MMA Fighting - HOAM | UFC 292 Hangover Is Real, Max Holloway vs. The Korean Zombie, More

Episode Date: August 24, 2023

While there's a lot going on in the world of MMA, the fallout from UFC 292 this past Saturday is still with most people following Sean O'Malley's title win over Aljamain Sterling. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses the lingering storylines coming out of the UFC's return to Boston. Additionally, topics include Saturday's UFC Singapore event, and a sneaky loaded main card capped off by Max Holloway vs. The Korean Zombie in a scheduled five-round featherweight bout, Giga Chikadze's return and why Alex Caceres may be overlooked by most heading into this weekend, the stakes in the Erin Blanchfield vs. Tail Santos fight, the PFL classic between Clay Collard and Shane Burgos from Wednesday night in New York, PFL recent signings, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, ghosts in the machine,

available now, only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. It's Thursday, August 24th, 2023, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the NBA fighting Twitter spaces. I'm still not going to say X. I'm never going to say X. and you can hear the show

and it's a tire of the NBA Fighting Podcasting Network sure thereafter. I am Mike Hock. Hope everyone's having a fantastic week. I still, I believe, at least I am still feeling the, I guess, hangover effects of UFC 292 in Boston and Sean O'Malley's title win and everybody and their brother and sister and cousin,

all calling for a title shot against Sean O'Malley. A lot of questions about where Algebra I mean Sterling goes from here. There's just a ton going on. PFL had their playoff card last night. We got one of the best fights of the year between Clay Collard and Shane Burgos, which was won by Clay Collard, incredible fight. A lot of people saying it's the fight of the year.

It's up there. It's good. Like, it's a damn good fight. I ain't here to sit here and tell you that it's not. But to just come flat out and be confident that that was fight of the year, Not so sure about that But it's really, really good Might be in the top five at the end of the year

I think when we look back upon it Like we look back on it about a week later Top 7 Which is still really good This has been some damn good fights this year But I could not watch PFL live I just couldn't do it to myself It's just too long

Need a little sleepy eye It was a long week last week And I just can't stay up for 14 and a half hours to watch PFL event. I can't do it. But I did wake up, went to Twitter, everyone was how good that Collard Burgos fight was. So I watched it early this morning and it lived up to the hype. No doubt about that. But the UFC is back in Singapore on Saturday, early morning MMA, just the way we like it. Main event for that card, Max Holley versus the Korean zombie. Great card. Sneaky good, flying under the radar, especially coming off of UFC 292.

So we have a lot to talk about. So we'll take some calls. We're going to go for about 40 or so minutes. Very busy day. A lot going on. We do a BTL today at 12.30 Eastern time. It's going to be Jed and I answering your questions the entire time. So while this is an early start time,

and this is going to be your normal hour and 15-minute show, while make up for it on the back end with Jed and I answering your BTL questions, there's just a lot happening. There's going to be a third show being recorded today. And I think you guys are going to dig it. So I'm going to save that for another time. But let's get to you all and get this party started. We'll begin with Toke, which means he's got takes.

He's got thoughts if he's the first one in line. Toke, what's up? You know me too well. But, yeah, firstly, I want to say it's so good to see one of the good guys in the sport get to the PFL finals, Mr. Clay Collard. What a guy. What a fight. I'm amazed. It was incredible. And other than that, I want to talk about not the UFC Singapore event, not the past event that we had with Sugar Sean O'Malley. I want to talk about the lawsuit. So the development that happened is quite amazing. That the court case might already take place in March or April next year. I know that the UFC is going to appeal this up the wazoo and all that stuff, but that we actually get,

we might actually hit the ground running here and actually get some development, which is insane. And I watched Eric McGracken's video on it. He's a great guy. Go follow him on all socials. The video that he put up about what might be, what they want to have revealed in the case, or like publicized, made public, sorry, my English sometimes.

It's just amazing, like text threads from managers. This might be cataclysmic to the entire manager business in the UFC, and the UFC itself might see huge changes as well. So if you could kind of elaborate on what consequences this can have for MMA managers and for the UFC itself, I would like to hear it. Thanks, Mike. I mean, I'd love to give you expert analysis on that,

but I honestly don't know. I honestly don't know. And to say I'm surprised by any of this would just not be accurate. I'm not surprised about it at all. This is the, this is kind of, if you really like look into it and you really kind of see what's happening it's very clear that some managers gets and their rosters get a little bit more of a boost

than others i think that's pretty clear i'm not saying anything that's crazy because it's just the way that it is i have to do is just kind of see what's happening right so how this will all play out once these are all made public i guess it all depends on what these texts say and what will actually be revealed. And it could get real ugly, man. It could get real ugly. And, you know, from conversations I've had with managers in the past about how some managers in this business have screwed them over and things of that nature and some of the

things that happen. And I'll say this. I was a, like, I feel like I'm a pretty positive presence in this space. I am I like yay everything's great all the time no was I at one time I was pretty close to that like before a k was deemed the prince of positivity i think i was the prince of positivity in this space and then once they got to m a fighting and i got to talk to more people and learn more about the business i realized that i ain't going to be a curmudgeon about it but i just can't be everything's hunky dory anymore because now I've got to peek inside the curtain a little bit. I got to understand what this business is really like. And while I want to be the positive guy and I want to sit there and just applaud everything,

I just can't. And learning about this business has been part of it. And I think we get some backlash about this. And I've talked to Brian Campbell about this from Morning Combat a million times. How we'll talk about the UFC and we'll talk about, certain things. And people think we just hate the UFC.

And when Luke and BC talk about it, they'll see comments, they'll get messages from people like, oh, you sound just like the NBA fighting people. You just hate the UFC. That's not true. It's just not true. We see more than most people see. We have conversation with people that most people don't.

So when it comes down to certain things, and we have opinions on stuff, it doesn't mean we hate the UFC. It just means they ain't as clean cut as you think they are. And once this trial starts, once this goes before a judge and all this stuff is made public, I think especially some of the newer fans, the ones who are so boisterous and say we hate the UFC and that we're negative and don't read articles, but only read headlines. I think these people are going to be like, holy shit.

I was not prepared for that. And I think that day's coming, ladies and gentlemen. And, Toke, you're right. This thing is going to get appealed a billion times. And if this appeal that the UFC currently has gets denied, then like you said, we are off and running with this thing. And it's not going to, there won't be much delay. So the judge who is just like, I'm ready to go.

I've seen everything I need to see. Let's go. I didn't see that coming. I thought we were going to be delayed on this for a while. Now, could we still be delayed on this for a while? Of course, the UFC has a floppy trillion dollars. They can appeal this a thousand times over if they want to. They had nothing but money and nothing but time.

So I am curious to see when this will actually start, but to have a judge rule and say, I've seen everything I need to see, let's just get this thing rolling. That's huge. That's huge. So I know I've been paying more attention to the suit, not as much as I would like, but I'm going to look into it a little bit more

and try to get more smart, more over with all of this, but get ready, everybody. If you're a newer fan and you're like, oh, the UFC's perfect. You're about to get a rude freaking awakening, I think. So be prepared. Four-ounce sniper. Hello.

Oh, maybe. We got the wheel of doom. The wheel of doom is upon us. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like we're going to get four on sniper, at least not right now. So lines are open, everybody. So hop on in if you got things to talk about. This Saturday, just talking about that UFC Singapore card, sneaky, sneaky, good card. I believe we started 5 a.m. Eastern, which I love.

Love that so much. Trying to figure out if we're going to do a people's pre-fight shot. I might just roll solo on that. Max Holloway, Korean Zombie, which is expected to be zombie's final fight. We get Anthony Smith versus Ryan Span 2. The return of Giga Chikaze. We haven't seen Giga fight since Calvin Cater put the wood to him

in January of last year. He's back against Bruce Leroy, Alex Cesaris. Really interesting fight. I'm very curious to see what Giga looks like after the long layoff. We got very exciting fighter, Fyna Ciccaro, versus Furni Garcia. That fight is just going to be absolutely insane. Huge fight at 125.

Aaron Blanchfield versus Tila Santos. Massive, massive, massive fight. It's a head-starred fight for this division because they're in Paris next week, and that's when we get the Rosnami Unis Manon Fioro fight. So Aaron Blanchfield or Tyler Santos get a chance to get a nice head start on the competition, tried to get themselves a title fight against the winner of Alexa Grosso

versus Valencia Chichenko, which is coming a couple weeks after that. The people's main event, Junior Tafa fighting Pacoorta, let's go. We get Waldo Cortez-Acosa, Lucas Breski, Toshiyomi, Kazama versus Garrett Armfield. That fight is going to be freaking crazy. Chidi and Joaquin Jokwati versus Miguel Olexeychek. Speaking of crazy fights,

that is going to also be a crazy fight. Rolanda Badoia Kenosita versus New Englanda, Billy Gough, Naliyang versus Jedi Alder, Siong Wuchoy versus Jarno Arons. This is a fun one. Like this is a fun card. I know no one's really talking about it because we're still in the aftermath of UFC 2902,

but golly, man. This is got to be a fun watch. So go to bed early on Friday night, like super early. Go to bed like 7 a.m. Cole, what's up? buddy. Good morning, Mike. I know it's not free for all Friday, but I'm here in beautiful Minnesota this Thursday.

Today is the beginning of the wonderful, the best state fair in the history of the world, the Minnesota State Fair. I'm just wondering, what is your experience with your local scene with like state fairs in Massachusetts and such? Have you ever gone to a legit one like Texas or Minnesota? Dakota. Just, yeah, what are your thoughts? What's the St. Fares team

been in your life since you were a kid? That's all I got. Yeah, I was going to say, you're saying that the Minnesota State Fair is the greatest state fair in all of state fairs. Texas is calling you right now, and they think you're out of your mind.

I have been to the Texas one a couple of times. It's insane. And coincidentally enough, both times I went to the Texas State Fair. It was the day that Texas and Oklahoma played each other, at the cotton bowl out there. And boy, is that a wild time.

Get to eat all sorts of crazy food and fried Oreos and walk around. And then you see a bunch of drunk college students getting in fights everywhere. So, yeah, those are some crazy times. Massachusetts were more of like, hey, this movie theater parking lot is getting this small carnival. That's kind of what it's like in Mass. We do get the Tops Field Fair, which is like, 45 minutes outside of Boston going towards New Hampshire. And that's a good time.

I always like the tops feel fair. But yeah, Texas is just in a league of its own. I've ever been in the Minnesota one, but I assume Texas is just kind of going crazy. When it comes to that, I would say Minnesota is probably very good, but probably not where Texas is. So, yeah, and that's good for the kids too.

You know, being a dad, take him to see the animals and stuff, You get to see cows and pigs sleeping everywhere. And it's a good time. You just get to eat like an absolute champion. It's awesome. Get some good rides. I hate the friggin' spiny rides, man.

There's that one ride where it's like a spaceship. And you go inside and it spins around super fast and you stick to the wall. Fucking hate that ride, man. That ride just kills me. All those spinny ones. Put me on a roller coaster that drops a zillion feet. My hands are in the air. Love and life.

You put me on anything that spins. I just don't get the stomach for it anymore. Used to, but those days are long gone. Borod Stiper, do we have you? Can you hear me? Yes. There we go. Hey, heck of a morning, Mike.

Just real quick for you. I just want to ask you, for this weekend's card, how would you appeal to the casual audience that maybe doesn't tune in, but like once a month? What would you say is, I guess, must watch TV for this weekend's card? And are you going to be up at 4 a.m. to watch this card? That's all, Mike. Yeah.

Damn right, I am. I'll be up before. Hopefully I can find a Dunk of Donuts that's open that early. I don't think I will, though, unfortunately. When we get a coffee, I'm going to take a shower. Maybe we'll do the People's Pre-Fight Show at 4.30 a.m. And we're going to watch the fight. and I'm very excited about that.

And it's going to be done by like one. By the time we wrap the post fight show up, it's going to be like 2 p.m. We have the whole day ahead of us. I love it. Absolutely love it. I might even mess around and record on to the next one on Saturday, too.

And just do that because I'm super excited about the early day of May. How do we appeal to the casual audience? Maybe Max Holloway is probably the easy answer. And then, because Max is kind of a crossover, guy. Most people in the gaming industry know who Max is. He isn't quite past the mom test like Schott O'Malley does, but he's pretty close. And then for those people who say, oh, who's this guy fighting? You say, he's fighting a guy named the Korean zombie. That's got to get him going.

There's not a lot of casual outside of Max, this is not a ton of casual appeal here. Like I go to the grocery store and be like, oh, yeah, you're ready to see you get Chikaze fight? They're be like, who the hell is that? I could say Anthony Smith or Ryan Span. They're not going to know who either of those people are. Aaron Blanchfield, Talasanto. Same thing. Paca Porter, they might line up and ask you Pocoporta questions because that man's over like

rover. But there's probably not a ton of casual appeal to this. This is, this is an us card. This is an us card. And this is a really good us card. This is not an apex card. This was not Sean Strickland, Abus Magamadoff. This is a much better card than that.

this is probably a much better card than UFC Nashville if we're being honest that was kind of like a two fight three fight card this is like this whole main card at least the last five fights and junior top of pocketport is going to be fun because we always make these fights kind of fun

but that whole main card is really good it's a solid main card and outside of probably the heavyweight fight and maybe the Nakamura Ferni Garcia fight which is going to be an absolute banger. The other four main card fights all have stakes to them.

Holloway, zombie, maybe not so much, to some extent, maybe not so much, but there at least there's a storyline attached, right? Zombies' final fight, tons of respect between these guys. Smith and Span, there's a lot on the line

here, like, there's a ton on the line in that fight, especially for Anthony Smith. He loses again. He loses to Ryan Span. He's at a really, really tough spot. Giga, Bruce Leroy, there's a lot there

in this featherweight division. And then, of course, the Blanchfield-Santo's fight. There is a ton of stakes on that one. So I like good matchups as much as the next guy. I like exciting fights. I like fights that can be bangers on paper

as much as the next person. But if I'm going to sit around for six hours and watch fights, I want these, I want something on the line here. Not just, well, you get the second half of your money, I want

a long-term story with this. Like, where does this person go? Where does the person go? I like when a card ends and we can think about onto the next one and not have to throw darts at the wall. And none of us are wrong. This card has that.

And I'm very excited for it. This should be a fun one. This is one of the better fight night cards I've had this year, in my opinion. Marshall's buyers travel far and wide, hustling for great deals on Amazing gifts, so you don't have to. They've bagged this season's Italian leather handbags.

Designer. Hand-picked the finest sweaters from the rest. Ooh, cashmere. Landed makeup palettes from the brands you love, rushes too. And hustled all those wishless topping toys. So plush. Our buyers have got you covered. Marshalls.

We get the deals. You gift the good stuff. It's the matcha where the three ensemble Cado Cephora of the FACC, that I just that I've been to deniches who are the all these

ensembles the form of many and they're in the embalage, too be able that's pretty

to do you know, I know I'm I'm sure the summer Fridays and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez.

I'm just the most beautiful end of the fosos Cepora Summer Fridays Rare Beauty

Way Cipora Collection and other part of vite Procurate you need for a better for a

quality of C4C or C4% or TV Hello Hey Mike I can't go home morning. I want to talk about the women's

flight fight between Santos and Blanchfield. Does the winner get the title shot? And I know there's another flyweight fight next week between Fiore and I'm a unit. And I know the logical answer is just wait for all these fights to play out. But just your thoughts on those two fights and what it can mean for the title picture at flyweight.

Thanks. It's a tough question. like you said and you prefaced it perfectly it's very tough to think about i think erin blanchefield is going to be the champion for years and years i like you've heard me say in a million times i think she is the unground champion this division she's going to get her shot and she's going to win and then she's just going to rain it's going to be a reign of terror because she's already good enough right now to be the best flyweight in the world and the scary thing about erin blanchfield is, she is nowhere near as good as she's going to be.

And that is terrifying. I think she's got beat Talos Santos. I think Talosantos is a really good fighter. She gave Valencia Chufchenko the business. I still think Chufchenko won that fight. But Aaron Blanchfield is a nightmare matchup for everybody. And here's the thing about Aaron Blanchfield that she was kind of lacking early on her career. She has confidence up the wazoo right now.

And she didn't really have that in Invicta. She's still very good, and she felt like she was a good fighter, but you could see it in her face right now that she knows her time has come, that her time is here. And I think she got to beat Talas Santos, and I don't even think this fight's going to be all that competitive. I'm just that high on her. The problem Aaron Blanchfield is going to run into

is that next week's fight is not just a fight between two flyweights. It's a fight that includes Rosamai Yunus, who is one of the biggest stars in the UFC. Not just for women, just one of the biggest stars in the company. And if Rose Domayunas beats Manon Fioro, which I don't know if she's gone off, she's definitely getting a title shot. There's no doubt about it. She is getting a title shot.

Now, I think Eric Glantzville has played this pretty well. She said that she's happy to just get the winner of that fight. And that may very well be what happens. If Man and Fioro wins, beating Rose is cool. but I think there's more merit to beating Tylos Santos than beating Rose Dami Unis who's coming up for her first fight after losing the title to Carlos Spars and just one of the worst fights we've ever seen. But like we've talked about a million times, that doesn't matter.

It comes down to name value and what can do better. But if Rose wins, if Rose, if Aaron Blanchfield beats Tyler Sontos, in 25 seconds and like elburst her into an oblivion leaves tyos Santos a bloody mess in the center of the octagon and rose namunus squeaks out a split decision win over man in fioro next weekend rosnam unis is getting title shot and that's it now if alexa grasso loses to valencien to shepchenko could we get a trilogy sure but i kind of feel like even if that happens and rose wins they're going to do rose valentina there is a part of the ufcc that in my mind, in my opinion,

that is hoping that's the fight they can make before Valentina rides off into the sunset. Before both of them ride off into the sunset. I talked to Rose last year, and she said, I want to move up. She said, I want to put on some size and put on some muscle. And I say, does that mean you're going to move to 125? She said, do the math.

She's interested in the Valentina Shepchenko fight. She wants it. She doesn't have a lot of challenges left. For her getting in there with Valencia Shofchenko, I think that's something Rose really wants. And I think there's a part of the UFC brass that's like, man, I kind of hope this happens. If it doesn't, they'll be fine. Just a vision will move forward.

But we could be living in a world where we get a Valentinus Schochenko versus Rosenheimi-Unda Unionist title fight, which is wild. So yes, to answer your question, if Rose wins, all bets are off. Fourth official, hello. Hey, I was just going back to the Holloway fight with zombie. look because of the nature of the fight the two fighters it most likely will be a lot of striking and it will be entertaining in case it isn't what do you think is like the next best thing for any new casuals coming in like to watch for the weekend what you mean like fight wise or yeah like fight wise because obviously the two are very easy to follow like holloway has a

YouTube channel so it's quite easy for new fans to get in and figure out his personality. Zombie has a really great career behind him. That's really admirable and it's a great watch through if you go back through like documentaries and stuff. But in terms of just fighting in general, if it does end up being kind of a little bit underwhelming, which it has a potential to be, I doubt it will be, but like you never say never really. But what do you think is like the next?

best fight of the card. Hmm. It depends on how you look at. Like, to me, the most, even more interesting than the main event is the Blanchefield-Santos fight. That is the most, that is the most, that is the fight I have the most interested in on this entire card is the Blanchefield-Santos fight. But the casual audience, they're going to be like, what?

Who? Why? So I guess if I'm going to push a casual viewer towards this card and it, and I'm not pushing them towards Max, probably towards the Giga Kisaris fight and more so because of Kisaris and the Bruce Leroy persona and

his story because his story is wild. Fighting in the backyards, doing the bare-knuckle thing, just being a happy-go-lucky guy just keeps winning fights and has struggled to get opportunities and now he's at least getting a

pretty highly ranked guy compared to some of the other dudes he's fight. probably going that direction. But like I said, this is, this is an us card. This is an us card. All of us in this room. This is the kind of card that we're going to truly enjoy. It's not a casual card.

Especially if you're on the East Coast. What East Coasters get out, for the most part, outside of big fans are going to wake up at 5 a.m. to watch this card. Not many. But we all will. Because this is what we love. And it's good. It's a good card.

Even the prelims are good. Even the prelims are very solid. Like cheating Jokawani versus Mikhailo Zaychuk is, it's freaking insane. Kazam and Armfield is going to be super fun, but the casual audience isn't going to care about that. This is an us card with a sprinkle of casual appeal. But yeah, if it's not Max and Zombie, I'm probably pushing Bruce Lee right to them. Terrence, hello. Terrence, are you there?

Yep, I got you now. All right, cool, cool. Sorry, I'm driving. So I had a question. I haven't been listening a few days, so sorry about that. So I don't know if you talked about this already, but Clarissa Shields and Savannah Marshall just signed to the PSL, which I think is great.

The rivalry could be settled there potentially. But it had me thinking, and I know this won't happen. But if USC actually got goof of Boston on the ground, Like, for me, if they had, like, Whaley versus Rose rematch and boxing, or Pereira versus Easy rematch and boxing for, like, a third sport type thing, that would be great. I just wanted to know what would be your ideal for two MMA fighters that have fought already to fight in the boxing rules and your thoughts on them signing all these great busters over to MMA.

That's all I have. Thank you. I mean, after the game, after the game bread card in Milwaukee, I thought the UFC was going to kind of look at that and be like, okay, we could do that way better than they can. And like that was going to be kind of the blueprint for Zufa boxing. But I just don't think it's going to happen. I don't think Zufa boxing outside of a T-shirt is ever going to be a thing. I just don't.

So, yeah, it's going to be. all those fights you mentioned, sure. There's another rematch I like to see in boxing. Rob Fawd, Adrian Janus, in a boxing match, it would be super fun to watch. There's a lot of different ones. Tiago Moises, I would love to see in boxing, because I think he has to get enough credit for how good his boxing is and how good he is defensively. I think he'd do really well.

But it would be pretty cool. As far as the PFL signing Savannah Marshall and stuff, like, cool. That did nothing for me. And it's not like, I'm not saying this to be disrespectful. Like,

I just don't care. I don't care that Jake Paul's over there. Like, we did the Clarissa Shields thing and it wasn't good. I just, like, I don't know what they're doing. I don't know what this does.

This does 10 minutes of, of reaction and then we're on with the rest of our day. That's what all these signings are. Like, I don't understand what they are doing. You have a chance, like you have this chance and people are like buying into it. And people are buying into the naivity that you are that you are providing people, that you were giving to people.

And instead of going after some of these you trade, instead of giving Derek Lewis an offer he couldn't refuse, you signed Savannah Marshall? like it's a cool thing to like have a fight like oh we're going to do closure for savanna marshal like in an m a fight like cool and then what then what's going to happen i just don't get it i don't get it i mean good for savanna if she really wants to fight m m ms like this is her dream i would have been mhm a fighter then cool if they're giving her a bunch of money awesome that's great i'm happy for that but as a promotion

this is yet to me another thing on a long list of what the hell are you doing decisions you're about to potentially merge with

Bellator and like this is I don't know I don't know like is I crazy am I nuts about this that this news to me was just like why what are we doing here

this is any like this is any boxer like outside of Chervante Davis or Tyson Fury or like the biggest names of the biggest like even when Amanda Serrano like announced you sign like cool but did that news like turned the sport upside down? No. Not even a little. But now we're just going to become like the boxer turned MMA fighter

promotion. I don't know. I just I don't know what PFL is doing. I don't. And I, much like I talk about Belcher, I want PFL to be good. Like, I really want them be good. And when they have a night where play Collard and Shane Burgos beat the hell out of each other, and people are like, wow, that's cool. Like, that's good.

That's good stuff. But then, like, the next three days, they always make, like, just terrible decisions. I don't know what they're doing. I have no idea what their end game is. And the more I hear Jed talk about. PFL being a tech company, they just want to build this thing up and then sell it to the highest bidder.

I kind of feel like that might be the case. Because none of this makes sense. None of this makes sense. This first pay-per-view in 2024 better be a banger and it better be one of the best paper views who've ever seen on paper or I just don't know how much longer they can last.

Their cards are fine. It ended good last night but for the most part, it is a chore to watch the PFL, and it should never be like that to watch MMA. So I don't know how to react to those decisions because I just don't get it. It doesn't make any sense. Like, no one was clamoring for this at all.

Four Corner Sports, hello. Hey, Mike. I think PFL has a lot of visuals that they need to work on. I believe it's the Larissa Pacheco fight that I actually ended watching the whole card. I think the car started as six. I felt like the car didn't end until like almost midnight and I was like wow this is so slow pace

and I know you always talk about it but it's just like it needs to get a dress that may be like one of the one major things that would love for PFL to get addressed is the pacing because the way I'm not saying they should do it the way that Belisford does it like exactly but at least speed it up like I don't want to be feeling like I'm watching

almost two days worth of PFL fights you know when it's supposed to be only for a couple hours. I did want to ask about the Ryan, Span, Anthony Smith feud if you haven't talked about it. I don't understand exactly

what was their big dilemma with one another. And I remember watching the first fight that they had and what was it? Smith ended up getting a triangle choke, forcing what's the call Span to tap out. And then he

kept them yelling at Span like as Span as he he was like hovering over him saying put some respect in my damn name. I don't remember exactly why they have beef at one another, but going into this fight, I think this is the co-main event. How do you feel like that fight's in a playout? And we are having the return of Giga. Giga hasn't fought since I think he fought Calvin Cater.

And I'm just really wondering how he also fights against Alice Casares. I'm favoring Giga just because I feel like Giga is the more. talented fighter as opposed to Alex. I feel like whenever Alex Casares fights anybody that's inside the top 10, he always takes two steps back. He's always good to be like that gatekeeper top to the team, but as soon as

you get into like 11 to 8 range, that's when Alex Casares ends up falling back and not being able to get a win. All right, that's all I've got to say. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, PFL has a ton of issues. I've talked about a million times here, so I need to really dive into them, but

they're just fine. But they truly believe they have changed the game. You can see it. You can see it when their executives do interviews and how some of them tweet. They feel like they have changed

MMA forever, that they are knocking on the door of the UFC. The UFC has lap them going around the world seven times. They are nowhere near the UFC. They're like, the UFC.

is like in today and pfl is like when dinosaurs existed that's how far away they are from getting anywhere near the UFC and i want them to do better but it's just they are so naive they are so naive we have this new concept and we're on ESPN and we do this and we do that but we're better than them we're the different we're we're different and yeah you are different but you make the same mistakes and watching a pfl card just it takes years off my life It takes years off my life. The Pacheco card. It was like two hours to get through two fights.

That should never happen. That should never happen. Hopefully they tightened things up in 2024. And they had a pretty rough year last year too, but then they had the pay-per-view and like, people forget that last year's PFL regular season in the playoffs were not. good. They were tough. But then they had the pay-per-view and the paperview ended up being really good

and we got the big episode at the end. We got some cool finishes to win the titles and all that. Like that's great. And they got some really good buzz coming off of that. But people forget what happens the 10 months prior to that where it was just like an okay promotion and the same pacing issues were happening. And they kept saying these different things. Like they've had a decent year this year. They signed Francis. That's great. They signed Jake Paul. That's great. But to feel like, I don't know, I kind of just feel like they feel like they've won already. Even if they merge with Bellator, like how much of a change is this going to be? It's just going to be more confusing. There's just more questions. Are we going to do two promotions? Or are we going to do one promotion?

How are they going to service all of these fighters? How are they going to do this? So I have no idea what's going to happen with them. But hats off to Collard and Burgos. They beat the hell out of each other last night. And it was a great fight. And Clay Collard is quietly becoming one of the most exciting fighters in the sport. And you know what? He's been one of the most exciting fighters in the sport for years and years, for almost a decade. And he doesn't get the credit that he deserves. But I think that fight last night opened up some more people's eyes, which is pretty damn cool, which is pretty damn cool. The Ryan Span, Anthony Smith fight, I just feel like it's going to be a really bad night for Anthony Smith. I don't know why. I did not like at all what I saw in the Johnny Walker fight, not even a little. I'm surprised Ryan Span is a minus 1.30 favorite. I would, I don't know. I just feel like Ryan Span should be a much bigger favorite based off that last fight. But I don't know. I don't know. I just feel like Ryan Span should be a much bigger favorite. based off that last fight.

But I don't know. I feel like Ryan's just going to run him over. And I'm not saying this to be disrespectful. I just feel like Anthony's best days are behind him. And he has not looked very good in there as of late. Ryan's coming off of a tough loss in his last fight. But, man, it's just, I don't know why this fight's happening. I really don't know why this fight's happening.

What are the odds in the Bruce Leeuroy fight? Giga is a minus 240 favor. Wow. A lot of faith in Giga after the long layoff. I feel like there's value in Alex Kaceres. I really like what I've seen from Bruce Leroy. And Giga is a striking machine. Giga can crack.

Very good striker. I'm sure he's worked on his grappling a bunch. He's got pretty decent take. on defense, but I don't know, man. I feel like Bruce Lieber, I was just getting completely counted out here. Bruce is the more

I keep calling him Bruce, but I can't call him anything else. Alex is clearly the more experience. Like, I know Giga's got a million kickboxing fights, but when it comes to MMA, like, Cesaris has been in there with everybody, man. He's just fought way better guys

than Giga has. He's been doing this thing for and this is just in the UFC for 13 years since being on the ultimate fighter look at this guy's foot Michael Johnson

and I'm not talking 2023 Michael Johnson I'm talking 2010 Michael Johnson Junho Kang who's still in the UFC Sergio Pettis beat him fought your eye of favor Yair Rodriguez

Jason Knight Crohn Gracie the list goes on and on. Like, he's fought everybody. Soudique Yusuf, Daniel Paneda. He's fought all these guys. And that's just, like, the tip of the iceberg. I feel like he's getting completely overlooked in this card.

Completely overlooked. And it would not shock me in the slightest if he beats Giga-Gi-Chicada. So I think it's a good fight. Like, has he been in the spots before and hasn't come through? Sure. That was a long time ago, though. since the Crohn Gracie lost, he's looked pretty damn good.

He's looked pretty damn good. That Daniel Panetta fight was insane. And Daniel's a good fighter. Daniel's a top 18 to 20 featherweight. And that fight was super fun. He went out there and finished Julian Arosa. How many people have gone out and finished Julian Arosa since he got back to the UFC?

Doesn't happen that often. Julian's been one of those guys that's been, his durability has been the key to his guy. success. He got kicked Julianne Rosa in the face and finished him. Don't sleep on Bruce Leroy, man. He's real good. He's real good. All right. Last call. Actually, no, there is no last call because I got to go. Very busy day, my friends. Very busy day. Shout out to Meyer Buoyne of Silva. I got to talk to her yesterday reacting to her revelation that she failed a drug test.

Kind of a situation where a lot of people are saying this is a, oh, well, she's got to serve her USADA suspension. There is no USADA suspension. Usada is not the one that flagged her. It's Nevada that is flagged her. Our conversation, UFC's

kind of is cool with it. Usada is cool with it, according to Myra. I did reach out to Jeff DeVitsky yesterday. He has not returned any of my messages, that's fine. He's a very busy man. He's got a lot of fighters to look out for when it comes to all this. But we're going to find out the truth today. She says it's an ADHD medication. Her name is on the docket for the commission meeting today, which goes off at noon Eastern, which will be right in the middle of BTL. We'll obviously tell you what happens. We're going to try to record it. And BTL is going to be like a Q&A episode. So we'll fill you. you in on what happens with all that,

but a lot of people just killing Meyer Buena Silva. And I guess my question to all those people is and look, I could be the one naive right now. I could be the one naive. Why would she just make that up? Why would she make this up when she

knows all this is going public on Thursday? Why would she just make that up? She looks like, I mean, she looked terrible. If it's like, no, no, it wasn't this. and the commission says, no, she popped for like all these different things. Then she's going to look foolish in all of this. But I guess like my advice to fans these days,

and this is something we talked about earlier, due diligence, due process. See how it plays out. Commission says it's an AGH Medicaid. She might not even get suspended. We don't even know. So before you pass judgment and you throw your takes out there, Let's get the whole story first.

That's all I'll say. And like I said, maybe I'm naive, but maybe I'm not. Maybe I'm not. Maybe I could, maybe I believe what Meyer is saying. And based on past incidents with other fighters that have gotten cleared and overturned, this seems like it could be one of them. She might get suspended, but that doesn't mean she cheated. So let's just kind of wait and see what happens and wait to see everybody has to say.

So BTL 1230 Eastern. keep it locked on M-Afighting.com. We get you covered with all the news with the commission hearing and everything when it comes to Myer-Boy and Sola. So thank you all very much. We'll be back tomorrow, normal time, 10 am. Easter,

and we'll do a free-for-all Friday, all that fun stuff. Until that, everybody, have a great rest of your Thursday, and as always, have a heck of a morning. The Vox Media Podcast Network.