MMA Fighting - HOAM | Welcome To the Ilia Topuria Era; Plus, Fallout Of UFC 298, UFC 300 Main Event Reveal

Episode Date: February 20, 2024

Ilia Topuria is the new UFC featherweight champion following his highlight reel knockout of former long reigning champ Alexander Volkanovski in the main event of UFC 298 event this past Saturday. With a new market to tap into, and a 27-year-old champion with superstardom written all over him, how big can it get for the Topuria era? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to Topuria's win, what could be next, and the UFC getting into Spain. Additionally, topics include Volkanovski's 145-pound title reign coming to an end, the reactions on social media because of it, Dana White announcing Alex Pereira vs. Jamahal Hill as the main event of UFC 300, where that leaves UFC 301, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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

the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. Tuesday, February 20th, 2024, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the MMA Fighting Twitter space.

You can hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter on the MMA Fighting. Podcasting Network. What's going on everybody? I am Mike Heck. Hope you all had a great weekend. Hope you all have a wonderful start to the week. And we have a lot to talk about, my friends. UFC

298 is officially in the books. We have a brand new featherweight champion of the world. His name is Ilya Tuporia. Knocks out Alexander Volcanowski in the second round. It was a brutal knockout. It will

1,000% be in the knockout of the year discussion. It might even win because of everything that was involved with this knockout, and it was just nasty. But the Tuporia era has begun. And what a moment it is for him, and what a moment it is for the UFC, because they got something here. They absolutely have something here,

how much it will translate all over the world, remains to be seen, but I think he checks off all the boxes in terms of how high he can go. But obviously, being able to go to Spain, being able to tap into some of the major sports celebrities who are in Spain, who are already collabing with Iliot Tuporia since this victory. Unbelievable stuff. And the scary thing about Iliate Tuporia is he's only going to get better. So this is going to be a fascinating title run for El-Ell-Wiator. Madador. Incredible stuff.

What a performance. What a fight. Volk was looking good. I thought he won the first round. I thought he was winning the second round. But you can see Tuporia kind of get closer and closer. And Volk knew heading into that fight. He knew

the entire time. Do not get backed up into the fence. He knew it. And as soon as his back hit the fence, he got clobbered. And Iliot Tepore's do featherweight champion. I'm sure we're going to talk about Volkovsky a lot. I've already seen just the horrendous takes already. Oh, Volk wasn't that good to begin with. Volk was

overrated, all that. You should be ashamed of yourself if that is your take. Or you are clearly exposing yourself to being a fan for five months or less if that is your take away from this fight, was that Volk wasn't that good. You guys are insane if that is your actual takeaway from this fight. Ily Tupori is just that damn good, guys. He's just that damn good. And Father Tome catches up to all of us, and Volk is still a damn good fighter. This is a great win.

And we should not take away what this means to Iliot Teporia just because you think, because Volkadovsky lost to the pound-for-pound best fighter on planet Earth twice and got knocked out by just a sensational up-and-comer that he wasn't that good to begin with. craziness, absolute craziness. Great win for Robert Whitaker. That fight with Paul Costa was incredible. Great stuff. Robert Whitaker is an absolute gangster,

and Paul Costel looked damn good in defeat. Ian Machado Gary remains undefeated. Defeats Jeff Neal. Not a fight. We're probably going to go back and watch again. A lot of people giving Ian a hard time for the performance. I don't really know why. Because, I mean, the point is to win.

And this is a big step up in competition for him. And he won. And there were things he did that I thought really good. But man, the amount of robbery talk I saw was crazy. Robbery for that fight? I don't understand. But we could talk about that as well. Maraud de Welsh willie.

Good gravy, man. What a turnaround for this guy. from just being the guy nobody really cared about to the guy everybody seems to care about in a matter of weeks, just unbelievable stuff. Rob Walsh, really, beats Henry Sehudo. It was 2928 across the board, as I told you on this show, I said this fight was going to be more competitive than people think it's going to be. And that if you're looking at this from betting perspective,

taking Henry Sehuto plus three and a half points was a pretty good bet. It was a pretty good bet. And if you followed me on that, you cashed out. Because Sohuda won the first round. He looked good. And then Marab started doing Marab things. And it ended up being like about as lopsided of a 29, 28 as you'll ever see. But it was 29, 28.

Nonetheless, Marab does the thing. Does it very well. Crowd was fully behind him. The fan base seems to be fully behind him right now. And now let's see what happens next. Dana White goes to the press conference, never really makes fights after the fight, or at least that's what he says most of the time. He came out and said, look, Barab's the guy.

He's fighting the winner. Now, I don't know if that's going to be true or not, unless Cheeto Vera beat Chado Malay. If Chito Vera beat Chado Malay and Marab is going to fight Chito Vera. If Chatea Malley wins, I have a strange suspicion he's going to call out Iliott's Poria. Seems like that's what he's going to do. But he at least has gotten to the point where, look, if they don't give me that fight and they Give me a Marab. Cool. Like, I'll do that. But that's a fascinating fight. Anthony Hernandez,

absolute gangster, submits Roma Coppulov in round number two. That was a fun-ass fight as well. A lot to like about UFC 298. I have a much better, more cleansed feeling, if you will, coming out of 298 than I did coming out of 297 and certainly coming out of 296 because this is fun. This card delivered pretty much across the board. It was great stuff. of course when you have an event like this that leads to a shuffling up in the mhm a fighting global rankings and geez louise do people have opinions about the m m fiding global rankings especially the pound for pound rankings coming out of this fight and if you guys want to talk about that we can certainly do that we can certainly do that and i'll

give you my rankings coming out of this event but ladies and gentlemen we find have our answer. Because immediately after Iliate's big win and his crowning moment, we still didn't have a UFC 300 made event announced until minutes later. Minutes later, social media,

Dana White announces the main event for UFC 300 will not be Leon Edwards versus Hamzaa Shamaa. It will not be Leon Edwards versus Belaw Muhammad. It will not be Drickish Duplos Bres versus Israel-A-Sania. It will not be Shemaiah versus DDP. It will be Alex Pereira versus Jamal Hill.

And G.C. and I reacted to this live on the watch party. G.C. seemed very excited about this. I love the fight. If you guys have been listening to the show since Pereira won the belt, I have said many times, heading into 2024, if I have to list five fights that absolutely have to see in 2024, Alex Pereira versus Jamal Hill is one of those five fights. because it's just a fascinating matchup.

And I have a million questions about both guys, especially Jamal Hill. Because that performance against Glover Toshera was incredible. But we haven't seen him since that performance. And I want to know if that's legit. I want to know if he is the real deal. And if he goes out and does that to Alex Pereira, we have our answer.

He's the best light heavyweight in the world right now. And it's not a, I mean, I guess you can make some questions about it. But Dean Nemcoff is out of the light heavyweight division. you want to say Magamenekelaif would be him, sure. I mean, I'm willing to listen to that. It's a great fight. But is this UFC 300 main event-y? I don't know.

I don't know. It just, I'm fine with the fight, and I think the event is going to be really, really good. And honestly, I think this is still better than Leon versus Belal. because I just don't see any way this fight is boring. I don't see any way that this fight is a slog or like a competitive chess match. I think someone's getting finished in this fight and finished pretty quickly.

So the taste in our mouths coming out of UFC 300 is got to be a good one because the card's ridiculous. It's just absolutely stacked. The problem is the expectations were already so high as it was and I try to warn everybody. like just relax like let's wait and see how this plays up before we react to it but now we have a main event and we can react to it a little bit they should have planned this a lot better

certainly they should have planned this a lot better and i could tell you and i think we you know i was teasing it a little bit on the show because it wasn't like fully done but i think you guys know by now ariel talked about it on the may hour yesterday the ufc is going to brazil three weeks after UFC 300, they're going to Rio for a pay-per-view. They were going to do Alex Brewera versus Jamal Hill in the main event of that

of that card, which makes a lot of sense. It would be great for Alex Pereer to fight in Rio and Jamal Hill has already fought there and won the belt. So there's a lot of story attached to that. But to push that out, to move that up three weeks just so we can headline

UFC 300, eh. It just makes us because now what the hell you're going to do with 301? What is going to headline 301? Leon Ballal makes absolutely no sense to do there. I understand Pantosia's there.

But who is he going to fight? Brandon Moreno is getting ready to fight Brandon Royval this Saturday in Mexico City. That could be a five-round war. It could be. And I know the UFC is probably banking on Moreno winning that fight so that they could do it again.

because last year they fought and Pantosia won like he's won all of the fights. But at least it was a banger. It was one of the best fights of the year. See, one of the top three fights of 2023. So that's fine. But if these guys go to war, is Moreno going to be able to turn around so quickly?

It would have Brandon Roy Vaughal wins. A brand of all wins that fight. They're certainly not going to give him another title fight because we just saw that fight. So they've kind of like booked themselves into a corner with the kind of overbooking of the beginning of the year. But 300's got a rule. Alex Ferrer versus Jamal Hill is not the sexiest UFC 300 main event we could have come up with. DDP Izzy, I think, would have landed way better.

But I love the fight and just the rest of the card is so loaded that it's fine. I guess my wish was we should just plan this a lot better. instead of all the talk towards the tail end of 2023, anytime Dana was asked about UFC 300, oh, I'm not even thinking about UFC 300 right now. You probably should have been thinking about UFC 300. You probably should have prepared this a little bit better. It just seems like this was just put together almost last second.

Oh, we needed a maid event. This is the one. It's crazy. And we can talk about that as well. I mean, it's fine. But as I said on onto the next one Sunday, after being promised that our socks would be blown off, Saturday night, early Sunday morning,

I had actually, I think more clothes actually came on my body. I think like winter hat, mittens, boots, knee pads, elbow pads, they magically appeared on my body. It was the complete opposite of having my socks blown off. Again, I'm fine with the fight. Do it in Rio. It's awesome in Rio. Do it 302, 303, $2.309.

It's fantastic. But 300, not the blow-the-socks-off type announcement. I got to say. But I do think the fight's going to rule. All right, let's go to you guys. There's a lot to discuss. And let's see what you all have to say. I got something.

There's a lot going on today as well. And I'll tell you about it a little bit. Well, at least not all of it, but some of it. Leo, go ahead. Hey, can you hear me, Mike? Yes, I can. How are you? I'm doing well, man.

Yeah, guys, it's good to call in. I'm glad I'm living on the East Coast now so I can do this. I just wanted to point out really quickly. I just thought of it. Do you remember when AK matched up Ilya with Edson Barbosa? That was really something, wasn't it? I just, that came to mind. But anyway, I wanted to ask you, well, first of all, yeah, I thought it was a really good card.

I thought Fluffy was really good. I feel like he's good enough that if you like, I don't know, he has the fighting style and sort of the personality that I feel like if they put him out there a little more, maybe he made an event at the apex. He could really, like, attract some eyes or at least get some fans. But yeah, I wanted to ask you, obviously, Moesars, like, waiting in the wings. But, and a lot of people are talking about her, he's the next, he's the next challenger. but I think it's really going to hurt him. I don't know, the lack of finishes on his resume, I think,

just really hard to, like, seriously be invested in him because obviously you expect people to beat lower-level competition easier. I know he hasn't had, like, an easy run. He's been fighting hard guys, but I'm wondering how he's going to end up fitting into all of this because kind of like, you know, I feel like, yeah, years on a closer track to try to get that title shot. But anyway, hope everyone had a good week.

Kent and is having a good week and have a heck of a morning. See you guys. Yeah, I think, like, coming out of this, I think this affected a lot of people. I think this affected a lot of people. Mavzar of Vloyaf, most notably, this is like the worst result that could have happened to him. Because if Volkanowski, if Volkanovsky won that fight, one of two things is going to happen. One, Mavzara is getting the next title shot against Volkovsky. If Volk decided to stay at 45, he was next. I just don't see any other way you can you can slice it. Could you do Josh Emmett? Sure, but he knocked out Bryce Mitchell on short notice and it was a nasty knockout, but he got thumped up bad by Ilya and he got thumped up bad by

Yaya Rodriguez. So that's a tough sell for me. It's a tough sell. But now that Ilius champ, I mean, I say this a lot and I think it's very true. And I think it's very true. And I think think if you saw, I mean, just based on the UFC 300 main event and even based on UFC 297 to some degree, it is, I just want to turn the Bluetooth off. Availability is your best friend right now in today's UFC. Availability is your best friend. And depending on a couple of factors here, one, what is the UFC going to do? They're going to go directly to Spain and kind of not ice, Ili. but just kind of keep him on the sidelines until they book a date and a place and all of that, they could do that. Or they could try to boost up his appeal,

take a, you know, it's a little risky. You throw him in there with Mozart, he wins. Then you can go to Spain and you can do Yaira or Ortega or whoever. But I just don't know if Mozart's going to get it. I will say this. If I'm Mozart of Lov, I am a giant Brian Ortega fan. I am hoping Brian Ortega. and goes in there and beat Jaya Rodriguez.

Because if Yayae wins, he becomes, to me, he should be getting the fight in Spain. Because that's just going to be insane. It's going to be ridiculous. But Volk's there as well. And I think a lot of us want to see Volk take some time off. I would like to see him not fight again until like November, December. I have a hard time believing that's going to happen. But it all depends on kind of what the UFC is going to want to do right now.

but I think of Loy have kind of lost out more than anybody potentially because of all of this. And we'll see how it plays out. But the whole thing about him being a decision monster and everything is like, yeah, I guess that's, I mean, it's true. But the Arnold Allen fight was like way better than Dana White would tell you it was. And he clipped Arnold Allen in that fight. Like, he heard him, heard him real bad. and I remember a certain individual who also got painted with that brush

for a little while and it didn't even make a ton of sense to me Armand Taruki and got painted with that brush after he lost his on Makachap decision decision Decision Decision Knocks out Christos Gioskos knocks out Joel Alvarez Goes to the cards with Gamrott Still think he won that fight

Goes to the cards with Demirzma Gulov And people started to say he was boring And I tried to tell you he's not boring has the fight with Joachim Silva. Yes, he gets stung in that fight, but he comes back and gets finished. And then he just annihilates Baleigh-Dar Euse. I think Mabzar has that in him. I think he has that in him.

He's just got to get the chance. And to me, as high level as it gets right now, even though it's not the sexiest fight on the planet, is Tuporia versus Mavzar. That fight is awesome. That is an awesome fight. I just don't know if we're going to get it right now unless something crazy happens.

But it's a good night of fights. And we'll see how it all plays out. And we'll see what's next for Movesar. We've got to remember Max Holloway is in this conversation as well. I know he's fighting Justin Gaichie. But if he is at least competitive in that fight, it doesn't take a lot of damage. He's in that conversation as well.

So if anybody lost, there are two people who truly lost on Saturday. If Lov is one of them, and Josh Emmett is certainly the other because it seems like he will never get a title shot now especially for his longest to pour is the as the champion of the world let's keep on rolling here

Rafi go ahead hey Mike I hope you're doing well I wanted to say one thing and ask you one question so about the most I think I don't think he deserves right now he has to get like one more big win but for UFC 300 and 301 do you have any idea what would be 301

because like Pereira is booked right now Figuerido is fighting like I don't think there's any Brazilian available even Olivera's books so what are they going to do your guess is as good as mine I have no idea I really don't know let me just kind of take a gander here

of like what is actually you have to assume Pantosia is going to fight on this card but if you're just it's so risky though like if Moreno doesn't win or he gets

takes a lot of damage you can't go Amir Al-Bazi because I don't think he's going to be ready because he was hurt Royval just fought for the belt Tatea's Nicolao maybe, but I've been told the plan is to rebook the

mid-L-cop fight. You can't do middle-cop because he missed weight badly. Alex Perez is fighting Maham Mokai. I guess like, do you throw Mahayev into a title fight? Like, do you do that? Like, if he goes out and beats Alex Perez,

does he get the shot if he's available? Like, maybe you do that. But I kind of don't want to see it that soon. I don't know. Leon Belaw makes no sense. going to be Islam. O'Malley is fighting. Tuporia just won the belt. They're not going to do DDP in Brazil. The only other thing they could do is they can hope that Jailton Almeida destroys Curtis Blades in record time and takes no damage. And you could do Tom Aspinall,

Jailton Almeida in Brazil. And then Pantosier can be the co-made event. you can do that. That's it. I mean, that's really all they can really do right now. I know Pereira is saying like, oh, I'll fight Jamal Hill, and then I can turn around three weeks and fight a 301.

I mean, pretty gangster if he did it, but it seems like, it seems like it could be a bridge too far. But maybe the UFC has something up their sleeves. Who knows? Viking. Go ahead. Viking.

You're muted. Viking. All right, we tried Viking. Don't be mad at me. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ocho time. Play Ojo? Great idea.

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All right, man. So, big event. I'm a huge bulk fan. I played rugby. Always supported him. So obviously that was that was sad, but I'm also, my family is from Spain. And one thing that people I think in the MMA community are going to learn more about Spain is athletics and like pride, national pride, but also just like pride in our athletes

is an insane thing. Like right now, I still have huge flags up around my house about the women's World Cup win, you know and this isn't just a me thing this is like my grandfather started watching golf doesn't even know how to play golf just because Garcia made Sergio Garcia made the tour you know it's like a Spanish pride thing because Spain I mean people maybe have been to Spain it's a great place but it had a very sad time from like 1930 to like 1980 right like they had a horrible dictatorship literally Nazis, like horrible. So for a long time, Spain was out of the limelight. And since then, it's been all about like pride and growth and success. And anything, anything that they're good at,

they care about, right? Like the whole nation supports. In fact, there are civil wars that have almost broken out within Spain that have been stopped because of pride in like the uniting the soccer leagues. Like they don't want to interfere with the soccer league schedule. So, With Ilya winning, I think people are going to see that. And I also think within Spain, within France, which is obviously bordering Spain, there's going to be huge growth. And I'm just so excited about it because if there ever was a culture that didn't know about MMA at all, which is basically the case over there, and karate isn't a big thing,

wrestling isn't a big thing. But otherwise, they love anything like this, right? like bullfighting obviously has always been a thing there but there's also still like gladiator arenas from the roman times like there's a culture of this so i think that's going to be huge but one other point i wanted to make is the proximity of morocco morocco is like kind of like in relative terms to the u.s like the mexico of spain it's right across the ocean it's only like a short ferry ride there's tons of morocans in spain but it's kind of that culture unity And I think like we've seen U.S. grow in MMA and like we've seen Mexico grow, I think if we can get a U.S. event in Spain, there's going to be so many Moroccan fighters want to get on that card, too.

So just the potential is endless. And I just want to be excited about that. And also be happy for Robert Whitaker, who pulled out something amazing. And I would love to see someday Wonderboy go up and fight Robert Whitaker again. What do you think about that? All right. Have a great morning. Keep it up.

Thanks, man. Yeah, you make a great point about Morocco. And, yeah, it's a great market to tap into. It really is. Sergio Ramos came to freaking Jacksonville to watch him fight Josh Yemen. Like, and they're all massive stars. Their social media followings are huge. I mean, this is just only going to help grow the sport globally.

And this is a great outcome for the UFC. As we talked about on BTL and other shows, and I think Jed kind of nailed it. The UFC... was in a, they weren't necessarily in a win-win situation with Tuporia Volk, but they were in a no-lose situation. Because if Volk had won, like, it's fine, but they could win huge if Teporia wins.

And that's exactly what's about to happen. Like if they go and fill out an 80,000 seat stadium for a UFC card, which I think they could with the right fight and the right build, like, that's just freaking crazy. So this is massive. Absolutely massive. And Robert Whitaker, great win for him. Do I want to see Wonderboy go up to fight him again? No. I don't need to see it again. We saw out of 170. It obviously I think would be a much different fight right now. But there's other fights for him. Like you do Whitaker Strickland. You could do Whitaker Humzot. You could do Whitaker Kamara Usman if he stays at 85, which is the keep probably will. There's really no wrong way to do this. So I don't think you need Wonderboy going up to 170 or to 185 excuse me from 170. But great fight for Rob. All right, Viking, do we have you now? Hey, bud.

Or not. If it's possible in 2024 or not. And the other question is, why nobody shakes hands with Hunter Campbell, every time he he offered his hand to fighter and that fighter just ignores him. And where is my Indian brother-in-law, I just can't see him at the heck of a morning. Thank you.

Thanks, bud. Yeah, the Hunter Campbell thing, I didn't even really notice that, so I have to look through it. I don't know. I mean, look, I know Dana is presented as like the guy who runs it all, but it is Hunter. Hunter is the guy who puts all this together. Dana's the face, but Hunter is the dude. So I don't know.

I'll have to like look back at certain exchanges Hunter had with fighters to see if it happened. I assume when we're doing the watch party, like I didn't see anything. So I don't know if it happened at the Wayans or, you know, maybe the Marab situation with with Zuck and maybe Hunter put his hand out, but Marab just ignored him because I mean, look, it's freaking Mark Zuckerberg. Like, come on.

You probably just focused on him and not Hunter. So I don't know. Will Bilal Muhammad fight for the Welterweight title in 2024? Yes, I think he will. I think he will. The UFC had no interest in him fighting at UFC 300 at all. As I told you guys, like they weren't, they weren't going to do it at 300.

They just weren't. That's why they were looking at Hamzat, and they were looking at other options, and it has since come out. Thank God I don't have to reveal these things first, but it has since come out. The UFC had three different opponents in mind for Leon Edwards, and Bilal Mohammed was not one of the fights he was offered.

Not one of them. I knew Shafcott was in play, but he's a little dinged up, so that was going to be a tough sell. The Hamzat one reported by Ariel. and then the other one was his Lamakov, potentially moving up to 170. And they didn't want, they just, they didn't want Balaal. They did not want Balao for 300.

But because of this, I think Leon Balaal is going to happen. I think it's going to happen. When, where, I don't know, I know the UFC is going to the UK. I think it's sort of slated to be a fight night card, but. I don't know. I think that'd be like a great place to do it. So 302, I think, is going to be in Newark. I mean, you could do it there. You could do it there.

I don't know. But I do think Belaw is going to get his shot. But it just wasn't going to happen to 300. It just wasn't. They had no interest in it. And you feel for Belaw. You feel for Belaw. The chip on his shoulder is going to be huge. And if he goes out there and thumbs up Leon Edwards, it would kind of be hilarious at this point.

it would really kind of be funny that the forgotten guy, the booty call, the Bala walk of shame, Muhammad as he's become with this whole situation, I feel terrible for him. Even though I know he's made mistakes along the way and I've not been very easy on Bala, but I do it out of respect.

I do it out of respect. Him winning the belt now would be the best. It would be very, very funny. But there you help. there you go. Let's move on. A lot of you want to speak, and I will get to all of you.

We'll try to get TACMMA in here, but right now it looks like we're getting the wheel of doom. Oh, wait a minute. Jack, do we have you? Yes. How you doing, bud? Good. I'm just going to kind of revisit the questions I had last week,

even though you kind of covered on them already. But with Volk losing this week, which that was a great card, man. This card will be underrated, I think. There's a fantastic card. We kind of lost that COVID area of champs, Adasania, Newsman, and Volk, and Nunes and Shev. And those, that group, we were kind of spoiled with them

because they really fought who was next, right? Volk never had to fight Holloway three times, but we got it and we wanted it. And now we're stuck with this nerd, Sean O'Malley, who's already preparing us that he's going to duck Marab. That's how I took it. And I'm calling for everyone in Miami when he goes up there and says tank or Toporia to boo this dork.

Anyways, as far as the Pantosia thing goes, I was going to say the same thing that you did. Oddly enough, Nicolao almost makes sense given the circumstances and the location. So I wouldn't be surprised if that happens. And if it does, I still want the Otno point from Alexander K. Lee, who is on my shit list right now because he did not. I could not wait to make my picks for until the next for this card, because it's not every day that you get to matchmake for the Straway BMF, Amanda Lamos. And we do not want Tatiana next.

We don't even want to be 100 miles with this. her. But why can't the crowd get behind her? Why is she getting booed at the beginning of that fight? I just don't understand. To me, she's the most exciting straw weight there is. I just don't understand why people boo her. So what say you, Mike Heck? Thank you. Yeah, it's been a changing in the guard with champions. No doubt about it. The new age is coming. They're all coming. And they're coming for everybody. So, yeah, now Leon Edwards is the longest rating champion in the UFC, which is pretty wild to think about. But, you know what, I'm going to get on the soapbox now because I think it's, I think it's a time to do it.

And I briefly touched on this at the beginning of the program. And I do have a conversation with the great Loris Sanko coming out where we talked about this a lot. If your takeaway from UFC 298 was that Alexander Volcanofsky was not that good or that he was not fun or that he wasn't very good to begin with or that he was overrated, stop watching the sport. Get out of our lives. We don't need you. We don't need you. Plain and simple. What this guy was able to accomplish in a five-ish, a little less than five,

year run was unreal was unreal and let me tell you something if you are a newer fan and you were introduced to volkadovsky like four fights ago you need to do yourself a favor and watch all of his title defenses every one of them, because they are the best. They are so freaking good. UFC 251, Abu Dhabi, Fight Island, co-main event, Volkanowski Holloway 2, to me is the most underrated fight of all time. It is the most underrated fight of all time.

It is the closest fight ever, in my opinion. even close you thought dd p shan strickland was close this is closer this one was more competitive and it was an excellent fight it was one of the fights of the year in my opinion it was so good and if you want to know who alexander volkenovsky is as a champion and as a fighter that is the one to go to because he loses the first two rounds. He gets stung by Max Holloway a couple of times in that fight. And what does he do? Holloway looks like he's about to run away with this shit. Volkadovsky makes the adjustments, and in my opinion, he won the last three rounds and wins the fight. From there, we go to Brian Ortega and come on now. That fight was redonculus. It was insane. It was insane. It

It was one of the greatest rounds you'll ever see in a fight. Volk looks like he's about to get tapped, escapes, comes out of it, steals the momentum, and just puts a whoop in on Brian Ortega after that. Incredible fight, one of the best fights of the year. So two in a row, two fight of the year contenders, back to back for Volkovsky as champion. From there, we get Korean zombie, which is not the original plan, but we get Korean zombie. And Volkanovsky perfect games him. At the time, in my opinion, that was the best title defense I had ever seen in the UFC.

And maybe I was just a, it was like recency bias. But the beating he put on zombie was, I mean, he took no damage. He pitched a perfect game against zombie. And even got to the point where like, Vol kind of felt bad for him. And I think a lot of us did. We're like, man, this thing needs to end. And Volk comes out, he's like, you sure you want to do this? And then Volk just finishes him off.

It was like a mercy, it was like a mercy ending to the fight. Volk's just like, man, I just got to put him away enough. And then he fights Max Holloway a third time. And I got to tell you, my friends, I was in Las Vegas that fight week. The vibes were so heavy on Max Holloway. It was uncanny. I couldn't believe it. The amount of people just counting Volk out, it was Holloway fever all over

Las Vegas. And what does Volcanofsky do? He styles on Max Holloway. Stiles on him. It was the performance of a lifetime against Max Holloway. To the point where people questioned if he still had it, oh man, I think Max is done. Like that's what people were saying after that fight. He did that to Max Holloway. It was unbelievable. It was unbelievable. then he goes and fights Islam fight of the year loses but his stock went up immensely and then he goes and fights

Ja'eir Rodriguez and so many people on this show and others oh man I think Volkanowski era is over Yair finally is hitting his stride he's finally reaching his potential stylistically this is going to be a nightmare for Volkanowski I think the error is about to end

and Volk ran him over uncompetitive ran him over and then he gets knocked up by Islam and then he gets knocked up by Tuporia but even still the way that the Volk era

ended is so reminiscent of his title run it was just incredible what he was able to and even in the fight like he was winning the fight against Teporea

until he got knocked out He made the one mistake, his back at the fence, and he got clobbered. But miss me with this whole Volk wasn't that good bullshit, because he was good. He still is good. And he just fought a young hungry line who was a powerhouse and is incredibly talented. And we knew how good Teporia was from Jump Street. And we know, we don't know how good he's going to be because he's only going to. to get better. So stop with the bullshit. Stop with this whole revisionist history thing.

Stop with this whole garbage, these garbage takes. Because I see him everywhere to fucking annoys me. Oh, Izzy wasn't that good. Kamar Usman wasn't that good. Now Volcanovsky wasn't that good. Are you fucking high? What are you talking about? It's insane. Be better. Appreciate greatness while it is in front of you. Volcanowski is going to be one of these guys that, like Daniel Cormier, like Demetrius Johnson, you didn't give, the fan base as a whole did not give those guys enough respect while they were doing the thing.

And then they left. And now they get the respect. DJ still doing the thing. But DJ did not get this amount of love when he was the most, when he was arguably, and you can make a shot, strong case, the greatest fighter in the world and the greatest fighter of all time. Because what? He was a flyweight. Appreciate greatness while it is in front of you. And do not downplay that

greatness if somebody loses a fist fight because they all lose. Everybody loses. John Jones has a loss. I know it's not a true loss. And Habib went undefeated. But I Other than that, they lose. Everybody fucking loses. But because you lost a fight does not take away what you did before that. Be

better. Please. Do yourselves a favor. Be better. And if you feel that way, if you feel like Volk wasn't that good, I highly implore you to go back and watch the Volkadovsky title run.

And if you still feel that way, I can't help you. And nobody else can't either. It's just your opinion, and no matter what, I'll never be able to change your mind. We've got to stop with this shit. Please, I'm begging you. Do it for all of us. Be more positive. Four corner sports. Go ahead. Hey, what's up? So, I feel like the whole Toporia thing is, you know, going to blow off, you know, incredibly. I was FaceTime with my sister who was doing study abroad over there in Madrid. And honestly, like, one of the colors I said about, like, how much pride they take into, you know, like, Spaniard, like, sports and stuff like that is incredible.

I mean, I'm truly, I'm jealous that in this country in the United States that we don't, you know, take pride, like, into, like, fighters and stuff like that. And, like, the scenes over there, you know, is really damn cool. Now, no, I mean, I'm surprised nobody talked about it, but Ray Longo ended up going on John Anix podcast and talking about how Marry. Rob ended up having a fight with Aljo right before the Henry Sohudo fight. I really believe that, you know, Maram has the best cardio in the world. He's pound for pound best cardio guy, just because that takes a lot of guts right there. You know, I would like to see if New York Rick can go over to Sarah Longo and get that tape. because to see what Marab and Aljo, you know,

scrapping it out in the back, and then Marab having plenty of gas tank to go over there and defeat Henry Sohudo and the most lopside is 2928 is incredible. As for Wokanowski, I really don't want to see him fight up until November. I know he spoke about him when he's a fight in different venues. No, he said he wanted to fight him at the Square Garden. You know, Joe Lopez and Eugene Barerman should have him, you know, sit on ice until then at the bare minimum.

I would say at the latest maybe next February. And lastly for the announcement for 300, I like the fight, but if Pereira is able to turn it around very quickly, you know, and, you know, defeat Hill, that's because he obviously knows something that we don't know. And if, if, if Pereira is able to headline 301, give Khalil Rauntry a call.

You know, that could be an excellent fight to have over there. And why not have Amir Abazi if he's able to, you know, fight Alexandria Pantosha. All right, thanks, Mike. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. It's got, it's, they've overbooked this thing. Very short-term booking. So they're going to have some problems.

So we've seen this happen many times before. We've seen them overbooked themselves to a point where they've had to cancel events. So I hope. I don't think it's going to get to that point because they're just so hot as a product right now that they'll just figure something out. The Marab Aljo thing is hilarious, and I'm not surprised by it at all. I think Aljo went on his show and talked about it as well. And credit to Aljo basically said, like he basically did three rounds with Marab in like a quarter squat. Because he basically had a – he shrunk him – he tried to like shrunk him – he tried to like shrunk.

shrink himself down to be as close as like Sohudo's height for that. And at least that's what Sterling said. So he basically was in like a squat position going 15 minutes of hard sparring, basically a fist fight with Marab. It's crazy. It's frigging nuts. But Marab is so over right now. It's wild.

It's, I know I don't want to like dump on Balamamaama. But like he needs. to take notes. He needs to be on, he needs to be doing weekly Zoom calls with Marab and paying him for them. Marab, what do I got to do to get over with the people? Okay, this is what you do. And you just do that. Remember when Marab beat Tieter Yan? You remember that? I mean, this was pillar to post. Nobody had ever done that to Peyodor Young. Nobody cared. Nobody cared. By the time like Tuesday rolled around, people forgot all about it.

but now look at Marab. It's just unreal. That's how you do it. And then to go back to what you were talking about at the beginning, yeah, did you see the video? Satana Sport, I believe, is the site. But they posted a video of like Spain going and watching the fight and reacting to it and Taborius family reacted.

Like it's so good. So good. And they got something with this kid. They got something with them. And I'm very curious to see how high this can get. But being able to tap into Spain is frigging huge. It is very, very big. Daniel.

Hey, Mike. Can you hear me? Yep. Perfect, man. Well, I joined a little late. So just really quick short answer or a short question. I mean, who do you have for the main event for 300? And how do you see it playing out? Thanks, Mike.

So here's my issue. Here's my other issue about the 300 main event. And even though Jamal Hill like hates our rankings and shit, gives us crap all the time. Here's the thing. Jamal Hill is a freak of nature, apparently, because him coming back to be torn Achilles so quickly is wild to me.

I thought May was too soon. Because I had, I mean, I pretty much knew this is, that was what they were planning for 301. They just hadn't signed about agreement or anything like that. seemed like the plan. So even him returning in May seemed far-fetched to me because of just the type of injury that is.

And now he's coming back three weeks earlier and fighting Alex Barrier-O-C-D rounder. I just don't know. Like, I know most fighters don't enter fights 100%, because you go through hard camps, it's grueling, takes a toll on you. But, man, I just feel like Jamal Hill, if he gets kicked in the leg, it's just like,

it's got to be a rough night for him. If he takes one hard leg kick, like, I just don't want to see a world where he gets, like, permanently injured because he's saving the day for the company. So that's like a,

that's something I thought about when they announced this. It's just like, man, is this too soon to do this? I love the fight. I really love it. But I would love it in, like, June or July, or August, when Hill is as close to 100% as he can possibly be. But he's ready to go.

He's putting his pen to paper. And to me, that eliminates all excuses altogether. Same thing about Volcanowski taking the Mokachev rematch on short notice. I know it's going to be part of the story. It needs to be part of the story. But you can't say, well, the only reason he lost is because he took the fight on short notice. No, you cannot use that as an actual excuse any longer once the ink, eyes. And that will not be an excuse for Jamal Hill either. If he gets kicked in the leg and he gets

hurt, you can't say, well, he took the fight hurt. We need to see it again. No. We don't. That's it. So I am concerned about that. Having said that, even if Jamal was 100%, I would pick Alex Pereira. I'm certainly picking Alex Pereira now, knowing that he could be fighting. And I don't think like Jamal Hill is going to be limping to the cage or anything. But I love the fight. I'm picking Pereira as of now. But would it stun me if Jamal Hill beat him? No.

Jamal Hill's a good fighter. He looked incredible against Glover-Teshirea. Can he do it again? We'll see. But there's just too many questions for me to pick against Alex Pereira right now. But maybe that'll change. Maybe the vibes will change heading into 300. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats.

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As well, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, morning, Mike, heck of the morning. Just wanted to discuss a few questions. Firstly, congrats to Ilya. I want to say this. The UFC has a super far on their hands with Elia and Sean O'Malley. I really sincerely hope Sean Getser done it, $2.99. Whether or not he fights morale remains to be seen,

but if he does, that's great. I think after he clears through Marab, he has earned the right to go and fight Elia because Elia's in a good position. All he has to defend his belt against whoever next. Could be Yaya Rodriguez, could be Max, folk, anyone. But yeah, I really want to see that fight. That is basically a fucking super fight way to be happening

and that's happening at the right time with both guys continuously growing as stars for the sport and people who can definitely bring a casual audience. Another thing I want to just say, I do want to see Bilar versus Leon. I actually hope they make that fight, but I really want to see Hamza versus Leon personally. I don't know.

I feel like I want to give Hamzaa one more chance. I think people are doing really dirty by the way cut shit. Yes, he missed a lot of fucking weight. That is absolutely 100% fact. But that was a one-time thing. There have been people in his division or even other weight classes who've done far worse and they have kind of gone on the past

or at least gone away with it. I mean, Kabib, for fuck's sake and has probably missed about five to nearly 10 pounds at the height of his career, you know, when he was trying to fight like some of the lower-rank guys or unranked guys. Same with Jeff Neal last year with Shafka, you know, even with Keviel Gasland.

Remembered the whole time in Woodley back in 2015? That was a big deal. So I think Hamza deserves a chance and there's no better time than now. You know, I think he can get his shit together, talk to EEOC, fix the visa issues. If they do in the UK, he can fight the UK. I mean, that's the perfect fight to be made for him and Leon. You know, there's a lot of history and a little bit of a, I won't say rivalry, but a little bit of that history, I guess.

And, you know, he can also fix the weight cut issues. I don't know if he's ever going to return to his old coach Andreas, but again, that's a really interesting fight to be made. And that's the best chance Hamza has to be a champion. I just don't really see what's at him from middleway. Like, sure, he could fight Whitaker, short streak and all that, yadda, yeah, yeah, that's cool. But it's like, I just kind of don't feel they're like anywhere near as big as something as Leon. Like, you know, Leon's at the highest career right now. That fight makes sense, you know.

But, yeah, I don't think it will happen, but you never know. If the UFC is still considering Hamza for 170 title, then that just shows the implication that they really want him to be up in that mix anyway. And that's all I have, man. Have a great day. You know, Ebswalia, you are very consistent on the show. You come on. You come in. You're a regular.

And I respect you to no end. I could not disagree with both of those things that you just said anymore. First of all, let's start with the Hamzat thing. Why would he go back to 170? I just don't understand. That weight cut is brutal for him. I mean, it is so, so brutal for him. And it's the same sort of questions we have about Kayla Harrison right now.

Yes, could Kayla make 135 for Holly Holm at UFC 300? Honestly, I think she's going to make it. But how depleted is she going to be? And then how many times can she do it? Because you have to believe that if Kayla Harrison beats Holly Holm, she's getting a title shot. And if she becomes champion, can she do it? do this three times a year? Like that's, you're just asking a lot.

And for Hamzad, I mean, dude, like, I understand it's like a big miss and it's a one-time thing, but like they gave you, they gave you Nate Diaz essentially on a silver platter in a main event and you couldn't make weight for that. And not only that, it seemed like you didn't even try. It seems like he didn't even try to make weight. And that's an issue. that's an issue to me wouldn't it be easier for homzat just to like lift a whole bunch of weights and just fight at 85 like i am way more interested in seeing homzat fight at 85 at this point

the bigger fights for him are at 185 like him and leon is fine but then what's like what does he do after that like think of i mean him and ian gary down the road or him and shopkot sure would be interesting. I mean, that's basically it, but still, I would rather see, I would rather live in a world with Schofkot wins the once-way title. Trust me what I'd say of this. He's going to win the belt the first

chance he gets. I truly believe that. Let him just run off a bunch of defenses as if Homshot wins the middleweight title, then we can do it. Then we can do that fight. But honestly, like, there's just not a lot for him at 70. Do you want to see him fight Colby right now?

I really don't. And then you're asking this man to make weight over and over again. Not to mention the biggest issue of all, which is the man can't get the visa issue settled. I don't know why. You can't speculate all you want, but you can't get this guy to Vegas to fight? Like, that's a problem. That's a huge problem. So no, I don't want to see it.

I'd rather see him come back at 85. Hymda Tumaya versus Sean Strickle. is just a ridiculous fight. There is no other fight I want to see at 80. There's no other fight I want to see for Hamzaa right now than that one. That's what I want to see. Give me that fight. Because I will have every question I have about Hamzaa right now will be answered in that fight.

Need to be a five-rounder, whether it's a main event or a co-main event. Those two guys for five rounds is everything I need right now. I need that fight. Nothing else would make me happier. than to watch those two dudes fight each other. So, no, I don't want to see him kill himself to get to 170 a whole bunch. You know, who knows? Leon wins a bunch of fights, wants to move up and fight him, cool.

And that leads me to my next point, to the next thing. The first thing you talked about. The shot of Melli-Ili Tabori thing. And sure, could we imagine a world where those two guys fight each other? Certainly. But if those two guys fight, I don't want to see them fight for like three years. because both those guys have a ton of work to do, a ton of work to do. Sean O'Malley hasn't even defended his belt yet.

And he's going to go fight Cheeto Vera, UFC 299. And that's going to be a great fight. But Sean O'Malley will never run out of people to fight at 135. Never, ever run out of people to fight at 135. They're all coming. They are all coming. Ilya right now, with the way this division is shaped up and his road to the belt, he will never run out of people to fight.

If Sean O'Malley defense is Bannonweight title five times, okay then. Ilya fights defenses title four or five times, and they're both still champions after that, do it. I'm fine with it. I am fine with it. But we have to stop living in this world where it's just like, yeah, it'd be a cool super fight. Yeah. But now, like, we don't even know what a super fight is anymore.

And that's what I hate about all this talk. Like, it's not a super fight. Like, we can't even define it. It's just a fight because it happens so often. And I kind of tell you, from a stylistic perspective, I think Ilya kills Sean O'Malley. Like, I think he runs Sean over. And I think it's bad.

I think it's brutal. I mean, this is the, do you remember, like, just think about this. And I'm not saying this is the exact same. But do you remember, like, a year and a half ago, maybe even a little longer? There were people who came on this show, came on this show, and thought Patty Pimbley could beat Ilya Teporia. What? Like, there were people actually, like, having this conversation. Come on now.

Ilya is the truth. That guy is the truth. truth and he's only going to get better. So sure. 2026 rolls around. O'Malley's a long-reigning champion. Depori is a long-reigning champion. Sure.

We can play that game. But no sooner. No sooner. Especially at these two divisions. Ilya's got a Volk rematch coming. He's got Max Holloway coming. He's got Mavzar coming. He's got Yaiyar coming potentially if he wins.

Maybe Ortega if he just lights the world. on fire on Saturday, not to mention the rest of the guys at Featherweight that he could fight that are on the come-up right now. The Lorone Murphy's of the world and the San Diego Lopez's of the world. The Arnold Allen's of the world. Those are fresh matchups. Al Jermaine Sterling potentially could be one. Former champion. Calvin Cater beat Aljo. Like, that's a guy who could get his shot. And then for Sean, Jesus Christ, Marab,

Sanhagan, Song Yidong's coming, Figgi's coming, even guys like Jonathan Martinez are coming, Umar's coming. I was going to say Mario Batista, but they're not going to fight each other because they're teammates,

but you get where I'm coming from. Volk moving up to fight Islam at 284. I didn't love it for a lot of the reasons that I always talk about here. But at the time, like, there was literally nothing else that they could do right now at that moment. There was just nothing there. The timing was perfect for it. Where there was no, like, legit, clear-cut guy at the time.

And then, you know what the UFC did? They made a clear-cut guy because they put Yair and Josh Shab for the interim belt in the cold. main event. We got to see the guy after that. But no. I don't think that fight's even all that competitive and certainly don't want to see it for a long, long time. Even though I think that, even though I kind of feel like you may get your wish, I'm not going to be very happy about it. Yes, four on sniper. Good morning. Hey, good morning. Good morning. I just wanted to hop one and say something and then ask you a quick question. First off, I'd like to say I don't think there's many more things I like seeing more than an MMA fighter who's either losing two rounds to zero

or in the deciding round and they're down and they just go out swinging, you know, trying to get the win. I love seeing that. That's one of my favorite things about watching MMA. So shout out to Josh Quinlan for that. We heard his corner telling him, you know, he needed to go out and get the finish. He went out swinging. He went out, you know, he got knocked out, but it is what it is. We saw him put in the effort. So shout out to him for that. And I wanted to ask you, do you think Colby Covington is really looking at a guy like Ian Gary to make his return and I guess to get a win over? Or do you think he's looking elsewhere at some other guys in the division, maybe like Vicente Lucke or somebody else in the top 10? That's all, Mike. Thank you, sir.

So, yeah, dude, that Josh Quinlan finish was nasty. I felt like Josh Quinlan looked like he didn't even know what planet he was on. After that barrage at the end, he was just, he was fucked up, man. It was rough to watch. It was rough to watch. But yeah, dude is tough as nails. That fight could have been stopped a lot sooner, in my opinion. But, you know, the ref gave him every chance to survive and he just, it was bad.

It was a nasty knockout. But dude went after it. Quinlan's a fun fighter. Always has been. But yeah, that was tough to watch. It really was. It was tough to watch. Oh, I was trying to remember with the other question.

It was the Colby question. I think Colby would take this fight. I think Colby would take this fight. Colby and I haven't talked in a while. I don't know why. I'm not sure why we're not talking anymore. I've tried. but I get no responses.

And once in a while, like, Colby will tell me, like, there's an issue, here's why. And then I have to explain to him, like, okay, but you and I are not the same as everybody else, if that makes sense. What I know about Colby and what I've learned, and I've said this many times on this show and others, I think Colby Covington is one of the best prize fighters

we've ever had in the UFC. And what I mean by that is Colby knows Colby picks his spots perfectly. Takes the biggest names with the, at least perception-wise, because fighting is always risky. The lowest amount of risk in the biggest spots. Just look at what he's done

and look at what it has led to. Just look at it. Let me pull up the resume here. And people always talk about, oh, he doesn't have a win over this person or this person or this rank guy. It's because Colby is a very smart prize fighter. Damia,

Hoffield Osangos, wins the interim belt, gets stripped, fights Robbie Lawler. Fights Robbie Lawler. Fumps him up. We all love Robbie Lawler. But he beat the hell out of Robbie Lawler that night.

Then he gets the title fight with Usen. Incredible fight. Loses, gets finished. Incredible fight. comes back nine months later and fights Tired Woodley, who was on a rough streak at the time. And we were just like, man, and it made us all believe,

like if Tired Woodley's going to be the old Tirend Woodley, like it's going to be here. Yeah, it wasn't. Coley picked his spot, settled a rivalry with a guy that was in a rough place and still a pretty solid name. he beats Tyrone Woodley and then gets another title shot

against Kamar Usman at Madison Square Garden they sell it out, they draw an incredible gate and he loses a very close fun fight and then who does he fight next? He comes back four months later and he fights his old buddy Jorge Mazadal main event of a pay-per-view

in March and the fight went the way most people thought it would And then what does that, what does that lead him to? Another title shot. Gets Leon Edwards and loses. So the point I'm trying to make here is, I think Colby is, I think there's two roads Colby will take. One might, one is certainly probably riskier than the other.

So he's at the fork in the road. He can turn left. He turns left. He goes and fights Wonder Boy Thompson, which I, after the Leon Edwards fight, if someone called me on the phone and said, Mike, I will give you a million dollars if you tell me who Colby's going to call out and you get it right. I would have a million dollars right now because 1,000 I knew he's going to go call Wonder Boy out because I know Colby.

I know Colby. Wonder Boy is still a big name. It's a winnable fight. It's a fight stylistically. He's going to be heavily favored him. but he knew who's going to do that. And then the other side is he could fight Ian Garrett. He's not fighting Shafka.

I don't see that happening. I don't think the risk reward is there. And to be fair, I think Shafkot's more of a hardcore guy, where we all know who Shafqqad Rakhmanov is, but more of the casual fan base does not know who Shafqqqqqqqqqqq. Once you watch Shafkot once, you get to know him, you love him, you want to see him do great things. Most of the casual audience,

I'd say all of the casual audience, if you're watching the UFC at all over the last six months, you know who Ian Gary is, and you have a feeling about him. You either like him or you don't. There's no in between. For the prize fighter in Colby Covington, I actually think Ian Gary is a great fight for him.

The risk reward is there. And the way people feel about Ian Gary right now, and the way people felt about Colby coming out of UFC 297 or 296, excuse me, this might be the best thing for him. This might be the best thing for him. There is a strong world that we are living in that even though Colby

lost a lot of the fan base with the performance against Leon Edwards, if he fights Ian Machado Gary, he would probably be the baby phase. so he would be cheered more than likely if he try to get in Ian's head and I have to say like if I'm Colby and I watch that Gary fight and saw the reaction to it

I bet there's a part of him that's like you know what I think I can beat this dude and if he goes out and beats Ian Gary and hands Ian Gary the first loss this whole conversation of like oh Colby hasn't fought anybody on the come up all of this answers that question gets Ian before he really

starts to get cooking because Ian's just going to get better and better and better. So if you're going to fight him, now is probably the time to do it. And a win is huge for him. It's huge, especially if a guy like, especially if like Belaw Muhammad wins the belt or Shafkot wins the belt. Like Colby, if he beats Ian Gary, gets it back into the title conversation. So I think he would consider fighting Ian. if you did it on like international fight week

I think he would do it I really do I heard Ariel say I don't think there's any chance he takes that fight I think he does I think he would take it I think he would take it I think it's a way more intriguing option than Wonderboy

and it's a fight he could win I think I don't know if I would necessarily pick him but Colby gets cooking against anybody he could beat him so I think you would do it I kind of think you should

you should go all in on that fight as far as I'm concerned if he loses or gives a shit Cole go ahead hi Mike so I got one thing for you so throughout this whole UFC 300 thing and hearing Dana

and the opponents that he offered Leon it kind of changed my perspective on the UFC's ability to like reach out to fighters get them to sign the contracts, have these fights kind of to plug in. I don't know about you,

that's kind of like changed by perspective. So I got a UFC 301 main event for you. When else are you going to be able to cash in on Raquel Pennington being the champion? You got to bring Amanda Nunes back and do that rematch. That main events, and then you got Allie Pants versus Albaughy. the comane, that's money. I'm telling you. That's on the table.

And how frustrating is it? I mean, I know Dana doesn't really have his fingers and all the marketing and social media and stuff like that, but like we got a goat like Oscar Willis asking him this at a press conference. Like, you know, it'd be pretty cool if we could get like a hype video of a kind of like Connor, Nate, ask of Jamal and Alex for UFC 300. And he goes, yeah, you know what, now that you say it. I mean, I know he's not really in charge, that kind of thing.

But the way Dana responds are, it's like, yeah, no fucking shit, dude. But, yeah, what do you think about Nunes, Pennington, 2, Headline 301, I need you to get behind this? I mean, sure. But does anybody, first of all, those two are not fighting each other. They have a relationship now. They're not fighting each other. Second of all, we've seen them fight before, and it was bad.

it was bad. Amanda beat the soul out of her. And I think Amanda could come back. She ain't coming back for Rocky. That's for sure. Would she come back for somebody else? Yes. Kayla Harrison wins the belt.

I think she comes back for that. Hell, if Giuliana Paineer wins the belt and cuts a promo, thinks she might come back for that one too. She ain't coming back to fight Rocky. So I cannot get behind it. I'm sorry. I get where your head is at, but no, that's not going to happen. I'd be stunned if that happened.

And then the other thing is like, yeah, look, it's very strange how this 300 thing came together. I don't know why DDP is he didn't happen. I don't know why this all took so long. I really don't. You could have just saved yourself so much trouble. if after like during the ultimate fighter you just said hey Connor and Chandler are going to fight each other they're going to fight a UFC 300 but instead it was like hey Connor and Chandler are going to fight later on this year

and that didn't happen and it's still not officially announced by the UFC all this time later if you just said hey this is the main event of UFC 300 it was there you could just build off of that like I did the way they put this all together It was just so strange to me. And what's even stranger about it, like, look at the timeline of all this. Look at the timeline of how a lot of these fights came together. Do you remember how it all started? Do you remember what sort of led to Dana White doing one of those videos

to announce the first three main events for 2024? You guys remember that? It's because Ariel put out that there were comprehensive. conversations happening, that it was being discussed about a fight between Islam Machachev and Charles Olivera at UFC 297. Remember that? Never said it was done. Never said it was in the works. Never said it was verbally agreed to. He just said this is what's being talked about. And that led to the video coming out hours later. No, no, no, no, no. If it doesn't come from me, it's bullshit. Strickland DDP, Valkanovsky, Tuporia.

Sean O'Malley Cheeto Vera I have to think to myself from time to time if Ariel never put that tweet out what would 300 actually look like would we have gotten those announcements so quickly I don't know but now it just feels like all this is cobbled together

and the fact that like there's a part of me that dislikes Justin Gagie versus Max Holloway right now for any reason at all is just everything you need to know because now it's just like, man, Ilya's the freaking champion. Like we could do Ilya versus Holloway. That fight rules.

And now we may not ever get it. Like it may never come. We may never see that fight. Because Max is fighting Justin Gage. And sure, I think the fight's going to be more competitive than a lot of people think it's going to be. But Justin Gachie takes years off your life.

He takes years and months off your career. There are very few people who have gotten into the octagon with Justin Gachie. and then had long fulfilling careers after. Very few people. But we did Gaichi Hawlick's. You were just like, let's do something cool. I love the fights.

It's the number one fight I have to see, but still. I don't know. It lost a tinch of luster after Teporia won the belt. But yes, the other thing I want to say is, why did they announce this main event in the way that they did it? Why? You could have done that. same video, like literally taking that video that Dana posted on social media,

and you could have put that on the broadcast before the Robert Whitaker fight. Because you can tell, like, it's not like Dana went to the, the main event ends, Dana runs to the back, cuts the video, and then releases it because there was a bunch of footage attached to it. There was a bunch of B-roll attached to it. That thing was ready earlier in the day. Probably the beginning of the car. You couldn't have put that on the broadcast?

and then put it on social media, you think it would have made a huge difference to the numbers? No! It wouldn't have made any difference. Would it give us something to talk about and not kind of steal the shine of the affiliate to Poria in some ways? I don't know.

It's just so strange that it's just like, this is how we get it. You could have done it on the broadcast. You didn't even have to change anything. Just take that video and put it on the broadcast. This whole, like, I have to control all the narratives thing is insane to me. Just do better. YVMZ, go ahead.

Hey, Mike, heck of morning. I just had a quick, you know, respectfully, you know, I really like Volk as an MMA fighter, but I'm kind of glad his title reign is over. I know probably a hot take. I just don't think he's exciting for me, and I think Teporea's a lot. more entertaining and I think he'll bring on bigger fights so um really why why why do you feel that way it not exciting you're telling me volks rain was not exciting every fight was exciting i don't think i don't think i'm not saying that his title reign wasn't exciting i loved all the max fights i think

that he won the first is on fight um i mean he's had a lot of really great ones but i just think as far as like entertainment like on the mic during press conferences he's just a little mellow and i don't know i i i would personally like to see him in more of like legacy fights i feel like he's you know done everything at one 455 or even move up to 155 and see you know what he can do there so so take on volk for you i want to ask you um who you think uh what you think should be next for mackenzie durn she took a pretty you know she's she took a pretty hard beating in that last fight. I just want

to the next for. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, man. Yeah, there was another question I forgot to talk about. I think it was TAC M.MA. I asked her about Amanda Lemo. She don't think I touched on that.

Why did she get booed? Because she was in freaking Anaheim. That's why she got booed. Bekeesian Duren lives like half an hour away. So that was like the big reason why. And why did she get booed in Boston? Because Jean-Wea Lee

was in Boston. And they freaking loved her. So she's just been kind of, more an enemy territory than anything else. But now we transition to McKenzie Dern. And I mean, I'm just going to make this a simple, short and sweet. Lupi Godinez. I know Lupi is fighting.

She's got a fight booked. Win or lose, Lupi fights McKenzie Dern next. That's it. Done and done. Let's just do that. Who the hell is Lupi fighting? I know I talked about this before, but let me just look at it up real quick. She is fighting.

Verna Janjeroba March 30th. Mackenzie Dern should be fighting Lupi Gordinias next. Totally fine with that. That's what I would do. The Volk rain, look, I understand that Volk kind of rub people the wrong way a little bit with this whole. Everybody's doubting me. Nobody believed in me thing. I get it.

I get it. And I know that's, it was like after UFC 276 when Volk perfect game to Max Holloway. in my opinion, the greatest title defense ever in the history of the sport. He comes up and does the whole. Well, nobody believed in me. Everybody doubted me. I saw y'all discredit me and all this stuff, even though he's the betting favorite heading into that fight.

So I get why that kind of rubbed people the wrong way. But then, like, I think Volk, to his credit, understood where people were coming from. and much like he does in his fights, when things are down, he adjusts. He finds ways to adjust and make it better. So that's what he did here. This is a different Volk for 298. Media Day was good.

If you told me that Alexander Volcanoffi was going to steal the show at the UFC 298 press conference, you would have thought I was curious. Like, if I come on the show, be like, wait till you watch this press, You know what the star of the press is going to be? It's going to be Volcanovsky. You would have been like, come on, Mike. Like, relax, dude.

Maybe you need to take a nap or something. But that's exactly what he did. Showed up like old man Volk, had a good time with it, and got over because of it. It changed the vibes of the fight to some degree. A lot of the people who were like, oh, Ilya's going to kill him. All of a sudden, throughout Fight Week was like, you know what? I think Volk might still have it. And you know what?

Volk did have it in that fight. And Teporea had it too. And he got knocked out. And to me, that was the only way... That was the way Tepori was going to win. He was going to have to knock Volk out. Because if that had gone 25, he's losing that fight. He's losing it.

But that's what you need to do. And Teporia did it. And it was just so... You could kind of see it coming too. And you didn't really notice it until... like you rewatch the fight by herself and you're watching Volk have success and even in round two he's having success

the leg kicks the jab everything about it Volk was looking good he was starting to get some reeds but he was making Deporia miss him but then you could see it he was inching closer and closer those punches were getting closer and closer he knew at some point Volk was going to go

into that fence and as soon as Volk's back hit the fence he exploded It was just a brilliant performance. And it was a brilliant eight minutes. I mean, it was so good. It was so good. The moment was massive and it was great. And it was the dawning of a new era.

And these are the things you love about the sport, right? Like, this is exactly what you want. But there was a part of me that's like, man, I wish we got like another round and a half at least. I wish you got to round three. Because I wanted to see more. I wanted to see more. And I think we're going to see more.

I think we are going to see more. I do, if I had a bet on it right now, I would bet that Volcanovsky will fight Toporia in Spain, whenever that happens. The question is, will Volk be next? Will he get the shot? Or will the UFC be like, because they back themselves into a corner a little bit with how they've overbooked things, do they call upon Ilya? to fight before that. I wouldn't do that. But would they do it and try to take a risk

and be like, hmm, if he goes out and fights somebody else and wins, like it's, the return to Spain is even bigger. But what if he loses, then, you know, you lose a Volk rematch, you lose Spain, you lose it all. So it's going to be real

interesting to see how this all works out. But again, please don't come on here. And I'm not, I'm not saying that's what you did. But again, this whole notion that, oh, Volk was, which just wasn't that good to begin with. And you, I know he didn't say that. But come on, man.

Stop it. Stop it. He was incredibly exciting as champion. Yes, he's not throwing monster energy cans of people. But that's okay. That's okay. There are plenty of people who do that shit. There are plenty of people who stir the pot.

Once in a while, it's okay to have fighters who are just good at fighting. fighting. And here's the thing about folk, too. He was starting to get over more with all of this. Since the Islam fight, his popularity was starting to grow, even after getting knocked up by Islam, the way he was so open at the press conference and everything, taking this fight with Ilya, four months after getting brutally knocked out, the way he was handling himself with the Build of 298, like, he was getting more popular. And a win over Ilya, it's going to get a little more fruitful for him. Like you would have been even

more popular. It's just like, man, it all comes at the wrong time. Last thing I'll say before you get out of here, I do want to address the pound for pound rankings. Boy, we are taking a whole bunch of shit for that.

How did it all play out? Let me look at this real quick. This cycle. How did it all play out? I don't know. I don't have the rankings in front of me. I have my rankings. Let me go.

Let me go talk about this real quick. Sorry. I should have been more prepared. Be a pro. Rankings. Pound for pound rankings. Boom. So in our pound for pound rankings,

Ilya is now number five. Volcanowski dropped to number 10. in our rankings. People have some feelings about this that Volk drops to number 10 more specifically. And some people from the comments that I got were, well, you didn't rank

Toporia high enough. Okay. I mean, that's fair. I'm a man, I'm an open book, my friends. Here's my pound for power rankings. Islam Machchev is number one. It is undeniable. sorry. I still have John Jones in number two.

I get why people might have an issue with that. Until John loses, that's just where he is. Leon Edwards number three, Alex Pereira number four, drink is two plus C, number five. I have I have Ili at six. I have Oliver at seven, Shemaiah at eight, Volk at nine, Aspinall at 10. Those are my top 10.

But boy, people are like, oh, Volk, How could you drop him back so far? And I get it. Like this isn't like who is the most complete fighter pound for pound. It is you have to look at things in certain ways. Skill set is obviously great. Strength of schedule is obviously great. However, you have to like be penalized in some way if you lose.

And it's not like a disrespectful way. But the amount of people are like, oh, how dare you drop Volcanovsky down to wherever you guys had him? At the end of the day, guys, he's one and three in his last four and he's been brutally knocked out in two straight fights. I'm sorry, you just can't keep a guy at like number three if that happens. You just can't. He's one and three in his last four. Two of those are bad knockouts. I don't understand why there's an issue. And this is a reason why I hate rankings to begin with, because people, People just all, like, no one looks at it from like, people just take it too seriously, I guess is what I'll say. People got to fucking relax.

Golly. It is what it is. But that, that's my rankings. I drop Volk down. I also was one of the few who had Volk at number two when he lost to Machu Kvichup the first time. And there were so many people who thought bulk should still be number one. Sorry, guys, wins and losses have to matter. They have to.

There's a lot of factors in it. wins and losses have to matter. This is my expedition. All right, I got to go. I didn't realize we were on there for so freaking long. Good Lord. I got to get ready. I got to get this on the pod network because in like an hour and 55 minutes,

I'm going to go pick up a rental car and I'm going for a drive because tomorrow I'm going to be filming something you guys are going to think is ridiculously fun. So stay tuned for that. So I have to go prepare myself for that because I want to bring you some fun-ass content. And that's what I'm going to do for all of you. So I have to get ready to make that trip. I appreciate you all. I will be back on Thursday.

And we'll do this again. And then we'll do this again on Friday as we get you ready for UFC, Mexico City. And yes, PFL versus Bellator. everything you kind of need to know about this card and how people are feeling about it. We've had a bunch of shit happen over the last four days when it comes to that card. Not one question about it on this show. We do know that it's going to be a $50 pay-per-view though. So do with that information what you will.

But thank you all very much. We'll see you Thursday. Have a great rest of your day. And have a heck of a morning, everybody.