MMA Fighting - HOAM | TBS' Decision, Dana White's Possible Punishment, More

Episode Date: January 6, 2023

It appears that Dana White's Power Slap League is still going to air on TBS in January, but is that the right decision considering what has happened to begin the new year? On an all-new Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to TBS putting the Power Slap program back on their schedule despite video being released of White slapping his wife during a dispute on New Year's Eve. Additionally, listeners give their thoughts on the situation involving White, what an appropriate response and punishment should be, what could be next for Jorge Masvidal and Dustin Poirier in 2023, the UFC division that could have the most shakeup this year, 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

Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won! Feel the fun!

The morning will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1-8665-3-3-2-60 or visit comex Ontario.ca. 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. Friday, January 6th, 2023, it's weird saying that a lot.

I think I've said 22 on both episodes that we've done so far. I don't know, maybe I didn't have to go back and listen. But it is indeed a heck of the morning, live on the NBA Fighting Twitter Spaces. You can hear the show shortly thereafter on the M.A. Flying Podcasting Network. I am Mike Heck. Hope everyone's having a great Friday. And Friday's on this show.

We open things up a little bit more. We talk about M.A. We talk about other things happening in the world. It could be M.M.A. related. Could be journalism related. It could be a lot of, we get a lot of pro wrestling questions. I'm trying to get back into that. We can talk about whatever is on your mind on this Friday.

And I'm hoping that, listen, we can talk about whatever you want. I'm hoping for a little bit of a lighter episode. Although I will say this. I have some things that I do want to say. I have some things that I want to get off my chest. because like I've said on this show, and like I said on BTL yesterday, this situation with Dana White and the silence from everybody involved with the slap scene on video, multiple slaps, you can argue,

with Dana White and his wife, Anne, that video released by TMZ on Monday. And I have some things that I want to say. I made a big mistake yesterday because, and I didn't want to do this, and I'm trying, I tried not to and I told myself yesterday that I was not going to do this,

but for some reason, I don't know why, I did it. And it was something Jed Mishu said that led me to that decision. And I still don't know why I did. It was like a canker sore that you shouldn't play with, but you play with it anyways, even though it hurts and it's uncomfortable. I looked at some of the comments on the BTL episode because Jed and I talked about the data white situation.

And Jed mentioned something about how he wrote that, by the way, extremely fair and balanced article about the Dana White situation. And he looked at the comments and he was saddened by them. And I don't know what possessed me to go look at some of the BTL comments. And some of the, most of them were good. They liked the show. Some of them commented on the two-man booth, so to speak, and not doing the competition thing,

just more of Jed and I doing a talking heads type of program. A lot of people have enjoyed that. but just some of the comments, man. Calling us the slap police, who are we to talk about this? And my favorite one, my favorite one was, you're only talking about this to get attention. Are you fucking kidding me? Are you kidding me with that?

You think I'm talking about this to get attention? No, I'm talking about it because somebody has to. And people have talked about it. it. No doubt about it. I've mentioned it. Ariel did a great job on Wednesday. That was fire. Luke Thomas on his show, Luke Thomas on Dan Lebitard show, was excellent. And I even said yesterday, even on BTL, well, Luke said on his show, I couldn't say any better myself. I couldn't say it any better myself. But people saying that I'm talking about this for attention is the biggest bunch of bullshit I have ever heard.

Because somebody has to talk about it. Because a lot of powerful people in the space and beyond, let's be honest, are not talking about this. And I just continue to wonder why. I continue to wonder why nobody's talking about this. And I continue to wonder why nobody is reacting to this from the UFC. still nothing from Endeavor. And Turner was an interesting one as well,

but we discovered something today. And we saw yesterday that the UFC released a promo video for this stupid, ridiculous power slap league. And they posted that there's going to be a new launch date. It's not January 11th like originally planned. It's going to be January 18th. And I was like, I don't know,

because we looked at the TBS schedule yesterday, and it was off January 11th, and it was off January 18th. It was off both of them. And they don't go beyond that. And I was like, well, even though they're putting out this video, maybe they're just hoping this goes away and that they can convince TBS,

look, it's, it's, no one's really. talking about this anymore. Let's go ahead with the launch on January 18th. But even last night, for I went to sleep, looked at the TBS schedule, January 18th, young Sheldon, the spinoff from the Big Bang Theory was listed in that 10 p.m. Eastern spot after AEW. Got a workout in today, sitting in traffic, and I was like, you know what? I'm going to go look at it again. And before I could look at it in our Slack channel, one of my colleagues, posted that it is back on the schedule January 18th. So I went and looked.

And sure enough, it is back on the schedule January 18th. I just don't understand. Like, am I crazy? Am I crazy? You're telling me that the one repercussion, if you can even call it that, from this entire thing. And let me just say this again.

because some people just aren't understanding this. Dana White has owned up to it. I think he was very sincere with this apology, and I actually give him credit for the way he handled it with that TMZ interview. Because God knows TMZ painted this picture that he could just bounce out of if he wanted to. Oh, the blicker was flowing.

Do you even remember what happened? All of this awful, awful. stuff. And Dana White, and I'll say this, this is probably the 15th time I've said this, Dana did not take the excuses. He did not take the outs that he was clearly given by TMZ. He owned up to it, said he was embarrassed. I'm a big believer in not just saying things, but looking at people as well and seeing if they actually mean what they say. And to me, body language wise, I'm not a psychologist, but it seems like he meant what he said. So this is not really, I mean, this is obviously a Dana thing.

But at the same token, this is more of a UFC endeavor thing because they're silent on this. And it seems like the only repercussion to this whole thing is that this ridiculous slap league that is going to launch on TBS and make the UFC and Dana White a whole bunch of money from television distribution. The one repercussion is that it got delayed one week. Are you kidding me? shame on TBS shame on Turner shame on Warner Brothers shame on them

how could you let this air on your network and the more I've thought about it and the more I've talked to people I respect and the more I've listened to different shows and different takes on this at first I was pretty hard on ESPN I was pretty hard on ESPN for their essential no comment

but at the same token after these conversations and after listening to these things, maybe that's not fair. Maybe that's not fair from a television distribution end. Maybe that's not fair. Because like they told me, they, I hated how they presented it, that, well, we just air the programs,

but they produce it all. Like, that's just a cop-out. But they're not, we shouldn't really expect them to release this big, long statement about this. And perhaps I was a little too far. but then just seeing the coverage of this on the network, seeing tweets from Jeff Wagenheim yesterday, who I have a lot of respect for,

and then obviously the other articles that we talked about, it's just awful. It's just awful. And what's crazy about this is now, this is not just an MMA story. This is, this goes beyond MMA. This goes beyond our little bubble here.

Because my wife is even talking about this. My wife knows about him. And she doesn't know anything about MMA. she'll ask me like how my day was and what I did for work and how the job's treating me and we talk about that stuff but she doesn't watch M&A she doesn't watch fighting she doesn't care what's happening in the sport she doesn't care but she knows about this and we talked about it we talked about it and my wife asked me yesterday how I responded to this and I told her and we talked and she said she was like, are you sure you want to do this? Like, won't the UFC be mad? And I'm like, I don't care. I don't care if they're mad.

If they're mad about this, then we have a much bigger problem. And they shouldn't just be mad of me. They should be mad at a lot of people because everybody should be talking about this. But this brought up an interesting point to me. What if it was me? What if it was me on camera? What if that was me and my wife? And it would never happen, by the way.

But what if that was a video of me and that got released? And you guys saw all that. What if Dana White saw an MMA media member on video slap at his wife, whether it is retaliatory or not? You know what he would do? He would go on a UFC unfiltered. He would go on Patty's show or somebody else. He would go on social media about it and just rip me a new asshole. And all of you would too.

And you should. And a lot of the people who have defended Dana White in this situation would not be defending me. I will guarantee you that. You think Jamal Hill would be like, eh, she hit him first. Hell no. He would be on social media, quote tweeting the video and talking shit. So what's the difference here? I just don't get it.

Like, I just don't get it. and I don't get how TBS is airing this power slap stuff. I just don't understand it. Like there has to be repercussions. Like if you don't want to do it from a company level, fine. And I don't expect you to. But Tudor has a chance here to do something good, to do the right thing. And it may not be a UFC repercussion.

It may not be overall an endeavor repercussion. But TBS was kind of like the big domino here. because guess what? There isn't going to be any response from Endeavor or any sort of repercussion whatsoever unless it costs them money. Now we saw the stocks, if you saw the stocks on Tuesday,

they dropped, but they've recovered and they've actually got up over the next couple of days. So that's one thing. Endeavor is like, we're cool there. But if TBS just dropped this deal all together and say we're not going to deal with this,

now the company is losing money. Now this deal they had in place, which is probably a lucrative one off the table. Then we can start having discussions about how we handled this and what we can do about it. But TBS ain't doing it, at least as of now. And maybe this is just a wait and see. I don't know.

But it was off the schedule yesterday. I at least my food tasted a little bit better yesterday. I'm like, all right, maybe they haven't made a decision yet, but they're not promoting this. They're not promoting it. And I watched AEW Wednesday. and they didn't promote it once. So I was like, all right, maybe we're on to something here.

And then it was off the schedule for January 18th. And then I saw that promotional video promoting the Slap Fight League three days later. And then I look at the TBS schedule and it's back on there. I just don't understand. If this is literally anybody else in a position like this, this isn't happening. And it just leaves such a bad taste in my mouth. And you can call me the Slap Police. And you can say I'm doing this for attention.

No. I'm on this show and I'm going to hear from you and we're going to, if you guys want to keep talking about this, that's cool. And I'm just going to end it at this. And I'll reiterate this as well. I am not going to stop talking about this. I'm not going to. Until I see that everybody involved actually gives a shit what is going on because they don't.

And it makes me sick. And again, Dana White handled everything. as best he could. I thought that he handled himself well. I thought he actually feels bad about it. And then there was a part of me, and I talked about it yesterday on the program. There was an Instagram story of Dana

with one of the milk boys holding a stack of cash saying, killed it at the casino. What? What? Doesn't seem like his life really changed all that much. Although in that interview, it seemed really sincere. Now, I noticed yesterday evening, when I went and looked again to see if it was there, it was down.

I'm sure somebody told him, dude, what the hell are you doing? Take that shit down. You can't, you can't do that. Are you kidding me? You're with a guy that's like 25 years old and you're gambling all night and you have a big wad of cash with a smile on your face after all this is happening. You can't act. You can't do that. And you wisely took it down.

But it was there. I took a screenshot of it. But this is just fucking TBS. What the. fuck is your problem. What are you doing? What are you doing? I want this sport to grow and be a positive place.

I really do. I just don't know how we come back from this if there's no repercussions. And I've talked to fighters off the record about this. And I know Ariel has as well. I've talked to female fighters about this who are in the UFC, who have reached out and said, someone's at least talking about this. I appreciate it.

How do you think they feel right now? And I brought this question up yesterday. How do you think they feel right now? How do you think they feel that the president of the company that they fight for? They're not even employees for, by the way. They're independent contractors who fight for their promotion that are not getting paid what they should be,

that the president in the face of their organization is in this turmoil right now, and there is no response from anybody. There are no repercussions, nothing. How do you think they feel? It's just awful. But hopefully we will move on with the show here. And we could talk about this more if you want.

We could talk about other stuff too. And I'm down for it all. But I wanted to get that off my chest because I just couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ.

Built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus at OnePeloton.ca. When I got a great deal on a great gift at Winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. At just $39.99, how could I resist?

This luxurious wool throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss? Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at Winners? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners.

Find Fabulous for Less. All right. So Tristan was not able to hop on yesterday. It was a very busy show. And I promised a few select folks that if they hop on in here, they get bumped to the front of the line. So Tristan, there you are, my man. What's going on? Are you there?

Oh, yeah. Sorry, Mike. Yeah, I listened to, especially what Jedman Shue had said yesterday about the whole play. Just he was spot on. He really went into it, which was just great. Listen to Ariel, listen to Luke Thomas. I got to go shout out to Dan Littal who's trying to keep this story alive. Who's getting everybody on from the MMA world to keep talking about this because it has to.

It's a must here. I mean, some, and Luke Thomas had brought up a great point. He's like, no, no, you're not understanding. It's, we're talking the toxic culture of how people are looking at this whole situation here. I mean, like you said, the fan comments, even on enemy fighting of what they're saying is, is mind-boggling to me. I mean, there was a comment on, I think, A.K. story about the devil about Dan Levittar questioning the whole Dana-Wite situation. and I looked at the comments and you said, here's a person saying,

Jesus Christ, it's not a crime if no one called the cops and no charges are being filed. It was a drunken couple married for 30 years who slapped each other in public with minimum force. I'm not some Dana White fanboy, but considering Phil Barone's apparently murdered the girlfriend the other day, this doesn't deserve nearly the attention it's getting. And then another person's response is a good point.

Dana should have hit her. shouldn't have hit her, but it's not like he beat up within inches of her life either. I think it would be best for Dana to lay low for a month, and if he really wants to do some good, then he should donate at least

$150,000 to an organization that helps fight domestic violence. I mean, you know, they're just saying, oh, it's not that bad, it's not a crime, things of that nature, the Twitter responses, has been a joke. And this is the whole thing about,

it's just like the attitude about this has been actually so toxic. You're just like, this is a, I'm like in the, I'm in a fair world. Like, I'm like, oh, I'm in an alternate universe of how people think about this and how people are defending Dana White when Dana White is not even acting for defense. The other thing is what's going to happen when we're back into the traffic or when fights are coming about and the focus has to be on fights because you guys have a job to do, you guys family defeats and you guys have to, you guys have to, you guys,

have to start talking about the fights again, how that's going, what's going to happen as far as the narratives is concerned. And then the other thing I think about is there's no way Dana White can do post-fight scrums. There's no way. Because if he does a post-fights scrum, what I worry about is if you,

Mike, if you go to International Fight Week and Dana decides to do a post-fight scrum and you're going to be like, I got to bring this up. We got to, because, and at that time, time nothing happens, Dana, and you want to ask questions about it, it happened if the USCPR goes to you guys and be like, yo, listen, we're not talking about this anymore. And like the dump time is, this is this still hasn't been resolved

yet here. Well, why that's discussed? What's that dynamic going to look like at that point? It's going to look like when those are going to ask these questions. So this is going to be very, very, very interesting on how. the landscape is going to be moving forward here if nothing is done because let's see and never are trying to wake this out they're going to wake this out and they feel like they're going to win because they're the focus at some point is going to have to so go on and we're going to get caught back up and to speak about that nature and then i don't know how m m ms set up as far as the website is concerned because certain stories that's

pushed out, other new stories has to be pushed back in. Is that still on there a month from, two months from now? Things like that. Bloody Ebel had talked about, Bloody Ebel had talked about also the mindset of how like this and how other entities of the media, not inmate fighting, obviously, and things that nature, but we're talking about ESPN, obviously because they're going to press the higher ups because that's the higher ups are telling them, we're not telling you can't talk about this or be extrasensitive about it.

So, you know, these things are, you know, how things are being able to be covered. And the thing is, again, you guys have a job to do. You guys have family, you know, direct us to the other thing. The day and why situation are we going to start deciding after a while. Because it's just, it's a lot going on. Things happen quickly. things happen, other stories are coming in that has to be covered.

And I don't know like I'm an egg with enemy fighting. I don't know that I don't know to be junkie all these things of how stories are coming. We got to move on. But this is more

of an anime culture and how it's looked at that has to change. Somehow the U.S. has to figure out a way to get to revisiting the U.S. The U.S.

policy. That has to be enforced to to stop these behaviors from happening. Because this is just like, what is going on to the MMA world? You know? And you're just like, I love the sport. But the behavior is outside of it has to change.

Listen, I understand of a product to sell and people like, if it's a fight to things that nature, okay, there's a way of doing that. There's also a way of like, you guys have got to behave yourself and your conduct fighting.

This is going to get to the point where this is going to go. And I don't know if people are going to start getting to step of it. You know what I mean? It's been like, am I in the right business or not? And questioning this. Because this is insane of how looking at this from a fairs perspective.

I'm not all. Obviously, we care. And we want people to be good people and we want people to behave themselves. But some of the, some of the attitude questions is, It's speaking louder by the minute. It's surprising to me.

So, Mike, I, listen, I just, that's, I had a lot of been said to get some change. And I think it has to. There's no way this is going to slide. I can't, I can't see, I can't see at the post-fight scrums. I can't see Dana White being there. I can't see him acting quite. There's no way. There's no way.

It's like, there's no way that's happening. I'll be stunned if that happens. Then it's like, oh, oh, imagine UFC. P. You don't talk about this. You need to ask some other questions. Who want? I mean, the stunness would be in your eyes.

Like, are you kidding me? Like, it'd be unbelievable. So that's what I have to say, my, you know, I've been wanting to say this a while. Thanks for everything, Mike. Thanks, man. And look, we've said this many times. I've said on this show. Jet and I both said it on BTL.

No one who is taught, like, when we're talking about this, we are not asking. for Dana's head. We're not. We're not asking for him to be fired. We're not asking him to be removed from his position forever. We're not. None of us are asking for that.

Would we still feel a little icky if he keeps his job even after a suspension? Yeah, I think there's a part of us that would feel that way. But again, we're not asking for this man's career to end because of this. because even though he was, I thought he handled himself, I think he really feels bad about what happened.

I do. There was a lot I hated about that TMZ interview, but I think Dana handled himself great. And I'm not, again, I'm not saying he needs to go away. I'm not saying he needs to lose his job. Jed used the perfect word. Jed used the perfect word yesterday. We want to see some contrition.

we want to see some contrition. Endeavor comes out, I mean, this is it. Endeavor comes out and says, we are aware of the situation. And I understand it's a weird spot for Endeavor too, because not only do they own the UFC, they also represent Dana White as his agency. Like, they rep him.

So there's obviously a conflict there, 100%. But just show some contrition. An apology on TMZ in a, PR interview that was clearly set up by all parties, even though Dana handled himself very well, is not enough. It's just not enough. And I agree with like in principle with some of the comments. Like I don't agree with, oh, this isn't a crime. No, that's stupid. I do agree he should have to donate more than $150,000 to some sort of domestic violence charity. He should. He should. have to do a public service announcement. He should have to do counseling. And he should be suspended. He should be suspended.

He should be off TV. Effit Friday, off the table. If you don't know, now you know, off the table. Not forever, but for a little while. Show some contrition. Show you care. And again, here's my other question. This is another question that I've been thinking about.

and I'm just going to throw this out there. What if this was Sean Shelby caught on video? What if this is Mick Maynard caught on video? You think, you don't think they'd be fired? You don't think there would be repercussions? You don't think there'd be statements. You don't think Dana White would be doing interviews talking about Sean Shelby effing up? 100%.

The 100% this would be handled differently if this is not Dana. 100%. If this is Forrest Griffin, somebody reps the company, they're gone. Like, they're just gone. They're just gone. And again, let me just say this for the 5,000 time.

No one's asking for Dan and to lose his job. No one's asking for his head. We're asking for contrition. And we're asking the promotion and everybody else involved with the promotion to care. That's what we're asking. That's not a lot.

That's not a lot. If the Power Slap League went away, that'd be a nice step. I think that should be off the table altogether because that, I mean, that's just obvious. That's just obvious. That deal should be dead in the water. But no one's asking for Dana to be fired.

No one's asking for it. That's not what we're asking for. or asking for this other stuff. And that's not a lot to ask here. Give me that and I'll get off my proverbial high horse. But until that happens, until I see something, I ain't going to stop talking about it. I'll tell you that right now.

You can be sick of it all you want. You can not listen. You can not watch shows. But the fact that nothing's being done is way louder than any statement that could be made. This would not happen in any other sport. plain and simple. Let's go to AA.

Good, how are you? All right. I just want to say, right before I get to my question, I didn't really want to comment on it that much yesterday, but yeah, the silence is sort of bugging me as well. Sort of the lack of accountability from the USA as a company sort of annoying me. If the USC was an Australian-run company,

Dana, why would have been punished, already. He would have been punished already. He would have been punished like that if it was an Australian wrong company because when it comes to sports in Australia, that's just how things are here. If you screw up, it doesn't matter how high up you are, you get punished or you get, or your butt is kicked out immediately. My question is, what are your thoughts on Casey E. O'Neill's return because she's scheduled to come back at 286 against Jennifer Meyer. All right. Everyone, have a good day. You're awesome. And peace. It's a good matchup.

It's a really good matchup for her. And I'm very high. I'm super high on Casey O'Neill. I'm probably higher on Casey O'Neill than a lot of other people. And I've been higher on her for a while just from just a work rate, even before she got to the UFC. And I know a lot of people who are like, yeah, the Roxy fight was, wasn't the best performance in the world. And you could feel that way. I mean, I get it.

But you also have to understand that there's. more to fighting than just fighting, especially when you were in that spot. It's Roxy's retirement fight. All the questions that Casey O'Neill was getting was about Roxy and her retirement and all that, and those two have a relationship. They know each other. They've trained

together before. It was just kind of a tough spot for it. Roxy is a, it's hard to look really good against her. It just is. She's seen it all. There's nothing Casey O'Neill can bring to the table that Roxanne Montefari hadn't seen before. But now she has

She had the injury, the time off, and I think Jennifer Maya is a perfect opponent for her. Because I think Casey could just take her down and just keep taking her down over and over again. And I know Jennifer can be dangerous at times and she's not a bad fighter by any stretch of the imagination, but I just think Casey's work great,

the stylistic problems she could present for Jennifer Maya. I think it's just a really good. I think it's a really good stylistic matcher for her and she's going to get the pot from the London crowd and yeah, I think it's a good matchup. I think it's a really good matchup for her. We'll go to Viking MMA in a moment. So we'll go to Stephen, Mike, Four Corner Sports,

and then we'll get George in here as well. And we'll try to get to everybody today. Viking, hello. Hello, how are you, Mike? Good, how are you? Fine. Just want to talk about Dana White who always enjoy humans getting bad health

instead of see them healthy. That's why he's using his hand in power slap, who could be caused serious brain injuries and it should be dead in the water, you were right. About Z Mishu, that was the most honest and legit journalist Z Mishu ever on the BTL the other day. I want to become I want to become his dad fan

but that guy is biased and most of the time but still the way he presents facts about MMA is unfucking believable he's very

very very very very talented MMA journalist his knowledge is world class and he's a gem I think he's the top five I'm a major scientist and he's better than Helvani and Okamoto and what's the name of that gray guy, Luke Thomas. So that's that.

Thank you, Mike. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I love Jed's article. I loved what he had to say yesterday. I know Jed can rub people the wrong way but here's the thing and I knew this with Jed immediately the first time he was on BTL

I was like this guy needs to be on every time and this is before he got brought on full time with M.A fighting. I saw whatever I mean I saw what a lot of people are seeing now. Is he a little brash? Can he stand on a side a little bit with oomph? Sure. And not a lot of people like that

That's why I call him BTL's Woody Page. He ain't for everybody. But he tells like it is. He's honest. And he says what he feels. And not a lot of people can say that. And I love Jed. And I think he's perfect for BTL.

I think he's a perfect panelist. And he's the man. I have so much respect for that guy. I know he does rub people the wrong way. I've talked to people who work for certain promotions who have called me on the phone and told me that they're not a big fan of Jed's takes on their promotions. And it's more than one, I can assure you of that.

But he ain't going to stop. And I respect the hell out of it. Once the dude lands on a corner, he stays there. And good on him. And I agree with you. Power slash. be dead in the water. Stephen, hello. Good, how are you? Yeah, listen, I just, I wasn't going to hop on. I was listening. I'm here at work,

but I had to hop on because I'm on board with everything you're talking about. In regards to Dana in general, the biggest thing is the sincerity of his apology. I'm with it. I'm fine until he said that this is the first time it's ever happened. Clear as they, this definitely is not the first time it's ever happened. how he handled it it was fun the other thing that's actually

bothering me a little bit more than that is how and again this is just me on Twitter I'm only on Twitter

I see the feeds and everything Jamal Hill Jamal Hill is a guy that's about to fight for the title and he goes on

on a rant on Twitter saying about equality gender equality she's at the first he's all with it in support

I don't know he's being a yes man but it shows that he's possibly is it. I'm a little disgusted more with Jamal Hill and the fact that he's getting a title fight. You know, I was going for Glover

and I really wish Lower Beast this crap out of him come to 83 at this point. And there's no repercussions for Jamal Hill. There's no repercussions. This guy's going for a title fight and he's going on a brand thinking it's cute to be a yes man to the balls of Dana White.

It's a little frustrated to me. Now, in regards to Dana, I'm exactly on board with what you're saying. there should be a suspension. There should be something even as far as an investigation for prior incidents that have occurred. Because this is clearly not the first sign that's happened. And he should lay low. The slab league, yeah, they should cut out.

They should definitely cut it. But no, I'm not with him being fired or losing his, all of that stuff. No, but there should be a suspension. There should be more of something. And the silence on it is a little more frustrating as well. but that's for now that's just my my two cents I was excited to see some fights coming on

I don't want to see him right now in Hawaii as well like talking the media scrum at the moment because he's not going to address any of it he came out he said and that was it he should be a bigger man and be up front and start talking like you mentioned on the PSA

come out himself and deal with this he's clearly just did a media stunt with the apology that's it. Thanks for hopping in. I appreciate that. I mean, I'm not willing to

I mean, look, if you want to insinuate that maybe this has happened again, that's up to you. I'm not going to say that. That's not fair because we don't know. Like, we honestly don't know. So I'm not going to go there.

But like I've said, all we're looking for is contrition. That's it from everybody involved. Everybody involved. If Endeavor came out today and said, look, we're dumping the Power Slap League. I understand that this is very sensitive. We can't do this.

And if they said, Dana's going to be suspended for six months, he's going to be off television, off social media, you're not going to see him outside of doing charitable things for DV organizations. He's going to donate. He's going to be fined $500,000, which will all go to a DV charity. Like, that's contrition. That shows you care. and then we can at least attempt to move on.

But right now all we're getting is he didn't interview a TMZ refer to that. What? Like that's your company stance. We want to be bigger than the NFL. We want to be bigger than all the major sports. We're not having this conversation four days after a video is released in any other sport. We're not having this conversation four days later. if anybody else within the UFC

outside of Dana White or a big star, because I'm not going to I mean, look, the Greg Hardy situation, he shouldn't have been in the UFC in the first place. John Jones has been given passes. Other fighters have been given passes. Lower level fighters have not.

That's their example. Luis Pena, who is still to this day claiming his innocence, the court cases were thrown out in regards to it. He was just, I mean, he was released that day. When the arrest came out, he was released that day, and Dana talked about it at the contender series post-fight press conference.

He was gone. Again, we're not asking for his head. We're just asking for something. Show you care. Show that your company does not support this. Just show it. You could say it in meetings. You can have internal meetings at the UFC.

employees, that's cool, but that's not public. I think it's super fair to suggest that, these things. We're not saying he should have stepped down forever. People make mistakes, man, and you own up to them. And it's, you don't own up to them by going on TMZ and answering a bunch of softball questions. You have actions speak louder than words. you could say anything but it's your actions

that prove to people that you mean it and what killed me yesterday was that IG story of him gambling with one of the knelt boys and holding a big stack of cash with the smile on his face two days later

that's not showing anything with your actions that's just saying I did the interview of TMZ and I'm still living my life and still out in the public and I'm still doing what I always did I mean, I don't know what else to say.

Like, like Jedson said, this is not a controversial take. Like, none of this is controversial. This is, this is sports. This, like, he's a powerful guy. This guy is the most powerful man in the sports. He's the most powerful man in the sports. And right now he's getting a pass. It doesn't make any sense.

It doesn't make any sense. And I truly hope that not one slap from that stupid league is shown on television. I really hope TBS comes to their senses. It's the matcha or the three ensemble Cado Cephora of the FACCHE

that I've been to deniches that I'm energize all the same. The form of standard and mini-regrouped that's all over. And the embellage, too beau,

who is practically pre-to-don- and I know I'd like Summer Fridays and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. I'm just

the most ensemble the Cadeo of the Cidotorahs Summer Friday's Rare Beauty, Way, SIFORA collection, and other part of Vite. Procurre you see form of standard and mini, regrouped for a better quality price.

On link on Cifora.com or in magazine. Let's go to Four Corner Sports. Hello. Hello. I was watching first take yesterday. And I was waiting for somebody from ESPN to bring it up. And not that I'm surprised, but still heavily disappointed as for why, Stephen A. Smith and, you know, his host, the way that they ended up handling the whole,

you know, their dialogue as for Dana White, you know, slapping his wife, saying that, you know, we can't judge somebody on their worst moments and stuff like that. But the second that, you know, something happens, you know, when a woman gets, you know, hurt, you know, for example, the whole Greg Hardy situation or, I mean, I know Greg Hardy ended up, you know, beating that his ex-girlfriend, you know, badly, or if it's something, you know, a woman being, you know, harassed or something like that, that show goes all in and tries to, you know, sully the person's name

and in which they should. But because, you know, ESPN first take has a relationship with Dana White, it was just pillow hands just being thrown out saying that, you know, I had to tell Dana White, I was going to put it on my show. There was no way around it. But, you know, he is my friend.

And it's just like, what are you guys doing? Like, if that's going to be your approach, then why even bring it up? I mean, at that point, you're just putting out there nonsense. And you're just putting out a take out there just because you feel like you have to. And I feel like it was more disrespect to, like, women, you know, women of domestic violence and stuff like that. And then for the host, I think it was like Molly Karam, you know, her, you know, with her fake, her face sympathy and stuff like that when she goes all in

when it's something related towards women's rights and stuff like that and because she has a relationship with Dana White they're throwing pillow hands in and that just really threw me off and that really pissed me off right there and I'm very disappointed in Turner I think Turner should not be

airing anything whatsoever on this super power slap thing I think it's a huge slap in the face to women women's rights you know people that actually care about this stuff You know, not saying Dana White haters and stuff like that, because Dana White haters are going to always, you know, say something about it. But I think it was just a huge slap in the face. And then my second thing is going into 2023,

which division male or female is going to have the most traffic, like the most movement within rankings, you know, whether it's, you know, heavy weights to fly weights or whatever, you know. Same thing with females. That's a really interesting question. I think Bannamweight's going to have a lot of movements. Because I do think, again, Aljo versus Suhudo, not done yet. Who knows if that ends up being the fight.

But I'm going to, let's just play, let's just play this game. Let's play this game. This is the fight they're going to make. If Aljo beats Suhudo, there is a chance he just says, F it, I'm done at 135. I'm up to 145. Maybe he truly believes this is the biggest fight he can have. I wouldn't agree with that because if he beats the hoodo, you go and fight Sean O'Malley

and you get that bag and then you can beat feet up there. So it all just kind of depends. I think Aljo is like a very pivotal part of that division and there's a real world where by the end of it, he's not a ban of way anymore. Steps aside, lets his boy Marab fight for the title, which is why I said he should have fought Sean O'Malley to begin with. Just wait for Sean. Get the bag and then get out of there.

You beat O'Malley, then you can leave. You got your bag. Best stylistic matcha for you, more than likely. And then you can go to 145. I think featherweight's going to be interesting. It's tough to answer. Like we were talking about this on BTL yesterday.

You can make a case that every single champion on the UFC roster right now, you can make a case that they will not be champion at the end of the year. You can make a case. Now, Valencia Shepchenko might be the exception

to the rule, if you will. But we saw Tyler Santos give her a tough fight. How many more fights is Amanda Nunes, half left in her? And there's a lot of people you would favor to beat the current champions right now.

And even if Jamal Hill or Glover-Teshirea when the light heavyweight title, you'd pick a lot of the other fighters in those divisions to beat both of those guys. So it's going to be a real interesting year on that end. And I do want to address something that was said earlier that Tristan brought up.

Next Saturday, the UFC's back with fights. And it is our job to cover the fights. And it is our job to cover the fighters. This is why I'm in this game. It's for them. It's not for Dana. It's not for the UFC. It's for the fighters.

I'm not going to ignore the fact that they're fighting. We're going to cover the fights. We're going to cover Bellator fights. We can cover PFL fights. We're going to cover it the way we always do. But that doesn't mean we're going to stop talking about the Dana White situation. And let me just say this. I am so glad you brought the Stephen A. Smith thing because while this has been kind of a dark year,

it's been kind of an ironic year, at least from like December 31st on, because the first piece of irony that I talked about was the biggest downfall of the Bellator versus Rising card was the thing that Josh Thompson said needed to be done. The MMA media covered Bellator versus Rising too well. We covered it too well that it spoiled things from everybody else because it wasn't aired live in the United States. pretty rich irony there. I still get a little chuckle at that. I didn't really get a chuckle at this other piece of irony.

That Stephen A. Smith, of all people, actually said into a live microphone, and Molly, too, something to the effect of, we don't judge people by their worst moments. Are you kidding me? You made your entire career on that. You're telling me if Adam Silver was caught on video, getting into a skirmish with his wife

that led to him slapping her in the face, you wouldn't be talking about it. It's just not true. It's just not true. You're talking about Kyrie. You're talking about all the other big stars. This is anybody else. You'd be talking about it.

And you'd be burying them. And as disappointing as the responses were, the one thing that really stood out to me from that clip was there's always like the graphics in the lower thirds right and it was wasn't Dana white gets into dispute Dana White does this Dana White does that it was titled Dana White apologizes what is that Dana White apologized that's not that's not a headline what is he apologizing for it was awful it was just it was just awful. We don't judge people by their lowest moments.

Stephen A. Smith has been on first take. He's the highest paid employee at ESPN more than likely because he's made a career out of doing that. But not for his friend. It's crazy. I don't even know what order I'm in anymore, but I see five people wait and I'll get to all of you. Dante, hello. Hi, so I had two quick questions. It was just, what do you think is going to be next for Jorge Maslow? And what do you think is going to be next for Dustin Porre. Ooh, all right. Mazadol.

That's a really good question. I would say, I would say they'll probably look at the Gilbert Burns fight if he beats Neil Magny. If Camaro beats Leon, if they don't run it back again, they're going to get to Leon at some point. And it wouldn't shock me if,

even if Leon beats Usman, they don't go to that well at some point. I don't know. Masel is still a name and people still care about the guy. You can feel about his resume and things that he says how you want. I know a lot of the community has kind of turned on the man.

And to each his own, this is sports. You're sports fans and you could feel how you want to. So I don't know. I mean, there's a lot of fun fights. Like Connor, I think Connor is right there. I didn't hate the Chandler callout.

I honestly didn't. didn't hate that. Like, I, I think Burns is in play. I don't think he's going to fight, like, the Shafkat Rockmanovs of the world. But I would say Burns meets Bagney, that's probably what they're going to do, especially if they can turn Burns around quickly. Because I know Mazdaal wants to fight on that London card. We saw Ali Abdelaziz tweet out yesterday.

Stop with the rumors. Usman's going to fight. Leon, we're good. Don't worry about it. And that's kind of what we were hearing as well in the last. long run, but nobody really knows for sure, except for maybe like three people in the world. So, yeah, Mazel's got options. There are big fights on the table for him.

Not really sure what they're going to do, but if I had my guess, it'll probably be Burns if he beats Magny, and preferably if Burns doesn't take a lot of damage in that fight, and Burns does what Burns does and turns around quickly and wants to fight as often as possible. There you go. Porrier. Man, Tori is tough too because he's already said, he's not fighting until the summer.

He had to pull his daughter out of school to get ready for the Michael Chandler fight. He said it's not really fair to his daughter, so he's not planning on doing that again. So he was thinking like June or July, something to that effect. And it all kind of depends on who's available. I was kind of surprised by the Benile Dariush. just shrug off altogether. I mean, if it was up to me, that's the fight.

I would just do Darius versus Porey. But it also wouldn't stun me if Porre fought for the belt next. Or if he got the counterfeit. I don't know. It's tough, especially at 155, because we don't know what this division is going to look like. So those are two very good questions, but the Poree won more than the Mazadol one.

It's kind of, we're going to have to kind of wait and see what this division looks like in May or June and what's available for him. to come back for the summer and just kind of go from there. Both really good questions. Stephen, hello. Hello. I didn't realize I was on then.

Sorry, I'm from the UK. I'd just like to say a couple of things, really. One about Dana White and all this kind of thing. I want to put my point across on how I feel. I agree with Ariel what he said the other day about a man should never hit a woman in any circumstance. I agree if they hit you, blah, blah, blah, you shouldn't hit them back. I get it.

And I agree with that. However, I do feel the situation has been blown completely out of proportion. I really do. It's not, he didn't, I get it. I get it. And that is wrong, completely wrong. But he didn't punch her in the face. He didn't put her to sleep.

He didn't completely beat her up. And now, this is not an excuse. because there is no excuse. But has anybody said anything, is it okay for a woman to hit a man? Is that okay? That's okay then. I'm not saying that's an excuse.

I'm just saying that. And then on my other point is a prediction for 2023. I think that our adopted American fighter, the co-host of BYM, Anthony Smith, will become lightweight champion at some point in 2023. Interesting.

Interesting. I mean, I don't know. We'll see who he's going to end up fighting, but not really sure. I just don't agree with you on, I just don't agree that this day and things have been blown. It's not, this hasn't been blown out of proportion at all. It hasn't been blown out of anything.

This is, this is not a story in a lot of people's eyes. And it's, insane to me. It's just insane. Again, let me just put this out there. Most of us who have talked about this and will continue to talk about it are not asking for Dana's head. We're not. We're not asking for it. We're asking for caring in this situation. And going on TMZ with a PR-scheduled interview is not enough of an appellate. It's not enough. It's not enough. And I'm not saying it's okay for a woman to hit a man, but you have to go back and watch the video. Because this is not like a,

this is not the first thing that happened in the video was her slapping him. She was distressed. You could tell she was anxious. He grabbed her wrist. She was trying to get away. It appears. And she did a natural thing that most of us would do in that situation and through a strike. and he hit her back and he should have walked away. And it also leads to his other question. Guys, 52, 53 years old. What are you doing out at a nightclub, dude? Like, even for me, like, I'm not 40.

I'm going to be 40 in a month. I'll go and have a couple of beers with my buddies and sit at a table and just relax. I'm not going to nightclubs unless my wife is there and it's like a throwback night with a bunch of people my age. I mean, what are we doing? What are we doing? But again, any other sport, any other person,

I'm not talking about fighters because we've seen how the UFC handles these situations in fighters, especially ones that make the money. They don't care. They give them a slap on the wrist. They give them a pass. Lower level fighters, get the boot. they're used to be made an example of.

But I'm telling you right now, this is Sean Shelby or Mick Maynard. We're having a whole different conversation right now. We're talking about how the UFC has reacted, how they fired Sean Shelby. He's no longer the matchmaker. That's what we're talking about here. And it's not just this whole situation.

It's the precedent that it sets for the future, not just for the UFC, but for the sport. By not punishing Dana in any way, you are basically saying that it is okay. And this is a different story. Like, if this was this, if this TMZ story was Dana arrested for allegedly slapping his wife, we're going to have similar reactions, but if you want to defend innocent until proven guilty, that's fine. But there's video of it. And by the way, I brought this point up as well, there's got to be more angles to this.

There's got to be more angles to this video. It's 2022. At the time, it's 2022. Everybody has their phones out. Like, everybody. And we got like a weird, wacky angle of it. And I'm not saying that anything worse happened. I have no idea.

But I just find it hard to believe that in a whole VIP section full of people that no one else film this. It's just I don't know. I'm not going to bring up any conspiracies or anything, but this is just wrong, man. Like, again, I, the way Dan has handled it, the interview, he did a great job.

TMZ did a horrendous job. He did a good job. But just show me more. That's just not enough for me. That's just not enough. You've got to set an example for the rest of your company. And if you really want to be treated, and spoken about in the same sentence with all these other major sports, the other major sports would have had a different reaction to this.

That's it. This is a, this is a problem. It's a problem that nothing's being done. And again, short suspension, fine, that goes to a DV charity, do a public service announcement, little community service for DV charities. That's not asking a lot here. it's not asking a lot.

Does it go away forever? No, because this is going to be attached to him for the rest of his life. Anytime you talk about Dana, this is going to be a part of it. Much like the success of the UFC. Dana White's going to be a part of that story too. But at least when we talk about this, we could say, at least the UFC and Dana came together and they showed contrition. It won't go away entirely, but I think we'll all feel better about it.

And we're not asking a lot here. We're not asking a lot here. I mean, this is not controversial. Again, and I brought this up earlier, if this is me, if this is a video of me, I don't think you would have the same reaction. And something tells me Dana would have a different reaction to. He'd be dumping all over me because I'm a pussy, member of the MMA media.

And that's why. There's another example of the idiots that cover the sport. 100% that's what he would have done. But, and I think the reaction it would just be much different. So, I don't agree with you. I appreciate you speaking, but I don't agree with you.

Clear's values, hello. Hey, so that last caller was like crazy wrong, but whatever, such his life. I just was on a completely different note, I just was curious. So the UFC just publicly posted about the Roman deletes,

and Martin Vittori fight, do you think that there's a chance that, you know, they're going to have a backup to Leon versus Uzman? I know, you know, obviously Deleice and Vittori are both middle weights, but do you see a welterweight

fight on that card that they're going to put there as a backup just in case Usman or Leon can't show up? Maybe? I mean, I would assume so. But, I mean, like I said, if Gilbert Burns goes out there and just beats Neil Magny

and doesn't take a lot of damage, knowing Gilbert and how active he likes to be, if he gets a chance to fight Mazadol, I'm sure he would take that in a heartbeat, and Mazdaal wants to fight on that card too. So I think they'll lose something. I mean, there's not a ton of options. Maybe you put Hamzaat on that card

against who I don't know. I don't know. But, I mean, if Ushman signs a contract and he's ready to go, I feel pretty confident that he's going to fight. But I would assume they would have some sort of plan in place just in case. Maybe they'll have a second title fight, I don't know. But they'll probably have something in place just in case. George, hello.

Hey, Mike. Yeah. Mike, I hate to break it to you, but it's pretty obvious. that nothing is going to happen to Dana. This is still America, where we have two criminal justice systems, one for the rich and powerful, and one for the rest of us.

And Mike, you keep saying, oh, Dana's handled himself so well, he was sincere with his apology. Well, would it surprise you to find out that, would it surprise you to find out that Dana behind the scenes has been calling in favors, has been lobbying to the people at Endeavor at EFC, I'm sorry, UFC, ESPN, TBS, et cetera.

Hey, don't do anything. I'll take care of it. This will all blow over. I did the apology thing with TMZ. Don't worry. As soon as the fights come back, everyone will forget about this. So we only see what Dana has done publicly, and Dana is a master at either.

bullying the media or manipulating the media. So his TMZ interview thing where he says, well, yeah, there was alcohol, but no excuses. Yeah, the alcohol, but no excuses. No, to me, no excuses means you don't present anything remotely sounding or resembling like an excuse. I think the only way anything really happens to Dana is if another video of another incident or another slap comes out,

which, I mean, that's all speculation. Let's see if that happens. but it doesn't look to me like anything's going to happen to Dana. So I think a weekend Dana is the best weekend hope for in terms of justice and the court of public opinion. And I just want to say I was hoping, I was hoping that one of the silver linings of this incident was going to be like the full cancellation of the slap league

because I give Dana a lot of credit, not for this, of course, but I give Dana a lot of credit. Dana and his team, they've had a lot of great ideas. the UFCPI, the Contender Series, the Road to UFC Tournament, Fight Island, the expansion idea for Mexico, for the UTIPI in Shanghai, Africa. But this slapling, I do not understand what Dana and the people around him seeing this. This is a terrible idea. It is, I mean, it is so mind-boggling just how,

terrible a look this is. You're trying to be, you're trying to get on the same level of like the other pro sports in America. And you're introducing a slap league, which I was, and I mean, when I heard that it was off the schedule, they've canceled. They're good. Something good will come of this. Oh, they've only moved it back one week, which just shows you the power that Dana has. You've said it several times. He is the most powerful man in the sport. And when you say, oh, the UFC issued a non-statement or did not release a statement of any time. Dana-Way is practically the UFC. Nothing happens at that company without his say-so.

So, hey, Dana, should we comment on your situation? And Dana said, no, I'll handle it. I'll take care of it. So I think we just have to, I mean, a weekend, Dana, a humble Dana is the best we can hope for in terms of a, in terms of punishment in the court of, a public opinion. So Mike, great shows.

I really like these live spaces. You give the fans, the listeners an opportunity to vent to get things off their chest. Oh, and before I go, whatever happened to Isma, to Isma Gulov, that retirement came out of nowhere.

Any, have we gotten any confirmation as to like the cause, the reason? Not really. All I know is that it surprised people on the scene as much as to surprise everybody else. That's really it. And again, look no further.

Just go to Dana White's Twitter page right now because I cannot believe, I cannot believe that we have an F at Friday. It's there. It's right there. No contrition. None. Just act as if nothing happened. So stupid

All right Fourth of State Pose us out Because I gotta get out of here Are you there All right You are not Okay

We're done Thank you very much I appreciate it Hopefully when we're back on Tuesday We have some brighter things to talk about This has been a rough start To 2023

In the world of MMA and I don't know, man. I don't know. I'll close to this. Not everyone's going to agree what I had to say. I don't care. I don't think I'm asking a lot. Nothing.

Honestly, I don't think I'm asking a lot at all. I just don't. But it looks like the trend and everybody's opinion on Tuesday when we had a bat lead off with this story is coming to fruition. nothing's going to happen. The UFC endeavor, everyone's hoping that this just gets swept under the rug. And like I said, this is our responsibility to make sure that it doesn't. And I'm not going to stop talking about it.

That's it. So we're done. Have a great rest of your Friday. Have a great weekend. last weekend without the UFC for quite some time. They are back next Saturday with Nassadini Imovaugh versus Calvin Gasselam fight night at the UFC apex. And we'll see how the promotion for that card is. We'll see if we'll just see what this next couple of weeks are going to look like.

But stay positive, fight the good fight, and enjoy the rest of your weekend. Have a heck of a morning, everybody.