love me and I'll fight. So I think it's time for the Jarzino fight.

Like, let's just do that. I feel like that's the fight people have wanted for a couple of years. So let's just do that fight. Like, both guys coming off fuel, a couple losses. These two aren't, like, these two are going to just go in there and beat the brakes off of each other.

So just go in there, let him throw hands, and someone's going to fall, and there you go. Like, there's value in Derek Lewis and just throw them in there and have fights with strikers who will try to knock them out. And that's how every – every Derek Lewis fight is very similar. It's just – I'm going to punch you as hard as I can. You're going to punch him as hard as you can. And that's what we're going to do. So I love that. So I'm down for that.

Michael Morales is – I mean, if we're talking about – at ceilings, it's really high. The guy is 23 years of age. He is incredibly talented. He has a very high ceiling. I think the sky's a limit for this kid. Now, he's a little green. He's just, he's just so talented.

He's such a freak athlete. He's got all the tools. He's got everything you need. When you scout baseball players, if you ever watch the movie Moneyball, Billy Bean was, they described Billy Bean. as a quote unquote five tool player

where he could run and hit and throw and hit for power and all that like he has everything you would like a scout would be looking for even if they're green and I feel like Michael Morales sort of checks off a lot of those boxes too he needs work there's

there's no doubt about it like we're not talking about we can't be talking about throwing this guy in with the Tim Means of the world and the Kevin Hollins of the world and the Ponzi's of the world Jake Matthews so forth and so on. Like, we can't do that.

But we build them up slow. Build them up slow. You want to throw him in there with, like, someone on to the next one said him and Andre Fialio or Andre Fialo. I like that idea. That's fine. Because those go in there and strike. And I think that's probably as high as I would go with him.

But if you want to kind of give him like the sort of the Ian Gary run, throw him in there with like Phil Rowe. Gabe Green, guys like that. Those are the kinds of fights that I'd throw him then. Just let him build up. Let him build.

But he's got something. I think in the next two to three years, we're going to be talking about him as a top 15, top 10, maybe even higher than that. Really, I mean, really impressed. Really impressed with Michael Morales. And Adam Fugia, too, man. Adam's a dog.

He's got that, he's got that kind of older man strength that he's like, kind of on the tail end of his prime maybe like in the like the twilight of his prime the guy's good man he's got he's got a good record he's coming off a win over solomon renfro which is like a really good win on the resume i like i i fugget's good too man like fugue could be a not a big problem but i think he could be a problem at 170 i would put i'd pick fugit over you know a good chunk of those guys in 170 and he went in there he wasn't scared at all and he was he lost but he went in there and fought his ass off so i like both those guys but

morales is super good super excited for him toke james you're up you're on deck excuse me hi toke things one thing is um the jake paul thing i know you you did an emergency pod and stuff and i don't know if you addressed the as the start of the show but the cancellation here Doesn't that royally F up the schedule or the timeline between a fight, with a fight between him and Nate Diaz? And then the other thing, you said, let's do Blood Diamond versus Mike Jackson. I think actually we should go to the one that Mike Jackson beat and see who gets to stay. I don't remember the name of this Irish kickboxer.

But Dean Barry? Exactly, yeah. So why not just do that? And then just say, okay, one of you goes to the regional scene and gets the experience that you need and the other one gets to stay. Those two ideas is, yeah, that's it. Yeah, so, well, the problem is one is in the UFC and one is not. Dean Barry was released after that. Man, he's booked for something.

What is he booked for? Let me see if I can pull it up. he signed with karate combat so yeah unless we're doing some co-promote that's not going to happen yeah dean barry got released like right after that fight and he is with karate combat now

so good on him able to to find his home so to speak and able to bounce back from from a tough night of the office just dean the dean barry like if they do an e60 or a 30 for 30 on his road to like getting to the ufc i would watch the hell out of that guys went through a lot of that guys went through a

lot. So good on him. Glad he was able to find a home and all of that. The Jake Paul thing, I honestly think like this helps the timeline because now Jake doesn't have a fight. I don't think they're going to go back to Rockman. I don't think they're going to go back to Fury. So I think, and 279 is like five weeks away. Like five weeks away. That's a little over a month's time.

And Nate just Nate's just probably going to lose. I mean, it's probably going to go on having a fun fight and he's probably going to get dominated for a couple rounds and might lose this. Who does? It's probably not. I haven't really looked at enough tape to like really dive in. But the semantics of it all just tell me Nate's probably going to get dominated, but he will find, he will have like one moment in the fight will stand out. And his stock will still not take much of a hit from the fight.

And I don't think it's going to take much of a hit anyways because he's in this fight with Shamiya. and he's going to be looked at kind of like the Stone Cold Steve Austin figure while Dana and the UFC are being going to be looked at like like Vince McMahon, like Mr. McMahon and he's the anti-hero and the UFC is the

monster, at least that's how they're going to try to sell this thing. And then if Nate just has a moment in this fight like his star power will rise a little more, he will get some momentum and then he could fight Jake Paul at the end of the year. I think this opens the door even wider for Jake Paul. Nate Diaz fight. And to me, like, maybe that's part.

I don't, I don't know. I honestly don't know. I don't want to get into, like, any sort of conspiracy theory. But I think this probably works out for the best for Jake Paul, because the Hasim Rockman fight just kind of seemed like a bad idea. It's either just going to be an awful fight or he's probably going to lose. So this is probably better. But we'll see.

We'll see what happens. I don't think Nate's going to I'm not I don't think Nate's going to just resign with the UFC I'm not saying he'll never I don't think this will be the last time he ever fights in the UFC but it will be the last time he fights

for a while and if he just goes in there and if he just has a moment with Shami if it just doesn't get to completely run over in the first 90 seconds of the fight and maybe it's a brutal I don't know we'll see what happens we have to wait to like September 10th

to sort of have an idea of where Nate goes but Nate just needs to have one moment in this fight and he won't lose any team at all. He can go fight Jake. As long as he's somewhat competitive with Jake, UFC will probably try to get him back. And it wouldn't stun me if that happened. So we'll see how he leaves.

We'll see how the UFC leaves it with him. I think the doors open a little bit wider, if we're being honest. Let's go to James. James, how are you, buddy? I'm fine. How are you, Mike? Good sir. A heck of a morning to you.

Hey, um, I, agreed with everything you guys said about the commentary team the other night. I thought it was a bad night for him. And honestly, when Rogan's on the broadcast, I feel like I'm saying that more often than not lately. You know, he's got his little things. He's hurt. I don't think he's, I saw someone tweet the other night that he's never seen a submission attempt that wasn't tight. And I also hate whenever someone gets someone's back and he says, this is a terrible position. for them. It's like, yes. Literally, everyone knows that. My question is, why do they feel like they have to have three? I would love to just see John Anach and Felder. Felder, who I think has become the best of all the former fighters that are on the broadcast team. I would love to see a team of just Anik and Felder out there. I think the teams of three makes it hard, and, you know, there's a little too much going on. Want to know your thoughts on that.

Yeah, man. It was a rough night. The three-man boot's tough. It's that tough in pro wrestling too. Like you try to watch like any wrestling when they, now they're in the three-man booth. It's just so much. But the heyday of like pro wrestling commentary was, you know,

Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, those two. Two-man booth. Way to go. Now, I do most of the time like the three-man booth. And when Rogan's on, he's great. Like, I thought at 276, for the most part, he was great. And that in turn made DC great. And that in turn, that also loosened to Annick up a little bit more as well.

Because Anick is like a true pro. And Anick just wants a per-like, I ask about his goals in commentary all the time. Like, Kim and I talk a lot. And to him, like, one time he wants to have a perfect. broadcast. He knows it's very, very hard, very difficult. He's just like, I want to have that perfect game. Like one time. Just want to go on there, start to finish, have everything work out the way it's supposed to. We're all in sync. We all have an A plus performance. That's what I want. And to me, and I don't know this for a fact, I haven't asked John about this, but to me,

John even sounded a little frustrated on Saturday. And I know I'm not the only only one who thought that. Joe brings something special. His voice is synonymous. Like I said, it's synonymous with the product. It always will be. It took a long time for John Anick to get kind of get to where he's at now because for a while it was just everybody's so used to Goldberg and Rogan. Like those are the guys. And then Annick came in and people finally started to say, it took a little while, but people started to realize like how good John Anick is and how good he was on these broadcasts and how good he is in that spot to

lead these other guys. Because he's the quarterback. essentially sets the table and then he let and then essentially he knows it's his job to just basically shut up and let the two quote unquote experts do their thing let rogan go let dc have his moment and but boy it was tough especially the main event it was really difficult rogan was asking i'm trying to remember like off the top of my head if anybody knows this knows any but rogan just seemed like to be asking just random questions that like everybody on earth that like I could call my mother and she would know the answer to the question and those some of them was just like what are we what are we doing here and then I can't get the

DC question to Dean Thomas out of my back out of my head the why is why is Amanda scared to grapple with Julianna Pena and Dean's like well I don't think she's she's scared to grapple with her she's just beating her up on the feet and then Amanda would take her down and just beat the hell out of her. Like, it's just weird. Just some strange questions. And I get it, man. Like, I'm not, I'm not sitting there and, I'm not trying to dump on anybody. Like, you, if I'm

just, like, in Vegas, they're like, hey, heck, Rogan's got the flu. Jump in. I'd be like, oh, man. Like, that'd be rough. That'd be tough. I try to figure it out and just, like, be me. But that's, like, it's hard, man. It's hard. And for a guy like, Rogan to have,

like, motivation to, like, leave his house. and leave his family to go call an MMA fight when he certainly doesn't have to. He's like a floppy jillionaire. He doesn't need to do this. But, I mean, come on. We need a little bit better. That's all.

Just do a little bit better. And I think those guys will hear the criticism. I think D.C. probably takes it in a little bit more. We ain't perfect. We ain't perfect. Like I said, I thought my onto the next one performance on Sunday was not great. I've had much better shows. People brought it up,

and normally I don't really check out comments and take that. But sometimes, like, I feel criticism can be constructive. So I went back and watched it. I'm like, all right, I see. I see where you're coming from. Like, I didn't have my best show.

I got a little too, I got a little too high horsey, if you will. And I'm man enough to see that and I'm man enough to work on that. And that's it. Like, some people said, like, I shouldn't feel that way. But to me,

If people are saying that, maybe it's, if enough people are saying it, maybe it's worth me taking a look at it and trying to be better. And I went back and I listened and I'm like, ugh, kind of wish I didn't say those things or acted like that. Like, I acted like, I'm Mr. MMA. And like, it's cool to give your opinion, but I don't want to seem like a no at all or anything like that. And yeah, those guys just, it was a bad night.

But when they have good nights, I'll say that too. Because I thought, I thought they were great at 276. I thought they clicked fantastically. But yeah, this is not a good one. But it happens. Can't all be all things. Can't all be great all the time. And yeah, not good.

Not good overall. C-minus. Emperor. Top of the morning. Top of the morning, everybody. Quick question. I thought I'd kind of pick your mind. I'm really curious to know.

What are your thoughts on what's next for Nunes, right? It seems like there's pretty two glaring options, right? Of course, you can go with the trilogy here after, you know, Pena getting this not beat out of. Or, you know, there's the whole argument of having the, you know, the Shefchenko matchup. Now, obviously, Nunes, you know, is two and over, sir. But, you know, given that they're now, you know, number one and number two in the power rankings, it sounds like it sort of makes sense, right? I don't expect Nunes to come back this year, probably not the first quarter of next year.

She made that pretty apparent. But just curious when we do see her next in the octagon, you know, what's next for her. Thanks, man. Yeah, I don't think they're going to go to the trilogy. I think the trilogy has become what I like to call back. It's a back pocket fight. It's like what Connor and Nate are. The Connor and A trilogy,

because with the story those two guys had, like if there wasn't a call for an immediate trilogy fight for that one, like what are we doing here? So the UFC, basically, they have this little, they have this little invisible folder called back pocket fights. And if they need to, if they really need, it's, and then it's in this glass, it says break if there's an emergency. And then you take the little hammer and you break the glass

and you can pull it the back pocket fights. You can use them any time you want. Connor Nate is a back pocket fight. There are multiple back pocket fights that are there. Like, that's why I'm so high on just doing Yuri versus Glover and just running that right back now because that's not a back pocket fight, because time is of the essence. Glover is not the youngest individual in the world,

and the reaction, the momentum that that fight got right away, like that's something you just run right back. Like, it's there. I don't think there's a lot of momentum for this one right now. I think we saw both fight. It's the same reason we didn't get GSP Sarah 3. I think we kind of know how the third fight would go. And part of me doesn't want to see Pena

just take that kind of punishment again for 25 minutes, because she took a lot of punishment in that fight. Like, it's certainly not one I want to see run back right now. I definitely don't want to see that right now. Like, give both women a rest. Now, for Pena, there's two fights that make sense for me. One, you could do the Caitland-Viera fight, or two, you could do the Raquel Pennington fight

because there's history there. Pennington doesn't like Pena. She's gone up press conferences and kind of dumped on Pena a little bit. There's a little bit of a story there. Nunes, I don't think Pena is an option right now. I just don't. So I would say it's a two-horse race. It's Shepchenko, which I think timeframes could line up,

considering how much time Nunes wants to take off. But it's all going to be on Valentina to go out there and just make a statement in her next flight. So whether they do Tyler Santos or she fights the winner of, like a man in Fioreau wins in October. you can do that fight. Like, there's options there. Or you just don't have her defend the title all

and just prepare her to fight at 135. Hey, you wanted some time to bulk up and put on a little size? Well, Amanda's going to be out for a while, so here's your time. Go for it. Go do it. And if they need to do an interim title fight in a co-made event somewhere,

they can do it. It's there. So, yeah, it's probably Vieira or Valentina. I don't think Giuliana's going to get the next. one and we'll see what happens. But I just feel like the writing's on the wall. And I give Julianna Pena all the credit in the world that the beating she took.

I mean, she literally got knocked into the sky with one of those knockdowns. Like it was brutal. She took a back, like she went after Nunes. Nunes took a back step, landed that right hook, and Pena went flying in the air to the mat. and Pania, to her credit, was just like, all right, come get me.

It was just crazy to watch how durable that woman was. But there's a part of me like with a little bit of a heart that's like, okay, Pena wins a couple more, like you can go back to that one,

but I don't need to see that right away because that was a beating and a very bad one. All right, let's go. Ahid. Ahed. he's here how are you oh i'm great i'm great i'm even better now i can't wait for this okay so exclusive

and exclusive because we don't get this the spotify peeps they don't get this you are you're getting the shadow ban no ban here exactly thank you mike so firstly screw like just because you mentioned i wasn't going to mention it screw katelyn viera i mean forget her like she's not i don't want to see her anywhere near a title fight. Like, my girl, Irene, Aldana, if there's anyone, if she knocks what Chassan out cold,

which she probably will, and she can get it if it's not Valentino Pena. But I wanted to talk about, because I wasn't here last week, because I had whack. I wanted to bring this up. And it's due with Michael,

like Michael Morales is relevant here as well. Is Patty Pimler, the Ryan Garcia of MMA? because it feels like that and it's relevant I'll tell you why Michael Morales as well I don't think he's as good

as you say he is I think he's not as defensively sound so people get caught up in the euphoria of like the knockouts and the finishes and they don't realize that we come on

like there's some real gaps here that will get exploited very quickly like Ian Gary might exploit it really quickly as well but to do it come back to Paddy it's relevant because we had

Drew Dober last week who doesn't love Drew Dober finished half Alves with a brutal shot to the solar plexes. And the thing is, is Drew was asked about Paddy in Media Day. And he said he wanted to fight Paddy. And it's just 155 is so stacked. Paddy is getting so much attention. He just got put on a morning show in Britain.

It's a really big one. It's a big deal because MMA doesn't get this type of attention. But we can't give him this type of attention. And he just fights like no threatening people. Jordan Levitt was a step up in skill, but not a step up in threat. You know, we've got Drew Dober saying now he wants to fight Patty. Terence McKinney, who's fighting next week saying, oh, I want to fight Patty in MSG. And like, there's tons of other people now.

There's Dawson, your guy Puelles, Ignacio Bahamundez. Did everyone forget about him? You know, like there's tons of unranked people now. And it just feels like this has gone a bit ridiculous. like if we just put Paddy against old people or like Clay Goedo, like random people like this, it makes no sense. So that's with Paddy.

Jake Paul and Hasim, I saw you on Hasim's Twitter space bike, but I know you left and I stayed and I just want to say, Jake Paul is, and most valuable promotions are so dodgy and sketchy. The little like, they are so cheeky. No, I'm sticking with Hasim,

you know, and I saw on the MMA hour, New York, Rick and Ariel were like, oh, you know, like Hasim signed the contract. That's not fair. Like this was to dehydrate Hassim and weaken him to a point where he couldn't fight

that this is silly. Like as in you know, you talk about how the UFC gives dodgy contract. So you can't say that Hasim signed it. He has to stick with it. Like it's silly. And lastly, where the hell is Colby Covington at the poker table looking like a drug dealer?

It's absolutely crazy. That's all I've got for you today, Mike. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, just to start the Morales thing, listen, the guy's got a high ceiling. He's green as hell. I also said that as well. He's got a lot of work to do.

But just looking at it on paper, the guy's a talent. He could be molded, but you've got to mold them pretty quickly because I feel like they're going to kind of rush this guy up a little bit. I don't want them to rush them too fast. The Patty thing is just really interesting. I don't know.

Like I literally have no idea what they're going to do with him. I have no clue. If they want to do Dober, I think that's too much. If they want to do McKinney, I'm actually okay with that. I think McKinney's fine. Yeah, I don't know. Just not Tony Ferguson. Just don't do it.

Nobody wants to see it, AK. Nobody. And I mean nobody. And then the Jake Paul thing, I don't know. Like I said earlier, there's only like six people on planet Earth who know exactly what happened. And I am not one of those six people. We all have our opinions.

We can all think something happened. This went down and this went down and this went down. But we don't know. Like, we honestly don't know. Maybe it's dodgy. Maybe it's not. I don't know. I honestly have no idea.

But this whole thing is just really weird. And it was really weird from the jump. And I wanted to ask Qasim about the ticket sale thing, but they wouldn't let me in for some reason. And that's okay. We'll take a few more. Drop them. MMA show. How are you? Get on mute. What's going on, Mike?

There we go. How you doing, bud? How you doing? I'm a little sick, but, you know, I've been super excited. I had a few questions for you, especially when it comes to this Amanda Nunes business in the possible trilogy. I think you're 100% right. I don't think that it's time for the Giuliana Penny Amanda Nunes trilogy. She got her ass. Excuse my language.

She got her butt kicked. She got beat bad. And again, score cards, the judges even saw it. you're right to when it comes down to the commentary. I think it was very Giuliana Peña heavy. And my number one question is, is if you saw the reaction out of Balaah Muhammad describing how arrogant Amanda Nunes has been since her beating Giuliana Peña and said, you didn't, you couldn't, and he basically stated, you couldn't finish her, you didn't finish her because you couldn't finish her. And Amanda stated that she didn't. So that's really

my number one question is what do you have to say about Bala Muhammad and his comments on it? Interesting. Yeah, I did see that. I mean, I guess that's his opinion. I don't know. It just seemed kind of out of left field. But Amanda, you have to understand, like Amanda just fought, got her title back and negated one of the worst moments of her career and had a great performance. and then you show up with all that adrenaline,

you had that beer or two that the fans gave you and you feel them good, and you sit down at that press conference, and you feel like you're the queen of the world. You're on top of the mountain, ready to shout out. Come at me, I dare you do. What's the man? Like, Amanda was just fired up,

and she said that, she said things. And how many times have fighters said dumb things or things that don't make a lot of sense or things that are somewhat wrong after a big win like that. It happens all the time. So maybe it's just Amanda caught up in the moment and just said some stuff. And I'm surprised that fighters are calling her out on that.

It just seems kind of weird. But sorry, I'm trying to do some microphone construction for later on. But, yeah, I don't know. I mean, that's Belal also hinting he's a fighter. He's got his own show. and that's just his thought on it. I just, I don't know. I just thought it was just gamesmanship.

It's just fight stuff and maybe planting seeds for the trilogy if it comes down to it. I don't know. I don't know. Who knows? Maybe she felt like she could, and that's just how she felt. Can't blame her for that. Blugging going on. Well, I kind of blasting her.

I wasn't ready for, but. Blal likes to Blal's got opinions Always has I like Blal Let's go to Siboram That will go to Tristan They'll go to Biel

They'll go to Rips and Picks And then I'm gonna get out of here Sure What's up buddy Amic? Are you Are you Am I audible to you?

What's that? Am I audible to you? Are you hearing? Yeah, I can hear you Yeah, yeah Yeah, yeah I couldn't wait to Join your space

After completing EFC 277 Yeah, I'm so excited to talk with you and get to know about you, what your opinion starts on this UFC 77. First, let me tell you about my opinion on this thing about UFC 277. The first one is the Derek Lewis Stappes. I think it's kind of a bad and good at the same time because the Rurit could have thrown a flurry of punch. and it could have been met, eventually the fight would have ended in a TQO or KO. Referee could have stopped after getting a satisfied KO or TKO, but it's the eventuality. So I think it's a good and bad at the same time.

And I want to talk about the co-main event of EFC 2007. I think I rooted for the Kaikara France because I think I rooted for the Kaikara France because, I want to see the new perspective in the flywide division. But anyway, you know, Moreno showed us he's the great fighter in that fight. So I think people, I think he deserved to fight with the figurato. And maybe with the Kaikara-France win, it could have been a new water in the Fly-Wat division. Anyway, I hope they don't get the fifth fight between Figurato and Kaikara, sorry, between Moreno. I think it could end with this fourth fight, mate.

And about the main event, I'm kind of a bias towards the Juliana. So I expected Juliana to win that fight. But anyway, props to the former champion and Amanda. So she showed why she is a quoting romance MMA. Like the resilience of a champion, the resilience of a human shows, why they are champions. But anyway, a lot of people saying, you know, they don't want to see a triology fight between, you know,

Amanda Nunes and Julian Appen, I kind of don't like that argument, Mike. Because I want to explain one thing, then I will end my opinion. That is, like Belal said, he said that she's arrogant in her first match statement. I kind of agree with that. Because let me explain that reason. So when Amanda Nunes dropped Julianne in first round and second round, why didn't she go to the ground and pound?

So, because, after the tournament, after, in championship rounds, Juliana had a chance to submit Amanda. So if she, if the, if the both fighters didn't have a blood and sweat and crazy, maybe she could have submitted Amanda. So is that a price that she is going to pay without going to the ground and pond in second and first round? So I don't think Amanda scared to finish her I don't know.

Maybe it could be right what Belal Muhammad said. So if Julianapan submitted Amanda, so it could have been backfired that Amanda didn't go into the ground and pond in first and second round. So those are my thoughts on UFC 277. And let me go to the two other things. Dan Hooker saying that he wants to fight Tony Berguson. Oh man, I don't want to see that fight.

because I like both the fighters, especially Tony, and both are on four last week. So I hope that doesn't happen. It's like Michael Chandra versus Tony Ferguson all over again. Now, one other thing is that, yeah, man, Colby is a wow. I never know he's a good end poker. And a lot of people saying that he's going to not going to fight again in a UFC and he's going to play poker like that.

but I hope he returns very quickly and show why he's the best in the welterweight. That's it, Mike. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, man, a lot to unpack there. Yeah, I'm not saying, like, I never want to see the trilogy fight, but I just don't think we need to see it right now. I just don't think we need to. I think we know how the third fight would probably go.

I just, it's never a good thing when we praise toughness. Like, usually praise, like praising tough, like, I'll always praise toughness. Like, I praise anyone who gets into that cage and fights, no matter what level you're at. Praise y'all. You guys are crazy. I ain't doing that. So good on you. But it's never a good thing when we say, wow, that fighter is so tough.

Because usually they're on the wrong end of a vicious beating. And, I mean, it was, we said it best. Like, the best way to describe that fight was it was the most compelling, ask, kicking we've ever seen where this was one as one side as it gets but we're still on the edge of our seats thinking like ooh maybe the fact that like painia didn't get put away after we knocked down five times in 10 minutes maybe she's still got a chance like we never counted her out of this fight so it's it's interesting in that sense but again this this kind of goes into the back pocket file where we don't need this right now but if we want to do it we can and painey's

take some time off. We'll see how much time she takes. I don't, we'll probably see here like first, second quarter of 20, 23. And we'll see where the division stands right now. It's just a little too early to kind of think about that, especially when it comes to a fighter who isn't really all that interested in fighting right now. She got to take some time off and she could be out for a year. And things could look way different at 135. So I'm willing to wait for the trilogy. Maybe Panyi goes out, gets another wind, then cool. We'll do it, but, and maybe they will go back to that well. Who knows?

But it just didn't seem like anybody was all that interested in it right then and there. And that's okay. And that's okay. And if they do Dan Hooker, Tony Ferguson, sign me the hell up for that fight. Now, that makes sense for Tony Ferguson. Makes sense for both guys, for being honest. All right. We'll go to these last three.

Tristan, we start with you. What's up? Hey, Mike. How's everything? Good. I think going to back to a little bit about the early stoppage for Derek Lewis and Sergey, wasn't Dan Migralada the ref for Pat Berry versus Czech Congo? And he gave, you know, he gave Czech Congo the benefit of that.

Like, you couldn't give Derek Lewis a little bit of the benefit of the doubt. I mean, not only that, Mergelada is part of UFC history. That is one of the most greatest comeback ever. And like, how many times did we think, Czech Kong? But when Chekhan got knocked out, he's all, he's done, he's done. He got the first time. Nope, gets back up.

Okay, second time. All right, now it's over. And, you know, Joe Roken was going crazy. Like, it's over. And then, you know, America ought to still let it go. So I'm like, you know, you've been part of history before. You've been through this before, and you've fought, and your breath. Then, I mean, Dirk loses three fights.

Like, you couldn't give them a little bit about the benefit of doubt. Listen, I'm not complaining. You know, it is what it is. you know, you feel like he got hurt and he was done and he face-planted, okay. You know, I'm not a complaint, but I mean, like, I would ask Dan, just, it could have given a little bit of benefit of the doubt because what if he did pop back up? What if you would have knocked out Sergei? That's two, that would be two comeback.

You rep, you rep. And it would be insane. So, you know, I just wish he gave Derek a little bit of benefit of the doubt. Also, yesterday watching you guys on Otno, when you talked to. about Amanda Nunes's next opponent. I just looking at you, Mike, I just felt it was not more about, because

when you brought up Kate LaVierra and you're like, maybe, I guess, you know, you weren't too enthused about it. So I think it's not, it's just not a man of news, obviously. It's more of the men, this women's band-o-weight division's just not good, man. And then

and then also, so obviously there is no featherweight division. So, you know, I think we've talked about this before of what the UFC can do as far as scouting the scows of the earth to look for more band-of-weight talent. You know, if you look at the women's strode-draway division, if you look at the women's flyweight division, there's a lot of talent. That's why, you know, even though Valenzhenko is dominating, you know, there's some fights you want to see her in that's in that fly-way division that are up and coming in. Right now, I just feel the band-weight division, women's band-a-division, and women's fly-weight division, and women's flyweight

doesn't have that. So I want your thoughts on that. Because it just, when I was watching, again, when I watched you and I don't, it was just more about the division not being good.

And you weren't too enthusiastic about the fight. I mean, that's why you got to do Shepchenko, but then AK brought up, though, like, you know, what if it's another,

another, you know, sleeper, you know, and, you know, you want to, you know, if you're just deep, that's going to put some pause

on it a little bit. Because Valentino wants, listen, she wants another fight at flyway. She says, I got to build up to 135. I felt, small in there against

in her last fight against I think Santos. So it's like, you know, they're in the law. They're in a no win-win situation that band-of-eat division. They've got to pump more talent, and I don't know what you do about that. So that's the thing about that.

And then my last point, I believe, no, that's pretty much it. So thanks, Mike, and have a good day. Thanks, man. Yeah, Baneroy, it's just not a great division right now. that's it

and I said this earlier and then we'll move on if Derek Lewis wasn't the guy getting knocked out I don't know if we're having the same conversation right now I don't know if it's such an emotional reaction

like if that was Augustos Sakai who got face planted are we having this discussion I don't know I don't think we are I think it's because it's Derek and Derek is just so beloved

and listen it's just the aesthetics except it sucked. Like he's face-playing, he went face-first to the mat. So I get it. And Big Dan was just like, nope,

face-first, no way. And in hindsight, it was, it was a quick stoppage. And the more you watch it, the more you kind of understand where Big Dan's coming from.

I still think it was a somewhat early stoppage considering it is Derek, and Derek is a history of coming back from these crazy fights. And Ty Tuivas was probably in worse trouble than Derek was when Derek fought Ty in that first round. So, it is what it is, but I honestly think take Derek out of this equation, and I don't know if we're having this conversation.

I don't know if we're as emotional about it. I don't know if it's as big of a talking point. All right, we'll go to Rips and Picks, and then I gots to go. What's up, Rips? Hey, what's up, Mike? Man, I was actually waiting to honestly ask a question about the Derek Lewis fight, which is pretty funny. But just to really keep it short, like, what do you think, you know, his next kind of plan is and where he's going to be going after that? just looking at the division of heavyweight, it feels like, you know, we got Taito I

Vasa, who I think is like 29, Tom Aspinall, 29, you know, I feel like we just got some younger guys, Sergei, is 30, Curtis Blades, 31, like, where do you think Derek Lewis is going I mean, how long do you think some of these guys like Steepet, shoot, Derek Lewis, I mean, Shamil is even 40 years old in the top 15 still, so just kind of curious where you think Derek's going in the rest of the older heavyweight division. Thanks, man. Yeah, Derek, I think Derek still gets a mile left at him. And he's just, that's just who, I mean, Derek just fights like that.

That's how all of his fights are. It's get or get got. That's it. And I think you just do the Jarzino fight. I think people have been wanting that fight for a while. And I think right now it just makes perfect sense. And Shamil, Shamil's fighting Jalton Almeida. I just don't see a whirl where that goes well for Shameel.

I think Jelton is that good and he's one of the best he's one of the best up-en covers in the sport right now he doesn't get talked about enough if we're being honest so yeah that's fine I don't want Derek fighting Jelton Almeda but if you want to throw him in there with even like if you did the Walt Harris fight

at this point like you could do that that's okay Jake I mean there's there's fun fights for Derek like Derek's Derek's must watch TV and you can throw them in there I mean if you threw him in there with like Chase Sharman would anyone be upset about that. If you threw Derek Lewis in there with

Parker Porter, would anybody be mad about that? What I'm going to be like, oh, and like, what a dumb fight. No, no. It would be like, oh, shit, Derek Lewis is fighting. Parker Porter, like, could beat him. Like, I think there's a world of Parker Porter beats Derek Lewis. And there's a world where Derek Lewis

knocks Parker Porter out. Like, it's we can do anything with Derek. We can do anything with him. He's not going to fight for the title. He doesn't care about any of that stuff. He just wants to get in there and punch people in the face. Beal, Send this home, my man. Maybe.

Are you there? Beal. Mike, my bad, man. Beal! We got you. How the heck are you? Good. First of all, I just want to say, I've only been listening to Otno for about two months now, but the other day's episode was probably the best episode I've heard.

You guys had me laughing a lot. You had me thinking a lot. You guys are great. And we definitely... footage when you and AK finally meet. And I just want to say about the Derek Lewis thing, I think it was a great stoppage by Dan.

I personally, I work with dogs, and when dogs are playing, you have to be there close because sometimes it can get rough, and you don't want dogs to get hurt, and you have to make those split-second decisions, and like you said, Derek went face first, both of his hands. It's one thing if his arms were up, like, trying to do something, but both of his hands went down by his And yeah, man, have a heck of a morning.

Thanks for everything you do. And don't let these haters in the comments get you, man. Appreciate you. Oh, yeah, thank you. Yeah, they don't, like, ruin my day. But, you know, a lot of people mean well. And some of the criticism was not, like, dickish, if you will. They were kind of nice about it.

And then I realized I'm like, oh, you know what? sometimes I just don't get enough sleep and I'm a little salty I'm a little cranky and that's kind of what happened on Sunday but I still had a lot of fun I thought the show was great it carried me and that's okay

yeah man like like I said and I'll say one last time before we get out of you Derek this is not Derek Lewis involved I don't think we're talking about this like I don't even think this is a question on the show I don't think it was a question it would be a question on the post fight show

I don't think Twitter would have blown up the way that it did I just think it's everyone's sort of admiration and just pure like for Derek Lewis. Like just universally liked. And I think if this was Sakai or Blagoi evenoff or Chris Dawkins, like if that was Chris Dawkins getting face planted, would be like, oh, great stoppage. That's a great stoppage by Big Dan. I think we're having a whole different conversation.

But at first I was like, oh, come on, it's Derek Lewis. But then like the more you watch it. And even I made, like, I think I was a little emotional about it because she's just like, damn it. Like, it's Derek freaking Lewis. Like, we want to see what would have happened. Like, because we've seen Derek come back from, from that kind of thing multiple times. And at the same token, it's just like, Big Dan made a judgment call. And he probably made the right one.

And that's that. Like, we don't, like, we can be pissed about it that we didn't get to see Derek, like, do Derek Lewis things. But in the end, it was a good call. I respect Tandan for making a decision and sticking with it and just not having any hesitation at all. And I think that's, in the end, I think it's okay. I think it's okay. What is also okay is that I got to get out of here. Now, if you're listening on the podcast feed, we are not done.

You will hear, in its entirety, my interview with Nico Price, because a lot of people are wondering where the hell this man is. and I'm going to try to get you some answers. And let's just say he has accepted a challenge. He has accepted a challenge. And I think it's one we would all like to tune in to watch. So enjoy that. My chat with Nico Price come out next in the podcast network. For those listening live on the MA Fighting Twitter Spaces,

thank you very much. We will be back Thursday, 10 a.m. Eastern right here on a brand new episode of heck of a morning, which I wish to you. Thank you very much. All right. Let us say hello to a man whose name comes up an awful lot on our matchmaking show on to the next one, Mr. Nico Price.

We last saw him compete this past October, picked up a win over Alex Cowboy Olivera, and he sort of run the cowboy gauntlet at 170 pounds, but what is next for the hybrid? Perhaps we'll get some idea right now. It has been a minute, Nico. Good to see you, my man. How are you?

Good to see you too, Mike. How's everybody doing that? We're doing well, my man. So I mentioned the win over Cowboy Olivera, and it's been from my mouth. Correct. Nine months since we've last seen you compete. I know it's not,

it hasn't been like two years or anything. It's not like you've been out forever, but we saw you twice in three months after the suspension following the Donald Seroni fight, and then we haven't heard or seen much since then. So what's been going on since October? So the last fight, I messed my leg up. I had to get it fixed.

I'm fixed up now, and I'm ready to go, man. Like, I'm just excited. I'm in here training. As you can see, I'm soaking wet. I literally came off the mat, grabbed my phone and called you up. But, yeah, I'm just training hard. Yeah, I fight consistent. So when I'm gone for more than like four months, five months, people are like,

I wonder what happened to that guy. But, yeah, no, I'm back. I had to get some surgery. My leg is 100% now. And, yeah, I'm excited to fight with two legs. I've been fighting since 2018 with no ACL in my left knee. they told me. I was like, really? Oh, no kidding. So this is an ACL thing that it was just something that was lingering that you were just like, you know what?

We got to take care of this thing. So I guess that tour back in the day and I didn't even know. And I've been fighting with it. Like just consistently never got an MRI or anything. Just, you know, going along with it. And they're like, yo, this has been torn for a long time. So I was like, oh, okay. And then the UFC made me get an MRI after the last night.

I was like, yo, my leg is sore. Because me and Alex, you know, we were blasting each other with some leg choppers. And I guess he kicked my LCL out. Oh, man. So does it feel like a new one that's three times of strong? I was going to say, like, does it feel, do you feel like different now, like being, having two healthy legs? Were you just like, wow, I forgot what this felt like. Dude, I totally forgot what it felt like that, two legs.

Like, I can, like, fully wrestle now. I can kick with both of my legs in all types of fashions now. I can jump higher of fasters. It was a life benefit to get my legs redid, you know. And then none of that. If it benefits life, it's found to benefit my career. So I'm ready to go with it.

So I've been gone, but I expect greatness when I come back because that's all I expect. Yes, Nico Price to two healthy legs for the first time in like four years. It's exciting. Hybrid 2.0. There you go. The last time I, you know what's funny? the last time

the last time I actually spoke it was before the James Vic fight the James Vic that was the last time you and I have done an interview together so that was a long time ago like three, maybe three years yeah

yes sir yeah so we haven't spoken yeah I think we're okay now can you hear me are we good? Our internet will get crazy yeah I think we're okay now we're good

okay okay yes sir so going back to the suspension which most people thought was really dumb and a bit of greed especially coming from Nevada where you could just literally walk. Like I was in Nevada.

I was in Vegas for International Fight Week. People are just walking around, lighten things up and it spoke. And then like less than a year later. Yeah. And then less of the year. Yeah. And then like less of the year later, the commission votes to no longer disciplined fighters for marijuana use as like

your, either your suspension is wrapping up or is like in the middle of your suspension. Like how did you react to that? because they made that ruling not long after you're, like right around the same time frame. So when you found out that they were just getting rid of this rule altogether and they weren't going to punish fighters anymore, were you like, come on, man. I told everybody I could to get my money back.

That's what I did. Call them and no one gave me my money back. That's crazy. Yeah, because it was the day after. A day after I got popped, they announced that they would no longer be. doing it to the fighters since then multiple fighters have been

pumped though so if you're fighting in Nevada remember if the UFC says it's okay it doesn't mean Nevada means it's okay because I was cool with the UFC I wasn't I wasn't bothering the UFC I failed Nevada's test so Nevada came at me yeah and now it's cool

there is a fine train in there is there don't be going into the yeah you can't still can't walk in like I don't know how Nick and Nate do it. They must have good lawyers and just pay the fines for them. Yeah. I thought of you,

like immediately when Nevada had that meeting was like, yeah, it's 2021 or 2022. Like, we're not going to, we're hip with the times now. So now we're just not going to like suspend anybody for that anymore, which is crazy right after you got suspended for it. Yeah, but I still was suspended.

I still had to pay all the money. But they, because there wasn't proactive or something or whatever that way. Retroactive, yeah, retroactive. Because it was hilarious. Like, I was on that call. They make that ruling and then they suspended two fighters for marijuana use

at the same meeting because it hadn't gotten to effect yet. That's what I'm saying. I'm telling you, there's a fight right everywhere. It's so crazy. So speaking of, because you had fought Donald Soroni before Cowboy, so you ran the Cowboy Guntherin. He fights Jim Miller earlier this month and loses and then puts the gloves down

and announces his retirement from the sport. And you're going to go down as one of the final three opponents of Donald Sorote's MMA career. What did you think when he retired and what does it mean now since you were able to share the Octagon with that man before he did that? Just complete blessing, man.

It's like, it's like, what is I say? You look up to someone and then you finally get to stand next to him. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's what it was for me. It was like, because I want every time Cowboy fought. I'm on the TV. Not still,

you know, until this day, whenever I know he's fighting, I'm watching that event regardless. You know, if I got to steal it or what? But I'm going to watch Cowboy fight. So,

like, knowing that I got to get in there with him and experience the fight-ready cowboy, you know, it was just a complete blessing and an awesome gold medal for my career. Is there like, is there a part of you that's like,

damn it, because you guys fought to the draw? before got overturned to a no contest. Was there a part of you that? I was like, all right, before he goes, I got to run this back with the band one more time. Was it a little bittersweet at all? Nah, it was bittersweet, but, you know, I got to fight the man.

We know what happened in there. We all do. It's okay. You know? He told me I won the fight. I mean, it was blatant that I won the fight. The only reason that I went to the first round or the no contest was because I accidentally poked him in the eye.

Watch all my fights. I don't groin kick. I don't poke people. I don't do anything. And when I fought him, I was just so anxious and nervous. I guess I had my hands open a few times and got him. You know, like, I'm never intentional with anything to cheat.

I'm not a cheater. I don't cheat. It's not in my style. You know, if I cheated, I would have a belt already. That's how you know if I would cheat. Let me ask you this, because this is something we talk about. about at MMA fighting all the time because we obviously watch all these cards and we see what happens.

And you mentioned the cheat word. And I feel like in a lot of these fights, especially with the pay structure the way it is, like it's not just like, hey, you show up and fight, you get a flat fee of this. You have to go out there and win to get the second half of your paycheck. And a lot of it's, yeah. And a lot of times we see fighters like, they'll be blatant fence grabs and like all this stuff. And nothing gets called. and it can cost the other guy the fight.

I'm about saying we, like, there's the eye pokes or accident. Yeah, like, in the face. Yeah, dude, like, it's nuts. Like, and refs, especially of what we've seen this year, they're not calling anything. Like, they're literally not calling anything. So we're telling at the same time, like, if fighters want to go in there and, like, fence grab and grab gloves and stuff like that,

like what's to stop them when they need the second half of their paycheck and nothing's going to get called? So what you- Thank you so much. Sorry, sir. It's okay. So what's your thought? So what's your thoughts on that?

Because like, we go out and we're like, listen, just cheat. Just cheat your ass off because like nothing's going to happen. You're not going to get called. And I know it's not like the moral code of martial arts, but it's money on the line. Like you try to take care of your family and stuff. And if like you could grab a fence and it's not going to get called. Like what's to stop you, right? Yeah.

So like I got, brother, I got kicked in the cuff twice when I fought Alex Pereira. Or not Alex Ferrer, Michelle. and illegally backflip in the head. The first kick, the ref didn't see, which is weird. I don't know how you don't see my cuff fly up. You know, it was like, boom. And I'm like, oh-oh.

And then he blitzes me. And I scoot over, and the ref I noticed isn't trying to stop nothing. I'm like, come on, what's up, bro? They were boys. You know, you tell me you're going to do everything to keep us both safe. You let him kick me in the nuts twice. He only called one of them. And that's because I was like, are you serious?

You didn't see that. And then I got backflips stoffed in my head, which they keep promoting. Like, that's cool. It's like, yeah, let's promote somebody illegal move that someone did to a guy. You know what I'm saying? And I punched him in his eye. But like, I didn't have to poke for the eye. I hit him with knuckles.

So, like, there's just a few things that happened recently like that to me. But like, it happens. That's all I can say. Some of the fighters know what they're doing, and some are accidents, you know. And if you know what you're doing, you're just a dirty fighter, which there's 30 fighters out there. It's simple. Yeah. You know, they're fighting for their life.

They might have come from a harder upcoming from you, and we'll use more things than a fight if they can. You know, I know I can't do this. That's not even in my retro wall. I don't even think of it. But some people use it. and when you're fighting someone who has decent cardio or doesn't stop coming at your face you try to kick them to nuts a couple times

especially when you're a runner. It's kind of frustrating, man. Like I get, like, I get frustrated watching. I'm like, how many times is something going to happen before you actually make a call? Like, I'm not saying take a point for everything, but like if someone grabs a fence, like it should be an automatic, like stop the action.

It should be an, like, even if you don't want to do a point, like if you just want to be like one warning, instead of just giving a flat one, it's a takedown. Automatic take down. Yeah, it's automatic take down. Or restart you on the fence. Yes, automatically. You get down and he starts right in half on the fence on you.

You do that. Yeah. If he does it again, then you take a point. Like, I'm fine with that. But like in any other sport, if something happens, there's some sort of consequence for everything. Like some are bad. Some are like if pass interference in the NFL is like all the, like wherever the,

it's a spot fall. Like wherever it happens, 80 yards down field, it's an 80 yard penalty. But if you jump up, off sides. It's just a five-yard penalty. No one means to do it. You know what I mean? Yeah.

We got to have, we got to be able to like call some things, right? Like just some things. Groin kicks. And I agree with growing kicks. I agree with eye folks. And then anything like knee to the head on the floor or kicked it ahead on the floor. Now, if it was one FC, I wouldn't give a shit.

I'd be doing it. Right. So I'm in my language. You know what I'm saying? Like, I actually have scenarios where I'm like, man, that would be really cool. You could pass here and just soccer kick into his face. You know, like I have stuff that I have worked because I was trying to go to the one at sea for a while, but But then I had to UFC and I was like, oh, dream, let's run this one

You know, but yeah Yeah, the cheating happens, you know, and sometimes we had caught him the short end of it You can't sit there and dwell on these things I mentioned them just so maybe in the future if something like that happens to another fighter the ref will see it and be like because we confronted him because he refpped me when I fought Alex and my coach was like

hey the last ref didn't see a backflip laying on my fighter's head and he goes and Henry was like oh that was me sorry man I didn't see that one but I mean in the video he's looking at him do it

it's like how do you not see I understand you're in the zone maybe you went cross-eye for a moment but you missed the most like typical moment of the situations you hit you missed it yeah it's it's crazy but i also it's not only his fault me i looked at him expecting him to stop it as a fighter what do they tell us uh protect yourself at all time and fight all time i stopped fighting and looked away and got freaking mounted by looking away

if i would have kept fighting i probably could have just got back up but like for that moment i went into I can touch, right? Yeah. I went into like a bitch mode and it was like, hey, take the police. You know what I'm saying? Instead of the dog me, it was just like, fuck it, all right. They're getting in there, you know? Yeah.

That's a learning point of mine, my aspect. I was like, yeah, that won't happen again. If I get illegal anything, I'm coming right at you and I'm going to rip your face off. You know, it's going to be because of the incident that happened before. Yeah. So now that you have two working legs, you're healthy, your hybrid 2.0, what are we looking at time frame-wise? Like, are you ready to go? Like, if they offered you to fight right now, could you, could you take it?

Legally, no. Physically, I would. Yes. But so August 20th, I'll be cleared. So they're looking like that should be the date where they said everything is good. And then I can contact the UFC and we'll get all that going. We'll let the first-arm management take over. over and talk to everybody and we'll get in there.

All right. So about a month, a month away. Yeah, I figure a month, maybe two more months. And then expect to see me every two months. Yeah, I mean, like I said, we do a matchmaking show after these cards on Sundays. And every time there's a welterway fight, it's where's Nico Price? This guy should fight Nico Price. It's like your name comes up all the time.

Barbina said I'm like number one on his hit list. That's cool. Who did? Oh, something happened here. Oh, no, we're good. you still Barbina Oh, Barbarita

Yeah, yeah, yeah Barbarina, Daria I was, that's his name up Sorry about that No disrespect your name But he said he would like to fight me Dude, that's a great fight I'm always down for shows

Yeah And I like wars What did you think of his fight with Robbie? Amazing He did it He did it perfect He went in there And he went in there with a legend

And he showed that a legend That he's a future legend So he did it great, man You know, there's a few of us there we're these next guys, you know? And I can see who they are. You know, that's the guys that I want to fight. Because the only way for me to become a waller

is to be like a waller and beat these guys. And if not beat them, beat them up and let them remember my name. Maybe we can, like if August 20th, you get the all good, because you'll probably be ready to go, like, ASAP. I'm training right now to the fullest I can. And then I'm just waiting from them and tell me that

I can go like 100% spars. That's what I'm waiting here. Because I can do like 80 right now. So I'm going hard. And I'm doing a lot of rounds at 80%, but I can't wait to be able to like get it all the way up. And, you know, I still feel I'm pulling back on the governor right now. But that's just because they haven't told me I can go yet.

So what do you think? Like September, October, November-ish around there? September, October, I'm looking. So you know what card needs a little bit of a boost right now, in my opinion, is that September 10th card. Anywhere they want to put me. Nick, Nate Diaz fighting Hamzat Shamiya from the main event of that one? What was your reaction to that? Dude.

Let me get the winner. We are, no offense to Nate. Yeah. Dude, I've seen him and I've seen Jemaiah. They're just different sides. It's different weight classes. You know what I'm saying? Like there's no way

Hubb that ever got the 45. And if he was, it was because he was 13 growing. Yeah, right? You know what I'm saying? So, but yeah, man, that's an exciting fight. I don't want. Yeah, put you and Brian, put you and Brian on that main card.

You guys open up the main card for those guys. I love that idea. Over the main card. We're, hey, we're a co-main event. Co-made event. Works for me. Either that. We're taking a whole.

card over if me and him get on it. Because they know that me and him are going to bring some butts to the seats and blood to the ring. It's simple. I like that idea a lot. You're going to watch it if me and him are in there because what do we do?

We fucking fight. I would love to see that on that card. Because like I said, that one needs a boost. Do you think Nate has a chance here? Because as soon as this on his book, everyone's like, oh, I'm just going to run this guy over.

And there's a part of me that feels like especially on Nate's last fight in his deal when the lights are bright when the moment counts. Yeah, I think if the fight if Nate gets to the third round, I think the fight becomes very interesting. Nate and Nick are my like favorites.

Like growing up, I just like Nick's attitude. I like how they just, they didn't care about what you said. You know, like the old saying like forget what everyone else says. It all matters about you do and God. I don't know how they are with God, but I know that all matters of them is what they think about themselves.

You know, they don't care about anyone else. No one's, they're not trying to be a certain image of that. They're Nick and Nate. And that's what I respect them most about them boys. You know, they've never changed. He's always walked in with a joint in his ear. You know, light enough, every parking lot he's in. Like, that's them, you know?

And if y'all want a trainer partner for this camp, I'm right here, homie. I'll come over there. That's fun. There you go. Nick, pick up the phone. Call hybrid 2.0. I'll go blast double for you. No flying knees, though. No, no flying knees. Well, I'm glad to hear that you're healthy, that you're almost ready to go.

You're almost clear. We got about a month to go. And then hopefully it's all good news. We can call the UFC. And I can finally answer the question of where's Nico Price? Why is the Nico Price fighting? Who's Nico Price going to fight? Hopefully it's Brian Barberina.

I think that would be a fantastic one. but good to see in great spirits, man. I think I don't, I'm definitely not speaking alone here. We're excited to see you come back, my man, and I'm sure you are as well. Hey, all glory to God, guys. And don't blink when I get in there because it can add it in one second

or four minutes and 59 seconds. So don't blink. Nico, you're the man. Thank you. Great catching up with you as always. Thank you, guys. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.