MMA Fighting - HOAM | Stop Saying Leon Edwards' Incredible KO Was A Fluke — Because It Wasn't

Episode Date: August 25, 2022

Despite pulling off one of the most memorable moments in UFC history, there are still a number of people who are calling Leon Edwards' KO of Kamaru Usman in the final minute of UFC 278 a fluke, or considering it lucky, when that just isn't true. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses why the word fluke shouldn't be used in MMA — along with a few others when it comes to the sport. In addition, listener questions include where Conor McGregor could fit in as far as options go for Edwards, why the trilogy fight with Usman is the way to go for the UFC, the rumored Kevin Holland vs. Daniel Rodriguez fight for UFC 279 next month, lightweight vs. bantamweight, Khamzat Chimaev vs. Nate Diaz stakes, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Amex Platinum, you have access to over 1,400 airport lounges worldwide. So your experience before takeoff is a taste of what's to come. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice, yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no, but chicken tenders, yes, because those are groceries, and we deliver those too, along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now.

For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. All right, everybody, it is Thursday, August 25th, 2022, and it is indeed a heck of a morning live. on the MMA fighting Twitter spaces. You'll hear the show in its entirety on the MMA Fighting Podcasting Network. Probably about 20 minutes after we conclude here. If you miss anything,

thank you very much for being here. I am Mike Heck. Hope you're all having a great week. A wonderful Thursday. We are still feeling the hangover of UFC 278 and rightfully so. And it is not a bad thing because Leon Edwards continues to be celebrated

as the new welterweight champion of the world. The story continues to be told in multiple different ways. In fact, I have another angle. That's going to be coming soon to mhmafighting.com. I had the chance to speak with for about 30 minutes yesterday. A man who has become part of this story for a reason that I just don't actually understand. But Dean Thomas, I spoke with Dean Thomas yesterday,

who had a sort of famous quote, that has become famous that probably shouldn't have been a few minutes before the knockout happened where he essentially said, look, this Leon Edwards looks broken right now and explained why he felt that way. And then the knockout happens. John Anick has the legendary call. And to me, going back and watching it yesterday before I spoke with Dean, it just made the moment so much more meaningful and so much more memorable because I thought Dean set the table really well and he was saying what most people watching the fight

were thinking. I said it because I even said to Dean like I tweeted out after that fourth round 3937 Uspen Edwards looks extremely frustrated right now. And to me even going back and watching it knowing what was about to happen I don't think I was wrong tweeting that. I don't think Dean was wrong saying that. And then him saying that and then Annick saying that he's not cut from the cloth where essentially he's in it for moral victories and then boom,

the head kick lands. It just made for one of the best calls, maybe the best four to five minutes of actual broadcasting that I've seen. And it's set the moment up just so much in a so much more meaningful way. and Dean has just been getting clobbered from people saying you shouldn't have a job in the UFC because he said that. People just saying he's wrong and they're better than him and they're smarter than him. It's just wild.

It's just crazy. But I'm working on the transcripts of that right now and it's a really good interview. And hopefully you'll get to hear that in the next couple of days. But just really great stuff. And you know what? I was going to wait on this, but I'm just going to do it now. I'm just going to do it now because I teased a BTL matchup that is just absolute fire. And I believe that this is fire.

And I'm giving some of the folks what they wanted because for the last couple weeks, and all the time I get different requests on Jed versus Blank. Jed should go against this person. Jed should go against that person. But there has been a name that has come up multiple times over the last. couple of weeks. And I'm happy to say that we are making it happen. 3 p.m. Eastern today, B.T.L. It's going to be Jed Bishu versus from morning combat fame, Brian Campbell.

Jed versus BC. Holy cow. There's going to be some hot tanks. There's going to be some fire. And that is going to be a battle, ladies and gentlemen. I can't wait. 3 p.m. Eastern live on the M.M. Fighting YouTube channel. doesn't be a lot of fun. So I know a lot of people want to have their voices heard. A lot of people have some things to say. It's nice to see A.K. in the space back in our lives. Let's do this. I know four-quarter sports is like, you got to get me in. You got to get me in. I have thoughts. Let's go. Hey, Mike. Heck of my morning. Sorry, I missed your show on Tuesday, but I wanted to give my two sense about the fight between Leon and Oussman. I rewashed the fight. And, you know, nobody should be,

you know talking bad about Dean Thomas just because of how Leon body language was because it's true it looked like he did want out but you have to give a lot of credit to the the coaches in Leon's corner because they finally woke him up and it was beautiful how he ended up the left punch hiding it behind the left high kicks now I really did think that Usman wasn't just try to grapple and not trying to exchange with Leon but I have a feeling that in the third fight you're going to see a lot of the third fight you're going to see a lot of Usman, you know, just trying to, you know, grapple and play it safe at this point. Because we got to see how Usman is going to react from getting knocked out because he got

choked out before. I think that was in his second fight. Now, you know, getting knocked out in that type of fashion, it could change somebody, you know, it could make somebody a little bit hesitant. So I strongly do feel that Usman is going to return back into grappling just because of the way that he ended up getting knocked out. Just want to get your thoughts on that. And I saw what is it called? A couple of matchups that were set up. I saw Dan Hooker. He's getting booked with Claudio Poyas.

Now, I salute Dan Hooker a lot because this guy's been through like a murderous role. I mean, ever since his Paul Feldar fight, Dustin Porre fight, who else did he fight after that? I know he had a win over Nassar Hasperas, if I said his game correctly, and then he fought Islam.

But I don't know. I think that Claudio Poyas might be able to pull off the victory, but just more salute to Dan Hooker. And is the fight officially confirmed with Daniel Rodriguez and Kevin Holland? If so, I favor

in Kevin Holland just because of the speed factor. And since we haven't been able to see Daniel Rodriguez in, what is it, over a year, but that's all I wanted to say. And thanks, Mike. Heck of a morning. Thanks, man. Yeah, listen, the Ushman hesitants

potentially his mindset coming back after getting knocked out like that. I mean, that's what makes this fight so fascinating to me. And I know a lot of people are throwing out all these other names, like Hamzad if he beats Nate, Nate if he beats Hamzaat, Mazad all because of the story there. Even Shail Suna was on the MA hour saying Colby Covington is in the conversation as well. It's got to be Usman. And it's not just because Uson was the long-rearing champion.

I mean, that's a big part of it. and he deserves the rematch and he should get it. And I know in MMA, and I've learned this over the years, deserves isn't a word that you should use all that often when talking about title fights. But in this situation, you got to give Ustman the fight. And I think it's the most interesting matchup of all. Is it, are we going to get, I mean, just the moment of Leon kicking Ustman

in the face in the final minute of that fight. Like, you can just play that highlight over and over again. You can just play the clips of his coaches. What is wrong with you? You got to get something going here. What's the matter? This is it. Just play those clips over and over again.

And you could sell that fight. You do it in England, make Leon a star. I mean, it's just unbelievable seeing where this guy is right now. Where he was heading into this fight to where he's at right now, it's incredible. And Leon certainly has options. He's in a fantastic place right now. There's no doubt about it. But you have to do this fight.

You have to. This is the one. And it's intriguing in a number of ways. It checks off all the boxes. It gets the casual audience involved because now they know who Leon Edwards is after the stockout. It gives, it just gives Leon the hometown rub. And then it answers a lot of the Ustman questions that we really haven't had in a while. Like we've had certain questions like, how are the knees going to hold up?

He's getting older. Does he still want to do this? All of this. And it seems like he still does. But now we can look at Usman in a stylistic matchup after getting brutally knocked out after being less than a minute away from winning the damn fight. I mean, it's just so interesting on so many levels. I think you have to do that fight. Dan Hooker, Claudio Plius is a great matchup.

I know Dan Hooker wanted the Tony Ferguson fight. That would have made sense as well. But this is probably the best case scenario for everybody involved. Like Dan wasn't going to get a top 10 guy. He just wasn't. He's coming back to 55 after getting bolted by Arnold Allen at 45. And Claudio Paius is a guy we say on the show when we talk about lightweights and have lightweight conversations. I mention him all the time because he's on this quiet little run.

He's knee-barring everybody into submission. And he's not getting even mentioned in a lot of these conversations. And now after this opportunity to have this fight at MSG to fight a guy like Dan Hooker who is over with most of the fans, it's a big opportunity for both guys. It's a big opportunity for Hooker to try to get back on track. It's a guy outside of the top 15, outside of the top 10. He has fought a murderer's row. And I'm not saying Pueis isn't a murderer's row kind of guy because he very well could be. In hindsight, we look back on this fight a year from now.

But it's a great matchup. It's a great fight. As far as the Kevin Hall and Daniel Rodriguez fight, I tweeted out yesterday. I talked to multiple people involved in the situation with knowledge of the plans. not done. Announcement from Holland on social media was very premature, I would say. I asked one person close to the situation if there's any legitimacy to it, and I was told flat out no. So work to be done. Not saying it won't happen, but as of right now, to say that fight is on the UFC 279 lineup would be inaccurate, certainly premature. but I hope that somehow it does get done

because that's a great addition to lineup. And it doesn't even have to be at 170. You just do it at 185. Who cares? Who cares? Is anyone going to say, well, this affects the Walterweight rankings?

No, they're going to be like, holy crap, Kevin Holland's fighting Daniel Rodriguez. This is awesome. In like two and a half weeks. Rodriguez hasn't fought in a while. I spoke with him during the International Fight Week

outside of the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. You can go check out that interview. Kevin Holland is the name that was on his list. And they were linked up to fight in Jacksonville. Remember when Kevin Holland beat, who did he beat? Damn it. He beat something. Was it Anthony Hernandez?

And then they booked Kevin Holland at 170 to fight Daniel Rodriguez like a week or two later. And then Holland had an injury and he couldn't do it. So they've been leaped up for a couple of years. I think the fight makes perfect sense. I'm excited. I'd be pumped to see it. No doubt about it. Let's go to James McDowell.

Donald. How you doing, Mike? Good. Heck of a morning to you. Hey, I just wanted to say it was hard to get up for DWCS the other night after, you know, such a thrilling pay-per-view on Saturday. But nevertheless, I watched. And, you know, I came away impressed with Cameron Semen.

I'm not sure how you pronounce his name. But, you know, he's a 21-year-old. And then in a few weeks, we've got a 17-year-old. old that's fighting on the contender series. I was wondering how young do you think is too young for these guys to be getting contracts? And would you side more with thinking that they should get developmental deals? Because I think it could be really discouraging for a 17-year-old if he does win to get in there in the Bantamweight division and face a 30-year-old and go down.

But just kind of wondering your thought process on that. Thanks, buddy. I will admit, and I'm sad to say this, but for the first time in a long time, I did not watch an episode of the Contender Shary. Did not watch Tuesday show. I didn't have to cover it. I was exhausted mentally from the weekend and all the UFC 278 stuff.

And I was waking up at 4 a.m. the next morning to get a workout in. And I was like, I want to watch it, but I'm going to skip this one. but I saw the highlights. I saw the crazy slam K.O. and all that. And it's funny that you mentioned the 17-year-old, whose name is Raul Roses, Jr. He's getting ready to fight Mando Gutierrez

on the September 20th episode of the Contender Series. I had a chance to speak with that young man on Monday. No, it was Tuesday. Tuesday I talked to him for about 20 minutes. Very polished kid, very confident in himself. This kid has been fighting for, a long time. It's been training since he was four.

He told a funny story about how he got into fighting. His dad was a fighter, and him and his brother were, you know, just hanging out their dad, and their dad gets a phone call about, he doesn't remember, like, the context of the conversation. It wasn't on, like, a speaker for it or anything, but his dad was like, yeah, I'll fight him.

And him and his brother went with his dad to take a short-notice fight on, like, 12 hours notice. And they watched their dad fight and they were like, oh, I want to do this. And Raul Roses Jr. has been fighting and competing ever since. He had 22 amateur, like not even amateur

fights from the ages of 8 to 14 years old. So as an 8 year old, this guy was getting in a cage and fighting other kids. And he was 20 and 2 from ages 8 to 14. And then he had his first official amateur fight when he was 15, He fought in the World Champion.

He fought in like the kids' world tournament. And I think he won it. And then he had his first amateur fight. And then he turned pro in November of last year. And he's 5 in 0 with five finishes. You ask this kid, he said he's going to be disappointed if he gets a developmental deal. He feels like he's ready right now. He feels like he matches up well with anybody in the division.

The kid's got a lot of confidence. he's very humble too but he's got a little swagger to him the kid just doesn't want to be he understands that the age is going to be a part of the story at least for a little while but if his management team

who set this up for me was like hey talk to this kid and I had no idea how old he was I would never have thought he was 17 never because he's just a polished speaker he doesn't act like a 17 year old he seems ready to me and he had some good quotes too but i'll save that for when the interview gets released i'll drop that

probably on the tail end of one of these heck of a mornings on the podcast network at some point but you'll learn more about this kid before he fights so stay tuned to mabighting dot com let's go to mikey bats mikey how you doing man what's up i gay um i just want to say m mhmai twitter needs to stop using the word fluke as a euphemism for whenever they get a result they don't like, especially improperly, because what Leon did wasn't a fluke, by both definition. If you want to say improbable, sure, you know, maybe that's the word you guys want people want to use, but don't use fluke.

Or at least if you're going to use it, please explain, you know, because a lot of people are just going, well, that's a fluke, that's a fluke. And it's like it totally takes away from both discredits. It actually hurts Usman more. because how are you the pound-for-pound fighter and then get knocked out by a move that's supposedly not even supposed to happen? You know what I mean?

It's not like it's a move that Leon's never used before. He used it against Pavel Pabot like seven years ago. You know, it's one of the combos he's been using his entire career. And it's a regular move that people use, you know what I'm saying? Even Anderson and Silva when he beat Chal Stun, everyone was like, well, that was a fluke. I'm like, it's not a fluke if you're attempting it. You know what I mean? So, yeah, that'll be.

all for me this morning man much love to everybody happy birthday a k thanks buddy yeah i'm i'm glad you brought this up because i have a i have a little diatribe that i would like to to get off my chest here and i've been waiting for an opening to say these things and i'm just going to go ahead and say it right now there are no flukes in fighting there are no flukes there is crazy shocking moments and stunning moments to me if you're going to use the word fluke when it comes to fighting. Like Leon, like a fluke to me would be if there's like 30 seconds left and like Leon Edwards tripped over his own foot and somehow spun to fall down and his elbow hit Usman in the face and he knocked him out. Like that's a fluke. That's a lucky crazy turn of events. That's a

fluke. But him just landing a beautifully timed perfect kick, one that if you go on social media and just watch videos of him practicing this kick, it's not a fluke. There are no flukes in fighting. Two people are in there. Some days you're the best. Some days they're the best. There's no fluke.

There's no flukes fighting. They're shocking and stunning moments, but there are no flukes. Leon didn't trip over his own foot and like flip over and knock us him and out. No, he set up and landed a head kick and won the fight. It's not a fluke. It's not a fluke.

You want to use shocking, stunning? out of nowhere, sure. Those work. But fluke, no, that's horrible. I hate that word. I hate the word robbery on close fights because that makes, that's a strong too. You can say, you can say you don't agree with the decision or you scored things a different way, but to call things robberies, there are examples of robberies out there. But every close fight that goes to a split decision is not a robbery. Enough with that. That's just awful.

And the other word that I can't stand in this space is clickbait. It's 2022, ladies and gentlemen. The word, it is time that we as a community understand what the word clickbait means. Clickbait is to me, and this is basically the definition of it. Clickbait is, you have no idea what the story is, and the only way to get the answer to it is to click on it. So if it's like, you'll, if the headline was like, you'll never believe what Leon Edwards said to his mother when he called her to celebrate the victory, that's clickbait. But if you say like Leon Edwards openly weeps when he calls his mom, that's not clickbait. That's not clickbait. If you have an article that basically gives away the story in the headline, it's not clickbait.

Clickbait is, did you see what this person wore to the Oscars? Can you believe it? That's clickbait. but if the headline is look what Sophia Vergara Stunz with stunning red dress at the Oscars That's not clickbait We're telling you're basically being told

What the what the piece is about And we're giving it away Like we're trying to set it up Like we want you to click on it But if you don't click on it You still get the context of everything Not everything is clickbait Not everything is clickbait

I remember it pissed me off when I spoke to the representative for Madison Square Garden about the Jake Paul fight, and they basically said it had nothing to do with ticket sales. They reached out to me, first of all. I didn't even ask them. They reached out to me to give me this comment of sorts for Madison Square Garden. So I asked my editors if this was worth something to be written up. They said yes, and I wrote it up.

And people are like, oh, this is clickbait. What are you talking about? what are you talking about they gave they gave their thoughts they defended and this is the and like this is such a significant piece because this is the first time that i've ever seen an actual venue challenged dana white on something he said and that's what they did madison square garden a venue that dana white frequents once a year came out and was like what basically said what Data White said was wrong. What these guys said was right.

How was that clickbait? So robbery, fluke, clickbait. Enough. Marshall's buyers travel far and wide, hustling for great deals on amazing gifts. So you don't have to. They've bagged this season's Italian leather handbags. Designer.

Handpicked the finest sweaters from the rest. Ooh, cashmere. Landed makeup pallets from the Friends, you love rushes too. And hustled all those wishless topping toys. So plush. Our buyers have got you covered. Marshalls.

We get the deals. You gift the good stuff. It's the matchat or the three ensemble Coddoughed that I've been deniches so much. It's the ensemble. The format standard and mini-regrouped. Hello, Ben. And the embellage, too beau,

who is practically pre-a-donned. And I know I'd love these offriars. But I guard the Summer Fridays and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. you just to come from. The most beautiful as a

co-dough these show to be at the summer Friday's rare beauty way,

Cephora Cephora and other part of Vite. Procurre you for a standard and mini,

regrouped for a major quality of online on the same for the reaction that Cepardt's got since the win. Because personally

for me, I didn't think he would win. I think he was going to out wrestle him and do what he normally did before he switched up his style with the striking. But I was pleasantly surprised to see how Edwards would actually kill him. And it's just to see a reaction from the UK media and just the MMA community in general just heartwarming to see. And also, I just wanted your opinion. I don't know if you've touched on this yet about the Mike Perry versus Michael Vennon-Page fight. I just wanted to know your opinions on that. Thank you. Yes. Yes. Great.

moment for the UK. And great well, this whole thing is just a great moment for Leon and MMA. Like just this sport, Dean Thomas, like, talked about it and he said there's, there's memorable moments,

and then there's certain moments that not only change stories and change career paths, but it changes lives. And he talked about what one example he gave is when Nate Diaz submitted Connor McGregor. Like, that changed his life. That was just a big win.

That was a career-altering, life-changing moment for him. And this Leon Edwards knockout is a career-changing, life-changing moment for him. Because he's going to get himself a bag for his next fight, no doubt about it. And if he beats Kamar Usen again, those bags are just going to get bigger and bigger and bigger. This man has incredible amount of options right now. And if he can defend his title a couple of times, holy cow. He is in a fantastic place, in an incredible position, really, really strong. the MVP Mike Perry fight

look it was it was a good fight it was a good fight they beat the shit out of each other it was a lot of fun I will say this though and this is just me maybe it's something there are people out there are not going to agree with what I'm about to say but I'm going to say it anyways MVP got hosed he got screwed

and he should never fight in London again because that's back-to-back fights where he got the big fat hose job because I don't care what anybody says. That was a knockdown in the second round. MVP should have gotten credit for a knockdown. And in all honesty, he should have won. If that knockdown is counted and it was a knockdown, he wins the fight. There's no, there's no sudden death victory round. He wins. And I thought even though it wasn't a fight, this is a fight I'm not going to go back and watch again. I thought he beat Logan Storley. It wasn't much, but I just thought he did more.

Like, you could take somebody down and lay on them, but if you don't do anything, like, it doesn't count in my eyes. And if Logan Story lands a take down and just lays on Michael Page for three minutes, but Page lands like 10 punches to the face before that, I scored the 10 punch to the face higher because that's the freaking rules of MMA scoring now. So it is what it is. Great win for Mike Perry. That's a great name to have on the resume.

and all of a sudden, Perry is like a baby face now. It's just crazy. It's just crazy. But I thought MVP kind of got screwed. I thought it was a knockdown in the second. He should have gotten credit for the knockdown in the second. And if he did get credited for the knockdown,

he wins the fight. There is no sixth round. And we're having a whole different conversation. But good fight. Good win for Perry. But I feel like MVP deserved a little better. But who am I? We're going to go to Viking MMA, and then we're going to bring in an oh-so special guest.

We'll get to everybody today, I promise. Viking! Unmute, my man. Yes, Mike. How are you, Mike? Hello, sir. I'm great. How are you?

I'm good. You know, my question, it's not a question. I just want to know if you know something about this scenario or not. I heard that Kamara Usman got his role in Black. Panther movie in the first place just because Israel Arisania rejected that role

because he had to prepare for the fight against Marlon Vittori. Do you know anything about that scenario? I don't. And the second thing I want to say is imagine if somehow

Kobe and Hamza agrees to fight each other and Kobe calling Hamza the cum shot at front of everyone at the press conference How do you imagine that scene and just enlighten me about AK, and has he got that Scottish accent after his arrival to United States? Thanks, Mike. Thanks, funny.

Yes, if that fight gets made, it's got to be an ugly bill. There's no doubt about it. And there's nothing that tells me that Colby wouldn't say those things at the press conference. So, yeah, I don't know if that fight happens. We'll see what happens September 10th. I know Dana White said that Colby wants to fight and they're trying to put something together for him. And I know a lot of people that ask me,

what are you going to talk to Colby again? Lord knows I have tried. But I also haven't wanted to really bother him in this situation. Like a lot of the communication I've had with Colby over the last few months is just me just checking in. Because, I mean, that's the thing here because, and I know Ariel's talked about this, and I completely agree with what he says on this.

the relationships you build at MMA can't just be about MMA. You have to, like, there are times where I'll just like, if it's somebody's birthday, I'll shoot him a text, say happy birthday. If it's a situation where, you know, a couple weeks go by after a fight, it's just like, how are you feeling? Things like that. Like, you can't just always be, hey, are you fighting this person? Hey, do you want to do an interview?

It's got to be more than that. And I've known Colby for a long time. I just I know he's got sort of I don't know if trust issues is the right word but I don't know I'm like most of my communication with Colby

has just been checking in making sure he's okay and you know because I mean look he's got that he's got the persona on camera and things like that but that's not really who he is I mean you can go back and watch some of the MA fighting archives of my interviews with Colby like

one of the interviews like my kid came in dressed like Spider-Man. And Colby was, like, really nice to him and talked to him. And, like, that's who Colby normally is. At least the guy that I've always talked to, really nice guy, very giving with his time. He does have the persona on camera. And a lot of those interviews are just Colby being Colby Covington, the MMA fighter. But I've talked to Colby, the human being, many times as well.

And he's what a lot of his teammates and stuff have said about him. Not all of them. not like Mazinol and Nunes and Yawana and others, but there are a lot of people who have traded with Colby who say he's a great guy. So I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen with him. We'll see.

And if he does have a fight on the books, I will certainly try to get him on camera and do an interview with him. But for now, it's just been mostly checking in to this point. All right, let's go. Let's see if he does have a Scottish accent. AK, my best friend. Hello.

Mike, I'm back. I'm back from my MMA free vacation. I kept up with the news. That's about it. Obviously, I saw all the UC-2-78 stuff. I've only watched a clip of the headkick. And that's it. Other than that, I cleansed my palette of combat sports for a week,

but I'm happy to be back. And I had to, of course, check in with you and Heck of a Morning and the beautiful Heckerba Morning listeners. Yeah, so, A.K., let's just put it out there now for the peeps. There are no fights. There are no fights. There are no fights, but there's no UFC event this weekend, which means typically we would have an Otno free weekend,

but I feel like we should give the people something. So maybe we do an Ask Mike and AK anything type of show. Absolutely. My DMs are open, guys, as they are for matchmaking. Now they are open for asking any question you want. I will be caught up with 278 by then, hopefully. should have an informed opinion if you guys want to do a week later still have some

278 questions I am down for it match speaking stuff is welcome as well and of course and just any other combat sports or life questions like questions professional advice Mike we've done that before we've offered professional advice to people so yeah I'm down for all of that someone was asking earlier

has my has my Scottish accent do I have a Scottish accent well I already had a good one before but it is it is refined it is refined now it is it is It is, I have, I have absorbed much of the beautiful country and the people of Scotland. And, and I think my accent's pretty good.

I think it's pretty good. You tell me, you tell me. Hey, hey, hey, Paul Craig. Hey, Paul Craig. That's it. I can say Paul Craig. So apologies to all the nice Scottish people I met and all the Scottish listeners out there. But I will be doing a Scottish accent from now on.

I think it's pretty good. Nice. Thank you, A.K. Great. No. Oh, come back. Come back. Come back.

I'll get you back. Come back. I didn't know you had more. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off. All right. If you got other thoughts, jump back in because you're my best friend and you get to the front of the line.

Finney. Siverab. You're next, by the way. I see you. Finney, unmute. Thank you, sir. How are you, Mike?

Thank you for a morning to you. Good. How are you? Doing great, man. Just wanted to comment real quick on the Josealdo fight against Maribov, Maribov? Maribov? I can't say anything.

Marab. Yeah. So I have a friend that sent me a tweet on Saturday morning saying that there were some sports books showing that Marabab was injured. And Jose Aldo is the play. So I was just wondering, why are these sports books getting involved in telling people? who they should bet for because somebody's injured. It turned out to be, I don't know, if Jose Aldo threw the fight or I don't know what happened. I didn't see his normal play.

I love Jose Aldo, and I've been following him for years, and he's usually a pretty good fighter. But he was just defending that day. He was just nothing but defending. He did not attack that day. So I'm wondering why it's going on. I mean, is Maribaba, Maribah was not doing anything. How did he win the fight? but at the same time, why is the sports book,

I don't know if he's a general manager for them, saying that Marababab was injured. You know, it makes no sense. It kind of gets me because I bet it on Jose Aldo, thinking he was going to tear him up. He was the right play, like you said, you know. So I just want to express my disappointment on that. That is frigging wild, man.

I honestly, that's the first. I've heard of anything like that. I thought Alba was the play, no matter what, especially with him being an underdog. I thought Aloh was the play, and I just thought the matchup fit him well. But the fight was dumb. Like, it was just so stupid.

The fight should have never been made. Jose Alto got hosed by the UFC. 150,000%. The man should have been fighting for the belt. He should not have been fighting Marab. If you wanted to give another fight, he should have been fighting Frankie Edgar or Dominic Cruz or somebody like that,

he shouldn't have been fighting Marab. It was just horrible matchmaking. And I praised the UFC quite a bit on recent matchmaking, but this was terrible matchmaking, horrendous. And it sucks. And now we're going to live in a world that unless something insane happens, Jose Alto is not going to fight for the Bannon Boy title again.

When he has earned the opportunity, and it sucks. It sucks. But yeah, that's wild. If there's a sports book out there that is telling people that a fighter is injured and that you should bet on this person. And then it turns out they weren't injured, there should be some horse shit. I mean, there should definitely be some better business bureau reachouts of some kind

because that is just absolutely wrong. But I have not seen this. So I will have to look further into it because that's ridiculous. All right, Cibiram. Let's get you in here. And then we'll get back to my man, AK. Good morning. Good morning.

Good morning. Mike, are you hearing me? I'm good money. Yeah. I'm just going to say one thing about the UFC 279. I mean, I can't wait to see the fights of Ned Diaz versus Hamja Shima and Tony versus that Chinese guy. Who you got on UFC 279 and what's your prediction? Can you elaborate the reasons for your predictions?

Thanks, man. I mean, I'm leaning Hamza right now, but I mean, there's just a, there's a feeling in my gut that this is going to be like the most MMA type scenario. It's just one of those situations where like I have no idea what's going to happen. I mean, if these two guys just go out in there and fight, like Hamzat should win. But Nate is a durable, durable guy. And this fight's happening with Mark Goddard as the referee we found out. It's not hokey pokey herb. and Mark's typically a guy who is a very good referee.

He knows the fighters well. He does his research. He understands who these fighters are. And if Nate can survive and go deep, it gets really, it really does get interesting. Plus the last fight in his deal. And I know the Jedmishu's of the world and other people have come out and been like, Nate should just go in there and have Nick throw in the towel and just walk away with his fingers held high.

and I mean, that would just be insane. It'd be in an absolutely ridiculous moment, but I have no idea. I have to think about it. I'm leaning Homs up, but closer to the fight, maybe that feeling in the pit of my stomach that this is going to be such an MMA thing, that like the weirdest thing possible could happen.

And we've seen this year, multiple occasions, the weirdest thing that could happen has happened. We've seen it twice in the last few months. Yuri Prakashka, Leon Edwards. We've seen MMA weirdness at its peak in 2022. Maybe Nate Diaz could add to that list. Who the hell knows? And then the Tony Ferguson leagin-long fight,

we talked about this a lot on Tuesday. This is a, hey, Tony Ferguson's on the car. Let's boost us up a little bit. But it's also a, hey, what if Humzok can't make it to Las Vegas? We have a backup in place. They could just bump Tony up to fight Nate Diaz. and who's going to complain about that. But in terms of the actual match of itself,

I don't know if I love it for Tony. Just, I mean, it's four months, it'll be almost four months of the day that he got front kicked to oblivion by Michael Chandler. So, plus the Justin Gaichi fight had to take some, some miles off him a little bit. I don't know. I don't love it.

I'm not a fan of it, but I understand why it's there. And Tony will fight either way. He'll either fight Li Jing Liang or if something happens and Hamzaa can't get into the States for whatever reason, which by all accounts, he's going to be able to from people that I've spoken to over the last few weeks, but you never know.

And in case something does happen, you can bump Tony up to the main event, and there you go. Okay, I'm going to have to make you wait a little bit because I promised some folks that I'm going to get him to the front. Abzwalia is one of these people who waited patiently on Tuesday.

I couldn't get to him, but now he's here. Abswalia, hello. Can you hear me? How are you? Yeah, I'm good. So I just want to talk first about 278, the events that happened. I just want to say congrats to Leon. He really fought a hard-earned victory.

After all the bullshit, he went through the last, like, three years. I remember the convo we were talking about what's next one. I think he should definitely fight Usman first because, you know, that was a very close fight and whatever it is, I think it would give enough time for Leon to prepare his game more like he has him. Usman to do the same. And meanwhile, with some like Hamza, I think after he wins, if he wins against Nate Dia, he should probably fight Kobe or maybe move up to middleweight and fight the winner of Marvin versus Woodtaker, you know,

because they can prepare him to test against the middleweight guys and show if he's really that real deal there. And, yeah, I mean, Hamza's got options too. He could fight Colby if he beats Nate. He could just go up to 185. We talked about this on Tuesday as well. If Adasanya beats Pereira and Hamzaat beats Nate and they're going to do this rematch, which they should, between Edwards and Uspen,

if I'm Hamzad, I'm either fighting Colby or I'm going up to fight for the middleweight belt. That's a huge, I mean, that's the biggest fight Adisani you can get after the Pereira one. The only other option would be if Sean Strickland beats Eric Canaan but he just got brutally knocked out in the first round by Alex Pereira. And Strickland can certainly sell a fight. But, yeah, I mean, it would be the biggest fight for Adasania, that's for sure.

And it'd be a big opportunity for Shamiya. And it's something the UFC would certainly not be opposed to. There you go. All right. My best friend, did you have another? Yes, I just wanted to add, hello, Mikey. I don't want to abuse best friend privilege. So I don't want to take too much time, but I wanted to add to your list of words that we need to use less in these combat sports discussions.

You said, like fluke, robbery, clickbait, I agree wholeheartedly with all those. One more, I think, is like Can Crusher. I don't love Can Crusher that much. I get it. I get some, you know, there are certainly padded records out there. But it definitely is one of those phrases that gets used improperly. Like just if people haven't heard of a certain fighter, like before they come to the UFC, and like they just don't, maybe they don't know their opponents.

That doesn't mean they've been crushing cans. Again, you got to dig sort of into these records, what promotions they fought for. And it's also too often used to discredit like truly great fighters. You know, we recently did a damn they were good about Rhonda Rousey. I don't know there's a lot of people who look back on like Rousey's career and say like, oh, oh, she was just crushing cans of the UFC, like her competition. And I'm like, that is patently not true. Several of the women she fought are still fighting now and fighting good competition.

I mean, that whole thing is ludicrous. So that's one, like, extreme example. But I do think, you know, I'm the Prince of positivity, so I do wish people would be a little less like trying to pick apart. You can literally pick apart any fighter's resume. There's very few fighters who have like an air type resume. That's just not how combat sports works. You're going to fight some odd opponents here and there.

If you fight for long enough and you're a champion long enough, it happens. I mean, everyone's critical like GSP's fight with Dan Hardy. And that's fine. That's one of his lesser title defenses. but you know if you want to nitpick stuff like that you can do it all day and at the end you're just going to be unhappy so i would tell people to also steer away from like cancrasher and you know nitpicking people's resumes in general not my favorite thing but that's it that's like that is it other than that you covered all the bases with the first three you threw out there today sterling work as

always and i'm very happy to uh just happy to be back mike happy to listen to your show so happy to have my best friend back very exciting when he messaged me in our slack channel this morning. I was gleeful. I was giddy. All right, let's go to Coate. Cody, you got on mute. Shit, I didn't know it was my turn. I'm so sorry, Mr. Heck. How you doing? I'm good. How are you? Really excited for everything that's coming up. I just wanted to take a moment to shout out Leon, the champ, as everybody else. It was an amazing event. I was excited as hell. But I want to talk a little bit about what's going on in France next week. I was wondering what are your thoughts on the main card,

on the latest substitutions, and how about that John McDessie versus NASDAG, a Hasperat fight? Yeah, man, that's going to be a banger. Let me just pull up the card. I know there's been like a lot of switches on that one. A lot of names no longer on there that had people scratching their heads a little bit.

Listen, it's good. Godin to Avazas is a big one. Whitaker Vittori is a big one. Alessio de Kyrichou, Roman Copilov will be fun. Hackbarass McDessie is fun. Charles Jorda, Nathaniel Wood, that's a banger. Khalid Taha, Christian Kinyones. Happy to see Nasredeen Imovov back against Joachim Bukley.

Big opportunity for Joaquin Buckley. I think the world of Nasardine Imovov is a up-and-coming prospect. Dustin Stoltzvist versus Abu Super. Abu Supion Amagamada Or Magamadoff. I almost said no Magamadoff. I think I did, but I didn't mean to. Benoit, Santini, welcoming Gabriel Miranda to the UFC.

That's going to be a friggin' bang or two. Nice to see Foreszy M back in the UFC because I thought he was unceremoniously sort of parting ways with the promotion. Aileen Perez fighting Stephanie Eager, William Gomez versus Jarno Aron's, interesting fight. It's good. It's a good card.

The folks in France will be happy. It's a lot of France representation on this card, and there are stakes in a lot of these fights, especially the main and the comane. And what if Tai Taitoivasa does it again? Man, that's going to be crazy. What is the start time for this one? Ooh, it's early.

I love it. Looks like noon eastern start time? Sign me up. Twelve fights? Perfect. Should be a fun watch. I'm very excited. Let's go to David Kemp.

Hello, David. Let's make sure you unmute. Mike. Hey, Mike. There we go. David, how are you, buddy? I'm good, mate. I appreciate all the content you guys put out.

Thank you. Hey, I've got a couple of things. I'm not a big fan of these immediate rematches. I wonder how you guys, you journalists are at the top of the game. I feel like it holds up divisions a lot of time. And then my other point, which kind of leads to that is that I've been, you know, listening to a lot of stuff after the Leon fight. obviously you can hear I'm from England

I'm a big fan of Leon but I don't know why nobody has mentioned Connor as his first defense now I know that Connor's out whatever but Connor has different rules right in the UFC I just feel like that would be the biggest fight I don't want to see a Usman rematch

you know give Usman some time off I also feel like if Hams out beats Diaz is he going to take a year off because you know if Leon's going to defend in what February March against Usman, then whomever wins that fight, it's going to be another battle, right? When they're going to face Humzat? So my main question is, why is Connor not being mentioned?

Because everybody was talking about Usman possibly facing Connor or Connor coming back at well-to-weight. It would be a huge fight. Wembley Stadium, you've got the triple champ thing there. You've got Connor in the press conferences. That's the fight that I want to see. I know it goes against all the rules, you know, but it's Connor, right? So I want to know why nobody is

Nobody has mentioned Connor. Is it because of the management company? What's your take on that, Mike? Thanks, buddy. Yeah, listen, I get it. There's a lot of people who ate all immediate rematches. I'm not typically an immediate rematch kind of guy, but I think there are certain examples

where immediate rematches are warranted. I think this one is certainly warranted, especially with how the fight played out. And even, though I hate the word, a lot of people are still saying it was a lucky shot, it was fluky, which is absolute horseshit. But I think there's still a lot of questions there. I mean, look at the opening betting lines for this fight. Minus 350 for Kamar Usen. I think it opened as a minus 375 on like late Saturday night, early Sunday morning. People still have questions about

Leon Edwards. And I just think the matchup in general, especially considering how almost five complete rounds went. I had to show so so many questions. This is a fascinating matchup in multiple ways. And I love it. The Connor thing, Connor is entering that

almost, like on the next one, there are certain fighters that we ban because either, like, we bans Kevin Holland for a little while because what's the point of matchmaking for Kevin Holland when he's just going to jump in and fight two weeks after against anybody? it's almost like unfair to matchmake for him.

Connor, there's just so many questions. Like, when is he going to come back? When can he come back? How's the leg? Like, we don't have answers to those questions. And is Connor in the mix? Yeah, I think so. But, I mean, he doesn't need to be.

He doesn't need to be. Just like he doesn't need to be in the mix of 155. However, I feel like the best chance for Connor to come back to a title fight is if Charles Oliver beats his on Machachev. He goes out there and just styles on Makachchev. It puts him away. Oliver has been calling for the Connor fight for months now. And the fact that the fight's happening in Abu Dhabi in October

tells me that the UFC probably talked to Oliver's team was like, all right, if you go out there and beat this dude and you make Wade and you're the champion and all that, we will entertain this idea if Connor's ready to come back in time. But now we have another hurdle because if, Oliver does do that. The UFC is going back to Brazil in January. Is Olivera what means more to him?

Fighting in Brazil, defending his title in Brazil, or fighting Connor McGregor? And that's another sort of question. But McGreg can come back and fight anybody. Headline, it's going to do a million. I said on Tuesday, Connor could call me out. I would say yes. He would beat my ass. And I would get that bag.

And I'd be all right with it. But Connor versus me sells a million. Connor versus anybody sells a million. there's a lot of fights that are on the books or almost on the books that need to happen and that we can determine that a little better like Conor's Gaichi let me just let me just add to this

because I don't know why this has popped in my head but I'm going to throw it out there there's certain fans and there's certain like social media pages out there that report things that just aren't true Like for instance, I was listening to the on the no segment of the MAA yesterday. And someone, I don't know who it was, but he said that he was told that Adrian Yada's Rob Font is a done deal. True.

It's not true. Because I heard that and I was like, what? No way. And of course, I reached out and did my thing. I talked, you know, I'll say, I talked to Rob Font's manager about it. And he goes, Rob's not fighting until March at the earliest and nothing's been even. been brought to our attention. And then another example was there are social media pages that are saying that the UFC

is almost finalizing Raphael Fizizier versus Justin Gaghi on December 10th. So of course, I reach out about those things too. And normally I don't take those things seriously, but this was getting a little bit of buzz. So I was like, let me just reach out. Here's what I was told. That fight has been brought up. That fight has been brought up. But to say it's not happening December 10th, unless something crazy happens.

That is what I know. We have two guys off a nose surgeries. I don't know. But there was a little bit of smoke to that one, but it's not done. And it's probably not happening December 10th from what I'm told. So those are one of the things that I saw that I reached out about. But to put that back in the context, Justin Gaichi is a great opponent for Connor.

And if I'm Gachi's team and that fight's brought to my attention knowing that Connor is coming back, if I'm Justin Gagie, I'm waiting for Connor. Like if that's an option, and I can wait like two or three more months and fight Connor, then I'm going to do that. Like, why would I fight Raphael Fizzis?

Would I go fight Connor? So I get it. You know, if that's how the conversation went, but I don't know. I don't know. There's plenty of option to Connor. I don't know who he's going to fight. I don't know if he's really in the mix of this Leon conversation. I would say probably not right now.

It seems like the UFC is all in on the trilogy fight, and we'll see what happens with Connor. Connor could fight anybody. I mean, they matched him up with Donald Seroni after the long lap he had before, and that was perfect matchmaking. You have to get this guy a win. But Connor also doesn't have a lot of fights left on this deal

from all indications. So it's just going to be interesting to see. how they book him moving forward and if he gets Olivera or who knows he's not banned from on to the next one but there's too many questions to confidently matchmate for him all right let's go to tito tito hello how's a guy in mike it's been a while what's how you doing man i've been all right um stuff i was supposed to come on i tried to come on before the 278 event but i should have i mean it was a mental one wasn't it I wanted to ask, what do you think are Mazfidav's chances of getting the Leon fight?

Right now, not good. Not good. The UFC's all in on this Usman fight. They're all in on it. This is what they want. Dana's already said their shopping arenas already. All the arenas in England. They're going to do the Ushman fights.

They're going to do it. Unless I've said this many times and I stick by and I'll say it again. the only person that can prevent this fight from happening is Kabar Usman himself. If Kabar Usman just says, you know what, I don't feel like coming back. I'm going to take some more time off. Maybe I'm not ready. I'm going to come back like in the summer. Mazadol might get a phone call.

But it'd be kind of tough to skip over Shamiya if he's in play, if he beats Nate. But I would say for Mazdaal to get a title fight, Leon would have to win the trilogy fight. in March or April, whenever that happens, and then Mazadol is going to have to get a win along the way. Now, if that happens, if Mazadol goes in and fights whoever and gets a finish and looks spectacular, and Edwards beat Zeus, but again,

there's a real chance that fight happens. A real chance. Probably in England. They probably go back to England again and do that fight. And it'll do big. It'll do big numbers. It'll do big numbers. All right.

let's go to realm and try to get to everybody at some point here i don't i can't go two hours again i'm trying to get to everybody before we get out of here rel how you're good how you doing a heck of a morning mike what's up i just want to speak on the uh the fluke thing how everybody talking about this fluke uh how like jad said before how can the shot be a fluke when i literally intended to throw it for it to hit you especially a finish like leon had over Camaro. He threw the left to make him lean into the kick. That's literally a technique. How was that a flute?

And then about the can thing, if you like A.K. said, I don't believe, like I ain't a can picker, but if you literally go through everyone's career, whether they became champion or whether they never became champion at the beginning of everybody's career,

there's names on there that you would be like, who is that, who is that, who is that? So it's not that whole can stuff. I don't believe, I don't agree with that. Have a good morning, Mike. Completely agree with you. There are no flukes in MMA.

It just aren't. And I agree with AK as well with the Canc Crusher thing. It's just a term used way too much and it doesn't make sense. But again, there are no flukes. That kick is not a fluke. Juliania Pena beating Amanda Nunes is not a fluke. It's not. It's not a fluke.

It isn't. A fluke is an accident, essentially. Leon trips, falls, somehow he elbows Usman by accident, that's a fluke. Him setting up a beautifully timed head kick, knockout is not a fluke. It's just shocking. It's just unbelievable. It's unreal. And Dean Thomas had some great points that I talked to him yesterday.

He's like, what if he goes, if Kamar Usman is standing six inches to the left or somehow gets his hand up and is able to absorb some of that impact, and survives it. We'd be talking about how great Kamar Usman was because of that first round and him bouncing back and winning the next four. It's just a game of inches, baby. This is a game of inches.

And that fight in particular is the reason why. And it's why we all love this sport so much because literally anything can happen at any given time. And that's what happened on Saturday. And it was ridiculous. All right. Stephen, hello. What's up, buddy?

So, I'll go real quick. One, like, I need a favor. I need to go to Madison Square Garden. Call your people's up and tell them to drop the prices, man. They're killing me. The pre-sails went on today. Nosebleeds are over $500. That's true.

This is insane. It's tough, man. It's really tough. The other thing is, of course, there's no flus. There's no flus at all. completely agree. You have Moss of all versus Ben Aspirin. That was not a fluke. He knew he was a wrestler. He's

dipping down. Holly home, Ronald Rousey. You have Rose and Wei Lee. These are not flutes. Everybody is a technically skilled fighter and everything is with intentions. The other thing is, I don't know if this would be

controversial or not. Everybody's praising the corner of Leon Edwards and what happened there between the fourth third round at the corner and how they were pushing him hard and everything. And all I kept thinking about all the

controversy when that energy was given to someone like Macy Barber, a female fighter. And everybody went off on the corner and the fact that they were talking to the fighter that manner. So it was really something that I started thinking

about. We are praising that kind of corner. But if it was somebody like Macy Barber or a female fighter, will we still react the same way? I just wanted to get your thoughts on that. Yeah, I mean, I get where you're coming from. I think it's at the Aspen Ladd fight when she was the Norma.

Was it Norma Dumont? Yeah, I think it was a Norma Dumont fight. Yeah, and Jim West got absolutely destroyed for trying to fire his fighter up. And I think we all kind of agree. It's just like it was just a weird thing. and I think we're all sort of on the same page with that whole situation where, I mean, we've seen James Krause just rip into his corners,

into his fighters in the corner. And yeah, it's just a weird thing. And I think the more women's MMA becomes even more prevalent, especially to the casual door, that's a different thing. But that's one of those situations where certain fighters called attention. to that and it created more of a controversy than there needed to be.

Like if, and I'm not saying anything that's out of left field, Misha Tate's the one that really got that ball rolling. She tweeted it out and used her own experiences and tried to compare the two. And not every fighter is the same. Not, it's just like in all of sports. Like I've told a story before. I remember I was a freshman. Like I called up to the varsity baseball.

team and I got put in to pitch and I walked like the first three batters and it was rough. I mean, I was, I was nervous. I was 14 years old playing on a playoff baseball team. Walked the first three hitters. Next guy hits into a double play. The lead run scores, we lose the game. And the next day I practiced, my coach straight up looked at me and said, Mike, you suck. You sucked.

You cost us the game. You suck. You sucked yesterday. And I took it. And like, that's what I needed to fire me up. And the rest of the season was fine. Rest of my high school career. Sure, I made a mistake here and there. But I never forgot that practice. I never forgot my coach in front of my entire team telling me I sucked and I cost us the game. And to me, that's how I'm coached. You tell me I suck. I'm going to make sure I don't suck again. There are other players of my team that if you said that to and I've seen it where you tried

to approach them the same way, and they don't respond. They need more. Hey, better luck next time. You can do this. People are different. All people are different. They're coach the same way. They're motivated in different ways.

It's just different for everybody. And fighting's the same. I mean, it's not the same on, obviously, but the same sort of material plays. Like each fight, these coaches know their fighters better than we do, better than anybody else does. So when people question the corners and things like that, once in a while you'll hear a corner just say,

you know, like even Jose Aldo's corner was getting questioned because they thought he won the first two rounds. And maybe they felt like Aldo took his foot off the gas and he lost the fight. But we see that all the time too. Like Lauren Murphy, that interview I reference all the time. When I interviewed Lauren Murphy after the Valentina Shepchenko fight, it's one of my favorite interviews I've ever done because she just like, she talked about just what it was like

to fight somebody so great. And a lot of talk about that fight was about Lauren's corner saying, hey, you're doing great. You're doing great even though she was losing all the rounds. And Lauren was like, that's just how I motivated. And that's how my team knows how to push my buttons and get me fired up. If they come out me and say, Lauren, you look like shit. That's not going to do anything for me.

But when they try to give me positivity, I respond to that. And each fighter is different. And that's why when people question corners and talk about those situations, it's tough to actually judge because I don't know these people. Like, I've interviewed them, but I don't know what they're like in the gym. I don't know what it's like when they have to do that final round and they're exhausted. If they're sparring and they're getting beat up on a certain day and like what needs to be said to turn them around. Like, I don't know any of that stuff.

So it's tough. It's tough when it comes to the cornering. And there are certain things that are said that can be picked apart a little bit, but it's tough. Unless you know these fighters, unless you're in the gym with them every day, it's really hard to gauge how they react to certain things. So that's always a tough question, but a good one, but it's a tough one. Black Friday is here at IKEA and the clock is ticking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-haves to cozy at-home essentials, all the little and big things you need to make this season shine.

But don't wait. Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca. Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. Hit pause on whatever you're listening to and hit play on your next adventure. This fall get double points on every qualified stay.

Life's the trip. Make the most of it at Best Western. Visit bestwestern.com for complete terms and conditions. Let's go to Eric. Eric, hello. Eric, are you there? I try to get Eric. I'll get you in. Let's go to the AM. The AM. Hello.

The AMN. Good. How are you? Thank you. A few things to talk to you about. First one, let's say Ouseman fights in March and beats Leon and he gets his title back. What does he go from there? he retires given the fact that he was knocked out viciously this last time and he will be almost 36 next year or do you think keeps defending his title if he beats Edwards of course the second thing I heard someone talking about Connor I don't think Connor deserves a title fight especially that he only won one fight in the last six or seven years it doesn't matter if he does millions in paper views but there is a lot of fighters who are active

and who are winning and they are in line for the title fight who are putting the work every day one more thing and it's the last thing for me so to be a referee to become a referee does one

have to have a background in in combat background in a combat sport, like either wrestling, jiu-jitsu, fighting, kickboxing, or anything, or no, or does that's not, that will be a plus, of course, but does one have to have any of the background in that? And thank you so much. Thank you, sir. First question, I have no idea. I would think that that's going to be a talking point when it comes to Kamar Usman. Like, if you lose again, like, what does his future look like? And I think we're going to probably talk about that

a little bit on BTL. I'm sure that I'll get brought up at some point today. But I don't know. I don't know what he's thinking. And a lot of these retirements that we've seen this year just kind of happened spur of the moment. Luke Rockhold just had one of the craziest fights of his career and he just takes his gloves off and says he's done. And everyone's like, no, don't do it. But it was probably the best time for him to do it. Because the worst things we see from these fighters is, you know, they lose and then they lose. And then, you know, they have a moment where they could walk away and then they don't and they come back and get brutally

knocked out and then they retired. It's just much worse. So I think the timing on Luke is perfect. The Connor thing, I've said this multiple times today and I say it all the time. I learned many years ago deserves, it means nothing. Especially when you're a big star like Connor. I don't like I don't love the

the welterweight title idea that just makes no sense to me when you haven't want to fight at 55 and so long. Like you got wins at 170 against Nate and Saroni who are essentially lightweights. Those are basically lightweight wins. But to just have him come up out of nowhere

and just jump everybody and get a title fight just makes no sense. Now, if Oliver wins with what this man has done recently, we have to wait for maybe some of this other parts of this division to play out. You want to try to get the biggest fights out of Connor that you can. You want to try to give Olivera a little bit of a rub.

Sure. I don't love it, but if the UFC did it, it wouldn't surprise me at all. But Connor is just Connor, man. Like he does just box office, but it's a blessing and a curse because Connor could fight anybody and do a million and it's fine. You get him in a title fight, maybe he does a few more buys, but what if he goes out? Like, what if he fights Oliver and Oliver just blows the doors off of him? Then what? I don't think the luster completely goes away.

He does a million in his next fight, but the shine just, he continues to sort of melt away in terms of how people view him. And then the third question, I don't think you necessarily have to have a background. I don't really know for sure. There are other people who have more knowledge of me. But you have to take courses. You certainly have to know about fights. You have to know what you're talking about. Once you go through those courses and you do different things.

And I know there's different meetings that happen sporadically throughout the year where, you know, referees and judges that watch certain rounds of certain fights that have been called into question. And then they decipher what decisions needed to be made. What happens the next time this comes up? I mean, it certainly doesn't hurt to have a background. I think, like, most of them do that are in there doing the damn thing now. But I don't think you, like, I think if you're just a fan and you're like, oh, this is cool. Like, I want to be a referee. I think you need to have some knowledge, but you'll learn that knowledge when you take the courses and get all that information.

So being a referee sucks and being a judge sucks. Being a judge sucks way more than being a referee. Eric, how are you? Eric, I'm getting nothing. Getting nothing. Nothing but silence. We'll go to Tristan. We'll go to Crypto. And then we'll see where we're at.

Beel, hello. Hey, Mike. How you doing? Good. How are you? So I just want to say, I said this before on this show. I think the right fight for Connor and Mossvedal is the ultimate fighter season, whatever coaches, and just have them be talking a whole bunch of shit to each other. They're both on losing skids.

I think that would be some fun shit to watch. Wait, who said it again? Mazda on who? Connor. Oh, God. Okay. Also, I shout out to Marab for his big win, a little lackluster, but, you know, he's on a little run here.

And I think he should fight Ricky Simone because that would be a fun high-paced wrestling exhibition. Thanks, Mike. Have a good morning. Oh, Beale, you're killing me. Marab just beats Joseo and you want him to go back and fight Ricky Simone again? Come on. Come on.

Ricky needs a couple more wins where he gets back up to that one. I would like to see that fight again, but not now. Mara's not going to go back and go back to Ricky Simone. He's going to go fight maybe like Peodor Yan or maybe he fights Cheeto if Sean O'Malley wins against Peotor Yan. but I feel like every time I talk about the fight, like it's just about how Jose got screwed and I'm not going to shy away from that at all because he did.

But I don't want it to sound like I'm taking anything away from Maraub because Maraub went out there and beat freaking Jose Ali. He beat one of the top four to five best fighters in the history of the sport, in my opinion. And he deserves credit for that. It's not a win we're going to go back and talk about fondly. We're not going to, it's not going to be in our fight of the year. honorable mentions by any stretch of the imagination,

but that's a big win for Marab. And although it's not, wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing performance, they're not going to punish him for it. He's still in the mix. I feel like the biggest winner, even a bigger winner than Marab on Saturday was Cheeto. Because it seems like the Cheeto knockout of Domitruz

happened like a year ago at this point, but still that fight gets brought back up because of the Marab Josie Aldo fight. Cheetos the front runner right now in my eyes. He's the guy. Now, October 22nd, that's the big one. Sean O'Malley beats Piotr Yan. Sean O'Malley is getting a title shot.

I mean, I think we're all in agreement on that. Whether we agree with it or not, whether it's the right meritocratic move or not, it doesn't matter. Again, the word deserves means nothing. But in this case, if Sean O'Malley beats Piotr Yan, he would definitely deserve a title shot because Piotrion is, in many people's eyes, the best band of weight in the world, even though he's lost Al Jamed Stirling in his last two fights. A lot of people are still very high on Piotr-Yon. If he wins, he gets a damn title shot.

Plus, the way the UFC has built him up, they're definitely giving him the title shot. But if Piotrion wins, it's probably Cheeto Vera. So Cheetos is in a great spot right now. I think Marab and I think Marab did Cheeto a pretty damn big favor. All right, let's go to Tristan. How's everything? How are you doing? Hey, buddy.

And just, you know, just hearing about this possibility that they're trying, the UFC is trying to make Dan U.S. versus Kevin Holland is upsetting to me. I mean, like, and just can you give me, can you do Wonderboy a solid? Can you do him a solid? Like, he wants to fight Kevin Holland. Why can't you just give him that fight? It's a, I'm happy with that fight. I'm being static about the fight.

Stylistically, it makes sense. just give him that fight, man. Let Daniel Rodriguez, if you want Daniel Rodriguez to fight, have him fight Neil McNeck. That is, Neil McNeckney will fight anybody, anytime, any place.

Just have that fight. Like, what are we doing, UFC? Like, what are we doing? Okay, you put, and then Ariel, like he said, pushing for Shotcombe, Raffmano versus Wonderbite.

Like, Wonderbaz's got to be like, come on, man, come on, my God. Like, you want me to fight Rockmanum, it's more recent, if I get beat by him, I'm done. Like, you know, I'm on a three-fight losing shoot. And then it's like, you got, you guys are just setting me up to be like, bye, bye to the division, you know, just to try to end my career. Like, come on, man. You'll see, do better. I mean, like, what do you get out of Rachmanov and won the boy fight? Like, come on.

Be realistic, man. The guy wants Kevin Highland. It's a more aesthetic, pleasing fight, you know, and one of them may have a chance to win that fight against Kevin Holland. You know, that is a more reasonable and better fight. Like, do better, you have to see, do better. I don't want to hear this Kevin Holland, Daly and Roger Dukas. They can fight later down on the road. All right, just have Wonderboy, fight Kevin Holland. And if you have Danny Rodriguez, have him fight Neil McE.

And, well, we're set. We're all good to go. And then second point I wanted to address here, about Usman versus the Leon Edwards situation. Damien Martin, he had said, you know, and I heard him, he has a right to his opinion. He says that personally he feels, Kamara Usman is the greatest well-to-weight ever. And that's fine. That's all good. And he makes good points that he feels that Usman had better competition than

GSP or or you know so and I understand that too but and I think Jed brung this up and you have bunged this up 10 title defenses in itself is absolutely rare and it's just insane you just mentioned Demetius Johnson demetrius Johnson has 11 title defenses 12 oh my God 12 and it just blows my mind so that in itself is beyond impressive that everything I've ever seen. Yes, Usman has better competition, I'll give you that. But in itself, defending that title

is just absolutely beyond comprehension. That's why it's so hard. That's why it's so rare. And that's why those fighters are considered special and rare and gets all the praise and love that they deserve because it's so hard. Like, I think GSP probably, when he reflects on his career sometimes and he thinks about it,

he's probably like saying, I don't know how I did it. I don't know how I defended that belt 10 times. Demetia Johnson, and it's probably the only has to say, I don't know how I defend that belt 12 times. It's unbelievable I was able to defend that belt. And they're probably amazed at themselves

that they were able to do it because, and it's now, and it's hard, it's so harder. Now, if that ever gets done, I'm telling you, if that, if that gets done in this, in this generation, I'm considering the greatest because it's, because it's rarely,

it's rarely possible that, it's done. So, you know, those are my thoughts, Mike. Have a heck full morning. And everybody, have a great day. Thanks, buddy. I was wrong. It is 11. DeMetius and John Jones are both tied with the most. Demetius did 11 straight. I just feel like no one's touching that record. I just feel like no one's touching that record. Like Jones technically does, but he got stripped to the belt. I'm talking like continuous title defenses. Demetri's had 11 and he doesn't get enough credit for sure. Let me defend. And by the way, I've said this earlier, if you're just joining us,

the Kevin Holland Daniel Rodriguez fight that Holland announced on Instagram yesterday. It's not done. It's not done. So a little premature. I don't know if it's going to get done. I know they're trying. There's work to be done. Well, let's just say that fight does get made.

I have no problem with it. Because, and maybe this makes you feel a little bit better, Tristan. Wonder Boyd isn't going to be ready to fight until, like, November, he said. He's not going to be able to fight until, like, November, December. Kevin Holland is the type of dude to go fight Daniel Rodriguez, September 10th, and then go fight Wonder Boy, November 12th at Madison Square Garden. So we could have our cake and eat it too here, especially with the guy like Kevin. I could see him fighting twice in two months.

Very possible. So I'm not ruling it out. I understand people wanting to see Holland Wonderboy be a great addition to that card, but there's no way Wonderboy is fighting September 10th. There's no way. I don't even think physically he's going to be ready for that. and then just on the flip side, like Wonderboy, especially now,

the After After the Wonder Boy, now he's, Wonder Boy is a big dude. He weighs like 200 pounds. He's going to have to cut 30 pounds in two and a half weeks. Wonderboy likes to have a full camp. I just don't see that happening. So we could get both fights. We could get both.

All right, there's five people waiting. I'm going to try to get to all of you, and then I have to go. Eric, are you there? Yeah, I'm here. Can you guys hear me? Gotcha. I got you.

Awesome. Well, first time doing this and kind of super excited to be here. I want to caveat my question by saying that I'm a huge Dustin Porriere fan, much like a lot of you guys out here. And just want to get your thoughts on, do you feel like Dustin's kind of being undervalued and being underestimated in the fight coming up with Michael Chandler? And the reason I ask that is because, you know,

Michael Chandler's only being, you know, kind of like an aged Tony Ferguson, if you will. He got crushed by Justin Gagee, obviously throwing the game plan out the window. And, you know, he beat Dan Hucker, who Dustin also beat. But if you notice, you know, Michael Chandler, right, he got clipped with the same left hook from Olivera and Ferguson. And that's a huge threat coming from Dustin Porre, who's a really good Southpaw. So just wanted to get your, you know, thoughts on, you know, why people are so high on Michael Chandler and maybe it's the wrestling but you know i feel like dustin's being a little underestimated thanks buddy i don't know i don't know if i

don't know if i necessarily agree with that i mean at least in my eyes skill for skill i think pori should win that fight but that's one of those like is it a three-rounder or is it a five-rounder if it's a three-rounder i probably favor duster pori a little bit more if it's a five-rounder I probably favor Michael Chandler a little bit more. Chandler is just a freak. We've seen Porreik down the in some of these fights. He gets a little tired a little bit more.

Porre is a huge, huge 55er. He cuts a lot of weight. That is not an easy wake up for him. And Chandler's a big dude, too. He's got to make the same cut. But I feel like Poria's cut is probably a lot bigger than Chandler's. So, I mean, listen, this is one of those instances

where if they just want to do it at 170, like, who cares? like honestly who really cares it makes no difference just have them fight a 170 don't make him cut the extra way if they don't have to they're not fighting for the title who gives a shit just let them do their thing um but i don't think poria's being undervalued here i think it's two dudes who want to fight i think the the big conversation is more so than any undervaluing of any of these guys is that what about some of these other up-and-comers like what about raphael Fiziv. Why isn't he fighting Dustin

Porreier or Michael Chandler? What about Aramon, why isn't Aramon Sarukian fighting these guys? Why aren't some of these other up-and-comers fighting these guys? I think that's sort of the bigger question in all of this, is what happens with the up-and-comers? Like, how long is it going to take Fizib

to get the kind of fight that he deserves? With a Gaet, with a Pori, with a Chandler. I don't know. I don't know. I think that's the bigger question here. I don't think anyone's really overlooking Porre against Chandler. though, at least nothing that I've seen. I don't know why anyone would do that.

All right, let's go to Justin. Justin, hello. Hey, what's up, Mike? How are you doing? What's up, buddy? Good. So a couple off-week things to say, first, I was really pulling for you to get that

no point on your patty pick, but unfortunately I saw Jamie Mularky was booked yesterday. Yeah, I saw that. That would have been a fun one. As soon as you said that, I'll not know. I'm like, well, that's a great pick. So two off-week questions,

just kind of for fun. one, what mispronunciation of a fighter's name makes you cringe or laugh the most? Maybe it's Comzad or Khabib or even Marybob. So that's question number one. And the number two, I spend a lot of time in the car and I'm either listening to MMA fighting or some history, podcast, or books. Who do you think would win in a fight between Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt? Those are my questions. Happy off week.

Hope you enjoy some time with the family. Thanks, man. I'm picking Abe Lincoln all day just because we shared the same birthday so just give me Abe, I'm rooting for them, my birthday brother let's see let's have him go five rounds and see what happens

I don't know like some of these names are so hard to pronounce I think the one that makes me cringe the most is when people spell Connor with two ends that one drives me crazy or they spell it C-O-N-N-E-R that one makes me a little

cringy I will say that the one that makes me cringe, but I also think it's hilarious at the same time as Henry Sehudo announcing Habib Nirmagam-Aidav's name on an Eagle FC broadcast. It's the best. It's just the best. And if you're looking

for the next Eagle FC U.S. card drinking game to play, Henry Suhudo, mispronouncing Habib's name is going to get you hammered and real fast. It makes me cringe, but it's also hilarious at the same time. So, yeah, those are

private two I'll go with. Let's go to Ujwal. They'll go to Crypto, they'll go to Brett, and then we've got to go. Ujwal, hello. Unmute, I'm. Hey, how's it going? I'm going. Many experts are underestimating NAPDIAs as an opponent, and many experts are saying that UFC and Dana White could have given him an easy fight against a veteran as a hefty center of, but who knows? to Naintea has a massive gas tank

and he has seen his ambulance in many fights against the corner of a group in 2016 and against Leon Edwards fight in 20, 2021. And he has a massive gas tank at Kamsat is a good wrestler

so they both fight, I don't know who wins, what's your day on that? Thanks, buddy. Yeah, like I said earlier, I'll probably I mean, on the preview show of that card, I'll give my take. I'm leaning Shabh to win that fight.

I just think he has more ways to win. His wrestling is unbelievable. It's a huge weapon against Nate. But if the fight gets extended, if we go to three, four, five, we get to those championship rounds of Nate's durability shines. That's where things can get interesting. And it's one of those situations where this has been a weird year. This has been a strange year where the weirdest possible outcome, the most out-of-left-field outcome, has happened more oftentimes than not,

this would be the pinnacle. This would be the pinnacle. I think Hamzaa should win, skill for skill to win this fight. This is probably where one of those fights where the betting odds are probably spot on. But Nate is just, Nate shows up, man.

Like when he has to and he's into it, he shows up. Remember the Michael, like people talk about the Connor fights? Remember the Michael Johnson fight? The Michael Johnson fight in our, Orlando before the Connor fight, Nate, people who thought Michael Johnson was going to run through Nate Diaz. And Nate had like one of the best performances of his career.

And this is when Johnson was like a top 10-55er. And Nate beat the brakes off him. That was a great performance. And then he cut the promo after like he was on. And you could tell Nate was in like the best shape of his career. He was into it. Stop sleeping on me. And then he calls out Connor and cuts one of the best.

promos ever. I mean, Nate, when the lights are bright and he really wants to, the guy shows up. The guy shows up and there's a lot of people out there who feel like Nate is up 2-0 against Connor McGregor. Or at least that fight should have been a draw

at worst. I don't know. I ain't counting Nate out. I don't think Nate's going to win, but I'm not counting him out. Like it would not be the craziest thing on earth if Nate absorbed the onslaught early, took it deep, and somehow beat him, it wouldn't shock me.

I wouldn't be like, oh my God, I can't believe it. I've been saying it since the beginning. I think there's a world where Shmite just runs them over. But here's the thing about Nate as well. Nate just needs one moment in that fight. He just needs one. If he gets ragdolled for four rounds, but then he lands it right, just like the Leon fight,

he lost almost every second of that Leon Edwards fight, but he landed that shot with like the final, minute, had Leon on wobbly legs, and Nate was like, I won the war, I win, I'm the man, and everyone believed it. Everyone believed it. So, especially with where he's at in his career right now, all Nate needs is a moment. He just needs to land one big shot. And even if he loses, his stock still rises, the Jake Paul fight's still there. And what if he wins? Oh, my gosh, what if he wins? It will be the best. It will be the best. Oh, man.

That'd just be nuts. All right, Crypto, we have to end with you. I have to go. This is a very busy day. Crypto, are you there? Hello. Yes. So, long-time listener, first-time caller from Sweden.

So it's actually not a morning here. It's the afternoon. And Mike, yeah, I just, I mean, why can't we let Leon have some fun? I was just thinking about this. I mean, he has had such a tough road. He finally got there. He beat Usman. He's basically the most talked about fighter right now.

He has so many different opportunities. Let the guy have some fun. I mean, if we do the fight against Jorge in the UK, it will sell out. It will do the same amount of pay-per-views, if not more, as if you would have done the fight with Usman. Let the guy have at least one fight. that it's fun for him. So I'm just amazed that Leon and Tim are not more vocal about this.

I mean, I would be all in on this. I would be like, we do not utter Kamaro Usman's name until we try to get the Masbynobite. If it doesn't work out, fine, we can always go back to Usman. That will happen no matter what. So I want to finish up by saying that actually Leon and Tim should listen to the amazing interview that Ariel did with Roberto Soldich

because that is a masterclass of how you handle MMA business, where Roberto Solditch starts off by painting this grandiose picture of himself and talks about mixing the martial arts, being an amazing fighter, wanting to compete with the best of the best. And then he moves on to basically taking the biggest passive-aggressive dump on the UFC possible, calling the fighters bad and saying that,

look what happens to fighters when they leave the UFC and fight for other promotions, just completely ignoring the fact that they are away past their prime. And then you move on to the final phase when you're asked about who you want to fight, you say Eddie Alvarez and Jake Paul. And that is how you do business. You maximize the profits. You take the, you take the easiest fight, quote unquote. There are no easy fights, but there are easier fights. And you make the most amount of money. And then when you have to fight Kamarer Hussman, which, I mean, it will happen no matter what, then you fight him. You do a Roberto Solditch, you maximize the profits, you have some fun, and then you move on. So that's all. Thank you, Mike.

Thanks, buddy. But who's to say that deep down in Leon's eyes that Usman isn't the most fun option? Like, that's still a megafite. And I think there's, I think the competitor in Leon wants to shut up everybody who says that that was a fluke or it was an accident or it was lucky. I did, like, to me, like, I think, listen, Mazadol is a big fight.

It'll get casuals in there for sure. But Leon Usman will as well. So why not just fight Usman? And if you beat Usman, you can do whatever you want. Like, he has some power now and he has options. But at the end of the day, like one more title defense, if he beats Usman again, then you can have all the fun you want. Then he can go fight Mossadol.

Then he can go fight Connor if you want. Like you have the options, but you've got to fight Usen one more time. You have to. And by the way, just to kind of add to your story, Kamara Usman's road was almost identical. It's not like Usman won three fights and got a title shot. Usen won a ton of fights before he finally got a title shot. And many believed, myself included, that Ustah was a champion long before he fought Tyron Woodley.

But he had to wait a long time. He had to fight different people along the way, had to fight backwards, had to fight guys that, guys he shouldn't have had to fight. He had a long road, too. and then he had the title defenses and then he had the you know the he said I don't think he's the best

welter weight of all time I agree with title defense as being just an incredible stat to justify that GSP has his record of nine Usman 5 GSP wins level of competition aside I don't care it doesn't matter

I think Usman is I think Usman's the second best well to weight of all time which by the way history of the sport that's still pretty damn good he is in my eyes kebar ozman is a at worst top 15 fighters ever i stand by that i completely think that's accurate i don't think he's the best welterweight of all time he was on his way to getting into the conversation but he wasn't the title thing that the title defenses matter

is because it's so difficult it's the hardest thing to do in all of sports that's why demetrius's record of 11 straight title defenses valentina shavchenko might get there, but I don't think that record's ever going to get broken. I just, I think that's it. I think that's the DiMaggio 56th game hitting streets. Even five title defenses this day and age is super impressive. It really is. So Ousman deserves a shot.

He beats Oosman. Then he can have all, then he can have fun. Then he can have all the funny ones. But he's got to fight Oosman. He's got to do it in England. That's the one. That's the one. All right, Brett, I'm going to squeeze you in.

then I got to go. Brett, hello. My, my man. Hello. Hey, Mike, what's going on, how are you doing today? Everything good? Everything's good. Hey, listen, I just want to every time I listen to you, uh, your show, I hear the same, um, somewhat argument from your, uh, your audience is 135, the better of weight division is 155 weight division, better of weight division. I heard you talk about Demetrius Johnson and his, uh, title defenses. Then I heard the following call started talking about Michael Chandler how he doesn't think he's that good

or whatever like that. Well, that guy is a banger. That guy's a banger, which brings me to my question and I'd like to hear your opinion because I know we feel the same way is, can you explain that the beast-like product that's a 155

is so deep, it's so unbelievable to rise to the top of 155 a million times harder then it would be in the 135 division. I'm not dissing on 135. I think they're incredibly athletic. I think they're powerful.

I think it's insane. Some of the talent, some of these guys have at 135. But the division from top to bottom and 155 and how the cream has to rise to the top, it just makes it a far superior division. And I just like to hear you touch on that and just have some of these everyday people who hear that they might think the 135

is top because they hear other people say it and it makes them believe it, that needs to be debunked. 155 is the king in MMA. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, buddy. And you know what's crazy about this? And I was talking to Dean Thomas about this yesterday. The UFC got rid of this division at one point.

They got rid of 55. It took them a long time. They bring 35 in, 45, 25. And now these are the most exciting divisions in the sport, which is wild to think about. So here's how I look at this argument. There's a difference in my eyes between what division is better and what division is a little deeper. Like top heavy, you just cannot compare what's going on in lightweight to Bannamway.

You just can't. Olivera, Islam, Porre, Gachie, Chandler, Fiziv, RDA, Gamrod, Ferguson, still, Connor still. Jalen Turner's coming up. Sarukyons coming up. Isma Gulof. Diego Fahanna could still go. Then you have guys like Gregor Gillespie, Guram Kutata Latsi,

Joel Alvarez, Brad Redoubt. Bobby Greens, probably like the 22nd best lightweight in the world, maybe a little higher. Then you have guys like, Claudio Plias is won five in a row. You have guys like Grant Dawson who hasn't lost in a long time.

Marco Madsen's winning fights. Drakh closest look good. Jim Miller's still there winning fights. I mean, it's just a crazy division. Now you add Patty Pimbled in there. It just adds a little more spice to it. And I don't think I've been very, very clear on my thoughts on Patty Pimbleau. Just put this guy over.

You WWF superstars that man. And you just get him wins over and over again. Bannamweight, you can make a case that it is the deeper division. That there's just, it's deeper that, like at least with lightweight, like you know, like you can maybe shuffle out 15 to 20. but at Bannamweight you could shuffle out like 15 to 30 like 15 to 35 and you might be able to have a case about it. Like Bannamweight's still really good. It's not as good as lightweight, but it's really good.

You got Sterling, Dilleshaw, Jan, Marlon, Marob, Aldo, Sanhagan, Song Yudong, Rob Fon, Ricky Simone, Cruz, Edgar, Mooney was still there, Sean O'Malley. You got Umar de Maga Madoff, who is probably going to fight for a type. at some point. Jack Shore may have lost, but he's still really good. I'm a big Victor Henry guy. Saeed Narragam Adolf's really good. And then you go down to like 30 and you have Chris Gutierrez who has looked real good. Montel Jackson is really good. He just can't fight enough. And it, it's tough. And then you have Jonathan Martinez who's fighting Cub Swanson. Like he's probably the 35th best band-of-weight in the world. But you can make a case that he's like the 20. best because of the run he's been on.

You have Sergey Morozov, who's really good. Basharat's going to be a side-you-combe, Hakramanov looked ridiculous in his last fight against Roddy Lawrence. I mean, if you want to make an argument that Bannamweight is a deeper division than lightweight, I'm going to listen to that argument, and I'm probably going to agree with you. But if we're talking like what division is better, like it's the Cadillac versus a Honda. and listen, Honda is super reliable.

If you drive a Honda Civic, my little brother just bought a Honda, I used Honda Civic. He's going to have that car for like 10 years, and it's going to get him where he needs to go. As long as he puts oil in the car and takes care of the maintenance, that car is going to last him forever.

It's reliable. It's always there, and it always delivers. But lightweight is a Tesla. Lightweight is a Cadillac. Lightweight is a Lexus. It's the money division. It's the luxury division. It's leather seats in the stock.

That's what lightweight is. It's just a better division. It's the more marquee division. Bannam weight might be deeper, but lightweights, lightweight's always more interesting. The bigger stars are a lightweight. It's just the way that it is.

And that's the difference. There's a difference to bigger and deeper. You can make an argument that maybe featherweight is deeper than lightweight. I wouldn't make that argument, but you can make, you could definitely make an argument that Bannamweight is.

deeper as a division than lightweight. But you just can't say lightweight is, that Bannonweight is a better division overall than lightweight because this is not true. It's just not true. I have to go, I have to. Don't forget, BTO, between the lengths, live 3 p.m. Eastern, M.M.A. fighting YouTube channel.

We got a banger, Jedmishu versus morning combat, not mortal comments, morning combat's Brian Campbell. Jed versus BC, holy cow. That is going to be fire, and I am excited for that. So we'll be back again tomorrow, 10 a.m. Eastern, right here on the Twitter spaces, and we'll get after this thing one more time, and probably still talk a little bit more about Leon Edwards' Big Way, UFC 278, so forth and so on. So we got to go. Thank you very much.

Enjoy the rest of your Thursday. And as always, have a heck of a morning, everybody. You're the best. Thank you.