MMA Fighting - HOAM | UFC's Response To Betting Scandal, Reaction To T.J. Dillashaw's Retirement

Episode Date: December 6, 2022

The ongoing story regarding James Krause and UFC gambling seems as if it's only going to get worse before it gets better. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses the UFC's response in regards to Krause's suspension in Nevada, and no longer allowing fighters who even train with Krause to compete for the promotion pending the results of investigations. Additionally, listener topics include the retirement of T.J. Dillashaw, whether or not a Stephen Thompson vs. Conor McGregor fight makes sense following an entertaining victory for "Wonderboy" at UFC Orlando, Sergei Pavlovich's ceiling at heavyweight, Bellator 289, and 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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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 is Tuesday, December 6th, 2022, and it is indeed a heck of a morning for most of us. Not all of us in the Amnian community. It appears. But thank you for joining us live on the MA Fighting Twitter space. You can hear the show shortly thereafter on the MMA Fighting Podcasting Network.

I am Mike Heck. Hope everyone's having a great start to the week. It is Tuesday. We are knocking on the door of UFC 282, the final pay-per-view event for the UFC of 2022. There will, hopefully, I mean, nothing's 100%. It could be a draw, could be something crazy. We're scheduled to have a new light heavyweight champion crowned in the main event between Janbovich and Magomed and Goliath.

Main card is very, very solid. It should be fun. This is not as loaded as a typical December pay-per-view has been over the years for the UFC, but still pretty solid card. And at the end of the day, look, I understand it's the holiday season. I understand we're trying to pinch our pennies.

So if you want to buy the pay-per-view, most of us in this room are going to buy it anyways. Some of you are just like, nah, I've spent enough money this year on MMA. And if that's the case, and even if you do buy it, you can join us on the live MMA-fighting UFC 282 watch party.

That'll be going down Saturday. We'll go live around 950. and it's going to be myself, GC, in the studio, heading to York Saturday morning. Very excited about this. And we'll do it again. And this is a big one, folks. So join us.

Hop in for a fight. Hop in for a couple minutes. Let's just make sure the big bosses know we got to keep these watch parties going. All right? That's what we need to do. So let's make this a big one. It's the last one of the year. So let's do this damn thing.

Obviously, a lot to talk about. Yes, we have. UFC 282. We also Bellator 289, pretty solid card. We have two title fights, of course, the big one for the interim Bantamweight title, one half of the semi-finals of the Bantamway Grand Prix. We have the champ, Raffion Stotz defending against Danny Savitello. This might be the biggest fight of the year for Bellator. This has been built up and built up and built up for about eight months now. And we are finally here. We are finally here. We'll see Pachi, mix, Magamemadav and the other semifinal matchup, and we'll see the rematch team Liz

Karmouche and Giuliana Velasquez for the women's flyway title. Not a bad card on Friday, not a bad way to spend your Friday night. That's for sure. And then Saturday we head into UFC 282. We're coming off of UFC Orlando this past weekend. Long card. I felt like I was watching MMA for three days, but all in all, it was pretty damn good. Main card ended up with seven fights. All of them got stopped, including the main event, Stephen Wonderboy Thompson versus Kevin Holland. Incredible battle.

Tremendous fight. Wonderboy turns back the clock, depending on who you ask. If you ask him, he didn't turn back any clock. He feels like he's 25, wanted to prove to everybody that he still had it, that age is just a number. And Wonderboy gets the job done. Kevin Holland's team stops the fight before the fifth round. Kevin Holland's hand is all banged up.

I'm told he's getting an MRI sometime today. So we'll see how bad the injury is. How long he's going to be out for? Wonderboy broke his hand as well. He said during the post-fight press conference, so we'll see how long he's going to be out. We'll see what happens with him, who he fights next. Will they give him another striker?

Is it going to be Mazadol? Is it going to be Mitchell Bejada? lots of fun options for Stephen Wonderboy Thompson. And then the big news that the ongoing story, the James Krause saga continues because we've been waiting to see how the UFC was going to react to this. We had heard Dana White react to it prior to UFC 281, kind of bullish about it,

saying no proof anybody did anything wrong. and then on Friday, Jess and we think we're just going to stop the festivities at MMA fighting, not stop them, but, you know, just kind of cruise on into UFC Orlando. The UFC releases a statement.

Hunter Campbell sends an email to basically everybody, managers, coaches, fighters, etc., that if you work with James Krause, you ain't fighting here. And not just he can't be in your corner. You can't even train at his gym. if you want to fight here.

And that has created a whole bunch of controversy. What's going to happen with Brett and Moreno, who has been training at Glory MMA since prior to his interim title fight with Kai Kar, France, is he still going to fight Davis and Figuerreter next month? We have no idea. No one's talking. I've reached out to pretty much everybody involved. Everybody is, mum's the word, essentially,

which has been basically how this whole story has been. Last week we got some stuff. We got some people to respond to some things. We saw two big provinces in Canada, not just halt James Krause-connected fights in terms of betting, but all UFC fights. All UFC fights. Alberta, Ontario, no UFC action.

None. None. Ontario release statement, we confirmed the Alberta news. on Friday. The day just became the James Krauss day after we did the preview show. But this is just a massive, massive story. And it's gotten me to think a lot about my role and what it is to be in this space and cover stories, especially these, because we've talked about it on the show a lot. We've had a lot of people on Twitter

throwing out this narrative that, you know, the M&M media is not covering this story. And I've been kind of defensive of that stance where it comes to, we're all talking about it. We're all digging in and trying to figure out what the frig is going on here. But at the same token, like, I've asked myself many times over the last week, have I done enough? Are we doing enough to do this? And for the most part, I say we are. Because there's a lot of people that are like, well, this guy's covered it all the time. rehashing old articles and then just writing up other reports is not really covering it.

You're talking about it and you're putting it into print. But we haven't had like a ton of new developments on this. Just everything that we kind of know to this point. Ariel and G.C. and New Yorker did a great job kind of going through the timeline on the MA hour yesterday. I talked to some people about this, some people who are sort of aware of the situation. Now there's a lot of more digging that needs to be done. but man, this is just what Ariel said yesterday in regards to

this is only going to get worse before it gets better, that might be the understatement of the century. I mean, this is bad and this is beyond the James Crowe's story. It appears to be still we don't have enough to report on anything, but golly, this is, this is something this is something so stay tuned we are just getting the beginning of the story

there's a lot more to come and we can talk more about that we could talk about 282 we could talk about Orlando we could talk about whatever you want toke was first in line so we'll go to him and then four corner sports was just behind him but we'll go to him next so toke hello good morning

heck of a morning even so I was listening to on to the next one. And I was like, you know, this, it's so easy to matchmake for Stephen Thompson this time because he's going to be out for a while. He's going to, you know, he has to heal his hand,

but he has to get a big fight next because he got this, like this was an epic, epic main event. So I was thinking, okay, on to the next one, someone is going to bring up this matchup. And I'm listening intently, very intently, and I think my ears must be clogged because no one said Cona McGregor's name. Somehow, this is the perfect time. This is the Donald Serroney, you know, this is the veteran that Connor McGregor should fight when he gets back. This is the striker versus striker matchup we want.

This is, it completes all the goals. And even if we want to give, if we're going to say that Wonderboy needs to have some sort of way back into a title shot just because we like him, this is the way. It's the way, this is the way to go both for Connor and for Wonderboy. This is like, you know, Connor likes beating up on old people. It's not even, I don't know where to go. I don't see how this is not the matchup. So maybe you can enlighten me on that. And by the way, I want to also compliment Connor

because he did the Friday night news dump in the wake of the James Krause thing with him just settling with Michael Chesa in the bus incident case. Like, just this got buried completely because he timed it perfectly. So kudos to. Connor, first of all, and it's Wonderboy Connor.

It just has to be. Connor is huge. So it's time for Connor to be yoked out of his mind, wait for six months where Wonderboy is also going to be ready. And then we do a pay-per-view with them. Easy, p-cee. Have a good Tuesday. Thanks, Ben. Interesting one. Obviously, Wonderboy talked about that on the MA hour yesterday.

I've seen a lot of people sort of throw that out. Yeah, but you're right. No one really threw that out on onto the next one. If they book it, I mean, it's a great fight. I mean, it's a great fight. It's a striker's delight. I think it's a fantastic fight for Wonderboy. I don't think it's a great fight for Connor.

Like, I think in terms of like build and being respectful and all that stuff and kind of getting Connor in that sort of mentality, sure. and is yoked up as Connor is right now, Wonderboy's still going to be way bigger than him. It's got to be way bigger. It's got to be like 15, 20 pounds bigger than Connor. So, I mean, I like it. We're definitely not going to get a ton of wrestling in that fight.

That's for sure. And Wonderboy sure is how I'm going to say no. I think Connor will probably jump on that opportunity as well. But yeah, if they make it, I'm down for it. I just, I feel like it's, it's a tough matchup for Connor. I feel like I would pick Wonderboy to win that fight. I might, I might be insane and maybe I haven't dove into it enough, but for Wonderboy, and probably most Connor opponents to this, at this point, and Wonderboy proved it in that

Kevin Holland fight, if Connor doesn't get out, get him out of there and won, it's going to be a long night for him. Wonderboy is just going to pick, hit, just get to piece him up and pick him apart. So I don't know how much Connor will love that matchup. Connor might want to do it at 170, but I honestly think he's going to fight another lightweight-ish kind of guy. Like even Mazadol fights at welterweight,

but he's not the biggest welterweight in the world. So that would still kind of make sense. I don't love that fight. But if they did Chandler, or they did Porre again at 170, I think that's probably more of what's Connor's looking for. But who knows? We don't even know when this guy's coming back to fight.

We don't know what the landscape of the sports going to look like when he comes back. But hey, listen, if you want to get Wonderboy to a title shot, if that's the goal of the UFC, that's a fight they're going to have to consider. And I would watch the hell out of it. I think Wonderboy actually wins that fight. I think it's a pretty good match for him.

He has to weather a storm. Could Connor knock him out early? Sure, because Connor can knock anybody out early. But if he can't, if he can't get him out of there in the first seven minutes, it's it's Wonderboy's fight to lose in my opinion. So, yeah, we'll see what happens. I'm sure Wonderboy had taken that. It would jump on that in a second.

Let's go to Four Quarter Sports. Hello, Four Quarter Sports. Hey, what's going on? I see, let's go, A.K. Ladies in the Spaces was going on. Yeah, I don't see Wonderboy fighting Connor. I see him fighting a lightweight, whether it's Gitchie, Chandler, you know, one of those names. But I wanted to talk about, I'm not going to talk about the main event,

unless somebody else in this space to talk about the main event. to talk about the main event. I do believe the main event was top seven best fight of the year. I don't think that it was the best fight of the year. But I wanted to talk about Sergey Pavlovich against Sitesvibati. Now, we, I felt like we didn't get enough answers. I think we just, we found out that he is possibly one of the scariest individuals in the heavyweight division, if not on the UFC roster. But I do think that, you know, I think he ate maybe like one clean shot from Ty and he was able to eat it. But, man, that man just, I didn't think that fight was in under a minute.

And I thought that Ty would have, you know, was in a go through like a barn burner with Sergey. But it was just very one-sided. When I, when that fight ended, I first thought of was like, well, one thing I know is I don't want him fighting. Curtis Blades. I think Curtis Blades got screwed over. I think that he's going to get pushed to back nine on this. But when he had that post-fight interview with DC, the first thing he ended up saying was DC didn't allow him to get up during training. And the first thing I thought it was, well, Curtis Blades was not going to, he's not going to allow Sergey to get up if they ever fight. And one thing I have questions is, can Sergey, you know, fight all three rounds? You know, how

will his cardio, you know, go in, you know, a championship fight. I mean, we saw with Zero Gone, you know, he got exhausted with five rounds, but he can manage five rounds. We've seen Francis Ingan do it. Questions on John, you know, if he could do it at heavyweight and if he can hold up with his chin. But, you know, I just think that we have a little bit of questions with Sergey Pavlovich, but I wonder, that's just that.

And also, I wanted to talk about T.J. Dillishal. I saw that he retired. I don't think too many people are, you know, are sad that he retired. But I wanted to know, Mike, you know, what's your thoughts, you know, about TJ's retirement? And then also, how differently would, like, us as fans and maybe even the media would look at him if he never got a pop for EPO? I mean, would he look more beloved as a figure? Or I don't know. I just want to get your thoughts on that.

All right. Thanks, Mike. A.K., see you later. Peace. Yeah, interesting question about. TJ and the answer is 100% yes he would be looked at differently a little more beloved

I don't I don't think people I think people respect the skill set but it was just kind of the the attitude of the man just I even the popping of everything I think if TJ Dillashad just said hey Henry come fight me at 135

and didn't choose to go to 125 like if he if he did it reverse if I want to be a two division champ I'd rather go up to 145 and do it. I don't even know if we're having this conversation right now. Maybe we are, but we just don't know. But him making the decision to drop to 125 and try to fight to Hudo down there obviously was the worst decision he's ever made because it led to everything else and it led to him popping and everything. And then on top of that, the whole going into the Aljo fight with one arm didn't really help matters either, especially for those who look at it like

myself and many others that thought, T.J. shouldn't be getting this title shot. Joseo Aldo should be getting this title shot. And instead of Joseo Aldo fighting for the belts, as he should have been, they gave it to T.J. who was injured and shouldn't have been fighting in the first place. And then they threw Josealdo into a fight with Marabda Walsh Willie in Salt Lake City. And it was just dumb. Like the whole thing was dumb. Everything about it was wrong. And I don't dump on the match. all that often. I think for the most

spot they do a pretty good job. This is horrible. This is terrible. And hindsight is 20-20, but hindsight to me is like 42-20 right now. You can see clear his day from miles and miles that this is horrible matchmaking and horrible decision-making from the matchmakers and from the UFC.

And TJ, unfortunately, is going to be, he's going to be looked at under a negative lens for the most part till the end of time. That's just the way that it is. I will give him credit for the way he handled everything. He didn't make any excuses.

Came out and admitted it. Took it on the chin. I'll give him credit for that. But other than that, man, tough go for him. Tough go for him. But he is retired and we'll see if he comes back. If he gets the shoulder

repaired and it's 100%. and he still has that itch, but I don't know if he does. We'll see what happens in the next year or two if he decides to come back. As far as Pavvich goes, dude's a monster. The big question I had with that matchmaking was,

wasn't, could he take a shot? Could he hurt Ty? Because Ty's been hit by everybody and somehow found a way to come through and win fights. Like, he got pieced up by Cyril Gahn and still was able to go through it. He got drilled by Derek Lewis, who's one of the hardest hitters in the history of the UFC,

was able to get through, come back, and knock out Derek Lewis. So my whole thing looking at it was, can he hurt Ty Tuivasa? Can he hurt him? And damn it, he did. First shot he landed, rang Ty's bell. And I was like, oh, this is not what I expected. I thought it'd be kind of a similar fight. I picked Ty to win, wasn't confident in it.

but I felt Ty could extend the fight, survive the storm with his durability, and then land a big shot in the second. But that didn't happen here. Sergei went right after him, drilled him, hurt him badly. Every shot he threw hurt, Ty. And every time Ty threw her back at him,

he was nowhere near him. It was a great performance. We'll see what happens. Like, Sergei's in the mix right now. There's no doubt about it. And what's weird about Curtis Blades is, if Cyril Gone is ready to go for like March, April, I think Sergey is going to jump over.

Curtis Blades, honestly, and they would do Sergey versus Cyril Ghan. But if something happens and they can't get any, like let's just say in Ghanu and the UFC, the talks fall apart of the 11th hour, which by the way, as I've said, the last couple of weeks, all accounts, talks are going very well

with Ingana re-signing. And then if an Ngano-Jones fight March 4th, I feel if I had a bet on that fight happening March 4th, I feel pretty good about it. Not done yet. Nothing even offered officially. None of that. But things are heading in the right direction, that's for sure.

But if something falls apart at the 11th hour, I think they'll go with Sierra versus John. So Sierra's not Zero versus John. Curtis Blades versus John. So Curtis is in a really weird spot right now. If I'm Curtis Blades, I'm hoping that Francis doesn't resign. Because other than that, he's still going to have a tough road to the title. Fair or not, I think that's the way they sort of view Curtis Blades right now.

And he might just be the best damn heavyweight in the world. We don't know. We'll see if he gets these opportunities, but it's crazy. And by the way, just to talk about the Bata Vent real quick, Kevin Holland is a tough son of a bitch. Wonderboy looked great. That fight was fun as hell. But please stop with the, oh, that was the fight of the year or put it in the, it's not.

It's not. It's not the fight of the year. It's not. I think we look at that fight and put it in that category because we didn't expect a fight that fun. I think we expected one of two things. We expected Wonderboy to just have like a Jeff Neal type performance where he just picked Kevin apart, cruise to a decision. That's kind of how I thought the fight would play out. Or we're going to get a sad moment where Kevin Holland was just going to bolt Wonderboy and knock him out and get a big win. We didn't expect. fireworks and back and forth and both guys getting hurt and just that crazy fight, it's not the fight of the year. It's not even in the top three. Might not even be in the top five. It was a great fight. It was a great fight, but it wasn't the fight in the year. Come on now.

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I have three questions. First one about the UFC 283. I've seen that they didn't announce the main event yet. I don't know. Am I hoping too much? Or do you think if someone of the 282 wins flawlessly? For example, I can see Blahovic knocking out Magumado in the first round or Magumade of TKO, second round, clean.

fight and then fights Glover in Brazil, or it's just going to be the expected one, and it's going to be Nunez against Pena. And the second take, why don't you think the UFC aren't pushing for the Shafka-Trakmanov against Kamza? Because not right now, I think it's going to be the greatest possible fight. in the division for the end of 223 or beginning of 24, especially if Kamzat doesn't have a lot of time for this division, the 170. Or do you think it's going to be better for the AFC if someone takes over the 170?

For example, after Hamza wins, if I'm speaking, if everything aligns perfectly. Do you think Hamzat taking the belt and then directly going up to 185 or it's better if they fight for first title defense for Hamzad, for example? And my last take, do you see the Omar Norma Gmadov against Rauni, Barsios? Do you see it after this vice of Omar Wang? Why don't the UFC pushes for Omar versus Mirab? Because we have seen that this call has a lot of potential. He has a lot of potential. Why don't we push him against Mirab, especially since Mirab doesn't want to fight for the title,

doesn't have an opponent since Sejodo is apparently fighting for the title. And we can do the same what we did with Omani. If he didn't win, he can build himself up, especially he, it was hard for him to have a match. And yet, he fights for the second time or third time, unranked opponent. Thank you, Mike. Have a nice day. Thanks, man. So Umar versus Marab if he beats Barcelos, maybe doubtful, though, because I think Marab is kind of in that mix.

I know, look, when you beat Jose Aldo, it means something. I know his stock didn't rise tremendously because the fight wasn't all that great wasn't the kind of fight where it's just like we gotta put this dude in a number one contender fight or anything like that so maybe but doubtful

I would say Maraub will probably get like a Corey Sandhagen or somebody like that would be my guess but who knows at this point Shafcott Hamzatz I'm sure that it's on the UFC's radar. I'm sure it's a fight they're thinking about, but there's just so many unknowns right now.

Like, what's Hamzaq going to do? Is he going to fight at 185? Is he going to fight at 170? Is he going to fight Colby? Will he beat Colby? Will he win the belt? Will he not win the belt? Shafcott's real good. But we never know. Like, we don't know. Maybe he loses. Everybody loses at some point. Maybe Hamzat loses. I don't know. But you have to think in the back of the UFC's mind, if Hamzok can keep, can make 170 and make it consistently that they're they're looking at this fight and they're probably going to try to build up to it somehow. But 170 is just, there's just a lot of big names there, like a lot of big names. Hamzat's a big name.

Shavkat's not really a big name, at least not yet. I think most fans understand how good this guy is, but he's not like a star or anything at the moment. So I think the UFC, it's on the UFC's mind. Like, how could we get to this fight? But with Hamzad, the unknowns there, I think. I think it's going to take some time, unfortunately. And as far as the 283, I don't know, I don't know what the hell is going to have with 283. Because it needs help.

This car needs help. Will it be, like if Jan wins quick, would they try to turn him around and fight Glover? I'm sure they'd ask him, but Jan's not the, Yon's not typically a guy just likes to bounce right back. I mean, this is kind of a chaotic stretch for him. So maybe he's like, eh, let's just embrace this chaos if he can beat Ankelaif. I don't think he's going to beat Ankylaef. I could be wrong.

I think Ankleaf's going to win. But if you're right, maybe they'll look at that. You're going to have to pay him a boatload of money for that to happen. I don't know what they're going to do. I don't think if Nunes fights on this card, I don't think it's going to be Giuliana paid. I think they'll go like Norma DuBont or something, like something like that. I think. I don't think they'll go to the Pena fight.

I think Pena, I think the O.C.'s going to want to see Pena beat somebody else before she gets back there. But we have no idea. We don't even know if the freaking flyweight fight's going to happen at this point with everything going on with Krause and Moreno and all that. I don't know. There's a lot of unknowns about 283 right now.

That's for damn sure. So wild stretch for the promotion, for the fans, and for the sport. Cimmeram, hello. Good, how are you? I lately I didn't join his spaces because of my like missing you a lot. I mean, so coming back

to the last week fight night and everybody's saying that this fight should be the greatest fight and now this. I just had what you said about the it's a good fight but not up today, Mark. My opinion towards the point is

it could If we take the best fight that happened in this year, maybe the number one goes to Glover versus Jiri. And the second one must be Gilbert versus Hamjad

and Thrad could be Wonderboy versus Kevin Holland. That's what my opinion is. And what do you think of about that? And what's your prediction? for the title fight in this week. Is it going to be the Russian guy or that, you know, former champion of the lightweight heavy heavy heavy.

That's it, Mike. Thanks, man. I'm picking Ankylaif. I don't know how, but I think, I just think, I think Aikolive's the best light heavy weight in the world. I would take Ankylaif against a healthy Uri right now. That's how good I think he is. the problem is he's just not a draw, he's not a star.

And that's what makes this booking a little strange in a lot of people's eyes. No one knows who this guy is really. Like hardcore fans know who Anka Liev is, but the casual fan that you're trying to get to spend $75 has no idea who this guy is. They don't know. But I think Anka Laph's going to win. I do think he's the best 205 in the world.

and I think if he wins the belt, he's going to be the champ for a little while. I think he's that good. The fight of the year conversation. I mean, Holland Wonderboy is probably in the top seven, top 10 easy. Glover a year is the fight of the year.

I mean, there's no if sands are butts about it. That is the fight of the year. Bern-Shamiah is number two. I would put, I know it was in January, but I would put Marik. No Figgi 3 up there.

I would put Porre Chandler up there. Sarukian Gamrod is in my top five for sure. Onama Land Weir is in the conversation. And then Wonderboy Holland is in there too. Oliveira Gage is actually.

Scratch that. All of Variegis is in the mix too. I know it was only a one round fight, but that one round was friggin insane. Dover McKinney was crazy. I mean, there was a ton of crazy fights. There are a ton of crazy fights.

That one, Wonder Boy Holland's great. This has been a year of really good fights. There's been a lot of really fun fights this year. So narrowing them down is going to be tough, but I think the top two are clear as day for everybody. Gover-Yeary, Bern Shemayev. And then the rest, you kind of just based on your own taste and how you feel about it.

But I'd say top seven, top eight. It's in the top 10. That's still a pretty damn good place to be. We'll go to Viking, then we'll go to Mikey, and then Yusuf, you're on deck. Or in the hole. Mikey's on deck, Yusuf's in the hole. A little baseball terminology.

Viking, hello. I just want to tell you one thing, stop hanging out with Jedmishu. All right. Why? Lots of support. for the Dagestani. That's why.

All right. Is that it? Yeah, man. Just let just one more thing. Hamzad is not going to be Hamzad is going to be undefeited till you could get

Rockmanhaus and Edwards. Nobody is going to beat him. Just remember this thing. And one more thing. Mike about UFC 283? Is it in

Brazil, right? So I read somewhere else that Valentina versus Santos is going to be the main event for the

UFC 283. So did you have anything about that fight? And actually I was thinking about the

Bryce Mitchell and Ilya Teparia aria fight and And I have a question about the ground game of both of the fighters. So, what if Bryce Mitchell takes Taboria down and he couldn't hold him long enough? So, how do you see this fight goes for Bryce, 40% on ground and 60% on standing?

And that was a joke about Jed Mishu and you. So that's it. Thank you, Mike. Hey, Valentina versus who you heard? Valentina versus Tyler Santos. Okay, okay. It's going to be the... Thanks, man.

Oh, sorry. I have not heard anything about that, by the way. I have a feeling, like, if they're going to announce a main event, it's going to be Saturday. Because who knows what's going to happen? But the clock is ticking. We have to build some excitement. It's the last paper of the year. And then you have one more event.

And then you're off. until January 14th. So you got to try to find some momentum wherever you can get it. So if they're going to add a main event or add a big fight to that, I think we're going to find out on Saturday. And by the way, if they do,

if they do Pereira Hamzat, like, I'd watch the hell out of that fight. I don't love it. Like, I don't think it makes any sense for Pereira to take that fight, especially if he's banged up. But who knows? Maybe the UFC will go in that direction,

because that card definitely needs help, especially if Moreno isn't able to fight Figgi on that card. I honestly don't know what they're going to do. I don't know what they're going to do. But we'll see what happens. I'm probably still going to have to hang out with Jed, unfortunately. I'll probably be hanging out with him virtually on Thursday on BTL. And then Mitchell to Poria, man, that fight is frigging amazing.

Feel how you will about Bryce Mitchell and his political choices and his beliefs. And to me, like, whatever, I don't really care. Like, think how you want to think. You are your own person. You can do whatever you want. That fight is really fascinating. To me, Price is going to take him down.

Like, there's no doubt in my mind he's going to take him down. Will he be able to affect, will he be effective down there? Will he be able to... Getting the offense going down there, it's a different question, but Bryce Mitchell is going to take Hillary down in this fight. He's probably going to take him down multiple times in this fight. Because Bryce has that Colby-esque style where if he doesn't get the first take down, he's going to go again and go again and go again and go again and go again until he gets you down.

And he can do that all day long. He can do that forever. And Toporia can crack, man. And Toporia's ground game is pretty solid as well. That fight is super interesting. interesting. It's one that I'm going to probably be digging into the most when it comes to like looking after it and all that. But if it stays standing, like I think Bryce is okay. I don't, I mean, Teporia is clearly the more seasoned striker, the more technical striker,

the more dangerous striker. But go back and watch Bryce Mitchell versus Edson Barbosa. Bryce was landing on the feet too. Like Bryce beat up Edson Barbosa. He did his best work on the map, but he he hit Edson a few times. He was fine. He didn't get out clashed by Edson Barbos on the feet. He hung in there and did okay. So that fight is so interesting. I can't wait to see it.

And right now I have no idea how it's going to go. No clue how it's going to go. But somebody's O is going away. Let's go to Mikey Bath, Yusufs on deck, and they'll go to Tristan. Mikey. Hey, good morning, guys. Good morning, Mikey. You coming down to Vegas here for the first of the first.

five week or are you already here or not? I will not be there. Jose will be there. Okay. The usual. I'll be going to, yeah, I'm going to New York on Saturday for the watch. Oh, that's what's up. What's up, A.K. But yeah, I just wanted to get a couple things off my chest.

First of all, it's kind of funny with the James Krause thing. It's like everyone wants you ever made me guys to, like, write stories about stuff you don't know yet. Oh, God, it's supposed to be a bigger story. I'm like, yeah, you got to wait for it to play out first, dummies. second as far as the shaft cat um hamsat thing people got to let things marinate man like if you're the ufc what you want to do if you can avoid it all possible you don't want to meet each other before a title fight and what i mean by that is like you hope one of them wins a title and then you

build up to a title fight between them especially if they're undefeated if they remain undefeated you know i mean like remember when leodo and uh rashad evans fought each other it's always it's always, if you can't sell someone commercially, you could always sell them based on the record, be like, hey, you're two undefeated fighters fighting for a title. As for the Conner thing, not to be disrespectful to talk, I'm like, if you're, Conner McGregor's mere existence puts him in any, any fight you can imagine.

Like, if somebody has a fight between 155, 170, Connor's going to be involved. You know, it's just, so I just find a funny, it would be like, no one's talk about Connor fighting Wonderboy. I'm like, everyone was going to talk about Wonderboy fighting one, Connor, just for the sake of it. And two, man, as a fan, it's a, it's a, it's a cool thing to have it for surplus. But man, that Bellator card this fight is actually not that bad.

It's got a really good-looking fight, so I feel like it's getting a little bit overshadowed. But again, you know, the running joke is Bellator never promotes anything. So, but anyways, that'll be all for me this morning. Be kind to another as always. Happy birthday, okay. Thanks, Ed. Yeah, the Bellator card is, is pretty solid. and on top of that, you can't really

you can't really say they're not promoting this card because they've been promoting Sots Sabatello for months. So for those being like, oh, you got to go out there and promote and get these guys in front of people and talk at everybody, they've done that here. There's no doubt about it.

They have promoted this card. They have promoted that fight. They have done probably everything they can. Now, how will the rest of the week look? will they do something fun again? They're coming up with different ideas. The Liver King, Paolo Costa, Pitbull, Liver Eating Contest. Frigan brilliant.

That was brilliant. You took a guy who's trending and you brought him in. Last card, they brought in the Dust Commander guy who apparently is still a thing and people still care about him. Whether you like him or not. They brought him in to do something with Daniel James. who is the bodyguard of Twista, the rapper. They did something there.

They're trying. I'll say that. They're trying a little harder to do different things and think outside of the box. But the card overall, solid. I can't wait to see Stott Sabatello. I came out publicly before the Grand Prix even started when they just had the wild card matches.

And I predicted that Danny Sabatelo was going to win the whole damn thing. and people laughed and they were like, this guy is no chance he's going to lose in the first round. This is, if Sabatello, if Sabatelo beats Rafian Stotz, he's winning the whole damn thing. Like he's winning the whole thing. I don't care.

You could say how you feel he's like one dimensional and stuff, and maybe there's some truth to that, but his one dimension is really, really good. Like really, really good and can stifle you. Stats is probably the toughest stylistic matchup for him in this entire time. tournament. But Sabbs can beat him.

Danny Sabby can win this fight. If he gets Stots down, Stats got a really tough time getting back up. I don't care how good you are. I don't care how defensively sound you are with wrestling. That guy, when he gets you down, if he's focused on just keeping you there, he will do it.

He will be booed out of the building, and he does not care. And that's why I think he's very live in this fight. The Krauss thing is crazy. I get your coming. Here's the thing that's like kind of surprising to me with all this. It's not like the MMME, MM media is not covering it.

Could we be, could it be covered more? Sure. But again, this is, this is just one of those stories that's just, no one really knows anything. We don't know how deep it goes.

There's just a lot to this. This is the craziest story I've ever been a part of. People I've talked to tell me stuff that, I mean, you can't just put, it out there. You know what I mean? You have to, you got to dig in. So I'm learning a lot about myself and what it is to report on stories like this with this story. I'm surprised like the New York Times and other outlets like that aren't covering this. And maybe they're digging

into it as well and they're just waiting until they find something. But I'm surprised this actually hasn't gotten more mainstream. This is a huge, huge deal. And man, I just don't know where it's going to go. I know the FBI is potentially involved in this as well. Like, there's a lot to do this. There's a lot to this. So we'll see what happens. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you.

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I wanted to echo some of the thoughts that were shared regarding the Krauss situation. I think, you know, it has potential, honestly, to be a very, very devastating. situation for the UFC just because the UFC has worked hard to to build the legitimacy of the organization and you know this sort of you know

it's definitely a major major hit to that I'm in on I'm on the Ontario-C border here in Canada so you know UFC betting has has been officially banned as of I think a few days ago so I know a few guys that are pretty

much on suicide watch because of that but, you know, and just I was thinking about it too the other day, but when it comes to T.J. Dillowshaw, for example, you know, he had that injury for many, many months. So his team knew about it, his family knew about it. You know, a lot of people around him knew about it. Now, so I don't want to speculate or anything like this, but clearly, I mean, there's some betting opportunities there to an opportunity to make a lot of money. So, you know, this retirement or whatever, you know, whatever came out yesterday, you know, if I'm, I don't like speculating, but honestly, the timing is very suspect. And, you know, and that's another case where if there were suspicious betting patterns, even around the T.J. Dillel, I think that's something, maybe that's being looked into right now, but it is definitely very, very suspicious. But I'll throw that out there. I just had a couple other comments. So the Wonder Boy fight, Obviously, it was a great fight.

However, I didn't like some of the comments he made after the fight, especially where he said, yeah, like, you know, if you want to get a good fight out of me, you know, you're going to have to match me up with strikers, et cetera. Not a fan of those comments. You know, I don't wonder, boy, you know, is a great guy. I like him as a fighter. But in the past, you know, he has been accused of point fighting.

And that's, you know, if you look at his, you know, kind of his track record in the last little while, you know, he's had some snoozers for sure. And then, you know, Kevin Holland definitely brought the fight to him. And then that's what made it so exciting. But him saying, yeah, like, I just want strikers. I don't really like it just because, you know, number one, we're in, this is MMA. So, you know, you have to be, you have to be well-rounded.

But two, what it does, you know, comments like that and if there are other fighters who, you know, agree with that, then what it does is it kind of like creates almost like two streams or like two camps within within a division almost where you have a bunch of striker guys wanting to fight each other exclusively and then you have the wrestlers or the grapplers who likely will be the champion

and you have some killers you know killer grapplers that are being totally avoided and so it definitely creates some issues so I don't like that comment I feel like if you're a fighter and you're a striker predominantly yes you can maybe feel that way internally

but broadcasting that I don't think was, you know, it was a good idea. So that's number two. My last comment, Mike, was just regarding the 155-pound division. I saw RGA made some comments just on Reddit this morning, where he said basically that Mokachev should be defending against, or his next title defense against Wolkonovsky is not a real challenge, and that he should be fighting a quote-unquote real challenge.

He didn't mention any names, but of course he's talking. about Benil Darius, I'm sure, as former teammates, et cetera. But just wanted to kind of get your thoughts on that. You know, I disagree personally. I think Volk is an excellent fighter. And, you know, even with the weight disparity, I think, you know, he is the number one pound-per-pound ranked fighter. So this is a huge challenge for both fighters.

So I disagree that it's not a real challenge. However, I do agree that our banil is due. And, you know, he's very much deserving of it. So anyway, you know, I do hope that he gets the, the next title shot, but I just wanted to get your thoughts on that. But no, thanks for the opportunity, Mike. Thank you very much.

Good stuff right there. Yeah, the Volk thing to me is just, it's more about Volk than Makachaf, and then when you throw up, the whole thing was brilliant. Like, honestly, the whole thing was brilliant. Volcanowski, the timing of it all is perfect because there is no,

there's no guy. And there hasn't been a guy outside of Mack's Holloway in a long time. Like there hasn't been just like a clear cut dude at the featherweight division. Just hasn't been. So the timing of this and putting it on, planting the seeds and putting it out there was brilliant. And then Makachev and getting Habib to kind of cut the promo for him about Volcanowski and then the face up. Like that was the fight.

That's it. It was all done. B'Neil kind of stinks. But Benile kind of hurt himself too. Again, I'm not saying you have to go out there and just be like, hey, Mokachev, you suck. I hate you. I'll kick your ass. No.

But Benil could have just been like, look, man, at one point you said, if I win and you win, I should be the next guy. Habib's a man of his word. Are you a man of yours? If you are, then we should be fighting next. Like you can get what you want without being an asshole. You can certainly do that. But what have been nailed there you should do after your FC 280? Ah, I don't care.

I'll fight 10 more guys. Come on, man. You can't do that. You can't do that. You can't. And that's what, and I always go back to like Belal Muhammad and stuff because Belal is just killing it right now. And if Belal gets to a title fight, it wins the belt.

You can never say that he didn't take the long, hard road to get there. But Belal could have made that road a little bit quicker. If he wanted the Hamzaa fight, he could have gotten it. He could have gotten it before Gilbert Burns did. But his callouts were just awful when the microphone was up. Like when he had a live mic in front of him after a big win and you had your chance to make your move, he didn't do it. Kept calling out for fights that he wasn't going to get.

Colby. It's not fighting Colby. It's not happening. Oosman wasn't getting that fight. He was nowhere near getting that fight. When Hamza was right there. But then you go on the media circuit and you call it Hamza after that. Like you can't do that.

You have one chance to make an impact. And if you don't make it there, you ain't going to make it. Nobody cares after that. Nobody cares. You have your shot. Everyone's going to talk about it. And he didn't do it. Even this last one,

below the performance of his career against Sean Brady. Nobody thought he was going to win that fight. No one was picking him to win. And then he almost dropped the ball completely, went to Leon, and then he like caught himself and still didn't say shemaiah's name but at least he kind of called out shemaiah called him the wolf and all that that opportunity on the mic is so crucial it's so big you got to do it there that's when you make your impact so no issue with the fight i was in on it i was wasn't completely in on the idea of it but after 280 after that moment habib getting involved

the promo afterwards volk getting in the cage and then facing off i was in i was completely sold. Completely sold on it. It makes sense. My biggest question about this is, was the whole interim title fight thing. Like, why put it on the same card as this fight? And what comes to mind and what has come to mind ever since the idea of this fight is, if Volk wins and somehow beats Makachep, it wins the title, why the hell would he go back down to 45? That makes no sense. like he'd be crazy to do that. I understand you want to be active and you want to be that dude.

But all the biggest fights he can possibly get right now are at 155. There's no big fight for him at 45. There just isn't. No matter who wins the interim title fight, it is not a drawing pay-per-view main event fight between him and Yaya Rodriguez

or him and Josh Emmett. But Volk fighting Porre or Connor or Chandler or Gaichi or Oliveira, like those are so much bigger fights than anything he could get at 45 right now. So that's my biggest question. If Volk wins,

will he actually go back down to 45? Because if I'm his team, I'm like, why would you go back to 45? You want to make all that money? You want to be a prize fighter? You want to be the best fighter ever? And you stay in the toughest division in the sport and you start running off these names

and put them on your resume, then no one can doubt you anymore. But it'll be interesting to see. As far as the Dilleshaw-Sterling line movement and stuff and the timing of it all, you weren't the only person that thought that. But there wasn't any like crazy line movement in that fight. In fact, the fight opened with Sterling as a minus-220 favorite. Dillishaw is the plus 185 underdog.

The fight closed with Sterling as a minus 190 favorite and Dillishaw closing at a plus-130. So there wasn't, like, if there was all the line movement in that fight was towards T.J. It wasn't towards Aljo. Now, if Aljo, it was like minus 190 on fight day. And then 90 minutes before he fights T.J. The line balloons up to Aljo minus 400. And there's props getting bet on like crazy.

It's a different story. But there's no, it's not even remotely near the Derek Minner, Shiland Nernameka fight. I mean, that one, you couldn't, it was just right there. You couldn't miss it. This one, all the value from a betting perspective was on T.J. Everything went towards T.J. So while there's still an issue with that and while I have a big problem with all of that because Jose Aldo got screwed in my opinion,

I don't think it wasn't like anyone made any big bets on Al Jermaine Sterling or anything like that. The line movement, everything went towards T.J. from open to close. And a lot of, in a lot of, and like a lot of sites too, like the average range of it was Sterling was down like a minus 150.

So most of the, most of the bets, most of the line movement all went towards T.J. So I don't know. Maybe there's something to it where they're like, all right, TJ, I don't know. I don't think so. But, yeah, the timing is something. I mean, I don't blame you for going in that direction, but I don't think that's the case here.

Justin, hello. Good thing. So, I listened to Adno yesterday. It couldn't read out the picks because, you know, probably had a lot going on, so I wasn't really sure. But I wanted to read my picks out here. So the picks I had was Roman Delizze versus Andre Munez, Phil Roe versus Koston, Harris. I don't know what Crosson Harris is. He hasn't fallen a while since losing to Shavkat. Eric Anders versus Dusko Todorovich. And then I have Angela Hill versus Amanda Hebus.

Now, the thing is, the thing is, I don't know if you know if the UFC is going to try to rebook that 5BT Hebus and Tracy Cortez. But my other feeling might be that the USC may change course and have Tracy Cortez fight Aaron Blanfield. It makes sense because if Tracy Cortez beats Blanchfield again. She moves up the ranking. And Aaron Blanchfield has the opportunity to get that one back. So it makes sense. And with Hill and Hewaz, Angela Hill is the most active Strolley that I've ever seen. She fought like three times this year and then four times last year or something crazy like that. So she's ready to go at any time, any place. And Hebas wants to get right back in it start of next year at Strawraway. So it's surprising because

those two have never fought before. So I think that makes a whole bunch of sense. I have also Jonathan Pierce versus Edson Barbosa. That makes sense. Just looking at the UFC rankings, Jonathan Pierce had just entered the featherweight in the top 15. He's ranked 15th. I don't know. I think Barbosa's ranked number 13th.

And he supported 14th in UFC rankings. We'll see the MMA global rankings next week when they come out where you guys have them. Then I have Francis Marshall versus William Gomez. I think it makes sense. you know, they both starting out. I think it just makes sense. We saw what Gomez did in the U.S.C. Paris Cardi. He looked pretty good in that fight.

And then I have, I think, I think I had Yasmin Uriga versus the winner of Cheyenne Valisman versus Corey McKenna, but I think what you said, Vanessa DiMapoulos makes a lot of sense. Because the thing is with Cheyenne Velas, I don't know where she, I don't know where our headspace is. and, you know, I just, I don't need, Mike with the Lismiss, I don't even know she's going to, is going to talk to the media at all when that fight happens. I think she's going to avoid the press conference. And then obviously, again, you know, we saw the situation that Hope played out when you had a conversation with her in that whole situation. I know you don't want to bring it up or anything like that.

But it's just, Valismus is unknown. I don't know where headspace is. We don't know. because she can be pushed as a star just with, you know, because she's very interesting, but I just don't know where I have Spreece is right now. And I hope, I really hope guys or anybody on Twitter,

I really hope people don't start trolling you, because, you know, I felt bad about the whole situation. And I just really hope they don't try anything or people try to bring that up. But, you know, someone's going to try it so I hope you just be like I'm not I'm not going into that and then you know because if she does decide to talk to any other media I just they're going to bring it up and it's just going to it could be a mess so she's a question mark to me in my mind I because

we just don't know where I had spaces right now so tell me what you think about those matchups and anything else you have to say thanks Mike and have a heck of morning thanks fan I mean, I don't mind any of those picks. I don't know how AK feels, is there anybody else in the global rankings panel, but JSP will not be ranked in my rankings. Dude's good. He's got something, but you beating up Darren Elkins

doesn't get you in the top 15 to me. It was tough to watch. He's good. He could find his way there, but that win will not get him there. I can assure you of that. The Velizmast thing comes up a lot. Most people have kind of taken my side on that. I don't even care, honestly.

The interview was what it was. I stand by everything that transpired there. There are some things we probably could have done a little bit better on Jump Street. Probably should have reached out to more people before we released the first article. But I've addressed this already. hopefully doesn't become a thing anymore. Like I'm sure she still kind of deals with it because we had to hear from her ex-husband now

in that same tone because you can't just have that story and then not get the other side. But I mean, I stand by everything. I mean, these are, she said what she said. By definition, the headline was what it was. That's it. I mean, I don't know what else to say about it. if they bring it back up and people want to give me shit,

I don't care. I don't care. I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't do anything wrong. I think if she could go back and do that interview again, she probably would have done it differently. Or she would have just said, no, I'm not doing it. But I'm not just, what do you say things?

I'm going to follow up on them. That's just how it works. That's just how this game works. But I wish her the best. I wish her the best. She's got something. I think she's going to beat Corey McKenna. But hopefully that's not a thing.

It happened. It's over. I've addressed it. Hopefully. I just hope for her sake. It's not like a big deal. It's a fight night card. She's probably not going to do any pre-fight media. She's probably not going to get a media day scrum. If she wins, she'll probably have to talk to reporters afterwards. But something tells me that she probably learned a lot from that. And I've talked to like, I've talked to a lot of people that I respect about that. and I've talked to a lot of people who are kind of in the know, if you will. And I think she learned from that. I think she'll probably just, if they ask her about it, she can go one of two ways.

She can just call me out or she can just be like, nah, I don't want to talk about it. And I would guess at this point that she'll probably go the latter. But again, anyone who thought like it was malicious. or anything is just absolutely not true. It's just a conversation that was had that was kind of alarming in some ways. I wasn't the only one who thought that way. Trust me.

But for the most part, I stand by everything. Again, there are certain things. We could have done better. More so just reaching out to the other side of the equation before we dropped the first article. But it is what it is. Hopefully she's happy now and she's going to get to fight and do what she loves to do and she can consistently fight.

And I hope that for both of them, her and JP, that they could just fight not have to deal with anything and could just be happy. Be happy with their lives. That's all I care about. F the rest of it. Let's go to Anthony. Hi, good, man. Yeah, I just got a quick question before I offer some insight and beat this dead.

horse of James Krauss. Have you guys hit up Derek Minner for an interview and like ask him his side and shit? Because I feel like he should be out every single day like trying to clear his boy's name because he's about to ruin his boy's whole business, you know? I mean, I've reached out to his team for comments. Nothing. Nothing. Yeah, I just felt like fucking Derek Minner, like he's looking like a piece of shit in my eyes

for not saying anything. And I was in the chat when he went on that ad on Ariel, to be honest. It was mostly an ad. And I kind of, I didn't really care for the pics. I was just really liking the breakdowns and fucking talking to him about shit. And there was this, he plays with some, like, super rich guy in Europe. So he was probably throwing millions on, you know, his fighters and shit. And I was thinking in my head, I'm like, y'all, no, James Krause is too good of a guy.

to think that. But then I heard Ray Longo say something on the Anik podcast, and he said, he's like, if I had to bet, like, how many people were betting on their fighters that got injuries or, like, when some shit happened like that, he's like, he bet his life that he's in the minority, you know? So that got me thinking, and I'm like, man, to be honest, yeah, it fucking makes sense. Dude, I mean, dude, think about it, man. You're a coach barely getting by.

Why would you not bet against you? fighter who you know who's hurt or like call so i'm going to go make those best for you and i don't want to just sit here and bitch and moan and beat a dead horse but uh i have a solution and uh there just has to be a a super tough physical you have to pass before the fight because this shit just it really won't stop unless people are getting paid more and it becomes a more established state and we can't just be kicking out everybody who's good at gambling and shit. There just has to be a super tough physical before every fight you have to pass. And like the UFC has to decide. Like they, they knew T.J. Dillshaw was going in with that,

you know, like, so they have to decide some shit, you know. They could have stepped in and saw that line movement. That line movement was going on for an hour and a half. They could have stepped in somewhere and said, yo, like, this fight's not going down. Because New York Rick told that story on MMHA hour saying, like, there was that funky line movement. movement one time and then they went up to the fighter and said you better you know like that nothing better happen you know so they could have went up to derrick minner or some shit you know that's all man have a heck of a morning yeah i mean that was the medical testing and doing that the like adding to the rigorousness of it you have to do that now i mean there's you can't not do that you have to

and the ufc makes a floppy dillion dollars every year they can afford to expand the medical testing or, you know, add to it in some way. But that's a big part of it. That's a big part of it. The other part is, and again, we've talked about this and I don't, listen, we all want the fighters to be paid more. You know how I feel about that whole situation. There's, it's not just the UFC that deserves blame for that.

I think the fighters as a whole deserve blame for where they're at right now, because when the company sold for $4.2 billion, they didn't come together and say, okay, now's our time. They didn't do that. And now we're at, we're at. And they're not all going to come together and change it. It's just not going to change. It's not going to change.

We would love to see them get paid more, but it's not going to change. But same token. If they at least like, if they at least just take away the structure, of the win show, it was just like, hey, you take this fight, as long as you make weight, you get this, if you get a finish, you get more. Instead of like, hey, you get 12 to show

and make weight, and then you get 12 to win. If you just take that aspect away, I think you'll get maybe less of this. I don't know. I don't know, but that's part of it. That's part of it. If you're like, I mean, who knows? Like maybe Derek,

Derek Bitter just needed the friggin' money. I'm not saying he, like, bet on anything or did anything other than fight, but at that same token, it's just like, if you haven't fought, if you're not working, if you're not bringing in any income, and you have a fight on the books, and you're just like, I don't care. I need to get paid. So I get what you're coming from that aspect. Golly, the medical testing for sure has to be a thing now,

because it's not just the Dilloshaw thing, it's not just this, it's others too, which means there's probably many, many more who have fought compromised or injured that shouldn't have been in there in the first place. And if we're living in a world where fighter health and fighter safety and all that

is paramount, then it should be the same before the fight too. I don't know. This story is something else. We'll go to AA and then we'll go to triple K, and then we got to go. Double A. Hello.

Good. 28, U.S.C. 282. Is it the most cursed U.S.A. card ever? That's it. All I've got. That's all I've got. Everyone. Have a great day. You too, Mike.

You're all. Peace. The most cursed UF.C. card ever? No. Not even close. Not even close. I mean, UFC 151 is probably the most cursed card ever,

if you're being honest. It's the one that got canceled after Dan Henderson got hurt and probably shouldn't have been fighting in the first place. And then Chale Sondon was going to be brought in on short notice. John Jones said no, and they canceled the whole event in the UFC, basically called John Jones and Greg Jackson's sport killers. That's probably the most cursed card of all time. UFC 200.

Losing John Jones, that was. week, positive drug test, all of that, that's up there. There's other examples too that I'll dig into, but those are the first two that popped in my mind. This one, this isn't, like, you lost the main event. It sucks. Like, I get it. We wanted to see the rematch and now we may never see it.

But it's not a bad card. The main event is not, it's not great. Name value-wise, but the rest of the main card, Patty Pimble, Jared Gordon, Darren Till, Driggis, Duplase, Bryce Mitchell, Iliate Tuporia. We were supposed to get Ponziabio Robbie Lawler,

but now we're getting Ponziabio Alex Marono. There's good fights on it. I mean, there's Chris Curtis, Joachian Buckley, is a freaking banger. Raul Roses Jr. is making his debut. I know we lost Bo Nickel, too, but this is a fine card.

It's just, this is a different pay-per-view. like normally we're like oh the main event's great but the rest of the card sucks this one it's like the main event's not all that thrilling on paper could end up being a great fight but the rest of the card especially the main card is very solid so no it's definitely not the most curse card let's go to cryptocurrency hello double k good yeah so mike unfortunately i dropped a bit late to the show, but I still want to ask about this because it's quite surprised. I don't know if you've seen the UFC show, yeah, where they, I forgot the name of it, but where they basically promote the upcoming card.

This was the first time, Mike, where they actually had Heather talking about the impingement injury of Ankalayaev, which I thought was very interesting. What a shocker, right? After all the things that have happened, suddenly during these YouTube videos you see, in essence, Ankalaya being treated for this impingement injury. So my question actually, Mike, is because I have brought this up several times and I talk to people about this, what happens inside the Performance Institute? Do you think that that should be classified as non-public information that cannot be acted upon? Or if things are happening inside the institute and there's a bunch of people there and so on, is that considered as public info? And the reason why I'm asking is because much of this is still available online.

Basically, certain groups and people talking about what is happening inside the PI. just literally commenting on training sessions, on what's going on and so on. And this evidence is still up for example, for our good old friend James, because he hasn't deleted his podcast. There's archives of this. He literally says what he has seen inside the PI and gives his takes on fight. So my question is, first of all, do you think it's a coincidence that Heather was a part of the show promoting this event.

Secondly, do you think that what's happening inside the PI should be considered as non-public information? Thank you, Mike. That's an interesting question. I mean, I don't know how that works. I assume there's waivers that are signs that say, like, what you do there could be filmed or could be used for something.

I honestly have no clue. I have no idea what that looks like. There's maybe something to that, though. There's maybe something to that. Maybe Jedd somebody we can ask about that. That's an interesting question, though. I'm not surprised that it's on there. I think the way the UFC would probably present it

is that no one's 100%, everyone's dealing with aches and pains, everyone's dealing with this, dealing with that, but we have the best team in the world to get these fighters where they need to be. And I've never heard I've never heard anyone that I've talked to since the P.I. Open

that has had any sort of even half-negative thing to say about it. Everybody freaking loves it. And most fighters, even like some of the East Coast fighters, are like, I wish I could just live in Vegas so I could have access to that place 24-7.

I mean, apparently it's just, it's such a big benefit to the fighters. So I don't know. I don't know. But after this, perhaps, maybe they add some different amendments to the ruling in some way, where it's like you can't disclose what goes on here

if you're not part of the staff or unless like we approve it or something. I don't know. There's probably like different verbiage you can throw in there to make it better. But yeah, I don't know. That's a really good question. I wish I had a better answer for you. but I don't have, not a big liar.

I like where your head's at. I like that question. All right, four-on-sniper. Take us home because I got to go. Are you there? Four-on-sniper. All right. We tried.

We tried. All right. We are done. The James Kraus story, not done. I can tell you that. So stay tuned to M.A.fighting.com for whatever breaks or whatever comes out.

of this. There's a lot to this. I think there's going to be a lot more coming. I don't know what it's going to be or when it's going to happen, but I think we're just scratching the surface. Just scratching the surface. But that's it. So I'm off the rest of the day.

I'm very excited. I'm going to go hit some golf balls, do a little Christmas shopping. And then we are full-fledged. Tomorrow's we have very busy day. Of course, we get the MA hour. We got the UFC 282 Media Day. Jose will be there for that.

Thursday, we'll have a press conference. We'll have this show. We'll have BTL via very busy day. Friday, AK, we'll be very happy because he'll be hosting the UFC 282 Way-in show. We'll be live, getting you ready for that. We'll probably do this show before that. We'll have a preview show.

Lots going on on Friday. And then I'm on a plane first thing Saturday morning for the event. UFC 282 watch party going down. We'll have all your coverage on Mayfighting.com for UFC 282. It's going to be a very busy week. Bellator on Friday, too. We'll have you covered there as well.

So shrap it, everybody. This is going to be a very, very busy week in the world of mixed martial arts and we will be at the forefront for all of you. So thank you very much. We'll see you back here on Thursday. Have a heck of a morning, everybody. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap.

You're almost at the finish line. But first, there. The last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.