MMA Fighting - HOAM | UFC 276 Fight Week Kickoff, What's Next For Shavkat Rakhmonov?

Episode Date: June 28, 2022

Shavkat Rakhmonov made an emphatic statement this past Saturday at UFC Vegas 57 when he submitted Neil Magny in the co-main event. How high up the divisional ladder should the UFC push him? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck checks in from the airport as he prepares to head to Las Vegas for International Fight Week to react to Rakhmonov's incredible performance and what direction he may go for his next fight. In addition, listener questions include where Mateusz Gamrot and Arman Tsarukyan head from their tremendous main event this past Saturday, the scoring of that lightweight bout, if the UFC will do an immediate rematch if Max Holloway picks up a dominant finish of Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 276, Sean Strickland vs. Alex Pereira 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

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Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca. Black Friday. Ikea. Bring home to life. It's Tuesday, June 28th, 2022. It is indeed a heck of a morning live on the MMA fighting Twitter space. and shortly thereafter, you could hear the program on the MMA Fighting Podcasting Network. I am Mike Heck.

Hope you're all having a wonderful start to the week. And if you're an MMA fan, how could you not be? It is officially international fight week. It is officially UFC 276 fight week. And I am excited at some point today I will end up in Las Vegas to cover this event for, as Jed Michoud likes to say, MAPFiting.com, the greatest website. in the world. It'll be myself and Mr. Jose Young's, and we're going to be getting after this thing, and we'll go here for about 30 to 40 minutes, take as many questions as I can after my little

opening rant. It's been quite the week so far. We could talk this past Saturdays card. We could talk Matush Gamroft's a big win over Armand Sarukion. We could, of course, but as all the traveling and stuff goes and what this week's going to be like, I will do my best to fill you in on what's going on. So technically, my flight was supposed to leave at 7.05 a.m. this morning, and I was going to do this show from Atlanta around 9 a.m. Eastern. Find out around 2 o'clock yesterday that the flight got delayed two and a half hours.

And then my connecting flight from Atlanta to Las Vegas, which is going to have me landing around new local time. I basically had 15 minutes to get off the plane and I would have to do a full-on sprint. I basically would have to, by the time the plane landed, I would have probably five minutes to get to the gate. Absolutely impossible, not going to happen. So I got pushed back.

I'll be in Atlanta for a little while longer and then I have to fly to the site of UFC 278, Salt Lake City, Utah. I'll be there for a couple of hours and then eventually around three, 55 Vegas time, I will end up in Las Vegas, and this crazy fight week will begin. So today, it'll just be kind of a chill day once I get there. Jose's going to pick me up at the airport.

We'll hang out, kind of game plan. Tomorrow is the media day. We'll obviously have all the tastemakers from the event. I'll probably do a couple of interviews outside of Media Day as well. Thursday is the press conference for UFC 276. also the Hall of Fame, where Habib Naramaga Madoff, Daniel Kormier, will be inducted, will be enshrined, if you will. Cubs Swanson versus Dooh Choi, their incredible fight will be enshrined as well.

And then Giga Chikaze will get the four Scriffit Awards, so we'll have some interviews from the red carpet. And then Friday is where things get real crazy because Jose and I, we're going to be basically in two different places for almost two full days, because. Friday, there is the Fan Expo, which is UFCX, and I will be there pretty much the whole day. There's going to be a Radio Row set up a la the Super Bowl, and I'm going to have my spot, and I'm going to be doing interviews all day long, up until probably the ceremonial way-ins. I don't even know if I'll be there for that, but I definitely won't be at the morning weigh-ins.

I might be chiming in from Radio Row. so we'll have the So we'll have Radio Row There's like 30 fighters probably And some more stuff that I've already set up And then Saturday, same thing. Media Row. Radio Row, 9 to 5, local time. More interviews.

Including, by the way, for those who are longtime listeners of this program, there is one name on Saturday's lists the day of the fight that I am very excited about. And that man's name is Henry Sehudo. So there will likely be a sit down with me and Henry Sehudo on Saturday.

So stay tuned for that on the M.A. Fighting YouTube channel, of course, the fights on Saturday. And then my flight home is until like midnight, Sunday night. So Jose and I are going to try to go to the fight past invitational grappling events as well. Jorge Mazadol will be there. Your eye Faber will be there. James Krause, Joe Selecki, just name a few. So all right, let's get after this thing.

Let's take your calls. And we're going to go until probably around 840 Eastern. We'll start with the Melio and then we'll get Miami Mike in here and then we'll go to Tristan. Amelia, what's up, buddy? Oh, hi, Mike. What's up? Heck of a morning to you. Happy to hear your voice once again.

I appreciate for everything you do, you know, for the best website in the history of mankind. M.M.A.Funditon.com. Go check it out, baby. My man. What's going on? Yeah, so I got two questions. the first one being I was just listening to a snippet of the MMA hour

I think it was from yesterday Ariel interviewing Max Holloway and they were talking a little bit about the possibility or rather Ariel was asking Max about is a UFC event in Hawaii happening like do you think it's it's gonna happen

within your when you're still active Would you be down to do that? And I don't know. I felt like Max gave sort of like, well, if it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it is what it is. Classic Max response there. But I don't know.

I guess I just wanted to ask you what, why hasn't the UFC done an event in Hawaii? Like, what is it? Why is it so complicated, apparently, to get a venue there, to organize. Why have they done it so far? I mean, they already had BJ Penn, arguably one of the greatest lightways, you know, of all time. And they didn't do it before. And now that they have Max, who's by far like an even bigger star than BJ was, why haven't they done it? Especially when he was champion.

I don't get it. And second of all, since we're in the – since you're at the airport, I wanted to ask you, what has been your worst and your best and slash or best experience flying or being at airports. That's it. All the best. Enjoy the week.

And I will talk to you soon. Have a heck of a morning. My man, Emilio. So to answer your second question, I haven't really had a lot. There's one after my senior year of high school, was myself and about 10 of my buddies. We went

to a trip, we took a, like, a senior trip, if you will, to NASA, Bahamas, stayed at the Atlantis and had a tremendous time. But it got to the point where we're basically ready to be all done with the trip. We're ready to go home. We were there. We spent a lot of money. We partook in a lot of consumption of alcoholic beverages since it was legal there, and we were just wiped out.

So we were ready to come home. and we had a layover at Charlotte, North Carolina, getting ready to come back to Boston, which is where I was living at the time. And they shut down basically every flight on the East Coast for like two days. So we were stuck in Charlotte for two days with none of us having any money at all.

It was just brutal. We spent a lot of time sleeping at the airport. After the second day, they eventually put us up at a hotel. But, I mean, hotels fine. Thank you for the free hotel. but we still had like no food. It was just, it was just brutal. We were just a bunch of idiot 18-year-olds at the time.

And then as far as the UFC Hawaii goes, I have no idea. I assume it's a main. I know it is more difficult to hold events in Hawaii because there's extra taxes and things like that. And Bellator is probably, people would be like, well, Belator did it? Well, Belator did it because the UFC didn't do it.

Like if the UFC had already done an event in Hawaii, I don't know if they would have gone to Hawaii. To be honest with you. Maybe they would have snuck in. there, but like, it's literally just such a weird spot for Bellator. Belator is basically San Jose, Uncassville, Connecticut. Maybe they go to Thackerville. But for the most part, like, those are the three landing spots.

Hawaii was just a, hey, if the UFC can't do it, we'll do it. And I think that's what happened. And the UFC is just like, we're not going to, we're not going to bend over backwards to go anywhere. We're just not going to do it. So they don't need to. They have their own venue. They can host every event to the end of time at the UFC Apex and be just fine. So maybe it'll happen.

I wouldn't be stunned if five years from now, we're still having the same conversation. Let's go to Miami, Mike. What's up, buddy? Heck of a morning, Mike. Heck of a morning. Indeed. How are you? I can't, I don't know what's more exciting now.

The pay-per-view this weekend. or your interview with Henry Sohudo, bro. I cannot wait for that. Dude, one question for you this morning. I saw the interview with Danny Sabatello on Ariel Hawani yesterday. Dude, that kid's hilarious. I will say his fighting style is boring as shit, but he is funny on the mic, and I'm in it for it.

I actually want to know what your prediction is for his next coming fight against Stats. Do you think he's actually going to do what he's been doing to everybody all these fights? Or do you think he's actually going to meet some adversity? Because it's, you know, from his mouth, I mean, I get it that he's trying to do it from a promotional aspect. But, dude, he even says Al Jermaine Sterling sucks. Like, that's pretty funny. So, I mean, obviously he thinks he's king of the world, but I'd like to think, you know, more realistically and actually rank him and put him somewhere. So what's your take on that?

Thanks, Mike. I'm very high in Danny Sabatelo. I had been for a long time before Ariel came back, but I was hosting what the heck. I had Danny Sabatolo on before his Bellator debut. I wanted to have him on because I knew. he would deliver like that. And he was delivering interviews like that. Even when I was interviewing when he was the Titan FC champion before he's on the

contender series. Like he's always been like that. Now he's got the glasses of the platinum blonde hair. That's a little bit different. But the attitude, the one-liners, the quickness, the wits, always been there. The trash talk always been there. So when he says, I've been like that my whole life, he has been like that his whole life. And I picked, before I even knew how the brackets were going to line out,

when I find out Sabatello was going to have an opportunity to be in the tournament, I picked him to win the whole thing. Now, I feel like his toughest matchup, I feel like the toughest matchup he's going to have is this Rafion Stats fight. And the build to this fight will be tremendous. And I honestly, if there's an MVP for Bellator so far in 2022, it's Danny Sabatelo. Because think of it like outside of maybe the final.

of the Featherway Grand Prix with McKee and Pitbull. Can you think of just a randomly, just a random Bellator fight that is going to draw, like just has so much immediate interest right out of the gate? I can't. I can't. The face off between those two guys, like the build to this is going to be fantastic.

It's going to be amazing. And my original plan was I was going to get Sabatelo and Rafihan Stotz on BTL together because I thought Rafián Stats, it's so good on the desk. And I know Sabatelo is a student of the game as well, and he understands what's happening. He watches everything. So I thought that would have been really cool,

but Ariel called dibs on that. So I guess they're going to have a face-to-face on the MMA hour. I think Sabatel is a real good chance. Now, this is such an easy thing to say, but if Raphaon Stotz can not get taken down, he's got a chance. And his Stats is slick on the ground. He's a good wrestler in his own right.

But if Sabatelah gets him down, it's going to be tough for Stots to get up, at least and continue to get up. So I think it's a 50-50 fight, honestly. I don't know what the betting odds are going to be. I would say Stats will be a decent-sized favorite, but if there's dog money to be played, if we're looking at Sabatel like a plus 180 or something like that, I think there's a lot of value there.

And the boring style is effective. And he's been like that the whole time, where if you don't like it, get up. if you don't like me on top of somebody while they're on their back, stand up. Get off. Get up. Get back to your feet. And if you can't do it, then you just got to deal with it.

And I love, he's always had the same take too. Like if you watch a football game and the Patriots are beating a team 57 and nothing, it's a boring game. Domination is boring. So he's playing it off well, taking the booze in stride. And I love the Stats fight. And Stats is tremendous on Friday. I thought on the desk.

He just was a great extra layer. He actually made Josh Thompson better, in my opinion. You know how I feel about good old Josh on the microphone, but Josh was actually much more entertaining, much more easy to listen to. He's telling jokes. You can tell he wasn't just spitting things out, like a lot of scripted stuff.

He was a little bit looser there. I think they should put thoughts on the broadcast a little bit more for being honest. Welcome aboard Air Canada. Rocky's Vacation, here we come. Whoa, is this economy? Free beer, wine, and snacks. Sweet. Fast free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservations before we land.

And with live TV, I'm not missing the game. It's kind of like I'm already on vacation. Nice. Air Canada. Nice travels. Wi-Fi available to AeroPen members on equipped flights sponsored by Bell. Conditions apply. See Air Canada.com.

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Precision crafted to navigate every corner of my mouth. All for just $18. Okay, okay. Try the season's hottest flavors from the PC Holiday Insiders Report. Please feast responsibly. Tristan, you're up. Hey, Mike, how's everything? Heck of a morning to you.

Thank you, sir. Today is Shopcott Day. It's Shopcott Day. It was just, oh my gosh, it was. I was nervous to the fight watching it. That's all I was trying to hold back. I'm like, let me temper my expectations. And I'm like, we don't know.

Maybe, you know, that's a tough fight to fight against Neo Magny. Neo Magna is a G. I give him all the credit in the world. He took the loss in stride. Big him up to take the fight. to step up and do that. And then Shavka just went in there, made it look easy,

was concerned with the leg locks, but he was able to overcome it, and then just finish him. You know, and the thing about Rachmanev, man, is just, and he said it at the post-fight, he's like,

there was no need for me to rush. You know, what I'm going to do is I'm going to wait for you to make a mistake, and then once I see the opportunity and once I see the opening, then that's when I'm going to take that opportunity and try to finish you.

And he actually went did. I just, you know, Rachmano, he's my favorite fighter. I just, I really love him. I think he could do some things. Still going to, you know, temper my expectation. I'd rather, I'd rather want to see him fight. I think I want to see him fight Michelle as Pihara, because I think that fight is appropriate for him right now because he did call him out after the Carlson Harrison fight, and he was like, wanted to prove that I could shut that style down. So I'll be comfortable with that or Wonderboy. I don't I don't want him to fight Neil Mac. I don't want him fight Sean Brady.

That's another, like, nervous fight right there because Brady's legit and strong. So, I mean, listen, you know, I'm telling Rockmano, let's, you know, step by step, let's build. Let's just build one by one, and then over a couple of years, two years or so, then we'll fight for the title. But if I'm Rahmanov, give me either Wonderboy.

I know Wonderboy is up, but, you know, I'm comfortable with that fight or Michelle Pereira. So those are the two guys I'm looking at if I'm Rockmano. So I'm just so happy, you know, keep this train rolling and see what happens down the road. As far as Masu Gamrod and Armand Surukin, Mike, I'm sorry.

I had the Surukin winning that fight. I know it was a close fight, but I just feel that with Gamrot, he did take Sur Rukin, but Zerukin was able to get up. Most of those takedowns, I just felt like

that Surukin did more. He caught him with that spinning back fist, which was amazing. I just think he did more. I believe on the site, Surukian had said that he watched a fight over, and he said, I won that fight. I won that fight, but again,

he's not going to cry over spilled milk. on to the next one. Now, I said on Otno, I wrote in, like, I think Surukin should fight. I know it's a tough fight. I think he should fight Guram. And I feel Guam and Isma Gulov,

I feel like they're ranked already in my mind. Like, even though they're not ranked officially, I feel those two are like ranked guys already. When you see those two fight, you're like, and you never seen them fight before. You're like, oh, no, those guys are ranked. But, you know, come to fight out there and not. So I think, I think, I think,

I think Surukian should fight Guram. Because if he fights Gouram and beats him, man, he's getting, then he's going to get the top guys again because Gammar already lost the Gron. So, you know, just your thoughts on that. I, you know, and then I think, I think Garmoran should fight out Isma Gullov, to be honest with you. Man, that's the fight to me.

That's a tough fight, but it's a exciting skill for skill and see what happens from there. So your thoughts on that. Mike, have a heck of a morning as well. And have a safe trip to Vegas, you know, rooting for you. Can't wait to listen to the interviews and be psyched up for this card, the pay-view card coming up. So thanks, Mike. Thanks, buddy.

The Shafcott performance was incredible. Just ran over Neil Magny. I thought it would be a first round submission. He just decided to torture Mr. Magny for a little bit longer. And Shafcott is the truth. I think we just need to see it. Neil Magny is the test. Nobody does that to Neil Magny.

Nobody. You might get him out of there, like, kind of quick. Like Lorenz Lark had ran them. over. He's had some loss like that, but no one's just smushed him like that and just made them look like a child in a way. It's just unbelievable stuff. My pick,

if you miss on to the next one, was, and I'm looking into the future here, because I don't think Leon Edwards is going to beat Kamar Usman on August 20th. So, what I think's going to happen is Usman beats Edwards and they're going to do Shafkod versus Edwards. That's the fight I think they're going to put together.

It's the one that really makes the most sense because Brady doesn't make a whole lot of sense. There's, I mean, I can see it, but I don't want to see those guys fight right now. I hate the Wonderboy idea. I hate the Mazadol idea. Maybe Pajara, but I'd rather see, of course, I'd rather see Wonderboy fight Paheda or Wonderboy fight Kevin Holland. But if they did Pahatta, Shafcott, sure, why not?

But I just feel like that win is just, it's so big and so impressive. and it's going to age so, so well. I also scored the fight for Surukian. You know what's funny with this whole thing? Because I was high on, Surukian happened for a long time, and I've had him, like, highly touted, and I think he's the best prospect in the sport,

25 or younger. People are, like, apologizing to me because he lost the fight. I don't care that he lost the fight from a personal level. I actually thought he won the fight. I thought he, watching it live, I thought he won 4946.

I actually scored the first four rounds for him, and I thought he lost the fifth perhaps. It was a close fight, and I predicted Zurukei would win a 49-46, but it would be the kind of fight where he wins each round by like just a couple of inches. And people were kind of giving me crap about the scorecard. So, you know, when people give me crap about the scorecard,

I put two things into my mind. One probably bet on the other guy. You probably did. You're just a negative Nancy and you're not looking into it a little bit more. And then the other thing is, if there's something like that, I have to go back and watch it again. I have to go back and rewatch it and try to get a different view on it. So that's what it did. Sunday morning, a few hours sleep, woke up, put the fight on, put it on mute, took commentary out of it, watch it again.

Still scored it for Cherukion. I thought he clearly won the first three rounds. I don't think there's any debate about that. Like, I thought he won the first three rounds. I had a 3027 watching a live, still had a 3027 watching, watching it with no commentary, no nothing. You cannot, especially this new criteria, you cannot reward a guy for getting one takedown and having control against the cage when you were getting kicked to the body

as many times as Gamera was getting kicked to the body. I'm sorry. I'm just not going to give you the round. because you got a couple of takedowns. You took his back and held him against the fence a little bit. Not saying that Gamrod, what Gamrod taking him down at all was super impressive to me. And getting the control he had on a guy like Sirukion was super impressive.

But if we're talking, like if this is a street fight, like if this is outset, like if this is back of the oak trees at your school yard and those two fought and Gamrod just took him down and held him against a tree or Sirukion kicked him in the body and punched him in the face a few times, who do you think won the round? Or who do you think wins the fight? It's probably Sarukyon.

If you put that video on YouTube, it'd say Armand beats up Matush Gamrod. So, but it was a tremendous fight. I mean, this is as high level as MMA gets. It was a fantastic mate event. I would watch these guys fight every weekend if I could. And I will say this, on the rewatch, and this might be a hot take,

but I'm sticking by it, and you can rip me if you want. Watching the rewatch, you can make a more compelling case in my eyes that Sirukian won all. five of those rounds, then you can that Matush Gamron won three of those rounds. Hot take alert, there it is. And I ain't lying. I rewatch it. I've done the work. I've actually watched it a third time and I still feel the same way. The second rewatch has scored at 48, 47,

Sarukian, but you can make a strong Casey one, four, and five. And then watching it again yesterday, I scored the first four rounds for Sarukion again, fifth round for Gamrod. But again, you could make a case that Serukia won the fifth round too. And the fourth round is the contentious one because there was a knockdown, or at least it was scored a knockdown. It wasn't knockdowns are some people when they see knockdowns, it's like, oh my God, the guy has to be dead. Otherwise it's not a knockdown.

It's a trip or a slip. This is a knockdown. He got cracked. It was perfectly times. The dude got hit and he fell down. He didn't slip. He didn't trip. He got knocked to the mat due to a punch.

and how about this? My flight got delayed again. Isn't this the best, friends? I love traveling. Traveling is the best. We just got pushed back another half hour, ladies and gentlemen. But we still have to stop the show. But that's good for you guys.

You guys get an extra few minutes. So, yeah, I'd love to see those two guys fight again. As far as next matchups go, Gamrot, it's got to be Greg Gillespie. That's the fight. Gamrock Greg Gillespie rules. I want to see that one. Glesby has to fight somebody. It's got to be Gamrod.

I don't think Gamrod's going to get Justin Gaichi. If he did, I'd watch the hell out of it. I don't think he's getting Michael Chandler. If he did, I'd watch the hell out of it. And then Sarukian, yeah, we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. But super pumped up for both of those guys. I'm not, Gamrod is going to fight for the title for sure.

I still believe Surukian's going to fight for the title. And I think I still feel like he'll be the champion. It hasn't changed anything for me. This loss changes nothing. He's only 25 years old. This kid is not even close to being as good as he's going to be. Let's go with Kfei 47. What's up, Kay Faye.

Goods up, Kay Faye. I'm coming in with a Jedmishu-level hot take. When Max Holloway inevitably coals Alexander Volcanospi this weekend, are they going to immediately run it back? I'm going to go ahead and hang up and listen. Happy birthday, okay? I mean, that is, I mean, that is a hot take. I'll tell you what, there will be few people more,

there'll be few people that will be more stunned than I, if that is what happens. I mean, I will be flabbergasted if he colds, Max Holloway, Colts Volcanovsky, wow, that would be, I'll add another take to that. Max Holloway, Colts Volcanowski, the knockout of the year discussion is over. Like, I understand there's been some crazy, like, insane knockouts.

We saw Michael Chandler, Tony Ferguson. But if Max Holloway holds Volcanovsky, I mean, good God. That'd be nuts. But the answer to your question is, yes, they will immediately rematch because you have to. Just Volcanovsky's up to O. It's up to it. Now if Holloway goes up, the only way, the only way maybe they don't go into an immediate rematch is if Max Holloway just, beats the breaks off of Volcanovsky for 25 minutes.

And what I mean by that is multiple knockdowns. Like we're seeing Usman Woodley levels of dominance, but maybe a step further. Like let's just say sort of the performance he had against Calvin Cater, but worse. Like a 50-43 type of drubbing like we saw against like Holloway Cater, something to that effect. If he goes out there, does that? maybe it won't be an immediate rematch. One, because Volkovsky has to take some time, and two, maybe you go back and let him get a win.

But to me, and on the flip side of Volk, I've already said this before, Volcanovsky goes out there at Beats Holloway, and it's clear, it's not controversial. Then in my rankings, Volkanowski becomes the number one guy pound for pound. Over Usman. Now, Usman can take that back, August 20th,

with a win, but Volkanovsky is just, Wokinovci is making moves he's making moves he's active and this is what he wanted and he's inching closer and closer to that number one spot and if he goes out there and beats Holloway again I mean it's hard to argue

CRJ how are you my man oh my god Mike I've been better I don't want why why so you know I this weekend was pride right

and I fell and I split my elbow open. Split your elbow? Yeah, I have a bloody elbow, so to speak. Okay. Yes, that was a bummer. There's a video of it I just posted it, but... Sorry, man. Anyway, no, that's all right.

Oh, really? Sorry to hear that, man. So if anyone, you know, in the spaces, you can go to my page. I caught an elf, but, you know, that's all right. You know, I felt like I was in my own MMA fight, me versus the ground. and they put me out in, you know, less than 20, but that's all right. That's all right. I'm back.

I'm better than ever. And I wanted to ask, you know, with the Sean Strickland fight coming up, how tough would it be for the UFC if he became champion just from a marketing perspective? Do you think there's an actual problem there? Or, you know, he's a really, like, author. rails with some of the stuff he says like do you think they'd be able to keep him in line or would that be a PR disaster waiting to happen thanks buddy yeah I mean I don't know like he has said lots of things that deserved at least some sort of press release and like some sort of response from the UFC but we haven't heard that yet so I'm gonna say they're not I'm sure

they're gonna try to tame him a little bit like they're not going to put him on an ABC card anytime soon, I don't think. But they'll put him on pay-per-view, put him on ESPN Plus, all that stuff. So I don't think much will change. I don't think they're going to be able to verbally handcuff him at all. But I think they'll try to talk to him. I think maybe they'll go through maybe Eric Nixick to help ease that a little bit. But I doubt it.

I doubt much changes on that. He's going to be at the media day tomorrow. curious to see how he is. It's a crazy fight with Alex Paheda. It's a big stakes fight. This is a lot on the line here. This is a legit title eliminator.

This is a legit number one contender fight. And this is brilliant matchmaking. It seemed weird at first. When you saw it, you were like, what? Hedda, third UFC fight. He's fighting Sean Strickland. This is crazy. But then you really look at it

what the UFC's trying to do, what they've been doing from the beginning. This is brilliant. match record. Either way, you either get the storyline of Adasania and Pajada, the kickboxing matches, Pahada being 2-0 against

Adesania, the knockout in the second fight, or you get Sean Strickland who Adizania is probably going to talk a lot of trash against, and vice versa, and they don't really like each other. They have not had nice things really to say about one another, so

you're going to get something interesting that they can sell either. Either way. But yeah, I understand the question, though. That's for sure. All right, we'll go to Taylor. Then we'll go to Don, and then we're probably going to have to get out of here. Taylor, how are you?

Mike, I'm good. How are you? Good. I want to ask you a question. With the success that Chris Curtis and both Jared Kahnner have had, changing weight classes, are there any other fighters active on the roster at the minute that you think are competing at the wrong weight cloths? Hmm.

That's a good question. That is a good question. Hmm. Maybe Dustin at this point, and I know people close to him have said they'd like to see him fight at 170. Mike Brown has talked about it. I don't know how he's fair. I don't know. I don't know.

But the answer to that's probably most people are not competing at the right weight class. But just because of all the weight cuts and things like that. But yeah. if you're like if you're not on a big title run or like at least trying to make your way to the title i don't understand wanting to cut 15 extra pounds like i think pori's doing her way it's not on a title run right now it's not fighting for the belt anytime soon i think he knows that he's aware of that so let's just get some fun fights at's at 70 now i do believe that a max holloway loses to bolkinowski i'd like to see max holloway go to 155 you can make a a pretty strong case that holloway's fighting at the wrong weight class But he's looked pretty damn good in his last two fights. But if he doesn't be Volcanowski, I think we got to go. I think he's just going to want the most exciting fun fights he can get that are challenging. Because that man doesn't need the title.

He doesn't need the title. He's a star, not just in the UFC, but outside of it. Max is a very likable guy, family man. I think most people can find some way to relate to Max Holly. He plays video games all the time. I mean, this guy, this guy's just killing it. All right, Don, what you got? Hey, what's up, Mike?

How you doing, man? I was doing good, man. Man, I just made it. I was, like, oh, man, it's like a morning going on, no, man. But, hey, man, I had, you probably already talked about this earlier, too, because I'm, like, hell of late. But I wanted to get your thoughts on Gina Corano versus Ronald Rousie. I heard, what's your appeal level on that? Do you, how are you, are you excited about it?

I hear people saying that they're not excited because both of them are like, you know, no one's heard from them in a while in the fight game. I'm like, I think it's still like very excited. But let me know what you think, man. Have a two sweet day, have one morning, all that jazz. Thanks, buddy. So how do I want to put this? Am I excited about it?

No. Would I be in, am I intrigued? about the idea, perhaps. Would I watch it if it happened? Sure. Do I think it will ever happen? No. But I also didn't think we'd be living in a world

where in the year of Our Lord 2022, we would see a boxing match between Adrian Peterson and Levyon Bell. But apparently that is happening on July 30th. I confirmed that this morning. There were multiple reports, but I confirmed this morning that that is indeed well on its way to being a done deal on July 30th.

So, I mean, if those, two guys can get boxing match, then I guess maybe there's a world where rousing Corona fight. I don't know. Too soon to tell and how, like, they neither have

fought so long, especially Gina. I just, I don't know how it would work. It's got to be not that fun probably, but I guess from the nostalgic side of me would want to see it. But is just something that I'm like,

Like, please, please, please book this fight. No, I'm not. But if it happened, I would watch it. And we would cover it. And it would be a pretty big deal. And a lot of people would care about it. But just as a person who watches the sports, am I all that interested in it?

Not really. Not really. I mean, maybe if we get W.W. Rhonda in the build where she's smiling and talking to people and seems to be having fun, maybe that changes things but just media between two it can be pretty it's that or no i don't know i don't know i would say i'm leaning more towards no than yes but if they book it i watch it all right friends i got to get out of here live from the airport here in savannah

georgia and of course here comes the announcement but you guys are the best rest of the week i will keep you posting on what the schedule is going to look like we're going to try to do something Thursday. I would venture to guess that we're going to be starting a little bit later than usual just because it'll be on the non-cool time zone of the West Coast, because we all know the East Coast, Eastern Standard Time, it is the true time zone, the real time zone. But we're going to try to do something Thursday, Friday.

If you're going to be in Vegas, come see me on Friday or Saturday. I'll be basically inside the expo there on, on Radio Row, and I'll be there from 9 to 5 local time Thursday, or excuse me, Friday. I'll be there 9 to 5 local time Saturday. So, yeah, come say hi. Come say hi if you see me in Vegas at any point this week, because I'd love to talk to you.

But I'm going to go to the gate, hang out, get something to eat, get this up on the podcast network. So if you guys came in, let you get to listen to it later. So thank you very much. I'll see you guys in Las Vegas. be there around 4 o'clock PT. And be myself and Jose Young's just bringing you coverage all week long. So thank you very much.

Have a great rest of the day. And as always, have a heck of a morning. Crazy Savage is you. The Vox Media Podcast Network.