MMA Fighting - HOAM | Was Jan Blachowicz vs. Magomed Ankalaev Vacant Title Fight the Right Call For UFC 282?

Episode Date: November 29, 2022

With Jiri Prochazka making the decision to vacate the light heavyweight title after suffering an injury that knocked him out of the UFC 282 event with Glover Teixeira, did the UFC make the right call going with Jan Blachowicz vs. Magomed Ankalaev for the vacant championship? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to the UFC 282 shakeup, the new main event for the card, and Teixeira being the odd man out after asking for a second bout with Blachowicz and getting denied. Additionally, listener questions include whether or not the UFC 282 card is worth a $75 purchase with all of the movement, Larissa Pacheco defeating Kayla Harrison at the PFL World Championship card this past Friday, Alex Pereira vs. Khamzat Chimaev, the momentum the PFL has following their first pay-per-view event, Francis Ngannou vs. Jon Jones, what could be next for Jorge Masvidal with Gilbert Burns fighting Neil Magny at UFC 283, 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 Vox Media Podcast Network. November 29th, 2022, and it is indeed a heck of a morning, live on the MMA fighting. Twitter spaces you hear in the show in its entirety shortly after we're done here on the M&A Fighting Podcasting Network. I am Mike Heck. Hope everyone's having a great week. Hope all who celebrated had a fantastic Thanksgiving. First off, apologies.

I kind of lied to you. I said we're going to do a show on Friday. We didn't. And mostly because there's a weird Friday. There's the PFL World Championship card. So technically, I wasn't scheduled to work till 5 p.m. Eastern. But I think we gave you a couple of extra things, right? we gave you the People's Pre-Fight Show

on the YouTube channel. We gave you a post-fight reaction to Kayla Harrison's loss to Larissa Pacheco. But to be honest with you, Thanksgiving was a long day. My kid obviously wasn't in school. He wanted to go play some golf at a golf simulator. So I plumb forgot.

I was supposed to do a show because I took him to the golf simulator and I didn't realize it until a couple hours later. It was like, oh, crap. I was supposed to do a heck of a morning, but it didn't happen. But I apologize. I will make it up to you somehow. And luckily, a lot has happened since we last spoke a week ago.

Right? We had the PFL events. It actually was pretty good. I still scratch my head when it comes to slapping a $50 price tag on it. But if you paid it, I don't know if you got $50 worth, but you got most of money's worth. I thought the card was fun. Was every card on the main card an absolute barn burner? No. Were there some good finishes? Yes. Were there some great storylines? Yep. Was there a lot to talk about in the aftermath? Yes. Kayla Harrison losing is a very big deal. And I know it's not,

I know a lot of people who watch the entire PFL season when you hear words like shocking and stunning and surprising, they will clap back and say, well, if you watch the season, it really wasn't all that surprising. Yeah, it was. It was still surprising. Like, Larissa Pacheco is good. And we knew this fight was going to be tougher. But if you told me Larissa Pacheco was going to beat Kayla Harrison, I would have told

you she probably would have knocked her out or caught her with something and finished her to think that she would go 25 minutes, that it would be two, two heading into the fifth round and that Pacheco would just dig down a little bit deeper and get it done, I probably wouldn't have believed you. But that's exactly what happened. So a huge win for Larissa Pacheco. It's nice to see her getting out there and doing some interviews after. She was in studio on the M.A. hour yesterday, which I thought was a very big deal.

And at the end of the post-fight reaction thing that we did for the card, I said, listen, do not do what Bellator did with A.J. McKee after he beat Patricia Pitbull. Do not do that. Do not just leave him out there to not talk to anybody.

And immediately, probably like three hours later, I get a message on my Twitter. It wasn't a message, but somebody tagged me and something. It's like, hey, I'm part of a Luris' team. You want her in front of a camera? let's do it.

And her team was pushing for it, which I, which I respected, I appreciate. And I was hoping that the PFL would do the same. And I'm sure the PFL had something to do with it. But yeah, this is what you do with stories like this,

with Brennan, Olivier Aubin-Mercier. And I know he wasn't on the MAA yesterday. I think our own David Martin's going to be speaking with him. But I mean, this is what you have to do. When you have an event like this, you have moments like that,

You got to get these guys and gals in front of Cambrons. You got to get them everywhere, especially if you're in New York. Get them on all the shows. Get them out there. And that was a huge blunder from Bellator after AJ McKee won. Because we didn't see Agent McKee again until I think it was the Jake Paul, Tyron Woodley one fight, where he was just on the desk as an analyst. But he wasn't on anything.

He should have been on all the shows. Should have been on the today's show. He should have been everywhere. And he wasn't anywhere. And that was kind of shocking. Ball was definitely dropped there, but it looks like they're doing a little more at the PFL fighter.

So all in all, pretty solid card. Will it be in the running for card of the year? Probably not. But there were some definitely good moments. Brennan's story is incredible. Ante Delijah is a killer. Aspen Ladby, Julia Budd, was the most compelling and thrilling fight.

A lot of people thought Julia won that fight. O.I.M. What a knockout. What a moment for him. Rob Wilkinson, what a great moment for him. Sadabousai beat Stalano Taylor. I thought it was a pretty clear win for him. It wasn't the most exciting fight. And then we had to deal with some sad stuff as well.

We had a deal with another loss for Jeremy Stevens. Another loss for Marl Marl Marius. I think that one was just really awful. He's winning, going into the third round. We're actually joking on our Slack Channel. man i wish there was we weren't thinking about the fact that marlin could get knocked out right now and then lo and behold he gets knocked out in the third round so five straight knockout losses for marius be interesting to see where he goes from here but pfl got some got some momentum beajal ali walsh that was

a great finish the grandson of mohammed ali got the card started off with the 45 second knockout so lot to talk about oh yeah by the way ufc 282 looks a little bit different doesn't it holy Wow, what a crazy Wednesday it was. I believe it was Wednesday. Maybe it was Tuesday. These days kind of blend together at this point. It was Wednesday. It was Wednesday.

We find out that Yuri Perashka has a really bad shoulder injury. Dana White telling Yahoo Sports one of the worst he's ever seen. He is no longer fighting Glover to Shera in the main event of UFC 282. The rematch is no more. Not only that, he vacated the light heavyweight title out of respect for his fellow light heavy weights for the sport and for his fellow athletes, which I thought was interesting. I didn't think it was necessary, but if that's what he wants to do, good on him. It seems like it was his decision to do so.

I don't think it makes a whole lot of sense that he did it, but it is what it is. And then on top of that, Glover Toshera completely out of the title picture as well, as of right now. And we have a new main event for UFC 282. the light heavyweight championship will be on the line and we'll have a new champion it's either going to be yombovich becoming a two-time champ or it's going to be the surging magaband and Goliath now i got to be honest with you and i know ariel talked about this and i know a lot of other people have talked about this as well not a fan of this main event not a fan of it now magam and ankelaif probably he's probably going to win i mean this guy's really good he's just

not all that thrilling of a fighter right now. We're still looking for that, that big win to get him over the hump. Yeah, he beat Anthony Smith, but it looked like Anthony Smith was a little bit compromised heading into that fight. The Tiago Santos' main event was pretty bad. He just, is whooping up on everybody else. So I think Magamad will probably win this fight, but I just don't know, man. I don't know how many people are going to buy this pay-per-view. I have no clue. What I would have done is just giving Glover the fight with, yon-behold. just do the rematch. You have a story there.

You have two guys who are about as over as you can be at 205. Magamette Ancalaif is not really over. He's good. He's real good. He's probably going to become the champion on December 10th. But he's just not really that over. It's not really, he's not really a big draw. He's not a guy that's like, hey, you just spent $75 bucks on UFC 281.

You have the chance to spend 50 on the PFL card. Why don't you drop another $75 bucks on this Behovich-Ankola fight? I just don't, I don't know how well this is going to do on paper for you. This is not your typical end of the year card for the UFC. This is not that absolute barn burner of a card. It just isn't. It's fine. There's some good fights on it, but it's just not.

Brian Campbell said this on BTL, and it's kind of stuck with me. The UFC has certain events that we could kind of call majors for them, like the major events. International Fight Week is one of them. MSG is one of them. End of the year card is one of them. And then you can say maybe the March card. It's like their first trip to Vegas typically throughout the air. And they usually try to load that one up a little bit.

This one just doesn't scream major card to me. But we'll see what happens. But oftentimes these kinds of cards are the ones that deliver the most. I think back at UFC 199 when Michael Bisping won the title and no one thought that was going to be a great events heading into UFC 200 end up being one of the craziest events of all time. We get Patty Pimbled in a co-made event and gets Jared Gordon, Ponziadio Lollars on the main card, Darren Till, Drickus Duplasew, Bryce Mitchell, Iliate's a poor fight. I mean, there's some good fights on this card, but, man, I, the Orlando card is

equally as compelling. It just doesn't have a title fight. But we'll see what happens there. And then UFC Orlando obviously coming up on Saturday. really good card. We will have Stephen Thompson's return against Kevin Holland. Big fight 170 pounds.

And we'll see how that all plays out heading into UFC 282. A lot of people asking we to do a watch party. Stay tuned. That's all I'm going to say. But let's get to you guys. Lots to discuss. Tristan was first in line.

I already think I know what he's going to ask. So let's do this. Tristan, how are you? Yes, sir. Mike, so that's what I wanted to ask you about the fact that Yuri Pajasca vacated. You said that he didn't make any sense. I did watch the MMA hour, Ariel Hohani, when he spoke to Connerberg as well as New York Rick. New York Rick said, I don't know why he vacated.

He should have just held on to the bell until he was ready to come back. But my question is, when you're the champion, I guess there's extra benefits that comes with it as far as money-wise. I guess I don't know if he keeps, I mean, I don't know how that works. That's why I need clarity on that. And two, like, my thing about it was maybe Uri did it. Obviously, it's a very moral and very noble and moral thing to do for the division. But, like, because he also compared to, like, what Francis O'Donnell,

Francis O'Gano had the knee, had knee surgeries, held on the belt for a year. And, you know, now he's going to probably blow up. likely fight in 23 against John Jones for the belt, but we'll see. But the thing is do you think also, too, because my mindset is as well as the type of injury that he's dealing

with, which is a severe shoulder injury. Jed alluded to you, I think, on BTL, when you guys had it on podcast only, like, once you have surgery on your shoulder, you're never the same. There's a lot of complication that goes with it because the shoulder,

it's a lot going on. It's not a very simple type of body part. It's a lot of going on in there. So maybe Yuri was just like, man, I could be out year and a half at best because of how complicated a surgery could happen on the shoulder. So just I need some clarity on that, on your mindset of this is why you hold on to the belt. I guess it's monetary game. But what does those extra benefits? on that situation.

I just want your thoughts on that because you guys didn't get deep into that of why vacate the belt. I understand, and I understand what Rick is saying because of that, but I just want to know the extra stipulation for it

because, and then also, too, do you feel with the division, you could do that in the like heavyweight division because there's still, you need a year to still figure everything out within that whole division, so it would be okay. that year he holds on the belt for a year as he gets the surgery and then recovers from that.

That's my first question. My second question is in regards of Yasmin Yerga, who's fighting this Saturday, she kicks off the prelims. What's your thoughts on her? I did a deep kind of like video review on her fights. So I went back and watched her last fight. that was actually incredible. I have high hopes, as far as her as a prospect in the straw weight division.

To me, to be honest with what I've seen, I think she's going to be contending for the bet in a couple of years. I think I'm really high on her and as a prospect. I just want your thoughts on her moving forward. Thanks, Mike, and have a heck of the morning. Thanks, man. Yeah, Yasmin is good, man.

She's good and she's young and she's going to kind of grow up in this company. I like the matchup with Nunes. It's not too big of a step up. Nunes has been in the UFC for a little bit. She's got a couple of losses. She had, she's been in there with some good fighters, man. She's been in there with Angela Lee.

A lot of people felt like she beat Sam Hughes in April. She's a solid hand, but Yazur should probably win this fight. So the UFC obviously sees something at her to give her a fight like this on a card like this in front of people. There aren't a lot of fighters who can say, hey, my first two UFC fights post-pandemic are in front of fans. And that's what's going to happen with Yasmin. She's on the San Diego card. Now she gets this Orlando treatment. And, yeah, we'll see what happens.

I think I'm not ready to say she's got to contend for a title. Let's see how she does here. Give her a little more of a step up. And then we'll see where she's at. But she kind of snuck up on us a little bit. And I'm excited to see what she does on Saturday. As far as Yuri vacating the belt, I mean, it's hard because I don't have a UFC contract in front of me, but most times when you are the champion, you get the extra perks, the extra money,

maybe some perks with ticket sales. You definitely get pay-per-view points, and the better a pay-per-view card does, the more money you can make. And not all fighters get that. Not all challengers get that. Some do, some don't. but mostly, Abe Kao is the one who said this to be. You get to the belt and then you start to make your money. Like that's what you really start to make your money.

But that's why it's so hard to keep the belt because everybody knows that. Like once you win the belt and you're getting these title fights and you're headlining, that's what you start making the bigger money. Now, hopefully a deal is in place that when Yuri is ready to come back, he is almost treated like a champion. kind of like how Charles Olivera went into the Islamaka Chet fight. He wasn't the champ. He got stripped to the belt because he missed weight,

but it was our hopes and everybody's hopes because of the scale and possible tomfoolery that he gets treated as the champion. He gets paid free points and all that. It appeared that he did and hopefully he gets the same treatment. Now, what Dana says and what reports say coming from Dana and the UFC, a little bit different than what Yeri's saying,

because when Yeri made his Instagram posts basically saying that I'm out of the fight, I'm vacating the belt, he's saying he's going to put him out of action for at least six months, and he's saying, I'm going to be back in six months and I'm taking the belt against whoever has it. So maybe this is optimism.

I don't know. But he's saying only back in six months. Who the hell knows? He hasn't had surgery yet. I don't know, but hopefully the UFC looks at him and says, look, you technically should still be the champion. You vacated this on your own. You're still going to be treated as such. The big question to me isn't Yuri, because Yuri is getting a title fight the second he's ready to come back.

The question to me is, what do you do with Glover now? What do you do with Glover? That's the big question. Because we're, I'd be stunned if we get this rematch now. I just feel like the timing's not going to line up. And, I mean, do you just, depending on what happens with this fight, whether it's Jan winning or Ankhaliaf winning, do you just wait and see if Uri's ready to come back?

Or do you try to rush one of those guys back to fight Glover? I don't know. But to me, Glover should have got the fight. Glover said, no, I'm not fighting Ankeliath on two weeks notice. I don't freaking blame him for doing that. But he was ready to fight Jan Bolhoeven. And I will say this. I'll throw this out there.

I don't want anyone going crazy because there's very preliminary talks. But here's how the build to this announcement took place for me. Because M.M.A. Island reported that Jamal Hill was fighting Anthony Smith. There was no date attached to it. we had confirmed that both guys had signed contracts for March. We were told one side said March 25th. One side said March 11th. So we confirmed that both contracts were signed.

One fighter was told one date. One fighter was told the other date. We were trying to figure out which one was which. I was told that one of the fighters involved in this conversation may have a different opportunity ahead of them. And it was not to fight for the title, but it was potentially to step in to fight for the co-made event. So I was like, oh, this is crazy.

Who's out? And from what I was told from the person with knowledge that I was speaking with, they didn't know who was out but they the UFC's message to them was that it was quite vague it was quite vague that hey there might be an opportunity to fight December 10th in a big fight at 205 probably in the co-made event

and no one knew it was going on no one knew that Yuri was hurt no one knew that the title fight was off no one knew anything and then we got this announcement of the new title fight and then literally seconds later I was told okay if fight's happening March 11th. So light heavyweight. It was a crazy couple of days for the 205 pound division,

but now we know that Jamal Hill is fighting Anthony Smith. Biggest fight of his career. Main event, March 11th. March 25th, not really sure what's going on with that car. We found out that Macy Barber's fighting Andrew Lee on that card. I think maybe like another fight or two has been announced for that one, but I'm told that there might be something kind of special going on with that March 25th card. It's nothing's done yet. I can't really, I don't have enough to actually report this, but apparently they're going to,

the UFC is going to do something pretty cool with this March 25th card, I'm not really sure what I can say and what I can't, so I'll just leave it at that, but that's where we're at with 205 right now. And how Glover fits into this scenario, I have no friggin idea. But hopefully he gets one last crack of the belt before he rides off into the sunset.

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Good, how are you? I'm all right, I guess. I've got two, sort of, and I do have two questions. The first one sort of, I guess, interesting, I guess you could say. I know you brought him up in the open, but could you talk a bit more about Rob Wilkinson because the Australian media did not.

I found two articles about him. When it comes to combat sports, the Australian media is just, a joke. I'm not, I'm not even kidding. I thought because he was Australian, they might. But like I said, two news outlets, pathetic. And the other question is,

three underdogs in the U.S.A upcoming that you think might, in the upcoming U.S.E. Club that you think might win. All right. Everyone, have a have a morning. You too, Mike. Peace. Thanks, man.

Dude, Rob Wilkinson is just super fun to watch. He beat the shit. out of Omari Akmanov. I mean, that was bad. I was, there are certain times where I'm just like, I hope the doctor doesn't stop it. This fight's competitive.

But in that, in that case, I'm like, please stop this fight because it's just not going to get any better. Agmeadov, it was fun like Ogmaidov had his moments, but he was just getting butchered out there. And what a story this guy is. It's incredible. Dude is undefeated, just finishing everybody on the way up.

gets a shot at the UFC, has two fights, one of them against Israel, out of Sanya, both fights, it gets knocked out in the second round, goes to kickboxing for a little bit, has some regional fights, hops on in 2022 for the PFL season, and just knocks everybody out. Four finishes, four fights,

never saw a third round, and now this freaking guy's a millionaire. The dude is a champion. He won a million dollars, and he beat some pretty good dudes on the way up. I've talked about this a lot. Like, if you're Polo Costa right now and you're sitting there looking at a fight with Robert Whitaker, or if there's, or if you have one fight left on your deal, and you're telling people that there's a potential end date to this deal,

why don't just wait and get your ass in this PFL season? Find a way to get over there. because this is going to be a really interesting time for the PFO. A really interesting time. Free agency is going to be massive. I know Ariel talked about this yesterday. He had fighters that are top 15 fighters in the UFC right now, hitting him up and being like, is this real?

Like, is this, is this real? And I've been having conversations like this with fighters for a long time. So wait a bit. I could just go fight for this, win a few fights, and then win a million dollars. I mean, it's not quite as cut and dry as that, but essentially, yeah, throughout the course of the season, you could end up with a million bucks in the championship. It's pretty sweet.

It's a pretty sweet deal. So after the event, the best thing that comes out of this event for the PFL was that they have gotten on the radars of other fighters, not just in the UFC. They've probably gotten on the radar of some Bellator fighters as well. Free agency, this next few months heading into the 2023 season, it's going to be real interesting.

It's got to be really, really interesting to see what they do. But Rob's a gangster, man. And just seeing that image of Rob Wilkinson up in the Bud Light celebratory area with his belt just hammering beers, the big smile on his face, just great stuff. Just great stuff. And before he was just a mark on Israel Adasani's rise to the middleweight title.

And now look at this guy. A million bucks. got the big fat check got a title bell and he's super fun to watch dude can fight that was a hell of a performance let's go to Bobby

hello Bobby hey Mike how's it going I got three quick things for you with Manga Man and Yon switching from three to five rounds in two weeks is that a factor I listened to the Mosvedong interview this morning

great job on that. With Burns book, do you think there's any chance to Belaw might get that fight, possibly March in England? Lastly, with the Ballethora Grand Prix coming up in Lightway, how do you book Islam in his first round? Do you give him a star like A.J. McKee, a vet like Benson Henderson, or possibly somebody farther down on the list like a Sydney outlaw on his first round. Have a great day.

Have a heck of a morning. Thanks, man. Mazulah, maybe. I think Bilal would take that fight. But I think Bilal is probably going to wait to see what's going on with Shamiya right now. Because I honestly think he's in play here. I honestly think Bilal is in play for that fight.

It was interesting hearing Alex Pereira's interview and what has come from that. So who knows? Maybe everything gets shifted and they end up fighting at 205. Because Pereira went on the MMA hour and said, responded to Shamiyev and said, We called the UFC and said, we'll fight Shamiyaf at 205 at UFC 283 in Rio. And then they said Shamiya didn't want it. I reached out to a member of Shamiya's team. It was like, was there any truth to that?

His response verbatim, absolute bullshit, was the response I got. So who knows? That card could use a little bit of a boost. And now you got bets involved. You got storylines there, chance to race. money for charity. It's good stuff. It's real good stuff. But who knows it happens. But if you're Belal, you're probably holding out hope maybe for the Shemai fight. But I mean, getting Mazadol is a pretty damn good consolation prize. But I don't know. I don't know what the interest would,

I don't know if Mazdaal be all that interested in fighting Bilal. Who knows? He's still dealing with a bunch of other stuff. I assume Connor is probably in play for him as well. And Burns is a guy who's typically active. So if he goes out there and beats Neil Macs, Agni and wants to bounce right back in March or April. If there's anybody that could do it, it's Gilbert Burns, especially for a fight like that, I think he would do it. So TBD right now, I don't know if Ballal mods what all happens. I don't know.

If it happens in England, perhaps, I don't know. I don't know. It's an interesting one. Let's say hello to our friend Viking MMA, and then we'll go to Latino Heat. We'll get to everybody that's waiting. Viking, hello. Viking, are you there? Yes, Mike. Where have you been, brother? I've been living life, my man. How are you?

I'm good. I hope you are good, too. So my question about Francis and Gano, so will Francis Angano lose his big payday with Tyson Fury if he loses to John Jones, like you have said, about what Usman could have lost before Leon fight and do you think

if UFC agrees to his terms Fasi Angano's terms does that mean Inganu made them kneel before him or said of that thing? Because I think Inganu will fight in the octagon 100% and some facts

about Bilal Muhammad he was chirping about Hamza, but the same below did not have balls, even to say Hamad's name when he had a chance twice. And one more thing. I saw Jed Mishu's cover picture on Twitter, so is he a part-time priest who waits people? Thanks, man. So Jed, he's not a part-time priest, but he has,

I mean, here in the United States, you can have people sort of step in and marry other people. I know when I got married, we did it outside of the golf course. We just had, I was a bartender at the time before I got into the sport. And there was a guy who he called Uncle Jeff. It would come in. He would sit down at the bar every day I was there. And he would drink Maker's Mark on the Rocks. And he was just the funniest son of a bitch in the world.

well-spoken in his 60s great guy and i asked him to do it because i thought he'd be perfect at it i know he would take it seriously i know he would take it seriously so i think jed just had a buddy say you're good with words jedd why don't you do the marrying and that's what he did so as far as the ingano tyson fury things by the way let me go back to the to the usman amalgamato question i think benson henderson would probably be the one um you got to put a big fight on there right off the bat. Putting him against city outlaws is probably not the one. So I think Benson's the one.

I don't think Agent McKee's the one they go right to right away. And plus, Asian McKees got himself a hell of a fight on that rising car with Satoshi. So it'll be interesting to see how that plays out and how long he might be out for, et cetera. With the Ingano Fury thing, I just don't know if the interest is there anymore. I know Francis would love that fight

because he'd make a big bag of money, but Tyson hasn't even talked about Francis, like since then. He's booked at other fights. Tyson was on the M.A.R. yesterday and said that his retirement didn't last long because he needed it. He needed a box. And I don't think Francis is the guy that's going to get him up in the morning and training his ass off because he's going to mollywop France Sagano. And I'm not saying this to be disrespectful.

It's just the way that it is. Tyson in a boxing match against Francis Gano is going to beat him convincingly. And I still want to see Francis get that fight because he'd make a whole bunch of money. So right now, I don't think he loses the bag of money

because I don't think there's a bag of money to be had. I just don't think Tyson is even entertaining this idea right now. Now, had he retired and gone off into the sunset and would come back for a one-off, kind of doing what Floyd's did, Yeah, I think you would entertain that idea. But at this point, it doesn't seem like it's a thing.

It doesn't seem like it's a thing. But who knows? Maybe there's other guys that step up to the table, step up to the plate and want to box Francis. And maybe Francis will ask him. Maybe he'll get his wish. I will say this, though. As far as the fight with John Jones goes, I mean, like I said, we've been talking about it on this show for months now, that that was the plan, March 4th, if they could do it.

We knew December wasn't going to happen for Francis because he's dealing with the knee recovery. But we're seeing videos of him kicking a little bit. He's moving around a little bit better. I am told that nothing is done. The plan is still March 4th if they can get it done. But from what I am told, the conversations between. both sides have been going much better than they were earlier on. We're still far away.

There's no official fight offer. There's no official agreements in place because Francis knows the contract and all that. But for what I've been told, Friday, I believe Friday or Saturday. Yeah, it was sometime this weekend. I talked to some people and conversations for that fight are going very well. So there's your update, which isn't much, but conversations are going much better. than anticipated. Latito Heat, hello.

Hi, how you doing? Good morning, my first thing. And my question is, what is your own? I'm more like an opinion. What's your opinion on the KSI versus Dylan? No, not, yeah, Dylan Dan is fighting. And then do you think Tyson Ferry might lose

since this year, apparently there's been so many upsets like an Asanya, Kamara Usman, Rose Namajunas, so on and that's all on thank you thanks man

to answer your second question no Francis is going to win and win dominantly and not Francis Tyson Fury

Tyson Fury will win probably knock him out and Tyson seems up for it so this isn't like a typical sort of rematch scenario yeah Tyson Fury is going to win that fight

no doubt in my mind. Someone asked earlier about what upsets I was looking at that could shock some folks. I'm looking. I mean, maybe Wonderboy at plus 135.

I think Holland wins that fight, but these are the kinds of fights that Stephen Thompson does really well in because Holland's not going to shoot for a bunch of takedowns. At least that's what he says. Tai Tui Voss is always a live dog at plus 170, but he's fighting a friggin really tough guy. Right now Chris Curtis is an underdog to Joaquin Buckley.

I would probably take a look at Chris Curtis, plus money right now. Jared Gordon, plus 160 against Patty Pimblit. Yeah, those are the ones I'm looking at him. Bryce Mitchell's the dog against Iliate Tporia. That's a close fight. Yeah, there's some fun ones. There's some fun ones coming up.

Let's go to Barbarusa. And we'll go to Dakota and then rip some picks. What's up, Barbara Russo? Hi, Mike. How are doing for today? Good. How are you? I'm good, I'm good. I have a question about Pereira. I hear a lot of talks that he's the worst champion in MMA history or in UFC history

and he's going to lose to the Ferris-Rasler. Do you think it's fair because I know he's not the best wrestler, but what I've seen against Adisani, Adisania, which has been a champ for a long time, and he was very hard to hit. And I've seen a guy who was so exhausted, and in the last round, he had the ability to knock someone who's very hard to hit,

especially the wrestlers would be exhausted too in the fifth round. So I see if you don't finish him, if you are not so specialist in the Jujitsu, I don't know. I think he will always have a chance to be a champion. And my second question is about Moikano. What do you think? Do you think he's taking the good approach by saying he will not fight until the money is all right? because I like what he did in the post interview, but is he in that spot to demand for more money?

I don't know. And my last thing is about Francis Ingano. Because do you see the UFC compromising and giving him what he wants, especially since he's 38? And I know his story is very great if you see where he comes from, the way he knocks people out, but the UFC didn't want to promote him, and he's not that famous. Obviously, he should be much more famous, and he's actually the baddest man on the planet, but he's not promoted that way.

Do you think the UFC were compromised for a 38 years old man, and then the young fighters would do the same approach he did, especially he didn't do it in behind clothes, door and he talked to media about it. Thank you Mike. Thanks man. Yeah, I think cool it has to prevail. I kind of thought this is what would happen from Jump Street. I know this is like a huge story

and who knows? Maybe at the 11th hour, the talks will fall apart and Francis will become a free agent. I'll tell you what. If Francis does become a free agent, if I'm the PFL, I'm getting on a flight to Las Vegas immediately and getting that guy on your roster.

You got to do it. If he's available, you've got to snatch that dude up. And if you can't get him, you should fire whoever is in charge of that. 100%. Go get him. But I think cooler heads will prevail. I think the fact that John Jones is in play,

it's John's first fight. That's the one I think that's going to get him over the top. And I think it's going to be, I think they'll figure it out. I definitely think they'll figure it out. The Moikano thing is interesting because this is the, I mean, this is the most interesting Hanata Moikano has ever been. I love this gimmick.

I'm a big fan of it. Let's go. Mani Moikano, I love how he talks about himself and the third person. It's the best. It's awesome. Do I think he's going to like get million dollar offers to fight?

Absolutely not. But he keeps doing this. He's going to get some opportunities. He's going to get some bigger fights. And the thing, he's already into this gimmick. You just got to stick with it. and just keep doing it. When he shows up

the next media day, he needs to talk in the third person, he needs to say these exact same things. This is what he needs to do. I'm digging it. And with the Pereira thing, I know there's, I think it was R.J. Clifford who tweeted out

that he might be the worst middleweight champion of all time and John Attic reacted to that. Here's what I'll say. The fact that he is the champion is just so wild to me. And I agree with a lot of, you just said at the same token i had no idea how good this guy is i have no clue i still don't like i didn't get a ton of questions answered and i like i almost have i don't have as many as i

did heading into the adasania fight but i certainly have some i don't know if he's the like he could be the best middle weight of all time he could be the eighth best middle weight in the world right now i don't know and that's it's so fascinating about him being the champion right now i would keep him far away from Hamzaat Shamaif right now. I don't want to see that. I mean, if they do it at 205 and they can do the bet thing and the stakes aren't really high, like I don't care, whatever.

But it's not a fight like I need to see right now. I think all signs, he's got the hand injury, dealing with a bunch of stuff. Just keep this dude out of the cage and let him heal up and have him fight out of Sonia. Like, just do that. And if the Shemaya fight is there afterwards, he goes out there and beats him again,

cool, we can go that route. You got Robert Whitaker. There's just too many questions that are unanswered on all sides. If they, I mean, look, if 283 needs this fight, like, it could really help it, especially the way 282 looks right now. You want to go ahead and do that fight at 205? I don't care. Am I clamoring for it?

It's something I have to see? No. Especially with Perr being banged up. Got the hand injury. He says, he goes and gets that taken care of him back by, like, June or July. Just wait till. then, who cares? You can keep building up the storyline with Shamiya if you want.

And then let's go to Shamiya F. Colby or Shemaya up below. I want to see if he can make 170. Because if Shamiya takes a fight at 205 or takes a fight at 185, I think the welterweight days are over. And I think there's just a lot of interesting fights at 170 for him that I want to see. I just want to see if he can make the damn weight.

But prayer is good, man. I just don't know how good he is yet. And that's what's so interesting about. bottom. Dakota, hello. Oh, can you hear me? Yes, I can. How are you?

So I just have a few questions. Do you really think 282 is worth the buy now that Grover and Yuri are the main event for the title? As well as when Nagano leaves, if he does leave, if nothing works out for his contract, like I'm hoping it really does because I love watching Nagano fight. Where do you think he will end up if it be, you know, PF? or Bellatora or, you know, so on and so forth. What promotion do you think we'd end up with? And then my last question is completely off of the subject

of everybody else with everybody else has been talking about. For the Banimate shot, do you think Sean O'Malley should get that fight, or do you think he should have to fight Cheeto Vero first? Because the way I see it, his one loss did come from Chito, whether it was a technical loss to him or not, it was still a loss. Do you think they should have to run that back

to see who actually gets to go for the title shot first, So, you know, they're both doing so well in the UFC right now? Or do you think Sean should just get that, Sean? Thanks, man. The Engano thing is, is it, I don't know where he ends up. Maybe, maybe Engano just does his own promotion. Who the hell knows? But like I said, I'm on the PFL, I'm just backing up multiple brink trucks

and getting this guy on. I want to know why. Because this is the easiest guy in the promotion to promote. he's so easy you just show highlights of him deading everybody deading stepe deading alice or over him

he's a terrifying looking guy I mean he does interviews he's just such a delight but he's so easy to promote he's so easy it's like right there

on your laps it's so simple and pfl would just you don't have to do a lot you just show highlights of him deading guys I don't get it. I don't understand what the

what the big problem is. He's so easy to promote. As far as the Bannam White thing goes, no, I've been saying this for a long time. Sean should just get the title shot. I don't care how you felt about the Pieter-Yon fight. He freaking beat him. He won.

In the books, it is a win. And Dana White said, whoever wins his fights fighting for the title next. So he should get the shot. if he wants it right now. It doesn't sound like he really wants it right now. He's even suggesting have Aljo and Sohudo fight for the title and then I'll fight the winner. It's kind of a risky proposition, if we're being honest.

Now, I know that Ali Abdulaziz is doing interviews with multiple media members, including our own Damon Martin, saying that it's done. Sohudo's fighting Sterling. This is the fight. I'm told that's not true. there's been no fight off for Sterling nothing like that and who knows what could happen.

Again, I have no interest in watching Henry Sehudo fight for the title right now. No interest at all. Do I want to see him fight out to Maine Sterling? Yes. But do I want to make sure that Suhudo actually wants to do this? Yes.

The worst retirement ever in combat sports one of the worst comebacks in the history of combat sports he hasn't proven anything to anybody i would rat to me it's o'mally then chito then sehudo if we're gonna if he's just not gonna fight anybody else how i would match it up and this is what i've been saying since sehudo got back in the pool do sohudo versus chito just do that it's a fight that sehudo can win and if he beats chito then i don't care go fight for the belt I don't give a shit.

But, yeah, I talked about this all the time. But O'Malley has done enough to earn a title fight, in my opinion. You have O'Malley, Vera. That's a back pocket fight. You can do that anytime you want. You can go back to that anytime you want. And if for some reason they go Sterling O'Malley and O'Malley wins the title, I don't think Sterling's getting in an immediate rematch.

I don't think so. Unless it's like something strange and weird happens. and then you can do O'Malley versus Cheeto for the title and it's so much bigger. And either way, if you do O'Malley fighting for the belt and he loses, you can still do the Cheeto fight. It's right there for you.

It's right there. Banimite's a mess right now. Let's go to Rips and Picks. Hey, what's up, Mike? Can you hear me? Yes, sir. How are you? Good, doing a little, man. Just had a couple rapid fire. You just went over the Aljo Suhudo, sugar thing.

I think that was perfect. Just first little question I got, being selfish, my birthday is March 4th. So that March 4th card, just curious in your opinion, who 100% fights on that card? Like, is it John Jones? Is it Francis? Like, who is the person that's 100%? Do you think going to be on that card? And the only other thing I wanted to go over is just Larissa Pacheco.

I mean, pretty crazy. I feel like since Kayla is not doing the season format in 2023, if Larissa repeats us champ, and most likely knocks out everyone in the first round, just like she did before. Does she make a case for the best female fighter in the PFL history? Because she would be tied with Kayla as a two-time champ, doing it in back-to-back years, and she'd possibly do it in a more violent fashion

finishing everyone in the first round. That's all I got for you, Mike. Thanks, man. That's an interesting question. I think she'd have to beat Kayla at least once more, maybe twice, to get that, and I just don't know if the timing's going to be there for that. And who knows? Who knows if she even ends up in the season at this point?

Because they are doing this pay-per-view superfight thing. Kail Harrison-Loriceko 4 is a much more compelling fight now than we thought it might be on Thursday or heading into that event on Friday. So it all depends. What does she want? Does she want to go through that whole season again in an attempt to win the million? Or does she want to get a big fat stack of cash to fight Kayla? once, maybe twice if she beats her again.

All I know is that before Larissa Pacheco steps foot inside a PFL cage, her and her team, they need to sit down with PFL and they need to pay her more money. She is now a valuable commodity in this organization. So pay her her money. She has earned it. She has become a story. Is she going to sit there and sell you a million pay-per-views?

Maybe not. Probably not. but she is this result is the most talkable thing in PFL history you got to pay her and if you want to offer the Kayla fight

you better pony up otherwise she's like all right I'll just do the season again just win the Millie she's got options it's a great place to be in if you're Larissa Pacheco but to answer your question

she's got a ways to go she's going to have to be Kayla at least one more time and just keep doing what she's doing it on the way. March 4th, 100%. I can't see that. Nothing's ever 100%. But, I mean,

things are heading in the right direction for Ngano Jones. We're far away from that happening and being a thing right now. But I'm told conversations are going well. And if it's up to the UFC, that's the fight that they're going to book. Other than that,

don't know what you do. I think Colby Shamiyev might be like a good little backup plan if you can get everybody on board. But I think John's going to fight on that card either way. It all depends on Francis. It all depends on France. If he doesn't resign, John, they'll strip me the belt. John will fight Curtis Blades or zero guns for the title. But John will, John, I feel pretty, I'm not going to say 100%, but I, because he is John Jones and fool me once, you know the cliche. But I would, I would feel good about. John fighting March 4th. I hope it's Francis,

but I feel like John will be on that card. Again, Sue, that's the question. Jay Stad, hello. Hello, Mike. My question is, I think Money Moichano needs to be in the PFL to make all the money. So that's all I wanted to say. Hey, listen, there's worse places to be right now

your money Moikano. Worst places to be. Listen, I think, I think there's a lot of, I think there's a lot of fighters on both Bellator and the UFC's roster who are like, ooh, this seems like something I would want to do. So you would put Boycano in it lightweight. And he, damn, I mean, Moichano, Boycano would do pretty well.

He might win the whole damn thing. Oh, I haven't seemed to have found himself. Stevie Ray had a good season. But Moikano probably beats Anthony Pettis, probably beats a lot of these guys. So who knows? But I don't know what his contract situation is. I don't know how many fights he got left on this deal.

And I'm sure the UFC is, I'm sure the UFC is seeing what's going on with the PFL. And they're probably like, oh, okay, they're a player. They're a player right now. But good little momentum swing for PFL. All right. take us home good morning mike how are you good how are you i'm good thank you uh i i i don't late so i don't know if you guys talks about this or not but uh regarding uh conal mcgriger

everybody know right now everybody knows that he is on steroids and you sad as said when he comes back it's up to the eFC to exempt him from the six-month pool or not let's say the the UFC exempted him. Do you think it will be, like, I'm talking about from a point of principles and ethicality, do you think fighters who accept to fight him before six months?

Do you think this is going to water down the existence of USADA and defends the whole purpose? Do you think they shouldn't complain about another fighter in the future who they find out after the fact that the fighter was using,

steroids. If they accept to fight Connor because they know they will make money before he enters the six months mandatory six-month pool in the Usada pool. What do you think?

Thanks, man. Yeah, I mean, this has been a trendy topic. But McGregor has said that and I believe we reported this a while ago. He's not in the pool. Usada and everybody involved is aware of him not being in the pool and why because of the catastrophic injury and they're aware of it. Like everybody's aware of it.

Now in Connor's eyes, he says once he elects to go back into the pool, he only has to take two tests. Who knows? Like who knows? I mean, and Usata says he has six months. Sure. I mean, but I don't think the UFC should be like, hey, Connor, you're ready to fight? All right, you're not getting tested.

I think even Connor knows that the UFC's not going to do that. But even if they test him twice at these negative both times, maybe they'll slap the exemption on them. I just don't see the UFC. I mean, we all have eyes, right? Like, if we have eyes and we're looking at what this guy has become, like, we're not dumb. I mean, who knows?

But whatever, sometimes you need steroids and these enhancements. handsome drugs to heal an injury. And sometimes you lift a lot of weights and you just get absolutely yoked. And that's kind of what Connor's done. I don't think the, like, when he's like, I don't think he's going to call Dana White and be like, hey, I'm ready to fight in February.

They're like, all right, I'll put you on the card in February. No, they're going to make sure he tests and make sure it's on a system. Make sure he's at a different playing field than others. But, and who knows? Maybe, maybe he comes back in in January and he can't fight until, July anyways and then he can do the testing for six months and he's good to go. I don't know. I honestly have no idea what's going on.

There's multiple sides. I don't know where the UFC stands on it. They haven't really talked about it. Who knows? But even if they use an exemption, it's going to be an exemption that's used like after a few like negative tests. I don't think they're just going to be like, all right, he's exempted because they don't want to play that game again.

They played with Brock Lesnar already. Didn't work out too well. So I think those exemptions. they're going to use, they can keep them close to the best and use them only when they have to. But all right, everybody, we are done. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. I didn't have my coffee this morning.

It's just sitting in my fridge and I didn't drink at all. I'm like, why am I a little foggy this morning? It's because I didn't drink my damn Dunkin' Donuts coffee. But we got through. We answered some great questions. And we will be back on Thursday. We will do it again. 10 a.m. Eastern.

Then we'll come back on Friday. Well, we will do something. on Friday. It's just a matter of when because the UFC Orlando Wayans are at 9 a.m. Eastern on Friday. So what do we get? Stay tuned. We'll do

something Friday for sure. And then BTL will be back at its normal form on Thursday. It's going to be a fun week, everybody. We're getting back to normal. We're getting back to normal after the Thanksgiving holiday here in the United States. So thank you all very much. Have a great rest of the day. And as

always, have a heck to the Vox Media Podcast Network.